Aerial Views of Ancient Ruins

Modern technology meets ancient history in this aerial compilation created by AirVuz. Drone pilots are flying at some of the world’s most famous ancient ruins. The video starts in Greece with amazing drone footage of the Acropolis of Athens, then makes at the Colosseum in Rome Italy, Angkor Wat in Cambodia England's Stonehenge, Petra in Jordan and the Great Wall of China. Other notable stops include Perga in Turkey, Armenia's Temple of Garni, Israel's Masada, and Peru's Machu Picchu. 

The Acropolis of Athens is probably one of the world's top two ancient ruins sites, along with Rome's Colosseum.  Seen here in this outstanding drone video by AirVuz contributor pasxox30, the Acropolis complex sits atop a flat rock formation that rises about 150 meters (just under 500 ft.) over the Greek capital city.  Consisting of the Parthenon temple and several outlying building, the great landmark was built in the 5th century BC on the initiative of Pericles, who led Athens through much of its Golden Age.  

The subject of this Drone Video Award-winning video by top contributor and pilot BeemFlights is the great Colosseum of Rome.  It was completed in 80 AD, having been largely financed with Roman plunder from the capture of the Second Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.  The Colosseum seated up to 50k spectators and was the largest of its kind in the world.  Situated adjacent to the Roman Forum on land that had been burned in the Great Rome Fire of 64 AD, it's one of the most-visited sites in the Eternal City.  

Masada is an ancient fortification built atop a plateau in the Judean Desert of southern Israel, overlooking the Dead Sea.  During the First Jewish War of the first century AD, Masada was the site of a famous siege by Roman troops following which the Jewish defenders (numbering perhaps a thousand) committed suicide en masse rather than surrender.  Contributor Nelly Volkovich used a drone to create an amazing aerial video of this hallowed mountaintop, which is a UNESCO World Heritage cultural site.  

To see the power of cinematic first-person view (FPV) video, check out this stunning piece from the ruins of ancient Rome by former Drone Video Award winner Druno.  He was able to fly his FPV quadcopter through the Forum, the heart of Imperial Rome, and one of the world's most famous archaeological sites.  Opening with a shot of the Colosseum, he heads into the great public square immediately to its northwest (between the Colosseum and the Pantheon), which was the heart of the Roman Republic and later Imperial Rome.  

The ancient city of Perga lies in the Anatolia region of southern Turkey, just northeast of the regional capital Antalya.  The city was one of the most important in a region known as Pamphylia during the Antiquity.  It was visited twice by St. Paul, whose travels here are described in the Acts of the Apostles.  Contributor Turkey Home created an amazing drone video of this ancient Turkish city, which is strategically situated between two rivers and is one of the most popular destinations in southern Turkey. 

Phrygia is an ancient ruins site in southwestern Turkey.  For around 500 years beginning about 1200 BC, it was the center of a very powerful regional empire - two of its kings were amongst the most well known names during the Antiquity, namely Gordias (he of the Gordian Knot)and  Midas (whose "touch" could famously turn ordinary objects into gold). In this video by yasinilcebay, you'll get an amazing bird's eye view of the ancient city, which is located in the western part of the modern day region of Central Anatolia.  

During much of the Antiquity, the city of Ephesus in what is now western Turkey was one of the half-dozen most important cities in the world outside of China and India.  Abandoned since around the time that Constantinople fell to the Ottomans, its remains sit outside of Selçuk in Turkey's İzmir Province.  In this drone video by jesus_tr, you'll get an aerial view of these famous ruins, as well as those of the nearby House of the Virgin Mary, believed by many to be the final home of the mother of Jesus.

Less well known than Rome's Colosseum, the Capua Amphitheater in Santa Maria Capua Vetere (ancient Capua) was the second-largest Roman amphitheater.  The town is situated due north of Naples, in Italy's Caserta province (which forms a part of the Campania region).  Built in the first century BC, the amphitheater was the scene of many important events in the Roman Republic and the Empire.  In this video, contributor feola.mike captures these ancient ruins brilliantly with a DJI Phantom 4 drone.   

