subject: Tower Legends - Legends about famous towers from the ancient world [print this page] Tower Legends - Legends about famous towers from the ancient world
The Bible tells of a remote time when men journeyed from the East and found a plain in the land of Shinar. . . . "And they said to one another, 'Come, let us build us a city, and a tower whose top may reach heaven" - and we all know what happened to that tower.
Centuries after the building of the Tower of Babel, an Arab poet, El Deraoui, wrote of another tower, the Pharos, the great lighthouse off the northern coast of Egypt, "On its height a dome enshadowed me and thence I saw my friends the stars. I thought the sea
below me was a cloud and that I had set up my tent in the midst of the heavens."
When travellers from Africa's interior made the journey North down the Nile, at Aswan, the entrance to Egypt, they were greeted by an impressive facade of temples and buildings sitting astride Elephantine island, mid-stream of the Nile. Whereas travellers approaching from the north would only see an island with typical vegetation and habitation. The buildings and temples at the southern end of the island were meant to impress upon those entering Egypt that they were now in the presence of greatness, entering a place of great strength. Indeed the temples and buildings all the way down the Nile only reinforced this belief.
Since ancient times towers have made a poetic appeal if only because their presence spoke of strength, intellegence and power. Towers of many kinds, in all ages and in all countries, have met varying needs. There have been watchtowers, cathedral towers, clock towers, bell towers, towers to commemorate victories, towers to honour the living and towers to celebrate the dead. Around many of the towers, legends have clung - some of these legends are very well known. Towers will always stand midway between awe and fear, fact and poetry, the legends relating to them, more often than not, look in these two directions.
This book has brought together 11 such legends from the ancient world with a desire to record some of the characteristic tales that blend with a few of the noble towers of the earth.
33% of the Publisher's profit from the sale of this book will be donated to charity.
For more information, a table of contents or to sample the contents, go to
http://www.abelapublishing.com/Towers.html
To view the "Anthologies and Collections" collection follow this link http://www.abelapublishing.com/FairyTaleCollections.html
