Pictures, Images & Photos of Hittite Art Sculptures.
Pictures of Hittite Relief Sculptures & photos & images of Hittite sculptures showing the story of Gilgamesh. Buy Hittite Art stock photos or Hittite Photo Art Prints & Cards. The Hittites (also Hethites) and children of Heth are a people or peoples mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. The Hittites were a Bronze Age people of Anatolia modern day Turkey.
In the 14th century BC, the Hittite Kingdom was at its height, encompassing central Anatolia, south-western Syria as far as Ugarit, and upper Mesopotamia.
The early history of the Hittite kingdom is known through tablets that may first have been written in the 17th century BC but survived only as copies made in the 14th and 13th centuries BC.
The Epic of Gilgamesh, depicted on some of these Hittite bas reliefs pictures, is a story from Mesopotamia and is among the earliest known works of literature. Scholars believe that it originated as a series of Sumerian legends and poems about the protagonist of the story, Gilgamesh king of Uruk, which were fashioned into a longer Akkadian epic much later. The photos of these Hittite relief sculpture is from the Hittite collection held at the Ankara Archaeological Museum.
Pictures, Images & Photos of the Romen Emperor Diocletian’s Palace at Split, Croatia.
Pictures, Images & photos of Split and Roman Emperor Diocletian’s palace founded by Emperor Diocletian between the late 3rd and the early 4th centuries AD.
Diocletian became emperor after long periods of civil war in the Roman Empire. He started a reform program that would eventually lead to a split in the Roman Empire. Diolcetian was a great organiser and brought in new tax legislation and reforms that were well over due but he is best known for 2 acts. Realising that the Roman Empire had become too big to rule by one Emperor, he divided the Empire in two creating an Eastern and Western Empire to be ruled by 2 co-emperors or Augusti. Diolcetian ruledthe Eastern Empire, he appointed the general Maximian as the emperor of the west. The Empire had been devastated by accession wars on the death of an Emperor so Diocletian decided in 285 to appoint successors to follow himself and Maximian and these were titled Caesars ( junior emperors). In 305 Diocletian abdicated and forcing Maximian to do the same, allowing Constantius and Galerius to be elevated in rank to Augusti and in turn appointed Caesars to follow them. Diocletian retired to his Palace in Split to famously "grew cabbages" and enjoyed his retirement. His master plan failed though and the new Augusti and Caesars were soon at war with each other and Diocletian was called out of retirement to sort the mess out. Diocletian did not live to see the eventual outcome of the dispute which ended in Constantine taking sole charge of the Empire and moving the capital of the Empire to Constantinople.
Diocletian is also remembered for his purges against the Christians. Diocletian was a conservative who looked back to the Pagan heyday of Rome believing that the Ancient Gods who would bring ill to those that did not sacrifice to them. It seems that Diocletian believed that the chaos that reigned in the Roman Empire was a sign of the displeasure of the Gods due to the Christians worship of just one God. Diocletian ruled that if Christians did not sacrifice to the Pagan Gods then they should die by "exposure to Animals". The numbers of Christian who did die during these purges has been over dramatised as most of the Empire could see no sense in killing Christians who were no sport in the arena as they knelt and accepted death gratefully as a gift of martyrdom and a passage straight to heaven. Diocletian and his Caesar Galerius did apply the rules harshly in the Eastern Empire until Diocletian’s death. Diocletian was buried in a mausoleum in his Palace which still stands today as an octagonal building. When Constantine became Emperor he made Christianity a legal religion of the Empire and pagan temples, including Diocletian’s Mausoleum were turned into churches. In Christians revenge for Diocletian’s cruelty towards them removed distorted his remains.
But pictures of Diocletian’s Palace and photo art prints on line.
Pictures, Images & Photos of The Wooden Churches of Maramures, Romania.
Pictures, images & photos of Maramures, Northern Transylvania, Romania. Maramureș is a region in north eastern Romania hemmed in by the Ukraine border to the north and mountains to the south, west & east that are inaccessible in the winter. Many of the valleys within Maramures have small villages with wooden houses & churches that are linked together by dirt roads as they have been for millennia.
The Maramures is a remote and atmospheric area with villages that modernity still has not reached, The horse & cart is still the main form of transport and families go daily to their fields with scythes to cut hay to keep their animal alive through extremely cold winters.
