What ancient ruins have you visited?

I've been to Chaco Canyon. Chaco culture flourished in the four corners region around 900-1200 AD. They were accomplished astronomers who built elaborate communities and had an extensive trade network with roads. Then they mysteriously disappeared. The term "Anasazi" used to describe these people but the term "Ancestral Pueblo" is preferred by the Pueblo people of today who view the word "Anasazi" as derogatory. I've also been to various other Native American sites in North America, Canyon de Chelly, Mesa Verde, Aztec Ruins, etc.

oh and Tulum :D

oh and Mesa Verde.




Tikki

Reagan . . . :rofl: . . . ancient ruin . . . :spray:

Also America's Stonehenge in Salem, NH.

and some other places in Europe

We went on a field trip there when I was in elementary school.

learn something new everyday. Thanks. I've been to Chaco Canyon, and Mesa Verde, and the ruins at Bandelier Nat'l Park, and Puye. I love that area of the country.

The Hopis and the Navajoes. Both claim ancestral rights to the sites, and "Anasazi" means invader or enemy in Hopi. Or Navajo. Not sure.

I thought it meant ancient ones

But a Navajo told me it was something derogatory, like the post above. I didn't know, so I didn't get into it with the guy.

The "Anasazi" are believed to be the ancestors of the Pueblo. The term was used by early archaeologist. The Navajos ancestors were Athabascan speakers who came down from Canada.

That's what it means.

...The Hopi are from the Uto-Aztecan group and likely descendants of what were referred to as the Anasazi.

It appears now as if they migrated north from Mexico and used some grisly methods of intimidation that are not surprising considering their roots.

This was before the so called "Sun Dagger" was "discovered." We could climb Fajada Butte anytime we wanted. Sleep in Casa Bonita if we wanted. Smoke a bong in Casa Riconada. There were more ruin mounds than you could shake your hat at. There were literally thousands of pottery sherds laying on top of the old mounds. We thought we actually discovered the six toed petroglyph! :)

The amerinds who lived close by didn't care what we called the people who used to live in Chaco Canyon. All they cared about was making a living. We had money, they wanted some of our money for the services they provided. They thought you were nuts to want to go to Chaco Canyon.

The discovery of the so called "Sun Dagger" ruined Chaco Canyon. You can't go anywhere without a permit. And unexpected experts suddenly discovered all kinds of mysterious astronomical artifacts.

When we were there this past fall, the woman who "discovered" the sun daggers was there as well. She had a little following that trailed her around. We sat in on a talk that she gave at the visitor's center. She seemed completely full of herself. The experience led me to believe that the sun daggers were a hoax. First of all, when she discovered them, she was just an enthusiast who was out cataloging petroglyphs as a volunteer and a Washington socialite. The thing that really jumped out at me was when she said that after she "discovered" them she sent her finding to a a friend of hers in Germany who was doing experimental architecture using shadow and light. That was a jaw dropper, but no else thought anything of it. I think the "sun daggers" were a hoax perpetrated by this woman to give her something to do and give herself a "name", think about it, she went from a volunteer to writing a paper that was peer reviewed in the journal "Nature". Plus there is no way to date petroglyphs.

very cool.

and oyster shell mounds on the GA coast.

edit: Rome

This place was very cool! The city name means "City of the Gods" or "Where Men become Gods." We were able to climb to the top of the biggest pyramid, or "Pyramid of the Sun." The views were amazing! Something else interesting that happened...a group of people were there when we got to the top. They held hands, closed their eyes, and recited some kind of prayer in Spanish. I understand just a little Spanish, but I did recognize some Catholic-y lingo, but the whole feel was a bit new-ageish, too. It had been sprinkling, but then the thunder and lightning started. It was a bit eerie, listening to their chant-like prayer and seeing the lightning and hearing thunder in the distance!

Also, Pompeii:


And Pozzuoli:


Question: At what point does a ruin become "ancient?"

