探索频道英语听力 消失的法老城市15

The modern day town of Qantir is a jumbled collection of ramshackle buildings typical of a delta town today. Judging by its central position on the scan. It is almost certainly sitting slap-bang on the top of Ramesses II’s palace.

According to accounts of the time, Ramesses the Great’s palace was vast. The heart of the city adorned with monuments celebrating his rule and longevity. The outside walls would have dazzled painted white and decorated with glaze tiles.

As incredible as the scan of Piramesse is, all it provides us with is the footprints of the city’s once impressive architecture. But we can get a glimpse of what it must once have looked like from other sites where Ramesses the Great’s influence was felt.

“The vast majority of the temple the Ramesses II’s time are now lost. However when one looks at the the great pylon he erected at Luxor Temple, when you look at some of its constructions at Karnak, and also its slightly later temple Madinat Habu. On gets a flavor of what the buildings that once dominated the city of Piramesse might have looked like.”

With such a large expanse of the city laid bare, the scan had one more secret to reveal. These bare areas showed where lakes, canals and waterways ran through Piramesse fed by the Nile. This final piece of the jigsaw completed the picture and showed just how unique Piramesse truly was. It contained huge temples, palatial riverside villas of the wealthy. Winding cramp streets of less well-heeled neighborhoods. And the site of the palace of the pharaoh himself. But it was Ramesses the Great’s choice of location within the Nile Delta that made the city so unique. With canals fed by the waters of the Nile, Piramesses was quite simply the Venice of its day.