The small but beautiful city of Truro is the main administrative centre for the county of Cornwall and lies almost equidistant between the north and south coasts. It was originally an important trading centre, with a small port on the Truro River. This is now navigable only at high tide and has largely silted up. The beautiful cathedral dates from the early 20th century and is based on the design of the medieval Lincoln Cathedral. Truro became an important stannary town for assaying and stamping tin and copper from Cornish mines during the 18th and 19th centuries and a number of beautiful town houses were built for the mine owners.

It's generally the wider focal lengths that interest me, even given I choose to compose within a square format (currently!) as opposed to a typical 3:2, 5:3 or wider aspect ratio. Perhaps oddly, I've actually for some time had a preference for vertical landscapes over panoramas - although I believe anything narrower than 4:5 (that's vertical, remember) rests uncomfortably with the human eye as it challenges our natural field of vision to extremes.

 

Quite often shooting at the wider end means eschewing very close foreground objects, so as to avoid portraying them with gigantine characteristics in relation to other key elements. Having said that, there are always exceptions to the rule, and should a potential shot have strong diagonals running into the frame (try standing alongside a pier or wall) then there's no better way to accentuate it's proportions to dynamic effect than via a wide angle lens. There are of course many, many examples of images where this approach creates a distorted perspective of the world - often to terrific benefit - by increasing foreground dimensions. It's useful if wishing to convey a sense of the 'real' to ensure your foreground interest is recogniseable to your audience and imbued with a fixed sense of scale, such as a person, as opposed to perhaps a single rock which could in reality be a variety of sizes. Exploring the latter approach leads to it's own interesting possibilities of course, but care needs to be exercised unless the intent is to deliberately challenge perception. Alternatively, a telephoto at a zoomed focal length creates lens compression and effectively diminishes the perceived distance between fore and rear objects - a perspective useful if wishing to give distant objects enhanced prominence within a scene (or shrink the length of that pier or wall!). There's no right or wrong about any of this of course, and the experienced photographer will often instinctively make choices based on how best he wishes to convey the view before him.

 

But what if you want the scale to look... real? To appear as it did to the naked eye before you put that viewfinder in front of it? Well, there are a number of options. Each vary depending not just on your choice of lens and focal length, but also on your camera (be it medium format 6:6, micro four-thirds 4:3, or the 35mm standard 3:2). The advent of digital complicated things by cropping sensor sizes, bringing to the party a host of young pretenders to erode film's 35mm monopoly - be those crops 1.3x, 1.5x, 1.6x or (in certain cases) 2x. When I first started shooting photographs seriously, I couldn't understand why distance, perspective and all those other spatial peculiarities looked so different when seen through my lens. One of the things that really helped me appreciate the variables - and how best to control them - was to experiment taking shots with different camera/lens combinations available to me from a fixed point of view of chess pieces on a board. I gradually learnt (in addition to achieving the narrow dof that excites all photographers when they first start out!) how best to recreate what my eyes saw. Moving on a few years and I'm still hooked on wide angle lenses, but I also know that for my current full frame camera (equivalent to 35mm), my next lens acquisition will be a prime 50mm (unless I'm seduced by that 24mm tilt/shift I've been coveting...) allowing me to best mimic the field of view of my eyes. This should enable me to accurately depict a landscape with no artificial bias whatsoever - should that be my intent at the time.

 

However, no matter what you shoot with, one other option is to go to Carew Castle in Pembrokeshire and shoot across the water, centrally aligning the trees with the ancient ramparts on a fixed plane equidistant to your point of view, with no scalable objects in the fore or rear. Much simpler!

I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to reach my goal.

www.facebook.com/limebluphotography/

www.limebluphotography.com

Elbasan castle is a 15th-century fortress in the city of Elbasan, Albania. The castle was initially composed of 26 equidistant 9-metre (30 ft) high towers. Part of Via Egnatia passes through the castle. Sinan Pasha's Turkish bath is within the walls of the castle. It is a well-preserved attraction built in the early 19th century.

Anchorage (officially called the Municipality of Anchorage) (Dena'ina Athabascan: Dgheyaytnu) is a unified home rule municipality in the U.S. state of Alaska. With an estimated 298,192 residents in 2016, it is Alaska's most populous city and contains more than 40 percent of the state's total population; among the 50 states, only New York has a higher percentage of residents who live in its most populous city. All together, the Anchorage metropolitan area, which combines Anchorage with the neighboring Matanuska-Susitna Borough, had a population of 401,635 in 2016, which accounts for more than half of the state's population.

 

Anchorage is located in the south-central portion of Alaska, at the terminus of the Cook Inlet, on a peninsula formed by the Knik Arm to the north and the Turnagain Arm to the south. The city limits span 1,961.1 square miles (5,079.2 km2) which encompass the urban core, a joint military base, several outlying communities and almost all of Chugach State Park.

 

Due to its location, almost equidistant from New York City, Frankfurt, and Tokyo, Anchorage lies within ​9 1⁄2 hours by air of nearly 90% of the industrialized world. For this reason, the Anchorage International Airport is a common refueling stop for many international cargo flights and is home to a major FedEx hub, which the company calls a "critical part" of its global network of services.

 

Anchorage has won the All-America City Award four times: in 1956, 1965, 1984–85, and 2002, by the National Civic League. It has also been named by Kiplinger as the most tax-friendly city in the United States.

 

Credit for the data above is given to the following website:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchorage,_Alaska

ДАРИО ДЕ РЕГОЙОС, ок. 1906 - Ла Конча, ночные часы

☆

Location: The Carmen Thyssen Museum, Málaga, Spain.

Sources: www.carmenthyssenmalaga.org/en/obra/la-concha,-nocturno

www.museothyssen.org/thyssenmultimedia/visitas-virtuales/...

 

By Juan San Nicolas

From the very beginning of his career as a painter Regoyos was strongly attracted to night scenes, both indoors and out. This predilection led him to paint many such subjects in oil throughout his life. This night-time view of La Concha beach in San Sebastián dates from his mature Impressionist period and was completed during a stay in that city from 1905 to 1906, where he lived at 8, Calle Trueba. Regoyos masterfully captured the classic ambience of the dusk with people chatting on a promenade overlooking a calm sea. In the background are the silhouettes of Mount Igueldo and the island of Santa Clara in a view barely disturbed by a single passing vessel.

The play of light and shade is offset against the dark branches in the foreground at upper left. This recurring theme in Regoyos’s work enabled him to produce an exquisite foreground light through the combination of the green of the foliage and the blue, mauve and ochre filling the rest of the picture. In keeping with his normal practice, the centre of the picture is composed of horizontal and diagonal lines distributed within the pictorial space in a balanced way. As almost always, human figures are positioned equidistantly across the composition, here suggesting the typical repose and intimacy characteristic of this Impressionist artist's approach to the human form

I usually see far more male Blue Grosbeaks than females, so when both were equidistant from me today, I decided to make sure I photographed the female first, before pursuing the male...ladies first!

The Welsh Marches Line is a rather splendid place to visit, even though freight on the line isn't what it used to be. The portion I roamed today is set in the beautiful Shropshire countryside, which never disappoints, regardless of the weather.

 

This is Cheney Longville, a mere two miles to the north of Craven Arms, with the NMT, running to time, during it's ten hour run from Crewe CS to Derby RTC.

 

Pulling up before the bridge, I got out of the car and walked towards it to scope out the shot, where upon casually checking RTT, I discovered that the train was imminent. With panic mode engaged, I legged it back to the car, at full speed, opened the boot, grabbed my camera and started back to the bridge at a speedy rate. At a point where I'm equidistant between the car and bridge, a horn sounds, and now, well, I have an unfortunate expression etched right across my face, which then turns to relief as a Dog Box roles underneath my feet! So by now I'm thinking it best to set the exposures, and work out the shot. Luckily for me, the peg is set to cover entrance to the block, which is when the NMT roles up. The rest is history, as they say.

 

My gratitude to Jim Knight, for the phone calls, and patiently explaining where to go, and how to get there.

 

Cheney Longville. 11-08-2017. 12:38 PM.

 

All rights reserved.

EXPLORER nº 434 del dia 10 de Març 2009.-

-.

Pujar a aquest Santuari és quelcom màgic... està col·locat a una distància quasi equidistant del Pirineu i de la pla de l'Empordà fins el Mar. des de el Pla de l'Estany fins a la Garrotxa. És a dir des de dalt és pot veure totes, pràcticament, les contrades gironines.

Hi ha, però, una dificultat... sinó no seria com massa senzill, és que la majoria de vegades hi ha o calitja, o boirina, o boira, o està ennuvolat... és a dir... la majoria de cop no es veu gaire res de res...

La setmana passa havia fet vent, tramuntana, i havia bufat fort... per tant era el dia per pujar-hi...

Així vaig poder veure aquesta vista... entre d'altres que ja aniran sortint...

Ho sento per altres amics que hi han pujat i, com fins ara jo, no havien vist res... jo els deia... després de una tramuntanada... i després del vent el cel és blau i la vista arriba des del Canigó fins a Mar...Una meravella.

Deutschland / Nordrhein-Westfalen - Schloss Körtlinghausen

 

Kallenhardt - Schloss-Route

 

Backhaus

 

Baking House

 

Schloss Körtlinghausen is a Baroque Schloss (château) in Germany's Sauerland region, roughly equidistant between Dortmund and Kassel. It is sited on the southern bank of the River Glenne and it is surrounded by a moat.

 

Beyond the moat it one of the country's largest and oldest Oak trees, which is more than a thousand years old. The circumference of the trunk just above ground level is 12.4 m (41 ft).

 

The first documented mention of a castle on the site dates from 1398.

 

The current château replaced an earlier previous moated fortress. The manor belonged to the von Schorlemer and the von Rüdenberg families till 1447 when it was acquired by the von Lürwalds. They were followed by the von Hanxleden who were in their turn succeeded by the von Westrems in 1614. Between 1645 and 1819 it belonged to the von Weichs family.

 

In 1714 Franz Otto von und zu Weichs instructed the architect Justus Wehmer to construct a replacement château in the fashionable Baroque style, and the new building was completed in 1746. The von Fürstenbergs acquired it in 1830: it has remained in this family since that time.

 

In 1945 the château was occupied by the British and became as a holding centre for refugees rendered homeless by ethnic cleansing after large parts of eastern Germany had been transferred to Poland and the Soviet Union under the terms of an agreement between the United States, the Soviet Union and their allies. Between 1956 and 1994 it was rented out for use as a training school for the Bundesverband für den Selbstschutz ("National Self-defence Association"). Between 1999 and 2004 the château underwent an extensive restoration under the direction of the then owner, Baron Dietger von Fürstenberg, whose work earned him a prize for Historic preservation. In order to finance the work the baron sold a twelfth century German manuscript document, known as the "Stammheim Missal", and which had been in his family for generations, to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

 

Today the château is made available for conferences, receptions and other large functions. Buildings on the north side house administrative operations for the house and its farm estate.

 

The site comprises a rectangular manor house with two detached wings, one on each side, to the north of the main building. Between them these form three sides of a four sided courtyard. To the north of that runs part of the moat, across which a continuation of the courtyard is flanked by the stable block. Within the moat, the principal island is the one on which the mansion and its detached wings stand: there is also a small "unbuilt" island to the west of that.

 

The windows of the simple rendered building are framed in sandstone. On the main building the lines of the hipped roof are interrupted by gable windows, and the roof is topped off with four substantial chimney blocks. On each of the long sides of the court-yard ("Cour d'honneur"), it is rimmed by two short pavilion-like detached wings. On the garden (south) side the double steps approaching the main arched entrance are inscribed with the date, 1721. On the court-yard side the main entrance of the main building is topped of with a double double coats of arms of the von Weichs and (in the eighteenth century, neighbouring) von Droste zu Erwitte aristocratic families.

 

The main double staircase leads to the first floor via a raised mezzanine halfway up A large ground floor reception room, with rich stucco decoration and frescoes on the ceiling, overlooks the park. The coat of arms of the Baron von Weichs who had the château built is prominently displayed along with those of each of his three successive wives.

 

The chapel is directly accessible from either of the building's two main floors. The ceiling is decorated with a geometrical stucco design incorporating the image of Mary Magdalene, to whom the chapel is dedicated. The ceiling was painted in 1727. The altar dates from 1739. The raised box (literally "patronal loggia"), constructed to be occupied by the lord of the manor and his family during services, is particularly eye-catching.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Eine Route voller Sehenswürdigkeiten aber auch immer inmitten der eindrucksvollen Natur des Naturpark Arnsberger Wald. Sei es das historische Rathaus oder das barocke Wasserschloss - hier gibt es viel zu entdecken. Aber auch architektonische Neuheiten erwarten den interessierten Wanderer auf seinem Weg. Begeben Sie sich auf eine kleine Zeitreise in und um die ehemals kurkölnische Bergveste Kallenhardt und lassen Sie den Tag bei regional-typischen Leckereien ausklingen. Oder entdecken Sie die heimische Brennereikunst direkt vor Ort!

 

(tourismus-ruethen.de)

 

Das Schloss Körtlinghausen liegt im Sauerland an der Glenne zwischen Rüthen und Warstein im Kreis Soest. Das barocke Wasserschloss wurde im Glennetal nordwestlich von Kallenhardt (einem Ortsteil der Stadt Rüthen) erbaut. In Körtlinghausen stand die größte und mächtigste Eiche Deutschlands. Sie wurde etwa 1100 Jahre alt, war 22 m hoch und hatte einen Stammumfang von 12,4 m (knapp über dem Erdboden).

 

An der Stelle existierte eine steinerne Burganlage mit einem Wassergraben. Die Anlage war im 14. Jahrhundert im Besitz der Familien von Schorlemer und von Rüdenberg. Im Jahr 1398 kam der Schorlemersche Anteil an die von Lürwald. Nachdem die Rüdenberger zeitweise alleinige Besitzer waren, erwarb die Familie von Lürwald 1447 Haus und Besitz. Schon wenige Jahre später veräußerten sie ihn an die von Hanxleden. Im Jahr 1614 kam Körtlinghausen an die von Westrem. Von 1645 bis 1819 war es im Besitz der Familie von Weichs.

 

Das Schloss wurde 1714 von Oberjägermeister Freiherr Franz Otto von und zu Weichs nach den Plänen von Justus Wehmer erbaut. 1830 wurden die Freiherren von Fürstenberg Besitzer von Schloss Körtlinghausen, was bis heute der Fall ist. Nach 1945 wurde es als Flüchtlingsheim genutzt. Von 1956 bis 1994 war im Schloss eine Schule des Bundesverbandes für den Selbstschutz untergebracht. Für die 1999 begonnene Restaurierung und Sanierung von Körtlinghausen wurde 2004 Dietger Freiherr von Fürstenberg der Preis für Denkmalpflege in Westfalen-Lippe verliehen. Finanziert wurde das Vorhaben durch den Verkauf des Stammheimer Missale, einer bedeutenden Hildesheimer Handschrift aus dem 12. Jahrhundert, an das J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

 

Heute wird das Schloss Körtlinghausen für festliche Veranstaltungen und Tagungen vermietet. In den nördlichen Vorgebäuden befinden sich die Verwaltung und Landwirtschaft.

 

Das Schloss diente als Drehort für den 2017 erschienenen Kinofilm Happy Burnout.

 

Zur Schlossanlage gehören das rechteckige Herrenhaus mit zwei Seitenflügeln an der Längsseite sowie der Schlosshof mit Kavaliersgebäuden. Das Herrenhaus im Teich steht auf einer von zwei Inseln. Die Fenster des schlichten, verputzten Gebäudes sind in Sandstein gerahmt. Aus dem mit Gauben bestückten Walmdach ragen vier Kamine heraus. An beiden Längsseiten sind je zwei kurze, pavillonartig vorspringende Flügel angebaut. An drei Gebäudeseiten befinden sich übergiebelte Risalite, wobei der hofseitige durch ein Dachhaus überhöht wurde. Die zweiarmige Freitreppe an der Gartenseite, mit zierlichem Altan, ist mit 1721 bezeichnet. An dem Portal der Hofseite ist das Allianzwappen derer von Weichs und von Droste zu Erwitte (Haus Füchten) angebracht.

 

Das Treppenhaus mit zweigeteiltem Lauf wird auf halber Höhe zusammengeführt. Zur Gartenseite hin, im Obergeschoss, befindet sich ein Festsaal mit Deckengemälden und reicher Stuckierung. Jeweils in den Ecken sind die Wappen des Bauherren und seiner drei Ehefrauen angebracht.

 

Die Schlosskapelle ist der hl. Maria Magdalena geweiht. Zugänge sind in beiden Geschossen des Herrenhauses. An der geometrisch stuckierten Decke ist ein Gemälde der Kapellenheiligen zu sehen. Es wurde wohl in der Zeit vor 1727 gemalt. Der Altar wurde nach 1739 gebaut. Bestimmendes Ausstattungsstück der Kapelle ist die Herrschaftsloge.

 

Die beiden Vorgebäude nach einem Entwurf von Nagel, sind im Stil stark an Bauten Wehmers angelehnt. Das westliche mit dem Allianzwappen von Weichs und von Westrem ist mit 1731 bezeichnet, das östliche mit dem Allianzwappen von Weichs und von Galen ist mit 1743 bezeichnet. Die südlich angebaute Remise wurde mit einem Glockentürmchen bekrönt. In der Mitte der dreiflügeligen Ökonomie springt ein Torrisalit hervor. Am Westflügel steht das Torhaus von 1736, es wurde 1850 aufgestockt. Der Terrassengarten mit parabelförmigem Grundriss ist über eine Zugbrücke erschlossen.

 

(Wikipedia)

Floorless Formz Promo Shoot

 

I was resisting shooting at this location initially. It's been done to death locally, so the trick was to try and use it completely differently. I hope I've achieved that.

 

The art in the background is by members of the Unstoppable Nature (USN) Posse who I'm in the early stages of arranging a shoot and possible other project with. One of them, David, was one of my 100 Strangers a while back.

 

Strobist

 

2xSB28 in the background which you can see.

SB24 camera left in 40 cm softbox

430EX into 60 cm softbox camera right with diffusion panel removed to give a large but hardish light source.

 

All equidistant from Swifty but the front 2 at differing levels to each other.

 

The location is covered by a high roof with open sides making it permanently shaded. The roof has 2 skylights in it. One of which is giving the great light on the top half of the wall and really kicking the green.

The theme for a 11/2 lifetime is bringing life into a sense of balance through the analyzing and synthesizing of ideas. Learning to trust in yourself, your intuition, and your psychic abilities.

Justice and the High Priestess (Papess) represent form the gateway into an 11/2 lifetime. Justice (ruled by the planet Libra) places focus on harmony, understanding others, and finding a sense of balance in life. Libra is by nature active and social, with the need to balance between nurturing self and helping others. The High Priestess (Papess) is ruled by the Moon, which places focus on our inner selves, our inner needs, intuition, unconscious, and psychic abilities. Here we are looking at reacting, rather than taking action. The nature here is a passive one. Personal empowerment is the ability to focus our personal and spiritual energy in a manner that enhances how we experience our life. As we define our true power, we actualize out potential and begin to live life from a core of inner confidence.

 

theworldoftarot.wordpress.com/2014/03/15/birth-card-pairs...

 

The occult has moved from secrecy to mainstream acceptance, and tarot card reading stands as a testament to this shift. The Rider-Waite deck, named after the mystic A.E. Waite and publisher William Rider and Son, is considered the definitive tarot deck. However, the captivating imagery and symbolism that define this deck come from the artistic genius of Pamela Colman Smith, a woman often forgotten in the history of the occult.

Smith, an artist with possible Jamaican roots, led a bohemian lifestyle and was introduced to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn by the renowned poet William Butler Yeats. She joined the secret society, which explored occult and paranormal aspects, as well as philosophy and magic. There, she met A.E. Waite, who would later request her artistic talents in creating a new deck of divination cards. Despite the immense popularity of the Rider-Waite deck, Smith’s role in its creation was largely forgotten.

However, many tarot enthusiasts today have started acknowledging her contributions by calling it the “Smith-Waite” deck or using decks that feature her name prominently.

 

culture.org/the-unseen-mothers-of-the-occult-pamela-colma...

 

"Gospel according to "Myriam" and this Mary is generally identified, without certainty, as being Mary of Magdala....In Christian tradition, the Three Marys also refers to three daughters – all three called Mary – whom Anne, the maternal grandmother of Jesus would have had with three successive husbands. According to Fernando Lanzi and Gioia Lanzi, this tradition would have been condemned by the Council of Trent (16th century), but it is still very much alive, particularly in German-speaking countries16 and in the Netherlands. then retired to the cave of Sainte-Baume where she lived for 30 years as a hermitage, with her only clothing, the fleece of her hair, and as her only food, the song of the angels who daily raised her to the heavens, seven times a day, it is said. She left Sainte Baume to die with Saint Maximin, one of the 72 disciples, in the small town where he had built his oratory and which today bears his name. He buried the saint in an alabaster sarcophagus.The name Magdala comes from Magdal in Aramaic or Migdal in Hebrew and designates a construction in the shape of a tower, representing faith, very similar to the House of God (The Tower) in Marseille's Tarot !

 

The Tarot de Marseille would then be a testimony to the teaching of Mary Magdalene. In Spanish-speaking countries, the Orion Belt Asterism is called “Las Tres Marias” (The Three Marys). In other Western countries, it is sometimes called "The Three Kings", a reference to the "Magi who came from the East" of the childhood narrative added to the Gospel according to Matthew and to the tradition of the three Magi, bearers of gifts for the child Jesus, whose oldest witnesses are found in Tertullian and Origen (early 3rd century). My "Mary Magdalene theory" is fortunately supported by thousands of codes that all come interconnected. "You will progress on a healthier basis with someone you know. Be authentic. Make sure you reserve moments of relaxation and do not pull too much on the rope, you tend to exceed your physical limits. Mary (mother of Jesus) Mary Magdalene Mary of Clopas. These three women are very often represented in art, as for example in this picture. The Three Marys (also spelled Maries) are women mentioned in the canonical gospels' narratives of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Mary was the most common name for Jewish women of the period. Mary speaks of strange encounters with Creator Beings. Read about her experiences with them, and how their decree changed her life with Jesus. In this final volume of the trilogy, Magdalene appears to the author by the river in Rennes les Bains, France. There she reveals an ancient healing technique called The True Baptism. Mary illustrates how to organize the life force from the matrix of The All and allow it to trigger our genetic code. Mary then answers more of your questions, this time about the hidden properties of gold, the evolution of her bloodline with Jesus, free will, inner earth, the star knowledge, and much more. The Tarot, in both its origin as a card game and in its transformation into an occult divinatory tool, functions as an iconographic mirror of a particular culture's time and place. By the examining the evolution of the World card, from the 14th century Italian decks to contemporary ones, we will see a shift from male Christ imagery to female anima mundi imagery. Parallel to this iconographic shift is the figure of Mary Magdalene, who in Renaissance painting began to be portrayed less as a sinner and more of a penitent saint. The assumption of Mary Magdalene in art correlates with the finalized form of the World card. The alterations of Christian iconography and symbolism in Tarot cards are the result of occultists’ reappropiation of the Tarot in the late 1700s. The fear/distrust/disbelief of God and Christianity that began at this time funneled into an interest in the occult; in the Tarot, we see a preservation of the luminous but a problematic relationality with Christianity. The World card, as it has been handed down to us today, is a synthesis of the assumption of Mary Magdalene, the Christus Victor, and the anima mundi. A sacred priestess of the ancient Womb Rites, Mary Magdalene was at the center of a great and enduring Mystery tradition. Unveiling the lost left-hand path of the Magdalene, the authors offer rituals and practices to initiate you into the Womb magic of the ancient priestesses and access deeper dimensions of sexuality and feminine power.

 

www.innertraditions.com/books/magdalene-mysteries

 

Tarot historians are in agreement that the appropriation of the cards by occultists occurred in the late 18th century. The first known interpretation of the Tarot through an esoteric lens was penned by the French occultist Court de Gebelin. He believed the deck was the lost Egyptian Book of Thoth, containing the secret mysteries of Egyptian wisdom and magic; following Gebelin, occultists began syncretizing the Tarot with the systems of Kabbalah, Hermeticism, and alchemy. I believe we can locate the apex of this appropriation in the Waite-Smith deck from 1909 – the most familiar and popular deck to the contemporary reader. Later we will consider the effect this had on the Tarot symbolism and its relationship to the shifts in religious understanding in France and other European countries.Although there is a clear historical distinction between Tarot as “playing cards” and as occult divination tools, this is not to say that the imagery of the early decks are absent of symbolism or meaning. Rather than esoteric, the early cards are exoteric in their imagery; the symbols are clear referents to religion, culture, and mythology. While they seem esoteric today, as much of Christian iconography is to the contemporary viewer, these cards were probably not hard to decipher by their audiences. While much is admittedly conjecture, (as is a lot of Tarot historical studies), there is still much we can tease out of the visual evolution of the cards over time. It is surprising that there has been so little work done on the correlations and similarities between Tarot and Christian symbolism and iconography. My research hit a lot of dead-end roads in terms of proof, but I believe it is important to reveal my initial observations to show that, while perhaps not conscious, there is a great deal of Christian symbolism in Tarot, even in decks from the post-occult turn of the 18 and 19 centuries and from today as well.In the Waite-Smith deck, the most obvious Christian card is the 20 Major Arcana, Judgment, in which an angel blows a trumpet and the souls of dead bodies rise from coffins. Another obvious example is the Tower card, clearly a depiction of the fall of the Tower of Babel. Less obvious, perhaps, is the Fool card. It depicts a young man walking up to a cliff precipice, as though he does not see it; he carries a bag of money and is followed by a dog. Does this not recall the story of blind Tobias, who also carries money and is followed by a dog? Although in painting he is normally portrayed being guided by the angel Raphael, the similarities are astounding. How did this come to be?

