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Neil Forrest uses various systems of interconnecting nodes that spread in a matrix. These are generated as dimensional field ornament that corresponds to the distinctive curved space produced by arabesque and muqarna of Islam. Forrest’s work presents a detached ceramic ornament in response to the changing typographies within contemporary architecture - expanding systems intended to modify the psyche of space that is distinguished by lightness and openness. Forrest’s architectural ceramics are porcelain scaffolds, resembling coral environments and truss-like vertebrae.
Working from Gottfried Semper’s analysis that the dressing or decorative surface perform the spatial essence of the wall, and emphasizing the architectural significance of the ‘joint’, Forrest presents a tectonic and nomadic ceramic ornament. The project of ‘colonizing architecture’ is a theory of connectedness enabling close independence, which embraces the principle of non-hierarchical pattern behaviors that largely underpin the decorative arts.
Here ornament is understood as the libido for contemporary architecture, and can be tasked as having increasing utility to the organism of architecture, ready to engage an elegantly engineered world.
Neil Forrest has exhibited and lectured in North America, UK, Europe and Asia, and is currently Professor of Ceramics at NSCAD University. His most recent exhibitions were Wurzelwerk, Scaffs and Thicket. His ceramics have been published in books, craft magazines and architectural journals. Forrest studied at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Alfred University and Sheridan College of Crafts and is involved in several research collaborations that examine ceramics for architecture.
Edmonton's new control tower, to me it looks like a series of interconnecting waterslides.
Architect: DIALOG
Completed: 2003
The Interconnecting Family Room of the Kassandra Bay Hotel in Skiathos. Beds and connecting corridor. Visit www.kassandrabay.com/interconnecting-family-rooms-skiathos for more information.
Following the InterConnect themed upload I did not too long ago that featured a couple of Scania E400s in the 2023 livery version, here comes another, with one of the old IC100 batch so treated. 15809 arrives into Lincoln at the end of its long journey from Skegness, down Pelham Street, on 21.4.24
FX12 BBN
Seen in Spalding town centre bus station Stagecoach East Midlands Scaina
E400 15616 OU10BGO on service 505 to King's Lynn in the latest interconnect purple livery.
Stagecoach East Midlands Scania N230UD/ADL Enviro 400 15507 (FX09 DAO), is seen arriving into Lincoln Tentercroft Street Bus Station on 11th November 2017.
Operated out of Gainsborough depot - working an 'Interconnect' 100 service from Scunthorpe.
New to Stagecoach East Midlands (Gainsborough) in 2009.
This is set to be replaced by a new fleet of E400 MMCs in the next few weeks.
Stagecoach Lincolnshire InterConnect Volvo B7TL Wright Gemini 16939 FX06AOA seen on route 7 entering Skegness interchange
Risers and interconnects at one of Xcel Energy's solar farms... it will be interesting to see how many more of these solar installations they will need to build if they remain on track to retire their last two coal-fired plants (Sherco and Black Dog).
Neil Forrest uses various systems of interconnecting nodes that spread in a matrix. These are generated as dimensional field ornament that corresponds to the distinctive curved space produced by arabesque and muqarna of Islam. Forrest’s work presents a detached ceramic ornament in response to the changing typographies within contemporary architecture - expanding systems intended to modify the psyche of space that is distinguished by lightness and openness. Forrest’s architectural ceramics are porcelain scaffolds, resembling coral environments and truss-like vertebrae.
Working from Gottfried Semper’s analysis that the dressing or decorative surface perform the spatial essence of the wall, and emphasizing the architectural significance of the ‘joint’, Forrest presents a tectonic and nomadic ceramic ornament. The project of ‘colonizing architecture’ is a theory of connectedness enabling close independence, which embraces the principle of non-hierarchical pattern behaviors that largely underpin the decorative arts.
Here ornament is understood as the libido for contemporary architecture, and can be tasked as having increasing utility to the organism of architecture, ready to engage an elegantly engineered world.
Neil Forrest has exhibited and lectured in North America, UK, Europe and Asia, and is currently Professor of Ceramics at NSCAD University. His most recent exhibitions were Wurzelwerk, Scaffs and Thicket. His ceramics have been published in books, craft magazines and architectural journals. Forrest studied at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Alfred University and Sheridan College of Crafts and is involved in several research collaborations that examine ceramics for architecture.
