1.
Hebrew language
–
Hebrew is a language native to Israel, spoken by over 9 million people worldwide, of whom over 5 million are in Israel. Historically, it is regarded as the language of the Israelites and their ancestors, the earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date from the 10th century BCE. Hebrew belongs to the West Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family, Hebrew is the only living Canaanite language left, and the only truly successful example of a revived dead language. Hebrew had ceased to be a spoken language somewhere between 200 and 400 CE, declining since the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Aramaic and to a lesser extent Greek were already in use as international languages, especially among elites and it survived into the medieval period as the language of Jewish liturgy, rabbinic literature, intra-Jewish commerce, and poetry. Then, in the 19th century, it was revived as a spoken and literary language, and, according to Ethnologue, had become, as of 1998, the language of 5 million people worldwide. After Israel, the United States has the second largest Hebrew-speaking population, with 220,000 fluent speakers, Modern Hebrew is one of the two official languages of the State of Israel, while premodern Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world today. Ancient Hebrew is also the tongue of the Samaritans, while modern Hebrew or Arabic is their vernacular. For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as Leshon Hakodesh, the modern word Hebrew is derived from the word Ivri, one of several names for the Israelite people. It is traditionally understood to be a based on the name of Abrahams ancestor, Eber. This name is based upon the root ʕ-b-r meaning to cross over. Interpretations of the term ʕibrim link it to this verb, cross over, in the Bible, the Hebrew language is called Yәhudit because Judah was the surviving kingdom at the time of the quotation. In Isaiah 19,18 it is called the Language of Canaan, Hebrew belongs to the Canaanite group of languages. In turn, the Canaanite languages are a branch of the Northwest Semitic family of languages, according to Avraham ben-Yosef, Hebrew flourished as a spoken language in the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah during about 1200 to 586 BCE. Scholars debate the degree to which Hebrew was a vernacular in ancient times following the Babylonian exile. In July 2008 Israeli archaeologist Yossi Garfinkel discovered a ceramic shard at Khirbet Qeiyafa which he claimed may be the earliest Hebrew writing yet discovered, dating around 3000 years ago. The Gezer calendar also dates back to the 10th century BCE at the beginning of the Monarchic Period, classified as Archaic Biblical Hebrew, the calendar presents a list of seasons and related agricultural activities. The Gezer calendar is written in an old Semitic script, akin to the Phoenician one that through the Greeks, the Gezer calendar is written without any vowels, and it does not use consonants to imply vowels even in the places where later Hebrew spelling requires it
Hebrew language
–
Hebrew street sign, above in
Hebrew alphabet, below in
Latin transliteration. Aluf Batslut veAluf Shum (he) ("The Onion Champion and the Garlic Champion") is a
play by
Hayim Nahman Bialik.
Hebrew language
–
Portion of the
Temple Scroll, one of the longest of the
Dead Sea Scrolls discovered at
Qumran
Hebrew language
–
The
Shebna Inscription, from the tomb of a royal steward found in
Siloam, dates to the 7th century BCE.
Hebrew language
–
Hebrew script used in writing a Torah scroll. Note ornamental "crowns" on tops of certain letters.
2.
Rock-cut tombs in ancient Israel
–
Hundreds of rock-cut tombs were constructed in Israel in ancient times. They were cut into the rock, sometimes with elaborate facades, some are free-standing, but most are caves. Each tomb typically belonged to a single, wealthy family, bodies were laid out on stone benches. After a generation, the bones were moved to a chamber or, later, into ossuaries. Rock tombs were the province of the wealthy, the people were buried in the ground. The earliest Canaanite cut-rock cave tombs date from 3100–2900 BCE, but the custom had lapsed a millennium before the earliest Israelite tombs, there are a great many Jewish tombs dating to the Second Temple period, and others in the late Roman or early Byzantine period. Early Canaanite I period tombs are the earliest rock-cut tombs yet discovered in Israel, the custom had lapsed by the second millennium. A number of tombs are mentioned in the Bible. Possibly the first, called Cave of Machpelah, was purchased by Abraham for Sarah from Ephron the Hittite, traditionally, this tomb, which may have been either a rock-cut or a natural cave, is identified with the Cave of the Patriarchs in modern Hebron. According to very old traditions, Abraham, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob, the New Testament reaffirms this tradition, Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a certain sum of money. Rock-cut tombs are mentioned in the Book of Judges, the Second Book of Samuel. The Gospel of Matthew mentions the newly rock-cut tomb of Joseph of Arimathea and its tombs were cut between the 9th and 7th centuries BCE. The architecture of the tombs and the manner of burial is different from anything known from contemporary Palestine, the stone benches on which bodies were laid out and the small square entrance doors are similar to those found elsewhere in Judah. Ussishkin believes that the similarity to building styles of the Phoenician cities validates the Biblical description of Phoenician influence on the Israelite kingdoms. There are three different types of tombs in the Silwan necropolis, each type concentrated in one specific area, seven of the tombs feature gabled ceilings and extremely fine stonework. David Ussishkin describes them as among the most beautifully rock-cut tombs known in the Jerusalem area even when compared with tombs of later periods. In contrast with the family tombs of later periods, these are for single or double burials. Later destruction has effaced the original doorways, a second tomb type described by Ussishkin has flat ceilings and one, two, or three chambers of well-dressed stone carefully squared into spacious rooms
Rock-cut tombs in ancient Israel
–
Traditionally, the tombs of
Zachariah and
Benei Hezir
Rock-cut tombs in ancient Israel
–
Tombs of the Kings (Jerusalem) from a 19th-century lithograph by
William Henry Bartlett. Traditionally thought to be the tomb of the biblical kings, now believed to be the tomb of
Queen Helene of Adiabene
Rock-cut tombs in ancient Israel
–
Remnants of the
Monolith of Silwan, a First Temple period tomb.
Rock-cut tombs in ancient Israel
–
Detail of the
Tomb of Benei Hezir
3.
Conical roof
–
A conical roof or cone roof is a roof shape, that is circular on plan and rises to terminate in a point, the whole forming a regular cone in shape. The latter necessitated the use of spouts to lead the water away over the top of the walls, in this case the cone roof was surrounded by a protective wall, a parapet or a battlement. Such conical roofs were constructed using a timber-framed support structure covered with slate. A small circular turret or tourelle with a roof is called a pepperpot or pepperbox turret. Today, conical roofs are often used in rural areas either for circular or small square buildings. They are easy to construct with locally available materials and at low cost
Conical roof
–
Conical roof on the Buddenturm in
Münster (Westfalen)
Conical roof
–
Modern cone roofs on the
Bundeskunsthalle in
Bonn
4.
Kidron Valley
–
The Kidron Valley is the valley on the eastern side of The Old City of Jerusalem, separating the Temple Mount from the Mount of Olives. It continues east through the Judean Desert in the West Bank, towards the Dead Sea, the settlement Kedar, located on a ridge above the valley, is named after it. The neighborhood of Wadi al-Joz bears the valleys Arabic name, the Hebrew Bible calls it Emek Yehoshafat, the Valley of Jehoshaphat. It appears in Jewish eschatologic prophecies, which include the return of Elijah, followed by the arrival of the Messiah, the central point of reference for the Kidron Valley is its confluence of Jerusalem’s richest concentration of rock-hewn tombs. This area, located on the periphery of the village Silwan, was one of the burial grounds of Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period. Several of these tombs were used later in time, either as burial or as shelters for hermits and monks of the large monastic communities. The ancient tombs in this area attracted the attention of ancient travelers, might refer to certain parts of this valley located in the immediate vicinity of ancient Jerusalem, but not to the entire wadi, and certainly not to the long segment crossing the Judean desert. Similarly, in Arabic every more substantial wadi has many names, the Hebrew Bible calls the Valley Valley of Jehoshaphat - Emek Yehoshafat, meaning The valley where Yahweh shall judge. In the times of the Old Testament kings, the Kidron Valley was identified with, at least in part, the King’s Garden and that the upper Kidron Valley was also known as the King’s Valley, in which Absalom set up his monument or pillar, is problematic. The Bible does not make this identification explicit, and the association can only be inferred as associated with En-rogel and it should be noted that not all scholars agree with the traditional view that the Kidron Valley is the location of the Valley of Jehoshaphat. Biblical commentator Adam Clarke maintains this view, claiming that the Valley of Judgment is a symbolic place, Kidron Valley was not associated with the Valley of Jehoshaphat until the 4th century AD. A passage in the Bible mentions that God will assemble all nations in the “Valley of Jehoshaphat”, some hold that the Valley of Jehoshaphat refers to the valley situated between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives to the east. It was in this valley where king Jehoshaphat is thought to have overthrown the enemies of Israel and its identification with the Kidron Valley, which began in the fourth century, is somewhat uncertain since no actual valley of this name is known to pre-Christian antiquity. The three monumental tombs on the side of the Kidron Valley are among the most well-known landmarks of ancient Jerusalem. Absalom’s tomb consists of two parts, first, a lower cube hewn out of the bedrock, decorated with engaged Ionic columns bearing a Doric frieze and crowned by an Egyptian cornice. This part of the monument contains a chamber with an entrance. The second part, built of ashlars, is placed on top of the rock-hewn cube and it consists of a square pedestal carrying a round drum, itself topped by a conical roof. The cone is slightly concave and is crowned by an Egyptian-style lotus flower, the upper part has the general shape of a tholos and is interpreted as a nefesh or monument for the tomb below, and possibly also for the adjacent Cave of Jehoshaphat
Kidron Valley
–
The Old City of Jerusalem, as seen from across the Kidron Valley.
Kidron Valley
–
Kidron Valley viewed from the Old City of Jerusalem.
Kidron Valley
–
Absalom's Pillar, the burial chamber in two almost identical photos.
5.
Jerusalem
–
Jerusalem is a city located on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is considered a city in the three major Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, the part of Jerusalem called the City of David was settled in the 4th millennium BCE. In 1538, walls were built around Jerusalem under Suleiman the Magnificent, today those walls define the Old City, which has been traditionally divided into four quarters—known since the early 19th century as the Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Quarters. The Old City became a World Heritage Site in 1981, and is on the List of World Heritage in Danger, Modern Jerusalem has grown far beyond the Old Citys boundaries. These foundational events, straddling the dawn of the 1st millennium BCE, the sobriquet of holy city was probably attached to Jerusalem in post-exilic times. The holiness of Jerusalem in Christianity, conserved in the Septuagint which Christians adopted as their own authority, was reinforced by the New Testament account of Jesuss crucifixion there, in Sunni Islam, Jerusalem is the third-holiest city, after Mecca and Medina. As a result, despite having an area of only 0, outside the Old City stands the Garden Tomb. Today, the status of Jerusalem remains one of the issues in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, West Jerusalem was among the captured and later annexed by Israel while East Jerusalem, including the Old City, was captured. Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War and subsequently annexed it into Jerusalem, one of Israels Basic Laws, the 1980 Jerusalem Law, refers to Jerusalem as the countrys undivided capital. All branches of the Israeli government are located in Jerusalem, including the Knesset, the residences of the Prime Minister and President, the international community does not recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital, and the city hosts no foreign embassies. Jerusalem is also home to some non-governmental Israeli institutions of importance, such as the Hebrew University. In 2011, Jerusalem had a population of 801,000, of which Jews comprised 497,000, Muslims 281,000, a city called Rušalim in the Execration texts of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt is widely, but not universally, identified as Jerusalem. Jerusalem is called Urušalim in the Amarna letters of Abdi-Heba, the name Jerusalem is variously etymologized to mean foundation of the god Shalem, the god Shalem was thus the original tutelary deity of the Bronze Age city. The form Yerushalem or Yerushalayim first appears in the Bible, in the Book of Joshua, according to a Midrash, the name is a combination of Yhwh Yireh and the town Shalem. The earliest extra-biblical Hebrew writing of the word Jerusalem is dated to the sixth or seventh century BCE and was discovered in Khirbet Beit Lei near Beit Guvrin in 1961. The inscription states, I am Yahweh thy God, I will accept the cities of Judah and I will redeem Jerusalem, or as other scholars suggest, the mountains of Judah belong to him, to the God of Jerusalem
Jerusalem
–
From upper left: Jerusalem skyline viewed from Givat ha'Arba,
Mamilla, the
Old City and the
Dome of the Rock, a
souq in the
Old City, the
Knesset, the
Western Wall, the
Tower of David and the
Ottoman Old City walls
Jerusalem
–
Hebrew: יְרוּשָׁלַיִם (Yerushalayim)
Arabic: القُدس (al-Quds)
Aramaic: יְרוּשְׁלֶם (Yərushəlem)
Jerusalem
Jerusalem
–
Stepped Stone Structure in
Ophel /
City of David, the oldest part of Jerusalem
6.
