house
Peru and Bolivia long before the Incas
Another type of masonry, which attracted our attention in Cusco, has left a very ambiguous impression. This clutch of relatively small (although sometimes reach hundreds of kilograms) of mainly rectangular blocks of granite or basalt, laid without any mortar.
On the one hand, this style of masonry radically different from the megalithic polygonal. In addition, some of the houses where there are areas of walls with similar walls date back to the period already already after the Spanish conquest. On the other hand, there are a number of reasons, which makes you wonder about the possibility of creating of the masonry is not Spanish, and not even by the Incas, and a very different civilization.
First, the Spaniards, in full compliance with the building traditions and skills of the Old world – widely used solution. Laying stone blocks on each other without mortar for them it was unusual and even strangers. Continue reading
ANCIENT ROME
The Romans adopted from the Greeks all their main achievements, including the steam baths. In the Roman version, they were called the baths. The Romans appreciated the pleasure that gives hot steam. The Roman physician Asklepiad was a follower of Hippocrates in the usefulness of soft paired treatments. His point of view was the idea that in the human body there are little bits that need to move continuously to ensure that the man felt the energy and was able to work. When there is stagnation of these particles as a result of illness or prolonged immobility — it is necessary to give the body a “jolt” in the form of visiting the steam bath, so that these life giving particles again are in motion. As the poet Horace wrote: “Throw me the ball on the marble steps and go to the bath”. No less than the famous ancient Greek poet Ovid in the “Metamorphoses” described his dream to rejuvenate and believed that this will help him a magic tub of hot water.
However, it seems that you with all the imagination can’t imagine the size of Roman baths that were built in those days. According to the testimony of the Roman historian Marcelina, baths in area of space could rival a small city. One big Terma could occupy 12 hectares, and it was far from the limit. The fact that the baths were not only bathing facilities, but also social, cultural, sporting and entertainment facilities. Continue reading
The space of the Gothic Cathedral
Romanesque cathedrals are majestic and simple. Their huge, strong and, maybe, even a little severe internal space set to a festive thought. The space of the Gothic Cathedral always amazed at the sophistication of some of the interior decoration. Streaming through the huge stained glass window light, if you can split it into hundreds and thousands of coloured lights, gives the whole space a colorful character, melodic world, quite unlike the harsh and everyday that is left outside of the temple.
Pillars of colored light, Lancet Windows completed, sprouted flowers and leaves, and spires of countless canopies over the statues, bunches of slender columns — everything as it strives to enthrall you up to the mysterious, the unknown boundary, beyond which there is eternal joyous bliss. The Gothic temple is colorful and ornate.
It creates a feeling of festive joy. This beautiful Reims Cathedral.
Art historians certainly would be called no less beautiful Gothic churches in France, England and Germany. But in France the new style was born. Continue reading