The remoteness of Maramures has created a community that sits between the Orthodox Christianity of the East & The Roman Church of the West. Add to this the underlying pagan traditions that have survived in such a remote area and you are left with a rich folk and religious art that has a place for all the beliefs. Wooden churches are a political statement of independent beliefs as the Austro Hungarian rulers allowed only Roman Catholic Churches to be built out of stone. As the people of Maramures are predominately Orthodox, Greco Catholics or Uniate, this meant that they could only build what were seen as temporary churches out of wood. Today over 150 survive in various states of repair and the best 8 are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Pictures, Images & Photos of Romantic Volcanic Island of Santorini, Greece.
Pictures, Images & Photos of Santorini Island and its dramatic volcanic crater & whitewashed villages & churches. High on any travel "must see" list of European destinations has to be the Greek Cyclades Island of Santorini and in particular the town of Oia. With good reason Oia is one of the most visited destinations in Greece. It has a captivating charm that combined with boutique hotels make it an obvious destination for the discerning traveler and those looking for a romantic destination to get married in.
Santorini Islands are located in the Aegean Sea about 200KM (120 miles) from the Greek mainland. They are the remnants of an old Volcanic island that exploded with such force about 3,600 years that the fall out probably caused the collapse of the Minoan civilization on the nearby island of Crete. Santorini is a crescent shaped archipelago of islands surrounding a central caldera. The largest island of Thira, next Therasia and the smallest Aspronisi. These surrounds a huge central lagoon about 12 x 7 km across with a small volcanic island, Nea Kameni, in the middle which has been dormant since 1950. The natural harbour of the caldera has high steep cliffs that rise out of the sea to create a natural defense for the island and a safe haven for shipping. High above the sea on the cliff tops are some of the most picturesque villages in Greece & Europe.
The Greeks have been clever with the development on Santorini and new buildings are made in the traditional Santorini style. This is so successful that often it is difficult to tell if a building is old or new.
The most famous town is of Santorini is Oia. It is at one end of the crescent shaped Thira Island at the point where there is a break in the archipelago between Thira and Therasia. The early inhabitants of Oia used the cliffs to good advantage to make cave dwellings in the soft volcanic rock. These stayed cool in the summer and warm in the winter and set high above the sea were hidden from the Saracen pirates that plundered the Mediterranean coast and islands for hundreds of years in the middle ages. In more peaceful times the buildings of Oia were extended outside the cliffs dwellings and a simple low square style of building developed with arched vaulted roofs. These are painted white to reflect the heat of the sun and hang precariously on the high cliffs shining out against dramatic black volcanic rock. Oia’s buildings are linked by a maze of narrow lanes and steps just big enough for a donkey to carry goods up and down the village.
Buy pictures of Santorini or photo art prints on line.
Pictures of The Bridestones, North Yorkshire England.
Pictures of the Bridestones nature reserve, Dalby forest in the North Yorks Moors National Park. The Bridestones are weathered Jurassic sandstone outcrops that stand on the edge of a valley of ancient woodland in Dalby forest. Some of the Bridestones are cylindrical towers whilst others have been weathered at their bases to create rocks formations that look like they may topple at any moment. There are many so called Bridestones across the neolithic landscape of Britain, some man made and some natural formations like those in Dalby. Many of the Bridestone sites are associated with pagan rituals and their purpose is unknown yet the name Bridestones have been passed down to us from antiquity. These ancient Bridestones and set in Site of Scientific Interest with rare plants like the insect catching sundew.
Pictures, Images & Photos of Hagia Sophia Istanbul.
Pictures & images of Hagia Sophia ( Aya Sophia ) Basilica Istanbul. Completed in 537 under Emperor Justinian, Hagia Sophia is a major Roman Byzantine work of architecture with a massive dome that would not be surpassed in size for 1000 years.
The present Hagia Sophia or church os the Holy Wisdom, is the third Basilica to stand on this site. The previous Basilica was burnt to the ground during the Nika Revolt of 13th Jan 532 when thousands of rampaging fans at the Hippodrome were slaughtered by Emperor Justinians’s soldiers after they rioted & sacked the city.
