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Ansel Adams used the golden ratio in his photography too:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFlzAaBgsDI
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The Fibonacci Numbers are closely related to the golden ratio, and thus they also play a prominent role in exalted natural and artistic compositions!
I'm working on a far deeper book titled The Golden Ratio Number for Photographers. :)
The famous mathematician Jacob Bernoulli wrote:
The (golden spiral) may be used as a symbol, either of fortitude and constancy in adversity, or of the human body, which after all its changes, even after death, will be restored to its exact and perfect self.
Engraved upon Jacob’s tombstone is a spiral alongside the words, "Eadem Mutata Resurgo," meaning "Though changed, I shall rise again." And so it is that within the Golden Ratio Principle, the golden harmonies rise yet again.
The golden ratio is oft known as the divine cut, the golden cut, the divine proportion, the golden number, and PHI for the name of the architect of the Parthenon Phidias. It has exalted classical art on down through the millennia and it can exalt your art too!
Ask me anything about the golden ratio! :) I will do my best to answer!!
Enjoy my Fine Art Ballet instagram too!
Dr. Elliot McGucken's Golden Ratio Principle: The Golden Number Ratio Principle: Dr. E’s Golden Ratio Principle: The golden ratio exalts beauty because the number is a characteristic of the mathematically and physically most efficient manners of growth and distribution, on both evolutionary and purely physical levels. The golden ratio ensures that the proportions and structure of that which came before provide the proportions and structure of that which comes after. Robust, ordered growth is naturally associated with health and beauty, and thus we evolved to perceive the golden ratio harmonies as inherently beautiful, as we saw and felt their presence in all vital growth and life—in the salient features and proportions of humans and nature alike, from the distribution of our facial features and bones to the arrangements of petals, leaves, and sunflowers seeds. As ratios between Fibonacci Numbers offer the closest whole-number approximations to the golden ratio, and as seeds, cells, leaves, bones, and other physical entities appear in whole numbers, the Fibonacci Numbers oft appear in nature’s elements as “growth’s numbers.” From the dawn of time, humanity sought to salute their gods in art and temples exalting the same proportion by which all their vital sustenance and they themselves had been created—the golden ratio. the golden number, rectangle, and spiral!
Nymph on the Fountain of the Naiads at the Piazza della Repubblica square in Rome, Italy. This fountain is located very close to Rome's central train station. The naiads or mythological female spirits represented are the Nymph of the Lakes (shown in photo holding a swan), the Nymph of the Rivers, the Nymph of the Oceans, and the Nymph of the Underground Waters.
Rainbow Falls
Rainbow Falls is a waterfall located in Hilo, Hawaii. It is 80 ft (24 m) tall and almost 100 ft (30 m) in diameter. The falls are part of the Hawai'i State Parks. At Rainbow Falls, the Wailuku River rushes into a large pool below. The gorge is blanketed by lush, dense tropical foliage and the turquoise colored pool is bordered by beautiful wild ginger. Monstera is also in abundance. The falls are accessed at Wailuku River State Park, Waiānuenue Avenue, coordinates 19°43′9″N 155°6′34″W, and are best seen from the park's viewing platform. Known in the Hawaiian language as Waiānuenue (literally "rainbow water"), the falls flows over a natural lava cave, the mythological home to Hina, an ancient Hawaiian goddess. Rainbow Falls derives its name from the fact that, on sunny mornings around 10AM, rainbows can be seen in the mist thrown up by the waterfall.
獅
Shih Tszah (Shih-Dzah) - a pair of granite mythological lion guards, installed during the descent to the Neva on Petrovskaya Embankment in St. Petersburg. The sculptures have a height of 4.5 m and a weight of 2.5 tons each. The inscription is carved on both pedestals: “Shih Tzu from the city of Jilin in Manchuria was transported to St. Petersburg in 1907. A gift from Infantry General NI Grodekov.
Shih Tzà
Main article: Chinese lion
In China, such sculptures are installed in pairs on either side of the entrance to the temple, the palace, the cemetery. They depict a lion and a lioness guarding the entrance. A lion in a paw holds a ball, symbolizing Buddhist knowledge, carrying light into darkness and able to fulfill desires. The lioness holds the paw of a lion cub.
Story
To rule
At the beginning of the 20th century, Shih Tzu was made of Manchu granite in the city of Hirine specifically for the shrine (small chapel temple) of General Chan, but after the sudden death of Chan in 1904, the newly appointed governor of the city presented them to the assistant of the Amur General Governor N. And .Grodekovu. Grodekov decided to transfer these sculptures as a gift to St. Petersburg and, having paid transport costs, relocated the sculptures to Vladivostok by train, and from there on the steamer "Rival" to St. Petersburg.
Arriving in September 1907, the Chinese Shih Tzu was decided to be installed on the recently reconstructed Petrovskaya Embankment, which only in 1901-1903 was faced with granite. The making of pedestals and the installation of sculptures was supervised by the architect L. N. Benoit.
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All art is but imitation of nature.-- Seneca (Letters from a Stoic - Letter LXV: On the First Cause)
The universe itself is God and the universal outpouring of its soul. --Chrysippus (Quoted by Cicero in De Natura Deorum)
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells. --To Autumn. by John Keats
Photographs available as epic fine art luxury prints. For prints and licensing information, please send me a flickr mail or contact drelliot@gmail.com with your queries! All the best on your Epic Hero's Odyssey!
Nymph on the Fountain of the Naiads* at the Piazza della Repubblica square in Rome, Italy. This fountain is located very close to Rome's central train station. The naiads or mythological female spirits represented are the Nymph of the Lakes, the Nymph of the Rivers, the Nymph of the Oceans, and the Nymph of the Underground Waters (shown in photo). The fountain presents Glaucus, a water god surrounded by his beautiful nymphs.
*Fontana delle Naiadi
The Birth of Venus is a painting by the Italian artist Sandro Botticelli, probably executed in the mid 1480s. It depicts the goddess Venus arriving at the shore after her birth, when she had emerged from the sea fully-grown (called Venus Anadyomene and often depicted in art). The painting is in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.
Although the two are not a pair, the painting is inevitably discussed with Botticelli's other very large mythological painting, the Primavera, also in the Uffizi. They are among the most famous paintings in the world, and icons of the Italian Renaissance; of the two, the Birth is better known than the Primavera. As depictions of subjects from classical mythology on a very large scale they were virtually unprecedented in Western art since classical antiquity, as was the size and prominence of a nude female figure in the Birth. It used to be thought that they were both commissioned by the same member of the Medici family, but this is now uncertain.
They have been endlessly analysed by art historians, with the main themes being: the emulation of ancient painters and the context of wedding celebrations (generally agreed), the influence of Renaissance Neo-Platonism (somewhat controversial), and the identity of the commissioners (not agreed). Most art historians agree, however, that the Birth does not require complex analysis to decode its meaning, in the way that the Primavera probably does. While there are subtleties in the painting, its main meaning is a straightforward, if individual, treatment of a traditional scene from Greek mythology, and its appeal is sensory and very accessible, hence its enormous popularity.
In the centre the newly born goddess Venus stands nude in a giant scallop shell. The size of the shell is purely imaginary, and is also found in classical depictions of the subject. At the left the wind god Zephyr blows at her, with the wind shown by lines radiating from his mouth. He is in the air, and carries a young female, who is also blowing, but less forcefully. Both have wings. Vasari was probably correct in identifying her as "Aura", personification of a lighter breeze. Their joint efforts are blowing Venus towards the shore, and blowing the hair and clothes of the other figures to the right.
At the right a female figure who may be floating slightly above the ground holds out a rich cloak or dress to cover Venus when she reaches the shore, as she is about to do. She is one of the three Horae or Hours, Greek minor goddesses of the seasons and of other divisions of time, and attendants of Venus. The floral decoration of her dress suggests she is the Hora of Spring.
Alternative identifications for the two secondary female figures involve those also found in the Primavera; the nymph held by Zephyr may be Chloris, a flower nymph he married in some versions of her story, and the figure on land may be Flora. Flora is generally the Roman equivalent of the Greek Chloris; in the Primavera Chloris is transformed into the figure of Flora next to her, following Ovid's Fasti, but it is hard to see that such a transformation is envisaged here. However, the roses blown along with the two flying figures would be appropriate for Chloris.
The subject is not strictly the "Birth of Venus", a title given to the painting only in the nineteenth century (though given as the subject by Vasari), but the next scene in her story, where she arrives on land, blown by the wind. The land probably represents either Cythera or Cyprus, both Mediterranean islands regarded by the Greeks as territories of Venus.
The painting is large, but slightly smaller than the Primavera, and where that is a panel painting, this is on the cheaper support of canvas. Canvas was increasing in popularity, perhaps especially for secular paintings for country villas, which were decorated more simply, cheaply and cheerfully than those for city palazzi, being designed for pleasure more than ostentatious entertainment.
The painting is on two pieces of canvas, sewn together before starting, with a gesso ground tinted blue. There are differences to Botticelli's usual technique, working on panel supports, such as the lack of a green first layer under the flesh areas. There are a number of pentimenti revealed by modern scientific testing. The Hora originally had "low classical sandals", and the collar on the mantle she holds out is an afterthought. The hair of Venus and the flying couple was changed. There is heavy use of gold as a pigment for highlights, on hair, wings, textiles, the shell and the landscape. This was all apparently applied after the painting was framed. It was finished with a "cool gray varnish", probably using egg yolk.
As in the Primavera, the green pigment – used for the wings of Zephyr, Zephyr's companion, and the leaves of the orange trees on the land – has darkened considerably with exposure to light over time, somewhat distorting the intended balance of colours. Parts of some leaves at the top right corner, normally covered by the frame, have been less affected. The blues of the sea and sky have also lost their brightness
Although the pose of Venus is classical in some respects, and borrows the position of the hands from the Venus Pudica type in Greco-Roman sculptures (see section below), the overall treatment of the figure, standing off-centre with a curved body of long flowing lines, is in many respects from Gothic art. Kenneth Clark wrote: "Her differences from antique form are not physiological, but rhythmic and structural. Her whole body follows the curve of a Gothic ivory. It is entirely without that quality so much prized in classical art, known as aplomb; that is to say, the weight of the body is not distributed evenly either side of a central plumb line. .... She is not standing but floating. ... Her shoulders, for example, instead of forming a sort of architrave to her torso, as in the antique nude, run down into her arms in the same unbroken stream of movement as her floating hair."
Venus' body is anatomically improbable, with elongated neck and torso. Her pose is impossible: although she stands in a classical contrapposto stance, her weight is shifted too far over the left leg for the pose to be held. The proportions and poses of the winds to the left do not quite make sense, and none of the figures cast shadows. The painting depicts the world of the imagination rather than being very concerned with realistic depiction.
Ignoring the size and positioning of the wings and limbs of the flying pair on the left, which bother some other critics, Kenneth Clark calls them:
...perhaps the most beautiful example of ecstatic movement in the whole of painting. ... the suspension of our reason is achieved by the intricate rhythms of the drapery which sweep and flow irresistibly around the nude figures. Their bodies, by an endless intricacy of embrace, sustain the current of movement, which finally flickers down their legs and is dispersed like an electric charge.
Botticelli's art was never fully committed to naturalism; in comparison to his contemporary Domenico Ghirlandaio, Botticelli seldom gave weight and volume to his figures and rarely used a deep perspectival space. Botticelli never painted landscape backgrounds with great detail or realism, but this is especially the case here. The laurel trees and the grass below them are green with gold highlights, most of the waves regular patterns, and the landscape seems out of scale with the figures. The clumps of bulrushes in the left foreground are out of place here, as they come from a freshwater species
It has long been suggested that Botticelli was commissioned to paint the work by the Medici family of Florence, perhaps by Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici (1463–1503) a major patron of Botticelli, under the influence of his cousin Lorenzo de' Medici, "il Magnifico". This was first suggested by Herbert Horne in his monograph of 1908, the first major modern work on Botticelli, and long followed by most writers, but more recently has been widely doubted, though it is still accepted by some. Various interpretations of the painting rely on this origin for its meaning. Although relations were perhaps always rather tense between the Magnifico and his young cousins and wards, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco and his brother Giovanni di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, it may have been politic to commission a work that glorified the older Lorenzo, as some interpretations have it. There may be a deliberate ambiguity as to which Lorenzo was intended to be evoked. In later years hostility between the two branches of the family became overt.
Horne believed that the painting was commissioned soon after the purchase in 1477 of the Villa di Castello, a country house outside Florence, by Lorenzo and Giovanni, to decorate their new house, which they were rebuilding. This was the year after their father died at the age of 46, leaving the young boys wards of their cousin Lorenzo il Magnifico, of the senior branch of the Medici family and de facto ruler of Florence. There is no record of the original commission, and the painting is first mentioned by Vasari, who saw it, together with the Primavera, at Castello, some time before the first edition of his Lives in 1550, probably by 1530–40. In 1550 Vasari was himself painting in the villa, but he very possibly visited it before that. But in 1975 it emerged that, unlike the Primavera, the Birth is not in the inventory, apparently complete, made in 1499 of the works of art belonging to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco's branch of the family. Ronald Lightbown concludes that it only came to be owned by the Medici after that. The inventory was only published in 1975, and made many previous assumptions invalid.
