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Karnak, Egypt: Stone, Sun and the Breath of the Gods
On the east bank of the Nile at Luxor, where ancient Thebes once stood at the heart of a powerful Egyptian empire, rises one of the most extraordinary sacred landscapes created by the ancient world. Karnak is difficult to comprehend at first sight. It is not a single temple, nor the vision of one ruler…
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El Jem, Tunisia: The Colossus of a Vanished City
Across the open plains of central-eastern Tunisia, an immense structure of honey-coloured stone rises above the rooftops of the modern town of El Jem. It appears almost unexpectedly, its tiers of arches climbing high into the North African sky, monumental and strangely solitary. From a distance, little in the surrounding landscape prepares the visitor for…
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Delos, Greece: From Divine Birthplace to Fallen Glory
In the heart of the Cyclades, surrounded by the brilliant waters of the Aegean and lying only a short distance from Mykonos, the small and windswept island of Delos was once regarded as one of the holiest places in the ancient Greek world. Few islands of such modest size have carried such immense significance. Delos…
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Sagalassos, Turkey: A Lost City Among the Clouds
High in the Western Taurus Mountains of southwestern Turkey, ancient Sagalassos clings dramatically to a series of terraces overlooking the valleys and distant peaks of Pisidia. At around 1,450 to 1,700 metres above sea level, it is one of the most spectacularly situated ancient cities in the Mediterranean world. Mountains rise behind its ruined streets,…
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Segesta, Sicily: Where an Elymian City Rose in Greek Stone
Across the rolling hills and mountains of western Sicily, the ruins of Segesta occupy one of the most beautiful archaeological landscapes in the Mediterranean. Set on and around Monte Barbaro, near the modern town of Calatafimi-Segesta in the province of Trapani, ancient Segesta was one of the principal cities of the Elymians, an indigenous people…
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Apamea, Syria: Hellenistic Splendour in the Orontes Valley
Across the broad Orontes Valley of western Syria lie the magnificent ruins of Apamea, once one of the great cities of the Hellenistic world. Its immense colonnaded avenue still stretches towards the horizon, passing through a windswept archaeological landscape scattered with fallen capitals, fragments of temples, houses, baths and civic buildings. Even in ruin, the…
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Ephesus, Turkey: Once by the Sea, Now Inland, Its Splendour Remains
Few ancient cities possess the scale, beauty, and extraordinary depth of history found at Ephesus. Once standing beside a magnificent natural harbour on the Aegean coast of western Anatolia, the city grew from ancient Anatolian settlements and an Ionian Greek colony into one of the great cultural, religious, and commercial centres of the Mediterranean world….
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Paestum, Italy: The Enduring Splendour of Ancient Greece
Across the fertile plain of southern Campania, not far from the waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea, three immense Greek temples rise with an almost startling completeness from the landscape. This is Paestum, one of the most remarkable archaeological sites in Italy and one of the finest surviving remnants of Magna Graecia, the Greek world that…
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Aegina, Greece: Mythical Island of the Vanished Goddess
Across the blue waters of the Saronic Gulf, scarcely an hour from the great sprawl of Athens, lies an island that once dared to rival it. Aegina today has an altogether gentler character. Fishing boats crowd its harbour, neoclassical buildings line the waterfront, pistachio trees cover parts of its interior, and pine-covered hills descend towards…