The size of Hagia Sophia is awe inspiring even by modern standards and the mathematics used to create such a vast dome demonstrate how sophisticated ancient mathematicians & engineers were. Justinian chose physicist Isidore of Miletus and mathematician Anthemius of Tralles as architects to complete the task but the dome structure was too massive and the main dome collapsed completely during an earthquake on 7 May 558. It was rebuilt with lighter materials and 30 feet higher by Isidorus the Younger, nephew of Isidore of Miletus and today stands at 55.6 metres (182 ft). Hagia Sophia has withstood many earthquakes over time being repaired and buttressed to give it strength.
Hagia Sophia was the Church of the seat of the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople and was decorated inside with Roman Byzantine mosaics with gold backgrounds that would have made for a spectacular interior. The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) took and sacked Constantinople and most of the treasures and relics from Hagia Sophia were looted by the Venetians who used took them back to Venice to adorn the Basilica of Saint Marks.
In 1453 Sultan Mehmed took Constantinople and the treasures of Hagia Sophia were again pillaged. The Basilica became a mosque and its design was the benchmark for all the great mosques that were subsequently built. Over time the Christian mosaics, that were seen to idolatrous by Muslims who do not allow depictions of Saints or God, were replaced with Islamic designs. Aya Sophia became first imperial mosque of Istanbul and has the mausoleum’s ( Türbe ) of the early sultan rulers of Istanbul.
After the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the creation of an independent Turkish state, in 1935, the first Turkish President and founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, transformed the building into a museum and any religious worship in the building was forbidden. It was repaired and plaster removed to reveal some of the Roman Byzantine mosaics that survived underneath. Today it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site that incorporated Ancient Istanbul.
Pictures, Images & Photos of the Greek Temples of Selinunte, Sicily.
Pictures of the Greek Temples of Selinunte, Sicily. It is often forgotten that Greek city states stretched as far beyond Greece and that some of the biggest Greek Temples can be found on Sicily. Selinunte (Greek: Σελινοῦς; Latin: Selinus) is an ancient Greek archaeological site on the south coast of Sicily. The ancient city of Selinunte was one of the most westerly in Sicily and therefore came into constant conflict with the invading Carthaginians. Around 409 BC a massive Carthaginian army of around 100,000 men overwhelmed Selinunte killing 16,000 inhabitants and taking 5,000 as prisoners. The city was rebuilt but in the first Punic War in 250 BC was again destroyed by the Carthaginians and was never rebuilt.
The huge archaeological site of Selinunte is situated on a promontory that juts out into the sea. Its raised situation would have given it good defences with a natural harbour below. The archaeological site contains five temples centered on an acropolis. Of the five temples, only the Temple of Hera, also known as "Temple E", has been re-erected and is a splendid Doric order temple.
Pictures, images & photos of the iconic Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Sultanahmet Camii ) or Blue Mosque, Istanbul, Turkey. Built from 1609 to 1616 commissioned by Sultan Ahmed I when he was 19. the Blue Mosque draws the inspiration for its design from Hagia Sophia that stands opposite it. The design of the Blue Mosque is a high point of the classical period being a fusion of Ottoman & Byzantine elements. It was designed by Mehmet Aga, its second architect as the first was executed because his skills were found wanting.
Normally mosques have a maximum of 4 minarets, the exception being the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the focal point of the Islamic world. It shows grand designs of Sultan Ahmet that the Blue Mosque was controversially designed with 6 minarets also. The sixth minaret of the Blue Mosque though was built when Sultan Ahmet built a seventh minaret on the mosque in Mecca. The high central dome of the Mosque is surrounded by 8 smaller domes creating cascading tiers running down to a central courtyard, the biggest of any Ottoman mosque.
The interior of the mosque is lined with 20,000 Iznik tiles with more than 50 tulip designs as well as fruit, flowers & cypresses. Over 250 stained glass windows with intricate designs light the interior.
Sultan Ahmet lived long enough to see the splendour of the Blue Mosque and his Mausoleum is just outside the walls.
Pictures, images & photos of ancient Assyrian relief sculptures. The Assyrians existed as an independent state fro 2400 B.C to the end of the 7th cent. B.C in Mesopotamia, present day Iraq The Assyrians became a power rich empire that showed its great conquests in exquisitely intricate relief sculptures on its palace walls. Assyrian art was designed to overwhelm the viewer. Huge mythical beasts stood either side of its palace and city gates pronouncing the wealth and prestige of the Assyrian rulers.
