Ganesha, also spelled Ganesh, and also known as Ganapati and Vinayaka, is a widely worshipped deity in the Hindu pantheon. His image is found throughout India and Nepal. Hindu sects worship him regardless of affiliations. Devotion to Ganesha is widely diffused and extends to Jains, Buddhists, and beyond India.

 

Although he is known by many attributes, Ganesha's elephant head makes him easy to identify. Ganesha is widely revered as the remover of obstacles, the patron of arts and sciences and the deva of intellect and wisdom. As the god of beginnings, he is honoured at the start of rituals and ceremonies. Ganesha is also invoked as patron of letters and learning during writing sessions. Several texts relate mythological anecdotes associated with his birth and exploits and explain his distinct iconography.

 

Ganesha emerged as a distinct deity in the 4th and 5th centuries CE, during the Gupta Period, although he inherited traits from Vedic and pre-Vedic precursors. He was formally included among the five primary deities of Smartism (a Hindu denomination) in the 9th century. A sect of devotees called the Ganapatya arose, who identified Ganesha as the supreme deity. The principal scriptures dedicated to Ganesha are the Ganesha Purana, the Mudgala Purana, and the Ganapati Atharvashirsa.

 

ETYMOLOGY AND OTHER NAMES

Ganesha has been ascribed many other titles and epithets, including Ganapati and Vighneshvara. The Hindu title of respect Shri is often added before his name. One popular way Ganesha is worshipped is by chanting a Ganesha Sahasranama, a litany of "a thousand names of Ganesha". Each name in the sahasranama conveys a different meaning and symbolises a different aspect of Ganesha. At least two different versions of the Ganesha Sahasranama exist; one version is drawn from the Ganesha Purana, a Hindu scripture venerating Ganesha.

 

The name Ganesha is a Sanskrit compound, joining the words gana, meaning a group, multitude, or categorical system and isha, meaning lord or master. The word gaņa when associated with Ganesha is often taken to refer to the gaņas, a troop of semi-divine beings that form part of the retinue of Shiva. The term more generally means a category, class, community, association, or corporation. Some commentators interpret the name "Lord of the Gaņas" to mean "Lord of Hosts" or "Lord of created categories", such as the elements. Ganapati, a synonym for Ganesha, is a compound composed of gaṇa, meaning "group", and pati, meaning "ruler" or "lord". The Amarakosha, an early Sanskrit lexicon, lists eight synonyms of Ganesha : Vinayaka, Vighnarāja (equivalent to Vighnesha), Dvaimātura (one who has two mothers), Gaṇādhipa (equivalent to Ganapati and Ganesha), Ekadanta (one who has one tusk), Heramba, Lambodara (one who has a pot belly, or, literally, one who has a hanging belly), and Gajanana; having the face of an elephant).

 

Vinayaka is a common name for Ganesha that appears in the Purāṇas and in Buddhist Tantras. This name is reflected in the naming of the eight famous Ganesha temples in Maharashtra known as the Ashtavinayak (aṣṭavināyaka). The names Vighnesha and Vighneshvara (Lord of Obstacles) refers to his primary function in Hindu theology as the master and remover of obstacles (vighna).

 

A prominent name for Ganesha in the Tamil language is Pillai. A. K. Narain differentiates these terms by saying that pillai means a "child" while pillaiyar means a "noble child". He adds that the words pallu, pella, and pell in the Dravidian family of languages signify "tooth or tusk", also "elephant tooth or tusk". Anita Raina Thapan notes that the root word pille in the name Pillaiyar might have originally meant "the young of the elephant", because the Pali word pillaka means "a young elephant".

 

In the Burmese language, Ganesha is known as Maha Peinne, derived from Pali Mahā Wināyaka. The widespread name of Ganesha in Thailand is Phra Phikhanet or Phra Phikhanesuan, both of which are derived from Vara Vighnesha and Vara Vighneshvara respectively, whereas the name Khanet (from Ganesha) is rather rare.

 

In Sri Lanka, in the North-Central and North Western areas with predominantly Buddhist population, Ganesha is known as Aiyanayaka Deviyo, while in other Singhala Buddhist areas he is known as Gana deviyo.

 

ICONOGRAPHY

Ganesha is a popular figure in Indian art. Unlike those of some deities, representations of Ganesha show wide variations and distinct patterns changing over time. He may be portrayed standing, dancing, heroically taking action against demons, playing with his family as a boy, sitting down or on an elevated seat, or engaging in a range of contemporary situations.

 

Ganesha images were prevalent in many parts of India by the 6th century. The 13th century statue pictured is typical of Ganesha statuary from 900–1200, after Ganesha had been well-established as an independent deity with his own sect. This example features some of Ganesha's common iconographic elements. A virtually identical statue has been dated between 973–1200 by Paul Martin-Dubost, and another similar statue is dated c. 12th century by Pratapaditya Pal. Ganesha has the head of an elephant and a big belly. This statue has four arms, which is common in depictions of Ganesha. He holds his own broken tusk in his lower-right hand and holds a delicacy, which he samples with his trunk, in his lower-left hand. The motif of Ganesha turning his trunk sharply to his left to taste a sweet in his lower-left hand is a particularly archaic feature. A more primitive statue in one of the Ellora Caves with this general form has been dated to the 7th century. Details of the other hands are difficult to make out on the statue shown. In the standard configuration, Ganesha typically holds an axe or a goad in one upper arm and a pasha (noose) in the other upper arm.

 

The influence of this old constellation of iconographic elements can still be seen in contemporary representations of Ganesha. In one modern form, the only variation from these old elements is that the lower-right hand does not hold the broken tusk but is turned towards the viewer in a gesture of protection or fearlessness (abhaya mudra). The same combination of four arms and attributes occurs in statues of Ganesha dancing, which is a very popular theme.

 

COMMON ATTRIBUTES

Ganesha has been represented with the head of an elephant since the early stages of his appearance in Indian art. Puranic myths provide many explanations for how he got his elephant head. One of his popular forms, Heramba-Ganapati, has five elephant heads, and other less-common variations in the number of heads are known. While some texts say that Ganesha was born with an elephant head, he acquires the head later in most stories. The most recurrent motif in these stories is that Ganesha was created by Parvati using clay to protect her and Shiva beheaded him when Ganesha came between Shiva and Parvati. Shiva then replaced Ganesha's original head with that of an elephant. Details of the battle and where the replacement head came from vary from source to source. Another story says that Ganesha was created directly by Shiva's laughter. Because Shiva considered Ganesha too alluring, he gave him the head of an elephant and a protruding belly.

 

Ganesha's earliest name was Ekadanta (One Tusked), referring to his single whole tusk, the other being broken. Some of the earliest images of Ganesha show him holding his broken tusk. The importance of this distinctive feature is reflected in the Mudgala Purana, which states that the name of Ganesha's second incarnation is Ekadanta. Ganesha's protruding belly appears as a distinctive attribute in his earliest statuary, which dates to the Gupta period (4th to 6th centuries). This feature is so important that, according to the Mudgala Purana, two different incarnations of Ganesha use names based on it: Lambodara (Pot Belly, or, literally, Hanging Belly) and Mahodara (Great Belly). Both names are Sanskrit compounds describing his belly. The Brahmanda Purana says that Ganesha has the name Lambodara because all the universes (i.e., cosmic eggs) of the past, present, and future are present in him. The number of Ganesha's arms varies; his best-known forms have between two and sixteen arms. Many depictions of Ganesha feature four arms, which is mentioned in Puranic sources and codified as a standard form in some iconographic texts. His earliest images had two arms. Forms with 14 and 20 arms appeared in Central India during the 9th and the 10th centuries. The serpent is a common feature in Ganesha iconography and appears in many forms. According to the Ganesha Purana, Ganesha wrapped the serpent Vasuki around his neck. Other depictions of snakes include use as a sacred thread wrapped around the stomach as a belt, held in a hand, coiled at the ankles, or as a throne. Upon Ganesha's forehead may be a third eye or the Shaivite sectarian mark , which consists of three horizontal lines. The Ganesha Purana prescribes a tilaka mark as well as a crescent moon on the forehead. A distinct form of Ganesha called Bhalachandra includes that iconographic element. Ganesha is often described as red in color. Specific colors are associated with certain forms. Many examples of color associations with specific meditation forms are prescribed in the Sritattvanidhi, a treatise on Hindu iconography. For example, white is associated with his representations as Heramba-Ganapati and Rina-Mochana-Ganapati (Ganapati Who Releases from Bondage). Ekadanta-Ganapati is visualized as blue during meditation in that form.

 

VAHANAS

The earliest Ganesha images are without a vahana (mount/vehicle). Of the eight incarnations of Ganesha described in the Mudgala Purana, Ganesha uses a mouse (shrew) in five of them, a lion in his incarnation as Vakratunda, a peacock in his incarnation as Vikata, and Shesha, the divine serpent, in his incarnation as Vighnaraja. Mohotkata uses a lion, Mayūreśvara uses a peacock, Dhumraketu uses a horse, and Gajanana uses a mouse, in the four incarnations of Ganesha listed in the Ganesha Purana. Jain depictions of Ganesha show his vahana variously as a mouse, elephant, tortoise, ram, or peacock.

 

Ganesha is often shown riding on or attended by a mouse, shrew or rat. Martin-Dubost says that the rat began to appear as the principal vehicle in sculptures of Ganesha in central and western India during the 7th century; the rat was always placed close to his feet. The mouse as a mount first appears in written sources in the Matsya Purana and later in the Brahmananda Purana and Ganesha Purana, where Ganesha uses it as his vehicle in his last incarnation. The Ganapati Atharvashirsa includes a meditation verse on Ganesha that describes the mouse appearing on his flag. The names Mūṣakavāhana (mouse-mount) and Ākhuketana (rat-banner) appear in the Ganesha Sahasranama.

 

The mouse is interpreted in several ways. According to Grimes, "Many, if not most of those who interpret Gaṇapati's mouse, do so negatively; it symbolizes tamoguṇa as well as desire". Along these lines, Michael Wilcockson says it symbolizes those who wish to overcome desires and be less selfish. Krishan notes that the rat is destructive and a menace to crops. The Sanskrit word mūṣaka (mouse) is derived from the root mūṣ (stealing, robbing). It was essential to subdue the rat as a destructive pest, a type of vighna (impediment) that needed to be overcome. According to this theory, showing Ganesha as master of the rat demonstrates his function as Vigneshvara (Lord of Obstacles) and gives evidence of his possible role as a folk grāma-devatā (village deity) who later rose to greater prominence. Martin-Dubost notes a view that the rat is a symbol suggesting that Ganesha, like the rat, penetrates even the most secret places.

 

ASSOCIATIONS

 

OBSTACLES

Ganesha is Vighneshvara or Vighnaraja or Vighnaharta (Marathi), the Lord of Obstacles, both of a material and spiritual order. He is popularly worshipped as a remover of obstacles, though traditionally he also places obstacles in the path of those who need to be checked. Paul Courtright says that "his task in the divine scheme of things, his dharma, is to place and remove obstacles. It is his particular territory, the reason for his creation."

 

Krishan notes that some of Ganesha's names reflect shadings of multiple roles that have evolved over time. Dhavalikar ascribes the quick ascension of Ganesha in the Hindu pantheon, and the emergence of the Ganapatyas, to this shift in emphasis from vighnakartā (obstacle-creator) to vighnahartā (obstacle-averter). However, both functions continue to be vital to his character.

 

BUDDHI (KNOWLEDGE)

Ganesha is considered to be the Lord of letters and learning. In Sanskrit, the word buddhi is a feminine noun that is variously translated as intelligence, wisdom, or intellect. The concept of buddhi is closely associated with the personality of Ganesha, especially in the Puranic period, when many stories stress his cleverness and love of intelligence. One of Ganesha's names in the Ganesha Purana and the Ganesha Sahasranama is Buddhipriya. This name also appears in a list of 21 names at the end of the Ganesha Sahasranama that Ganesha says are especially important. The word priya can mean "fond of", and in a marital context it can mean "lover" or "husband", so the name may mean either "Fond of Intelligence" or "Buddhi's Husband".

 

AUM

Ganesha is identified with the Hindu mantra Aum, also spelled Om. The term oṃkārasvarūpa (Aum is his form), when identified with Ganesha, refers to the notion that he personifies the primal sound. The Ganapati Atharvashirsa attests to this association. Chinmayananda translates the relevant passage as follows:

 

(O Lord Ganapati!) You are (the Trinity) Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesa. You are Indra. You are fire [Agni] and air [Vāyu]. You are the sun [Sūrya] and the moon [Chandrama]. You are Brahman. You are (the three worlds) Bhuloka [earth], Antariksha-loka [space], and Swargaloka [heaven]. You are Om. (That is to say, You are all this).

 

Some devotees see similarities between the shape of Ganesha's body in iconography and the shape of Aum in the Devanāgarī and Tamil scripts.

 

FIRST CHAKRA

According to Kundalini yoga, Ganesha resides in the first chakra, called Muladhara (mūlādhāra). Mula means "original, main"; adhara means "base, foundation". The muladhara chakra is the principle on which the manifestation or outward expansion of primordial Divine Force rests. This association is also attested to in the Ganapati Atharvashirsa. Courtright translates this passage as follows: "[O Ganesha,] You continually dwell in the sacral plexus at the base of the spine [mūlādhāra cakra]." Thus, Ganesha has a permanent abode in every being at the Muladhara. Ganesha holds, supports and guides all other chakras, thereby "governing the forces that propel the wheel of life".

 

FAMILY AND CONSORTS

Though Ganesha is popularly held to be the son of Shiva and Parvati, the Puranic myths give different versions about his birth. In some he was created by Parvati, in another he was created by Shiva and Parvati, in another he appeared mysteriously and was discovered by Shiva and Parvati or he was born from the elephant headed goddess Malini after she drank Parvati's bath water that had been thrown in the river.

 

The family includes his brother the war god Kartikeya, who is also called Subramanya, Skanda, Murugan and other names. Regional differences dictate the order of their births. In northern India, Skanda is generally said to be the elder, while in the south, Ganesha is considered the first born. In northern India, Skanda was an important martial deity from about 500 BCE to about 600 CE, when worship of him declined significantly in northern India. As Skanda fell, Ganesha rose. Several stories tell of sibling rivalry between the brothers and may reflect sectarian tensions.

 

Ganesha's marital status, the subject of considerable scholarly review, varies widely in mythological stories. One pattern of myths identifies Ganesha as an unmarried brahmacari. This view is common in southern India and parts of northern India. Another pattern associates him with the concepts of Buddhi (intellect), Siddhi (spiritual power), and Riddhi (prosperity); these qualities are sometimes personified as goddesses, said to be Ganesha's wives. He also may be shown with a single consort or a nameless servant (Sanskrit: daşi). Another pattern connects Ganesha with the goddess of culture and the arts, Sarasvati or Śarda (particularly in Maharashtra). He is also associated with the goddess of luck and prosperity, Lakshmi. Another pattern, mainly prevalent in the Bengal region, links Ganesha with the banana tree, Kala Bo.

 

The Shiva Purana says that Ganesha had begotten two sons: Kşema (prosperity) and Lābha (profit). In northern Indian variants of this story, the sons are often said to be Śubha (auspiciouness) and Lābha. The 1975 Hindi film Jai Santoshi Maa shows Ganesha married to Riddhi and Siddhi and having a daughter named Santoshi Ma, the goddess of satisfaction. This story has no Puranic basis, but Anita Raina Thapan and Lawrence Cohen cite Santoshi Ma's cult as evidence of Ganesha's continuing evolution as a popular deity.

 

WOSHIP AND FESTIVALS

Ganesha is worshipped on many religious and secular occasions; especially at the beginning of ventures such as buying a vehicle or starting a business. K.N. Somayaji says, "there can hardly be a [Hindu] home [in India] which does not house an idol of Ganapati. [..] Ganapati, being the most popular deity in India, is worshipped by almost all castes and in all parts of the country". Devotees believe that if Ganesha is propitiated, he grants success, prosperity and protection against adversity.

 

Ganesha is a non-sectarian deity, and Hindus of all denominations invoke him at the beginning of prayers, important undertakings, and religious ceremonies. Dancers and musicians, particularly in southern India, begin performances of arts such as the Bharatnatyam dance with a prayer to Ganesha. Mantras such as Om Shri Gaṇeshāya Namah (Om, salutation to the Illustrious Ganesha) are often used. One of the most famous mantras associated with Ganesha is Om Gaṃ Ganapataye Namah (Om, Gaṃ, Salutation to the Lord of Hosts).

 

Devotees offer Ganesha sweets such as modaka and small sweet balls (laddus). He is often shown carrying a bowl of sweets, called a modakapātra. Because of his identification with the color red, he is often worshipped with red sandalwood paste (raktacandana) or red flowers. Dūrvā grass (Cynodon dactylon) and other materials are also used in his worship.

 

Festivals associated with Ganesh are Ganesh Chaturthi or Vināyaka chaturthī in the śuklapakṣa (the fourth day of the waxing moon) in the month of bhādrapada (August/September) and the Gaṇeśa jayanti (Gaṇeśa's birthday) celebrated on the cathurthī of the śuklapakṣa (fourth day of the waxing moon) in the month of māgha (January/February)."

 

GANESH CHATURTI

An annual festival honours Ganesha for ten days, starting on Ganesha Chaturthi, which typically falls in late August or early September. The festival begins with people bringing in clay idols of Ganesha, symbolising Ganesha's visit. The festival culminates on the day of Ananta Chaturdashi, when idols (murtis) of Ganesha are immersed in the most convenient body of water. Some families have a tradition of immersion on the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, or 7th day. In 1893, Lokmanya Tilak transformed this annual Ganesha festival from private family celebrations into a grand public event. He did so "to bridge the gap between the Brahmins and the non-Brahmins and find an appropriate context in which to build a new grassroots unity between them" in his nationalistic strivings against the British in Maharashtra. Because of Ganesha's wide appeal as "the god for Everyman", Tilak chose him as a rallying point for Indian protest against British rule. Tilak was the first to install large public images of Ganesha in pavilions, and he established the practice of submerging all the public images on the tenth day. Today, Hindus across India celebrate the Ganapati festival with great fervour, though it is most popular in the state of Maharashtra. The festival also assumes huge proportions in Mumbai, Pune, and in the surrounding belt of Ashtavinayaka temples.

 

TEMPLES

In Hindu temples, Ganesha is depicted in various ways: as an acolyte or subordinate deity (pãrśva-devatã); as a deity related to the principal deity (parivāra-devatã); or as the principal deity of the temple (pradhāna), treated similarly as the highest gods of the Hindu pantheon. As the god of transitions, he is placed at the doorway of many Hindu temples to keep out the unworthy, which is analogous to his role as Parvati’s doorkeeper. In addition, several shrines are dedicated to Ganesha himself, of which the Ashtavinayak (lit. "eight Ganesha (shrines)") in Maharashtra are particularly well known. Located within a 100-kilometer radius of the city of Pune, each of these eight shrines celebrates a particular form of Ganapati, complete with its own lore and legend. The eight shrines are: Morgaon, Siddhatek, Pali, Mahad, Theur, Lenyadri, Ozar and Ranjangaon.

 

There are many other important Ganesha temples at the following locations: Wai in Maharashtra; Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh; Jodhpur, Nagaur and Raipur (Pali) in Rajasthan; Baidyanath in Bihar; Baroda, Dholaka, and Valsad in Gujarat and Dhundiraj Temple in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. Prominent Ganesha temples in southern India include the following: Kanipakam in Chittoor; the Jambukeśvara Temple at Tiruchirapalli; at Rameshvaram and Suchindram in Tamil Nadu; at Malliyur, Kottarakara, Pazhavangadi, Kasargod in Kerala, Hampi, and Idagunji in Karnataka; and Bhadrachalam in Andhra Pradesh.

 

T. A. Gopinatha notes, "Every village however small has its own image of Vighneśvara (Vigneshvara) with or without a temple to house it in. At entrances of villages and forts, below pīpaḹa (Sacred fig) trees [...], in a niche [...] in temples of Viṣṇu (Vishnu) as well as Śiva (Shiva) and also in separate shrines specially constructed in Śiva temples [...]; the figure of Vighneśvara is invariably seen." Ganesha temples have also been built outside of India, including southeast Asia, Nepal (including the four Vinayaka shrines in the Kathmandu valley), and in several western countries.

