Day: May 23, 2013

The Acropolis is still sweeping international awards and we are proud!

The Acropolis of Athens, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987, came in second place for its architectural and historical significance and for its outstanding universal value on CNN’s list of 20 of the world’s most beautiful World Heritage Sites.

The new addition to the Athenian landmark, the Acropolis Museum, ranked 3rd on a list of the best 50 museums in the world after the Smisthsonian Museum in Washington and the British Museum in London.

In a London Sunday Times article, a true eulogy to the new Acropolis Museum, The World’s 50 Best Museums, the author notes:

“Hundreds of thousands of visitors now turn up annually to see the cultural wonders of a glorious past, which stand amid floods of natural light with amazing views of the original temple as an evocative backdrop.”

Source: BBC

Race to preserve the world’s oldest submerged town – Part 1

Race to preserve the world’s oldest submerged town – Part 2

Just off the southern coast of mainland Greece lies the oldest submerged city in the world. It thrived for 2,000 years during the time that saw the birth of western civilisation.

An international team of experts is using cutting-edge technology to prise age-old secrets from the complex of streets and stone buildings that lie less than five metres below the surface of the ocean.

State-of-the-art CGI helps to raise the city from the seabed, revealing for the first time in 3,500 years how Pavlopetri would once have looked and operated.

Underwater archaeologist Dr Jon Henderson is leading the project in collaboration with Nic Flemming, the man whose hunch led to the discovery of Pavlopetri in 1967, and a team from the Hellenic Ministry of Culture.

Working alongside the archaeologists are a team from the Australian Centre for Field Robotics.

The teams scour the ocean floor, looking for artefacts.

The site is littered with thousands of fragments, each providing valuable clues about the everyday lives of the people of Pavlopetri.

From the buildings to the trade goods to the everyday tableware, each artefact provides a window into a forgotten world.

Together these precious relics provide us with a window to a time when Pavlopetri would have been at its height, showing us what life was like in this distant age and revealing how this city marks the start of western civilisation.