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Some examples of the types of huts that would have housed the people who built Stonehenge at the visitor center. That door and lock are a little too modern though, lol
The largest known cave system in the world, the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System, as of 2022, has 426 miles of documented passages, and sits beneath the ground in Mammoth Cave National Park, established in 1941, and was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981, the only designation in the state of Kentucky. The park is also an International Biosphere Reserve, designated in 1990, and an International Dark Sky Park, designated in 2021. The Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System formed in Mississippian Limestone rock underneath a Big Clifty Sandstone cap, which has formed several stable arched passages of varying sizes from the intrusion of water into the rock layers, with the less porous sandstone cap preventing water intrusion at most locations, which have kept the caverns beneath intact and stable for eons. The water that passes through the cave system drains into the adjacent Green River, and has continuously eroded deeper into the rock along with the river. The cave is home to endemic species of organisms that have adapted to the dark conditions within the cave system. The cave system was known to indigenous people, whom mined gypsum from the walls of the caves and explored the caves, with human remains, signs of human activity, and artifacts from their presence in the cave. The cave became known to European settlers in the 1790s, and it started being mined by Valentine Simon for saltpeter to create gunpowder in 1798, with the mining activities intensifying around the time of the War of 1812, and becoming an industrial-scale operation under the ownership of Charles Wilkins and Hyman Gratz, whom used slave labor to exploit the cave’s resources. In 1838, with the decline in value of saltpeter, the cave was sold to Franklin Gorin, whom operated the cave as a tourist attraction, but was sold to Doctor John Croghan the following year. Under Gorin and Croghan, Black slaves served as tour guides for visitors, with Stephen Bishop being the most notable of these guides. Bishop made many maps of the caves during the 1840s and 1850s, and was the first known person to cross Bottomless Pit and discover the River Styx and Mammoth Dome on the other side. Croghan attempted to run a Tuberculosis Hospital within the cave in 1842-1843, believing the stable temperatures and air would assist patients, but this was short lived. In 1886, the Mammoth Cave Railroad was built between Park City and the historic Mammoth Cave Hotel, which operated until 1931. The caves were mapped more accurately by German visitor Max Kämper in 1908, whom mapped the surface topography and used instruments to document the cave, allowing for the opening of new entrances to the caverns from the surface and being the most accurate maps of the caves until the 1960s. Sadly, this was not appreciated by the Croghan family, whose historic cavern entrance was threatened in status by these maps, and Kämper returned to Germany, where he died as a soldier during World War I’s Battle of the Somme in 1916. Starting in the 1920s, the land around the caves was purchased by the private Mammoth Cave National Park Association, with the park being officially authorized in 1926. Between 1933 and 1942, the park’s landscape was reforested and infrastructure was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), part of the New Deal. Between 1954 and 1972, the cave system was further explored, culminating in the connection between the longer Flint Ridge System and wider Mammoth Cave being found, making it the longest known cave system in the world. Today, the park sees about half a million visitors annually, and contains the majority of the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave system, with some portions of the system extending east of the park’s boundaries under privately-owned land.
High angle view of the terraced lakes in Plitvice Lakes National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the mountainous karst area of central Croatia.
© All rights reserved. You may not use this photo in website, blog or any other media without my explicit permission.
The largest known cave system in the world, the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System, as of 2022, has 426 miles of documented passages, and sits beneath the ground in Mammoth Cave National Park, established in 1941, and was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981, the only designation in the state of Kentucky. The park is also an International Biosphere Reserve, designated in 1990, and an International Dark Sky Park, designated in 2021. The Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System formed in Mississippian Limestone rock underneath a Big Clifty Sandstone cap, which has formed several stable arched passages of varying sizes from the intrusion of water into the rock layers, with the less porous sandstone cap preventing water intrusion at most locations, which have kept the caverns beneath intact and stable for eons. The water that passes through the cave system drains into the adjacent Green River, and has continuously eroded deeper into the rock along with the river. The cave is home to endemic species of organisms that have adapted to the dark conditions within the cave system. The cave system was known to indigenous people, whom mined gypsum from the walls of the caves and explored the caves, with human remains, signs of human activity, and artifacts from their presence in the cave. The cave became known to European settlers in the 1790s, and it started being mined by Valentine Simon for saltpeter to create gunpowder in 1798, with the mining activities intensifying around the time of the War of 1812, and becoming an industrial-scale operation under the ownership of Charles Wilkins and Hyman Gratz, whom used slave labor to exploit the cave’s resources. In 1838, with the decline in value of saltpeter, the cave was sold to Franklin Gorin, whom operated the cave as a tourist attraction, but was sold to Doctor John Croghan the following year. Under Gorin and Croghan, Black slaves served as tour guides for visitors, with Stephen Bishop being the most notable of these guides. Bishop made many maps of the caves during the 1840s and 1850s, and was the first known person to cross Bottomless Pit and discover the River Styx and Mammoth Dome on the other side. Croghan attempted to run a Tuberculosis Hospital within the cave in 1842-1843, believing the stable temperatures and air would assist patients, but this was short lived. In 1886, the Mammoth Cave Railroad was built between Park City and the historic Mammoth Cave Hotel, which operated until 1931. The caves were mapped more accurately by German visitor Max Kämper in 1908, whom mapped the surface topography and used instruments to document the cave, allowing for the opening of new entrances to the caverns from the surface and being the most accurate maps of the caves until the 1960s. Sadly, this was not appreciated by the Croghan family, whose historic cavern entrance was threatened in status by these maps, and Kämper returned to Germany, where he died as a soldier during World War I’s Battle of the Somme in 1916. Starting in the 1920s, the land around the caves was purchased by the private Mammoth Cave National Park Association, with the park being officially authorized in 1926. Between 1933 and 1942, the park’s landscape was reforested and infrastructure was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), part of the New Deal. Between 1954 and 1972, the cave system was further explored, culminating in the connection between the longer Flint Ridge System and wider Mammoth Cave being found, making it the longest known cave system in the world. Today, the park sees about half a million visitors annually, and contains the majority of the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave system, with some portions of the system extending east of the park’s boundaries under privately-owned land.
Southern Africa. Zimbabwe.
The Matobo National Park forms the core of the Matobo or Matopos Hills, an area of granite kopjes and wooded valleys commencing some 35 kilometres south of Bulawayo, southern Zimbabwe. The hills were formed over 2 billion years ago with granite being forced to the surface, this has eroded to produce smooth "whaleback dwalas" and broken kopjes, strewn with boulders and interspersed with thickets of vegetation. Mzilikazi, founder of the Ndebele nation, gave the area its name, meaning 'Bald Heads'.
The Hills cover an area of about 3100 km², of which 424 km² is National Park, the remainder being largely communal land and a small proportion of commercial farmland. The park extends along the Thuli, Mtshelele, Maleme and Mpopoma river valleys. Part of the national park is set aside as a 100 km² game park, which has been stocked with game including the white rhinoceros. The highest point in the hills is the promontory named Gulati (1549 m) just outside the north-eastern corner of the park.