The detail in the relief sculptures is sumptuous and gives a very clear understanding of the intricately woven cloth that made up the nobilities clothes. Scenes of hunting are popular with the rulers killing lions with bow & arrow and spears from their chariots. These hunting scene are not for the faint hearted with lions shown graphically dying or dead. The relief sculptures of the rulers great victories are equally revealing. The victorious Assyrians humble the defeated and scenes of refugees and executions show the fate of many from the ancient world.
The scale and craftsmanship of Assyrian sculpture is compelling and the narrative content is still quite understandable to the modern eye giving a clear view of the ancient world of the Assyrian rulers.
Pictures of the Acropolis and its Parthenon temple & the icon statues of the Erechtheion. The Acropolis was the ancient citadel of Athens sitting on a rock with steep cliffs 150m above the city of Athens, Greece. The Acropolis was inhabited from Neolithic times and in Archaic times around the mid 6th cent BC a temple was built there.
During the Golden Age of Athens under Pericles, 460-430 BC, many major Greek Temples were built. During this period the Acropolis became the fortified treasury of the Delian League and its funds were used to build the Parthenon which was intended a symbol of the might of Athens. The Parthenon is considered to be the pinnacle of development of the Doric order. Greek architects used optical illusions to make the Parthenon look symmetrical. The columns bulge as they rise and lean slightly inwards. The west front is built slightly higher than the east front to increase perspective and counter the visual effect of curvature between two parallel lines of columns. The architects of the Parthenon used endless devices to bring the building close to the mathematical Golden Ratio, an algebraic equation used for geometric relationships by artists and architects, so creating and aesthetically pleasing proportion to the building and its art.
The sculpted friezes and statues of the Parthenon are also thought to be the pinnacle of Greek classical art. The sculptures from the Pediment of the Parthenon depicted scenes from the birth and life of the goddess Athena. The Metope panels depicted scenes of a battle between the Lapiths & Centaurs ( see these in our Elgin Marble picture gallery : http://bit.ly/I318LD ). The friezes depict the annual procession to the Parthenon to make sacrifice to Athena.
The other great icon of the Acropolis is the “Porch of the Maidens” on the Erechtheion temple. Built between 421 and 405 BC the temple was dedicated to the Greek hero Erichthonius. The sculptor and mason of the structure was Phidias, who was employed by Pericles to build both the Erechtheum and the Parthenon. The “Porch of the Maidens” uses caryatids which are female figures used as supports instead of columns.
Today attempts are being made to restore the Parthenon but it has been so abused over the centuries that little remains. When the Roman Empire converted to Christianity the Parthenon became a church. Its pagan artworks were damaged and cult images of Athena were taken to Constantinople. In 1456 Athens fell to the Ottomans are became part of the Ottoman Empire. The Parthenon then became a mosque with a minaret. In 1687 the Venetians attacked Athens. The Acropolis was fortified by the Ottomans and the Parthenon was used as an arsenal. A Venetian mortar made a direct hit on the Parthenon and the arsenal exploded destroying the internal building, the columns of the south side and damaging its sculptures. In 1801 the British Ambassador at Constantinople, Lord Elgin, obtained permission to make casts of what was left of the sculptures on the Acropolis and remove them. Controversy still runs high about this act today.
Buy stock photos of the Acropolis of Athens & photo art prints on line
Pictures & Images of Robin Hood’s Bay, North Yorkshire. Robin Hood’s Bay is a small fishing village on the North Yorkshire Coast whose houses tumble down the cliffs linked by a maize of small alleys. This picturesque village is famous for its tales of smuggling and the close proximity of the houses and their underground cellars led to the stories that smugglers could land their tea, brandy tobacco or gin on the beach then move the contraband up through the cellars of the houses to the top of the village without the Excise Officers ever knowing.
Robin Hood’s Bay was settled by Danish Vikings in about 1000. After the conquest of William The Conqueror in 1066 the area was given to Tancred the Fleming who sold it to the Abbot of Whitby.
The people of the Bay relied upon fishing and farming using as style of boat known as the Coble to catch herring which were then sent over the Moors to York. Today few fishermen work from the little harbour of Robing Hood’s Bay and the village relies upon tourism. Apart from the picturesque village visitors come to Robin Hood’s Bay to look for fossils in the layer of Jurassic shales that lies along the beach.