Enjoy these drone views of the famous Stonehenge monument on a misty morning, compliments of AirVuz contributor SouthCoastDronesUK.  Stonehenge is a famous neolithic age ring of stones in southwestern England and is estimated to be 4-5,000 years old.  The purpose and precise construction date(s) of Stonehenge continue to be matters of some debate.  One of the most recognized and important cultural sites in the United Kingdom, Stronehenge was the setting for the climax of Thomas Hardy's 1891 classic novel Tess of the D'Urbevilles.

Former Drone Video of the Week Finalist Theo SIlkstone brings us this outstanding aerial view of the famous ruins of Olympia, Greece.  Also known as Archaia Olympia, it's located on the Peloponnese Peninsula, a region of the southern part of the country.  The location was the site of the original Olympic games, which were held every four years beginning in the 8th century BC and running through the 4th century AD before going into abeyance for over 1500 years pending their re-emergence as the modern Olympic Games.  

Jerash is an ancient city in northwestern Jordan, near the country's border with neighboring Israel.  It dates to the Antiquity, although it was nearly destroyed in an earthquake in the 8th century AD and later rebuilt.  The city bears the marks of having been in the orbit of both European and Middle Eastern civilizations at various times in its history.  Award-winning contributor and pilot Fabio Knoll used a drone to create an amazing aerial tour of this city, which was unearthed by archaeologists in the early 1800s.

Check out this drone video of the ancient El Jem amphitheater in North Africa, compliments of Fabio Knoll.  The amphitheatre El Jem was built in 238 AD in present-day El Djem, which lies along the country's eastern Mediterranean coastline and was part of the Roman province of Africa.  Seating an estimated 35k spectators, it was one of the largest in the world.  Considered one of the best-preserved Roman ruins in Africa, the amphitheater was used to film the 1979 comedy classic, Monty Python's Life of Brian.  

Contributor Johny Kondakjian Photography used a DJI Mavic Pro drone to create this spectacular video of the Temple of Garni, one of Armenia's cultural treasures.  It is the country's only standing temple dating to the period before Armenia became the first proto-country to convert to Christianity, in 301 AD.  Believed to have dated to the first century, it collapsed in an earthquake in the 17th century, and was excavated and rebuilt in the 20th century.  It lies in the Kotayk Province in the middle of the country.

Check out this amazing aerial view of one of the most well-known ancient ruins sites in Rome, compliments of contributor Why Not Channel.  It's the Mausoleum of Hadrian, also known as Castel Sant'Angelo.  Commissioned by the Emperor Hadrian, the structure was completed in 139 AD and was the tallest in Rome for centuries.  Due to its location in the Parco Adriano district on the northern bank of the Tiber and just east of the Vatican, it was later used as a papal fortress.  

Here's a fantastic aerial view of one of the most important ancient ruins sights in Turkey, compliments of top contributor jesus_tr.  It's from the ruins of the ancient city of Sardis in Manisa, one of the (inland) provinces which makes up the Aegean Region of western Turkey.  Sardis was said to be founded by the sons of Hercules.  Later it was the capital of the kingdom of Lydia, one of the most important of the Antiquity.  Still later, the great city earned frequent mention in the New Testament.  

The Judean Desert runs parallel to the Dead Sea in the southeastern part of Israel, south of Jerusalem.  It is an area steeped in history, with tremendous historical importance to Judaism, Christianity, and (to a somewhat lesser extent) Islam.  In this video, contributor Rea Burla treats us to spectacular tour of this amazing desert, which includes bird's eye views of St. George’s Monastery in the Wadi Qelt valley, the tomb of Moses, the ancient fortress of Masada (a UNESCO World Heritage site), the Dead Sea, and more.

Contributor and drone pilot georgelek1966 used a drone to give us this bird's eye view of an ancient temple on the Greek island of Aegina.  The temple of Aphaia was built in the fifth century BC on this island, which is one of the Saronic Islands.  The islands are located in the Saronic Gulf, an Aegean Sea inlet which lies between the Attica and Peloponnese Peninsulas. Aphaia was a Greek goddess, worshipped exclusively at this site, who was thought to be important to fertility as well as to the crop growing cycle.  

Contributor Atlan 35.5 created this beautiful drone video of one of the best-preserved ancient ruins sites in southern Turkey.  It's the ancient city of Side, a coastal town which sits on the Mediterranean Sea in the province of Antalya.  It's believed that the city was originally settled by Greeks in the 7th century BC.  It later fell under the control of Alexander the Great, followed by the Ptolemaic dynastic and later the Seleucid Empire.  Still later, it became an important regional city in the Roman Empire.  

