Karl Pilkington Quotes

We've found that patterns of site looting have increased between 500 and 1000 percent since the start of the Arab Spring. Now this is a problem as old as human beings. People were looting tombs 5,000 years ago in Egypt as soon as people were buried, but the problem is only getting worse and worse.

I think archaeologists are stuck, and we are losing our past at a very rapid rate. Tens of thousands of sites will be lost, and we've only unveiled a tiny percent of the past.

An important part of what the state does is preserving its history.

I don't often go to a place just to check out all the cultural sites of a city.

Rome has not seen a modern building in more than half a century. It is a city frozen in time.

We are the only ones who really can care about the preservation Foreigners who come to excavate, maybe some of them care about preservation, but the majority care about discoveries.

Personally, my interests are ancient history and ancient civilizations. In my own life, I'd like to go to places like Easter Island.

Most of us, when we go out with a camera in our own country, try to find exotic subject matter to photograph.

There are so many previously unknown sites and structures all over the world. And I think most importantly what satellites help to show us is we've actually only found a fraction of a percent of ancient settlements and sites all over the world.

Tourists as well as natives want to see cultural achievements - whether it's the Banaue Terraces, the old churches or museums.

I am a sucker for those old traditional places, and Rome is as good as it gets, particularly when you throw in Italian food.

Rome is one of my favourite cities in the world.

Antiquities are history defaced, or some remnants of history which have casually escaped the shipwreck of time.

If you travel to Germany, it's still absolutely Germany. If you travel to Sweden, it still has a Swedish identity.

Saddam Hussein was fascinated by ancient Babylon and Assyria. He made money available to protect and develop the great archaeological sites. The great achievements of Mesopotamian civilisation were pressed into the service of the Ba'athist regime.

There are some cities that I did take time out to study, 'cause I love history and one of them was Boston, and of course Rome and all of those places like that. But, in Syracuse or Rochester, or any of those places, no.

People should have freedom in their pilgrimages and tours. They should come and visit historical monuments and sites - let's say the sites around Iran - where they can easily engage in wide- scale contacts with others.

Much has been said and continues to be said of what little concern the Turks had for the Acropolis treasures.

We want to excite the world about what's out there. But we don't want them to say, 'Oh, there are lots of sites in Egypt - let's loot.'

Ancient monuments 300 to 1000-plus years old are never 'renovated,' only 'restored,' a distinction that escapes the babus.

I've been to most parts of India over the years, but Jaipur is my favourite city. Inspiration can be found at every turn.

My husband John's and my breaks are often very culture heavy. He cannot pass a museum without venturing inside, so we tend to see a lot of architecture and so-called places of interest.

You can tap into culture by exploring what's grown or produced in the region, like going into the Blue Mountains in Jamaica to visit a coffee plantation or a rum distillery in Barbados.

The sort of poetry I seek only resides in objects Man can't touch - like England 's grass network of lanes 100 years ago, but today he can destroy them and only Lord Farrer keeps him from doing it.

We passed hieroglyphic scrolls, gold jewelry, sarcophagi, statues of pharaohs, and huge chunks of limestone. Why would someone display a rock? Aren't there enough of those in the world?