Ancient Ruins
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I have always found news about ancient cities fascinating and because of this I try and keep up, as best as I can, with news about them. There is nothing quite like reading that a city was just discovered that was 5,000 or 6,000 years old. What can make this even more exciting is when a city is discovered that was mentioned by someone like Homer and no one even knew if it really existed. Such a case was Carthage. But Carthage is certainly not alone in this respect, many other cities have been found and with each find we seem to validate the fact that the cities that were put into stories by the ancient Greeks really did exist. Cartage, of course, was the thorn in the side of the Romans. They had financed Hannibal and he led their army all over the Italian peninsula defeating the Romans time after time but eventually lost after Carthage decided not to fund the campaign anymore.

Lithuanian archaeologists decided that they would investigate the rumors that they were hearing, about an ancient city that was supposed to be near the present location of Vilnius. Incredibly it was supposed to have existed only 35 km away, that is only about 21 miles. What had happened was that mounds and hills in the area had been split open by seismic forces. When they split, they split perfectly down the middle giving the archaeologists a perfect opportunity to observe the layers of civilization including ruins. An ancient wooden fort system had existed there. At first objects were being discovered that dated back to the 5th century. Year after year as they dug in the ruins, evidence showed that human habitation went further and further back. It became evident that habitation in this spot went back to the stone age and a city had existed there until the Teutonic Knights destroyed it in the 14th century. Only 2 percent of the site has been excavated so far, yet many items have been found including skeletons, coins and many other items. Roadbeds and foundations have also been uncovered. The name of the area is Kernave and it has been placed on the UNESCO list of outstanding cultural heritage areas around the world.

Pedasa was an ancient city in Turkey that reached its peak between the 11th and 6th centuries BC. A royal tomb was found and in it, various artifacts were recovered including a copper needle and jewelry that dated back at least 3,000 years. The plan for further excavation calls for satellite photos to be taken of the area so that archaeologists can best decide what course of action to take. The archaeologists are saying that they are going to turn the ancient ruins into the most important ancient city in the Aegean and Mediterranean regions. Previously the Leleg civilization liven in the area. Among the buildings that have been unearthed are the Temple of Athena and Pedasa Castle.

Petra
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An ancient city that attracts many visitors is Petra. This extremely unusual place is carved into the red rocks of Jordan. In the first quarter of the year, it had attracted over 100,000 visitors. This may not sound like many, but when you consider that this is a rather isolated region and in a part of the world where many tourists are scared to travel in, it is quite an accomplishment. You may remember this city from one of the Indiana Jones movies. How people could have carved out these elegant buildings remains quite a mystery. One of the most popular tours is Petra by night.

In 1960 Italian archaeologists discovered the ancient industrial city of Dahaneh-gholaman in Iran. The city is believed to be about 2,500 years old, which for this area of the world, doesn't make it the most ancient. What makes this city intriguing is that it is now believed that this was a planned city as opposed to a city that just expanded to its present size. Included in the city are at least 27 buildings of note. It was considered a major capital in the time of the Achaemeid. It is believed that the city was much larger than it present size today which is bout 1500 meters by 800 meters.

I would like to close this article by talking about a very interesting discovery in Egypt. Archeologists decided to dig in a 5,600 year old funeral site and found, what they would consider, a treasure trove. They unearthed bodies and several figures. Two of the figures were carved entirely from flint. They were the head of a cow and an ibex. Not as much is know about this period of time in Egypt. This is the time period when Egypt first became a nation. It is hard for us Americans to fathom a country that is this old. In ancient times this area was known as Hierakonpolis and it was thought that the area being excavated belonged to a king who reigned around 3,600 BC. The city of Hierakonopolis was the largest urban center on the Nile in its time.