Tag Archives: Nature

Hermitage of the Archangel in Ireland

Summer weather was at its best while we were driving south along the Ring of Kerry, which is also a stage of the famous Wild Atlantic Way with sea-salted shores and blowing winds.

The scenery was breath-taking – it was like stepping into a picture book. Our destination, the Skellig Islands, lie 12 km off the Kerry coast and the boats there depart from Portmagee and Ballinskelligs. The Islands are actually two very steep rocks, protruding proudly out of the wild roaring Atlantic. Skellig Michael, which peaks at 217 metres above sea level, was the home of a group of 13 monks in the sixth century AD. This monastic settlement became then designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1996. The smaller island, Little Skellig, which is a haven to various seabirds, has the second largest gannet colony in the world.

“You can do Ireland in a day, but you really only do Valentia properly in a lifetime”[1]


[1] Karen O’Connell (2018). “Explore Valentia”. In:  Valentia Island. Come on in. Valentia Island Development Company.

We had booked our B&B on Valentia Island – one of Ireland’s most picturesque westerly points. It lies off the Iveragh Peninsula in the southwest of County Kerry and is accessible either by the Maurice O’Neill Memorial Bridge from Portmagee and by car ferry from Renard Point, Cahersiveen, which operates from April to October. The ferry crossing takes around 5 minutes. After a night-sea journey from Wales, and having travelled across a large piece of Ireland, from Rosslare, we felt only like going to bed. B&B (like the very few houses scattered around the island) was an isolated and charming place of the home-stay atmosphere of remote villages.

Out of reach …

We were planning to take our Skellig Michael landing tour in one day and I was praying just for god weather conditions as the landing on the rock is always subject to this natural factor and the Irish weather is really unpredictable… We arrived in Ireland at the end of July having had the visit booked already at the beginning of May, as one must do it much in advance before heading off to the Skelligs. It was in 2015, just before the Star Wars’ Episode VIII was filmed at its top and Luke Skywalker won its place on the island, removing its real and fascinating characters in the shadow. Due to that, nowadays it is even more difficult to land on the island as there are hordes of Star Wars’ fans and thus government restrictions are applied now more than ever, not to mention a very high price for this major tourist attraction that could be the highlight of every holiday.

One of the most fascinating destinations in Ireland. Skellig Michael. Copyright©Archaeotravel.

First of all, tours with landing can only be taken from May to September. All bookings are usually taken online with no waiting list. If there is a cancellation the spots automatically become available again on the booking page, which happens very rarely. There is one trip per day for this tour departing at approximately 9:00 am daily, usually from Portmagee Marina (depending on the tour operator) if the sea and weather conditions are suitable. As I have mentioned, availability for this tour is very limited so you really need to book well, well, well long … in advance: there is a maximum of four persons per booking and the tour itself is not suitable for children under 12 years of age.

When I am looking at the availability now, I can see the whole season is nearly booked out (there is only one date available!) Also you would require a reasonable amount of fitness to undertake climbing the rock at its summit. In case your boat tour is cancelled, you can take instead a tour around two islands but without landing …

In the morning of the tour day, our B&B’s hostess welcomed us with a wide smile assuring us the boats were going to departure. I also responded with a beaming smile and came back to my full Irish breakfast composed of crumbled eggs, fried sausages, crunchy toasts and milky butter. I had already phoned my tour operator and he assured me the weather would be perfect for our journey.

‘Would you like some pudding?’, – the hostess asked. ‘I’ve got delicious black and white pudding if you wish’.

‘I’d love to’ – my friend said in Polish – ‘I feel like having something sweet …’

Pudding is a type of food that can be either a dessert or a savoury dish, which comes from French boudin, meaning ‘small sausage’. My friend who shudders at any kind of red meat definitely was for the first option, whereas the hostess had meant the second one. When my friend  finally found out, she refused point-blank to try anything of that kind.

Off we go …

Good walking shoes, mostly hiking boots with an ankle support, and waterproof clothes are essential for the tour!  The boats are small fishing vessels and the open sea crossing takes approximately 45 minutes.

Office of Public Works (2014). “Visiting Skellig Michael – A Safety Guide”. Source: Youtube.

Rough seas make you get soaked to the skin, even if a day is full of sunshine. The boats are being constantly hit by high waves and so it’s quite unstable as the boats are rocking all the time. Hence it may be a very difficult experience for people who are prone to seasickness. The site is also difficult to walk around, as well as may pose problems for anyone with a fear of heights. There are no visitors’ facilities of any kind on the island, such as toilets or a shelter. This is a bare and high rock exposed to the weather.  Make sure you bring with you enough food and water. All your stuff should be packed in one small backpack to allow your hands to be free while climbing up and down the steep staircases.

