Krak des Chevaliers is a fortress castle in the Horn's Gap, east of Tripoli, Lebanon. It is built on a 650m-high hill. The fortress controlled the road to the Mediterranean.
The Babylonians, Egyptians, Hittites, Hebrews, Romans, Persians, Byzantines, Arabs, Kurds, Ottoman Turks, Seljuk Turks and Franks have all occupied or fought for the land here. Each has influenced and led to the unique architecture that can today be found at the Krak des Chevaliers.
Krak des Chevaliers is a UNESCO World Heritage-listed site.
Submitted by Bija Knowles on Fri, 10/02/2009 - 14:27
The discovery of a unique amphitheatre and other structures at Rome's ancient maritime port is putting the archaeological site of Portus on the map. For decades it's been a much over-looked site next to Fiumicino's international runway and scholarly attention has focused on neighbouring Ostia Antica, but experts now believe it is a unique site that should rank alongside monuments such as Stonehenge or Angkor Wat.
The Leptis Magna ruins can be found 130 km east of Tripoli, on the coast where the Wadi Lebda meets the sea.
It became part of the Roman Republic at the end of the Third Punic War in 146 BC but the city was not formally incorporated into the empire as part of the province of Africa until the reign of the Roman emperor Tiberius. It was to become one of the leading cities of Roman Arfica and a key trading post.
In 193 Septimius Severus became emperor and lavished his native city with wealth. The city expanded under his rule, thus making it one of the most important cities in Africa.
Su Nuraxi is an important nuraghic archaeological site in Barumini, Sardinia, constructed in the late 2nd millennium BC.
In Sardinian, Su Nuraxi means simply 'the nuraghe' - these nuraghi were a special type of defensive structure developed on Sardinia for which no parallel exists anywhere else in the world. The fortified village complex - discovered by Dr. Giovanni Lilliu in the 1950s - consists of circular defensive towers in the form of truncated cones built of dressed stone, with corbel-vaulted internal chambers. The complex at Barumini, which was extended and reinforced in the first half of the 1st millennium under Carthaginian pressure, is the finest and most complete example of this remarkable form of prehistoric architecture.
In 1997, the site was incorporated into UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites as Su Nuraxi di Barumini and is widely regarded as the most important nuraghic site on Sardinia. In total, more than 8,000 nuraghes are still extant on the island, and it has been estimated that they once numbered in excess of 30,000.
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