Horne dated the work at some point after the purchase of the villa in 1477 and before Botticelli's departure for Rome to join the painting of the Sistine Chapel in 1481. Recent scholars prefer a date of around 1484–86 on grounds of the work's place in the development of Botticelli's style. The Primavera is now usually dated earlier, after Botticelli's return from Rome in 1482 and perhaps around the time of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco's wedding in July 1482, but by some still before Botticelli's departure.
Whenever the two paintings were united at Castello, they have remained together ever since. They stayed in Castello until 1815, when they were transferred to the Uffizi. For some years until 1919 they were kept in the Galleria dell'Accademia, another government museum in Florence.
Although there are ancient and modern texts that are relevant, no single text provides the precise imagery of the painting, which has led scholars to propose many sources and interpretations. Many art historians who specialize in the Italian Renaissance have found Neoplatonic interpretations, of which two different versions have been articulated by Edgar Wind and Ernst Gombrich, to be the key to understanding the painting. Botticelli represented the Neoplatonic idea of divine love in the form of a nude Venus.
For Plato – and so for the members of the Florentine Platonic Academy – Venus had two aspects: she was an earthly goddess who aroused humans to physical love or she was a heavenly goddess who inspired intellectual love in them. Plato further argued that contemplation of physical beauty allowed the mind to better understand spiritual beauty. So, looking at Venus, the most beautiful of goddesses, might at first raise a physical response in viewers which then lifted their minds towards the godly. A Neoplatonic reading of Botticelli's Birth of Venus suggests that 15th-century viewers would have looked at the painting and felt their minds lifted to the realm of divine love.
The composition, with a central nude figure, and one to the side with an arm raised above the head of the first, and winged beings in attendance, would have reminded its Renaissance viewers of the traditional iconography of the Baptism of Christ, marking the start of his ministry on earth. In a similar way, the scene shows here marks the start of Venus's ministry of love, whether in a simple sense, or the expanded meaning of Renaissance Neoplatonism.
More recently, questions have arisen about Neoplatonism as the dominant intellectual system of late 15th-century Florence, and scholars have indicated that there might be other ways to interpret Botticelli's mythological paintings. In particular, both Primavera and Birth of Venus have been seen as wedding paintings that suggest appropriate behaviors for brides and grooms.
The laurel trees at right and laurel wreath worn by the Hora are punning references to the name "Lorenzo", though it is uncertain whether Lorenzo il Magnifico, the effective ruler of Florence, or his young cousin Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco is meant. In the same way the flowers in the air around Zephyr and on the textiles worn and carried by the Hora evoke the name of Florence
Stary Rynek (The Old Market) in Poznan has several fountains based on mythological characters.
The central square of the city established in 1253 on the left bank of the Warta River was designed on the base of a square with four 141 - metre sides.
In terms of size, the square is the third biggest in Poland, losing only to the squares in Krakow and Wrocław.
Each side of the square has three streets running out of it, dividing its sides into two sections with eight 35-43 metre long, 7-8 metre wide plots.
Of the twelve streets starting at the square, four (Wrocławska, Wroniecka, Wielka and Wodna) used to lead to the city gates.
The square was to be built up with administrative and commercial edifices. Soon after the creation of the city, the town hall, the Municipal Scales and market stalls were built.
Originally the structures built both in and around the square were made of wood. However, as soon as in the end of the 13th century brick buildings began to appear: the Municipal Scales, the Gothic town hall, and in the 14th century the cloth hall.
In the first half of the 16th century a complex of small houses, called the merchants' houses, was built by the merchants who owned the individual plots.
In the 17th century, the bread market was moved next to the Municipal Scales and in their place the arsenal was built. Next came the guardhouse in the late 18th century.
These buildings were repeatedly destroyed, rebuilt and modified and were finally restored to their original form (except for the arsenal and the cloth hall) after 1945.
The speed with which the wooden structures were phased out increased after the great fire in 1471. The houses around the square were built with initially two and later three rows of rooms, with their gables facing the square. They were used as lodgings, but served also as workshops and stores.
On the ground floor, as you entered the building from the square, there was the so - called "grand hall" used for commercial and representative purposes. In the back, separated from the house by a small yard, was a small building used as storehouse and workshop.
With time there were more and more departures from this initially uniform arrangement, as in the case of the palaces built by the wealthy, noble families of the Działyńskis and the Mielżyńskis in the 18th century. There were more changes in the 19th century and in the early 20th century.
Following the devastation wreaked during the liberation of Poznań in 1945, when 60% of all the buildings in the square were destroyed, including 80 buildings gutted by fire, reconstruction began in the very same year.
The work, carried out in accordance with meticulously drawn up conservation plans, aimed to restore the square to its former splendour. In the 1950's the arsenal and the cloth halls made way for modern looking exhibition pavilions.
After 1945 the Old Market Square lost its predominantly commercial character, becoming instead a residential area with many cultural institutions. Some of the shops on the ground floor were kept, often to sell souvenirs.
In the 1970's many fashionable bars, cafes and restaurants were opened. After 1990 the square saw the arrival of offices of several banks and even more eateries.
Between 1880 and 1955 there used to be trams running across the square. Traffic of all vehicles was gradually reduced and eventually in 1970 the square became closed to any traffic, with the exception of special permit holders.
In the second half of the 19th century the square was equipped with water and gas installations and illuminated by gas lighting. Early in the next century an underground electrical network was constructed. In the late 19th century the surface of the square was replaced. The present paving is a result of a general renovation carried out in the late 1960's.
Every June the square is home to a lively street fair (Jarmark Świętojański), and throughout the summer it features many cultural events including some performances of Malta Theatre Festival.
In the summer months many bars set up beer gardens in the square, where you can drink as much coffee or beer as you want and make yourself familiar with Polish cuisine! There is neverending party on the square!
Shih Tszah (Shih-Dzah) - a pair of granite mythological lion guards, installed during the descent to the Neva on Petrovskaya Embankment in St. Petersburg. The sculptures have a height of 4.5 m and a weight of 2.5 tons each. The inscription is carved on both pedestals: “Shih Tzu from the city of Jilin in Manchuria was transported to St. Petersburg in 1907. A gift from Infantry General NI Grodekov.
Shih Tzà
Main article: Chinese lion
In China, such sculptures are installed in pairs on either side of the entrance to the temple, the palace, the cemetery. They depict a lion and a lioness guarding the entrance. A lion in a paw holds a ball, symbolizing Buddhist knowledge, carrying light into darkness and able to fulfill desires. The lioness holds the paw of a lion cub.
Story
To rule
At the beginning of the 20th century, Shih Tzu was made of Manchu granite in the city of Hirine specifically for the shrine (small chapel temple) of General Chan, but after the sudden death of Chan in 1904, the newly appointed governor of the city presented them to the assistant of the Amur General Governor N. And .Grodekovu. Grodekov decided to transfer these sculptures as a gift to St. Petersburg and, having paid transport costs, relocated the sculptures to Vladivostok by train, and from there on the steamer "Rival" to St. Petersburg.
Arriving in September 1907, the Chinese Shih Tzu was decided to be installed on the recently reconstructed Petrovskaya Embankment, which only in 1901-1903 was faced with granite. The making of pedestals and the installation of sculptures was supervised by the architect L. N. Benoit. 獅. 玉 黑白摄影. 圣彼得堡
Her name's Agatha~ Photo taken at the Dreadmourne RP sim, the aesthetics of the place just bleed passion project, I really love it there.
The Kelpies are 30-metre-high horse-head sculptures, standing next to a new extension to the Forth and Clyde Canal, and near River Carron, in The Helix, a new parkland project built to connect 16 communities in the Falkirk Council Area, Scotland. The sculptures were designed by sculptor Andy Scott and were completed in October 2013. The sculptures form a gateway at the eastern entrance to the Forth and Clyde canal, and the new canal extension built as part of The Helix land transformation project. The Kelpies are a monument to horse powered heritage across Scotland.
The sculptures opened to the public in April 2014. As part of the project, they will have their own visitor centre, and sit beside a newly developed canal turning pool and extension. This canal extension reconnects the Forth and Clyde Canal with the River Forth, and improves navigation between the East and West of Scotland.
The name was chosen by Scottish Canals at the inception of The Helix project, in 2005. The Kelpies name reflected the mythological transforming beasts possessing the strength and endurance of 10 horses; a quality that is analogous with the transformational change and endurance of Scotland's inland waterways. The Kelpies represent the lineage of the heavy horse of Scottish industry and economy, pulling the wagons, ploughs, barges and coalships that shaped the geographical layout of the Falkirk area.
The Nine Worthies are nine historical, scriptural, mythological or semi-legendary personages who were established in the Middle Ages as a set of heroes personifying the ideals of chivalry. All may loosely be termed "Princes", whether kings, rulers, sons of kings, dictators, or simple leaders. In French they are Les Neuf Preux, meaning "Nine Valiants", which term gives a slightly more focussed idea of the sort of moral virtue they were deemed to represent so perfectly, that of soldierly courage and generalship. The study of the life of each would thus form a good education for the aspirant to chivalric status. They are as follows:
* Hector * Alexander the Great * Julius Caesar * Joshua * David * Judas Maccabeus
* King Arthur * Charlemagne * Godfrey of Bouillon
My 3rd round matchup in the new group "Get Pushed" I was matched with the talented jocelynnhsu. She noted there was nothing "green" in my stream and said - " Well, I don't seem to see a lot of green in your pictures so I challenge you to shoot something green! It can be processed to be green or it can be naturally green like a leaf !" While the nine ball is yellow the felt on the table is green.
Heck, that's enough seriousness for the day... let's play another game of nine ball.
Our Daily Challenge ~ Nine
Get Pushed ~ Something Green
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Dr. Elliot McGucken Fine Art Landscape & Nature Photography
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Epic Landscape Photography: The Mythological Principles of Fine Art Nature Photography
Ansel Adams used the golden ratio in his photography too:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFlzAaBgsDI
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrOUX3ZCl7I
The Fibonacci Numbers are closely related to the golden ratio, and thus they also play a prominent role in exalted natural and artistic compositions!
I'm working on a far deeper book titled The Golden Ratio Number for Photographers. :)
The famous mathematician Jacob Bernoulli wrote:
The (golden spiral) may be used as a symbol, either of fortitude and constancy in adversity, or of the human body, which after all its changes, even after death, will be restored to its exact and perfect self.
Engraved upon Jacob’s tombstone is a spiral alongside the words, "Eadem Mutata Resurgo," meaning "Though changed, I shall rise again." And so it is that within the Golden Ratio Principle, the golden harmonies rise yet again.
The golden ratio is oft known as the divine cut, the golden cut, the divine proportion, the golden number, and PHI for the name of the architect of the Parthenon Phidias. It has exalted classical art on down through the millennia and it can exalt your art too!
Ask me anything about the golden ratio! :) I will do my best to answer!!
Enjoy my Fine Art Ballet instagram too!
Dr. Elliot McGucken's Golden Ratio Principle: The Golden Number Ratio Principle: Dr. E’s Golden Ratio Principle: The golden ratio exalts beauty because the number is a characteristic of the mathematically and physically most efficient manners of growth and distribution, on both evolutionary and purely physical levels. The golden ratio ensures that the proportions and structure of that which came before provide the proportions and structure of that which comes after. Robust, ordered growth is naturally associated with health and beauty, and thus we evolved to perceive the golden ratio harmonies as inherently beautiful, as we saw and felt their presence in all vital growth and life—in the salient features and proportions of humans and nature alike, from the distribution of our facial features and bones to the arrangements of petals, leaves, and sunflowers seeds. As ratios between Fibonacci Numbers offer the closest whole-number approximations to the golden ratio, and as seeds, cells, leaves, bones, and other physical entities appear in whole numbers, the Fibonacci Numbers oft appear in nature’s elements as “growth’s numbers.” From the dawn of time, humanity sought to salute their gods in art and temples exalting the same proportion by which all their vital sustenance and they themselves had been created—the golden ratio. the golden number, rectangle, and spiral!
Giant's Causeway, County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
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Petranaki arena meets mythological beasts of Asian culture.
This is my enty for round 2 of the Imperium der Steine MOC Olympics.
The category was "The last Jedi", and the point was to mix Asian culture with Star Wars.
The story:
"Obi-Wan, Anakin and Padmé have been captured, and are being presented as offerings to the animal Spirits of the forests of Geonosis. The Petranaki temple was built in honour of these Spirits, and used to be a place of worship. These Spirits used to be peaceful and would only punish the sinful, but with the raging wars of this era, powerful practicioners of the Force have managed to get the once peaceful creatures under their control, and is using them as a tool against their enemies."
For this round I am facing off against markus1984 who buit this for his entry.
