Just last week I was speaking to Luis Vasquez, president of MILA Tours and I mentioned our issue on Walled Cities. “Latin America has five,” he responded, and went on without a breath, to name them all. “Oh, make that six, Havana is also walled.” Well, right then I knew who this month’s Pick would be.
Luis can also lead you to a great Mexican artist who creat...
Host of the Month
The ancient fortress of Masada has become a national symbol for Israel. Located atop a 440-meter-high (1,400 feet) red-hued plateau on the edge of the Judean Desert overlooking the Dead Sea, it served as King Herod’s royal citadel ...
World Heritage Site
Ask people to name some walled cities of the New World erected before the arrival of the Europeans and they’ll probably mention such fabled sites as Machu Picchu in Peru or Chaco Canyon in New Mexico. The cultures that created these magnificent ramparts were located in arid, rocky areas where there were plenty of raw materials to build defensive walls and terraces.
But few peopl...
"The country between the Verde Valley, north to Oak Creek and Flagstaff, is wild and mountainous. . .from its highest point travelers can see stretching far to the west an area seldom designated on maps, but known for the color of its cliffs, and the history of its people. Although now uninhabited it was once the site of a considerable population, which has left ruins of uncommon size in...
“Everywhere has been explored, written about and documented,” my friend lamented a few years ago. Then he said it: “There’s nothing left to discover.”
Although you really can’t dispute the fact that myriad adventure media, be it online, in print or on the screen (big and small) pay the bills by trumpeting the latest “undiscovered” destination...
Machu Picchu was built by Pachacuti Inca as a royal estate and religious retreat in the mid 15th century. After his death, it remained the property of his allus (kinship groups), who were responsible for its maintenance, administration and continuing construction. As a remarkable sacred site, both in terms of location and execution, it surely was visited by Topa Inca and the last great ruler, Huayna...
Imagine. . . a land where rivers flow uphill. Imagine. . . a lake where fish get caught in the branches of trees. Imagine. . . an ancient city, the size of Manhattan, home to tens of thousands of people, supported by an intricate system of irrigation and crowned by carvings in stone depicting their lives and gods.All imaginary? Not a bit. Such a land once...
Naxos, the largest and most fertile of the Cycladic islands, sits almost at the center of the Aegean. Its location and natural wealth are probably why the island has played such an important role in the mythology and history of Greek culture throughout the millennia.
One of the many primordial Greek myths is that Zeus, the god of all gods, grew up on Naxos – one of the island’s...
I have so many favorite walled cities I couldn’t possibly fit all their names into one page. I consider myself one of the luckiest people on earth because seeking out beautiful, fascinating, ancient walled cities is one of the things I do for a living. For the sake of brevity, I will painfully limit myself to telling you about three of my...
Nicopolis, the city of victory, was built by Octavian to commemorate his victory at the naval battle of Actium in 31 B.C. The battle itself was not one of the great triumphs of antiquity but the significance of the victory was immense. To understand this, you have to look at the balance of power in the Roman Empire during this period.
Julius Caesar was emperor of Rome. He had an affair...
They say the lack of city noise has something to do with narrow curved streets designed to stop arrows (and coincidentally not admit automobiles) or towering stone walls with the power to muffle 10,000 footsteps. But the primary reason is the ghosts. With their presence sensed all about, respectful silence just seems to be the order of the...
When travelers think of Ireland they usually associate it with quaint bed and breakfasts, pubs and plenty of green countryside. And when people think of archaeology, ancient sites and anything dated B.C., they may thing about Italy or Greece but probably not Ireland. Yet Ireland is a treasure trove of ancient and historic sites that many visitors overlook.
Walled towns are unique inheritances from times long past. They should be treasured, maintained and safeguarded from neglect and destruction, and passed on in perpetuity as irreplaceable stone markers of history. For this is the unique intrigue that a walled town holds: The walls speak of fortresses, wars, feuds, struggles for land ownership and power.
“Help, help, I’m trapped. Let me out!” a voice mutters raspy and wretched, grown weak from privation. The whispers issue from behind the grate of a cage designed to hold a single, short outlaw. It looks like a man-sized Rubik’s cube with a slot in the door to pass daily gruel.
The “fillette,” as this cage is called, once held its own inventor,...
Ask people to name some walled cities of the New World erected before the arrival of the Europeans and they’ll probably mention such fabled sites as Machu Picchu in Peru or Chaco Canyon in New Mexico. The cultures that created these magnificent ramparts were located in arid, rocky areas where there were plenty of raw materials to build defensive walls and terraces.
Just last week I was speaking to Luis Vasquez, president of MILA Tours and I mentioned our issue on Walled Cities. “Latin America has five,” he responded, and went on without a breath, to name them all. “Oh, make that six, Havana is also walled.” Well, right then I knew who this month’s Pick would be.
One of the best things to happen during the acrimonious breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s was that Slovenia, the northwesternmost province, managed to emerge from all the subsequent bloodletting relatively intact.It was the first province to secede, declaring independence in June 1991 and then enduring a 10-day siege by the Yugoslavian federal army. After...
