Grace Stinson- Second Reflection

During the second half of the trip, I was really impressed by the palace of Knossos in Crete. A lot of my interest in the trip came from the ancient history of Greece and I learned that this palace was especially ancient. Not only that, but it was so well preserved for something so insanely old. Especially at the museum, as well as a few things on site, the baths, vases, jewelry, and wall paintings are still seen today and that absolutely blows my mind. Additionally, the palace had impressive piping from the mountains which is one thing that makes it so hard for me to wrap my head around the sophistication of these ancient civilizations. Something I learned while on site, although I think I already knew it, but at least was reminded of it, was that the palace was Minoan and Minoans are not Greek. I thought that was interesting because it ties into Greek myths like the one of the minotaur and labyrinth. I just find this really fascinating because it’s a representation of how much history ties together, whether things are directly related or not.

In addition to Crete, I was insanely impressed by the ancient library in Ephesus. The structure still stood so tall and was so absolutely beautiful. Apparently it was a very impressive and important library and the structure definitely goes to show that. It really stood out to me because of how the columns were still standing tall unlike many we had seen previously during the trip. Overall, I was definitely most impressed in general by the things that were most well preserved because it blows my mind how something so old can still exist.