Greece's Temple of Posdeidon is one of the most important landmarks of the Golden Age of Athens, the roughly 50 year period ushered in by the repulsion of the second Persian invasion in 480-79 BC.  As the leading Greek power, Athens was able to extract funds from its "satellites" to undertake massive building projects.  Like the one you'll see in this drone video by Viajes Los Planet: the Temple of Poseidon.  Located at the southern tip of the triangle-shaped Attica Peninsula, the ruins stand 60 meters (about 200 ft.) over the water. 

Top contributor and pilot Enrico Pescantini created this stunning drone video of some important Roman ruins in northern Italy.  The Grottoes of Catullus are the remains of a Roman villa which was located on Lake Garda, the largest lake in Italy.  The ruins are situated at the tip of the Sirmione Peninsula at the southern end of the lake, which is part of the region of Lombardy.  The Grottoes of Catallus appeared as a filming location for the 2017 movie Call Me by Your Name, which received four Oscar nominations.

Contributor Franxifra created this amazing aerial video of Templi dei Paestum, one of the most significant ruins sites of Southern Italy.  Paestrum was an ancient city built by the Greeks in what is now the Salerno province of Campania.  The core of the site is three very well preserved temples, two of which (the Hera temples) are shown in the video.  The temples are believed to have been built sometime between 500-600 BC, and relate to a Doric order which is distinguished by the design of the column tops.

Hadrian's Wall is probably the single most important relic of Roman rule of England, as well as the largest intact set of Roman ruins anywhere.  It was built in the second century AD as a defensive fortification "protecting" England from attacks from the land now known as Scotland.  It extends from the Irish Sea in the west to the North Sea in the east.  In this drone video by Newcastlemale, you'll get a bird's eye view of this magnificent structure, which runs just to the south of the present-day Scottish border.  

Sicily is not only the largest island in the Mediterranean, it's also one of the oldest in terms of human settlement.  Archaeologists believe that it may have been settled as long as 12,000 years ago, long before most areas of Europe.  In this video, contributor and drone pilot armandoWDN gives us an aerial tour of Patalica, an area in the southeast corner of the island, near the city of Syracuse.  Pantalica is the site of the Necropolis, a cemetery which is thought to hold as many as 5,000 graves.

Contributor NGreyTravels used a DJI drone to create this remarkable aerial video of one of the world's most famous hilltop structures.  The Sigiriya ("Lion Rock") is a gigantic rock fortress and monastery complex located near the center of Sri Lanka, the island nation off the southern coast of India.  The fortress was built in the 5th century AD as a new capital city by Kashyapa I, a long-serving king of Sri Lanka.  It was later converted to a monastery, which was active until the 14th century.

One of the best-preserved ancient Roman ruins sites isn't in Rome at all or even in Italy.  It's the arena in the city of Pula, which lies at the southern tip of the Istrian Peninsula in northern Croatia.  Pula became an an important Roman outpost during the waning days of the Republic.  Construction of the arena began at the outset of the Empire and was completed in 68 AD. Considered one of the top attractions in this Southeast European country, you can check it out from above in this drone video by ImagesCairns.

For centuries, scholars have debated whether the story of the 'Trojan Horse" has historical foundation.  Based on archaeological evidence, it is now believed that Troy, the city state which was at war with Athens and Sparta, was an actual city in western Turkey, near the present day city of Hisarlik.  In this drone video by jesus_tr, you'll get a look at the site from the second millennium BC, which was famously referenced in two of the greatest works of western literature: Virgil's Aenid and Plato's The Odyssey.  

Italy's Pompeii Archaeological Park marks the site of one of the most well-documented events of the Antiquity: the destruction of the city of Pompeii when nearby Mt. Vesuvius catastrophically erupted in 79 AD.  The explosion buried the city and several surrounding towns under 4-6 meters (13-20 ft.) of volcanic ash, instantly killing all of its 10k+ inhabitants.  Located in the (southern) Campania region just outside of the city of Naples, the archaeological park can be seen from above in this drone video by mikyciancio.  

Colin484 brings us this drone video of some famous ruins in the heart of England.  British Camp is an iron age fortress which is located atop one of the Malvern Hills in Worcestershire, in the West Midlands region.  It is thought to date to the 2nd century BC, well before the arrival of the Romans.  At times, castles have been built upon the site, testament to its strategic importance and defensibility.  The site is a Scheduled National Monument and protected under UK preservation laws.

