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TRANSLATION
(Adapted from Marzahn 1995:29-30)
Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, the faithful prince appointed by the will of Marduk, the highest of princely princes, beloved of Nabu, of prudent counsel, who has learned to embrace wisdom, who fathomed their divine being and reveres their majesty, the untiring governor, who always takes to heart the care of the cult of Esagila and Ezida and is constantly concerned with the well-being of Babylon and Borsippa, the wise, the humble, the caretaker of Esagila and Ezida, the firstborn son of Nabopolassar, the King of Babylon.
Both gate entrances of Imgur-Ellil and Nemetti-Ellil —following the filling of the street from Babylon—had become increasingly lower. Therefore, I pulled down these gates and laid their foundations at the water-table with asphalt and bricks and had them made of bricks with blue stone on which wonderful bulls and dragons were depicted. I covered their roofs by laying majestic cedars length-wise over them. I hung doors of cedar adorned with bronze at all the gate openings. I placed wild bulls and ferocious dragons in the gateways and thus adorned them with luxurious splendor so that people might gaze on them in wonder
I let the temple of Esiskursiskur (the highest festival house of Markduk, the Lord of the Gods—a place of joy and celebration for the major and minor gods) be built firm like a mountain in the precinct of Babylon of asphalt and fired bricks.
DESCRIPTION
Language: Akkadian
Medium: glazed brick
Size: c. 15 meters high
c. 10 meters wide
Length: 60 lines of writing
Genre: Dedication Inscription
Dedicator: Nebuchadnezzar
King of Babylonia
(reigned 605—562 BCE)
Approximate Date: 600 BCE
Place of Discovery: Babylon
(near modern Baghdad, Iraq)
Date of Excavation: 1899—1914
Current Location: Pergamon Museen
(Berlin, Germany)
The theatre of Roman ruins in Dougga. Dougga or Thugga is an ancient Roman city in northern Tunisia. UNESCO qualified Dougga as a World Heritage Site in 1997, believing that it represents “the best-preserved Roman small town in North Africa”. The site, which lies in the middle of the countryside, has been protected from the encroachment of modern urbanisation, in contrast, for example, to Carthage, which has been pillaged and rebuilt on numerous occasions.
Thugga’s size, its well-preserved monuments and its rich Numidian-Berber, Punic, ancient Roman and Byzantine history make it exceptional.
Ao longo dos rios Tigre e Eufrates, no oriente médio se formou uma civilização através da ocupação da área que margeava os rios. Berço das primeiras civilizações, atualmente o território é ocupado pelo Iraque. Em grego significa terra entre dois rios.
A cerca de 10.000 anos, com o fim do último período glacial, as calotas polares recuaram, transformando a área que margeava os rios, até então pradarias férteis, em desertos áridos. Mas ao longo da margem dos rios sobraram férteis terras. Os homens, que até então eram caçadores nômades, forçaram-se a se instalar junto aos rios, principiando a criação de cidades. Aprenderam a semear e colher. Construíam diques e canais de irrigação. Construíram cabanas, domesticavam animais, dos quais aproveitavaram o leite, carne e vestuário.
A cerca de 4.000 a.C. um povo da Ásia central estabeleceu-se na Mesopotâmia. Este Sumérios primitivos eram hábeis agricultores, construíram templos de pedra e objetos cerâmicos. Era a base formada para a vida civilizada ao longo dos dois vales, estendendo-se com o tempo.
Foram vários os povos que se apossaram-se dessa fértil terra do Oriente Médio por maio de lutas. Entre eles, podemos citar: Sumérios, Elamitas, Hititas, Acádios, Amoritas (antigos babilônicos), Cassitas, Assírios, Caudeus (novos babilônicos) e outros.
Os povos antigos da Mesopotâmia não acreditavam na imortalidade da alma, pois levavam uma vida sem se preocupar com a morte ou a pós-morte. Uma das divindades mais cultuadas era a Deusa Ishtar, que era o planeta Vênus.
Wat Phra Sri Sanphet, located within the old Royal Palace grounds, is believed to have been the most important temple of the ancient Siamese capital city of Ayutthaya.
The three giant Chedi were constructed between 1492 and 1533 as burial monuments to store the ashes of the Kings Borom Trailokanat, Boromracha III and Ramathibodi II.