Still wearing Interconnect livery, Volvo B7TL / East Lancs Vyking 16915 (FX54 AOE) is pictured in Richmond Drive, Skegness, having just left the bus station en route to Ingoldmells.
FX12BBN Stagecoach Lincolnshire 15809. Scania N230UD/enviro 400.
Route branded inter connect 6 Skegness to Lincoln.
9 exposures
4 shifted down and 4 shifted up, one strobed with the 580 zoomed on the shadows in the far room
4 exposures = 3 exposures fused, 1 exposure with a 580 CR off camera by cord trigering a 430 CL through a soft box and another 430 FCL bounced
roughly 50:50 flash to fused layer
shot with a Canon 5d mkII, 24mm TS mkII
Neil Forrest uses various systems of interconnecting nodes that spread in a matrix. These are generated as dimensional field ornament that corresponds to the distinctive curved space produced by arabesque and muqarna of Islam. Forrest’s work presents a detached ceramic ornament in response to the changing typographies within contemporary architecture - expanding systems intended to modify the psyche of space that is distinguished by lightness and openness. Forrest’s architectural ceramics are porcelain scaffolds, resembling coral environments and truss-like vertebrae.
Working from Gottfried Semper’s analysis that the dressing or decorative surface perform the spatial essence of the wall, and emphasizing the architectural significance of the ‘joint’, Forrest presents a tectonic and nomadic ceramic ornament. The project of ‘colonizing architecture’ is a theory of connectedness enabling close independence, which embraces the principle of non-hierarchical pattern behaviors that largely underpin the decorative arts.
Here ornament is understood as the libido for contemporary architecture, and can be tasked as having increasing utility to the organism of architecture, ready to engage an elegantly engineered world.
Neil Forrest has exhibited and lectured in North America, UK, Europe and Asia, and is currently Professor of Ceramics at NSCAD University. His most recent exhibitions were Wurzelwerk, Scaffs and Thicket. His ceramics have been published in books, craft magazines and architectural journals. Forrest studied at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Alfred University and Sheridan College of Crafts and is involved in several research collaborations that examine ceramics for architecture.
Neil Forrest uses various systems of interconnecting nodes that spread in a matrix. These are generated as dimensional field ornament that corresponds to the distinctive curved space produced by arabesque and muqarna of Islam. Forrest’s work presents a detached ceramic ornament in response to the changing typographies within contemporary architecture - expanding systems intended to modify the psyche of space that is distinguished by lightness and openness. Forrest’s architectural ceramics are porcelain scaffolds, resembling coral environments and truss-like vertebrae.
Working from Gottfried Semper’s analysis that the dressing or decorative surface perform the spatial essence of the wall, and emphasizing the architectural significance of the ‘joint’, Forrest presents a tectonic and nomadic ceramic ornament. The project of ‘colonizing architecture’ is a theory of connectedness enabling close independence, which embraces the principle of non-hierarchical pattern behaviors that largely underpin the decorative arts.
Here ornament is understood as the libido for contemporary architecture, and can be tasked as having increasing utility to the organism of architecture, ready to engage an elegantly engineered world.
Neil Forrest has exhibited and lectured in North America, UK, Europe and Asia, and is currently Professor of Ceramics at NSCAD University. His most recent exhibitions were Wurzelwerk, Scaffs and Thicket. His ceramics have been published in books, craft magazines and architectural journals. Forrest studied at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Alfred University and Sheridan College of Crafts and is involved in several research collaborations that examine ceramics for architecture.
Repaints of all six of Gainsborough's InterConnect E400 MMCs, still work in progress but now with an individual repaint and identity for each vehicle. Hopefully will be done in time for Gainsborough Phase 3 coming out.
with so many rare appearances in Skegness, one of the 6's we're used on the 1a that time.
no. FX12 BBV
This Dennis Trident with Enviro 400 bodywork was purchased brand new in April 2007 by Stagecoach Lincolnshire specifically for the high profile InterConnect 1, linking Grantham and Lincoln. I thought it fitting to upload this today as it's just been repainted into Tilling green and cream i'm assuming for 85 years of LRCC?! It's pictured on a lovely sunny day in May 2007 when barely a month old leaving the village of Syston with the beautiful Lincolnshire countryside in the background.
Lately it's just about sitting in the office and getting lots of things to run smoothly. Wich takes up most of my time.
This picture is from the our IT office.
15508 Used to have full Interconnect livery with gold trim and branding with Stagecoach Lincolnshire fleetnames.
Now, the livery has been simplified with dedicated Route 100 branding removed.
