One of the Arabian peninsula's most spectacular archeological sites, the
beehive tombs at Al Ayn has stood on a hilltop since the bronze age.
The landscape of Sardinia is paradisiacal, but mastic trees gnarled with age and ruins, more than 7,000 '
beehive tombs,' or Nuraghes, tower throughout the island, suggest a hard-earned wisdom.
We then motored down to Mycenae, where 19th century excavations revealed ancient splendors such as the
Beehive Tombs and the Lion's Gate, Europe's oldest known monument, the remains of Agamemnon's Palace and then to Epidaurus, site of a 2,300year-old open air theater which has excellent acoustics, as demonstrated by our tour guide who asked us to go up to the highest seats of the amphitheater to listen to the crisp sound of her tearing a piece of paper several rows below.
The poem appears to propose, and demand of us, a sorting: If Umbria, stigmata, and the two-dimensional are on one side, Charlottesville, Byzantium, and the
beehive tombs of the Mycenaeans appear to be on the other.
The consecrated dome in Western architecture can be traced back to corbelled Myceneaen
beehive tombs, then forward to Greek tholoi, the Roman Pantheon, Hagia Sophia, the Dome of the Rock, and on through churches, mosques, mausoleums, and memorials from San Marco and the Blue Mosque of Tabriz to the Taj Majal and the Jefferson Memorial.