One uncut swuare of paper
Designed and folded by me
First try, hope you like it :)
I`ll accept any advice for a better version ;)
Goya's 'Hercules and Omphale'
In the final mythological scene to be considered we encounter the ‘Bride’. The painting is that of ‘Hercules and Omphale’ The legend goes that Hercules was sold to Omphale, the Queen of Lydia, as a slave. He is ordered to rid Lydia of its robbers and despoilers and so impresses Omphale by his accomplishing this task in such an exemplary masculine fashion, that she takes him as her husband. She then dons his Lion’s skin and has him dress in woman’s clothing to wait upon her needs. The ‘Bride’ here consummates herself, by reversing roles, turning the ‘Bachelor’ into a reflection of herself. She has total autonomy. This episode forms only a very small aspect of the complete Hercules myth and I believe it to be of some significance that Goya would choose it. Hercules epitomised, for the Greeks, all that was strong and manly, He is depicted by them as a glorious hero and invincible athlete to whom the foundation of the Olympic games was ascribed. He was the son of Alcmene (woman of might) who had been impregnated by Zeus, who had assumed the guise of her husband Amphitryon, hence his demi-god like strength. Being thus engendered we can trace his ancestry back to Chronos and Uranus. It was due to the action of the furies, who were created from the blood of Uranus, that the Hercules legendry wanderings began. This legend remains one of the most potent of all Greek myths. Its dominating image is one of aggressive manliness and yet Goya, ignoring these exploits, chooses to reveal to us the slightly obscure tale of the androgynous Hercules forced into submission to a domineering woman. This is a tale of male impotence and, however temporary the situation, this was the aspect of the legend which obviously fascinated Goya.
Perhaps there has always been this confused, shared, and switched pronoun thing going on. I suspect that its present manifestation might eventually generate its own myths, as empires crumble and new 'creeds' assert themselves.
The Postcard
A postally unused carte postale that was published by Lehnert & Landrock of Cairo. The image is a glossy real photograph, and the card has a divided back.
Lehnert & Landrock
Lehnert & Landrock was a photographic studio run by Rudolf Franz Lehnert and Ernst Heinrich Landrock.
They were active in Tunisia and Egypt in the early 20th. century, and were noted for producing Orientalist images.
Rudolf Franz Lehnert and Ernst Heinrich Landrock produced images of North African people, landscapes, and architecture for a primarily European audience.
These images were mainly distributed in monographs, although they also produced original prints, photogravures, and lithographic postcards.
The Great Sphinx of Giza
The Great Sphinx of Giza is a limestone statue of a reclining sphinx, a mythical creature with the head of a human, and the body of a lion.
Facing directly from west to east, it stands on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile. The face of the Sphinx appears to represent the pharaoh Khafre.
The original shape of the Sphinx was cut from the bedrock, and has since been restored with layers of limestone blocks.
It measures 73 m (240 ft) long from paw to tail, 20 m (66 ft) high from the base to the top of the head, and 19 m (62 ft) wide at its rear haunches.
Its nose was broken off for unknown reasons between the 3rd. and 10th. centuries AD.
The Sphinx is the oldest known monumental sculpture in Egypt, and one of the most recognisable statues in the world.
The archaeological evidence suggests that it was created by ancient Egyptians of the Old Kingdom during the reign of Khafre (c. 2558 - 2532 BC).
-- The Great Sphinx's Name
The commonly used name "Sphinx" was given to the monument in classical antiquity, about 2,000 years after the commonly accepted date of its construction by reference to a Greek mythological beast with the head of a woman, a falcon, a cat, or a sheep and the body of a lion with the wings of an eagle. (Although, like most Egyptian sphinxes, the Great Sphinx has a man's head and no wings).
The English word sphinx comes from the ancient Greek Σφίγξ from the verb σφίγγω (meaning to squeeze in English), after the Greek sphinx who strangled anyone who failed to answer her riddle.
-- History of the Great Sphinx
The Sphinx is a monolith carved from the bedrock of the plateau, which also served as the quarry for the pyramids and other monuments in the area.
Egyptian geologist Farouk El-Baz has suggested that the head of the Sphinx may have been carved first, out of a natural yardang, i.e. a ridge of bedrock that had been sculpted by the wind. These can sometimes achieve shapes which resemble animals.
El-Baz suggests that the "moat" or "ditch" around the Sphinx may have been quarried out later to allow for the creation of the full body of the sculpture.
The archaeological evidence suggests that the Great Sphinx was created around 2500 BC for the pharaoh Khafre, the builder of the Second Pyramid at Giza. The stones cut from around the Sphinx's body were used to construct a temple in front of it.
However, neither the enclosure nor the temple were ever completed, and the relative scarcity of Old Kingdom cultural material suggests that a Sphinx cult was not established at the time.
Selim Hassan, writing in 1949 on recent excavations of the Sphinx enclosure, made note of this circumstance:
"Taking all things into consideration, it seems that
we must give the credit of erecting this, the world's
most wonderful statue, to Khafre, but always with
this reservation: that there is not one single
contemporary inscription which connects the Sphinx
with Khafre, so sound as it may appear, we must treat
the evidence as circumstantial, until such time as a
lucky turn of the spade of the excavator will reveal to
the world a definite reference to the erection of the
Sphinx."
In order to construct the temple, the northern perimeter-wall of the Khafre Valley Temple had to be deconstructed, hence it follows that the Khafre funerary complex preceded the creation of the Sphinx and its temple.
Furthermore, the angle and location of the south wall of the enclosure suggests the causeway connecting Khafre's Pyramid and Valley Temple already existed before the Sphinx was planned. The lower base level of the Sphinx temple also indicates that it doesn't pre-date the Valley Temple.
-- The Great Sphinx in the New Kingdom
Some time around the First Intermediate Period, the Giza Necropolis was abandoned, and drifting sand eventually buried the Sphinx up to its shoulders.
The first documented attempt at an excavation dates to c. 1400 BC, when the young Thutmose IV gathered a team and, after much effort, managed to dig out the front paws. Between them he erected a shrine that housed the Dream Stele, an inscribed granite slab (possibly a re-purposed door lintel from one of Khafre's temples).
When the stele was discovered, its lines of text were already damaged and incomplete. An excerpt reads:
"... the royal son, Thothmos, being arrived, while
walking at midday and seating himself under the
shadow of this mighty god, was overcome by
slumber and slept at the very moment when Ra is
at the summit of heaven.
He found that the Majesty of this august god spoke
to him with his own mouth, as a father speaks to his
son, saying:
'Look upon me, contemplate me, O my son Thothmos;
I am thy father, Harmakhis-Khopri-Ra-Tum; I bestow
upon thee the sovereignty over my domain, the
supremacy over the living ... Behold my actual condition
that thou mayest protect all my perfect limbs. The sand
of the desert whereon I am laid has covered me. Save
me, causing all that is in my heart to be executed.'"
The Dream Stele associates the Sphinx with Khafre, however this part of the text is not entirely intact:
"... which we bring for him: oxen ... and all the young
vegetables; and we shall give praise to Wenofer ...
Khaf ... the statue made for Atum-Hor-em-Akhet."
Egyptologist Thomas Young, finding the Khaf hieroglyphs in a damaged cartouche used to surround a royal name, inserted the glyph ra to complete Khafre's name. However when the Stele was re-excavated in 1925, the lines of text referring to Khaf flaked off and were destroyed.
In the New Kingdom, the Sphinx became more specifically associated with the sun god Hor-em-akhet. Pharaoh Amenhotep II built a temple to the northeast of the Sphinx nearly 1000 years after its construction, and dedicated it to the cult of Hor-em-akhet.
-- The Great Sphinx in the Graeco-Roman Period
By Graeco-Roman times, Giza had become a tourist destination - the monuments were regarded as antiquities. Some Roman Emperors visited the Sphinx out of curiosity, and for political reasons.
The Sphinx was cleared of sand again in the first century AD in honour of Emperor Nero and the Governor of Egypt, Tiberius Claudius Balbilus.
A monumental stairway more than 12 metres (39 ft) wide was erected, leading to a pavement in front of the paws of the Sphinx. At the top of the stairs, a podium was positioned that allowed view into the Sphinx sanctuary.
Further back, another podium neighboured several more steps. The stairway was dismantled during the 1931–32 excavations by Émile Baraize.
Pliny the Elder described the face of the Sphinx being coloured red and gave measurements for the statue:
"In front of these pyramids is the Sphinx, a still more
wondrous object of art, but one upon which silence
has been observed, as it is looked upon as a divinity
by the people of the neighbourhood.
It is their belief that King Harmaïs was buried in it, and
they will have it that it was brought there from a distance.
The truth is, however, that it was hewn from the solid
rock; and, from a feeling of veneration, the face of the
monster is coloured red.
The circumference of the head, measured round the
forehead, is one hundred and two feet, the length of the
feet being one hundred and forty-three, and the height,
from the belly to the summit of the asp on the head,
sixty-two."
A stela dated to 166 AD commemorates the restoration of the retaining walls surrounding the Sphinx.
The last Emperor connected with the monument was Septimius Severus, around 200 AD. With the downfall of Roman power, the Sphinx was once more engulfed by the sands.
-- The Great Sphinx in the Middle Ages
Some ancient non-Egyptians saw the Sphinx as a likeness of the god Horon. The cult of the Sphinx continued into medieval times. The Sabians of Harran saw it as the burial place of Hermes Trismegistus.
Arab authors described the Sphinx as a talisman which guarded the area from the desert. Al-Maqrizi describes it as "The Talisman of the Nile" on which the locals believed the flood cycle depended.
Muhammad al-Idrisi stated that those wishing to obtain bureaucratic positions in the Egyptian government should give an incense offering to the monument.
Over the centuries, writers and scholars have recorded their impressions and reactions upon seeing the Sphinx. The vast majority were concerned with a general description, often including a mixture of science, romance and mystique. A typical description of the Sphinx by tourists and leisure travelers throughout the 19th. and 20th. century was made by John Lawson Stoddard:
"It is the antiquity of the Sphinx which thrills us as
we look upon it, for in itself it has no charms. The
desert's waves have risen to its breast, as if to
wrap the monster in a winding-sheet of gold. The
face and head have been mutilated by Moslem
fanatics. The mouth, the beauty of whose lips was
once admired, is now expressionless. Yet grand in
its loneliness, - veiled in the mystery of unnamed
ages, - the relic of Egyptian antiquity stands solemn
and silent in the presence of the awful desert -
symbol of eternity. Here it disputes with Time the
empire of the past; forever gazing on and on into
a future which will still be distant when we, like all
who have preceded us and looked upon its face,
have lived our little lives and disappeared."
From the 16th. century, European observers described the Sphinx having the face, neck and breast of a woman.
Most early Western images were book illustrations in print form, elaborated by a professional engraver from either previous images available, or some original drawing or sketch supplied by an author, and usually now lost.
Seven years after visiting Giza, André Thévet (Cosmographie de Levant, 1556) described the Sphinx as:
"The head of a colossus, caused to be
made by Isis, daughter of Inachus, then
so beloved of Jupiter".
He, or his artist and engraver, pictured it as a curly-haired monster with a grassy dog collar.
Athanasius Kircher (who never visited Egypt) depicted the Sphinx as a Roman statue (Turris Babel, 1679).
Johannes Helferich's (1579) Sphinx is a pinched-face, round-breasted woman with a straight-haired wig.
George Sandys stated in 1615 that the Sphinx was a harlot; Balthasar de Monconys interpreted the headdress as a kind of hairnet, while François de La Boullaye-Le Gouz's Sphinx had a rounded hairdo with bulky collar.
Richard Pococke's Sphinx was an adoption of Cornelis de Bruijn's drawing of 1698, featuring only minor changes, but is closer to the actual appearance of the Sphinx than anything previously drawn.
The print versions of Norden's drawings for his Voyage d'Egypte et de Nubie (1755) clearly show that the nose was missing.
-- Later Excavations
In 1817, the first modern archaeological dig, supervised by the Italian Giovanni Battista Caviglia, uncovered the Sphinx's chest completely.
In 1887, the chest, paws, the altar, and the plateau were all made visible. Flights of steps were unearthed, and finally accurate measurements were taken of the great figures.
The height from the lowest of the steps was found to be one hundred feet, and the space between the paws was found to be thirty-five feet long and ten feet wide. Here there was formerly an altar; and a stele of Thûtmosis IV was discovered, recording a dream in which he was ordered to clear away the sand that even then was gathering round the site of the Sphinx.
One of the people working on clearing the sands from around the Great Sphinx was Eugène Grébaut, a French Director of the Antiquities Service.
-- Opinions of Early Egyptologists
Early Egyptologists and excavators were divided regarding the age of the Sphinx and its associated temples.
In 1857, Auguste Mariette, founder of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, unearthed the much later Inventory Stela (estimated to be from the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, c. 664 - 525 BC), which tells how Khufu came upon the Sphinx, already buried in sand.
Although certain tracts on the Stela are likely accurate, this passage is contradicted by archaeological evidence, thus considered to be Late Period historical revisionism, a purposeful fake, created by the local priests as an attempt to imbue the contemporary Isis temple with an ancient history it never had.
Such acts became common when religious institutions such as temples, shrines and priests' domains were fighting for political attention and for financial and economic donations.
Flinders Petrie wrote in 1883 regarding the state of opinion of the age of the Khafre Valley Temple, and by extension the Sphinx:
"The date of the Granite Temple has been so
positively asserted to be earlier than the fourth
dynasty, that it may seem rash to dispute the
point.
Recent discoveries, however, strongly show that
it was really not built before the reign of Khafre,
in the fourth dynasty."
Gaston Maspero, the French Egyptologist and second director of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, conducted a survey of the Sphinx in 1886. He concluded that because the Dream Stela showed the cartouche of Khafre in line 13, it was he who was responsible for the excavation, and therefore the Sphinx must predate Khafre and his predecessors - possibly Fourth Dynasty, c. 2575 - 2467 BC. Maspero believed the Sphinx to be "the most ancient monument in Egypt".
