Alright so today’s thing started when my kiddo asked “where WAS Greece anyway?” after watching some cartoon with temples. Simple right? But man it got messy real quick.
First Try: Dusty Old Atlas
Pulled out my grandpa’s ancient world atlas from the shelf. Found a map labeled “Ancient Greece.” Traced the coasts with my finger thinking “cool, sorted.”
Then things went sideways.
Compared it to a modern map and thought “wait why’s Turkey included?” Coastal cities like Ephesus were in the atlas but they’re in Turkey now. Confusion level: MAX.
Phase Two: Digital Rabbit Hole
Opened three tabs:
- Satellite view of Aegean Sea coastline
- Textbook scan of Greek colonies
- Some interactive topography thing
Got dizzy switching between them. Watered the plants instead.
Lightbulb moment came while staring at my coffee stains. The problem? Coastlines changed. Rivers dumped silt for 2,000 years:
- Where ships sailed now sits miles inland
- Harbors from old texts look wrong on modern maps
- Volcanoes changed islands (looking at you, Santorini)
Gave up on modern country borders. Drew my own messy version showing:
- Coastal settlements wrapping Turkey + Italy
- Island dots for Crete/Rhodes
- Scribbled arrows for where colonies spread
Final map looked like spaghetti vomit. But hey, at least it shows why Ephesus counted as “Greek” back then.
Kid took one glance and said “oh so it MOVED?” Close enough.