Seen here in Gainsborough Town centre working a local service, Route 1 to Vanessa drive.
FX09CZY is a Scania with Enviro 400 bodywork by Alexander Dennis and was new in April 2009 to Stagecoach Lincolnshire.
Taken from atop a Mannaean citadel behind the entrance above a great stone staircase, the most remote spot I visited in Iran. A team of researchers was excavating and shoring up the site at the time, and was led by one suspicious archaeologist. (She was happy I took an offer of a lift west when everyone left at the end of the day, which shows to go how few tourists visit Ziwiye [Zeh-vee-yeh, spelt Ziviye on google maps]. It's still in none of the guidebooks). There was a pile of old artifacts by the stairs, primarily pot-sherds, that the team had left there. It was a trick to get there from Karaftu (a trick in itself to get to Karaftu) by hired car.
- www.google.com/maps/place/Ziviyeh+Castle/@36.2736829,46.6...
- The site had many lower portions of adobe walls under a protective coating of mud of the type seen here. The citadel had 3 levels. It's thought that the lowest was home to a temple (which I don't recall), with ease of access for the locals. The 2nd level was residential, with interconnecting rooms painted in blue, cream, black and red (which, again, I don't recall), thought to have been a garrison and to have included an armoury in light of finds of bronze arrow heads, etc. The 3rd, top level, which might have housed the residence of a ruler or military governor, incl.s storage rooms and a large hall (which I do recall), behind and above where I'm standing to take this, and which dominates that level, with 2 rows of 12 large, round, stone column bases. Remnants of tables and chairs with bronze fittings were found there. Rooms on this level had large doors and windows, and the gates, etc. were decorated with some beautiful tiles. Water was supplied from the neighbouring mountains via pipes.
- This vlogger tours and films the site from the 1:05 min. pt.; see the gateway in my photo at the 5:15 min. pt. and the site of the hall with the column bases from the 6:10 min. pt.: youtu.be/4prmT03Fy8E (Many video-cameras come with a screen that allows the videographer to see what's being filmed, and you can see that she's looking in the mirror, more or less, for much of the first minute. Iranians care about their appearance, which of course is great. Nose jobs, etc. are very popular there.)
- The Mannae lived from south of Lake Orumiyeh to northern Kordestan prov., neighbours to the Urartians to the north and the Medes to the south. Assyrian sources speak of 'Mannai' as a confederacy of peoples and tribes, while Urartian inscriptions speak of Mannai as a state or kingdom. The earliest known reference to them and their ruler Udaki is in the annals of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III (r 858–824 BC). Mannaean place-names indicate that the language was related to Elamite, which gives it seniority here. (Frye)
- According to the Encyclopædia Iranica: "Mannaeans were a Hurrian group with a slight Kassite admixture. It's unlikely that there was any ethnolinguistic unity in Mannaea. Like other peoples of the Iranian plateau, the Mannaeans were subjected to an ever-increasing Iranian (i.e. Indo-European [Median and Persian]) penetration."
- The main period of occupation at Ziwiye was 800-600 B.C. "By the 820s B.C., Mannaea had expanded to become the first large state to occupy this region since the Gutians, later followed by the unrelated Iranian peoples, the Medes and Persians. They had a prominent aristocracy as a ruling class by then, which somewhat limited the power of the king. By @ 800 B.C., the region became contested ground between Urartu, which built several forts on Mannaean territory, and Assyria. During the open conflict between the two, @ 750-730 B.C., Mannae seized the opportunity to enlarge its holdings. The Mannaean kingdom reached the pinnacle of its power during the reign of Iranzu (@ 725–720 B.C.). In 716 B.C., Sargon II moved against Mannae, where the ruler Aza, son of Iranzu, had been deposed by Ullusunu with the help of the Urartians. Sargon took Izirtu and stationed troops in Parsua (not to be confused with Parsumash in Fars). Thereafter the Assyrians used the area to breed, train and trade horses.
- According to an Assyrian inscription, the Cimmerians (Gimirru) went forth from their homeland of Gamir or Uishdish in "the midst of Mannai" @ this time. They first appear in the annals in 714 B.C. when they assist the Assyrians in their defeat of Urartu. Urartu submitted to the Assyrians, and together the two defeated the Cimmerians [? lol, it's like the Balkan wars] and thus kept them out of the Fertile Crescent. The Cimmerians rebelled against Sargon again by 705 B.C., who was killed whilst driving them out. By 679 B.C. they had migrated to the east and west of Mannae.