Ludwig Borchardt attributed the Sphinx to the Middle Kingdom, arguing that the particular features seen on the Sphinx are unique to the 12th. dynasty, and that the Sphinx resembles Amenemhat III.
E. A. Wallis Budge agreed that the Sphinx predated Khafre's reign, writing in The Gods of the Egyptians (1904):
"This marvellous object was in existence in the
days of Khafre, or Khephren, and it is probable
that it is a very great deal older than his reign,
and that it dates from the end of the archaic
period [c. 2686 BC]."
-- Modern Dissenting Hypotheses
Rainer Stadelmann, former director of the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo, examined the distinct iconography of the nemes (headdress) and the now-detached beard of the Sphinx, and concluded that the style is more indicative of the pharaoh Khufu (2589–2566 BC).
He was known to the Greeks as Cheops, builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza and Khafre's father. Rainer supports this by suggesting Khafre's Causeway was built to conform to a pre-existing structure, which, he concludes, given its location, could only have been the Sphinx.
In 2004, Vassil Dobrev of the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale in Cairo announced that he had uncovered new evidence that the Great Sphinx may have been the work of the little-known pharaoh Djedefre (2528–2520 BC).
Djedefre was Khafra's half brother, and a son of Khufu. Dobrev suggests Djedefre built the Sphinx in the image of his father Khufu, identifying him with the sun god Ra in order to restore respect for their dynasty.
Dobrev also says that the causeway connecting Khafre's pyramid to the temples was built around the Sphinx, suggesting that it was already in existence at the time.
Egyptologist Nigel Strudwick responded to Dobrev by saying that:
"It is not implausible. But I would need more explanation,
such as why he thinks the pyramid at Abu Roash is a sun
temple, something I'm sceptical about.
I have never heard anyone suggest that the name in the
graffiti at Zawiyet el-Aryan mentions Djedefre.
I remain more convinced by the traditional argument of it
being Khafre or the more recent theory of it being Khufu."
-- Recent Restorations of the Great Sphinx
In 1931, engineers of the Egyptian government repaired the head of the Sphinx. Part of its headdress had fallen off in 1926 due to erosion, which had also cut deeply into its neck. This questionable repair was by the addition of a concrete collar between the headdress and the neck, creating an altered profile.
Many renovations to the stone base and raw rock body were done in the 1980's, and then redone in the 1990's.
-- Natural and Deliberate Damage to the Great Sphinx
The limestone of the area consists of layers which offer differing resistance to erosion (mostly caused by wind and windblown sand), leading to the uneven degradation apparent in the Sphinx's body.
The lowest part of the body, including the legs, is solid rock. The body of the animal up to its neck is fashioned from softer layers that have suffered considerable disintegration. The layer from which the head was sculpted is much harder.
A number of "dead-end" shafts are known to exist within and below the body of the Great Sphinx, most likely dug by treasure hunters and tomb robbers.
-- The Great Sphinx's Missing Nose
Examination of the Sphinx's face shows that long rods or chisels were hammered into the nose area, one down from the bridge and another beneath the nostril, then used to pry the nose off towards the south, resulting in the one-metre wide nose still being lost to date.
Drawings of the Sphinx by Frederic Louis Norden in 1737 show the nose missing. Many folk tales exist regarding the destruction of its nose, aiming to provide an answer as to where it went or what happened to it.
One tale erroneously attributes it to cannonballs fired by the army of Napoleon Bonaparte. Other tales ascribe it to being the work of Mamluks. Since the 10th. century, some Arab authors have claimed it to be a result of iconoclastic attacks.
The Arab historian al-Maqrīzī, writing in the 15th. century, attributes the loss of the nose to Muhammad Sa'im al-Dahr, a Sufi Muslim who in 1378 found the local peasants making offerings to the Sphinx in the hope of increasing their harvest; he therefore defaced the Sphinx in an act of iconoclasm.
According to al-Maqrīzī, many people living in the area believed that the increased sand covering the Giza Plateau was retribution for al-Dahr's act of defacement.
Al-Minufi stated that the Alexandrian Crusade in 1365 was divine punishment for a Sufi sheikh breaking off the nose.
-- The Great Sphinx's Beard
In addition to the lost nose, a ceremonial pharaonic beard is thought to have been attached, although this may have been added in later periods after the original construction.
Egyptologist Vassil Dobrev has suggested that had the beard been an original part of the Sphinx, it would have damaged the chin of the statue upon falling. However the lack of visible damage supports his theory that the beard was a later addition.
The British Museum has limestone fragments which are thought to be from the Sphinx's beard.
Residues of red pigment are visible on areas of the Sphinx's face, and traces of yellow and blue pigment have also been found elsewhere on the Sphinx, leading Mark Lehner to suggest that:
"The monument was once decked
out in gaudy comic book colours".
However, as with the case of many ancient monuments, the pigments and colours have virtually disappeared, resulting in the yellow/beige appearance that the Sphinx has today.
-- Holes and Tunnels in the Great Sphinx
-- The Hole in the Sphinx's Head
Johann Helffrich visited the Sphinx during his travels in 1565 - 1566. He reports that a priest went into the head of the Sphinx, and when he spoke it was as if the Sphinx itself was speaking.
Many New Kingdom stelae depict the Sphinx wearing a crown. If it in fact existed, the hole could have been the anchoring point for it.
Émile Baraize closed the hole with a metal hatch in 1926.
-- Perring's Hole
Howard Vyse directed Perring in 1837 to drill a tunnel into the back of the Sphinx, just behind the head. The boring rods became stuck at a depth of 27 feet (8.2 m).
Attempts to blast the rods free caused further damage. The hole was cleared in 1978, and among the rubble was a fragment of the Sphinx's nemes headdress.
-- The Major Fissure
A major natural fissure in the bedrock cuts through the waist of the Sphinx. This was first excavated by Auguste Mariette in 1853.
The fissure measures up to 2 metres (6.6 ft) in width. In 1926 Baraize sealed the sides and roofed it with iron bars, limestone and cement. He then installed an iron trap door at the top. The sides of the fissure might have been artificially squared; however, the bottom is irregular bedrock, about 1 metre (3.3 ft) above the outside floor. A very narrow crack continues deeper.
-- The Rump Passage
When the Sphinx was cleared of sand in 1926 under direction of Baraize, it revealed an opening to a tunnel at floor-level on the north side of the rump. It was subsequently closed by masonry and nearly forgotten.
More than fifty years later, the existence of the passage was recalled by three elderly men who had worked during the sand clearing as basket carriers. This led to the rediscovery and excavation of the rump passage in 1980.
The passage consists of an upper and a lower section, which are angled roughly 90 degrees to each other. The upper part ascends to a height of 4 metres (13 ft) above the ground-floor at a northwest direction. It runs between masonry veneer and the core body of the Sphinx, and ends in a niche 1 metre (3.3 ft) wide and 1.8 metres (5.9 ft) high.
The ceiling of the niche consists of modern cement, which likely spilled down from the filling of the gap between masonry and core bedrock, some 3 metres (9.8 ft) above.
The lower part descends steeply into the bedrock towards the northeast, for a distance of approximately 4 metres (13 ft) and a depth of 5 metres (16 ft). It terminates in a pit at groundwater level.
At the entrance it is 1.3 metres (4.3 ft) wide, narrowing to about 1.07 metres (3.5 ft) towards the end. Among the sand and stone fragments, a piece of tin foil and the base of a modern ceramic water jar was found.
The clogged bottom of the pit contained modern fill. Among it, more tin foil, modern cement and a pair of shoes.
It is possible that the entire passage was cut top down, beginning high up on the rump, and that the current access point at floor-level was made at a later date.
Vyse noted in his diary in 1837 that he was "boring" near the tail, which indicates him as the creator of the passage, as no other tunnel has been identified at this location. Another interpretation is that the shaft is of ancient origin, perhaps an exploratory tunnel or an unfinished tomb shaft.
-- The Niche in the Northern Flank
There is a niche in the Sphinx's core body. It was closed during the 1925-6 restorations.
-- The Space Behind the Dream Stele
The space behind the Dream Stele, between the paws of the Sphinx, was covered by an iron beam and cement roof and then fitted with an iron trap door.
-- The Keyhole Shaft
At the ledge of the Sphinx enclosure there is a square shaft opposite the northern hind paw. It was cleared during excavation in 1978 and measures 1.42 by 1.06 metres (4.7 by 3.5 ft) and about 2 metres (6.6 ft) deep.
Lehner interpreted the shaft to be an unfinished tomb, and named it the "Keyhole Shaft", because a cutting in the ledge above the shaft is shaped like the lower part of a keyhole, upside down.
The Great Pyramid of Giza
The Great Pyramid of Giza is the largest Egyptian pyramid, and the tomb of the Fourth Dynasty pharaoh Khufu. Built in the 26th. century BC during a period of around 27 years, it is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to remain largely intact.
Initially standing at 146.6 metres (481 feet), the Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for more than 3,800 years. Over time, most of the smooth white limestone casing was removed, which lowered the pyramid's height to the present 138.5 metres (454.4 ft).
What is seen today is the underlying core structure. The base was measured to be 230.3 metres (755.6 ft) square, giving a volume of roughly 2.6 million cubic metres (92 million cubic feet).
The Great Pyramid was built by quarrying an estimated 2.3 million large blocks weighing 6 million tonnes in total. The majority of stones are not uniform in size or shape, and are only roughly dressed.
The outside layers were bound together by mortar. Primarily local limestone from the Giza Plateau was used. Other blocks were imported by boat down the Nile: white limestone from Tura for the casing, and granite blocks from Aswan, weighing up to 80 tonnes, for the King's Chamber.
There are three known chambers inside the Great Pyramid. The lowest was cut into the bedrock, but it remained unfinished. The Queen's Chamber and the King's Chamber, that contains a granite sarcophagus, are higher up, within the pyramid structure.
Khufu's vizier, Hemiunu, is believed to be the architect of the Great Pyramid. Many varying scientific and alternative hypotheses attempt to explain the exact construction techniques.
-- Attribution to Khufu
Historically the Great Pyramid has been attributed to Khufu based on the words of authors of classical antiquity, first and foremost Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus.
However, during the middle ages a number of other people were credited with the construction of the pyramid, for example Joseph, Nimrod or King Saurid.
In 1837 four additional Relieving Chambers were found above the King's Chamber after tunneling to them. The chambers, previously inaccessible, were covered in hieroglyphs of red paint.
The workers who were building the pyramid had marked the blocks with the names of their gangs, which included the pharaoh's name (e.g.: “The gang, The white crown of Khnum-Khufu is powerful”).
The names of Khufu were spelled out on the walls over a dozen times. Another of these graffiti was found by Goyon on an exterior block of the 4th layer of the pyramid.
Throughout the 20th. century the cemeteries next to the pyramid were excavated. Family members and high officials of Khufu were buried there. Most notably the wives, children and grandchildren of Khufu, along with the funerary cache of Hetepheres I, mother of Khufu.
As Hassan puts it:
"From the early dynastic times, it was always the
custom for the relatives, friends and courtiers to
be buried in the vicinity of the king they had served
during life. This was quite in accordance with the
Egyptian idea of the Hereafter."
The cemeteries were actively expanded until the 6th. dynasty, but used less frequently afterwards. The earliest pharaonic name of seal impressions is that of Khufu, the latest of Pepi II.
Worker graffiti was written on some of the stones of the tombs as well; for instance, "Mddw" (Horus name of Khufu) on the mastaba of Chufunacht, probably a grandson of Khufu.
In 1954 two boat pits, one containing the Khufu ship, were discovered buried at the south foot of the pyramid. The cartouche of Djedefre was found on many of the blocks that covered the boat pits. As the successor and eldest son he would have presumably been responsible for the burial of Khufu.
The second boat pit was examined in 1987; excavation work started in 2010. Graffiti on the stones included 4 instances of the name "Khufu", 11 instances of "Djedefre", a year (in reign, season, month and day), measurements of the stone, various signs and marks, and a reference line used in construction, all done in red or black ink.
During excavations in 2013 the Diary of Merer in the form of rolls of papyrus was found at Wadi al-Jarf. It documents the transportation of white limestone blocks from Tura to the Great Pyramid, which is mentioned by its original name Akhet Khufu dozens of times.
The diary records that the stones were accepted at She Akhet-Khufu ("The pool of the pyramid Horizon of Khufu") and Ro-She Khufu (“The entrance to the pool of Khufu”) which were under supervision of Ankhhaf, half brother and vizier of Khufu, as well as owner of the largest mastaba of the Giza East Field.
-- The Age of the Great Pyramid
The age of the Great Pyramid has been determined by two principal approaches:
-- Indirectly, through its attribution to Khufu and his chronological age, based on archaeological and textual evidence.
-- Directly, via radiocarbon dating of organic material found in the pyramid and included in its mortar. Mortar was used generously in the Great Pyramid's construction. In the mixing process, ashes from fires were added to the mortar, organic material that could be extracted and radiocarbon dated.
A total of 46 samples of the mortar were taken in 1984 and 1995, making sure they were clearly inherent to the original structure and could not have been incorporated at a later date.
The results were calibrated to 2871–2604 BC. A reanalysis of the data gave a completion date for the pyramid between 2620 and 2484 BC.
In 1872 Waynman Dixon opened the lower pair of air-shafts that were previously closed at both ends by chiseling holes into the walls of the Queen's Chamber.
