Pass by German Aachen Cathedral September 16, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Cars, Destination, Dubai, Europe, France, Germany, Hotels, Museum, Netherlands, Rail Pass, Sightseeing, Travel Gear, Trip , 2commentsThe location now was occupied by Aachen, adjacent to the modern borders of France and Holland, was resorted to even in prehistory because hot springs occur there. Exactly how far back into antiquity the place had importance is unknown, but the Celts were certainly established in the area by the time the Romans discovered the springs. The waters were sacred to the Celts and dedicated by them to the healing god, Granus. The Romans called the site Aquis Grani. They built bath complexes and shrines. Some houses edging the Hof, a triangular space a stone’s throw northeast of the cathedral, were built on first and second century AD Roman masonry, and part of a well sanctuary was uncovered. (more…)
Egypt Ancient Thebes & its Necropolis August 3, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Air Tickets, Cairo, Destination, Egypt, Hotels, Library, Memorial, Museum, The Nile , 5commentsThebes is the Greek name given to what was an ancient capital of Egypt, now most simply identified as Luxor, on the east side of the Nile about 370 miles (600km) south of Cairo. On the opposite side of the river is the great necropolis that includes the famed Valley of the Kings. (more…)
River Thames bank: Historic royal palace of Hampton Court continue… June 1, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Europe, London, USA , add a commentThe splendour of Henry VAT’s enlargements can be assessed in the Great Hall, built in 1531-6 to replace Wolsey’s smaller hall. So eager was Henry to see the room finished that he ordered the workmen to labour throughout the night by candlelight. The interior of the hall, which measures 97 by 40 feet, is dominated by an imposing hammer- beam roof that recalls the pioneer example in Westminster Hall, London. Another remarkable ceiling of Henry’s time is the wooden fan vaulting added to the Chapel Royal in 1535-6. Here the carved and gilded pendants stand out against a dark blue ground powdered with stars. The royal pew of the chapel leads to an L-shaped room asso¬ciated with the tragic fate of Catherine Howard, Henry’s fifth andsecond-to-last wife. (more…)
Sans Souci: The light-hearted summer-house of King Frederick the Great continue… May 18, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Air Tickets, Airlines, Destination, England, Flight Schedule, Library, Lodges, USA , add a commentThe entrance hall contains Corinthian columns exactly matching the colonnade outside. Doors lead off on the right to the service rooms, left to the corridor, and straight across to the cupola hall. Both halls were by von Knobelsdorff. The floor of the cupola hall was designed by Johann Christian Hoppenhaupt and executed in marble intarsia by Duquesnoy. The Italian marble blocks for this hall were too large to bring to Berlin, and two stone cutters, Heller and Grepler, were sent to Hamburg to work them in the rough. The most decorative room was without doubt the music room, with decorations by Johann Michael Hoppenhaupt and a series of wall paintings by the court painter, a Frenchman, Antoine Pesne, director of the Berlin Academy, who was here to be seen at his best. (more…)
The Alhambra: Cool courtyards of the Moorish kings overlooking Granada continue… May 12, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Airlines, Beach Resorts, Destination, Granada, Hotels, Italy, Lodges, Round The World, Travel Insurance, USA , 3commentsToday, stripped bare and despoiled, scarcely any furnishings remain to remind us of this well organised palace life.
Until the day when the Cross of the Reconquest was planted on the Torre de la Vela, much of the history of its development is uncertain. The summit of the Asabica, the Moorish name for the hill on which the Alhambra stands, was certainly fortified from ancient times and grew in importance in the ninth century, when this region was dominated by the Emirs of nearby Cordoba. Formerly it faced a similar fortification on the opposite hill of Albaicin — the palace of the Berber chieftain Zagui ben Ziri, a descendant of the Royal Family of Tunis. In 1238 Mohammed ben Alhamar, vassal of the Christian King San Fernando, occupied Granada, having first seized the fortified citadels of Jaen, Baeza and Guadix. (more…)
Huis ten Bosch: The elegant ‘House in the Wood’ of the Dutch Royal Family May 4, 2008
Posted by dodo in : England, Nassau, Netherlands , 4commentsThe seventeenth century represents one of the most interesting periods in the architectural development of the northern Netherlands. The Dutch had challenged the Spaniards for their freedom, but it was not until the reign of Frederik Hendrik, a son of Prince William of Orange, that Holland attained political and cultural unity.