Ayutthaya was sacked by invading Burmese forces in April 1767. The Phra Sri Sanphet monastery was burned to the ground and all but the chedis were completely destroyed.
The Mausoleum of Maussollos, or Mausoleum of Halicarnassus was a tomb built between 353-350 BC at Halicarnassus (present Bodrum, Turkey), for Mausolus a provincial king in the Persian Empire, and Artemisia, his wife and sister.
It was designed by the Greek architects Satyrus and Pythius.
The structure was approximately 45-metres (135 feet) in height, and each of the four sides was adorned by a freize created by one of four famous Greek sculptors.
The finished structure was considered to be such an aesthetic triumph that Antipater of Sidon identified it as one of his Seven Wonders of the World.The word mausoleum has since come to be used generically for any grand tomb, though "Mausol-eum" originally meant "in honor of Mausol".
Life of Maussollos and Artemisia
In 377 BC, Halicarnassus was capital of a small kingdom along the Mediterranean coast of Anatolia. It was in that year the ruler of this land, Hecatomnus of Mylasa, died and left control of the kingdom to his son, Mausolus. Hecatomnus, a local satrap to the Persians, had been ambitious and had taken control of several of the neighboring cities and districts.
Next to Mausolus and Artemisia he had several other sons and daughters: Ada (adopted mother of Alexander the Great), Idrieus, and Pixodarus. Mausolus in his time, extended the territory even further so that it finally included most of southwestern Asia Minor.
Maussollos, with his queen and sister Artemisia, ruled over Halicarnassus and the surrounding territory for 24 years. Maussollos, though he was descended from local people, spoke Greek and admired the Greek way of life and government. He founded many cities of Greek design along the coast and encouraged Greek democratic traditions.
Maussollos decided to build a new capital, a city as hard to capture as it was magnificent to look at. He chose the town Halicarnassus. If Mausolus' ships blocked a small channel, they could keep all enemy warships out. He started making Halicarnassus a fit capital for a warrior prince. His workmen deepened the city's harbor and used the dredged up sand to make protecting arms in front of the channel.
On land, they laid out paved squares, streets, and houses for ordinary citizens, and on one side of the harbor they built a massive fortress-palace for Mausolus, positioned so that there were clear views out to sea and inland to the hills--the places that enemies might attack. The workmen built walls and watch towers on the land ward side and put up a Greek-style theater and a temple to Ares, the Greek god of war.
Mausolus Artemisia spent their huge amount of tax money on beautifying the city. They bought statues, temples, and buildings of gleaming marble. In the center of the city Mausolus planned to place a resting place for his body after he was dead. It would be a tomb that would forever show how rich he and his queen were.
In 353 BC Mausolus died, leaving Artemisia broken-hearted. (It was the custom in Caria for rulers to marry their own sisters. One reason for these marriages might have been that it kept the power and wealth in the family.) As a tribute to him, she decided to build him the most splendid tomb in the known world. It became a structure so famous that Mausolus' name is now associated with all stately tombs through our modern word mausoleum.
The building was also so beautiful and unique it became one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Soon after construction of the tomb started Artemisia found herself in a crisis. Rhodes, an island in the Aegean Sea between Greece and Asia Minor, had been conquered by Mausolus.
When the Rhodians heard of his death they rebelled and sent a fleet of ships to capture the city of Halicarnassus. Knowing that the Rhodian fleet was on the way, Artemisa hid her own ships at a secret location at the east end of the city's harbor.
After troops from the Rhodian fleet disembarked to attack, Artemisia's fleet made a surprise raid, captured the Rhodian fleet, and towed it out to sea. Artemisia put her own soldiers on the invading ships and sailed them back to Rhodes. Fooled into thinking that the returning ships were their own victorious navy, the Rhodians failed to put up a defense and the city was easily captured quelling the rebellion.
Artemisa lived for only two years after the death of her husband. The urns with their ashes were placed in the yet unfinished tomb. As a form of ritual sacrifice the bodies of a large number of dead animals were placed on the stairs leading to the tomb, then the stairs were filled with stone and rubble, sealing off the access.
According to the historian Pliny, the craftsmen decided to stay and finish the work after their patron died "considering that it was at once a memorial of their own fame and of the sculptor's art."
