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The Seven Wonders of the World (or the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) is a widely-known list of seven remarkable constructions of classical antiquity. The earliest known version of the list was compiled in the 2nd century BC by Antipater of Sidon; it appears to be based on the guide-books popular among Hellenic sight-seers and only includes works located around the Mediterranean rim.
This painting Tower of Babel was by Abel Grimmer (1570-1619), one of the European 'Babel' school of painters who were so fascinated by the Babel myth
A Walking Tour of Chichén Itzá: Chichén Itzá, one of best known archaeological sites of the Maya civilization, has a split personality. The site is located in the northern Yucatan peninsula of Mexico, about 90 miles from the coast. The south half of the site, called Old Chichén, was constructed beginning about 700 AD, by Puuc Maya emigres from the southern Yucatan. The Puuc built temples and palaces at Chichén Itzá including the Red House (Casa Colorada) and the Nunnery (Casa de las Monejas). The Toltec component of Chichén Itzá arrived from Tula about 950 AD and their influence can be seen in the the Osario (the High Priest's Grave), and the Eagle and Jaguar Platforms. Most interestingly, a cosmopolitan blending of the two created the Observatory (the Caracol) and the Temple of the Warriors.
The Observatory at Chichén Itzá is called el Caracol (or snail in Spanish) because it has an interior staircase that spirals upward like a snail's shell. The round, concentrically-vaulted Caracol was built and rebuilt several times over its use, in part, scholars believe, to calibrate the astronomical observations. The first structure was probably built here during the transition period of the late 9th century and consisted of a large rectangular platform with a stairway on its west side. A round tower of about 48 feet high was built atop the platform, with a solid lower body, a central portion with two circular galleries and a spiral staircase and an observation chamber on the top. Later, a circular and then a rectangular platform was added. The windows in the Caracol point in the cardinal and subcardinal directions and are believed to enable the tracking of the movement of Venus, the Pleides, the sun and the moon and other celestial events.
Mayanist J. Eric Thompson once described the Observatory as "hideous... a two-decker wedding cake on the square carton in which it came." For a complete discussion of the archaeoastronomy of el Caracol, see Anthony Aveni's classic Skywatchers.
Photo taken in February 1986 on Kodachrome 64 film with a Minolta SLR camera and Vivitar 70-150 zoom. Scanned 2005. Photo by: Jim Gateley. Text Copyright 2006: archaeology.about.com/mbiopage.htm used with permission. A list of references used for this project is available for further reading on Chichén Itzá.
One of the two emblems on the House of the Tritons' mosaic floor depicts a Tritoness and a flying Eros.
EXTRATERRESTRES-ALIENIGENAS-ARTE-PINTURA-CIVILIZACIONES-ANTIGUAS-DOCUMENTACION-PLASTICA-PINTOR-ERNEST DESCALS-
A través de la Documentación que nos han legado las Civilizaciones antiguas, es muy fácil seguir el rastro del contacto y presencia de los Seres Extraterrestres y diversos Alienígenas en nuestro planeta, en esta pintura me he limitado a aplicar el Arte de la Plástica para Pintar a estos visitantes que tuvieron y siguen teniendo una gran influencia sobre la humanidad, su rastro es perceptible en el testimonio que nos han dejado los artistas de la Antigüedad en paredes de piedra que han permanecido entre nosotros. Obras del artista pintor Ernest Descals con acuarelas sobre papel de 50 x 70 centímetros, no se pueden ocultar los testimonios antiguos sobre la variedad de especies que se han mostrado a lo largo de los tiempos.Parece que pronto tendremos importantes novedades, algunos permanecen aquí y otros volveran para interactuar. Esperamos acontecimientos.
A Festa de Baltazar - Rembrandt, c. 1635
National Gallery, London
Belshazzar's Feast
Rembrandt, 1635
Oil on canvas
167.6 × 209.2 cm
National Gallery, London
Belshazzar's Feast is a painting by Rembrandt painted in about 1635. The source for this painting is the story of Belshazzar, in the Old Testament Book of Daniel (Daniel 5).
Belshazzar's Feast refers to an event described in the Book of Daniel, in which the Babylonian king Belshazzar profanes the sacred vessels of the enslaved Jews, and, as prophesized by the writing on the wall, is slain, leading to their freedom.
The writing on the wall (or sometimes 'handwriting on the wall') is an expression that suggests a portent of doom or misfortune. It originates in the Biblical book of Daniel—where supernatural writing fortells the demise of the Babylonian Empire, but it has come to have a wide usage in language and literature.
www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/Collect...