- The Mannaeans rebelled against Esarhaddon in 676 B.C. in an attempt to interrupt the horse trade /b/ Assyria and its colony of Parsuash. King Ahsheri, who ruled until the 650s B.C., continued to enlarge Mannaean territory while paying tribute to Assyria. But Mannae suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Assyrians [?] in @ 660 B.C., then an internal revolt broke out, continuing until Ahsheri's death, and then [it gets worse before it gets worse,] Mannae was defeated by the advancing Scythians who had raided Urartu and been repelled by the Assyrians, and which contributed to the further dissolution of the Mannaean kingdom. King Ahsheri's successor, Ualli, an ally of Assyria, supported the Assyrians in their conflict with the Medes (Madai), who were then still based to the east along the SW shore of the Caspian and were in revolt against Assyrian domination. The Medes and Persians were subjugated by Assyria, however the Neo-Assyrian Empire, which had dominated the region for 300 yr.s, began to unravel, consumed by civil war following the death of Ashurbanipal in 627 B.C. These upheavals allowed the Medes to free themselves from Assyrian vassalage and to emerge as the major power in ancient Iran at the expense of the Persians, Mannaeans and the remnants of the indigenous Elamites (whose kingdom had been destroyed by the Assyrians). At the battle of Qablin in @ 616 B.C. the Assyrian and Mannaean forces were defeated by the troops of Nabopolassar [the founder and first king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire]. This defeat laid open the frontiers of the Land of the Manneans which fell under the control of Media between 615 and 611 B.C." (Wikipedia) I've also read that the Mannaeans were "absorbed by the Matieni and [that] the area came to be known as Matiene, which was then annexed by the Medes in @ 609 B.C." (also Wikipedia)
- The last reference to the Mannaeans or 'the Manna' in Urartu is by Rusa II (r 685–645 B.C.) and in Assyria is by Esarhaddon (r 680–669 B.C.).
- In the book of Jeremiah (51:27), the kingdoms of Ararat (Urartu), Minni (possibly the Mannae, or ancient Armenians), and Ashkenaz (the Scythians? "In rabbinic literature, the descendants of Ashkenaz were first associated with Scythian cultures") are to be summoned against Babylon. ("Set up a standard on the earth; blow the trumpet among the nations; prepare the nations for war against her; summon against her the kingdoms Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; appoint a marshal against her; bring up horses like bristling locusts.") "Minni might also relate to one of the regions of ancient Armenia, such as Manavasean (Minyas). The name "Armenia" has been theorized by some scholars as possibly deriving from "ḪAR Minni," the “mountains of Minni.”" (Wikipedia)
- Finds here include many Scythian arrowheads (evidence of "the intrusion of the Scythians" [Encyclopedia Brittanica]), and a treasure or hoard of gold, silver, and ivory allegedly found by a shepherd boy in 1947 (divided in part /b/ Tehran, New York [MMA], the CNC in Cincinnati [I read somewhere], the Louvre and the British museum. Quite a hoard.) According to this site, it included much Scythian gold. www.ancient-art.co.uk/scythian-gold-the-ziwiye-treasure/#... "The hoard includes objects in 4 styles: Assyrian, Scythian, proto-Achaemenid, and provincial native. Dated to @ 700 B.C., it illustrates the situation of the Iranian plateau as a crossroads of cultural highways, not least the Silk Road. But archaeologist Oscar Muscarella has questioned the account of the hoard's discovery, noting that none of the items were excavated under archaeological conditions, but passed through the hands of dealers. "There are no objective sources of information that any of the attributed objects were found at Ziwiye, although it's likely that some were." He argues that the objects have "no historical nor archaeological value as a group", although many are genuine and "exquisite works of art". (Wikipedia) In a later treatise, he denounced several items from 'the horde' as modern forgeries. You can't carbon date gold or silver.