Pompeii, too, though it's all Roman.

But I haven't been to any so far...

Tulum is small by comparison, but a very cool setting.

I was there in 2004, most impressive. Try to hire a private driver and leave early for Chichen Itza, beating the crowds.

The trip's still a few months away so we haven't made any firm plans.

We're just planning on renting a vehicle for a few days and driving around the area. I'll add Tulum to the list.

I have heard great things about Chichen Itza and Tulum but have not been there. I felt the trip to Coba was enough (the area is huge and nicely located in a wooden area with natural protection against the sun). I went with a great little tour organiser with an american guide.

If you pm me I can provide you with a link.

Another candidate is Stonhenge; weird, impractical and mystical.

Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico
Taos, New Mexico
Delphi, Greece
Santorini, Greece
The Colossus of Rhodes
The Parthenon, etc. in Athens
Minoan Labyrinth in Crete
Topkapi Palace, Istanbul
Ephesus, Turkey
Cesarea, Israel
Jerusalem
Masada, Israel
Tel Megiddo, Israel
Tel Ashkelon, Israel
Tenochtitlan, Mexico
Teotihuacan, Mexico
Cuzco, Peru
Tiwanaku, Bolivia
Altun Ha, Belize
Copan, Honduras
Lamanai, Belize
Tikal, Guatemala
Isabela, Dominican Republic
Stonehenge
Avebury (like stonehenge)


there are probably more...can't remember them all

:thumbsup:

Do you have a whip like indiana Jones?

scary huh.

I do have a big machete :evilgrin:

or colonial sites, primarily in the northeast.

Fascinating place!

I excavated there as a student many, many years ago

And a few Angkor-era ones in Northeast Thailand.

and several other places in England.

Several other ancient sites in France and a couple in Italy. Been to an opera in the Roman arena at Verona (which I greatly recommend).

Che spettacolo!

We just missed each other by a year.

I was there 2004.

Definitely a wonderful spactacle - I was very impressed with how the music carried without amplification, them's are real singers.

:bounce:

:D

x(:D

the Acropolis, the Pyramids and the Sphynx, Valley of the Kings (King Tut's tomb), many other ruins in Egypt, pyramids in Mexico, Xi'an and the terra cotta warriers

amazing. Its all in the open, no fences or anything.

I particularly enjoyed Corinth. Back when I visited there were no guides to the ancient city, so one could wander around and explore with out anyone dragging and corralling you along like cattle.

in Luxor & around Cairo. :)

dg

A little more than seven hundred years ago, a peaceful people, called the "Mogollon" (mug-ee-yone) by modern archaeologists, sought refuge from marauding enemies and the elements. They built forty rooms within five spacious sandstone cliff caves, located in what is now the heart of western New Mexico’s Gila National Forest, on the edge of the Gila Wilderness. The ruins were designated as a national monument on November 16, 1907.

The Mogollon band at the Gila cliff dwellings, like Mogollon bands who lived in small groups along river systems as far south as Mexico, appear to have been influenced by the Anasazi who lived to the north, in the Four Corners region, during the same period. The clues lie both in the architecture and the artifacts from the Mogollon sites.

A one mile-long trail leads across the west fork of the Gila River to the Gila Cliff Dwelling caves, which are about one hundred and fifty feet above the canyon floor. Walking through the ruins, it is not difficult to imagine this ancient culture going about its daily routine .

*more photos and history*
http://akiko.as.arizona.edu/~gbendo/Pict/NM/pictnm_cat.html

...went there with my family as my grandparents owned some land and lived near there for awhile....totally awesome experience. :hi:

Somewhere I have a photo of me standing where the altar was, with arms reaching out in a blessing. It was cool. :)

I haven't been there since I was 17, but I remember that my brothers were all excited about it.

And my youth.


:cry:

:loveya:

You... you... you big sweetie!

You make me all blush an' stuff.

