I love visiting ancient cities. A couple quiet minutes spend by sitting on a thousand year old pillar always reminds me that nothing is permanent. I like imagining the people, how they lived, what they cherrished and even sometimes try to hear their sounds in the blowing wind. It's always a great meditation about life for me. All those beautiful ruins, much loved cities, temples and Gods, gone long ago, remind me not to cling on to anything. Nothing is permanent: All our material treasures, all out loved ones, our lifes..... What we really have is the moment we are in, rest was and will be history..
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Luckily we have plenty of ancient cities around here for me to meditate. Today I will take you to ancient Hellenistic city of Priene. We stopped there 2 weeks ago on an early morning. I was quite hungry so before starting to climb the city, I fed myself with grilled goat cheese and tomatoes, which were the only available things in a small restaurant at that hour.
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Priene is a beautiful city established on a mountain around 8th century BC. Pillars of the Athena 
temple welcomes you to the city. They are magnificent. For my day dreaming time I found a shadow under a pine tree, near the temple. I tried to visualize Alexander the Great and the time he spent in this city during his siege of another nearby city Miletus.. Well, as Hollywood gave us the image of handsome Collin Farrell as Alexander the Great, it was rather easy to imagine him ordering the construction of this temple and probably standing right by my pine tree to decide where to built it.
temple welcomes you to the city. They are magnificent. For my day dreaming time I found a shadow under a pine tree, near the temple. I tried to visualize Alexander the Great and the time he spent in this city during his siege of another nearby city Miletus.. Well, as Hollywood gave us the image of handsome Collin Farrell as Alexander the Great, it was rather easy to imagine him ordering the construction of this temple and probably standing right by my pine tree to decide where to built it..jpg)
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Our last stop on the city was it's small theater with VIP seats.. Theater originally built in the 4th century BC by the Greeks, and later was expanded by the Romans in the 2nd century AD to hold 6,000 spectators.. One of my guide books said that whoever visited this theater had not miss the opportunity to photographed himself sitting on one of the 5 VIP chairs. So that's what exactly we did..
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Wow, this is a really outstanding post. There are few things that are better than visiting an ancient city. It's like you said, we're reminded of how impermanent things really are.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right...When I am visiting a very old ancient place I really understand how short we are all here on this Earth. When you think of things that are hundreds and thousands of years old it really makes you think of how fast time goes by. It is fascinating as are all your lovely posts
ReplyDeleteBunny
You are absolutely right about ancient cities... what you feel is exactly how I feel too... besides I love history and museums and stories about the people and places from long time ago... You travel so much!!! I think is one of the best experiences in life... love your posts always!
ReplyDeleteIt's very humbling to visit these places. We are really are for just a fleeting moment...thank you for taking us along on your journies. Lovely to see these places through your eyes. :D
ReplyDeletebeautiful! It looks like you were the only ones there.
ReplyDeleteWhat you say about ancient cities is so true. I read a book called, "A World Without Us" a little while ago. It is about what would happen if all people suddenly disappeared. It's shocking how quickly things we think of as permanent would be gone.
your photos made me think of that book.
I too love history and hence I always marvel the ancient architecture. Your snaps have beautifully captured this ancient city.
ReplyDeleteI find ancient cities fascinating. I imagine walking in the same footsteps as those of long ago. Seems so odd. I let my mind wander and think I am walking among those of old.
ReplyDeleteVery nice post. I love to explore history in general. Also I wanted to thank you for visiting with me at my blog! I appreciate it and welcome your visits anytime.
ReplyDeleteWonderful place and post too!
ReplyDeleteI knew this Alexander looked familiar the moment I scrolled down the page... :-)))
I think I would find it hard to tear myself away from such a place.
ReplyDeleteWe live so differently than they did in ancient times, but certain things remain the same: the passion, the hubris. One can meditate endlessly on how we have changed or on how little we have changed. Travel expands our horizon.
ReplyDeleteMe tooo.... I too love to visit ancient cities... Too good post as usual.. :)
ReplyDeleteMy Travelogue
I was there in 1998, in late march, I was the only one there. it was sunny and cold and as I walked in the theater, you could hear the wind howl through the columns. I felt such a sense of sadness, that these people that were living here so long ago, enjoying their lives are no so forgotten. all the loves, the families, the wars, all long forgotten. then I felt a real presence in me, like the ghosts were still there, and they knew I was remembering them. I could feel their sadness somehow. it was really like a strange spiritual experience. As if I was being possessed by these ancients. I know it sounds stupid and corny but I broke down a bit in that theater on that day. I was a 38 year old man at the time, not prone to emotional stuff and was surely not expecting this. since then I read of another account of a tourist experiencing the same sort of thing here.
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