One of the objects found within was a cedar plank, which came into possession of James Grant, a friend of Dixon. After inheritance it was donated to the Museum of Aberdeen in 1946. However it had broken into pieces, and was filed incorrectly.
Lost in the vast museum collection, it was only rediscovered in 2020, when it was radiocarbon dated to 3341–3094 BC. Being over 500 years older than Khufu's chronological age, Abeer Eladany suggests that the wood originated from the center of a long-lived tree, or had been recycled for many years prior to being deposited in the pyramid.
-- Construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza
-- Preparation of the Site
A hillock forms the base on which the pyramid stands. It was cut back into steps, and only a strip around the perimeter was leveled. Using modern equipment, this has been measured to be horizontal and flat to within 21 millimetres (0.8 in).
The bedrock reaches a height of almost 6 metres (20 ft) above the pyramid base at the location of the Grotto.
Along the sides of the base platform a series of holes are cut in the bedrock. Lehner hypothesizes that they held wooden posts used for alignment.
Edwards, among others, has suggested that water was used in order to level the base, although it is unclear how workable such a system would be.
-- Materials
The Great Pyramid consists of an estimated 2.3 million blocks. Approximately 5.5 million tonnes of limestone, 8,000 tonnes of granite, and 500,000 tonnes of mortar were used in the construction.
Most of the blocks were quarried at Giza just south of the pyramid, an area now known as the Central Field.
The white limestone used for the casing originated from Tura 10 km (6.2 mi) south of Giza), and was transported by boat down the Nile.
The granite stones in the pyramid were transported from Aswan, more than 900 km (560 mi) away. The largest, weighing up to 80 tonnes, forms the roofs of the King's Chamber.
Ancient Egyptians cut stone into rough blocks by hammering grooves into natural stone faces, inserting wooden wedges, then soaking these with water. As the water was absorbed, the wedges expanded, breaking off workable chunks. Once the blocks were cut, they were carried by boat either up or down the Nile River to the pyramid.
-- The Workforce
The Greeks believed that slave labour was used, but modern discoveries made at nearby workers' camps associated with construction at Giza suggest that it was built instead by thousands of conscript laborers.
Worker graffiti found at Giza suggest haulers were divided into groups of 40 men, consisting of four sub-units that each had an "Overseer of Ten".
As to the question of how over two million blocks could have been cut within Khufu's lifetime, stonemason Franck Burgos conducted an archaeological experiment based on an abandoned quarry of Khufu discovered in 2017.
Within it, an almost completed block and the tools used for cutting it had been uncovered: hardened arsenic copper chisels, wooden mallets, ropes and stone tools. In the experiment, replicas of these were used to cut a block weighing about 2.5 tonnes (the average block size used for the Great Pyramid).
It took 4 workers 4 days (with each working 6 hours a day) to excavate it. The initially slow progress sped up six times when the stone was wetted with water.
Based on the data, Burgos extrapolates that about 3,500 quarry-men could have produced the 250 blocks per day needed to complete the Great Pyramid within 27 years.
A construction management study conducted in 1999, in association with Mark Lehner and other Egyptologists, has estimated that the total project required an average workforce of about 13,200 individuals, with a peak workforce of roughly 40,000.
-- Surveys and Design of the Great Pyramid
The first precise measurements of the pyramid were made by Egyptologist Flinders Petrie in 1880–1882, published as The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh.
Many of the casing-stones and inner chamber blocks of the Great Pyramid fit together with high precision, with joints, on average, only 0.5 millimetres (0.020 in) wide. On the contrary, core blocks were only roughly shaped, with rubble inserted between larger gaps. Mortar was used to bind the outer layers together and to fill gaps and joints.
The block height and weight tends to get progressively smaller towards the top. Petrie measured the lowest layer to be 148 centimetres (4.86 ft) high, whereas the layers towards the summit barely exceed 50 centimetres (1.6 ft).
The accuracy of the pyramid's perimeter is such that the four sides of the base have an average error of only 58 millimetres (2.3 inches) in length, and the finished base was squared to a mean corner error of only 12 seconds of arc.
Ancient Egyptians used seked - how much length for one cubit of rise - to describe slopes. For the Great Pyramid a seked of 5+ palms was chosen, a ratio of 14 up to 11 in.
Some Egyptologists suggest this slope was chosen because the ratio of perimeter to height (1760/280 cubits) equals 2π to an accuracy of better than 0.05 percent (corresponding to the well-known approximation of π as 22/7).
Verner wrote:
"We can conclude that although the ancient
Egyptians could not precisely define the value
of π, in practice they used it.
"These relations of areas and of circular ratio
are so systematic that we should grant that
they were in the builder's design".
-- Alignment to the Cardinal Directions
The sides of the Great Pyramid's base are closely aligned to the four geographic (not magnetic) cardinal directions, deviating on average 3 minutes and 38 seconds of arc. Several methods have been proposed for how the ancient Egyptians achieved this level of accuracy:
-- The Solar Gnomon Method: the shadow of a vertical rod is tracked throughout a day. The shadow line is intersected by a circle drawn around the base of the rod. Connecting the intersecting points produces an east-west line.
An experiment using this method resulted in lines being, on average, 2 minutes, 9 seconds off due east–west. Employing a pinhole produced much more accurate results (19 arc seconds off), whereas using an angled block as a shadow definer was less accurate (3′ 47″ off).
-- The Pole Star Method: the polar star is tracked using a movable sight and fixed plumb line. Halfway between the maximum eastern and western elongations is true north.
Thuban, the polar star during the Old Kingdom, was about two degrees removed from the celestial pole at the time.
-- The Simultaneous Transit Method: the stars Mizar and Kochab appear on a vertical line on the horizon, close to true north around 2500 BC. They slowly and simultaneously shift east over time, which is used to explain the relative misalignment of the pyramids.
-- Construction Theories
Many alternative, often contradictory, theories have been proposed regarding the pyramid's construction. One mystery of the pyramid's construction is its planning. John Romer suggests that they used the same method that had been used for earlier and later constructions, i.e. laying out parts of the plan on the ground at a 1-to-1 scale.
He writes that:
"Such a working diagram would also serve to
generate the architecture of the pyramid with
precision unmatched by any other means".
The basalt blocks of the pyramid temple show clear evidence of having been cut with some kind of saw with an estimated cutting blade of 15 feet (4.6 m) in length. Romer suggests that this "super saw" may have had copper teeth and weighed up to 140 kilograms (310 lb).
He theorizes that such a saw could have been attached to a wooden trestle support, and possibly used in conjunction with vegetable oil, cutting sand, emery or pounded quartz to cut the blocks, which would have required the labour of at least a dozen men to operate it.
-- The Exterior Casing
At completion, the Great Pyramid was cased entirely in white limestone. There is a casing stone from the Great Pyramid in the British Museum.
Precisely worked blocks were placed in horizontal layers and carefully fitted together with mortar, their outward faces cut at a slope and smoothed to a high degree. Together they created four uniform surfaces, angled at 51°50'40.
Unfinished casing blocks of the pyramids of Menkaure and Henutsen at Giza suggest that the front faces were smoothed only after the stones were laid, with chiseled seams marking correct positioning, and where the superfluous rock would have to be trimmed off.
An irregular pattern is noticeable when looking at the pyramid's layers in sequence, where layer height declines steadily only to rise sharply again.
"Backing stones" supported the casing which were (unlike the core blocks) precisely dressed, and bound to the casing with mortar. These stones give the structure its visible appearance, following the dismantling of the pyramid in the middle ages.
In 1303 AD, a massive earthquake loosened many of the outer casing stones, which were said to have been carted away by Bahri Sultan An-Nasir Nasir-ad-Din al-Hasan in 1356 for use in nearby Cairo.
Many more casing stones were removed from the site by Muhammad Ali Pasha in the early 19th. century to build the upper portion of his Alabaster Mosque in Cairo.
Later explorers reported massive piles of rubble at the base of the pyramid left over from the continuing collapse of the casing stones, which were subsequently cleared away during continuing excavations of the site.
Today a few of the casing stones from the lowest course can be seen in situ on each side, with the best preserved on the north below the entrances, excavated by Vyse in 1837.
The mortar was chemically analyzed and contains organic inclusions (mostly charcoal), samples of which were radiocarbon dated to 2871–2604 BC. It has been theorized that the mortar enabled the masons to set the stones exactly by providing a level bed.
-- The Missing Pyramidion
The pyramid was once topped by a capstone known as a pyramidion. The material it was made from is subject to much speculation; limestone, granite or basalt are commonly proposed, while in popular culture it is often said to be solid gold or gilded.
All known 4th. dynasty pyramidia (of the Red Pyramid, the Satellite Pyramid of Khufu and the Queen's Pyramid of Menkaure are of white limestone, and were not gilded.
Only from the 5th. dynasty onward is there evidence of gilded capstones.
The Great Pyramid's pyramidion was already lost in antiquity, as Pliny the Elder and later authors report of a platform on its summit. Nowadays the pyramid is about 8 metres (26 ft) shorter than it was when intact, with about 1,000 tonnes of material missing from the top.
In 1874 a mast was installed on the top of the pyramid by the Scottish astronomer Sir David Gill who, whilst returning from work involving observing a rare Venus transit, was invited to survey Egypt. He began by surveying the Great Pyramid.
His measurements of the pyramid were accurate to within 1mm, and the survey mast is still in place to this day.
-- Interior of the Great Pyramid
The internal structure consists of three main chambers (the King's-, Queen's- and Subterranean Chamber), the Grand Gallery and various corridors and shafts.
There are two entrances into the pyramid; the original and a forced passage, which meet at a junction. From there, one passage descends into the Subterranean Chamber, while the other ascends to the Grand Gallery. From the beginning of the gallery three paths can be taken:
(a) A vertical shaft that leads down, past a grotto, to meet the descending passage.
(b) A horizontal corridor leading to the Queen's Chamber.
(c) A path up the gallery itself to the King's Chamber that contains the sarcophagus.
Both the King's and Queen's Chamber have a pair of small "air-shafts". Above the King's Chamber are a series of five Relieving Chambers.
--The Original Entrance
The original entrance is located on the north side, 15 royal cubits (7.9 m; 25.8 ft) east of the center-line of the pyramid. Before the removal of the casing in the middle ages, the pyramid was entered through a hole in the 19th. layer of masonry, approximately 17 metres (56 ft) above the pyramid's base level.
The height of that layer – 96 centimetres (3.15 ft) – corresponds to the size of the entrance tunnel which is commonly called the Descending Passage. According to Strabo (64–24 BC) a movable stone could be raised to enter this sloping corridor, however it is not known if it was a later addition or original.
A row of double chevrons diverts weight away from the entrance. Several of these chevron blocks are now missing, as the slanted faces they used to rest on indicate.
Numerous, mostly modern, graffiti is cut into the stones around the entrance. Most notable is a large, square text of hieroglyphs carved in honor of Frederick William IV, by Karl Richard Lepsius's Prussian expedition to Egypt in 1842.
-- The North Face Corridor
In 2016 the ScanPyramids team detected a cavity behind the entrance chevrons using muography, which was confirmed in 2019 to be a corridor at least 5 metres (16 ft) long, running horizontal or sloping upwards. Whether or not it connects to the Big Void above the Grand Gallery remains to be seen.
-- The Robbers' Tunnel
Today tourists enter the Great Pyramid via the Robbers' Tunnel, which was long ago cut straight through the masonry of the pyramid. The entrance was forced into the 6th. and 7th. layer of the casing, about 7 metres (23 ft) above the base.
After running more-or-less straight and horizontal for 27 metres (89 ft) it turns sharply left to encounter the blocking stones in the Ascending Passage. It is possible to enter the Descending Passage from this point, but access is usually forbidden.
The origin of this Robbers' Tunnel is the subject of much discussion. According to tradition, the tunnel was excavated around 820 AD by Caliph al-Ma'mun's workmen with a battering ram.
The digging dislodged the stone in the ceiling of the Descending Passage which hid the entrance to the Ascending Passage, and the noise of that stone falling then sliding down the Descending Passage alerted them to the need to turn left.
Unable to remove these stones, the workmen tunneled up beside them through the softer limestone of the Pyramid until they reached the Ascending Passage.
Due to a number of historical and archaeological discrepancies, many scholars contend that this story is apocryphal. They argue that it is much more likely that the tunnel had been carved shortly after the pyramid was initially sealed.
This tunnel, the scholars argue, was then resealed (likely during the Ramesside Restoration), and it was this plug that al-Ma'mun's ninth-century expedition cleared away. This theory is furthered by the report of patriarch Dionysius I Telmaharoyo, who claimed that before al-Ma'mun's expedition, there already existed a breach in the pyramid's north face that extended into the structure 33 metres (108 ft) before hitting a dead end.
This suggests that some sort of robber's tunnel predated al-Ma'mun, and that the caliph simply enlarged it and cleared it of debris.
-- The Descending Passage
From the original entrance, a passage descends through the masonry of the pyramid and then into the bedrock beneath it, ultimately leading to the Subterranean Chamber.
It has a slanted height of 4 Egyptian feet (1.20 m; 3.9 ft) and a width of 2 cubits (1.0 m; 3.4 ft). Its angle of 26°26'46" corresponds to a ratio of 1 to 2 (rise over run).