Belshazzar's Feast is a painting by Rembrandt painted in about 1635. The source for this painting is the story of Belshazzar, in the Old Testament Book of Daniel (Daniel 5).
biblia.com/jesusbible/daniel4.htm
Gran Esfinge de Giza
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La Gran Esfinge de Giza es una monumental escultura que se encuentra en la ribera occidental del río Nilo, unos veinte kilómetros al sudoeste del centro de El Cairo. Los egiptólogos estiman que fue esculpida c. siglo XXVI a. C., durante la dinastía IV de Egipto.
Los lugareños la llamaban Abu el-Hol «Padre del Terror», corrupción de la expresión copta bel-hit, que se aplica a quien manifiesta su inteligencia en los ojos y que traduce la denominación egipcia hu o ju que significa el guardián o vigilante.
From Wikipedia.
The Great Sphinx of Giza, Giza, Egypt.The Great Sphinx of Giza (or, commonly, the Sphinx) is a statue of a reclining or couchant sphinx (a mythical creature with a lion's body and a human head) that stands on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile in Giza, near modern-day Cairo, Egypt. It is the largest monolith statue in the world, standing 73.5 metres (241 ft) long, 6 metres (20 ft) wide, and 20.22 m (66.34 ft) high.[1] It is the oldest known monumental sculpture, and is commonly believed to have been built by ancient Egyptians of the Old Kingdom in the reign of the pharaoh Khafra
Egypt doesn’t have the monopoly on pyramids. The Sudan has many of them, and discovers new ones regularly. The most beautiful and impressive pyramids form the Meroe necropolis. After a few hours on a brand new road (the same trip required two days on trails last year), we arrive at an unimaginably beautiful site: an alignment of small pyramids in the desert, bathed in the hot red sun on orange sand. No busses on the car park, no tourist shops. It’s almost like being the French explorer Fréderic Caillaud, who discovered the site in 1821! We understand immediately why UNESCO classified it as a World Heritage Site in 2011.
The pyramids were built between 4BC and 3AD. The site contains over two hundred of them, whereas Egypt has only a hundred in total! Forty kings and queens are buried here.
We notice immediately that the summits of all the pyramids have been blown off with dynamite. This is the work of the Italian explorer Giuseppe Ferlini, who in 1834 came and pillaged the site, taking away priceless treasures.
© Eric Lafforgue
Bas-relief of Persian guards on the outside of the tomb of Artaxerxes II, inside Persepolis, the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire, destroyed and sacked by Alexander the Great from Macedonia, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated 60 km northeast of the city of Shiraz in in Fars Province, Iran.
© All rights reserved. You may not use this photo in website, blog or any other media without my explicit permission.
Sabratha was one of the three cities of Tripolis, it lies on the Mediterranean coast west of Tripoli,the archaeological site was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982
© Eric Lafforgue
Darasuram or Dharasuram is a panchayat town situated in Tamil Nadu considered as the foremost example of Chola art and architecture; the Cholas were a Tamil dynasty, which ruled from 300 BC to the 13th century AD and well-known as avid builders; the main site is the Airateswara or Airavatesvara or Darasuram Temple erected by Raja Raja Chola II in the 12th century AD; the musical stone stairs, the Maha Mandalay (grand hall), the ornamented pillars accurate in details, the stone carvings, all these are worth a visit
© Eric Lafforgue
Group of Buddhist Monks (lower right) on pilgrimage to Wat Phra Sri Sanphet, a 15-16th century royal temple in the former capital city of Siam.
Wat Phra Sri Sanphet, located within the old Royal Palace grounds, is believed to have been the most important temple of the ancient Siamese capital city of Ayutthaya.
The three giant Chedi were constructed between 1492 and 1533 as burial monuments to store the ashes of the Kings Borom Trailokanat, Boromracha III and Ramathibodi II.
Ayutthaya was sacked by invading Burmese forces in April 1767. The Phra Sri Sanphet monastery was burned to the ground and all but the chedis were completely destroyed.
Part of the Ayutthaya Historical Park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
***This photo is on sale via Getty Images***
To understand what is happening in Babylon today one must first understand the political ambitions of Saddam Hussein. During the Iran/Iraq War Saddam Hussein used the city of Babylon as a visual aid to remind the Iraqi people of the history of conflict between Iraq and Iran and of the territorial ambitions of the Iranians. As Paul Lewis wrote in the New York Times International, "President Hussein's decision to rebuild Nebuchadnezzar's Palace at the height of a war he almost lost was the centerpiece of a campaign to strengthen Iraqi nationalism by appealing to history .... Mr. Hussein's campaign also served subtler ends: it justified Iraq's costly war with Iran as the continuation of Mesopotamia's ancient feud with Persia. And it portrayed Saddam Hussein as successor to Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon's mightiest ruler."
