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| Shiva temple ruins at Naranag, Kashmir, India |
What is it about ruins, especially centuries-old ruins, that is so irresistible? Is it because they remind us of the ephemerality of human life and civilizations? Is it the incredible workmanship in stone of ancient civilizations? (It's always stone, because wood, thatch, and fabrics decay too fast.) Is it the clash of the ancient and the modern? Is it because our modern civilization seems so shallow when seen next to millennia-old survivors?
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| Timelessness: Woman cleaning pots at the spring in the tank of an 8th-Century Shiva temple. Naranag, Kashmir, India. |
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| Clash of civilizations: 20th-21st Century Connaught Place, New Delhi surrounds the 14th Century Agrasen ki Baoli. |
Two books to recommend:
The World Without Us by Alan Weisman, 2007. (non-fiction)
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. 2014. (fiction)
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