ITT, ancient RUINS, ruined cities, oh look on my works, ye mighty and despair!

http://nomadatelier.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/abandoned-town.jpg

http://cdn.roughguides.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/42-28094525-1680x1050.jpg

Djado, Niger

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/52461989.jpg

Kerma, Sudan

http://www.thisotherworld.co.uk/sudan415.JPG

Suakin, Sudan

http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get2/I0000pA9Pd8Z0pfQ/fit=1000x750/LFR1318.jpg

Old Ottoman building in Suakin

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/b3/96/88/b3968886991de7f1cfdda8900e29957c.jpg

Naqa, Sudan

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/970139.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7128/7075874373_0afc83919b.jpg

http://www.keyafrica.com/images/userimages/4bcc4dcd-a14f-40c9-bb25-b6de984382d4.jpg

Kilwa Kisiwani, Tanzania

http://www.ondaverde.it/images/paestum.jpg

Paestum, Μεγάλη Ἑλλάς

Damn, Ethiopian ruins are some fine ruins, but that ruined town of Djado is like something out of a dream! There's something almost alive about those tiny jumbled dead windows watching you.

Some fine contributions to the thread, ogmor.

Ty Branwell.

http://www.innovativeethnographies.net/sites/default/files/kaoleruins.JPG

http://www.traveladventures.org/countries/tanzania/images/kaole-ruins11.jpg

Kaole, Tanzania

http://www.orexca.com/images/fotogallery/img_full/1326442327_9763.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/78/Bibi-Khanym_Mosque_%281905-1915%29.jpg/691px-Bibi-Khanym_Mosque_%281905-1915%29.jpg

Bibi-Khanym Mosque, Samarkand, before it got restored. The latter photo is one of Prokudin-Gorsky's early colour photos from 1907

http://madventure.travel/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Cappadocian-cave-dwellings-Turkey.jpg

http://thelongestwayhome.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p606862019.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/78/View_of_Cappadocia_edit.jpg/800px-View_of_Cappadocia_edit.jpg

Not all ruined, but the Cappadocian cave dwellings are v fantastical, something of Gaudi about them.

OMG! The Cappadocian Fairy Chimney houses are some of my favourite things in the world, ever! Not even ruins, but still have that "is this a real place? did this simply grow from the rocks?" feeling about them.

How can you not want to live in these things?

http://travelastounder.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/fairy-chimneys-3.jpg

http://photos.travellerspoint.com/227302/large_Some_fairy.._Turkey.jpg

But, also, LOL:

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Travel/Pix/pictures/2009/7/2/1246552996440/Turkey-Cappadocia-Love-Va-001.jpg

Huh, didn't realise Ledge went to St Andrews, which is my home (and one of my Alma Maters).

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6014/5999724919_dd73259534_o.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/20110419_Monastery_of_Hripsimian_Virgins_Ani_Turkey.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-zOrAL1V5Jg/TShk2x7kWJI/AAAAAAAAJBc/mv5Iswh1T1o/s640/ani+turkey+armenia+turkish+armenian+city+2.jpg

Ani, abandoned Armenian city just inside modern Turkey

there are so many gorgeous rock-hewn buildings or settlements built into the rock (dogon villages in mali, guyaju ruins in beijing, lalibela in ethiopia, elvis posted mesa verde &c. upthread), feel like a lot of ruin lust comes from a troglodyte love of stone

Troglodyte love of stones vs atavistic love of treehouses: FITE!

http://cdn.roughguides.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/12.thebes-C87Y6M-1680x1050.jpg

thebes

http://d1vmp8zzttzftq.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Passageway-in-the-Great-Enclosure-in-Great-Zimbabwe-Africa.jpg

great zimbabwe

Awesome. Feel like this thread could do with a lot more Egyptian ruins, TBH.

Ur-ruins and ruins of Ur. (Wait actually Ur is nowhere near Egypt, was it? Euphrates more like.)

the pre-columbian americas own this thread, that's just me though.

saqsayhuaman near cusco, peru:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Walls_at_Sacsayhuaman.jpg

another:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Sacsahuaman_wall3.jpg

ollantaytambo, another inca site. these monoliths are about 12 feet tall. the spanish tried to destroy them but they were too big:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Ollantaytambo_Monolithen.jpg

and machu picchu, which everyone knows the majesty of:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Machu_Picchu_early_morning.JPG
most amazing place i've ever been

teotihuacan about an hour outside of mexico city - these pyramids are basically about the size of the more famous egyptian pyramids:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/View_from_Pyramide_de_la_luna.jpg

another:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/db/Pyramid_of_the_sun_teotihuacan_with_crowd.jpg

incan stonework is amazing

http://landlopers.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/IMG_1272.jpg

chichen itza equinox snake

This one is like...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Sacsahuaman_wall3.jpg

How did they DO that? Is that dry stonewalling? The shapes of those blocks, in that immense size? Truly awe inspiring!

