italy 1: eternal roma and the vatican

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St. Peter’s Square (© Lozzi Roma)

Rome is like a tapestry of time. Ancient Roman ruins blending into medieval churches, Renaissance domes, Baroque fountains and fascist buildings, whilst the vivacity and vigour of modern Rome sparkles in the foreground. Eternal Roma. Time from all times stand here on display. Ancient Romans, Vandals, Popes and the Borgias, Michelangelo and Bernini, Napoleon, and Mussolini, all have left their physical and spiritual mark on this city by the banks of the river Tiber. Modern Rome has one foot in the past and one in the present—a wonderful stance that allows you to have an expresso in a square designed by Bernini, then walk back to your hotel room in a renovated Renaissance palace. Continue reading →

greece 6: post-byzantine monasteries of meteora and thermopylae

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Kalabaka—Meteora

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16th Century monasteries perched atop the towering peaks of Meteora

Kalabaka, known in Byzantine times as Stagi, is a small town and starting point for a visit to Meteora, a group of precipitous towering rocks in the centre of the plain of Thessaly. This unique geological phenomenon was created by a series of upheavals in the earth’s crust millions of years ago. The untrodden rocky peaks of the Meteora, totally isolated from the rest of the world, were a refuge for hermits from as early as the 11th Century. Continue reading →

greece 5: roman patras and delphi, navel of the earth

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Church of St. Andrew in Patras

Patras

Today, in the early morning hours I left for Patras. My final destination was Delphi. Patras is one of the most important harbours for communication between Greece and Western Europe. Ships for Italy leave from here.

An agricultural settlement which took little part in the shared activities of the Greeks during the entire Greek historical epoch (from the end of the Mycenaean civilization to the end of the Classical period), Patras, however, flourished under the Romans and became a centre for commerce and industry during Roman rule. St. Andrew, patron saint of Patras, taught the gospel in this city and was martyred here in 68 AD. I visited the 20th Century church of St. Andrew, an imposing building decorated lavishly in gold on Byzantine lines in the inside. The blue cross in the Greek flag is St. Andrews cross. Possession of Patras alternated between the Venetians and Turks in the city’s later history. Continue reading →

greece 4: olympia, home of zeus and the olympic games

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The Palaestra where the athletes trained for the contests in wrestling, boxing and jumping, 3rd Century BC

There was scarcely any city which failed to stage games in honour of the gods, but the attention of all Greece was drawn to the four great Pan-Hellenic festivals: the Olympic Games at Olympia and the Pythian Games at Delphi, both held every four years; and the Nemean Games in Argolis and the Isthmian Games at Corinth, each held every two years. These festivals drew athletes from all parts of Greece who competed as individuals, not as teams, on a passionately amateur basis. Wars were put aside for the Games. Greatest of all the Pan-Hellenic games were the Olympics held at Olympia. Continue reading →

greece 3: epidaurus and nafplio, greece’s first capital

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Epidaurus, Classical Greece’s centre for healing

In the hinterland of Epidaurus, on green hills enjoying mild climate and plentiful water from healing springs, the Epidaureans founded the sanctuary of Asclepius, the most impressive centre of healing in the ancient world.

The worship of gods of healing in Epidaurus goes back to the prehistoric period. In the Mycenaean period, the hero-doctor Malos, or Maleatas was worshipped on one of the peaks of Mt. Cynortium. After 1000 BC, Apollo displaced the prehistoric deity, and assumed his name, Apollo Maleatas, continuing to be worshipped in his sanctuary until the end of the ancient world. His cult evolved into that of Asclepius, culminating in the 6th Century BC with the building of Asclepius’ major sanctuary of healing. According to mythology, Asclepius was the son of Apollo and Coronis and he learned the art of medicine from his father and Cheiron, the wise Centaur.


The Theatre of Epidaurus is the best preserved ancient theatre in Greece, 4th-3rd Century BC Continue reading →

greece 2: ancient corinth and mycenae

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Corinth Canal

The Corinth Canal, 6 kilometres long and 23 meters wide, was constructed in 1882-1893 by French and Greek engineers at the narrowest point of the Isthmus. I crossed the canal by bridge as I left Attica and entered the Peloponnese. The decision to build a canal on this spot was taken by many in antiquity: Periander, tyrant of Corinth and one of the seven sages of the ancient world, Julius Caesar, Nero, Hadrian, and Herodes Atticus. But it was only in the 19th Century that the idea received form. Nonetheless, the ancient Greeks had devised other means of bridging the gap between the two gulfs. In the late 7th or early 6th Century BC, they built a paved road called diolcus from the shores of the Gulf of Corinth to the shores of the Saronic, and ships were pulled on wheeled wagons from one side of the Isthmus to the other. Parts of the diolcus can still be seen today on the Gulf of Corinth.

