by Paulo Barata
structures on Earth for many centuries, and was regarded as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Badly damaged by three earthquakes between 956 and 1323, it then became an abandoned ruin.
The lighthouse was constructed in the 3rd century BC.
After Alexander the Great died of a fever at age 32, the first Ptolemy (Ptolemy I Soter) announced himself king in 305 BC, and commissioned its construction shortly thereafter. The building was finished during the reign of his son, the second Ptolemy (Ptolemy II Philadelphus). It took 12 years to complete, at a total cost of 800 talents, and served as a prototype for all later lighthouses in the world. The light was produced by a furnace at the top and the tower was built mostly with solid blocks of limestone.
Pillars of Hercules
Promontories that flank the strait of Gibraltar
The Pillars of Hercules was the phrase that was applied in Antiquity to the promontories that flank the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar. The northern Pillar is the Rock of Gibraltar (now part of the British overseas territory of Gibraltar). A corresponding North African peak not being predominant, the identity of the southern Pillar has been disputed through history, with the two most likely candidates being Monte Hacho in Ceuta and Jebel Musa in Morocco.
According to some Roman sources, while on his way to the garden of the Hesperides on the island of Erytheia, Hercules had to cross the mountain that was once Atlas. Instead of climbing the great mountain, Hercules used his superhuman strength to smash through it. By doing so, he connected the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and formed the Strait of Gibraltar.
Pompey
City in Italy (close to Naples)
The city of Pompeii is a partially buried Roman town-city near modern Naples in the Italian region of Campania. Along with Herculaneum, Pompeii was partially destroyed and buried under 4 to 6 m (13 to 20 ft) of ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.
By the 1st century AD, Pompeii was one of a number of towns located near the base of the volcano, Mount Vesuvius. The area had a substantial population which grew prosperous from the region's renowned agricultural fertility. Many of Pompeii's neighboring communities, most famously Herculaneum, also suffered damage or destruction during the 79 eruption. The eruption occurred on August 24, just one day after Vulcanalia, the festival of the Roman god of fire, including that from volcanoes.
Porta Capena
One of the gates of Rome in the Servian Wall
The Porta Capena was a gate in the Servian Wall near the Caelian Hill, in Rome, Italy according to Roman tradition the sacred grove where Numa Pompilius and the nymph Egeria used to meet.
It was one of the main entries to the city of Rome, since it opened on the Appian Way. The origin of the name is unknown, although it may refer to the fact that the road leads to Capua, an important city in Campania, south of Rome.
According to 1st century AD writer Juvenal, the Porta Capena was frequented by beggars. In particular, he says that it was a common place for Jewish beggars.
Portus
Ancient harbor close to the city of Ostia
Portus was a large artificial harbor of Ancient Rome. Sited on the north bank of the mouth of the Tiber, on the Tyrrhenian coast.
Claudius constructed the first harbor on the Portus site, 4 km (2.5 mi) north of Ostia, enclosing an area of 69 hectares (170 acres), with two long curving moles projecting into the sea, and an artificial island, bearing a lighthouse, in the center of the space between them. The harbor thus opened directly to the sea on the north-west and communicated with the Tiber by a channel on the south-east. The object was to obtain protection from the prevalent south-west wind, to which the river mouth was exposed. Though Claudius, in the inscription which he caused to be erected in A.D. 46, boasted that he had freed the city of Rome from the danger of inundation, his work was only partially successful.
Nero gave the harbor the name of "Portus Augusti".
Rhegium
City in Italy (Reggio di Calabria)
Reggio di Calabria is located on the "toe" of the Italian peninsula and is separated from the island of Sicily by the Strait of Messina. It is situated on the slopes of the Aspromonte, a long, craggy mountain range that runs up through the center of the region.
As an independent city Rhegium was an important ally and "socia navalis" of Rome. During the Imperial age it became one of the most important and flourishing cities of southern Italy when it was the seat of the "Corrector", the Governor of "Regio II Lucania et Bruttii" (province of Lucany and Brutium).
It was devastated by several major earthquakes and associated tsunami during the Roman Empire when it was called "Rhegium Julium" and was a noble Roman city. Rhegium boasted in imperial times, no less than eight thermal baths, one of which is still visible today. During all this time however, Reggio maintained its Greek customs and language.
The Apostle, St. Paul passed through Rhegium in his final voyage to Rome.
Rome
Capital of the Roman Empire
is the capital of Italy and also of Lazio (Latin: Latium). The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy. Rome is referred to as "The Eternal City", a notion expressed by ancient Roman poets and writers.
Rome's history spans more than two and a half thousand years, since its founding in 753 BC, with the union of rural villages. It was the capital city of the Roman Kingdom, the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, which was the dominant power in Western Europe and the lands bordering the Mediterranean for over seven hundred years from the 1st century BC until the 7th century AD and the city is regarded as one of the birthplaces of western civilization.
Since the 1st century AD Rome has been the seat of the Papacy and, after the end of Byzantine domination, in the 8th century it became the capital of the Papal States, which lasted until 1870. In 1871 Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic.
Samaria
Region in the northern part of the West Bank
Samaria or the Shomron is a mountainous region in northern Palestine, roughly corresponding to the northern West Bank. The name derives from the ancient city Samaria, the capital of the Kingdom of Israel.