The Construction of the Mausoleum
Artemisia decided that no expense was to be spared in the building of the tomb. She sent messengers to Greece to find the most talented artists of the time. This included Scopas, the man who had supervised the rebuilding of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. Other famous sculptors such as Bryaxis, Leochares and Timotheus joined him as well as hundreds of other craftsmen.
The tomb was erected on a hill overlooking the city. The whole structure sat in an enclosed courtyard. At the center of the courtyard was a stone platform on which the tomb itself sat. A staircase, flanked by stone lions, led to the top of this platform. Along the outer wall of this were many statues depicting gods and goddess. At each corner stone warriors, mounted on horseback, guarded the tomb.
At the center of the platform was the tomb itself. Made mostly of marble, the structure rose as a square, tapering block to about one-third of the Mausoleum's 45-metre (135-foot) height. This section was covered with relief sculpture showing action scenes from Greek myth/history. One part showed the battle of the Centaurs with the Lapiths. Another depicted Greeks in combat with the Amazons, a race of warrior women.
On top of this section of the tomb thirty-six slim columns, nine per side, rose for another third of the height. Standing in between each column was another statue. Behind the columns was a solid block that carried the weight of the tomb's massive roof. The roof, which comprised most of the final third of the height, was in the form of a stepped pyramid. Perched on top was a quadriga: four massive horses pulling a chariot in which images of Mausolus and Artemisia rode.
The Mausoleum overlooked the city of Halicarnassus for many centuries. It was untouched when the city fell to Alexander the Great in 334 BC and still undamaged after attacks by pirates in 62 and 58 BC. It stood above the city ruins for some 16 centuries. Then a series of earthquakes shattered the columns and sent the stone chariot crashing to the ground.
By 1404 only the very base of the Mausoleum was still recognizable.
In the early fifteenth century, the Knights of St John of Malta invaded the region and built a massive castle. When they decided to fortify it in 1494, they used the stones of the Mausoleum.
In 1522 rumors of a Turkish invasion caused Crusaders to strengthen the castle at Halicarnassus (which was by then known as Bodrum) and much of the remaining portions of the tomb was broken up and used within the castle walls. Indeed sections of polished marble from the tomb can still be seen there today.
At this time a party of knights entered the base of the monument and discovered the room containing a great coffin. In many histories of the Mausoleum one can find the following story on what happened: The party, deciding it was too late to open it that day, returned the next morning to find the tomb, and any treasure it may have contained, plundered. The bodies of Mausolus and Artemisia were missing too.
The Knights claimed that Moslem villagers were responsible for the theft, but it is just as likely that some of the Crusaders themselves plundered the graves. On the walls of the small museum building next to the site of the Mausoleum we find a different story. Research done by archeologists in the 1960s shows that long before the knights came grave robbers had dug a tunnel under the grave chamber, stealing its contents. Also the museum states that it is most likely that Mausolus and Artemisia were cremated, so only an urn with their ashes were placed in the grave chamber. This explains why no bodies were found.
Before grinding and burning much of the remaining sculpture of the Mausoleum into lime for plaster, the Knights removed several of the best works and mounted them in the Bodrum castle. There they stayed for three centuries. At that time the British ambassador obtained several of the statues from the castle, which now reside in the British Museum.
In 1852 the Museum sent the archaeologist Charles Thomas Newton to search for more remains of the Mausoleum. He had a difficult job. He didn't know the exact location of the tomb and the cost of buying up all the small parcels of land in the area to look for it would have been astronomical. Instead Newton studied the accounts of ancient writers like Pliny to obtain the approximate size and location of the memorial, then bought a plot of land in the most likely location.
Digging down, Newton explored the surrounding area through tunnels he dug under the surrounding plots. He was able to locate some walls, a staircase, and finally three of the corners of the foundation. With this knowledge, Newton was able to figure out which plots of land he needed to buy.
Newton then excavated the site and found sections of the reliefs that decorated the wall of the building and portions of the stepped roof. Also discovered was a broken stone chariot wheel some 2 metres (7 feet) in diameter, which came from the sculpture on the Mausoleum's roof. Finally, he found the statues of Mausolus and Artemisia that had stood at the pinnacle of the building.
From 1966 to 1977, the Mausoleum was thoroughly researched by Prof. Kristian Jeppesen of Aarhus University, Denmark. He has produced a six-volume work on the Mausoleum called "The Maussolleion at Halikarnassos".
