THE SILENT CITIES: Civilizations Lost and Found

Offered here is a Cook's Tour of seven of the lesser known ancient cities which have been excavated--Harappa and Mohenjo-daro in the Indus Valley, Akhetaten which flourished during the worship of Aten, Hatti the land of the Hittites, the capital city of the ancient Shang dynasty, the home of the Etruscans, the stone city of Zimbabwe on the Zambezi River, and Tiahuanaca in Peru. How each of these sites was found and uncovered is dealt with in brief. The text is strongest on the descriptions of the physical appearance of the cities and their contents and there are some good explanations of what can be deduced from the methods of archaeology, but the competent, enthusiastic descriptions indicate the wide range of ancient civilizations with these rarely encountered examples.