Absalom
–
Absalom or Avshalom according to the Hebrew Bible was the third son of David, King of Israel with Maachah, daughter of Talmai, King of Geshur. 2 Samuel 14,25 describes him as the most handsome man in the kingdom, Absalom eventually rebelled against his father and was killed during the Battle of Ephraim Wood. Absalom, Davids third son, by Maacah, was born in Hebron, and moved at an early age along with the transfer of the capital to Jerusalem and he was a great favorite of his father and of the people. His charming manners, personal beauty, and insinuating ways, together with his love of pomp and royal pretensions and he lived in great style, drove in a magnificent chariot and had fifty men run before him. Little is known of Absaloms family life, but it is said that he had three sons and one daughter, whose name was also Tamar, from the language of 2 Samuel 18,18, it is inferred that his sons died at an early age. 2 Chronicles 11,20, says Absalom has another daughter, named Maacah, Absaloms sister Tamar was raped by Amnon, who was their half-brother. Amnon was also Davids eldest son, after the rape, Absalom waited two years, and then avenged Tamar by sending his servants to murder a drunken Amnon at a feast, to which Absalom had invited all the kings sons. After this murder Absalom fled to Talmai, who was the king of Geshur and it was not until three years later that Absalom was fully reinstated in his fathers favour and finally returned to Jerusalem. “If only I were the judge of the land, then all who had a suit or cause might come to me, and I would give them justice. ”He made gestures of humility by kissing those who bowed before him instead of accepting supplication. He stole the hearts of the people of Israel, after four years he declared himself king, raised a revolt at Hebron, the former capital, and slept with his fathers concubines. All Israel and Judah flocked to him, and David, attended only by the Cherethites and Pelethites and his former bodyguard, the priests Zadok and Abiathar remained in Jerusalem, and their sons Jonathan and Ahimaaz served as Davids spies. Absalom reached the capital and consulted with the renowned Ahithophel, David took refuge from Absaloms forces beyond the Jordan River. However, he took the precaution of instructing a servant, Hushai, Hushai convinced Absalom to ignore Ahithophels advice to attack his father while he was on the run, and instead to prepare his forces for a major attack. This gave David critical time to prepare his own troops for the coming battle, a fateful battle was fought in the Wood of Ephraim and Absaloms army was completely routed. Absaloms head was caught in the boughs of an oak tree as the mule he was riding ran beneath it and he was discovered there still alive by one of Davids men, who reported this to Joab, the king’s commander. Joab, accustomed to avenging himself, took this opportunity to even the score with Absalom, Absalom once had Joabs field set on fire and then made Amasa Captain of the Host instead of Joab. Killing Absalom was against David’s command, Beware that none touch the young man Absalom, Joab killed Absalom with three darts through the heart. When David heard that Absalom was killed although not how he was killed, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom
Absalom
–
The death of Absalom, hanging from a tree by his hair (14th-century German miniature).
Absalom
–
The Banquet of Absalom attributed to Niccolò de Simone around 1650
Absalom
–
Two views of the burial chamber inside the so-called
Tomb of Absalom in the
Valley of Jehoshaphat,
Jerusalem, which has no connection to biblical Absalom.
7.
King David
–
David was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the second king of the United Kingdom of Israel and Judah, reigning in c. He is described as a man after Gods own heart in 1 Samuel 13,14 and Acts 13,22. The Hebrew prophets regarded him as the ancestor of the future messiah, the New Testament says he was an ancestor of Jesus. God is angered when Saul, Israels king, unlawfully offers a sacrifice and later disobeys a divine instruction to not only all of the Amalekites. Consequently, he sends the prophet Samuel to anoint David, the youngest son of Jesse of Bethlehem, God sends an evil spirit to torment Saul. Sauls courtiers recommend that he send for David, a man skillful on the lyre, wise in speech, and brave in battle. So David enters Sauls service as one of the royal armour-bearers, and plays the lyre to soothe the king, war comes between Israel and the Philistines, and the giant Goliath challenges the Israelites to send out a champion to face him in single combat. David, sent by his father to bring provisions to his brothers serving in Sauls army, refusing the kings offer of the royal armour, he kills Goliath with his sling. Saul inquires the name of the heros father. Saul sets David over his army, all Israel loves David, but his popularity causes Saul to fear him. Saul plots his death, but Sauls son Jonathan, one of those who loves David, warns him of his fathers schemes and David flees. He becomes a vassal of the Philistine king Achish of Gath, but Achishs nobles question his loyalty, Jonathan and Saul are killed, and David is anointed king over Judah. In the north, Sauls son Ish-Bosheth is anointed king of Israel, with the death of Sauls son, the elders of Israel come to Hebron and David is anointed king over all Israel. He conquers Jerusalem, previously a Jebusite stronghold, and makes it his capital. He brings the Ark of the Covenant to the city, intending to build a temple for God, Nathan also prophesies that God has made a covenant with the house of David, Your throne shall be established forever. David wins more victories over the Philistines, while the Moabites, Edomites, Amalekites, Ammonites, during a battle to conquer the Ammonite capital of Rabbah, David seduces Bathsheba and causes the death of her husband Uriah the Hittite. In response, Nathan prophesies the punishment that shall fall upon him, in fulfillment of these words Davids son Absalom rebels. The rebellion ends at the battle of the Wood of Ephraim, Absaloms forces are routed, and Absalom is caught by his long hair in the branches of a tree, and killed by Joab, contrary to Davids order. Joab was the commander of Davids army, David laments the death of his favourite son, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom
King David
–
Statue of King David by
Nicolas Cordier in the Borghese Chapel of the
Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore
King David
–
Samuel anoints David,
Dura Europos,
Syria, 3rd century CE
King David
–
"David Giving Thanks to God After the Death of Goliath", 18th century painting attributed to
Charles Errard the Younger
King David
–
David holds the impaled head of Goliath and marches before a general on a white horse, as envisioned by Poussin, ca. 1632
8.
Mount of Olives
–
The Mount of Olives or Mount Olivet is a mountain ridge east of and adjacent to Jerusalems Old City. It is named for the groves that once covered its slopes. The southern part of the Mount was the Silwan necropolis, attributed to the ancient Judean kingdom, the Mount has been used as a Jewish cemetery for over 3,000 years and holds approximately 150,000 graves, making it central in the tradition of Jewish cemeteries. Much of the top of the hill is occupied by At-Tur, the Mount of Olives is one of three peaks of a mountain ridge which runs for 3.5 kilometres just east of the Old City across the Kidron Valley, in this area called the Valley of Josaphat. The peak to its north is Mount Scopus, at 826 metres, while the peak to its south is the Mount of Corruption, the highest point on the Mount of Olives is At-Tur, at 818 m. The ridge acts as a watershed, and its side is the beginning of the Judean Desert. The ridge is formed of sedimentary rock from the Late Cretaceous, and contains a soft chalk. While the chalk is easily quarried, it is not a strength for construction. From Biblical times until the present, Jews have been buried on the Mount of Olives, the necropolis on the southern ridge, the location of the modern village of Silwan, was the burial place of Jerusalems most important citizens in the period of the Biblical kings. The religious ceremony marking the start of a new month was held on the Mount of Olives in the days of the Second Temple, roman soldiers from the 10th Legion camped on the Mount during the Siege of Jerusalem in the year 70 AD. After the destruction of the Second Temple, Jews celebrated the festival of Sukkot on the Mount of Olives and they made pilgrimages to the Mount of Olives because it was 80 meters higher than the Temple Mount and offered a panoramic view of the Temple site. It became a place for lamenting the Temples destruction, especially on Tisha BAv. From there they see the whole Temple and there they weep, in the mid-1850s, the villagers of Silwan were paid £100 annually by the Jews in an effort to prevent the desecration of graves on the mount. Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin asked to be buried on the Mount of Olives near the grave of Etzel member Meir Feinstein, however, during the 19 years the Jordanian annexation of the West Bank lasted, the committee was not formed. During this period, four roads were paved through the cemeteries, graves were also demolished for parking lots and a filling station and were even used in latrines at a Jordanian Army barracks. However, the United Nations did not condemn the Jordanian government for these actions, following the 1967 Six-Day War and the Israeli capture of East Jerusalem, its government began restoration work and re-opened the cemetery for burials. Israels 1980 unilateral annexation of East Jerusalem was condemned as a violation of law and ruled null. As of 2010, the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives has been targeted regularly by Arab vandals, notable graves that have been defaced by vandals include those of the Gerrer Rebbe and Menahem Begin
Mount of Olives
–
Aerial photograph of the Mount of Olives
Mount of Olives
–
Mt. of Olives, circa 1899
Mount of Olives
–
Flevit super illam (He wept over it); by
Enrique Simonet, 1892.
Mount of Olives
–
Jerusalem
9.
Ashlar
–
Ashlar is finely dressed masonry, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared or the masonry built of such stone. It is the finest stone masonry unit, generally cuboid, mentioned by Vitruvius as opus isodomum, one such decorative treatment consists of small grooves achieved by the application of a metal comb. Generally used only on softer stone ashlar, this decoration is known as masons drag, ashlar is in contrast to rubble masonry, which employs irregularly shaped stones, although sometimes minimally worked or selected for similar size, or both. Ashlar is related but distinct from other stone masonry that is finely dressed but not quadrilateral, such as curvilinear masonry, ashlar may be coursed, which involves lengthy horizontal courses of stone blocks laid in parallel, and therefore with continuous horizontal joints. Ashlar may also be random, which involves stone blocks laid with deliberately discontinuous courses, in either case, it generally uses a joining material such as mortar to bind the blocks together, although dry ashlar construction, metal ties, and other methods of assembly have been used. The dry ashlar of Inca architecture in Cusco and Machu Picchu is particularly fine, the word is attested in Middle English and derives from Old French aisselier, from Latin axilla, diminutive of axis, plank. Ashlar blocks have been used in the construction of buildings as an alternative to brick or other materials. In classical architecture, ashlar wall surfaces were contrasted with rustication. The term is used to describe the dressed stone work of prehistoric Greece and Crete. For example, the tombs of Bronze Age Mycenae use ashlar masonry in the construction of the so-called beehive dome. This dome consists of finely cut ashlar blocks that decrease in size and these domes are not true domes, but are constructed using the corbel arch. Ashlar masonry was also used in the construction of palace facades on Crete. These constructions date to the MM III-LM Ib period, ca, in modern European masonry the blocks are generally about 35 centimetres in height. When shorter than 30 centimetres, they are called small ashlar. In some Masonic groupings, which such societies term jurisdictions, ashlars are used as a metaphor for how ones personal development relates to the tenets of their lodge. Ablaq Dimension stone Opus quadratum Rustication Stone cladding Stone veneer
Ashlar
–
Inca Empire Inca wall at
Machu Picchu, constructed in
dry ashlar masonry laid in parallel
courses
Ashlar
10.
Cube
–
Beryllium copper, also known as copper beryllium, beryllium bronze and spring copper, is a copper alloy with 0. 5—3% beryllium and sometimes other elements. Beryllium copper combines high strength with non-magnetic and non-sparking qualities and it has excellent metalworking, forming and machining properties. It has many specialized applications in tools for hazardous environments, musical instruments, precision measurement devices, bullets, beryllium alloys present a toxic inhalation hazard during manufacture. Beryllium copper is a ductile, weldable, and machinable alloy and it is resistant to non-oxidizing acids, to plastic decomposition products, to abrasive wear, and to galling. It can be heat-treated for increased strength, durability, and electrical conductivity, beryllium copper attains the greatest strength of any copper-based alloy. In solid form and as finished objects, beryllium copper presents no known health hazard, however, inhalation of dust, mist, or fume containing beryllium can cause the serious lung condition, chronic beryllium disease. That disease affects primarily the lungs, restricting the exchange of oxygen between the lungs and the bloodstream, the International Agency for Research on Cancer lists beryllium as a Group 1 Human Carcinogen. The National Toxicology Program also lists beryllium as a carcinogen, beryllium copper is a non-ferrous alloy used in springs, spring wire, load cells, and other parts that must retain their shape under repeated stress and strain. It has high electrical conductivity, and is used in low-current contacts for batteries, beryllium copper is non-sparking but physically tough and nonmagnetic, fulfilling the requirements of ATEX directive for Zones 0,1, and 2. Beryllium copper screwdrivers, pliers, wrenches, cold chisels, knives, and hammers are available for environments with explosive hazards, such oil rigs, coal mines, an alternative metal sometimes used for non-sparking tools is aluminium bronze. Compared to steel tools, beryllium copper tools are more expensive, not as strong, and less durable, beryllium copper is frequently used for percussion instruments for its consistent tone and resonance, especially tambourines and triangles. Beryllium copper has been used for armour piercing bullets, though usage is unusual because bullets made from steel alloys are much less expensive and have similar properties. Beryllium copper is used for measurement-while-drilling tools in the drilling industry. A non-magnetic alloy is required, as magnetometers are used for field-strength data received from the tool, beryllium copper gaskets are used to create an RF-tight, electronic seal on doors used with EMC testing and anechoic chambers. For a time, beryllium copper was used in the manufacture of clubs, particularly wedges. Though some golfers prefer the feel of BeCu club heads, regulatory issues, kiefer Plating of Elkhart, Indiana built some beryllium-copper trumpet bells for the Schilke Music Co. of Chicago. These light-weight bells produce a sound preferred by some musicians, beryllium copper wire is produced in many forms, round, square, flat and shaped, in coils, on spools and in straight lengths. Beryllium copper valve seats and guides are used in high performance engines with coated titanium valves
Cube
–
Example of a non-sparking tool made of beryllium copper
Cube
11.