Ancient Corinth

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The ruins of ancient Corinth Continue reading →

greece 1: pericles’ athens—an education to [classical] greece

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I was in Athens. After months of reading numerous books on Classical Greece, I was finally in the city which had given birth to democracy, intellectual freedom, and the concept of individuality. My breath caught in my throat in bated excitement as I took the long drive from the airport to the hotel, amidst much heat, pollution, noise, crowds, and huge run-down buildings lining traffic-laden streets.

Next morning I commenced my exploration of the city’s glorious art and history. The heavy cloak of modern urban Athens slowly parted to reveal the Athens I’d come to see from across the many seas, the Athens of incomparable beauty.

Athens: An education to [Classical] Greece

To fully experience the classical beauty of Athens is to understand the essence of Greek civilization. Athens, the “school of Hellas”, and in Pericles’ words, “the city that was an education to Greece”, was the cultural and intellectual well-spring of Greek life in antiquity. During Greece’s Golden Age, the period commencing with the defeat of the Persians in 479 BC to the outbreak of the Peloponnesian war in 431 BC, it displayed a vigour that has no parallel in the history of humankind. And this golden age glowed brightest during the 30 years it had the leadership of the political genius of Pericles, the city’s first citizen, austere aristocrat, soldier, orator, and statesman. Continue reading →

egypt 10: a guide to islamic cairo

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Ibn Tulun Mosque, Cairo’s oldest surviving mosque, and the Mosque of Muhammad Ali

Islam was introduced into Egypt by Amr ibn el-As in 639 AD and Egypt changed forever after that. Islam is based on the recitations of the Prophet Muhammad who was born in 570 AD in Mecca, Arabia. At the age of 40 he received the word of God through Gabriel, the archangel and for 22 years, thereafter, he recited his revelations to his followers. Islam rests on the Quran (el-Quran means the recitation). In the quest of spreading this message, the converted Arab armies led by his followers in Baghdad, conquered the Byzantine and Persian empires.

If there is time to see only one mosque in Cairo, it has to be the Ibn Tulun Mosque. Built in the 9th Century by Ahmed ibn Tulun, it is the oldest surviving mosque in Cairo. The edifice is impressive both for its large scale and minimalist classical lines. The vast courtyard is covered with pebbles, the pointed arches made of brickwork and stucco, and the spiral minaret seems to have been borrowed out of a fairytale. A 2-kilometer long wooden frieze inscribed by one-fifteenth of the Quran runs below the ceiling. Continue reading →

egypt 9: a guide to the egyptian museum and coptic cairo

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Cairo, the largest city in Africa and the Middle East since the 13th Century, is the meeting point not only of past and present but East and West. Five thousand years of history blend harmoniously into each other in this large metropolitan, cosmopolitan, historical, yet modern city.

Egyptian Museum

Cairo’s most famous and priceless treasure is the Egyptian Museum in the heart of the city. Founded by the French archaeologist Auguste Mariette in 1858, it contains some of the world’s most extraordinary antiques. At least two days are needed to get a grasp of the masterpieces which range from across the millennia: the Old Kingdom (2686-2160 BC), Middle Kingdom (2040-1640 BC), New Kingdom (1550-1080 BC), the Amarna Period and the subsequent Ptolemaic and Roman periods. Continue reading →

egypt 8: alexander the great’s alexandria and coptic wadi-el-natrun

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Fairytale Qaytbay Fort, built from the stones of the legendary Pharos Lighthouse

Alexandria, ancient capital of culture and learning

Built by Alexander the Great in 332 BC, Alexandria was intended to be the port which would link the old worlds of Egypt, Babylon, Persia, and Greece. Following Alexander’s death, Alexandria became a world city under the rule of the Ptolemies, the dynasty founded by his Greek General, Ptolemy. The Ptolemies used their resources to develop knowledge, art and culture and establish the city as a centre for science, religious thought and literature. It was within the complex of libraries, parks and halls of the fabled Mouseion that stood in the centre of the city that Euclid wrote his ‘Elements’, Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the earth, Herophilus pioneered the study of anatomy, and the ‘Julian’ calendar, based on the ancient Egyptian solar calendar, was devised. Continue reading →