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HISTORY
Five Destinations to Visit from the Ancient World
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At the foundation of modern day nations, many ancient settlements grew into vast metropolises.
By Will Street
Jul. 25, 2019, 11:30 AM
The world's ancient cities were not only the most populated regions of antiquity, but also the beating heart of ancient nations where goods would be brought to be sold at market and command over great regions of far-flung lands would be decided. We've taken a look at the settlements that controlled nations and whose legacy have continued to inspire future civilisations centuries beyond their time.
Number 5: Edfu
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Edfu is located on the west bank of the Nile River and today is a only a small town with a population of approximately 60,000. However, the town is home to the Temple of Horus and close by the ancient Egyptian settlement of Wetjeset-hor both of which are important in the history of Ptolemaic Egypt. The temple of Horus, built between 237 BCE and 57 BCE is the most impressive of the two whose sandstone walls rise 36 metres in the sky. Inscriptions on the side of the wall further provide details about Egyptian religion and mythology, such as the age-old conflict between Horus and Seth. Fifty metres away from the temple lies the ancient settlement of Wetjeset-hor, which was a provincial town from the Old Kingdom through to the Byzantine period but most importantly includes the ancient mound of Tell Edfu which contains complete archaelogical sequences of occupation dating from the Old Kingdom to the Graeco-Roman period. Religious activities ceased in the Temple of Horus when Emperor Theodosius banned non-Christian worship in 391 AD however the remains of the building have survived through centuries of history and today attract thousands of tourists each year.
Number 4: Varanasi
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The holiest city of the seven sacred cities in Hinduism and the site where the Buddha is believed to have founded Buddhism in around 528 BCE, the city of Varanasi on the banks of the Ganges has been at the centre of religious worship and pilgrimage since its first habitation in around 1800 BCE. In Hindu mythology the city was said to be founded by the god Shiva and the Mahabharata tells of the Pandavas visit to the city in search of the god to atone for their sins. Today, this belief of atonement for sins is still held dear and many Hindus bath in the Ganges to remit sin or come to the city to die in order to release their soul from the cycle of rebirth. Nearby in Sarnath, the city was also the site where the Buddha gave his speech "The Setting in Motion of the Wheel of Dharma" in 528 BCE initiating the start of Buddhism and today the city is equally inhabited by a large muslim population, making up 27.9% of the city's populace in 2001. With such a diverse religious demographic, it's no surprise Varanasi showcases a plethora of impressive religious buildings, such as the Kashi Vishwanath temple on the Ganges and the Gyanvapi mosque in the heart of the city. From walking through the ancient city centre to getting involved in some of the many religious festivals such as the Hindu Maha Shivaratri in February, this diverse and sacred city has plenty for you to explore.​
Number 3: Rome
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Capital of one of the largest empires in antiquity, Rome's founding by Romulus in around 750 BCE after he and his brother, Remus, were raised by a she-wolf has been much extolled in later Roman literature and Art. The historian Livy in the later Augustan period wrote that the twins, Romulus and Remus, were conceived when the vestal virgin, Rhea Silvia, was raped by the god Mars, whereupon the babies were ejected from the city but placed on the banks of the river Tiber before being found and brought up by a she-wolf and later adopted by a shepherd. The city, Rome, was founded by Romulus, who had together with his twin sought to set up city after they both had been ejected from Alba Longa. Remus was killed by Romulus leaving Romulus to found the city on the Palatine Hill. According to Livy and taken far further by the Augustan poet, Virgil, in the Aeneid, the ancestral Italian settlers in Alba Longa were descended from Aeneas who had escaped the Trojan War. Barring the legendary sack of Rome by the Gauls in 387 BCE, the city continue to thrive both through periods and Republicanism and Imperialism until 476 AD when the last ruler, Romulus Augustus, was dethroned by rebels. A city that took initial inspiration from the aesthetic of Greek architecture, Romans built some of the most impressive buildings in all antiquity including the Colosseum and Domitian's Palace, both of who's remains still remain strong today. With a population of around a million at its peak and an ambition to build as impressive as possible, Rome today showcases a plentiful array of sites for any history-loving tourist to enjoy.
Number 2: Jerusalem
First inhabited in 2800 BCE, making it one of the oldest cities in antiquity, Jerusalem is considered holy to the three major Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The city began as a Caananite settlement in around the third millennium BCE based on archaeological evidence found and the presence of a settlement is first referred to in written sources in the 19th Century BCE in the Execration Texts. From its founding, the city would continue through varying reigns of the Caananite, Egyptian, Jebusite, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Seleucid, Roman, Byzantine, Jewish, Christian and Muslim governments until the British Mandate in 1917, and later partitioning of the city. The Book of Joshua in the Old Testament relates that Jerusalem was once occupied by Jebusites whom David conquered in the late 2nd Millennium BCE and designated the city as the capital of a new united kingdom of Israel. The kingdom would later lead on to King Solomon and the construction of his temple in which the famous Jewish Ark of Covenant was placed.
After the death of the client-king Herod in 6 AD , whose notable building works included the expansion of the famous 2nd Temple, Jerusalem fell under the jurisdiction of the Roman Empire and continued to do so albeit alternating between Byzantine and Persian at the very end until 614 AD when it was captured by Jews and Sassanids. Thereafter, the city would alternate between Christian and Muslim control through the Middle Ages and later solely Muslim in the Ottoman period. Today, the varied history is reflected in the different importance of the city to different religions. The city's Dome of the Rock is one of the oldest extant works of Islamic architecture, the Western Wall is the holiest spot in the Jewish religion believed to be the closest to spot to Solomon's Temple and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is holy to Christians as the place where Jesus was crucified. Varied claims to the land has given rise to partition however it would be hard to find another city that has produced such world-defining historical and religious significance through multiple millennia.
Number 1: Athens
In a wise and philosophical climax, the winner of our list is Athens. Birthplace of democracy and a centre of the arts, learning and philosophy, Athens is considered the cradle of western civilisation and began much of the political and cultural thought that spread into Roman civilisation and from there into the later époques of history. In the ca. 387 BCE, it was the city in which Plato founded his Academy, which would produce milestone works such as The Republic and the Theaetetus and later Aristotle's Lyceum in 334 BCE, which brought the peripatetic school of philosophy to the world. Today, the acropolis still rises high above the modern day city and in Ancient times was home to some of the most important religious buildings in antiquity, the most famous being the Parthenon, built in 447 BCE as a temple to the city's presiding deity, Athena. In 1987 the site became a UNESCO world heritage site and today attracts millions of tourists each year who come to imagine the life of the ancients. Feel the power of the human thought the city has given us, wonder at the majesty of the architecture and admire the beautiful vision of humanity this ancient settlement brought to the world.