The Princes of Orange had at first been modest in their residential requirements. Frederik Hendrik, however, after assuming the Stadholdership in 1625, ushered in a new period and began his architectural activities by rebuilding the old castle at Honselaarsdijk, soon to be followed by the Huis ter Nieuburch at Rijswijk and the wings of het Oude Hof (the Old Court) in the Noordeinde at the Hague. Finally, the Oranjesael or Huis ten Bosch (` the House in the Wood’) was planned by Pieter Post at the wish of Princess Amalia van Solms-Braunfels. Countess van Solms, a maid-of-honour at the court of Frederik V of the Palatinate, had married Frederik Hendrik of Orange in 1625. (more…)
The Interior of a New Kingdom Temple April 19, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Egypt, Flight Schedule, Museum, Travel Insurance, Travellers Cheque , add a commentBefore entering the temple, let us again emphasize its image as a “house of god,” because this is the simplest and most useful way to look at it. Consider the temple organized like a human dwelling. There is one part for private living, another for supporting Services, and a third for “public reception.” So with the New Kingdom temple, we have three roughly analogous parts: one where the god lives; another where the preparatory ceremonies (or functions not directly connected with the cult) take place; and the third, which is public, a place where the god and worshiper can meet. In order to avoid confusion it would be better to use the technical names for these three parts : the sanctuary, the hypostyle hall, and the courtyard. (more…)
Nineteenth Dynasty Karnak and Luxor April 14, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Paris , add a commentThe construction of the great Hypostyle Hall in the Karnak temple is the work of Seti I and Ramesses II, the second and third rulers of the Nineteenth Dynasty. We have already mentioned that Horemheb had a pylon (the second) erected in place of the two last columns of Amenhotep III’s colonnade. At that point, the north and south ends of the second and third pylons were connected by walls, which thus formed a vast rectangular space, divided in two at the center by Amerihotep III’s colonnade. With the addition of seven rows of columns to the north and seven to the south, parallel to the two central rows, there was created a “forest” of 134 Columns, with a central nave wider and taller than the lateral ones. (more…)
Abu Simbel and Medinet Habu April 11, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Egypt, The Nile , add a commentAfter what was said at the outset about the unsurpassed stone-cutting skill of the ancient Egyptians, the tour de force realized by Ramesses II’s architects at Abu Simbel in Nubia should come as no surprise. Yet it is understandable that these two sanctuaries — hewn out of the rock cliffs flanking the Nile at this point — continue to astonish visitors. Abu Simbel in recent years became the symbol of that part of Nubia submerged in the waters of the Nile as a result of the construction of the great Aswan Dam; the removal of the major parts of the monument to high ground is, in turn, one of the amazing achievements of modern technology. We shall, however, describe Abu Simbel as it was originally constructed in the rock cliffs bordering the Nile. (more…)
Other Nineteenth Dynasty Temples April 11, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Cairo, Egypt, Memorial, The Nile , add a commentIn discussing the great cult and ceremonial temples of the Eighteenth Dynasty, we did not explore the mortuary temples of the kings because they have been so poorly preserved. Their outer stones were taken off to be used for new constructions, and their inner cores became submerged by the flood waters and later covered over by cultivated fields. Their poor condition was probably also due to the fact that the further away, in time from the death of the king to whom these temples were dedicated, the more the cult tended to languish and then completely die. No pharaoh would be particularly interested in restoring the mortuary temple of one of his predecessors, and even less so in using the structures again, so that we have few remains of the Eighteenth Dynasty mortuary temples. However, it is known that the plan of these temples, in general, was not much different from that of Hatshepsut’s temple at Deir el-Bahri ; that is, it had terraces and arcaded courtyards. (more…)
The Ptolemaic Temples April 9, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Egypt, The Nile , add a commentBefore examining specific temples, we should clarify one point. It is well known that in 30 B.C., as a result of the defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra’s fleet by Octavian, Egypt became a Roman province. There then began a period of Egyptian history that presents a number of problems substantially different even from those of the Ptolemaic epoch. Given their complexity, we cannot consider these problems here. For various reasons, the Roman emperors continued to enlarge and decorate even the basic parts of the Ptolemaic temples, so that these monuments exist today as a complex of elements from different ages. Nevertheless, contrary to what we have noted with the pharaonic temples, the Ptolemaic-Roman temples present considerable unity. As a result, it is almost impossible to separate single elements from the total context of a Ptolemaic monument. However, our discussion must concentrate on the way the Ptolemies approached the temples, even when the Roman influence is quite strong. (more…)
