Selinunte, Sicily Italy,

Classical Greek city rising out from the sand.

The Ancient Greek Classical city of Selinous, modern day Selinunte is on the south-west coast of Sicily in the heart of the Mediterranean.

Immigrants from the Greek settlement of Megara Hyblaea (Sicily East Coast) founded Selinous in the 7th century BCE. They named it after the wild celery that once was abundant there. Selinous prosperity and prestige grew in the next few centuries following its foundation and become exceedingly affluent and glorious from exporting wine, cereals, olive oil and ceramic artefacts. 

Admired and envied throughout the Mediterranean, Selinous was a target for invaders. On a fateful day in 409BCE, 100,000 soldiers of the Carthaginian army attacked and almost destroyed the city. Of the 25,000 inhabitants, 16,000 were butchered, and another 7000 were enslaved. Any that survived escaped to the ancient Greek city of Akragas (Agrigento). 

Finally abandoned around 250BCE, the forces of nature then buried Selinous as windblown sand and earth covered the city.

A result of Selinous being mostly buried and forgotten was that the city was frozen in time, similar to the fate of Pompeii.

View of palm trees and the blue waters of the Mediterranean sea from the evocative ruins of the archeological site at Selinunte. Sicily. Italy.

Modern excavations have been revealing, and it is being regarded as the most complete preservation of an Ancient Greek classical city. 

Boosting several Doric Greek temples all identified by a letter, Selinunte archaeological park is the largest in Europe and one of its most beautifully located.

Two highlights being Temple E, which is one of the most complete Greek temples in the world and the massive ruins of unfinished 6th BCE Temple G, which would have been the fourth largest temple ever built in the ancient Greek world. 

Nearby Ancient Selinous is Cave di Cusa which was the ancient quarry used to provide masonry for the Temples. The quarry includes many abandoned colossal cylindrical drum blocks still waiting for two thousand years to be transported to the ancient city. 

Click to view the complete Selinunte image gallery.

All images, text and content are copyright Steven Sklifas.

Bosra, Syria.

Ancient Theatre of Dreams.

In the south-east of Syria, the ancient Roman city of Bosra was briefly a Nabatean capital before becoming the prosperous and powerful capital of the Roman province of Syria.

Their black basalt usage, which is found throughout the area known as the Horan region of Syria, distinguishes the masonry of the buildings and ruins.

Several delightful Roman ruins are found within the old city, including the monumental ancient Roman theatre which is one of the largest and best preserved in the Mediterranean. The famous theatre was built in the second century AD during the reign of Roman Emperor Trajan who was emperor from 98 to 117 AD.

Bosra. Syria. View along the north-south cardo with its cobblestone surface and parallel row of columns lining the ancient street.

The colossal scaenae frons or stage backdrop of the theatre was three stories high and adorned with ornate fine Corinthian columns, statues, and sculptured friezes. Unfortunately, only the lower level survives today. Its cavea, which is virtually intact, comprises 37 tiers of seating that could accommodate an audience of 15,000 spectators.

The Ancient city of Bosra is a UNESCO World Heritage listed site. I have also included a few images of the Roman theatre found in the ancient city of Philippopolis- Modern Shahba. The ancient theatre is small, however it is one of the best preserved in Syria. Shahba is about 90 kilometres southeast of Damascus.

Click to view the complete Bosra image gallery.

All images, text and content are copyright Steven Sklifas.

Benghazi, Libya.

Commonwealth war graves cemetery

The Commonwealth war graves cemetery located at the city of Benghazi, Eastern Libya, is the last resting place of over 1000 commonwealth servicemen who gave their lives in the North African desert wars of British Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery and German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel during World War 2. 

“In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons,”

Herodotus – Greek Historian 484 BC – 409 BC.

Buried and commemorated at the cemetery are Australian, British, Greek, Indian, Jewish, Libyan, Norwegian, South African and Sudanese servicemen. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) built and continues to maintain the cemetery.

Benghazi. Cyrenaica. Libya. View of the Commonwealth war graves cemetery at Benghazi.

Note: I visited Libya just before the Libyan civil war in 2011, a war which has left Libya in a complete state of lawlessness and terror. Many thousands of lives have died, and according to Amnesty International, it is estimated that almost a million people across Libya need humanitarian aid. 

Click to view the complete Benghazi War Cemetery image galley

All images, text and content are copyright Steven Sklifas.

Paestum, Italy.

Majestic Ancient Greek Temples.

Originally named Poseidonia, in honour of the Greek Sea God Poseidon, Paestum was founded in the 7th century BC by Ancient Greek colonists from the city of Sybaris which was situated in the current Gulf of Taranto in southern Italy.

