THE MENTOR

SERIAL NUMBER 39

THE MEDITERRANEAN

DWIGHT L. ELMENDORF

Lecturer and Traveler

ALGIERS · THE RIVIERA · MONTE CARLO · NICE · GENOA · NAPLES

Across the straits from Gibraltar is another and very different world. Start with Tangier (tahn-jeer´) and wander along the Barbary coast, and you will find yourself in such contrasting conditions, and in a civilization so different from those north of you in Spain and in France, that it will be hard for you to believe that you are separated from those countries by distances varying from the narrow straits of Gibraltar to a mere matter of two or three hundred miles.

You will seem to have been transported to the other side of the world. No traveler can find greater variety in scene and life, in language and habit, in climate and condition, than he gets in the course of a full Mediterranean tour. Few travelers make the whole circuit of the Mediterranean. This great inland sea is usually visited only in parts, and while the traveler is in transit from one point to another. There is no general description that can apply to the whole of this interesting body of water. On every shore there is something that is new and different, and somewhere on these shores there is something to delight each one. If scenery is desired, the French and Italian Riviera (ree-vee-ay´-rah) will draw one irresistibly. A life full of gaiety will hold him there. If historic associations interest him, he will turn naturally to the shores of Italy and Greece, and he will spend months pleasantly in the Adriatic or Ægean Sea. There is in those countries an endless amount to learn and a wealth of natural beauty. When you have cruised through the Ægean (ee-jee´-an), visit the coast of Greece, and of Asia Minor. There you will know the feelings that stirred Lord Byron when he wrote:

“Fair clime! where every season smiles

Benignant o’er those blessed isles,

Which seen from far Colonna’s height,

Make glad the heart that hails the sight,

And lend to loneliness, delight.”

The Mediterranean has been the arena of the world’s history for several thousand years.

ALGIERS

A street scene in Algiers near the mosque.