Administratively, Matobo National Park incorporates the Lake Matopos Recreational Park, being the area around Hazelside, Sandy Spruit and Lake Matopos.
The statue of Archangel Michael, protector of Šibenik, battling devil with his spear, on top of the St. James Cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in Šibenik, one of the oldest Croatian towns on the eastern shores of the Adriatic, in Šibenik-Knin County, Croatia.
© All rights reserved. You may not use this photo in website, blog or any other media without my explicit permission.
Wayang kulit is a traditional form of puppet-shadow play originally found in the cultures of Java, Bali and Lombok in Indonesia. In a wayang kulit performance, the puppet figures are rear-projected on a taut linen screen with a coconut-oil (or electric) light. The dalang (shadow artist) manipulates carved leather figures between the lamp and the screen to bring the shadows to life.
Wayang kulit is one of the many different forms of wayang theatre found in Indonesia; the others include wayang beber, wayang klitik, wayang golek, wayang topeng, and wayang wong. Wayang kulit is among the best known, offering a unique combination of ritual, lesson and entertainment. Today, it is spread out, in various forms and guises, across Asia - from Turkey and China to Thailand and Malaysia. On November 7, 2003, UNESCO designated wayang kulit from Indonesia as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
ETYMOLOGY
The term wayang is the Javanese word for "shadow" or "imagination". Its equivalent in standard Indonesian is bayang.
In modern daily Javanese and Indonesian vocabulary, wayang can refer to the puppet itself or the whole puppet theatre performance. Kulit means "skin" or "leather", the material from which the figures are carved.
HISTORY
Wayang kulit originated in southern India as Tholpavakoothu.[citation needed] Tholpavakoothu was dedicated to a goddess to witness the slaying of Ravana in the Hindu epic Ramayana. Hinduism arrived in Indonesia from India before the Islamic and Christian era. Sanskrit became the literary and court language of Java and later of Bali. Wayang kulit was later assimilated into local culture with changes to the appearance of the characters to resemble cultural norms.
When Islam began spreading in Indonesia, the display of God or gods in human form was prohibited, and thus this style of shadow play was suppressed. King Raden Patah of Demak, Java, wanted to see the wayang in its traditional form, but failed to obtain permission from Muslim religious leaders.
Religious leaders attempted to skirt the Muslim prohibition by converting the wayang golek into wayang purwa made from leather and displayed only the shadow instead of the puppets themselves.
WAYANG PUPPET FIGURES
The wayang comes in sizes from 25 cm to 75 cm. The important characters are usually represented by several puppets each. The wayang is usually made out of water buffalo hide and goat hide and mounted on bamboo sticks. However, the best wayang is typically made from young female buffalo parchment, cured for up to ten years. The carving and punching of the rawhide, which is most responsible for the character's image and the shadows that are cast, are guided by this sketch. A mallet is used to tap special tools, called tatah, to punch the holes through the rawhide. Making the wayang sticks from horn is a complicated process of sawing, heating, hand-molding, and sanding until the desired effect is achieved. When the materials are ready, the artist attaches the handle by precisely molding the ends of the horn around the individual wayang figure and securing it with thread. A large character may take months to produce.
There are important differences between the three islands where wayang kulit is played (due to local religious canon):
In Java (where Islam is predominant), the puppets (named ringgit) are elongated, the play lasts all night and the lamp (named blencong) is, nowadays, almost always electric. A full gamelan with (pe)sinden is typically used.
In Bali (where Hinduism is predominant), the puppets look more real, the play lasts a few hours and, if at night, the lamp uses coconut oil. Music is mainly by the four gender wayang, with drums only if the story is from the Ramayana. There are no sinden. The dalang does the singing. Balinese dalangs are often also priests (amangku dalang). As such, they may also perform during daylight, for religious purposes (exorcism), without lamp and without screen (wayang sakral, or "lemah").
In Lombok (where Islam is predominant and Bali's influence is strong), vernacular wayang kulit is known as wayang sasak, with puppets similar to Javanese ringgits, a small orchestra with no sinden, but flutes, metallophones and drums. The repertoire is unique to the island and is based on the Muslim Menak Cycle (the adventures of Amir Hamzah).
PERFORMANCE
The stage of a wayang performance includes several components. A stretched linen canvas (kelir) acts as a canvas, dividing the dalang (puppeteer) and the spectator. A coconut-oil lamp (Javanese blencong or Balinese damar) – which in modern times is usually replaced with electric light – casts shadows onto the screen. A banana trunk (Javanese gedebog, Balinese gedebong) lies on the ground between the screen and the dalang, where the figures are stuck to hold them in place. To the right of the dalang sits the puppet chest, which the dalang uses as a drum during the performance, hitting it with a wooden mallet. In a Javanese wayang kulit performance, the dalang may use a cymbal-like percussion instrument at his feet to cue the musicians. The musicians sit behind the dalang in a gamelan orchestra setting. The gamelan orchestra is an integral part of the Javanese wayang kulit performance. The performance is accompanied by female singers (pesinden) and male singers (wirasuara).
The setting of the banana trunk on the ground and canvas in the air symbolizes the earth and the sky; the whole composition symbolizes the entire cosmos. When the dalang animates the puppet figures and moves them across the screen, divine forces are understood to be acting in his hands with which he directs the happening. The lamp is a symbol of the sun as well as the eye of the dalang.
A traditional wayang kulit performance begins after dark. The first of the three phases, in which the characters are introduced and the conflict is launched, lasts until midnight. The battles and intrigues of the second phase last about three hours. The third phase of reconciliation and friendship is finished at dawn.
Wayang shadow plays are usually tales from the two major Hindu epics, the Ramayana and Mahabharata. The puppet master contextualizes stories from the plays, making them relevant to current community, national or global issues. Gamelan players respond to the direction of the dalang.
WIKIPEDIA
Beautifully restored Dutch colonial architecture in the Otrabanda district of Willemstad, the capital of Curacao and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The largest known cave system in the world, the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System, as of 2022, has 426 miles of documented passages, and sits beneath the ground in Mammoth Cave National Park, established in 1941, and was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981, the only designation in the state of Kentucky. The park is also an International Biosphere Reserve, designated in 1990, and an International Dark Sky Park, designated in 2021. The Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System formed in Mississippian Limestone rock underneath a Big Clifty Sandstone cap, which has formed several stable arched passages of varying sizes from the intrusion of water into the rock layers, with the less porous sandstone cap preventing water intrusion at most locations, which have kept the caverns beneath intact and stable for eons. The water that passes through the cave system drains into the adjacent Green River, and has continuously eroded deeper into the rock along with the river. The cave is home to endemic species of organisms that have adapted to the dark conditions within the cave system. The cave system was known to indigenous people, whom mined gypsum from the walls of the caves and explored the caves, with human remains, signs of human activity, and artifacts from their presence in the cave. The cave became known to European settlers in the 1790s, and it started being mined by Valentine Simon for saltpeter to create gunpowder in 1798, with the mining activities intensifying around the time of the War of 1812, and becoming an industrial-scale operation under the ownership of Charles Wilkins and Hyman Gratz, whom used slave labor to exploit the cave’s resources. In 1838, with the decline in value of saltpeter, the cave was sold to Franklin Gorin, whom operated the cave as a tourist attraction, but was sold to Doctor John Croghan the following year. Under Gorin and Croghan, Black slaves served as tour guides for visitors, with Stephen Bishop being the most notable of these guides. Bishop made many maps of the caves during the 1840s and 1850s, and was the first known person to cross Bottomless Pit and discover the River Styx and Mammoth Dome on the other side. Croghan attempted to run a Tuberculosis Hospital within the cave in 1842-1843, believing the stable temperatures and air would assist patients, but this was short lived. In 1886, the Mammoth Cave Railroad was built between Park City and the historic Mammoth Cave Hotel, which operated until 1931. The caves were mapped more accurately by German visitor Max Kämper in 1908, whom mapped the surface topography and used instruments to document the cave, allowing for the opening of new entrances to the caverns from the surface and being the most accurate maps of the caves until the 1960s. Sadly, this was not appreciated by the Croghan family, whose historic cavern entrance was threatened in status by these maps, and Kämper returned to Germany, where he died as a soldier during World War I’s Battle of the Somme in 1916. Starting in the 1920s, the land around the caves was purchased by the private Mammoth Cave National Park Association, with the park being officially authorized in 1926. Between 1933 and 1942, the park’s landscape was reforested and infrastructure was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), part of the New Deal. Between 1954 and 1972, the cave system was further explored, culminating in the connection between the longer Flint Ridge System and wider Mammoth Cave being found, making it the longest known cave system in the world. Today, the park sees about half a million visitors annually, and contains the majority of the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave system, with some portions of the system extending east of the park’s boundaries under privately-owned land.
Wayang kulit is a traditional form of puppet-shadow play originally found in the cultures of Java, Bali and Lombok in Indonesia. In a wayang kulit performance, the puppet figures are rear-projected on a taut linen screen with a coconut-oil (or electric) light. The dalang (shadow artist) manipulates carved leather figures between the lamp and the screen to bring the shadows to life.
Wayang kulit is one of the many different forms of wayang theatre found in Indonesia; the others include wayang beber, wayang klitik, wayang golek, wayang topeng, and wayang wong. Wayang kulit is among the best known, offering a unique combination of ritual, lesson and entertainment. Today, it is spread out, in various forms and guises, across Asia - from Turkey and China to Thailand and Malaysia. On November 7, 2003, UNESCO designated wayang kulit from Indonesia as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
ETYMOLOGY
The term wayang is the Javanese word for "shadow" or "imagination". Its equivalent in standard Indonesian is bayang.
In modern daily Javanese and Indonesian vocabulary, wayang can refer to the puppet itself or the whole puppet theatre performance. Kulit means "skin" or "leather", the material from which the figures are carved.
HISTORY
Wayang kulit originated in southern India as Tholpavakoothu.[citation needed] Tholpavakoothu was dedicated to a goddess to witness the slaying of Ravana in the Hindu epic Ramayana. Hinduism arrived in Indonesia from India before the Islamic and Christian era. Sanskrit became the literary and court language of Java and later of Bali. Wayang kulit was later assimilated into local culture with changes to the appearance of the characters to resemble cultural norms.
When Islam began spreading in Indonesia, the display of God or gods in human form was prohibited, and thus this style of shadow play was suppressed. King Raden Patah of Demak, Java, wanted to see the wayang in its traditional form, but failed to obtain permission from Muslim religious leaders.
Religious leaders attempted to skirt the Muslim prohibition by converting the wayang golek into wayang purwa made from leather and displayed only the shadow instead of the puppets themselves.
WAYANG PUPPET FIGURES
The wayang comes in sizes from 25 cm to 75 cm. The important characters are usually represented by several puppets each. The wayang is usually made out of water buffalo hide and goat hide and mounted on bamboo sticks. However, the best wayang is typically made from young female buffalo parchment, cured for up to ten years. The carving and punching of the rawhide, which is most responsible for the character's image and the shadows that are cast, are guided by this sketch. A mallet is used to tap special tools, called tatah, to punch the holes through the rawhide. Making the wayang sticks from horn is a complicated process of sawing, heating, hand-molding, and sanding until the desired effect is achieved. When the materials are ready, the artist attaches the handle by precisely molding the ends of the horn around the individual wayang figure and securing it with thread. A large character may take months to produce.
There are important differences between the three islands where wayang kulit is played (due to local religious canon):
In Java (where Islam is predominant), the puppets (named ringgit) are elongated, the play lasts all night and the lamp (named blencong) is, nowadays, almost always electric. A full gamelan with (pe)sinden is typically used.
In Bali (where Hinduism is predominant), the puppets look more real, the play lasts a few hours and, if at night, the lamp uses coconut oil. Music is mainly by the four gender wayang, with drums only if the story is from the Ramayana. There are no sinden. The dalang does the singing. Balinese dalangs are often also priests (amangku dalang). As such, they may also perform during daylight, for religious purposes (exorcism), without lamp and without screen (wayang sakral, or "lemah").
In Lombok (where Islam is predominant and Bali's influence is strong), vernacular wayang kulit is known as wayang sasak, with puppets similar to Javanese ringgits, a small orchestra with no sinden, but flutes, metallophones and drums. The repertoire is unique to the island and is based on the Muslim Menak Cycle (the adventures of Amir Hamzah).
PERFORMANCE
The stage of a wayang performance includes several components. A stretched linen canvas (kelir) acts as a canvas, dividing the dalang (puppeteer) and the spectator. A coconut-oil lamp (Javanese blencong or Balinese damar) – which in modern times is usually replaced with electric light – casts shadows onto the screen. A banana trunk (Javanese gedebog, Balinese gedebong) lies on the ground between the screen and the dalang, where the figures are stuck to hold them in place. To the right of the dalang sits the puppet chest, which the dalang uses as a drum during the performance, hitting it with a wooden mallet. In a Javanese wayang kulit performance, the dalang may use a cymbal-like percussion instrument at his feet to cue the musicians. The musicians sit behind the dalang in a gamelan orchestra setting. The gamelan orchestra is an integral part of the Javanese wayang kulit performance. The performance is accompanied by female singers (pesinden) and male singers (wirasuara).
The setting of the banana trunk on the ground and canvas in the air symbolizes the earth and the sky; the whole composition symbolizes the entire cosmos. When the dalang animates the puppet figures and moves them across the screen, divine forces are understood to be acting in his hands with which he directs the happening. The lamp is a symbol of the sun as well as the eye of the dalang.
A traditional wayang kulit performance begins after dark. The first of the three phases, in which the characters are introduced and the conflict is launched, lasts until midnight. The battles and intrigues of the second phase last about three hours. The third phase of reconciliation and friendship is finished at dawn.
Wayang shadow plays are usually tales from the two major Hindu epics, the Ramayana and Mahabharata. The puppet master contextualizes stories from the plays, making them relevant to current community, national or global issues. Gamelan players respond to the direction of the dalang.
WIKIPEDIA
The Alcázar de Colón, or Columbus Alcazar, is located in Santo Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic.
It is located in the city's Colonial Zone (Ciudad Colonial or Zona Colonial) - the oldest permanent European settlement of the Americas. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
It was built in 1509 by Diego Columbus, Christopher Columbus' son, who was Governor of the Indies. It is the oldest Viceregal residence in the Americas.
The building houses the Museo Alcázar de Diego Colón, which contains the Caribbean's most important collection of European late medieval and Renaissance furniture and works of art.
They are just putting the finishing touches to this restored mansion in Otrabanda district in Willemstad, capital of Curacao and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This particular building will become the offices of a legal firm.
This is the main square in Arles - Place de la Republique.
Fountain with obelisk in the middle of the square.
In the centre of the square is a 10.28 m high Egyptian type obelisk standing in the middle of a fountain. It was discovered on the site of the former Roman circus.
From a tourist book about Arles I got there.
The Obélisque d'Arles ("Arles Obelisk") is a 4th century Roman obelisk, erected in the center of the Place de la République, in front of the town hall of Arles, France.
The obelisk is made of red granite from Asia Minor. It does not feature any inscription. Its height together with its pedestal is approximately 20 m.
The obelisk was first erected under the Roman emperor Constantine II in the center of the spina of the Roman circus of Arles. After the circus was abandoned in the 6th century, the obelisk fell down and was broken in two parts.
It was rediscovered in 14th century. And it was re-erected in its current location in 17th century on top of a pedestal designed by Jacques Peytret.
The fountain was designed by Antoine Laurent Dantan in 19th century.
This obelisk was listed on the 1840 inventory of historic sites in France. It is part of a 1981-designated UNESCO world heritage site, the Arles, Roman and Romanesque Monuments.
To the left is the Ancien Archevêché.
Remnants of terraced gardens at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka. A tranquil, almost magical scene in the early morning light.
The largest known cave system in the world, the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System, as of 2022, has 426 miles of documented passages, and sits beneath the ground in Mammoth Cave National Park, established in 1941, and was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981, the only designation in the state of Kentucky. The park is also an International Biosphere Reserve, designated in 1990, and an International Dark Sky Park, designated in 2021. The Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System formed in Mississippian Limestone rock underneath a Big Clifty Sandstone cap, which has formed several stable arched passages of varying sizes from the intrusion of water into the rock layers, with the less porous sandstone cap preventing water intrusion at most locations, which have kept the caverns beneath intact and stable for eons. The water that passes through the cave system drains into the adjacent Green River, and has continuously eroded deeper into the rock along with the river. The cave is home to endemic species of organisms that have adapted to the dark conditions within the cave system. The cave system was known to indigenous people, whom mined gypsum from the walls of the caves and explored the caves, with human remains, signs of human activity, and artifacts from their presence in the cave. The cave became known to European settlers in the 1790s, and it started being mined by Valentine Simon for saltpeter to create gunpowder in 1798, with the mining activities intensifying around the time of the War of 1812, and becoming an industrial-scale operation under the ownership of Charles Wilkins and Hyman Gratz, whom used slave labor to exploit the cave’s resources. In 1838, with the decline in value of saltpeter, the cave was sold to Franklin Gorin, whom operated the cave as a tourist attraction, but was sold to Doctor John Croghan the following year. Under Gorin and Croghan, Black slaves served as tour guides for visitors, with Stephen Bishop being the most notable of these guides. Bishop made many maps of the caves during the 1840s and 1850s, and was the first known person to cross Bottomless Pit and discover the River Styx and Mammoth Dome on the other side. Croghan attempted to run a Tuberculosis Hospital within the cave in 1842-1843, believing the stable temperatures and air would assist patients, but this was short lived. In 1886, the Mammoth Cave Railroad was built between Park City and the historic Mammoth Cave Hotel, which operated until 1931. The caves were mapped more accurately by German visitor Max Kämper in 1908, whom mapped the surface topography and used instruments to document the cave, allowing for the opening of new entrances to the caverns from the surface and being the most accurate maps of the caves until the 1960s. Sadly, this was not appreciated by the Croghan family, whose historic cavern entrance was threatened in status by these maps, and Kämper returned to Germany, where he died as a soldier during World War I’s Battle of the Somme in 1916. Starting in the 1920s, the land around the caves was purchased by the private Mammoth Cave National Park Association, with the park being officially authorized in 1926. Between 1933 and 1942, the park’s landscape was reforested and infrastructure was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), part of the New Deal. Between 1954 and 1972, the cave system was further explored, culminating in the connection between the longer Flint Ridge System and wider Mammoth Cave being found, making it the longest known cave system in the world. Today, the park sees about half a million visitors annually, and contains the majority of the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave system, with some portions of the system extending east of the park’s boundaries under privately-owned land.
Now a hotel called Hotel 30 James Street
From World Heritage Site Bid document
"White Star Building (Albion House), James Street, 1898 Grade II*
Thomas Ismay, proprietor of the White Star Line, commissioned Richard Norman Shaw to design new headquarters for the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company in 1894. Shaw had already built Dawpool, the great tragically demolished house, overlooking the Dee estuary at Thurstaston for Ismay in 1882-86. The White Star Building was the first of the new breed of giant office blocks built in the city. For the exterior, Shaw reworked his design for New Scotland Yard, facing the building in contrasting bands of brick and Portland stone, set on a granite base. The interior is especially remarkable for its raw display of iron girders, stanchions and jack arches lined with fireproof bricks, with all the rivets and bolts emphasised for effect, although it is currently hidden by suspended ceilings and partition walls. This would not have been possible in London where regulations required the cladding of structural ironwork for fire safety, but under Liverpool’s more commercial and laissez-faire regimen, such restrictions were not applied."
Wayang kulit is a traditional form of puppet-shadow play originally found in the cultures of Java, Bali and Lombok in Indonesia. In a wayang kulit performance, the puppet figures are rear-projected on a taut linen screen with a coconut-oil (or electric) light. The dalang (shadow artist) manipulates carved leather figures between the lamp and the screen to bring the shadows to life.
Wayang kulit is one of the many different forms of wayang theatre found in Indonesia; the others include wayang beber, wayang klitik, wayang golek, wayang topeng, and wayang wong. Wayang kulit is among the best known, offering a unique combination of ritual, lesson and entertainment. Today, it is spread out, in various forms and guises, across Asia - from Turkey and China to Thailand and Malaysia. On November 7, 2003, UNESCO designated wayang kulit from Indonesia as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
ETYMOLOGY
The term wayang is the Javanese word for "shadow" or "imagination". Its equivalent in standard Indonesian is bayang.
In modern daily Javanese and Indonesian vocabulary, wayang can refer to the puppet itself or the whole puppet theatre performance. Kulit means "skin" or "leather", the material from which the figures are carved.