  

The Hanged Man card is surprisingly consistent from the early Italian decks to the contemporary post-occult decks, and is one of the most mysterious within esoteric interpretation. In the Waite-Smith deck, it depicts a man hanging from a Tau cross by one leg; his other leg is crossed underneath the other to form another cross, and a nimbus glows around the head. Most occult interpretations of this card go along the lines that it is a symbol of self-sacrifice for spiritual gain. Robert Place argues that this can be understood as Christ, in that Christ was executed as a traitor by the state.3 Furthermore, a numerical reading of the card offers insight – being card 12, it might refer also to the self-sacrifice and martyrdom of the twelve disciples. By employing basic gematria, we can add the digits one and two to reach three, which could be the Trinity.

 

www.academia.edu/8851376/Tarot_and_Christian_Iconography_...

  

The Gospels refer to several women named Mary. At various points of Christian history, some of these women have been identified with one another..look at this picture from the Waite-Rider-Smth tarot:from left to right 1 Mary Magdalene 2 Mary of Jacob (mother of James the Less) 3 Mary, mother of Jesus (Matthew 27:56; Mark 15:40; Luke 24:10) Mary of Clopas (John 19:25), sometimes identified with Mary of Jacob. Mary of Bethany (Luke 10:38–42, John 12:1–3), not mentioned in any Crucifixion or Resurrection narratives but identified with Mary Magdalene in some traditions. Another woman who appears in the Crucifixion and Resurrection narratives is Salome, who, in some traditions, is referred to as Mary Salome and identified as being one of the Marys. Other women mentioned in the narratives are Joanna and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.Marie-Madeleine, Marie Salomé and Marie de Clopas are the 3 Maries of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, a French town, capital of the Camargue, in the department of Bouches-du-Rhône. The designation "of-the-sea" derives from the fact that after the death of Jesus, the three Marys crossed the sea by boat to there and then lived there, thus helping to bring Christianity to France and Europe. These 3 Marys were present during the execution of Jesus and, they were the first witnesses of the empty tomb at the resurrection of Jesus... After the death of Jesus, around 42 J.C. the Christians were persecuted, and the three Marys were arrested and expelled from Palestine. They therefore embarked, with many other Christians, on a ship named "The Ship of Peter" devoid of oars and sails which, led by Providence, managed to reach the shores of Provence, in the south of France in a place which now bears their names.This is where the three Marys were welcomed by Sara, according to some texts, according to others, Sara, herself would be the Holy Grail, the direct descent of Mary Magdalene and Jesus. Only Marie Salomé, Marie Jacobé and Sarah will remain; Marie Madeleine, will retire to a hermitage in a cave...This is a historically attested fact, because Christianity began to spread in Europe precisely from Gaul, which thus became the gateway to the new religion in Europe. Mary Magdalene occupies a privileged place for Christ, at the head of a group of women who accompany him. She will be the first witness to the Resurrection of Christ, the first to whom the Lord appears on Easter morning, a sign, whether we believe in it or not, of an exceptional position. She is Jewish like Christ, like him from the North of Palestine (Israel), from Galilee, probably from Magdala, near Nazareth and Cana. It is believed that she was an aristocrat born in the year 3 AD, who after attending the court of the king of the Jews Herod, was converted by Christ, changed her life and decided to follow him and put her fortune at the disposal of the group. Arrived in the Camargue, with the two other Maries, she evangelized the Marseillais, then withdrew to the cave of Sainte-Baume where she lived 30 years in hermitage, with as only clothing, the fleece of her hair, and as only food, the song of the angels who raised her daily in the heavens, seven times a day, it is said.

 

www.calistabellini.com/post/les-saintes-maries-de-la-mer-...

 

Different sets of three women have been referred to as the Three Marys: Three Marys present at the crucifixion of Jesus;

Three Marys at the tomb of Jesus on Easter Sunday; Three daughters of Saint Anne, all named Mary. The three Marys at the

 

The presence of a group of female disciples of Jesus at the crucifixion of Jesus is found in all four Gospels of the New Testament. Differences in the parallel accounts have led to different interpretations of how many and which women were present. In some traditions, as exemplified in the Irish song Caoineadh na dTrí Muire, the Three Marys are the three whom the Gospel of John mentions as present at the crucifixion of Jesus: However, Jesus was not crucified upside-down. Looking at the Visconti-Sforza deck, we have an almost identical depiction of the Hanged Man. Helen Farley points out that in Renaissance society, there was an art form called pittura infamante – ‘shame painting’ – “in which a person was depicted as a traitor, particularly when beyond the reach of legitimate legal. recourse.”4 By depicting someone hanging upside-down, this could alternately mean the person had turned away from God. It also was used for the execution of Jews, witches, and Christians who had committed perfidy. I immediately thought of Peter, who is said to have asked to be crucified upside-down because he was unworthy to die as Christ died. In Christian iconography, he is the only individual portrayed in this manner. Peter could be said to be a traitor, in that he denied Christ three times, but the negative associations of shame paintings don’t seem to correlate with Peter’s sainthood. Judas is also said to have hung himself, and is traitor par excellance, but I remained convinced that this card was based upon Peter. While the usual understanding of Peter’s request for an upside-down crucifixion is his humility in relation to Christ’s death, there is a different explanation in apocryphal accounts. In the Acts of Peter, Peter speaks from the cross, saying that, “when the first man [Adam] came into the world, he came headfirst. That means that Adam’s perspective, as the one who brought sin into the world, was entirely reversed and upside down. That is why people seem to think that what is true is false and what is false true....All of this is because humans have reverse vision, due to the actions of Adam.”6 Thus, hanging upside-down is a model for Christians to live by, to see the world correctly. This is nearly identical to how Tarot esotericists interpret the Hanged Man; it is both Christ in its self-sacrifice, and also an inversion of corporeal ‘reality’ and perspective through which one gets a better understanding of how to reach God. While one cannot veritably locate a thread between the Acts of Peter and the Hanged Man, this connection exemplifies the latent Christian symbolism that flows through the Tarot, from 14th century Italy to now.

 

Mary Magdalene, Mary of Clopas and Mary (mother of Jesus). These three women are very often represented in art, as for example in these Flickr's picture.

 

Women at the tarot like a passkey to heaven; The Three Marys as passkey. What may be the earliest known representation of three women visiting the tomb of Jesus is a fairly large fresco in the Dura-Europos church in the ancient city of Dura Europos on the Euphrates. The fresco was painted before the city's conquest and abandonment in AD 256, but it is from the 5th century that representations of either two or three women approaching a tomb guarded by an angel appear with regularity, and become the standard depiction of the Resurrection. They have continued in use even after 1100, when images of the Resurrection of Jesus in Christian art began to show the risen Christ himself. Examples are the Melisende Psalter and Peter von Cornelius's The Three Marys at the tarot. Eastern icons continue to show either the Myrrhbearers or the Harrowing of Hell. The fifteenth-century Easter hymn "O filii et filiae" refers to three women going to the tomb on Easter morning to anoint the body of Jesus. The original Latin version of the hymn identifies the women as Mary Magdalene (Maria Magdalene), Mary of Joseph (et Iacobi), and Salome (et Salome).

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Marys

 

The World (XXI) is the 21st trump or Major Arcana card in the tarot deck. It can be incorporated as the final card of the Major Arcana or tarot trump sequence (the first or last optioned as being "The Fool" (0). It is associated with the 21st letter of the Hebrew alphabet, 'Shin' also spelled 'Sin'. The oval shape of the wreath is also used by the Golden Dawn in their Tattva cards. These colorful cards were designed to aid the development of clairvoyance through visual meditation, and one of the symbols in the cards is an oval. The oval corresponds to the Akasha, ether or spiritual realm (see Akashic Records).

 

Description

 

Christ in Majesty is surrounded by the animal emblems representing the four evangelists in a German manuscript.

In the traditional Tarot of Marseilles, as well as the later Rider–Waite tarot deck, a naked woman hovers or dances above the Earth holding a staff in each hand, surrounded by a wreath, being watched by the four living creatures (or hayyoth) of Jewish mythology: a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle. This depiction parallels the tetramorph used in Christian art, where the four creatures are used as symbols of the four Evangelists. Some astrological sources explain these observers as representatives of the natural world or the kingdom of beasts. According to astrological tradition the Lion is Leo—a fire sign, the Bull or calf is Taurus—an earth sign, the Man is Aquarius—an air sign, and the Eagle is Scorpio—a water sign. These signs are the four fixed signs and represent the classical four elements. In some decks the wreath is an ouroboros biting its own tail. In the Thoth Tarot designed by Aleister Crowley, this card is called "The Universe." The World card, the highest ranked Major Arcana card, exists in the early Visconti-Sforza, Marseilles, and contemporary decks. It will serve as our loci in considering the relationship between Tarot and Christian iconography, the evolution of Mary Magdalene in Christian depiction/understanding, and the rise of the female anima mundi in occult and esoteric movements. To recall, the Visconti-Sforza is one of our earliest known decks. Helen Farley notes that the deck’s symbolism reflects concerns and themes of the Italian Renaissance: The proximity of death, the fickle hand of fortune, the desirability of living a life

of virtue, the importance of spirituality but also the contempt with which corporeal concerns were held, namely the corruption of the Church...[it] portrayed the lives and history of the Viscontis...as a game: a potent allegory of Visconti life. These themselves more as we follow the orbit of the World card around the sun of time.reveal themes, particularly the tension between spirituality and Catholicism, will. In the Visconti-Sforza deck, the world is shown as a globe, within which is surrounded by turbulent waters (fig. I). The globe is held aloft by two putti. The blue wings indicate they are Seraphim, the highest rank of angels. In other versions from this time, there is usually a figure of a woman or angel upon the globe and city usually represents Jerusalem, the city of God; “the microcosm of the city symbolically linked the earthly (human) body with the heavenly (cosmic) ‘body’”, observes Farley. This derives, of course, from St. Augustine’s The City of God, wherein the Christian empire is located around the Church of Rome, which links humankind with God. The earthly city reflects the heavenly city, and this card connects the actual city of Milan with the celestial city of heaven. Duke Sforza’s domination of Milan is enforced and made holy through its pictorial self-portrayal as the Augustinian city. This pride in the city-state enforces the power, wealth, and status of Milan; interestingly, as the World card follows the Resurrection/Judgment card, Milan is portrayed as the city Augustine believes will contain the saved souls. One also may observe that the city is separated from the rest of the ‘world’ by the edge of the globe; it is strongly fortified and separated by waters, illuminated by the stars of heaven.

 

What does 3 stars in the sky mean? many meanings...Each culture gives the Três Marias a different meaning. In Christian tradition, the stars are associated with the three women who visited the tomb of Jesus at the resurrection. They also represent the Three Wise Men -Gaspar, Melchior and Baltasar-, who would be on their way to Bethlehem at the birth of the messiah. What are the three Marias? Mark 16:1 indicates that "Mary Magdalene", "Mary the mother of James" and "Salome" went to the tomb to anoint Jesus....How many stars do the 3 Marias have?

The Belt or Belt of Orion, popularly known as the Three Marys or Three Kings, is an asterism of three stars that form the belt of the constellation of Orion, the hunter. The stars, easily identifiable in the sky by their brightness and alignment, are known as Mintaka, Alnilam, and Alnitak. Where are the three Marias?

To identify it we must locate 3 stars close to each other, of the same brightness, and aligned. They are called Tres Marías and they form the belt of the constellation of Orion, the hunter. Their names are Mintaka, Alnilan and Alnitaka, from the Arabic Al-Mintakah, the belt, An-Nidham, the pearl, and An-Nitak, the rope.

What are the stars we see in the sky? Stars are large spheres formed by plasma heated to thousands of degrees. Its shape is due to its gravity, which points towards the core of the star. Stars are large spheres of plasma that are powered by nuclear fusion. Stars are large spheres of plasma, held together by their own gravity. > Constellation of ORION: Why are the three Marias called Três Marias? Origin and meanings of Três Marias.Each culture gives the Três Marias a different meaning. In Christian tradition, the stars are associated with the three women who visited the tomb of Jesus at the resurrection. They also represent the Three Wise Men -Gaspar, Melchior and Baltasar-, who would be on their way to Bethlehem at the birth of the messiah. What are the three Marias? Mark 16:1 indicates that "Mary Magdalene", "Mary the mother of James" and "Salome" went to the tomb to anoint Jesus....How many stars do the 3 Marias have? The Belt or Belt of Orion, popularly known as the Three Marys or Three Kings, is an asterism of three stars that form the belt of the constellation of Orion, the hunter. The stars, easily identifiable in the sky by their brightness and alignment, are known as Mintaka, Alnilam, and Alnitak.Where are the three Marias? To identify it we must locate 3 stars close to each other, of the same brightness, and aligned. They are called Tres Marías and they form the belt of the constellation of Orion, the hunter. Their names are Mintaka, Alnilan and Alnitaka, from the Arabic Al-Mintakah, the belt, An-Nidham, the pearl, and An-Nitak, the rope.The most curious thing of all is that, in reality, their names are Mintaka, Alnilan and Alnitak, Arabic names that mean, respectively, the "Belt", the "Pearl/Precious Stone" and the "Rope". Another is knowing that they are actually very close together in the sky, approximately 1,500 light-years from Earth.There are three enormous stars visible in the winter sky and in the center of the constellation Orion, the celestial cathedral. These three stars form a nearly perfect tilted alignment, separated by seemingly nearly equidistant distances. They are known as the three Marys, the three wise men or the belt of Orion -a giant hunter from mythology-, but these names are not enough to understand the mysteries that such colossal stars contain. We must look towards the south, at half height; between the horizon and the zenith. It has no loss, it is a brilliant stellar alignment, which is unique in the firmament. Three blue stars, three giants: Mintaka, Altinak and Alnilam.

 

Источник: planetariodevitoria.org/estrelas/qual-e-o-nome-das-estrel...

 

An engineer born in Alexandria in 1948, Robert Bauval, with a background in astronomy and an interest in Egyptology, discovered that the three Marys are positioned exactly like the three great pyramids of Giza in Egypt. The star Mintaka, in the upper part of the alignment of the three Marys, is somewhat deviated with respect to the previous two, the same imperfect alignment has the three great pyramids. But also, the pyramid deviated from the straight line that joins the other two, is the smallest of the three (Micerino), like Mintaka, which is the star that shines the least of the three Marias. Also, the pyramid that is highest on the plateau of the three and that stands out the most (Kefren) is the central one, as is the central star of Las tres Marías, which is the brightest. Did the Egyptians also know that these stars are visible from all over the world? And more specifically Mintaka, which is right on the celestial equator. Everything can be the product of chance, but many coincidences bear the truth. Curiously, the Egyptians believed that after their death, the gates of heaven opened in the place occupied by Orion's belt, but they never understood the greatness of those three spectacular stars. The three Marys were the place where the soul of Osiris, the Egyptian god of resurrection, rested and presides over the court of the judgment of the deceased, among other powers.Alnitak, an Arabic name meaning "belt", is the lowest of the three stars. A new star 6 million years old, while the Sun is about 5,000 million. This blue giant, 16 times the diameter of the Sun, with a visual magnitude of 1.79, located 700 light years from the Sun, of spectral type O9, shines with an intensity 100,000 times greater than that of our Sun, which next to it is a tiny star with a mass 20 times less than Alnitak. It ranks 35th among the most luminous stars we know of, including stars from other galaxies. Alnitak is a peculiar star, whose surface temperature reaches 29,000 degrees. The Sun only reaches 6,500. But it is also a very intense source of X-rays, due to the strong stellar winds that are projected from the surface in the form of particles, essentially hydrogen and helium, sweeping the surrounding space at speeds of 2,000 km/s. These types of giant stars have their days numbered. The bigger the stars are, the less time they live, so that Alnitak, in a short time will become a red supergiant, it will explode in the form of a supernova, which can be seen even during the day from Earth, to end up as a tiny star about 10 km in diameter, called a neutron star, a star so dense that a teaspoon of its surface would weigh as much as a mountain. Also Alnitak is a triple star. Alnilam. Located in the center of the stellar trio that make up Las tres Marías, it is a true celestial spectacle. It shines with a magnitude of 1.70, being the fourth brightest star in Orion and the brightest of the three Marys, in addition to being the furthest at 1,340 light years, but that is nothing compared to the luminosity of the star, equal to 380,000 times greater than the Sun, ranking 27th of all known stars. It is a blue supergiant star, 31 times the diameter of the Sun and 40 solar masses. Extraordinarily young, only 4 million years old, somewhat colder than the previous one, with about 25,000ºC on the surface. It also has a powerful stellar wind with speeds of 2,000 km/s, 20 million times more than the solar wind. The temperature and radiation are so high in this star that it lights up a nebula of gas and dust called NGC 1990 by reflection. Alnilam is so young that it is not yet a stable star, but variable in its brightness (pulsating variable), due to its continuous expansion and contraction. The Sun is a stable star, it does not pulse, expand, or contract. The force of gravity pulling in on the Sun has been offset by the expansive force of thermonuclear reactions by converting hydrogen to helium, but in Alnilam, both forces continue without agreeing. If it is possible to have planets, life there as we know it would be impossible, due to the instability of the star. Alnilam will end its days as Alnitak, becoming a premature red supergiant, exposing its superdense core; a neutron star. Meanwhile, it is moving away from us at a speed of 26 km/s. Mintaka: Arabic word meaning "for belt." Another blue giant star, although the faintest in brightness of the three Marias reaching 2.5 magnitude. It contains 20 solar masses and a luminosity 90,000 times greater than that of the Sun. Located at a distance of 915 light years, it is surprising that it shines with such intensity, not in vain its surface temperature is 31,000ºC. Mintaka is one of the most complex multiple systems known. The main star, that is to say Mintaka, has a companion of magnitude 6.8 at a real distance of more than 2.3 trillion km, or what is the same, ¼ of a light year. But in turn, this star that appears to be 1' of arc distant from Mintaka, is a spectroscopic binary, that is, it has another companion so close to it that it is impossible to take it off with telescopes, but it can be done using spectroscopy; the only thing we can detect is the spectrum of the companion, but we can't see it. Between the spectroscopic binary and Mintaka, there is a faint 14th magnitude star that may belong to the system. But in addition, Mintaka has an extraordinarily close companion to her, which is why she is a spectroscopic binary. Curiously, the companion star has almost the same characteristics as Mintaka, the same mass, temperature and luminosity and must be the same size. A complex 5-star star system. Almost all stars are double or multiple, the rarity is our Sun, which is a solitary star. However, many researchers look for dwarf stars that may be trapped by the Sun's gravity.

 

www.abc.es/ciencia/20140122/abci-tres-marias-estrellas-co...

  

The two putti slowly disappeared in other decks, to be replaced by either a male or female figure. In this example from the Museo Civico, we see a woman holding a wand and a globe as she stands upon the globe (fig. II). Another early example of a female World card is the Cary-Yale Visconti deck (fig. III), depicting a royally-clothed woman wielding a scepter and a crown. It was not uncommon to portray the earth as a feminine figure, but these early examples seem to be stressing not so much a personification of the earth but rather the domination of earth by something/someone. Consider figure IV and figure V. Here we have a male figure, one clothed and the other nude, ruling over the world. Consider also the nude male in the Jacques Vieville deck and the Bologna deck (fig. VI). In Christian art, when Jesus is portrayed as the Christus Victor, he looms over the world holding a globe with a cross fixed to it. He is often surrounded by the four evangelists as he stands upon God’s throne. When he is surrounded by the four evangelists, Christ is enclosed within a mandorla, and the four evangelists are often in the four corners. Should we understand these male figures as Christ? The examples we’ve looked at that have a clothed male figure can clearly be an iconographic Christus Victor; the World card, being the last Major Arcana, is Christ victorious over the entire world after the Resurrection. But what of the nude figures? The only instance of Christ nude in Christian art, that I know of, is Michelangelo’s altar wall in the Sistine Chapel; there, Christ is nude and beardless, as with these particular cards. But there is a shift from the Christ standing upon the world to the Christ on God’s throne. As we see with the Jacques Vieville card (fig. VI), the nude Christ holds his standard iconographic scepter with attached globe, is enclosed by a mandorla (a laurel wreath), and surrounded by the four evangelists. Again, following the tradition of Christian art, Matthew is a human with wings, Mark is a lion, Luke is an ox, and John is an eagle. There is no essential difference between this Tarot card and an atypical Christus Victor. It should be noted that this visual structure was also used in alchemy through the 16 to the 18 century. The four

evangelists are correlated with the four elements of the world, the four seasons, and the four directions. Consider figure VII; note the chalice with the serpent, the attribute of John the Evangelist, unusually associated with the anima mundi. But something happened. Recall that the Marseilles deck, circa blueprint structure and pattern for most subsequent decks created in France, Italy, and Belgium, and also for the decks created by occultists in the 19th century deck is unusual considering its forerunners. We have the same iconography of the four evangelists and the mandorla, but instead of the Christus Victor or royally-clothed woman, there is a nude woman (figure VIII). There are many versions of this, of course, but we can say that she is often portrayed with long hair, with a loose banner rippling around her nude body. She sometimes holds a bottle and a scepter; more often, two equal wands (that is, wands with a knob on both ends). She is always enclosed within a laurel wreath, and the four evangelists remain in the four corners of the card. Suddenly, a nude woman is dancing, or floating, on God’s throne instead of Christ; perhaps, she is being assumed up into heaven. This card serves as the bridge between the City of God and the Christus Victor depictions to most of the subsequent World cards: the rather curious and baffling conflagration of Christian iconography and feminine/Goddess imagery. What does this shift mean, and how can we situate it within Christian art? Let us turn our attention, now, to the portrayal of Mary Magdalene in Christian art. Mary Magdalene underwent quite a transformation through Renaissance art. The sinner Magdalene ultimately becomes the penitent, holy reformer to which many upheld as an exemplary and relatable model. Mrs. Jameson locates the rising popularity of Magdalene as penitent in the 16th and 17th into heaven. Magdalene became “still more endeared to the popular imagination by more affecting and attractive associations, and even more eminently picturesque...We have Magdalenes who look as if they never could have sinned, and others who look as if they never could have repented.”11 Magdalene became more sexualized just as she became more penitent. Rachel Geschwind observes that in the 16th century, paintings like Rossiglio’s Conversion of the Magdalene began to give Venus-like characteristics to Magdalene; she is both divine and corporeal. and art, and sometimes one might even mistake a Venus for a Magdalene. Courtesans at this time would write of divine love and the desire to enter the ‘paradise of Venus’, which was a metaphor where she is praying for forgiveness or being reconciled and/or assumed up for the city. (Recall the City of God from the Visconti deck). Magdalene seemed to serve as a perfect model for passion and romance that was acceptable religiously, and as a locus for the world of divine love. The dichotomy between the corporeal and the divine is also inherent in Correggio’s Noli Me Tangere; Margaret A. Morse writes that “Correggio evoked a natural style, while maintain a beauty and sanctity for which his subjects called, whereby the beholder...would be able to recognize the divine in the physical.”14 She is a bridge between the viewer and Christ, between the body and the spirit. Given that Neo-Platonism was on the rise during the Renaissance, it makes sense that this balance between two kinds of love, “sacred and profane, formulated by Plato in the Symposium”15, found Mary Magdalene as the perfect template and model. In addition to Venus-like characteristics, Magdalene was also beginning to assume the role as a “new Eve” from the Virgin.The relationship between the images of the Tarot de Marseille and the medieval heresy of the Holy Grail. The followers of this heresy claimed that Jesus of Nazareth had married Mary Magdalene. In this work are presented all the symbols of the Tarot in relation to this heresy and, for the first time, it is revealed that these images constitute the secret heritage of Mary Magdalene. that the game was the lost Egyptian book of Thoth, containing the secret mysteries of Egyptian wisdom and magic; following Gebelin, occultists

2 began to syncretize the Tarot with the systems of Kabbalah, Hermeticism and Alchemy. We believe we can place the pinnacle of this appropriation in the Waite-Smith game of 1909 - the most familiar and popular game for the contemporary reader. Later we will look at the effect this has had on Tarot symbolism and its relationship to changes in religious understanding in France and other European countries.

