Revisiting: Cyprus
I was walking though some fields in the early spring, about 5 miles east of Famagusta, Cyprus, heading towards a building I was later to write an article on: the Trapeza church (see my articles page on this website). I looked down at one point to see thousands of caterpillars feasting on the new wheat. They were a voracious, writhing mass of colour, devouring the fresh shoots. I wondered what butterflies they were going to become.
Revisiting: Algeria
I’ve never had much luck shooting pictures from a bus, though other people I know are real masters at it. This picture was one exception. I was heading to a Berber village in the mountains of Algeria, south of Algiers, when these two girls came into view. They looked up at the window and smiled and the one girl put her arm around her friend (of sister) and I took the picture. Their friendship seemed so perfectly expressed in their mutual ‘reverse embrace’, looping them together. The smaller girl’s smile was so spontaneous and beautiful and the older girl seemed to have a more serious look, indicating her protectiveness.
Revisiting: Monopoli in Puglia
I travel a lot in ‘olive lands’ and so I see a LOT of olive trees. I think the experts say that the oldest tree is on Crete, outside of Chania (Vouves village), but I’ve never seen any olive trees anywhere as impressive as the ones in the region just south of Monopoli in Puglia, Italy. They must be 2000 or 2500 years old. What that means is that these trees were planted by the ancient Greek colonists who first built cities along this lesser-known coast of Italy on the Adriatic in the 5th century BCE. They’re still producing olives and olive oil is still pressed from them after all these centuries. If you’ve never been to Basilicata or Puglia, or some of the other southern Italian provinces, you’re really missing out.
Revisiting: Fathepur Sikri
Fathepur Sikri is a wonderland of a city built by the Mogul emperor Akbar in the middle of the 16th century. Constructed as a sort of ideal city, it has a number of fantastic buildings made of rich coloured reddish sandstone. The construction techniques imitate wooden architecture, so that, as in this picture, you have a series of exposed ‘beams’ carved into complex forms as in old wooden palaces or temples. It’s one of the must-see things in India. For me, even better than the more famous Taj Mahal.
Revisiting: Delhi, A Room with a View
Sometimes I travel in luxury and have million-dollar views. That’s when the great companies I work for are picking up the tab. On my own, however, it’s a different story. I still have a bit of the old budget backpacker in me. This was the view from my room in New Delhi when I last traveled there on my own a couple of years ago. Not exactly a deluxe accommodation, but it gave me a view on to the real world, not a fantasy one. I have India on my mind again now as I’ll be backpacking there again for three weeks next December. While I’m anticipating, I’m also remembering. Can’t wait.
Revisiting: Delhi, the Qutb Minar
In Old Delhi you can find some of the most beautiful works of architecture anywhere: the Lodi tombs in the lovely Lodi Gardens, the Tomb of Humayun, the Isa Khan tomb, and many others. The area around the Qutb Minar is also remarkable. This is a detail of the sandstone Islamic calligraphy of the Qutb Minar (minaret). It’s one of Delhi’s real wonders. Alas, the beauty of the Islamic art and architecture came at the expense of the destruction of the earlier Hindu monuments at the same spot. The Qutb minaret stands as a tower of victory for Islam. When Islam began its incursions into India in the middle ages the monotheistic and aniconic (forbidding images) Muslims were horrified by the polytheistic and image-loving Hindus. Everywhere Hindu temples were destroyed and re-purposed to the needs of the new religion.
Revisiting: Rome, Mike’s Moses
Michelangelo’s famous statue of Moses is in a church in Rome called San Pietro in Vincoli, or ‘St Peter in Chains’, alluding to the jail in which St Peter was imprisoned before his crucifixion. The statue was made for the tomb of Pope Julius II. Originally the tomb was supposed to be a gigantic, free standing structure; the famous unfinished ‘slave’ figures in Florence’s Accademia Museum–where the David can also be found–were supposed to be for that tomb. But Michelangelo’s work in the Sistine Chapel made it difficult for the artist to find time for Julius’s tomb. The Moses, however, he did complete. This is a detail of Moses’ hands and long, flowing beard. You can see the tablets of the law tucked under his arm.