 

RISE TO PROMINENCE

 

FIRST APEARANCE

Ganesha appeared in his classic form as a clearly recognizable deity with well-defined iconographic attributes in the early 4th to 5th centuries. Shanti Lal Nagar says that the earliest known iconic image of Ganesha is in the niche of the Shiva temple at Bhumra, which has been dated to the Gupta period. His independent cult appeared by about the 10th century. Narain summarizes the controversy between devotees and academics regarding the development of Ganesha as follows:

 

What is inscrutable is the somewhat dramatic appearance of Gaņeśa on the historical scene. His antecedents are not clear. His wide acceptance and popularity, which transcend sectarian and territorial limits, are indeed amazing. On the one hand there is the pious belief of the orthodox devotees in Gaņeśa's Vedic origins and in the Purāṇic explanations contained in the confusing, but nonetheless interesting, mythology. On the other hand there are doubts about the existence of the idea and the icon of this deity" before the fourth to fifth century A.D. ... [I]n my opinion, indeed there is no convincing evidence of the existence of this divinity prior to the fifth century.

 

POSSIBLE INFLUENCES

Courtright reviews various speculative theories about the early history of Ganesha, including supposed tribal traditions and animal cults, and dismisses all of them in this way:

 

In the post 600 BC period there is evidence of people and places named after the animal. The motif appears on coins and sculptures.

 

Thapan's book on the development of Ganesha devotes a chapter to speculations about the role elephants had in early India but concludes that, "although by the second century CE the elephant-headed yakṣa form exists it cannot be presumed to represent Gaṇapati-Vināyaka. There is no evidence of a deity by this name having an elephant or elephant-headed form at this early stage. Gaṇapati-Vināyaka had yet to make his debut."

 

One theory of the origin of Ganesha is that he gradually came to prominence in connection with the four Vinayakas (Vināyakas). In Hindu mythology, the Vināyakas were a group of four troublesome demons who created obstacles and difficulties but who were easily propitiated. The name Vināyaka is a common name for Ganesha both in the Purāṇas and in Buddhist Tantras. Krishan is one of the academics who accepts this view, stating flatly of Ganesha, "He is a non-vedic god. His origin is to be traced to the four Vināyakas, evil spirits, of the Mānavagŗhyasūtra (7th–4th century BCE) who cause various types of evil and suffering". Depictions of elephant-headed human figures, which some identify with Ganesha, appear in Indian art and coinage as early as the 2nd century. According to Ellawala, the elephant-headed Ganesha as lord of the Ganas was known to the people of Sri Lanka in the early pre-Christian era.

 

A metal plate depiction of Ganesha had been discovered in 1993, in Iran, it dated back to 1,200 BCE. Another one was discovered much before, in Lorestan Province of Iran.

 

First Ganesha's terracotta images are from 1st century CE found in Ter, Pal, Verrapuram and Chandraketugarh. These figures are small, with elephant head, two arms, and chubby physique. The earliest Ganesha icons in stone were carved in Mathura during Kushan times (2nd-3rd centuries CE).

 

VEDIC AND EPIC LITERATURE

The title "Leader of the group" (Sanskrit: gaṇapati) occurs twice in the Rig Veda, but in neither case does it refer to the modern Ganesha. The term appears in RV 2.23.1 as a title for Brahmanaspati, according to commentators. While this verse doubtless refers to Brahmanaspati, it was later adopted for worship of Ganesha and is still used today. In rejecting any claim that this passage is evidence of Ganesha in the Rig Veda, Ludo Rocher says that it "clearly refers to Bṛhaspati—who is the deity of the hymn—and Bṛhaspati only". Equally clearly, the second passage (RV 10.112.9) refers to Indra, who is given the epithet 'gaṇapati', translated "Lord of the companies (of the Maruts)." However, Rocher notes that the more recent Ganapatya literature often quotes the Rigvedic verses to give Vedic respectability to Ganesha .

 

Two verses in texts belonging to Black Yajurveda, Maitrāyaṇīya Saṃhitā (2.9.1) and Taittirīya Āraṇyaka (10.1), appeal to a deity as "the tusked one" (Dantiḥ), "elephant-faced" (Hastimukha), and "with a curved trunk" (Vakratuņḍa). These names are suggestive of Ganesha, and the 14th century commentator Sayana explicitly establishes this identification. The description of Dantin, possessing a twisted trunk (vakratuṇḍa) and holding a corn-sheaf, a sugar cane, and a club, is so characteristic of the Puranic Ganapati that Heras says "we cannot resist to accept his full identification with this Vedic Dantin". However, Krishan considers these hymns to be post-Vedic additions. Thapan reports that these passages are "generally considered to have been interpolated". Dhavalikar says, "the references to the elephant-headed deity in the Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā have been proven to be very late interpolations, and thus are not very helpful for determining the early formation of the deity".

 

Ganesha does not appear in Indian epic literature that is dated to the Vedic period. A late interpolation to the epic poem Mahabharata says that the sage Vyasa (Vyāsa) asked Ganesha to serve as his scribe to transcribe the poem as he dictated it to him. Ganesha agreed but only on condition that Vyasa recite the poem uninterrupted, that is, without pausing. The sage agreed, but found that to get any rest he needed to recite very complex passages so Ganesha would have to ask for clarifications. The story is not accepted as part of the original text by the editors of the critical edition of the Mahabharata, in which the twenty-line story is relegated to a footnote in an appendix. The story of Ganesha acting as the scribe occurs in 37 of the 59 manuscripts consulted during preparation of the critical edition. Ganesha's association with mental agility and learning is one reason he is shown as scribe for Vyāsa's dictation of the Mahabharata in this interpolation. Richard L. Brown dates the story to the 8th century, and Moriz Winternitz concludes that it was known as early as c. 900, but it was not added to the Mahabharata some 150 years later. Winternitz also notes that a distinctive feature in South Indian manuscripts of the Mahabharata is their omission of this Ganesha legend. The term vināyaka is found in some recensions of the Śāntiparva and Anuśāsanaparva that are regarded as interpolations. A reference to Vighnakartṛīṇām ("Creator of Obstacles") in Vanaparva is also believed to be an interpolation and does not appear in the critical edition.

 

PURANIC PERIOD

Stories about Ganesha often occur in the Puranic corpus. Brown notes while the Puranas "defy precise chronological ordering", the more detailed narratives of Ganesha's life are in the late texts, c. 600–1300. Yuvraj Krishan says that the Puranic myths about the birth of Ganesha and how he acquired an elephant's head are in the later Puranas, which were composed from c. 600 onwards. He elaborates on the matter to say that references to Ganesha in the earlier Puranas, such as the Vayu and Brahmanda Puranas, are later interpolations made during the 7th to 10th centuries.

 

In his survey of Ganesha's rise to prominence in Sanskrit literature, Ludo Rocher notes that:

 

Above all, one cannot help being struck by the fact that the numerous stories surrounding Gaṇeśa concentrate on an unexpectedly limited number of incidents. These incidents are mainly three: his birth and parenthood, his elephant head, and his single tusk. Other incidents are touched on in the texts, but to a far lesser extent.

 

Ganesha's rise to prominence was codified in the 9th century, when he was formally included as one of the five primary deities of Smartism. The 9th-century philosopher Adi Shankara popularized the "worship of the five forms" (Panchayatana puja) system among orthodox Brahmins of the Smarta tradition. This worship practice invokes the five deities Ganesha, Vishnu, Shiva, Devi, and Surya. Adi Shankara instituted the tradition primarily to unite the principal deities of these five major sects on an equal status. This formalized the role of Ganesha as a complementary deity.

 

SCRIPTURES

Once Ganesha was accepted as one of the five principal deities of Brahmanism, some Brahmins (brāhmaṇas) chose to worship Ganesha as their principal deity. They developed the Ganapatya tradition, as seen in the Ganesha Purana and the Mudgala Purana.

 

The date of composition for the Ganesha Purana and the Mudgala Purana - and their dating relative to one another - has sparked academic debate. Both works were developed over time and contain age-layered strata. Anita Thapan reviews comments about dating and provides her own judgement. "It seems likely that the core of the Ganesha Purana appeared around the twelfth and thirteenth centuries", she says, "but was later interpolated." Lawrence W. Preston considers the most reasonable date for the Ganesha Purana to be between 1100 and 1400, which coincides with the apparent age of the sacred sites mentioned by the text.

 

R.C. Hazra suggests that the Mudgala Purana is older than the Ganesha Purana, which he dates between 1100 and 1400. However, Phyllis Granoff finds problems with this relative dating and concludes that the Mudgala Purana was the last of the philosophical texts concerned with Ganesha. She bases her reasoning on the fact that, among other internal evidence, the Mudgala Purana specifically mentions the Ganesha Purana as one of the four Puranas (the Brahma, the Brahmanda, the Ganesha, and the Mudgala Puranas) which deal at length with Ganesha. While the kernel of the text must be old, it was interpolated until the 17th and 18th centuries as the worship of Ganapati became more important in certain regions. Another highly regarded scripture, the Ganapati Atharvashirsa, was probably composed during the 16th or 17th centuries.

 

BEYOND INDIA AND HINDUISM

Commercial and cultural contacts extended India's influence in western and southeast Asia. Ganesha is one of a number of Hindu deities who reached foreign lands as a result.

 

Ganesha was particularly worshipped by traders and merchants, who went out of India for commercial ventures. From approximately the 10th century onwards, new networks of exchange developed including the formation of trade guilds and a resurgence of money circulation. During this time, Ganesha became the principal deity associated with traders. The earliest inscription invoking Ganesha before any other deity is associated with the merchant community.

 

Hindus migrated to Maritime Southeast Asia and took their culture, including Ganesha, with them. Statues of Ganesha are found throughout the region, often beside Shiva sanctuaries. The forms of Ganesha found in Hindu art of Java, Bali, and Borneo show specific regional influences. The spread of Hindu culture to southeast Asia established Ganesha in modified forms in Burma, Cambodia, and Thailand. In Indochina, Hinduism and Buddhism were practiced side by side, and mutual influences can be seen in the iconography of Ganesha in the region. In Thailand, Cambodia, and among the Hindu classes of the Chams in Vietnam, Ganesha was mainly thought of as a remover of obstacles. Today in Buddhist Thailand, Ganesha is regarded as a remover of obstacles, the god of success.

 

Before the arrival of Islam, Afghanistan had close cultural ties with India, and the adoration of both Hindu and Buddhist deities was practiced. Examples of sculptures from the 5th to the 7th centuries have survived, suggesting that the worship of Ganesha was then in vogue in the region.

 

Ganesha appears in Mahayana Buddhism, not only in the form of the Buddhist god Vināyaka, but also as a Hindu demon form with the same name. His image appears in Buddhist sculptures during the late Gupta period. As the Buddhist god Vināyaka, he is often shown dancing. This form, called Nṛtta Ganapati, was popular in northern India, later adopted in Nepal, and then in Tibet. In Nepal, the Hindu form of Ganesha, known as Heramba, is popular; he has five heads and rides a lion. Tibetan representations of Ganesha show ambivalent views of him. A Tibetan rendering of Ganapati is tshogs bdag. In one Tibetan form, he is shown being trodden under foot by Mahākāla, (Shiva) a popular Tibetan deity. Other depictions show him as the Destroyer of Obstacles, and sometimes dancing. Ganesha appears in China and Japan in forms that show distinct regional character. In northern China, the earliest known stone statue of Ganesha carries an inscription dated to 531. In Japan, where Ganesha is known as Kangiten, the Ganesha cult was first mentioned in 806.

 

The canonical literature of Jainism does not mention the worship of Ganesha. However, Ganesha is worshipped by most Jains, for whom he appears to have taken over certain functions of Kubera. Jain connections with the trading community support the idea that Jainism took up Ganesha worship as a result of commercial connections. The earliest known Jain Ganesha statue dates to about the 9th century. A 15th-century Jain text lists procedures for the installation of Ganapati images. Images of Ganesha appear in the Jain temples of Rajasthan and Gujarat.

 

WIKIPEDIA

Exploitant : Transdev Rambouillet

Réseau : SITERR

Ligne : Express 12

Lieu : Gare de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (Montigny-le-Bretonneux, F-78)

Lien TC Infos : tc-infos.fr/id/33169

Primo Maggio 2015

Torino

 

To misuse the beauty of nature

To exploit the love of nature and the animals of the ocean

To instrumentalize women's feelings

Profiteering

Abusive men: www.lfcc.on.ca/HCT_SWASM_4.html

 

1956; The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes by Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dickson Carr. Cover art by Verne Tossey. Adrian is the youngest son of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

En cinquante ans, l’agriculture française a perdu 90 % de ses actifs, et le nombre d’exploitations agricoles devrait continuer à baisser sans discontinuer. Les paysans français vivent une crise des prix que la course à la production ne compense pas. Mais c’est aussi une véritable crise des valeurs qui secoue ceux qui ont été jusqu’ici « choyés par la République »....

En savoir plus sur www.lemonde.fr/economie/video/2016/02/28/comprendre-la-cr...

Exploitant : Voyages Nombalais

Réseau Tourisme

Substitution SNCF en raison de travaux pendant le week-end du 11 novembre 2022.

If you were lucky, at some expense, you could look through peepholes to see what little remained of the American Falls, before de-industrialization and de-commercialization of the American side, with the extablishment of the state park there.

 

Cave of the Winds exhibit; Niagara Falls State Park; Goat Island; Niagara Falls, New York.

Exploitant : CAB Solution

Réseau : Navette Substitution SNCF Île-de-France

Ligne : Navette Transilien J

Lieu : Gare d'Argenteuil (Argenteuil, F-95)

Lien TC Infos : tc-infos.fr/id/35439

__Exploited

ink.

...She had to try...

 

(to exploit the Awwww factor)

The Exploited: Matt McGuire (guitar), Wattie Buch (vocals) an and Irish Rob (bass) during their live performance at the Astra, Berlin, 18.04.15 Gitarrist, Saenger, Bassist

 

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Aerial

Processed with VSCOcam with a6 preset

Local Exploits, Sassafras.

All photographs in this portfolio are copyrighted and owned by me, Amy Weiss. Any reproduction, modification, publication, transmission, transfer, or exploitation of any of the content, for personal or commercial use, whether in whole or in part, without written permission is prohibited. All rights reserved.

Ville: Marseille

Réseau: RTM

Exploitant: SNT SUMA

Numéro de parc: 1997

Ligne: 144 Allauch - Métro La Rose

Cry in the Wilderness

 

By Arthur Broomhall

  

Late in 1969 the Broomhall family - a mom, dad, four kids, dog, with tent trailer and canoe, reacted to an advertisement in BC Outdoors about Alexis Lake. Always ready for another adventure in wilderness, what the ad promised appealed to all. It offered an image of a serviced campsite (ice available), three other lakes accessible to canoes by portage, good fly fishing, and, no outboard motors allowed! Having experienced, by that time, many summer holidays in the Cariboo, our family had already fallen in love with the remoteness and quiet of BC’s Central Interior. This ad triggered a desire for even more - next season – but in the unfamiliar Chilcotin Country!

  

In 1970 the main road west from Williams Lake, Highway 24, was not paved, except for the ‘Sheep Creek Hill’ up from the Fraser River Bridge to the Chilcotin plateau. This part of the road, with its many switchbacks, was on the northeast face of the hill, always thawing out more slowly in the spring than more sun-exposed parts. To correct the inevitable slumping that came with every spring thaw, the Highways Department put in culverts for drainage in the critical places and paved that stretch.

 

Otherwise the road west to Bella Coola was mostly gravel or hard mud. In some places the gravel was like very coarse river bottom, in others, deep ruts added to drivers’ misery. It was hard on ‘regular’ automobiles, especially those pulling trailers. This, we were often told by disparaging locals, was truck country! For us, driving those one hundred miles from Williams Lake was always a challenge, but arrival at serene and beautiful Alexis Lake was the ultimate reward.

 

What we found that first visit was not quite all the advertisement promised. In some respects it was even more. We were expecting wilderness, but the character of it was so much more pristine, unspoilt, with more wildlife than anything we experienced before. Although we were supplied with drinking water, we later found the lake water clean enough to drink. We learned the ad’s statement of ‘no motors’ was not backed up with regulations, but the absence of boat ramps made it virtually impossible for large boats with motors to be launched. And, as far as having ice for our food storage, it was not going to be available in subsequent seasons.

 

One could hear the silence, the animals, and the wind in the trees. The swimming and fishing was good. It was dry belt, and what rain came in summer was in heavy showers, with thunder and lightning. Exploring was always a bit spooky, because the odds were great that we would never encounter anyone else. This also meant that we expected to run into big game – deer and bears. We found the country so wide open, if one wandered off a known, marked trail, it was easy to get lost. Away from camp there were few natural boundaries or landmarks to indicate where ‘home’ might be. And, in that the climate in this high country could change very quickly from the sublime to harsh, it was a bush country to be respected.

 

Happy with that first adventure, it was an easy family decision to return again. Thoughts of doing more than ‘just camping’ came into our family discussions. We searched out a lakeshore property we wanted for our own. In 1971 there were, perhaps, ten properties with cabins on the east shore of the lake. We filed our papers with the government’s Land Branch for a lot we had selected, and were kept on tenterhooks while the approval process wound its way through the bureaucracy. Approval took a long time coming and finally came through late in 1972. The lease required a habitable cabin to be built upon the land within three years. Earlier, in the summer of that year, already confident that the property would be ours, we camped on it, tidied up, and staked out its four corners. By the end of the 1973 summer season, as we departed, our property was fenced to keep out the cattle and, within, was a sealed-up, but unfinished frame cabin.

 

In the twenty-eight years since (I write this in year 2001), as property owners, we have learned much about the land, climate, and vicissitudes of settling in wilderness. Our lake is near the summit of the Alexis Creek watershed. It is at about 3,500 ft. above sea level, enough to offer cool nights after the hottest of summer days. The surrounding land is mainly high plateau, with a few gently rounded peaks that extend upward another thousand feet or so. A few rocky, volcanic outcroppings dot the terrain here and there. In recent times, it has mainly been forested land, covered by scrubby, overcrowded pine trees, white spruces in wet areas, some aspens, and here and some small stands of ancient Douglas firs. Many areas have been opened up for cattle pastures and growing hay. Logging and free-range cattle ranching have been the region’s mainstay for about a century.

 

About 65 years ago, a rancher downstream sought and obtained a water license on Alexis Creek to allow for irrigation and other water use on the lower reaches. Included in the license was provision for a small earth-filled dam and valve at Alexis Lake’s outlet. Once the dam and control were in place the lake effectively became a reservoir for the ranch’s water requirements. If the creek were ever to dry up, the license permitted water to be drawn from the lake.

 

It has been said, apart from some testing, the water control system on the dam was never used. Apparently, the normal summer flow of water down the creek was always sufficient for the needs of the ranch. It is possible the existence of the dam evened out seasonal water fluctu-ations. In high water seasons, lake water rises between two to three feet higher than pre-dam levels. This has been enough to kill off many spruce trees in low spots. And, over the years the beaver population has always caused the lake levels to fluctuate even more. Their dam building activity at the lake outlet continues to be a nuisance.

 

In 1986, the water license was abandoned. Despite that license, people seeking waterfront property upstream before and after 1986 were granted (indeed, encouraged to obtain) leases (and in a few cases obtained land in fee simple) by government – all subject to that license. So when the water license ended, riparian rights in a sense transferred from the ranch, downstream, to upstream and lakeshore property holders. The latter, we, in effect, became the water’s stakeholders.

 

A wake-up call faced Alexis Lake property owners when liabilities for the dam structure and valve no longer were the responsibility of the ranch. The abandonment of the license conferred those liabilities somewhere, but where? Faced with repairing a deteriorating dam mainly because of the road access it provided to the east lakeshore properties, the government’s Highways Department suggested the dam be removed and be replaced by a bridge. It would, they said, be less costly than having to replace the old dam with a new one built to standards required by the Environment Department.