 

Mary Magdalene (Mary of Magdala), the woman with jars in Christian symbolism, could very well in this case be represented in the star map. But their assumptions stopped there. No one had ever imagined that the Tarot itself represents in its entirety the teaching and life of Marie-Madeleine on the one hand and even less that the Tarot was created by Marie-Madeleine herself in the 1st century. This is the entirely new Tarot theory that I have been expounding since the beginning of the second millennium. If my theory of the Tarot turns out to be correct, it completely changes the vision and the understanding that one could have of the Tarot. It changes the dating of the Tarot which goes from the 14th century to the 1st century AD with Mary Magdalene, the Tarot de Marseille thus becoming the ancestor of all Western tarots, that is to say "the Tarot". Historians and experts said that the Tarot originated in Italy during the Renaissance era around the end of the 14th century the beginning of the 15th century. On the other hand, no one thought that the Tarot de Marseille itself originated from Marseille. When I started to propose the theory of a Marseille origin of the Tarot de Marseille, Tarot historians and Tarot experts thought that I was an eccentric or that I wanted to make a publicity stunt. In 1999, I explained publicly that in my opinion the Tarot had been transmitted to Europe around 415 by the monk Jean Cassien who was entirely dedicated to Marie-Madeleine and who founded the order of the Abbey of Saint-Victor in Marseille. My Tarot theory is based on thousands of secret codes that can be found in the new Tarot de Marseille Camoin that I drew in the 90s. The Mandorla that surrounds the naked woman indicates that it is a saint who has reached the beatific state. The most significant secret Tarot code in "The Mary Magdalene Theory" that I have discovered resides in the last two cards of the Tarot Major Arcana, Judgment and the World. Indeed, by their number, these two cards are naturally placed next to each other. I revealed that the two cards put together give the key to the mystery of the Tarot character that is found in the World card. Because the identity of this character had remained a mystery for centuries. Almost all Tarot researchers claimed that it was the androgynous Christ, so much so that it had become a real dogma in the Tarot world. Historians could not imagine that it was a woman because of the presence of the four living beings who are attributed to Christ in Christian sacred art. Some had interpreted this mysterious young woman as being the soul of the World, "Anima Mundi".

But the Tarot is coded in another way. Tarot codes are embedded in other Tarot codes and so on. Also, if we disregard the four living beings in the World map, we obtain a naked woman surrounded by an almond-shaped oval. This oval called mandorla symbolizes the state of beatific vision. We find the mandorla around some saints. This means that in the Tarot de Marseille, the woman on the World Map is a saint. My "Mary Magdalene theory" continues like this. In the pantheon of Western saints, there is only one saint who is depicted naked, and that is Saint Mary Magdalene. However, Marie de Magdala lived in the vicinity of Marseilles for 30 years. My theory, which is unique in the history of the Tarot, states that it is Mary Magdalene who is represented in the map of the World and that the Tarot de Marseille is therefore dedicated to this saint.

 

The two cards form a new symbol. Mary of Magdala is the Saint who sees the Resurrection of Christ (in blue. Furthermore, we can locate similar attributes to Magdalene from apocryphal sources as well as the writings of Origen. In the apocryphal Pistis Sophia, Magdalene is the sole recipient of Christ’s gnosis, rather than Peter and the other disciples. Christ says, “Well done, Mary. You are more blessed than all women on earth, because you will be the fullness of fullnesses and the completion of completions.”17Although this apocryphal account could not have been known to people during the Renaissance, it reveals that even within the early Christian communities there was a holiness attributed to Magdalene that transcended all others. Yet the Gnostic contempt for materiality seems to clash with the embrace of dualism during the Renaissance. This dualism can be found in Origen’s writings, however. In his commentary on the Song of Songs, he allegorically reads the bride as the Christian church. The bride anoints her lover with an ointment; Origen connects this with the scriptural account of Mary Magdalene anointing Christ. He interprets the line spoken by the bride, “I am dark but comely, O daughters of Jerusalem” (Song 1:5), as follows: “She has repented of her sins...beauty is the gift conversion has bestowed; that is the reason she is hymned as beautiful. She is called black, however, because she has not yet purged of every stain of sin, she has not yet been washed unto salvation, nevertheless she does not stay dark-hued, she is becoming white.”18 The dualism of black/evil and white/good is unfortunate, but the connection between the Bride of the Song of Songs and Magdalene reinforces her movement away from sin into penitence, and her positive association with the Church and Christ. The sexual language employed in the Song of Songs has always been difficult for commentators; however we see that when Magdalene is associated with the Bride, the sexuality is compounded with Magdalene’s penitence, in the same way we’ve seen in Renaissance painting. The portrayals of Magdalene’s assumption into heaven connect us back to the Tarot. Mrs. Jameson observes, dryly, that Italian paintings of Magdalene’s assumption began “to recall the idea of a Venus Meretrix.”19 Let us consider Giovanni Lanfranco’s La maddalenan portata in cielo, (fig. IX) and Sandro Botticelli’s Birth of Venus (fig. X). Jameson is quite correct in her observation, despite her negativity towards this shift. In the Lanfranco, Magdalene’s hair barely covers her nude body as she is borne aloft by three putti. She holds out her hands at an angle, and below her is the world’s expanse of mountains, lakes, and forests. It is sexual and chaste, physical and divine. Her figure is very much the Platonic divine love, the ideal Venus. In some of the Assumptions, she is almost dwarfed by the sublime immensity of the landscape. The fact that the very earth is prominent in these paintings underscores Magdalene’s dualistic characteristics of corporeality and divinity; the world gapes below her as she rises above it into the sky. Although she is always borne by putti in her assumption, she seems to float and dance in ecstasy as she rises. We observed the replacement of the Christus Victor with a female nude in the Marseilles World card. That card is remarkably similar to the Lanfranco, Durer’s Assumption of the Magdalene, and others. One gets the same sense of elevation and completion (recall Christ’s words in the Pistis Sophia) in the rise of Magdalene as one gets in the World card. I argue for a parallel between Magdalene’s evolution and the World card’s evolution; just as painting was infusing Magdalene with traits of divine love and worldliness, Tarot decks began to see the post- Resurrection world not in light of Christ but in a neo-Platonic Venus, a Magdalene/New Eve that encompasses the new World. We saw that some World cards have the woman holding a bottle of some sort, which is an attribute of Magdalene. Also, the instances of the two equal wands supports the dualism of divinity and corporeality, dark and light, sinner and penitent, in the portrayals of Magdalene. Robert Place agrees, writing that “She takes her position in the sacred center, which identifies her as the Anima Mundi and the Quinta Essentia...she has mastered or transcended duality...the World Soul is depicted as both Christ, or Sophia his female counterpart....divine wisdom.”20 She is the completion, the alchemical Great Work, the culmination of all earthly phases into the elevation of the world into heaven. This is, of course, an esoteric alchemical interpretation, which as we noted did not apply to Tarot until the late 1700s. I hold that Magdalene’s iconographic transition in the Renaissance parallels the exoteric symbolism of the World; but what to make of the occultists’ appropriation of this image in the late 1700s? Farley argues that, “With tarot removed from its original environment, its symbolism lost its previous relevance and context, rendering its imagery mysterious.”21 Institutionalized religion was being questioned at this time; indeed, the first publications by occultists on the Tarot coincide with the French Revolution. While we cannot delve deeply into the Revolution here, suffice it to say that it was characterized by a rejection of Christianity but a preservation of Christian structure. “It had its creeds, liturgies and sacred texts, its own vocabulary of virtues and vices...and the ambition of regenerating mankind itself, even if it denied divine intervention or the afterlife. The result was a series of deified abstractions worshipped through the denatured language and liturgy of Christianity.”22 Much of the Revolution’s tactics was the replacing of old symbols with new ones, but maintaining the same essential religious structure. Similarly, I argue that the occult appropriation of the Tarot was also an appropriation of Christian iconography, in a general sense; esoteric interpretations and the revisions of Tarot symbolism was an attempt to escape Christian doctrine through fabricated ancient lore (Egyptian roots, e.g.) and synthesized connections between the Tarot and old esoteric traditions such as Kabbalah.

 

Interpretation

According to A.E. Waite's 1910 book The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, the World card carries several divinatory associations:

 

Mary Magdalene (Mary of Magdala), the woman with jars in Christian symbolism, could very well in this case be represented in the star map. But their assumptions stopped there. No one had ever imagined that the Tarot itself represents in its entirety the teaching and life of Marie-Madeleine on the one hand and even less that the Tarot was created by Marie-Madeleine herself in the 1st century. This is the entirely new Tarot theory that I have been expounding since the beginning of the second millennium.

If my theory of the Tarot turns out to be correct, it completely changes the vision and the understanding that one could have of the Tarot. It changes the dating of the Tarot which goes from the 14th century to the 1st century AD with Mary Magdalene, the Tarot de Marseille thus becoming the ancestor of all Western tarots, that is to say "the Tarot". Historians and experts said that the Tarot originated in Italy during the Renaissance period around the end of the 14th century the beginning of the 15th century. On the other hand, no one thought that the Tarot de Marseille itself originated from Marseille.

 

21.THE WORLD—Assured success, recompense, voyage, route, emigration, flight, change of place. Reversed: Inertia, fixity, stagnation, permanence.

The World represents an ending to a cycle of life, a pause in life before the next big cycle beginning with the fool.[3] The figure is male and female, above and below, suspended between the heavens and the earth. It is completeness. It is also said to represent cosmic consciousness; the potential of perfect union with the One Power of the universe.[4] It tells us full happiness is to also give back to the world: sharing what we have learned or gained. As described in the book The New Mythic Tarot by Juliet Sharman-Burke and Liz Greene (p. 82), the image of the woman (Hermaphroditus in Greek Mythology) is to show wholeness unrelated to sexual identification but rather of combined male and female energy on an inner level, which integrates opposites traits that arise in the personality charged by both energies. Opposite qualities between male and female that create turmoil in our life are joined in this card, and the image of becoming whole is an ideal goal, not something that can be possessed rather than achieved.

 

According to Robert M. Place in his book The Tarot, the four beasts on the World card represent the fourfold structure of the physical world—which frames the sacred center of the world, a place where the divine can manifest. Sophia, meaning Prudence or Wisdom (the dancing woman in the center), is spirit or the sacred center, the fifth element. Prudence is the fourth of the Cardinal virtues in the tarot. The lady in the center is a symbol of the goal of mystical seekers. In some older decks, this central figure is Christ, whereas in others it is Hermes. Whenever it comes up, this card represents what is truly desired.

 

In other media

In the manga JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, tarot cards are used to name the character's powers, named 'Stands'. The overarching antagonist of Stardust Crusaders, DIO, has a Stand named The World, named after The World card. This stand has the power to stop time whenever DIO commands it to, and he can move during frozen time. In Steel Ball Run, an alternate version of DIO, Diego Brando, later gains this Stand after being summoned by Funny Valentine.

 

In the film Cryptozoo, a tarot reading is done with the Waite-Smith Deck that reveals The World card as part of the protagonist's journey.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_(tarot_card)

 

The relationship between the images of the Tarot de Marseille and the medieval heresy of the Holy Grail. The followers of this heresy claimed that Jesus of Nazareth had married Mary Magdalene. In this work are presented all the symbols of the Tarot in relation to this heresy and, for the first time, it is revealed that these images constitute the secret heritage of Mary Magdalene. that the game was the lost Egyptian book of Thoth, containing the secret mysteries of Egyptian wisdom and magic; following Gebelin, occultists began to syncretize the Tarot with the systems of Kabbalah, Hermeticism and Alchemy. We believe we can place the pinnacle of this appropriation in the Waite-Smith game of 1909 - the most familiar and popular game for the contemporary reader. Later we will look at the effect this has had on Tarot symbolism and its relationship to changes in religious understanding in France and other European countries.The Mandorla that surrounds the naked woman indicates that it is a saint who has reached the beatific state.

The most significant secret Tarot code in "The Mary Magdalene Theory" that I have discovered resides in the last two cards of the Tarot Major Arcana, Judgment and the World. Indeed, by their number, these two cards are naturally placed next to each other. I revealed that the two cards put together give the key to the mystery of the Tarot character that is found in the World card.

Because the identity of this character had remained a mystery for centuries. Almost all Tarot researchers claimed that it was the androgynous Christ, so much so that it had become a real dogma in the Tarot world. Historians could not imagine that it was a woman because of the presence of the four living beings who are attributed to Christ in Christian sacred art. Some had interpreted this mysterious young woman as being the soul of the World, "Anima Mundi". But the Tarot is coded in another way. Tarot codes are embedded in other Tarot codes and so on. Also, if we disregard the four living beings in the World map, we obtain a naked woman surrounded by an almond-shaped oval. This oval called mandorla symbolizes the state of beatific vision. We find the mandorla around some saints. This means that in the Tarot de Marseille, the woman on the World Map is a saint. My "Mary Magdalene theory" continues like this. In the pantheon of Western saints, there is only one saint who is depicted naked, and that is Saint Mary Magdalene. However, Marie de Magdala lived in the vicinity of Marseilles for 30 years. My theory which is unique in the history of the Tarot stipulates that it is Mary Magdalene who is represented in the map of the World and that the Tarot of Marseilles is therefore dedicated to this saint.

 

fr.camoin.com/tarot/Tarot-Marie-Madeleine-Magdala.html

  

What is the name of the brightest star?

Sirius, also called Sirius, α Canis Majoris is the brightest star in the night sky visible to the naked eye, with an apparent magnitude of −1.46. In Greek mythology, Orion's hunting dogs are said to have ascended to heaven at the hands of Zeus, taking the form of the star Sirius.,What are the stars called?

they are called bright stars. How the stars are classified? Astronomers classify stars by size and surface temperature. Based on their size, stars can be called supergiants, bright giants, giants, subgiants, dwarfs or normals, and subdwarfs.

 

Источник: planetariodevitoria.org/estrelas/qual-e-o-nome-das-estrel...

 

Hebrew Letter: Tave

In this article The World Symbols, I refer to The World card from the Rider Waite Tarot deck, also known as the Waite-Smith, or Rider-Waite-Smith, or Rider tarot deck. The symbolism found on this trump card is primarily drawn from mythology, Christianity, alchemy, astrology. Contents

The World: Key Symbol. Compare The World Tarot Card Symbols with Historical Decks

What Does The Dancer Symbolize in The World Tarot Card? Dancer Purple Sash Red Hairband

Two Wands Crossed Legs Symbolism What is The Meaning of The Laurel Wreath in The World Card?Laurel Wreath Two Red Ribbons Who Are The Four Figures in The World Card and What do They Symbolize? Man Lion Eagle Bull What is The Meaning of The Blue Background? The Rider Waite World card borrows heavily from the Marseille Tarot. Waite himself says, “this final message of the Major Trumps is unchanged – and indeed unchangeable – in respect of its design”. In both instances the naked World dancer moves encased within a victory wreath. The four corners of the card contain tetramorphs, mystical creatures of antiquity and mythology depicting a bull, lion, bird and human face.

The dancer holds dual magical wands, as opposed to The Magician who only holds one. What Does The Dancer Symbolize in The World Tarot Card? Dancer. The dancer symbolizes the fetus waiting to be born again, as the Fool prepares to start over through the procession of the Major Arcana. However, this is no babe starting from scratch, we are presented with a woman at her height of beauty and youth. She signifies the next stage of evolution. Some occultists claim that the figure is a hermaphrodite, because her sexual gender is hidden by the scarf. They say she is the union of male and female, and that sexual identity is no longer relevant or defining. The dancer perfectly integrates aspects of the male and female. Wouldn’t this card be a suitable iconographic image for gender fluidity in todays times! The dancer is both the bride and bridegroom. Purple Sash. The purple sash is the color of divinity and wisdom. It evokes the images of a Catholic priest who puts on a purple stole when offering the sacrament during mass. The sash curves in the figure of eight, suggestive of the cosmic lemniscate or infinity sign.

Red Hairband. The dancer wears a red hairband, which draws fire energy to her head area. It symbolizes that her mind and conscious is active. This is not someone who exists only in the spiritual realm.

Two Wands. The dancer holds two double-sided wands, which represent the polarity powers of involution and evolution. Involution is the decent of God into the soul or consciousness, and evolution is the assent of the soul back to God or the creator. ⭐Wands also appear here: The Magician Symbols

Crossed Legs Symbolism. The dancer crosses her legs in a similar manner to the Hanged Man. However, the triangle he represents is under the cross of the tree, symbolizing he is still bound by earthly things. The dancer is reversed, she forms a triangle pointing upwards, from the tip of her head to her two outstretched hands. Thus the triangle of Spirit now overturns the cross of the material earthly plane. What is The Meaning of The Laurel Wreath in The World Card? Laurel Wreath. The woman is surrounded by a large laurel wreath, traditionally a symbol of success and victory. The implication here, on the Fools Journey, is that there is cause for celebration. This is the end of the road before a new era begins. The wreath forms the shape of a zero, which is the number of The Fool card. The wreath also symbolizes the womb, signaling that the woman is like an embryo waiting to be reborn. The oval shape of the wreath is also used by the Golden Dawn in their Tattva cards. These colorful cards were designed to aid the development of clairvoyance through visual meditation, and one of the symbols in the cards is an oval. The oval corresponds to the Akasha, ether or spiritual realm (see Akashic Records). See Shamanism for more information on Tattva cards. ⭐A laurel wreath also appears here: The Chariot Symbols, Ace of Swords Symbols, Seven of Cups Symbols, Six of Wands Symbols Two Red Ribbons. The red ribbon bindings at the top and bottom of the wreath indicate completion, the circle has been made complete.

It also reminds one of the ancient quote, “as above, so below”. Who Are The Four Figures in The World Card and What do They Symbolize? The four beasts represent the four living figures or hayyot, which are a class of heavenly beings in Jewish mythology. According to both Jewish and Christian tradition, the creatures vary by description. In this card we see the four tetramorph, a lion, man, eagle and bull.

These creatures represent the four seasons, as well as the four elements of Fire, Air, Water and Earth. Their presence implies that they are the cornerstones of a balanced life. Man. The blond-haired man represents the astrological sign of Aquarius, winter season and the element Air. Lion. The Lion represents Leo, summer and fire. Eagle. The Eagle represents Scorpio, autumn and water.

Bull. The Bull represents Taurus, spring and earth. What is The Meaning of The Blue Background?

The blue background is the cosmic mind or ‘Universe’ as it has come to be known in the New Age. The dancer is able to manipulate this realm easily with her two wands.

 

karinastarot.com/world-symbols/

 

Furthermore, we can locate similar attributes to Magdalene from apocryphal sources as well as the writings of Origen. In the apocryphal Pistis Sophia, Magdalene is the sole recipient of Christ’s gnosis, rather than Peter and the other disciples. Christ says, “Well done, Mary. You are more blessed than all women on earth, because you will be the fullness of fullnesses and the completion of completions.”17Although this apocryphal account could not have been known to people during the Renaissance, it reveals that even within the early Christian communities there was a holiness attributed to Magdalene that transcended all others. Yet the Gnostic contempt for materiality seems to clash with the embrace of dualism during the Renaissance. This dualism can be found in Origen’s writings, however. In his commentary on the Song of Songs, he allegorically reads the bride as the Christian church. The bride anoints her lover with an ointment; Origen connects this with the scriptural account of Mary Magdalene anointing Christ. He interprets the line spoken by the bride, “I am dark but comely, O daughters of Jerusalem” (Song 1:5), as follows: “She has repented of her sins...beauty is the gift conversion has bestowed; that is the reason she is hymned as beautiful. She is called black, however, because she has not yet purged of every stain of sin, she has not yet been washed unto salvation, nevertheless she does not stay dark-hued, she is becoming white.” The dualism of black/evil and white/good is unfortunate, but the connection between the Bride of the Song of Songs and Magdalene reinforces her movement away from sin into penitence, and her positive association with the Church and Christ. The sexual language employed in the Song of Songs has always been difficult for commentators; however we see that when Magdalene is associated with the Bride, the sexuality is compounded with Magdalene’s penitence, in the same way we’ve seen in Renaissance painting.

The portrayals of Magdalene’s assumption into heaven connect us back to the Tarot. Mrs. Jameson observes, dryly, that Italian paintings of Magdalene’s assumption began “to recall the idea of a Venus Meretrix.”19 Let us consider Giovanni Lanfranco’s La maddalenan portata in cielo, (fig. IX) and Sandro Botticelli’s Birth of Venus (fig. X). Jameson is quite correct in her observation, despite her negativity towards this shift. In the Lanfranco, Magdalene’s hair barely covers her nude body as she is borne aloft by three putti. She holds out her hands at an angle, and below her is the world’s expanse of mountains, lakes, and forests. It is sexual and chaste, physical and divine. Her figure is very much the Platonic divine love, the ideal Venus. In some of the Assumptions, she is al

At 3764 metres, Mt Cook in New Zealand is the highest of the country's 27 mountains over 3000 metres.

It is called Aoraki (or Aorangi, ao meaning land, rangi meaning sky or heavens) by the Maori.

 

New Zealand's highest peak was named Mt Cook (after the British explorer Captain James Cook) by Captain Stokes of the survey ship HMS Acheron.

 

Mt Cook sits at the heart of New Zealand’s Alpine country, within the 700 square kilometres of Mt Cook national park, and is almost equidistant from Christchurch and Queenstown.

 

Lake Pukaki is a lake in New Zealand's South Island. It is the second-largest of three roughly parallel alpine lakes running north-south along the northern edge of the Mackenzie Basin (the others are Lakes Tekapo and Ohau). All three lakes were created by receding glaciers blocking their respective valleys with their terminal moraine (a moraine-dammed lake). The glacial feed to the lakes gives them a distinctive blue colour, created by glacial flour (extremely finely ground rock particles from the glaciers).

  

Claudette and our two (2) granddaughters visiting Peggy's Cove.

 

Visit: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peggys_Cove,_Nova_Scotia

 

Peggys Point Lighthouse (also known as Peggy's Cove Lighthouse) is in Peggys Cove and is an iconic Canadian image. It is one of the busiest tourist attractions in Nova Scotia and is a prime attraction on the Lighthouse Trail scenic drive. The lighthouse marks the eastern entrance of St. Margarets Bay and is officially known as the Peggys Point Lighthouse.

 

Peggys Cove is a classic red-and-white lighthouse still operated by the Canadian Coast Guard. The light station is situated on an extensive granite outcrop at Peggys Point, immediately south of the village and its cove. This lighthouse is one of the most-photographed structures in Atlantic Canada and one of the most recognizable lighthouses in the world.

 

Visitors may explore the granite outcrop on Peggys Point around the lighthouse; despite numerous signs warning of unpredictable surf (including one on a bronze plaque on the lighthouse itself), several visitors each year are swept off the rocks by waves, sometimes drowning.

 

Peggys Cove is 43 kilometers (26 miles) southwest of downtown Halifax and comprises one of the numerous small fishing communities located around the perimeter of the Chebucto Peninsula. The community is named after the cove of the same name, a name also shared with Peggy's Point, immediately to the east of the cove. The village marks the eastern point of St. Margaret's Bay.(Wikipedia)

  

Visit: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swissair_Flight_111

 

Swissair Flight 111

 

Swissair Flight 111 (SR111, SWR111) was a Swissair McDonnell Douglas MD-11 on a scheduled airline flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, United States to Cointrin International Airport in Geneva, Switzerland. This flight was also a codeshare flight with Delta Air Lines.

 

On Wednesday, 2 September 1998, the aircraft used for the flight, registered HB-IWF, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean southwest of Halifax International Airport at the entrance to St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia. The crash site was 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) from shore, roughly equidistant from the tiny fishing and tourist communities of Peggys Cove and Bayswater. All 229 people on board died—the highest death toll of any aviation accident involving a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 and the second-highest of any air disaster to occur in Canada, after Arrow Air Flight 1285. This is one of only two hull losses of the passenger configured MD-11, along with China Airlines Flight 642.

 

The initial search and rescue response, crash recovery operation, and resulting investigation by the Government of Canada took over four years and cost CAD 57 million (at that time approximately US$38 million). The Transportation Safety Board of Canada's (TSB) official report of their investigation stated that flammable material used in the aircraft's structure allowed a fire to spread beyond the control of the crew, resulting in a loss of control and the crash of the aircraft.

 

Swissair Flight 111 was known as the "UN shuttle" due to its popularity with United Nations officials; the flight often carried business executives, scientists, and researchers

 

Aircraft

The aircraft, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11, serial number 48448 registered HB-IWF, was manufactured in 1991 and Swissair was its only operator. It bore the title of Vaud, in honor of the Swiss canton of the same name. The airframe had a total of 36,041 hours. The three engines were Pratt & Whitney 4462s. The cabin was configured with 241 seats (12 six-abreast first-, 49 seven-abreast business-, and 180 nine-abreast economy-class). First- and business-class seats were equipped with an in seat in-flight entertainment system, installed at some point after initial entry into service. (Wikipedia)

  

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This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.

Berlin Hauptbahnhof, Berlin, Deutschland.

