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Location: New Albany, Indiana (Greater Louisville)
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Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris was heavily damaged today. Got me thinking how so few buildings exist in their prime form beyond a couple hundred years. Of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World only 1 remains - Egypt's Great Pyramid. Many temples are simply stone ruins of once grand structures. The Library of Alexandria doesn't exist at all.
Which building from the past would you most want to see in the prime of it's working condition?
One of mine was the Parthenon. Fortunately, Nashville has the world's only full scale reproduction. Impressive, to say the least; there was a natural reluctance of the visitors to stand in the open area directly in front of the giant gilded statue of Athena.
Which building from the past would you most want to see in the prime of its working condition?
Not one particular building, but the Roman forum and the buildings around it during the period of the Five Emperors (98-180), teeming with cosmopolitan life, languages, ideas, ways of life from all over the Mediterranean and probably as far as India.
Another interesting but little studied period and place is the post-Alexander Bactrian and Indo-Greek kingdoms, of which precious little remains, including traces of architecture and remote memories of a kaleidoscope of very deep cultures across languages from Greek to Semitic to Persian to Sanskrit and Prakrit, and their various scripts.
I would have loved to visit the Lighthouse of Alexandria, The Temple of Artemis and the Colosseum in it's prime. Cheating a bit, but I'm interested in Pompeii pre-Vesuvius.
Only the chapel facade and a portion of the barracks wall remains of the Alamo, I would have loved to have been able to tour the intact mission. There used to be a full scale replica, made for the 1960 John Wayne film. which was operated as a tourist attraction, but the owners shut it down in 2009.
Only the chapel facade and a portion of the barracks wall remains of the Alamo, I would have loved to have been able to tour the intact mission. There used to be a full scale replica, made for the 1960 John Wayne film. which was operated as a tourist attraction, but the owners shut it down in 2009.
So they surrendered?
From what I've seen, the overall compound wasn't that interesting. But different strokes.
I grew up with Sutter's Fort, which was reconstructed in the 1940s according to the terrible sensibilities of that time. There's never been a budget to, say, rebuild the buildings in real adobe and timbers instead of cast concrete simulacra. It is nice that the site was preserved, I guess. And seeing Patty Reed's doll will make your hair stand on end.
Constantine's forum before the crusaders sacked and basically kill the Romans for good
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