Five places that vanished
An Alexandrian temple, a Carian tomb, a six-hundred-year bridge, a paternalist town, and a Wisconsin lumber centre.
5 questions. Pick an answer to see the explanation. Share your result at the end.
Who ordered the destruction of the Serapeum in Alexandria in 391 AD?
Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria from 385 to 412, used the Theodosian decree of February 391 (which banned pagan worship empire-wide) as cover to send a Christian mob against the Serapeum temple. The library, the cult statue of Serapis, and the temple itself were destroyed in the campaign. Cyril was Theophilus's nephew and successor, later responsible for Hypatia's murder.
From whom does the English word *mausoleum* derive?
Mausolus, the Persian satrap of Caria from 377 to 353 BC, was buried in the monumental tomb at Halicarnassus built (mostly after his death) by his sister-wife Artemisia. The structure was so famous it gave the Greek and later Latin word *mausoleion* / *mausoleum* — the generic word for a large monumental tomb. It was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Why did the upper Thames stop freezing in London after 1832?
Old London Bridge's nineteen piers and surrounding starlings blocked approximately 80% of the Thames flow, slowing the upstream river so much that it froze in cold winters. When the bridge was demolished in 1831–1832 and the new Rennie bridge opened upstream, the obstruction was removed. The river has not frozen in London since.
What was unusual about the town of Pullman, Illinois, in the 1880s and 1890s?
George Pullman built the town south of Chicago between 1880 and 1884 as an industrial paternalist project. The Pullman company owned every house, store, church, library, and theatre. Workers rented from the company and shopped at the company. When wages were cut in 1894 but rents were not, the resulting strike spread to a national railroad shutdown and was broken by federal troops sent by President Cleveland.
Why did the Peshtigo Fire of 1871 — the deadliest in American history — receive almost no national press coverage?
The Peshtigo firestorm of 8 October 1871 killed at least 1,200 people (estimates range up to 2,500) — roughly four times the death toll of the Great Chicago Fire that began the same night. Chicago was a major city; Peshtigo was a Wisconsin timber town. The national press covered Chicago and barely noticed Peshtigo. The pattern has held for 150 years.