The Mediterranean region, an area of immense historical significance, poses a unique challenge to scholars. It demands an understanding of the distinct temporalities at play – the lived experiences of the inhabitants and the reimagined narratives that have been woven around it through scholarly discourse. This Special Collection, 'The Two Mediterraneans that Live Apart, Together: Making Architectures and Writing Histories,' aims to navigate these complexities. By presenting four papers and this editorial, the collection seeks to redefine the boundaries of Mediterranean architecture, questioning the established convictions that have long governed Western scholarly discourse. In doing so, it encourages a more nuanced understanding of the region's diverse local knowledge across time and space, critically situating the Mediterranean as both a real and imagined space of global interconnectedness.