Ruins of Iskandar

Located in the Kashmir Valley about 40 kms west of the Indian city of Srinagar, Iskandar (Alexandria) was built by Greek colonists in the wake of Alexander the Great's 4th century BCE conquests.  It is notable for representing the farthest eastern penetration of Hellenistic cultural influences.  Iskandar flourished only briefly.  Beginning after the death of the conqueror in 323BCE, Iskandar was slowly swamped and assimilated by the indigenous culture.

Ruins of Datong

Datong, located in northern Shanxi Province, China, was since ancient times, an important node of enterprise and exchange on the Silk Road between China and Mongolia.  Beginning in the mid-7^th century CE, it became a centre of Buddhist scholarship and worship as well.  Its library once contained the entire Chinese Buddhist canon carved on over eighty thousand wood blocks for printing.  Its grottoes still contain over 50,000 carved images of the Buddha.  Datong was sacked and destroyed in 1649 in the violence that led to the collapse of the Ming dynasty.

Ruins of Heliopolis

 Heliopolis, located in modern Lebanon at the town of Balbec, was, at its peak in the 2nd century CE, the largest spiritual sanctuary in the classical world.  Its temples feature the largest stones ever quarried, moved and set in place by human endeavor; some weighing almost 1,000 tonnes. The city dwindled in importance as Christianity gradually took hold in the area in the subsequent centuries.  A series of devastating earthquakes did the rest.

Ruins of Hiroshima

On August 6, 1945, Hiroshima became the first city in history to be destroyed by an atomic bomb.

Even with hindsight it’s impossible to be sure whether the use of the bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki led to the post-war nuclear arms race or whether the bombs demonstrated their horror in a way that no harmless experiment could ever have done, and so helped to hold the ultimate violence in check throughout the Cold War.

Ruins of Ephesus

This tiny fragment of marble (8cm) has a story to tell.

Our story takes place in Ephesus, located on the eastern Mediterranean coast in present day Turkey. Ephesus was a Greek city-state of classic antiquity, home to one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, namely, the Temple of Artemis, a many-breasted fertility goddess. It boasted the second largest library in the ancient world after Alexandria.

The façade of the ancient library still greets visitors today. As do the remains of the public baths across the street, featuring an outer courtyard latrine surrounded by marble benches, under which water ran to flush away the waste. Musicians are said to have performed on a platform under a colonnade in the centre of the courtyard to entertain the people as they went about their business, (so to speak).

You guessed it. This fragment was once part of that very toilet seat.

There’s more:

Also to be seen in Ephesus is the House of the Virgin Mary, both a Christian and Muslim shrine. It is believed by many of both faiths that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was taken to this small stone house by St. John and lived there until her Assumption into heaven.

This is clearly the official doctrine of the Catholic Church. Why else would the current Pope say, on his very first foreign trip, undertaken to Turkey, on November 29, 2008:

"From here in Ephesus, a city blessed by the presence of Mary Most Holy, who we know is loved and venerated also by Muslims, let us lift up to the Lord a special prayer for peace between peoples."

It is my contention that this fragment may well be a priceless holy relic.

After all, what can the Virgin have done with her time between the Ascension and her own Assumption? I suspect she must have availed herself of the wondrous library. And when nature called, she must have slipped across to the public toilet, where this fragment of marble, attached as it was to the rest of the seat at the time, almost certainly must have come into contact with the immaculate backside.

Ephesus dwindled and was eventually abandoned in the 15th century as its port silted up and its trade access failed.

Ruins of Tikal

Tikal, located in present day Guatemala, one of the most powerful kingdoms of the ancient Maya, reached its peak about 900CE, only to be abandoned within a century due to over-exploitation, deforestation and erosion, exacerbated by climate change.

Ruins of Palmyra

Palmyra, located in modern Syria, once a flourishing interface between the Silk Road and the Mediterranean, was besieged and sacked by the Romans in 272CE.

Ruins of Persepolis

Persepolis, located in modern Iran, dates from the fifth century BCE and reached its greatest sophistication under the Persian king Xerxes the Great. It was destroyed by Alexander the Great (or, in these circumstances, perhaps slightly greater) in 330BCE.