St. Catherine

St. Catherine

The Monastery of St. Catherine in Egypt's Sinai is a wonderful place to visit, interesting in every respect, but it is not famous throughout the world simply for its facilities nestled up against the foot of Mount Sinai. The monastery has one of the largest collections of ancient illuminated manuscripts in the world, as well as one of the most important collections of icons. Here, we will examine the icons, which number over 2,000, large and small, some unique masterpieces while others are simple works of art. They are spread throughout the complex, with some in the Katholikon, the chapels, the icon gallery, the sacristy and even in the monks' cells. They were produced during various periods between the 6th and 19th century, with every period adding new treasures to the monastery's vast collection.

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The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Location

On the east bank of the River Euphrates, about 50 km south of Baghdad, Iraq.

The Hanging Gardens were built by King Nebuchadnezzar to please his wife, Amytis, who was longing for the gardens of her Persian homeland.

The Gardens were built of a series of tiers, each smaller than the last, with the top tier some 75ft high. The majority of the structure was made of stone slabs and bricks, but the bottom of each tier was also sealed with a layer of lead to prevent moisture from seeping into the stone that supported the soil and plant-life.

How exactly the Gardens lifted water is not entirely clear, but the most likely method was the use of an Archimedes’ screw. This large metal screw would have been tightly sealed in a pipe that connected to the Euphrates River. Workers would then rotate the screw, forcing water up through the pipe. All accounts of the Gardens describe some system of raising water that is concealed from view, so the pipes, and workers, would have operated from the interior of the structure.

The real controversy about the Hanging Gardens is that is may never have existed at all; it isn’t mentioned in the chronicles of Babylonian history, and the Greek accounts seem to be derivative from only one or two original sources. There were other famous gardens in the Neo-Babylonian Empire, and it has been speculated that the Gardens in Nineveh, on the banks of the Tigris, may have been mistakenly attributed to Babylon. Some archeologists claimed to have found the foundations of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, but the discoveries remain vague enough to be widely contested.

If the Hanging Gardens of Babylon did exist they were short lived; an earthquake sometime after the 2nd century B.C destroyed this Wonder of the World, if it ever existed at all.

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Alexandria



Alexandria

 The second largest city in Egypt,  Alexandria  has an atmosphere that is more Mediterranean than Middle Eastern; its ambiance and cultural heritage distance it from the rest of the country although it is only 225 km. from Cairo.

Founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC, Alexandria became the capital of Graco-Roman Egypt; its status as a beacon of culture is symbolized by Pharos, the legendry lighthouse that was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. 

The setting for the stormy relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony, Alexandria was also the center of learning in the ancient world, but ancient Alexandria declined, and when Napoleon landed he found a sparsely populated fishing village.

Since the 19th century Alexandria has played a new role, as a focus for Egypt's commercial and maritime expansion. This Alexandria has been immortalized by writers such as E.M. Forster and Cavafy. Generations of immigrants from Greece, Italy and the Levant settled here and made the city synonymous with commerce, cosmopolitanism and bohemian culture; Lawrence Durrell described it as " The capital city of Asiatic Europe, if such a thing could exist".



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