World Architecture
World Architecture is a art or practice of designing and constructing buildings.
131. Palace of Minos
Knossos, Crete
Probably the best known of all Cretan architecture, the ruins of the Palace of Minos at Knossos stand near the River Kairatos on the north side of Crete, about 3 miles (5 kilometers) inland, near the modern city of Ir
Probably the best known of all Cretan architecture, the ruins of the Palace of Minos at Knossos stand near the River Kairatos on the north side of Crete, about 3 miles (5 kilometers) inland, near the modern city of Ir
132. Panama Canal
Panama
The Panama Canal, completed in 1914, is a 50.7-mile (81.6-kilometer) passageway through the Isthmus of Panama, connecting Cristobal on the Atlantic coast and Balboa on the Pacific at the narrowest point of the landmass of the Americas. By navigating its three locks, each of which raises or lowers them 85 feet (26 meters), ships can move from ocean to ocean in about twenty-four hours that saves the several days needed to sail the many thousands of miles around South America. The Panama Canal has been acknowledged as one of the twentieth centurys greatest engineering triumphs, which displays the combined skills of an international team of structural, hydraulic, geological, and sanitary engineers. A canal joining the oceans had been suggested as early as the sixteenth century. The conquistador Hernando Cortes proposed a route across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, while others favored Nicaragua or Darien. King Charles V of Spain ordered a survey of the Isthmus of Panama in 1523, but although plans were made by 1529, the project lapsed. Several alternative schemes followed, including one of 1534 close to the present canal, but the Spanish then lost interest in the project until the beginning of the nineteenth century. In 1819 the government approved the construction of a canal but the revolt of Spains American colonies meant that control of potential sites was wrested from her. The new Central American republics took up the idea, but they had to find European or U.S. investment to realize it. The California gold rush in the mid nineteenth century aroused U.S. interest, and a number of feasibility studies undertaken between 1850 and 1875 suggested two routes: across Panama or across Nicaragua. But the Americans were not the only ones interested. In 1875 the Frenchman Ferdinand de Lesseps, flushed with the success of his Suez project, first announced his interest in a Central American canal. On 1 January 1880, the Panama Canal was symbolically inaugurated, and a year later French engineers employed by the Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interoceanique arrived at Colon on the Atlantic coast. Construction of a sea-level canal (as opposed to a lock canal) began in 1882 along the route of the 1855 Panama Railroad. But financial mismanagement, the tropical climate, and disease took their toll. The company was liquidated in February 1889 and by the following May all work had ceased. Following a scandal involving charges of bribery, de Lesseps died in France in 1894. In October of that year the Compagnie Nouvelle du Canal de Panam
The Panama Canal, completed in 1914, is a 50.7-mile (81.6-kilometer) passageway through the Isthmus of Panama, connecting Cristobal on the Atlantic coast and Balboa on the Pacific at the narrowest point of the landmass of the Americas. By navigating its three locks, each of which raises or lowers them 85 feet (26 meters), ships can move from ocean to ocean in about twenty-four hours that saves the several days needed to sail the many thousands of miles around South America. The Panama Canal has been acknowledged as one of the twentieth centurys greatest engineering triumphs, which displays the combined skills of an international team of structural, hydraulic, geological, and sanitary engineers. A canal joining the oceans had been suggested as early as the sixteenth century. The conquistador Hernando Cortes proposed a route across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, while others favored Nicaragua or Darien. King Charles V of Spain ordered a survey of the Isthmus of Panama in 1523, but although plans were made by 1529, the project lapsed. Several alternative schemes followed, including one of 1534 close to the present canal, but the Spanish then lost interest in the project until the beginning of the nineteenth century. In 1819 the government approved the construction of a canal but the revolt of Spains American colonies meant that control of potential sites was wrested from her. The new Central American republics took up the idea, but they had to find European or U.S. investment to realize it. The California gold rush in the mid nineteenth century aroused U.S. interest, and a number of feasibility studies undertaken between 1850 and 1875 suggested two routes: across Panama or across Nicaragua. But the Americans were not the only ones interested. In 1875 the Frenchman Ferdinand de Lesseps, flushed with the success of his Suez project, first announced his interest in a Central American canal. On 1 January 1880, the Panama Canal was symbolically inaugurated, and a year later French engineers employed by the Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interoceanique arrived at Colon on the Atlantic coast. Construction of a sea-level canal (as opposed to a lock canal) began in 1882 along the route of the 1855 Panama Railroad. But financial mismanagement, the tropical climate, and disease took their toll. The company was liquidated in February 1889 and by the following May all work had ceased. Following a scandal involving charges of bribery, de Lesseps died in France in 1894. In October of that year the Compagnie Nouvelle du Canal de Panam
133. Pantheon
Rome Italy
As its name suggests, the Pantheon in Rome was dedicated to many gods. Its seven interior niches housed statues of Apollo, Diana, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn, and the great dome also had religious significance since it symbolized the heavens. Even now, when stripped of much of its enrichment, the scale and simple geometry of the Pantheon awe the visitor. Moreover, its sophisticated engineering stirs imagination for its ancient engineers. Many of their modern counterparts are at a loss to understand how the structural system worked, much less how it has survived for two millennia. The great Florentine artist Michelangelo Buonarotti concluded that it was the result of angelic and not human design. The first Pantheon was built in 27 b.c. for Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, son-in-law of Augustus Caesar. Except for lower parts of the porch and foundation, it was irretrievably damaged by fire in a.d. 80, and reconstruction to a slightly different design was commissioned by the Emperor Hadrian. The present building dates from between 118 and 128, although some scholars believe that it was completed under Pius about twelve years later. Lucius Septimius Severus and Caracalla sponsored a restoration in 202. In 609 the building was presented to Pope Boniface IV by the Byzantine emperor Phocas, and it was dedicated as the Church of St. Mary of the Martyrs (now Santa Maria Rotonda) on 13 May.The great portico was originally approached across a colonnaded rectangular courtyard on the temples north side. Three rows of 46-foot-high (14-meter) columns support its gable roof, which rises to 80 feet (24 meters). The entablature carries a pediment that once was crowded with bronze relief sculptures of a battle between the Titans and the gods. The front row of eight columns and the second row of four are of Egyptian gray granite the third row, framing the door and its flanking apses, is of Egyptian red granite. All are crowned with Corinthian capitals carved in white Pentelic marble from Greece. The massive bronze entrance doors are 21 feet (6.3 meters) high. With their fanlights, they were originally gold plated. The interior of the Pantheon a single volume is a 143-foot-diameter (43.3-meter) cylinder upon which rests a hemispherical dome. The total inside height is the same as the diameter. A semicircular apse covered by a hemidome faces the door. Around the wall on each side are three 14-foot-deep (4.2-meter) recesses, alternately rectangular and semicircular in plan and screened from the central space by pairs of 35-foot-high (10.5-meter) marble Corinthian columns supporting entablatures and a deep cornice. The lower part of the wall once was faced with marble and porphyry, the upper with marble pilasters and paneled with antique yellow marble, serpentine, and pavonazetto. Above it all soars the magnificent coffered dome, the largest in the world until Brunelleschi built his masterpiece on Florence Cathedral thirteen centuries later. Five rows of twenty-eight square diminishing coffers, each recessed in four steps, rise to a central oculus a circular window open to the sky. Originally the coffers were decorated, perhaps with gold stars on a background of blue. Even when the doors are closed, light enters the vast space through the 19-foot-diameter (8.7-meter) oculus. As the sun moves, a spotlight slowly swings across the interior, illuminating and enriching the colored wall and floor surfaces. Externally the dome was covered with gilded bronze plates, but they were taken to Constantinople in 655 and replaced by lead. Indeed, much of the precious material of the Pantheon has been plundered the exterior surface of the wall was once veneered with colored marbles. Now the brickwork and the huge relieving arches of the second tier are exposed. A 14.75-foot-deep (4.5-meter) concrete foundation supports the Pantheons 20-foot-thick (6-meter) cylindrical brick-faced concrete wall, 104 feet (31.7 meters) high. Roman concrete consisted of lime, pozzolana and a few pieces of very coarse aggregate. Bricks of various shapes were used as lost formwork. The wall was made lighter as it rose by using lighter aggregate in the concrete every 4 feet (1.2 meters) the brick formwork was tied together with a through-course of brickwork. It was designed to bear a range of complex stresses and loads, and it seems that instead of working as a solid mass it behaves structurally like a series of massive piers acting as buttresses to resist the thrust imposed by the dome. Roman concrete domes normally were made of lightweight aggregates such as pumice to reduce their mass and constructed on timber centering supported from the ground. The thickness of the Pantheon dome reduces from nearly 20 feet (6 meters) at the base to about 5 feet (1.5 meters) at the edge of the oculus. The engineers probably knew that such a huge span of unreinforced concrete might not develop enough tensile strength therefore they used lighter aggregates near the apex and the oculus really a brick-reinforced compression ring to minimize lateral thrust. Thus, to halfway up the dome is built as a series of seven stepped rings of concrete with alternating layers of bricks and tufa probably, each was allowed to develop full strength before the next was placed. The top 30-foot (9.2-meter) section was made in the usual way: alternate layers of 9-inch (7.5-centimeter) pieces of tufa and volcanic slag bonded with mortar. Although the Pantheon did not employ a revolutionary structural system, it represents the high point in Roman concrete technology evolved from well-thought-through construction traditions.
