The Acropolis, and Twain on Travel

[uzbradistan]

Whenever I visit old places, I like to try to imagine what life was like there back in their heyday. I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting to do that: why else would you visit an ancient ruin, if not to try to get some glimpse of the past? And given that you could just as well stay home and look at pictures of the ruins, you have to hope that visiting

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[uzbradistan]

I did find out about the Parthenon replica in Nashville through random Wiki-surfing a few months ago -- and, actually, yeah, I do think it would be worth visiting, if only to get a more complete feel for what the building was like.

I do consider myself a history buff (I know the story of the Parthenon being used as a magazine well), and I too am always amazed and grateful that anything from long ago is still with us, given all the wars, disasters, and stupid people there have been in the intervening time.

My point is that even if you do know or consider the context -- like Mark Twain did at the battlefield of Hattin -- you can still find the gap between what you see today, and what you know used to be there long ago, too large to get a satisfactory idea of what that vanished world was like. Call it a failure of imagination if you like, but it's hopefully understandable that the more that remains of a historic site, the more you'll be able to mentally cast yourself back to its original time period.

[uzbradistan]

I'm sorry if I'm coming across as absurd and arrogant -- that was certainly not my intention. And I'm sorry if it seemed like I was using the Mark Twain quotes to somehow mock ancient ruins, or people who are better able than I to construct mental models of the past -- that was also not my intention.

If you've never felt any frustration at tourists clamoring and crowding around an ancient monument; if you've never felt any disappointment at how little of an old building remains, or at how poorly it's been maintained; if you've always been able to construct your mental models in these places unhampered by these obstacles and more, then you have an enviable gift indeed.

But if you have ever felt these things, then I think you can empathize with this statement of Twain's:

We do not think, in the holy places; we think in bed, afterwards, when the glare, and the noise, and the confusion are gone, and in fancy we revisit alone, the solemn monuments of the past, and summon the phantom pageants of an age that has passed away.This statement