After 28 metres (92 ft), the lower end of the Ascending Passage is reached; a square hole in the ceiling, which is blocked by granite stones and might have originally been concealed.
To circumvent these hard stones, a short tunnel was excavated that meets the end of the Robbers' Tunnel. This was expanded over time and fitted with stairs.
The passage continues to descend for another 72 metres (236 ft), now through bedrock instead of the pyramid superstructure.
Lazy guides used to block off this part with rubble in order to avoid having to lead people down and back up the long shaft, until around 1902 when Covington installed a padlocked iron grill-door to stop this practice.
Near the end of this section, on the west wall, is the connection to the vertical shaft that leads up to the Grand Gallery.
A horizontal shaft connects the end of the Descending Passage to the Subterranean Chamber, It has a length of 8.84 m (29.0 ft), width of 85 cm (2.79 ft) and height of 91–95 cm (2.99–3.12 ft).
-- The Subterranean Chamber
The Subterranean Chamber, or "Pit", is the lowest of the three main chambers, and the only one dug into the bedrock beneath the pyramid.
Located about 27 m (89 ft) below base level, it measures roughly 16 cubits (8.4 m; 27.5 ft) north-south by 27 cubits (14.1 m; 46.4 ft) east-west, with an approximate height of 4 m (13 ft).
The western half of the room, apart from the ceiling, is unfinished, with trenches left behind by the quarry-men running east to west. The only access, through the Descending Passage, lies on the eastern end of the north wall.
Although seemingly known in antiquity, according to Herodotus and later authors, its existence had been forgotten in the middle ages until rediscovery in 1817, when Giovanni Caviglia cleared the rubble blocking the Descending Passage.
Opposite the entrance, a blind corridor runs straight south for 11 m (36 ft) and continues at a slight angle for another 5.4 m (18 ft), measuring about 0.75 m (2.5 ft) squared. A Greek or Roman character was found on its ceiling, suggesting that the chamber had indeed been accessible during Classical antiquity.
In the middle of the eastern half, there is a large hole called Pit Shaft or Perring's Shaft. The upmost part may have ancient origins, about 2 m (6.6 ft) squared in width, and 1.5 m (4.9 ft) in depth. Caviglia and Salt enlarged it to the depth of about 3 m (9.8 ft).
In 1837 Vyse directed the shaft to be sunk to a depth of 50 ft (15 m), in hopes of discovering the chamber encompassed by water that Herodotus alludes to. However no chamber was discovered after Perring and his workers had spent one and a half years penetrating the bedrock to the then water level of the Nile, some 12 m (39 ft) further down.
The rubble produced during this operation was deposited throughout the chamber. Petrie, visiting in 1880, found the shaft to be partially filled with rainwater that had rushed down the Descending Passage. In 1909, when the Edgar brothers' surveying activities were encumbered by the material, they moved the sand and smaller stones back into the shaft. The deep, modern shaft is sometimes mistaken to be part of the original design.
-- The Ascending Passage
The Ascending Passage connects the Descending Passage to the Grand Gallery. It is 75 cubits (39.3 m; 128.9 ft) long, and of the same width and height as the shaft it originates from, although its angle is slightly lower at 26°6'.
The lower end of the shaft is plugged by three granite stones, which were slid down from the Grand Gallery to seal the tunnel. The uppermost stone is heavily damaged.
The end of the Robbers' Tunnel concludes slightly below the stones, so a short tunnel was dug around them to gain access to the Descending Passage.
-- The Well Shaft and Grotto
The Well Shaft (also known as the Service Shaft or Vertical Shaft) links the lower end of the Grand Gallery to the bottom of the Descending Passage, about 50 metres (160 ft) further down.
It takes a winding and indirect course. The upper half goes through the nucleus masonry of the pyramid. It runs vertical at first for 8 metres (26 ft), then slightly angled southwards for about the same distance, until it hits bedrock approximately 5.7 metres (19 ft) above the pyramid's base level.
Another vertical section descends further, which is partially lined with masonry that has been broken through to a cavity known as the Grotto. The lower half of the Well Shaft goes through the bedrock at an angle of about 45° for 26.5 metres (87 ft) before a steeper section, 9.5 metres (31 ft) long, leads to its lowest point. The final section of 2.6 metres (8.5 ft) connects it to the Descending Passage, running almost horizontal. The builders evidently had trouble aligning the lower exit.
The purpose of the shaft is commonly explained as a ventilation shaft for the Subterranean Chamber, and as an escape shaft for the workers who slid the blocking stones of the Ascending Passage into place.
The Grotto is a natural limestone cave that was likely filled with sand and gravel before construction, before being hollowed out by looters. A granite block rests in it that probably originated from the portcullis that once sealed the King's Chamber.
-- The Queen's Chamber
The Horizontal Passage links the Grand Gallery to the Queen's Chamber. Five pairs of holes at the start suggest the tunnel was once concealed with slabs that laid flush with the gallery floor. The passage is 2 cubits (1.0 m; 3.4 ft) wide and 1.17 m (3.8 ft) high for most of its length, but near the chamber there is a step in the floor, after which the passage increases to 1.68 m (5.5 ft) high.
The Queen's Chamber is exactly halfway between the north and south faces of the pyramid. It measures 10 cubits (5.2 m; 17.2 ft) north-south, 11 cubits (5.8 m; 18.9 ft) east-west,[146] and has a pointed roof that apexes at 12 cubits (6.3 m; 20.6 ft) tall.
At the eastern end of the chamber there is a niche 9 cubits (4.7 m; 15.5 ft) high. The original depth of the niche was 2 cubits (1.0 m; 3.4 ft), but it has since been deepened by treasure hunters.
Shafts were discovered in the north and south walls of the Queen's Chamber in 1872 by British engineer Waynman Dixon, who believed shafts similar to those in the King's Chamber must also exist. The shafts were not connected to the outer faces of the pyramid, and their purpose is unknown.
In one shaft Dixon discovered a ball of diorite, a bronze hook of unknown purpose and a piece of cedar wood. The first two objects are currently in the British Museum. The latter was lost until recently when it was found at the University of Aberdeen.
The northern shaft's angle of ascent fluctuates, and at one point turns 45 degrees to avoid the Great Gallery. The southern shaft is perpendicular to the pyramid's slope.
The shafts in the Queen's Chamber were explored in 1993 by the German engineer Rudolf Gantenbrink using a crawler robot he designed, called Upuaut 2.
After a climb of 65 m (213 ft), he discovered that one of the shafts was blocked by a limestone "door" with two eroded copper "handles".
The National Geographic Society created a similar robot which, in September 2002, drilled a small hole in the southern door, only to find another stone slab behind it. The northern passage, which was difficult to navigate because of its twists and turns, was also found to be blocked by a slab.
Research continued in 2011 with the Djedi Project which used a fibre-optic "micro snake camera" that could see around corners. With this, they were able to penetrate the first door of the southern shaft through the hole drilled in 2002, and view all the sides of the small chamber behind it.
They discovered hieroglyphics written in red paint. Egyptian mathematics researcher Luca Miatello stated that the markings read "121" – the length of the shaft in cubits.
The Djedi team were also able to scrutinize the inside of the two copper "handles" embedded in the door, which they now believe to be for decorative purposes. They additionally found the reverse side of the "door" to be finished and polished, which suggests that it was not put there just to block the shaft from debris, but rather for a more specific reason.
-- The Grand Gallery
The Grand Gallery continues the slope of the Ascending Passage towards the King's Chamber, extending from the 23rd. to the 48th. course, a rise of 21 metres (69 ft). It has been praised as a truly spectacular example of stonemasonry.
It is 8.6 metres (28 ft) high and 46.68 metres (153.1 ft) long. The base is 4 cubits (2.1 m; 6.9 ft) wide, but after two courses - at a height of 2.29 metres (7.5 ft) - the blocks of stone in the walls are corbelled inwards by 6–10 centimetres (2.4–3.9 in) on each side.
There are seven of these steps, so, at the top, the Grand Gallery is only 2 cubits (1.0 m; 3.4 ft) wide. It is roofed by slabs of stone laid at a slightly steeper angle than the floor so that each stone fits into a slot cut into the top of the gallery, like the teeth of a ratchet.
The purpose was to have each block supported by the wall of the Gallery, rather than resting on the block beneath it, in order to prevent cumulative pressure.
At the upper end of the Gallery, on the eastern wall, there is a hole near the roof that opens into a short tunnel by which access can be gained to the lowest of the Relieving Chambers.
At the top of the gallery, there is a step onto a small horizontal platform where a tunnel leads through the Antechamber, once blocked by portcullis stones, into the King's Chamber.
The Big Void
In 2017, scientists from the ScanPyramids project discovered a large cavity above the Grand Gallery using muon radiography, which they called the "ScanPyramids Big Void". Its length is at least 30 metres (98 ft) and its cross-section is similar to that of the Grand Gallery.
The purpose of the cavity is unknown, and it is not accessible. Zahi Hawass speculates that it may have been a gap used in the construction of the Grand Gallery, but the research team state that the void is completely different to previously identified construction spaces.
The Antechamber
The last line of defense against intrusion was a small chamber specially designed to house portcullis blocking stones, called the Antechamber. It is cased almost entirely in granite, and is situated between the upper end of the Grand Gallery and the King's Chamber.
Three slots for portcullis stones line the east and west wall of the chamber. Each of them is topped with a semi-circular groove for a log, around which ropes could be spanned.
The granite portcullis stones were approximately 1 cubit (52.4 cm; 20.6 in) thick and were lowered into position by the aforementioned ropes which were tied through a series of four holes at the top of the blocks. A corresponding set of four vertical grooves are on the south wall of the chamber, recesses that make space for the ropes.
The Antechamber has a design flaw: the space above them can be accessed, thus all but the last block can be circumvented. This was exploited by looters who punched a hole through the ceiling of the tunnel behind, gaining access to the King's Chamber.
Later on, all three portcullis stones were broken and removed. Fragments of these blocks can be found in various locations in the pyramid.
The King's Chamber
The King's Chamber is the uppermost of the three main chambers of the pyramid. It is faced entirely with granite, and measures 20 cubits (10.5 m; 34.4 ft) east-west by 10 cubits (5.2 m; 17.2 ft) north-south.
Its flat ceiling is about 11 cubits and 5 digits (5.8 m;19.0 ft) above the floor, formed by nine slabs of stone weighing in total about 400 tons. All the roof beams show cracks due to the chamber having settled 2.5–5 cm (0.98–1.97 in).
The walls consist of five courses of blocks that are uninscribed, as was the norm for burial chambers of the 4th dynasty. The stones are precisely fitted together. The facing surfaces are dressed to varying degrees, with some displaying remains of bosses not entirely cut away.
The back sides of the blocks were only roughly hewn to shape, as was usual with Egyptian hard-stone facade blocks, presumably to save work.
-- The Sarcophagus
The only object in the King's Chamber is a sarcophagus made out of a single, hollowed-out granite block. When it was rediscovered in the early middle ages, it was found broken open and any contents had already been removed.
It is of the form common for early Egyptian sarcophagi; rectangular in shape with grooves to slide the now missing lid into place with three small holes for pegs to fixate it. The coffer was not perfectly smoothed, displaying various tool marks matching those of copper saws and tubular hand-drills.
The internal dimensions are roughly 198 cm (6.50 ft) by 68 cm (2.23 feet), the external 228 cm (7.48 ft) by 98 cm (3.22 ft), with a height of 105 cm (3.44 ft). The walls have a thickness of about 15 cm (0.49 ft). The sarcophagus is too large to fit around the corner between the Ascending and Descending Passages, which indicates that it must have been placed in the chamber before the roof was put in place.
-- Air Shafts
In the north and south walls of the King's Chamber are two narrow shafts, commonly known as "air shafts". They face each other, and are located approximately 0.91 m (3.0 ft) above the floor, with a width of 18 and 21 cm (7.1 and 8.3 in) and a height of 14 cm (5.5 in).
Both start out horizontally for the length of the granite blocks they go through before changing to an upwards direction. The southern shaft ascends at an angle of 45° with a slight curve westwards. One ceiling stone was found to be distinctly unfinished which Gantenbrink called a "Monday morning block".
The northern shaft changes angle several times, shifting the path to the west, perhaps to avoid the Big Void. The builders had trouble calculating the right angles, resulting in parts of the shaft being narrower. Nowadays they both lead to the exterior. If they originally penetrated the outer casing is unknown.
The purpose of these shafts is not clear: They were long believed by Egyptologists to be shafts for ventilation, but this idea has now been widely abandoned in favour of the shafts serving a ritualistic purpose associated with the ascension of the king's spirit to the heavens. Ironically, both shafts were fitted with ventilators in 1992 to reduce the humidity in the pyramid.
The idea that the shafts point towards stars has been largely dismissed as the northern shaft follows a dog-leg course through the masonry and the southern shaft has a bend of approximately 20 centimetres (7.9 in), indicating no intention to have them point to any celestial objects.
-- The Relieving Chambers
Above the roof of the King's Chamber are five compartments, named (from lowest upwards) "Davison's Chamber", "Wellington's Chamber", "Nelson's Chamber", "Lady Arbuthnot's Chamber", and "Campbell's Chamber".
They were presumably intended to safeguard the King's Chamber from the possibility of the roof collapsing under the weight of stone above, hence they are referred to as "Relieving Chambers".
