Underfoot at Topkapi Palace

 a beautiful drain

 a mysterious drain

 recycled pavement

Building material recycling and historical imponderables

 The Basilica Cistern in/under Istanbul was built by Emperor Justinian in the sixth century.  Three hundred and thirty six marble columns, many recycled from former building sites, hold up the ceiling of an underground cistern capable of holding 80,000 cubic meters of water.  You might also remember this place from the James Bond movie "From Russia with Love".

Two columns are held up by massive Medusa heads.  Where did they come from?  And why not right-side up?  From wikipedia: "it is widely thought that they were placed sideways and upside down only to be the proper size to support their columns."  But this makes no sense for the upside-down one which presumably would be exactly same height if flipped 180°.  A wonderful historical mystery.....

An eternity of starry nights

 (head for scale)

What surprises one about Egypt is the sheer number of temples and tombs that are so well-preserved, in large part due to being buried in sand in an extremely dry climate.  Carved hieroglyphics and bas-reliefs are still vibrantly colored from pigments applied thousands of years ago.  One constant is the blue ceilings with gold stars, the evolutionary predecessor of those seen all over Europe (remember this Italy post?).  I love the more primitive shape of the stars, applied in geometric lines---who wouldn't want a ceiling like this in their house?  I'm told the Versace Mansion in Miami has a such a ceiling.

These particular ceilings are in the Temple of Hatchetsup on Luxor's west bank.

The God Thoth

Temple of Edfu

The God Horus

Some perspective, Stonehenge

So last night I'm pondering Egypt and I think of Stonehenge, a place I first visited as a child, later brought my own children to, and have always thought of with wonder and awe.   Who made this ancient monument?  How were these massive stones lifted into place?  Where were they transported from?  It all seemed so monumentally impressive (pardon the pun).  So I look up the age of Stonehenge this morning to discover they date to ~2500 B.C., younger than the pyramids, tombs and carved temples at Saqqara and about the same age as the Giza Pyramids (and all their accompanying wall carvings, paintings, wooden funerary boats, treasure, etc.).

Suddenly Stonehenge didn't seem quite so impressive!

(pic from wikipedia)

Temple of Luxor

Luxor, the ancient city of Thebes, one of the greatest cities of the ancient world and the capital of Egypt during the New Kingdom (~1550-1070 B.C.), was founded in 1400 B.C.   Statues of Ramesses II, Egypt's greatest Pharaoh abound.

The avenue lined with sphinxes connected the temples of Luxor and Karnak.

The matching granite obelisk on the other side of the gate was carted away to the Place de la Concorde in Paris, given to the French by the Ottoman viceroy of Egypt in 1829.

Oldest cut stone structure in world....

 

The Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, the necropolis of the ancient city of Memphis.  Built around 2650 BC, it is about a hundred years older than the Giza pyramids and much smaller---about 60 meters high compared to about 140 meters for the largest pyramid at Giza.  However, King Djoser got the pyramid fad underway!  Called a step pyramid (for obvious reasons), it was originally clad with polished white limestone, very little of which appears to remain.  Pyramids were built to facilitate the king's ascension to the afterlife (although variants on the theories, sub-theories, hypotheses, conjectures, etc. abound).

 The temple complex entrance colonnade, designed to look like bundled reeds.

Back in the land of pricetags and bacon

Dear Readers, No, I am not in prison for blogging about the lack of personal and political freedoms in Egypt, especially if you are a woman!  WMFC has been quiet lately as there was just not enough bandwidth to upload pictures.  Internet access was predictably difficult but my vodaphone dongle worked great for email and checking headlines.  I greatly appreciate your emails and comments----hope you like the upcoming pictures of old and new, arts and crafts.  Egypt was an incredible place, but it demands a lot from you, physically and mentally, in return.

The pyramid of Khafre, second largest of three large pyramids at Giza.  It is the only one with some of the original limestone casing remaining on its uppermost reaches.

love this guy's hat/headdress....

One of the ubiquitous Tourist Police.  They are everywhere, along with many other kinds of uniformed police and military, all carrying weapons of all sizes.  You don't go anywhere, including in and out of hotels, without going through metal detectors with bags x-rayed.  Most behave professionally, especially the tourist police, while others make leering faces (sexual harassment is rampant in Egypt), and some shake you or your cab driver down for "baksheesh", the universal bribing that seems to make the country's economy function.  This quote describes the baksheesh experience just about perfectly: "lavish remuneration and bribes, rudely demanded but ever so graciously accepted by the natives in return for little or no services rendered."  It's exhausting.

For scale, and also gives good indication of air quality.  The smog (dust and pollution) in Cairo is some of the worst in the world.

Could Andy Goldsworthy have passed this way?