The region known as Samaria was captured by the Israelites from the Canaanites and was assigned to the Tribe of Joseph. After the death of King Solomon (c.931 BC), the northern tribes, including those of Samaria, separated from the southern tribes and established the separate kingdom of Israel. Initially its capital was at Tirzah until the time of king Omri (c.884 BC), who built the city Shomeron (Samaria) and established it as its capital.
The region fell to the Assyrians in c.722 BC, and much of its population was carried into captivity. In AD 6 the region became part of the Roman province of Judaea.
Samos
Greek island in the Aegean
Samos is a Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the coast of Asia Minor, from which it is separated by the 1.6 kilometers (0.99 mi)-wide Mycale Strait.
In ancient times Samos was a particularly rich and powerful city-state. It is home to Pythagoreion and the Heraion of Samos, also the Eupalinian aqueduct, a marvel of ancient engineering.
Samos is the birthplace of the Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras, after whom the Pythagorean theorem is named, the philosopher Epicurus, and the astronomer Aristarchus of Samos, the first known individual to propose that the Earth revolves around the sun. Samian wine was well known in antiquity, and is still produced on the island.
Sea of Reeds
Red Sea (Egypt)
Sea of Salt
Dead Sea (Jordan/Israel)
Seleucia Pieria
City in Roman Syria (Samandag)
Seleucia Pieria was built by Seleucus I Nicator in ca. 300 BC. It lay near the mouth of the Orontes not far from Mount Casius, and functioned as the commercial and naval seaport of
Antioch on the Orontes (now Antakya).
Its first colonists were the Greeks of Antigonia and some Jews. Seleucia was of great importance in the struggle between the Seleucids and the Ptolemies; it was captured by Ptolemy Euergetes in 246. As the Ptolemies (Lagids) and Seleucids fought over the city, it changed hands several times until 219 BC, when the Seleucid Antiochus III the Great recaptured it. Then it obtained its freedom and kept it even to the end of the Roman occupation.
As the port of Antioch of Syria, "Seleucia on sea" - so called to distinguish it from other cities of the same name - is notable as the point of embarkation from which the Apostle Paul [in AD 45] set forth on the first of his great missionary journeys.
Sepphoris
City in Galilee, close to Nazareth
Tzippori (also known as Sepphoris) is located in the central Galilee region, 6 kilometers (3.7 mi) north-northwest of Nazareth.
Interest on the part of Biblical archaeologists is related to the belief in Christian tradition that the parents of the Virgin Mary, Anna and Joachim, were natives of Tzippori, at the time a Hellenized town.
Tzippori once served as a center of Jewish religious and spiritual life in the Galilee; remains of a 6th-century synagogue have been uncovered in the lower section of the site. In the 7th century, the town came under the rule of the Arab caliphates like much of the rest of Palestine.
Serapeum
Temple to the god Serapis in Alexandria
The Serapeum of Alexandria in Ptolemaic Egypt was a temple built by Ptolemy III (reigned 246 - 222 BCE) and dedicated to Serapis, the syncretic Hellenistic-Egyptian god who was made the protector of Alexandria.
By all detailed accounts, the Serapeum was the largest and most magnificent of all temples in the Greek quarter of Alexandria. Besides the image of the god, the temple precinct housed an offshoot collection of the great Library of Alexandria. The geographer Strabo tells that this stood in the west of the city.
The Serapeum in Alexandria was destroyed by a Christian crowd or Roman soldiers in 391. Nothing now remains above ground.
Sidon
City in Roman Syria
Sidon is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located on the Mediterranean coast, about 40 km (25 mi) north of Tyre and 40 km (25 mi) south of Beirut.
Like other Phoenician city-states, Sidon suffered from a succession of conquerors. At the end of the Persian era in 351 BC, it was invaded by the emperor Artaxerxes III and then by Alexander the Great in 333 BC when the Hellenistic era of Sidon began. Under the successors of Alexander, it enjoyed relative autonomy and organized games and competitions in which the greatest athletes of the region participated.
When Sidon fell under Roman domination, it continued to mint its own silver coins. The Romans also built a theater and other major monuments in the city. In the reign of Elagabalus a Roman colonia was established there, and it was given the name of Colonia Aurelia Pia Sidon. During the Byzantine period, when the great earthquake of AD 551 destroyed most of the cities of Phoenicia, Beirut's School of Law took refuge in Sidon. The town continued quietly for the next century, until it was conquered by the Arabs in AD 636.
Syracuse
City in the island of Sicily
Syracuse is a historic city in Sicily, the capital of the province of Syracuse. This 2,700-year-old city played a key role in ancient times, when it was one of the major powers of the Mediterranean world. Syracuse is located in the southeast corner of the island of Sicily, right by the Gulf of Syracuse next to the Ionian Sea.
The city was founded by Ancient Greek Corinthians and became a very powerful city-state. Syracuse was allied with Sparta and Corinth, exerting influence over the entire Magna Grecia area of which it was the most important city. Once described by Cicero as "the greatest Greek city and the most beautiful of them all", it later became part of the Roman Republic