Ionic order
–
The Ionic order forms one of the three classical orders of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two orders, the Tuscan, and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite order. The Ionic columns are the thinnest and smallest columns out of the three canonic orders, the Ionic capital is characterized by the use of volutes. The Ionic columns normally stand on a base which separates the shaft of the column from the stylobate or platform, since Vitruvius a female character has been ascribed to the Ionic, in contrast to the masculine Doric. The major features of the Ionic order are the volutes of its capital, the only tools required to design these features were a straight-edge, a right angle, string and a compass. Originally the volutes lay in a plane, then it was seen that they could be angled out on the corners. Ionic columns are most often fluted, after a little early experimentation, the number of hollow flutes in the shaft settled at 24. This standardization kept the fluting in a proportion to the diameter of the column at any scale. Roman fluting leaves a little of the surface between each hollow, Greek fluting runs out to a knife edge that was easily scarred. In some instances, the fluting has been omitted, mohr included 8 unfluted Ionic frontal columns on his 1928 design for the railroads St. Louis suburban stop Delmar Station. Pictorial often narrative bas-relief frieze carving provides a feature of the Ionic order. Roman and Renaissance practice condensed the height of the entablature by reducing the proportions of the architrave, the Ionic order originated in the mid-6th century BC in Ionia, the southwestern coastland and islands of Asia Minor settled by Ionian Greeks, where an Ionian dialect was spoken. The Ionic order column was being practiced in mainland Greece in the 5th century BC and it was most popular in the Archaic Period in Ionia. The first of the great Ionic temples was the Temple of Hera on Samos and it stood for only a decade before it was leveled by an earthquake. A longer-lasting 6th century Ionic temple was the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Parthenon, although it conforms mainly to the Doric order, also has some Ionic elements. A more purely Ionic mode to be seen on the Athenian Acropolis is exemplified in the Erechtheum, following the conquests of Alexander the Great in the east, a few examples of the Ionic order can be found as far as Pakistan with the Jandial temple near Taxila. Several examples of capitals displaying Ionic influences can seen as far away as Patna, especially with the Pataliputra capital. Renaissance architectural theorists took his hints, to interpret the Ionic order as matronly in comparison to the Doric order, the Ionic is a natural order for post-Renaissance libraries and courts of justice, learned and civilized
Ionic order
–
Architects' first real look at the Greek Ionic order: Julien David LeRoy, Les ruines plus beaux des monuments de la Grèce Paris, 1758 (Plate XX)
Ionic order
–
Drawing by Piranesi of the
Temple of Portunus
Ionic order
–
Ionic capital at Priene
Ionic order
–
Scamozzian Ionic capitals on
Castle Coole portico
12.
Doric order
–
The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture, the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognised by the simple circular capitals at the top of columns and it was the earliest and in its essence the simplest of the orders, though still with complex details in the entablature above. The Greek Doric column was fluted or smooth-surfaced, and had no base, the capital was a simple circular form, with some mouldings, under a square cushion that is very wide in early versions, but later more restrained. In stone they are purely ornamental, the relatively uncommon Roman and Renaissance Doric retained these, and often introduced thin layers of moulding or further ornament, as well as often using plain columns. The Doric order was used in Greek Revival architecture from the 18th century onwards, often earlier Greek versions were used, with wider columns. Since at least Vitruvius it has been customary for writers to associate the Doric with masculine virtues and it is also normally the cheapest of the orders to use. In their original Greek version, Doric columns stood directly on the pavement of a temple without a base. The Parthenon has the Doric design columns and it was most popular in the Archaic Period in mainland Greece, and also found in Magna Graecia, as in the three temples at Paestum. These are in the Archaic Doric, where the capitals spread wide from the column compared to later Classical forms, pronounced features of both Greek and Roman versions of the Doric order are the alternating triglyphs and metopes. The triglyphs are decoratively grooved with two vertical grooves and represent the original wooden end-beams, which rest on the plain architrave that occupies the half of the entablature. Under each triglyph are peglike stagons or guttae that appear as if they were hammered in from below to stabilize the post-and-beam construction and they also served to organize rainwater runoff from above. The spaces between the triglyphs are the metopes and they may be left plain, or they may be carved in low relief. The spacing of the triglyphs caused problems which some time to resolve. The architecture followed rules of harmony, since the original design probably came from wooden temples and the triglyphs were real heads of wooden beams, every column had to bear a beam which lay across the centre of the column. Triglyphs were arranged regularly, the last triglyph was centred upon the last column and this was regarded as the ideal solution which had to be reached. Changing to stone instead of wooden beams required full support of the architrave load at the last column. At the first temples the final triglyph was moved, still terminating the sequence, even worse, the last triglyph was not centered with the corresponding column. That “archaic” manner was not regarded as a harmonious design, the resulting problem is called the doric corner conflict
Doric order
–
Temple of the Delians,
Delos; 19th century pen-and-wash restoration.
Doric order
–
An example of the early archaic Doric order- Temple of Poseidon in
Paestum, Italy.
Doric order
–
The Doric order of the
Parthenon
Doric order
–
The Roman Doric order from the
Theater of Marcellus: triglyphs centered over the end column
13.
Frieze
–
In architecture the frieze /ˈfriːz/ is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on a wall it lies upon the architrave and is capped by the moldings of the cornice. A frieze can be found on many Greek and Roman buildings, the Parthenon Frieze being the most famous and this style is typical for the Persians. In interiors, the frieze of a room is the section of wall above the picture rail, by extension, a frieze is a long stretch of painted, sculpted or even calligraphic decoration in such a position, normally above eye-level. Frieze decorations may depict scenes in a sequence of discrete panels, the material of which the frieze is made of may be plasterwork, carved wood or other decorative medium. In an example of a frieze on the façade of a building. A pulvinated frieze is convex in section, such friezes were features of 17th-century Northern Mannerism, especially in subsidiary friezes, and much employed in interior architecture and in furniture. The concept of a frieze has been generalized in the construction of frieze patterns. Media related to Friezes at Wikimedia Commons Frieze
Frieze
–
The Circus (Bath), UK. Architectural detail of the frieze showing the alternating
triglyphs and
metope. (
John Wood, the Elder, architect)
Frieze
–
Frieze of animals, mythological episodes at the base of
Hoysaleswara temple,
India
14.
Triglyph
–
The raised spaces between the channels themselves are called femur in Latin or meros in Greek. The absence of the pair effectively converts a building from being in the Doric order to being in the Tuscan order. The triglyph is largely thought to be a tectonic and skeuomorphic representation in stone of the beam ends of the typical primitive hut, as described by Vitruvius. The wooden beams were notched in three places in order to cast their rough-cut ends mostly in shadow. The channels could also have a function in channeling rainwater, of the two groups of 6th-century metopes from Foce del Sele, now in the museum at Paestum, the earlier uses the first method, the later the second. In the evolution of the Doric order, the placing of the triglyphs evolved somewhat, in post-Renaissance architecture the strict conventions are sometimes abandoned, and guttae and triglyphs, alone or together, may be used somewhat randomly as ornaments. For example, the Baroque Černín Palace in Prague has triglyphs and guttae as ornaments at the top of arches, classical order This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. article name needed
Triglyph
–
A metope (L) and triglyph (R) cut from one block from Stratos.
Triglyph
–
Triglyph centered over the last column in the Roman
Doric order of the
Theater of Marcellus
Triglyph
–
Triglyphs (slotted for the insertion of metopes) in the Doric frieze of the
Temple of Aphaia.
Triglyph
–
The entablature of the Hephaisteion (temple of Hephaistos) in Athens, showing Doric frieze with triglyphs and sculpted metopes.
15.
Metope (architecture)
–
Metopes often had painted or sculptural decoration, the most famous example are the 92 metopes of the Parthenon marbles some of which depict the battle between the Centaurs and the Lapiths. The painting on most metopes has been lost, but sufficient traces remain to allow an idea of their original appearance. In terms of structure, metopes may be carved from a block with a triglyph, or they may be cut separately. Sometimes the metopes and friezes were cut from different stone, so as to provide color contrast, although they tend to be close to square in shape, some metopes are noticeably larger in height or in width. Classical architecture Classical order Doric order Robertson, D. S. Handbook of Greek and Roman Architecture
Metope (architecture)
–
Metope from the Parthenon marbles depicting part of the battle between the Centaurs and the Lapiths.
Metope (architecture)
–
A metope (L) and triglyph (R) cut from one block from Stratos.
Metope (architecture)
–
Metopes made from marble slotted into the frieze of the Stoa at
Brauron.
16.
Cornice
–
A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding. The function of the cornice of a building is to throw rainwater free of the building’s walls. In residential building practice, this function is handled by projecting gable ends, roof eaves, however, house eaves may also be called cornices if they are finished with decorative molding. The projecting cornice of a building may appear to be heavy and hence in danger of falling, particularly on commercial buildings, a rake is an architectural term for an eave or cornice which runs along the gable end of the roof of a modern residential structure. It may also be called a sloping cornice, a raking cornice, the trim and rafters at this edge are called rake-, verge-, or barge-board or verge- or barge-rafter. It is a sloped timber on the facing edge of a roof running between the ridge and the eave. On a typical house, any gable will have two rakes, one on each sloped side, the rakes are supported by a series of lookouts and may be enclosed with a rake fascia board on the outside facing edge and a rake soffit along the bottom. The cornices of a residential building will usually be one of three types, a box cornice, a close or closed cornice, or an open cornice. Box cornices enclose the cornice of the building with what is essentially a narrow box. A box cornice may further be divided into either the box cornice or the wide box cornice type. A narrow box cornice is one in which the projection of the rafter serves as a surface for the soffit board as well as the fascia trim. This is possible if the slope of the roof is fairly steep, box cornices often have ventilation screens laid over openings cut in the soffits in order to allow air to circulate within the cornice. A close, closed, or snub cornice is one in there is no projection of the rafters beyond the walls of the building. This type of cornice is easy to construct, but provides little aid in dispersing water away from the building, in an open cornice, the shape of the cornice is similar to that of a wide box cornice except that both the lookouts and the soffit are absent. It is a lower-cost treatment that requires fewer materials, and may not have a fascia board. Ancient Egyptian architectural tradition made special use of large cavetto mouldings as a cornice, with only a short fillet above, inspired by this precedent, it was then revived by Ardashir I, the founder of the Sasanian dynasty. The cavetto took the place of the cymatium in many Etruscan temples, often painted with vertical tongue patterns, additional more-obscure varieties of cornice include the architrave cornice, bracketed cornice, and modillion cornice. A cornice return is a detail that occurs where the horizontal cornice of a roof connects to the rake of a gable
Cornice
–
An example of a cornice, above large
corbels, along the top of the Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Building in downtown
Wheeling, West Virginia,
United States.
Cornice
–
A wide box cornice with lookouts
Cornice
–
A close cornice
Cornice
–
An open cornice
17.
Tholobate
–
A tholobate or drum, in architecture, is the upright part of a building on which a dome is raised. It is generally in the shape of a cylinder or a polygonal prism, other examples of churches of this type are St Pauls Cathedral in London, and the churches of the Les Invalides, the Val-de-Grâce, and the Sorbonne in Paris. Tambour This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh
Tholobate
–
Tholobate atop
Kingston City Hall in
Canada
Tholobate
–
Tholobate on
Harichavank Monastery in
Armenia
18.
Nymphaea
–
Nymphaea /nɪmˈfiːə/ is a genus of hardy and tender aquatic plants in the family Nymphaeaceae. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution, many species are cultivated as ornamental plants, and many cultivars have been bred. Some taxa occur as introduced species where they are not native, plants of the genus are known commonly as water lilies. The genus name is from the Greek νυμφαια, nymphaia and the Latin nymphaea, water lilies are aquatic rhizomatous perennial herbs, sometimes with stolons, as well. The leaves grow from the rhizome on long petioles, most of them float on the surface of the water. The blades have smooth or spine-toothed edges, and they can be rounded or pointed, the flowers rise out of the water or float on the surface, opening during the day or at night. Many species of Nymphaea display protogynous flowering, each has at least eight petals in shades of white, pink, blue, or yellow. Many stamens are at the center, water lily flowers are entomophilous, meaning they are pollinated by insects, often beetles. The fruit is berry-like and borne on a curving or coiling peduncle, water lilies are not only decorative, but also provide useful shade which helps reduce the growth of algae in ponds and lakes. Many of the water lilies familiar in water gardening are hybrids, the young leaves and unopened flower buds can be boiled and served as a vegetable. The seeds, high in starch, protein, and oil, may be popped, parched, potato-like tubers can be collected from the species N. tuberosa. This is one of several genera of plants known commonly as lotuses and it is not related to the legume genus Lotus or the Chinese and Indian lotuses of genus Nelumbo. It is closely related to Nuphar lotuses, however, in Nymphaea, the petals are much larger than the sepals, whereas in Nuphar, the petals are much smaller. The process of fruit maturation also differs, with Nymphaea fruit sinking below the level immediately after the flower closes. The lotus motif is a frequent feature of temple column architecture, the flowers of the blue Egyptian water lily open in the morning and then sink beneath the water at dusk, while those of the white water lily open at night and close in the morning. Egyptians found this symbolic of the separation of deities and of death, remains of both flowers have been found in the burial tomb of Ramesses II. A Roman belief existed that drinking a liquid of crushed Nymphaea in vinegar for 10 consecutive days turned a boy into a eunuch, a Syrian terra-cotta plaque from the 14th-13th centuries BC shows the goddess Asherah holding two lotus blossoms. An ivory panel from the 9th-8th centuries BC shows the god Horus seated on a lotus blossom, the French Impressionist painter Claude Monet is known for his many paintings of water lilies in the pond in his garden at Giverny
Nymphaea
–
Nymphaea
Nymphaea
–
Nymphaea stellata
Nymphaea
–
Blue lotus (Nymphaea caerulea) on an
18th Dynasty jar found at
Amarna
Nymphaea
–
Water-lily by
Claude Monet, 1906
19.