Its location was chosen for its fresh water supply and rich fertile plain, ideal for agriculture. Its site also allowed for excellent land access through the Lucanian hills to the seaport. The city became wealthy enough to mint its own coins and became an important centre of Magna Graecia–Greek colonisation in Italy.

After a few hundred years, the city was occupied by the indigenous Lucanians and then by the Romans in the third century BC. Paestum succumbed to malaria after the fall of Rome and was eventually abandoned in the late 9th century.

Paestum was a must see by any traveller engaged in the famous Grand tour- 17th to early 19th-century.

For nearly 1000 years, Paestum and its grand majestic temples were overgrown by tangled vegetation and partially submerged in swampland until the mid-18th century, when the ancient site was rediscovered by road crews. 

The three ancient Greek Doric temples of Paestum (Hera, Hera II and Athena) are ranked amongst the best preserved Greek Temples in the world.

Paestum. Campania. Italy. The cover panel mural painting from the Tomb of the Diver (Tomba del Tuffatore) from the Tempa del Prete necropolis. This panel, which was the tomb lid, shows a naked youth executing a prefect dive into a blue sea. The dive is thought to symbolize the passage from life to the death.

The museum house the extraordinary cycle of mural paintings from the 5th century BC Tomb of Diver, which are the only type of its kind in the world and are the only example of Greek wall painting with figured scenes from the Archaic, or Classical periods to survive in their entirety.

Paestum is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Click to view the complete Paestum image gallery

All images, text and content are copyright Steven Sklifas.

Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia.

Dazzling blue and white haven

The extremely photogenic and popular artist’s village of Sidi Bou Said is located 20 Kilometres north of Tunis, capital of Tunisia.

Positioned on a steep cliff top overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, Sidi Bou Said was originally known as the village of Jabal el-Menaris.

The town was renamed Sidi Bou Said to honour of Abu Said Ibn Khalaf Yahya al-Tamimi al-Beji a 13th century Sufi Saint who settled here on his return journey from his pilgrimage to Mecca.

The 19th century French baron Rudolph d’Erlanger was responsible for the distinctive blue and white scheme in the village which is reminiscent of a Cycladic Greek island with its whitewashed cubical homes with blue shutters and colourful doors and cobbled and narrow alleyways overflowing with bougainvillea.

Sidi Bou Said. Tunisia. View of a blue door with studded ornamentation in the clifftop village of Sidi Bou Said.

Click to view the complete Sidi Bou Said image gallery.

All images, text and content are copyright Steven Sklifas.

Pinara, Turkey.

Evocative Ancient Lycian city

The remote ancient Lycian city of Pinara is on a pine forested mountain foothill of the ancient Mount Cragus (today Mount Babadag),two kilometres above the village of Minare, in the Fethiye district of Mugla Province, south-western Turkey.

The lost ruins of Pinara were discovered by Sir Charles Fellows, a British archaeologist and traveller from the 19th century.

Colonists from the overpopulated city of Xanthos, which was the largest city of the Lycian Federation, established Pinara (meaning ‘round hill’ in ancient Lycian) on the western bank of the River Xanthos in the 5th century BC. During this period, Pinara had a large natural harbour and was one of the chief ports of the influential Lycian league. The harbour no longer exists and in its place are reed-filled wetlands.

Very little was written about Pinara by ancient writers, however Strabo, the ancient Greek geographer, philosopher and historian wrote Pinara was a very important and developed city and was one of the six principal cities of the prominent Lycian league and possessed three votes at the Federal assembly. (The other five were Xanthos, Patara, Olympus, Myra, and Tlos). 

Strabo also noted that the city appears to have paid hero honours to Pandarus, Homers celebrated archer from the Trojan war.

In 334 BC, the city surrendered happily to Alexander the Great, on his march through Lycia. The locals welcomed as a liberator Alexander because of their disdain for the former Persian occupiers. The city, like the rest of Lycia, was completely Hellenised during this period.

View of the spectacular Greek-style 2nd century BC theatre. Pinara. Turkey. The theatre is situated at the base of the ancient city and accommodated up to 3,200 spectators.

After Alexander’s death, his empire was spilt with Pinara annexed to the Attalid Kingdom, the Hellenistic Dynasty that ruled Pergamum. It eventually became under Roman rule and achieved great prosperity. During its peak, Pinara even minted its own coins.

The area was and is prone to earthquakes and large earth-shaking events considerably damaged the city in 141 and 240 AD. The city was rebuilt; however, it was eventually abandoned in the 9th century.