A camera should be with you but only hung around your neck. Sun cream is also very important. Even if the sky seems cloudy, there’s enough sunlight reflecting from the water to cause sunburns. While our cruise to the Skelligs, the sky was completely covered in grey clouds. On the island there was already the sun and on our way back I got a strong sunburn on my face. After drinking a pint of Guinness in the end, my face looked like a red berry on the background of green Ireland. Well, it’s not to discourage you, just let you know what you can expect … One more thing! Once landed on the island beware of seagulls and albatross hunting for meal! It can be your sandwich or a cookie you have just grabbed in your mouth …  You may have a literally close encounter with a huge bird flying onto your face. As I did myself!

Without a doubt, one of the most graceful and friendliest bird visiting the Skelligs is a puffin. They arrive and breed on the island from March to early August. It’s a cute, colourful seabird with a huge, yellow-reddish beak and curious eyes. While the birds are walking around, they look like black-white balls rolling down the hill. It’s really worth seeing!

Skellig Michael
Reaching the Skelligs by Boat (statue in Cahersiveen). The “Irish Currach” recommend tar-covered leather-skinned ships as timber boats would easily break apart in the Ocean. Photo and caption source: Skellig Gift Store (2017). “Archangel Michael: Saint of the Skelligs”. In: Skellig Gift Store.

Just before our heading off, there was a warm shower. I sat by the side of my friends, back to other people. We were eight altogether, not counting two men, probably fishermen driving the boat. Although it was a rather wet and rough journey, I really enjoyed it. This is one of these moments you may really feel a unique atmosphere of ancient Ireland. We were on the open sea and our crossing seemed to go on forever. I also thought about ancient monks and pilgrims who must have made just the same distance in simple boats – coracles, and without modern navigation devices down the centuries. I wondered how many of them had survived.

The Loneliest Place on Earth

Two black pinnacles of pointed rocks thrust out into the Atlantic Ocean. The smaller of these two is known as Lesser Skellig, which is home to a great number of gannets, and grey seals lying airily on their backs and enjoying the warmth of the summer sun. Visitors cannot land on it as it is the birds’ reservation. The larger island and our destination is called Great Skellig or Skellig Michael. The latter name probably originates from a legend saying that St. Patrick once saw the Archangel Michael hovering over the island. Here, in the wilderness of the Atlantic Ocean and isolated from the comfort of the mainland, early Christian hermits lived for centuries fighting with natural forces and invaders coming from the sea – the Vikings.

Peter Cox (Photography) (2017) “The Wonder of Skellig Michael”. Source: Youtube.

Their harsh life many a time is similar led by Christian monks in Egypt who started this kind of an isolated existence, dedicated to God – monasticism. I believe that in their desire to imitate the lives of the Egyptian Fathers, Irish monks found their substitute for the desert in the sea and ocean. On numerous islands like Aran, Inishkea North, Duvillan, Iona, or Skellig Michael, Christian Celtic monks were looking for their own desert. Just like an Egyptian desert of the Coptic hermits, an ocean is huge, desolated and deprived of sweet water. On the other side, it must have seemed attractive, unknown, inhabited by fantastic monsters, and so became an escape from the earthly world. The ocean has been a symbol of trial, weakness, heroism, and as in the unfriendly desert, the help of God becomes indispensable there.

The waters were calm on the open sea but as we were getting closer to the rising pyramid of the rock, the waves became stronger fiercely crushing against the shore. Our drives moored the boat properly and we carefully climbed out of it. The rock-solid land beneath my feet seemed to jump up and down as much as our boat. I looked upwards at this soaring rocky sanctuary covered in a green coat, and I could just felt the loneliness of this place fulfilled with the ghosts of the wandering monks.

Soon we reached the staircase of ancient rock-cut steps made by the hermits and polished by countless pilgrims’ feet. There are over 600 uneven and steep stairs leading up to the monastery. I felt my great respect for the monks who chose this remote island for their home. It called for extraordinary self-discipline and great courage. As modern pilgrims, we entered into the monks’ enclosure almost suspended in the sky. The views were stunning!

Soon we reached the staircase of ancient rock-cut steps made by the hermits and polished by countless pilgrims’ feet. Skellig Michael. Copyright©Archaeotravel.