Contributor FlyONE used a drone to create this amazing shot of an ancient incription by the Persian King Xerxes I.  Known as the XV Inscription, it's etched into a mountain near Lake Van in eastern Turkey.  It dates to the fifth century BC.  In the inscription, the king of the Achaemenid (Persian) Empire declared himself the King of Kings, as indeed he was: at the time, the Empire was the largest the world had ever known.  The words were written on a slate which been cleared by Xerxes' father, Darius I.

Contributor Nour Dupir created this amazing drone video of an important ancient ruins site on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.  Amathus was an Iron Age city on the southern shore of the island, dating to about 1100 BC.  The city was founded by Cinyras, an ancient king of Cyprus who is much mentioned in many stories of Greek mythology.  Its sanctuary to the Goddess Aphrodite (whose home was Cyprus) was the second most important on the island after Paphos.  Amathus continued to be an important city throughout Roman times. 

Split is Croatia's second largest city, after the capital city of Zagreb.  With a metropolitan population of about 200,000, Split is also the primary city in the Dalmatia region, which covers much of the country's Adriatic Sea coastline.  Settled during the Antiquity, Split became home to Diocletian's Palace, which was built for the Roman Emperor Diocletian in the 4th century AD.  Here is an amazing bird's eye view of this cultural and historical gem, compliments of contributor and drone pilot RVB Drones. 

Check out this amazing drone videos of one of the best-preserved ancient stadiums, compliments of contributor IlkerCagatayAsik.  The stadium is part of the ruins of Aphrodisias, which was an ancient Greek settlement in western Turkey.  It's situated in the province of Aydin, one of the southernmost provinces which makes up the country's Aegean region.  It's believed that the stadium once seated 30,000 spectators; larger than the better-known stadium ruins at the stadium ruins of Delphi in Greece.

Check out this amazing drone video of some famous ruins in Lima, Peru, compiments of contributor Auquicu.  Shot with a DJI Mavic Air drone, the video beautifully captures the Huaca Pucllana ruins in the Peruvian capital city, one of the largest urban areas in South America.  The centerpiece of the site is a tiered pyramid constructed of adobe and clay materials.  The structure was built by the Lima Culture, a pre-Incan society centered around modern-day Lima which existed in the first seven centuries AD.  

Content creator and pilot Dronevfx used a DJI Spark drone to create this beautiful video of one of the more important ancient ruins sites in Bulgaria.  Perperikon was a city in ancient Thrace, a region which was bounded by the Balkan Mountains, and the Black and Aegean Seas, now split between modern day Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey.  Located in the southern part of Bulgaria, Perperikon is thought to have been the location of the Temple of Dionysius.   The ruins have been under excavation since 2000.

AirVuz contributor Drone Photography Ireland created this stunning drone video of an important ancient site in Ireland called Loughcrew.  Situated in County Meath in the eastern part of the island, the area is known for its hilltop tombs which sit atop a prominent hill.  It's what is known as a passage tomb, one of four such sites identified in Ireland.  The tombs date to the 4th millennium  BC - over 5,000 years ago.  The area including the tombs and the hill is known as Slieve na Calliagh, and it's a protected national site.

Check out this drone video of Pakistan's most famous Buddhist monastery, compliments of contributor Backpacker Let's Explore the World.  It's called Takht-i-Bahi, and it's located near the town of Mardan near the middle of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.  It's actually a complex which includes the monastery, a court, assembly hall, and other buildings.  The monastery, which is the oldest part, dates to the first century AD.  It hasn't been used since the 7th century, falling into a ruined but well-preserved state.  

Contributor and drone pilot iskenderfilms created this beautiful aerial video of an important ancient ruins site in southern Turkey called Termessos.  The city, which was part of the historical region of Pisidia, sits in the Taurus Mountains, in the northern part of the province of Antalya.  Termessos was famously one of the very few cities which Alexander tried to conquer (in 333 BC) but could not.  Abandoned when an earthquake destroyed its aqueduct, it's one of Turkey's best-preserved ruins sites.

