Customer Reviews

Sites of Antiquity: From Ancient Egypt to the Fall of Rome, 50 Sites that Explain the Classical World (Blue Guides)

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... the pages on, peering through your monocle whilst reclining languidly on your chaise-longue."

hillpaul is one of my favorite Amazon reviewers for history books, and his lovely summary in his Review here on Amazon beautifully describes the strengths of this excellent book.

Charles Freeman is an excellent historian and serves as the historian for the "Blue Guides". He has written an outstanding series of short essays describing 50 sites, including several sites in Egypt, Greece and Rome, three Hellenic sites, and five early Christian sites. The great power of his essays is that he puts these sites into a consistent historical pattern, and then leads the reader through the sites as an informed tour guide using excellent photos, drawings and maps.

I haven't found a Table of Contents online, but it was a joy to type out the list myself, bringing back great memories of visits past or whetting the appetites for sites still unvisited:

Ancient Egypt: the pyramids of Saqqara and Dahshur, the pyramids of Giza, Luxor, Karnak, the Valley of the Kings, Tel el-Amarna, Abu Simbel, Edfu, Dendera, Philae.

Ancient Greece: Knossos, Mycenae, Olympia, Delphi, Dodona, Epidaurus, Athen -- Acropolis and Agora, Delos, Segesta and Selinunte, Agrigento, Paestum.

Hellenistic Greece: Pergamon, Priene, Ephesus.

Ancient Rome: Forum, Arch Constantine, Colosseum, Pantheon, Baths of Caracalla, Ostia, Nimes, Pont du Gard, Petra, Aphrodisias, Pompeii, Hadrian's Villa, Hadrian's Wall, Leptis Magna, Palmyra, Diocletian's Villa, Piazza Armerina, Trier.

Early Christian World: Jerusalem, Rome, Ravenna, Constantinople, St. Catherine's Monastery, Sinai.

Freeman provides a very useful bibliography, an excellent Glossary and a rich Index.

It would great fun to travel with hillpaul and see the world through his eyes. Until that is possible (if ever), Charles Freeman has provided this armchair traveller with a "luxury planning version" of these wonderful sites.

Robert C. Ross 2009

Apart from my passport the only other thing that has gone around the world with me has been a Blue Guide. There are other guidebooks that will give you better, cheaper or groovier places to eat and sleep but a Blue Guide is like Kipling's six honest serving men. Having said that though this isn't one that you would stuff in your knapsack. This is the luxury planning version that you may want to flip the pages on, peering through your monocle whilst reclining languidly on your chaise-longue. Unlike my dog-eared Blue Guides with their extensive marginalia, I will endeavour to keep this in the pristine condition I received it in. An excellent overview of the Classical world, it does a very good job of linking the major sites. The only caveat I have is that unlike the traditional Blue Guides the number of site maps/architectural illustrations is minimal, but don't let that put you off