 

Faced with the uncertainties of cost, and how a reduced water level might affect the shoreline or, for that matter, property values, many, perhaps most, owners objected strenuously to the removal of the dam. Also having to face this conundrum, government eventually settled upon having the Highways Dept. patch up the old dam and punch through a culvert. We were assured this would preserve existing water levels. Surprisingly, this arrangement has worked – but it still leaves us wondering about the future!

 

By the mid 80’s, logging companies were well into clear-cutting the Chilcotin. In 1970 it did not occur to us that it was only a matter of time before their operations would catch up to the plateau 70 miles west of the Fraser River. The impact of the hundreds of loaded logging trucks we encountered on our drives in and out did not register upon us for quite a while. For the kids counting trucks became a game. But, ominously, the effects of the logging became visible. We were not mistaken any longer – large swaths of denuded hills were appearing everywhere.

 

Off the main road our climb up to the plateau was at first through thick forest, mostly Douglas Firs in the lower elevations, but further up this changed to pine forest. There were large grassy openings here and there - well populated by free ranging cattle. Around Alexis Lake most of the forest was of poor quality. Either very dense, the native pines were so crowded they stretched tall and thin, reaching for available light, or they were undernourished from poor soil – possibly both. Most took fifty years or more to grow less than 25 feet. To our less than practised eye, they were good for little more than fence rails and posts.

 

During the time we were busy with building and finishing off our cabin, we took breaks to explore the territory around us. By hiking and driving around we saw the construction of a major logging road not half a mile from the north end of the lake, (now called the ‘4600’) and from it saw the approach of clear-cut logging. We watched, each year, as more and more of the once endless, far-as-the-eye-could-see forest was decimated.

 

From talking to Ministry of Forests people, we learned of loggers’ plans for our immediate area – round-the-clock, highly automated cutting, bundling, and removal of trees – with cleanup (slash burning) in the fall when the forest fire season had passed. We received assurances private property would not be trespassed, and a fringe of trees would be left standing around the shores of the lake. We were not told about the 24 hour-a-day noise.

 

The forestry department staff made a point of telling us about the natural disasters, too, and their role in cleaning up after them. They pointed out the forest on the east side of Alexis Lake had been badly scorched in a forest fire in the early 40’s. At that time many older, large trees survived, but most living trees are scarred at ground level. Much of the remaining area was left open with little undergrowth – good for nothing but cottage development, they said.

 

They told of pine beetle scourges that infected the Chilcotin. Little is known about such infestations, why they arise or how they are best controlled. In some areas older trees were attacked while younger ones somehow remain unaffected, in other areas it was the opposite. A year or two after pine beetle grubs get into tree bark, the trees die and become a fire hazard. In nature, wildfires eventually take care of this. From the fertile ashes of an old forest, a healthier generation of trees grows.

 

In the Chilcotin, however, where, like everywhere else, the human population is growing slowly but inexorably, vast areas of dead forest have become a menace for ranches and people with cottages. It is a country where summer lightning starts forest fires. It has been decreed (by environment and forestry departments of government) that it is better to be rid of pine beetle damaged trees than it is to allow them simply to fall and rot or be incinerated. And, in that bug diseased trees, if recovered for processing within a year or two of dying, have commercial value, cutting licenses required ‘conditions’. Loggers found themselves bound to take out bad wood with the good. This imposition gave the lumber industry another argument in favor of using the ‘most modern’ clear-cutting logging techniques.

 

Today, the old forests in the Alexis Creek district have largely disappeared; little remains of what we encountered when we first arrived. In addition to the many stands of trees that became diseased, other natural events contributed to the forest decline. It has been said that as forest cover disappears, damage from thunderstorms and wind is more severe. Simply put, vast cleared-off areas leave built-up properties and unprotected stands of trees on the periphery of these cleared-off areas much more vulnerable to the elements.

 

As if to add insult to our injury, in the early 90’s, one particularly bad summer storm, a tornado, devastated a two to three mile strip of forest, perhaps 300 acres, along the crest of land paralleling the west shore of the lake. This precipitated a need for a further cleanup, and the logging crew that eventually arrived removed many more trees than just the blow-downs.

 

If there has been an upside from all this, it is the improvement to the roads in and out of the territory. The main highway is now paved, and the roads into the bush have been upgraded to standards that are safe for logging activity – which, in turn, has been good for our access. Tree removal and road straightening, more gravel, ditches, culverts, and better drying out, have made it easier to get about on these bush roads.

 

A true account of that access, however, would never be complete without mention of what one sees when driving through. For many years, now, the countryside has been an eyesore, looking more like a moonscape. Replanting has slowly changed that; the hills are greening up. But, like before, once done, there has been a noticeable absence of follow-through. Replanted trees now need thinning. Without this, the forest will revert into another in ‘decadent’ state and become susceptible again to insect infestations.

 

At the higher elevations of the Alexis Creek drainage, on the plateau, the land is relatively flat. Besides many lakes, there are hundreds of large and small bogs, creating wetlands with their own distinctive environments. The disappearance of the forests, generally, is causing much of this to dry out. Stands of trees adjacent to these wetlands, now more accessible, have been among the last to be opened up for timber removal. These are not large, profitable cut-blocks, and we wonder why this timber must be removed.

 

After witnessing (with varying degrees of consternation or horror) the highly automated round-the-clock forest cutting we could not fail to notice harmful environmental effects. A tree supporting many great blue heron nests (near Lake Two) simply disappeared, as did the blue herons. After rainstorms the lakes soon became silt-ridden (brown). Nearby clear-cuts, the follow-up slash burning, and even the building of the logging road, caused further soil erosion.

 

In that virtually no mature forest remains, the existing wetlands around us are bound to suffer from dry seasons. When I say ‘suffer’, I mean the chains of animal and plant life will be adversely affected. In turn, the aquifer, underground water, like everywhere else in the world suffering from clear-cut logging, will sink lower – and we, humans, will face difficulties like never before. Despite recent high water levels in the lake, some neighbors reported their wells drying up. Thus, there is no doubt what patches of forest that have been left standing must remain.

 

The collective “we” of property owners and campers at Alexis Lake, by receiving much deep joy and pleasure from the area’s unique serenity, have taken up the cause of preserving it from further adversity. But we cannot ignore the array of forces that simply don’t regard the fragility of an environment an issue that demands such commitment. Unfortunately, the ENVIRONMENT has no single advocate, and our government will never be a champion of it. The government sees land - and what’s in, on, or under it, as something it has a duty to exploit – to extract revenue from. It actually encourages business to bid for the use of land, and sees its role as one of sorting out competing interests over it, where they occur.

 

The Alexis Lake community already has established a somewhat substantial economy, given the private investment in property and improvements – and despite its remoteness. This economy benefits not only from the assessed values of the properties, or from cottagers’ continuing need for goods and services, but also from itinerant campers and other tourists who come up to enjoy the many remote forestry campsites. But despite the tax revenues, and infusion of outside money, many ‘locals’, who live year-round nearby, dismiss our claims that the region benefits more from our presence than if we had not settled there.

 

Throughout Canada loons have become a wilderness bellwether. If we hear the sound of loons at Alexis, we know all is well. If Ontarians hear them - the same may not be true. The press of human population upon ‘lake country’ in Ontario is so great that many families of loons have been driven away. Whether it is motorboats constantly disturbing their nesting sites, absence of feed, lowering water levels, or mercury pollution, or a combination of all these things, something is destroying that environment.

 

The notion of closing Alexis Lake to internal combustion motorboats was not a new one when it arose years ago. When our family saw the ad in 1969 (although having no ‘official’ validity) we knew someone cared, and also that it was consistent with the growing movement in BC for closing lakes to boats having outboard motors. The impetus was always one of having to protect pristine environments from noise, fouled water, and the disturbance of wildlife. And it was a foregone conclusion that without motorboats lakes were safer for swimmers.

 

At first, in the mid 70’s closing ‘our’ lake to motorboats became an obsession with a few, but as the issue was discussed among neighbors, it received growing support. A campaign developed. Many had a part to play. What was interesting was the ‘opposition’; it appeared unexpectedly from among the ranks of government officials. They declared they had a duty to balance our interests with those in opposition. Before they could do this, they said, they wanted evidence to substantiate our claims that loons were disturbed by the wakes of motorboats and would be driven away.

 

It did not matter how hard we argued that anyone knowing something about loons’ would know that their nests, right at water level, were little more than rafts of moss and lakeshore debris. This made them vulnerable to destruction by wave action. Common sense, we argued, had to prevail, and some environmental principles had to be developed for all ‘small lakes’ before the loons here and elsewhere were gone. First, we offered, motorboats should simply not be allowed on lakes with less than (say) 10 miles of shoreline, or (say) 1000 acres of surface water. Second, all such lakes, indeed watersheds, needed mandated ‘green spaces’ (no logging) for at least 500 meters back from watercourses – the riverbanks or lakeshores.

Officialdom didn’t take kindly to being lectured about principles. They wanted to make judgments without having them questioned. They had little else of consequence to offer - other than a desire to get on with their work - principles notwithstanding. Such officials often make the mistake of assuming that people in dispute over environment issues will be satisfied with compromises, or by becoming subject to regulation, rather than by a ‘correct’ decision that will leave people divided.

 

So, we wonder just how any official, put in a position of having to discuss, promote, or negotiate alternatives, can ever really serve as an unbiased advocate for the environment. We have yet to meet people working for government, even those in ‘Environment’, who, despite evidence of pollution, are really free to declare: ‘motorboats, operating in small BC lakes, are instruments of environmental destruction and will, henceforward, be banned’.

 

Fortunately our group of property owners, brandishing a strong consensus, were successful with their own efforts in closing the lake to internal combustion outboard motors. Their lengthy letter writing and lobbying efforts paid off. Government, at the receiving end of this constant harangue, eventually changed its focus. An official somewhere summoned up the courage to declare the case for motorboats was less compelling than the case against them.

 

We became empowered! That achievement made many of us wonder what more we could do. Today we maintain a careful watch over events that could be harmful to our interests. Just as there should be no procrastination over obvious carelessness, such as a discovery of a cow’s carcass floating in the lake, or of dead animals abandoned in the trap line (incidents which we learned about in the late 70’s), we must communicate quickly with one another about matters that arise which may be cause for concern - like the recent proposal for an airstrip adjacent to our lake.

 

Privately some of us harbor lofty expectations. We wish for the return of blue herons after their disappearance. (We saw just one last summer – after many years of wondering if they would ever return!). We yearn for more visits from the rare pelicans, hoping that they might acquire the confidence to nest in our waters. We wish to experience again the diving ‘swoosh’ of the peregrine falcon as it preys on small ducks – not for the duck’s sake, but for the balance in nature this represents. And year after year, despite the terrible depredations in the ospreys’ winter habitat in Central America, we celebrate their return to nest in a favoured refuge nearby.

 

As I write, the incumbent provincial government is facing an election. It is hard not to be cynical about the sudden priority it has given to improving its own ‘green’ image. It is clear Greenpeace (and other agencies) have succeeded in embarrassing it - and the lumber industry – for their lack of action over what have been broadcast about as unacceptable logging practices.

 

Politicians have awakened to the fact (probably too late for re-election in year 2001) that they must win more votes. They declared a three-year moratorium on hunting grizzly bears, and agreed in principle with Greenpeace’s proposal for protecting a large part of the Central Coast from clear-cut logging. Within the latter decision, stands of 1,000-year-old coastal rain forest trees, and the rare white Kermode (‘Spirit’) bears that live among them, will be spared forever. About the moratorium, feelings run high among the supporters of hunting. Maybe this will cost votes.

 

Speaking of politicians, laws and bears, odds are stacked against recreational property owners’ interests when their environment is threatened - for laws have been enacted by governments in such a hodgepodge fashion. One would think and hope the ‘senior government’s’ interest, as expressed by the federal Canadian Environment Assessment Act, would have enough status to attract legal testing in Canada, and to provide real environmental guidelines. There is a similar statute in the United States – which receives constant testing. In a recent enactment case concerning powered boats (April 2000), the US National Parks Service brought into effect ‘new restrictions that ban the use of Jet Skis in 66 parks, including Olympic National Park’. Although a limited step, it was challenged, but, on appeal, found within the National Parks’ mandate.

 

We learn from the stated purposes of the Canadian Act (which includes ‘opportunity for public participation in the environmental assessment process’) that most ‘participation’ winds up at the discretion of provincial or local authority, and is hardly ever exercised.

 

In the example of a recent application by a business for an airstrip, at Alexis Lake, (to which many of us objected) it was necessary for the applicant to have the Federal Department of Transport notified about the particulars. Fed-Transport’s main interest in such matters lies in public safety. So any concerns about environmental damage were transferred to BC authorities to review. Ultimately, they were dismissed as minimal. The latter’s focus, in this case, was (or remains) on the economics of land use and development.

 

Mixed government jurisdictions have caused no end of problems. Closing Alexis Lake to motorboats took twenty years to accomplish. Strident arguments from the opposition at first concerned ‘peoples’ rights’ - like with tobacco products, outboard motors, they had never been deemed illegal and were for sale everywhere. The argument went: as there were no restrictions on the purchase of motors, customers ought to be free to use them, with no restrictions. It was an argument compelling enough to bring the proceedings to a halt, not once but several times.

 

Provincial and federal authorities were wary about having this argument tested. However, as precedents (from settlements in other lake-closing cases) were finally factored in, especially where lakes served as drinking water reservoirs, pollution based concerns at last received some official recognition as a valid reason for closing lakes to motors.

 

Now, to the mention of bears... Most of us at the lake have no desire to encounter bears during walk-abouts. The Johnsons, during the years they lived full-time at Alexis Lake, had many encounters, and even disposed of one or two troublesome bears. I don’t know if we should be thankful Alexis Lake bears are ‘just’ black bears. Their numbers are increasing and we see their sign everywhere. It is likely what attracts them is the smell of food, so as the human presence in the wilderness increases, it is doubly important to dispose of waste properly, and to clean our barbecues! And, large dogs are useful to have around for insurance!

 

They say grizzly bears don’t live with us anymore. In the late ‘70’s when logging began in earnest, an elderly rancher, Paxton, whose entire life was spent in the Alexis Creek region, declared that with the arrival of ‘big’ logging there would be no more grizzlies. He talked about the last one killed in the territory, near his home at Spain Lake, in the late 60’s. It was a monster bear which, following the hunt, received recognition as a trophy animal. Despite Paxton’ prophecy, 30 years or so later, in the fall of 2000, horseback riding tourists in the Nazko high country – not far from us – reported a pair of grizzlies gambolling about in a meadow. So, maybe, they will appear close by again. How this will be received remains to be seen!

  

THE END

4350 words

 

Ligne 286 - Arrêt : Émile Zola

Exploitant : RATP

Réseau RATP - Paris

Ligne 38 - Arrêt : Gent Dampoort

Exploitant : De Lijn

Réseau De Lijn - Flandres (Belgique) - Gand

Monoprint.

40 x 50 cm.

2021.

  

A scene from the book "The Exploits of Moominpappa",

first published in 1950.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exploits_of_Moominpappa

The books were written and illustrated by Tove Jansson (1914-2001), a Swedish-speaking Finnish author, novelist, painter, illustrator and comic strip author.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tove_Jansson

This minature tableaux was made in 1984-85 by Tuulikki Pietilä, (American-born Finnish graphic artist and professor) and Pentti Eistola. It is one of around 40 which are shown at the Moomin Museum. Pietilä is believed to be the inspiration for the character Too-Ticky in the Moomin books.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

 

Some background:

Both the T-62 and T-64 were innovative in their own ways, but not successful in the long run because of their cost, complicated features, rushed production, or primitive FCS. The T-54/55 had been a highly successful export for the Soviet Union, but so far, nothing replaced it in this area. Due to their age and the never-ending competition between ammo and armor with the west, a new MBT with a large gun was needed. This model had to incorporate some innovations but had to be mature enough to exploit them fully and be fast enough to catch up with other vehicles. Overall, WARPAC quickly needed a replacement for its aging fleet of T-54/55s (the T-62 was only adopted by Bulgaria and the T-64 was even denied to the Warsaw Pact allies). So a “mobilization” model was called for, even though the T-64 was still in development.

 

Although in its general shape the T-72 superficially resembled previous designs, and especially the T-62 (small turret, low hull, very long gun), there were many differences in the drivetrain, turret design, engine, main gun and equipment. Compared to western standards, its specifics were regarded as drawbacks, being too small, cramped and uncomfortable. It was believed in the west the crewmen had to be of small stature (1.60 m or 5ft 3in), but after the fall of the iron curtain, it appeared to have been officially 1.75 m (5ft 9in). For its designers and commanders, the vehicle was in line with the experience of the Soviet armored forces during the “Great Patriotic War”. The USSR modeled its tanks along a specific tactical use. Tanks were generally low, nimble and fast, being difficult to hit, contrary to western tanks, which were, comparatively, at least 50 cm (1ft 8in) taller – and the T-72 was even 60 cm lower than its potential opponents!

 

The height requirement also helped to keep the total weight largely under the NATO practice. This allowed a great deal of mobility despite an aged V-12 diesel. For example, two T-72 could cross a bridge instead of waiting in line to cross it one at a time. This low profile was a problem when fording rivers more than 5 meters (16 ft) deep and a comprehensive sealing procedure, a snorkel and tightly waterproof interior were needed. These fittings also helped NBC protection, rendered possible by a synthetic fabric made of boron compound lining which reduced (but did not) radiations. There was also an extensive air filter system with safety valves and constant over-pressure. This helped eliminate any poisonous contamination as well as residual fumes that could leak out from the autoloader. Overall vision was not outstanding, with a set of extremely small periscope viewports. The hull construction called for an RHA (rolled homogenous armor) hull made of cast steel.

 

Crew comfort was seen as unnecessary, due to the survivability rates on the battlefield. The same law applied to a relatively non-refined interior and the simple, rugged, but efficient firing equipment, which was designed for mass production and easy maintenance. Any fragile and/or non-standard piece of equipment was therefore eliminated before production. This explained not only the production scale itself - much bigger than their western counterparts - but also the tank’s export success. Such manufacturing principles allowed costs to be kept very low, and at the same time produced a rugged piece of equipment which was durable, with part standardization (= interchangeability) and relatively low-tech, which was an advantage in many pre-industrial countries, both for maintenance and upgrades.

 

The hull’s basic RHA construction was augmented by spaced armor, which was upgraded to the T-64 standard composite armor in 1979. In the early 1980s, T-72s received additional add-on armor along with rubber side skirts, and, in the late 1980s, full ERA made of active protective tiles was generalized. At the origin, the basic cast armor was about 280 mm (11 in) at the thickest, with the nose up to 80 mm (3.1 in) and the glacis made of a 200 mm (7.9 in) thick laminated armor, well inclined. This gave a virtual equivalent of 500–600 mm (20–24 in) thickness against direct fire.

 

The turret was small in comparison to the T-62 and even the T-55, due to the elimination of the loader and its replacement by an auto-loader. The latter picked-up its rounds directly from a horizontal storage area (horizontally auto-fed), contrary to the faster and much more complex vertical actuators of the T-64 main gun automatic loader. The commander cupola was situated to the right rear, with four vision blocks, one periscope (later equipped with infrared sight), and a standard night illuminator. The gunner’s hatch was situated on the right-hand side and slightly angled down to the turret side.

 

The V12 was basically derived from the WW2 era 500 hp T-34 engine. Rugged and well-tested, it was also shared with the T-54/55 and T-62 families, meaning a lot of parts were interchangeable. It was capable of 780 hp (582 kW), which made the T-72 look underpowered compared to western tanks of the time, but its performances were kept high due to the lightweight hull. It was also much faster and nimbler than the T-62 and even the T-55. This engine was coupled to a synchromesh, hydraulically assisted, seven forward/one reverse gears transmission. The steering system is a traditional dual-tiller layout, rather than the steering wheel/yoke familiar in the west, imposing constant two-hands handling. By the 1980s, the powerplant upgraded to the new 840 bhp (630 kW) V-84 diesel.