Arcosolium
–
An arcosolium is an arched recess used as a place of entombment. The word is from Latin arcus, arch, and solium, early arcosolia were carved out of the living rock in catacombs. In the very earliest of these, the recess was cut to ground level. Then a low wall would be built in the front, leaving a trough in which to place the body, a flat stone slab would then cover the chamber containing the body, thus sealing it. The stone slab occasionally also served as an altar, especially for Christians, in the later arcosolia, the arched recess was carved out to about waist height. Then the masons cut downwards to make the chamber into which the corpse would be placed, in effect, the trough was then a sarcophagus with living rock on five of its six faces. As before, a stone slab would then seal the cubiculum. From the 13th century onwards, and continuing into the Renaissance, arcosolia were built above ground, in these post-Roman era recesses, which were built of brick and marble, the sarcophagi are usually separate from the arch. These tombs are ornamented in the styles of those periods, the Flamboyant Gothic, Plateresque
Arcosolium
–
One of the ornately decorated 4th century arcosolia in the Hypageum of Via Dino Compagni (Via Latina Catacomb) in Rome. The figure of the frescoes is
Tellus, the Roman goddess of the earth, after whom this tomb is also named.
Arcosolium
–
The 15th century arcosolium of Martín Vázquez de Arce, in the wall of the Cathedral of
Sigüenza, Spain. Like most post-Roman era arcosolia, this tomb is above ground. The alabaster figure on the lid of the sarcophagus is the famous el doncel de Sigüenza, "the boy of Sigüenza".
20.
Nabatean
–
100, gave the name of Nabatene to the borderland between Arabia and Syria, from the Euphrates to the Red Sea. They were later converted to Christianity, jane Taylor, a writer, describes them as one of the most gifted peoples of the ancient world. The Nabataeans were one among several nomadic tribes roamed the Arabian Desert, moving with their herds to wherever they could find pasture. These nomads became familiar with their area as seasons passed, although the Nabataeans were initially embedded in Aramaic culture, theories about them having Aramean roots are rejected by modern scholars. Instead, historical, religious and linguistic evidence confirm that they are a northern Arabian tribe, the precise origin of this specific tribe of Arab nomads remains uncertain. One hypothesis locates their original homeland in todays Yemen, in the south-west of the Arabian peninsula, however, their deities, language, another hypothesis argues that they came from the eastern coast of the Peninsula. The Nabataeans might have originated there and migrated west between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE into northwestern Arabia and much of what is now modern-day Jordan. Nabataeans have been associated with other groups of people. Another misconception is their identification with the Nebaioth of the Hebrew Bible, unlike the rest of the Arabian tribes, the Nabataeans later emerged as vital players in the region during their times of prosperity. However, they later faded and were forgotten, the Nabataeans had already some tincture of foreign culture when they first appear in history. They occupied Hauran, and in about 85 BCE their king Aretas III became lord of Damascus, proper names on their inscriptions suggest that they were ethnically Arabs who had come under Aramaic influence. Starcky identifies the Nabatu of southern Arabia as their ancestors, onomastic analysis has suggested that Nabataean culture may have had multiple influences. Their arid country was their best safeguard, for the bottle-shaped cisterns for rain-water which they excavated in the rocky or clay-rich soil were carefully concealed from invaders, the extent of Nabataean trade resulted in cross-cultural influences that reached as far as the Red Sea coast of southern Arabia. The gods worshipped at Petra were notably Dushara and al-‘Uzzá, the Nabataeans used to represent their gods as featureless pillars or blocks. Their most common monuments to the gods, commonly known as god blocks, however, the Nabataeans became so influenced by other cultures such as those of Greece and Rome that their gods eventually became anthropomorphic and were represented with human features. The Nabataean alphabet itself developed out of the Aramaic alphabet. The Aramaic language was affected by the Arabic language, as Arab influence grew in the region over time. From the 4th century, the Arabic influence becomes overwhelming, in a way that it may be said the Nabataean language shifted seamlessly from Aramaic to Arabic, the Arabic alphabet itself developed out of cursive variants of the Nabataean script in the 5th century
Nabatean
–
Al Khazneh,
Petra.
Nabatean
–
Map of the Roman empire under
Hadrian (ruled AD 117–138), showing the location of the Arabes Nabataei in the desert regions around the Roman province of
Arabia Petraea.
Nabatean
–
Shivta,
Israel.
Nabatean
–
Avdat, Israel
21.
Petra
–
Petra, originally known to the Nabataeans as Raqmu, is a historical and archaeological city in southern Jordan. The city is famous for its architecture and water conduit system. Another name for Petra is the Rose City due to the color of the out of which it is carved. Established possibly as early as 312 BC as the city of the Arab Nabataeans, it is a symbol of Jordan. The Nabataeans were nomadic Arabs who took advantage of Petras proximity to trade routes to establish it as a major trading hub. The Nabataeans are also known for their ability in constructing efficient water-collecting methods in the barren deserts. Petra lies on the slope of Jebel al-Madhbah in a basin among the mountains form the eastern flank of Arabah. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985, the site remained unknown to the western world until 1812, when it was introduced by Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. It was described as a rose-red city half as old as time in a Newdigate Prize-winning poem by John William Burgon, UNESCO has described it as one of the most precious cultural properties of mans cultural heritage. Petra was named amongst the New7Wonders of the World in 2007 and was chosen by the Smithsonian Magazine as one of the 28 Places to See Before You Die. Pliny the Elder and other writers identify Petra as the capital of the Nabataeans, excavations have demonstrated that it was the ability of the Nabataeans to control the water supply that led to the rise of the desert city, creating an artificial oasis. The area is visited by flash floods, and archaeological evidence demonstrates the Nabataeans controlled these floods by the use of dams, cisterns and these innovations stored water for prolonged periods of drought and enabled the city to prosper from its sale. Another approach was possibly from the plateau to the north. Today, most modern visitors approach the site from the east, at the end of the narrow gorge stands Petras most elaborate ruin, Al Khazneh, hewn into the sandstone cliff. A little farther from the Treasury, at the foot of the mountain called en-Nejr, is a massive theatre, at the point where the valley opens out into the plain, the site of the city is revealed with striking effect. The amphitheatre has been cut into the hillside and into several of the tombs during its construction, rectangular gaps in the seating are still visible. Almost enclosing it on three sides are rose-colored mountain walls, divided into groups by deep fissures and lined with knobs cut from the rock in the form of towers. By 2010 BC, some of the earliest recorded farmers had settled in Beidha, Petra is listed in Egyptian campaign accounts and the Amarna letters as Pel, Sela or Seir
Petra
–
Al Khazneh or The Treasury at Petra
Petra
–
The narrow passage (
Siq) that leads to Petra
Petra
–
Petra at night
Petra
–
One of the many tombs in Petra
22.
Book of Samuel
–
According to Jewish tradition the book was written by Samuel, with additions by the prophets Gad and Nathan, modern scholarly thinking is that the entire history was composed in the period c. 630–540 BC by combining a number of independent texts of various ages, Samuel begins with the prophet Samuels birth and Gods call to him as a boy. The story of the Ark of the Covenant that follows tells of Israels oppression by the Philistines, but Saul proved unworthy and Gods choice turned to David, who defeated Israels enemies and brought the Ark to Jerusalem. God then promised David and his successors an everlasting dynasty, the childless Hannah vows to Yahweh of hosts that if she has a son, he will be dedicated to him. Eli, the priest of Shiloh, blesses her, and a child named Samuel is born, Samuel is dedicated to the Lord as a Nazirite – the only one beside Samson to be identified in the Bible. Elis sons, Hophni and Phinehas, prove unworthy of the priesthood and are killed in battle during the Battle of Aphek, the Philistines capture the Ark of the Covenant from Shiloh and take it to the temple of their god Dagon, who recognises the supremacy of Yahweh. The Philistines are afflicted with plagues and return the ark to the Israelites, the Philistines attack the Israelites gathered at Mizpah in Benjamin. Samuel appeals to Yahweh, the Philistines are decisively beaten, in Samuels old age, he appoints his sons as judges, but they are unworthy, and so the people clamour for a king. God reluctantly accedes and gives them Saul of the tribe of Benjamin, Saul defeats the enemies of the Israelites, but sins against Yahweh. Yahweh tells Samuel to anoint David of Bethlehem as king, and David enters Sauls court as his armour-bearer, Sauls son and heir Jonathan befriends David and recognises him as rightful king. Saul plots Davids death, but David flees into the wilderness, David joins the Philistines, but continues secretly to champion his own people, until Saul and Jonathan are killed in battle at Mount Gilboa. At this point, David offers a eulogy, where he praises the bravery. The elders of Judah anoint David as king, but in the north Sauls son Ishbaal rules over the northern tribes. After a long war Ishbaal is murdered by Rechab and Baanah, David is then anointed King of all Israel. David captures Jerusalem and brings the Ark there, David wishes to build a temple, but Nathan tells him that one of Davids sons will be the one to build the temple. David defeats the enemies of Israel, slaughtering Philistines, Moabites, Edomites, David commits adultery with Bathsheba and plots the death of her husband, Uriah the Hittite, for this Yahweh sends disasters against his house. The prophet Nathan tells David that the sword shall never depart from his house, for the remainder of his reign there are problems. Absalom kills Amnon, rebels against his father, and is killed following the Battle of the Wood of Ephraim, finally only two contenders for the succession remain, Adonijah and Bathshebas son Solomon
Book of Samuel
–
Tanakh (Judaism)
Book of Samuel
–
Ernst Josephson, David and Saul, 1878.
Book of Samuel
–
David and Bathsheba, by
Artemisia Gentileschi. David is in the background, standing on a balcony.
Book of Samuel
–
Hannah presenting
Samuel to
Eli, by
Jan Victors, 1645.
23.
Islam
–
Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion which professes that there is only one and incomparable God and that Muhammad is the last messenger of God. It is the worlds second-largest religion and the major religion in the world, with over 1.7 billion followers or 23% of the global population. Islam teaches that God is merciful, all-powerful, and unique, and He has guided mankind through revealed scriptures, natural signs, and a line of prophets sealed by Muhammad. The primary scriptures of Islam are the Quran, viewed by Muslims as the word of God. Muslims believe that Islam is the original, complete and universal version of a faith that was revealed many times before through prophets including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses. As for the Quran, Muslims consider it to be the unaltered, certain religious rites and customs are observed by the Muslims in their family and social life, while social responsibilities to parents, relatives, and neighbors have also been defined. Besides, the Quran and the sunnah of Muhammad prescribe a comprehensive body of moral guidelines for Muslims to be followed in their personal, social, political, Islam began in the early 7th century. Originating in Mecca, it spread in the Arabian Peninsula. The expansion of the Muslim world involved various caliphates and empires, traders, most Muslims are of one of two denominations, Sunni or Shia. Islam is the dominant religion in the Middle East, North Africa, sizable Muslim communities are also found in Horn of Africa, Europe, China, Russia, Mainland Southeast Asia, Philippines, Northern Borneo, Caucasus and the Americas. Converts and immigrant communities are found in almost every part of the world, Islam is a verbal noun originating from the triliteral root s-l-m which forms a large class of words mostly relating to concepts of wholeness, submission, safeness and peace. In a religious context it means voluntary submission to God, Islām is the verbal noun of Form IV of the root, and means submission or surrender. Muslim, the word for an adherent of Islam, is the active participle of the verb form. The word sometimes has connotations in its various occurrences in the Quran. In some verses, there is stress on the quality of Islam as a state, Whomsoever God desires to guide. Other verses connect Islām and dīn, Today, I have perfected your religion for you, I have completed My blessing upon you, still others describe Islam as an action of returning to God—more than just a verbal affirmation of faith. In the Hadith of Gabriel, islām is presented as one part of a triad that also includes imān, Islam was historically called Muhammadanism in Anglophone societies. This term has fallen out of use and is said to be offensive because it suggests that a human being rather than God is central to Muslims religion
Islam
–
The
Kaaba, in
Mecca,
Hejaz region, today's
Saudi Arabia, is the
center of Islam.
Muslims from all over the world gather there to
pray in unity.
Islam
–
The dome of the
Carol I Mosque in
Constanța,
Romania, topped by the
Islamic crescent
Islam
–
Medallion showing "
Allah " (
God) in
Hagia Sophia,
Istanbul,
Turkey.
Islam
–
An
angel presenting
Muhammad and his companions with a miniature city. In the
Topkapi Palace Library,
Istanbul.
24.