The whole of the East coast of England is slowly sinking into the sea and the coast is getting heavily eroded. To save Robin Hood’s Bay high sea walls have been built to protect the village.
Pictures of The spectacular Bridestone of North Yorkshire
Pictures of the Bridestones nature reserve, Dalby forest in the North Yorks Moors National Park. The Bridestones are weathered Jurassic sandstone outcrops that stand on the edge of a valley of ancient woodland in Dalby forest. Some of the Bridestones are cylindrical towers whilst others have been weathered at their bases to create rocks formations that look like they may topple at any moment. There are many so called Bridestones across the neolithic landscape of Britain, some man made and some natural formations like those in Dalby. Many of the Bridestone sites are associated with pagan rituals and their purpose is unknown yet the name Bridestones have been passed down to us from antiquity. These ancient Bridestones and set in Site of Scientific Interest with rare plants like the insect catching sundew.
New Pictures of The North Yorks Moors National Park
New Gallery of North Yorks Moors National Park pictures, images & photos. The North Yorks moors are one of the largest expanses of heather moorland in the United Kingdom and became a National Park in 1952. Located in the north east of England just south of the Tees the boundaries of the moors are defined by the steep scarp slopes of the Cleveland Hills to the north, the Hambleton Hills to the west, the Tabular Hills to the the south with the eastern boundary being the North Sea.
The North Yorks Moors is a domed shaped area rising to 1100 ft at Blakey. Valleys or Dales are cut into the dome radiating to the north & south. The geology is dominated is dominated by rock of the Jurassic period with shales, limestones and sandstone. Fossils can be found in the rocks of Robin Hoods Bay and iron ore was mined in Rosedale & Farndale. Alum was extracted along the coast and deposits of Jet are found around Whitby.
Visitors today see a wild landscape of heather moorland which bloom deep purple in late summer cut by remote green dales where sheep graze. The land is far from wild though and is the result of thousands of years of land management and farming. The moors are still separated into the feudal Manors the the Normans created when they conquered England in 1066. The heather moorland is populated by the Grouse which are managed and hunted for a short period each year who come from all round the world to pay £1000 a day to shoot grouse on the moors.
Rosedale was an industrial valley 150 years ago with iron ore mining all around the valley. It is hard to visualise that what appears to be such an unspoilt dale had a mining population of 5000. High above the ruins of 2 kilns linked by a an old railway track are all that is left of the important mining area that sent iron ore to the foundries of Teeside just north of the moors.
Pictures & Images of the Ishak Pasha Palace is a semi-ruined palace and administrative complex located in eastern Turkey.
The Ishak Pasha palace is an Ottoman-period palace whose construction was started in 1685 by Colak Abdi Pasha, the bey of Beyazit province. According to the inscription on its door, the Harem Section of the palace was completed by his grandson Ishak (Isaac) Pasha in 1784.
The Palace is more of a complex than a palace; it is the second administrative campus after the Topkap? Palace in Istanbul and the most famous of the palaces built in recent decades. It was the last large monumental structure in the Ottoman Empire from the "Lale Devri" period. It is one of the most distinguished and magnificent examples of the 18th century Ottoman architecture and is very valuable in terms of art history. The ?shak Pasha Palace is a rare example of the historical Turkish palaces.
Pictures of Great Byzantine Roman Hagia Sophia . Istanbul.
Pictures & images of Hagia Sophia ( Aya Sophia ) Basilica Istanbul. Completed in 537 under Emperor Justinian, Hagia Sophia is a major Roman Byzantine work of architecture with a massive dome that would not be surpassed in size for 1000 years.
The present Hagia Sophia or church os the Holy Wisdom, is the third Basilica to stand on this site. The previous Basilica was burnt to the ground during the Nika Revolt of 13th Jan 532 when thousands of rampaging fans at the Hippodrome were slaughtered by Emperor Justinians’s soldiers after they rioted & sacked the city.
The size of Hagia Sophia is awe inspiring even by modern standards and the mathematics used to create such a vast dome demonstrate how sophisticated ancient mathematicians & engineers were. Justinian chose physicist Isidore of Miletus and mathematician Anthemius of Tralles as architects to complete the task but the dome structure was too massive and the main dome collapsed completely during an earthquake on 7 May 558. It was rebuilt with lighter materials and 30 feet higher by Isidorus the Younger, nephew of Isidore of Miletus and today stands at 55.6 metres (182 ft). Hagia Sophia has withstood many earthquakes over time being repaired and buttressed to give it strength.
