When the last fire goes out, time too will be finished

Taken from his Collection of Sand, these marvelous essays are not great ideas in themselves but commentaries on great ideas and the physical remains they have left behind them- astonishing objects and human-made places which have encapsulated different senses of wonder and desire. The essays range from fire-temples to world-changing maps, from automata to ancient cities. And, not least, the great enigma that has sat at the heart of Rome for some 1,900 years- Trajan's Column.