 

The suspension set was a moderately new one, combining traditional torsion bars and shock dampers on the last and two first roadwheel sets. There were six evenly spaced sets of rubberized roadwheels per side. These roadwheels were completely redesigned and partly hollow, like the T-64 roadwheels, but made of steel rather than aluminum, due to costs and durability. They were also smaller and much lighter than the traditional “starfish” model, imposing four sets of return rollers to support the upper tracks. The tracks themselves were similar to the previous models, but not advanced like those of the T-64.

 

By 1973, the T-72 was accepted for service and over 25,000 units were built, but the production lines never really shut down. The T-72, in its modernized form, now represents the bulk of the Russian armored forces, and was adopted by the best armored units in all Eastern Europe forces. It was widely exported despite its price -double of that of a T-55- because it represented a good compromise, not complicated to operate and maintain, with many commonalities with previous models. It was a real upgrade in firepower, protection, speed and even fire accuracy compared to previous models, and even contemporary western MBTs. Unlike the T-62, the T-72 became an instant hit, was well-modernized over decades and is still frontline today, in thirty-six armies, including the Iraq.

 

Due to a ban on weapons deliveries after the Iran-Iraq war (where Iraq lost some 60 T-72Ms), a covert agreement was found to pass Czech-built M1 parts for a local assembly which was done as the “Asad Babil” or “Lion of Babylon”. There were armed with downgraded FCS and LRF, and a poor-quality glacis plate armor. Like the “Saddam”, a local adaptation of the M1 (downgraded for desert warfare), some suspensions’ shock absorbers were removed and a local-built searchlight was added on the right-hand-side. Saddams and Asad Babils were seen in action by 1991 and again in 2001 gulf war. Iraq had about 1000 T-72s, M, M1, but also the locally built Saddam and Asad Babil in 1990. After 2003, their numbers had dwindled to 375, and only 125 were listed in the new Iraqi Army - even though there were negotiations to procure up to 2.000 revamped T-72 by 2009.

 

But this deal did not come to fruition, and in 2010 twelve mothballed Iraqi T-72 survivors, mostly only hulls with engines but without a turret or armament, were modified into anti-aircraft systems, through the adaptation of the British Marksman short range air defense system developed by Marconi.

 

The Marksman system consists of a turret which carries a Marconi Series 400 radar and two Swiss Oerlikon 35 mm anti-aircraft autocannons. It is similar to the German Gepard system in terms of performance, ammunition carried and effective range of the ammunition, and intended to provide low-level air-defense for tank battalions.

The Marconi 400 series frequency agile surveillance and tracking X/J-band radar is able to detect targets out to 12 km in search mode and 10 km in tracking mode. The additional laser distance measure device functions up to 8 km. The turret can traverse a full 360 degrees and has an elevation range of −10 to +85 degrees. The magazines hold 460 fragmentation rounds and 40 armor-piercing anti-tank rounds. The vehicle is operated by only three crew members: commander, gunner, and driver. The commander and the gun operator in the turret both have gyro-stabilized optical aiming devices, and there are three communication radios in the vehicle for fire guidance and communications. The Swiss 35 mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns have a rate of fire of 18 rounds per second and the fragmentation round has a muzzle velocity of 1,175 m/s. The effective range of the weapons is 4,000 meters. For self-defense, the vehicle is also equipped with eight Wegmann 76 mm smoke dischargers, a 7.62 mm assault rifle, and a flare gun.

 

In 2014 the Iraqi Army's T-72 battle tanks and the Marksman SPAAGs were actively involved in the Iraqi Civil War, an armed conflict which began in January 2014 with the Iraqi insurgency and which escalated into a civil war with the conquest of Fallujah, Mosul, Tikrit and in the major areas of northern Iraq by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS or IS). Even though no enemy aircraft were deployed, the T-72 Marksman SPAAGs proved to be very effective against lightly or unarmored vehicles and semi-fortified dugouts at medium range. The conflict ended in December 2017.

  

Specifications:

Crew: Three (commander, gunner, driver)

Weight: 47.2 tonnes (52.1 short tons)

Length: 8.06 m (26 ft 3 in) with turret forward and guns in march position

6.95 m (22 ft 10 in) hull only

Width: 3.59 m (11 ft 9 in)

Height: 4.46 metres (14 ft 7 1/2 in)

Suspension: torsion-bar

Ground clearance: 0.49 m (19 in)

Fuel capacity: 1,200 L (320 U.S. gal; 260 imp gal)

 

Engine:

V-92S2F V12 Diesel engine with 1,130 hp (840 kW)

 

Transmission:

Synchromesh, hydraulically assisted, with 7 forward and 1 reverse gears

 

Armor:

Steel and composite armour with ERA

250 mm (10 in) maximum in the hull front

 

Performance:

Speed:

- Maximum, road: 80 km/h (50 mph)

- Sustained, road: 60 km/h (37 mph)

- Cross country: up to 45 km/h (28 mph)

Operational range: 460 km (290 mi)

700 km (430 mi) with additional fuel drums

Power/weight: 18 hp/t

 

Armament:

2× 35 mm Oerlikon autocannon with 460 fragmentation rounds and 40 anti-tank rounds

  

The kit and its assembly:

Well, this is a rather simple, whiffy tank model. I have always been a fan of AA tanks, but there are only a few model kits in 1:72 scale, esp. of modern vehicles like the German Gepard, the American Sargeant Baker or the Finnish T-55 Marksman.

 

However, recently the German short run producer Silesian Models released a resin aftermarket conversion set with the Marksman turret, and I immediately was hooked and started wondering with which hull I could combine it? The resin set is actually intended for an M60 chassis, and while I found it to be a good idea I wanted a personal alternative. Using the Finnish T-55 variant as benchmark, I wondered if the Marksman system could be combined with a more modern hull of Soviet/Russian origin, and the omnipresent T-72 became an almost natural choice. Searching for a potential operator I eventually came across the New Iraqi Army, which operated the T-72 since the Eighties kept it in service until today.

 

The conversion is very simple and straightforward. The Modelcollect T-72 chassis was built OOB, using optional parts from the kit for the eight spoke wheels and a simple glacis plate without ERA. The side skirts were cut back.

A curious feature of the kit is the lower hull: it is a white metal piece instead of injected plastic, and the suspension parts are an integral part of this piece. This creates no major problem, though, and lowers the kit's CoG. You just need some superglue in order to attach the wheels and the upper hull parts, even though the latter can simple be attached in a snap-fit style. Overall detailling is superb and the fit is very good, too.

 

The nicely detailed Silesian Models resin Marksman turret went together well, too, even though the gun barrels were slightly bent. Some cleaning was necessary, but that has to be expected from such a short run kit. The turret also comes with an adapter plate for the M60 turret bearing, but it turned out to be too wide for the T-72 hull. So I simply cut out the T-72 kit's turret underside and glued it under the Marksman turret - and this worked very well and even had the bonus that I did not have to modify the kit's original turret bearing.

The only other addition are the wire antennae on the Marksman turret, made from heated sprue material.

  

Painting and markings:

Very straightforward, too. I used real life Iraqi T-72s as benchmark and chose a typical desert scheme, with an overall sand tone on top of which some brown mottles had been added. For the sand tone I used a car color: a Sixties Volkswagen tone called "Mexicobeige", applied with a rattle can. The brown mottles were later added with a small brush and they were mixed from Humbrol 29 (RAF Dark Earth) and 66 (Olive Drab) in a 2:1 ratio.

 

The Arabian tactical code number actually belongs to a MiG-29 (from a Begemot sheet), while the New Iraqi Army flag and the grey/green marking were printed with an inkjet at home on white decal paper.

 

The kit received a light dry-brushing treatment with Humbrol 168 (Hemp) and also a light wash with a highly thinned mix of red brown and grey. A coat of matt acrylic varnish sealed the model.

 

After the track segments had been mounted, the running gear was dusted with fine artist pigments, and another dusting treatment was finally applied to the upper hull, too, once the tank model had been fully assembled.

  

An interesting result, and even though the T-72/Marksman combo is fictional, the resulting SPAAG looks very plausible, even "natural"? The modern Iraqi colors and markings suit it well, too. Besides, a relatively quick and pleasant build/conversion, completed in less than five days.

Caractéristiques techniques

• Exploitant(s) SNCF

• Désignation BB 25501 à 25694

• Surnom Danseuse

• Type locomotive

• Motorisation électrique

• Couplage oui (UM2)

• Construction 194 locomotives

• Constructeur(s) Alsthom

• Livraison de 1964 à 1976

• Effectif 10 au 8 mars 2018

• Retrait en cours

• Affectation Intercités, TER

 

• Alimentation bicourant

1,5 kV CC

25 kV 50 Hz

• Pantographes 2

• Moteurs de traction 2 moteurs TAB 660 B1

• 1500 V ventilation forcée

• Puissance continue 2 940 kW

• Masse en service 78,6/80,7 t

• Diamètre des roues Ø1100

• Vitesse maximale 90/140 km/h

 

Description:

Ces locomotives font partie d'une très importante série, les « BB Alsthom » : il y a eu en effet (en diverses commandes) 194 locomotives BB 25500, mais aussi des « cousines » nombreuses : 146 BB 8500 (dont certaines transformées en BB 88500 ou BB 8700), 294 BB 16500, 105 BB 17000 et 13 BB 20200.

 

Locomotives bicourant de puissance moyenne, ce sont des machines polyvalentes par excellence. Elles peuvent atteindre la vitesse de 140 km/h pour les trains de grandes lignes comme les Corail ou TER. Mais leur suspension médiocre, qui leur a valu leur surnom de « danseuses », commun aux BB Alsthom, les cantonne aujourd'hui sur des trajets courts.

 

Toutes les BB 25500 utilisées en service voyageurs (uniquement des TER) sont réversibles.

 

La série des BB 25500 est divisée en deux parties, les petits numéros, de la 25500 à la 25588 et les grands numéros, supérieurs à 25588 parfois appelés « 25600 », qui comportent une cabine plus grande et une seule grande grille d'aération au lieu de plusieurs petites grilles carrées.

Source :

fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/BB_25500

© Leanne Boulton, All Rights Reserved

 

This is what a woman screamed at me when I took this shot. That I was 'exploiting the vulnerable'. Personally, despite feeling that perhaps the subject here is exploiting herself, that I am merely reporting the facts of what I see around me. Reporting and sharing such a sad and evocative image for no monetary gain is, to me at least, the very opposite of exploitation. Candid street shot, with flash, of a young girl begging for money on the streets of Glasgow, Scotland.

"On Track"

 

Extra 330 de l'équipe de voltige de l'armée de l'air (EVAA) à l'occasion du centième anniversaire de la disparition du capitaine Georges Guynemer sur la BA 116 de Luxeuil (Hte Saône 2017)

 

Website : www.fluidr.com/photos/pat21

 

"Copyright © – Patrick Bouchenard

The reproduction, publication, modification, transmission or exploitation of any work contained here in for any use, personal or commercial, without my prior written permission is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved

French postcard by S.I.R., no. 1074. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.

 

French singer and actress Polaire (1874-1939) had a career in the entertainment industry which stretched from the early 1890s to the mid-1930s, and encompassed the range from music-hall singer to stage and film actress. Her most successful period professionally was from the mid-1890s to the beginning of the First World War.

 

Polaire was a French singer and actress, born Émilie Marie Bouchaud on May 14, 1874 in Agha (Algeria). According to her memoirs she was one of eleven children of whom only four survived – and eventually only two, Émilie and her brother Edmond. When her father died of typhoid her mother temporarily placed the children under the care of Polaire’s grandmother in Algiers.

 

In 1891, at age 17 she came to Paris to join her brother Edmond who performed there in the café-concerts under the name of Dufleuve. She had already sung in cafes in Algiers and continued on this path, eventually becoming a popular music-hall singer and dancer, performing e.g. the French version of Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay: Tha ma ra boum di hé - her greatest success, already from the start. She became a big name and was e.g. portrayed by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in the magazine Le Rire in 1895. Not only her singing and dancing qualities were remarkable, Polaire also distinguished herself by her particular physique, having an exceptional wasp waist, at a time when women tortured themselves with tight corsets to refine their waist.

 

After a first failed attempt to conquer New York as singer, Polaire returned to Paris where she expanded her range with prose theatre as well. She managed to get the role of Claudine in Colette’s play Claudine à Paris, performed at the Bouffes-Parisiens in 1902 and again performed in the US in 1910. This time she was a big hit in the US and came back loaded with money. Her obtaining of the part of Claudine was not so easy, Polaire writes in her memoirs, as Willy at the time reclaimed the rights of Colette’s novels, and didn’t consider this music-hall singer as fit for this serious part. But a dashing and headstrong Polaire managed to convince Willy in person that she was Claudine, so she got the part. Claudine à Paris was performed some 120 times in France, with great success. Colette herself was very satisfied about the result. Willy even managed to exploit the success by a whole line of merchandising. Afterwards Polaire would consider him her substitute father.

 

From 1909, Polaire appeared in several film roles. After two films at Pathé frères, Moines et guerriers (Nuns and warriors, Julien Clément) and La tournée des grand-ducs (The Grandduke’s Tour, Léonce Perret 1910) – in the latter she aptly played a dancer - she went to Germany to play a Cuban lady in Zouza (Reinhard Bruck, 1911), in which future film director Richard Oswald was one of her co-stars. Back in France she acted again at Pathé in Le visiteur (The Visitor, Albert Capellani, René Leprince, 1911), but she mostly was active at the Éclair film company between 1911 and 1914, starting with Le poison de l’humanité (The Poison of Humanity, Émile Chautard, Victorin Jasset, 1911). From 1912 to 1914 she did a series of six films with then young and upcoming film director Maurice Tourneur, working for Éclair: Les gaîtés de l'escadron (The Funny Regiment, 1913), based on the novel by Georges Courteline; Le dernier pardon (1913), a comedy written by Gyp; La dame de Monsoreau (1913), after Dumas père; Le Friquet (1914), after Gyp and with Polaire in the title role; Soeurette (The Sparrow, 1914); and the mystery film Monsieur Lecoq (1914), after Émile Gaboriau. Her copartners in these films were often Maurice de Féraudy, Charles Krauss, Henry Roussel and Renée Sylvaire.

 

Le Friquet was restored by the Cinémathèque française in the mid-1990s and shown in international festivals It deals with a poor trapeze worker who loses her lover to a rich, immoral lady and then commits suicide during her trapeze act. It was based on a play Polaire had performed herself in 1904. NB IMDB mixes up things by not making a distinction between Polaire and Pauline Polaire. In the 1920s a younger actress named Giulietta Gozzi (1904-1986), niece of the Italian diva Hesperia (Olga Mambelli), performed under the name of Pauline Polaire in several Italian silent films with the forzuti such as Maciste and Saetta.

 

Polaire became a wealthy lady with a house on the Champs-Elysées and a country house in the Var, Villa Claudine. Well into the 1920s she continued to gamble away huge fortunes.

After World War I, Polaire dedicated herself primarily to the stage. During her career, she recorderd many of her songs as Tha ma ra boum di hé (her greatest success, already from the start), La Glu (based on a poem by Jean Richepin), Tchique tchique by Vincent Scotto, the telephone song Allo ! Chéri!, song with her partner Marjal, and she recited Charlotte prays to Our Lady by Jehan Rictus. Polaire died October 11, 1939 at age 65 in Champigny-sur-Marne (Val-de-Marne).

 

"Mademoiselle Polaire" is cited by the Guinness Book of Records as co-holder (with the British Ethel Granger) of the thinnest waist of 33 cm. She herself says in her memoirs to have repeatedly circled her waist by a fake collar of the "normal size” of 41 or 42 cm. Polaire posed for various painters such as Antonio de La Gandara, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Leonetto Cappiello, Rupert Carabin and John / Juan Sala. The latter became in 1893 the portraitist of Parisian society. His life-sized portrait of Polaire (1910) was auctioned at Drouot's in Paris on 28 June 2016.

 

Sources: English, French and Dutch Wikipedia, IMDB, deesk.pagesperso-orange.fr/polaire-1900/c_polaire_biograp..., www.dutempsdescerisesauxfeuillesmortes.net/fiches_bio/pol....

Exploiting the waterfront location

The exploitation rights for this text are the property of the Vienna Tourist Board. This text may be reprinted free of charge until further notice, even partially and in edited form. Forward sample copy to: Vienna Tourist Board, Media Management, Invalidenstraße 6, 1030 Vienna; media.rel@wien.info. All information in this text without guarantee.

Author: Andreas Nierhaus, Curator of Architecture/Wien Museum

Last updated January 2014

Architecture in Vienna

Vienna's 2,000-year history is present in a unique density in the cityscape. The layout of the center dates back to the Roman city and medieval road network. Romanesque and Gothic churches characterize the streets and squares as well as palaces and mansions of the baroque city of residence. The ring road is an expression of the modern city of the 19th century, in the 20th century extensive housing developments set accents in the outer districts. Currently, large-scale urban development measures are implemented; distinctive buildings of international star architects complement the silhouette of the city.

Due to its function as residence of the emperor and European power center, Vienna for centuries stood in the focus of international attention, but it was well aware of that too. As a result, developed an outstanding building culture, and still today on a worldwide scale only a few cities can come up with a comparable density of high-quality architecture. For several years now, Vienna has increased its efforts to connect with its historical highlights and is drawing attention to itself with some spectacular new buildings. The fastest growing city in the German-speaking world today most of all in residential construction is setting standards. Constants of the Viennese architecture are respect for existing structures, the palpability of historical layers and the dialogue between old and new.

Culmination of medieval architecture: the Stephansdom

The oldest architectural landmark of the city is St. Stephen's Cathedral. Under the rule of the Habsburgs, defining the face of the city from the late 13th century until 1918 in a decisive way, the cathedral was upgraded into the sacral monument of the political ambitions of the ruling house. The 1433 completed, 137 meters high southern tower, by the Viennese people affectionately named "Steffl", is a masterpiece of late Gothic architecture in Europe. For decades he was the tallest stone structure in Europe, until today he is the undisputed center of the city.

The baroque residence

Vienna's ascension into the ranks of the great European capitals began in Baroque. Among the most important architects are Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt. Outside the city walls arose a chain of summer palaces, including the garden Palais Schwarzenberg (1697-1704) as well as the Upper and Lower Belvedere of Prince Eugene of Savoy (1714-22). Among the most important city palaces are the Winter Palace of Prince Eugene (1695-1724, now a branch of the Belvedere) and the Palais Daun-Kinsky (auction house in Kinsky 1713-19). The emperor himself the Hofburg had complemented by buildings such as the Imperial Library (1722-26) and the Winter Riding School (1729-34). More important, however, for the Habsburgs was the foundation of churches and monasteries. Thus arose before the city walls Fischer von Erlach's Karlskirche (1714-39), which with its formal and thematic complex show façade belongs to the major works of European Baroque. In colored interior rooms like that of St. Peter's Church (1701-22), the contemporary efforts for the synthesis of architecture, painting and sculpture becomes visible.

Upgrading into metropolis: the ring road time (Ringstraßenzeit)

Since the Baroque, reflections on extension of the hopelessly overcrowed city were made, but only Emperor Franz Joseph ordered in 1857 the demolition of the fortifications and the connection of the inner city with the suburbs. 1865, the Ring Road was opened. It is as the most important boulevard of Europe an architectural and in terms of urban development achievement of the highest rank. The original building structure is almost completely preserved and thus conveys the authentic image of a metropolis of the 19th century. The public representational buildings speak, reflecting accurately the historicism, by their style: The Greek Antique forms of Theophil Hansen's Parliament (1871-83) stood for democracy, the Renaissance of the by Heinrich Ferstel built University (1873-84) for the flourishing of humanism, the Gothic of the Town Hall (1872-83) by Friedrich Schmidt for the medieval civic pride.

Dominating remained the buildings of the imperial family: Eduard van der Nüll's and August Sicardsburg's Opera House (1863-69), Gottfried Semper's and Carl Hasenauer's Burgtheater (1874-88), their Museum of Art History and Museum of Natural History (1871-91) and the Neue (New) Hofburg (1881-1918 ). At the same time the ring road was the preferred residential area of mostly Jewish haute bourgeoisie. With luxurious palaces the families Ephrussi, Epstein or Todesco made it clear that they had taken over the cultural leadership role in Viennese society. In the framework of the World Exhibition of 1873, the new Vienna presented itself an international audience. At the ring road many hotels were opened, among them the Hotel Imperial and today's Palais Hansen Kempinski.