Hagia Sophia was the Church of the seat of the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople and was decorated inside with Roman Byzantine mosaics with gold backgrounds that would have made for a spectacular interior. The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) took and sacked Constantinople and most of the treasures and relics from Hagia Sophia were looted by the Venetians who used took them back to Venice to adorn the Basilica of Saint Marks.
In 1453 Sultan Mehmed took Constantinople and the treasures of Hagia Sophia were again pillaged. The Basilica became a mosque and its design was the benchmark for all the great mosques that were subsequently built. Over time the Christian mosaics, that were seen to idolatrous by Muslims who do not allow depictions of Saints or God, were replaced with Islamic designs. Aya Sophia became first imperial mosque of Istanbul and has the mausoleum’s ( Türbe ) of the early sultan rulers of Istanbul.
After the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the creation of an independent Turkish state, in 1935, the first Turkish President and founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, transformed the building into a museum and any religious worship in the building was forbidden. It was repaired and plaster removed to reveal some of the Roman Byzantine mosaics that survived underneath. Today it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site that incorporated Ancient Istanbul.
Pictures of Hittite archaeological sites, photos & images of Hittite art. Photos of the Hittite capital Hattusa with images of its lion and sphinx gates. Pictures of relief sculptures from Karkamis showing scenes from the legend of Gligamesh. Buy as stock pictures or photo art prints. The Hittites were a Bronze Age people of Anatolia. They established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia c. the 18th century BC. The Hittite empire reached its height c. the 14th century BC, encompassing a large part of Anatolia, north-western Syria about as far south as the mouth of the Litani River (in present-day Lebanon), and eastward into upper Mesopotamia. The Hittite military made successful use of chariots.
Photos, pictures & images of Busós (Busos) in their masks and sheep costumes on their annual parade as well as traditional Hungarian dancers. The Busójárás (Hungarian, meaning "Busó-walking"; in Croatian: Pohod bu?ara) is an annual celebration of the ?okci (Croats) living in the town of Mohács, Hungary, held at the end of the Carnival season ("Farsang"), ending the day before Ash Wednesday. The celebration features Busós (people wearing traditional masks) and includes folk music, masquerading, parades and dancing. Busójárás lasts six days, usually during February. It starts on a Thursday, followed by the Kisfarsang (Little Farsang) carnival on Friday, with the biggest celebration, Farsang vasárnap (Farsang Sunday) on the seventh Sunday before Easter Sunday; the celebration then ends with Farsangtemetés (Burial of Farsang) on the following Tuesday (Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras).
Stock photos pictures & images of the spring Busójárás (Busojaras) Carnival in Mohács (Mohacs) Hungary.
Pictures of Fountains Abbey and the Studley Water Gardens
Pictures & Images of Fountains Abbey & Studley Royal Park Water Gardens. Founded in 1132, the abbey operated for over 400 years until it was closed by Henry VIII during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The Abbey is part of It is one of the largest and best preserved ruined Cistercian monasteries in England and was the second Cistercian monastery to be built after Rievaulx Abbey just 20 (32km) or so miles away. After its closure like all monasteries in England it was abandoned and became a ruin.
In 1718 John Aislabie the owner of the Studley Estate & Chancellor of the Exchequer decided to build a water Garden in his park. The style of the day was for picturesque landscaping and the ruins of Fountains Abbey were incorporated into the design at the end of a sweeping curved lake that follows a narrow wooded valley. This has created the famous vista of Fountains Abbey making Studley Royal one of the best surviving examples of a Georgian water garden in England. Studley Royal Park including the ruins of Fountains Abbey owes its originality and striking beauty to the fact that a humanised landscape was created around the largest medieval ruins in the United Kingdom. The use of these features, combined with the planning of the water garden itself, is a true masterpiece of human creative genius that influenced the rest of Europe.
Studley Royal & Fountains Abbey are a UNESCO World Heritage Site
One of the best known tourist sites on Crete is the Palace of Knossos. Famed for its “Throne Room” and “Dolphin Frescoes” it has become the symbol of the Minoan Civilisation. Few realise and are rarely told by their guides that Knossos is the fantasy world of Arthur Evans, the Englishman who bought & excavated the site in the 1900 and paid for the reconstruction at Knossos.
