R is for Ruins

ABC Wednesday

The ancient city of Ephesus

Below is an extract from the poem "The Ruin"  It is an 8th-century Old English Poem from the Exeter Book by an unknown author. The pages of the book have become damaged and so the poem itself is a ruin. The  subject of the poem is ancient Roman ruins, built of stone and having hot water, assumed to be the ruins of Aquae Sulis in Bath Somerset. Turkey is a country littered with the ancient ruins of many civilizations. This is a snapshot of a few of them.

The Ruin

This masonry is wondrous; fates broke it
courtyard pavements were smashed; the work of giants is decaying.
Roofs are fallen, ruinous towers,
the frosty gate with frost on cement is ravaged,
chipped roofs are torn, fallen,
undermined by old age. The grasp of the earth possesses
the mighty builders, perished and fallen,
the hard grasp of earth, until a hundred generations
of people have departed. Often this wall,
lichen-grey and stained with red, experienced one reign after another,
remained standing under storms; the high wide gate has collapsed.
Still the masonry endures in winds cut down...........................................

This was one of the main thoroughfares in Ephesus, lined with shops

The Library of Celsius Ephesus

Part of the communal latrine in Ephesus

Part of the reconstruction of terraced houses Ephesus  

One of the mosaics they uncovered, Ephesus

This was the road to the harbour at Ephesus. The city is now 6 km inland.
 The harbour silted up and the city fell into decline

Temple of Zeus at Euromos near Milas

Pool of Cleopatra at Pamukkale. You swim among the ancient columns in the 

Amphitheatre at Hierapolis, Pamukkale

Temple of Apollo Didim

Two remaining columns at the Temple of Apollo

Lycian tombs Kaunos  near Dalyan

Tumulus on Mt Nemrut, thought to be the tomb of King Antiochus.
Around it are scattered the heads of the Gods

At Mount Nemrut

 Monumental Gate Aphrodisias

Bouleuterion Aphrodisias

A land without ruins is a land without memories -- a land without memories is a land without history.    Ryan, Abram Joseph