Check out this fantastic drone video of the pre-historic Irish fortress known as Dún Aonghasa, compliments of contributor Peter and Loki.  It's located atop a cliff on Inishmore (Inis Mór), an island off of Ireland's western coast.  It's believed that parts of the fortress date to about 1100 BC, during the Bronze Age of Ireland, although portions of it may date to the somewhat later Iron Age.  The fortress structure consists of four concentric walls made of dry stone, the outermost of which covers an area of 14 acres (six hectares).  

Walking around the modern-looking Tel Aviv, Israel, one can forget that this is a very old place - Tel Aviv's southern "suburb" of Jaffo is mentioned repeatedly in the Bible, for example.  In the city's eastern suburbs, you will be reminded when you see the remains of the ancient city of Antiparis here-once the home of Herod the Great, who ruled what was known as Judea on behalf of Rome in the first century BC.  It's part of the Tel Aphek National Park, which you'll see in this drone video by AirWorks.

Contributor AirWorks created this amazing drone video of Rujm el-Hiri, an important ruins site in northern Israel.  It's a series of concentric stone circles situated in the Golan Heights, an area east of the Sea of Galilee which was annexed by Israel in the 1980s following its capture from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967.   The site is made of over 42,000 stones, with a roughly 5 meter (15 ft.) mound at the center.  The purpose and age of the site are the subjects of considerable debate within the worldwide archaeological community.  

AirVuz contributor and pilot scdronemedia brings us this excellent drone video of a well-known ancient burial site in the Wales region of the UK.  Bryn Celli Ddu is located on the island of Anglesey, off the northwestern coast of Wales.  Translating roughly to "the mound in the dark grove", the site consists of a burial chamber with a pillar inside of it.  Excavated in the late 1920's, the original site is believed to date to around 4000 BC, at the end of the Mesolithic period; most of the complex dates to 1000-2000 years later.  

AirVuz contributor Gabriel Ante earned a spot as a Drone Video of the Week Finalist for this fantastic video of the great Mexican archaelogical site of Teotihuacan.  Located about 25 mi. (around 40 km) northeast of Mexico City, Teotihuacan pre-dates the Aztec Empire by hundreds of years.  Most of the pyramids and other structures which distinguish the city were built in the first 2-3 centuries of the Common Era, during which it was the largest city in the Western City and one of the half-dozen largest cities in the world.  

Check out this fascinating drone video of an important ancient ruins site in eastern Turkey, compliments of top contributor and pilot jesus_tr.  It's called Göbekli Tepe, and it's located in the Şanlıurfa Province in Turkey's Southeast Anatolia region.  Under archaeological excavation since 1996, it's a series of 200 pillars arranged in about 20 different circles; each pillar weighs up to 10k+ kg (about ten tons).  Believed to be an ancient temple, the ruins are estimated to be 10-12k years old, amongst the oldest ever found.  

New AirVuz contributor Alessio Tricarico brings us this fantastic first person view (FPV) drone video of one of the great landmarks of Rome, Italy: the Pantheon.  Originally a Roman temple, the great structure dates to the reign of the emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD.  It was converted to a Christian church in the 7th century AD.  It's considered one of the best-preserved relics of the Roman Empire, in part because it has been in continuous use since the fall of Rome in the 5th Century AD.  

Prepare to be blown away by this highly cinematic first person view (FPV) "tour" of an ancient ruins site in Libya, compliments of AirVuz contributor and pilot Maim.sh.  Using an FPV-equipped racing quad, he created a one-of-a-kind view of Leptis Magna, an ancient ruins site near the town of Khoms, about 130 km (80 mi.) east of the city of Tripoli.  Founded by Phoenicians in the 7th century BC, the city came into the orbit of Carthage and later Rome.  A Vandal kingdom after the Fall of Rome, it was abandoned in the 7th century AD.    

Check out this drone video of a famous Aztec ruins site in south-central Mexico, compliments of AirVuz contributor and pilot Vuelta Al Cielo.  It's a temple called El Tepozteco, and it overlooks the town of Tepoztlán in the state of Morelos.  It's believed that the structure was built late in the Postclassic period (900-1500 AD), when the great civilization went into decline before the arrival of the Spanish conquerors.   The temple is dedicated to Tepoztēcatl, the Aztec god of alcoholic beverages and fertility.  