We passed through a low archway breaking the silence of the past. A small monastic garden sheltered around with rough stones. Another archway led us higher to the tiny chapel and a cluster of dry-stone beehive huts look like bulbs or swallows’ nests clinging to the rock.  These extraordinary shelters are circular from the outside but square in the inside. Perhaps the hermitage on the Skellig has preserved the original pattern of monastic buildings, existing once at monastic sites on the mainland. The beehive huts resemble the stle of stone constructions of the neolithic period typical to insular tradition.

However,  after some researchers, the shape of these monastic structures was reminiscent of the monastic areas in Egypt. Desert fathers built similar huts in the shape of bee hives, most often from silt, initially in isolation, later probably in order to provide themselves with greater security and mutual support, they began to gather in small communities, putting together a number of such structures. Before the belly-like huts became the home of the hermits, they had been first simple houses. Similar constructions are traditional for the desert regions of the Middle East and for millennia they have been used as such by the rural community, such as by one in the territories of today’s Syria, in the town of Sarouj.

A cluster of dry-stone beehive huts look like bulbs or swallows’ nests clinging to the rock. Skellig Michael. Copyright©Archaeotravel.

There are dry-stone cells, a square oratory, a church dedicated to St. Michael, two small wells for collecting fresh water, and a miniature graveyard of those who lived and died on the island. I learnt that there were apparently thirteenth hermits occupying the monastic sites, which is a symbolical number that stands for twelve apostles led by Jesus Christ.  One legend – a treasury of knowledge on the past – ascribes the founding of the monastery to St. Fionan in the sixth century. Still the first historical reference goes back to the fifth century and says of the King of West Munster being pursued by Oengus, King of Cashel. The former fled to Scellec (Sceillic), which means a steep rock. Hence the name f the islands. In the following years, there were three recorded attacks on the monastery by the  Vikings who put many monks to death. During one of them, the Abbot, called Eitgall was chained up and starved to death to amuse his captors. Some monks escaped slaughter by hiding in rocky crevices, still they were left on the rock without their coracles burnt by the leaving Vikings.

The beehive huts resemble the style of stone constructions of the neolithic period typical to insular tradition. Skellig Michael. Copyright©Archaeotravel.

To my surprise, one story says that King Olaf Tryggvason of Norway met there a hermit who impressed him so much that he became baptized. After his return to Scandinavia, he is said to have introduced Christianity there before he died in the year 1000 AD. The Skellig monastery had greatly flourished since the sixth century and lasted famous till the twelfth century, when the Celtic Church was overtaken by the Church in Rome and the meaning of monasticism started long ago by Coptic hermits ceased. What is more, around 1200 AD, the climate had changed. Cold weather and fierce storms made the island even more inhospitable than before. As a result the monks moved to Ballinskelligs Bay on the mainland leaving behind their desolate rock.

There are dry-stone cells, a square oratory, a church dedicated to St. Michael, two small wells for collecting fresh water, and a miniature graveyard of those who lived and died on the island. Skellig Michael. Copyright©Archaeotravel.

It was not until the late tenth century or early eleventh as the monastery is first referred to as Skellig Michael in the Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters. Probably, the small church dedicated to St Michael was built at that time. Its architecture is thus different from the earlier dry-stone constructions built by the monks. It is believed to have had a hollow stone of miraculous properties fixed to its wall. Some scholars consider the Libellus de Fundacione Ecclesie Consecrati Petri from the mid thirteenth century to be one of the most important written sources on Skellig Michael. The manuscript originates from the Consecratus Petrus, an Irish Monastery in Regensburg, in Bavaria. Since the seventh century on, the Irish monks had been travelling to the mainland, founded monastic sites and preached … but it is another story … Anyway, the manuscript reveals a tale from Irish Monks in medieval Germany. It provides a context for its dedication to Archangel Michael.

Skellig Michael
Anonymous : Victorious St Michael over the devil represented as the dragon. Image source: Skellig Gift Store (2017). “Archangel Michael: Saint of the Skelligs”. In: Skellig Gift Store.

As the story goes Ireland suffered under a plague of demons, dragons, serpents and toads. People called upon St Patrick who banished the demons to the highest mountain (Skellig), cutting off all access for safety. Still, the evil was still present there. St Patrick then raised his arms in invocation and suddenly, the skies illuminated. Out in the Ocean, on top of Great Skellig, stood Archangel Michael with the host of angels surrounding him. Angelic forces battled with the demons and eventually cast them into the Ocean. Eventually, the angels returned to Great Skellig, and from the peak, Archangel Michael ascended back to heaven, leaving his miracle-working shield behind.