 

La Estación Central de Berlín es la mayor estación ferroviaria de paso de la Unión Europea.1​ Está ubicada en el centro de Berlín (Alemania), cerca de la Cancillería, del Reichstag (edificio del Parlamento de Alemania) y de la Puerta de Brandeburgo.

 

El complejo es un diseño del arquitecto alemán Meinhard von Gerkan, del estudio Gerkan, Marg und Partner. El coste inicial del proyecto era de 700 millones de euros, cantidad que finalmente ascendió hasta 900 millones.

 

La superficie total es de 70.000 m² distribuidos en cinco plantas, con un total de 15.000 m² para restaurantes y comercios situados en las tres plantas centrales, mientras que la superior e inferior albergan los andenes ferroviarios. A ambos lados de la estación se alzan dos bloques de oficinas y viviendas.

 

La estación se halla a varios centenares de metros de la antigua estación Berlin Hauptbahnhof-Lehrter Bahnhof del S-Bahn (Stadtbahn) que conectaba Berlín-Spandau/Berlín-Charlottenburgo con Berlín-Friedrichstrasse, Berlín-Alexanderplatz, Berlín-Ostbahnhof y Berlín-Lichtenberg. La antigua estación fue demolida a principios de la década de los 2000, cuando ya estaba construida la infraestructura de la actual Estación Central para evitar cortar el importante tráfico ferroviario que soporta el Stadtbahn (un tren cada 30 segundos).

 

La estación es una pieza clave en el desarrollo de esta zona, con un plan de urbanización que mantiene un equilibrio entre oficinas, hoteles, comercios, viviendas y zonas verdes.

 

Esta estación central está equidistante de las dos estaciones que oficiaban de estaciones centrales de las partes en que estaba dividida la ciudad antes de la caída del muro de Berlín: Alexanderplatz en Berlín Este, y Berlin Zoologischer Garten en Berlín Occidental. Al otro lado del río Spree se encuentra el complejo Parlamentario y la cancillería.

 

La parte central es una bóveda curva de 20.000 m², compuesta por 8.500 vidrios de diferentes tamaños unidos por más de 80.000 m de tirantes.

Vista del primer nivel y parte del segundo desde el tercer piso de la estación.

 

La estación cumple con los más altos estándares que la arquitectura ecológica puede implementar en esta clase de construcciones. El hábil manejo de la luz natural y especialmente la instalación de paneles fotovoltaicos en el tejado, que suministrarán cerca de 50% del consumo energético de la estación, colocan a esta obra como un referente en la materia.

 

La cuarta parte del presupuesto fue destinada a los cimientos, ya que la central está ubicada en el margen del río Spree, sobre un territorio que tiene como base cerca de 100 m de arena. Se utilizó una técnica que consiste en construir estanques de hormigón de 25 m de profundidad, que se llenaron de agua freática que fue bombeada.

 

Berlin Central Station is the largest railway station in the European Union.1 It is located in the center of Berlin (Germany), near the Chancellery, the Reichstag (building of the German Parliament) and the Brandenburg Gate .

 

The complex is a design by the German architect Meinhard von Gerkan, from the Gerkan studio, Marg und Partner. The initial cost of the project was 700 million euros, an amount that finally amounted to 900 million.

 

The total surface is 70,000 m² distributed over five floors, with a total of 15,000 m² for restaurants and shops located on the three central floors, while the upper and lower floors house the railway platforms. On both sides of the station there are two blocks of offices and houses.

 

The station is several hundred meters from the former Berlin Hauptbahnhof-Lehrter Bahnhof S-Bahn (Stadtbahn) station that connected Berlin-Spandau / Berlin-Charlottenburg with Berlin-Friedrichstrasse, Berlin-Alexanderplatz, Berlin-Ostbahnhof and Berlin-Lichtenberg . The old station was demolished in the early 2000s, when the infrastructure of the current Central Station was already built to avoid cutting the important rail traffic that supports the Stadtbahn (one train every 30 seconds).

 

The station is a key piece in the development of this area, with an urbanization plan that maintains a balance between offices, hotels, shops, homes and green areas.

 

This central station is equidistant from the two stations that served as central stations in the parts into which the city was divided before the fall of the Berlin wall: Alexanderplatz in East Berlin, and Berlin Zoologischer Garten in West Berlin. Across the river Spree is the Parliamentary complex and the chancellery.

 

The central part is a curved vault of 20,000 m², made up of 8,500 glasses of different sizes joined by more than 80,000 m of braces.

View of the first level and part of the second from the third floor of the station.

 

The station complies with the highest standards that ecological architecture can implement in this type of construction. The skillful management of natural light and especially the installation of photovoltaic panels on the roof, which will supply nearly 50% of the station's energy consumption, place this work as a benchmark in this area.

 

The fourth part of the budget was allocated to the foundations, since the plant is located on the bank of the Spree River, on a territory that is based on about 100 m of sand. A technique was used that consists of building concrete ponds 25 m deep, which were filled with groundwater that was pumped.

Ladner, BC Canada

 

One of the best ways to get a feeling for the Fraser Estuary is from a small boat such as a canoe or kayak. Although the Fraser River powers its way through the estuary in three main channels, there are numerous backwaters where the current is not as strong nor the wakes from passing tugboats and freighters as intimidating. Try launching at Deas Slough and explore the nearby Ladner Marsh area.

 

The heart of the slough is equidistant from either Ferry Road or Deas Island Park. If you want to expand your journey beyond the slough, investigate the secluded channels of Ladner Marsh and the South Arm Marshes Wildlife Management Area that begins west of the Ferry Road boat launch and includes all of the delta between Deas and Westham Islands.

 

This image is best viewed in Large screen.

 

Thank-you for your visit, and please know that any faves or comments are always greatly appreciated!

 

Sonja

Sheldon Jackson Museum, Sitka, Alaska.

 

Bentwood Box - Description

 

The bentwood box is an ingenious example of a woodworking technology developed through eons of practice. The fabrication process involves kerfing, steaming, and bending a single plank of wood to form the sides of the box.

 

A plank of wood is cut and smoothed according to the size of the desired box. The plank is grooved in three equidistant kerfs (grooves) at right angles to the plank. It is steamed to soften the wood and then bent along the grooves to make a four-sided box. The bent corners are then tied, pegged, or glued to the fourth corner to form the sides of the box. The bottom and lid are usually added last.

 

Typically, a bentwood box is made of spruce, yellow cedar, or red cedar.

 

These boxes come in many sizes and shapes. They are elaborately decorated with shallow relief carving, painting, or inlaid with shells.

 

The bentwood box was a traditional item made by the First Nation Peoples of the Northwest Coast of North America, including the Coast Salish, Gitxsan, Haida, and Tsimshian. They lived on the coast of Alaska, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia since prehistoric times.

 

Bentwood boxes varied in size from a few inches to several feet in height and width. They were used to store blankets, clothing, cooking utensils, drums, regalia, ceremonial objects, carrier and storage for water, and burial place for the dead.

 

Artisans rarely decorated boxes intended for food storage. However, boxes intended for ceremonial purposes and trade items were often ornately decorated with carving and painting. Occasionally, the body and lid of these boxes were inlaid with shells.

 

Elaborate designs often include highly stylized abstract figures, animals, birds, or sea creatures. They also portrayed legends or events in history.

 

The general practice was to keep highly valued objects in finely carved boxes. Painted boxes were often used for household items. These boxes served as heirlooms, communicating a family history. The design on these boxes represented the owner's wealth, social status, and spiritual power. Today most bentwood boxes are found in private collections and museums.

www.worthpoint.com/dictionary/p/furniture-furnishings/dec...

Equidistant from Costco Wholesale and Lucky Chances Casino.

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Princeton is roughly equidistant from New York City and Philadelphia. It is close to many major highways that serve both cities (e.g., Interstate 95 and U.S. Route 1), and receives major television and radio broadcasts from each. It is also close to Trenton, New Jersey's capital city, New Brunswick and Edison." - info from Wikipedia.

 

The fall of 2022 I did my 3rd major cycling tour. I began my adventure in Montreal, Canada and finished in Savannah, GA. This tour took me through the oldest parts of Quebec and the 13 original US states. During this adventure I cycled 7,126 km over the course of 2.5 months and took more than 68,000 photos. As with my previous tours, a major focus was to photograph historic architecture.

 

Now on Instagram.

 

Become a patron to my photography on Patreon or donate.

This is Islam's fourth most holiest site

  

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosque_of_Uqba

  

The Great Mosque of Kairouan (جامع القيروان الأكبر), also known as the Mosque of Uqba (Arabic: جامع عقبة‎), is one of the most important mosques in Tunisia, situated in the UNESCO World Heritage town of Kairouan.

Built by the Arab general Uqba ibn Nafi from 670 AD (the year 50 according to the Islamic calendar) at the founding of the city of Kairouan, the mosque is spread over a surface area of 9,000 square metres and it is one of the oldest places of worship in the Islamic world, as well as a model for all later mosques in the Maghreb.[1] The Great Mosque of Kairouan is one of the most impressive and largest Islamic monuments in North Africa,[2] its perimeter is almost equal to 405 metres (1,328 feet). This vast space contains a hypostyle prayer hall, a huge marble-paved courtyard and a massive square minaret. In addition to its spiritual prestige,[3] the Mosque of Uqba is one of the masterpieces of both architecture and Islamic art.[4][5][6]

Under the Aghlabids (9th century), huge works gave the mosque its present aspect.[7] The fame of the Mosque of Uqba and of the other holy sites at Kairouan helped the city to develop and repopulate increasingly. The university, consisting of scholars who taught in the mosque, was a centre of education both in Islamic thought and in the secular sciences.[8] Its role can be compared to that of the University of Paris in the Middle Ages.[9] With the decline of the city of Kairouan from the mid 11th century, the centre of intellectual thought moved to the University of Ez-Zitouna in Tunis.

  

Location and general aspect

  

Map of Kairouan (1916) showing the location of the Great Mosque of Kairouan in the northeast corner of the medina

  

The mosque outside is marked by many buttresses. Here is the northwest corner.

  

Wall and buttresses of the southern side of the mosque

  

Late afternoon panorama of the mosque

  

Located in the north-east of the medina of Kairouan, the mosque is in the intramural district of Houmat al-Jami (literally "area of the Great Mosque").[11] This location corresponded originally to the heart of the urban fabric of the city founded by Uqba ibn Nafi.

But because of the specific nature of the land, crossed by several tributaries of the wadis, the urban development of the city stretched southwards. Then there are the upheavals of Kairouan following Hilalian's invasions in 449 AH (or 1057 AD) and which led to the decline of the city. For all these reasons, the mosque (which occupies the same place since its founding in 670) is not any more situated in the center of the medina, and is thereby positioned on the extremity, near the walls.

The building is a vast irregular quadrilateral, longer (with 127.60 meters) from the eastern side than on the opposite side (with 125.20 meters) and less wide (with 72.70 meters) on the north side (in the middle of which stands the minaret) that the opposite side (with 78 meters). It covers a total area of 9000 m2.

From the outside, the Great Mosque of Kairouan is a fortress-like building, which required as much by its massive ocher walls of 1.90 meters thick composed of well-worked stones, courses of rubble stone and courses of baked bricks,[12] as the square angle towers measuring 4.25 meters on each side and the solid and projecting buttresses that support and bind. More than a defensive role, the buttresses and towers full serve more to enhance the stability of the mosque built on a soil subject to compaction.[13] Although a seemingly harsh, the external facades, punctuated with powerful buttresses and towering porches, some of which are surmounted by cupolas, give to the sanctuary a striking aspect characterized by majestic sobriety.

  

History

  

Evolution

  

At the foundation of Kairouan in 670, the Arab general and conqueror Uqba Ibn Nafi (himself the founder of the city) chose the site of his mosque in the center of the city, near the headquarters of the governor. Around 690, shortly after its construction, the mosque was destroyed[15] during the occupation of Kairouan by the Berbers, originally conducted by Kusaila. It was rebuilt by the Ghassanid general Hasan ibn al-Nu'man in 703.[16] With the gradual increase of the population of Kairouan and the consequent increase in the number of faithful, Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik, Umayyad Caliph in Damascus, charged his governor Bishr ibn Safwan to carry out development work in the city which include the renovation and expansion of the mosque around the years 724–728.[17] In view of its expansion, he pulled down the mosque and rebuilt it with the exception of the mihrab. It was under his auspices that the construction of the minaret began.[18] In 774, a new reconstruction accompanied by modifications and embellishments[19] took place under the direction of the Abbasid governor Yazid Ibn Hatim.[20]

Plan architect of the building.

  

Under the rule of Aghlabid sovereigns, Kairouan was at its apogee, and the mosque profited from this period of stability and prosperity. In 836, Ziadet-Allah I reconstructed the mosque once more:[21] this is when the building acquired, at least in its entirety, the appearance we see today.[22][23] At the same time, the mihrab's ribbed dome on squinches was raised.[24] Around 862-863, Abul Ibrahim enlarged the oratory, with three bays to the north, and added the cupola over the arched portico which precedes the prayer hall.[25] In 875 Ibrahim II built another three bays, thereby reducing the size of the courtyard which was further limited on the three other sides by the addition of double galleries.[26]

The current state of the mosque can be traced back to the reign of Aghlabids—no element is earlier than the ninth century besides the mihrab—except for some partial restorations and a few later additions made in 1025 during the reign of Zirids,[27] 1248 and 1293-1294 under the reign of Hafsids,[28] 1618 at the time of mouradites beys,[29] in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In 1967, major restoration works, executed during five years and conducted under the direction of the National Institute of Archeology and Art, were achieved throughout the monument, and were ended with an official reopening of the mosque during the celebration of Mawlid of 1972.[30]

  

Host stories

  

Several centuries after its founding, the Great Mosque of Kairouan is the subject of numerous descriptions by Arab historians and geographers in the Middle Ages. The stories concern mainly the different phases of construction and expansion of the sanctuary, and the successive contributions of many princes to the interior decoration (mihrab, minbar, ceilings, etc.). Among the authors who have written on the subject and whose stories have survived[31] are Al-Bakri (Andalusian geographer and historian who died in 1094 and who devoted a sufficiently detailed account of the history of the mosque in his book Description of Septentrional Africa), Al-Nuwayri (historian who died in Egypt, 1332) and Ibn Nagi (scholar and historian of Kairouan who died around 1435).

On additions and embellishments made to the building by the Aghlabid sovereign Abul Ibrahim, Ibn Nagi gives the following account :

« He built in the mosque of Kairouan the cupola that rises over the entrance to the central nave, together with the two colonnades which flank it from both sides, and the galleries were paved by him. He then made the mihrab. »[22]

  

Among the Western travelers, poets and writers who visited Kairouan, some of them leave impressions and testimonies sometimes tinged with emotion or admiration on the mosque. From the eighteenth century, the French doctor and naturalist John Andrew Peyssonnel, conducting a study trip to 1724, during the reign of sovereign Al-Husayn Bey I, underlines the reputation of the mosque as a deemed center of religious and secular studies :

« The Great Mosque is dedicated to Uqba, where there is a famous college where we will study the remotest corners of this kingdom : are taught reading and writing of Arabic grammar, laws and religion. There are large rents for the maintenance of teachers. »[32]

At the same time,the doctor and Anglican priest Thomas Shaw (1692–1751),[33] touring the Tunis Regency and passes through Kairouan in 1727, described the mosque as that : " which is considered the most beautiful and the most sacred of Berberian territories ", evoking for example : " an almost unbelievable number of granite columns ".[34]

At the end of the nineteenth century, the French writer Guy de Maupassant expresses in his book La vie errante (The Wandering Life), his fascination with the majestic architecture of the Great Mosque of Kairouan as well as the effect created by countless columns : " The unique harmony of this temple consists in the proportion and the number of these slender shafts upholding the building, filling, peopling, and making it what it is, create its grace and greatness. Their colorful multitude gives the eye the impression of unlimited ".[35] Early in the twentieth century, the Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke describes his admiration for the impressive minaret :

« Is there a more beautiful than this still preserved old tower, the minaret, in Islamic architecture ? In the history of Art, its three-storey minaret is considered such a masterpiece and a model among the most prestigious monuments of Muslim architecture. »

  

Architecture and decoration

  

Exterior

  

Enclosure

  

Today, the enclosure of the Great Mosque of Kairouan is pierced by nine gates (six opening on the courtyard, two opening on the prayer hall and a ninth allows access to the maqsura) some of them, such as Bab Al-Ma (Gate of water) located on the western facade, are preceded by salient porches flanked by buttresses and surmounted by ribbed domes based on square tholobate which are porting squinches with three vaults.[12][37] However, Arab geographers and historians of the Middle Ages Al-Muqaddasi and Al-Bakri reported the existence, around the tenth and eleventh centuries, of about ten gates named differently from today. This reflects the fact that, unlike the rest of the mosque, the enclosure has undergone significant changes to ensure the stability of the building (adding many buttresses). Thus, some entries have been sealed, while others were kept.[12]

During the thirteenth century, new gates were opened, the most remarkable, Bab Lalla Rihana dated from 1293, is located on the eastern wall of the enclosure.[12] The monumental entrance, work of the Hafsid sovereign Abu Hafs `Umar ibn Yahya (reign from 1284 to 1295),[38] is entered in a salient square, flanked by ancient columns supporting Horseshoe arches and covered by a dome on squinches.[12] The front facade of the porch has a large horseshoe arch relied on two marble columns and surmounted by a frieze adorned with a blind arcade, all crowned by serrated merlons (in a sawtooth arrangement).[39] Despite its construction at the end of the thirteenth century, Bab Lalla Rihana blends well with all of the building mainly dating from the ninth century.[39]

Enclosure and gates of the Mosque of Uqba

  

Courtyard

  

The courtyard is a vast trapezoidal area whose interior dimensions are approximately 65 by 50 meters.[40] It is surrounded on all its four sides by a portico with double rows of arches, opened by slightly horseshoe arches supported by columns in various marbles, in granite or in porphyry, reused from Roman, Early Christian or Byzantine monuments particularly from Carthage.[14] Access to the courtyard by six side entrances dating from the ninth and thirteenth centuries.

The portico on the south side of the courtyard, near the prayer hall, includes in its middle a large dressed stone pointed horseshoe arch which rests on ancient columns of white veined marble with Corinthian capitals. This porch of seven meters high is topped with a square base upon which rests a semi-spherical ribbed dome ; the latter is ribbed with sharp-edged ribs. The intermediary area, the dodecagonal drum of the dome, is pierced by sixteen small rectangular windows set into rounded niches.[41] The great central arch of the south portico, is flanked on each side by six rhythmically arranged horseshoe arches, which fall on twin columns backed by pillars.[42] Overall, the proportions and general layout of the facade of the south portico, with its thirteen arches of which that in the middle constitutes a sort of triumphal arch crowned with a cupola, form an ensemble with " a powerful air of majesty ", according to the French historian and sociologist Paul Sebag (1919–2004).[43]

Courtyard area and porticoes

  

Details of the courtyard

  

The combination formed by the courtyard and the galleries that surround it covers an immense area whose dimensions are about 90 meters long and 72 meters in width.[44] The northern part of the courtyard is paved with flagstones while the rest of the floor is almost entirely composed of white marble slabs. Near its center is an horizontal sundial, bearing an inscription in naskhi engraved on the marble dating from 1258 AH (which corresponds to the year 1843) and which is accessed by a little staircase ; it determines the time of prayers. The rainwater collector or impluvium, probably the work of the Muradid Bey Mohamed Bey al-Mouradi (1686–1696), is an ingenious system that ensures the capture (with the slightly sloping surface of the courtyard) then filtering stormwater at a central basin furnished with horseshoe arches sculpted in white marble.[45] Freed from its impurities, the water flows into an underground cistern supported by seven meters high pillars. In the courtyard there are also several water wells some of which are placed side by side. Their edges, obtained from the lower parts of ancient cored columns,[46] support the string grooves back the buckets.

  

Minaret

  

A square stone tower rises high above a wall.

  

The minaret, which occupies the center of the northern facade of the complex's enclosure, is 31.5 meters tall and is seated on a square base of 10.7 meters on each side.[47] It is located inside the enclosure and does not have direct access from the outside. It consists of three tapering levels, the last of which is topped with a small ribbed dome that was most probably built later than the rest of the tower.[48] The first and second stories are surmounted by rounded merlons which are pierced by arrowslits. The minaret served as a watchtower, as well as to call the faithful to prayer.[48]

The door giving access to the minaret is framed by a lintel and jambs made of recycled carved friezes of antique origin.[49] There are stone blocks from the Roman period that bear Latin inscriptions. Their use probably dates to the work done under the Umayyad governor Bishr ibn Safwan in about 725 AD, and they have been reused at the base of the tower.[49] The greater part of the minaret dates from the time of the Aghlabid princes in the ninth century. It consists of regular layers of carefully cut rubble stone, thus giving the work a stylistically admirable homogeneity and unity.[50]

The interior includes a staircase of 129 steps, surmounted by a barrel vault, which gives access to the terraces and the first tier of the minaret. The courtyard facade (or south facade) of the tower is pierced with windows that provide light and ventilation,[51] while the other three facades—facing north, east and west—are pierced with small openings in the form of arrowslits.[47] The minaret, in its present aspect, dates largely from the early ninth century, about 836 AD. It is the oldest minaret in the Muslim world,[52][53] and it is also the world's oldest minaret still standing.[54]

Due to its age and its architectural features, the minaret of the Great Mosque of Kairouan is the prototype for all the minarets of the western Islamic world : it served as a model in both North Africa and in Andalusia.[55] Despite its massive form and austere decoration, it nevertheless presents a harmonious structure and a majestic appearance.[51][56]

Minaret

  

Domes

  

The dome over the mihrab (9th century)

The Mosque has several domes, the largest being over the mihrab and the entrance to the prayer hall from the courtyard. The dome of the mihrab is based on an octagonal drum with slightly concave sides, raised on a square base, decorated on each of its three southern, Easter and western faces with five flat-bottomed niches surmounted by five semi-circular arches,[24][57] the niche in the middle is cut by a lobed oculus enrolled in a circular frame. This dome, whose construction goes back to the first half of the ninth century (towards 836), is one of the oldest and most remarkable domes in the western Islamic world.[58]

  

Interior

  

Prayer hall

  

The prayer hall is located on the southern side of the courtyard ; and is accessed by 17 carved wooden doors. A portico with double row of arches precede the spacious prayer hall, which takes the shape of a rectangle of 70.6 meters in width and 37.5 meters depth.[59]

  

The hypostyle hall is divided into 17 aisles of eight bays, the central nave is wider, as well as the bay along the wall of the qibla.[60] They cross with right angle in front of the mihrab, this device, named "T shape", which is also found in two Iraqi mosques in Samarra (around 847) has been adopted in many North African and Andalusian mosques where it became a feature.[61]

The central nave, a sort of triumphal alley which leads to the mihrab,[62] is significantly higher and wider than the other sixteen aisles of the prayer hall. It is bordered on each side of a double row of arches rested on twin columns and surmounted by a carved plaster decoration consisting of floral and geometric patterns.[63]

Enlightened by impressive chandeliers which are applied in countless small glass lamps,[64] the nave opens into the south portico of the courtyard by a monumental delicately carved wooden door, made in 1828 under the reign of the Husainids.[65] This sumptuous door, which has four leaves richly carved with geometric motifs embossed on the bottom of foliages and interlacing stars, is decorated at the typanum by a stylized vase from which emerge winding stems and leaves.[66] The other doors of the prayer hall, some of which date from the time of the Hafsids,[67] are distinguished by their decoration which consists essentially of geometric patterns (hexagonal, octagonal, rectangular patterns, etc.).[59]

  

Columns and ceiling

  

In the prayer hall, the 414 columns of marble, granite or porphyry[68] (among more than 500 columns in the whole mosque),[69] taken from ancient sites in the country such as Sbeïtla, Carthage, Hadrumetum and Chemtou,[59] support the horseshoe arches. A legend says they could not count them without going blind.[70] The capitals resting on the column shafts offer a wide variety of shapes and styles (Corinthian, Ionic, Composite, etc..).[59] Some capitals were carved for the mosque, but others come from Roman or Byzantine buildings (dating from the second to sixth century) and were reused. According to the German archaeologist Christian Ewert, the special arrangement of reused columns and capitals surrounding the mihrab obeys to a well-defined program and would draw symbolically the plan of the Dome of the Rock.[71] The shafts of the columns are carved in marble of different colors and different backgrounds. Those in white marble come from Italy,[59] some shafts located in the area of the mihrab are in red Porphyry imported from Egypt,[72] while those made of greenish or pink marble are from quarries of Chemtou, in the north-west of current Tunisia.[59] Although the shafts are of varying heights, the columns are ingeniously arranged to support fallen arches harmoniously. The height difference is compensated by the development of variable bases, capitals and crossbeams ; a number of these crossbeams are in cedar wood.[59] The wooden rods, which usually sink to the base of the transom, connect the columns together and maintain the spacing of the arches, thus enhancing the stability of all structures which support the ceiling of the prayer hall.[73]

  

The covering of the prayer hall consists of painted ceilings decorated with vegetal motifs and two domes : one raised at the beginning of the central nave and the other in front of the mihrab. The latter, which its hemispherical cap is cut by 24 concave grooves radiating around the top,[74] is based on ridged horns shaped shell and a drum pierced by eight circular windows which are inserted between sixteen niches grouped by two.[57][75] The niches are covered with carved stone panels, finely adorned with characteristic geometric, vegetal and floral patterns of the Aghlabid decorative repertoire : shells, cusped arches, rosettes, vine-leaf, etc.[57] From the outside, the dome of the mihrab is based on an octagonal drum with slightly concave sides, raised on a square base, decorated on each of its three southern, Easter and western faces with five flat-bottomed niches surmounted by five semi-circular arches,[24][57] the niche in the middle is cut by a lobed oculus enrolled in a circular frame.