Check out this fantastic drone video of an important ancient ruins in northern Israel, compliments of AirVuz contributor and pilot jameelkhair.  Variously known as Hippos and Sussite, the site is located atop a hill overlooking the Sea of Galilee in the Jordan Valley, close to the Syrian border.  Hippos was founded by Seleucid colonists in the third century BC, soon becoming an important city-state which thrived particularly well during the Roman period.  Devastated by an earthquake in 749 AD, the city was abandoned.  

Aizanoi is an ancient city in the Kütahya province of western Turkey.  The city was built by the ancient Greeks and continued to be an important administrative center well into Roman times.  Due to its well preserved ruins of a temple and a stadium complex, the city has been submitted to UNESCO for designation as a World Heritage site.  In this Drone Video of the Week nominee, top contributor and pilot Iskenderfilm gives us a bird's eye view of this ancient city, which sits on the Penkalas River.

Contributor scdronemedia brings us this excellent drone video of the ancient Avebury monument in Southwestern England.  Less well known than nearby Stonehenge, Avebury is nonetheless one of the world's most important neolithic sites and continues to be of interest to followers of Paganism.  Consisting of three giant stone circles, it's believed that Avebury was constructed over the course of the Third Millennium BC.  Largely destroyed during the Medieval and Early Modern periods, it was carefully reconstructed during the 1930's.  

Check out this drone video of a famous Roman ruins site in southern Spain, compliments of AirVuz contributor PJF DRONE.  It's called the Municipium Flavium Muniguense, and it's located a few mi/km from the city of Villanueva del Río y Minas in Sevile, one of the provinces of the region of Andalusia.  Officially designated as a Historical Artistic Monument under Spanish law, the most prominent part of the site is the Terrace Sanctuary.  This was constructed in about 70 AD, and replaced a number of older buildings at the top of the hill.  

Southwestern England is home to some of the world's most important monuments from the Neolithic period, the most recent sub-division of the Stone Age.   Silbury Hill is one of these landmarks. It's a gigantic chalk mound near the village of Avebury in County Wiltshire.  Located about a half-hour drive north of Stonehenge, it stands 40 meters high (about 130 ft.), making it the tallest known prehistoric structure in Europe.  Seen here in this drone video by ChrisBaish, it's believed that the hill was constructed nearly 4.5k years ago.  

Check out this drone video of an important ancient ruins site in the Peloponnese region of southern Greece, compliments of AirVuz contributor Up Drones Greece.  It's the Temple of Zeus in Nemea, a site in the Corinthia region that covers the northeastern corner of the Peloponnese Peninsula.  Nemea featured prominently in Greek mythology, as the home of the Nemean Lion slain by Heracles and as the place where the infant Opheltes was killed by a serpent.  The surviving columns of the temple here date to about 330 BC.

Top AirVuz contributor SkyBee brings us this awesome drone video of Turkey's Roman Theatre of Aspendos, one of the best-preserved sites of the Antiquity.  Aspendos is situated in the southern province of Antalya, a few km/mi. inland and about 40 km (25 mi.) east of the provincial capital Antalya.  Built during the reign of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius in the 2nd century AD, it could seat an audience of up to 13k people.  It later served as a palace before being restored as a theater, hosting seasonal opera and ballet performances.  

Ireland is home to a uniquely large concentration of old fortress ruins, which are spread throughout the country.  The most common are circular fortifications known as ring forts.  These were primarily constructed during the Bronze Age, which stretched from roughly 3300 to 1200 BC (ring forts can also be found in England, Wales, and parts of Scandinavia, but less frequently).  In this drone video by top contributor Drone photography ireland, you'll get an aerial tour of some Irish ring forts as well as forts from later periods.     

Get a unique perspective of an important ancient ruins site in southern Italy in this fantastic first person view (FPV) video by AirVuz contributor claudiozang.  The town of Velia is located on the Tyrrhenian Sea in Salerno, the southernmost province of the Campania region.  Founded in the 6th century BC, Velia was an important city in the historical region of Magna Graecia - the name given by the Romans to the coastal areas of southern Italy which had been colonized by Greeks.  The town is featured in Book 6 of Virgil's Aeneid.

Top AirVuz creator and FPV pilot Mauro Sciambi brings us this stunning video - a nominee for 2023 FPV Drone Video of the Year - in which he flies his FPV quad through the roof of the Pantheon, one of the great landmarks of Rome.  Originally a Roman temple, the great structure dates to the reign of the emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD; it was converted to a Christian church in the 7th century AD.  Considered one of the best-preserved relics of the Roman Empire, it's the burial place of numerous artists as well as two Kings of Italy.  