- "[This] site was referred to by Godard as likely being Zibie, one of 2 strong Mannaean fortresses destroyed by Sargon of Assyria together with Izirtu, the Mannaean capital [identified as Qalaychi today on the basis of an inscribed stone slab found there], in the 8th cent. B.C. The cramped top of the mtn. is so restricted that there's no possibility of considering it a city or a town, although it might have been the citadel residence of the ruler. Its position and size confirm the assertion that it was a citadel, perched on the crest of the hill and defended by mud brick walls towering above the naturally steep ascent." www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/archaeological-scrap/
- Watch this trippy ad for the 'Medestic Collocation by Berikad' (purses) filmed somewhere incredible, and which markets fashion accessories to female ancient history enthusiasts. (They sure know their target demographic in Iran.) youtu.be/ta_z0tmx_9E
I've edited the following caption for the video a bit for fluency.: "@ 800 BC, a new force emerged in the ... Western mountainous region in Iran. By achieving “national unity” based on cultural links /b/ different ethnic groups and common areas under their rule, these tribes established the first united state of the Iranian plateau, known to us as the Medes. The head of the Manna [Mannaean] tribe was named 'Deioces'. Grave goods and ceramics discovered in the area of 'Ziviye' in Kurdistan provide evidence that the Medes and other tribes living on the plateau were subject to mutual influences with the Scythians, resulting in a tendency towards the use of animal forms and subjects in the art of these tribes, incl. the motif of a stone ram, the symbol of the power of creation and of leadership. 'Medestic collection' ... is designed based on the elements of that period in the form of bags and special accessories." It's so original, and it captures something. (Too bad it's about purses, lol.) How is it possible that it's been up since April and has had only 14 views? (I write this in Aug., '23.) And where is the cave entrance at the 12 second pt.? It looks like a quarry.
- Update: I wrote the above paragraph earlier this week, and a couple of days later [yesterday or the day before?] this video had 19 views. But now, it has 14 views again, I swear on everything and everyone I love. I've viewed it more than once on different computers myself, incl. on my laptop and once at the University (as I write this comment, in /b/ doing more impt. things.) Shadow-banned? (Aug. 5, '23). - 2nd update: Today, Aug. 17, '23 it has 30 views, but what I wrote above is the truth.
- I forget who gave me a lift south, but the head of the dig-team waited patiently until we were on our way. (My driver might've been someone working at the site, I forget, but I'd recall if he was an archaeologist or an archaeology student.) We drove to the 21, but I don't know if we drove west and south along the Bayazid-Abad rd., which becomes the Saheb rd., all the way to Saheb, and then SE (most likely), or took a more direct but twistier route south to the hwy. along country roads (although I can't find a viable route on google maps). I don't recall if my lift took me all the way down the 21 to Sanandaj, my destination, the capital of Kordestan, @ 175 km.s, 2 1/2 hrs., but that's where I wound up, arriving after dark.
I don't recall or didn't see or know about the following along that lengthy route.:
- Saheb has a large monument at a roundabout representing a torque with roaring lions' heads at either end, an item of treasure found in the Ziwiyeh hoard I assume, which you can see at the 13 min. pt. in this vlog when the vlogger says what sounds like 'Musea Louvre'.: youtu.be/4prmT03Fy8E I don't know if it was there in 2000.
- The site of the ancient city of Saqqez is @ 30 clicks east of Saheb on the 21, thought to be the Scythian capital Sakez or Eskit in the 7th cent. B.C (!) "It is said that 'Saqqez' derives from 'Saka', Persian for Scythian." (Ghirshman) The Saka tigrakhauda ('Pointed-hat Scythians') are depicted in the ranks of tribute-bearing subjects of the Persian empire on the Apadana staircase at Persepolis, all armed and wearing their pointy headgear. It's also thought to have been the site of the city of Barza or Barzan in the medieval period, where the Byzantine emperor Heraclius stayed for 7 days in March 628 en route to Ganzak.
- Saqqez is home to the visibly ancient and exotic Domenareh or Double-minaret mosque, dating from the early Afshar period (early 18th cent.), reconstructed or renovated in the Afshariyyah or Zandiyyah period (late 18th cent.). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domenareh_Mosque A miss.
- The cool indeed 'Kool Abaad' caves are equidistant /b/ Saqqez and Bukan, 2 clicks west of the 21, @ 35 clicks NW of my route. youtu.be/ikgPFJVOxvI
- According to Wikipedia, "during the Mongol invasion in the 13th cent., Genghis Khan occupied Bijar and built 'Genghis Castle' near the city." A village named Changiz Qaleh ('Genghis Castle'), pop. 123 in 2006, and the eponymous ruins, are @ 6 clicks west of Bijar, @ 45 east of the 21. A miss of course.
- The visibly ancient and interesting 'Naqshbandi [Sufi] mausoleum of Sheikh Necmettin' is @ 10 clicks east of the 21 and the village of Baqelabad.