Laboratory of modernity: Vienna around 1900

Otto Wagner's Postal Savings Bank (1903-06) was one of the last buildings in the Ring road area Otto Wagner's Postal Savings Bank (1903-06), which with it façade, liberated of ornament, and only decorated with "functional" aluminum buttons and the glass banking hall now is one of the icons of modern architecture. Like no other stood Otto Wagner for the dawn into the 20th century: His Metropolitan Railway buildings made ​​the public transport of the city a topic of architecture, the church of the Psychiatric hospital at Steinhofgründe (1904-07) is considered the first modern church.

With his consistent focus on the function of a building ("Something impractical can not be beautiful"), Wagner marked a whole generation of architects and made Vienna the laboratory of modernity: in addition to Joseph Maria Olbrich, the builder of the Secession (1897-98) and Josef Hoffmann, the architect of the at the western outskirts located Purkersdorf Sanatorium (1904) and founder of the Vienna Workshop (Wiener Werkstätte, 1903) is mainly to mention Adolf Loos, with the Loos House at the square Michaelerplatz (1909-11) making architectural history. The extravagant marble cladding of the business zone stands in maximal contrast, derived from the building function, to the unadorned facade above, whereby its "nudity" became even more obvious - a provocation, as well as his culture-critical texts ("Ornament and Crime"), with which he had greatest impact on the architecture of the 20th century. Public contracts Loos remained denied. His major works therefore include villas, apartment facilities and premises as the still in original state preserved Tailor salon Knize at Graben (1910-13) and the restored Loos Bar (1908-09) near the Kärntner Straße (passageway Kärntner Durchgang).

Between the Wars: International Modern Age and social housing

After the collapse of the monarchy in 1918, Vienna became capital of the newly formed small country of Austria. In the heart of the city, the architects Theiss & Jaksch built 1931-32 the first skyscraper in Vienna as an exclusive residential address (Herrengasse - alley 6-8). To combat the housing shortage for the general population, the social democratic city government in a globally unique building program within a few years 60,000 apartments in hundreds of apartment buildings throughout the city area had built, including the famous Karl Marx-Hof by Karl Ehn (1925-30). An alternative to the multi-storey buildings with the 1932 opened International Werkbundsiedlung was presented, which was attended by 31 architects from Austria, Germany, France, Holland and the USA and showed models for affordable housing in greenfield areas. With buildings of Adolf Loos, André Lurçat, Richard Neutra, Gerrit Rietveld, the Werkbundsiedlung, which currently is being restored at great expense, is one of the most important documents of modern architecture in Austria.

Modernism was also expressed in significant Villa buildings: The House Beer (1929-31) by Josef Frank exemplifies the refined Wiener living culture of the interwar period, while the house Stonborough-Wittgenstein (1926-28, today Bulgarian Cultural Institute), built by the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein together with the architect Paul Engelmann for his sister Margarete, by its aesthetic radicalism and mathematical rigor represents a special case within contemporary architecture.

Expulsion, war and reconstruction

After the "Anschluss (Annexation)" to the German Reich in 1938, numerous Jewish builders, architects (female and male ones), who had been largely responsible for the high level of Viennese architecture, have been expelled from Austria. During the Nazi era, Vienna remained largely unaffected by structural transformations, apart from the six flak towers built for air defense of Friedrich Tamms (1942-45), made ​​of solid reinforced concrete which today are present as memorials in the cityscape.

The years after the end of World War II were characterized by the reconstruction of the by bombs heavily damaged city. The architecture of those times was marked by aesthetic pragmatism, but also by the attempt to connect with the period before 1938 and pick up on current international trends. Among the most important buildings of the 1950s are Roland Rainer's City Hall (1952-58), the by Oswald Haerdtl erected Wien Museum at Karlsplatz (1954-59) and the 21er Haus of Karl Schwanzer (1958-62).

The youngsters come

Since the 1960s, a young generation was looking for alternatives to the moderate modernism of the reconstruction years. With visionary designs, conceptual, experimental and above all temporary architectures, interventions and installations, Raimund Abraham, Günther Domenig, Eilfried Huth, Hans Hollein, Walter Pichler and the groups Coop Himmelb(l)au, Haus-Rucker-Co and Missing Link rapidly got international attention. Although for the time being it was more designed than built, was the influence on the postmodern and deconstructivist trends of the 1970s and 1980s also outside Austria great. Hollein's futuristic "Retti" candle shop at Charcoal Market/Kohlmarkt (1964-65) and Domenig's biomorphic building of the Central Savings Bank in Favoriten (10th district of Vienna - 1975-79) are among the earliest examples, later Hollein's Haas-Haus (1985-90), the loft conversion Falkestraße (1987/88) by Coop Himmelb(l)au or Domenig's T Center (2002-04) were added. Especially Domenig, Hollein, Coop Himmelb(l)au and the architects Ortner & Ortner (ancient members of Haus-Rucker-Co) ​​by orders from abroad the new Austrian and Viennese architecture made a fixed international concept.

MuseumQuarter and Gasometer

Since the 1980s, the focus of building in Vienna lies on the compaction of the historic urban fabric that now as urban habitat of high quality no longer is put in question. Among the internationally best known projects is the by Ortner & Ortner planned MuseumsQuartier in the former imperial stables (competition 1987, 1998-2001), which with institutions such as the MUMOK - Museum of Modern Art Foundation Ludwig, the Leopold Museum, the Kunsthalle Wien, the Architecture Center Vienna and the Zoom Children's Museum on a wordwide scale is under the largest cultural complexes. After controversies in the planning phase, here an architectural compromise between old and new has been achieved at the end, whose success as an urban stage with four million visitors (2012) is overwhelming.

The dialogue between old and new, which has to stand on the agenda of building culture of a city that is so strongly influenced by history, also features the reconstruction of the Gasometer in Simmering by Coop Himmelb(l)au, Wilhelm Holzbauer, Jean Nouvel and Manfred Wehdorn (1999-2001). Here was not only created new housing, but also a historical industrial monument reinterpreted into a signal in the urban development area.

New Neighborhood

In recent years, the major railway stations and their surroundings moved into the focus of planning. Here not only necessary infrastructural measures were taken, but at the same time opened up spacious inner-city residential areas and business districts. Among the prestigious projects are included the construction of the new Vienna Central Station, started in 2010 with the surrounding office towers of the Quartier Belvedere and the residential and school buildings of the Midsummer quarter (Sonnwendviertel). Europe's largest wooden tower invites here for a spectacular view to the construction site and the entire city. On the site of the former North Station are currently being built 10,000 homes and 20,000 jobs, on that of the Aspangbahn station is being built at Europe's greatest Passive House settlement "Euro Gate", the area of ​​the North Western Railway Station is expected to be developed from 2020 for living and working. The largest currently under construction residential project but can be found in the north-eastern outskirts, where in Seaside Town Aspern till 2028 living and working space for 40,000 people will be created.

In one of the "green lungs" of Vienna, the Prater, 2013, the WU campus was opened for the largest University of Economics of Europe. Around the central square spectacular buildings of an international architect team from Great Britain, Japan, Spain and Austria are gathered that seem to lead a sometimes very loud conversation about the status quo of contemporary architecture (Hitoshi Abe, BUSarchitektur, Peter Cook, Zaha Hadid, NO MAD Arquitectos, Carme Pinós).

Flying high

International is also the number of architects who have inscribed themselves in the last few years with high-rise buildings in the skyline of Vienna and make St. Stephen's a not always unproblematic competition. Visible from afar is Massimiliano Fuksas' 138 and 127 meters high elegant Twin Tower at Wienerberg (1999-2001). The monolithic, 75-meter-high tower of the Hotel Sofitel at the Danube Canal by Jean Nouvel (2007-10), on the other hand, reacts to the particular urban situation and stages in its top floor new perspectives to the historical center on the other side.

Also at the water stands Dominique Perrault's DC Tower (2010-13) in the Danube City - those high-rise city, in which since the start of construction in 1996, the expansion of the city north of the Danube is condensed symbolically. Even in this environment, the slim and at the same time striking vertically folded tower of Perrault is beyond all known dimensions; from its Sky Bar, from spring 2014 on you are able to enjoy the highest view of Vienna. With 250 meters, the tower is the tallest building of Austria and almost twice as high as the St. Stephen's Cathedral. Vienna, thus, has acquired a new architectural landmark which cannot be overlooked - whether it also has the potential to become a landmark of the new Vienna, only time will tell. The architectural history of Vienna, where European history is presence and new buildings enter into an exciting and not always conflict-free dialogue with a great and outstanding architectural heritage, in any case has yet to offer exciting chapters.

Info: The folder "Architecture: From Art Nouveau to the Presence" is available at the Vienna Tourist Board and can be downloaded on www.wien.info/media/files/guide-architecture-in-wien.pdf.

Le métro de Paris est un des systèmes de transport en commun desservant la ville de Paris et son agglomération. Exploité par la Régie autonome des transports parisiens (RATP), il comporte seize lignes en site propre, essentiellement souterraines, totalisant près de 220 kilomètres. Devenu un des symboles de Paris, il se caractérise par la densité de son réseau au cœur de Paris et par son style architectural homogène influencé par l’Art nouveau. En 2012, le métro a transporté 5,23 millions de voyageurs par jour en moyenne.

 

La première ligne du métro de Paris a été construite à l'approche de l’Exposition universelle de 1900. Elle est inaugurée quelques mois après le début de l'exposition. Le réseau s’est ensuite rapidement densifié dans Paris intra-muros jusqu’à la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Après une pause durant les « décennies-voiture » (1950-1970), plusieurs lignes existantes ont été prolongées en proche banlieue. Les choix effectués à sa conception (faibles distances entre les stations, capacité réduite des rames) limitent aujourd’hui les possibilités d’extension du réseau. Le métro de Paris a cependant inauguré à la fin du siècle dernier une nouvelle ligne entièrement automatisée, la ligne 14, destinée notamment à soulager la ligne A du RER.

 

La desserte de Paris et de son agglomération est également assurée par d’autres moyens de transport en commun : le Réseau express régional d'Île-de-France (RER) (451 millions de voyageurs en 2006 sur le réseau RER RATP), le Transilien (réseau de trains de banlieue, 655 millions de voyageurs incluant le réseau RER SNCF), sept lignes de tramway en site propre (85 millions de voyageurs dans sa configuration de 2006), le réseau de bus (997 millions de voyageurs en 2006) ainsi que trois lignes qui assurent une desserte locale des aéroports en utilisant un véhicule automatique léger (VAL).

 

Source: Wikipédia

 

Exploits River Central NL

The exploitation rights for this text are the property of the Vienna Tourist Board. This text may be reprinted free of charge until further notice, even partially and in edited form. Forward sample copy to: Vienna Tourist Board, Media Management, Invalidenstraße 6, 1030 Vienna; media.rel@wien.info. All information in this text without guarantee.

Author: Andreas Nierhaus, Curator of Architecture/Wien Museum

Last updated January 2014

Architecture in Vienna

Vienna's 2,000-year history is present in a unique density in the cityscape. The layout of the center dates back to the Roman city and medieval road network. Romanesque and Gothic churches characterize the streets and squares as well as palaces and mansions of the baroque city of residence. The ring road is an expression of the modern city of the 19th century, in the 20th century extensive housing developments set accents in the outer districts. Currently, large-scale urban development measures are implemented; distinctive buildings of international star architects complement the silhouette of the city.

Due to its function as residence of the emperor and European power center, Vienna for centuries stood in the focus of international attention, but it was well aware of that too. As a result, developed an outstanding building culture, and still today on a worldwide scale only a few cities can come up with a comparable density of high-quality architecture. For several years now, Vienna has increased its efforts to connect with its historical highlights and is drawing attention to itself with some spectacular new buildings. The fastest growing city in the German-speaking world today most of all in residential construction is setting standards. Constants of the Viennese architecture are respect for existing structures, the palpability of historical layers and the dialogue between old and new.

Culmination of medieval architecture: the Stephansdom

The oldest architectural landmark of the city is St. Stephen's Cathedral. Under the rule of the Habsburgs, defining the face of the city from the late 13th century until 1918 in a decisive way, the cathedral was upgraded into the sacral monument of the political ambitions of the ruling house. The 1433 completed, 137 meters high southern tower, by the Viennese people affectionately named "Steffl", is a masterpiece of late Gothic architecture in Europe. For decades he was the tallest stone structure in Europe, until today he is the undisputed center of the city.

The baroque residence

Vienna's ascension into the ranks of the great European capitals began in Baroque. Among the most important architects are Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt. Outside the city walls arose a chain of summer palaces, including the garden Palais Schwarzenberg (1697-1704) as well as the Upper and Lower Belvedere of Prince Eugene of Savoy (1714-22). Among the most important city palaces are the Winter Palace of Prince Eugene (1695-1724, now a branch of the Belvedere) and the Palais Daun-Kinsky (auction house in Kinsky 1713-19). The emperor himself the Hofburg had complemented by buildings such as the Imperial Library (1722-26) and the Winter Riding School (1729-34). More important, however, for the Habsburgs was the foundation of churches and monasteries. Thus arose before the city walls Fischer von Erlach's Karlskirche (1714-39), which with its formal and thematic complex show façade belongs to the major works of European Baroque. In colored interior rooms like that of St. Peter's Church (1701-22), the contemporary efforts for the synthesis of architecture, painting and sculpture becomes visible.

Upgrading into metropolis: the ring road time (Ringstraßenzeit)

Since the Baroque, reflections on extension of the hopelessly overcrowed city were made, but only Emperor Franz Joseph ordered in 1857 the demolition of the fortifications and the connection of the inner city with the suburbs. 1865, the Ring Road was opened. It is as the most important boulevard of Europe an architectural and in terms of urban development achievement of the highest rank. The original building structure is almost completely preserved and thus conveys the authentic image of a metropolis of the 19th century. The public representational buildings speak, reflecting accurately the historicism, by their style: The Greek Antique forms of Theophil Hansen's Parliament (1871-83) stood for democracy, the Renaissance of the by Heinrich Ferstel built University (1873-84) for the flourishing of humanism, the Gothic of the Town Hall (1872-83) by Friedrich Schmidt for the medieval civic pride.

Dominating remained the buildings of the imperial family: Eduard van der Nüll's and August Sicardsburg's Opera House (1863-69), Gottfried Semper's and Carl Hasenauer's Burgtheater (1874-88), their Museum of Art History and Museum of Natural History (1871-91) and the Neue (New) Hofburg (1881-1918 ). At the same time the ring road was the preferred residential area of mostly Jewish haute bourgeoisie. With luxurious palaces the families Ephrussi, Epstein or Todesco made it clear that they had taken over the cultural leadership role in Viennese society. In the framework of the World Exhibition of 1873, the new Vienna presented itself an international audience. At the ring road many hotels were opened, among them the Hotel Imperial and today's Palais Hansen Kempinski.

Laboratory of modernity: Vienna around 1900

Otto Wagner's Postal Savings Bank (1903-06) was one of the last buildings in the Ring road area Otto Wagner's Postal Savings Bank (1903-06), which with it façade, liberated of ornament, and only decorated with "functional" aluminum buttons and the glass banking hall now is one of the icons of modern architecture. Like no other stood Otto Wagner for the dawn into the 20th century: His Metropolitan Railway buildings made ​​the public transport of the city a topic of architecture, the church of the Psychiatric hospital at Steinhofgründe (1904-07) is considered the first modern church.

With his consistent focus on the function of a building ("Something impractical can not be beautiful"), Wagner marked a whole generation of architects and made Vienna the laboratory of modernity: in addition to Joseph Maria Olbrich, the builder of the Secession (1897-98) and Josef Hoffmann, the architect of the at the western outskirts located Purkersdorf Sanatorium (1904) and founder of the Vienna Workshop (Wiener Werkstätte, 1903) is mainly to mention Adolf Loos, with the Loos House at the square Michaelerplatz (1909-11) making architectural history. The extravagant marble cladding of the business zone stands in maximal contrast, derived from the building function, to the unadorned facade above, whereby its "nudity" became even more obvious - a provocation, as well as his culture-critical texts ("Ornament and Crime"), with which he had greatest impact on the architecture of the 20th century. Public contracts Loos remained denied. His major works therefore include villas, apartment facilities and premises as the still in original state preserved Tailor salon Knize at Graben (1910-13) and the restored Loos Bar (1908-09) near the Kärntner Straße (passageway Kärntner Durchgang).

Between the Wars: International Modern Age and social housing

After the collapse of the monarchy in 1918, Vienna became capital of the newly formed small country of Austria. In the heart of the city, the architects Theiss & Jaksch built 1931-32 the first skyscraper in Vienna as an exclusive residential address (Herrengasse - alley 6-8). To combat the housing shortage for the general population, the social democratic city government in a globally unique building program within a few years 60,000 apartments in hundreds of apartment buildings throughout the city area had built, including the famous Karl Marx-Hof by Karl Ehn (1925-30). An alternative to the multi-storey buildings with the 1932 opened International Werkbundsiedlung was presented, which was attended by 31 architects from Austria, Germany, France, Holland and the USA and showed models for affordable housing in greenfield areas. With buildings of Adolf Loos, André Lurçat, Richard Neutra, Gerrit Rietveld, the Werkbundsiedlung, which currently is being restored at great expense, is one of the most important documents of modern architecture in Austria.

Modernism was also expressed in significant Villa buildings: The House Beer (1929-31) by Josef Frank exemplifies the refined Wiener living culture of the interwar period, while the house Stonborough-Wittgenstein (1926-28, today Bulgarian Cultural Institute), built by the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein together with the architect Paul Engelmann for his sister Margarete, by its aesthetic radicalism and mathematical rigor represents a special case within contemporary architecture.

Expulsion, war and reconstruction

After the "Anschluss (Annexation)" to the German Reich in 1938, numerous Jewish builders, architects (female and male ones), who had been largely responsible for the high level of Viennese architecture, have been expelled from Austria. During the Nazi era, Vienna remained largely unaffected by structural transformations, apart from the six flak towers built for air defense of Friedrich Tamms (1942-45), made ​​of solid reinforced concrete which today are present as memorials in the cityscape.

The years after the end of World War II were characterized by the reconstruction of the by bombs heavily damaged city. The architecture of those times was marked by aesthetic pragmatism, but also by the attempt to connect with the period before 1938 and pick up on current international trends. Among the most important buildings of the 1950s are Roland Rainer's City Hall (1952-58), the by Oswald Haerdtl erected Wien Museum at Karlsplatz (1954-59) and the 21er Haus of Karl Schwanzer (1958-62).

The youngsters come

Since the 1960s, a young generation was looking for alternatives to the moderate modernism of the reconstruction years. With visionary designs, conceptual, experimental and above all temporary architectures, interventions and installations, Raimund Abraham, Günther Domenig, Eilfried Huth, Hans Hollein, Walter Pichler and the groups Coop Himmelb(l)au, Haus-Rucker-Co and Missing Link rapidly got international attention. Although for the time being it was more designed than built, was the influence on the postmodern and deconstructivist trends of the 1970s and 1980s also outside Austria great. Hollein's futuristic "Retti" candle shop at Charcoal Market/Kohlmarkt (1964-65) and Domenig's biomorphic building of the Central Savings Bank in Favoriten (10th district of Vienna - 1975-79) are among the earliest examples, later Hollein's Haas-Haus (1985-90), the loft conversion Falkestraße (1987/88) by Coop Himmelb(l)au or Domenig's T Center (2002-04) were added. Especially Domenig, Hollein, Coop Himmelb(l)au and the architects Ortner & Ortner (ancient members of Haus-Rucker-Co) ​​by orders from abroad the new Austrian and Viennese architecture made a fixed international concept.

