News from the Deck

To list one's ten favourite places in the Mediterranean and its hinterland is a tall order indeed. No other area on earth possesses a tenth of the quantity of superb historical sites to be found between the Pillars of Hercules and the coast of the Levant; and if we extend our range - as Voyages to Antiquity does - to cover Upper Egypt and St Catherine's Monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai, Petra and Palmyra, the task becomes more difficult still.

With the exception of one or two Greek islands, I think I have visited all the places mentioned in this prospectus; and I would find it a great deal easier to choose twenty or thirty sites rather than the ten I have been allowed. Those listed below represent the way I happen to be feeling today; tomorrow my selection might be dramatically different. There are, perhaps, only three which would find a place on any list. 

Venice would have to be included, since there is no other city in Europe - correction: in the world - remotely like it. 

I think, too, that I should have to find a place for Petra; I love to think of the intrepid Johann Burckhardt discovering it for the first time in 1812 and having to keep his wonder and enthusiasm hidden for fear of awakening suspicions in his potentially hostile guide.    

My third indispensable may come as a surprise. It is the little town of Cefalù in Sicily, where - as I have pointed out in the list below - the small and outwardly modest romanesque cathedral contains what I believe to be the greatest portrait of Jesus Christ in all Christian art. Over the years, I have taken perhaps a hundred people to see it. Many of them have had tears in their eyes; a few have openly wept.

Going through this brochure has been a constant joy. Again and again I have been reminded of the indescribable wealth and variety that the Mediterranean basin has to offer, and found myself reliving the days and weeks of past travels over the past sixty-five years. And even now, I like to think, my travels are not yet quite over; and for that I have Voyages to Antiquity to thank. 

1 PALERMO, SICILY
with the dazzling Palatine Chapel and - just outside the city - the Cathedral of Monreale, with its almost unbelievable acreage of 12th-century mosaics and equally magical cloister. 

2 CEFALU, SICILY
where the mosaic of the Pantocrator in the apse of the Cathedral is for me the greatest portrait of Jesus Christ in all Christian art.

3 VENICE, ITALY
You could single out St Mark's or any one of a number of churches, but the ultimate miracle is the city itself.

4 ISTANBUL, TURKEY
The Church of St Sophia (the Holy Wisdom) is one of the dozen greatest buildings in the world. It may strike you as a bit dingy at first; but remember that it was built in the 6th century (in only five years) and that its dome has almost exactly the same diameter as St Paul's! And in the lovely 14th-century Kariye Camii (the Greek Church of St Saviour in Chora) don't miss the fresco of the Harrowing of Hell. For me it knocks the Sistine Chapel into a cocked hat.

5 KRAK DES CHEVALIERS, SYRIA
The most complete Crusader castle to be found anywhere, and the most impressive. Suddenly we are back in the 11th century. 

6 PALMYRA, SYRIA
The ruined capital of Queen Zenobia, far out in the Syrian desert, is a site as mysterious as it is beautiful.   

7 PETRA, JORDAN
To turn the last bend of the long, narrow passage through the rock and suddenly to come upon the "Treasury" is one of the great coups de theatre that the world has to offer. Here - like Venice - is something that you would never believe unless you saw it with your own eyes. 

8 APHRODISIAS, TURKEY
Thanks to its remoteness in the hills surrounding the valley of the Meander in Turkey, this remarkable ancient city is relatively free of tourists and utterly unspoilt.  

9 LUXOR AND KARNAK, EGYPT
Ancient Egypt exerts an extraordinary spell on all visitors. The temples open at 6 a.m., so get up early and enjoy the cool of the morning. (You will also have them virtually to yourselves.)

10 LEPTIS MAGNA, LYBIA
Roman ruins don't come more magnificent than these; and they remain utterly unspoilt by the modern world.

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