The beauty of the Mausoleum is not only in the structure itself, but in the decorations and statues that adorned the outside at different levels on the podium and the roof. These were tens of life-size as well as under and over life-size free-standing statues of people, lions, horses, and other animals.
The four Greek sculptors who carved the statues: Bryaxis, Leochares, Scopas, and Timotheus, were each responsible for one side. Because the statues were of people and animals, the Mausoleum holds a special place in history, as it was not dedicated to the gods of Ancient Greece.
Nowadays, the massive castle of the Knights of Malta still stands in Bodrum, and the polished stone and marble blocks of the Mausoleum can be spotted within the walls of the structure.
At the site of the Mausoleum itself, only the foundation remains of the once magnificent Wonder, together with a small museum.
Some of the sculptures survived and are today on display at the British Museum in London. These include fragment of statues and many slabs of the frieze showing the battle between the Greeks and the Amazons.
There the images of Mausolus and his queen forever watch over the few broken remains of the beautiful tomb she built for him and that is now lost to eternity.
Babylon (Babylonian Bab-ilim or Babil, "gate of God"), one of the most important cities of the ancient world, whose location today is marked by a broad area of ruins just east of the Euphrates River, 90 km (56 mi) south of Baghdad, Iraq. Babylon was the capital of Babylonia in the 2nd and 1st millennia BC. In antiquity the city profited from its location extending across the main overland trade route connecting the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean. Although the site was settled in prehistoric times, Babylon is first mentioned in documents only in the late 3rd millennium BC. About 2200 BC it was known as the site of a temple, and during the 21st century BC it was subject to the nearby city of Ur. Babylon became an independent city-state by 1894 BC, when the Amorite Sumu-abum founded a dynasty there. This dynasty reached its high point under Hammurabi. In 1595 BC the city was captured by Hittites, and shortly thereafter it came under the control of the Kassite dynasty (circa 1590-1155 BC). The Kassites transformed Babylon the city-state into the country of Babylonia by bringing all of southern Mesopotamia into permanent subjection and making Babylon its capital. The city thus became the administrative center of a large kingdom. Later, probably in the 12th century BC, it became the religious center as well, when its principal god, Marduk, was elevated to the head of the Mesopotamian pantheon.
After the Kassite dynasty collapsed under pressure from the Elamites to the east, Babylon was governed by several short-lived dynasties. From the late 8th century BC until the Assyrians were expelled by Nabopolassar, between 626 and 615 BC, the city was part of the Assyrian Empire.
Nabopolassar founded the Neo-Babylonian dynasty, and his son Nebuchadnezzar II expanded the kingdom until it became an empire embracing much of southwest Asia. The imperial capital at Babylon was refurbished with new temple and palace buildings, extensive fortification walls and gates, and paved processional ways; it was at that time the largest city of the known world, covering more than 1000 hectares (some 2500 acres).
The Neo-Babylonian Empire was of short duration. In 539 BC, Cyrus the Great captured Babylon and incorporated Babylonia into the newly founded Persian Empire. Under the Persians, Babylon for a time served as the official residence of the crown prince, until a local revolt in 482 led Xerxes I to raze the temples and ziggurat (temple tower) and to melt down the statue of the patron god Marduk.
Alexander the Great captured the city in 330 BC and planned to rebuild it and make it the capital of his vast empire, but he died before he could carry out his plans. After 312 BC, Babylon was for a while used as a capital by the Seleucid dynasty set up by Alexander's successors. When the new capital of Seleucia on the Tigris was founded in the early 3rd century BC, however, most of Babylon's population was moved there. The temples continued in use for a time, but the city became insignificant and almost disappeared before the coming of Islam in the 7th century AD.
The topography of Babylon is best known from the occupation levels of the Neo-Babylonian dynasty, as excavated by Robert Koldewey and other German archaeologists just before World War I. At that time the Euphrates divided the city into two unequal parts-the old quarter, with most of the palaces and temples, on the east bank, and the New City on the west bank. A prominent place near the center of the city was occupied by Esagila, the temple of Marduk; just to the north of that was Etemenanki (the ziggurat), a seven-storied edifice sometimes linked in popular legend with the Tower of Babel. A cluster of palaces and fortifications was found at the northwest corner of the old city; the German excavators identified one ruin in this area with the foundations of the Hanging Gardens, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, which Nebuchadnezzar II built for his Median wife. Nearby was located the Ishtar Gate, with its lions and dragons in brightly colored glazed brick. Through it passed the main Processional Way, the route followed by cultic and political leaders for the New Year's festival ceremonies. Through nine major gates of the massive inner fortification walls passed roads to the principal settlements of Babylonia.