MuseumQuarter and Gasometer

Since the 1980s, the focus of building in Vienna lies on the compaction of the historic urban fabric that now as urban habitat of high quality no longer is put in question. Among the internationally best known projects is the by Ortner & Ortner planned MuseumsQuartier in the former imperial stables (competition 1987, 1998-2001), which with institutions such as the MUMOK - Museum of Modern Art Foundation Ludwig, the Leopold Museum, the Kunsthalle Wien, the Architecture Center Vienna and the Zoom Children's Museum on a wordwide scale is under the largest cultural complexes. After controversies in the planning phase, here an architectural compromise between old and new has been achieved at the end, whose success as an urban stage with four million visitors (2012) is overwhelming.

The dialogue between old and new, which has to stand on the agenda of building culture of a city that is so strongly influenced by history, also features the reconstruction of the Gasometer in Simmering by Coop Himmelb(l)au, Wilhelm Holzbauer, Jean Nouvel and Manfred Wehdorn (1999-2001). Here was not only created new housing, but also a historical industrial monument reinterpreted into a signal in the urban development area.

New Neighborhood

In recent years, the major railway stations and their surroundings moved into the focus of planning. Here not only necessary infrastructural measures were taken, but at the same time opened up spacious inner-city residential areas and business districts. Among the prestigious projects are included the construction of the new Vienna Central Station, started in 2010 with the surrounding office towers of the Quartier Belvedere and the residential and school buildings of the Midsummer quarter (Sonnwendviertel). Europe's largest wooden tower invites here for a spectacular view to the construction site and the entire city. On the site of the former North Station are currently being built 10,000 homes and 20,000 jobs, on that of the Aspangbahn station is being built at Europe's greatest Passive House settlement "Euro Gate", the area of ​​the North Western Railway Station is expected to be developed from 2020 for living and working. The largest currently under construction residential project but can be found in the north-eastern outskirts, where in Seaside Town Aspern till 2028 living and working space for 40,000 people will be created.

In one of the "green lungs" of Vienna, the Prater, 2013, the WU campus was opened for the largest University of Economics of Europe. Around the central square spectacular buildings of an international architect team from Great Britain, Japan, Spain and Austria are gathered that seem to lead a sometimes very loud conversation about the status quo of contemporary architecture (Hitoshi Abe, BUSarchitektur, Peter Cook, Zaha Hadid, NO MAD Arquitectos, Carme Pinós).

Flying high

International is also the number of architects who have inscribed themselves in the last few years with high-rise buildings in the skyline of Vienna and make St. Stephen's a not always unproblematic competition. Visible from afar is Massimiliano Fuksas' 138 and 127 meters high elegant Twin Tower at Wienerberg (1999-2001). The monolithic, 75-meter-high tower of the Hotel Sofitel at the Danube Canal by Jean Nouvel (2007-10), on the other hand, reacts to the particular urban situation and stages in its top floor new perspectives to the historical center on the other side.

Also at the water stands Dominique Perrault's DC Tower (2010-13) in the Danube City - those high-rise city, in which since the start of construction in 1996, the expansion of the city north of the Danube is condensed symbolically. Even in this environment, the slim and at the same time striking vertically folded tower of Perrault is beyond all known dimensions; from its Sky Bar, from spring 2014 on you are able to enjoy the highest view of Vienna. With 250 meters, the tower is the tallest building of Austria and almost twice as high as the St. Stephen's Cathedral. Vienna, thus, has acquired a new architectural landmark which cannot be overlooked - whether it also has the potential to become a landmark of the new Vienna, only time will tell. The architectural history of Vienna, where European history is presence and new buildings enter into an exciting and not always conflict-free dialogue with a great and outstanding architectural heritage, in any case has yet to offer exciting chapters.

Info: The folder "Architecture: From Art Nouveau to the Presence" is available at the Vienna Tourist Board and can be downloaded on www.wien.info/media/files/guide-architecture-in-wien.pdf.

OPEL Kadett (1988) / RUE FOSSE-AUX-LOUPS / PHOTO JEAN-PIERRE MARISSENS

Exploité par la société Farafina Tours qui dispose d'une flotte hétéroclite de cars de seconde main venus d'Europe (Setra S213RL, Renault Tracer...) ou d'Asie.

Premier jour d'exploitation de la Ligne C16 du réseau TCL avec les nouveaux bus électriques Heuliez GX337 Linium E ! Le 3913 assure la Voiture n°1 de la Ligne C16, et fait le tout premier départ de la journée depuis Surville Route de Vienne à 4h50, à destination de Charpennes Charles Hernu.

Glastonbury is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, 23 miles (37 km) south of Bristol. The town had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbury is less than 1 mile (2 km) across the River Brue from Street, which is now larger than Glastonbury.

 

Evidence from timber trackways such as the Sweet Track show that the town has been inhabited since Neolithic times. Glastonbury Lake Village was an Iron Age village, close to the old course of the River Brue and Sharpham Park approximately 2 miles (3 km) west of Glastonbury, that dates back to the Bronze Age. Centwine was the first Saxon patron of Glastonbury Abbey, which dominated the town for the next 700 years. One of the most important abbeys in England, it was the site of Edmund Ironside's coronation as King of England in 1016. Many of the oldest surviving buildings in the town, including the Tribunal, George Hotel and Pilgrims' Inn and the Somerset Rural Life Museum, which is based at the site of a 14th-century abbey manor barn, often referred to as a tithe barn, are associated with the abbey. The Church of St John the Baptist dates from the 15th century.

 

The town became a centre for commerce, which led to the construction of the market cross, Glastonbury Canal and the Glastonbury and Street railway station, the largest station on the original Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. The Brue Valley Living Landscape is a conservation project managed by the Somerset Wildlife Trust and nearby is the Ham Wall National Nature Reserve.

 

Glastonbury has been described as having a New Age community, and possibly being where New Age beliefs originated at the turn of the twentieth century. It is notable for myths and legends often related to Glastonbury Tor, concerning Joseph of Arimathea, the Holy Grail and King Arthur. Joseph is said to have arrived in Glastonbury and stuck his staff into the ground, when it flowered miraculously into the Glastonbury Thorn. The presence of a landscape zodiac around the town has been suggested but no evidence has been discovered. The Glastonbury Festival, held in the nearby village of Pilton, takes its name from the town.

 

Glastonbury is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, 23 miles (37 km) south of Bristol. The town had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbury is less than 1 mile (2 km) across the River Brue from Street, which is now larger than Glastonbury.

 

Evidence from timber trackways such as the Sweet Track show that the town has been inhabited since Neolithic times. Glastonbury Lake Village was an Iron Age village, close to the old course of the River Brue and Sharpham Park approximately 2 miles (3 km) west of Glastonbury, that dates back to the Bronze Age. Centwine was the first Saxon patron of Glastonbury Abbey, which dominated the town for the next 700 years. One of the most important abbeys in England, it was the site of Edmund Ironside's coronation as King of England in 1016. Many of the oldest surviving buildings in the town, including the Tribunal, George Hotel and Pilgrims' Inn and the Somerset Rural Life Museum, which is based at the site of a 14th-century abbey manor barn,[5] often referred to as a tithe barn, are associated with the abbey. The Church of St John the Baptist dates from the 15th century.

 

The town became a centre for commerce, which led to the construction of the market cross, Glastonbury Canal and the Glastonbury and Street railway station, the largest station on the original Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. The Brue Valley Living Landscape is a conservation project managed by the Somerset Wildlife Trust and nearby is the Ham Wall National Nature Reserve.

 

Glastonbury has been described as having a New Age community, and possibly being where New Age beliefs originated at the turn of the twentieth century. It is notable for myths and legends often related to Glastonbury Tor, concerning Joseph of Arimathea, the Holy Grail and King Arthur. Joseph is said to have arrived in Glastonbury and stuck his staff into the ground, when it flowered miraculously into the Glastonbury Thorn. The presence of a landscape zodiac around the town has been suggested but no evidence has been discovered. The Glastonbury Festival, held in the nearby village of Pilton, takes its name from the town.

 

During the 7th millennium BC the sea level rose and flooded the valleys and low-lying ground surrounding Glastonbury so the Mesolithic people occupied seasonal camps on the higher ground, indicated by scatters of flints. The Neolithic people continued to exploit the reedswamps for their natural resources and started to construct wooden trackways. These included the Sweet Track, west of Glastonbury, which is one of the oldest engineered roads known and was the oldest timber trackway discovered in Northern Europe, until the 2009 discovery of a 6,000-year-old trackway in Belmarsh Prison. Tree-ring dating (dendrochronology) of the timbers has enabled very precise dating of the track, showing it was built in 3807 or 3806 BC. It has been claimed to be the oldest road in the world. The track was discovered in the course of peat digging in 1970, and is named after its discoverer, Ray Sweet. It extended across the marsh between what was then an island at Westhay, and a ridge of high ground at Shapwick, a distance close to 2,000 metres (1.2 mi). The track is one of a network of tracks that once crossed the Somerset Levels. Built in the 39th century BC, during the Neolithic period, the track consisted of crossed poles of ash, oak and lime (Tilia) which were driven into the waterlogged soil to support a walkway that mainly consisted of oak planks laid end-to-end. Since the discovery of the Sweet Track, it has been determined that it was built along the route of an even earlier track, the Post Track, dating from 3838 BC, and so 30 years older.

 

Glastonbury Lake Village was an Iron Age village, close to the old course of the River Brue, on the Somerset Levels near Godney, some 3 miles (5 km) north west of Glastonbury. It covers an area of 400 feet (120 m) north to south by 300 feet (90 m) east to west, and housed around 100 people in five to seven groups of houses, each for an extended family, with sheds and barns, made of hazel and willow covered with reeds, and surrounded either permanently or at certain times by a wooden palisade. The village was built in about 300 BC and occupied into the early Roman period (around AD 100) when it was abandoned, possibly due to a rise in the water level. It was built on a morass on an artificial foundation of timber filled with brushwood, bracken, rubble and clay.

 

Sharpham Park is a 300-acre (120-hectare) historic park, 2 miles (3 km) west of Glastonbury, which dates back to the Bronze Age.

 

Glæstyngabyrig. When the settlement is first recorded in the 7th and the early 8th century, it was called Glestingaburg. The burg element is Old English and could refer either to a fortified place such as a burh or, more likely, a monastic enclosure; however the Glestinga element is obscure, and may derive from a Celtic personal name or from Old English (either from a name or otherwise). It may derive from a person or kindred group named Glast. The name however is likely related to an Irish individual named Glas mac Caise 'Glas son of Cas'. Glas is an ancient Irish personal name meaning 'green, grey/green'. It is stated in the Life of St Patrick that he resurrected a swineherder by that name and he went to Glastonbury, to an area of the village known as 'Glastonbury of the Irish' and this could well be referring to the area of Beckery (Little Ireland) where it is believed an Irish Colony established itself in the 10th century and was thus nicknamed 'Little Ireland'. This area was known to the Irish as Glastimbir na n-Gaoidhil 'Glastonbury of the Gaels'. (The Archaeology and History of Glastonbury Abbey - Courteney Arthur Ralegh Radford). This is the earliest source for the name Glastonbury. The modern Irish form for Glastonbury is Glaistimbir.

 

Hugh Ross Williamson cites a tale about St. Collen, one of the earliest hermits to inhabit the Tor before the Abbey was built by St. Patrick, which has the Saint summoned by the King of the Fairies, Gwyn, to the summit of the Tor. Upon arrival there he beholds a hovering mansion inhabited by handsomely dressed courtiers and King Gwyn on a throne of gold; holy water disperses the apparition. This is from Druid mythology, in which the mansion is made of glass so as to receive the spirits of the dead, which were supposed to depart from the summit of the Tor. This was the chief reason why the chapel, and later the church, of St. Michael were built on the high hill; St. Michael being the chief patron against diabolic attacks which the monks believed the Fairy King to be numbered among. Accordingly, Williamson posits that the Tor was named after the glassy mansion of the dead.

 

William of Malmesbury in his De Antiquitate Glastonie Ecclesie gives the Old Celtic Ineswitrin (or Ynys Witrin) as its earliest name, and asserts that the founder of the town was the eponymous Glast, a descendant of Cunedda.

 

Centwine (676–685) was the first Saxon patron of Glastonbury Abbey. King Edmund Ironside was buried at the abbey. The Domesday Book indicates that in the hundred of Glastingberiensis, the Abbey was the Lord in 1066 prior to the arrival of William the Conqueror then tenant-in chief with Godwin as Lord of Glastingberi in 1086.

 

To the southwest of the town centre is Beckery, which was once a village in its own right but is now part of the suburbs. Around the 7th and 8th centuries it was occupied by a small monastic community associated with a cemetery. Archaeological excavations in 2016 uncovered 50 to 60 skeletons thought to be those of monks from Beckery Chapel during the 5th or early 6th century.

 

Sharpham Park was granted by King Eadwig to the then abbot Æthelwold in 957. In 1191 Sharpham Park was gifted by the soon-to-be King John I to the Abbots of Glastonbury, who remained in possession of the park and house until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539. From 1539 to 1707 the park was owned by the Duke of Somerset, Sir Edward Seymour, brother of Queen Jane; the Thynne family of Longleat, and the family of Sir Henry Gould. Edward Dyer was born here in 1543. The house is now a private residence and Grade II* listed building. It was the birthplace of Sir Edward Dyer (died 1607) an Elizabethan poet and courtier, the writer Henry Fielding (1707–54), and the cleric William Gould.

 

In the 1070s St Margaret's Chapel was built on Magdelene Street, originally as a hospital and later as almshouses for the poor. The building dates from 1444. The roof of the hall is thought to have been removed after the Dissolution, and some of the building was demolished in the 1960s. It is Grade II* listed, and a scheduled monument. Hospital of St Mary Magdalene, Glastonbury in 2010 plans were announced to restore the building.

 

During the Middle Ages the town largely depended on the abbey but was also a centre for the wool trade until the 18th century. A Saxon-era canal connected the abbey to the River Brue. Richard Whiting, the last Abbot of Glastonbury, was executed with two of his monks on 15 November 1539 during the dissolution of the monasteries.

 

During the Second Cornish Uprising of 1497 Perkin Warbeck surrendered when he heard that Giles, Lord Daubeney's troops, loyal to Henry VII, were camped at Glastonbury.

 

In 1693 Glastenbury, Connecticut was founded and named after the English town from which some of the settlers had emigrated. It is rumored to have originally been called "Glistening Town" until the mid-19th century, when the name was changed to match the spelling of Glastonbury, England, but in fact, residents of the Connecticut town believe this to be a myth, based on the Glastonbury Historical Society's records. A representation of the Glastonbury thorn is incorporated onto the town seal.

 

The Somerset town's charter of incorporation was received in 1705. Growth in the trade and economy largely depended on the drainage of the surrounding moors. The opening of the Glastonbury Canal produced an upturn in trade, and encouraged local building. The parish was part of the hundred of Glaston Twelve Hides, until the 1730s when it became a borough in its own right.

 

By the middle of the 19th century the Glastonbury Canal drainage problems and competition from the new railways caused a decline in trade, and the town's economy became depressed. The canal was closed on 1 July 1854, and the lock and aqueducts on the upper section were dismantled. The railway opened on 17 August 1854. The lower sections of the canal were given to the Commissioners for Sewers, for use as a drainage ditch. The final section was retained to provide a wharf for the railway company, which was used until 1936, when it passed to the Commissioners of Sewers and was filled in. The Central Somerset Railway merged with the Dorset Central Railway to become the Somerset and Dorset Railway. The main line to Glastonbury closed in 1966.

 

In the Northover district industrial production of sheepskins, woollen slippers and, later, boots and shoes, developed in conjunction with the growth of C&J Clark in Street. Clarks still has its headquarters in Street, but shoes are no longer manufactured there. Instead, in 1993, redundant factory buildings were converted to form Clarks Village, the first purpose-built factory outlet in the United Kingdom.

 

During the 19th and 20th centuries tourism developed based on the rise of antiquarianism, the association with the abbey and mysticism of the town. This was aided by accessibility via the rail and road network, which has continued to support the town's economy and led to a steady rise in resident population since 1801.

 

Glastonbury received national media coverage in 1999 when cannabis plants were found in the town's floral displays.

 

Glastonbury is notable for myths and legends concerning Joseph of Arimathea, the Holy Grail and King Arthur as recorded by ancient historians William of Malmesbury, Venerable Bede, Gerald of Wales and Geoffrey of Monmouth. Many long-standing and cherished legends were examined in a four-year study by archaeologists, led by Professor Roberta Gilchrist, at the University of Reading, who, amongst other findings, speculated that the connection with King Arthur and his Queen, Guinevere, was created deliberately by the monks in 1184 to meet a financial crisis caused by a devastating fire. Other myths examined include the visit by Jesus, the building of the oldest church in England, and the flowering of the walking stick. Roberta Gilchrist stated, "We didn't claim to disprove the legendary associations, nor would we wish to". The site of King Arthur's supposed grave contained material dating from between the 11th and 15th centuries. Gilchrist said, "That doesn't dispel the Arthurian legend, it just means the pit [20th century archaeologist Ralegh Radford] excavated he rather over-claimed." The study made new archaeological finds; its leader found Glastonbury to be a remarkable archaeological site. The new results were reported on the Glastonbury Abbey Web site, and were to be incorporated into the Abbey's guidebook; however, the leader of the study, who became a trustee of Glastonbury, said "We are not in the business of destroying people's beliefs ... A thousand years of beliefs and legends are part of the intangible history of this remarkable place". Gilchrist went on to say, "archaeology can help us to understand how legends evolve and what people in the past believed". She noted that the project has actually uncovered the first definitive proof of occupation at the Glastonbury Abbey site during the fifth century—when Arthur allegedly lived.

 

The legend that Joseph of Arimathea retrieved certain holy relics was introduced by the French poet Robert de Boron in his 13th-century version of the grail story, thought to have been a trilogy though only fragments of the later books survive today. The work became the inspiration for the later Vulgate Cycle of Arthurian tales.

 

De Boron's account relates how Joseph captured Jesus's blood in a cup (the "Holy Grail") which was subsequently brought to Britain. The Vulgate Cycle reworked Boron's original tale. Joseph of Arimathea was no longer the chief character in the Grail origin: Joseph's son, Josephus, took over his role of the Grail keeper. The earliest versions of the grail romance, however, do not call the grail "holy" or mention anything about blood, Joseph or Glastonbury.

 

In 1191, monks at the abbey claimed to have found the graves of Arthur and Guinevere to the south of the Lady Chapel of the Abbey Church, which was visited by a number of contemporary historians including Giraldus Cambrensis. The remains were later moved and were lost during the Reformation. Many scholars suspect that this discovery was a pious forgery to substantiate the antiquity of Glastonbury's foundation, and increase its renown.

 

An early Welsh poem links Arthur to the Tor in an account of a confrontation between Arthur and Melwas, who had kidnapped Queen Guinevere.

 

Joseph is said to have arrived in Glastonbury by boat over the flooded Somerset Levels. On disembarking he stuck his staff into the ground and it flowered miraculously into the Glastonbury Thorn (also called Holy Thorn). This is said to explain a hybrid Crataegus monogyna (hawthorn) tree that only grows within a few miles of Glastonbury, and which flowers twice annually, once in spring and again around Christmas time (depending on the weather). Each year a sprig of thorn is cut, by the local Anglican vicar and the eldest child from St John's School, and sent to the Queen.

 

The original Holy Thorn was a centre of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages but was chopped down during the English Civil War. A replacement thorn was planted in the 20th century on Wearyall hill (originally in 1951 to mark the Festival of Britain, but the thorn had to be replanted the following year as the first attempt did not take). The Wearyall Hill Holy Thorn was vandalised in 2010 and all its branches were chopped off. It initially showed signs of recovery but now (2014) appears to be dead. A new sapling has been planted nearby. Many other examples of the thorn grow throughout Glastonbury including those in the grounds of Glastonbury Abbey, St Johns Church and Chalice Well.

 

Today, Glastonbury Abbey presents itself as "traditionally the oldest above-ground Christian church in the world," which according to the legend was built at Joseph's behest to house the Holy Grail, 65 or so years after the death of Jesus. The legend also says that as a child, Jesus had visited Glastonbury along with Joseph. The legend probably was encouraged during the medieval period when religious relics and pilgrimages were profitable business for abbeys. William Blake mentioned the legend in a poem that became a popular hymn, "Jerusalem".

