Our Dottoré discovers the origin of a patient’s schizophrenia, deep in the icy waters of the North Atlantic Ocean.
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Another Love Story Ruined By The Titanic
Tag: ruins
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Naples Wasn’t Built In A Day
“Do you realize that this changes everything for me?”
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Under The Turkish Sun
To beat the gloominess of a rainy winter afternoon, I put aside my book and went through my sunny slides of Turkey. This one shows the road leading to the Library of Celsus in Ephesus.
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Ruins Before The War
Whenever I go back to the boxes of slides from my two trips to Syria, in 1972 and 1996, and look at the archeological wonders, I inevitably ask myself: Is this still standing. Sadly, the answer is usually “no.” Years of civil war and looting have left the ancient capital of Apamea with a similar […]
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One Tile At A Time
Hard at work under the Tunisian sun, these men were playing their small part in restoring some grandeur to the mosaics of the ancient city of Carthage. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
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Camel Calm
What became of the camels of Palmyra, now that there are no tourists to hire them for a ride?
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Ghost Town Grandeur
On the first of our many trips to Greece, my wife and I drove down to Mystras in the south of the country. Abandoned in the 19th century, the town’s churches, castle and fortress walls stand as a reminder of Byzantine grandeur.
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That’s Entertainment
Back when the Jordanian city of Jerash was known to the Romans as Gerasa, the large South Theater was sometimes used for naumachia. Naumachia is similar to gladiator combat, just that you need to fill the theater with water and add life-size reproductions of warships. The stage was dry by the time we got there, […]
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Extra! Palmyra Falls To ISIS
After days of fighting, “Palmyra’s fate is now in the hands of IS,” L’Orient Le Jour writes on Thursday’s front page. Coalition forces thought a few days ago that they had managed to beat back the ISIS terror group from the ancient Syrian city, but the jihadists came back stronger than before. Government and rebel […]
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Not Ruined For Everyone
Melrose Abbey, in southeastern Scotland, has a troubled history, having been destroyed and rebuilt numerous times since its founding in 1136. It seems to be holding up better since authorities understood that the lavish ruins of the Cistercian abbey were best used for tourism rather than religion.
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Once Upon A Time, In A Peaceful Middle East
Though Petra is awe-inspiring, I’m not sure I’d go back today. A trip to Jordan must be very different now than it was 18 years ago. The colors on this shot of the Ad Deir monastery shows well why the archeological site is nicknamed “the Rose city.”
Why can’t the Italian state take better care of one of the world’s most treasured archeological sites? A tour of ancient artifacts, contemporary degradation and out-of-order bathrooms.
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Flowing Volga, Still Life
Ten years had passed since the dissolution of the Soviet Union when we took a river cruise on the Volga … but in some places, there was no way of telling. This church, which had been abandoned under the Communist regime, remained unrepaired. The landscape of open pasture and haystacks brought back childhood memories of […]