Lost Cities by Mari Eckstein Gower

When I visited the Roman ruins at Ostia Antiqua I was amazed by how "alive" this ancient city felt to me. Even the buildings which were only fragments of the original foundation seemed to have stories begging to be told. I was particularly impressed by the mosaic floors and beautiful brickwork on the walls. I started thinking of how much the ruins of a civilization can (and cannot) tell us about a culture. Then there are the places of legend; Atlantis, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the minotaur's Labyrinth, lost tombs of the Pharaohs—which have captured imaginations for centuries. Using some of the mosaic creatures from the Ostia mosaics, I imagined a voyage of discovery, search for those lost places.