HISTORY
Wayang kulit originated in southern India as Tholpavakoothu.[citation needed] Tholpavakoothu was dedicated to a goddess to witness the slaying of Ravana in the Hindu epic Ramayana. Hinduism arrived in Indonesia from India before the Islamic and Christian era. Sanskrit became the literary and court language of Java and later of Bali. Wayang kulit was later assimilated into local culture with changes to the appearance of the characters to resemble cultural norms.
When Islam began spreading in Indonesia, the display of God or gods in human form was prohibited, and thus this style of shadow play was suppressed. King Raden Patah of Demak, Java, wanted to see the wayang in its traditional form, but failed to obtain permission from Muslim religious leaders.
Religious leaders attempted to skirt the Muslim prohibition by converting the wayang golek into wayang purwa made from leather and displayed only the shadow instead of the puppets themselves.
WAYANG PUPPET FIGURES
The wayang comes in sizes from 25 cm to 75 cm. The important characters are usually represented by several puppets each. The wayang is usually made out of water buffalo hide and goat hide and mounted on bamboo sticks. However, the best wayang is typically made from young female buffalo parchment, cured for up to ten years. The carving and punching of the rawhide, which is most responsible for the character's image and the shadows that are cast, are guided by this sketch. A mallet is used to tap special tools, called tatah, to punch the holes through the rawhide. Making the wayang sticks from horn is a complicated process of sawing, heating, hand-molding, and sanding until the desired effect is achieved. When the materials are ready, the artist attaches the handle by precisely molding the ends of the horn around the individual wayang figure and securing it with thread. A large character may take months to produce.
There are important differences between the three islands where wayang kulit is played (due to local religious canon):
In Java (where Islam is predominant), the puppets (named ringgit) are elongated, the play lasts all night and the lamp (named blencong) is, nowadays, almost always electric. A full gamelan with (pe)sinden is typically used.
In Bali (where Hinduism is predominant), the puppets look more real, the play lasts a few hours and, if at night, the lamp uses coconut oil. Music is mainly by the four gender wayang, with drums only if the story is from the Ramayana. There are no sinden. The dalang does the singing. Balinese dalangs are often also priests (amangku dalang). As such, they may also perform during daylight, for religious purposes (exorcism), without lamp and without screen (wayang sakral, or "lemah").
In Lombok (where Islam is predominant and Bali's influence is strong), vernacular wayang kulit is known as wayang sasak, with puppets similar to Javanese ringgits, a small orchestra with no sinden, but flutes, metallophones and drums. The repertoire is unique to the island and is based on the Muslim Menak Cycle (the adventures of Amir Hamzah).
PERFORMANCE
The stage of a wayang performance includes several components. A stretched linen canvas (kelir) acts as a canvas, dividing the dalang (puppeteer) and the spectator. A coconut-oil lamp (Javanese blencong or Balinese damar) – which in modern times is usually replaced with electric light – casts shadows onto the screen. A banana trunk (Javanese gedebog, Balinese gedebong) lies on the ground between the screen and the dalang, where the figures are stuck to hold them in place. To the right of the dalang sits the puppet chest, which the dalang uses as a drum during the performance, hitting it with a wooden mallet. In a Javanese wayang kulit performance, the dalang may use a cymbal-like percussion instrument at his feet to cue the musicians. The musicians sit behind the dalang in a gamelan orchestra setting. The gamelan orchestra is an integral part of the Javanese wayang kulit performance. The performance is accompanied by female singers (pesinden) and male singers (wirasuara).
The setting of the banana trunk on the ground and canvas in the air symbolizes the earth and the sky; the whole composition symbolizes the entire cosmos. When the dalang animates the puppet figures and moves them across the screen, divine forces are understood to be acting in his hands with which he directs the happening. The lamp is a symbol of the sun as well as the eye of the dalang.
A traditional wayang kulit performance begins after dark. The first of the three phases, in which the characters are introduced and the conflict is launched, lasts until midnight. The battles and intrigues of the second phase last about three hours. The third phase of reconciliation and friendship is finished at dawn.
Wayang shadow plays are usually tales from the two major Hindu epics, the Ramayana and Mahabharata. The puppet master contextualizes stories from the plays, making them relevant to current community, national or global issues. Gamelan players respond to the direction of the dalang.
WIKIPEDIA
Details of a fresco on the vaulted ceiling inside the St. Peter's Basilica, the largest church in the world, loacted at St Peter's Square, Vatican City, Rome, Italy.
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The Tripitaka Koreana (lit. Goryeo Tripitaka) or Palman Daejanggyeong ("Eighty-Thousand Tripitaka") is a Korean collection of the Tripitaka (Buddhist scriptures, and the Sanskrit word for "three baskets"), carved onto 81,258 wooden printing blocks in the 13th century. It is the world's most comprehensive and oldest intact version of Buddhist canon in Hanja script, with no known errors or errata in the 52,382,960 characters which are organized in over 1496 titles and 6568 volumes. Each wood block measures 70 centimeters in width and 24 centimeters in length. The thickness of the blocks range from 2.6 to 4 centimeters and each weighs about three to four kilograms. The work is stored in Haeinsa, a Buddhist temple in South Gyeongsang province, in South Korea.
HISTORY
The name "Goryeo Tripitaka" comes from "Goryeo", the name of Korea from the 10th to the 14th centuries. It served as reference for the edition of the Chinese Buddhist canon.
The Tripitaka Koreana was first carved in 1087 during the Third Goryeo-Khitan War. The act of carving the woodblocks was considered to be a way of bringing about a change in fortune by invoking the Buddha's help.
The original set of woodblocks were destroyed by fire during the Mongol invasions of Korea in 1232, when Goryeo's capital was moved to Ganghwa Island during nearly three decades of Mongol incursions, although scattered parts of its prints still remain. To once again implore divine assistance with combating the Mongol threat, King Gojong thereafter ordered the revision and re-creation of the Tripitaka; the carving took 16 years, from 1236 to 1251, with support from the Choe House and involving monks from both the Seon and Gyo schools. This second revision is usually what is meant by the Tripitaka Koreana. In 1398, it was moved to Haeinsa, where they have remained housed in four buildings.
EVALUATION
The Tripitaka Koreana is the 32nd national treasure of Korea, and the Haeinsa Temple Janggyeong Panjeon, the depository for Tripitaka Koreana, has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The UNESCO committee describes the Tripitaka Koreana as one of the "most important and most complete corpus of Buddhist doctrinal texts in the world." Not only is the work invaluable, it is also aesthetically valuable and shows a high quality of workmanship.
The historical value of the Tripitaka Koreana comes from the fact that it is the most complete and accurate extant collection of Buddhist treatises, laws, and scriptures. The compilers of the Korean version incorporated older Northern Song Chinese, Khitan, Goryeo versions and added content written by respected Korean monks. Scholars can get an idea of the older Chinese and Khitan versions of the Tripitaka from the Korean version today. The quality of the wood blocks are attributed to the National Preceptor Sugi who carefully checked the Korean version for errors. Because of the accuracy of the Tripitaka Koreana, the Japanese, Chinese, and Taiwanese versions of the Tripitaka are based on this Korean version.