Josephus
–
Josephus claimed the Jewish Messianic prophecies that initiated the First Roman-Jewish War made reference to Vespasian becoming Emperor of Rome. In response Vespasian decided to keep Josephus as a slave and interpreter, after Vespasian became Emperor in 69 CE, he granted Josephus his freedom, at which time Josephus assumed the emperors family name of Flavius. Flavius Josephus fully defected to the Roman side and was granted Roman citizenship and he became an advisor and friend of Vespasians son Titus, serving as his translator when Titus led the Siege of Jerusalem. Since the siege proved ineffective at stopping the Jewish revolt, the citys destruction, Josephus recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the first century CE and the First Jewish–Roman War, including the Siege of Masada. His most important works were The Jewish War and Antiquities of the Jews, the Jewish War recounts the Jewish revolt against Roman occupation. Antiquities of the Jews recounts the history of the world from a Jewish perspective for an ostensibly Roman audience and these works provide valuable insight into first century Judaism and the background of Early Christianity. Josephus introduces himself in Greek as Iōsēpos, son of Matthias and he was the second-born son of Matthias. His older full-blooded brother was also called Matthias and their mother was an aristocratic woman who descended from the royal and formerly ruling Hasmonean dynasty. Josephuss paternal grandparents were Josephus and his wife—an unnamed Hebrew noblewoman, distant relatives of each other and he descended through his father from the priestly order of the Jehoiarib, which was the first of the 24 orders of priests in the Temple in Jerusalem. Josephus was a descendant of the high priest Jonathon, born and raised in Jerusalem, Josephus was educated alongside his brother. In his early twenties, he traveled to negotiate with Emperor Nero for the release of 12 Jewish priests, Josephus successfully fought the Roman army in Galilee, until he was captured by the Romans during the height of the war. After the Jewish garrison of Yodfat fell under siege, the Romans invaded, killing thousands, according to Josephus, he was trapped in a cave with 40 of his companions in July 67 CE. The Romans asked the group to surrender, but they refused, Josephus suggested a method of collective suicide, they drew lots and killed each other, one by one, counting to every third person. Two men were left, who surrendered to the Roman forces, in 69 CE, Josephus was released. According to his account, he acted as a negotiator with the defenders during the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE, in which his parents and first wife died. While being confined at Yodfat, Josephus claimed to have experienced a divine revelation, after the prediction came true, he was released by Vespasian, who considered his gift of prophecy to be divine. In 71 CE, he went to Rome in the entourage of Titus, becoming a Roman citizen, in addition to Roman citizenship, he was granted accommodation in conquered Judaea and a decent, if not extravagant, pension. While in Rome and under Flavian patronage, Josephus wrote all of his known works, although he uses Josephus, he appears to have taken the Roman praenomen Titus and nomen Flavius from his patrons
Josephus
–
Photography of a Roman
portrait bust said to be of Josephus,
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Josephus
–
Galilee, site of Josephus's governorship, before the First Jewish-Roman War
Josephus
–
The
romanticized engraving of Flavius Josephus appearing in
William Whiston 's translation of his works
Josephus
–
The works of Josephus translated by
Thomas Lodge (1602).
25.
Antiquities of the Jews
–
Antiquities of the Jews contains an account of history of the Jewish people, written in Greek for Josephus gentile patrons. In the first ten volumes, Josephus follows the events of the books of the Hebrew Bible beginning with the creation of Adam. The second ten volumes continue the history of the Jewish people beyond the biblical text and this work, along with Josephuss other major work, The Jewish War, provides valuable background material to historians wishing to understand 1st-century AD Judaism and the early Christian period. In the preface of Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus provides his motivation for composing such a large work, josephan scholar Louis Feldman highlights several of the misconceptions about the Jewish people that were being circulated in Josephus time. In particular, the Jews were thought to lack great historical figures and they were also accused of harboring hostility toward non-Jews, and were thought to be generally lacking in loyalty, respect for authority, and charity. With these harsh accusations against the Jews fluttering about the Roman empire, Josephus, formerly Joseph ben Matthias, such a work is often called an apologia, as it pleads the case of a group of people or set of beliefs to a larger audience. In order to accomplish this goal, Josephus omitted certain accounts in the Jewish narrative, for example, the Song of the Sea sung by Moses and the people of Israel after their deliverance at the Red Sea is completely omitted in Josephus text. He does mention, however, that Moses composed a song to God in hexameter—a rather unusual scheme for an ancient Hebrew. Josephus also writes that Abraham taught science to the Egyptians, who in turn taught the Greeks, and that Moses set up a senatorial priestly aristocracy, which like Rome resisted monarchy. Thus, in an attempt to make the Jewish history more palatable to his Greco-Roman audience, in another example, apparently due to his concern with pagan antisemitism, Josephus omitted the entire episode of the golden calf from his account of the Israelites at Mount Sinai. Josephus Judean Antiquities is a source for the history of the Intertestamental period. Josephus also adds an account of his personal life, Vita. The extant copies of work, which all derive from Christian sources. The long one has come to be known as the Testimonium Flavianum, if genuine, it is an early extrabiblical record of Jesus, and as such is sometimes cited as independent evidence for the historical existence of Jesus. The earliest complete Greek manuscript of the Antiquities dates from the eleventh century, one of the best known translations of this work was provided by William Whiston in 1737, which has been in print continuously since then. However, the Loeb Classical Library has a recent translation by Henry St. John Thackeray and Ralph Marcus. A cross-reference apparatus for the Works of Josephus and the Biblical canon also exists
Antiquities of the Jews
–
A leaf from the 1466 manuscript of the Antiquitates Iudaice,
National Library of Poland.
26.
Ancient Greece
–
Ancient Greece was a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th-9th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and this was followed by the period of Classical Greece, an era that began with the Greco-Persian Wars, lasting from the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Due to the conquests by Alexander the Great of Macedonia, Hellenistic civilization flourished from Central Asia to the end of the Mediterranean Sea. Classical Greek culture, especially philosophy, had a influence on ancient Rome. For this reason Classical Greece is generally considered to be the culture which provided the foundation of modern Western culture and is considered the cradle of Western civilization. Classical Antiquity in the Mediterranean region is considered to have begun in the 8th century BC. Classical Antiquity in Greece is preceded by the Greek Dark Ages and this period is succeeded, around the 8th century BC, by the Orientalizing Period during which a strong influence of Syro-Hittite, Jewish, Assyrian, Phoenician and Egyptian cultures becomes apparent. The end of the Dark Ages is also dated to 776 BC. The Archaic period gives way to the Classical period around 500 BC, Ancient Periods Astronomical year numbering Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details The history of Greece during Classical Antiquity may be subdivided into five major periods. The earliest of these is the Archaic period, in which artists made larger free-standing sculptures in stiff, the Archaic period is often taken to end with the overthrow of the last tyrant of Athens and the start of Athenian Democracy in 508 BC. It was followed by the Classical period, characterized by a style which was considered by observers to be exemplary, i. e. classical, as shown in the Parthenon. This period saw the Greco-Persian Wars and the Rise of Macedon, following the Classical period was the Hellenistic period, during which Greek culture and power expanded into the Near and Middle East. This period begins with the death of Alexander and ends with the Roman conquest, Herodotus is widely known as the father of history, his Histories are eponymous of the entire field. Herodotus was succeeded by authors such as Thucydides, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Plato, most of these authors were either Athenian or pro-Athenian, which is why far more is known about the history and politics of Athens than those of many other cities. Their scope is limited by a focus on political, military and diplomatic history, ignoring economic. In the 8th century BC, Greece began to emerge from the Dark Ages which followed the fall of the Mycenaean civilization, literacy had been lost and Mycenaean script forgotten, but the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet, modifying it to create the Greek alphabet. The Lelantine War is the earliest documented war of the ancient Greek period and it was fought between the important poleis of Chalcis and Eretria over the fertile Lelantine plain of Euboea. Both cities seem to have suffered a decline as result of the long war, a mercantile class arose in the first half of the 7th century BC, shown by the introduction of coinage in about 680 BC
Ancient Greece
–
The
Parthenon, a temple dedicated to
Athena, located on the
Acropolis in
Athens, is one of the most representative symbols of the culture and sophistication of the ancient Greeks.
Ancient Greece
–
Dipylon Vase of the late Geometric period, or the beginning of the Archaic period,
c. 750 BC.
Ancient Greece
–
Political geography of ancient Greece in the Archaic and Classical periods
27.
Seleucid Empire
–
Seleucus received Babylonia and, from there, expanded his dominions to include much of Alexanders near eastern territories. At the height of its power, it included central Anatolia, Persia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, and what is now Kuwait, Afghanistan, and parts of Pakistan and Turkmenistan. The Seleucid Empire was a center of Hellenistic culture that maintained the preeminence of Greek customs where a Greek political elite dominated. The Greek population of the cities who formed the dominant elite were reinforced by immigration from Greece, Seleucid expansion into Anatolia and Greece was abruptly halted after decisive defeats at the hands of the Roman army. Their attempts to defeat their old enemy Ptolemaic Egypt were frustrated by Roman demands, contemporary sources, such as a loyalist degree from Ilium, in Greek language define the Seleucid state both as an empire and as a kingdom. Similarly, Seleucid rulers were described as kings in Babylonia and he refers to either Alexander Balas or Alexander II Zabinas as a ruler. Alexander, who conquered the Persian Empire under its last Achaemenid dynast, Darius III, died young in 323 BC. Alexanders generals jostled for supremacy over parts of his empire, Ptolemy, a former general and the satrap of Egypt, was the first to challenge the new system, this led to the demise of Perdiccas. Ptolemys revolt led to a new subdivision of the empire with the Partition of Triparadisus in 320 BC, Seleucus, who had been Commander-in-Chief of the Companion cavalry and appointed first or court chiliarch received Babylonia and, from that point, continued to expand his dominions ruthlessly. Seleucus established himself in Babylon in 312 BC, the used as the foundation date of the Seleucid Empire. The whole region from Phrygia to the Indus was subject to Seleucus, but Seleucus Nicator gave them to Sandrocottus in consequence of a marriage contract, and received in return five hundred elephants. Following his and Lysimachus victory over Antigonus Monophthalmus at the decisive Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC, Seleucus took control over eastern Anatolia, in the latter area, he founded a new capital at Antioch on the Orontes, a city he named after his father. An alternative capital was established at Seleucia on the Tigris, north of Babylon, Seleucuss empire reached its greatest extent following his defeat of his erstwhile ally, Lysimachus, at Corupedion in 281 BC, after which Seleucus expanded his control to encompass western Anatolia. He hoped further to take control of Lysimachuss lands in Europe – primarily Thrace and even Macedonia itself, nevertheless, even before Seleucus death, it was difficult to assert control over the vast eastern domains of the Seleucids. Seleucus invaded the Punjab region of India in 305 BC, confronting Chandragupta Maurya and it is said that Chandragupta fielded an army of 600,000 men and 9,000 war elephants. Archaeologically, concrete indications of Mauryan rule, such as the inscriptions of the Edicts of Ashoka, are known as far as Kandahar in southern Afghanistan and it is generally thought that Chandragupta married Seleucuss daughter, or a Macedonian princess, a gift from Seleucus to formalize an alliance. In a return gesture, Chandragupta sent 500 war elephants, an asset which would play a decisive role at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC. In addition to this treaty, Seleucus dispatched an ambassador, Megasthenes, to Chandragupta, Megasthenes wrote detailed descriptions of India and Chandraguptas reign, which have been partly preserved to us through Diodorus Siculus
Seleucid Empire
–
Tetradrachm of
Seleucus I, the horned horse, the
elephant and the anchor were all used as symbols of the Seleucid monarchy.
Seleucid Empire
Seleucid Empire
–
Coin of
Seleucus I Nicator
Seleucid Empire
–
In
Bactria, the satrap
Diodotus asserted independence to form the
Greco-Bactrian kingdom c.245 BC.
28.
Alexander Jannaeus
–
To see other rulers related or affiliated with Alexander Jannaeus, see List of Hasmonean and Herodian rulers Alexander Jannaeus was the second Hasmonean king of Judaea from 103 to 76 BC. A son of John Hyrcanus, he inherited the throne from his brother Aristobulus I, from his conquests to expand the kingdom to a bloody civil war, Alexanders reign has been generalized as cruel and oppressive with never ending conflict. Although Josephus and other refer to him by the name of Alexander Yannai. Alexander Jannaeus was the son of John Hyrcanus, by his second wife. When Aristobulus I, Hyrcanus son by his first wife, became king, Aristobulus died after a reign of one year. Upon his death, his widow, Salome Alexandra had Alexander, like his father Alexander also served as the high priest. This raised the ire of the Rabbis who insisted that two offices should not be combined. This incident led the king to turn against the pharisees and persecute them until his death, Alexanders first expedition was against the city of Ptolemais. While Alexander went forward to siege the city, Zoilus, ruler of the coastal city Dora, Alexanders Hasmonean army quickly defeated Zoiluss forces with little trouble. Ptolemais and Zoilus then requested aid from Ptolemy IX Lathyros, who had been cast out by his mother Cleopatra III, Ptolemy founded a kingdom in Cyprus after being cast out by his mother. The situation at Ptolemais was seized as an opportunity by Ptolemy to possibly gain a stronghold, when Alexander formed an alliance with Ptolemy, Ptolemy in good gesture, handed over Ptolemais, Zoilus, Dora, and Stratons Tower to Alexander. As soon as Ptolemy learned of Alexanders scheme, he invaded the Galilee region capturing Asochis, Ptolemy also initiated an attack upon Sepphoris but failed. Alexander might easily have lost his crown and Judea its independence as the result of battle, had it not been for the assistance extended by Egypt. Cleopatras two Jewish generals, Helkias and Ananias, persuaded the queen of the dangers of allowing her banished son Ptolemy to remain victorious, as a result, Ptolemy was forced to withdraw to Cyprus, and Alexander was saved. The Egyptian army withdrawn, Alexander found his hands free, Alexander captured Gadara and the strong fortress Amathus in the Transjordan region, but, in an ambush set for him by Theodorus, ruler of Amathus, he lost the battle. Alexander was more successful in his expedition against the Hellenized coastal cities, capturing Raphia, finally, in 96 BC Jannaeus outlasted the inhabitants of Gaza in a year-long siege, which he occupied through treachery, and gave up to be pillaged and burned by his soldiery. This victory gained Judean control over the Mediterranean outlet for the Nabatean trade routes, the Judean Civil War initially began after the conquest of Gaza by Jannaeus around 99 BC. Due to Jannaeuss victory at Gaza, the Nabatean kingdom no longer controlled their main route to the Mediterranean Sea at Gaza
Alexander Jannaeus
–
Alexander Jannaeus, woodcut designed by
Guillaume Rouillé. From
Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum.