Very little is known about the Minoans, as the people of Knossos were named by Evans. A civilisation called the Minoans never existed under that name and may never have existed as a separated organised civilisation outside the archaic Greek peoples at all. Evans named the Minoans after the Mythical King Minos of Crete. Evans also proclaimed Knossos to be a Palace which has clouded its real function ever since. Knossos was certainly a central storage and administration point for the surrounding area and therefore was almost certainly a centre of trade. There is no evidence though of it being part of a Minoan “Kingdom” and therefore there is no basis for Knossos being a Kings Palace.
The fragments of frescoes Evans found became the basis of the extraordinary reconstructed art pieces of Knossos that can only be approximations of the originals. Evans reconstructed buildings on the site of Knossos and designed them using scant evidence from buildings found on Pottery. Today concrete reconstructions sit on top of archaeological evidence that can never be examined as it is incased in reinforced concrete. A Throne room has been built around a humble excavated stone seat. Evans then had the room painted by a father-and-son team of Swiss artists, the Émile Gilliérons Junior and Senior. It seems very unlikely that a King would have inhabited such a small insignificant room.
Stone tablets with 2 types of syllabic script named “Linear A” & “Linear B” were excavated at Knossos. Linear A has not been deciphered yet but Linear B was deciphered by Michael Ventris in 1952, 11 years after Evans died, and showed that Knossos was some sort of administrative centre but Evans could not have known this when he turned the site into a Minoan theme park.
The Minoans of Crete were probably wiped out by a massive volcanic explosion on the neighbouring island of Santorini in the 1400′s BC. The tidal wave from this eruption deposited 40 meters of mud in the Sinai desert so the destruction on nearby Crete would have been catastrophic. The whole of the crescent shaped Santorini island of Thira was covered with meters of volcanic ash, under which was discovered the Minoan town of Akrotiri. The excavations in the 1960′s revealed in tact Frescoes that showed the towns & ships of the Minoans none of which look like Knossos in style. The style of the Frescoes does support the style of the reconstruction paintings at Knossos but there is some evidence that maybe some of the frescoes were originally on the floor.
Knossos is a conundrum. Knossos is one mans conceit and one of the best examples in the world of how to destroy an archaeological site. I am sure that Evans intentions were to educate, but the site also shows his ambition to be viewed by posterity as the great archaeologist who discovered an ancient civilisation. Evan certainly succeeded in this as the Minoans are now part of ancient history but who they really were and how they lived remains a mystery now clouded by Evans imaginings. Knossos is though a popular tourist site and attracts far more visitors that the other Minoan sites on Crete. What a shame Evans did not think to build his reconstruction next to the Archaeological site of Knossos as they have done with the Viking village at the Jorvik Museum in York.
It is very hard now to determine fact and fiction about the Minoans but the other Minoan sites on Crete and Santorini will no doubt reveal more in the future as archaeology advances using new technology. It is doubtful though that Knossos will play any future role in revealing the Minoans as it is so completely encased in concrete.
Steve Jobs is dead. Four words that to many people will mean nothing. Steve who? Thanks to the iPod, iPhone, iBook etc etc, people may have a sort of idea who Steve Jobs was. Having owned Apple computers from before Steve invented windows, I have been part of Steve Jobs inspirational coaster ride from the beginning. In the early days his vision outpaced what the hardware could deliver but slowly the vision became a reality. Those of us that kept the faith and believed in Steve’s vision have benefitted from the liberation the Apple vision has delivered. Steve Jobs fundamentally changed the civilised world and for the better. Few humans can say that. I hope this will not be the end of his vision and those that are left in charge of his legacy will be good custodians, with his sense of adventure and innovation. Its a sad day, the world has lost an incredible mind too soon.
Paul Williams Gallery has just released the first series of photos from Paul Williams journeys to Turkey this summer. The art photos explore hot air baloons over the dramatic rock formations of Cappadocia in Turkey. This selective colour series of art images are available to buy as art prints and cards from Funky Stock.
Blenheim Palace Italian Garden with topiary maize - England
Blenheim Palace, England Photos Pictures & Images
Pictures of Blenheim Palace, England, Photos & Images of the Palace of the Duke of Marlborough. Blenheim Palace was the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill. The Italian gardeb & fountains of Blenheim Palace England.
