Sunday 9 November 2008

The old wall

western side of wall hania chania

I often talk about the old town, the old port, the old wall of Hania, but I've never really shown you a photo of what the old wall actually looks like. The town centre was once enclosed within a square wall, surrounded by a moat. Some parts of the wall survive more or less intact, other parts are left in crumbling ruins, while the moat, which was never actually used as it was intended, has often been used as a car park, a football pitch, or a rubbish dump.


(The eastern side, which houses an open-air theatre; the western side, looking from the top of the wall down onto the moat, also bordered by the hill where the town was built)

western side of wall hania chania
(restoring the wall)

Work started about a year ago to restore the wall to its former glory. Houses that were built on the foundations of the wall, including an old hotel, were torn down to make way for its restoration. The wall represents tangible evidence of the history of the town. It was built in the 16th century by the Venetians who conquered Crete.

Answer to yesterday's quiz: donkey dung.

10 comments:

  1. Thanks for these views! These pictures really help us to imagine better the situation.
    How wonderful that the wall is being seriously restored! The men working below show just how tall it is.
    So your wall is the same age as the upper part of Jerusalem's. But ours was built by Suleiman the Magnificent and the Ottoman Turks.
    Long live local history!

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  2. That must be called living history. I'm glad that they take care of it.

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  3. History is so important to humanity, though i sometimes fear that we'll never learn! All those wars... Thanks for your visit to my Remembrance Day. The poppies were from a Norwegian garden.

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  4. I'm glad to hear that your city's restoring the wall — it's so much a part of your history! Thank you for this very informative post!

    The thumbnail of your photo in the CDP portal isn't updating! It's stuck on the root photo!

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  5. Beautiful photos. Thanks for sharing! :)

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  6. Interesting piece of history. Thanks for your visits to my blog.

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  7. that's so cool. :O to be near something so old...

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  8. Fascinating post. Now I know more about the Venetians, and Crete. Thank you!
    Aloha from Waikiki-

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  9. I am glad you have people in the final picture - I had no idea of the scale until seeing that.

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