They called it the Laughing City for the stone faces carved into every available inch of the stone walls that surrounded it. Originally they were leftovers from the ancient Roman settlement, or so the carbon dating results showed. Nobody quite knows when the faces were added or if the Romans themselves had dedicated the town to Janus, their many-faced deity.
By most outsider accounts the Laughing City was just a cheerful place with a quirky wall. The vast majority of its tourism was dedicated to those faces, those awfully familiar faces who gazed out at the world with indifference and exhaustion. Not a single one was smiling.
For all their photos and comments, none of them knew just how deep the wall went and just how grotesque the faces became. They say the further into the great chasm below the city you go, the more you begin to look like the carvings on the walls. They say that if you reach the bottom you merge with the stone and become a part of the barrier that has protected the city for over five hundred years.
By most outsider accounts the Laughing City was just a cheerful place with a quirky wall. The vast majority of its tourism was dedicated to those faces, those awfully familiar faces who gazed out at the world with indifference and exhaustion. Not a single one was smiling.
For all their photos and comments, none of them knew just how deep the wall went and just how grotesque the faces became. They say the further into the great chasm below the city you go, the more you begin to look like the carvings on the walls. They say that if you reach the bottom you merge with the stone and become a part of the barrier that has protected the city for over five hundred years.
No comments:
Post a Comment