  

The painted ceilings are a unique ensemble of planks, beams and brackets, illustrating almost thousand years of the history of painting on wood in Tunisia. Wooden brackets offer a wide variety of style and decor in the shape of a crow or a grasshopper with wings or fixed, they are characterized by a setting that combines floral painted or carved, with grooves. The oldest boards date back to the Aghlabid period (ninth century) and are decorated with scrolls and rosettes on a red background consists of squares with concave sides in which are inscribed four-petaled flowers in green and blue, and those performed by the Zirid Dynasty (eleventh century) are characterized by inscriptions in black kufic writing with gold rim and the uprights of the letters end with lobed florets, all on a brown background adorned with simple floral patterns.

The boards painted under the Hafsid period (during the thirteenth century) offers a floral decor consists of white and blue arches entwined with lobed green. The latest, dated the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (mostly dating from the time of the Muradid Beys), are distinguished by an epigraphic decoration consists of long black and red texts on olive green background to those painted from 1618 to 1619, under the reign of Murad I Bey (1613-1631), while those back to the eighteenth century have inscriptions in white naskhi script on an orange background.[76]

  

Mihrab and minbar

  

Close view of the mihrab, whose current state dates from the ninth century

The mihrab, which indicates the Qibla (direction of Mecca), in front of which stands the imam during the prayer, is located in the middle of the southern wall of the prayer hall. It is formed by an oven-shaped niche framed by two marble columns and topped by a painted wooden half-cupola. The niche of the mihrab is two meters long, 4.5 meters high and 1.6 meters deep.[77]

The mosque's mihrab, whose decor is a remarkable witness of Muslim art in the early centuries of Islam, is distinguished by its harmonious composition and the quality of its ornaments. Considered as the oldest example of concave mihrab, it dates in its present state to 862-863 AD.[78]

  

Upper Part of The Mihrab

  

It is surrounded at its upper part by 139 lusterware tiles (with a metallic sheen), each one is 21.1 centimeters square and they are arranged on the diagonal in a chessboard pattern. Divided into two groups, they are dated from the beginning of the second half of the ninth century but it is not determined with certainty whether they were made in Baghdad or in Kairouan by a Baghdadi artisan, the controversy over the origin of this precious collection agitates the specialists. These tiles are mainly decorated with floral and plant motifs (stylized flowers, palm leaves and asymmetrical leaves on bottom hatch and checkered) belong to two series : one polychrome characterized by a greater richness of tones ranging from light gold to light, dark or ocher yellow, and from brick-red to brown lacquer, the other monochrome is a beautiful luster that goes from smoked gold to green gold. The coating around them is decorated with blue plant motifs dating from the eighteenth century or the first half of the nineteenth century. The horseshoe arch of the mihrab, stilted and broken at the top, rest on two columns of red marble with yellow veins, which surmounted with Byzantine style capitals that carry two crossbeams carved with floral patterns, each one is decorated with a Kufic inscription in relief.

  

Detail of the marble cladding

  

The wall of the mihrab is covered with 28 panels of white marble, carved and pierced, which have a wide variety of plant and geometric patterns including the stylized grape leaf, the flower and the shell. Behind the openwork hint, there is an oldest niche on which several assumptions were formulated. If one refers to the story of Al-Bakri, an Andalusian historian and geographer of the eleventh century, it is the mihrab which would be done by Uqba Ibn Nafi, the founder of Kairouan, whereas Lucien Golvin shares the view that it is not an old mihrab but hardly a begun construction which may serve to support marble panels and either goes back to work of Ziadet Allah I (817-838) or to those of Abul Ibrahim around the years 862-863.[79] Above the marble cladding, the mihrab niche is crowned with a half dome-shaped vault made of manchineel bentwood. Covered with a thick coating completely painted, the concavity of the arch is decorated with intertwined scrolls enveloping stylized five-lobed vine leaves, three-lobed florets and sharp clusters, all in yellow on midnight blue background.[80]

The minbar, situated on the right of the mihrab, is used by the imam during the Friday or Eids sermons, is a staircase-shaped pulpit with an upper seat, reached by eleven steps, and measuring 3.93 meters length to 3.31 meters in height. Dated from the ninth century (about 862) and erected under the reign of the sixth Aghlabid ruler Abul Ibrahim (856-863), it is made in teak wood imported from India.[81] Among all the pulpits of the Muslim world, it is certainly the oldest example of minbar still preserved today.[82] Probably made by cabinetmakers of Kairouan (some researchers also refer to Baghdad), it consists of an assembly of more than 300 finely carved wood pieces with an exceptional ornamental wealth (vegetal and geometric patterns refer to the Umayyad and Abbasid models), among which about 90 rectangular panels carved with plenty of pine cones, grape leaves, thin and flexible stems, lanceolate fruits and various geometric shapes (squares, diamonds, stars, etc.). The upper edge of the minbar ramp is adorned with a rich and graceful vegetal decoration composed of alternately arranged foliated scrolls, each one containing a spread vine-leaf and a cluster of grapes. In the early twentieth century, the minbar had a painstaking restoration. Although more than eleven centuries of existence, all panels, with the exception of nine, are originals and are in a good state of conservation, the fineness of the execution of the minbar makes it a great masterpiece of Islamic wood carving referring to Paul Sebag.[83] This old chair of the ninth century is still in its original location, next to the mihrab.

  

Maqsura

  

The maqsura, located near the minbar, consists of a fence bounding a private enclosure that allows the sovereign and his senior officials to follow the solemn prayer of Friday without mingling with the faithful. Jewel of the art of woodwork produced during the reign of the Zirid prince Al-Muizz ibn Badis and dated from the first half of the eleventh century, it is considered the oldest still in place in the Islamic world. It is a cedar wood fence finely sculpted and carved on three sides with various geometric motifs measuring 2.8 meters tall, eight meters long and six meters wide.[84] Its main adornment is a frieze that crowns calligraphy, the latter surmounted by a line of pointed openwork merlons, features an inscription in flowery kufic character carved on the background of interlacing plants. Carefully executed in relief, it represents one of the most beautiful epigraphic bands of Islamic art.[84]

The library is near located, accessible by a door which the jambs and the lintel are carved in marble, adorned with a frieze of floral decoration. The library window is marked by an elegant setting that has two columns flanking the opening, which is a horseshoe arch topped by six blind arches and crowned by a series of berms sawtooth.[85]

  

Artworks

  

The Mosque of Uqba, one of the few religious buildings of Islam has remained intact almost all of its architectural and decorative elements, is due to the richness of its repertoire which is a veritable museum of Islamic decorative art and architecture. Most of the works on which rests the reputation of the mosque are still conserved in situ while a certain number of them have joined the collections of the Raqqada National Museum of Islamic Art ; Raqqada is located about ten kilometers southwest of Kairouan.

From the library of the mosque comes a large collection of calligraphic scrolls and manuscripts, the oldest dating back to the second half of the ninth century. This valuable collection, observed from the late nineteenth century by the French orientalists Octave Houdas and René Basset who mention in their report on their scientific mission in Tunisia published in the Journal of African correspondence in 1882, comprises according to the inventory established at the time of the Hafsids (circa 1293-1294) several Qur'ans and books of fiqh that concern mainly the Maliki fiqh and its sources. These are the oldest fund of Maliki legal literature to have survived.[86]

  

Among the finest works of this series, the pages of the Blue Qur'an, currently exhibited at Raqqada National Museum of Islamic Art, from a famous Qur'an in the second half of the fourth century of the Hegira (the tenth century) most of which is preserved in Tunisia and the rest scattered in museums and private collections worldwide. Featuring kufic character suras are written in gold on vellum dyed with indigo, they are distinguished by a compact graph with no marks for vowels. The beginning of each surah is indicated by a band consisting of a golden stylized leafy foliage, dotted with red and blue, while the verses are separated by silver rosettes. Other scrolls and calligraphic Qur'ans, as that known as the Hadinah's Qur'an, copied and illuminated by the calligrapher Ali ibn Ahmad al-Warraq for the governess of the Zirid prince Al-Muizz ibn Badis at about 1020 AD, were also in the library before being transferred to Raqqada museum. This collection is a unique source for studying the history and evolution of calligraphy of medieval manuscripts in the Maghreb, covering the period from the ninth to the eleventh century.

Other works of art such as the crowns of light (circular chandeliers) made in cast bronze, dating from the Fatimid-Zirid period (around tenth-early eleventh century), originally belonged to the furniture of the mosque. These polycandelons, now scattered in various Tunisian museums including Raqqada, consist of three chains supporting a perforated brass plate, which has a central circular ring around which radiate 18 equidistant poles connected by many horseshoe arches and equipped for each of two landmarks flared. The three chains, connected by a suspension ring, are each fixed to the plate by an almond-shaped finial. The crowns of light are marked by Byzantine influence to which the Kairouanese artisan brought the specificities of Islamic decorative repertoire (geometric and floral motifs).[

  

Role in Muslim civilization

  

At the time of its greatest splendor, between the ninth and eleventh centuries AD, Kairouan was one of the greatest centers of Islamic civilization and its reputation as a hotbed of scholarship covered the entire Maghreb. During this period, the Great Mosque of Kairouan was both a place of prayer and a center for teaching Islamic sciences under the Maliki current. One may conceivably compare its role to that of the University of Paris during the Middle Ages.

In addition to studies on the deepening of religious thought and Maliki jurisprudence, the mosque also hosted various courses in secular subjects such as mathematics, astronomy, medicine and botany. The transmission of knowledge was assured by prominent scholars and theologians which included Sahnun ibn Sa'id and Asad ibn al-Furat, eminent jurists who contributed greatly to the dissemination of the Maliki thought, Ishaq ibn Imran and Ibn al-Jazzar in medicine, Abu Sahl al-Kairouani and Abd al-Monim al-Kindi in mathematics. Thus the mosque, headquarters of a prestigious university with a large library containing a large number of scientific and theological works, was the most remarkable intellectual and cultural center in North Africa during the ninth, tenth and eleventh centuries

Seen on M6. This tractor and trailer are registered to Heidelberg which is located equidistant from Stuttgart and Frankfurt.

Alice Springs is the second largest city in the Northern Territory of Australia. Popularly known as "the Alice" or simply "Alice", Alice Springs is situated in the geographic centre of Australia near the southern border of the Northern Territory. The site is known as Mparntwe to its traditional inhabitants, the Arrernte, who have lived in the Central Australian desert in and around what is now Alice Springs for more than 50,000 years. Alice Springs has a population of 27,481 people which makes up 12 per cent of the territory's population. Averaging 576 metres (1,890 ft) above sea level, the town is nearly equidistant from Adelaide and Darwin.

 

There are six suburbs altogether in Alice Springs which are close to the Alice Springs town centre. Alice Springs is mostly residential.

 

The town of Alice Springs straddles the usually dry Todd River on the northern side of the MacDonnell Ranges. The region where Alice Springs is located is known as Central Australia, or the Red Centre, and is an arid environment consisting of several different deserts.

  

Explore #276

The former general stores of Eigg which closed in 1990. This is at quite a high location in the middle of the island, and although I guess equidistant from the main populations on the west and east of the island it did seem a pretty isolated location for a shop.

A street shot taken from just outside Berlin's newest shopping centre - the Berlin Mall. It lies 300m equidistant from the largest building still standing that was built by the Nazis (Goering's Luftwaffe Ministry, now home to the modern day Finance Ministry) and the site of Hitler's bunker (now a particularly scruffy open air car park marked only be a simple sign showing the layout of what it had looked like)

KW Praktina IIA with T 2.8/50 Jena (Tessar)

Interchangeable prism viewfinder with exposure meter

 

Legendary, very advanced camera from the 1950ties, often called the first "system camera", and that's certainly true. The camera is like an open system, you can change lenses, viewers, viewerscreens, you can mount motor drives for the film advance, long film magazines and loupes for the prism finders. And the prototype, just called "Praktina", was introduced at the Photokina in Cologne already in 1952! Serial production started in 1953 with the Praktina FX, in 1958 it was replaced by the Praktina IIA, which was even more advanced.

 

It is hard to describe all the progress, that camera brought. For example, you have a shutter speed dial for fast and slow shutter speeds combined, you can turn it in any direction without stop, with the shutter tensioned or not. The shutter speeds are equidistant on the dial, and when the shutter runs, there are no rotating parts outside the camera - sensational.

 

So I picked out two technical highlights:

Since 1954 the camera was equipped with an automatic aperture. It worked like the one on the Contax SLR with M42 mount: the aperture is open for viewing, but when the shutter button is pressed, the camera pushes a pin into the lens and the diaphragm will close to the value selected on the f-stop ring. With the introduction of the Praktina IIA there was change: the new camera pressed the pin permanently into the lens to keep the diaphragm open for viewing. When the shutter button was pressed, the camera *releases* the pin, the aperture was closed by a spring force in the lens. This concept was used at first in the medium format camera "Praktisix" (later Pentacon Six), and since both cameras Praktisix and Praktina were developed very close to each other, the Praktina was the first 35 mm SLR with that design. Nearly every great manufacturer of 35 mm SLR used it, until Canon introduced the EF mount and the the diaphragm was operated electronically.

Perhaps you've noticed, that I'm presenting the IIA with an unmounted lens, and furthermore, that there are some springs and levers too much in the mirror box. The reason for that device is to keep compatibility with the - let me call them - FX-lenses. IIA-lenses are mounted commonly with the indexes on top, using the kerf on top of the camera mount (under the "IIA"). FX-lenses are mounted turned, they must use the kerf beside the self-timer. About 3,000 to 4,000 IIA-cameras were modified that way by the manufacturer itself.

 

The second highlight is the shutter introduced with the IIA. When thinking of the movement of a horizontally traveling shutter with curtains made of cloth, you certainly imagine a slot with a constant width traveling in front of the film (at fast shutter speeds). That's not the entire truth: the curtains are moving accelerated, so the first curtain is *earlier faster*. As a result the width of the slot increases during the exposure. Now you might expect an uneven exposure along the frame, but the effect can compensate itself. A slowly traveling narrow slot can produce the same outcome like a fast traveling broad one, but an exact compensation was certainly random. I don't know if early camera designers knew about that effect, but after WWII there were new technical instruments you could examine it very precisely. So, the designer of the Praktina, Siegfried Böhm, was the first one who could control that effect, the increasing width of the slot was exactly compensated by the speed of the shutter curtains. He used rolls for the curtains with a specified diameter, thus the shutter movement was also less dependent from the spring force of that rolls.

 

Unfortunately the production of the Praktina was ceased in 1960, it was a directive of "decision makers". A pretext could have been, that two lens mounts were sufficient (M42 and Exakta), and it was too expensive to produce lenses in three versions.

 

See excellent articles on zeissikonveb.de and dresdner-kameras.de (in German)

Swimming a sea of corn, the little village of Coton in the Elms, South Derbyshire, is one of, if not the most landlocked places in the UK.

 

It is equidistant from Fosdyke Wash in Lincolnshire; White Sands between Neston in Cheshire and Flint, Flintshire in Wales; and Westbury-on-Severn in Gloucestershire – all of which are 113 kilometres (70 mi) away.

 

Visit: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peggys_Cove,_Nova_Scotia

 

Peggys Point Lighthouse (also known as Peggy's Cove Lighthouse) is in Peggys Cove and is an iconic Canadian image. It is one of the busiest tourist attractions in Nova Scotia and is a prime attraction on the Lighthouse Trail scenic drive. The lighthouse marks the eastern entrance of St. Margarets Bay and is officially known as the Peggys Point Lighthouse.

 

Peggys Cove is a classic red-and-white lighthouse still operated by the Canadian Coast Guard. The light station is situated on an extensive granite outcrop at Peggys Point, immediately south of the village and its cove. This lighthouse is one of the most-photographed structures in Atlantic Canada and one of the most recognizable lighthouses in the world.

 

Visitors may explore the granite outcrop on Peggys Point around the lighthouse; despite numerous signs warning of unpredictable surf (including one on a bronze plaque on the lighthouse itself), several visitors each year are swept off the rocks by waves, sometimes drowning.

 

Peggys Cove is 43 kilometers (26 miles) southwest of downtown Halifax and comprises one of the numerous small fishing communities located around the perimeter of the Chebucto Peninsula. The community is named after the cove of the same name, a name also shared with Peggy's Point, immediately to the east of the cove. The village marks the eastern point of St. Margaret's Bay.(Wikipedia)

  

Visit: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swissair_Flight_111

 

Swissair Flight 111

 

Swissair Flight 111 (SR111, SWR111) was a Swissair McDonnell Douglas MD-11 on a scheduled airline flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, United States to Cointrin International Airport in Geneva, Switzerland. This flight was also a codeshare flight with Delta Air Lines.

 

On Wednesday, 2 September 1998, the aircraft used for the flight, registered HB-IWF, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean southwest of Halifax International Airport at the entrance to St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia. The crash site was 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) from shore, roughly equidistant from the tiny fishing and tourist communities of Peggys Cove and Bayswater. All 229 people on board died—the highest death toll of any aviation accident involving a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 and the second-highest of any air disaster to occur in Canada, after Arrow Air Flight 1285. This is one of only two hull losses of the passenger configured MD-11, along with China Airlines Flight 642.

 

The initial search and rescue response, crash recovery operation, and resulting investigation by the Government of Canada took over four years and cost CAD 57 million (at that time approximately US$38 million). The Transportation Safety Board of Canada's (TSB) official report of their investigation stated that flammable material used in the aircraft's structure allowed a fire to spread beyond the control of the crew, resulting in a loss of control and the crash of the aircraft.

 

Swissair Flight 111 was known as the "UN shuttle" due to its popularity with United Nations officials; the flight often carried business executives, scientists, and researchers

 

Aircraft

The aircraft, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11, serial number 48448 registered HB-IWF, was manufactured in 1991 and Swissair was its only operator. It bore the title of Vaud, in honor of the Swiss canton of the same name. The airframe had a total of 36,041 hours. The three engines were Pratt & Whitney 4462s. The cabin was configured with 241 seats (12 six-abreast first-, 49 seven-abreast business-, and 180 nine-abreast economy-class). First- and business-class seats were equipped with an in seat in-flight entertainment system, installed at some point after initial entry into service. (Wikipedia)

  

© Copyright

This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.

 

Yellow Blue-bead Lily (a.k.a. blue-bead lily; Clintonia; Clinton's Lily; Corn Lily; Cow Tongue; Yellow Beadlily; Snakeberry; Dogberry; Straw Lily; Clintonia borealis) - Penny Lake Preserve, Boothbay Harbor, Maine

 

And what they look like at during the peak of their blooming cycle. And you can bet I'll be back when they get all beady!

 

FYI - This is a three shot composite image with each of the three captures focused on each of the three inflorescences. So don't be afraid to use the magnifying thingy if you'd like to see the details on these flowers.

 

How-2:

Find an angle that lines up the multiple subjects as equidistant from the camera as possible. Set the camera at a relatively low POV, focus on one of the inflorescences, and then fill the frame (zoom or by foot, while considering camera orientation in the process) so the central inflorescence is at the center of the frame, but does not include either of the two on the sides.

Set the camera to manual exposure, pick an aperture that gives you the DOF¹ you want² (I favor shallow, or a couple of stops in), and set the shutter speed to the proper setting for the exposure you want (i.e. not the exposure the camera wants, though that's OK if you agree).

Set the camera to "one shot" focus mode, and focus on the center inflorescence so the other two inflorescences are just out of the frame, and make the center capture.

then without moving the camera from the exact location of the first capture (a tripod makes that easy), make the two side captures by focusing on the individual inflorescences, and keeping the center inflorescence just out of the frame.

You can then use PhotoShop's "PhotoMerge" to merge the images, or do it manually³ using the cloning tool.

See! It's easy once you know how! :{)

 

¹ If you're using a zoom lens, don't forget to consider focal length in your DOF decisions!

² Yes, you can often stop down until all the inflorescences are in focus, but then you're letting the situation control the DOF, rather than the artist (that would be you) controling the DOF.

³ Sometimes a manual merge isn't an option (but a requirement), since when the BG is more than just a little OOF PhotoMerge has trouble lining things up. And now you can see why a consistent exposure, and a tripod (to keep things lined up at the same tilt) become critical! Of course you can overcome those problems during processing, but it makes the processing quite a bit more complicated!

Jamestown (originally also called "James Towne" or "Jamestowne") is located on the James River in what is currently James City County in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The site is about 40 miles (62 km) inland from the Atlantic Ocean and the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay and about 45 miles (70 km) downstream and southeast of the current state capital city of Richmond. Both the river and the settlement were named for King James I of England, who was on the throne at the time, granted the private proprietorship to the Virginia Company of London's enterprise.

 

The location at Jamestown Island was selected primarily because it offered a favorable strategic defensive position against other European forces which might approach by water. However, the colonists soon discovered that the swampy and isolated site was plagued by mosquitoes and tidal river water unsuitable for drinking, and offered limited opportunities for hunting and little space for farming. The area was also inhabited by Native Americans (American Indians).

The 3 points of Colonial Virginia's Historic Triangle, Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown are linked by the National Park Service's scenic Colonial Parkway.

The 3 points of Colonial Virginia's Historic Triangle, Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown are linked by the National Park Service's scenic Colonial Parkway.

 

Despite inspired leadership of John Smith, chaplain Robert Hunt and others, starvation, hostile relations with the Indians, and lack of profitable exports all threatened the survival of the Colony in the early years as the settlers and the Virginia Company of London each struggled. However, colonist John Rolfe introduced a strain of tobacco which was successfully exported in 1612, and the financial outlook for the colony became more favorable. Two years later, Rolfe married the young Indian woman Pocahontas, daughter of Wahunsunacock, Chief of the Powhatan Confederacy, and a period of relative peace with the Natives followed. In 1616, the Rolfes made a public relations trip to England, where Pocahontas was received as visiting royalty. Changes by the Virginia Company which became effective in 1619 attracted additional investments, also sowing the first seeds of democracy in the process with a locally-elected body which became the House of Burgesses, the first such representative legislative body in the New World.

 

Throughout the 17th century, Jamestown was the capital of the Virginia Colony. Several times during emergencies, the seat of government for the colony was shifted temporarily to nearby Middle Plantation, a fortified location on the high ridge approximately equidistant from the James and York Rivers on the Virginia Peninsula. Shortly after the Colony was finally granted a long-desired charter and established the new College of William and Mary at Middle Plantation, the capital of the Colony was permanently relocated nearby. In 1699, the new capital town was renamed Williamsburg, in honor of the current British king, William III.

 

After the capital was relocated, Jamestown began a gradual loss of prominence and eventually reverted to a few large farms. It again became a significant point for control of the James River during the American Civil War (1861–1865), and then slid back into seeming oblivion. Even the Jamestown Exposition of 1907 was held elsewhere, at a more accessible location at Sewell's Point, on Hampton Roads near Norfolk.

Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and her consort Prince Phillip inspect replica of Susan Constant at Jamestown Festival Park in Virginia on October 16, 1957

Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and her consort Prince Phillip inspect replica of Susan Constant at Jamestown Festival Park in Virginia on October 16, 1957

 

Beginning in 1893, 22.5 acres of the Jamestown site were acquired by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. A crucial sea wall was built in 1900 to protect the shoreline near the site of James Fort from further erosion. In the 1930s, the Colonial National Historical Park was established to protect and administer Jamestown, which was designated a National Historic Site. The U.S. National Park Service acquired the remaining 1,500 acres (6.1 km²) of Jamestown Island through eminent domain in 1934.

 

For the 350th anniversary in 1957, Jamestown itself was the site of renewed interest and a huge celebration. The National Park Service provided new access with the completion of the Colonial Parkway which led to Williamsburg, home of the restored capital of Colonial Williamsburg, and then on to Yorktown, the other two portions of Colonial Virginia's Historic Triangle. Major projects such as the Jamestown Festival Park were developed by non-profit, state and federal agencies. Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain and Prince Philip attended. The 1957 event was a great success. Tourism became continuous with attractions regularly updated and enhanced.