Many footpaths crisscross the extensive and interesting site, linking many remnants from its past. Highlights include the ancient theatre, foundations of ancient temples, Cyclopean walls, an Odeon and Agora, an upper and a lower Acropolis, and thousands of rocks tombs cut into the vertical limestone cliff face, some of which are quite intricate.

Click to view the complete Pinara image gallery.

All images, text and content are copyright Steven Sklifas.

Delos, Greece.

Sacred island of Apollo and Artemis

Near the Greek island of Mykonos and part of the Cyclades, sacred Delos is the birthplace of the Greek God Apollo and his twin sister, the Greek Goddess Artemis, and one of most important archaeological and ancient sites in the Mediterranean.

According to ancient sources, Zeus (Greek king of all gods) had an affair with the beautiful young goddess Leto. Hera, rightful goddess wife of Zeus, was furious and barred every place in the world from giving the pregnant Leto a place to give birth.

The whole Greek world followed Hera’s order – with the single exception being Delos, a floating, unimportant, barren, rocky and windswept island that thought it had little to lose by giving sanctuary to Leto. So, with a haven in Delos, Leto rested under a stately palm tree and gave birth first to Artemis and then Apollo. 

It is said that as soon as Apollo, God of the Sun, Prophecy and the Arts saw the light of day, the island glowed and the entire world shone.

Today, Delos comprises rich and extensive archaeological ruins from antiquity when, as Apollo’s sanctuary, it was a prosperous and cosmopolitan Mediterranean trading port and attracted pilgrims from all over the Greek world. Even today, a trek to the summit of Mount Kynthos, the highest point on Delos, will reveal modern dedications and small shrines to Apollo.

Delos. Greece. The grand row of five marble lion sculptures crafted and dedicated by the Naxians to the Sanctuary of Apollo in the 7th century BCE. On a natural terrace standing guard and overlooking the sacred lake, it is believed that there may have been up-to nineteen lions.

The ferry ride to Delos from Mykonos is about 30 minutes; however, visitors are not allowed to stay on the island – apart from archaeologists working there.

In antiquity there was a law in place that forbade births and deaths on the Island. Pregnant women and persons gravely ill were transported to the adjacent island of Rheneia to avoid breaking the sacred law.

Delos is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Click to view the complete Delos image gallery.

 All images, text and content are copyright Steven Sklifas.

Temple of Hatshepsut, Egypt.

Powerful Queen and Pharaoh

The mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut is on the west bank of the River Nile, just across from Luxor, ancient Thebes, in Egypt.

Queen Hatshepsut was one of only a few women ever to reign over Egypt as Pharaoh. She ruled for 20 years during the 18th dynasty – 14th century BCE.

Rising out of the desert plain and set against towering cliffs in the Theban Hills, the temple, with its many monumental ramps, fine terraces, and elegant columns, is one of the most impressive from ancient Egypt.

What’s also impressive are its colourful hieroglyphic paintings and reliefs, that tells the story of Hatshepsut’s divine birth and of her journey to the Land of Punt (which is believed to be modern-day Somalia) to bring back treasures such as ebony, ivory, gold, perfumes and myrrh trees.

Thebes. Egypt. Temple of Queen Hatshepsut colourful relief showing a festival scene with soldiers running forward carrying branches of trees along with their axes.

The Temple of Queen Hatshepsut is a UNESCO World Heritage listed site as part of the Ancient Thebes, with its Necropolis listing.

Click to view the complete Temple of Queen Hatshepsut image gallery.

All images, text and content are copyright Steven Sklifas.

Garden of Ninfa, Italy.

A triumphal synthesis of humanity’s imagination and nature’s richness 

The bewitching Garden of Ninfa (Giardini di Ninfa) is set amongst the ruins of a medieval town and is located 70 kilometres southeast from Rome in the territory of Cisterna di Latina within the central Italian region of Lazio.

Described by many as the most romantic garden in the world, the origins of Ninfa go back to Roman times and are immersed in myth. Tradition tells that Ninfa was named after a temple consecrated to the water divinities, nymphs, the locals believed occupied the natural springs and gentle flowing river that meanders through the verdant landscape. 

Prior to developing into a garden of rare beauty, Ninfa was a small town of strategic importance and political influence. From the 8th century, travellers traversed the route through Ninfa to get from Rome to Naples and when the Appian Way (Via Appian) was impossible to traverse because of flooding rains.

In 1159, Cardinal Rolando Bandinelli was consecrated at Ninfa as Pope Alexander III. He was inaugurated at the Church of Santa Maria, whose evocative remnants are visible today.

The distinguished Caetani family, who had ties with the papacy, took control of Ninfa in the 13th century, buying out local proprietors and titleholders.

