At Kerkouane in Tunisia, you crunch as you walk. Not gravel. Shells. Purple murex shells — thousands of them — ground into the earth beneath your feet. This is what’s left of an industry that built an empire. The Phoenicians weren’t here for conquest. They were here for color. Most people have never heard of...Read More
Three mud-brick forts rise out of the Kyzylkum Desert, two hundred kilometers from the nearest city. They are called the Qalas. They were built over two thousand years ago to guard the trade routes that would eventually become the Silk Road. You have almost certainly never heard of them. We walked through them on a...Read More
On what Rome destroyed, what it could not erase, and the history that only becomes visible when you drive between the fragments with someone who has spent her career in the ruins. By Mary Collins | April 2026 Most ancient ruins stand in one place and wait for you to arrive. Carthage doesn’t work that...Read More
The first time I walked into the Bardo Museum in Tunis, I understood within about twenty minutes that I had badly underestimated it. You could spend days there. I mean that seriously. Room after room of mosaic floors pulled from Dougga, Sbeitla, Bulla Regia, El Djem — floor after floor that tells you not just...Read More