The El Fuerte de Samaipata or Fort Samaipata, is a Pre-Columbian archaeological site and UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The site of Samaipata was occupied as a ritual and residential area about 300 CE by the Chané of the Mojocoyas period (200 to 800 CE). They began shaping the great rock that is the ceremonial center of the Samaipata ruin.
Due to damage caused by visitors walking on the symbols cut into the rock and by erosion caused by water, the inner area is cordoned off to prevent more damage. However most of it can still be viewed.
web2.infoguard.net/lubo/vision/gallery/dali/index.php?off...
The Pharos' walls were strengthened in order to withstand the pounding of the waves through the use of molten lead to hold its masonry together[citation needed], and possibly as a result the building survived the longest of the Seven Wonders - with the sole exception of the Great Pyramid of Giza. It was still standing when the Muslim traveller Ibn Jubayr visited the city in 1183. He said of it that: "Description of it falls short, the eyes fail to comprehend it, and words are inadequate, so vast is the spectacle." It appears that in his time there was a church located on the top[citation needed].
The tower was severely damaged by two earthquakes in 1303 and 1323, to the extent that the Arab traveller Ibn Battuta reported not being able to enter the ruin. Even the stubby remnant disappeared in 1480, when the then-Sultan of Egypt, Qaitbay, built a medieval fort on the former location of the building, using some of the fallen stone. The remnants of the Pharos that were incorporated into the walls of Fort Qaitbey are clearly visible due to their excessive size in comparison to surrounding masonry.
A Walking Tour of Chichén Itzá: Chichén Itzá, one of best known archaeological sites of the Maya civilization, has a split personality. The site is located in the northern Yucatan peninsula of Mexico, about 90 miles from the coast. The south half of the site, called Old Chichén, was constructed beginning about 700 AD, by Puuc Maya emigres from the southern Yucatan. The Puuc built temples and palaces at Chichén Itzá including the Red House (Casa Colorada) and the Nunnery (Casa de las Monejas). The Toltec component of Chichén Itzá arrived from Tula about 950 AD and their influence can be seen in the the Osario (the High Priest's Grave), and the Eagle and Jaguar Platforms. Most interestingly, a cosmopolitan blending of the two created the Observatory (the Caracol) and the Temple of the Warriors.
Photo taken in February 1986 on Kodachrome 64 film with a Minolta SLR camera and Vivitar 70-150 zoom. Scanned 2005. Photo by: Jim Gateley. Text Copyright 2006: archaeology.about.com/mbiopage.htm used with permission. A list of references used for this project is available for further reading on Chichén Itzá.
Detail of a relief from the palace of King Sargon II in ancient Dur Sharrukin, now Khorsabad in Iraq. Louvre Museum, Paris
Highlights from the wonderful exhibition of Tutankhamun's Gold Treasures at Saatchi Gallery London UK 30 Nov 2019.
© Amberinsea Photography 2019
土耳其－Antalya省－Kekova岛巡游－沉没之城
Remains of an ancient city, submerged after land subsidence caused by an earthquake about 2000 years ago, on Kekova Island, on turquoise colored Mediterranean sea, along the beautiful coastline of Lycia, in Antalya province, Central Anatolia region of Turkey.
© All rights reserved. You may not use this photo in website, blog or any other media without my explicit permission.
West Gate to the ancient Khmer city of Angkor Thom, part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Angkor group.
Marten van Valckenborch.
"The Tower of Babylon"
Text and image courtesy of Museum of Unnatural Mystery by Mr. Lee Krystek
Archaeologists examining the remains of the city of Babylon have found what appears to be the foundation of the tower: a square of earthen embankments 91 meters on each side. The tower's most splendid incarnation was probably under King Nebuchadnezzar II who lived from 605-562 BC. The King rebuilt the tower to stand 91 meters high. According to an inscription made by the king the tower was constructed of "baked brick enameled in brilliant blue". The terraces of the tower may have also been planted with flowers and trees.
The tower, referred to by the Babylonians as Etemenanki, was only one of the marvels of the city. The final beginning of the end of the tower of Babylon probably began around 478 BC. The city had been taken over by the Persian King Xerxes who crushed a rebellion there that year. The tower was neglected and crumbled.
