Weekly Photo Challenge: Structure

Location: Ancient Roman Amphitheatre, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
 
We go to a famous site for different reasons. It’s in our bucket list. Somebody like our mother or special someone has told us to. Or simply just for bragging rights. We do it to prove we’d been there.

Whatever the persuasion, it will make the visit more interesting if we know some background information beforehand. This can be achieved by doing our homework or through the courtesy of a capable guide.

Click any picture to enlarge
 
The above pictures were taken during a tour of the ruins of a Roman amphitheatre in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, built by Emperor Trajan in the 2nd century AD. Our guide told us that they were 2,000-year old graffiti etched on the seats of the amphitheatre. One of them looked like a leaf or a heart. The other seemed to combine a cross and a circle.

Nobody knows for sure what the significance of these graffiti were. Our guide speculated that they could have been used as markers for seats reserved for important people.

On seeing them, a human link to the past was established. Suddenly, the imagination got engaged and the dull structures became alive with the sounds of dueling gladiators and the deafening noise of spectators lusting for blood.

Plovdiv is the second largest city of Bulgaria. It has been referred to as the land of the Thracians and considered to be Europe’s oldest city. Like the rest of Bulgaria, it had been cross-pollinated by many cultures mostly through war and conquest. In the old days, it fell under the rule of the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, and the Ottomans.

I couldn’t get enough of this country where Americans rarely go. I plan to visit it again later next month.

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