- That's all I could find that's not more that 50 clicks off-route, not much for an area of 100 x 175 km.s2 anywhere in the Middle East. But there must be so much more than that to see, and Kordestan has some of the best tourist attractions in the country in the south and in the west, with ancient, vertiginous, photogenic villages of flat-roofed houses (the roofs doubling as the front yard for the next house above) coating steep mountain slopes. I wish I'd toured Uraman takht, for example, near the Iraqi border. What a place. youtu.be/KFW7a2v8SeY www.youtube.com/shorts/CwEfTac67_I
SANANDAJ: I spent only one night there. I recall it was an urban city (pop. > 400,000) with a main street or avenue on a long, gentle incline, like Yonge st. in downtown Toronto (at least the part I remember). When I arrived I made some inquiries about directions to a moserferkhane (sp?), the LP was no help, and I didn't have any leads on cheap accommodation. I made inquiries at a police station, and wound up sleeping that night on a rug in a small mosque inside the station at the kind invitation of the police. I didn't make any time to see the city the next morning, and caught a bus SE down hwy. 46 to legendary Hamadan.
- According to my LP guide ('92), the city "isn't of any great architectural or historical interest". But of course there was much that I missed, all in the way of fine, 19th cent. Qajar-era architecture.
- But first, some history.: "The name 'Sinna' appears in records from the 14th cent. Before then, the main city in the region was Sisar, the location of which is unknown. Sisar was also referred to as 'Sisar of Sadkhaniya', 'Sisar of the 100 springs', and it's possible that 'Sinna' is a contraction of 'Sadkhaniya'. The name 'Sisar' disappears in the 14th cent. and 'Sinna' seems to replace it. The Kurdish historian Sharaf al-Din Bitlisi mentions that in 1580 an Ardalan ruler, Timur Khan, had a land grant which included Sinna. However, local historian Ali-Akbar Munshi Waqayi-Nigar wrote in 1892-'93 that Sinna was founded later by Soleyman Khan Ardalan on the site of an earlier settlement; the chronogram he gives for the event corresponds to 1636-'37. A dej (fortress) was built there in the early 18th cent., and Sinna-dej slowly morphed into Sanandaj. The powerful, local Ardalan emirs came to rule the last autonomous principality of Iranian Kurdistan from Sanandaj until 1867. There was much development under the reign of Aman Allah 'the Great' from 1797 to 1825, and under the Ardalans many fine 19th cent., Qajar-era bldg.s were constructed, and the city became "a lively commercial center, exporting oak galls [?], tragacanth, furs, and carpets". (Wikipedia and the LP)
- The top attraction in 2000 was the regional museum in the opulent Lotfolla Sheik-al Islam mansion, with its lovely, multi-coloured stained-glass windows (said to disorient mosquitoes). It was initially the home of spiritual leader Molla Lotfollah Sheikholeslam [not pron. 'Sheik Hole-slam' {I don't think}]. "The Oroosie work of this museum is one of the matchless samples of Oroosie works in Sanandaj." (? I can't find Oroosie in a google search.) itto.org/iran/attraction/sanandaj-museum-salar-saeid-mans...
- The Jame mosque (Qajar, 1813) is so fine, with its twin minarets, 32 interior domes and lovely tilework, that it merits the popular myth that its sponsor, Amanullah Khan, blinded the architect. (See the infamous scene in Andrei Rublev with the freshly blinded Russian medieval architects stumbling @ by the road, which I don't see on youtube.) So it must be a miss. This is that rare thing in Iran, a Sunni mosque (this with a Shaf'i congregation).
- The fine, multi-story Khosro-Abad palace (1808) was home to Amanullah Khan Ardalan, ruler of Kurdistan and "the son of a great Khosro Khan". Was it open to tourism in 2000?
- The impressive, well-preserved, brick, Safavid-era Qeshlaq bridge, with 6 arches, 90 m.s long, 5.8 wide, is still in use at the east end of town.
- Whether or not the fine, Qajar-era Asef Vaziri mansion was open to tourism in 2000, the fascinating anthropology museum, 'the Museum of Kurdish life', wouldn't come about until 2003 (the city's top attraction today).