Go on with ya... *bats eyes*


:blush:


:loveya:

But you clearly haven't lost your youth. ;)

Though I fear you may be mistaking "youth" for "immaturity."

In which case, I would have to agree with you.


:7

RL

Greece was amazing when I went, BTW.

Jamestown
Stonehenge
Old Sarum
Roman Forum

Saw John Warner in snackbar at State Capitol

Edited to add (duh) Pompeii

Damn Americans - Jamestown and Williamsburg are barely even old. :P

I am an informed person. I know you Brits are parking cars in 13th century garages!

I know that you're not like the boorish American who asked me where the 'Bell Tower' was in St. Mark's Square. :eyes:

I'm with Eleanor Lavish as far as tourism is concerned.

Much better to open yourself to transfiguration than to ponder whether or not the meat you are served has been used to make soup.

I've also seen many people viewing things solely through their cameras so when they get home they can linger on the things they didn't take the time to look at when they stood before them.

"The narrowness and superficiality of the Anglo-Saxon tourist is nothing less than a menace."

You are always impressive.

:P

Creepy. Eerie. You could almost hear the echoes of the cries "To the barricades!" Very weird.

:spank:

Hadrian's Wall - Hard not to visit the old Roman forts around here. Even harder since part of the original route of the wall runs under the street where my mother lives. Dates back to AD122.

Stonehenge and Avebury Stonehenge gets all the publicity but Avebury is more impressive, a stone circle so large that it was possible to build a village within the stones. Oldest place I've ever visited, as I remember it was built around 2500 BCE.

Lindisfarne one of, if not, the oldest monastery in Britain, created a ton of Christian martyrs when the Vikings decided to visit in the 8th century. Not really a ruin since there's still a church there.

The Vikings apparently liked the North East of England and set up at Jorvik or York as it's called now.

Elsewhere in York is York Minster which dates from the 7th century.

Half of the places I've mentioned aren't even ruins. Jorvik/York for example, it's not a small ruin outside the town, it's the same place. York Minster is still around, not very ruined yet it predates the Aztec civilization by over 500 years. It's almost like the history around me is slightly passé, but there's simply so much of it around me that it's possible to give directions to a Roman ruin almost 2000 years old by saying turn left at the end of the street and the ruins are 150 metres in front of you :shrug:

My life up to now has been one big blur. I know I haven't seen Machu Picchu though, because I'm pretty sure I haven't been to South America. Probably would've remembered that one.

That's about it.

Augsburg, Germany.

Not much remains of the old Roman garrison, other than some artifacts in a museum.

Angkor (Cambodia)
Borobudur (Indonesia)
Pagan (Burma)

Also, Thai ruins at Sukhothai and Ayuthaya

And, the Anasazi ruins at Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde, Canyon de Chelly

indian graves

Many in England.

Medieval structures at Tower of London including the central White Tower built by Wm. the Conqueror.
Westminster Abbey-medieval.
Roman wall ruins inside Tower of London.
Remants of York castle and the Yorkminster cathedral.
Roman column in York
ruins of Peveral castle in Castleton-medieval
ruins of Whitby Abbey, Yorkshire-medieval

Austria

Roman ruins including aquaduct near Vienna.
Early Christian catacombs in Salzburg- Roman era
ate at inn in Salzburg that also served Charlemagne- early medieval.

U.S.A.

There's a precolumbian site in New Hampshire called "America's Stonehenge" but it was disturbed by the an early U.S. owner who damaged much of its archeological value.

Numerous structures left by Anasazi, Navaho and Peublo Indians in Arizona. There's one near the S. rim of the Grand Canyon that is particularly impressive.

Numerous petraglyphs in Monument Valley that are very old.

That's probably the oldest thing i've seen, although i'm not sure if Stonehedge is older or not. I've seen that too.
The Professor

I've been to many ruins in Arizona, Tuzigoot, the mis-named Montezumas Castle (at a time when you were still allowed to go inside the dwellings and explore, they stopped that when I was about 12 yrs old, now you can only view from a distance thanks to vandals), some other unnamed ruins that were near my house, etc.

including Keaiwa Heiau on O'ahu, now a state park and believed to have been a healing heiau, and the one on the grounds of the Keauhou Resort in Kona. Mom followed me into that one; she reports that a voice told her, in effect, "Hey, you! No wahines (females) in here!" and she politely explained that she'd broken these types of barriers for many lifetimes, and calmly strolled in.

Ahole holua slide, Keahou holua slide, Mookini heiau, Puukohala Hieau, Koloko fishpond.

At least... before Bushco came in and completely destroyed it!

Hovenweep, Mesa Verde.

http://www.fooriders.org/sagunn/gallery/chaco/

I love Chaco...

I've also been to Bandelier, Hovenweep, and various sites around SE Utah as well.

I did not like it.

Also Monks Mound in Illinois, where my baby sis (the archeologist) did some work.

Parthenon, Greece
Minonan palace on Crete (can't recall the name at the moment)
Also on Crete, there were the ruins of a temple to Aphrodite by the village of Lentas. There were even columns lying in the water.
Thera (Santorini, Greece)
Jerusalem - and let's say all around Israel since I lived there for four years.
Sarnat, India - where the Buddha taught
Taj Mahal, India
Khatmandu, Nepal
Aberdeenshire, Scotland - a stone circle and a couple standing stones
Ord Hill, Lairg, Scotland - New Stone Age village and burial cairns
Coloseum and Forum in Rome
Roman walls in Basel & Allschwill, Switzerland
Pagan, Burma

I passed Anthrax Coulter on the street once. Does that count as an ancient ruin?

A Roman Gladiator arena in Paris, located directly behind my hotel on Rue Monge. Convenient, eh? I took these in August:

my navy ship(s) used to pull into Naples, Italy all the time.

Not the touristy towns, but the ones that are actually abandoned and hard to get to. The coolest one was a tiny little town called Angel, California on the eastern slope of the Sierra's that isn't even on a map. In the 1890's about a dozen families decided to found a new town and moved out to their newly purchased land. A couple of months after it was founded, the tiny town was hit by a disease outbreak (though to be tuberculosis, but nobody is sure). One person from the town rode to a neighboring town to get a doctor but was half dead by the time he got there, and died shortly after. When the doctor and a rescue party reached the new town, they found all but three of the towns residents dead. Those three were put on wagons and taken back to the neighboring town. Two died on the way, and a six year old boy ended up being the towns only survivor. The rescuers buried the dead, and the town was left to rot...people thought it was cursed.

The town didn't have a post office and was so new it didn't appear on any maps of the time, so it's been practically lost to history. It sits on private property today and isn't open to the public for visits (everything there was abandoned, so there are tons of things for dickheads to steal and the owner is trying to protect it). Since it's all cattle country and unfenced, I accidentally stumbled across it while looking for an abandoned mining village that was nearby. I was checking it out when the owner showed up, explained the history of the site, and asked me to leave. Since he had a rifle slung over his shoulder and I WAS trespassing, I wasn't going to argue the point with him :)

I've never even heard of it.

Another good one is Hornitos. It's a bit off the beaten path and pretty well preserved, with lots of buildings still standing. My GGrandfather was a blacksmith there from the 1860's until his death in 1898. His shop is still standing.

Holy crap, I have a photo of me standing in front of the old blacksmith building on my wall :) I live less than an hour from Hornitos, and it's one of my favorite subjects to photograph :) According to my Hornitos history book, Samuel Gommo was the town blacksmith for decades, and was one of the first businesses in town.

As to Angel, I respect what the landowner is doing enough to not give out the exact location, but I'll tell you that it's in Inyo county. The town was in a pretty advanced state of decay when I visited it about 12 years ago, so I'm sure what's left of it will vanish over the next couple of decades.

One of the other reasons why the owner won't open it to the public is that the bodies are buried somewhere in the ruins of the tiny town. It was so new it didn't have a cemetary, so they just picked a spot and buried them. Today nobody knows where they're buried, so the whole site is really a cemetary. Aside from a couple of historians, the landowner, and people like myself who stumbled across it (I originally thought it was a couple of old barns and just wanted a closer picture of them), it's pretty well forgotten.

And he was my great great grandfather, I may have left off a "G." I guess Hornitos had more than one blacksmith...makes sense. My family moved there in the 1860's after 1866. He died in 1898, and various sons ran the business, until the last one died in the 1950's, although I can't imagine he was getting much (any?) business then. The building that I think they owned, and I say I think because my mom just can't remember for sure :cry: is a sagging dark brown, wooden building with a rusty tin roof. This may have been a later structure. I don't know.

That's interesting about Angel, and yes, Inyo County was all I wanted to know, since I have no desire to trespass on land owned by a gun toter. :-) My inlaws have some land with a few "attractive nuisance" type of things on it, so I'm sympathetic.

Who is the author of your Hornitos book?

One book is called Hornitos and was published in the 1950's by Mary Crosley. The other is called Gold Of Hornitos by a guy named Francisco Salazar which was published in 1964. The info on the blacksmith comes from the first.

The book does mention that there was more than one blacksmith in the town, but Samuel Gommo is the only one that I remember by name. Someone pointed out the ruins to an old wooden building to me (there are still people who live there today, so it's not completely ghosted yet) and told me that it was "the old blacksmith stable" and I assumed that it was Gommo's. I wonder if it was your grandfathers.

The other interesting coincidence is that Samuel Gommo was believed to have been the town blacksmith from 1866 to 1900. Those dates match up interestingly with the dates that your GGGrandfather lived there.

If you're interested in those books, they've been out of print for decades but you can still read copies of them at the Mariposa County Historical Society. Some of the Mariposa County library branches may still have an old copy too, but it's probably in their protected collection because of its age.

When I figure out how to post them, I'll send them to you. I'd work on it more now, but I need to go to work in a few minutes. Do you mind if I PM you later?

I'd also love to hear if you've ever made it up to Bodie. I never have, mainly because of the distance but also the unpaved road aspect. I'd be interested to hear your impressions.

It's a fascinating place to visit, but the number of people there make it hard to photograph so it's not really one of my favorite spots. There are tour bus services that take busloads of people in there...it's the Yosemite of ghost towns. Like Yosemite though, it deserves its fame. If you want to see a real ghost town and get a feeling of what 1800's frontier towns were really like, it's probably one of the best places in the country to do so. No tourist shops, no re-enactors, no restaraunts or conveniences...just a bunch of well maintained old buildings.

If you like ghost towns, I'd recommend a visit. I wouldn't worry about the dirt road too badly because it's wide and level all the way in. It does get some washboards in it which can be a little rough to cross, but they usually scrape those pretty quickly to smooth it back out.

I'm more interested in sites like Dogtown, right up the road from Bodie. To reach IT you have to go hiking through the tumbleweeds, and all that's left are the lower halves of the stone walls used in building the town. Sites like that are practically deserted, giving visitors more time and flexibility to simply explore. Some of the best sites I've visited don't even HAVE roads going to them...you just have to pick your way across the desert or countryside to reach them. That's what I was doing when I found Angel.

If they have tour buses going up there, the roads couldn't be that bad. I was worried it was something we'd need a 4 wheel drive to do. I've always wanted to check it out, so your information is helpful, thank you! Dogotwn sounds interesting, too, and worth checking out.

I'm still working on the picture thing.

It burnt down around 1910 or so...

And has been recaputered by the woods....


Great place to get high and pretend you were on the cover of a Pink Floyd album....

there are so many I can't right now remember all their names. I liked the circle mounds the best and the ancient fortresses. I miss it and want to go back.

It may jog your memory.

http://megalithomania.com

It certainly jogs my wanderlust.

Spent all my free time crawling over, around and through the ruins.

Delphi was always my favorite...it still felt...alive.




Besides the main tourist sites, I had no idea they had so many castles...I'd climb them just for the views.



I liked Mesa Verde too...cool rock art.

to see the Palace of Minos? That's where I'd like to go.

All the island-hopping to the party islands finally took their toll.

Paquime in Chihuahua - bunch in Turkey, have a small pit house site about a 1/4 mile south of me and family history is the house I live in was built on one as well.

Anybody connected with SW arch ever read Turner's book "Man Corn"?

when I was a kid

They are underground in a museum dedicated to the history of the city near Tinell Hall and La Placa del Rei. They charge money to visit the musuem, but you get a pass that allows you to see several other attractions in the city.

And also the Medicine Wheel in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming.

The Terra Cotta Warriors in Xian

The old imperial palace in Kyoto

and for some haunting modern ruins, the Industrial Exhibition Hall in Hiroshima

Mayan ruins on Cozumel, Indian Mounds in Newburgh, Indiana
Mound City in Illinois,also some Stonehenge like ruins in Spain.

various isolated artifacts, footprints and cave markings located off the tourist areas @ Mammoth Cave in Kentucky.

I would so love to see Stonehenge, and the Greco-Roman ruins, more of the Mayan stuff,

The Alhambra is extraordinary but I do not consider it ancient as it is less than 1000 years old. In that category there are many more places I have seen and loved.

the Great Wall, of course).

the big horn medicine wheel ...

The coolest part about Chaco Canyon, I thought was how Modern Pueblo explain what happened to the missing ancestors, that they dabbled too much with supernatural forces and that they went too far in trying to understand some things that man was not meant to know. The other really interesting thing I found was how the place was not necessarily a full-time settlement, mostly a ritual center, and that they traded with the aztec Empire.

So yes, in summary Chaco Canyon ruins are really cool. :D

Bandelier National Monument
Chaco Canyon
Mesa Verde

Both were absolutely amazing! Throwing a coin in the Trevi Fountain has assured that I will return! I can't wait!

and i mean wow. just wow.

Our car broke down & the family had several days to see the sights while repairs were made. I was impressed but don't remember many details.

Texas has some Pre-Columbian Rock Art out west, but not much that world travelers would consider "ancient." San Antonio's missions have quite a bit of age & history about them. My first visit to the Alamo was not long after I'd seen Disney's version of Davy Crockett's life & death. But I was more struck by the "ancientness" of the weathered chapel--right downtown. This site has some historical details which go beyond That Battle.

www.geocities.com/the_tarins@sbcglobal.net/adp/

San Antonio has four more missions, preserved as a joint venture between the National Park Service & The Diocese of San Antonio. They have been restored to varying degrees and most of them are also active parishes. The Spanish built a system of acequias in San Antonio, using Moorish techniques to move water. The dam & aqueduct near Mission Espada are quite old but still functioning. Following the San Antonio south River south on the Mission road on a misty spring day, passing the ring where charros were practcing their art--the past felt very near.

Of course, I'd love to check out some really ancient stuff. I've already got several sites mapped out near my grandfather's home town in East Galway.

and burial mounds on Orkney.

Skara Brae

Uncovered by a storm in 1850 Skara Brae is one of the best preserved groups of Stone Age houses in western Europe. The houses contain stone furniture, hearths and drains and present a remarkable picture of life of Neolithic times.

Facinating place. Probably the oldest ruins I've been to... excluding my mother who turned 92 in November.

The Segovia aqueduct and the wall around the city of Lugo.

etc.

If medieval stuff counts, I just saw some great stuff in Maastricht, the Netherlands. 13th-century fortifications, and a 6th-century church (in the basement of the 12th-century church!)

:evilgrin: