Thursday, July 26, 2007
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Seven Wonder of the World - Ancient Times
Pyramid of
This is one of the largest pyramids in the world and considered to be one of the great among the seven wonders of the world. There are actually 3 Pyramids located in this place along with a Sphinx. The biggest of all is The Great Pyramid of Khufu and this is the only one among the seven wonders of the world. These architectural marvels are found in
These architectural marvels are found in
1. Great Pyramid of Khufu - One of the seven wonders of world
2. Great pyramid of Khafre
3. Great Pyramid of Menkaure
Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal, a mausoleum built on the southern bank of the Yamuna river, outside
The complex consist of a rectangular plot measuring 1,902 feet x 1,002 feet on each side, bounded on north and south by two oblong sections. The southern oblong has a sand stone gateway to the complex while the northern oblong section terminates at the Yamuna’s edge directly to the mausoleum. The mausoleum is on the west and east by two symmetrically identical buildings, the mosque and the Jawab respectively.
The whole Taj complex was conceived as an entity because Mughal building architecture allowed no amendment in them. The mosque and Jawab of the Red Sikiri sand stone and some pietra duta (hard stone )surface decoration ,contrast in color and texture with the mausoleum of pure white marble. The mausoleum stands on a marble plinth 23 feet high and has four identical faces with a chamfered corner and a massive arch of height 108 feet on each face. Parapets create the skyline rhythm of the mausoleum over each arch and by pinnacle and domed kiosks on each corner.
The Islamic building activity of Shah Jahan period is marked by fresh emergence in
The mausoleum of the Taj Mahal is a large impressive sceptural monument. The word is derived from the word mausols, which is a word of the ruler of caria, in memory of his dead wife. the most impressive mausoleum present now is the taj complex only .
The emperor wanted to build a black mausoleum opposite to the marble complex but unfortunately before he could finish it. Lord Curzon said the complex as “ triumphal “ on his return from
The King Hammurabi is the most famous king of the Babylonian kingdom. The whole kingdom flourished under his rule. His son Nebuchadnezzar is the one who built the Hanging gardens of , one of the Seven wonders of world.
Nebuchadnezzar ruled the country for 43 years from 605 BC. He constructed impressive array of temples, palaces and streets. It is being told that he built this garden to please his wife, Amyitis. Amyitis, daughter of the king Medes seems to have had a passion for mountainous surroundings. There are some other accounts which say that this wonder of the world was actually built by the Assyrian Queen Semiramis.
The ancient accounts of this hanging gardens (one of the seven wonders of the world) describes the structure to be a stairs like one. The Greek geographer Strabo, describes it as , "the garden consists of vaulted terraces raised one above another, and resting upon cube-shaped pillars. These are hollow and filled with earth to allow trees of the largest size to be planted. The pillars, the vaults, and terraces are constructed of baked brick and asphalt."
The irrigation system was supposedly the complex part built on this gardens. This region had very scarce rains. Slaves were used to push the water upwards using some ancient method of irrigation. Of course there must be some exploitation of slave labor to maintain one among the seven wonders of the world. The gardens did not really hang on the roof using cables or ropes. But this name from the sense that it was built on the roof top. Some accounts state that the gardens are 400 by 400 feet and 80 feet high
Location-
In ancient times the Greek city states used to play games every 4 years. This is what is now called as Olympic games. During those times truce is declared and wars are stopped. Players and athletes from all over the places traveled to a place in
During the 5th century, they decided to have a temple for their king of gods and Libon was assigned the task of completing the work. Libon designed the temple and Pheidias was asked to build a big statue for Zeus. Pheidias had good techniques with him to build big statues. He used wooden frame to make the outer casings for the statues in gold. His workshop still remains and incidentally its size can accommodate building of such big statues. He built a statue of approximately 40 ft height.
The statue was so high that, even while sitting the head of the god Zeus was near the roof of the temple. This is what amazed the historians and poets of those times. This simply illustrates that the god Zeus is so big that even if he stands, the whole roof would come off its place. Zeus was seated on a throne, draped in gold robe. Zeus had a wreath around his head and held a figure of his messenger in his right hand.
The statue, one among the seven wonders of world was occasionally presented with gifts from rulers. The most notable one was the woolen curtain dedicated by the Syrian king.
In the I century AD, Roman emperor Caligula tried to take the statue to
This statue was located in the Harbor of the Mediterranean island
This is a statue of the Sun god, Helios. On the
In 357 B.C. this island was captured by Mausolus of Halicarnassus. It was then captured by Persians in 340 B.C. Then it fell into the hands of Alexander the Great in 332 B.C. After Alexander's death, 3 of his generals succeeded in dividing the kingdom for themselves. They are Ptolemy, Seleucus and Antigous. After this Rhodians supported Ptolemy which angered Antigous.
Antagonids in 305 BC, wanted to break their alliance and tried invading
Rhodians sold some of those equipments and to celebrate their victory, erected a statue for their Sun God, Helios.
