A City Beneath the Mountain Some ancient cities announce themselves long before you reach them. Pinara does almost the opposite. Hidden among the pine-covered foothills of Mount Cragus, today associated with Babadag in south-western Turkey, its ruins appear gradually through the landscape. Stone walls emerge between trees, paths disappear into vegetation, and fragments of buildings…
Few ancient cities in Sicily occupy a setting as memorable as Selinunte. Spread across a wide plateau overlooking the Mediterranean, olive trees, palms, wildflowers and open sky surround its Doric columns, ruined walls and vast fields of fallen stone. The Greeks knew the ancient city as Selinous. Colonists from Megara Hyblaea, a Greek settlement on…
Among the ruins of a forgotten medieval town, water, plants, and human imagination have created one of the most romantic gardens in the world. Some gardens provide a feast for the eyes, while others awaken the imagination. The Garden of Ninfa belongs to the latter. Here, the ruins of a long-abandoned medieval town are being…