 

In 1934 artist Katherine Maltwood suggested a landscape zodiac, a map of the stars on a gigantic scale, formed by features in the landscape such as roads, streams and field boundaries, could be found situated around Glastonbury. She held that the "temple" was created by Sumerians about 2700 BC. The idea of a prehistoric landscape zodiac fell into disrepute when two independent studies examined the Glastonbury Zodiac, one by Ian Burrow in 1975 and the other by Tom Williamson and Liz Bellamy in 1983. These both used standard methods of landscape historical research. Both studies concluded that the evidence contradicted the idea of an ancient zodiac. The eye of Capricorn identified by Maltwood was a haystack. The western wing of the Aquarius phoenix was a road laid in 1782 to run around Glastonbury, and older maps dating back to the 1620s show the road had no predecessors. The Cancer boat (not a crab as in conventional western astrology) consists of a network of 18th-century drainage ditches and paths. There are some Neolithic paths preserved in the peat of the bog formerly comprising most of the area, but none of the known paths match the lines of the zodiac features. There is no support for this theory, or for the existence of the "temple" in any form, from conventional archaeologists. Glastonbury is also said to be the centre of several ley lines.

 

The town council is made up of 16 members, and is based at Glastonbury Town Hall, Magdalene Street. The town hall was built in 1814 and has a two-storey late Georgian ashlar front. It is a Grade II* listed building.

 

For local government purposes, since 1 April 2023, Glastonbury comes under the unitary authority of Somerset Council. Prior to this, it was part of the non-metropolitan district of Mendip, which was formed on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, having previously been part of Glastonbury Municipal Borough.

 

The town's retained fire station is operated by Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service. Police and ambulance services are provided by Avon and Somerset Constabulary and the South Western Ambulance Service. There are two doctors' surgeries in Glastonbury, and a National Health Service community hospital operated by Somerset Primary Care Trust which opened in 2005.

 

There are 4 electoral wards within Glastonbury having in total the same population as is mentioned above.

 

Glastonbury falls within the Wells constituency, represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. The Member of Parliament is Conservative, James Heappey, who replaced Tessa Munt of the Liberal Democrats in the 2015 general election.

 

Glastonbury is twinned with the Greek island of Patmos, and Lalibela, Ethiopia.

 

The walk up the Tor to the distinctive tower at the summit (the partially restored remains of an old church) is rewarded by vistas of the mid-Somerset area, including the Levels which are drained marshland. From there, on a dry point, 158 metres (518 ft) above sea level, it is easy to appreciate how Glastonbury was once an island and, in the winter, the surrounding moors are often flooded, giving that appearance once more. It is an agricultural region typically with open fields of permanent grass, surrounded by ditches with willow trees. Access to the moors and Levels is by "droves", i.e., green lanes. The Levels and inland moors can be 6 metres (20 ft) below peak tides and have large areas of peat. The low-lying areas are underlain by much older Triassic age formations of Upper Lias sand that protrude to form what would once have been islands and include Glastonbury Tor. The lowland landscape was formed only during the last 10,000 years, following the end of the last ice age.

 

The low-lying damp ground can produce a visual effect known as a Fata Morgana. This optical phenomenon occurs because rays of light are strongly bent when they pass through air layers of different temperatures in a steep thermal inversion where an atmospheric duct has formed. The Italian name Fata Morgana is derived from the name of Morgan le Fay, who was alternatively known as Morgane, Morgain, Morgana and other variants. Morgan le Fay was described as a powerful sorceress and antagonist of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere in the Arthurian legend.

 

Glastonbury is less than 1 mile (2 km) across the River Brue from the village of Street. At the time of King Arthur the Brue formed a lake just south of the hilly ground on which Glastonbury stands. This lake is one of the locations suggested by Arthurian legend as the home of the Lady of the Lake. Pomparles Bridge stood at the western end of this lake, guarding Glastonbury from the south, and it is suggested that it was here that Sir Bedivere threw Excalibur into the waters after King Arthur fell at the Battle of Camlann. The old bridge was replaced by a reinforced concrete arch bridge in 1911.

 

Until the 13th century, the direct route to the sea at Highbridge was prevented by gravel banks and peat near Westhay. The course of the river partially encircled Glastonbury from the south, around the western side (through Beckery), and then north through the Panborough-Bleadney gap in the Wedmore-Wookey Hills, to join the River Axe just north of Bleadney. This route made it difficult for the officials of Glastonbury Abbey to transport produce from their outlying estates to the abbey, and when the valley of the River Axe was in flood it backed up to flood Glastonbury itself. Some time between 1230 and 1250 a new channel was constructed westwards into Meare Pool north of Meare, and further westwards to Mark Moor. The Brue Valley Living Landscape is a conservation project based on the Somerset Levels and Moors and managed by the Somerset Wildlife Trust. The project commenced in January 2009 and aims to restore, recreate and reconnect habitat, ensuring that wildlife is enhanced and capable of sustaining itself in the face of climate change, while guaranteeing farmers and other landowners can continue to use their land profitably. It is one of an increasing number of landscape-scale conservation projects in the UK.

 

The Ham Wall National Nature Reserve, 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) west of Glastonbury, is managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. This new wetland habitat has been established from out peat diggings and now consists of areas of reedbed, wet scrub, open water and peripheral grassland and woodland. Bird species living on the site include the bearded tit and the Eurasian bittern.

 

The Whitelake River rises between two low limestone ridges to the north of Glastonbury, part of the southern edge of the Mendip Hills. The confluence of the two small streams that make the Whitelake River is on Worthy Farm, the site of the Glastonbury Festival, between the small villages of Pilton and Pylle.

 

Along with the rest of South West England, Glastonbury has a temperate climate which is generally wetter and milder than the rest of the country. The annual mean temperature is approximately 10 °C (50.0 °F). Seasonal temperature variation is less extreme than most of the United Kingdom because of the adjacent sea temperatures. The summer months of July and August are the warmest with mean daily maxima of approximately 21 °C (69.8 °F). In winter mean minimum temperatures of 1 or 2 °C (33.8 or 35.6 °F) are common. In the summer the Azores high pressure affects the south-west of England, however convective cloud sometimes forms inland, reducing the number of hours of sunshine. Annual sunshine rates are slightly less than the regional average of 1,600 hours. In December 1998 there were 20 days without sun recorded at Yeovilton. Most of the rainfall in the south-west is caused by Atlantic depressions or by convection. Most of the rainfall in autumn and winter is caused by the Atlantic depressions, which is when they are most active. In summer, a large proportion of the rainfall is caused by sun heating the ground leading to convection and to showers and thunderstorms. Average rainfall is around 700 mm (28 in). About 8–15 days of snowfall is typical. November to March have the highest mean wind speeds, and June to August have the lightest winds. The predominant wind direction is from the south-west.

 

Glastonbury is a centre for religious tourism and pilgrimage. As with many towns of similar size, the centre is not as thriving as it once was but Glastonbury supports a large number of alternative shops.

 

The outskirts of the town contain a DIY shop, a former sheepskin and slipper factory site, once owned by Morlands, which is slowly being redeveloped. The 31-acre (13 ha) site of the old Morlands factory was scheduled for demolition and redevelopment into a new light industrial park, although there have been some protests that the buildings should be reused rather than being demolished. As part of the redevelopment of the site a project has been established by the Glastonbury Community Development Trust to provide support for local unemployed people applying for employment, starting in self-employment and accessing work-related training.

 

According to the Glastonbury Conservation Area Appraisal of July 2010, there are approximately 170 listed buildings or structures in the town's designated conservation area, of which eight are listed grade I, six are listed grade II* and the remainder are listed grade II.

 

The Tribunal was a medieval merchant's house, used as the Abbey courthouse and, during the Monmouth Rebellion trials, by Judge Jeffreys. It now serves as a museum containing possessions and works of art from the Glastonbury Lake Village which were preserved in almost perfect condition in the peat after the village was abandoned. The museum is run by the Glastonbury Antiquarian Society. The building also houses the tourist information centre.

 

The octagonal Market Cross was built in 1846 by Benjamin Ferrey.

 

The George Hotel and Pilgrims' Inn was built in the late 15th century to accommodate visitors to Glastonbury Abbey, which is open to visitors. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building. The front of the 3-storey building is divided into 3 tiers of panels with traceried heads. Above the right of centre entrance are 3 carved panels with arms of the Abbey and Edward IV.

 

The Somerset Rural Life Museum is a museum of the social and agricultural history of Somerset, housed in buildings surrounding a 14th-century barn once belonging to Glastonbury Abbey. It was used for the storage of arable produce, particularly wheat and rye, from the abbey's home farm of approximately 524 acres (2.12 km2). Threshing and winnowing would also have been carried out in the barn, which was built from local shelly limestone with thick timbers supporting the stone tiling of the roof. It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade I listed building, and is a scheduled monument.

 

The Chalice Well is a holy well at the foot of the Tor, covered by a wooden well-cover with wrought-iron decoration made in 1919. The natural spring has been in almost constant use for at least two thousand years. Water issues from the spring at a rate of 25,000 imperial gallons (110,000 L; 30,000 US gal) per day and has never failed, even during drought. Iron oxide deposits give the water a reddish hue, as dissolved ferrous oxide becomes oxygenated at the surface and is precipitated, providing chalybeate waters. As with the hot springs in nearby Bath, the water is believed to possess healing qualities. The well is about 9 feet (2.7 m) deep, with two underground chambers at its bottom. It is often portrayed as a symbol of the female aspect of deity, with the male symbolised by Glastonbury Tor (however, some consider Glastonbury Tor to be a 'hugh bounteous female figure'). As such, it is a popular destination for pilgrims in search of the divine feminine, including modern Pagans. The well is however popular with all faiths and in 2001 became a World Peace Garden.

 

Just a short distance from the Chalice Well site, across a road known as Well House Lane, can be found the "White Spring", where a temple has been created in the 21st century. Whilst the waters of the Chalice Well are touched red with iron, the water of the latter is white with calcite. Some people consider the red water of Chalice Well to have male properties, whilst the white water of White Spring has female qualities. Both springs rise from caverns underneath the Tor and it is claimed that both have healing in their flow.

 

The building now used as the White Spring Temple was originally a Victorian-built well house, erected by the local water board in 1872. Around that time, an outbreak of cholera in the area caused great concern and the natural caves were dug out, and a stone collection chamber was constructed to ensure the flow of a quality water supply. Study of the flow of water into the collection chamber has shown that the builders also tapped into other springs, besides the White Spring and judging from the high iron content of one of these springs, it appears that a small offshoot of Chalice Well finds its way under Well House Lane to emerge beside the White Spring. However, after building the reservoir, the water board soon discovered that the high calciferous content of the water caused pipes to block and by the end of the 19th century water was piped into Glastonbury from out of town. After lying derelict for many years, the water board sold off the well house, which is now maintained by a group of volunteers as a "water temple". On the outside of the building is a tap where visitors and locals can collect the water of the White Spring.

 

The Glastonbury Canal ran just over 14 miles (23 km) through two locks from Glastonbury to Highbridge where it entered the Bristol Channel in the early 19th century, but it became uneconomic with the arrival of the railway in the 1840s.

 

Glastonbury and Street railway station was the biggest station on the original Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway main line from Highbridge to Evercreech Junction until closed in 1966 under the Beeching axe. Opened in 1854 as Glastonbury, and renamed in 1886, it had three platforms, two for Evercreech to Highbridge services and one for the branch service to Wells. The station had a large goods yard controlled from a signal box. The site is now a timber yard for a local company. Replica level crossing gates have been placed at the entrance.

 

The nearest railway station is at Castle Cary but there is no direct bus route linking it to Glastonbury. There are convenient bus connections between Glastonbury and the railway stations at Bristol Temple Meads (over an hour travelling time) and at Taunton. It is also served by Berrys Coaches daily 'Superfast' service to and from London.

 

The main road in the town is the A39 which passes through Glastonbury from Wells connecting the town with Street and the M5 motorway. The other roads around the town are small and run across the levels generally following the drainage ditches. Local bus services are provided by Buses of Somerset (part of First), First West of England, Frome Bus & Libra Travel. The main routes are to Bristol via Wells, to Bridgwater, to Yeovil via Street and to Taunton.There is also a coach service to London Victoria provided by Berrys.

 

Television programmes and local news is provided by BBC West and ITV West Country from the Mendip TV transmitter.

 

Local radio stations are BBC Radio Somerset on 95.5 FM, Heart West on 102.6 FM, Greatest Hits Radio South West on 102.4 FM, Worthy FM on 87.7 FM which broadcast during The Glastonbury Festival and GWS Radio on 107.1 FM, a community radio station.

 

The town’s local newspapers are the Mid Somerset Series, Western Daily Press, Somerset County Gazette and Somerset Live.

 

There are several infant and primary schools in Glastonbury and the surrounding villages. Secondary education is provided by St Dunstan's School. In 2017, the school had 327 students between the ages of 11 and 16 years. It is named after St. Dunstan, an abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, who went on to become the Archbishop of Canterbury in 960 AD. The school was built in 1958 with major building work, at a cost of £1.2 million, in 1998, adding the science block and the sports hall. It was designated as a specialist Arts College in 2004, and the £800,000 spent at this time paid for the Performing Arts studio and facilities to support students with special educational needs. Tor School is a pupil referral unit based on Beckery New Road, which caters for 14-16-year-old students who have been excluded from mainstream education, or who have been referred for medical reasons.

 

Strode College in Street provides academic and vocational courses for those aged 16–18 and adult education. A tertiary institution and further education college, most of the courses it offers are A-levels or Business and Technology Education Councils (BTECs). The college also provides some university-level courses, and is part of The University of Plymouth Colleges network.

 

Glastonbury may have been a site of religious importance in pre-Christian times. The abbey was founded by Britons, and dates to at least the early 7th century, although later medieval Christian legend claimed that the abbey was founded by Joseph of Arimathea in the 1st century. This legend is intimately tied to Robert de Boron's version of the Holy Grail story and to Glastonbury's connection to King Arthur, which dates at least to the early 12th century. William of Malmesbury called this structure "the oldest church in England," and thenceforth it was known simply as the Old Church, inasmuch as it had existed for many years prior to the 7th century as a Celtic religious centre. In his "History of the English Church and People," written in the early eighth century, the Venerable Bede provides details regarding its construction to early missionaries. Glastonbury fell into Saxon hands after the Battle of Peonnum in 658. King Ine of Wessex enriched the endowment of the community of monks already established at Glastonbury. He is said to have directed that a stone church be built in 712. The Abbey Church was enlarged in the 10th century by the Abbot of Glastonbury, Saint Dunstan, the central figure in the 10th-century revival of English monastic life. He instituted the Benedictine Rule at Glastonbury and built new cloisters. Dunstan became Archbishop of Canterbury in 960. In 1184, a great fire at Glastonbury destroyed the monastic buildings. Reconstruction began almost immediately and the Lady Chapel, which includes the well, was consecrated in 1186.

 

The abbey had a violent end during the Dissolution and the buildings were progressively destroyed as their stones were removed for use in local building work. The remains of the Abbot's Kitchen (a grade I listed building.) and the Lady Chapel are particularly well-preserved set in 36 acres (150,000 m2) of parkland. It is approached by the Abbey Gatehouse which was built in the mid-14th century and completely restored in 1810.

 

There is also a strong Irish connection to Glastonbury as it is said to be along a route of pilgrimage from Ireland to Rome. It is supposed that St. Patrick and St. Brigid both came to the area and both Saints are documented by William of Malmesbury as having done so. There are Chapels named after them too - St. Patrick's Chapel, Glastonbury is within the Abbey grounds and St. Brigid's Chapel is at Beckery (Little Ireland).

 

The Church of St Benedict was rebuilt by Abbot Richard Beere in about 1520. This is now an Anglican church and is linked with the parishes of St John's Church in Glastonbury and St Mary's & All Saints Church in the village of Meare as a joint benefice.

 

Described as "one of the most ambitious parish churches in Somerset", the current Church of St John the Baptist dates from the 15th century and has been designated as a Grade I listed building. The church is laid out in a cruciform plan with an aisled nave and a clerestorey of seven bays. The west tower has elaborate buttressing, panelling and battlements and at 134½ feet (about 41 metres), is the second tallest parish church tower in Somerset. Recent excavations in the nave have revealed the foundations of a large central tower, possibly of Saxon origin, and a later Norman nave arcade on the same plan as the existing one. A central tower survived until the 15th century, but is believed to have collapsed, at which time the church was rebuilt. The interior of the church includes four 15th-century tomb-chests, some 15th-century stained glass in the chancel, medieval vestments, and a domestic cupboard of about 1500 which was once at Witham Charterhouse.

 

In the centuries that followed the Reformation, many religious denominations came to Glastonbury to establish chapels and meeting houses. For such a relatively small town, Glastonbury has a remarkably diverse history of Christian places of worship, further enriched by the fact that several of these movements saw break-away factions, typically setting up new meeting places as a result of doctrinal disagreements, leaving behind them a legacy which would require a highly specialized degree of study in order to chart their respective histories and places of practice. Amongst their number have been Puritans/Undetermined Protestants, Quakers, Independents, Baptists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists, Salvationists, Plymouth Brethren, Jehovah's Witnesses and Pentecostals.

 

The United Reformed Church on the High Street was built in 1814 and altered in 1898. It stands on the site of the Ship Inn where meetings were held during the 18th century. It is Grade II listed.

 

Glastonbury Methodist Church on Lambrook Street was built in 1843 and has a galleried interior, typical of a non-conformist chapel of that period, but an unusual number of stained glass windows. Close by the front of the church is an ancient pond, which was later covered to form a brick-arched reservoir. This is mentioned in property deeds of 1821, and is still accessible, containing approximately 31,500 gallons of water.

 

The Methodist Church on Lambrook street was originally the Glastonbury Wesleyan Methodist Chapel. A Primitive Methodist Chapel was built on Northload Street in 1844, with an adjoining house added for a minister in 1869. This chapel was closed in 1968, since which time it has had a number of different uses, being described in 2007 as the Maitreya Monastery, prior to which it had been the Archangel Michael Soul Therapy Centre.

 

The Bove Town Gospel Hall has been a place of worship in the town since at least 1889, when it was listed as a mission of the Plymouth Brethren. Jehovah's Witnesses originally occupied a Kingdom Hall on Archer's Way from 1942. This transferred to Church Lane in 1964, and subsequently to its present site on Old Wells Road. The Gospel Hall was registered for the solemnizing of marriages in 1964

 

The Catholic Church of Our Lady St Mary of Glastonbury was built, on land near to the Abbey, in 1939. A statue based on a 14th-century metal seal was blessed in 1955 and crowned in 1965 restoring the Marian shrine that had been in the Abbey prior to the reformation. The Shrine is now the home of the Community of Our Lady of Glastonbury, a Catholic Benedictine Monastery founded in August 2019.

 

The Glastonbury Order of Druids was formed on Mayday 1988.

 

Sufism has been long established in Glastonbury. Zikrs are held weekly in private homes, and on the first Sunday of every month a zikr is held at St Margaret's Chapel in Magdalene Street. A Sufi charity shop was established in Glastonbury in 1999, and supports missionary work in Africa. This shop was opened after Sheikh Nazim came to Glastonbury to visit the Abbey. Here he declared, "This is the spiritual heart of England ... It is from here that the spiritual new age will begin and to here that Jesus will return".

 

The pagan Glastonbury Goddess Temple was founded in 2002 and registered as a place of worship the following year. It is self-described as the first temple of its kind to exist in Europe in over a thousand years.

 

In April 2012, it was reported by The Guardian newspaper that, according to the Pilgrim Reception Centre in the town, Glastonbury had around seventy different faith groups. Some of these groups attended a special ceremony to celebrate this diversity, held in the Chalice Well Gardens on 21 April of that year.

 

The 22nd Jagannatha Ratha-yatra Krishna Festival took place in Glastonbury on Sunday 4 October 2015. Devotees of the Krishna Consciousness movement travelled to the town from London, Bath, Bristol and elsewhere to join with locals in a procession and Kirtan.