The construction took 12 years and the stature was erected in 282 BC. During the earthquake at about 226 BC, this
This is located on the west coast of modern
This temple was destroyed and rebuilt over several hundred years. This was first built during 800 BC near the river at
This earliest temple supposedly contained a sacred stone, probably fallen from Jupiter. By 600 BC, a Greek architect named Chersiphron (and his son, Metagenes) was engaged and the temple was built. The temple was decorated with beautiful bronze statues sculpted by artists Pheidias, Polycleitus, Kresilas and Phradmon. This was destroyed by the Lydian king Croesus when he conquered
This temple was both a market place and a place of worship. For years this place was visited by lots of merchants, tourists, artisans, kings to pay their homage and share their profits with the Artemis goddess. Lots of scholars venerated to the extent that this came to be recognized as one of the seven wonders of the world.
On
This
This one of the seven wonders of world supposed to have contained 106 columns and each of them believed to be from 40 to 60 ft height. foundation was approximately 200 feet by 400 feet.
Mausoleum at
This Mausoleum was built in memory and as a burial tomb for the King Mausolus. King Mausolus was married to his sister Artemisia in his family. In those times,
Mausolus was the son of Hecatomnus. Hecatomnus ruled the Mediterranean coast of
Mausolus ruled this kingdom with the capital as
This Mausoleum was built around 353 BC. This lasted strong for 16 centuries till an earthquake damaged the roof and the colonnade of this structure. In the early 15th century AD Knights of John of Malta, used the stone blocks in this structure to construct a castle. That was the end to the story of this Mausoleum, one among the seven wonders of the world in ancient times.
This Mausoleum had a lot of beautiful statues sculpted by the best sculptors like Bryaxis, Leochares, Scopas, and Timotheus. Some of the artifacts are still kept in
Soon after the construction of this wonder of the world, Mausoleum Artemisia found herself in a crisis. Before death, Mausolus used to control the small neighboring regions like
Then she successfully sent her troops to the
On the ancient
The light house had a good mirror which can reflect the sun light to a very long distance. Mythical stories used to say that this mirror was used to burn the enemy ships.
The Macedonian conqueror, Alexander during his successful reign, had tried establishing approximately 17 cities in the name of
Ptolemy connected
The writings of the Arab conquerors are very good source of information about this lighthouse. The new rulers moved the capital to the
There are some more tales to the light house. Sostratus after he completed the lighthouse wanted his name to be carved on the light house. This was not allowed by Ptolemy II Philadelphus. Ptolemy II wanted his name to be carved on the structure. But what Sostratus did is he first carved his name underneath, put plasters on it and then carved Ptolemy II's name. After some years, the plasters worn out and his name has come out to be known to all.
The design of the lighthouse was unlike the modern slim lighthouse towers. This was built in 3 stages, each built on top of the lower.
This lighthouse was so popular that the word Pharos came into French, Spanish and Italian to mean lighthouse.
The creator of the tall tower Alexander Gustave Eiffel had his birth on
Statue of
The Statue of liberty formally called as Liberty Enlightening the world, colossal statue on liberty Island in the upper
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land,
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
The
Leaning tower of Pisa
Galileo, the man who found out that the world is a big ball, round in shape was born in
In 1950, a 222 feet Television Antenna was added to the building on the top, which increased the height of the building from 1,250 feet to 1,472 feet. The building is addressed in a site of 2 Acres, in the heart of
The building of Sky Scrapers was only up to the year 1931 and stopped from the year 1932 up to the World War II. The building with a great strength showed its power by sustaining the crash impact of a B-25 Bomber in the year June 1945. The building was not heavily damaged in this attack. There were only minor damages to this building and thus this building came out to be called as “Strengthen sky scraper”. Shreve, Lamb and Harmon designed the building. The Credit of the building went to them.
As the Sky Scrapers became very popular in the period of the 20th centuries, a law was passed for that sunlight must reach the buildings that are built behind the Sky Scrapers. In
The total volume of the empire state building is about 37 million cubic feet. This is the only building with the maximum volume. The area of the site in which the building is constructed is about 83,860 square feet. The cost of the land in the present day is about $40,948,900 and the total cost of the building is $24,718,000. The total cost of the building and the land makes it the costliest building in the country in the hands of the private body. The building was opened on may 1,1931,by Herbert Hoover who turned on the lights.
Great Wall of China
The Great wall of china as called is the largest building construction ever carried out, running to around 6,400 Km east to west from gulf of china to the yellow sea to a point in Central Asia. The construction of this fortification dates from 4th century B.C. shih Huang-ti in 214 B.C.
First Construction of the Great Wall:
The first emperor of United China connected the discontinuous walls with watch towers with was used to guard as the rampart. It was mainly built against Hsiung-nu or called he Huns. The wall was constructed partly of masonry and partly of earth and was faced with brick in the eastern portion. It was again rebuilt in the 15th and 16th century. The basic Wall is 30feet height and the towers are 40m high. The great wall lies from 39.49 degrees North to 98.18 degrees East. The
Chinese Civilization:
After the construction of the great wall the Qin empire was the first empire to be protected by the great wall which is now the northern and eastern china. The wall was built there as a defense against the Hostile tribal attacks from central