Alexander Jannaeus
–
Coin of Alexander Jannaeus (103 BC to 76 BC). Obv:
Seleucid anchor and Greek Legend: BASILEOS ALEXANDROU "King Alexander". Rev: Eight-spoke wheel or star within diadem. Hebrew legend inside the spokes: "Yehonatan the King".
29.
Hasmonean dynasty
–
The Hasmonean dynasty was the ruling dynasty of Judea and surrounding regions during classical antiquity. Between c. 140 and c. 116 BCE the dynasty ruled semi-autonomously from the Seleucids in the region of Judea, some modern scholars refer to this period as an independent kingdom of Israel. In 63 BCE, the kingdom was conquered by the Roman Republic, broken up, the dynasty had survived for 103 years before yielding to the Herodian dynasty in 37 BCE. Even then, Herod the Great tried to bolster the legitimacy of his reign by marrying a Hasmonean princess, Mariamne, the dynasty was established under the leadership of Simon Maccabaeus, two decades after his brother Judah the Maccabee defeated the Seleucid army during the Maccabean Revolt. However, the power vacuum that enabled the Jewish state to be recognized by the Roman Senate c. 139 BCE was later exploited by the Romans themselves. Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II, Simons great-grandsons, became pawns in a war between Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great. The deaths of Pompey and Caesar, and the related Roman civil wars temporarily relaxed Romes grip on Israel and this short independence was rapidly crushed by the Romans under Mark Antony and Octavian. The installation of Herod the Great as king in 37 BCE made Israel a Roman client state, in AD6, Rome joined Judea proper, Samaria and Idumea into the Roman province of Iudaea. In AD44, Rome installed the rule of a Roman procurator side by side with the rule of the Herodian kings, an alternative view posits that the Hebrew name Hashmonai is linked with the village of Heshbon, mentioned in Joshua 15,27. Gott and Licht attribute the name to Ha Simeon, a reference to the Simeonite Tribe. Between 319 and 302 BC. Under Antiochus III the Seleucids wrested control of Israel from the Ptolemies for the final time and it was in Antioch that the Jews first made the acquaintance of Hellenism and of the more corrupt sides of Greek culture, and it was from Antioch that Judea henceforth was ruled. The books are considered part of the Biblical canon by the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches and apocryphal by most Protestants, the books include historical and religious material from the Septuagint that was codified by Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians. The other primary source for the Hasmonean dynasty is the first book of The Wars of the Jews by the Jewish historian Josephus, Josephus account is the only primary source covering the history of the Hasmonean dynasty during the period of its expansion and independence between 110 to 63 BCE. The books of Maccabees use the names Judea and Israel as geographical descriptors throughout for both the land and people over whom the Hasmoneans would rule, the Talmud includes one of the Hasmonean kings under the description Kings of Israel. Scholars refer to the state as the Hasmonean Kingdom to distinguish it from the kingdoms of Israel. The Hellenization of the Jews in the period was not universally resisted. Generally, the Jews accepted foreign rule when they were required to pay tribute. Nevertheless, Jews were divided between those favoring Hellenization and those opposing it, and were divided over allegiance to the Ptolemies or Seleucids, when the High Priest Simon II died in 175 BCE, conflict broke out between supporters of his son Onias III and his son Jason
Hasmonean dynasty
–
Coin of Antigonus, AD 40–37
Hasmonean dynasty
–
Coin of Alexander Jannaeus, AD 103–76
Hasmonean dynasty
–
Wojciech Stattler 's Machabeusze (Maccabees), 1844
30.
Gabriel Barkay
–
Gabriel Barkay is an Israeli archaeologist. Born in 1944 in Hungary, he immigrated to Israel in 1950, Barkay received his PhD in Archaeology from Tel Aviv University in 1985. His dissertation was about LMLK seal impressions on jar handles and he participated in the Lachish excavations with David Ussishkin. His academic areas of interest include the archaeology of Jerusalem, biblical archaeology, burials and burial customs, art, epigraphy, and glyptics in the Iron Age. Dr. Barkays most famous discoveries are two small silver scroll amulets containing the priestly benediction from the Book of Numbers, which he discovered in 1979 at Ketef Hinnom and these amulets contain the oldest surviving biblically-related inscription discovered to date, dating back to 600 BC. He also excavated the Iron Age tombs on the grounds of the École Biblique in the early 1970s, Barkay frequently appears on the History Channel show The Naked Archaeologist, which is hosted by Simcha Jacobovici. Barkay is currently a lecturer at Bar Ilan University. One of the findings of this project is a bulla containing three lines of writing in Hebrew, the project detected artifacts from various periods, but Barkay pointed out the ones from Byzantine times as indicating that the Temple Mount was inhabited in those times. In 1996, Barkay received the Jerusalem Prize for his lifes work as an archaeologist of Jerusalem, in 2014 he received the Moskowitz Prize for Zionism. The Temple Mount Sifting Project A Contentious Battle for the Temple Mounts Survival, archived from the original on September 28,2008. Archived from the original on March 28,2007, Byzantine St. Stephens Project Faculty & Staff
Gabriel Barkay
–
Gabriel Barkay at Ketef Hinnom, sitting on top of the cave where he discovered the silver plaques containing the priestly benediction from the Book of Numbers.
31.
Herod Agrippa
–
Herod Agrippa, also known as Herod or Agrippa I, was a King of Judaea from 41 to 44 AD. He was the last ruler with the royal title reigning over Judea and the father of Herod Agrippa II, the grandson of Herod the Great and son of Aristobulus IV and Berenice, he was born Marcus Julius Agrippa, so named in honour of Roman statesman Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. He is the king named Herod in the Acts of the Apostles 12,1, Josephus states that he was known in his time as Agrippa the Great. Christian and Jewish historiography take different views of this king, with the Christians largely opposing Agrippa, Agrippas territory comprised most of Israel, including Judea, Galilee, Batanaea and Perea. From Galilee his territory extended east to Trachonitis, Josephus informs us that, after the murder of his father, young Agrippa was sent by Herod the Great to the imperial court in Rome. There, Tiberius conceived a great affection for him, and had him educated alongside his son Drusus, who befriended him. On the death of Drusus, Agrippa, who had been recklessly extravagant and was deeply in debt, was obliged to leave Rome, there, it was said, he contemplated suicide. But having quarrelled with Antipas, he fled to Flaccus, proconsul of Syria and he then set sail, and landed at Puteoli. He was favorably received by Tiberius, who entrusted him with the education of his grandson Tiberius Gemellus and he also formed an intimacy with Caligula, then a popular favorite. Agrippa was one day overheard by his freedman Eutyches expressing a wish for Tiberiuss death and the advancement of Caligula, Agrippa was also awarded the ornamenta praetoria and could use the title amicus caesaris. Caligula also presented him with a gold chain equal in weight to the one he had worn in prison. In 39, Agrippa returned to Rome, and brought about the banishment of his uncle, Herod Antipas, he was granted his uncles tetrarchy, consisting of Galilee. This created a Jewish kingdom which did not include Judea at its center, after the assassination of Caligula in 41, Agrippa was involved in the struggle over the accession between Claudius, the Praetorian Guard, and the Senate. How big a part Agrippa played is uncertain, the sources differ. Cassius Dio simply writes that Agrippa cooperated with Claudius in seeking rule, flavius Josephus gives us two versions. In The Jewish War, Agrippa is presented as only a messenger to a confident, but in The Antiquities of the Jews, Agrippas role is central and crucial, he convinces Claudius to stand up to the Senate and the Senate to avoid attacking Claudius. Thus Agrippa became one of the most powerful kings of the east and his domain more or less equaled that which was held by his grandfather Herod the Great. In the city of Berytus, he built a theatre and amphitheatre, baths and he was equally generous in Sebaste, Heliopolis and Caesarea
Herod Agrippa
–
Coin minted by Herod Agrippa.
Herod Agrippa
–
Agrippa I prutah.
Herod Agrippa
–
Coin of
Herod of Chalcis, showing Herod of Chalcis with brother Agrippa I crowning Roman Emperor
Claudius I.
32.
Herod the Great
–
Herod, also known as Herod the Great and Herod I, was a Roman client king of Judea, referred to as the Herodian kingdom. Vital details of his life are recorded in the works of the 1st century CE Roman–Jewish historian Josephus, Herod also appears in the Christian Gospel of Matthew as the ruler of Judea who orders the Massacre of the Innocents at the time of the birth of Jesus. Despite his successes, including singlehandedly forging a new aristocracy from practically nothing and his reign polarizes opinion amongst scholars and historians, some viewing his legacy as evidence of success, or a reminder of his tyrannical rule. It is generally accepted that Herod was born around 73 BCE in Idumea, however, some authors think that he was born in about 72/71 BCE. He was the son of Antipater the Idumaean, a high-ranked official under ethnarch Hyrcanus II, and Cypros. Herods father was by descent an Edomite whose ancestors had converted to Judaism, Herod was raised as a Jew. A loyal supporter of Hyrcanus II, Antipater appointed his son governor of Galilee in 47 BCE and his elder brother, Phasael, was appointed governor of Jerusalem. Herod enjoyed the backing of Rome, but his brutality was condemned by the Sanhedrin, in 41 BCE, Herod and his brother Phasael, were named as tetrarchs by the Roman leader Mark Antony. They were placed in this role to support Hyrcanus II, later, Antigonus, Hyrcanus nephew, took the throne from his uncle with the help of the Parthians. Herod fled to Rome to plead with the Romans to restore Hyrcanus II to power, the Romans had a special interest in Judea because their general Pompey the Great had conquered Jerusalem in 63 BCE, thus placing the region in the Roman sphere of influence. In Rome, Herod was unexpectedly appointed King of the Jews by the Roman Senate, Josephus puts this in the year of the consulship of Calvinus and Pollio, but Appian places it in 39 BCE. Herod went back to Judea to win his kingdom from Antigonus, toward the end of the campaign against Antigonus, Herod married the granddaughter of Hyrcanus II, Mariamne, who was also a niece of Antigonus. Herod did this in an attempt to secure his claim to the throne, however, Herod already had a wife, Doris, and a young son, Antipater, and chose therefore to banish Doris and her child. After three years of conflict, Herod and the Romans finally captured Jerusalem and Herod sent Antigonus for execution to Marc Antony, Herod took the role as sole ruler of Judea and the title of basileus for himself, ushering in the Herodian Dynasty and ending the Hasmonean Dynasty. Josephus reports this as being in the year of the consulship of Agrippa and Gallus, but also says that it was exactly 27 years after Jerusalem fell to Pompey, cassius Dio also reports that in 37 BCE the Romans accomplished nothing worthy of note in the area. According to Josephus, Herod ruled for 37 years,34 of them after capturing Jerusalem, as Herods family were converts to Judaism, his religious commitment was questioned by some elements of Jewish society. Herod later executed several members of his own family, including his wife Mariamne I, Herods rule marked a new beginning in the history of Judea. Judea had been ruled autonomously by the Hasmonean kings from 140 BCE until 63 BCE, the Hasmoneans retained their titles, but became clients of Rome after the conquest by Pompey in 63 BCE
Herod the Great
–
Herod
Herod the Great
–
Copper coin of Herod, bearing the legend "ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΗΡΩΔΟΥ" ("
Basileōs Hērōdou") on the obverse
Herod the Great
–
Model of Herod's Temple
Herod the Great
–
Bronze coin of Herod the Great, minted at
Samaria.
33.