Top AirVuz contributor and pilot seb-depp brings us this excellent drone video of an important ancient ruins site in northern Scotland called the Ring of Brodgar.  It's located on an island called Mainland, the largest of the Orkney archipelago just north of the "real" Scottish mainland.  The nearly perfect Neolithic stone circle is believed to date to 2000-2500 BC.  Measuring 340 ft. in diameter (about 104 m), the circle originally consisted of 60 stones, about half of which now remain standing.  

Explore the ancient Forum of Rome in this fantastic first person view (FPV) video by top AirVuz contributor and FPV pilot CataFpv.  Along with the adjacent Colosseum, the Forum was the heart of  ancient Imperial Rome, and one of the world's most famous archaeological sites.  The video was filmed with a single take, in which the quad flew through the Forum on a roughly southeast heading towards the Colosseum.  The video ends with an overhead glimpse of the Colosseum, the world's largest amphitheater to the present day.  

While the term "acropolis" is sometimes used to describe the famous hilltop complex in Athens, Greece, the term actually refers to any fortified settlement built on elevated ground in Ancient Greece.  In this excellent drone video by DRONEAS GR, you'll get an aerial view of another well-known acropolis - Larisa,  It's located in the city of Argos in the southern Peloponnese region of the country.  Much of the structure dates to the fifth century BC, when the city of Argos was allied with Athens against Sparta.  

The subject of this Dronie by AirVūz contributor and drone pilot mrsimone7is the great Colosseum of Rome. Filmed during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, this talented content creator was able to use his DJI Mavic 2 Pro to take one epic dronie from inside one of Italy's most iconic locations. One of the great landmarks of the Antiquity, the great open-air stadium was built in the first century AD and could hold up to 80k spectators. This video was chosen as a Drone Video of the Week nominee in October of 2020. 

Top contributor CataFpv brings us this fantastic first person view (FPV) drone tour of some famous ancient ruins on the Italian island of Sicily.  The ruins of Selinunte are located near the western tip of the island, on its southern coastline.  One of Sicily's largest Greek colonies, the city is believed to have reached a population peak of about 30k around 400 BC.  The main standing structure is the Temple of Hera, one of five which made up the city's acropolis.  This video made the FPV Pilots to Watch list in December, 2021.  

The Mediterranean island of Cyprus is home to dozens of ruins sites, testament to its importance to the ancient world.  In this drone video by Travel and Drones, you'll be treated to aerial views of a number of these ruins, including (by order of appearance) the Greek city-state of Salamis on its eastern coast, the city of Kourion on the southwestern coast, the Rock of Aphrodite (Petra tou Romiou) near Paphos, the medieval Paphos Castle fortress, and more.  The video was filmed with a DJI Mavic Pro 2 drone.

Located just off of Scotland's northern coast, the Orkney Islands are home to some of the best-preserved ancient ruins sites in Europe.  In this drone video by AirVuz contributor Albion Drones, you'll be able to aerially view the following ruins sites on the islands: Skara Brae, which dates to 3100 BC; Ring of Brodgar, one of the UK's most famous stone circles; the Barnhouse Settlement, discovered in the 1980's and also around 3,000 years old; the Stennes Stone Circle; and the Broch of Gurness, a comparatively newer (Iron Age) village.

AirVuz contributor Albion Drones brings us this outstanding drone video of the Callanish Standing Stones, an important Neolithic ruins site in the Scottish Highlands.  Consisting of a circle of stones arrayed around a single large stone, they are situated on the western coast of the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, a string of islands off of Scotland's northwestern coast.  The circle is believed to date to 2600-2900 BC.  Much more recently, it's appeared in numerous TV shows, movies, music album covers, and works of literature.  

One of the top attractions in the Scania region of southern Sweden is a site known as the Ales's Stones, a large ancient stone monument built in the shape of a ship.  It's estimated that the monument was built between 1.5k-5.5k years ago (an unusually wide range for a ruins site).  However, the exact purposes of this and other similar ancient monuments in the region are still a mystery.  Contributor and pilot FBAerial flew a drone over these ancient ruins to produce this impressive aerial video of the site.