 

The two major attractions at Jamestown are separate, but complementary to each other. The state-sponsored Jamestown Settlement near the entrance to Jamestown Island includes a recreated English Fort and Native American Village, extensive indoor and outdoor displays, and features the three popular replica ships. On Jamestown Island itself, the National Park Service operates Historic Jamestowne. Over a million artifacts have been recovered by the Jamestown Rediscovery project with ongoing archaeological work, including a number of exciting recent discoveries.

 

Early in the 21st century, in preparation for the Jamestown 2007 event commemorating America's 400th Anniversary, new accommodations, transportation facilities and attractions were planned. The celebration began in the Spring of 2006 with the sailing of a new replica Godspeed to six major East Coast U.S. cities, where several hundred thousand people viewed it. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip joined America's festivities on an official state visit to Jamestown in May 2007.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamestown,_Virginia

Completed in 1897.

 

"Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. It is one of the highest-ranked universities in the world. The institution moved to Newark in 1747, and then to the current site nine years later. It officially became a university in 1896 and was subsequently renamed Princeton University.

 

The university is governed by the Trustees of Princeton University and has an endowment of $37.7 billion, the largest endowment per student in the United States. Princeton provides undergraduate and graduate instruction in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering to approximately 8,500 students on its 600 acres (2.4 km2) main campus. It offers postgraduate degrees through the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the School of Architecture and the Bendheim Center for Finance. The university also manages the Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and is home to the NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and has one of the largest university libraries in the world.

 

Princeton uses a residential college system and is known for its upperclassmen eating clubs. The university has over 500 student organizations. Princeton students embrace a wide variety of traditions from both the past and present. The university is a NCAA Division I school and competes in the Ivy League. The school's athletic team, the Princeton Tigers, has won the most titles in its conference and has sent many students and alumni to the Olympics.

 

As of October 2021, 75 Nobel laureates, 16 Fields Medalists and 16 Turing Award laureates have been affiliated with Princeton University as alumni, faculty members, or researchers. In addition, Princeton has been associated with 21 National Medal of Science awardees, 5 Abel Prize awardees, 11 National Humanities Medal recipients, 215 Rhodes Scholars and 137 Marshall Scholars. Two U.S. Presidents, twelve U.S. Supreme Court Justices (three of whom currently serve on the court) and numerous living industry and media tycoons and foreign heads of state are all counted among Princeton's alumni body. Princeton has graduated many members of the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Cabinet, including eight Secretaries of State, three Secretaries of Defense and two Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

 

Princeton was founded before the American Revolutionary War. It is the home of Princeton University, which bears its name and moved to the community in 1756 from its previous location in Newark. Although its association with the university is primarily what makes Princeton a college town, other important institutions in the area include the Institute for Advanced Study, Westminster Choir College, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton Theological Seminary, Opinion Research Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Siemens Corporate Research, SRI International, FMC Corporation, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Amrep, Church and Dwight, Berlitz International, and Dow Jones & Company.

 

Princeton is roughly equidistant from New York City and Philadelphia. It is close to many major highways that serve both cities (e.g., Interstate 95 and U.S. Route 1), and receives major television and radio broadcasts from each. It is also close to Trenton, New Jersey's capital city, New Brunswick and Edison." - info from Wikipedia.

 

The fall of 2022 I did my 3rd major cycling tour. I began my adventure in Montreal, Canada and finished in Savannah, GA. This tour took me through the oldest parts of Quebec and the 13 original US states. During this adventure I cycled 7,126 km over the course of 2.5 months and took more than 68,000 photos. As with my previous tours, a major focus was to photograph historic architecture.

 

Now on Instagram.

 

Become a patron to my photography on Patreon or donate.

  

PINK, FRINGED Tulips,here I 'shaped' them in a circle...

A circle is a simple shape of Euclidean geometry consisting of those points in a plane which are equidistant from a given point called the center.

 

A circle as a metaphor and structure for defining a system of communication and interaction...

Inner-circles, outer-circles...

It seems to me that everything comes in 'circles'... It is Spring once more...

 

Just a meditative day!

 

THANX for ALL your comments and visits, so appreciated, M, (*_*)

 

For more of my other work visit here: www.indigo2photography.co.uk

 

IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN (BY LAW!!!) TO USE ANY OF MY image or TEXT on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved

   

On a site first selected around 1949, this telecommunication tower was built in the early 1960's. It is 118 metres (387 ft) tall and one of the few British towers built of reinforced concrete. Built as a television link between Birmingham and London it was once festooned with large dishes, now no longer necessary as the technology has developed.

It's southern twin is another notable landmark on the 'line of sight' hilltop of the distant Chilterns, near the M40 'Dibley' cutting at Stokenchurch.

Standing at the western end of the Northamptonshire 'highlands', it is equidistant from the villages of Charwelton, Hellidon and Priors Marston and stands near the meeting of three counties, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire and Warwickshire.

The hilltop commands 360 deg views and the tower is a landmark for many miles and seems to be fondly regarded.

It marks (to me at least) the northern edge of the fictitious county of Banburyshire, its pencil-like silhouette visible on the distant northern horizon from 20 miles away and the edge of the Cotswolds.

 

For those interested in telecommunication towers:

www.dgsys.co.uk/btmicrowave/sites/151.php

Explore #494

Feb. 16, 2011

 

This view of Seattle is my favorite captured from Alki Beach, but I experienced it all the time growing up and traveling across the Puget Sound. Like most cities Seattle has several iconic viewpoints, this being the best in my opinion, but I understand that some prefer Seattle with Mt. Rainier in the distance. I love how straight on city views compress and distort the size of cities, than when you go driving through them you suddenly realize how much bigger they are. Chicago is a perfect example of this. I love the waves and patterns of the Puget Sound here looking into Elliott Bay, I was lucky to grow up around these waters. I have more Seattle images on the way, eventually an individual set of the Emerald City will probably be coming. Thanks for checking this out. Enjoy!

The Bara Gumbad, or "big dome," is a large domed structure grouped together with the Friday mosque of Sikander Lodi and a mehman khana (guesthouse), located in New Delhi's Lodi Gardens. The buildings were constructed at different times during the Lodi era and occupy a common raised platform. Formerly an outlying area of Delhi, the Lodi Gardens are a British-planned landscaped garden which includes a number of monuments (primarily tombs) from the Sayyid and the Lodi dynasties. Originally called Willingdon Park, the gardens were located in the former village of Khairpur, now on the edge of Lutyen's Delhi, the colonial capital built by the British in the early 20th century. The gardens, which cover approx. 70 acres, have come to be surrounded by institutional buildings and some of contemporary Delhi's most expensive real estate.

 

Although they were built under the same dynasty, each of the three structures was undertaken separately. The Bara Gumbad, completed in 1490, is considered to have the first full dome constructed in Delhi. Its original purpose is contested; although it appears to be a freestanding tomb, it contains no tombstone. This causes the speculation that the building might have been intended as a gateway for the Friday mosque; however, their respective placements, stylistic differences, and construction dates do not support this theory. The Friday mosque, completed in 1494, is the first example of the new mosque type that developed during the Lodi era. Characterized by a relatively simple five bay prayer hall building adjacent to a simple open courtyard, this type was an important precedent for mosque architecture in the Lodi and Mughal eras.

 

The complex can be accessed from various points along the roads bordering the Lodi Gardens, with the access from the Lodi road towards the south most prominent. The buildings are situated at a distance of about 300 meters from Muhammad Shah's tomb towards the south and about 380 meters from Sikander Lodi's tomb towards the north. Another prominent structure, the Shish Gumbad, is located facing the Bara Gumbad at a distance of about seventy-five meters towards the north. The area surrounding the buildings is landscaped with manicured grass lawns. Few trees are planted in the immediate vicinity, leaving the view of the structures unobscured. The path winding through the Lodi Gardens approaches the buildings axially from the north, although the building plinth is accessible all from all sides.

 

The buildings are sited on a three-meter-high platform, measuring approximately 30 meters (east-west) by 25 meters (north-south). The Friday mosque is located along the western edge of the platform; the guesthouse is sited opposite it, occupying the eastern edge, while the Bara Gumbad is located along the southern edge. Stone masonry walls, about six meters high, connect the three structures along the southern edge. The northern edge is provided with staircases for accessing the platform. A centrally located straight flight comprising of eight steps, about ten meters wide, connects the ground to a generous mid landing. Another 'C' shaped flight of eight steps wraps around the landing, creating an amphitheatre-like space and reaching the top of the platform. The current arrangement of steps appears to be more recent, and the remains of walls adjoining the southern face of the guesthouse and the mosque indicate that the northern edge might have originally been walled. In the center of the raised court, with its southern edge along the staircase, are the remains of a square shaped platform, 8 meters wide, which appears to be a grave.

 

Friday mosque:

 

The Friday mosque is a single aisled, rectangular building, approx. 30 meters (north-south) by 8 meters (east-west). The mosque is organized in five unequal bays, which correspond to the five arched doorways on the eastern (entry) elevation. The width of the arched doorways decreases from the center towards the sides. The arches span across grey granite piers. The central arch is framed within a projecting rectangular portal, measuring about 8 meters in height by 6 meters wide. The piers of the rectangular frame are cased in dressed granite and have three shallow arched niches in red sandstone, occurring vertically above the springing point of the arch, on either side. The doorway itself is described by four receding planes of ogee arches, the outermost one being in line with the external face of the rectangular portal. The doorways immediately to the side of the central portal are about 5 meters wide, while those at the two ends are approx. 1.5 meters wide with two receding planes of ogee arches, adding to the prominence of the central doorway. The apex of each innermost arch is constant, measuring approx. 5 meters from the top of the platform. Each arch is finished in plaster and embellished with intricate carved Arabic inscriptions. The spandrels are also heavily carved with geometric motifs, and their the corners are adorned with round inscribed plaster medallions. Red sandstone eaves (chajjas) on stone brackets top the arches, interrupted only by the central projecting portal that extends above them. There is a blank plastered frieze above the eaves, followed by the projecting horizontal bands of the cornice that is topped by a blind masonry parapet adorned with petal shaped crenellations with inscribed plaster medallions.

 

The interior of the prayer hall reflects the five bay division of the eastern elevation. It is a rectangular space, measuring about 27 meters (north-south) by about 7 meters (east-west). Additional arches spanning between the piers on the eastern elevation and the engaged piers of the western wall emphasize the demarcation of the interior space into bays. These internal ogee arches reach a height of about five meters. They are finished in plaster and profusely decorated with carvings of Arabic inscriptions. The piers are unornamented, dressed gray granite.

 

The qibla (western) wall of the prayer hall is a blind wall divided into five unequal bays expressed as recessed ogee arched niches, reflecting the arched openings on the eastern wall. The two bays adjacent to the central bay have three equal niches carved out from the portion below the springing line of the main arch. These niches are separated by granite piers, which have smaller arched niches in the top third of their elevation. The three niches are made of two layers of ogee arches framed by the piers. The external layer is in gray-yellow granite, while the interior arch is made of red sandstone. The central niche is mildly distinguishable from the others because its arched portion is curved and the imposts are engraved, while those of the adjacent arches are plain. The innermost rectangular portion of the central niche is blank, while that of the adjoining niches has the carving of a vase and flora inscribed in it. The tympanum of the main outer arch is finished in plaster and has an additional niche directly above the central niche which is embellished heavily with plaster carvings of Arabic inscriptions. A band of similar inscriptions runs along the interior perimeter of the arch and around the upper niche in a closed loop. The voussoirs of the outer arch are plastered and embellished with another layer of carvings. The central bay of the western wall also has three niches, each made of four recessed planes of alternating rectangular and arched profiles. The central mihrab niche is taller and wider. It is also shallower and the innermost plane is blank, while the other two niches are deeper set with relief work. A stone minbar with three steps has been provided abutting the northern pier of the central niche.

 

Hemispherical domes cover the three central bays, while the terminal bays are covered by low flat vaulted ceilings. The square plan of the three central bays transitions into an octagonal drum through the application of corbelled pendentives at the corners. The corbelling occurs in four layers, which increases in width from the bottom up. The layers are further embellished with curved niches set into rectangular frames, which also increase in number, the lowest corbel having one and the last corbel having five such niches. The last layers of the pendentives form alternate edges of the octagonal drum; the remaining edges being formed by the extension of the walls and are also provided with similar curved niches. The octagonal drum transitions into a hexadecagon, followed by a thirty-two-sided polygon by the provisions of small struts. Each face of the hexadecagon is provided with shallow niches, while the thirty-two-sided polygon is described by a projecting band of red sandstone, followed by a band of inscriptions finally topped by the hemispherical dome. The dome is finished in plain plaster. The voussoirs of the arches, the pendentives and the tympanum are all covered by intricate stucco Arabic inscriptions. The central dome is relatively higher that the other two domes.

 

The northern and southern walls of the mosque are punctured by ogee arch doorways below the springline of the main arch. Each opening leads to a projecting balcony, comprising of red sandstone posts supporting a tiered roof. The balconies protrude out from the faade and are supported on red sandstone brackets, whose profiles and carvings are characteristic of Hindu architecture. An elaborately carved arched niche is provided above each opening on the interior wall. It is set into a rectangular frame embossed with Arabic text.

 

The plasterwork on the external northern and southern walls of the mosque has fallen off, exposing the stone masonry, while that on the western wall has survived. The central bay of the western wall projects out and is marked by two solid towers at the corners. These towers are divided vertically into four layers; the first two layers from the bottom are orthogonal, while the third layer has alternating curved and angular fluting; the top layer, extending over the parapet of the mosque, has a circular section. The corners of the mosque are marked by similar tapering towers, which are divided into four layers. Each layer is circular in plan except the third layer, which is described by alternating curved and angular fluting. All the towers have the remains of finials at their apex. The central projecting wall has four red sandstone brackets in its upper third portion, which may have supported a projecting balcony similar to those on the north and south elevations.

 

The plasterwork on the walls of the plinth is now gone, exposing the rubble masonry construction below. The western face of the plinth is punctured by five ogee arch openings set into rectangular frames, one in the center and two each on the sides. These openings provide access to the basement within the plinth.

 

The roof has three domes corresponding to the three central bays of the prayer hall and the three central arches on the eastern elevation. The extrados of the domes are finished in plaster. The octagonal drums supporting the domes protrude out over the roof level, above which the circular bases of the domes are decorated with blind crestings having floral motifs. The central dome is marginally larger than the adjacent domes and all three have the remains of lotus finials at their apex.

 

Bara Gumbad:

 

Square in plan, the Bara Gumbad measures approx. 20 meters per side. Set on a plinth 3 meters high, it joins the common plinth on the north and projects beyond it to the south. Its plinth is decorated on the east, south, and west with ogee arch openings set into rectangular frames. These provide access to a basement.The walls of the Bara Gumbad are approx. 12 meters tall, above which a hemispherical dome on a hexadecagonal drum extends another 14 meters from the roof level, for a total building height of 29 meters above ground level.

 

Each of its elevations is nearly identical and divided into 2 horizontal sections. A projecting portal composed of an ogee arch set in a rectangular frame (approx. 8 meters wide), is centered in each elevation and rises approximately 75 cm above the parapet line of the building. The 1.5 meter wide frame is made of dressed gray granite. Each vertical pier of the frame has six shallow red sandstone niches arranged atop one another at varying heights; nine niches continue in a line along the horizontal portion of the frame. The portal is described by two receding planes of grey granite ogee arches; the spandrels are cased with black granite with a thin projecting edge of red sandstone. Two round plaster medallions adorn the spandrels. The lower layer of the portal has a central doorway, spanned by two red sandstone brackets that form a trabeated arch supporting a black granite lintel. These brackets are supported on grey granite posts. An intricately carved red sandstone frame adorns the brackets and the lintel; it starts at the springing point of the arch and frames the lintel of the doorway. The entire composition is set in a rectangular yellow sandstone frame. An ogee arch window has been provided above the trabeated entrance. The portal is crowned by the arched crenellations of the blind parapet. Solid turrets mark the projecting corners of the portal.

 

The remainder of the elevation, that flanking the central portal on either side and recessed behind it, is divided vertically into two equivalent parts by projecting horizontal bands of stone. Each part is described by two equal arched panels set into rectangular frames. Both the panels of the upper part on either side of the portal are blind and filled with granite masonry. The lower panels located adjacent to the portal are windows, while the lower panels at the edges are filled in. The parapet, like the portal, is decorated with arched crenellations, and the roof has solid turrets at each corner.

 

A single hemispherical dome surmounted on a sixteen-sided drum crowns the building. Each face of the drum is described by an ogee arched niche set in a rectangular frame. The voussoirs of the arches are gray granite, while the spandrels are clad with red sandstone. The top edge of the drum is decorated with a band of arched crenellations, similar to those on the roof parapets, running above a projecting band of stone that surrounds the drum. Below this projection is band of leaves carved in relief. The extrados of the dome are finished in smooth plaster. The lotus base, possibly for a vanished calyx finial, is still extant.

 

The structure can be entered either from the raised courtyard via the north elevation or from a double flight of steps located on the western elevation. Inside, the square building measures about seven meters per side. An 80 cm high, 45 cm wide solid seat runs continuously along the interior perimeter of the building. Light streams in from all four walls, which are punctured by the openings of the doorway at the ground level and the ogee arch window above. The interior surfaces of the Gumbad are unornamented and finished in dressed granite. The square plan of the room transitions into an octagon via squinches, which then support the thirty-two-sided drum and the dome. The apex of the dome has two bands of floral inscriptions; otherwise, the dome is finished in plaster. The absence of historical inscriptions has contributed to the confusion over the original purpose of the Bara Gumbad.

 

Mehman Khana:

 

The third structure in the group is rectangular in plan, measuring about 27 meters (north-south) by 7 seven meters (east-west). Located along the eastern edge of the common plinth, it faces the mosque and is connected to the Bara Gumbad by a masonry wall along its northern face. The structure is believed to have either been a mehman khana, (guesthouse) or a majlis khana (assembly hall).

 

The building is accessed from the common plinth through its western wall, which is divided into five bays, mirroring the eastern elevation of the mosque opposite it. The three central bays are considerably larger and have ogee arch doorways, giving access to the interior, while windows puncture the smaller end bays. The arches are set in rectangular frames, which are recessed from the face of the elevation. Each opening is composed of two recessed planes of arches. The spandrels are clad in red sandstone, contrasting with the gray granite of the elevation, and are decorated with round plaster medallions with lotus motifs. The window openings have an additional tie beam or lintel at the springline. The tympanum of the window towards the south has been filled with stone, while that of the window towards the north has been left open. A continuous chajja, supported on equidistant stone brackets, projects from the western wall above the rectangular frame. The cornice is unornamented and is topped by the projecting horizontal band of the parapet, which reaches a height of approximately five meters from the top of the raised plinth. The roof of the structure is flat. The exterior of the building lacks decoration and is finished in dressed granite.

 

The interior is divided into seven chambers occurring from north to south; the central chamber is the largest, measuring about 5 meters (north-south) long. It is abutted by relatively narrow chambers (approx. 2.5 meters long). The outside chambers which flank the 2.5 meter wide chambers on either side are approximately the size of the central chamber, and correspond to the arched openings in the western wall. The chambers are separated from each other by gray granite walls, punctured by simple ogee arched doorways set in rectangular frames. Square in plan, the outer rooms are separated from the adjacent chambers by stone walls with rectangular door openings with blind ogee arches and rectangular frames. Each doorway has shallow rectangular recesses on either side, as well as a small arched window set into a rectangular recess and a stone jali screen set above the doorway within the tympanum of the main arch. The eastern wall of the building has blind ogee arches, occurring as two successive planes, reflecting the arched openings of the western elevation.

 

The roof of the central chamber is flat and supported on arches located on four sides; flat stone brackets appear at the corners. The two adjacent rooms are covered by shallow domes supported on squinches. The interior domes are finished in plaster with carved concave fluting. The exterior of the domes has been filled to blend with the flat roof of the central room.

 

Certain stylistic continuities are recognizable in the three buildings; each was constructed with (local) gray granite and lime mortar. However, the degree and type of embellishment, both interior and exterior, on the mosque differs substantially from that found on the other two, relatively unadorned, buildings.

Apart from the grouping of the three structures and their stylistic similarities, the buildings do not appear to have been planned as a complex. The Friday mosque is the first example of the panchmukhi building type, where "panch" (five) and "mukhi " (facade) characterize a five-bay prayer hall. This approach was influential in both the Lodi and the Mughal periods. The Bara Gumbad is significant for having the first complete hemispherical dome in Delhi.

 

The differences in the surface ornament of the buildings suggest that the buildings were constructed at different times, with the Bara Gumbad and the guesthouse being similar in style and decoration, without the multilayered arches of the Friday mosque. The function of the Bara Gumbad is still unknown; its geometry and form aligns with the predominant tomb architecture of the period (like the neighboring Shish Gumbad). However, there is no grave or cenotaph in the building, and rather than being blank, its qibla wall (like its other walls) is punctured by an entrance. While the continuous stone bench in the interior is also found in gateway architecture, (as in the Alai Darwaza at the Quwat-ul-Islam Mosque in Mehrauli), the size of the Bara Gumbad vis-a-vis the Friday mosque does not support this conjecture. Some scholars surmise that the structure might have been a gateway to the larger complex of tombs within the Lodi Gardens.

 

Lodi Dynasty

-----------------

The Lodi dynasty in India arose around 1451 after the Sayyid dynasty. The Lodhi Empire was established by the Ghizlai tribe of the Afghans. They formed the last phase of the Delhi Sultanate. There were three main rulers in the history of Lodi dynasty. All three of them have been discussed in detail in the following lines. So read on about the Lodi dynasty history.

 

Buhlul Khan Lodi

Buhlul Khan Lodi (1451-1489) was the founder of the Lodi dynasty in India and the first Afghan ruler of Delhi. He was an Afghan noble who was a very brave soldier. Buhlul Khan seized the throne without much resistance from the then ruler, Alam Shah. His territory was spread across Jaunpur, Gwalior and northern Uttar Pradesh. During his reign in 1486, he appointed his eldest son Barbak Shah as the Viceroy of Jaunpur. Though he was an able ruler, he really couldn't decide as to which son of his should succeed him as the heir to the throne.

 

Sikandar Lodi

After the death of Buhlul Khan, his second son succeeded him as the king. He was given the title of Sultan Sikander Shah. He was a dedicated ruler and made all efforts to expand his territories and strengthen his empire. His empire extended from Punjab to Bihar and he also signed a treaty with the ruler of Bengal, Alauddin Hussain Shah. He was the one who founded a new town where the modern day Agra stands. He was known to be a kind and generous ruler who cared for his subjects.

 

Ibrahim Lodhi

Ibrahim Lodhi was the son of Sikander who succeeded him after his death. Due to the demands of the nobles, his younger brother Jalal Khan was given a small share of the kingdom and was crowned the ruler of Jaunpur. However, Ibrahim's men assassinated him soon and the kingdom came back to Ibrahim Lodhi. Ibrahim was known to be a very stern ruler and was not liked much by his subjects. In order to take revenge of the insults done by Ibrahim, the governor of Lahore Daulat Khan Lodhi asked the ruler of Kabul, Babur to invade his kingdom. Ibrahim Lodhi was thus killed in a battle with Babur who was the founder of the Mughal dynasty in India. With the death of Ibrahim Lodhi, the Lodhi dynasty also came to an end.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lodi_dynasty

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lodi_Gardens

'Alice Springs is the third largest town in the Northern Territory, Australia. The site is known as Mparntwe to its original inhabitants, the Arrernte, who have lived in the Central Australian desert in and around what is now Alice Springs for thousands of years. Alice Springs was named by surveyor W. W. Mills after Lady Alice Todd (née Alice Gillam Bell), wife of Sir Charles Todd. Alice Springs has a population of 24,208, which makes up 11.4 percent of the territory's population. The town is nearly equidistant from Adelaide, South Australia and Darwin.

 

The town of Alice Springs straddles the usually dry Todd River on the northern side of the MacDonnell Ranges. The region where Alice Springs is located is known as Central Australia, or the Red Centre, and is an arid environment consisting of several different deserts. In Alice Springs, temperatures can vary dramatically with an average maximum temperature in summer of 35.6 °C (96.1 °F), and an average minimum temperature in winter of 5.1 °C (41.2 °F).' (Wikipedia)

 

foter.com/f/photo/9577985757/b9453068ca/

Zwiggelte

 

"The Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) is an aperture synthesis interferometer built on the site of the former World War II Nazi detention and transit camp Westerbork, north of the village of Westerbork, Midden-Drenthe, in the northeastern Netherlands.

