Abu Simbel

One of the world’s wonders is the great rock-cut temple of Abu Simbel in Egypt. Built by the powerful pharaoh Rameses II around 1250 BCE, it glorified the pharaoh with a quartet of gigantic sculptures carved into the living rock of a mountain overlooking the Nile River. The temple is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and is well-known for having been completely cut apart and moved to a new, higher site in 1968 when the construction of the Aswan High Dam created Lake Nasser, which would have flooded the original temple. Some other temples were also moved higher to escape the rising waters, including the pendant to this temple, one dedicated to Nefertari, Rameses’ wife. Still, many antiquities are now under the waters of Lake Nasser. I always thought it might be fun to dive down and see them.

Regal Rameses

This is a detail of one of the heads of the Egyptian pharaoh Rameses II, found in the facade of the temple of Abu Simbel, on the shores of Lake Nasser, Egypt (see above).

Another Rainy Day

This fountain is in the gardens of the Capodimonte Palace and museum in one of the world’s great cities, Naples. One doesn’t find humour in sculpture very much, but fountains sometimes have little jokes, like this one where the figure seems to cower from the rain of water drops in perpetuity.

Ancient Ways

While in Mandu, India, from the aerie of a 15th-century palace’s luxurious pavilion I could see a scene of daily life that I could have seen three-thousand or more years ago: a man directing an ox-drawn plough while his wife sowed the seeds. It seemed to me as if I was looking through a window into an ancient past. Traveling, in fact, is often a sort of time travel. You can see people living lives from the Neolithic period, or Bronze Age;  see timeless works of architecture of the ruins of ancient cities, or eternal landscapes unchanged for millennia.

Nandi the Bull

I’d like to introduce you to Nandi the Bull. In Hinduism the gods have vehicles or “vahanas“, upon which they ride about the universe. The god Shiva’s vahana is Nandi the Bull. In front, or sometimes inside, temples to Shiva, there is often a statue of Nandi, who sits and looks towards the main shrine of the temple, which enclosed the symbolic focus of Shaivite worship, the lingam. This is a huge Nandi sculpture at the Virupaksha Temple in Pattadakal, India, which dates from the 9th century CE. Worshipers to the temple visit Nandi first, and make offerings to him: marigold garlands, saffron, ghee (clarified butter, for lamps), or even just a cash donation. This magnificent statue, over life size and in a smooth black stone, was particularly well decorated.

On the Job

In India millions of children work, even at very young ages. In an era when North American children rarely seem to do ‘chores’ to earn allowance or jobs from a young age, it’s sometimes startling to see children involved in farm or textile labour. In many countries children are significant parts of the workforce. It was very common to see kids helping out in agricultural contexts in India. In Indian farming families everyone has to do something. This little girl was with two younger siblings bringing light loads of millet to the town and asked for a picture.

Merry Mandalas

During festivals in India–and there are many of them–people, even those of very limited means, will draw colourful mandalas in front of their homes. At night, they sometimes put candles on them, as here at this house in Mandu. The porch upon which this radiant design was realized was a mud paving made by mixing earth with cow dung. One of the amazing things about India is how people transcend poverty and create beauty in the most unlikely of circumstances.

Path to Pattadakal

Pattadakal was a religious center for India’s 7th – 8th century CE Western or ‘Badami’ Chalukyans (see posts below). It’s located in the state of Karnataka, India, and is close to other important temple sites for the Chalukyans, Badami and Aihole. The many temples of this dynasty are particularly lovely, with wonderful sculptures on the exteriors and in the interiors as well. This picture shows two temples; but what it shows, in addition, is that the Chalukyans, ruling an area that spanned parts of both north and south India, derived architectural styles from both regions. The temple on the left has a curvilinear, northern-style ‘sikhara’ or tower, while the other one has a more pyramidal, southern-style tower.

Chalukyan Temples

One of the great early temple building dynasties in India was the Chalukyan Dynasty. The Western Chalukyans controlled a territory roughly corresponding the the state of Karnataka in India in the 7th and 8th centuries CE. This is the Virupaksha Temple at a site called Pattadakal, a ceremonial center for the Chalukyans. The temples are modest in scale, but stunningly beautiful in design and in their sculptural ornamentation.

Swimming Sisters

These girls had just been skinny dipping in one of the artificial lakes of Mandu, India. They’d shaken themselves off and pulled on their clothes again and yelled at me for a picture. They were having such fun and getting clean in the meantime. The little one was charmingly giggly.

Women Worship

At Khajuraho, India (see posts below) the Chandela Kings and Queens had magnificent Hindu temples built between the years 950-1050. These women, with their beautiful saris, were visiting this temple (Vishwanath Temple) on their religious pilgrimage. It was clearly both a vacation and a journey of religious devotion.

Sexy Sandstone

This is the detail of one of the sculptures from one of the Hindu temples–the Lakshmana Temple–at Kahjuraho, India (see below). It gives a sense of the incredible detail of the sculpture and the complex positions of the couples. Voyeurism is a consistent theme in the erotic panels. Here, both a man and woman masturbate while peeking at the main couple caught in flagrante delicto, for those of you who like a bit of Latin with your sex.

Sensuous Sculptures

The spectacular Hindu temples of Khajuraho were built between 950 and 1050 CE by royal members of the Chandela Dynasty. As works of architecture, they represented a level of complexity and sophistication not seen in earlier temple architecture. Yet the temples are not best-known for their architecture, but for the sculptures that adorn them, particularly the ones representing explicit sexual acts by couples in decidedly acrobatic positions. Nobody really knows their significance in this context. Some relate them to Tantric ideas, which find expression in both Hinduism and esoteric Buddhism. The sexual act is the essential procreative act, and since much of Hinduism is based on fertility and the conjoining of masculine and feminine principles, it might make sense to have such acts on temples. The sculptures also tend to appear at the joins of different sections of the temple, thus suggesting that they might symbolize the ‘joining’ of the temple’s parts. Since the temples were constructed by rulers, and since virility and rule were often conflated in the literature of the time, maybe the Chandelan kings were also equating their sexual prowess with their prowess in battle (battle scenes can be found on some of the temples’ bases).

No Straight Faces

I’m not very good at asking people if I can take their pictures, and it’s a shame because I see so many interesting faces when I travel. In India the great thing is how many people want you to take their picture. These girls were working in a muddy field, collecting stubble in the warm sun. But they saw me tramping through the country trails in search of a 500-year- old tomb. They ran towards me as asked for a picture. At first they posed seriously, but one look at each other and they broke out laughing, luckily, just when I pressed the shutter release and captured their happiness. It always amazes me in India to see women working in the fields dressed in magnificent clothes of the most joyous of colours.

Jahaz Mahal, Mandu

In the ruined ancient city of Mandu (see below) are myriad wonders of 15th century Islamic architecture. This remarkable structure, a palace in its own right, is called the Jahaz Mahal or ‘Ship Palace’, because it’s a long structure rising between two scenic lakes. It was built solely for the harem of the ruler Ghiyas-al-Din Khiliji. He is said to have housed a thousand women in this giant, gilded cage.