- A synagogue (early Qajar) for the local Fraulah-(Neo-Aramaic)-speaking Kurdish Jewish community, which left for Israel in 1948, was "urgently restored" in 2022, but it's unlikely it was open in 2000. It's one of 2 in town, either the Bozorg or the Koochik. (Fraulah is now 'virtually extinct'.: www.gorgiaspress.com/the-jewish-neo-aramaic-dialect-of-sa... ) Here are some photos taken within a 'kenisa', one of the 2 synagogues in Sanandaj.: www.7dorim.com/tasavir/sh_sanandaj_kenisa/ And here are some photos taken within the city's Jewish quarter.: www.7dorim.com/tasavir/sh_sanandaj_mahale/
- A recently renovated church (Armenian? Chaldean? late Safavid) is "the only one" in Kordestan prov. (or so I've read), with its plain, white-washed interior. Again it's likely it was locked in 2000. It's interesting that Chaldeans in Sanandaj speak or spoke Senaya, another local dialect of Neo-Aramaic. Most who can speak Senaya live in California today, and some are in Tehran.
- The distance from Sanandaj to Hamadan is another 175 km.s, 2 1/2 hours., and I passed and missed the following en route on the bus.:
- The FAMOUS Ali-Sadr caves are < 40 clicks NW of the 46, past the 23, as the crow flies. It was said to be the world's largest 'water cave' (a long lake or a river with a series of lakes in a cave) when I was in Iran. 11 km.s long and spring-fed, it's very, very popular with Iranians who take tours in dinghys pulled by pedalo boats beside and beneath formations illuminated by coloured lights. The main chamber is 100 x 50 m.s, 40 m.s high. But it's been surpassed by the Quri Qala cave NW of Kermanshah, now dubbed "the largest water cave in Asia". (Before googling, I'm going to guess that a cave in the Yucatan takes the cake. ... I googled, and found that every site on the first page gives Ali-Sadr the title. But I was right, a 215-mile-long flooded labyrinth in the Yucatan, the land of limestone, is 31.5 x longer than Ali Sadr and 28.8 x longer than Quri Qala. Ouch.) Ancient Mesolithic cave art with hunting scenes appears on the walls near the exit dating to 12,000 B.P. An inscription at the entrance verifies that the cave was known to the early Achaemenids, but it was forgotten until its rediscovery by Iranian mountaineers in 1978. According to a vlogger on-line, @ 7,000 visit per day. There's no site of interest in the country which the locals asked me about more often (they would ask if I'd toured it) than the Ali-Sadr caves. Nothing else came close. (Again, Iranians love water!) It's on Iran's tentative list for Unesco designation (which I don't see it getting). youtu.be/92NMYi15q30 youtu.be/AzEcuXEXm-Y
- The Imamzadeh Ighlaqiz, visibly ancient (2 boxes with walls made of fieldstones with a mud coating beneath gray domes, but appealing somehow, the 3rd of 16 photos for the site on google maps), is 10-15 clicks north of the 46 at Qeshlaq-e Hameh Kasi. maps.app.goo.gl/9Zu39nvvMegxkQNMA
- The Imamzadeh Asgar, also visibly ancient, is @ 10 clicks SW of Salehabad and the 46.
- The famous, impressively photogenic Kurdish mtn.-side villages of Hawraman and Palangan, designated together as a World Heritage site by Unesco, are @ 50 km.s SW of Sanandaj as the crow flies (much, much further by mtn. road).
- On the many long bus trips in Iran I'd try to get a window seat and would read one of a few books I'd picked up en route on the ancient history of Iran and the Middle East. There were moments when I'd see something incredible from the bus window, and thought 'whoa, I should ask the driver to stop and get out' (like I did to tour the Bana cathedral en route to Kars). I did that once en route to Yazd (I'll write about that later), but there was at least one occasion when the bus passed an incredible, ancient, ruined citadel or city on a mesa (or above the height of the bus at any rate), across a stream or river from the road, and it was magical. We just drove by it. No-one else seemed to take much notice, but why should they? They live in a country rife with ancient ruins, ghost towns and legends. I don't get excited when I see any of the black squirrels we have all over Toronto that the Asian or European tourists find so interesting. (Ontario, and I think Michigan, are the only regions anywhere where black squirrels outnumber gray or red squirrels. A recent study found that while they lack camouflage, their black fur absorbs significantly more heat than that of the gray squirrel, even in overcast conditions.) Iranians are enamoured with lakes, rivers, waterfalls (in particular, ANY waterfall), streams, ... water. Their ancestors dug qanats many km.s long to achieve the irrigation and fertility that most in the West take for granted. Gardens with pools and fountains are miraculous, luxurious things there. I'm reminded of a mural of 'the paradise of Tlaloc' at ancient Teotihuacan in Mexico, another arid country, which depicts little sexless people cavorting in rivers and streams and pools. But I digress, as usual. ... I also recall passing some amazing, massive, ancient ruined bridges, or at least one, right by the road (which I'll write about later).