In effect, Saddam Hussein used Babylon as an Iraqi Alamo or Masada. His decision to rebuild Babylon forced the people to focus on a grand era in Iraq's history that was destroyed by the same enemy who again threatened the nation. It is no accident that the Babylon being rebuilt by Hussein was the Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar. As early as 1986 Michael Dobbs, writing in the Washington Post, noticed that the restoration of Babylon had become a political (not merely an archaeological) undertaking. The Iraqis view Babylon somewhat differently [than the Bible]. For the Iraqi government, the Babylonian Empire is a source of national pride and inspiration for the grueling six-year-old war with neighboring Iran, Iraq's hereditary enemy. President Saddam Hussein has ordered that no expense be spared to restore the city to its ancient splendor."
Building Babylon became synonymous with rising to the threat of the Iranians and asserting Iraq's "manifest destiny" to lead the Arab nations to glory. Now, instead of just building Babylon as an archaeological park, Babylon became the focal point of Iraqi nationalism which had replaced the earlier Baathist goal of Arab nationalism. By early 1987 plans were underway to hold the first annual Babylon Festival to celebrate the glory of Babylon, which included an emphasis on Saddam Hussein and Iraq. It is no accident that the opening of the festival was scheduled for September 22, 1987-seven years to the day after Iraq's invasion of Iran.
While the Babylon Festival was announced as a cultural event featuring musical groups, symposia, and other cultural activities, the festival had much deeper political overtones. This writer attended the first Babylon Festival as an invited participant. One could not help but notice the emphasis placed on Saddam Hussein and the comparisons made between Saddam Hussein and Nebuchadnezzar. The official seal of the Babylon Festival featured the portraits of Saddam Hussein and Nebuchadnezzar side by side. The portraits were designed to stress physical similarities between the two men. The official theme of the Festival was "From Nabukhadnezzar [sic] to Saddam Hussein Babylon Undergoes a Renaissance."
Representação do Farol de Alexandria. Considerada uma das maiores produções da técnica da Antigüidade, o Farol de Alexandria foi construído em 280 a.C. pelo arquiteto e engenheiro grego Sóstrato de Cnido a mando de Ptolomeu.
The Great Lighthouse at Alexandria
In the fall of 1994 a team of archaeological scuba divers entered the waters off of Alexandria, Egypt. Working beneath the surface they searched the bottom of the sea for artifacts. Large underwater blocks of stone were marked with floating masts so that an Electronic Distance Measurement station on shore could obtain their exact positions. Global positioning satellites were used to further fix the locations. The information was then fed into computers to create a detailed database of the sea floor.
Ironically, these scientists were using some of the most high-tech devices available at the end of the 20th century to try and discover the ruins of one of the most advanced technological achievements of the 3rd century, B.C.: The Pharos. It was the great lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
The story of the Pharos starts with the founding of the city of Alexandria by the Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great in 332 B.C.. Alexander started at least 17 cities named Alexandria at different locations in his vast domain. Most of them disappeared, but Alexandria in Egypt thrived for centuries and continues even today.
Alexander the Great choose the location of his new city carefully. Instead of building it on the Nile delta, he selected a site some twenty miles to the west, so that the silt and mud carried by the river would not block the city harbor. South of the city was the marshy Lake Mareotis. After a canal was constructed between the lake and the Nile, the city had two harbors: one for Nile River traffic, and the other for Mediterranean Sea trade. Both harbors would remain deep and clear.
Alexander died soon after in 323 B.C. and the city was completed by Ptolemy Soter the new ruler of Egypt. Under Ptolemy the city became rich and prosperous. However, it needed both a symbol and a mechanism to guide the many trade ships into the busy harbor. Ptolemy authorized the building of the Pharos in 290 B.C., and when it was completed some twenty years later, it was the first lighthouse in the world and the tallest building in existence, with the exception of the Great Pyramid.
The lighthouse's designer was Sostrates of Knidos. Proud of his work, Sostrates, desired to have his name carved into the foundation. Ptolemy II, the son who ruled Egypt after his father, refused this request wanting his own name to be the only one on the building. A clever man, Sostrates had the inscription:
SOSTRATES SON OF DEXIPHANES OF KNIDOS ON BEHALF OF ALL MARINERS TO THE SAVIOR GODS
chiseled into the foundation, then covered it with plaster. Into the plaster was chiseled Ptolemy's name. As the years went by the plaster aged and chipped away revealing Sostrates' declaration.