It was the early Christian age of Skellig. The pagan one is even more hidden in the misty legends of Irish history. Unfortunately, such records are usually treated as purely mythical, without historical value.  According to them, the fabled rulers of Ireland – Tuatha de Danaan, once used their magical powers to overcome new  invaders (1400 BC). They caused a shipwreck and brought death to two sons of the invaders’ leader – Milesius. Skellig became a burial place to one of the brothers, who was called Irr. Another legendary visitor was Daire Domhain – the King of the World, who stayed on Skellig in around 200 AD before attacking the mainland. Irish stories are full of legends of old and new invaders, of victors and defeated.

Skellig Michael is the last of three islands dedicated to St Michael I have seen. All of them lie on the same invisible path, aligned to the direction of 60 degrees NW-SE. The so-called Apollo/St Michael Axis stretches further south-east to run  not only across the tree islands but also two Archangel’s monasteries suspended high in the mountains, and finally reaches the sites in Greece, dedicated to Apollo, the pagan counterpart of Archangel Michael.

Featured image: Little Skellig seen from the Skellig Michael. Copyright©Archaeotravel.

By Joanna
Faculties of English Philology, History of Art and Archaeology.
University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland; Ecole France Langue, Paris; Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, Poland; University College Dublin, Ireland.

Continue reading Hermitage of the Archangel in Ireland

Cypriot Heart in the Hands of the Goddess

At first sight it seems to be a dazzlingly white, dry and rugged rock thrown into the deep blue sea. Then comes response to other senses, especially to smell. And the same voice keeps echoing: “it’s enough to breathe in and get healthy.” A vibrating aroma of various spices is merging together with a sweet taste of the air and salty wind. Yeah, I know well that blissful feeling filling my body and soul every time I am travelling around the Mediterranean region.

Many a time I need to screw up my eyes because of the burning sun, looking for a shadow or for a tiny cup of strong Cypriot coffee or tea, under a huge parasol. Another time, it is enough to plunge under the surface of crystal clear water and admire gleams of the sun dancing on its sandy bottom, creating flickering geometric patterns. I’ve heard Cyprus is perfect for taking first steps in scuba diving. Probably next time I’ll go for it at Ayia Napa sea caves … but only if it happens to be in Cyprus again…   

Cyprus Divided and United

Before I get here I was struggling to assign the island to the right continent. Placed just between Europe, Asia and Africa, it’s often described as a part of Eurasia. Which I guess in some ways means a good compromise.

Nicosia. Copyright©Archaeotravel.

The island country is divided, or let’s say, torn apart into two parts. There’s the Republic of Cyprus in the south and the Republic of Northern Cyprus. The former is Greek, the latter is Turkish, and not recognized by the rest of the world but Turkey. Cyprus formally belongs to the European Union. Nevertheless, the northern part just in theory. The border between two nations, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, is known as the Green Line and comes across Nicosia, the capital of the divided country. The formal division is even believed to be one of main tourist attractions. Maybe it is so, but for me it’s less than attractive. For some the line seems even artificial. All these mutual agreements and disagreements seem too tangled to me.

Here are some examples: Cyprus belongs to the European Union but not entirely; whereas Cypriots from the both sides and Europeans can cross the Green Line just waving their ID to the guard, the Turkish are not allowed to do so, still they can come to the northern part without visa. Turkey does not recognize the Republic of Cyprus in the south, the rest of the world pretends there is nothing such as the Republic of Northern Cyprus. Despite that unusual circumstances, the whole island fully and happily exists on the map and ordinary people from the opposite sides usually get on well much better than their politicians or governments.

After the Turkish invasion a great movement of Cypriots started: Greek Cypriots ran away from the north to the south, while Turkish Cypriots did the same deliberately the other way round, or it happened that British soldiers took them in trucks by force from the south northwards. Both sides left behind their family lands and houses. Even today, when the border is open, some Cypriots refuse to cross it as they reject the fact their country was cut in two. Passing by a village in the southwest I see a desolate mosque just next to a Christian church full of life and people and I’m surprised when I hear that Cypriots from there take care of the mosque in hope their Muslim neighbors may someday come back.

