Our research into the ancient city of Abdera on the Greek Aegean coast showed us how closely the network of settlement was already established before Christ and how trade relations were linked to it.

In our articles we often talk about ancient Roman and Greek theatre buildings that we visited and described as part of our project. However, the names of the buildings sometimes lead to confusion, which is why we would like to make the following terminological clarification and the background to it (in the Picture Theatre in Syria).

The word Sharia actually means "path" and in the Koran, where surprisingly it only appears once, means religion in general.

During our travels through Turkey we came across the Turkish term "paşa" in many places and on different occasions, sometimes it was the name of a company, sometimes it was a section of a beach (e.g. at Alanya).

In the history of Greek architecture, the term Stoa means a building that is usually located in the center of the city and was used for scientific and philosophical teaching purposes.

In some of our texts you will find references to places worth visiting that have been designated with the addition of "oracles": Oracle of Didyma, Oracle of Olympia, Oracle of Delphi, Oracle of Klaros, etc. So what is the oracle, which comes from the Latin and could be translated as "Gods saying"?

The term "Gordian knot", which is still used in our modern times as a phrase to solve a problem, comes from ancient Greece. According to mythology, King Gordios of Phrygia is said to have knotted his chariot so artfully and perfectly between the yoke and the drawbar that the connection was considered inseparable.

Again and again questions or whole texts about cultural and ancient history of the Greeks and Romans reach us, sometimes they are surprising. Once a clearly recognizable basilica with an apse suddenly becomes a Greek gymnasium, because one probably does not want the rather ecclesiastical character of the basilica, then again it is an amphitheater, a bouleuterion and stadiums that are confusingly described as to be the same.

If we talk of a modern gymnasium (high school) today, we usually have a higher education center in mind, which is attended by students from elementary school to high school graduation.

How could imposing buildings like the Pantheon in Rome or even the aqueducts to supply water to the Roman cities like in Aspendos or Side ever be constructed?

The Latin  word basilica, was originally used to describe a Roman  public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas begin to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.

A sarcophagus is a funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved or cut from stone. The word "sarcophagus" comes from the Greek meaning "flesh", and phagein meaning "to eat", hence sarkophagus means "flesh-eating"; from the phrase lithos sarkophagus.

An aqueduct is a water supply or navigable channel (conduit) constructed to convey water. In a more restricted use, aqueduct (occasionally water bridge) applies to any bridge or viaduct that transports water-instead of a path, road or railway-across a gap. Large navigable aqueducts are used as transport links for boats or ships.

In architecture, a crypt is a stone chamber or vault beneath the floor of a church usually used as a chapel or burial vault possibly containing sarcophagi, coffins or relics.

The agora, translatable as marketplace, was a public space and an essential part of an ancient Greek polis or city-state. An agora acted as a marketplace and a forum to the citizens of the polis.

A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb or the tomb may be considered to be within the mausoleum. A Christian mausoleum sometimes includes a chapel.

A necropolis (plural: necropolises or necropoleis) is a large cemetery or burial place (from Greek nekropolis "city of the dead"). Apart from the occasional application of the word to modern cemeteries outside large towns, the term is chiefly used of burial grounds, often an abandoned city or town, near the sites of the centers of ancient civilizations.

Catacombs are ancient, human-made underground passageways or final resting place of refuges or subterranean cemeteries composed thereof.  Many are under cities and have served as a refuge for safety during wars or as a meeting place for cults during historic times.

In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome.

A Dervish or Darvesh  is someone treading a Sufi Muslim ascetic path or "Tariqah", known for their extreme poverty and austerity, similar to mendicant friars in Christianity or Hindu/Buddhist/Jain sadhus.