Inhalt: From the preface: "Visitors to Albania typically arrive at the modern Mother Teresa airport in the capital city of Tirana. A thirty-minute taxi ride brings one to Skanderbeg Square, the heart of the metropolis of some 850,000. Twenty-three miles from the coast on a lowland plain underneath mount Dajti to the east, modern Tirana is, on the surface, just another Balkan capital choked with traffic, shoddily constructed apartment buildings, cafes and restaurants - overwhelmed by the modern. Yet, in and around the city it is still possible to at least catch a glimpse of the remnants of some of the different civilizations which have over the centuries contributed to the creation of the modern Albanian state and nation"--