Actually, I enjoy the whole island equally and I take just the same pleasure from meeting and talking to people either from the south or north. Apart from the language and religion, they share similar lifestyle; they love their island, are attached to their families, dine out together for hours, laugh, play vibrant music, dance, and celebrate every single moment. But maybe I’m wrong and I am unable to notice differences that are striking to Cypriots …

Timeline of Cypriot History

Like in many places worldwide, Cyprus has been settled, invaded, conquered, occupied and struggled about throughout ages. Its beginnings come down to the tenth millennium BC. Cyprus was subsequently home to Neolithic cultures, Mycenaean Greeks, the Assyrians, Egyptians, and Persians till the fourth century BC, when it was overcome by famous Alexander the Great. Soon after the island was ruled by Ptolemaic Egypt, followed by the Classical and Eastern Roman Empire, Arab caliphates, the French Lusignan dynasty and the Venetians. And finally, in the sixteenth century it was sized by the Ottoman powers. In the nineteenth century the British came in turn and the island was formally annexed by Britain in 1914. British military bases are still here, on the piece of land where no tourist coach can stop.

Such a mixture of complex flourishing societies gave basis to multiplied legends, stories and superstitions. All of them added some essential elements to a collective bag of the Cypriot history. The final result is a unique cultural blend offering an unforgettable experience to archaeologists, historians, and tourists.

A Female Fertility Deity

The island itself looks like … a marble Cycladic abstract figurine in the shape of violin that is believed to represent a female fertility deity. And so Cyprus is famous for being dedicated to one of the most famous Greek goddesses, Aphrodite. As the synonym of beauty, sexuality and fertility, the goddess is believed to have been born out of the sea foam on the Cypriot coast, just south of Paphos. Aphrodite’s birthplace is known as Petra tou Romiou, also referred to as Aphrodite’s Rock, and it is surely one of the most charming landmarks in the Cypriot landscape. I have read that at sunset couples in love come there to contemplate its romantic landscape; at their feet seawater crashing against high rocks foams and glistens in the light of the auroras.

Near the coast filled with little polished stones of various colours, there is a huge rock emerging from the sea, with smaller ones around it. By all accounts, wherever the newly born goddess, Aphrodite, put her foot on the shore while taking her first steps on, she left behind a track of stones in the shape of heart. If you find any and then offer it to somebody you love, they will never leave you and stay with you forever. When I reached the famous Aphrodite’s Rock I didn’t mean to look for any hearts of stone, but I felt as if enchanted by this magic place and finally I found myself out there bending over and tossing stones around in an effort to try my luck. Finally I picked up one out of a towering pile. It was a heart … well … at least it was similar to one. Some tourists bend under the loads of stones taken away from Aphrodite’s beach. With a first glance, they all look like hearts but long after the goddess’ magic stops working, they turn out to be just shapeless pieces of rock. Or maybe I do not believe in enough … Suddenly I got angry with myself. How a man can be so easily deceived with a bunch of superstitions. I launched my heart stone with all of my might to the sea and I said in thoughts to beautiful Aphrodite  : „Keep it for yourself!”

A giant wave rose up in between the rocks and fiercely crashed against my back. Aphrodite’s beach, Cyprus. Copyright©Archaeotravel.

Nothing happened. The sea was calm and mild with a warm breeze and white-crested waves lapping on the shore. I moved down towards the water. A wave rippled directly beneath my feet and I felt its nicely cold touch on my sunbathed skin. As the sun was shining stronger, I closed my eyes and turned back to the sea, wholly lost in my happy thoughts. And then it happened … A giant wave rose up in between the rocks and fiercely crashed against my back.

Surely one may think it was Aphrodite who replied.

Before I realized what had happened, my friend asked me laughing: ‘Are you OK …?’

Of course, I was … only a little frightened, all wet and entirely surprised with the unexpected attack from the sea.

‘I was going to swim here but only in my swimsuit. Now it makes no sense’.

‘Maybe you should try’, she replied with a smile. ‘Three times round the rock and you will find your true love’.

Aphrodite’s beach, Cyprus. Copyright©Archaeotravel.

‘Well, maybe’, I agreed resigned while trying to pull my wet dress up a bit, as it became quite heavy after having soaked the salty water like a sponge. It’s not a nice feeling when you get a kick from a goddess taking revenge on you.

Actually, some legend has it you need to swim naked and it must be done at night to make your wish come true. Moreover there exist different versions of it; if you make three tours around the rock by swimming, you will fall deeply in love, or be fertile forever, or get younger, or it will bring you good luck. Or maybe all of these at once … Irrespective of which of the circulating legends is correct, the place is surely one of the most worth seeing on the island.

I didn’t find another stone in the shape of heart that day but a few days later I was sitting on another stony shore on the southeast coast of the same island, and while my fingers were playing with warm stones, they picked up one at random. When I saw it, I smiled to the sea. It was “my heart”.

