These strange structures found in southern Peru are called chullpas and belong to the nobility of a pre-Incan people.
Filed under: history, peru , archaeology, burial, peru, ruins, sillustani, tower
October 19, 2009 • 5:09 pm 0
Red Fort of Agra
The Red Fort of Agra is an immense fortress-palace and was the seat of government of the Mughal Empire for much of its existence. It sits not far from the Taj Mahal, near the banks of the Yamuna river.
Famously, it also served as the prison of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, imprisoned there by his own son Aurangzeb, the last of the Great Mughals. The old Shah Jahan would stare out of the palace window towards the Taj Mahal, which he had ordered built in memory of his wife Murg Mumtaz.
Filed under: architecture, history, india , agra, architecture, fort, india, mughal, palace, red, sandstone
• 4:42 pm 0
Tomb of Humayun, Delhi
The Tomb of Humayun is an early example of the Mughal style that would culminate in masterpieces such as the Taj Mahal.
Herein lies the second of the Great Mughals.
Filed under: architecture, history, india , architecture, delhi, humayun, india, mausoleum, mughal, tomb
• 3:26 pm 0
Ollantaytambo, Peru
The Inca settlement of Ollantaymbo was a focal point of Inca resistance during the Spanish conquest of Peru.
The adjacent town of the same name is one of the most intact Inca towns still in existence, with houses, streets and drainage systems almost entirely unchanged from the time of the Incas, some five hundred years ago.
The terraces were used for agriculture.
Trademark Incan masonry with irregular shapes and very tight fits between individual stones.
Filed under: architecture, history, landscape, peru , architecture, inca, masonry, ollantaytambo, peru, ruins, stone, terraces, walls
October 18, 2009 • 10:59 pm 0
Sacsayhuaman, Peru
The immense yet intricate masonry of the Inca sacred site Sacsayhuaman, on the outskirts of Cuzco, Peru.
The unfinished look to the tops of the walls show where the Spaniards took stone to build their own religious structures in the newly conquered Inca capital of Cuzco.
Filed under: architecture, history, peru , andes, cuzco, inca, masonry, peru, ruins, sacsayhuaman, stone, walls
October 17, 2009 • 7:07 pm 0
Macchu Picchu in life and in art
Filed under: history, landscape, peru , huayna picchu, inca, macchu picchu, peru, ruins, sacred valley
• 5:56 pm 0
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Athens
An Evzone soldier stands guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Athens, Greece. The Scots did not have a monopoly on going to war in skirts. The ceremonial uniform of the Evzones is derived from that of the Greek bandits and guerillas that resisted Ottoman Turkish occupation prior to independence in the early 19th century.
Filed under: europe, greece, history, people , athens, europe, evzone, greece, memorial, military, monument, portrait, soldier, tomb, unknown soldier
• 1:02 pm 0
Mont Saint-Michel, France
Off the coast of Normandy in northern France. Surrounded by some of the fastest tides in Europe, the thousand year old abbey and fortified island is famous for holding out against the English during the Hundred Years’ War.
Filed under: architecture, europe, france, history, landscape , abbey, europe, france, gothic, island, mont saint michel, normandy
• 10:37 am 1
Monasteries of Meteora, Greece
Built between five hundred to a thousand years ago, the monks and hermits of the Greek Orthodox Church sought ever more remote and difficult-to-reach places from where to pray and contemplate.
Hence their position amongst these spectacular sandstone rock formations in central Greece.
Nowadays a sealed road links all the monasteries and they are as much tourist museums as they are living monasteries.
Filed under: christianity, europe, greece, history, landscape, religion , architecture, christianity, europe, greece, greek orthodox church, meteora, monastery, religion, sandstone
• 10:13 am 0
Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, Istanbul
The iconostasis of the Church of St George, within the grounds of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in Istanbul.
The Greek presence in Turkey is now small, but the Ecumenicl Patriarchate still serves at the spiritual home of the Greek Orthodox Church for believers in Greece and scattered all over the world. It claims its beginnings from the Apostle St Andrew.
The two-headed eagle in the centre of the picture is a symbol from the Byzantine Empire, representing the twin role of the Byzantine Emperor, as head both of the Church and the State.
Filed under: christianity, europe, history, religion, turkey , church, constantinople, ecumenical patriarchate, europe, gold, greek orthodox church, iconostasis, istanbul, religion, turkey
