The View
A walk down the ages to the Seven Wonders of the World, with historian, author and TV presenter Bettany Hughes.
YOU PROBABLY HAVEN’T heard of Egeria the Pilgrim. But when I ask Bettany Hughes which historical figure she’d most like to go for a walk with, Egeria is the one.
“She is an absolute hero of mine,” replies Bettany. “We don’t know very much about Egeria, but we think she was a nun who lived in the 4th century, and she is probably the first person ever to have written an account of a pilgrimage.
“In a series of extraordinary journeys – mostly by herself and mostly on foot – she travelled across Europe, Africa and Asia to dozens of sacred sites, and wrote this beautiful account for the benefit of the ‘dear ladies’ in her convent back home.
It’s breathtaking. I bet she would be an amazing person to walk with.” It’s little surprise that Egeria would appeal to one of our most intrepid and cherished TV historians.
Professor Bettany Hughes is a classical scholar with a passion for the ancient world, and her TV shows specialise in exploring the stories of the ancient Greeks, Trojans, Egyptians, Romans and Mesopotamians in a friendly, accessible and boundlessly enthusiastic style.
What’s also obvious from her programmes is how much she loves walking. Almost all her PTCs (tellyspeak for Piece to Camera, but you knew that) involve Bettany hiking through a sensational landscape in the footsteps of emperors, pharaohs, warriors and architects.
“I don’t think I can fully connect with the characters of the past unless I’ve walked where they walked,” she explains.
“And let’s face it, in the ancient past, pretty much everyone was a walker. Okay, the richest folk could travel by horse and cart or boat, but most people got around on foot. And even the richest people would walk to understand their landscape – especially if they wanted to build something spectacular in it.” Spectacular things are the topic of Bettany’s latest book, The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. In it, she tells the stories behind structures such as the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Colossus of Rhodes and the Lighthouse of Alexandria. All but the Great Pyramid are now long gone. But crucial to the creation of all of them, says Bettany, is a fascination with the way in which humans interact with la