… and yet something more on Cypriot gods

It’s believed that Aphrodite’s cult started during the Mycenaean times. By all accounts, the Greek goddess was brought to the shore of Cyprus on board a shell, to provide its inhabitants with happiness, beauty and fertility. Still she is not the first female deity venerated in Cyprus. Probably she originated from earlier goddesses, such as Mesopotamian Inanna or Ishtar, also widely worshiped on the island. Among all objects one can buy as a souvenir in Cyprus, there are very interesting pieces of silver jewelry for women, namely pendants representing Cypriot cruciform figurines dating back to the Prehistoric and Bronze Age. Tourists have a wide choice of their sizes and variations. I went for such a small copy of the Chalcolithic age deity, commonly known as Idol of Pomos, excavated in the village of the same name, in the northwest of Cyprus, and exhibited in the Archaeological Museum in Nicosia.

The original artifact is made of blue-green picrolite and is represented as wearing a pendant in the form of its own copy, so it is sure once it served as such and was probably used as an amulet or totem. You can also see it displayed on the Cypriot euro coins of one or two euro. At first sight it looks like a cross; the mysterious figure has its arms outstretched and placed perpendicularly to the elongated body. It’s hard to say which sex it represents. All in all, we can admit the figure is sexually ambiguous. Some scholars argue that cylindrical necks and heads are to show phallic symbols.  Risen legs put alongside look like female vulva. Moreover, we also get an impression the figurines’ bodies were deliberately made in the way they can easily “change their sex”. When we once take a look we may recognize the male aspect, another time, the female one. From this point of view they are gender-neutral and may be called hermaphrodites. If it is so, the matter of gender does not come from nowadays but was already present a long time ago. Figurines that contain both, male and female genitalia, are found in the whole Mediterranean region and were produced in numbers, from the Neolithic to Bronze Age, that is to say, at the time when art took strongly abstract forms. I was told that gender neutral figurines from Cyprus bring good luck as they represent the balance between two aspects, and so they let us keep such a balance in our lives.

Some Cypriot woman assured me it really works: ‘If you need evidence of its power … ‘, she said. ‘Just take a look at our flourishing island.’

Featured image: Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) “La nascita di Venere(detail). Public domain. {{PD-US}}. Published by Husky (2009). Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. 

By Joanna
Faculties of English Philology, History of Art and Archaeology.
University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland;
Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, Poland;
University College Dublin, Ireland.

Continue reading Cypriot Heart in the Hands of the Goddess

Paradise Garland of the Islands

Once they just seemed an unattainable dream to me, scattered somewhere in the turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean, now they have become an empirical experience of beauty and mystery.

Pure beauty

The Maldives are composed of 26 atolls, which in turn consist of 1196 small flat islands set on a scaffolding made of coral reefs surrounding underwater volcano peaks. Only 209 of them are inhabited. From above they look like scattered precious stones: emeralds or turquoise stones framed in silver.

Lush vegetation of high and bent coconut palms, bread trees and flowering shrubs decorates them like an untamed green shag. Blue lagoon is spread around each atoll. Its turquoise waters stretch up to the steep edge of the reef, and finally disappear in the depths of the navy blue ocean. Delicate waves are throwing shells of different colours, sizes and shapes, and masses of dead corals, thanks to which you can enjoy the delicate silvery-white sand on the beaches. The air smells of flowers and the ocean.

The fairly stable weather makes the Maldives a perfect place for holidays almost all year round. The best period, however, are the months from January to April. Later, you can experience frequent monsoons, rainfall and quite high humidity with temperature of about 30-35°C. From my own experience I know that in February there are strong winds and violent, tropical rain, which usually lasts about a minute. Certainly, you cannot get bored with the weather, but the Maldives are the most beautiful when the sunshine reflects in the Indian Ocean, and the islands are bathed in the shining turquoise waters and white sand.

Hotels-Islands

The archipelago of islands forms a state called the Republic of Maldives, which is inhabited by about 280,000 people. It lies just 2.5 meters above sea level, making it the most flat and lowest-lying country in the world. Its capital is the city of Malé grown on the atoll of the same name. Velana International Airport receives hordes of tourists from around the world every year. Tourism is an important source of income for this corner of the world. Thousands of motor boats and hydrofoils filled with tourists are going in various directions from the airport to luxury resorts scattered on emerald islands.