Herodium
–
Herod the Great built a palace fortress and a small town at Herodium, between 23 and 15 BCE, and is believed to have been buried there. Herodium is 758 meters above sea level, the highest peak in the Judaean Desert, today, the site is managed by the Israel National Parks Authority. Herodion is the site that is named after King Herod the Great. It was known by the Crusaders as the Mountain of Franks, arab locals call it Jabal al-Fourdis. The Modern Hebrew name, Herodion, is actually a transliteration of the Greek spelling, some speculate that the Arabic name, Fourdis, may be a corruption of the Hebrew name. In 40 BCE, after the Parthian conquest of Syria, Herod fled to Masada, on the way, at the location of Herodion, Herod clashed with the Parthians and emerged victorious. According to the Roman Jewish historian Josephus, he built a town on that spot in commemoration of his victory, at intervals it has round towers, and it has a steep ascent formed of two hundred steps of hewn stone. Within it are costly royal apartments made for security and for ornament at the same time, the surrounding plain was built up as a city second to none, with the hill serving as an acropolis for the other dwellings. Archaeologists believe that the palace was built by slaves, paid workers, Herod was considered one of the greatest builders of his time and was not daunted by geography—his palace was built on the edge of the desert and was situated atop an artificial hill. The largest of the four towers was built on a stone base 18 meters in diameter and this was most likely where Herod lived, he decorated his rooms with mosaic floors and elaborate frescoes. The other three towers, which consisted of living spaces and storage, were 16 meters in diameter, outside, several cisterns were built to collect water that was channeled into the palace. Herodium was conquered and destroyed by the Romans in 71 CE, at the beginning of the Bar Kokhba revolt sixty years later, Simon bar Kokhba declared Herodium as his secondary headquarters. Archaeological evidence for the revolt was all over the site. Inside the water system, supporting walls built by the rebels were discovered, inside one of the caves, burned wood was found which was dated to the time of the revolt. Excavation began in 1972 and was intermittent until the lead archaeologist, Ehud Netzers, Netzer worked at Herodium on behalf of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Although there is much of the left to unearth, Netzer was the premier historian and had the most experience and knowledge of Herodium. Herod the Great built a palace within the fortress of Herodium, Herod himself commissioned a lavish palace to be built between 23 and 15 BCE atop Herodium for all to see. The palace itself consisted of four towers of seven stories, a bathhouse, courtyards, a Roman theatre, banquet rooms, once Herod died and the Great Revolt started, Herodium was abandoned
Herodium
–
Aerial view of the
acropolis of Herodium
Herodium
–
Herodion excavations
Herodium
–
View of Herodion
Herodium
–
Section of mosaic floor unearthed at Herodion
34.
Photoshop
–
Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Systems for macOS and Windows. Photoshop was created in 1988 by Thomas and John Knoll and it can edit and compose raster images in multiple layers and supports masks, alpha compositing and several color models including RGB, CMYK, CIELAB, spot color and duotone. Photoshop has vast support for file formats but also uses its own PSD. In addition to graphics, it has limited abilities to edit or render text, vector graphics, 3D graphics. Photoshops featureset can be expanded by Photoshop plug-ins, programs developed and distributed independently of Photoshop that can run inside it, Photoshops naming scheme was initially based on version numbers. Photoshop CS3 through CS6 were also distributed in two different editions, Standard and Extended, in June 2013, with the introduction of Creative Cloud branding, Photoshops licensing scheme was changed to that of software as a service rental model and the CS suffixes were replaced with CC. Historically, Photoshop was bundled with software such as Adobe ImageReady, Adobe Fireworks, Adobe Bridge, Adobe Device Central. Alongside Photoshop, Adobe also develops and publishes Photoshop Elements, Photoshop Lightroom, Photoshop Express, collectively, they are branded as The Adobe Photoshop Family. It is currently a licensed software, Photoshop was developed in 1987 by the American brothers Thomas and John Knoll, who sold the distribution license to Adobe Systems Incorporated in 1988. Thomas Knoll, a PhD student at the University of Michigan, began writing a program on his Macintosh Plus to display images on a monochrome display. This program, called Display, caught the attention of his brother John Knoll, an Industrial Light & Magic employee, Thomas took a six-month break from his studies in 1988 to collaborate with his brother on the program. Thomas renamed the program ImagePro, but the name was already taken, during this time, John traveled to Silicon Valley and gave a demonstration of the program to engineers at Apple and Russell Brown, art director at Adobe. Both showings were successful, and Adobe decided to purchase the license to distribute in September 1988, while John worked on plug-ins in California, Thomas remained in Ann Arbor writing code. Photoshop 1.0 was released on 19 February 1990 for Macintosh exclusively, the Barneyscan version included advanced color editing features that were stripped from the first Adobe shipped version. The handling of color slowly improved with each release from Adobe, at the time Photoshop 1.0 was released, digital retouching on dedicated high end systems, such as the Scitex, cost around $300 an hour for basic photo retouching. Photoshop files have default file extension as. PSD, which stands for Photoshop Document, a PSD file stores an image with support for most imaging options available in Photoshop. These include layers with masks, transparency, text, alpha channels and spot colors, clipping paths and this is in contrast to many other file formats that restrict content to provide streamlined, predictable functionality. A PSD file has a height and width of 30,000 pixels
Photoshop
–
A landscape photo composited and manipulated in Photoshop
Photoshop
–
Adobe Photoshop CC Running on
Windows
Photoshop
–
A self-portrait photo merge, created using Photoshop
Photoshop
–
A 2D landscape designed in Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended
35.
Morphing
–
Morphing is a special effect in motion pictures and animations that changes one image or shape into another through a seamless transition. Most often it is used to one person turning into another through technological means or as part of a fantasy or surreal sequence. Traditionally such a depiction would be achieved through cross-fading techniques on film, since the early 1990s, this has been replaced by computer software to create more realistic transitions. In the first half of the 19th century dissolving views were a type of magic lantern show. Other uses are known, for instance Henry Langdon Childe showed groves transforming into cathedrals, the 1910 short film Narren-grappen shows a dissolve transformation of the clothing of a female character. Maurice Tourneurs 1915 film Alias Jimmy Valentine featured a subtle dissolve transformation of the character from respected citizen Lee Randall into his criminal alter ego Jimmy Valentine. The Peter Tchaikovsky Story in a 1959 TV-series episode of Disneyland features a swan automaton transforming into a ballet dancer. In 1985, Godley & Creme created an effect using analogue cross-fades in the video for Cry. In animation the effect was created long before the invention of film, a phenakistiscope designed by its inventor Joseph Plateau and/or painter Jean-Baptiste Madou was printed around 1835 and shows the head of a woman changing into a witch and then into a monster. Émile Cohls 1908 animated film Fantasmagorie featured much morphing of characters, though the 1986 movie The Golden Child implemented very crude morphing effects from animal to human and back, the first movie to employ detailed morphing was Willow, in 1988. A similar process was used a later in Indiana Jones. Both effects were created by Industrial Light & Magic using grid warping techniques developed by Tom Brigham, the cover for Queens 1989 album The Miracle featured the technique to morph the four band members faces into one gestalt image. In 1991, morphing appeared notably in the Michael Jackson music video Black or White and in the movies Terminator 2, Judgment Day and Star Trek VI, the first application for personal computers to offer morphing was Gryphon Software Morph on the Macintosh. Other early morphing systems included ImageMaster, MorphPlus and CineMorph, all of which premiered for the Commodore Amiga in 1992, other programs became widely available within a year, and for a time the effect became common to the point of cliché. For high-end use, Elastic Reality saw its first feature film use in In The Line of Fire and was used in Quantum Leap, at VisionArt Ted Fay used Elastic Reality to morph Odo for Star Trek, Deep Space Nine. Elastic Reality was later purchased by Avid, having become the de facto system of choice. The technology behind Elastic Reality earned two Academy Awards in 1996 for Scientific and Technical Achievement going to Garth Dickie and Perry Kivolowitz, the effect is technically called a spatially warped cross-dissolve. The first social network designed for user-generated morph examples to be posted online was Galleries by Morpheus, in the early 1990s computer techniques that often produced more convincing results began to be widely used
Morphing
–
Three frames form a morph from
George W. Bush to
Arnold Schwarzenegger showing the midpoint between the two extremes
36.
Second Temple
–
The Second Temple was the Jewish Holy Temple which stood on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem during the Second Temple period, between 516 BCE and 70 CE. Jewish eschatology includes a belief that the Second Temple will be replaced by a future Third Temple, the accession of Cyrus the Great of the Persian Empire in 559 BCE made the re-establishment of the city of Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Temple possible. According to the Bible, when the Jewish exiles returned to Jerusalem following a decree from Cyrus the Great, the events take place in the second half of the 5th century BCE. Listed together with the Book of Ezra as Ezra-Nehemiah, it represents the chapter in the historical narrative of the Hebrew Bible. The original core of the book, the memoir, may have been combined with the core of the Book of Ezra around 400 BCE. Further editing probably continued into the Hellenistic era, the book tells how Nehemiah, at the court of the king in Susa, is informed that Jerusalem is without walls and resolves to restore them. The king appoints him as governor of the province Yehud Medinata, there he rebuilds the walls, despite the opposition of Israels enemies, and reforms the community in conformity with the law of Moses. After 12 years in Jerusalem, he returns to Susa but subsequently revisits Jerusalem and he finds that the Israelites have been backsliding and taking non-Jewish wives, and he stays in Jerusalem to enforce the Law. A wide interest was felt in this movement, although it was regarded with mixed feelings by the spectators. The Samaritans made proposals for co-operation in the work, Zerubbabel and the elders, however, declined all such cooperation, feeling that the Jews must build the Temple without help. Immediately evil reports were spread regarding the Jews, according to Ezra 4,5, the Samaritans sought to frustrate their purpose and sent messengers to Ecbatana and Susa, with the result that the work was suspended. Seven years later, Cyrus the Great, who allowed the Jews to return to their homeland and rebuild the Temple, on his death, the false Smerdis, an impostor, occupied the throne for some seven or eight months, and then Darius became king. It was ready for consecration in the spring of 516 BCE, the Book of Haggai includes a prediction that the glory of the second temple would be greater than that of the first. Some of the artifacts from the Temple of Solomon are not mentioned in the sources after its destruction in 597 BCE. In the Second Temple, the Kodesh Hakodashim was separated by curtains rather than a wall as in the First Temple. Still, as in the Tabernacle, the Second Temple included, The Menorah for the Hekhal The Table of Showbread The golden altar of incense, with golden censers. According to the Mishnah, the Foundation Stone stood where the Ark used to be, the Second Temple also included many of the original vessels of gold that had been taken by the Babylonians but restored by Cyrus the Great. According to the Babylonian Talmud, however, the Temple lacked the Shekinah, the dwelling or settling divine presence of God, and the Ruach HaKodesh, judea became at that moment part of the Seleucid empire of Syria
Second Temple
–
Model of Herod's Temple (a renovation of the Second Temple) in the
Israel Museum, created in 1966 as part of the
Holyland Model of Jerusalem. The model was inspired by the writings of
Josephus.
Second Temple
–
This picture shows the temple as imagined in 1966 in the
Holyland Model of Jerusalem.
Second Temple
–
James Tissot - Reconstruction of Jerusalem and the Temple of Herod -
Brooklyn Museum
Second Temple
–
2A model of the Southern wall and Royal Colonnade
37.
Pyramid
–
A pyramid is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single point at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilateral, or any polygon shape, as such, a pyramid has at least three outer triangular surfaces. The square pyramid, with base and four triangular outer surfaces, is a common version. A pyramids design, with the majority of the closer to the ground. This distribution of weight allowed early civilizations to create stable monumental structures and it has been demonstrated that the common shape of the pyramids of antiquity, from Egypt to Central America, represents the dry-stone construction that requires minimum human work. Pyramids have been built by civilizations in many parts of the world, the largest pyramid by volume is the Great Pyramid of Cholula, in the Mexican state of Puebla. Khufus Pyramid is built mainly of limestone, and is considered an architectural masterpiece. It contains over 2,000,000 blocks ranging in weight from 2.5 tonnes to 15 tonnes and is built on a base with sides measuring about 230 m. Its four sides face the four cardinal points precisely and it has an angle of 52 degrees and it is still the tallest pyramid. The Mesopotamians built the earliest pyramidal structures, called ziggurats, in ancient times, these were brightly painted in gold/bronze. Since they were constructed of sun-dried mud-brick, little remains of them, ziggurats were built by the Sumerians, Babylonians, Elamites, Akkadians, and Assyrians for local religions. Each ziggurat was part of a complex which included other buildings. The precursors of the ziggurat were raised platforms that date from the Ubaid period during the fourth millennium BC, the earliest ziggurats began near the end of the Early Dynastic Period. The latest Mesopotamian ziggurats date from the 6th century BC, built in receding tiers upon a rectangular, oval, or square platform, the ziggurat was a pyramidal structure with a flat top. Sun-baked bricks made up the core of the ziggurat with facings of fired bricks on the outside, the facings were often glazed in different colors and may have had astrological significance. Kings sometimes had their names engraved on these glazed bricks, the number of tiers ranged from two to seven. It is assumed that they had shrines at the top, but there is no evidence for this. Access to the shrine would have been by a series of ramps on one side of the ziggurat or by a ramp from base to summit
Pyramid
–
The
Egyptian pyramids of the
Giza Necropolis, as seen from the air
Pyramid
–
Pyramid of the Moon,
Teotihuacan
Pyramid
–
Prasat Thom temple at
Koh Ker
Pyramid
–
Pyramids of Güímar,
Tenerife (
Spain)
38.
