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Temple of Hera

Beside the Gulf of Salerno, 25 centuries ago stood the luxurious city of Paestum, one of many built and settled by Greek colonists along Italy’s southern shores. But Paestum was an unlucky town. Conquered first by barbarous Lucanians, then by Romans, it was periodically sacked by sea raiders, from Cilician pirates in the first century to Saracens in the ninth. In the meantime the plain became a malarial marsh (a condition not corrected until 1944). The population dwindled until the survivors, continue reading »

A group of human victim corpses of the 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius

This is a much smaller site than Pompeii, mainly because it is less accessible. It lies about 27 meters below present ground level, and much of it no one is sure how much extends beneath the modern town of Ercolano (Resina). Unlike Pompeii, Herculaneum was engulfed during Vesuvius eruption by an avalanche of mud and lava that filled every nook and cranny like thick soup and then hardened to the consistency of concrete. continue reading »

Borobudur Temple is a ninth century Mahayana Buddhist monument in Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia. The monument comprises six square platforms topped by three circular platforms, and is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. A main dome is located at the center of the top platform, and is surrounded by continue reading »

The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, built, rebuilt, and maintained between the 5th century BC and the 16th century to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire from Xiongnu attacks during various successive dynasties.

The Great Wall stretches from Shanhaiguan in the east to Lop Nur in the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia. The most comprehensive archaeological survey, using advanced technologies, has recently concluded that the entire Great Wall, with all of its branches, stretches for continue reading »