It is a question which must occur to any sentient traveller in the cities of the eastern Mediterranean. where great civilisations have risen, glittered brilliantly, then vanished into kingdoms of broken stone and dust.

BBC: A new wave of refugees in the city that was Smyrna

"Many of the dead were hit by flying debris of broken walls and stone slabs that were flung on to the streets due to the explosion, " witness Maung Win told the Associated Press.

BBC: Burma blast kills at least 17 in Rangoon

The Shah's nervous mullahs had warned him against stirring the spirit of Timur and sure enough a spate of tragedies ensued until the stone was returned to Samarkand, albeit broken in half.

ECONOMIST: Letter from Samarkand

When he was at last released, after five-and-a-half years in captivity, he weighed less than seven stone and was unable to comb his own hair, because his broken bones had healed so badly.

ECONOMIST: The man who healed the Vietnam wound