Luxurious hotels-islands seem a fairy-tale asylum, and an earthly paradise free from worldly worries. The Maldivian Government does not wish to have a far-reaching interference of this “holiday world” in the natives’ life. Although trips to Malé and other islands inhabited by Maldivians are organized, these are only tourist trails. Most visitors spend their time sunbathing, splashing in the lagoon, snorkeling or diving. Families with children set out to meet dolphins, and avid fishermen leave at night or at pale dawn for fruitful fishing. The inhabitants of the Maldives are considered friendly and kind, but they can be found rarely within the resorts.

Tourist workers come predominantly from India or Sri Lanka. Specialized in narrow areas, qualified guides and teachers working in diving centres come to the archipelago from around the world. Rarely does one thinks about monuments here and only few know that the Maldives have a rich and long history, just like a one hour-flight away Sri Lanka.

Tourist Folders and Reality

In the Maldives, Sunni Islam is a valid religion. Other denominations are forbidden. Every Maldivian resident must be a Muslim at the same time. Turning away from Islam threatens not only with deprivation of citizenship, but also with death. The state adheres very strictly to Sharia law, which partly also applies to tourists. At the airport, the entry card is filled in with the ban on importing everything that violates the laws of Islam, including pork, alcohol, dogs and all religious symbols – crosses, Christian rosaries, the Holy Bible, Buddha figures and Hindu deities.

Failure to comply with the law involves a fine or even imprisonment. Personally, I know a story of a student who, unaware of the Islamic law prevailing in the Maldives, took a souvenir from Sri Lanka with her – a wooden figurine of sympathetic Ganesha, a Hindu god depicted as half man, half an elephant. If it were not for the intervention of the university and the family, the girl would be in jail instead of in the paradise resort.

Scraps of the Past

Tourist folders do not contain the whole truth about this earthly paradise created by God and distorted by the terrifying human instincts. Behind the veil of the nature’s beauty, there is sometimes hidden a sad reality that has also affected the history of the Maldives to a large extent.

Behind the veil of the nature’s beauty … Photo by Anna Piatkowska. Copyright©Archaeotravel.

Independent explorer and traveller, David Hatcher Childress in his book Lost Cities of Ancient Lemuria & the Pacific, writes that since the rule of Islam reached the Maldives, that is to say since 1153, it has been forbidden to perform images of living beings. That, in turn, has resulted in the total destruction of monuments of the past. Religious fanaticism blurred the treasures of humanity, as it did happen in the case of pre-Columbian civilizations in Mexico and Peru, but there such a fanaticism was a veil for the insatiable greed of the Europeans. As the author of the book further writes, there is a strange impression that there was nothing in the Maldives before 1153. The author further mentions that in the nineties of the twentieth century, a statue of a man with long ears similar to those in India was discovered in the Maldives. It triggered an interest of another, quite controversial in academic circles researcher, Thor Heyerdahl. However, when he arrived, it turned out that the sculpture had been destroyed.

Only the picture remained. Thor Heyerdahl, the author of a book entitled The Maldive Mystery, and an eager supporter of civilizational diffusionism, believed that in the Maldives there was a cult of the Sun brought by ancient sailors who travelled by sea all over the world, reaching the ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. He pointed out that the Maldivian mosques are not facing mihrab towards Mecca, but east and west as if they were to mark the main solar events, which according to the author meant that the religious buildings in the Maldives were a kind of reconstruction of ancient temples of the Sun. There are also island legends about Redin – ancient people and primeval islanders who built solar mounds and temples. They are described as people with Aryan features: white skin, brown hair and bright eyes. Thor Heyerdahl has had many opponents of his theories, who have thought that the aligned pyramids and solar temples are nothing more than the remains of stupas, as a reminder of the Buddhism that used to exist in the Maldives.

There are many more theories of the alternative archaeology. However, it is worth mentioning the generally accepted, factual information related to the history of the Maldives.

Female Queens

According to archaeological finds, the archipelago was inhabited for about 1500 years before Christ. The first settlers were probably Aryans. About 500 years before Christ next settlers came: Tamils ​​from the south of India and Singhalese from Ceylon. At that time, the population of the archipelago was mostly Buddhists, and the Maldives became the point of transit in oceanic trade between the Indian subcontinent and the Arab countries. The Arabs, in turn, brought a religious change with them. Before the Islamization of the Maldives, according to the Persian and Arab travellers, the women – queens ruled the archipelago.

After the reception of Islam, only four of them remained, and the last one died in the sixteenth century. At the same time the Maldives became an independent Sultanate. The acceptance of Islam is associated with a legend of delivering a virgin from the clutches of a monster by means of a Koranic prayer. It seems that defeating the creature with the word of the Koran convinced the Sultan of the new faith. His subjects, of course, were forced to follow the Sultan’s conversion. From the nineteenth century, the Islamic Maldives had already been a British protectorate, which lasted until the mid-twentieth century, when the Maldivians regained their independence first as a sultanate, and from 1968 as the Republic of Maldives.