Although the Tower of Babylon now gone, a few lessor ziggurats still exist. The largest surviving, although damaged, temple is now found in western Iran, in what was once the ancient land of Elam. It is located about 29 km from the capital of Elam, a city named Susa. Built in 1250 BC by the King Untash-Napirisha it once had five levels and stood 52 meters in height.
What we know about the Tower of Babylon today comes only from the little archaeological evidence found and a few ancient writings. Nebuchadnezzar described how "gold, silver and precious stones from the mountain and from the sea were liberally set into the foundations" and how to rebuild it he called on "various peoples of the Empire, from north and south, from mountains and the coasts" to help with the construction.
Even in 460 BC, after the tower had been crumbling for many years, the Greek historian Herodotus visited the tower and was very impressed. "It has a solid central tower, one furlong square, with a second erected on top of it and then a third, and so on up to eight. All eight towers can be climbed by a spiral way running around the outside, and about halfway up there are seats for those who make the journey to rest on".
The famous tree growing in the Ta Prohm temple ruins in Angkor Area, Siem Reap Province, Cambodia. Unlike most Angkorian temples, Ta Prohm is in much the same condition in which it was found: the photogenic and atmospheric combination of trees growing out of the ruins and the jungle surroundings have made it one of Angkor's most popular temples with visitors. UNESCO inscribed Ta Prohm on the World Heritage List in 1992.
Hooded bottle by Pre-Columbian Native Americans of the Mississippi Culture: An effigy of an owl (see the one ear?) with an especially wide mouth that is the opening of the bottle. Wickliffe mounds rest on the Kentucky side of where the Ohio and Mississippi rivers converge.
The Seven Wonders of the World (or the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) is a widely-known list of seven remarkable constructions of classical antiquity. The earliest known version of the list was compiled in the 2nd century BC by Antipater of Sidon; it appears to be based on the guide-books popular among Hellenic sight-seers and only includes works located around the Mediterranean rim.
One of the two emblems on the House of the Tritons' mosaic floor depicts a Tritoness and a flying Eros.
EXTRATERRESTRES-ALIENIGENAS-ARTE-PINTURA-CIVILIZACIONES-ANTIGUAS-DOCUMENTACION-PLASTICA-PINTOR-ERNEST DESCALS-
A través de la Documentación que nos han legado las Civilizaciones antiguas, es muy fácil seguir el rastro del contacto y presencia de los Seres Extraterrestres y diversos Alienígenas en nuestro planeta, en esta pintura me he limitado a aplicar el Arte de la Plástica para Pintar a estos visitantes que tuvieron y siguen teniendo una gran influencia sobre la humanidad, su rastro es perceptible en el testimonio que nos han dejado los artistas de la Antigüedad en paredes de piedra que han permanecido entre nosotros. Obras del artista pintor Ernest Descals con acuarelas sobre papel de 50 x 70 centímetros, no se pueden ocultar los testimonios antiguos sobre la variedad de especies que se han mostrado a lo largo de los tiempos.Parece que pronto tendremos importantes novedades, algunos permanecen aquí y otros volveran para interactuar. Esperamos acontecimientos.
A Festa de Baltazar - Rembrandt, c. 1635
National Gallery, London
Belshazzar's Feast
Rembrandt, 1635
Oil on canvas
167.6 × 209.2 cm
National Gallery, London
Belshazzar's Feast is a painting by Rembrandt painted in about 1635. The source for this painting is the story of Belshazzar, in the Old Testament Book of Daniel (Daniel 5).
Belshazzar's Feast refers to an event described in the Book of Daniel, in which the Babylonian king Belshazzar profanes the sacred vessels of the enslaved Jews, and, as prophesized by the writing on the wall, is slain, leading to their freedom.
The writing on the wall (or sometimes 'handwriting on the wall') is an expression that suggests a portent of doom or misfortune. It originates in the Biblical book of Daniel—where supernatural writing fortells the demise of the Babylonian Empire, but it has come to have a wide usage in language and literature.
www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/Collect...
Belshazzar's Feast is a painting by Rembrandt painted in about 1635. The source for this painting is the story of Belshazzar, in the Old Testament Book of Daniel (Daniel 5).
biblia.com/jesusbible/daniel4.htm