The lighthouse was built on the island of Pharos and soon the building itself acquired the name. The connection of the name with the function became so strong that the word "Pharos" became the root of the word "lighthouse" in the French, Italian, Spanish and Romanian languages.
There are two detailed descriptions made of the lighthouse in the 10th century A.D. by Moorish travelers Idrisi and Yusuf Ibn al-Shaikh. According to their accounts, the building was 300 cubits high. Because the cubit measurement varied from place to place, this could mean that the Pharos stood anywhere from 450 to 600 feet in height, although the lower figure is more likely.
Before the development of clearly defined ports, mariners were guided by fires built on hilltops. Since raising the fire would improve the visibility, placing the fire on a platform became a practice that led to the development of the lighthouse. In antiquity, the lighthouse functioned more as an entrance marker to ports than as a warning signal for reefs and promontories, unlike many modern lighthouses.
Ancient evidence exists in many forms. Written descriptions and drawings of the Pharos of Alexandria provide information about lighthouses. Ancient remains at A Coruña and Dover give insight into construction; other evidence about lighthouses exists in of depictions on coins and mosaics, of which many represent the lighthouse at Ostia. Coins from Alexandria, Ostia, and Laodicea in Syria exist.
While the evidence that exists provides insight into the exterior structure of these buildings, there are many gaps in evidence concerning less visible aspects. The remains at A Coruña and Dover help determine how each lighthouse functioned, though one must make some assumptions to determine how beacons were illuminated at Dover. While one can determine the materials used at these few surviving lighthouses, written descriptions of other structures do not describe what types of stone the builders used, how architects carried out the construction of the buildings, and who worked on the lighthouses. Little information exists about the methods used to light and carry fuel up to the beacons. Academics assume that firemen added combustible liquids to reduce the expenditure on fuel and keep the light steady during gales, but we have little proof. One modern source makes the unlikely statement that priests tended the fires of ancient lighthouses. It seems like lighthouses would have required more labor for transporting the fuel and maintaining the flame. At Cape Hatteras in the 1870's, one keeper and two assistants kept themselves amply busy by tending much more sophisticated flames.
While artistic representations assist us in re-creating a visual image of lighthouses, they present many problems. Depictions of lighthouses on coins, carvings, and mosaics present an inconsistent view of the actual appearances of the structures. Most show a building with two or three stories that decreases in width as it ascends. The limited size of coins could cause the producer of the coin to alter the image to fit on the surface. The similarity in depictions of lighthouses suggests a conventionalization of details rather than accurate representations of specific beacons. None of these media provide information about the interior placement of stairs and ramps in the buildings.
The site of Palmyra is an oasis in the Syrian desert, north-east of Damascus, it contains the monumental ruins of a great city that was one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world, Palmyra mixed Graeco-Roman techniques with local traditions and Persian influences, it was listed UNESCO World Heritage in 1980
© Eric Lafforgue
Egypt doesn’t have the monopoly on pyramids. The Sudan has many of them, and discovers new ones regularly. The most beautiful and impressive pyramids form the Meroe necropolis. After a few hours on a brand new road (the same trip required two days on trails last year), we arrive at an unimaginably beautiful site: an alignment of small pyramids in the desert, bathed in the hot red sun on orange sand. No busses on the car park, no tourist shops. It’s almost like being the French explorer Fréderic Caillaud, who discovered the site in 1821! We understand immediately why UNESCO classified it as a World Heritage Site in 2011.
The pyramids were built between 4BC and 3AD. The site contains over two hundred of them, whereas Egypt has only a hundred in total! Forty kings and queens are buried here.
We notice immediately that the summits of all the pyramids have been blown off with dynamite. This is the work of the Italian explorer Giuseppe Ferlini, who in 1834 came and pillaged the site, taking away priceless treasures.
© Eric Lafforgue
from wikipédia
The Great Pyramid of Giza is the main part of a complex setting of buildings that included two mortuary temples in honor of Khufu (one close to the pyramid and one near the Nile), three smaller pyramids for Khufu's wives, an even smaller "satellite" pyramid, a raised causeway connecting the two temples, and small mastaba tombs surrounding the pyramid for nobles. One of the small pyramids contains the tomb of queen Hetepheres (discovered in 1925), sister and wife of Sneferu and the mother of Khufu. There was a town for the workers of Giza, including a cemetery, bakeries, a beer factory and a copper smelting complex. More buildings and complexes are being discovered by The Giza Mapping Project.
