SJ8 - Paul's Bridge and Appollonia

 Today we made the trek to some significant archaeological sites in Albania.  The landscape of this beautiful country reminds me of the Santa Monica Mountains in some ways. The big difference is that instead of oak trees there are huge groves of olive trees dotting the landscape. The other big difference is that everything is so lush and green.  If we got a good couple months of steady, light rain in the Santa Monicas, they might look like this beautiful rolling landscape.

The triple-arched stone bridge you see behind us, according to local tradition, was part of the route used by the Apostle Paul as he traveled into this region on his missionary journeys.  In Romans 15 17-19, Paul writes: 

Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done— by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.

The ancient region of Illycrium is now part of modern Albania. This is the same area where this bridge exists. It is also along the route whre the anciet Egnatian Way ran as it passed through what is Albania today.

The above picture shows Tom and Tami standing on the bridge with the modern village behind them. It was stirring to be here and imagine what this view must have looked like and what the inhabitants were like as Paul crossed this bridge on his journey of sharing the Gospel in his day.  

Our next stop was the ancient ruins of the city of Apollonia.  This city set on a hill served as a Roman outpost during the 2nd and 3rd centuries.  Some of the archaeological finds here date back as far as the 5th century BC.

 Apollonia had two theaters and a temple to the goddess Diana.

In the photo below you can see the pillars of the portico of a large building which was likely the political center of the city. The photo on the left shows what remains of shops and columns which ran along each side of the main thoroughfare coming into the city center.

Appollonia had most of its treasures carried away to other locations during the years that Albnia was under communist rule. For this reason, sections of it have been reconstructed.  Careful archaeological work was not done here until after  the fall of the communist regime in 1944. The main columns of the portico in the city center was in severe decay and collapsing.  In 1978, they were carefully reconstructed, adding materials found in the region to sections of original columns, in order to restore it as faithfully as possible.

It  is fascinating to walk through these ruins or across Paul's bridge and let your imagination journey back in time.  At the same time it is a bit disappointing that it is not more well preserved and some is a reproductions rather than the original city as it was.  Archaeological work continues here today.  In sections we could not visit, there is word of an even larger theater and multiple other finds.  All in all, this was a great day of discovery.  It only whets our appetites for what we hope to see when we travel to Greece next week!