Ancient Ruins

You cannot travel around the Mediterranean without seeing ruins of the ancient civilizations that once called this area their home. People in Greece, Turkey, Egypt, and Italy are very proud of their ruins that let others know about how ancient their history really is. We in the United States have an extremely brief history compared to the people in that part of the world. Some civilizations, such as the ancient Egyptian civilization, is even mentioned in the Old Testament!

In Greece, the Acropolis, which houses the Parthenon, and the Temple of Zeus teaches us how advanced these people were. Today, the Greeks are so proud of their history that they are spending a lot of money trying to reinforce these old ruins so they won't crumble into dust. The ruins of Ephesus tell us that people even around the time of Christ had very advanced medical care, shopping, entertainment, and knowledge. Egypt is very proud of the Roman ruins that they have excavated; in fact, they found an old ampitheatre when they were getting ready to build the foundation of a new building, so they abandoned the new structure and excavated the entire ampitheatre, and made it a place for viewing. Athens stopped building an air vent for a subway when builders found ruins and now they have the ruins on display.

Americans do not seem to be as proud of their historical buildings. For example, the Birmingham train depot, a magnificent structure, was torn down to make room for an expressway. The Birmingham News building was torn down for a parking lot. What will Americans have to show future generations about their ancient history?