Each block is made of birch wood from the southern islands of Korea and was treated to prevent the decay of the wood. They were soaked in sea water for three years, then cut, then boiled in salt water. Then, the blocks were placed in the shade and exposed to the wind for three years at which point they were finally be ready to be carved. After each block was carved, it was covered in a poisonous lacquer to keep insects away and was framed with metal to prevent warping.
Every block was inscribed with 23 lines of text with 14 characters per line, Therefore, each block, counting both sides, contained a total of 644 characters. The consistency of the style, and some sources, suggests that a single man carved the entire collection but it is now believed that a team of thirty men did the job.
Imagine a time 1000s of years ago, when Travellers carrying goods to trade stopped over this mysterious, well hidden, prosperous and magnificent city to rest, feed their camels and trade. My photos don't do justice to the history of these people, seeing it in reality will surely mesmerize you and lead you to think how they did it all. There are water channels cut through these limestone hills to gather rainwater and channel it down to collection ponds. There are still excavations going on for more discoveries to be unearthed.
Please do enjoy these photos.
Petra originally known to its inhabitants as Raqmu or Raqēmō, is a historic and archaeological city in southern Jordan. Famous for its rock-cut architecture and water conduit system, Petra is also called the "Rose City" because of the colour of the sandstone from which it is carved; it was famously called "a rose-red city half as old as time" in a poem of 1845 by John Burgon. It is adjacent to the mountain of Jabal Al-Madbah, in a basin surrounded by mountains forming the eastern flank of the Arabah valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba. Access to the city is through a famously picturesque 1.2-kilometre-long (3⁄4 mi) gorge called the Siq, which leads directly to the Khazneh (treasury).
Cliffs near Petra, View over Wadi Arabah
The area around Petra has been inhabited from as early as 7000 BC, and the Nabataeans might have settled in what would become the capital city of their kingdom as early as the 4th century BC. Archaeological work has only discovered evidence of Nabataean presence dating back to the second century BC, by which time Petra had become their capital. The Nabataeans were nomadic Arabs who invested in Petra's proximity to the incense trade routes by establishing it as a major regional trading hub.
The trading business gained the Nabataeans considerable revenue and Petra became the focus of their wealth. Unlike their enemies, the Nabataeans were accustomed to living in the barren deserts and were able to repel attacks by taking advantage of the area's mountainous terrain. They were particularly skillful in harvesting rainwater, agriculture, and stone carving. Petra flourished in the 1st century AD, when its Al-Khazneh structure, possibly the mausoleum of Nabataean king Aretas IV, was constructed, and its population peaked at an estimated 20,000 inhabitants. They developed a complex system of cisterns, channels, and dams to collect and store rainwater, allowing them to thrive in the arid desert environment. Most of the famous rock-cut buildings, which are mainly tombs, date from this and the following period. Much less remains of the free-standing buildings of the city.
Although the Nabataean kingdom became a client state of the Roman Empire in the first century BC, it was only in 106 AD that it lost its independence. Petra fell to the Romans, who annexed Nabataea and renamed it as Arabia Petraea. Petra's importance declined as sea trade routes emerged, and after an earthquake in 363 destroyed many structures. In the Byzantine era, several Christian churches were built, but the city continued to decline and, by the early Islamic era, it was abandoned except for a handful of nomads. It remained unknown to the western world until 1812, when Swiss traveller Johann Ludwig Burckhardt rediscovered it.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petra
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The largest known cave system in the world, the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System, as of 2022, has 426 miles of documented passages, and sits beneath the ground in Mammoth Cave National Park, established in 1941, and was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981, the only designation in the state of Kentucky. The park is also an International Biosphere Reserve, designated in 1990, and an International Dark Sky Park, designated in 2021. The Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System formed in Mississippian Limestone rock underneath a Big Clifty Sandstone cap, which has formed several stable arched passages of varying sizes from the intrusion of water into the rock layers, with the less porous sandstone cap preventing water intrusion at most locations, which have kept the caverns beneath intact and stable for eons. The water that passes through the cave system drains into the adjacent Green River, and has continuously eroded deeper into the rock along with the river. The cave is home to endemic species of organisms that have adapted to the dark conditions within the cave system. The cave system was known to indigenous people, whom mined gypsum from the walls of the caves and explored the caves, with human remains, signs of human activity, and artifacts from their presence in the cave. The cave became known to European settlers in the 1790s, and it started being mined by Valentine Simon for saltpeter to create gunpowder in 1798, with the mining activities intensifying around the time of the War of 1812, and becoming an industrial-scale operation under the ownership of Charles Wilkins and Hyman Gratz, whom used slave labor to exploit the cave’s resources. In 1838, with the decline in value of saltpeter, the cave was sold to Franklin Gorin, whom operated the cave as a tourist attraction, but was sold to Doctor John Croghan the following year. Under Gorin and Croghan, Black slaves served as tour guides for visitors, with Stephen Bishop being the most notable of these guides. Bishop made many maps of the caves during the 1840s and 1850s, and was the first known person to cross Bottomless Pit and discover the River Styx and Mammoth Dome on the other side. Croghan attempted to run a Tuberculosis Hospital within the cave in 1842-1843, believing the stable temperatures and air would assist patients, but this was short lived. In 1886, the Mammoth Cave Railroad was built between Park City and the historic Mammoth Cave Hotel, which operated until 1931. The caves were mapped more accurately by German visitor Max Kämper in 1908, whom mapped the surface topography and used instruments to document the cave, allowing for the opening of new entrances to the caverns from the surface and being the most accurate maps of the caves until the 1960s. Sadly, this was not appreciated by the Croghan family, whose historic cavern entrance was threatened in status by these maps, and Kämper returned to Germany, where he died as a soldier during World War I’s Battle of the Somme in 1916. Starting in the 1920s, the land around the caves was purchased by the private Mammoth Cave National Park Association, with the park being officially authorized in 1926. Between 1933 and 1942, the park’s landscape was reforested and infrastructure was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), part of the New Deal. Between 1954 and 1972, the cave system was further explored, culminating in the connection between the longer Flint Ridge System and wider Mammoth Cave being found, making it the longest known cave system in the world. Today, the park sees about half a million visitors annually, and contains the majority of the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave system, with some portions of the system extending east of the park’s boundaries under privately-owned land.
Unesco World Heritage Site.
Het weelderige Golestan paleis is een meesterwerk uit het Qajaren tijdperk. Het toont de succesvolle integratie van vroegere Perzische kunstnijverheid en architectuur met Westerse invloeden. Golestan is gebouwd rond een tuin met zwembaden en plantgebieden en vormt een van de oudste groepen gebouwen in Teheran. Het ommuurde paleis werd de regeringszetel van de familie Qajar, die in 1779 aan de macht kwam en Teheran tot de hoofdstad maakte. De meest karakteristieke kenmerken en ornamenten dateren uit de 19e eeuw. Het paleis werd een centrum van Qajari kunst en architectuur en is tot op de dag van vandaag een bron van inspiratie voor Iraanse kunstenaars en architecten.