 

Glastonbury also headquarters the British Orthodox Church which is independent Oriental Orthodox denomination since 2015

 

Glastonbury has a particular significance for members of the Baháʼí Faith in that Wellesley Tudor Pole, founder of the Chalice Well Trust, was one of the earliest and most prominent adherents of this faith in the United Kingdom.

 

The local football team is Glastonbury F.C. They joined the Western Football League in 1919 and have won the Western Football League title three times in their history. The club are now playing in the Somerset County Football League.

 

Glastonbury Cricket Club previously competed in the West of England Premier League, one of the ECB Premier Leagues, the highest level of recreational cricket in England and Wales. The club plays at the Tor Leisure Ground, which used to stage Somerset County Cricket Club first-class fixtures.

 

The town is on the route of the Samaritans Way South West.

 

In a 1904 novel by Charles Whistler entitled A Prince of Cornwall Glastonbury in the days of Ine of Wessex is portrayed. It is also a setting in the Warlord Chronicles, a trilogy of books about Arthurian Britain written by Bernard Cornwell. Modern fiction has also used Glastonbury as a setting including The Age of Misrule series of books by Mark Chadbourn in which the Watchmen appear, a group selected from Anglican priests in and around Glastonbury to safeguard knowledge of a gate to the Otherworld on top of Glastonbury Tor. John Cowper Powys's novel A Glastonbury Romance is set in Glastonbury and is concerned with the Grail. The historical mystery novel Grave Goods by Diana Norman (writing under the pen name Ariana Frankin) is set in Glastonbury just after the abbey fire and concerns the supposed graves of Arthur and Guinevere, as well as featuring other landmarks such as the Tor.

 

The Children's World charity grew out of the festival and is based in the town. It is known internationally (as Children's World International). It was set up by Arabella Churchill in 1981 to provide drama participation and creative play and to work creatively in educational settings, providing social and emotional benefits for all children, particularly those with special needs. Children's World International is the sister charity of Children's World and was started in 1999 to work with children in the Balkans, in conjunction with Balkan Sunflowers and Save the Children. They also run the Glastonbury Children's Festival each August.

 

The local Brass Band is Glastonbury Brass which is currently placed in the first section for the West of England area. The band was founded in 2017 when the old Yeovil Town Band relocated after running into financial difficulty following a "notice to quit" on its rehearsal facility in September 2016. The band is featured twice on the Haiku Salut album There Is No Elsewhere (2018) and can be heard on the tracks Cold To Crack The Stones and The More And Moreness. In February 2020, the band was involved in the launch of Johnny Mars's "Dare to Dream" project aimed at raising awareness of the effects mankind is having on the world.

 

Glastonbury is the final venue for the annual November West Country Carnival.

 

Glastonbury has been described as a New Age community where communities have grown up to include people with New Age beliefs.

 

The first Glastonbury Festivals were a series of cultural events held in summer, from 1914 to 1926. The festivals were founded by English socialist composer Rutland Boughton and his librettist Lawrence Buckley. Apart from the founding of a national theatre, they envisaged a summer school and music festival based on utopian principles. With strong Arthurian connections and historic and prehistoric associations, Glastonbury was chosen to host the festivals.

 

The more recent Glastonbury Festival of Performing Arts, founded in 1970, is now the largest open-air music and performing arts festival in the world. Although it is named after Glastonbury, it is actually held at Worthy Farm between the small villages of Pilton and Pylle, 6 miles (9.7 km) east of the town of Glastonbury. The festival is best known for its contemporary music, but also features dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and many other arts. For 2005, the enclosed area of the festival was over 900 acres (3.6 km2), had over 385 live performances and was attended by around 150,000 people. In 2007, over 700 acts played on over 80 stages and the capacity expanded by 20,000 to 177,000. The festival has spawned a range of other work including the 1972 film Glastonbury Fayre and album, 1996 film Glastonbury the Movie and the 2005 DVD Glastonbury Anthems.

 

Glastonbury has been the birthplace or home to many notable people. Peter King, 1st Baron King was the recorder of Glastonbury in 1705. Thomas Bramwell Welch the discoverer of the pasteurisation process to prevent the fermentation of grape juice was born in Glastonbury in 1825. The judge John Creighton represented Lunenburg County in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1770 to 1775. The fossil collector Thomas Hawkins lived in the town during the 19th century.

 

The religious connections and mythology of the town have also attracted notable authors. The occultist and writer Dion Fortune (Violet Mary Firth) lived and is buried in Glastonbury. Her old house was home to the writer and historian Geoffrey Ashe, who was known for his works on local legends. Frederick Bligh Bond, archaeologist and writer. Eckhart Tolle, a German-born writer, public speaker, and spiritual teacher lived in Glastonbury during the 1980s. Eileen Caddy was at a sanctuary in Glastonbury when she first claimed to have heard the "voice of God" while meditating. Her subsequent instructions from the "voice" directed her to take on Sheena Govan as her spiritual teacher, and became a spiritual teacher and new age author, best known as one of the founders of the Findhorn Foundation community.

 

Popular entertainment and literature is also represented amongst the population. English composer Rutland Boughton moved from Birmingham to Glastonbury in 1911 and established the country's first national annual summer school of music. Gary Stringer, lead singer of rock band Reef, was a local along with other members of the band. The juggler Haggis McLeod and his late wife, Arabella Churchill, one of the founders of the Glastonbury Festival, lived in the town. The conductor Charles Hazlewood lives locally and hosts the "Play the Field" music festival on his farm nearby. Bill Bunbury moved on from Glastonbury to become a writer, radio broadcaster, and producer for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

 

Athletes and sports players from Glastonbury include cricketers Cyril Baily in 1880, George Burrough in 1907, and Eustace Bisgood in 1878. The footballer Peter Spiring was born in Glastonbury in 1950. Formula 1 driver Lando Norris grew up in Glastonbury.

 

Twin towns

France Bretenoux, France

Greece Patmos, Greece

Ethiopia Lalibela, Ethiopia

 

Freedom of the Town

Michael Eavis: 3 May 2022. The founder of the world-famous Glastonbury Festival has been made a Freeman of Glastonbury. Born in 1935, the celebrated dairy farmer held his first Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, Pilton in 1970. 52 years later, Mr. Eavis has been listed by Time magazine as one of the top 100 most influential people in the world.

 

The Key of Avalon

This award was created in 2022 by the Glastonbury Town Council. The first recipient was Prem Rawat, international peace advocate and author, who spoke at the Glastonbury Festival in 1971.

 

Somerset is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east and the north-east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. The largest settlement is the city of Bath, and the county town is Taunton.

 

Somerset is a predominantly rural county, especially to the south and west, with an area of 4,171 km2 (1,610 sq mi) and a population of 965,424. After Bath (101,557), the largest settlements are Weston-super-Mare (82,418), Taunton (60,479), and Yeovil (49,698). Wells (12,000) is a city, the second-smallest by population in England. For local government purposes the county comprises three unitary authority areas: Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset, and Somerset.

 

The centre of Somerset is dominated by the Levels, a coastal plain and wetland, and the north-east and west of the county are hilly. The north-east contains part of the Cotswolds AONB, all of the Mendip Hills AONB, and a small part of Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs AONB; the west contains the Quantock Hills AONB, a majority of Exmoor National Park, and part of the Blackdown Hills AONB. The main rivers in the county are the Avon, which flows through Bath and then Bristol, and the Axe, Brue, and Parrett, which drain the Levels.

 

There is evidence of Paleolithic human occupation in Somerset, and the area was subsequently settled by the Celts, Romans and Anglo-Saxons. The county played a significant part in Alfred the Great's rise to power, and later the English Civil War and the Monmouth Rebellion. In the later medieval period its wealth allowed its monasteries and parish churches to be rebuilt in grand style; Glastonbury Abbey was particularly important, and claimed to house the tomb of King Arthur and Guinevere. The city of Bath is famous for its Georgian architecture, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The county is also the location of Glastonbury Festival, one of the UK's major music festivals.

 

Somerset is a historic county in the south west of England. There is evidence of human occupation since prehistoric times with hand axes and flint points from the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic eras, and a range of burial mounds, hill forts and other artefacts dating from the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages. The oldest dated human road work in Great Britain is the Sweet Track, constructed across the Somerset Levels with wooden planks in the 39th century BCE.

 

Following the Roman Empire's invasion of southern Britain, the mining of lead and silver in the Mendip Hills provided a basis for local industry and commerce. Bath became the site of a major Roman fort and city, the remains of which can still be seen. During the Early Medieval period Somerset was the scene of battles between the Anglo-Saxons and first the Britons and later the Danes. In this period it was ruled first by various kings of Wessex, and later by kings of England. Following the defeat of the Anglo-Saxon monarchy by the Normans in 1066, castles were built in Somerset.

 

Expansion of the population and settlements in the county continued during the Tudor and more recent periods. Agriculture and coal mining expanded until the 18th century, although other industries declined during the industrial revolution. In modern times the population has grown, particularly in the seaside towns, notably Weston-super-Mare. Agriculture continues to be a major business, if no longer a major employer because of mechanisation. Light industries are based in towns such as Bridgwater and Yeovil. The towns of Taunton and Shepton Mallet manufacture cider, although the acreage of apple orchards is less than it once was.

 

The Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods saw hunter-gatherers move into the region of Somerset. There is evidence from flint artefacts in a quarry at Westbury that an ancestor of modern man, possibly Homo heidelbergensis, was present in the area from around 500,000 years ago. There is still some doubt about whether the artefacts are of human origin but they have been dated within Oxygen Isotope Stage 13 (524,000 – 478,000 BP). Other experts suggest that "many of the bone-rich Middle Pleistocene deposits belong to a single but climatically variable interglacial that succeeded the Cromerian, perhaps about 500,000 years ago. Detailed analysis of the origin and modification of the flint artefacts leads to the conclusion that the assemblage was probably a product of geomorphological processes rather than human work, but a single cut-marked bone suggests a human presence." Animal bones and artefacts unearthed in the 1980s at Westbury-sub-Mendip, in Somerset, have shown evidence of early human activity approximately 700,000 years ago.

 

Homo sapiens sapiens, or modern man, came to Somerset during the Early Upper Palaeolithic. There is evidence of occupation of four Mendip caves 35,000 to 30,000 years ago. During the Last Glacial Maximum, about 25,000 to 15,000 years ago, it is probable that Somerset was deserted as the area experienced tundra conditions. Evidence was found in Gough's Cave of deposits of human bone dating from around 12,500 years ago. The bones were defleshed and probably ritually buried though perhaps related to cannibalism being practised in the area at the time or making skull cups or storage containers. Somerset was one of the first areas of future England settled following the end of Younger Dryas phase of the last ice age c. 8000 BC. Cheddar Man is the name given to the remains of a human male found in Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge. He is Britain's oldest complete human skeleton. The remains date from about 7150 BC, and it appears that he died a violent death. Somerset is thought to have been occupied by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers from about 6000 BCE; Mesolithic artefacts have been found in more than 70 locations. Mendip caves were used as burial places, with between 50 and 100 skeletons being found in Aveline's Hole. In the Neolithic era, from about 3500 BCE, there is evidence of farming.

 

At the end of the last ice age the Bristol Channel was dry land, but later the sea level rose, particularly between 1220 and 900 BC and between 800 and 470 BCE, resulting in major coastal changes. The Somerset Levels became flooded, but the dry points such as Glastonbury and Brent Knoll have a long history of settlement, and are known to have been occupied by Mesolithic hunters. The county has prehistoric burial mounds (such as Stoney Littleton Long Barrow), stone rows (such as the circles at Stanton Drew and Priddy) and settlement sites. Evidence of Mesolithic occupation has come both from the upland areas, such as in Mendip caves, and from the low land areas such as the Somerset Levels. Dry points in the latter such as Glastonbury Tor and Brent Knoll, have a long history of settlement with wooden trackways between them. There were also "lake villages" in the marsh such as those at Glastonbury Lake Village and Meare. One of the oldest dated human road work in Britain is the Sweet Track, constructed across the Somerset Levels with wooden planks in the 39th century BC, partially on the route of the even earlier Post Track.

 

There is evidence of Exmoor's human occupation from Mesolithic times onwards. In the Neolithic period people started to manage animals and grow crops on farms cleared from the woodland, rather than act purely as hunter gatherers. It is also likely that extraction and smelting of mineral ores to make tools, weapons, containers and ornaments in bronze and then iron started in the late Neolithic and into the Bronze and Iron Ages.

 

The caves of the Mendip Hills were settled during the Neolithic period and contain extensive archaeological sites such as those at Cheddar Gorge. There are numerous Iron Age Hill Forts, which were later reused in the Dark Ages, such as Cadbury Castle, Worlebury Camp and Ham Hill. The age of the henge monument at Stanton Drew stone circles is unknown, but is believed to be from the Neolithic period. There is evidence of mining on the Mendip Hills back into the late Bronze Age when there were technological changes in metal working indicated by the use of lead. There are numerous "hill forts", such as Small Down Knoll, Solsbury Hill, Dolebury Warren and Burledge Hill, which seem to have had domestic purposes, not just a defensive role. They generally seem to have been occupied intermittently from the Bronze Age onward, some, such as Cadbury Camp at South Cadbury, being refurbished during different eras. Battlegore Burial Chamber is a Bronze Age burial chamber at Williton which is composed of three round barrows and possibly a long, chambered barrow.

 

The Iron Age tribes of later Somerset were the Dobunni in north Somerset, Durotriges in south Somerset and Dumnonii in west Somerset. The first and second produced coins, the finds of which allows their tribal areas to be suggested, but the latter did not. All three had a Celtic culture and language. However, Ptolemy stated that Bath was in the territory of the Belgae, but this may be a mistake. The Celtic gods were worshipped at the temple of Sulis at Bath and possibly the temple on Brean Down. Iron Age sites on the Quantock Hills, include major hill forts at Dowsborough and Ruborough, as well as smaller earthwork enclosures, such as Trendle Ring, Elworthy Barrows and Plainsfield Camp.

 

Somerset was part of the Roman Empire from 47 AD to about 409 AD. However, the end was not abrupt and elements of Romanitas lingered on for perhaps a century.

 

Somerset was invaded from the south-east by the Second Legion Augusta, under the future emperor Vespasian. The hillforts of the Durotriges at Ham Hill and Cadbury Castle were captured. Ham Hill probably had a temporary Roman occupation. The massacre at Cadbury Castle seems to have been associated with the later Boudiccan Revolt of 60–61 AD. The county remained part of the Roman Empire until around 409 AD.

 

The Roman invasion, and possibly the preceding period of involvement in the internal affairs of the south of England, was inspired in part by the potential of the Mendip Hills. A great deal of the attraction of the lead mines may have been the potential for the extraction of silver.

 

Forts were set up at Bath and Ilchester. The lead and silver mines at Charterhouse in the Mendip Hills were run by the military. The Romans established a defensive boundary along the new military road known the Fosse Way (from the Latin fossa meaning ditch). The Fosse Way ran through Bath, Shepton Mallet, Ilchester and south-west towards Axminster. The road from Dorchester ran through Yeovil to meet the Fosse Way at Ilchester. Small towns and trading ports were set up, such as Camerton and Combwich. The larger towns decayed in the latter part of the period, though the smaller ones appear to have decayed less. In the latter part of the period, Ilchester seems to have been a "civitas" capital and Bath may also have been one. Particularly to the east of the River Parrett, villas were constructed. However, only a few Roman sites have been found to the west of the river. The villas have produced important mosaics and artifacts. Cemeteries have been found outside the Roman towns of Somerset and by Roman temples such as that at Lamyatt. Romano-British farming settlements, such as those at Catsgore and Sigwells, have been found in Somerset. There was salt production on the Somerset Levels near Highbridge and quarrying took place near Bath, where the Roman Baths gave their name to Bath.

 

Excavations carried out before the flooding of Chew Valley Lake also uncovered Roman remains, indicating agricultural and industrial activity from the second half of the 1st century until the 3rd century AD. The finds included a moderately large villa at Chew Park, where wooden writing tablets (the first in the UK) with ink writing were found. There is also evidence from the Pagans Hill Roman Temple at Chew Stoke. In October 2001 the West Bagborough Hoard of 4th century Roman silver was discovered in West Bagborough. The 681 coins included two denarii from the early 2nd century and 8 Miliarense and 671 Siliqua all dating to the period AD 337 – 367. The majority were struck in the reigns of emperors Constantius II and Julian and derive from a range of mints including Arles and Lyons in France, Trier in Germany and Rome.

 

In April 2010, the Frome Hoard, one of the largest-ever hoards of Roman coins discovered in Britain, was found by a metal detectorist. The hoard of 52,500 coins dated from the 3rd century AD and was found buried in a field near Frome, in a jar 14 inches (36 cm) below the surface. The coins were excavated by archaeologists from the Portable Antiquities Scheme.

 

This is the period from about 409 AD to the start of Saxon political control, which was mainly in the late 7th century, though they are said to have captured the Bath area in 577 AD. Initially the Britons of Somerset seem to have continued much as under the Romans but without the imperial taxation and markets. There was then a period of civil war in Britain though it is not known how this affected Somerset. The Western Wandsdyke may have been constructed in this period but archaeological data shows that it was probably built during the 5th or 6th century. This area became the border between the Romano-British Celts and the West Saxons following the Battle of Deorham in 577 AD. The ditch is on the north side, so presumably it was used by the Celts as a defence against Saxons encroaching from the upper Thames Valley. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Saxon Cenwalh achieved a breakthrough against the British Celtic tribes, with victories at Bradford-on-Avon (in the Avon Gap in the Wansdyke) in 65

Three people have been arrested following dawn raids aimed at disrupting the supply of drugs and the criminal exploitation of vulnerable adults in Manchester.

 

Shortly after 6am this morning (Friday 15 March) officers executed search warrants at six addresses in the Beswick area of Manchester.

 

Three men, two aged 18 and one aged 22 were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and engaging in human trafficking for the purpose of criminal exploitation.

 

The arrests were made as part of Operation Fosbury, an ongoing investigation being led by the City of Manchester Complex Safeguarding Hub into the exploitation of vulnerable adults and children within the Beswick area.

 

The new multi-agency team* which includes specialist detectives from GMP, has been established to combat the increasing risk of vulnerable people, particularly young people, being sexually and criminally exploited.

 

Detective Inspector Andy Buckthorpe from GMP’s Complex Safeguarding hub said: “Our aim is to target and disrupt those individuals who seek to exploit children and vulnerable adults and we will take every opportunity to target and prosecute offenders.

 

“This particular investigation focuses on helping vulnerable people who we believe have been exploited and forced to drug deals in other areas of the UK in what is widely known as ‘County Lines’ offending.

 

“As a result of the investigation, we have been able to identify a number of vulnerable people within the Manchester area who have been exploited in the most horrendous way by organised criminals and they will now receive bespoke multi-agency support.”

 

Criminal exploitation or ‘Trapped’ as it is referred to across Greater Manchester is a form of criminal exploitation that sees offenders use children or vulnerable people for the purposes of selling drugs.

 

They could be trafficked around the local area, or taken to areas with no obvious links or connections and this often involves the victim being subjected to deception, intimidation, violence, financial exploitation and grooming.

 

Are you being made to commit crime on behalf of someone else? Are you fearful for yourself or your family’s safety? Find out more at: www.programmechallenger.co.uk/Trapped

 

Anyone with concerns either about themselves or somebody else can contact the police via the LiveChat facility on the GMP website or 101 in a non-emergency situation.

 

You can also report details anonymously through Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

 

Always dial 999 when there is an emergency or an immediate threat to life.

 

Exploitant : Keolis Val-d'Oise

Réseau : Navette Substitution SNCF Île-de-France

Ligne : Navette Transilien H

Lieu : Gare d'Enghien-les-Bains (Enghien-les-Bains, F-95)

Exqui.City 24 hybride (07/2013) du réseau Le Met' exploité par TAMM.

Boeing 737

F-GFUF

L'Aeropostale - Sociète d'Exploitation Postale

AMS EHAM Amsterdam Schiphol Airport

Ligne 97 - Arrêt : Trentemoult

Exploitant : SEMITAN

Réseau TAN - Nantes