As its name suggests, the Pantheon in Rome was dedicated to many gods. Its seven interior niches housed statues of Apollo, Diana, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn, and the great dome also had religious significance since it symbolized the heavens. Even now, when stripped of much of its enrichment, the scale and simple geometry of the Pantheon awe the visitor. Moreover, its sophisticated engineering stirs imagination for its ancient engineers. Many of their modern counterparts are at a loss to understand how the structural system worked, much less how it has survived for two millennia. The great Florentine artist Michelangelo Buonarotti concluded that it was the result of angelic and not human design. The first Pantheon was built in 27 b.c. for Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, son-in-law of Augustus Caesar. Except for lower parts of the porch and foundation, it was irretrievably damaged by fire in a.d. 80, and reconstruction to a slightly different design was commissioned by the Emperor Hadrian. The present building dates from between 118 and 128, although some scholars believe that it was completed under Pius about twelve years later. Lucius Septimius Severus and Caracalla sponsored a restoration in 202. In 609 the building was presented to Pope Boniface IV by the Byzantine emperor Phocas, and it was dedicated as the Church of St. Mary of the Martyrs (now Santa Maria Rotonda) on 13 May.The great portico was originally approached across a colonnaded rectangular courtyard on the temples north side. Three rows of 46-foot-high (14-meter) columns support its gable roof, which rises to 80 feet (24 meters). The entablature carries a pediment that once was crowded with bronze relief sculptures of a battle between the Titans and the gods. The front row of eight columns and the second row of four are of Egyptian gray granite the third row, framing the door and its flanking apses, is of Egyptian red granite. All are crowned with Corinthian capitals carved in white Pentelic marble from Greece. The massive bronze entrance doors are 21 feet (6.3 meters) high. With their fanlights, they were originally gold plated. The interior of the Pantheon a single volume is a 143-foot-diameter (43.3-meter) cylinder upon which rests a hemispherical dome. The total inside height is the same as the diameter. A semicircular apse covered by a hemidome faces the door. Around the wall on each side are three 14-foot-deep (4.2-meter) recesses, alternately rectangular and semicircular in plan and screened from the central space by pairs of 35-foot-high (10.5-meter) marble Corinthian columns supporting entablatures and a deep cornice. The lower part of the wall once was faced with marble and porphyry, the upper with marble pilasters and paneled with antique yellow marble, serpentine, and pavonazetto. Above it all soars the magnificent coffered dome, the largest in the world until Brunelleschi built his masterpiece on Florence Cathedral thirteen centuries later. Five rows of twenty-eight square diminishing coffers, each recessed in four steps, rise to a central oculus a circular window open to the sky. Originally the coffers were decorated, perhaps with gold stars on a background of blue. Even when the doors are closed, light enters the vast space through the 19-foot-diameter (8.7-meter) oculus. As the sun moves, a spotlight slowly swings across the interior, illuminating and enriching the colored wall and floor surfaces. Externally the dome was covered with gilded bronze plates, but they were taken to Constantinople in 655 and replaced by lead. Indeed, much of the precious material of the Pantheon has been plundered the exterior surface of the wall was once veneered with colored marbles. Now the brickwork and the huge relieving arches of the second tier are exposed. A 14.75-foot-deep (4.5-meter) concrete foundation supports the Pantheons 20-foot-thick (6-meter) cylindrical brick-faced concrete wall, 104 feet (31.7 meters) high. Roman concrete consisted of lime, pozzolana and a few pieces of very coarse aggregate. Bricks of various shapes were used as lost formwork. The wall was made lighter as it rose by using lighter aggregate in the concrete every 4 feet (1.2 meters) the brick formwork was tied together with a through-course of brickwork. It was designed to bear a range of complex stresses and loads, and it seems that instead of working as a solid mass it behaves structurally like a series of massive piers acting as buttresses to resist the thrust imposed by the dome. Roman concrete domes normally were made of lightweight aggregates such as pumice to reduce their mass and constructed on timber centering supported from the ground. The thickness of the Pantheon dome reduces from nearly 20 feet (6 meters) at the base to about 5 feet (1.5 meters) at the edge of the oculus. The engineers probably knew that such a huge span of unreinforced concrete might not develop enough tensile strength therefore they used lighter aggregates near the apex and the oculus really a brick-reinforced compression ring to minimize lateral thrust. Thus, to halfway up the dome is built as a series of seven stepped rings of concrete with alternating layers of bricks and tufa probably, each was allowed to develop full strength before the next was placed. The top 30-foot (9.2-meter) section was made in the usual way: alternate layers of 9-inch (7.5-centimeter) pieces of tufa and volcanic slag bonded with mortar. Although the Pantheon did not employ a revolutionary structural system, it represents the high point in Roman concrete technology evolved from well-thought-through construction traditions.
134. Parthenon
Athens Greece
Ralph Waldo Emerson said of the Parthenon, earth wears no fairer gem upon her zone. Even if that was going a little too far, we certainly may assert that the great temple, built 447 432 b.c., is the high point of Greek Doric architecture. The Greeks quest for cosmic harmony can be traced in their sculpture and their architecture, especially temples. From archaic shrines the religious equivalent of the royal megarons the building type underwent a refinement of form and detail until it eventually achieved the proportional balance and visual nuances of the Parthenon. Having achieved perfection in the eyes of its creators, Doric architecture then had nowhere left to go. Scholars continue to interpret the Athenian Acropolis, differing over the location of buildings long gone. For centuries, successive shrines to the citys patron goddess, Athena Parthenos (the Virgin Athena), were built there, including the archaic Hekatompedon, which may well have been a sacred enclosure open to the sky. Peisistratos (602 527 b.c.) encouraged the Athena cult by commissioning a temple just north of where the Parthenon would later be built. Embellished by his sons after 520, this old temple was for a while the only one on the Athenian Acropolis, but it was destroyed when the ragtag Persian armies sacked the abandoned city in 480. Within thirteen years Cimon and Themistokles had cleared away the debris and rebuilt the perimeter wall of the Acropolis. The Parthenon was commissioned by Perikles, who was the effective ruler of nominally democratic Athens from 461 until 428. The temple was to house a cult statue of Athena made by his friend Pheidias, the most famous artist of the day. Pheidias was appointed general superintendent of Perikles comprehensive redevelopment of the Acropolis, a fifty-year plan that included the Parthenon, the Propylaea, the Ionic Temple of Athena Nike, and the Erechtheion. All was funded with money collected from Athens allies the Delian League to finance a second war with Persia that never happened. The architects of the Parthenon were Iktinos and Kallikrates, although their exact roles remain uncertain. Probably the latter was responsible for site management and the technical side of construction, executing Iktinoss design. Overall, the rectangular gable-roofed building was 228 feet (69.5 meters) long, 101 feet (30.9 meters) wide, and 65 feet (20 meters) high. It stood on a three-tiered platform necessary on the uneven terrain formed of 20-inch (50-centimeter) steps the top one formed the floor of the temple. A surrounding colonnade, known as a peristyle, had eight Doric columns at the ends and seventeen along the sides. Each had a base diameter of a little over 6 feet (1.9 meters) and was just over 34 feet (10.4 meters) high. The 22,300 tons (20,300 tonnes) of marble needed for the work was quarried at Mount Pentelicon, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from Athens. The blocks for the walls and the drums that made up the columns were carefully dressed to form perfect joints, and no mortar was used in the entire building. The subtlety of refinement that makes the Parthenon a great architectural achievement is, by definition, invisible. There is no truly straight line in the entire building, although many may appear to be straight. Minute curves and adjustments were made to create illusions that would refine the gracefulness of the temple. A number of examples will serve to make the point. To the naked eye, a straight-sided column appears narrower halfway up than at the top or bottom those on the Parthenon had a slight swelling (entasis) so they appeared to be straight. Because corner columns were seen against the sky, they were slightly thicker than those seen against a wall then all would appear to be the same. Even more remarkably, the axes of all the columns were inclined toward the center of the facade projected, they would meet thousands of feet in the sky so they would appear to be vertical. And the platform is slightly convex: on the ends it rises 2.375 inches (60 millimeters) toward the center, and about twice that on the sides, because truly horizontal surfaces would have appeared concave to the eye.The exterior was painted in bright colors and adorned with sculpture, also painted, made under Pheidiass direction. Ninety-two rectangular panels (metopes) above the columns were carved in deep relief with allegorical scenes from various historical and mythological battles: the Trojan War, the Athenians and their enemies, the Lapiths and centaurs, and the gods and giants. Under and peristyle, the walls of the temple were crowned by a 3.25-foot deep (1 meter) continuous frieze, 39 feet (12 meters) above the floor. It portrayed in low relief figures of 350 people and 125 horses participating in the annual Greater Panathenaia, a procession in which the youth of the city accompanied a wheeled ship carrying a new robe (peplos) for an ancient wooden statue of Athena. The sculpted procession took two directions, beginning at the southwest corner and meeting above the central eastern door. Contemporary accounts tell us that very high relief sculptures in the east pediment that decorated the gable end narrated the birth of Athena, flanked by other deities, while the west pediment depicted her battle with Poseidon. Only fragments survive.The ordinary people were not allowed to enter the Parthenon. All religious ceremonies took place in a courtyard (temenos) to the east. Only the priests entered the inner chambers, of which there were two. The smaller (parthenos or opisthodomos), reached from the west portico, housed the temple treasury. Its marble-covered timber roof was supported by four slender Ionic columns, perhaps symbolizing the protective role that Athens then enjoyed among the city-states. At the east end was the sanctuary (naos), 98 feet long by 63 feet wide (29.8 by 19.2 meters). Its roof was supported by a two-story, superimposed Doric colonnade, creating aisles on the long sides of the room. Natural light came through the large central door in the east wall. At the west end of the naos was the 40-foot (12-meter) standing figure of Athena Parthenos. She has long since been lost but descriptions survive. Covering a wooden and metal frame, her body-length tunic was of gold plates, and her exposed face, hands, and feet were of ivory her eyes were made from precious stones. According to the ancient Greek writer Pausanius, her helmet was emblazoned with an image of the Sphinx, and on her breast she wore a head of Medusa carved from ivory. In one hand she held a 6-foot-high (2-meter) statue of Victory and in the other a spear her shield lay at her feet. Perikless political opponents spitefully had Pheidias indicted for stealing some of the materials intended for the statue, and the artist was later forced into exile. In 404 b.c. dominance in the Aegean passed to Sparta after the twenty-eight-year Peloponnesian War, caused in part by Perikles misappropriation of the Delian Leagues money. Despite Athens brief renaissance in the fourth century, Greece came under Macedonian control in 118 b.c. Rome followed Macedon, and by the end of the fourth century Christianity was established as the state religion. Paganism was moribund, and temples, including the Parthenon (which became the Church of St. Mary), were recycled. Pheidiass wonderful statue was looted and taken to Constantinople. Following the Ottoman invasion of Greece the Parthenon was again converted, this time into use as a mosque. The still intact building was next employed as an ammunition dump during the Turkish-Venetian war. In September 1687 a Venetian cannonball struck the gunpowder, causing an explosion that killed 300 men and reduced the Parthenon to ruins. The Turks recaptured the Acropolis and following year and began selling antiquities. In 1801 the British ambassador to Turkey, Thomas Bruce, the seventh earl of Elgin, obtained permission to remove a few blocks of stone with inscriptions and figures, a euphemism that gave him license to pillage the remaining metopes, the frieze, and what remained of the Parthenons pediment sculptures. Fifteen years later, allegedly at a loss, he sold the Elgin marbles to the British Museum. In January 1999 a majority of the European Parliament, as part of a growing international campaign, unsuccessfully petitioned the museum to return the fragments to Greece. The debate continues, not without rancor. The Parthenons other, more destructive enemy is the atmospheric pollution that plagues Athens. That problem, too, has commanded an urgent international movement to save an outstanding piece of world architecture.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said of the Parthenon, earth wears no fairer gem upon her zone. Even if that was going a little too far, we certainly may assert that the great temple, built 447 432 b.c., is the high point of Greek Doric architecture. The Greeks quest for cosmic harmony can be traced in their sculpture and their architecture, especially temples. From archaic shrines the religious equivalent of the royal megarons the building type underwent a refinement of form and detail until it eventually achieved the proportional balance and visual nuances of the Parthenon. Having achieved perfection in the eyes of its creators, Doric architecture then had nowhere left to go. Scholars continue to interpret the Athenian Acropolis, differing over the location of buildings long gone. For centuries, successive shrines to the citys patron goddess, Athena Parthenos (the Virgin Athena), were built there, including the archaic Hekatompedon, which may well have been a sacred enclosure open to the sky. Peisistratos (602 527 b.c.) encouraged the Athena cult by commissioning a temple just north of where the Parthenon would later be built. Embellished by his sons after 520, this old temple was for a while the only one on the Athenian Acropolis, but it was destroyed when the ragtag Persian armies sacked the abandoned city in 480. Within thirteen years Cimon and Themistokles had cleared away the debris and rebuilt the perimeter wall of the Acropolis. The Parthenon was commissioned by Perikles, who was the effective ruler of nominally democratic Athens from 461 until 428. The temple was to house a cult statue of Athena made by his friend Pheidias, the most famous artist of the day. Pheidias was appointed general superintendent of Perikles comprehensive redevelopment of the Acropolis, a fifty-year plan that included the Parthenon, the Propylaea, the Ionic Temple of Athena Nike, and the Erechtheion. All was funded with money collected from Athens allies the Delian League to finance a second war with Persia that never happened. The architects of the Parthenon were Iktinos and Kallikrates, although their exact roles remain uncertain. Probably the latter was responsible for site management and the technical side of construction, executing Iktinoss design. Overall, the rectangular gable-roofed building was 228 feet (69.5 meters) long, 101 feet (30.9 meters) wide, and 65 feet (20 meters) high. It stood on a three-tiered platform necessary on the uneven terrain formed of 20-inch (50-centimeter) steps the top one formed the floor of the temple. A surrounding colonnade, known as a peristyle, had eight Doric columns at the ends and seventeen along the sides. Each had a base diameter of a little over 6 feet (1.9 meters) and was just over 34 feet (10.4 meters) high. The 22,300 tons (20,300 tonnes) of marble needed for the work was quarried at Mount Pentelicon, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from Athens. The blocks for the walls and the drums that made up the columns were carefully dressed to form perfect joints, and no mortar was used in the entire building. The subtlety of refinement that makes the Parthenon a great architectural achievement is, by definition, invisible. There is no truly straight line in the entire building, although many may appear to be straight. Minute curves and adjustments were made to create illusions that would refine the gracefulness of the temple. A number of examples will serve to make the point. To the naked eye, a straight-sided column appears narrower halfway up than at the top or bottom those on the Parthenon had a slight swelling (entasis) so they appeared to be straight. Because corner columns were seen against the sky, they were slightly thicker than those seen against a wall then all would appear to be the same. Even more remarkably, the axes of all the columns were inclined toward the center of the facade projected, they would meet thousands of feet in the sky so they would appear to be vertical. And the platform is slightly convex: on the ends it rises 2.375 inches (60 millimeters) toward the center, and about twice that on the sides, because truly horizontal surfaces would have appeared concave to the eye.The exterior was painted in bright colors and adorned with sculpture, also painted, made under Pheidiass direction. Ninety-two rectangular panels (metopes) above the columns were carved in deep relief with allegorical scenes from various historical and mythological battles: the Trojan War, the Athenians and their enemies, the Lapiths and centaurs, and the gods and giants. Under and peristyle, the walls of the temple were crowned by a 3.25-foot deep (1 meter) continuous frieze, 39 feet (12 meters) above the floor. It portrayed in low relief figures of 350 people and 125 horses participating in the annual Greater Panathenaia, a procession in which the youth of the city accompanied a wheeled ship carrying a new robe (peplos) for an ancient wooden statue of Athena. The sculpted procession took two directions, beginning at the southwest corner and meeting above the central eastern door. Contemporary accounts tell us that very high relief sculptures in the east pediment that decorated the gable end narrated the birth of Athena, flanked by other deities, while the west pediment depicted her battle with Poseidon. Only fragments survive.The ordinary people were not allowed to enter the Parthenon. All religious ceremonies took place in a courtyard (temenos) to the east. Only the priests entered the inner chambers, of which there were two. The smaller (parthenos or opisthodomos), reached from the west portico, housed the temple treasury. Its marble-covered timber roof was supported by four slender Ionic columns, perhaps symbolizing the protective role that Athens then enjoyed among the city-states. At the east end was the sanctuary (naos), 98 feet long by 63 feet wide (29.8 by 19.2 meters). Its roof was supported by a two-story, superimposed Doric colonnade, creating aisles on the long sides of the room. Natural light came through the large central door in the east wall. At the west end of the naos was the 40-foot (12-meter) standing figure of Athena Parthenos. She has long since been lost but descriptions survive. Covering a wooden and metal frame, her body-length tunic was of gold plates, and her exposed face, hands, and feet were of ivory her eyes were made from precious stones. According to the ancient Greek writer Pausanius, her helmet was emblazoned with an image of the Sphinx, and on her breast she wore a head of Medusa carved from ivory. In one hand she held a 6-foot-high (2-meter) statue of Victory and in the other a spear her shield lay at her feet. Perikless political opponents spitefully had Pheidias indicted for stealing some of the materials intended for the statue, and the artist was later forced into exile. In 404 b.c. dominance in the Aegean passed to Sparta after the twenty-eight-year Peloponnesian War, caused in part by Perikles misappropriation of the Delian Leagues money. Despite Athens brief renaissance in the fourth century, Greece came under Macedonian control in 118 b.c. Rome followed Macedon, and by the end of the fourth century Christianity was established as the state religion. Paganism was moribund, and temples, including the Parthenon (which became the Church of St. Mary), were recycled. Pheidiass wonderful statue was looted and taken to Constantinople. Following the Ottoman invasion of Greece the Parthenon was again converted, this time into use as a mosque. The still intact building was next employed as an ammunition dump during the Turkish-Venetian war. In September 1687 a Venetian cannonball struck the gunpowder, causing an explosion that killed 300 men and reduced the Parthenon to ruins. The Turks recaptured the Acropolis and following year and began selling antiquities. In 1801 the British ambassador to Turkey, Thomas Bruce, the seventh earl of Elgin, obtained permission to remove a few blocks of stone with inscriptions and figures, a euphemism that gave him license to pillage the remaining metopes, the frieze, and what remained of the Parthenons pediment sculptures. Fifteen years later, allegedly at a loss, he sold the Elgin marbles to the British Museum. In January 1999 a majority of the European Parliament, as part of a growing international campaign, unsuccessfully petitioned the museum to return the fragments to Greece. The debate continues, not without rancor. The Parthenons other, more destructive enemy is the atmospheric pollution that plagues Athens. That problem, too, has commanded an urgent international movement to save an outstanding piece of world architecture.
