Etna Eruption at Night - Catania in the Foreground  During the Holy Year in 2025, I had the chance to walk through all four Holy Doors in Rome. Was also invited to a private visit of the Sistine Chapel. For 20 minutes, we silently admired Michelangelo’s frescos where cardinals appoint their Popes. Having seen the ceiling during previous visits - sandwiched between dozens of other visitors - I focused on the artist’s “Last Judgement”. At the bottom, there are demons and devil

Segmented Plate Armor (Lorica Segmentata) weighted about 15 kilograms per Legionnaire Global trade is made possible by maritime transport. These days, there are a good 107’000 merchant ships plowing the waves. Oil tankers account for about 12’000 ships, bulk carriers (ore, coal, grain) make up 13’000. There are 21’000 large cargo and 6’000 container vessels. The other 50% are smaller, primarily coastal merchant ships. A Roman Grain Freighter leaving a Port - possibly Leptis M

Mount Etna in the Evening seen from the North - His standard Plume stronger than normal When Apostle Paul sailed along Sicily’s east coast on his way to Rome in 60 AD, he must have noticed Mount Etna and possibly the many vineyards on the slopes. The mountain is huffing and puffing since people remember. Wine was planted on its slopes after Greek settlers arrived in the 8 th century BC. The colonist cleared slopes, built terraces and introduced irrigation. For them, wine was

The Roman Naval Base of Misenum 200 AD - the Italian Port of Miseno in 2022 AD Over the last ten years, we visited many ancient ports. Some were silted like Miletus , Kaunos , Andriake or Patara . Others lost their purpose and were abandoned - Knidos , Fréjus , Kelenderis or Caesarea come to my mind. A few are still in use – such as Piraeus, Messina, Pozzuoli and Miseno. All these ports were part of Rome’s far-flung network that comprised 200 major and 3’000 minor

You may wonder what Karpathos and King Herod have in common. Actually nothing except that that there is no signal between the islands of...

Medicane (Mediterranean Hurricane) Zorbas reaching the Peloponnese on 29 Sept 2018 - the Medicane was about 150 sea miles wide In exactly...

The Odeon in Gortyn, Rome's Provincial Capital for Crete and Cyrenaica in North Africa A good 4 months to go before sailing this summer –...

Roman Mosaic from Herculaneum with Fish & Anchor Symbols later adopted by Christians Apostle Paul’s journey to Rome is an interesting...

A Goat looking for Olives in the Old Theatre of Kaunos where now three Olive Trees grow Yesterday was our last day on Lycian territory....

The Delikkemer Siphon of the Patara Aqueduct is remarkably intact - the pipe is on top Talking about Patara’s siphon yesterday made me...

Patara's Main Street flanked by Marble Columns lead directly to the Commercial Harbor Readers following this blog must have noticed my...

The largely intact Roman Theatre of Aspendos - Photo was taken in 2018 during our 1st visit A windless morning today. Yesterday’s cool...

Fishing Boats in the Gaza Port in 2023 before the most recent war Can’t believe that in one month time we will set foot on the Dragonfly....

This year, we start our next three-years’ sailing cycle by following Saint Paul’s journey from Caesarea to Rome. 2’000 years ago, Saint...

In two of my previous blogs I talked about the role of scribes in antiquity and that books were scrolls not pages bound at the back. The...

Palmyra's Great Colonade and the Greek Theatre luckily survived ISIS hidious attack who blew up the Temple of Baal and the Temple of Bel...

Rainy today – no chance to spend time outdoors. Time for another blog then. Wondered  for a while as to why the Eastern Roman Empire was...

“Nothing is certain but death and taxes”. Was reminded of this quote from Benjamin Franklin (1789) recently when I read how Roman Emperor...

A Roman Cargo Ship leaves the Port with its Spritsail (Foresail) set to manoeuvre One of the many things I enjoy is looking at maps. They...

These Tortoise Objects are only 300 Years old - Romans used the Material the same Way On a sunny July afternoon, in the Port of...