Pleasure Of Ruins

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Speculating on the mysterious attraction of ruined heaps of stone for thousands of travelers each year, the author identifies the conscious human desire to swim "...down the hurrying river of time, whose mysterious reaches, stretching limitlessly behind, glimmer suddenly into view..." It is as good a description of our perverse affection for the crumbling relics of the past as we are apt to find. Blending classical literature, history, archaeology, and observations from her own travels, Macauley takes readers on a unique tour of the world's greatest ruins: Troy, the city of Tyre, Herod's city of Ascalon, and the "lost cities" now buried in the jungles of Central and South America. With the help of history's great observers, from Petrarch to Henry James, Macaulay speculates on life before the fall of these great cities. B&W photos & illus.