Revisiting: Recycled Rome
When the Roman emperor Constantine marched on Rome in October of 312 CE and defeated Maxentius at the famous Battle of the Milvian Bridge, he had to have a big parade called a triumph, which also necessitated the construction of a triumphal arch. Constantine might have been in a bit of a hurry, however, or perhaps he was just frugal, so he pillaged imperial reliefs from the monuments of earlier emperors such as Hadrian, Trajan, and Marcus Aurelius. This is one of the large panels, this one from the reign of Trajan. Here, a winged victory figure places a crown of laurel on Trajan’s head.
Revisiting: Cairo
This guy either has the best sunhat in Egypt or it’s bread delivery time. The smell from this fresh baked bread was so good you wanted to follow this fellow down the road. The street life in old Cairo is fascinating. Even today you feel like you’ve stepped back in time and are on a Grand Tour of the 18th century. Ancient markets are in a dusty jumble below great medieval Mamluk mosques and palaces dating from one of the city’s most prosperous periods from 1250-1517. The shirt is, I reckon, Fernando Torres who’s back playing with his hometown Madrid these days after stints in Liverpool and Chelsea.
Revisiting: Cairo, Ibn Tulun
One of the oldest mosques in Cairo is Ibn Tulun, having been constructed in the latter half of the 9th century. It’s remarkably well preserved, having been lovingly kept up for the past 1100 years. This picture is of the sahn or inner courtyard of the complex, with the towering minaret in the background, so unlike the much later slender minarets of Ottoman design. This type, with its spiral staircase, resembles the form of ancient lighthouses. The mosque is segregated from the hubbub of the city by a high double wall, ensuring that the mosque remains one of the most peaceful and contemplative places in busy, noisy Cairo.
Kings of Commagene
You’ve probably never heard of a kingdom called Commagene, but it existed in the first century CE in parts of what is today southeastern Turkey and Syria. It was a short-lived kingdom, but the royal line continued as the kings of another kingdom, the Armenian. Before the Kingdom of Commagene was integrated into the Roman Empire by Vespasian, the kings would depict themselves as gods. The most common way these kings represented this concept was showing themselves meeting the gods and shaking their hands, as if they were old buddies. At Arsemeia, near the headwaters of the Kahta River (in ancient times known as the Nymphaeas; within just a few miles it flows into the Euphrates) one can find this Commagenean relief sculpture showing Mithradates I (possibly his son, Antiochus I) shaking hands with his presumptive ally, Hercules. Hercules stands in heroic nudity, the skin of the Nemean lion hanging off his shoulders. He carries the club that was his usual identifying attribute. Mithradates is in full regalia, including a high, ‘Armenian’ style crown. They’ve clasped each others’ hands for almost two thousand years. Few people visit this remote area of eastern Turkey in the spectacular Antitaurus Mountains, although the nearby mountain-top tomb of Mithradates’s son, Antiochus I gets a lot more visitors.
Seville Colours
The streets of Seville are filled with artists making paintings, their palettes rainbows of colours. Here’s one of the painters working on a small souvenir for someone. Seville doesn’t lack for picturesque vistas and works of architecture. I don’t have a wall to hang art on, but if I did I’d probably get one of these little ones.
Cartegena Colosseum
I’ve always been interested in architectural reassignments such as churches being turned into mosques. Ancient structures were often given new life by modification for new uses; Greco-Roman theaters were modified for less edifying gladiatorial entertainments, as were Greek stadia. This one is a pretty simple one as far as conversions go. This picture shows the old Roman amphitheater of Cartagena, Spain, which was in later centuries revamped into the town’s bull ring. It’s all in ruin now, however, even the more recent parts ready to fall. In this arid part of Spain, not often visited by tourists, there’s not a lot of money for big restoration projects, but the Cartegeneans have done a good job restoring their Roman theater, which has a museum with artifacts from the city’s Roman past.