135. Pennsylvania Station
New York City
Pennsylvania Station, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, New York City, represented the high point of railroad architecture. Built from 1904 to 1910 at a cost of $100 million (about $5.6 billion in todays terms), it was over 30 percent larger than its largest contemporary, Liverpool Street Station in London, England. In its first year of operation 112,000 trains carrying over 10 million passengers passed through Pennsylvania Station. It is not remarkable for its size alone, but also because it epitomized Beaux Arts architecture on the eastern seaboard of the United States just at the time when modernist ideas were challenging it in Europe. At the end of the nineteenth century, rail transport in the United States was dominated by the rich and powerful Pennsylvania Railroad. It carried more passengers and freight than any other company, servicing about 20,000 stations. It also led in technology, management, and operating practices. But the company had no station in New York passengers were obliged to reach the metropolis by ferry from the Pennsylvania Railroad terminus in Hoboken, New Jersey. In 1899, the railroads new president Alexander J. Cassett set about to remedy the situation, and the following year he acquired control of the Long Island Railroad. Direct access to Manhattan was critical, and Cassett planned a terminal there to service both railroads, making use of the tunnel then being built under the East River. Twenty-five acres of real estate, bordered by Seventh and Eighth Avenues and Thirty-first and Thirty-third Streets, was secured at a cost of $10 million. Existing buildings were demolished, and Thirty-second Street from Seventh to Ninth Avenues was closed and incorporated into the site. The New York architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White was commissioned and the design work for Pennsylvania Station began in 1902. One architectural historian has written that the outcome was one of McKims most monumental and moving designs, a giant of a building that still retained a human scale. In catching or meeting a train at Pennsylvania Station one became part of a pageant actions and movements gained significance while processing through such grand spaces (Wilson 1983, 211).The Seventh Avenue entrance was approached through a 780-foot-long (239-meter) Roman Doric colonnade with 35-foot-high (10.6-meter) columns, carrying a low, flat-roofed attic story. Within the colonnade was a row of shops, and at either end pedimented porticoes led into carriageways for motor vehicles that gave access to the waiting room. The central pavilion, higher than the rest, carried sculptured eagles and figures of women supporting a large clock. The 430-foot (131-meter) facades to Thirty-First and Thirty-Third Streets were relatively plain, but reduced to human scale with attached architectural orders. The main waiting room was probably the most striking part of the building. Based on the ancient Baths of Caracalla in Rome, its 320-by-110-foot (98-by-34-meter) area was roofed with three coffered cross vaults soaring 150 feet (46 meters) above the pink marble floor. The walls, interspersed with giant Corinthian orders at the springing of the vaults, were lined with Italian travertine, and the subtlety of the beautiful stone was brought out by the light that streamed through the huge windows beneath the vaults. The entrance landings at either end of the waiting room were framed with Ionic colonnades. Commuters, dwarfed in the magnificent space, reached the street-level entrances by means of broad stairways. The concourse, about twice the area of the waiting room and down one level from it, was as delicate as the other was massive. It was roofed with barrel vaults of glass framed in a filigree of iron, and therefore flooded with light. The twenty-one railroad tracks were on another lower level, 40 feet (12 meters) below the street. Excavation work started in summer 1904 and the station was mostly completed by August 1910. At first dubbed the Manhattan Gateway, Pennsylvania Station soon became the gateway to America. It reached its peak usage toward the end of World War II, with over 109 million passengers in 1944. After that, changes took place in intercity travel. Congress adopted a 40,000-mile (48,000-kilometer) national system of interstate highways in the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944 although the roads were not built immediately, that eventually led to the automobiles taking precedence over the train, a situation that was exacerbated by the advent of inexpensive air travel. By about 1955 the railroad was eclipsed as Americans preferred form of passenger transport. In 1962, Madison Square Garden purchased the air rights to Pennsylvania Station and in October 1963 began demolition, despite public outcry. All that remains is the underground section its twenty-one tracks carry 600,000 passengers every day. One positive outcome of the loss of the magnificent building was New Yorks Landmarks Preservation Law, enacted in 1965. There is also an increased national awareness of the importance of preserving architectural heritage. New Yorks Grand Central Terminal, a contemporary of Pennsylvania Station, was saved and rehabilitated at a cost of $196 million the work was finished in 1998. In May 1999 the Metropolitan Art Society announced a $484 million proposal to convert New Yorks central post office (also designed by McKim, Mead and White), which once faced Pennsylvania Station across Eighth Avenue, into a new Pennsvlvania Station. The commission was won by architects Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, and their design was made public early in 2000.
Pennsylvania Station, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, New York City, represented the high point of railroad architecture. Built from 1904 to 1910 at a cost of $100 million (about $5.6 billion in todays terms), it was over 30 percent larger than its largest contemporary, Liverpool Street Station in London, England. In its first year of operation 112,000 trains carrying over 10 million passengers passed through Pennsylvania Station. It is not remarkable for its size alone, but also because it epitomized Beaux Arts architecture on the eastern seaboard of the United States just at the time when modernist ideas were challenging it in Europe. At the end of the nineteenth century, rail transport in the United States was dominated by the rich and powerful Pennsylvania Railroad. It carried more passengers and freight than any other company, servicing about 20,000 stations. It also led in technology, management, and operating practices. But the company had no station in New York passengers were obliged to reach the metropolis by ferry from the Pennsylvania Railroad terminus in Hoboken, New Jersey. In 1899, the railroads new president Alexander J. Cassett set about to remedy the situation, and the following year he acquired control of the Long Island Railroad. Direct access to Manhattan was critical, and Cassett planned a terminal there to service both railroads, making use of the tunnel then being built under the East River. Twenty-five acres of real estate, bordered by Seventh and Eighth Avenues and Thirty-first and Thirty-third Streets, was secured at a cost of $10 million. Existing buildings were demolished, and Thirty-second Street from Seventh to Ninth Avenues was closed and incorporated into the site. The New York architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White was commissioned and the design work for Pennsylvania Station began in 1902. One architectural historian has written that the outcome was one of McKims most monumental and moving designs, a giant of a building that still retained a human scale. In catching or meeting a train at Pennsylvania Station one became part of a pageant actions and movements gained significance while processing through such grand spaces (Wilson 1983, 211).The Seventh Avenue entrance was approached through a 780-foot-long (239-meter) Roman Doric colonnade with 35-foot-high (10.6-meter) columns, carrying a low, flat-roofed attic story. Within the colonnade was a row of shops, and at either end pedimented porticoes led into carriageways for motor vehicles that gave access to the waiting room. The central pavilion, higher than the rest, carried sculptured eagles and figures of women supporting a large clock. The 430-foot (131-meter) facades to Thirty-First and Thirty-Third Streets were relatively plain, but reduced to human scale with attached architectural orders. The main waiting room was probably the most striking part of the building. Based on the ancient Baths of Caracalla in Rome, its 320-by-110-foot (98-by-34-meter) area was roofed with three coffered cross vaults soaring 150 feet (46 meters) above the pink marble floor. The walls, interspersed with giant Corinthian orders at the springing of the vaults, were lined with Italian travertine, and the subtlety of the beautiful stone was brought out by the light that streamed through the huge windows beneath the vaults. The entrance landings at either end of the waiting room were framed with Ionic colonnades. Commuters, dwarfed in the magnificent space, reached the street-level entrances by means of broad stairways. The concourse, about twice the area of the waiting room and down one level from it, was as delicate as the other was massive. It was roofed with barrel vaults of glass framed in a filigree of iron, and therefore flooded with light. The twenty-one railroad tracks were on another lower level, 40 feet (12 meters) below the street. Excavation work started in summer 1904 and the station was mostly completed by August 1910. At first dubbed the Manhattan Gateway, Pennsylvania Station soon became the gateway to America. It reached its peak usage toward the end of World War II, with over 109 million passengers in 1944. After that, changes took place in intercity travel. Congress adopted a 40,000-mile (48,000-kilometer) national system of interstate highways in the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944 although the roads were not built immediately, that eventually led to the automobiles taking precedence over the train, a situation that was exacerbated by the advent of inexpensive air travel. By about 1955 the railroad was eclipsed as Americans preferred form of passenger transport. In 1962, Madison Square Garden purchased the air rights to Pennsylvania Station and in October 1963 began demolition, despite public outcry. All that remains is the underground section its twenty-one tracks carry 600,000 passengers every day. One positive outcome of the loss of the magnificent building was New Yorks Landmarks Preservation Law, enacted in 1965. There is also an increased national awareness of the importance of preserving architectural heritage. New Yorks Grand Central Terminal, a contemporary of Pennsylvania Station, was saved and rehabilitated at a cost of $196 million the work was finished in 1998. In May 1999 the Metropolitan Art Society announced a $484 million proposal to convert New Yorks central post office (also designed by McKim, Mead and White), which once faced Pennsylvania Station across Eighth Avenue, into a new Pennsvlvania Station. The commission was won by architects Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, and their design was made public early in 2000.
