Customer Reviews

Then & Now: As They Were in Their Days of Glory

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This book is wonderful. The material is well-written and the visual presentation of these architectural wonders is breathtaking..

Twenty sites are depicted: the Step Pyramid and Temple of Karnak in Egypt; Iraq's Nimrud; Masada and the Second Temple in Israel; Crete's Palace of Knossos; the Acropolis and Agora in Athens; four locations in Italy -- the Forum, the Colosseum, Hadrian's Villa and Pompeii; the Tower of London and Glastonbury Abbey (of King Arthur legends) in England; Mesa Verde in the US; Teotihuacan in Mexico; Machu Picchu in Peru; the Bayon in Cambodia; Pakistan's Mohenjo-Daro; and the Great Zimbabwe in the African country of the same name. Each is covered in seven to nine pages of material which include a physical and historical description of the site, a half- to three quarter-page photograph of the present-day location and a high-quality overlay that shows how the structure (did or may have) looked.

The introduction discusses the interest in ruins and contains a chronological table which places all twenty sites within context of each other.

Works like this make history come alive.

I already own an earlier edition of this book and it is truly fascinating! It enables you to see the sites reconstructed and this is sometimes hard to imagine when you look at the ruins as they are today. The pictures and their transparences are enhanced by the informative text and occasionally current photographs of the site. This book has been one of my greatest conversation pieces on my bookshelf.

I have taken a cue from the authors of this book. Just imagine what the Acropolis looked like when it was made. Or Teotihuacan. Or the Bayon in Cambodia. I recall the feeling of "Is this real" as I crested the ridge and looked down upon the ruins of Mesa Verde's Cliff Palace. I recall the feeling of "Oh, my Gosh" as I approached the Colosseum in Rome.

As I read the pages of _Then and Now_ just for a moment... I am almost there... when the Temple of Karnak when it was built.... and Masada before the Jewish War... and the Tower of London when it was a mighty fortress. For all of my imagination I could not envision what I see in these pages.

this book was very informative on the topic of past great placesall over the world