The Abbey of Kells was founded in the early 9th Century AD, on the site of a former Irish hill fort. The monastery - named Mainistir Cheanannais in Irish - is most famous for keeping the 'Book of Kells' (an illuminated manuscript in Latin) from the medieval period until the 1950s. Kells Abbey was repeatedly raided by the Vikings. In the twelfth century, the monastery was dissolved and the abbey became a parish church.
At Amarna you can experience a slice of daily life in the 18th Dynasty period, Egypt during the reign of King Tut's father Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti. Dress up like an - ancient - Egyptian, tease the hippos, or just relax on the shores of the Nile and enjoy the view.
Lundenwic was an early Anglo-Saxon settlement in the London area, strategically located on the River Thames. Its prime location attracted settlers, and from as early as the 5th century Anglo-Saxons began to inhabit the area. Thus the settlement became a village and trading centre, and Lundenwic in the early 8th century was described by the author and scholar Venerable Bede as 'a trading centre for many nations who visit it by land and sea'.
Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi (the monastery of Saint Moses the Abyssinian) is a Christian monastery in Syria. Its earliest date of use appears to be in 6th century AD, when it was used by cave dwelling hermit monks as a place to gather and pray. It reached its peak between the 11th and 12th centuries AD and several beautiful frescos have been recovered from that era.
Last summer Dr. Robert Mason, an archaeologist with the Royal Ontario Museum, made a far more ancient discovery. To the east of the site he found an ancient landscape with stone circles, alignments and what appear to be corbelled rock tombs.
From the stone tools found it appears to date to some point in the Middle East Neolithic period (8500-4300 BC). This means that this landscape could well be older then the megalithic sites found in Europe.
The City of Cambridge is known for being a buzzling cosmopolitan city with architecture ranging from ancient to modern times and styles. The anicent city centre, holds medieval streets, college courts, gardens and bridges. It is home to the famous University of Cambridge, which is one of the world's premier universities, and includes the renowned Cavendish Laboratory, King's College Chapel and the Cambridge University Library.
The city is situated in East Anglia, 80km north of London. Settlements have been living in the area since before the Roman Empire, the earliest actual evidence being the remains of a 3,500 year old farmstead discovered at the site of Fitzwilliam College. Further archaeological evidence dates the city back to the Iron Age to a Belgic tribe which settled in the area around the 1st century BC.
At the Jewry Wall Museum one can discover the archaeology of the city's past, from the Prehistoric to the Medieval period. The museum contains one of Leicester's most famous landmarks known as the Jewry Wall. The Wall which once surrounded the Roman towns' public baths, is one of the tallest surviving pieces of Roman building left in the country surviving for nearly 2000 years. The museum holds Roman archaeology collections, and artefacts from other eras from groups which have settled in the Leicester area.
Ithaca, a small island in the Ionian Sea, had a troubled history, including periods of occupation by the Romans, the Ottomans and the French. It was first occupied during Neolithic times, but was at its height during the Myceneaan period (1500–1100 BC), when it was the capital of Cephalonia.
Its fame however comes from the central role it plays in Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey as Ulysses’ home and final aim of his travels.
However, the current landscape does not match Homer’s description. The Odyssey says it is “low-lying”, far West and surrounded by the islands of Doulichion and Same, whereas the island is mountainous and more Eastern than other Ionian Sea islands, and some historians doubt it really ever was Ulysses’ home.
One of the most well-excavated Roman villas in Wales is Caermead villa north of Llantwit Major, on the south coast in South Glamorgan.
The villa is built around an 'L' shaped courtyard and there are several buildings of different sizes for various domestic and agricultural purposes. The villa was discovered in 1888 but it wasn't excavated fully until 1938-48.
There is evidence of neolithic or Iron Age humans at Llantwit Major, but archaeologists believe that the Roman villa dates from the first century AD, while the foundations of the stone structures were put down during the second century. The villa is notable for its mosaic floors. The villa was abandoned during the fourth century. It is not thought that the villa was connected with Saint Illtud, who founded an abbey at Llantwit Major in the fifth century AD, in anyway.
This active monastery is a box full of surprises as the restoration works have uncovered exquisite medieval paintings, mostly of Holy Knights and Saints. It is really worth the three-hour drive from Cairo to visit this piece of architecture, built as a fortress as a result of Bedouin 'activity' in the past.
According to Abuna ('our Father' in Arabic) Maximos, a resident monk and the brain behind the restoration works, Bedouins still come for food. They have a trap door at the monastery for these occasions.
A settlement in Lower Nubia which was occupied from the start of the Third Intermediate Period (11 century BC) to recent times. The earliest settlement was 80 meters by 150 meters and was constructed at a time when the central government, in Egypt, had collapsed and Lower Nubia was believed to be depopulated.
During the 25th dynasty a Nubian state controlled Qasr Ibrim and conquered Egypt. One of the Nubian pharaohs of that dynasty, Taharqa, built a temple at Qasr Ibrim during the 7th century BC.
At the time of Augustus, the Romans turned the settlement into a border fortress, to protect its southern flank in Egypt. It soon was retaken by the Merotic state, located to the the south. In medieval times it became a substantial settlement with a Christian cathedral which can still be seen.
Today, what’s left of Qasr Ibrim is an island on Lake Nasser. When the Egyptian government built the Aswan Dam in the 1960’s, the area of Qasr Ibrim became flooded, with only its highest elevation remaining above water. Water level rose in 2000, flooding more of the island and its long-term stability has been called into question.