136. Persepolis
Iran
The ruins of Persepolis (in Persian, Parsa) lie at the foot of Kuh-i-Rahmat (Mountain of Mercy) beside a small river on the Marv Dasht plain of southwestern Iran, about 400 miles (640 kilometers) south of Tehran. Widely held to be one of the greatest architectural complexes of the ancient world, and even claimed to be the most beautiful the world has ever seen, it was probably commissioned by Darius I between 518 and 516 b.c. as the ceremonial center and temporary royal residence of the First Persian (Achaemenian) Empire. Persepolis flourished under later kings. Xerxes I (reigned 486 465 b.c.) built the Throne Hall and the ceremonial gateway. His son Artaxerxes I (464 425) finished the hall, Artaxerxes II (ca. 350) built the so-called Unfinished Palace, and more buildings were added as late as the reign of Artaxerxes III, who died only eight years before the city was looted and burned by Alexander the Greats armies in 330 b.c. Helped by traitors, the Macedonians took Persepolis by surprise, massacred the defenders, and stripped the palaces and the treasury of gold and silver. The earliest Achaemenian capital was established by Cyrus I at Pasargadae, 48 miles (77 kilometers) to the north of the Persepolis site. Soon the administrative center was moved to Susa, a further 230 miles (370 kilometers) north, which was better placed strategically for dealings with Mesopotamia. Darius I then decided, for his own reasons, to create Persepolis perhaps he wanted to build a dynastic shrine in the Achaemenian homeland. Or there may have been a political motive. But Persepolis was never a capital, or even a city in any sense of that word. It was established as a venue where the subject nations would pay homage to the Persian kings. There were no temples, and its palaces were for temporary occupation only. Persepolis stood on a half-constructed, half-natural limestone terrace that measured about 1,475 feet north to south and about 985 feet east to west (450 by 300 meters), rose up to 60 feet (18 meters) above the plain, and was surrounded by a fortified triple wall. Its northern part, with the Gate of Xerxes, the Audience Hall of the Apadana, and the Throne Hall, was the ceremonial precinct, to which access was restricted. The southern part housed the Palaces of Darius (Tachara), Xerxes (Hadish), and Artaxerxes III, the Harem, the Council Hall (Tripylon), treasuries, barracks, and other ancillary buildings such as the royal stables and chariot house. The main ceremonial approach to the platform was at the northwest corner by a 23-foot-wide (7-meter) monumental stairway of over 100 shallow steps it was richly carved in low relief with symbols of the god Ahura Mazda and sculptures of people bringing annual tribute to the Achaemenid kings. The stair led to the only entrance to the terrace, the Gate of Xerxes (called the Gate of All Nations), a square hall built of decorated sun-dried brick, its roof supported by four columns. It had three huge doorways, 36 feet high, with double doors of timber sheathed in decorated metal. The southern door opened into a courtyard before the Apadana, the audience hall of Darius and Xerxes. This vast 198-foot-square space the largest building of the complex was a forest of thirty-six stone columns, rising more than 60 feet (19 meters) from bell-shaped bases and crowned by capitals decorated with double bulls, lions, human, or mythical horned lions heads, supporting a roof frame, built, of cedar imported from Lebanon. The processional way through the eastern door of the Gate of Xerxes led visitors to the east before then turning south toward the Throne Hall (also known as the Hall of a Hundred Columns), a 230-foot-square (70-meter) room containing literally 100 columns. Its principal portico, facing north, was flanked by two huge stone bulls, and its eight stone portals were decorated with low reliefs of the spring festival and scenes of the king fighting monsters. On the Persian New Year, Now Ruz (21 March), delegates from the twenty-eight subject nations would pass to the Throne Hall to pay homage and present their gifts and offerings silver, gold, weapons, textiles, jewelry, and even animals. Later, when the treasury at the southeast corner of the terrace could no longer hold the tributes, the Throne Hall also served to store and display the riches of the Persian Empire. All these buildings glowed with color: green stucco predominated, and the figures in the relief carvings were brightly painted. In much Achaemenian architecture, mud-brick walls were faced with blue, white, yellow, and green glazed bricks with animal and floral ornaments. The forests of pillars, many of them sheathed in gold and embellished with ivory, were hung with embroidered curtains. Precious stones were used in mosaics. The long-forgotten site of Persepolis was rediscovered in 1620, and although many subsequent visitors wrote of it, serious investigation did not commence until 1931. James Breasted of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago commissioned Professor Ernst Herzfeld of Berlin to excavate and (where possible) restore the remains of the city. Herzfeld (working 1931 1934) and Erich Schmidt (1934 1939) thoroughly documented the extensive ruins. UNESCO declared Persepolis a World Heritage Site in 1979.
The ruins of Persepolis (in Persian, Parsa) lie at the foot of Kuh-i-Rahmat (Mountain of Mercy) beside a small river on the Marv Dasht plain of southwestern Iran, about 400 miles (640 kilometers) south of Tehran. Widely held to be one of the greatest architectural complexes of the ancient world, and even claimed to be the most beautiful the world has ever seen, it was probably commissioned by Darius I between 518 and 516 b.c. as the ceremonial center and temporary royal residence of the First Persian (Achaemenian) Empire. Persepolis flourished under later kings. Xerxes I (reigned 486 465 b.c.) built the Throne Hall and the ceremonial gateway. His son Artaxerxes I (464 425) finished the hall, Artaxerxes II (ca. 350) built the so-called Unfinished Palace, and more buildings were added as late as the reign of Artaxerxes III, who died only eight years before the city was looted and burned by Alexander the Greats armies in 330 b.c. Helped by traitors, the Macedonians took Persepolis by surprise, massacred the defenders, and stripped the palaces and the treasury of gold and silver. The earliest Achaemenian capital was established by Cyrus I at Pasargadae, 48 miles (77 kilometers) to the north of the Persepolis site. Soon the administrative center was moved to Susa, a further 230 miles (370 kilometers) north, which was better placed strategically for dealings with Mesopotamia. Darius I then decided, for his own reasons, to create Persepolis perhaps he wanted to build a dynastic shrine in the Achaemenian homeland. Or there may have been a political motive. But Persepolis was never a capital, or even a city in any sense of that word. It was established as a venue where the subject nations would pay homage to the Persian kings. There were no temples, and its palaces were for temporary occupation only. Persepolis stood on a half-constructed, half-natural limestone terrace that measured about 1,475 feet north to south and about 985 feet east to west (450 by 300 meters), rose up to 60 feet (18 meters) above the plain, and was surrounded by a fortified triple wall. Its northern part, with the Gate of Xerxes, the Audience Hall of the Apadana, and the Throne Hall, was the ceremonial precinct, to which access was restricted. The southern part housed the Palaces of Darius (Tachara), Xerxes (Hadish), and Artaxerxes III, the Harem, the Council Hall (Tripylon), treasuries, barracks, and other ancillary buildings such as the royal stables and chariot house. The main ceremonial approach to the platform was at the northwest corner by a 23-foot-wide (7-meter) monumental stairway of over 100 shallow steps it was richly carved in low relief with symbols of the god Ahura Mazda and sculptures of people bringing annual tribute to the Achaemenid kings. The stair led to the only entrance to the terrace, the Gate of Xerxes (called the Gate of All Nations), a square hall built of decorated sun-dried brick, its roof supported by four columns. It had three huge doorways, 36 feet high, with double doors of timber sheathed in decorated metal. The southern door opened into a courtyard before the Apadana, the audience hall of Darius and Xerxes. This vast 198-foot-square space the largest building of the complex was a forest of thirty-six stone columns, rising more than 60 feet (19 meters) from bell-shaped bases and crowned by capitals decorated with double bulls, lions, human, or mythical horned lions heads, supporting a roof frame, built, of cedar imported from Lebanon. The processional way through the eastern door of the Gate of Xerxes led visitors to the east before then turning south toward the Throne Hall (also known as the Hall of a Hundred Columns), a 230-foot-square (70-meter) room containing literally 100 columns. Its principal portico, facing north, was flanked by two huge stone bulls, and its eight stone portals were decorated with low reliefs of the spring festival and scenes of the king fighting monsters. On the Persian New Year, Now Ruz (21 March), delegates from the twenty-eight subject nations would pass to the Throne Hall to pay homage and present their gifts and offerings silver, gold, weapons, textiles, jewelry, and even animals. Later, when the treasury at the southeast corner of the terrace could no longer hold the tributes, the Throne Hall also served to store and display the riches of the Persian Empire. All these buildings glowed with color: green stucco predominated, and the figures in the relief carvings were brightly painted. In much Achaemenian architecture, mud-brick walls were faced with blue, white, yellow, and green glazed bricks with animal and floral ornaments. The forests of pillars, many of them sheathed in gold and embellished with ivory, were hung with embroidered curtains. Precious stones were used in mosaics. The long-forgotten site of Persepolis was rediscovered in 1620, and although many subsequent visitors wrote of it, serious investigation did not commence until 1931. James Breasted of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago commissioned Professor Ernst Herzfeld of Berlin to excavate and (where possible) restore the remains of the city. Herzfeld (working 1931 1934) and Erich Schmidt (1934 1939) thoroughly documented the extensive ruins. UNESCO declared Persepolis a World Heritage Site in 1979.