 

The WRST comprises fourteen 25-metre radio telescopes deployed in a linear array arranged on a 2.7 kilometres (1.7 mi) East-West line, of which 10 are in a fixed equidistant position, 2 are nearby on a 300 m rail track, and 2 are located a kilometer eastwards on another 200 m rail track. It has a similar arrangement to other radio telescopes such as the One-Mile Telescope, Australia Telescope Compact Array and the Ryle Telescope. Its Equatorial mount is what sets it apart from most other radio telescopes, most of which have an Altazimuth mount. This makes it specifically useful for specific types of science, like polarized emission research as the detectors maintain a constant orientation on the sky during an observation. Ten of the telescopes are on fixed mountings while the remaining two dishes are movable along two rail tracks. The telescope was completed in 1970 and underwent a major upgrade between 1995 – 2000." (Wikipedia)

 

Source & more information: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westerbork_Synthesis_Radio_Telescope

Móra la Nova és una estació de ferrocarril propietat d'adif situada al nord de la població de Móra la Nova a la comarca de la Ribera d'Ebre. L'estació es troba a la línia Reus-Casp i hi tenen parada trens regionals de la línia R15 de Rodalies de Catalunya i la línia Ca6, ambdues operades per Renfe Operadora.

 

Aquesta estació, projectada inicialment per la Companyia dels Ferrocarrils Directes, va entrar en servei l'any 1891 quan va entrar en servei el tram construït per la Companyia dels Ferrocarrils de Tarragona a Barcelona i França (TBF) entre Marçà-Falset (1890) i Móra la Nova. Tot i que l'edifici va ser concebut com a provisional, diferenciant-se estructuralment d'altres de la línia, ha perdurat i encara es conserva.

 

El fet que l'estació es trobi a una distància equidistant entre Barcelona i Saragossa va propiciar la instal·lació d'un dipòsit de locomotores, un taller d'intervenció, una platja de classificació i un pont giratori elèctric.

 

Les instal·lacions d'emmagatzematge i proveïment de fueloil el 1956 eren les més modernes d'aquella època, quan es produïa el relleu entre les locomotores de vapor a les elèctriques. Gràcies a això a la comarca hi havia un miler de treballadors del ferrocarril.

 

Més concretament, a la població de Móra la Nova la immigració va créixer de manera constant amb motiu del ferrocarril. Així podem veure que entre l'any 1848 fins al 1890 (durant la creació de l'estació), la població va passar de 698 habitants a 1.865 habitants.

 

L'edifici de l'estació és una obra d'arquitectura eclèctica del 1891 que està protegida com a bé cultural d'interès local. És un gran edifici aïllat de planta rectangular, format per tres cossos adossats. El cos central presenta la coberta de teula de quatre vessants i està distribuït en planta baixa, pis i golfes, mentre que els dos cossos laterals presenten les cobertes de teula de tres vessants i consten de planta baixa i pis. En general, totes les obertures són rectangulars i amb els emmarcaments motllurats i emblanquinats. Les dels cossos laterals presenten guardapols superior i ampits sostinguts per petites mènsules. Les del cos central, en canvi, presenten les llindes decorades amb formes triangulars o romboïdals. En general, unes grans cornises motllurades marquen la divisòria entre els diferents pisos incloent els coronaments, que també presenten petits plafons triangulars decorats, a manera d'espadanyes. Cal destacar el porxo de ferro adossat a la façana encarada a les andanes de l'estació i un edifici annex de menors dimensions, format també per tres cossos adossats, amb les cobertes planes i de dos vessants i organitzat en una sola planta. Actualment, tot el conjunt es troba rehabilitat i hi ha un museu ferroviari.

 

A Google Maps.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sea

  

The North Sea is a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean located between Great Britain, Scandinavia, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. An epeiric (or "shelf") sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Sea in the north. It is more than 970 kilometres (600 mi) long and 580 kilometres (360 mi) wide, with an area of around 750,000 square kilometres (290,000 sq mi).

 

The North Sea has long been the site of important European shipping lanes as well as a major fishery. The sea is a popular destination for recreation and tourism in bordering countries and more recently has developed into a rich source of energy resources including fossil fuels, wind, and early efforts in wave power.

 

Historically, the North Sea has featured prominently in geopolitical and military affairs, particularly in Northern Europe but also globally through the power northern European actors projected worldwide during much of the Middle Ages and modern era. The North Sea was the centre of the Vikings' rise and subsequently, the Hanseatic League, the Netherlands, and the British each sought to dominate the North Sea and through it to control access to the markets and resources of the world. As Germany's only outlet to the ocean, the North Sea continued to be strategically important through both World Wars.

 

The coast of the North Sea presents a diversity of geological and geographical features. In the north, deep fjords and sheer cliffs mark the Norwegian and Scottish coastlines, whereas the south consists primarily of sandy beaches and wide mudflats. Due to the dense population, heavy industrialization, and intense use of the sea and area surrounding it, there have been a number of environmental issues affecting the sea's ecosystems. Environmental concerns—commonly including overfishing, industrial and agricultural runoff, dredging, and dumping among others—have led to a number of efforts to prevent degradation of the sea while still making use of its economic potential.

  

Geography

  

The North Sea is bounded by the Orkney Islands and east coasts of England and Scotland to the west[1] and the northern and central European mainland to the east and south, including Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France.[2] In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean.[1][2] In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat,[2] narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively.[1] In the north it is bordered by the Shetland Islands, and connects with the Norwegian Sea, which lies in the very north-eastern part of the Atlantic.[1][3]

 

The North Sea is more than 970 kilometres (600 mi) long and 580 kilometres (360 mi) wide, with an area of 750,000 square kilometres (290,000 sq mi) and a volume of 94,000 cubic kilometres (23,000 cu mi).[4] Around the edges of the North Sea are sizeable islands and archipelagos, including Shetland, Orkney, and the Frisian Islands.[2] The North Sea receives freshwater from a number of European continental watersheds, as well as the British Isles. A large part of the European drainage basin empties into the North Sea including water from the Baltic Sea. The largest and most important rivers flowing into the North Sea are the Elbe and the Rhine – Meuse watershed.[5] Around 185 million people live in the catchment area of the rivers discharging into the North Sea encompassing some highly industrialized areas.[

  

Major features

  

For the most part, the sea lies on the European continental shelf with a mean depth of 90 metres (300 ft).[1][7] The only exception is the Norwegian trench, which extends parallel to the Norwegian shoreline from Oslo to an area north of Bergen.[1] It is between 20 and 30 kilometres (12 and 19 mi) wide and has a maximum depth of 725 metres (2,379 ft).[8]

 

The Dogger Bank, a vast moraine, or accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris, rises to a mere 15 to 30 metres (50–100 ft) below the surface.[9][10] This feature has produced the finest fishing location of the North Sea.[1] The Long Forties and the Broad Fourteens are large areas with roughly uniform depth in fathoms, (forty fathoms and fourteen fathoms or 73 and 26 m deep respectively). These great banks and others make the North Sea particularly hazardous to navigate,[11] which has been alleviated by the implementation of satellite navigation systems.[12] The Devil's Hole lies 200 miles (320 km) east of Dundee, Scotland. The feature is a series of asymmetrical trenches between 20 and 30 kilometres (12 and 19 mi) long, 1 and 2 kilometres (0.62 and 1.2 mi) wide and up to 230 metres (750 ft) deep.[

  

Extent

  

The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the North Sea as follows:[14]

On the Southwest. A line joining the Walde Lighthouse (France, 1°55'E) and Leathercoat Point (England, 51°10'N).[15]On the Northwest. From Dunnet Head (3°22'W) in Scotland to Tor Ness (58°47'N) in the Island of Hoy, thence through this island to the Kame of Hoy (58°55'N) on to Breck Ness on Mainland (58°58'N) through this island to Costa Head (3°14'W) and to Inga Ness (59'17'N) in Westray through Westray, to Bow Head, across to Mull Head (North point of Papa Westray) and on to Seal Skerry (North point of North Ronaldsay) and thence to Horse Island (South point of the Shetland Islands).On the North. From the North point (Fethaland Point) of the Mainland of the Shetland Islands, across to Graveland Ness (60°39'N) in the Island of Yell, through Yell to Gloup Ness (1°04'W) and across to Spoo Ness (60°45'N) in Unst island, through Unst to Herma Ness (60°51'N), on to the SW point of the Rumblings and to Muckle Flugga (

 

60°51′N 0°53′W) all these being included in the North Sea area; thence up the meridian of 0°53' West to the parallel of 61°00' North and eastward along this parallel to the coast of Norway, the whole of Viking Bank being thus included in the North Sea.On the East. The Western limit of the Skagerrak [A line joining Hanstholm (

 

57°07′N 8°36′E) and the Naze (Lindesnes,

 

58°N 7°E)].

  

Hydrology

  

Temperature and salinity

  

The average temperature in summer is 17 °C (63 °F) and 6 °C (43 °F) in the winter.[4] The average temperatures have been trending higher since 1988, which has been attributed to climate change.[16][17] Air temperatures in January range on average between 0 to 4 °C (32 to 39 °F) and in July between 13 to 18 °C (55 to 64 °F). The winter months see frequent gales and storms.[1]

 

The salinity averages between 34 to 35 grams of salt per litre of water.[4] The salinity has the highest variability where there is fresh water inflow, such as at the Rhine and Elbe estuaries, the Baltic Sea exit and along the coast of Norway.[18]

  

Water circulation and tides

  

The main pattern to the flow of water in the North Sea is an anti-clockwise rotation along the edges.[19]

 

The North Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean receiving the majority of ocean current from the northwest opening, and a lesser portion of warm current from the smaller opening at the English Channel. These tidal currents leave along the Norwegian coast.[20] Surface and deep water currents may move in different directions. Low salinity surface coastal waters move offshore, and deeper, denser high salinity waters move in shore.[21]

 

The North Sea located on the continental shelf has different waves than those in deep ocean water. The wave speeds are diminished and the wave amplitudes are increased. In the North Sea there are two amphidromic systems and a third incomplete amphidromic system.[22][23] In the North Sea the average tide difference in wave amplitude is between 0 to 8 metres (0 to 26 ft).[4]

 

The Kelvin tide of the Atlantic ocean is a semidiurnal wave that travels northward. Some of the energy from this wave travels through the English Channel into the North Sea. The wave still travels northward in the Atlantic Ocean, and once past the northern tip of Great Britain, the Kelvin wave turns east and south and once again enters into the North Sea.[2

  

Coasts

  

The eastern and western coasts of the North Sea are jagged, formed by glaciers during the ice ages. The coastlines along the southernmost part are covered with the remains of deposited glacial sediment.[1] The Norwegian mountains plunge into the sea creating deep fjords and archipelagos. South of Stavanger, the coast softens, the islands become fewer.[1] The eastern Scottish coast is similar, though less severe than Norway. From north east of England, the cliffs become lower and are composed of less resistant moraine, which erodes more easily, so that the coasts have more rounded contours.[25][26] In Holland, Belgium and in the east of England (East Anglia) the littoral is low and marshy.[1] The east coast and south-east of the North Sea (Wadden Sea) have coastlines that are mainly sandy and straight owing to longshore drift, particularly along Belgium and Denmark.

  

Coastal management

  

The southern coastal areas were originally amphibious flood plains and swampy land. In areas especially vulnerable to storm tides, people settled behind elevated levees and on natural areas of high ground such as spits and Geestland.[28]:[302,303] As early as 500 BC, people were constructing artificial dwelling hills higher than the prevailing flood levels.[28]:[306,308] It was only around the beginning of the High Middle Ages, in 1200 AD, that inhabitants began to connect single ring dikes into a dike line along the entire coast, thereby turning amphibious regions between the land and the sea into permanent solid ground.[28]

 

The modern form of the dikes supplemented by overflow and lateral diversion channels, began to appear in the 17th and 18th centuries, built in the Netherlands.[29] The North Sea Floods of 1953 and 1962 were impetus for further raising of the dikes as well as the shortening of the coast line so as to present as little surface area as possible to the punishment of the sea and the storms.[30] Currently, 27% of the Netherlands is below sea level protected by dikes, dunes, and beach flats.[31]

 

Coastal management today consists of several levels.[32] The dike slope reduces the energy of the incoming sea, so that the dike itself does not receive the full impact.[32] Dikes that lie directly on the sea are especially reinforced.[32] The dikes have, over the years, been repeatedly raised, sometimes up to 9 metres (30 ft) and have been made flatter to better reduce wave erosion.[33] Where the dunes are sufficient to protect the land behind them from the sea, these dunes are planted with beach grass to protect them from erosion by wind, water, and foot traffic.

  

Storm tides

  

Storm tides threaten, in particular, the coasts of the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and Denmark and low lying areas of eastern England particularly around The Wash and Fens.[27] Storm surges are caused by changes in barometric pressure combined with strong wind created wave action.[35]

 

The first recorded storm tide flood was the Julianenflut, on 17 February 1164. In its wake the Jadebusen, (a bay on the coast of Germany), began to form. A storm tide in 1228 is recorded to have killed more than 100,000 people.[36] In 1362, the Second Marcellus Flood, also known as the Grote Manndränke, hit the entire southern coast of the North Sea. Chronicles of the time again record more than 100,000 deaths as large parts of the coast were lost permanently to the sea, including the now legendary lost city of Rungholt.[37] In the 20th century, the North Sea flood of 1953 flooded several nations' coasts and cost more than 2,000 lives.[38] 315 citizens of Hamburg died in the North Sea flood of 1962.[39]:[79,86]

  

Tsunamis

  

Though rare, the North Sea has been the site of a number of historically documented tsunamis. The Storegga Slides were a series of underwater landslides, in which a piece of the Norwegian continental shelf slid into the Norwegian Sea. The immense landslips occurred between 8150 BCE and 6000 BCE, and caused a tsunami up to 20 metres (66 ft) high that swept through the North Sea, having the greatest effect on Scotland and the Faeroe Islands.[40][41] The Dover Straits earthquake of 1580 is among the first recorded earthquakes in the North Sea measuring between 5.6 and 5.9 on the Richter Scale. This event caused extensive damage in Calais both through its tremors and possibly triggered a tsunami, though this has never been confirmed. The theory is a vast underwater landslide in the English Channel was triggered by the earthquake, which in turn caused a tsunami.[42] The tsunami triggered by the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake reached Holland, although the waves had lost their destructive power. The largest earthquake ever recorded in the United Kingdom was the 1931 Dogger Bank earthquake, which measured 6.1 on the Richter Scale and caused a small tsunami that flooded parts of the British coast.[42]

  

Geology

  

Shallow epicontinental seas like the current North Sea have since long existed on the European continental shelf. The rifting that formed the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, from about 150 million years ago, caused tectonic uplift in the British Isles.[43] Since then, a shallow sea has almost continuously existed between the highs of the Fennoscandian Shield and the British Isles.[44] This precursor of the current North Sea has grown and shrunk with the rise and fall of the eustatic sea level during geologic time. Sometimes it was connected with other shallow seas, such as the sea above the Paris Basin to the south-west, the Paratethys Sea to the south-east, or the Tethys Ocean to the south.[45]

 

During the Late Cretaceous, about 85 million years ago, all of modern mainland Europe except for Scandinavia was a scattering of islands.[46] By the Early Oligocene, 34 to 28 million years ago, the emergence of Western and Central Europe had almost completely separated the North Sea from the Tethys Ocean, which gradually shrank to become the Mediterranean as Southern Europe and South West Asia became dry land.[47] The North Sea was cut off from the English Channel by a narrow land bridge until that was breached by at least two catastrophic floods between 450,000 and 180,000 years ago.[48][49] Since the start of the Quaternary period about 2.6 million years ago, the eustatic sea level has fallen during each glacial period and then risen again. Every time the ice sheet reached its greatest extent, the North Sea became almost completely dry. The present-day coastline formed after the Last Glacial Maximum when the sea began to flood the European continental shelf.[50]

 

In 2006 a bone fragment was found while drilling for oil in the north sea. Analysis indicated that it was a Plateosaurus from 199 to 216 million years ago. This was the deepest dinosaur fossil ever found and the first find for Norway.[51]

  

Natural history

  

Fish and shellfish

  

Copepods and other zooplankton are plentiful in the North Sea. These tiny organisms are crucial elements of the food chain supporting many species of fish.[52] Over 230 species of fish live in the North Sea. Cod, haddock, whiting, saithe, plaice, sole, mackerel, herring, pouting, sprat, and sandeel are all very common and are fished commercially.[52][53] Due to the various depths of the North Sea trenches and differences in salinity, temperature, and water movement, some fish such as blue-mouth redfish and rabbitfish reside only in small areas of the North Sea.[54]

 

Crustaceans are also commonly found throughout the sea. Norway lobster, deep-water prawns, and brown shrimp are all commercially fished, but other species of lobster, shrimp, oyster, mussels and clams all live in the North Sea.[52] Recently non-indigenous species have become established including the Pacific oyster and Atlantic jackknife clam.[53]

  

Birds

  

The coasts of the North Sea are home to nature reserves including the Ythan Estuary, Fowlsheugh Nature Preserve, and Farne Islands in the UK and The Wadden Sea National Parks in Germany.[52] These locations provide breeding habitat for dozens of bird species. Tens of millions of birds make use of the North Sea for breeding, feeding, or migratory stopovers every year. Populations of Black legged Kittiwakes, Atlantic Puffins, Northern fulmars, and species of petrels, gannets, seaducks, loons (divers), cormorants, gulls, auks, and terns, and many other seabirds make these coasts popular for birdwatching.[52][53]

  

Marine mammals

  

The North Sea is also home to marine mammals. Common seals, and Harbour porpoises can be found along the coasts, at marine installations, and on islands. The very northern North Sea islands such as the Shetland Islands are occasionally home to a larger variety of pinnipeds including bearded, harp, hooded and ringed seals, and even walrus.[55] North Sea cetaceans include various porpoise, dolphin and whale species.[53][56]

  

Flora

  

Plant species in the North Sea include species of wrack, among them bladder wrack, knotted wrack, and serrated wrack. Algae, macroalgal, and kelp, such as oarweed and laminaria hyperboria, and species of maerl are found as well.[53] Eelgrass, formerly common in the entirety of the Wadden Sea, was nearly wiped out in the 20th century by a disease.[57] Similarly, sea grass used to coat huge tracts of ocean floor, but have been damaged by trawling and dredging have diminished its habitat and prevented its return.[58] Invasive Japanese seaweed has spread along the shores of the sea clogging harbours and inlets and has become a nuisance.[59]

  

Biodiversity and conservation

  

Due to the heavy human populations and high level of industrialization along its shores, the wildlife of the North Sea has suffered from pollution, overhunting, and overfishing. Flamingos, pelicans, and Great Auk were once found along the southern shores of the North Sea, but went extinct over the 2nd millennium.[60] Gray whale also resided in the North Sea but were driven to extinction in the Atlantic in the 17th century[61] Other species have dramatically declined in population, though they are still found. Right whales, sturgeon, shad, rays, skates, salmon, and other species were common in the North Sea until the 20th century, when numbers declined due to overfishing.[62][63] Other factors like the introduction of non-indigenous species, industrial and agricultural pollution, trawling and dredging, human-induced eutrophication, construction on coastal breeding and feeding grounds, sand and gravel extraction, offshore construction, and heavy shipping traffic have also contributed to the decline.[53] The OSPAR commission manages the OSPAR convention to counteract the harmful effects of human activity on wildlife in the North Sea, preserve endangered species, and provide environmental protection.[64] All North Sea border states are signatories of the MARPOL 73/78 Accords, which preserve the marine environment by preventing pollution from ships.[65] Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands also have a trilateral agreement for the protection of the Wadden Sea, or mudflats, which run along the coasts of the three countries on the southern edge of the North Sea.

  

History

  

Name

  

Through history various names have been used for the North Sea. One of the earliest recorded names was Septentrionalis Oceanus, or "Northern Ocean," which was cited by Pliny.[67] The name "North Sea" probably came into English, however, via the Dutch "Noordzee", who named it thus either in contrast with the Zuiderzee ("South Sea"), located south of Frisia, or simply because the sea is generally to the north of the Netherlands. Before the adoption of "North Sea," the names used in English were "German Sea" or "German Ocean", originating from the Latin names "Mare Germanicum" and "Oceanus Germanicus", and they persisted even into the 1830s.[68]

  

Early history

  

The North Sea has provided waterway access for commerce and conquest. Many areas have access to the North Sea with its long coastline and European rivers that empty into it.[1] The British Isles had been protected from invasion by the North Sea waters[1] until the Roman conquest of Britain in 43 CE. The Romans established organised ports, shipping increased and sustained trade began.[69] When the Romans abandoned Britain in 410 the Germanic Angles, Saxons, and Jutes began the next great migration across the North Sea during the Migration Period invading England.[70]

 

The Viking Age began in 793 with the attack on Lindisfarne and for the next quarter-millennium the Vikings ruled the North Sea. In their superior longships, they raided, traded, and established colonies and outposts on the Sea's coasts. From the Middle Ages through the 15th century, the northern European coastal ports exported domestic goods, dyes, linen, salt, metal goods and wine. The Scandinavian and Baltic areas shipped grain, fish, naval necessities, and timber. In turn the North Sea countries imported high grade cloths, spices, and fruits from the Mediterranean region[71] Commerce during this era was mainly undertaken by maritime trade due to underdeveloped roadways.[71]

 

In the 13th century the Hanseatic League, though centred on the Baltic Sea, started to control most of the trade through important members and outposts on the North Sea.[72] The League lost its dominance in the 16th century, as neighbouring states took control of former Hanseatic cities and outposts and internal conflict prevented effective cooperation and defence.[73] Furthermore, as the League lost control of its maritime cities, new trade routes emerged that provided Europe with Asian, American, and African goods.[74][75]

  

Age of sail

  

The 17th century Dutch Golden Age during which Dutch herring, cod and whale fisheries reached an all time high[71] saw Dutch power at its zenith.[76][77] Important overseas colonies, a vast merchant marine, powerful navy and large profits made the Dutch the main challengers to an ambitious England. This rivalry led to the first three Anglo-Dutch Wars between 1652 and 1673, which ended with Dutch victories.[77] After the Glorious Revolution the Dutch prince William ascended to the English throne. With both countries united, commercial, military, and political power shifted from Amsterdam to London.[78] The British did not face a challenge to their dominance of the North Sea until the 20th century.[79]

  

Modern era

  

Tensions in the North Sea were again heightened in 1904 by the Dogger Bank incident. During the Russo-Japanese War, which several ships of the Russian Baltic Fleet on their way to the Far East, mistook British fishing boats for Japanese ships and fired on them, and then upon each other near the Dogger Bank, nearly causing Britain to enter the War on the side of Japan.

 

During the First World War, Great Britain's Grand Fleet and Germany's Kaiserliche Marine faced each other on the North Sea,[80] which became the main theatre of the war for surface action.[80] Britain's larger fleet was able to establish an effective blockade for most of the war that restricted the Central Powers' access to many crucial resources.[81] Major battles included the Battle of Heligoland Bight,[82] the Battle of the Dogger Bank,[83] and the Battle of Jutland.[83] World War I also brought the first extensive use of submarine warfare, and a number of submarine actions occurred in the North Sea.[84]

 

The Second World War also saw action in the North Sea,[85] though it was restricted more to aircraft reconnaissances, aircraft fighter/bombers, submarines and smaller vessels such as minesweepers, and torpedo boats and similar vessels.[86]

 

In the last years of the war and the first years thereafter, hundreds of thousands of tons of weapons were disposed of by being sunk in the North Sea.[87]

 

After the war, the North Sea lost much of its military significance because it is bordered only by NATO member-states. However, it gained significant economic importance in the 1960s as the states on the North Sea began full-scale exploitation of its oil and gas resources.[88] The North Sea continues to be an active trade route.[89]

  

Economy

  

Political status

  

Countries that border the North Sea all claim the 12 nautical miles (22 km; 14 mi) of territorial waters, within which they have exclusive fishing rights.[90] The Common Fisheries Policy of the European Union (EU) exists to coordinate fishing rights and assist with disputes between EU states and the EU border state of Norway.[91]

 

After the discovery of mineral resources in the North Sea, the Convention on the Continental Shelf established country rights largely divided along the median line. The median line is defined as the line "every point of which is equidistant from the nearest points of the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea of each State is measured."[92] The ocean floor border between Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark was only reapportioned after protracted negotiations and a judgement of the International Court of Justice.[90][93]

  

Oil and gas

  

As early as 1859, oil was discovered in onshore areas around the North Sea and natural gas as early as 1910.[46]

 

Test drilling began in 1966 and then, in 1969, Phillips Petroleum Company discovered the Ekofisk oil field[94] distinguished by valuable, low-sulphur oil.[95] Commercial exploitation began in 1971 with tankers and, after 1975, by a pipeline, first to Teesside, England and then, after 1977, also to Emden, Germany.[96]

 

The exploitation of the North Sea oil reserves began just before the 1973 oil crisis, and the climb of international oil prices made the large investments needed for extraction much more attractive.[97]

 

Although the production costs are relatively high, the quality of the oil, the political stability of the region, and the nearness of important markets in western Europe has made the North Sea an important oil producing region.[95] The largest single humanitarian catastrophe in the North Sea oil industry was the destruction of the offshore oil platform Piper Alpha in 1988 in which 167 people lost their lives.[98]

 

Besides the Ekofisk oil field, the Statfjord oil field is also notable as it was the cause of the first pipeline to span the Norwegian trench.[99] The largest natural gas field in the North Sea, Troll gas field, lies in the Norwegian trench dropping over 300 metres (980 ft) requiring the construction of the enormous Troll A platform to access it.