The mysterious history of the archipelago is still audible in the oral tradition, Maldivian dances and songs, where one can hear a dialect of the Sinhalese language. Such echoes of the past brings an inspiration to many researchers and writers.

Coming to the Paradise

After an hour of flight from Colombo and forty-five minutes spent on the speedboat fiercely fighting with waves, I finally reached my little paradise. I found a tropical night here. Along with a group of tourists, I left the shaky boat on a wooden pier thrown over the reef and suspended over the depths of the ocean. Through the full length of this bridge made with wooden beams, the lights flashed giving cheerful gleams to the waves in the lagoon beneath.

We were led by a smiling boy dressed in a sarong – a long and colorful fabric wrapped around his hips, used by men especially in Asia and the Arabian Peninsula. After a very warm welcome of a tropical drink and oriental dinner, I fell down tired on my  bed in one of small apartment houses abandoned in the green jungle. A deep night had fallen upon me. I could hear the crack of branches striking against the window with the wind but tiredness and the coming sleep did not let me open my eyes for a moment. Curiosity, however, was stronger.

I went outside. I could smell a warm breeze of the ocean. I made a few steps forward through the dense vegetation and stood on the edge of a blue lagoon shining in the pale light of the moon. The silence was disturbed only by the sound of waves. In the distance, the lights of the abandoned long pier shimmered in the distance. On the sand below the scarp carried by the roots of palm trees, crabs and „walking” shells were running across when they suddenly disappeared into their shells at the slightest noise. I breathed deeply with the sea breeze and smiled at the moon.

Simple Life

During first few days, including Valentine’s Day, which is much anticipated by lovers (similar events are permitted in the resorts), my time was filled with waddling in the lagoon, walking in the sun, playing with small sharks and rays wandering in the shallows and thinking how much this world is beautiful. The underwater landscape captivates me. There is a wide variety of coral species and aquatic creatures in the Maldives, whose colours highlight the rays of the sun infiltrating the reef.

My island, Bodufinolhu, is suspended over one of the richest reefs, but the most beautiful of them were located in the distance, farther from the resorts. Our diving instructor, a very nice and energetic Japanese, drew our attention once and again to flickering sea creatures. The sea turtles sleeping and hidden among the corals started at the sight of the divers and with curiosity extended their long necks towards us, swimming so close that they could almost be touched. However, they quickly got bored and swam away for peace and silence.

Provided with proper equipment, we could set out to explore the depths and underwater treasures of the past. Thanks to underwater archaeology there were many important discoveries related to the islands’ history. The results of the research are exhibited at the National Museum in Male, which is housed in two buildings in the Sultan Park. It also constituted a part of the Royal Palace. Even here some of the museum objects did not escape completely from the hands of fanatical Islamists. In February 2012, for purely religious reasons, the museum was attacked and several significant artefacts from the twelfth century were destroyed. Some of them were made of sandstone and limestone, so it was impossible to put them together. As Victor Hugo writes, “time is blind and man is stupid.” Still, one can admire in the museum one of the most interesting objects, such as a stone head of Buddha, but most of the museum artefacts do not represent people or animals. Greatest collection includes royal furniture, ceremonial robes, footwear, weapons and armour.

Dancing Past

After huge dinner composed of a ton of fish, meat, curry rice, various vegetables and fruits, I sat comfortably in the bar to arrange my notes from the last trip.A colourful drink based on rum and coconut milk suddenly appeared on the table in front of my nose. ‘Yes’, I thought. ‘The scientist’s life is hard’. My existential thoughts were interrupted by loud music and the rustling of dresses swirling in dance. Tourists started to watch the performance. Six young women dressed according to the Sharia law, with headscarves completely covering their hair, were performing dance figures inscribed in the choreography probably of a long Maldivian tradition, strangely disagreeing with the status quo of the islands. The local tropical climate and music suited more to skimpy skirts seen on the islands of Polynesia, than to long skirts, gaiters and jackets covering tightly the whole bodies of dancing women. Perhaps a similar dance was performed by the legendary Maldivian queens mentioned by former travellers.

Featured image: Maldives. Copyright©Archaeotravel.

By Joanna
Faculties of English Philology, History of Art and Archaeology.
University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland;
Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, Poland;
University College Dublin, Ireland.

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