137. Petra
Jordan
Petra (the name means rock) in southern Jordan lies about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of the Dead Sea on the border of the mountainous Wadi Araba Desert. Although there is evidence of earlier occupation of the site, the city was founded around the sixth century b.c. as the practically inaccessible capital of the Nabataean Arabs who dominated the region and controlled international trade routes between Asia, southern Arabia, and the markets of the Mediterranean basin. Wealthy and powerful Petra was partly built, partly carved from the beautiful pink sandstone of its mountain fastness. Its remarkable buildings, representing the hybridization of several cultural sources over almost a millennium, make it one of the great architectural achievements of history. When it was added to UNESCOs World Heritage List in 1985, it was acclaimed as one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world, where ancient Eastern traditions blend with Hellenistic architecture. Added to that distinction must be the Nabataeans hydraulic engineering achievements, comprising extensive water-conservation systems and sophisticated measures to avoid flooding of their city. Following unsuccessful attempts by the Seleucid Antiochus and the Judean Herod the Great to absorb Petra into their kingdoms, in 64 and 63 b.c. the Roman general Pompey conquered Nabataea. It remained independent (but taxed), a neutral zone between the desert nomads and Romes territory. Petra burgeoned over the next century. The city was wholly Romanized under Trajan in a.d. 106, when Nabataea became Arabia Petraea. Twenty-five years later, Hadrian renamed the capital Hadriane Petra and installed Sextius Florentinus as governor. Early in the fourth century, great changes swept the Roman Empire: Christianity was recognized by the state and in 330 Constantine moved his capital to Byzantium, renaming it New Rome (now Istanbul). Petra, while devastated by earthquake in the mid-fourth century, flourished until late antiquity, after which it began to decline. Its last contact with the Western world until the nineteenth century was in the 1100s, when Crusaders built and briefly occupied a small fortress there. In 1812 the Swiss orientalist Johann Ludwig Burckhardt learned of Petra from local Bedouins, and in the years that followed many Europeans visited and recorded it. The romance of the place was irresistible, as the theologian Dean John W. Burgon wrote in 1845: Match me such marvel, save in Eastern clime. A rose-red city
Petra (the name means rock) in southern Jordan lies about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of the Dead Sea on the border of the mountainous Wadi Araba Desert. Although there is evidence of earlier occupation of the site, the city was founded around the sixth century b.c. as the practically inaccessible capital of the Nabataean Arabs who dominated the region and controlled international trade routes between Asia, southern Arabia, and the markets of the Mediterranean basin. Wealthy and powerful Petra was partly built, partly carved from the beautiful pink sandstone of its mountain fastness. Its remarkable buildings, representing the hybridization of several cultural sources over almost a millennium, make it one of the great architectural achievements of history. When it was added to UNESCOs World Heritage List in 1985, it was acclaimed as one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world, where ancient Eastern traditions blend with Hellenistic architecture. Added to that distinction must be the Nabataeans hydraulic engineering achievements, comprising extensive water-conservation systems and sophisticated measures to avoid flooding of their city. Following unsuccessful attempts by the Seleucid Antiochus and the Judean Herod the Great to absorb Petra into their kingdoms, in 64 and 63 b.c. the Roman general Pompey conquered Nabataea. It remained independent (but taxed), a neutral zone between the desert nomads and Romes territory. Petra burgeoned over the next century. The city was wholly Romanized under Trajan in a.d. 106, when Nabataea became Arabia Petraea. Twenty-five years later, Hadrian renamed the capital Hadriane Petra and installed Sextius Florentinus as governor. Early in the fourth century, great changes swept the Roman Empire: Christianity was recognized by the state and in 330 Constantine moved his capital to Byzantium, renaming it New Rome (now Istanbul). Petra, while devastated by earthquake in the mid-fourth century, flourished until late antiquity, after which it began to decline. Its last contact with the Western world until the nineteenth century was in the 1100s, when Crusaders built and briefly occupied a small fortress there. In 1812 the Swiss orientalist Johann Ludwig Burckhardt learned of Petra from local Bedouins, and in the years that followed many Europeans visited and recorded it. The romance of the place was irresistible, as the theologian Dean John W. Burgon wrote in 1845: Match me such marvel, save in Eastern clime. A rose-red city
138. Pharos of Alexandria
Egypt
Taking the name of the long narrow island on which it stood, the Pharos of Alexandria was the most famous lighthouse of antiquity. Situated on a high mound at the end of a long peninsula, 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the city, it was a technological marvel and formed the prototype of the modern lighthouse. Since the sixth century a.d. (when it replaced the walls of Babylon) it has been listed among the seven wonders of the ancient world. In 323 b.c. Alexander the Great died in Babylon, leaving no heir. Forty years of conflict followed as his generals fought for control of the vast Macedonian Empire. By 280 b.c. three major dynasties emerged: the Seleucids in Asia, Asia Minor, and Palestine the Antigonids in Macedonia and Greece and the Ptolemies in Egypt, the wealthiest and most enduring of all, who would reach their peak under Ptolemy II Philadelphos (reigned 285 246 b.c.). His capital was the grand city of Alexandria, designed by Dinocrates, personal architect to Alexander. Around 290 b.c., because of the dangerous sandbanks in the approaches to Alexandrias harbor, Ptolemy I Soter initiated plans for a lighthouse. The work was incomplete when he died five years later. In 281 his son Ptolemy II Philadelphos commissioned the engineer Sostratus of Cnidus to build a great lighthouse on the eastern point of the island of Pharos, reached across a causeway named the Heptastadion. There is a tradition that structural and other calculations were made at the famous Alexandrian library. Hellenistic accounts like those of Strabo and Pliny the Elder describe a tower faced with glistening white marble, crowned with a bronze mirror whose reflection of the sun could be seen 35 miles (56 kilometers) off shore. Apocryphal accounts claim the mirror was also a secret weapon used to burn enemy ships at sea. Indeed, most descriptions are sketchy, and popular images of the Pharos have been based on an interpretation of coins, terra-cottas, and mosaics published by Herman Thiersch in 1909. The most detailed description of the Pharos was made in 1166 by the Arab traveler Abou-Haggag Al-Andaloussi (to whom Thiersch did not have access), portraying a structure composed of three battered tiers: the lowest was square, 183 feet (56 meters) high, with a cylindrical core the middle was a 90-foot-high (27.5-meter) octagon with a side length of 60 feet (18.3 meters) and the third was a cylinder 24 feet (7.3 meters) in height. There are few accounts of the interior of the great tower, except to say that it had many rooms and corridors. Fuel for the nightly bonfire was mechanically lifted through an internal shaft. The fire could be seen for about 100 miles (160 kilometers). Including the foundation pedestal, the lighthouse soared to about 384 feet (117 meters). A wide spiral ramp gave access to the top, where there was a huge statue, possibly representing either Alexander the Great or Ptolemy I Soter in the role of Helios, the sun god. Some later accounts identify the figure as Poseidon, but more recent scholarship suggests it was Zeus Soter (Zeus the Savior). Still others believe there were statues of Castor and Pollux. Whatever its subject matter, the sculpture took the total height above 440 feet (135 meters), about as high as a forty-story office building. The Pharos was the second-tallest building in the world until the Eiffel Tower was constructed 2,000 years later. The monument was dedicated to Ptolemy Soter and his wife Berenice, and an inscription read, Sostratus, the son of Dexiphanes, the Cnidian, dedicated this to the Savior Gods, on behalf of those who sail the seas. The Pharos served the mariners of the Mediterranean for about 1,500 years. In a.d. 642, the Arabs conquered Egypt and moved their capital to Cairo. In 796 the upper story of the lighthouse collapsed. Later, Sultan Ibn Touloun (reigned 868 884) built a mosque on the partly ruined tower. In the middle of the tenth century, an earthquake shook Alexandria and caused another 72 feet (22 meters) of masonry to fall. Despite frequent and sometimes extensive repairs being undertaken by the Arabs, earthquakes continued to have a cumulative effect: no fewer than twenty between 1303 and 1323 meant that the Pharos finally toppled some time before 1349. By then Al-Malik-an-Nasir had begun to build a similar lighthouse beside it but the project was halted at his death. Around 1480 the Egyptian Mameluke Sultan Qait Bey built a fortress over its ruins, using its stones for walls. In the early 1990s the Egyptian government began building a breakwater to protect the fortress from storms. The project was postponed while archeologists from the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities and the French Centre detudes Alexandrines searched the harbor. Since 1996 they have found over 2,000 objects, columns, capitals, thirty sphinxes, and most significantly two colossal statues (one of Ptolemy I and another of a female torso) scattered over more than 5 acres (2 hectares) of the seabed near Alexandria. It is believed that the finds include the ruins of the fabled Pharos. In September 1998 the U.S.$70 million Alexandria 21st Century Project was announced by the Fondation Internationale Pierre Cardin, claiming the support of UNESCO and proposing to build a 475-foot-high (145-meter) glass-covered concrete lighthouse on the site of the original Pharos. Happily, it came to very little.