During the papacy crises, known as the Great Schism (circa 1378), anti-pope factions razed Ninfa to the ground. Never to be rebuilt, the town lay deserted for several centuries, mainly because of the untamed growth of the nearby marshland, a breeding ground for malaria. 

I asked, amazed, what that most puzzling great garland of flowers, that mysterious green ring, could be. “Nympha, Nympha,” said our host. Nympha! then that is the Pompeii of the Middle Ages, buried in the marshes – that city of the dead, ghostly, silent. 

Ferdinand Gregorovius German Historian – when he first viewed Ninfa from the hilltop town of Norma in 1852

View of the serene waters of the Ninfa river and the Ponte Romano (Roman Bridge). Town on top of the hill is Norma. Garden of Ninfa. Lazio. Italy.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, members of the noble Caetani family, lovers of botany, created some foundations of the garden seen today.

The garden remained abandoned until the 19th century, when visionary members of the Caetani family rolled up their sleeves and began the arduous process of regeneration and restoration. The legacy of their energy, boldness and foresight endures today.

The garden, a botanical, wildlife and spiritual sanctuary, spreads over 8 hectares (20 acres). Abundant in faunae and native and exotic flora, the garden has over 10000 species of plants, 152 species of birds and a rich variety of fauna that inhabit the lake and river.

The leafy winding pathways are a softened with dappled light and burst with ethereal vistas. The paths unite all parts of the garden and gently pull you to explore the curious and ghostly ruins of the medieval towers, walls and churches, all of which are romantically cloaked with plants such as climbing roses, ivy and scented jasmine.

Several ornate bridges span the serene river named Ninfa, as it serenely drifts in its progress through the lush landscape. And the 12th-century castle and tower cast mirror like impressions on the small lake they border.

The garden of Ninfa is the visionary fusion of many generations of the Italian, English and American-born members of the family. A tour de force of man and nature, Ninfa is a beguiling union of humanity’s creativity and the grandeur and order of nature.

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Note: Ferdinand Gregorovius was a German historian who specialized in the medieval history of Rome. He is best known for Wanderjahre in Italien (Years of Wandering in Italy), his account of his Italian travels in the 1850s.

Click to view the complete Ninfa image gallery.

All images, text and content are copyright Steven Sklifas.

Segesta, Sicily Italy.

Glorious Architectural Legacy of Ancient Greece

The archaeological park of Segesta is in the commune of Calatafimi-Segesta within the western province of Trapani on the island of Sicily, southern Italy. Ancient Segesta was one of the principal cities of the Sicilian indigenous people, called Elymians. 

The Elymians according to legend (and the Greek Historian and general Thucydides) were originally Trojans who fled the destruction by the Greeks of the ancient and famous city of Troy. Having found haven in Sicily, they merged with local peoples and become one. 

From the 8th century BCE, the Ancient Greeks colonised or influenced most of Sicily and Segesta was no different. The city adopted Greek culture, including architecture and temple building. 

Standing glorious in magnificent isolation on a low hill amid verdant country side and framed by mountains is the Greek Doric Temple of Segesta. 

One of the three orders designed by the Greeks was the Doric order. The other two were the Ionic order originating from the Ionian Greek city states from Asia Minor and the Corinthian order, named for the Greek city-state of Corinth. The Romans later adopted these orders.

One of the most magnificently sited classical monuments in the world, the temple was constructed between 42 and 16 BCE.

It was built to impress the ambassadors from Athens whom the Segestans were eager to win over to help protect them from their hostile Greek rival Selinous (modern day Selinunte). 

Segesta. Sicily. Italy. View from the rear of the Greek Theatre, which stands on the highest part of the ancient city at about 400 metres on the cliffs of Mount Barbaro.

Believed to be the work of a great Athenian architect, the Doric order peripteral temple authentically follows the existing models of classical architecture of Greek cities in Sicily and comprises 36 limestone columns, arranged by 6 columns on the facade and 14 on the sides. 

The temple was abandoned before completion, possibly due to war and conflict. Incompletion is assumed because the columns are unfluted, the lifting bosses (knobs) have been left inserted in the structure and there is no evidence of a cella and roof being built. 

Nearby is the well preserved ancient Greek Theatre, which stands on the highest part of the ancient city at about 400 metres on the cliffs of Mount Barbaro. Dating from the second half of the 2nd century BCE, the theatre originally accommodated 4000 people and has a stunning backdrop overlooking the beautiful panorama of the Segesta territory which is dominated by Mount Inici. 

Click to view the complete Segesta image gallery.

All content, images and text are copyright Steven Sklifas.