(Love those pyramids; I did a comic last summer with them as background)

iirc it is all dry stone walling done w/ amazing carving and a plumb bob

yea it's remarkable.

this is a wall in cuzco, peru. there are TWELVE (12!) angles on this large stone:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Mur_Inca_Cuzco.jpg

also when i said the pyramids of teotihuacan were as large as the egyptian pyramids, i obviously meant the two big ones, not the smaller ones that decorate the avenue

yeah, inca stonework is insane.

the spanish tried to destroy them but they were too big

portions of cuzco are basically colonial building on top of inca foundations- when the earthquakes come, guess which part persists?

Peruvian crazy paving!

also interesting to think that these buildings were created without wheels to move materials

suspect the method arose from that lack of mobility. greeks built wooden wheels round their pillar segments and moved them into position. i think egyptian, meroitic & axumite monoliths were all carved at the quarry & moved on rollers

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7391/11286325465_9fd40605f1_b.jpg

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7422/11286664176_cf8fe6a321_b.jpg

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5182/5610097837_6e1dd527ec_b.jpg

vijayanagara, first photo is elephant stables

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Mohenjodaro_Sindh.jpeg

mohenjo-daro, pakistan

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tjZKErifi1Y/UAJ3zPCrmoI/AAAAAAAAMao/fh13xh3gU9o/s1600/013.JPG

bishop's palace, wells, england

http://www.evansadventuresafaris.com/gallery/zanzibar_ruins02.jpg

zanzibar

OMG I want elephant stables now.

The manure-removal bills alone would ruin one.

I thought this was a gollum thread like "It ruins us - it RUINS us!"

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/LaasqorayRuins09.JPG/800px-LaasqorayRuins09.JPG

las khorey, somalia

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00ghalib/018/graphics/afghandesertruins.jpg

https://farm7.staticflickr.com/6198/6052617126_7cab383510_z.jpg

afghanistan

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Peru_-_Trekking_from_Urubamba_019_-_Incan_ruins_(8149153489).jpg

the andes

http://www.ancient-code.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/83742062.4BfR9mqL.Pohnpei0501179eo.jpg

http://whc.unesco.org/uploads/thumbs/site_1503_0005-750-0-20160616154241.jpg

http://survincity.com/wp-content/uploads/images_4/nan-madol.jpg

http://www.ancient-code.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/83742065.5db77U2R.Pohnpei0501185eo.jpg

nan madol, micronesia

http://www.beevar.com/upload/b/f0/bf0cbaf655c83a9a.jpg

http://whenonearth.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/kolmanskop-namibia-ghost-town-woe1.jpg

kolmanskop, namibia

https://erasingborders.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/img_2927.jpg?w=604&h=453

tamtoc, mexico

http://www.bulgariansun.eu/images/preslav1.jpg

preslav, bulgaria

old photos of old ruins takes it over the top...

http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/5634/32225563.96/0_abaad_845b3b2b_orig

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QW1PU8eLkxk/UUMlJBK0M-I/AAAAAAACgxA/uGXxh_GiWak/s640/Photographs+of+Old+Delhi+from+The+19th+Century+(24).jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eu5CdSz7n20/UUMlFea2juI/AAAAAAACgwA/YpLfdtjKayc/s640/Photographs+of+Old+Delhi+from+The+19th+Century+(16).jpg

http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/9328/97833783.526/0_be61b_2d2e30d3_XXXL.jpg

delhi

I agree with marcos that pre-Columbian Americas definitely bring the ruination mojo.

I very much liked Uxmal, in the Yucatan, particularly the may the Magician's Pyramid comes up out of the trees like O HAI THERE

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/9Qd3xWCJFeQ/maxresdefault.jpg

is that the one in star wars?

No, apparently that was Tikal (learned this just now from, ugh, Wookieepedia)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Panglao_watchtower%2C_Bohol.png

very taken with this filipino watch tower

al-waqfa 'ala al-atlal