Taking the name of the long narrow island on which it stood, the Pharos of Alexandria was the most famous lighthouse of antiquity. Situated on a high mound at the end of a long peninsula, 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the city, it was a technological marvel and formed the prototype of the modern lighthouse. Since the sixth century a.d. (when it replaced the walls of Babylon) it has been listed among the seven wonders of the ancient world. In 323 b.c. Alexander the Great died in Babylon, leaving no heir. Forty years of conflict followed as his generals fought for control of the vast Macedonian Empire. By 280 b.c. three major dynasties emerged: the Seleucids in Asia, Asia Minor, and Palestine the Antigonids in Macedonia and Greece and the Ptolemies in Egypt, the wealthiest and most enduring of all, who would reach their peak under Ptolemy II Philadelphos (reigned 285 246 b.c.). His capital was the grand city of Alexandria, designed by Dinocrates, personal architect to Alexander. Around 290 b.c., because of the dangerous sandbanks in the approaches to Alexandrias harbor, Ptolemy I Soter initiated plans for a lighthouse. The work was incomplete when he died five years later. In 281 his son Ptolemy II Philadelphos commissioned the engineer Sostratus of Cnidus to build a great lighthouse on the eastern point of the island of Pharos, reached across a causeway named the Heptastadion. There is a tradition that structural and other calculations were made at the famous Alexandrian library. Hellenistic accounts like those of Strabo and Pliny the Elder describe a tower faced with glistening white marble, crowned with a bronze mirror whose reflection of the sun could be seen 35 miles (56 kilometers) off shore. Apocryphal accounts claim the mirror was also a secret weapon used to burn enemy ships at sea. Indeed, most descriptions are sketchy, and popular images of the Pharos have been based on an interpretation of coins, terra-cottas, and mosaics published by Herman Thiersch in 1909. The most detailed description of the Pharos was made in 1166 by the Arab traveler Abou-Haggag Al-Andaloussi (to whom Thiersch did not have access), portraying a structure composed of three battered tiers: the lowest was square, 183 feet (56 meters) high, with a cylindrical core the middle was a 90-foot-high (27.5-meter) octagon with a side length of 60 feet (18.3 meters) and the third was a cylinder 24 feet (7.3 meters) in height. There are few accounts of the interior of the great tower, except to say that it had many rooms and corridors. Fuel for the nightly bonfire was mechanically lifted through an internal shaft. The fire could be seen for about 100 miles (160 kilometers). Including the foundation pedestal, the lighthouse soared to about 384 feet (117 meters). A wide spiral ramp gave access to the top, where there was a huge statue, possibly representing either Alexander the Great or Ptolemy I Soter in the role of Helios, the sun god. Some later accounts identify the figure as Poseidon, but more recent scholarship suggests it was Zeus Soter (Zeus the Savior). Still others believe there were statues of Castor and Pollux. Whatever its subject matter, the sculpture took the total height above 440 feet (135 meters), about as high as a forty-story office building. The Pharos was the second-tallest building in the world until the Eiffel Tower was constructed 2,000 years later. The monument was dedicated to Ptolemy Soter and his wife Berenice, and an inscription read, Sostratus, the son of Dexiphanes, the Cnidian, dedicated this to the Savior Gods, on behalf of those who sail the seas. The Pharos served the mariners of the Mediterranean for about 1,500 years. In a.d. 642, the Arabs conquered Egypt and moved their capital to Cairo. In 796 the upper story of the lighthouse collapsed. Later, Sultan Ibn Touloun (reigned 868 884) built a mosque on the partly ruined tower. In the middle of the tenth century, an earthquake shook Alexandria and caused another 72 feet (22 meters) of masonry to fall. Despite frequent and sometimes extensive repairs being undertaken by the Arabs, earthquakes continued to have a cumulative effect: no fewer than twenty between 1303 and 1323 meant that the Pharos finally toppled some time before 1349. By then Al-Malik-an-Nasir had begun to build a similar lighthouse beside it but the project was halted at his death. Around 1480 the Egyptian Mameluke Sultan Qait Bey built a fortress over its ruins, using its stones for walls. In the early 1990s the Egyptian government began building a breakwater to protect the fortress from storms. The project was postponed while archeologists from the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities and the French Centre detudes Alexandrines searched the harbor. Since 1996 they have found over 2,000 objects, columns, capitals, thirty sphinxes, and most significantly two colossal statues (one of Ptolemy I and another of a female torso) scattered over more than 5 acres (2 hectares) of the seabed near Alexandria. It is believed that the finds include the ruins of the fabled Pharos. In September 1998 the U.S.$70 million Alexandria 21st Century Project was announced by the Fondation Internationale Pierre Cardin, claiming the support of UNESCO and proposing to build a 475-foot-high (145-meter) glass-covered concrete lighthouse on the site of the original Pharos. Happily, it came to very little.
139. Pisa CathedralThe Campanile Leaning Tower
Pisa Italy
The city of Pisa stands on the River Arno in the Tuscan region of northern Italy. Its Piazza dei Miracoli is graced by the most beautiful group of Romanesque buildings in the country: the white marble basilican cathedral (begun 1063) the circular, domed baptistery (begun 1153) and the highly original bell tower (campanile), situated between the apse and the southeastern end of the cathedrals transept and now famous as the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Quite apart from its innovative cylindrical form, the location is remarkable, because bell towers usually stood near the west front of churches. Of course, the tower was designed to be vertical, but it started to lean very early in its construction. Since 1183 only a decade after it was started repeated and inventive attempts have been made to correct the incline. They continued for 800 years, until the very end of the twentieth century, when modern technology seemed to halt the incremental incline by then it had reached 10 percent and save the life of the tower. Taken together, those remedial actions represent a considerable architectural and engineering feat.The authorship of the tower remains uncertain. Tradition identifies Bonanno Pisano as the architect, but later scholars name Diotisalvi, Biduino, or Guidolotto. Other sources suggest the German Guglielmo of Innsbruck. The Pisa campanile, essentially a hollow cylinder of just over 50 feet (15.5 meters) outside diameter at the base, is 180 feet (55 meters) high. The structure consists of an external wall faced with gray and white San Giuliano limestone ashlar between it and an inner wall of dressed limestone, 293 steps wind to the top. The continuous facade is divided into six by elegant arcades and crowned (of course) by a cylindrical belfry, a little smaller in diameter than the tower. Throughout, the wall surfaces are inlaid with patterned, colored marble in the Tuscan Romanesque manner, reducing the large building to an appreciable human scale and creating a harmonious unity with the cathedral and the baptistery. There are earlier cylindrical bell towers elsewhere in Tuscany and Umbria, and even in Ravenna, but Pisan historians claim that the tower of Pisa is unique and locally inspired. Building work commenced on 9 August 1173 under the auspices of the Opera Campanilis Petrarum Sancte Marie (Stonework of St. Marys Bell Tower). The foundations were set only 10 feet (3.36 meters) deep, on a bed of dry stones. There is no question that poor foundation soil clay and sand strata interlayered with pockets of underground water could not support the highly concentrated loads imposed by the tower this, together with differential sinking of the soils, was the major contributor to the failure of the tower. The problem first appeared within about ten years, probably when the fourth arcade was reached. The building had sunk by more than 1 foot (30 centimeters), causing a lean of about 2 inches (5 centimeters). It was not unique in that: similar problems would be experienced in Holland, for similar reasons, Church towers still standing at Zierikzee and Leeuwarden have substantial leans both were abandoned, and the architect of the latter committed suicide. It seems that the Italian builders were more resolute than their Dutch counterparts, and after some delay, work on the tower of Pisa resumed, probably in the first decades of the thirteenth century. Remedial action was taken in two stages as attempts were made to reduce the lean. It is not known how high the building was when in the early 1270s Giovanni di Simone began to correct the inclination by raising one side of the galleries. By 1284, the six gallery levels were completed: then 156 feet (48 meters) high, the tower inclined about 3 feet (90 centimeters) from the vertical. The work was again suspended but the main part of the building was finished by 1319. The belfry, designed by Tommaso Pisano, was in place by 1350. Major works undertaken in 1838 to save the tower of Pisa changed the proportion of groundwater and resulted in accelerating the inclination it was only after some time that it settled to become about a millimeter a year. For over a century, eccentric suggestions were made to correct the problem, including a proposal to landscape the surrounding area to slope so that the tower would appear to be vertical. Moved to action by the 1989 collapse of the campanile of Pavia Cathedral, the Consorzio Progetto Torre di Pisa (Tower of Pisa Project Consortium) commissioned engineers to stabilize the Leaning Tower, then inclining more than 15 feet (4.6 meters) from true. It was closed to the public in 1990, and rescue work began. After some unsuccessful experiments, the three-part final solution was reached in July 1998. The tower was restrained by steel cables while 990 tons (900 tonnes) of lead were stacked against its base away from the direction of lean. Then excess water and mud were pumped from under the tower, allowing it to settle and in effect correct itself. As the tower straightened, the lead counterweights were regularly reduced. The project, with an overall cost of 54 billion lire (U.S.$27 million), was completed by the end of 2000. The result was that the lean was corrected by about 1 foot (30 centimeters), bringing the tower of Pisa to the condition it was in about three centuries earlier.