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Golestan Palace
The lavish Golestan Palace is a masterpiece of the Qajar era, embodying the successful integration of earlier Persian crafts and architecture with Western influences. The walled Palace, one of the oldest groups of buildings in Teheran, became the seat of government of the Qajar family, which came into power in 1779 and made Teheran the capital of the country. Built around a garden featuring pools as well as planted areas, the Palace’s most characteristic features and rich ornaments date from the 19th century. It became a centre of Qajari arts and architecture of which it is an outstanding example and has remained a source of inspiration for Iranian artists and architects to this day. It represents a new style incorporating traditional Persian arts and crafts and elements of 18th century architecture and technology.
Kiyomizudera (清水寺), or the "Pure Water Temple," officially Otowa-san Kiyomizu-dera (音羽山清水寺), an independent Buddhist temple, was founded in 780 on the site of the Otawa Waterfall in the wooded hills east of Kyoto. Its present buildings were constructed in 1633, during a restoration ordered by the Tokugawa Iemitsu. Originally associated with the Hossō sect, one of the oldest schools within Japanese Buddhism dating from Nara times, it formed its own Kita Hossō sect in 1965, and its present custodians call themselves Kitahossō.
Kiyomizudera is best known for its Butai (舞台), literally dancing stage, a wooden veranda, that supported by huge zelkova-tree pillars, juts out from the Hondo, or main hall, 12 meters above the hillside below. The Butai fronts the Hondo, flanked by two wings that run the entire width of the building. Both the Hondo and the Butai were built without the use of a single nail.
The Hondo is centered around its principal image of worship, a small eleven-faced, thousand-armed, thousand-eyed Kannon Bosatsu, flanked by his 28 followers. The Kannon, though, is only shown once every 33 years (one year for every vow Kannon took to save mankind). The main images are surrounded by the nai-nai-jin (innermost sanctuary) at the cemter, then the nai-jin (inner sanctuary) and then finally the ge-jin (outer sanctuary). The uniquely famous architecture of the Hondo is dominated by the huge hinoki (Japanese cypress) shingled roof with scalloped corners.
Beneath the main hall is the Otowa-no-taki (音羽の滝), literally the Sound of Feathers Waterfall, where three channels of water from a flow thousands of years old fall into a pond. Drinking from all three streams is said to confer wisdom, health, and longevity. However, some believe that you must choose only two; if you are greedy and drink from all three, you invite misfortune upon yourself.
Kiyomizudera, along with 16 other locations across Kyōto, Uji and Ōtsu, comprise the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities), designated in 1994. In 2007, it was selected as one of 21 finalists for the New Seven Wonders of the World.
Debe su nombre al término árabe Maswar, lugar donde se reunía la Sura o Consejo de Ministros. También era el lugar o la antesala donde el Sultán impartía justicia.
Esta estancia debió pertenecer a una estructura anterior al Palacio de Comares y al de Los Leones, probablemente al construido por Isma’il I (1314-1325) y ha sufrido numerosas transformaciones.
La decoración fue adaptada por Yusuf I (1333-1354) y posteriormente por Muhammad V en su segundo mandato (1362-1391), ambos responsables respectivamente de los dos Palacios de la Alhambra que mejor se han conservado.
Originalmente tenía un cuerpo central de linterna que le servía de iluminación cenital y de la que sólo subsisten las cuatro columnas y sus entablamentos. En el siglo XVI se modifica todo el espacio para añadirle una planta superior y transformarlo en Capilla.
Entre las radicales modificaciones de la sala destaca por su curiosidad la del friso epigráfico de yesería que discurre por encima del zócalo alicatado. Procedente del desaparecido Pórtico del Patio de Machuca se colocó en el Mexuar por artesanos moriscos, en lugar de las típicas almenillas, con una clara intención simbólica: «El Reino es de Dios. La fuerza es de Dios. La Gloria es de Dios». Esta inscripción venía a reemplazar a las jaculatorias cristianas: «Christus regnat. Christus vincit. Christus imperat».
Alhambra y Generalife
World Heritage Site - Unesco
Patrimonio de la Humanidad - Unesco
Andalucia
Granada
The Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús (The Church of the Society of Jesus), known colloquially as La Compañía, is a Jesuit church in the historic center of Quito. It is one of the most stunning examples of the Latin American Baroque. Of note are the ornate façade and the stunning interior that is almost entirely covered in leaf gold. It was modeled after the Church of the Gesù and Sant'Ignazio in Rome. The construction began in 1605 under the direction of the Jesuit priest Nicolás Durán Mastrilli (1570 - 1653), but it was not completed until 1765. The church structure dates back to the first half of the 17th century, but many decorations were added over time. The finely detailed façade was created between 1722 and 1765. The church used to have a spire which collapsed in the earthquake of 1859. There are plans to reconstruct it.
Shiro-shoin was the first building completed during the reconstruction after the palace area was destroyed in a fire in the late 1800s. It was used as the abbot’s temporary living quarters until Shinden was completed. After the completion of Shinden, Shiro-shoin came be used as the abbot’s informal reception room.
Walking along Calle Ronda de Isasa in Cordoba. Between the Puente de Miraflores and the Roman Bridge. The road follows the Rio Guadalquivir.
Spanish flag. Probably out when the World Cup 2014 started. Still the group stages at this point. But Spain got knocked out in them, and the eventual winners this time was Germany!
Tōdai-ji (東大寺), or the Great Eastern Temple, is the Japanese headquarters of the Kegon school of Buddhism and one of Japan’s most famous and historically significant temples. Constructed in 752 as the head temple of all provincial Buddhist temples of Japan under the order of Emperor Shōmu, it quickly grew so powerful that the capital was moved out of Nara to lower its influence on government affairs. Its Great Buddha Hall (大仏殿, Daibutsuden), the largest wooden building in the world, houses the world's largest bronze statue of the Great Buddha Vairocana, known in Japanese simply as Daibutsu (大仏). According to records kept by Tōdai-ji, more than 2.6 million people in total helped construct the Great Buddha and its hall.
Under the Ritsuryō system of government in the Nara Period, Buddhism was heavily regulated by the state through the Sōgō (僧綱, Office of Priestly Affairs), and Tōdai-ji served as the central administrative temple for the provincial temples for the six Buddhist schools in Japan at the time: the Hossō, Kegon, Jōjitsu, Sanron, Ritsu and Kusha. But as the center of power in Japanese Buddhism shifted away from Nara to Mount Hiei and the Tendai sect, and later when the capital of Japan moved to Kamakura, Tōdai-ji's authoritative role declined as well.