- Conversation on these bus trips was most often very limited, but I recall one Kurdish man made an attempt somewhere in the first couple of weeks, possibly en route to Hamadan. He pointed to my book with its photos of artifacts and museum pieces, etc., and indicated that he and/or his fellow passengers descend from the "Mod" or the "Mud", ie. the Medes. "Mod, Mod" he said pointing to himself and his fellow passengers. (It's true that the Medes are considered to be ancestral to the Kurds, at least in part, something I didn't know then.) On 3 separate occasions (that brief discussion with that man might've been one), I was asked, sincerely, "Is it really true that Arabs conquered us [in the early to mid-7th cent.]?" or "How did the Arab army [Mohamed's 'Army of Islam'] defeat us?" (to paraphrase). It's the only question I recall being asked more than once in Iran about local history or politics. Nothing disparaging was ever said about Arabs, but the question seemed to express an impressive level of confidence in the capacity of the locals or their 7th cent. forebears to repel an Arab invasion, and maybe just a little chauvinism. The Iran-Iraq war had ended only 12 yr.s earlier and the cemeteries were full of the tombs of soldiers who had died so young with their photos on grave-markers and their faces on billboards and spray-painted on walls with stencils. You might expect them to have opinions, whatever they were, about the people they fought for 8 yr.s in such a brutal war. In fact, I don't recall hearing negative comments or references to any group or class of people apart from local politicians, the Qashqa'i Turks that one time (that they were "a bit rough", [and they were! see my write-up to the photo from Gur] or the words 'Bagh Amrika' in various contexts but never in conversation.) I responded each time that Sassanian society and the Zoroastrianism practiced in the 7th cent. were caste- or (at least) class-based to the benefit of the local elite, with divisions /b/ mobeds (priests), nobles, warriors, scribes and commoners (largely farmers and pastoralists). The mobeds and warriors had exclusive shrines. (I've read since that artisans and workers in industries that required them to work with or to 'defile' fire readily accepted Islam, as they were considered 'unclean' in Iranian Zoroastrian society.) Islam, however, is relatively egalitarian (amongst Muslim men at least) and offered the vast majority of Iranians, the class or caste of farmers and pastoralists, an exit from subjugation by 'their own'. So, I said, that could be one reason (to paraphrase). I forget where I heard or read that theory, but it was certainly a factor when Islam made such in-roads with Hindus in India. But, apparently, nope. I've read since then that most of the population converted under the more inclusive Abbasids with whom "a shift was made in political conception from that of a primarily Arab empire to one of a Muslim empire", but who wouldn't usurp the more exclusive Umayyads until 90 long years after the conquest. "Islam, during the Umayyad Caliphate, was initially associated with the ethnic identity of the Arab and required formal association with an Arab tribe." Rather, "the rise of Islam in Arabia coincided with an unprecedented political, social, economic, and military weakness in Persia. Once a major world power, the Sassanian Empire had exhausted its human and material resources after decades of warfare against Byzantium. The Sassanian state's internal political situation quickly deteriorated after the execution of King Khosrow II in 628. 10 new claimants were enthroned within the next 4 years. [That's a new emperor every 4.8 mos. in that period.] And following the Sassanian civil war of 628–632, the empire was no longer centralized." Oh.
- I disembarked in the legendary city of Hamadan, the once glorious, ancient Ecbatana. See the description for the next photo taken at Nush-i Jan.
YX67VCN - ADL Trident 2 / ADL Enviro 400MMC
Stagecoach East Midland (Grimsby) 10900 in interConnect livery
Stagecoach East Midlands Volvo B7TL/Wright Eclipse-Gemini, 16942 (FX06 AOD), is seen departing the temporary bus station in Lincoln on 29th March 2017.
New to Stagecoach East Midlands 2006.
Canare (brown) OFC microphone/interconnect cable.
The RCA interconnect projects sample: RCA LJ#3.1, RCA LJ#3.2, RCA LJ#3.3.
Other photos/projects of RCA interconnect cable based on Canare, based on Western Electric cable, or go to all Cable & Wire.
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