My dad sent me this picture of a cairn they came across while hiking the remote wilds of western Ireland.  Very Goldsworthyesque!

Paint your ceiling blue and gold....

I love painted stenciled ceilings (as did William Morris).  Here are some with a real arts and craft vibe.  If I was going to do something like this in my house (or palace), I'd paint masonite panels then screw them up with drywall screws and my trusty Makita and put trim over seams.

And finally, three last pics from Kyoto trip of things I thought were really beautiful....

rock alter and bowl

rock bridges in rock garden

rock gutter

.

Wall Envy

Vinland Estate, Newport Rhode Island

My second stop on the Newport "summer cottage" tour was the Vinland Estate (1882) which now serves as an administration building for Salve Regina University.  I was very excited -- it had been designed by the firm of Peabody and Stern in the Romanesque Revival style perfected by H. H. Richardson, a style I happen to love.  According to wikipedia, the interior included design elements by William Morris and windows by Edward Burne-Jones.  The house was named Vinland in romantic reference to the Vikings who were believed to have come ashore here and the Morris & Co. windows depicted Norse legends.

The exterior did not disappoint (although the overcast day and flat light did).  Here is the porte-cochere with a second century Roman Dolium on the lawn given to the original owner, tobacco heiress Catherine Lorillard Wolfe, in 1884 ("The Bean Pot" in local student parlance).  The red sandstone is carved with intricate floral designs purportedly derived from Celtic manuscripts from around 1000 A.D., the alleged time of Viking settlement.  (You know the old joke...Columbus was the last person to discover America.)

 beautiful...

  gorgeous...

 peaceful....

 sweet....

exquisite.....

 then....

 huh???

The inside appeared to be one large green, gold, and white French chateau gone bad (the fact that many rooms served as classrooms also didn't help the ambiance).   Now I know some people may like this but it wasn't what I hoped for or expected.   I searched in vain for stained glass windows and an office worker eventually assured me she knew of none in this building.

 Nothing looked "Morrisy" however I did like these carved cherub wall sconces.  I like the fact that the lower one is looking up at the socket wrapped in electrical tape and giggling.

What had happened?  A few days later I went back to the internet and found out some interesting things.  First, in an archive directory at J.R. Burrows I found copies of letters between William Morris  and the Vinland decorators outlining Morris's research and recommendations on which Vikings should be immortalized in the stained glass windows he and Burne-Jones were commissioned to make (note to Freydis, if you hadn't been such a horrible wretch maybe you too would have been immortalized a millennia onward).

Merton Abbey, Surrey
April 11th, 1883
Newport. U.S.A.

Dear Sir:
I have been talking over the matter of Miss Wolfes window with Mr. Burne-Jones, and he quite agrees to the sort of subjects. On reading over the sagas again, I find that Ericke Rau_i [Erick the Red] was never in America, and that all the people who had to do with Vinland Thofinn Karlsefne seemed to be closes connected with it: I should suggest the representing of him and his wife Gudridr instead of the old man and Freydis: which latter was a horrible wretch according to the Leifs' saga whereas Gudridr has something pleasing and womanly about her. It is true that in Thofinn Karsefnes' saga Freydis is softened into a courageous amazon; but that story is visibly untrustworthy compared with that of Lief Heppin and is very late in composition. I propose Odin Thor and Frey the 3 great Gods above the adventurers of Vinland; & in the small lights, a ship the middle, & on each side a scroll, with the passages from Hávamál (Edda) about undying fame on it: proper enough on this occasion since the poor fishermen & sheep farmers of Greenland & Iceland have so curiously found a place among the worthies connected with the great modern commonwealth [America]. Over leaf I make a diagram of the window.
May I ask as a matter of business if we may consider the window ordered and go on with it: I am vexed that any delay sould have taken place, but it has not been owing to any neglect of ours.

I am
Dear sir
Yours faithfully,
William Morris

 A few more interesting letters and articles can be read here and clearly the windows had once been in the house.  Then I found this article by A.C. Sewter that said that the seven Burne-Jones windows were removed in 1934 and sold in 1937 to the Cohen Brothers of Baltimore.  One panel, Leif the Lucky, is now owned by Mr. Otis Beall Kent of Maryland.  The rest are untraced!  Maybe we can find them --- I just need the readership of this blog to increase by about two orders of magnitude.  It can be like America's Most Wanted for famous arts and crafts relics.

Finally, I was still left wondering about the decor.  The house changed ownership in 1896 and a decade later they "recreated" the interior with the services of Ogden Codman, Jr. another famous architect and interior decorator known for his strong French influence.  Such are the fickle winds of fashion.

I am certain there are experts who know much more about this estate than I -- if you read this, please feel free to leave us some more info!

Next, my third and final stop....Ochre Court.