The Octagonal Lantern in front of Daibutsuden, or the Great Buddha Hall, dates from the time of the founding of Tōdai-ji. The distinctive large fire chamber is covered with a sloping roof surmounted by a jewel-like form. It rests upon a stone post emanating from a stone pedestal. The eight panels of the fire chamber are grilles of diamond shapes. The four stationary panels are ornamented with celestial musicians while the four pairs of hinged doors are decorated with lions running across clouds. The post bears an excerpt from a Buddhist text extolling the merits of lighting lanterns.
Tōdai-ji, along with several Buddhist temples including Kōfuku-ji, Kasuga Taisha, the remains of Heijō Palace, and other sites in Nara, comprise the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara, inscribed in 1999.
View of the historic center of Cartagena from the Convento de la Popa. In the middle ground is the Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas.
Adoration of the Magi, 15th century oil on panel, by Liberale da Verona (1490 - 1529), in Verona Cathedral, in the medieval old town of Verona, in Veneto region, northern Italy.
© All rights reserved. You may not use this photo in website, blog or any other media without my explicit permission.
This area of Avignon is the Place du Palais.
In this square is the Papal Palace (Palais des Papes), the Metropolitan Basilica, and The Old Mint (hotel des Monnaies)
On the left is the Metropolitan Basilica, Notre-Dame des Doms, Cathedral of Avignon.
It got its Metropolitan title more than five centuries ago, when Avignon was raised to the rank of archbishopric by Pope Sixte IV.
The present building dates back to the second half of the 12th century, and was transformed during the 15th and 17th centuries.
During the Revolution the Basilica was damaged. It was handed back in 1822. The imposing gilded cast-iron statue of the Blessed Virgin was installed on the belfy in 1859.
A tourist train was near the Metropolitan Basilica.
. . . this is the workplace of the shodow artist. The audience is sitting on the other side of the screen
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Wayang kulit is a traditional form of puppet-shadow play originally found in the cultures of Java, Bali and Lombok in Indonesia. In a wayang kulit performance, the puppet figures are rear-projected on a taut linen screen with a coconut-oil (or electric) light. The dalang (shadow artist) manipulates carved leather figures between the lamp and the screen to bring the shadows to life.
Wayang kulit is one of the many different forms of wayang theatre found in Indonesia; the others include wayang beber, wayang klitik, wayang golek, wayang topeng, and wayang wong. Wayang kulit is among the best known, offering a unique combination of ritual, lesson and entertainment. Today, it is spread out, in various forms and guises, across Asia - from Turkey and China to Thailand and Malaysia. On November 7, 2003, UNESCO designated wayang kulit from Indonesia as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
ETYMOLOGY
The term wayang is the Javanese word for "shadow" or "imagination". Its equivalent in standard Indonesian is bayang.
In modern daily Javanese and Indonesian vocabulary, wayang can refer to the puppet itself or the whole puppet theatre performance. Kulit means "skin" or "leather", the material from which the figures are carved.
HISTORY
Wayang kulit originated in southern India as Tholpavakoothu.[citation needed] Tholpavakoothu was dedicated to a goddess to witness the slaying of Ravana in the Hindu epic Ramayana. Hinduism arrived in Indonesia from India before the Islamic and Christian era. Sanskrit became the literary and court language of Java and later of Bali. Wayang kulit was later assimilated into local culture with changes to the appearance of the characters to resemble cultural norms.
When Islam began spreading in Indonesia, the display of God or gods in human form was prohibited, and thus this style of shadow play was suppressed. King Raden Patah of Demak, Java, wanted to see the wayang in its traditional form, but failed to obtain permission from Muslim religious leaders.
Religious leaders attempted to skirt the Muslim prohibition by converting the wayang golek into wayang purwa made from leather and displayed only the shadow instead of the puppets themselves.
WAYANG PUPPET FIGURES
The wayang comes in sizes from 25 cm to 75 cm. The important characters are usually represented by several puppets each. The wayang is usually made out of water buffalo hide and goat hide and mounted on bamboo sticks. However, the best wayang is typically made from young female buffalo parchment, cured for up to ten years. The carving and punching of the rawhide, which is most responsible for the character's image and the shadows that are cast, are guided by this sketch. A mallet is used to tap special tools, called tatah, to punch the holes through the rawhide. Making the wayang sticks from horn is a complicated process of sawing, heating, hand-molding, and sanding until the desired effect is achieved. When the materials are ready, the artist attaches the handle by precisely molding the ends of the horn around the individual wayang figure and securing it with thread. A large character may take months to produce.
There are important differences between the three islands where wayang kulit is played (due to local religious canon):
In Java (where Islam is predominant), the puppets (named ringgit) are elongated, the play lasts all night and the lamp (named blencong) is, nowadays, almost always electric. A full gamelan with (pe)sinden is typically used.
In Bali (where Hinduism is predominant), the puppets look more real, the play lasts a few hours and, if at night, the lamp uses coconut oil. Music is mainly by the four gender wayang, with drums only if the story is from the Ramayana. There are no sinden. The dalang does the singing. Balinese dalangs are often also priests (amangku dalang). As such, they may also perform during daylight, for religious purposes (exorcism), without lamp and without screen (wayang sakral, or "lemah").
In Lombok (where Islam is predominant and Bali's influence is strong), vernacular wayang kulit is known as wayang sasak, with puppets similar to Javanese ringgits, a small orchestra with no sinden, but flutes, metallophones and drums. The repertoire is unique to the island and is based on the Muslim Menak Cycle (the adventures of Amir Hamzah).
PERFORMANCE
The stage of a wayang performance includes several components. A stretched linen canvas (kelir) acts as a canvas, dividing the dalang (puppeteer) and the spectator. A coconut-oil lamp (Javanese blencong or Balinese damar) – which in modern times is usually replaced with electric light – casts shadows onto the screen. A banana trunk (Javanese gedebog, Balinese gedebong) lies on the ground between the screen and the dalang, where the figures are stuck to hold them in place. To the right of the dalang sits the puppet chest, which the dalang uses as a drum during the performance, hitting it with a wooden mallet. In a Javanese wayang kulit performance, the dalang may use a cymbal-like percussion instrument at his feet to cue the musicians. The musicians sit behind the dalang in a gamelan orchestra setting. The gamelan orchestra is an integral part of the Javanese wayang kulit performance. The performance is accompanied by female singers (pesinden) and male singers (wirasuara).
The setting of the banana trunk on the ground and canvas in the air symbolizes the earth and the sky; the whole composition symbolizes the entire cosmos. When the dalang animates the puppet figures and moves them across the screen, divine forces are understood to be acting in his hands with which he directs the happening. The lamp is a symbol of the sun as well as the eye of the dalang.
A traditional wayang kulit performance begins after dark. The first of the three phases, in which the characters are introduced and the conflict is launched, lasts until midnight. The battles and intrigues of the second phase last about three hours. The third phase of reconciliation and friendship is finished at dawn.
Wayang shadow plays are usually tales from the two major Hindu epics, the Ramayana and Mahabharata. The puppet master contextualizes stories from the plays, making them relevant to current community, national or global issues. Gamelan players respond to the direction of the dalang.
WIKIPEDIA