Wednesday, 4 October 2017

Tiya

The age of this archaeological site is unknown, but some archaeologists believe that dates some time between the 10th and 15th centuries CE  

Tiya
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Tiya is among the most important of the roughly 160 archaeological sites discovered so far in the Soddo region, south of Addis Ababa. The site contains 36 monuments, including 32 carved stelae covered with symbols, most of which are difficult to decipher. They are the remains of an ancient Ethiopian culture whose age has not yet been precisely determined. - in: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/12/

Tuesday, 3 October 2017

Sun Temple, Konârak

Sun Temple was built in the shape of a gigantic chariot pulled by horses

Konark Horse
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Konark Sun Temple is a 13th-century CE Sun Temple at Konark in Odisha, India. It is believed that the temple was built by king Narasimhadeva I of Eastern Ganga Dynasty in 1255 CE.
The temple was originally built at the mouth of the river Chandrabhaga, but the waterline has receded since then. The temple has been built in the form of a giant ornamented chariot of the Sun god, Surya. It has twelve pairs of elaborately carved stone wheels which are 3 meters wide and is pulled by a set of seven horses (4 on the right and 3 on the left). - in: wikipedia

The Jantar Mantar, Jaipur

This observatory contains instruments for measuring time, predicting eclipses, tracking location of major stars, among other things

Jantar Mantar, Jaipur
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The Jantar Mantar, in Jaipur, is an astronomical observation site built in the early 18th century. It includes a set of some 20 main fixed instruments. They are monumental examples in masonry of known instruments but which in many cases have specific characteristics of their own. Designed for the observation of astronomical positions with the naked eye, they embody several architectural and instrumental innovations. This is the most significant, most comprehensive, and the best preserved of India's historic observatories. It is an expression of the astronomical skills and cosmological concepts of the court of a scholarly prince at the end of the Mughal period. - in: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1338

Monday, 2 October 2017

Group of Monuments at Mahabalipuram

This group of monuments includes approximately 40 sanctuaries. Most of them were carved from a single rock.

Pancha Rathas
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Pancha Rathas (also known as Five Rathas or Pandava Rathas) is a monument complex at Mahabalipuram, on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal, in the Kancheepuram district of the state of Tamil NaduIndia. Pancha Rathas is an example of monolithic Indian rock-cut architecture. Dating from the late 7th century, it is attributed to the reign of King Mahendravarman I and his son Narasimhavarman I (630–680 AD; also called Mamalla, or "great warrior") of the Pallava Kingdom.
Each of the five monuments in the Pancha Rathas complex resembles a chariot (ratha), and each is carved over a single, long stone or monolith, of granite which slopes in north-south direction with a slight incline. - in: wikipedia

Sunday, 1 October 2017

Summer Palace, an Imperial Garden in Beijing

The Summer Palace is a popular tourist destination and recreational park with wonderful monuments in Beijing

Tower of Buddhist Incense
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The Summer Palace in Beijing – first built in 1750, largely destroyed in the war of 1860 and restored on its original foundations in 1886 – is a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design. The natural landscape of hills and open water is combined with artificial features such as pavilions, halls, palaces, temples and bridges to form a harmonious ensemble of outstanding aesthetic value. - in: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/880/

Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial Altar in Beijing

This complex was visited by the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for good harvest.

Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests
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The Temple of Heaven is an imperial complex of religious buildings situated in the southeastern part of central Beijing.
The temple complex was constructed from 1406 to 1420 during the reign of the Yongle Emperor, who was also responsible for the construction of the Forbidden City in Beijing.
The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is a magnificent triple-gabled circular building, 36 meters in diameter and 38 meters tall, built on three levels of marble stone base, where the Emperor prayed for good harvests. The building is completely wooden, with no nails. The original building was burned down by a fire caused by lightning in 1889. The current building was re-built several years after the incident.

Circular Mound Altar
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The Circular Mound Altar is an outdoor empty circular platform on three levels of marble stones, located in BeijingChina. It is part of the Temple of Heaven.
It was constructed in 1530, during the 9th year of the Jiajing Emperor's reign in the Ming dynasty, and enlarged in 1749 (the 14th year of the Qianlong Emperor's reign in the Qing dynasty).
This altar was also built for religious purposes, especially for ceremonies to pray for rain by the emperor in times of drought. During the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368–1911 AD), the emperors would offer sacrifices to Heaven on the day of the Winter Solstice every year. Sacrificial animals and other offerings were burned here to ensure good harvests. - in: wikipedia

Saturday, 30 September 2017

The Cathedral of St James in Šibenik

This cathedral is the most important architectural monument of the Renaissance in Croatia.

Cathedral of St. James
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The Cathedral of St. James in ŠibenikCroatia is a triple-nave basilica with three apses and a dome (32 m high inside) in the city of Šibenik. 

Cathedral of St. James
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The building of the church was initiated in 1402, though plans on its construction had already begun in 1298, when Šibenik became a municipality. The actual work to transform the older Romanesque cathedral began in 1431. Built entirely of stone (limestone from a nearby stone quarry and marble from the island of Brač), it was completed in three phases, from 1433 to 1441, when the Grand City Council entrusted the work to local and Italian masters Francesco di Giacomo, Lorenzo Pincino, Pier Paolo Bussato, Bonino da Milano, and Giorgio da Sebenico (Juraj Dalmatinac) and to Croatian ones Andrija Budčić and Grubiš Šlafčić. - in: wikipedia