Exercise 2, page 114.0:01
Lost and Found: Rediscovering Hidden Cities.0:13
Civilizations rise and civilizations fall, and sometimes all that's left is the rubble and ruins of a once mighty city.0:22
Here are 4 travelers who visited some abandoned cities from long, long ago and rediscovered lost worlds.0:31
A. Luke Hart in Petra, Jordan.0:46
We arrived by jeep at the entrance to the deserted city of Petra, Jordan, to be faced with nothing more than a giant crack in the rock face.1:02
But after 30 minutes' walk along what was once a tiled path but is now nothing more than the sand, the narrow canyon suddenly opened out and we found ourselves in front of a magnificent multicolored stone facade.1:10
It seemed familiar to me, probably because it was famously featured in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.1:24
But even so, Al-Khazneh, the Treasury, took my breath away.1:31
Carved out of the vibrant red, white, and pink sandstone cliff faces in 400 BC, Petra was the thriving capital of the Nabataean civilization, conquered by the Romans and eventually forgotten in the desert by the Western world for hundreds1:36
Our guide told us that the city's dozens of tombs and temples, which have been looted over the years and damaged by earthquakes, had barely been uncovered, with over 85% left to be excavated.1:52
As we drove away, I watched Petra fade back into the rocky landscape and wondered just how many more secrets the city had to reveal.2:04
B. Emma Fenton in Alexandria, Egypt.2:18
I hadn't intended to go diving during my business trip to Alexandria, but the ruins of the Lighthouse of Pharos, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, were just too tempting.2:43
So after signing up for a dive, I got up early one morning and plunged into the harbour.2:54
8 meters down, There are remnants of Egyptian, Greek, and Roman structures, pieces of the lighthouse, ancient columns from Cleopatra's palace, as well as wrecks of Napoleon's warships, and even an Italian plane from World War II.3:00
There's over 2,000 years of history down there, including 25 sphinxes.3:16
The size of some fragments of statues amazed me.3:21
They must have been colossal on land.3:25
At least 12 meters tall.3:27
I was only underwater for an hour because the winter sea was a chilly 15 degrees Celsius and visibility was quite poor, but it was an unforgettable experience.3:30
I was delighted to hear that an underwater museum is now being planned to exhibit these amazing cultural treasures.3:40
See Joe Riles in Mesa Verde National Mesaverde National Park, USA.3:48
I shielded my eyes from the sun and stared up at the dwellings carved out of the mountainside.4:07
The only entrance was a ladder.4:12
It's the perfect security system.4:15
Pull up the ladder and no attacker could get anywhere near.4:18
I was in Mesaverde National Park, Colorado, on a guided tour of the pueblos.4:21
The abandoned cave dwellings of the Anasazi, an ancient American tribe.4:26
Some of these cliff-face communities had as many as 1,000 rooms and were up to 4 stories high.4:31
Our guide took us into a kiva, a subterranean chamber which stays a cool 10°C all year round.4:38
It seemed the Anasazi, a people who mysteriously vanished over 700 years ago, had discovered the answer to air conditioning.4:45
Long before the Western world even invented the electric fan.4:52
I took so many photographs that day that my camera's battery ran down.4:56
D. Sally Potts in Angkor Wat, Cambodia.5:07
As I made my way through the rainforest and came across an ancient collapsed temple, it was easy to think that I'd found a lost city.5:25
In fact, Angkor Wat was once a wealthy city of over 1 million people.5:36
After it was attacked by raiders, it was left forgotten and decaying in the jungle for centuries.5:43
I hired a guide for the day and sped from temple to temple on the back of his motorbike.5:50
It was incredibly exhilarating and a great way to avoid the armies of tourists and vendors at the most popular sites.5:57
It may seem like a fairy-tale kingdom, but the advancing jungle, along with the humidity and 3 million tourists every year, is endangering the temples.6:07
As I went back the next day,6:20
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