The granite blocks that divide the chambers have flat bottom sides but roughly shaped top sides, giving all five chambers an irregular floor, but a flat ceiling, with the exception of the uppermost chamber which has a pointed limestone roof.
Nathaniel Davison is credited with the discovery of the lowest of these chambers in 1763, although a French merchant named Maynard informed him of its existence. It can be reached through an ancient passage that originates from the top of the south wall of the Grand Gallery.
The upper four chambers were discovered in 1837 by Howard Vyse after discovering a crack in the ceiling of the first chamber. This allowed the insertion of a long reed, which, with the employment of gunpowder and boring rods, forced a tunnel upwards through the masonry. As no access shafts existed for the upper four chambers they were completely inaccessible until this point.
Numerous graffiti of red ochre paint were found to cover the limestone walls of all four newly discovered chambers. Apart from leveling lines and indication marks for masons, multiple hieroglyphic inscriptions spell out the names of work-gangs.
Those names, which were also found in other Egyptian pyramids like that of Menkaure and Sahure, usually included the name of the pharaoh they were working for. The blocks must have received the inscriptions before the chambers became inaccessible during construction.
Their orientation, often side-ways or upside down, and their sometimes being partially covered by blocks, indicates that the stones were inscribed before being laid.
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Mythological giants (guardians) are in areas of the palace. Bangkok, Thailand
I will be showing more of these, there were a few (maybe 2 more later on) I just found them so different.
"They traditionally symbolize potent and auspicious powers, particularly control over water, rainfall, typhoons, and floods. The dragon is also a symbol of power, strength, and good luck for people who are worthy of it in East Asian culture." (Wikipedia)
Hinglaj (Sindhi: هنگلاج, Urdu: ﮨنگلاج, Sanskrit: हिङ्ग्लाज, Hindi: हिंगलाज) is an important Hindu pilgrimage place in Balochistan, Pakistan and Kuldevi of Kshatriya Bhavsar Community. It is situated in Balochistan province about 250 km north of Karachi.[1]
Mythological Origin
When Lord Vishnu cut up the body of Sati into 51 pieces so that Lord Shiva would calm down and stop his Tandava, the pieces were scattered over various places of the Indian subcontinent. It is said that the head of Sati fell at Hingula or Hinglaj and is thus considered the most important of the 51 Shakti Peeths. At each of the Peeths, Bhairava (a manifestation of Shiva) accompanies the relics. The Bhairava at Hinglaj is called Bhimalochana, located in Koteshwar, Kutch. The Sanskrit texts mention the part as 'Brahmadreya' or vital essence. For details, see this.
In the Ramayana, after slaying Ravana, Lord Ram came to Hinglaj to atone for his sin of 'Brahmhatya' (killing a Brahmin). Ravana was a Brahmin and a great devotee of Lord Shiva and Durga. Lord Ram meditated at Hinglaj as it was a very important shrine.
The mantra or incantation for Devi Hinglaj is attributed to Saint Dadhichi, an important saint in Hindu mythology. The mantra is :
ॐ हिंगुले परमहिंगुले अमृतरूपिणि तनुशक्ति
मनः शिवे श्री हिंगुलाय नमः स्वाहा
OM HINGULE PARAM HINGULE AMRUTRUPINI TANU SHAKTI
MANAH SHIVE SHREE HINGULAI NAMAH SWAHA
Translation : "Oh Hingula Devi, she who holds nectar in her self and is power incarnate. She who is one with Lord Shiva, to her we pay our respects and make this offering (swaha)."
Yet another incarnation:
ब्रह्मरंध्रम् हिंगुलायाम् भैरवो भीमलोचन: |
कोट्टरी सा महामाया त्रिगुणा या दिगम्बरी ||
BRAHMARANDHRAM HINGULAAYAAM BHAIRAVO VIMALOCHANAH
KOTTARI SAA MAHAAMAAYAA TRIGUNAA YAA DIGAMVARI
Translation : "Mahaamaayaa (Queen of Illusions) who represents the supreme virtue by reigning over all three virtues, has Bhimalochana as her Bhairava, and derides the worldly trappings by dancing naked, resides in this cave of Hingula that enshrines her sacred head."
Geographical Location
Hinglaj is situated in the Balochistan province of Pakistan. It is near the peak of one of the mountains of the Makran range. It is approximately 120 km from the Indus River Delta and 20 km from the Arabian Sea. The area is extremely arid and the pilgrimage also called 'Nani ki Haj' by local Muslims takes place before summer. The pilgrimage starts at a place near the Hao river which is 10 km from Karachi.
The name of Hinglaj lends itself to the Hingol river, the largest in Balochistan and the Hingol National Park which at 6,200 square kilometers is the largest in Pakistan.
Since it is located in a desert which is called Maru in Sanskrit, the shrine is referred to in holy texts as "Marutirtha Hinglaj" which means Hinglaj, the Shrine of the desert. "Marutirtha Hinglaj" is also the name of a Bengali novel by Kalikananda Abadhut who made a pilgrimage to Hinglaj and Koteshwar. The novel is based on real-life experience and has later been adapted into a very successful Bengali movie of the same name.
The Makran Coastal Highway linking Quetta and Gwadar passes through Balochistan. It was built by FWO and follows the same path which Alexander took when he ended his campaign. The highway has made the pilgrimage and visiting the shrine very convenient.
Social Significance
Despite the partition and the increasing Islamic stance of the Pakistani Government and society, Hinglaj has survived and is in fact revered by local Muslims who call it 'Nani ki Mandir'. Muslims offer red or saffron clothes, incense, candles and a sweet preparation called 'Sirini' to the deity[citation needed]. The Muslims protected sites like Hinglaj which are the last vestiges of the Hindu society which once straddled the area.
Hingula means cinnabar (HgS Mercuric Sulphide). It was used in ancient India to cure snakebite and other poisonings and is still employed in traditional medicine. The Goddess Hingula is thus believed to possess powers which can cure poisoning and other diseases. The Muslim name 'Nani' is an abbreviation of the name of the ancient Goddess "Nanaia", whose Persian name is "Anahita".
The Pilgrimage
Although the road linking the port of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea with the interior has shortened the pilgrimage a lot, the ancient path followed for millennia through the Baluch desert is endowed with a unique importance. The very journey on foot is considered a penance to purify oneself before approaching the deity. An account of such a journey is given below.
The pilgrims are led by priests or caretakers of the shrine through the desert. They hold a wooden trident in their hands. The trident or Trishul is the weapon of Lord Shiva and hence is associated with the Sati too. Since they hold the trident during the trip, they are called 'Charidaars' (Those who hold the stick or Chadi). The Chadi is draped with saffron, red or pink coloured fabrics.
The priests give a saffron cloth to every pilgrim and an oath is taken that each would help the other. However they are warned not to share their personal stores of water. This act is deemed to be a sort of fast and penance necessary for the journey.
On the path to the shrine are situated wells which are guarded by the local tribesmen. Feuds over water, a scarce commodity, is common in the area. The tribesmen are offered food consisting primarily of Roti (circular flat disks of baked flour) in lieu of water.
Baba Chandrakup
An important stop during the pilgrimage is the mud volcano called 'Chandrakup' (literally 'Moon Well'). It is considered holy and is addressed as 'Baba Chandrakup' The volcano is filled with mud, instead of magma, hence the term "mud volcano". It is considered to be the abode of Babhaknath. It is one of the few sites of active volcanic activity in the Asian mainland. The mud is semi fluid and sometimes it spills over and aggregates and cools into hillocks which surround the site. There are altogether 18 mud volcanoes in the region.
Pilgrims stay up all night at the base of the volcano making Rotis which are offered to the volcano. The activity is considered to be very holy. The ingredients, flour, ghee (clarified butter), jaggery, sugar are mixed on a cloth which is held at all times at four corners by pilgrims. This is done to ensure that it never touches the ground. The prepared Rotis are covered with wood.
At daybreak, the Rotis are carried by the pilgrims and priests to the mouth of the crater. A Chadi or Wooden Trident is planted near the edge of the crater and offerings of incense and cannabis are made along with recitation of 'mantras'. The rotis are then tore up and cast into the crater.
After this ritual every pilgrim is asked to confess his sins and ask for forgiveness. Anyone who refuses or hesitates to confess to his or her sins is ostracised and abandoned by the party. After the confession, the party proceeds with the permission of 'Baba Chandrakup'.
Reaching the Shrine
The pilgrimage continues for another four to five days after leaving Chandrakup. The final stop is a small village with wooden houses. It is home to the caretakers of the shrine and Baluch tribesmen who revere the deity even though they are Muslims. Before entering the shrine, the pilgrims bathe in the Hingol River (also called the Aghore River). The shrine is situated on the mountain on the other bank of the river. The pilgrims bathe and visit the shrine in their wet clothes.
The Shrine's Mark
The shrine is recognised by a mark which resembles the sun and the moon. This mark is upon a giant boulder at the top of the hill containing the cave. It is believed that Lord Ram created this mark with the strike of his arrow after his penance ended.
The Shrine
The shrine is called 'Mahal', a word of Arabic origin which means palace. The natural beauty of the shrine has spawned folklore that it was constructed by demigods called 'Yakshas'. The walls and roof of the cave are encrusted with colourful stones and semi-precious veins. The floor is also multi hued.
The entrance to the cave is around 50 feet in height. At the end of the cave is the sanctum sanctorum , which houses the holy relic. It is covered by red clothes and vermilion. There are two entrances to the sanctum. One has to crawl into the sanctum, take the 'darshan' and leave through the other opening. Prasad is distributed to the pilgrims and they return after seeing the Milky Way at night.
Hingula Pithas
Although the Hingula shrine in Balochistan is considered to be a true Shakti Peeth, other shrines dedicated to the goddess exist in India and Sri Lanka. One important shrine is located 14 km from Talcher in the state of Orissa in India. King Nala of the Vidarbha region of Western India was an ardent devotee of Devi Hingula. He was approached by the King of Puri for help. In order to start cooking 'Mahaprasada' for Lord Jagannath he had to procure Devi Hingula as fire for the temple kitchen. The Goddess agreed and moved to Puri as fire. The Hingula shrine in Balochistan with its location west of the River Indus (and in Balochistan) is the only Shakti Peeth outside the subcontinent.
Sondha Aroti ( Evening Puja) on the Ganges at Allahabad.
Kumbh Mela, the largest spiritual gathering of mankind on the Earth, is held every 12 years on the banks of the 'Sangam'- the confluence of the holy rivers Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati. Millions of devotees take a holy dip in the sacred water during the mela. Maha Kumbha Mela held only at Prayag, once in every 144 years.
It is believed that at the historic moment of the Maha Kumbh Mela, the river turns itself into sanctity spots filled with ‘Amrita’ (Panacia or elixir of immortality). The pilgrims get once in a lifetime chance to bathe in the spirit of holiness, auspiciousness and salvation.
As mythology tells us, when Gods (Devtas) and Demons (Asura) used to reside on Earth, Gods were under the influence of a curse that gave birth of fear in them eventually making them weak. Brahma (the Creator) advised them to churn the milky ocean to obtain the elixir of immortality (Amrita). And Kumbh was the spot chosen to store the nectar of immortality recovered from Samudramanthan.
For 12 heavenly days and 12 heavenly nights, equivalent to 12 Earthly years, Gods were chased by Demons for the possession of Amrita. During the chase for the Amrita, few drops of this elixir out of its ‘Kumbha’ (Pot) fell on four places now known as Allahabad, Haridwar, Ujjain and Nasik. The whole Kumbha mela (carnival) and its cycle is a remembrance of that Mythological story. The mela takes place in all these four places. Out of these the one celebrated at the Holy Sangam in Allahabad is the largest and believed to be the holiest one. Thus the Kumbh Mela became one of the main festivals of Hindus as well as the largest spiritual gathering of mankind on Earth.
Sondha Aroti ( Evening Puja) on the Ganges at Allahabad.
Kumbh Mela, the largest spiritual gathering of mankind on the Earth, is held every 12 years on the banks of the 'Sangam'- the confluence of the holy rivers Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati. Millions of devotees take a holy dip in the sacred water during the mela. Maha Kumbha Mela held only at Prayag, once in every 144 years.
It is believed that at the historic moment of the Maha Kumbh Mela, the river turns itself into sanctity spots filled with ‘Amrita’ (Panacia or elixir of immortality). The pilgrims get once in a lifetime chance to bathe in the spirit of holiness, auspiciousness and salvation.
As mythology tells us, when Gods (Devtas) and Demons (Asura) used to reside on Earth, Gods were under the influence of a curse that gave birth of fear in them eventually making them weak. Brahma (the Creator) advised them to churn the milky ocean to obtain the elixir of immortality (Amrita). And Kumbh was the spot chosen to store the nectar of immortality recovered from Samudramanthan.
For 12 heavenly days and 12 heavenly nights, equivalent to 12 Earthly years, Gods were chased by Demons for the possession of Amrita. During the chase for the Amrita, few drops of this elixir out of its ‘Kumbha’ (Pot) fell on four places now known as Allahabad, Haridwar, Ujjain and Nasik. The whole Kumbha mela (carnival) and its cycle is a remembrance of that Mythological story. The mela takes place in all these four places. Out of these the one celebrated at the Holy Sangam in Allahabad is the largest and believed to be the holiest one. Thus the Kumbh Mela became one of the main festivals of Hindus as well as the largest spiritual gathering of mankind on Earth.