 

The price of Brent Crude, one of the first types of oil extracted from the North Sea, is used today as a standard price for comparison for crude oil from the rest of the world.[100] The North Sea contains western Europe's largest oil and natural gas reserves and is one of the world's key non-OPEC producing regions.[101]

  

Fishing

  

The North Sea is Europe's main fishery accounting for over 5% of international commercial fish caught.[1] Fishing in the North Sea is concentrated in the southern part of the coastal waters. The main method of fishing is trawling.[102] In 1995, the total volume of fish and shellfish caught in the North Sea was approximately 3.5 million tonnes.[103] Besides fish, it is estimated that one million tonnes of unmarketable by-catch is caught and discarded each year.[104]

 

In recent decades, overfishing has left many fisheries unproductive, disturbing marine food chain dynamics and costing jobs in the fishing industry.[105] Herring, cod and plaice fisheries may soon face the same plight as mackerel fishing, which ceased in the 1970s due to overfishing.[106] The objective of the European Union Common Fisheries Policy is to minimize the environmental impact associated with resource use by reducing fish discards, increasing productivity of fisheries, stabilising markets of fisheries and fish processing, and supplying fish at reasonable prices for the consumer.[107]

  

Mineral resources

  

In addition to oil, gas, and fish, the states along the North Sea also take millions of cubic metres per year of sand and gravel from the ocean floor. These are used for beach nourishment, land reclamation and construction.[108] Rolled pieces of amber may be picked up on the east coast of England.[109]

  

Renewable energy

  

Due to the strong prevailing winds, countries on the North Sea, particularly Germany and Denmark, have used the shore for wind power since the 1990s.[110] The North Sea is the home of one of the first large-scale offshore wind farms in the world, Horns Rev 1, completed in 2002. Since then many other wind farms have been commissioned in the North Sea (and elsewhere), including the two largest windfarms in the world as of September 2010; Thanet in the UK[111][112] and Horns Rev 2 in Denmark.[113]

 

The expansion of offshore wind farms has met with some resistance. Concerns have included shipping collisions[114] and environmental effects on ocean ecology and wildlife such as fish and migratory birds,[115] however, these concerns were found to be negligible in a long-term study in Denmark released in 2006 and again in a UK government study in 2009.[116][117] There are also concerns about reliability,[118] and the rising costs of constructing and maintaining offshore wind farms.[119] Despite these, development of North Sea wind power is continuing, with plans for additional wind farms off the coasts of Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK.[120] There have also been proposals for a transnational power grid in the North Sea to connect new offshore wind farms.[121][122]

 

Energy production from tidal power is still in a pre-commercial stage. The European Marine Energy Centre has installed a wave testing system at Billia Croo on the Orkney mainland[123] and a tidal power testing station on the nearby island of Eday.[124] Since 2003, a prototype Wave Dragon energy converter has been in operation at Nissum Bredning fjord of northern Denmark.[125]

  

Tourism

  

The beaches and coastal waters of the North Sea are popular destinations for tourists. The Belgian, Dutch, German and Danish coasts[126][127] are especially developed for tourism. The North Sea Trail is a long-distance trail linking seven countries around the North Sea.[128] Windsurfing and sailing[129] are popular sports because of the strong winds. Mudflat hiking,[130] recreational fishing and birdwatching[127] are among other popular activities.

 

The climatic conditions on the North Sea coast are often claimed to be especially healthful. As early as the 19th century, travellers used their stays on the North Sea coast as curative and restorative vacations. The sea air, temperature, wind, water, and sunshine are counted among the beneficial conditions that are said to activate the body's defences, improve circulation, strengthen the immune system, and have healing effects on the skin and the respiratory system.[131]

  

Marine traffic

  

The North Sea is important for marine transportation and its shipping lanes are among the busiest in the world.[90] Major ports are located along its coasts: Rotterdam, The busiest port in Europe and the third busiest port in the world by tonnage as of 2008, Antwerp (16th) and Hamburg (27th), Bremen/Bremerhaven and Felixstowe, both in the top 30 busiest container seaports,[132] as well as the Port of Bruges-Zeebrugge, Europe's leading RoRo port.[133]

 

Fishing boats, service boats for offshore industries, sport and pleasure craft, and merchant ships to and from North Sea ports and Baltic ports must share routes on the North Sea. The Dover Strait alone sees more than 400 commercial vessels a day.[134] Because of this volume, navigation in the North Sea can be difficult in high traffic zones, so ports have established elaborate vessel traffic services to monitor and direct ships into and out of port.[135]

 

The North Sea coasts are home to numerous canals and canal systems to facilitate traffic between and among rivers, artificial harbours, and the sea. The Kiel Canal, connecting the North Sea with the Baltic Sea, is the most heavily used artificial seaway in the world reporting an average of 89 ships per day not including sporting boats and other small watercraft in 2009.[136] It saves an average of 250 nautical miles (460 km; 290 mi), instead of the voyage around the Jutland Peninsula.[137] The North Sea Canal connects Amsterdam with the North Sea.

 

Imagen creativa. Photosoph. Gracias de antemano por vuestros comentarios, award, favoritos, invitaciones a grupo y la elección para galerías; perdonad que quizás no pueda responder individualmente. Todos los derechos reservados

Ladner, BC Canada

 

One of the best ways to get a feeling for the Fraser Estuary is from a small boat such as a canoe or kayak. Although the Fraser River powers its way through the estuary in three main channels, there are numerous backwaters where the current is not as strong nor the wakes from passing tugboats and freighters as intimidating. Try launching at Deas Slough and explore the nearby Ladner Marsh area.

 

The heart of the slough is equidistant from either Ferry Road or Deas Island Park. If you want to expand your journey beyond the slough, investigate the secluded channels of Ladner Marsh and the South Arm Marshes Wildlife Management Area that begins west of the Ferry Road boat launch and includes all of the delta between Deas and Westham Islands.

 

This image is best viewed in Large screen.

 

Thank-you for your visit, and please know that any faves or comments are always greatly appreciated!

 

Sonja

 

2664

Visit: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peggys_Cove,_Nova_Scotia

 

Peggys Point Lighthouse (also known as Peggy's Cove Lighthouse) is in Peggys Cove and is an iconic Canadian image. It is one of the busiest tourist attractions in Nova Scotia and is a prime attraction on the Lighthouse Trail scenic drive. The lighthouse marks the eastern entrance of St. Margarets Bay and is officially known as the Peggys Point Lighthouse.

 

Peggys Cove is a classic red-and-white lighthouse still operated by the Canadian Coast Guard. The light station is situated on an extensive granite outcrop at Peggys Point, immediately south of the village and its cove. This lighthouse is one of the most-photographed structures in Atlantic Canada and one of the most recognizable lighthouses in the world.

 

Visitors may explore the granite outcrop on Peggys Point around the lighthouse; despite numerous signs warning of unpredictable surf (including one on a bronze plaque on the lighthouse itself), several visitors each year are swept off the rocks by waves, sometimes drowning.

 

Peggys Cove is 43 kilometers (26 miles) southwest of downtown Halifax and comprises one of the numerous small fishing communities located around the perimeter of the Chebucto Peninsula. The community is named after the cove of the same name, a name also shared with Peggy's Point, immediately to the east of the cove. The village marks the eastern point of St. Margaret's Bay.(Wikipedia)

  

Visit: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swissair_Flight_111

 

Swissair Flight 111

 

Swissair Flight 111 (SR111, SWR111) was a Swissair McDonnell Douglas MD-11 on a scheduled airline flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, United States to Cointrin International Airport in Geneva, Switzerland. This flight was also a codeshare flight with Delta Air Lines.

 

On Wednesday, 2 September 1998, the aircraft used for the flight, registered HB-IWF, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean southwest of Halifax International Airport at the entrance to St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia. The crash site was 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) from shore, roughly equidistant from the tiny fishing and tourist communities of Peggys Cove and Bayswater. All 229 people on board died—the highest death toll of any aviation accident involving a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 and the second-highest of any air disaster to occur in Canada, after Arrow Air Flight 1285. This is one of only two hull losses of the passenger configured MD-11, along with China Airlines Flight 642.

 

The initial search and rescue response, crash recovery operation, and resulting investigation by the Government of Canada took over four years and cost CAD 57 million (at that time approximately US$38 million). The Transportation Safety Board of Canada's (TSB) official report of their investigation stated that flammable material used in the aircraft's structure allowed a fire to spread beyond the control of the crew, resulting in a loss of control and the crash of the aircraft.

 

Swissair Flight 111 was known as the "UN shuttle" due to its popularity with United Nations officials; the flight often carried business executives, scientists, and researchers

 

Aircraft

The aircraft, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11, serial number 48448 registered HB-IWF, was manufactured in 1991 and Swissair was its only operator. It bore the title of Vaud, in honor of the Swiss canton of the same name. The airframe had a total of 36,041 hours. The three engines were Pratt & Whitney 4462s. The cabin was configured with 241 seats (12 six-abreast first-, 49 seven-abreast business-, and 180 nine-abreast economy-class). First- and business-class seats were equipped with an in seat in-flight entertainment system, installed at some point after initial entry into service. (Wikipedia) VC514B

  

© Copyright

This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.

 

Mejor verla en grande/ To see more large/ Pour voir plus grand

 

En Ucero , al comienzo del Cañón del Río Lobos , protegida por unos farallones enormes , bajo la mirada del buitre leonado , se encuentra asentada sobre una roca la Ermita de San Bartolomé, cuya fiesta se celebra el día 24 de Agosto. Se acede desde la localidad por una carretera a unos 4 kilómetros, si bien como a 1 kilómetro de la Iglesia hay que ir caminando. Como cité en la fotografía anterior este edificio de es de factura de alrededor del año 1200, cuando la encomienda de Ucero era Templaria , lo que refleja en la construcción de la ermita.Al lado mismo y motivo de una próxima fotografía se ubica una enorme cueva donde se podrían celebrar los "Misterios de la Magna Mater". Se erigió sobre el antiguo templo del monasterio templario de San Juan de Otero. Todo él es de sillería, para que las energías sutiles no se dispersen y puedan concentrarse y favorecer a todo Peregrino del Alba que busque la Gnosis. Reúne gran similitud en su estructura con el Monasterio de San Juan de Duero (muy recomendable su visita) en Soria , al tener también planta sobre cruz latina . Los Templarios , caballeros de la Cruz y espada, sabían donde hacían sus obras y esta está considerada como un lugar mágico con todas las fuerzas naturales y simbólicas para que el Espíritu atravesará el cuerpo y el alma de los Adeptos.. El magnífico crismón del ábside nos indica que fue construida por una cofradía de los Hijos del Maestro Jacques que perdura hoy en Francia con el nombre de Compañeros Pasantes del Deber. Forma parte de los Mil Caminos de Santiago , y como he dicho , aunque no lo he medido , este magnífico lugar está equidistante de Santiago de Compostela y San Juan de la Peña (Huesca). Sí bien está cargado de símbolos que ire citando en otras fotografías , no busqueis aquí el Santo Grial porque yo conozco (voy a ver sí es verdad que está allí...) el emplazamiento del mismo.

 

Ucero at the beginning of the Canyon del Rio Lobos, protected by a huge cliffs, under the gaze of the griffon vulture, is seated on a rock the Chapel of St. Bartholomew, whose feast day is celebrated on August 24. Acedo was from the village by a road about 4 km, while about 1 kilometer from the Church must walk. As quoted in the previous picture of this building is billing around 1200, when the task was to Ucero Templar, reflecting on the construction of the same ermita.Al ado and matter of a forthcoming photography lies a huge cave where they could celebrate the "Mysteries of the Magna Mater." Was erected on the old Templar church of the monastery of San Juan Otero. All seating is, so that subtle energies are dispersed and can not concentrate and encourage all pilgrims seeking Gnosis Alba. Collects very similar in structure to the Monasterio de San Juan de Duero (highly recommended tour) in Soria, the plant also take on a Latin cross. The Templars, Knights of the Cross and Sword, where they knew their works and this is seen as a magical place with all the natural and symbolic to the spirit passes through the body and soul of the Adepts .. Crismón apse of the great shows that was built by a guild of the Sons of Master Jacques that endures today in France under the name of the Companions of Duty Interns. It is part of the Mil Caminos de Santiago, and as I said, I have not measured auqneu, this magnificent place is equidistant from Santiago de Compostela and S.Juan de la Peña (Huesca). While it is loaded with symbols that ire citing other photographs, not seek the Holy Grail here because I know (I will see if it is true that there is ...) the location.

 

Ucero au début du Canyon del Rio Lobos, protégés par une immense falaise, sous le regard du vautour fauve, est assis sur un rocher à la chapelle de Saint-Barthélemy, dont la fête est célébrée le 24 août. Acedo est du village par une route à environ 4 km, tandis que d'environ 1 kilomètre de l'Église doit marcher. Comme indiqué dans l'image précédente de ce bâtiment est de facturation autour de 1200, lorsque la tâche est de Ucero Templiers, la réflexion sur la construction de la même ermita.Al bruit et de la matière d'une prochaine photographie est un immense grotte où ils ont pu célébrer la "Mystères de la Magna Mater". A été érigé sur l'ancienne église des Templiers, le monastère de San Juan Otero. Tous les sièges sont, de sorte que les énergies subtiles sont dispersées et ne peuvent se concentrer et d'encourager la recherche de tous les pèlerins Gnose Alba. Collects très similaire à la structure Monasterio de San Juan de Duero (hautement recommandé tour) à Soria, la plante aussi sur une croix latine. Les Templiers, les Chevaliers de la Croix et de l'Epée, où ils savaient que leurs œuvres, ce qui est considéré comme un lieu magique, avec tout le naturel et symbolique de l'esprit passe par le corps et l'âme de la adeptes .. Crismón abside de la grande affiche qui a été construit par une guilde des Fils du Maître Jacques qui perdure aujourd'hui en France sous le nom des Compagnons de Devoir stagiaires. Il fait partie de la Mil Caminos de Santiago, et comme je l'ai dit, je n'ai pas mesuré auqneu, ce magnifique lieu est à égale distance de Santiago de Compostela, et même de S.Juan de la Peña (Huesca). Alors qu'il est chargé de symboles qui ire en citant d'autres photos, ne pas chercher le Saint Graal, car je sais (je vais voir si il est vrai qu'il y est ...) l'emplacement.

 

14-02-2009

 

Iabcstm's Most Interesting Photos on Flickriver

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Sky Tree)

Tokyo Skytree (東京スカイツリー Tōkyō Sukaitsurī?) is a broadcasting, restaurant, and observation tower in Sumida, Tokyo, Japan. It became the tallest structure in Japan in 2010[1] and reached its full height of 634.0 metres (2,080 ft) in March 2011, making it the tallest tower in the world, displacing the Canton Tower,[2][3] and the second tallest structure in the world after Burj Khalifa (829.84 m/2,723 ft).[4]

Led by Tobu Railway and a group of six terrestrial broadcasters headed by NHK, the tower project forms the centrepiece of a large commercial development equidistant from Tokyo Skytree and Oshiage train stations, 7 km (4.3 mi) north-east of Tokyo station. One of its main purposes is to relay television and radio broadcast signals; Tokyo's current facility, Tokyo Tower with a height of 333 m (1,093 ft), no longer gives complete digital terrestrial television broadcasting coverage because it is surrounded by many high-rise buildings. The project was completed on 29 February 2012, with the tower opening to the public on 22 May 2012.[5]

 

Have a Blessed Sunday to everyone ...Arlenk..

 

Thank you for the visit comments and faves :)

 

"But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall." Malachi 4:2 NIV

      

Schwetzingen (Baden-Württemberg)

 

Schloss Schwetzingen ist ein Schloss in Schwetzingen, das vor allem den pfälzischen Kurfürsten Karl Philipp und Karl Theodor als Sommerresidenz diente. Bekannt ist in erster Linie der im 18. Jahrhundert angelegte Schlossgarten. Jährlich finden im Schloss die Schwetzinger Festspiele und alle zwei Jahre das Lichterfest statt.

 

Im hinteren (südlichen) Bereich, dem Türkischen Garten, steht die Rote Moschee von Pigage, errichtet von 1778 bis 1785. Das Bauwerk hat keine liturgische Funktion, es handelt sich vielmehr um ein Gartenfolly mit ausschließlich ästhetischer Bedeutung.

(Wikipedia)

 

Schloss Schwetzingen, or Schwetzingen Palace is a schloss in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. Schwetzingen was the summer residence of the Electors Palatine Charles III Philip and Charles IV Theodore (of the House of Wittelsbach). It is situated in Schwetzingen, roughly equidistant from the electors' seats at Heidelberg and Mannheim, and is most notable for its spacious and ornate gardens. Other than these exceptionally well preserved gardens and the palace proper, the compound also features the Schlosstheater Schwetzingen, the principal venue for the annual Schwetzingen Festival.

(Wikipedia)

Elbasan castle is a 15th-century fortress in the city of Elbasan, Albania. The castle was initially composed of 26 equidistant 9-metre (30 ft) high towers. Part of Via Egnatia passes through the castle. Sinan Pasha's Turkish bath is within the walls of the castle. It is a well-preserved attraction built in the early 19th century.

Euroa. Population 3,000.

This attractive Victorian towns is also part of the Goulburn River valley district. It is situation on Sevens Creek which is a tributary of the Goulburn River. The town was named from the local aboriginal word meaning joyful. You will find joy in the wonderful red brick architectural inheritance from the 19th century if this interests you. The central part of the town was surveyed in 1850 and settled in 1854. In the early days the town’s wealth came from the surrounding sheep properties and the first three leasehold runs were established in 1838 by the Faithfull, Templeton and Kirkland families. Once the town was established life here was civilised but not exciting for most, until Ned Kelly robbed the bank here in 1878! The buildings indicate the wealth and civility of Euroa. The railway from Melbourne reached the town in 1873 and business boomed. Euroa is situated equidistantly between Melbourne and Albury. Among the many heritage buildings in the main and railway streets area are the railway station (built around 1878); the former grand but faded Colonial Bank built in 1889; the impressive façade of the Euroa Hotel built in 1884; the outstanding and differently styled National Bank on the corner of Binney St ( the main street) built in 1885 ; Blairgowrie House in the main street built in 1890 as chemist shop and residence; the Post Office built in 1890 ; the unusual Art Nouveau style Courthouse built in 1890 and the former Methodist Church built in 1897. At the very end of the main street you can see the squat Anglican Church built in 1884. In the street parallel to the main street is the red brick Euroa flourmill built in 1873 with a new Art Nouveau façade added in 1903. The flourmill closed in 1917. Just along from the flourmill is the Catholic Church which was erected in 1887 (replacing an earlier church built in 1866).

 

atelier ying, nyc

 

The Taiwanese singer Yao Su Rong is a favorite of mine.

 

I wanted design #300 to be as simple as possible, and to be full of life.

 

A bedside bookcase cabinet for holding valuable 1970's LP record albums. Just high enough and small enough to place next to a bed from where it and its contents can be easily inspected.

 

The cabinet has three shelves with absolutely no buckling by placing two equidistant wood supports under each shelf which is then sandwiched between end layers of thin wood. The finish is black lacquered wood inlaid with mother-of-pearl.

 

The length of two feet is perfect for a small but well-played collection and accessible by both young children and the aged. A 3/4" space above the LPs allows a minimum of dust. The collection can be cleaned daily with soft cloth, in the style of an English butler, it will achieve a quality that is "lively", of perfect scale, handy, and an object that you would touch every single day. The patina would be achieved so slowly through this daily care that after decades you would scarcely notice any patina at all, so that using the collection would always feel exactly as if fifty one years ago felt like yesterday. A design parti so simple it is not worth mentioning. Indeed, this piece of furniture could equally hold a set of Agatha Christie paperbacks (dimensions will be different). It is like a bespoke gentleman's suit; the blueprint pattern would be the same.

 

Two circular gold handles adorn each side. One pulls out a thin shelf for cleaning records and the other handle turns counterclockwise to open a compartment at the base, a secret drawer with a collection of family seals in ivory.

 

Design, concepts, text and drawing are copyright 2016 by David Lo.

Berlin Hauptbahnhof, Berlin, Deutschland.

 

La Estación Central de Berlín es la mayor estación ferroviaria de paso de la Unión Europea.1​ Está ubicada en el centro de Berlín (Alemania), cerca de la Cancillería, del Reichstag (edificio del Parlamento de Alemania) y de la Puerta de Brandeburgo.

 

El complejo es un diseño del arquitecto alemán Meinhard von Gerkan, del estudio Gerkan, Marg und Partner. El coste inicial del proyecto era de 700 millones de euros, cantidad que finalmente ascendió hasta 900 millones.

 

La superficie total es de 70.000 m² distribuidos en cinco plantas, con un total de 15.000 m² para restaurantes y comercios situados en las tres plantas centrales, mientras que la superior e inferior albergan los andenes ferroviarios. A ambos lados de la estación se alzan dos bloques de oficinas y viviendas.

 

La estación se halla a varios centenares de metros de la antigua estación Berlin Hauptbahnhof-Lehrter Bahnhof del S-Bahn (Stadtbahn) que conectaba Berlín-Spandau/Berlín-Charlottenburgo con Berlín-Friedrichstrasse, Berlín-Alexanderplatz, Berlín-Ostbahnhof y Berlín-Lichtenberg. La antigua estación fue demolida a principios de la década de los 2000, cuando ya estaba construida la infraestructura de la actual Estación Central para evitar cortar el importante tráfico ferroviario que soporta el Stadtbahn (un tren cada 30 segundos).

 

La estación es una pieza clave en el desarrollo de esta zona, con un plan de urbanización que mantiene un equilibrio entre oficinas, hoteles, comercios, viviendas y zonas verdes.

 

Esta estación central está equidistante de las dos estaciones que oficiaban de estaciones centrales de las partes en que estaba dividida la ciudad antes de la caída del muro de Berlín: Alexanderplatz en Berlín Este, y Berlin Zoologischer Garten en Berlín Occidental. Al otro lado del río Spree se encuentra el complejo Parlamentario y la cancillería.

 

La parte central es una bóveda curva de 20.000 m², compuesta por 8.500 vidrios de diferentes tamaños unidos por más de 80.000 m de tirantes.

Vista del primer nivel y parte del segundo desde el tercer piso de la estación.

 

La estación cumple con los más altos estándares que la arquitectura ecológica puede implementar en esta clase de construcciones. El hábil manejo de la luz natural y especialmente la instalación de paneles fotovoltaicos en el tejado, que suministrarán cerca de 50% del consumo energético de la estación, colocan a esta obra como un referente en la materia.

 

La cuarta parte del presupuesto fue destinada a los cimientos, ya que la central está ubicada en el margen del río Spree, sobre un territorio que tiene como base cerca de 100 m de arena. Se utilizó una técnica que consiste en construir estanques de hormigón de 25 m de profundidad, que se llenaron de agua freática que fue bombeada.

 

Berlin Central Station is the largest railway station in the European Union.1 It is located in the center of Berlin (Germany), near the Chancellery, the Reichstag (building of the German Parliament) and the Brandenburg Gate .

 

The complex is a design by the German architect Meinhard von Gerkan, from the Gerkan studio, Marg und Partner. The initial cost of the project was 700 million euros, an amount that finally amounted to 900 million.

 

The total surface is 70,000 m² distributed over five floors, with a total of 15,000 m² for restaurants and shops located on the three central floors, while the upper and lower floors house the railway platforms. On both sides of the station there are two blocks of offices and houses.

 

The station is several hundred meters from the former Berlin Hauptbahnhof-Lehrter Bahnhof S-Bahn (Stadtbahn) station that connected Berlin-Spandau / Berlin-Charlottenburg with Berlin-Friedrichstrasse, Berlin-Alexanderplatz, Berlin-Ostbahnhof and Berlin-Lichtenberg . The old station was demolished in the early 2000s, when the infrastructure of the current Central Station was already built to avoid cutting the important rail traffic that supports the Stadtbahn (one train every 30 seconds).

 

The station is a key piece in the development of this area, with an urbanization plan that maintains a balance between offices, hotels, shops, homes and green areas.

 

This central station is equidistant from the two stations that served as central stations in the parts into which the city was divided before the fall of the Berlin wall: Alexanderplatz in East Berlin, and Berlin Zoologischer Garten in West Berlin. Across the river Spree is the Parliamentary complex and the chancellery.

 

The central part is a curved vault of 20,000 m², made up of 8,500 glasses of different sizes joined by more than 80,000 m of braces.

View of the first level and part of the second from the third floor of the station.

 

The station complies with the highest standards that ecological architecture can implement in this type of construction. The skillful management of natural light and especially the installation of photovoltaic panels on the roof, which will supply nearly 50% of the station's energy consumption, place this work as a benchmark in this area.

 

The fourth part of the budget was allocated to the foundations, since the plant is located on the bank of the Spree River, on a territory that is based on about 100 m of sand. A technique was used that consists of building concrete ponds 25 m deep, which were filled with groundwater that was pumped.