June 02, 2009

Remarkable Religious Structures Reclaimed by Nature. Amazing Buildings Swallowed by the Desert.
posted by homunculus 15 years ago
  • These are fascinating. It's fun to ponder what may lie beneath the shifting sands. Jockey's Ridge, a once-huge dune on North Carolina's Outer Banks, used to eat things regularly especially back in the 60s before it was protected as a park. Houses and at least one miniature golf course were enveloped and my family enjoyed checking on the dune's progress every year. The mini golf course had a large castle whose spires periodically reappeared over the years to the delight of photographers. Sadly, now that development has covered the sands that surround the Ridge, the dunes are no longer being replenished and hence are slowly diminishing, and will doubtless yield a house or two. Not all sand-covered ruins are ancient, however.
  • Nothing is so evocative as a sand-covered ruin...
  • That's one down side to living in the Pacific Northwest. We have tons of old buildings being reclaimed by nature, but a huge mound of Himalayan blackberry vines just isn't that poetic.
  • Roman Wall Blues Over the heather the wet wind blows, I've lice in my tunic and a cold in my nose. The rain comes pattering out of the sky, I'm a Wall soldier, I don't know why. The mist creeps over the hard grey stone, My girl's in Tungria; I sleep alone. Aulus goes hanging around her place, I don't like his manners, I don't like his face. Piso's a Christian, he worships a fish; There'd be no kissing if he had his wish. She gave me a ring but I diced it away; I want my girl and I want my pay. When I'm a veteran with only one eye I shall do nothing but look at the sky. --W.H. Auden