A few hundred metres south-west of the Great Pyramid lies the slightly smaller Pyramid of Khafre, one of Khufu's successors who is also commonly considered the builder of the Great Sphinx, and a few hundred metres further south-west is the Pyramid of Menkaure, Khafre's successor, which is about half as tall.
The generally accepted estimated date of its completion is c. 2560 BC. Although this date contradicts radiocarbon dating evidence, it is loosely supported by a lack of archaeological findings for the existence prior to the fourth dynasty of a civilization with sufficient population or technical ability in the area.
Khufu's vizier, Hemon, or Hemiunu, is believed by some to be the architect of the Great Pyramid.
Pharos was a small island just off the coast of Alexandria. It was linked to the mainland by a man-made connection named the Heptastadion, which thus formed one side of the city's harbor. As the Egyptian coast is very flat and lacking in the kind of landmark used at the time for navigation, a marker of some sort at the mouth of the harbour was deemed necessary - a function the Pharos was initially designed to serve. Use of the building as a lighthouse, with a fire and reflective mirrors at the top, is thought to date to around the 1st century AD, during the Roman period. Prior to that time the Pharos served solely as a navigational landmark.
The medieval Chinese were familiar with the story of the lighthouse in Alexandria by at least the Song Dynasty (960 - 1279) period. In his book Zhu Fan Zhi, Zhao Ru-gua wrote in 1225 of a minaret lighthouse in Alexandria, Egypt, perhaps the ancient Lighthouse of Alexandria (Wade-Giles spelling):
The country of O-Ken-Tho (Alexandria) belongs to Egypt (Wu-Ssu-Li). According to tradition, in olden times a stranger (i jen), Chhu-Ko-Ni by name, built on the shore of the sea a great pagoda, underneath which the earth was excavated to make two rooms, well connected and thoroughly hidden. In one vault was stored grain, and in the other arms. The tower was 200 ft. high [Note: chang = 10 feet, chhih = 1 foot]. Four horses abreast could ascend (by a winding ramp) to two-thirds of its height. Below the tower, in the middle, there was a well of great size connected by a tunnel with the great river. To protect this pagoda from foreign soldiers, the whole country guarded it against all enemies. In the upper and lower parts of it twenty thousand men could readily be stationed as a guard or to make sorties. At the summit there was an immense mirror. There was an old story said that if warships of other countries tried to make an attack, the mirror detected them beforehand, and the troops were ready to repel it. But in recent years there came (to Alexandria) a foreigner, who asked to be given work in the guardhouse below the tower, and he was employed to sprinkle and to sweep. For years no one entertained any suspicion of him, but suddenly one day he found an opportunity to steal the mirror and throw it into the sea, after which he made off
800-year-old Khmer stone carvings at the Terrace of the Leper King, Angkor Thom, Cambodia.
Angkor Thom, part of the Angkor UNESCO World Heritage Site group.
Princess Meritaten
From el-Amarna, Limestone
The Amarna Period
c.1365-1347 BC
Meritaten also spelled Merytaten or Meryetaten (14th century BC) was an ancient Egyptian queen of the eighteenth dynasty, who held the position of Great Royal Wife to Pharaoh Smenkhkare, who may have been a brother or son of Akhenaten. Her name means "She who is beloved of Aten"; Aten being the sun-god her father worshipped; Meritaten also may have served as pharaoh in her own right under the name, Ankhkheperure Neferneferuaten.
Meritaten was the first of six daughters born to Pharaoh Akhenaten and his Great Royal Wife, Nefertiti. Her sisters are Meketaten, Ankhesenpaaten, Neferneferuaten Tasherit, Neferneferure, and Setepenre. She is known to have later married Pharaoh Smenkhare. There are no known children, but the young girls named Meritaten-tasherit and Ankhesenpaaten-tasherit are sometimes conjectured to be the daughters of Meritaten and Smenkhare.
She was born early in her father's reign, before the royal family moved to the new capital established by her father, Akhetaten. She was shown beside her mother in reliefs carved into the Hut-Benben, a temple devoted exclusively to Nefertiti. She also appears – along with her parents and younger sister Meketaten – on the boundary stelae designating the boundaries of the new capital.
During Akhenaten's reign she was the most frequently depicted and mentioned of the six daughters. Her figure appears on paintings in temples, tombs, and private chapels. She is shown not only on the pictures showing the family life of the pharaoh, which were typical of the Amarna Period, but on official ceremonies too. She also is mentioned in diplomatic letters, by the name Mayati.
Meritaten's titles include Great Royal Wife, which can indicate either marriage to her father or to Akhenaten's co-ruler Smenkhkare, whom some believe was her (half-)uncle or half-brother, although a simpler explanation for the title may be that Meritaten simply assumed her mother's duties and office of "Great Royal Wife".
Meritaten's name seems to replace that of another royal lady in several places, among them in the Northern Palace and in the Maru-Aten. This had been misinterpreted as evidence of Nefertiti's disgrace and banishment from the royal court, but more recently the erased inscriptions turned out to be the name of Kiya, one of Akhenaten's secondary wives, disproving that interpretation.
According to some scholars such as J.P. Allen, Ankhkheperure Smenkhkare ruled together with Meritaten, but in the year following Akhenaten's death Smenkhkare himself died. These Egyptologists suggest that Meritaten was the 'king's daughter' Akenkeres who is recorded in Manetho's Epitome to have assumed the throne for herself as the female king Neferneferuaten. Neferneferuaten is assigned a reign of 2 years and 1 month and is placed in Manetho's account as the immediate predecessor of Rathothis, who is believed to be Tutankhamun. WIKIPEDIA
The site of Palmyra is an oasis in the Syrian desert, north-east of Damascus, it contains the monumental ruins of a great city that was one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world, Palmyra mixed Graeco-Roman techniques with local traditions and Persian influences, it was listed UNESCO World Heritage in 1980
© Eric Lafforgue
The building is thought to be the first completely constructed with marble and one of its must unusual features were 36 columns whose lower portions were carved with figures in high-relief (left). The temple also housed many works of art including four bronze statues of Amazon women.
Pliny recorded the length of this new temple at 425 feet and the width at 225 feet. Some 127 columns, 60 feet in height, supported the roof. In comparison the Parthenon, the remains of which stand on the acropolis in Athens today, was only 230 feet long, 100 feet wide and had 58 columns.
According to Pliny, construction took 120 years, though some experts suspect it may have only taken half that time. We do know that when Alexander the Great came to Ephesus in 333 B.C., the temple was still under construction. He offered to finance the completion of the temple if the city would credit him as the builder. The city fathers didn't want Alexander's name carved on the temple, but didn't want to tell him that. They finally gave the tactful response: "It is not fitting that one god should build a temple for another god" and Alexander didn't press the matter.
Pliny reported that earthen ramps were employed to get the heavy stone beams perched on top of the columns. This method seemed to work well until one of the largest beams was put into position above the door. It went down crookedly and the architect could find no way to get it to lie flat. He was beside himself with worry about this until he had a dream one night in which the Goddess herself appeared to him saying that he should not be concerned. She herself had moved the stone in the proper position. The next morning the architect found that the dream was true. During the night the beam had settled into its proper place.
The city continued to prosper over the next few hundred years and was the destination for many pilgrims coming to view the temple. A souvenir business in miniature Artemis idols, perhaps similar to a statue of her in the temple, grew up around the shrine. It was one of these business proprietors, a man named Demetrius, that gave St. Paul a difficult time when he visited the city in 57 A.D.
The imposing Capitol of Dougga, built in AD 166, is a Roman temple principally dedicated to Rome’s protective triad: Jupiter Best and Greatest, Juno the Queen, and Minerva the August.
In remarkable condition, it has 10m-high walls and six mighty, one-piece fluted columns – each 8m high – supporting the portico. The massive walls are the finest known example of a construction technique called opus africanum, which uses large stones to strengthen walls built of small stones and rubble. In the temple's inner sanctum are three large niches in the north wall, which once housed a giant statue of the Roman god Jupiter flanked by smaller statues of Juno and Minerva. The carved frieze shows the emperor Antonius Pius being carried off in an eagle’s claws, with an inscription dedicating the temple to the three gods.
Dougga or Thugga is an ancient Roman city in northern Tunisia. UNESCO qualified Dougga as a World Heritage Site in 1997, believing that it represents “the best-preserved Roman small town in North Africa”. The site, which lies in the middle of the countryside, has been protected from the encroachment of modern urbanisation, in contrast, for example, to Carthage, which has been pillaged and rebuilt on numerous occasions.
Thugga’s size, its well-preserved monuments and its rich Numidian-Berber, Punic, ancient Roman and Byzantine history make it exceptional.