Saturday, September 25, 2010

(Day 254) Where knights once trod

Saturday Sept. 11, 2010

We visited the fortress at Feraklos this morning - apparently one of the best fortified back in the 1300's. Unlike the acropolis at Lindos, there was no apparent path to the top, and we followed a goat path most of the way. Along the 'route', however, the goat path gives way to these steps, hand-hewn from the rock almost 700 years ago. It was a difficult route for us, with a precipitous cliff on one side, and we were carrying nothing more than a camera pack and a bottle of water. I can't imagine that knights, perhaps at times wearing heavy armour, could climb their way regularly up this route. I think they were made of stern stuff.

(18-55mm  f8  1/160 sec  ISO200)

2 comments:

Katherine said...

I think you may be right. How amazing to stand in a place where 700 years ago these stairs were built. Wow that brings me shivers.

Rick said...

@Katherine - it truly was amazing, and almost impossible to imagine how circumstances brought people to build this kind of protection around them. The world was no less a cruel place then, or perhaps I should say that people were no less cruel - they just had different means to inflict cruelty upon each other. We haven't learned much in 700 years !