The city of Pisa stands on the River Arno in the Tuscan region of northern Italy. Its Piazza dei Miracoli is graced by the most beautiful group of Romanesque buildings in the country: the white marble basilican cathedral (begun 1063) the circular, domed baptistery (begun 1153) and the highly original bell tower (campanile), situated between the apse and the southeastern end of the cathedrals transept and now famous as the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Quite apart from its innovative cylindrical form, the location is remarkable, because bell towers usually stood near the west front of churches. Of course, the tower was designed to be vertical, but it started to lean very early in its construction. Since 1183 only a decade after it was started repeated and inventive attempts have been made to correct the incline. They continued for 800 years, until the very end of the twentieth century, when modern technology seemed to halt the incremental incline by then it had reached 10 percent and save the life of the tower. Taken together, those remedial actions represent a considerable architectural and engineering feat.The authorship of the tower remains uncertain. Tradition identifies Bonanno Pisano as the architect, but later scholars name Diotisalvi, Biduino, or Guidolotto. Other sources suggest the German Guglielmo of Innsbruck. The Pisa campanile, essentially a hollow cylinder of just over 50 feet (15.5 meters) outside diameter at the base, is 180 feet (55 meters) high. The structure consists of an external wall faced with gray and white San Giuliano limestone ashlar between it and an inner wall of dressed limestone, 293 steps wind to the top. The continuous facade is divided into six by elegant arcades and crowned (of course) by a cylindrical belfry, a little smaller in diameter than the tower. Throughout, the wall surfaces are inlaid with patterned, colored marble in the Tuscan Romanesque manner, reducing the large building to an appreciable human scale and creating a harmonious unity with the cathedral and the baptistery. There are earlier cylindrical bell towers elsewhere in Tuscany and Umbria, and even in Ravenna, but Pisan historians claim that the tower of Pisa is unique and locally inspired. Building work commenced on 9 August 1173 under the auspices of the Opera Campanilis Petrarum Sancte Marie (Stonework of St. Marys Bell Tower). The foundations were set only 10 feet (3.36 meters) deep, on a bed of dry stones. There is no question that poor foundation soil clay and sand strata interlayered with pockets of underground water could not support the highly concentrated loads imposed by the tower this, together with differential sinking of the soils, was the major contributor to the failure of the tower. The problem first appeared within about ten years, probably when the fourth arcade was reached. The building had sunk by more than 1 foot (30 centimeters), causing a lean of about 2 inches (5 centimeters). It was not unique in that: similar problems would be experienced in Holland, for similar reasons, Church towers still standing at Zierikzee and Leeuwarden have substantial leans both were abandoned, and the architect of the latter committed suicide. It seems that the Italian builders were more resolute than their Dutch counterparts, and after some delay, work on the tower of Pisa resumed, probably in the first decades of the thirteenth century. Remedial action was taken in two stages as attempts were made to reduce the lean. It is not known how high the building was when in the early 1270s Giovanni di Simone began to correct the inclination by raising one side of the galleries. By 1284, the six gallery levels were completed: then 156 feet (48 meters) high, the tower inclined about 3 feet (90 centimeters) from the vertical. The work was again suspended but the main part of the building was finished by 1319. The belfry, designed by Tommaso Pisano, was in place by 1350. Major works undertaken in 1838 to save the tower of Pisa changed the proportion of groundwater and resulted in accelerating the inclination it was only after some time that it settled to become about a millimeter a year. For over a century, eccentric suggestions were made to correct the problem, including a proposal to landscape the surrounding area to slope so that the tower would appear to be vertical. Moved to action by the 1989 collapse of the campanile of Pavia Cathedral, the Consorzio Progetto Torre di Pisa (Tower of Pisa Project Consortium) commissioned engineers to stabilize the Leaning Tower, then inclining more than 15 feet (4.6 meters) from true. It was closed to the public in 1990, and rescue work began. After some unsuccessful experiments, the three-part final solution was reached in July 1998. The tower was restrained by steel cables while 990 tons (900 tonnes) of lead were stacked against its base away from the direction of lean. Then excess water and mud were pumped from under the tower, allowing it to settle and in effect correct itself. As the tower straightened, the lead counterweights were regularly reduced. The project, with an overall cost of 54 billion lire (U.S.$27 million), was completed by the end of 2000. The result was that the lean was corrected by about 1 foot (30 centimeters), bringing the tower of Pisa to the condition it was in about three centuries earlier.
140. Pneumatic structures
The most familiar inflated membrane structures are airships, from nonrigid blimps to giant vessels such as the proposed 1,003-foot-long (307-meter) ATC SkyCat cargo lifter with a payload of 2,200 tons (2,000 tonnes). The German firm Zeppelin built several rigid-frame airships between 1900 and 1936, including the famous Graf Zeppelin. The new technology had consequences in the building industry. The English aeronautical engineer Frederick W. Lanchester first proposed an air-supported structure in 1917. Immediately after World War II Walter Bird designed and built prototypes of pneumatic domes to house large radar antennae for the U.S. Air Force. Known as radomes, they had many civilian commercial applications and paved the way for a new kind of architecture.
Pneumatic or air-supported structures have their form sustained by creating, with the aid of fans, an air pressure differential between the interior of the building and outside atmospheric conditions. The increased air pressure about the difference between the lobby of a high-rise building and the top floor is so slight as to be virtually undetectable and causes no discomfort. The structural system enables the achievement of large spans without columns and beams, providing totally flexible interior spaces. Made from laminated membranes such as fiberglass, nylon, or polyester, coated with polyvinyl chloride (PVC) for weather protection, the electronically welded components are tailored to define the building shape. The durability and heat- and light-filtering properties of the membrane are determined by the careful choice of surface finishes and inner lining. Because of its lightness, the air-supported structure is among the most efficient structural forms, combining high-tensile strength materials with the shell form. The capital cost of an air-supported roof is typically up to one-third that of a conventional building considered on a cost-per-seat basis they are widely used for sporting venues the advantage becomes even more obvious.
The United States pavilion at Expo 70 in Osaka, Japan, was one of several air-supported buildings at the fair. At the time, it was the largest structure of its kind ever attempted, a superellipse 265 feet wide and 465 feet long (81 by 142 meters). Its architects were Davis, Brody and Associates, working with designers Chermayeff, Geismar, de Harak and Associates the engineer was David Geiger. The sloped sides of the pavilion, covered externally with paving tiles, were a 20-foot-high (6-meter) earth berm that supported a concrete ring 1,000 feet long, 4 feet high, and 11.5 feet wide (306 by 1.2 by 3.5 meters). Crisscross steel cables were locked into the ring to retain the roof once it was inflated. The roof of the pavilion was made of a translucent, closely woven fiberglass fabric, coated on both sides with vinyl. The seams were bonded by heat and pressure. Once inflated, the roof behaved almost as predicted.
More ambitious examples were bound to follow. In 1975, the 80,000-seat Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan, boasted an air-inflated membrane roof measuring 720 by 550 feet (220 by 168 meters). The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minnesota, designed by Ellerbe Becket architects and completed in 1982, provided seating for up to 63,000 spectators under an air-supported roof of Teflon-coated fiberglass more than 10 acres (4 hectares) in area. Its claim to be the biggest air-supported domed stadium in the world was challenged the following year by the B.C. Place Stadium in Vancouver, Canada. In 1988 the Japanese architectural firm Nikken Sekkei and Takenaka, working with engineer David Geiger, designed the Tokyo Dome, with an air-inflated membrane roof of almost 660 feet (201 meters) span. Since about 1990, it seems that there has been a greater demand for sports arenas with openable roofs.
