Rambling about Ruins
Imagining life long ago
Whenever I think of ruins, then my header image is the first one that comes to mind. It’s a photo that I took while on a little day trip cruise along the southern coast of Turkey, back in 2005. It was a chilly day, but sunny enough to provide that beautiful blue-green colour so typical for seawater over limestone sand. Whoever lived there, many years ago, likely also enjoyed that view. But it’s an earthquake-prone area, and now the sea has progressed right up to the doorstep and any materials used for roofing are long gone, either weathered away or used for building materials nearby.
It’s one of my all-time favourite pictures, taken with the little Canon IXUS 430 that I used at the time. I used that image as my desktop background, for a while.
I expect that most people may have thought of more famous ruins when this month’s challenge was announced by Anne Bonfert. And I have been fortunate enough to visit some of these.
But I must keep my story short enough to retain your interest, so I have just selected a few images from my many photographs of ruins.
The Parthenon in Athens must arguably be one of the world’s most famous ruins. It was built as a temple on the Acropolis above Athens some five centuries BC, and was subsequently also used as a treasury, and later as a place to store ammunition. This latter fact resulted in a rather damaging explosion in 1687 when a bomb launched by the Venetians detonated there.
The various buildings on the Acropolis were all constructed out of limestone, just like many buildings in Athens, down below. This gives the area its characteristic yellowish-brown colour. While being easy to sculpt into pillars and statues, the stone is however also subject to “sculpting” by the acids in the air. Air pollution, therefore, results in the weathering of these structures. But, there always seems to be work ongoing to repair the buildings, keeping them all in character as much as possible, as the next image shows.
In some other parts of the world, it appears that the ancients were better builders than those of today. My family and I visited Rome during the summer of 2012. The saying goes that when in Rome, then you do as the Romans do.
Along with all the other visitors from around the world.
So we ate great pasta, enjoyed fantastic ice cream, and visited the Colosseum. There cannot be too many people on this planet who have not heard of this old amphitheatre, of fights between gladiators, or between people and wild animals. These days we think that we are more civilised, but if we consider human behaviour at some football matches, then I wonder.
But I digress.
Aside from the rather bloodthirsty history of the building, I am fascinated by the engineering skills that existed between 69 and 80 AD, when most of the construction was done. The next image shows a bit of detail, indicating some of the structures that existed below the sandy floor of the amphitheatre. There were rooms for gladiators, cages for wild animals, and even contraptions to allow these animals to be lifted from below into the sunlight and the sound of shouting, blood-thirsty spectators.
Rome is of course chock-full of old and historical buildings. One of these is Castel Sant’Angelo, commissioned by the emperor Hadrian as a final resting place for himself and his family. The place has an interesting history, it’s worth reading the Wikipedia entry.
OK, so it’s not really a ruin. But I include this picture for a reason. Only metres away from the moat around the grand and very old building, I took the following picture.
Do yourself a favour and read how Erie Astin experienced the “chaos” of the “Eternal City”. One wonders how short “eternity” will be for this city, given the modern construction skills illustrated above…
The Eye-Catching Chaos of Rome’s Ruins
A fanciful stroll through the crumbling Eternal City
medium.com
Adrienne Beaumont has also written about Roman ruins — in Africa:
It’s true, those Romans managed to get everywhere. I remember visiting the outpost of Vindolanda, in England. Near Hadrian’s Wall, that structure that the emperor wanted built across Britain, to keep out those barbaric Scots. If you’re ever in the area, it’s really worthwhile visiting — the museum has a lot of artifacts (including little wooden writing tablets) that illustrate daily life of the people who lived there or were posted there.
I guess many must have longed for the sunny days in Italy, if they came from that far away…
Back to more sunny environments. Anne Bonfert had also mentioned Aztec or Maya ruins, which reminded me of a beautiful location in Mexico: Tulum.
During 2004, Marina and I were visiting the Yucatan peninsula in Quintana Roo and managed to escape from the rather full city of Cancun, for a day trip down to Tulum and its surroundings. This place was one of the last cities built by the Maya and served as a port for the surrounding area.
Today it serves as a destination for daytrippers, some of whom just lie on the beach, or do a bit of surfing. In our own case, we did enjoy the sunshine and the fantastic views over the Caribbean, but we also wondered about the lives and daily activities of the people who lived here between the 13th and 15th centuries, before the Spanish conquest.
This month’s challenge has provided us with great experiences and illustrations of places to visit. Some of these I have seen, but not enough, never enough! So here is an example, provided by Scott-Ryan Abt, of a place that is still solidly on my bucket list:
