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Gallery: ancient wonders from my travels

October 19, 2025 / 66 Comments

I rather would entreat thy company;

To see the wonders of the world abroad,

Than, living dully sluggardized at home,

Wear out thy youth with shapeless idleness.

William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona

To be able to see the wonders of the world abroad; what a privilege that is. And perhaps most of all when those wonders are ancient. To stand among the ruins of buildings that have stood for hundreds of years allows us to witness history brought to life in a way no book or film can ever do. Look long enough and you will perhaps start to feel a bond with those who built them. Were they so very different from us in wanting to leave their mark here? And how would they feel to know that centuries later we would still be wondering at their achievements?

For Sofia’s Lens Artists challenge theme of ‘Ancient’ I’ve compiled a selection of photos of places around the world where I’ve been privileged to explore such ancient structures. Many you will have seen before in my travel posts, but I thought it would be interesting to bring them together here, to tell the story (in part) of the marks that humans have left on the world. I also thought it would be interesting to present them in chronological order of construction, starting with the oldest.

Nuraghe Piscu, Sardinia, built between the Middle and Late Bronze Age, roughly 1400–1000 B.C.

The Mask Temple at Lamanai in Belize, built in stages, beginning c. 200 B.C.

The Temple of Jupiter, Pompeii Forum, built around 150 B.C.

A pyramid in the Mundo Perdido (Lost World) complex at Tikal, Guatemala, constructed c. 250 A.D.

The Pyramid of the Moon, Teotihuacan, Mexico, built in seven phases, with construction spanning from c 100 A.D. to 400 A.D.

The Great Colonnade at Palmyra, Syria, constructed during the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D. (one of the few structures there to be only a little damaged by ISIS)

[scanned from an old slide]

El Djem Colosseum, Tunisia, built around 238 AD

[also scanned from an old slide]

Krak des Chevaliers, Syria, built in the 11th and 12th centuries

[and again scanned from an old slide]

Wat Phou, Laos, mostly constructed between the 11th and 13th centuries

Angkor Wat, Cambodia, built in the first half of the 12th century

[a detail from here is shown in my feature photo]

Gila Cliff Dwellings, New Mexico, built by the Mogollon Culture between the late 1270s and 1300

Ulugh Beg Madrasa in the Registan Square, Samarkand, Uzbekistan, built between 1417 and 1421

Machu Picchu in Peru, built around 1450

Fatehpur Sikri, India, built by the Mughal emperor Akbar between 1571 and 1573

Amber Fort, Rajasthan, constructed in 1592 by Raja Man Singh, the Rajput commander of Akbar’s army

The Garh Palace, Bundi, Rajasthan, constructed mainly in the 17th and 18th centuries

66 Comments

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