Baalbek

Baalbek, Lebanon, Nov 2005: Baalbek- situated in the Beqaa Valley 85 km northeast of Beirut- contains some of the best preserved Roman ruins in Lebanon. Known as Heliopolis during Roman rule, it had one of the largest sanctuaries in the whole of the Roman empire.The history of settlement in the area of Baalbek dates back about […]

Turuturu

Hawera, Taranaki, NZ, Dec 2012: The historic Maori pa site of Turuturumōkai, as of mid 2012 was in a terrible state of neglect. However in the duration, a group of local volunteers have taken it upon themselves to return this important maori (and pakeha) archaological site to how it used to look. It’s fantastic that […]

Anba Hatre

Aswan, Egypt, Dec 2005: Anba Hatre is an earlier name of the 7th century Coptic Christian monastery of St Simeon- featured here in my previous post. During the exploration I shot some video on a very basic mini-DV camcorder, and due to this being my last tape I edited it all in camera to make […]

The Monastery

Aswan, Egypt, Dec 2005: After exploring some ancient tombs on the westbank of the Nile (featured here)- we decided to walk across the open desert to the ruined 7th century monastery of St. Simeon. It didn’t look far, but in the heat and harsh enviroment of the desert, it proved to be a bit more […]

Decrypt

Egypt, Dec 2005: Inspecting some ancient tombs on the westbank of the Nile- across from Aswan. They were completely off the tourist trail and not mentioned in any guidebooks. We eventually found a man who had keys to them and he let us in for a look- after a certain amount of “baksheesh” was paid. […]

Knossos

Crete, Greece, April 2003: In Greek mythology, King Minos dwelled in a palace at Knossos where he had a labyrinth constructed in order to retain his son, the Minotaur. Knossos is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and considered Europe’s oldest city- the centre of the Minoan civilisation that flourished from approximately the […]