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.

Alhambra Designs

I took this picture of some of the marvelous stucco designs in the Alhambra in Granada, Spain, one of the greatest of all works of Islamic architecture. The faceted parts on the lower left are called muquarnas, sometimes called stalactite moulding because they resemble the stalactites that hang from the ceilings of caves. The curving grape vine motif is fantastic with a riot of encircling growth, a symbol of plenitude, abundance and the pleasures of life.

Tractor Fetish

I love old tractors. I’m really not sure why, but every time I come upon a fine old machine like this one I’m compelled to do a photographic study. I guess, in general, I like taking pictures of old things that might not be around much longer. This one was a Massey-Ferguson in Spain, probably from the 1950s. It had been retired, and was now part of the quaint agricultural mise en scene of a rustic restaurant, but I still thought it was great.

Spanish Succulent

The disc-shaped leaves of this succulent, which I found happily growing in a pot near Valencia, were tightly clustered and had a wonderful red tinge along the edges. I’m not a botanist, but I think it’s a Kalanchoe thyrsiflora, otherwise known, for obvious reasons, as the ‘flapjacks plant’. I’m more likely to remember the latter. I love succulents, and the only garden I ever had was when I was a graduate student living at 18 West Islay Street in Santa Barbara between 1990 and 1995. Four art history graduate students lived there and we made the most of it. I cultivated a little plot, but we were right in the middle of a drought in the early 1990s, so wanted to keep the water usage down. I collected lots of cuttings from various succulents and they flourished, even in poor soil. I’d bring home rocks and had quite a nice garden after a year or so. I was sad to leave it. Hopefully, someone kept it up. Whenever I’m traveling and I see a beautiful succulent plant I’m reminded of my little garden years ago.

Hoop Di-Do

Public art is my favorite kind of art. One comes upon it unexpectedly, not like in a museum or gallery where you plan to see art. Because it’s a bit of a surprise, and becomes part of the flow of your daily life, I think the experience of it is even more special. These metal hoops extended almost a whole block in Valencia, Spain, and I loved the way they looped and caught the light. They were kind of joyous, like a bunch of crazy planets orbiting each other.

Not Monsters

The Art Nouveau market in Valencia, Spain, is a wonderful building and a great market to visit if you’re in that fantastic city. But too often in markets I see things that don’t make me very happy. Shark populations are plummeting worldwide–as are so many populations of marine life. Sharks are top predators in their environments, and also scavengers, so they play important roles in the ecological cycles of the oceans. Sharks are often caught, their fins cut off, and the rest of the body dumped. Boycott shark products.

Delightful Dubrovnik

I first went to Dubrovnik in 1981, when it was still part of the country called Yugoslavia. I got a little room overlooking the walled city for under five dollars a night. It was springtime and I thought I’d discovered a sort of paradise. Now, of course, it’s a world famous destination and parts of the hit series ‘Game of Thrones’ are filmed here and in the environs of the old town. Even with its current popularity, however, Dubrovnik is still wonderful. It still gives a sense of being a wealthy renaissance walled city with its churches, palaces, and monasteries and, of course, its spectacular walls, which one can walk along for the full circuit, which is quite a hike. For a break you can take a little ferry out to the nearby island of Lokrum, a forested park with rocky outcrops to swim from (it’s just out of sight to the left). The water is clear and refreshing. This picture was taken from south of the city, along the highway that leads to Cavtat and, eventually, Montenegro.