Old Wood

In 2016 Europe's oldest tree was found to be a Bosnian Pine .....

Bosnian Pine Adonis Could Have Seen
Byzantine Emperror Romanos I Lekapenos .......

.... Growing in the highlands of Northern Greece.

It Lives

The cavern was old, and so was its inhabitant. It was set deep under a mountain crag that was overlooking a wide valley and mountain pass, and upon which men of all ages had built fortresses. First of wood, and then as the centuries passed, of mighty stones. From that great vantage point, a dark kingdom had finally risen and dominated.

It had defied first the Byzantine Greeks, then later the Latin Crusaders, and finally the Turks .... but eventually after many sieges, the mighty fortress had eventually fallen. Blood had flowed like a mountain stream down the crag, as a mighty Sultan decreed that 'all should die' and that no stone be left standing 'one upon the other'. This, so that 'no man should remember' the darkness of their rule, nor the defiance of its former rulers.

Sultan Mehmed II Ordered Castle Dracul Destroyed ....

How The West Differed From The East

When Islam first arose, many Christian scholars thought that it was some sort of Christian creed ~ possibly heretical, but a creed with which they might have some sort of debate .....

 

Christianity Clashed With Islam In The 7th Century AD

 

..... of course they soon found out differently, and in the centuries since, the two civilisations have grown further apart, not closer together, but as we largely didn't inhabit the same space, we rarely clashed anymore ~ except for those poor Christian souls who lived under Muslim domination (but there won't be any of them left by 2050 AD).