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"Holbein: Capturing Character" Exhibit at the Morgan Library, New York.
Only this sitter’s name and place of origin (Cornwall, in southwest England) are known today. Yet the complex system of symbols that Holbein developed in this work suggests that the young man might have been a poet conversant in the symbolic language of love. He wears a pink jerkin (close-fitting jacket) and a hat badge decorated with the mythological paramours Leda and the Swan. In his right hand, George holds a red carnation—a symbol of affection and betrothal. Other interpretations are also possible: the carnation may signify Christ’s crucifixion, and the pansies decorating the hat could evoke a meditation on mortality. Recent conservation of the panel allows us to fully appreciate Holbein’s vivid colors and rich surface effects—from the carefully modulated description of George’s skin to the black embroidery of his glossy, puckered jacket.
"The mythological figure of Brunhild standing on a field, seen from the front; she holds a sword and shield, wearing an ornate dress with medals and a helmet decorated with a winged horse; beyond, trees and at right, men on horseback flying through a red sky; composition filled with vivid colours; plate from 'L'Estampe Moderne'." from britishmuseum.org
Tomb of Bertrada of Laon at the Saint Denis Basilica
Bertrada of Laon (born between 710 and 727 – 12 July 783), also known as Bertrada the Younger or Bertha Broadfoot (cf. Latin: Regina pede aucae i.e. the queen with the goose-foot), was a Frankish queen. She was the wife of Pepin the Short and the mother of Charlemagne, Carloman and Gisela.
Bertrada's nickname "Bertha Broadfoot" dates back to the 13th century, when it was used in Adenes Le Roi's trouvère Li rouman de Berte aus grands piés. The exact reason that Bertrada was given this nickname is unclear. It is possible that Bertrada was born with a clubfoot, although Adenes does not mention this in his poem. The nickname might have been a reference to an ancient legend about a Germanic goddess named Perchta, to real and mythological queens named Bertha, or to several similarly-named Christian queens. Many myths and legends exist in Europe and Asia, in which clubfooted people are described as the link between the world of the living and the spirit world.
Bertrada died on 12 July 783 in Choisy-au-Bac. Charlemagne buried her in the Basilica of St Denis near Pepin.
Terracotta Campana relief depicting the Greek mythological hero Theseus lifting a huge rock under which his father Aigeus, King of Athens had hidden the sword and sandals Theseus would need for his perilous journeys. Theseus' mother Aithra stands behind him, indicating the hiding spot. Above the scene is a band of ovolo molding, below is a band of palmettes. Traces of original reddish pigment remain on their sandals and on the palmettes.
A Greek inscription on the tile transliterates as THESEUS (on the back?). Note the holes, which are where the tiles were attached to a wall.
Campana reliefs (or Campana tiles or Campana plaques) are ancient Roman terracotta reliefs made from molds. These plaques - which frequently depict mythological scenes and characters - decorated public and private buildings and were originally brightly painted, and on many of them traces of paint remain. They are named after the Italian collector Giampietro Campana, who first published these reliefs in 1842.
These reliefs decorated the exteriors and interiors of buildings with scenes from mythology, daily life, landscapes, and ornamental themes. Numbers of sections could be combined to create a horizontal frieze.
Roman, 1st century BCE-1st century CE, Cerveteri, Lazio, Italy.
British Museum, London (1893,0628.5)
A different version of that mythological tale.
One day Narcissus was walking in the woods when Echo, an Oread (mountain nymph) saw him, fell deeply in love, and followed him.
Narcissus sensed he was being followed and shouted "Who's there?".
Echo repeated "Who's there?"
She eventually revealed her identity and attempted to embrace him.
He stepped away and told her to leave him alone.
She was heartbroken and spent the rest of her life in lonely glens until nothing but an echo sound remained of her.
Nemesis, the goddess of revenge, noticed this behaviour after learning the story and decided to punish Narcissus.
Once, during the summer, he was getting thirsty after hunting, and the goddess lured him to a pool where he leaned upon the water and saw himself in the bloom of youth.
Narcissus did not realise it was merely his own reflection and fell deeply in love with it, as if it was somebody else.
Unable to leave the allure of his image, he eventually realised that his love could not be reciprocated and he melted away from the fire of passion burning inside him, eventually turning into a gold, yellow and white flower.
Thank you, M, (*_*)
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NARCISSUS, Daffodil, white, yellow, petals, flower, Spring, black-background, design, studio, colour, square, NikonD7000, "Magda indigo"
The King Neptune statue is a majestic bronze figure that guards Virginia Beach. Positioned at the gateway to Neptune Park on the Virginia Beach Boardwalk at 31st Street, it portrays the mythological deity Neptune. Conveniently located near our accommodations for the weekend of the Naval Air Station Oceana Air Show, the statue’s hefty 12 tons and 32 feet (9.8 meters) height from the tip of his trident means it’s not likely to topple in any hurricane. Erected in 2005, the statue features a 12-foot-high rock base encircled by an array of sea creatures including fish, dolphins, lobsters, and octopuses. Rising from this rock base, Neptune's figure emerges, beginning at his waist, with a trident in his right hand and his left hand resting on a loggerhead turtle. This was also the center point for the afterburner flyover the next night for Navy Beach Blast, which was a — how shall I say? — BLAST! More on that later.
Speaking of hurricanes, with issues of a very wet Hurricane Helene going on overhead today, ol’ Neptune could have swum the 200 miles from Virginia Beach to here. Prayers up for all those in harm’s way.
Au pied du Gros-Horloge, du côté ouest, une fontaine (1734) représente une scène mythologique illustrant les amours du fleuve Alphée et de la nymphe Aréthuse, symbolisées par la figure d'un Cupidon qui vole au-dessus d'eux. Elle a été construite sur l'emplacement d'une autre fontaine du XVe siècle, gothique et de forme pyramidale. Alphée symbolise à la fois la Seine, « le » fleuve, et Aréthuse, la fontaine. On peut y voir également un signe d'allégeance, voire d'amour de la ville pour le roi Louis XV, dont une plaque fixée au bas de l'édifice rappelle la dédicace. La fontaine fait l’objet d’un classement au titre des monuments historiques depuis 18892. Sur la période 2021-2022, la ville de Rouen a programmé la remise en état de plusieurs de ses fontaines : celle du Gros-Horloge en fait partie.
At the foot of the Gros-Horloge, on the west side, a fountain (1734) depicts a mythological scene illustrating the loves of the river Alpheus and the nymph Arethusa, symbolized by the figure of a Cupid flying above them. It was built on the site of another 15th-century fountain, Gothic and pyramidal in shape. Alpheus symbolizes both the Seine, "the" river, and Arethusa, the fountain. It can also be seen as a sign of allegiance, or even love, of the city for King Louis XV, whose dedication is commemorated by a plaque fixed to the bottom of the building. The fountain has been listed as a historic monument since 18892. Over the period 2021-2022, the city of Rouen has scheduled the restoration of several of its fountains, including that of the Gros-Horloge.
this is an detail of some ornaments from the stavechurch at urnes. the whole church is here
The Kelpies name reflected the mythological transforming beasts possessing the strength and endurance of 100 horses; a quality that is analogous with the transformational change of our landscapes, endurance of our inland waterways and the strength of our communities.
Andy Scott's vision for The Kelpies follows the lineage of the heavy horse of industry and economy, pulling the wagons and ploughs, barges and coalships that shaped the structural layout of the area. Retaining The Kelpies as the title for these equine monuments, Andy sought to represent the transformational and sustainably enduring qualities The Helix stands for through the majesty of The Kelpies.
The Pleiades star cluster is hands down my favorite object in the nighttime sky. Known by many names and by every civilization to ever inhabit our planet, Messier 45 ("The Seven Sisters", "Subaru", "The Hen with her Chicks"), is easily visible to the unaided eye, even from moderately light-polluted skies. Each of the bright stars is named for mythological characters Atlas, Pleione, and their 7 daughters, Alcyone, Merope, Sterope, Maia, Taygeta, Celaeno, and Electra. Not only do these characters feature prominently in Greek mythology, the star cluster itself does as well: In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus uses the cluster as a navigational beacon. The cluster is mentioned 3 times in the Bible and is illustrated in a prehistoric cave painting at Lascaux. It's also the corporate logo for carmaker Subaru.
It contains at least 1,000 stars, but only 5 to 10 are bright enough to be seen with the unaided eye, and these are the ones that people are referring to when they say "The Pleiades". Each of these giant stars is far brighter than our Sun. If you were to observe the Sun from the same distance, you would need binoculars or a telescope to see it at all!
It is estimated to be 444 light-years away and it's diameter is 15 light-years. The stars are surrounded by interstellar dust and gas. This material would ordinarily be invisible to us, but it’s illuminated by the stars in what’s known as a reflection nebula. The nebula is blue, caused by a light scattering effect not unlike the one that colors Earth’s sky blue. Its wavy appearance comes from interactions between the nebula and the stars’ magnetic fields.
The myth of the Pleiades cluster and the constellation Orion is that the Hunter is enamored with the beauty of the young maidens and he is greedily pursuing them across the sky each night. Indeed that is the easiest way to spot the Pleiades. Find Orion and scan over in the direction he's facing and you'll find them within Taurus the Bull.
EQ6R Pro mount, 2600MC, W/O Z61, ASIAIR Pro, ZWO EAF, 62 x 300 second exposures at -10c processed with Pixinsight
“Babele” (“Old women”) megalith in Bucegi Mountains, Romania
Around the “Sphinx “of Bucegi and “Babele” (Old women)- giant megaliths at 2350 m altitude in the Bucegi mountains- were weaving legends and have turned tens of mythological theories
You can found bellow a sequence from the picture DACII-Daces (1966) with a RITUAL HUMAN SACRIFACE made by ancient populations of Daces at the Sphinx, 2000 years ago:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmmkns7Ty7E&feature=player_em...
See also the video
About the religion of the ancient Dacia
www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8DtIecKeSA&feature=watch_res...
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© Ioan C. Bacivarov
All the photos on this gallery are protected by the international laws of copyright and they are not for being used on any site, blog or forum, transmitted or manipulated without the explicit written permission of the author. Thank you in advance
Please view my most interesting photos on flickriver stream: www.flickriver.com/photos/ioan_bacivarov/
Many thanks for your visits and comments.
- A river-hag
English Folklore
This monster gets her name from her green skin and razor-sharp teeth. She lives in bogs, ponds or rivers, covered in slime and algae with her long hair swirling around her. If anyone gets too close, she pulls them into the water and holds them down until they drown. Her favorite victims are young children or the very elderly, and in some legends, she doesn’t just drown her victims – she eats them. She is associated with duckweed, which can gather into a thick mat on the surface of a pond so that it looks like solid ground, leading children to try to walk on it and sink down into the water.
~
ai/pixlr/gimp
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"Western Civilization"
sculptor: C. Paul Jennewein (1933)
Left to right
Eos, Nous, Adonis, Hippomenes, Eros, lion, Aphrodite, Zeus, Demeter, Triptolemus, Ariadne, Theseus, Minotaur, Python
The western pediment features fourteen Greek deities and mythological figures. Jennewein's polychrome sculptures of painted terra-cotta figures are the only sculptural group to adorn any of the museum's eight pediments.
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The Philadelphia Museum of Art
also known as: the "Great Greek Garage" & "Parthenon on the Parkway"
architects: firms of Horace Trumbauer & Zantzinger, Borie & Medary
building's plan & massing: Howell Lewis Shay (Trumbauer)
detail & perspective drawing: Julian Abele (Trumbauer)
Masonic cornerstone ceremony: Mayor Thomas B. Smith (1919)
A collection of bronze griffins adorn the top of the building. In the 1970s, the museum adopted the griffin as it's symbol. In antiquity the griffin was known for guarding knowledge, treasure and priceless possessions as well as symbols of divine power and a guardians of the divine.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art - Main Building
2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway (West end)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Plymouth Fury is a model of automobile which was produced by Plymouth from 1955 to 1989. It was introduced for the 1956 model year as a sub-series of the Plymouth Belvedere, becoming a separate series one level above the contemporary Belvedere for 1959. The Fury was a full-size car from 1959 to 1961, then a mid-size car from 1962 to 1964, again a full-size car from 1965 to 1974, and again a mid-size car from 1975 to 1978. From 1975 to 1977 the Fury was sold alongside the full-size Plymouth Gran Fury. In 1978, the B-body Fury was the largest Plymouth, and by 1979, there was no large Plymouth. This was rectified in 1980 with the R-body Gran Fury, followed by the M-body Fury in 1982. Production of the last V8, RWD Plymouth Fury ended at Kenosha, WI, on December 23, 1988. Unlike its sibling brand, Dodge, Plymouth would not live to see the resurgence of the large, V8/RWD sedan. The last Plymouth rolled off the Belvidere assembly line in 2001.
The word "fury" denotes a type of anger, inspired by the Furies, mythological creatures in Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman mythology.
The model appears in popular culture as the subject of interest in the 1983 New York Times Best-selling novel Christine by Stephen King about a 1958 custom red and ivory Plymouth Fury that is part of a frightening love triangle. It was later adapted into a movie.
As seen in Joure, the Netherlands, on July 30th 2017.