Monday, March 12, 2007

My little trip through Albania (3)


Our next stop was Butrint, a place of an extraordinary beauty.
The ancient city of Butrint is half an hour drive from Saranda, passing through the village Ksamili. Butrint occupies a small peninsula between the Straits of Corfu and Lake Butrint. Inhabited since prehistoric times, Butrint has Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Venetian monuments. By the legend Butrint was founded by exiles fleeing the fall of Troy.
As said it the leaflet of the National Park – Butrint is a microcosm of Mediterranean history, representing in its all phases of development, the rise and fall of all the great empires that dominated the region. Therefore it's possible to see monuments in a span of over 2000 years, from the Hellenistic temples dating from 4th century BC to the Ottoman defences from the 19th century.



The site is in good state, surrounded by forest which gives enough shade and makes the walk through Butrint the more enjoyable and more dreamlike.
Our timing for visiting was excellent as the nice weather created a spring atmosphere and awakened the vegetation, so most of the place was covered by hundreds of little, white flowers.
Having seen a lot of archaeological sites both in Italy and Greece I can claim that Butrint is among the most magical ones.

To be continued...



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

it is very nice

belle_fleur said...

yeap! that place is magical in its own way and beauty!