Archeological Ruins – Travels with Ali

Sarah @ Travel with me is the host for this week’s Monochrome Madness.

There is something about old ruins of houses and castles that look better in monochrome. The first photos of these buildings would have been in black and white anyway! I’ve put together a small gallery for the theme this week.

My feature photo is the Ruins of St. Paul’s, Macau. A 17th century catholic religious complex.

I love walking through old buildings and ruins and touching the walls and stones. It makes me stop and wonder about what went on before, who walked on these floors and touched these walls.

Gjirokaster Castle, Albania

Butrint National Park, Albania

I had fun editing the above photo with the Snapseed App. I think I used the retro filter and a frame that makes it look like an old negative.

A bleak looking Alcatraz, USA

A depressing building to say the least! There was not much colour in there anyway.

The above two photos were taken a few years ago and the collapse of the house looks like it had happened recently. In actual fact it has been left like this since 1968, when there was a massive earthquake. The homestead was owned by the Snooke family and dated back to 1904. Alice Snooke managed to rescue her 2 year daughter from the ruins and lived to tell the tale.

Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh

Stonehenge, England

“OLD BUILDINGS ARE LIKE A BOOK. YOU CAN OPEN IT AND READ THE HISTORY OF A PLACE, OF A PEOPLE, OF A CIVILIZATION”
RICHARD HENRIQUEZ

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During our stay in Sarande, one of the places we visited was Butrint.

The bus stop was only a five minute walk from the hotel and it arrived shortly after us. We found seats and then promptly sat there for 20 minutes while the bus filled up and up until the doors could hardly close. Amongst the throng was the bus conductor who was issuing tickets, I’m not sure how he checked who had tickets or not. The journey takes around 30 minutes and for 3 Euros each I thought it wasn’t bad. There is only one restaurant there and we ate lunch here after our walk.

Butrint has been inhabited since prehistoric times and also home to many different nations, including Romans, Byzantines and Venetians. The last person who live here was Ali Pasha, an Albanian Ottoman ruler who controlled Butrint and the area until its final abandonment.

Above is the Venetian Triangular Castle sitting on the banks of the Vivari Canal

Butrint is now home to a vast array of flora and fauna. The excellent preservation of the remaining structures bear witness to the amazing building skills of all the previous inhabitants, especially the Romans.

We enjoyed our two hour walk around the site marvelling in turn and discussing the history as we walked.

Sitting by the Venetian Tower and soaking up the atmosphere.

I didn’t realise how vast Butrint actually is, it covers 9,000 hectares and there are steep hills and tracks around and across it. Looking at the map I’m not sure we covered everything there was to see.

Possibly a Roman civic house from the 5th century and the views across Lake Butrint.

Most of the monuments were discovered by the Italian Archaeological Mission between the years 1928 – 1939. The team who worked here were guided by Luigi Maria Ugolini. Imagine the excitement on finding such historical structures.

6th Century Baptistery with mosaic floor

The mosaic has now been covered over again for preservation and apparently it is cleared every few years for viewing.

This was a fabulous place to spend an afternoon if you are interested in history. Because of the many factions living here it was all the more interesting trying to piece together the timeline. It was such a peaceful afternoon, we were lucky that we had managed to avoid the tour buses.

Linking to Jo’s Monday Walk