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In 2006 when we visited Cyprus, Paphos was a disappointment. The Lonely Planet guide described the town very favourably, raising our expectations. Little remained of Cypriot culture. Even the food in the restaurants was English, perhaps reflecting the effects of British rule from 1878 to 1960. Almost all of the old buildings in the town have been replaced with the mediocre architecture of the 1950's and 1960's. The town was quite spread out, making it necessary to use a car, but parking was hard to find, and there was no beache until we finally found a nice municipal one in a nearby town. Based on the Lonely Planet guide's recommendation, we had reserved a hotel for four days, and could hardly wait to leave. Paphos is well worth a brief visit, however, in order to see the wonderful mosaics at Roman Paphos. They are by far the most impressive we have ever seen. Perhaps they will be surpassed by those at Ravenna which we haven't yet seen.
In1998 we spent the day on Delos, an island that has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990. Delos was considered by the ancient Greeks to have been the birthplace of the gods Artemis and Apollo and as such, was for them a holy sanctuary. The excavations here are very interesting and extensive.
Here is another photo taken in 2000 of a beautiful Greek temple at Selinunte in Sicily. As in several other temples in Sicily, we were are able to walk directly into the temple itself, something we had never been able to do before. Like all Greek temples, one of its most striking features is its having been posiioned within the landscape in a way that enhances its beauty and fine proportions.
A wonderful part our Sicily vacation in 200 was to see the many ancient Greek temples. The island has more of these - and in a better state of preservation - than anywhere I know of outside Greece itself. The temple in the photo is located near Agrigento where there are extensive ruins.
In 1994, when we vacationed in Italy, we visited the coliseum in Rome. Being there, one could easily imagine how horrific it would have been to be there in ancient Rome to see early Christians being thrown to the lions.
Knidos, an ancient city located at the westernmost point of Asia Minor, was in existence as early as 300 BC. There are two harbours, one on the Aegean and one on the Mediterranean. Knidos was an important seaport, being the final landfall before ships crossed over to Egypt. Our boat trip to Knidos was a hair-raising experience. Because of its location at the end of the Datca peninsula which separates the Mediterranean from the Aegean, the seas at Knidos are often very rough. The day we went was no exception, and we felt grateful to have arrived safely. We enjoyed Knidos very much. It was just the sort of out-of-the-way place with lots of history and ancient ruins that we love to visit.
The smaller of the two temples at Abu Simbel, photographed in 2004, was built by Ramesses II to honor both Hathor as the goddess of love and music and his wife Nefertari as the deified queen.
This photo of the Great Pyramid at Gyza in Egypt was taken in 2004. Can you see the truck in the bottom right of the photo? Now you can appreciate how huge the pyramids are and what a technical achievement they represent. This is even more evident if you right click on the photo and then open it in a new window to see the enlarged image.
In 2006, when we visited Cyprus, we spent four days at Paphos, which the Lonely Planet Guide described as a beautiful and interesting place. We were very disappointed: no beach, whatever charming old areas had once existed had been replaced by nondescript post-World War II urban sprawl, scarcity of parking, no transit, little Greek food in the restaurants but plenty of bacon and eggs and shepherd's pie, and great heat. Roman Paphos was the exception. We love to explore ancient ruins, and it was fascinating, as in the photo, to watch archaeologists working at such close range. There are also beautiful Roman mosaics to see at Roman Paphos.
Akrotiri is what remains of a Bronze Age city which was at its prime from 3000 to 2000 BC. As you can see in this 1998 photo, two-storey houses have been excavated. We love to visit ancient ruins, and this was one of the oldest, most interesting we have seen.
I love the way the light shines through the openings in the Roman aqueduct at Montpellier, photographed in 1999. Montpellier is one of my favourite places in France. It has a world renowned medical school, the most beautiful modern buildings you will ever see, a very interesting old medieval quarter, and of course this beautiful ancient aqueduct. What more could you ask?
We visited Rome in 1994 in the middle of a heat wave. Can't you almost see the heat in this photo of the Roman Forum? If you look very closely, you can just make out the man and woman near the bottom right. This will give you an idea of the scale of the ruins. The forum itself is very large. We walked here for an hour or so until we felt burned to a crisp and returned to our hotel, disappointed that we couldn't spend more time reading the guide book to see what we had actually been looking at.
This is a photo, taken in 2004, of the second pyramid at Giza. The smooth face of this pyramid has been eroded away. Imagine how beautiful it must have been before this happened!
We traveled to Sicily in 2000. The theatre at Segesta dates from about 409 BC. It was originally Greek and later used by the Romans. Greek plays are staged here in the summer. The theatre dominates the hillside, and from the top, the views are spectacular.
My mother and I had a holiday in England in 1984. Driving north of Chichester on a minor road in the countryside , we saw a sign post for a Roman villa. Intrigued, we stopped to see it and were amazed at the quality of the beautiful mosaic floors. As this was the first time I saw ruins from the ancient world, the day remains fresh in my memory some 25 years later. The floors are part of a Roman villa that dates from the 3rd Century AD.
We thoroughly enjoyed Phaestos, an ancient site on Crete, which we visited in 2004. Because there has been no reconstruction here as there has, for example, at Knossos, there were only the ruins themselves and the beauty of the site to work unimpeded upon the imagination. Phaestos sits on a hill with views overlooking the valley below. Another attraction is that these Minoan ruins are much older than the Greek and Roman sites we have visited, and yet they are relatively unknown, at least compared with Knossos.
At Agrigento in 2000, as elsewhere in Sicily, we were able to walk freely among the ancient ruins, something that made it possible to appreciate these beautiful sites in a new way. The city of Agrigento was nothing special, but near it there were several Greek temples to wander about in. These have been designated a World Heritage Site and date from the 6th and 5th Centuries B.C.
Syracusa, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a very interesting town to visit as we did in 2000. There is an old medieval quarter that is seriously dilapidated but would have great potential if Sicily could establish a tourist industry of any size. It would be a wonderful place to explore on foot if cleaned up. There is also an ancient Greek theatre. But perhaps the most interesting place in Syracusa is the large harbour. This is where, in 431 BC, a huge expeditionary force of Athenian ships sailed and were trapped by a chain drawn across the harbour entrance. The result was the destruction of the ships by fire and the death or capture of thousands of Athenian sailors.
In 2006 when we visited Cyprus, Paphos was a disappointment. The Lonely Planet guide described the town very favourably, raising our expectations. Little remained of Cypriot culture. Even the food in the restaurants was English, perhaps reflecting the effects of British rule from 1878 to 1960. Almost all of the old buildings in the town have been replaced with the mediocre architecture of the 1950's and 1960's. The town was quite spread out, making it necessary to use a car, but parking was hard to find, and there was no beache until we finally found a nice municipal one in a nearby town. Based on the Lonely Planet guide's recommendation, we had reserved a hotel for four days, and could hardly wait to leave. Paphos is well worth a brief visit, however, in order to see the wonderful mosaics at Roman Paphos. They are by far the most impressive we have ever seen. Perhaps they will be surpassed by those at Ravenna which we haven't yet seen.
