Views of the World, Acropolis, Athens, Greece

The nice thing about these on going, from time to time, collections, is that there's always something to fall back on.  Anyway, I've had these tinted postcards for decades, and by clicking on Views of the World in labels, the others can be seen.

The Acropolis is actually the mountain top, not the colonnaded building.  That's the Parthenon.  Construction began on the best known buildings of the Acropolis in the second half of the 5th century B.C. under the leadership of Athenian statesman, Pericles.  The Parthenon was pretty much intact until 1687 when it was damaged during an artillery bombardment during the Morean War between Venice and The Ottoman Empire.  From 1801 to 1812, Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin stole many of the marble sculptures from The Acropolis.  He was the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, (Greece was part of the empire, at the time.)  and may have had permission to take them.  Nevertheless, I'm sticking with theft as a description.  He sold them to The British Museum.

Hotel Semiramis, Damascus, Syria, 1955

I admit it.  As postcards go, this one isn't all that impressive.  But, when I saw that it was from Syria, I thought I should pick it up.  The Hotel Semiramis is still in business and, as of right now, taking reservations.  Of course, how much longer that will last is any one's guess.  I've got a funny feeling that a good portion of Damascus will be in ruins before the last of the Assad family flees or is killed.

Printed on the back, "Damascus-Semiramis Hotel"  "Reproduction Interdite Photo Deposee"  Vraie Photographie Printed in Lebanon"  "Photo Sport-Bab Edriss-Souk Seyour-Beyrouth"  The French shouldn't be too surprising.  During the first world war, France and Great Britain publicly supported the Arab revolt, but secretly negotiated the Sykes-Picot Agreement that divided the non Turkish parts of the Ottoman Empire into French and British spheres of interest.  In a nutshell, modern day Lebanon and Syria became de facto French colonies. Lebanon and Syria wouldn't gain their independence until 1948.

There are a number of Semiramis hotels in the eastern Mediterranean and Arab states.