Wise old man
–
The wise old man is an archetype as described by Carl Jung, as well as a classic literary figure, and may be seen as a stock character. The wise old man can be a profound philosopher distinguished for wisdom and he may occasionally appear as an absent-minded professor, appearing absent-minded due to a predilection for contemplative pursuits. The wise old man is seen to be in some way foreign. In extreme cases, he may be a liminal being, such as Merlin, in medieval chivalric romance and modern fantasy literature, he is often presented as a wizard. He can also or instead be featured as a hermit and this character type often explained to the knights or heroes—particularly those searching for the Holy Grail—the significance of their encounters. In storytelling, the character of the old man is commonly killed or in some other way removed for a time. In Jungian analytical psychology, senex is the term used in association with this archetype. In Ancient Rome, the title of Senex was only awarded to men with families who had good standing in their village. Examples of the archetype in a positive form include the wise old man or wizard. The senex may also appear in a form as a devouring father or a doddering fool. In the individuation process, the archetype of the Wise old man was late to emerge, the antithetical archetype, or enantiodromic opposite, of the senex is the Puer Aeternus. He was well known as a military strategist and the most famous Prime Minister of the Zhou Dynasty of China. Nguyen Binh Khiem, also known as the White Cloud Hermit and he is a saint of the Cao Dai religion and the most prominent person of Vietnam history in the 16th century. Zarathustra, the Persian avestan sage with a dualist cosmology and theogony in perpetual tension between good and evil, see List of magicians in fantasy for more examples. Senex is a name of an old character in the novel A Wind in the Door by Madeleine LEngle. The Seventh Doctor in the long-running British science fiction series Doctor Who acted as an old man. An unused story would have explored his plans for her further, a character in episode 7 of the anime Ergo Proxy is named Senex Proxy, and is the Agent of Moonlight. She is killed by Ergo Proxy and it is possible the name Senex is in reference to the age, and immortality of the Proxies
Wise old man
–
A wise old man: "Philosopher in Meditation" by
Rembrandt
Wise old man
–
Xi Kang
Wise old man
–
Merlin instructing a young knight, from The
Idylls of the King
39.
Zechariah (priest)
–
Zechariah is a figure in the Bible and the Quran. In the Bible, he is the father of John the Baptist, a priest of the sons of Aaron, a prophet in Luke 1, 67–79, and the husband of Elizabeth who is a relative of the Virgin Mary. According to the Gospel of Luke, during the reign of king Herod, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the course of Abia, whose wife Elizabeth was also of the priestly family of Aaron. The evangelist states that both the parents were righteous before God, since they were blameless in observing the commandments, when the events related in Luke began, their marriage was still childless, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years. The duties at the temple in Jerusalem alternated between each of the lines that had descended from those appointed by king David. Luke states that during the week when it was the duty of Zechariahs family line to serve at the temple of the Lord, citing their advanced age, Zechariah asked with disbelief for a sign whereby he would know the truth of this prophecy. Consequently, when he went out to the worshippers in the temples outer courts. After returning to his house in Hebron, in the country of Judah. Elizabeth gave birth, and on the day, when their son was to be circumcised according to the commandment, her neighbours. Elizabeth, however, insisted that his name was to be John, so the family then questioned her husband. As soon as Zechariah had written on a table, His name is John, he regained the power of speech. The child grew up and waxed strong in spirit, but remained in the deserts of Judæa until he assumed the ministry that was to him the name John the Baptist. Origen suggested that the Zechariah mentioned in Matthew 23,35 as having killed between the temple and the altar may be the father of John the Baptist. This is also recorded in the Infancy Gospel of James, a work from the 2nd century. The Roman Catholic Church commemorates him as a saint, along with Elizabeth and he is also venerated as a prophet in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church on September 5. The Eastern Orthodox Church also celebrates the feast day of Zechariah on September 5, together with Elizabeth, Zechariah and Elizabeth are invoked in several prayers during the Orthodox Mystery of Crowning, as the priest blesses the newly married couple, saying Thou who didst. Accept Zechariah and Elizabeth, and didst make their offspring the Forerunner, and. bless them, O Lord our God, as Thou didst Zechariah and Elizabeth. In the Greek Orthodox calendar, Zechariah and Elizabeth are also commemorated on June 24, armenians believe that the Gandzasar Monastery in Nagorno Karabakh, Azerbaijan contains relics of Zechariah
Zechariah (priest)
–
Annunciation of the Angel to Zechariah by
Domenico Ghirlandaio (1490,
fresco in the
Tornabuoni Chapel,
Florence)
Zechariah (priest)
–
Zechariah and St. John the Baptist. A medieval Georgian fresco from Jerusalem.
Zechariah (priest)
–
The so-called "
Tomb of Absalom " or "Absalom's Pillar" in the
Kidron Valley; an inscription suggests that it is Zechariah's tomb
Zechariah (priest)
–
Domenico Ghirlandaio 's fresco Zechariah Writes Down the Name of His Son (1490,
fresco in the
Tornabuoni Chapel,
Florence)
40.
John the Baptist
–
John the Baptist, also known as John the Baptizer, was a Jewish itinerant preacher in the early first century AD. John is revered as a religious figure in Christianity, Islam, the Baháí Faith. He is called a prophet by all of these traditions, and is honoured as a saint in many Christian traditions, John used baptism as the central symbol or sacrament of his messianic movement. Most scholars agree that John baptized Jesus, scholars generally believe Jesus was a follower or disciple of John and several New Testament accounts report that some of Jesus early followers had previously been followers of John. John the Baptist is also mentioned by the Jewish historian Josephus, according to the New Testament, John anticipated a messianic figure greater than himself. Christians commonly refer to John as the precursor or forerunner of Jesus, John is also identified with the prophet Elijah. John the Baptist is mentioned in all four canonical Gospels and the non-canonical Gospel of the Nazarenes, the Synoptic Gospels describe John baptising Jesus, in the Gospel of John it is implied in John 1, 32-34. The Gospel of Mark introduces John as a fulfilment of a prophecy from the Book of Isaiah about a messenger being sent ahead, John is described as wearing clothes of camels hair, living on locusts and wild honey. John proclaims baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin, and says another will come after him who will not baptize with water, Jesus comes to John, and is baptized by him in the river Jordan. The account describes how, as he emerges from the water, the heavens open, a voice from heaven then says, You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased. Later in the gospel there is an account of Johns death and it is introduced by an incident where the Tetrarch Herod Antipas, hearing stories about Jesus, imagines that this is John the Baptist raised from the dead. It then explains that John had rebuked Herod for marrying Herodias, Herodias demands his execution, but Herod, who liked to listen to John, is reluctant to do so because he fears him, knowing he is a righteous and holy man. The account then describes how Herods daughter Herodias dances before Herod, when the girl asks her mother what she should request, she is told to demand the head of John the Baptist. Reluctantly, Herod orders the beheading of John, and his head is delivered to her, at her request, Johns disciples take the body away and bury it in a tomb. There are a number of difficulties with this passage, the Gospel wrongly identifies Antipas as King and the ex-husband of Herodias is named as Philip, but he is known to have been called Herod. Although the wording clearly implies the girl was the daughter of Herodias, many texts describe her as Herods daughter, Herodias. Since these texts are early and significant and the reading is difficult, many see this as the original version, corrected in later versions and in Matthew. Josephus says that Herodias had a daughter by the name of Salome, scholars have speculated about the origins of the story
John the Baptist
–
John the Baptist Preaching in the Wilderness by
Anton Raphael Mengs, 1760
John the Baptist
–
The Preaching of St. John the Baptist by
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
John the Baptist
–
St. John the Baptist Preaching, c. 1665, by
Mattia Preti
John the Baptist
–
John the Baptist (right) with
child Jesus, painting by
Bartolomé Esteban Perez Murillo
41.
Byzantine
–
It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, several signal events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period of transition during which the Roman Empires Greek East and Latin West divided. Constantine I reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital, under Theodosius I, Christianity became the Empires official state religion and other religious practices were proscribed. Finally, under the reign of Heraclius, the Empires military, the borders of the Empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Maurice, the Empires eastern frontier was expanded, in a matter of years the Empire lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Arabs. This battle opened the way for the Turks to settle in Anatolia, the Empire recovered again during the Komnenian restoration, such that by the 12th century Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest European city. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one of several small states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. Its remaining territories were annexed by the Ottomans over the 15th century. The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 finally ended the Byzantine Empire, the term comes from Byzantium, the name of the city of Constantinople before it became Constantines capital. This older name of the city would rarely be used from this point onward except in historical or poetic contexts. The publication in 1648 of the Byzantine du Louvre, and in 1680 of Du Canges Historia Byzantina further popularised the use of Byzantine among French authors, however, it was not until the mid-19th century that the term came into general use in the Western world. The Byzantine Empire was known to its inhabitants as the Roman Empire, the Empire of the Romans, Romania, the Roman Republic, Graikia, and also as Rhōmais. The inhabitants called themselves Romaioi and Graikoi, and even as late as the 19th century Greeks typically referred to modern Greek as Romaika and Graikika. The authority of the Byzantine emperor as the legitimate Roman emperor was challenged by the coronation of Charlemagne as Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III in the year 800. No such distinction existed in the Islamic and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was more seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire. In the Islamic world, the Roman Empire was known primarily as Rûm, the Roman army succeeded in conquering many territories covering the entire Mediterranean region and coastal regions in southwestern Europe and north Africa. These territories were home to different cultural groups, both urban populations and rural populations. The West also suffered heavily from the instability of the 3rd century AD
Byzantine
–
Tremissis with the image of
Justinian the Great (r. 527–565) (see
Byzantine insignia)
Byzantine
–
Byzantine
lamellar armour klivanium (Κλιβάνιον) - a predecessor of Ottoman krug
mirror armour
Byzantine
–
The Baptism of Constantine painted by
Raphael 's pupils (1520–1524,
fresco, Vatican City,
Apostolic Palace);
Eusebius of Caesarea records that (as
was common among converts of early Christianity) Constantine delayed receiving
baptism until shortly before his death
Byzantine
–
Restored section of the Theodosian Walls.
42.
Christian
–
A Christian is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christian derives from the Koine Greek word Christós, a translation of the Biblical Hebrew term mashiach, while there are diverse interpretations of Christianity which sometimes conflict, they are united in believing that Jesus has a unique significance. The term Christian is also used as an adjective to describe anything associated with Christianity, or in a sense all that is noble, and good. According to a 2011 Pew Research Center survey, there were 2.2 billion Christians around the world in 2010, by 2050, the Christian population is expected to exceed 3 billion. According to a 2012 Pew Research Center survey Christianity will remain the worlds largest religion in 2050, about half of all Christians worldwide are Catholic, while more than a third are Protestant. Orthodox communions comprise 12% of the worlds Christians, other Christian groups make up the remainder. Christians make up the majority of the population in 158 countries and territories,280 million Christian live as a minority. In the Greek Septuagint, christos was used to translate the Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ, in other European languages, equivalent words to Christian are likewise derived from the Greek, such as Chrétien in French and Cristiano in Spanish. The second mention of the term follows in Acts 26,28, where Herod Agrippa II replied to Paul the Apostle, Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. The third and final New Testament reference to the term is in 1 Peter 4,16, which believers, Yet if as a Christian, let him not be ashamed. The city of Antioch, where someone gave them the name Christians, had a reputation for coming up with such nicknames, in the Annals he relates that by vulgar appellation commonly called Christians and identifies Christians as Neros scapegoats for the Great Fire of Rome. Another term for Christians which appears in the New Testament is Nazarenes which is used by the Jewish lawyer Tertullus in Acts 24, the Hebrew equivalent of Nazarenes, Notzrim, occurs in the Babylonian Talmud, and is still the modern Israeli Hebrew term for Christian. A wide range of beliefs and practices is found across the world among those who call themselves Christian, denominations and sects disagree on a common definition of Christianity. Most Baptists and fundamentalists, for example, would not acknowledge Mormonism or Christian Science as Christian, in fact, the nearly 77 percent of Americans who self-identify as Christian are a diverse pluribus of Christianities that are far from any collective unity. The identification of Jesus as the Messiah is not accepted by Judaism, the term for a Christian in Hebrew is נוּצְרי, a Talmudic term originally derived from the fact that Jesus came from the Galilean village of Nazareth, today in northern Israel. Adherents of Messianic Judaism are referred to in modern Hebrew as יְהוּדִים מָשִׁיחַיים, the term Nasara rose to prominence in July 2014, after the Fall of Mosul to the terrorist organization Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The nun or ن— the first letter of Nasara—was spray-painted on the property of Christians ejected from the city, where there is a distinction, Nasrani refers to people from a Christian culture and Masihi is used by Christians themselves for those with a religious faith in Jesus. In some countries Nasrani tends to be used generically for non-Muslim Western foreigners, another Arabic word sometimes used for Christians, particularly in a political context, is Ṣalībī from ṣalīb which refers to Crusaders and has negative connotations
Christian
–
Set of pictures for a number of famous Christians from various fields.
Christian
–
The
Church of St Peter near
Antakya, Turkey, in
Antioch the disciples were called Christians.
Christian
–
Nazareth the city is described as the childhood home of
Jesus, in many languages employ the word Nazarene as a general designation for those of the Christian faith.
Christian
–
Japanese Christians ("Kurisuchan") in Portuguese costume, 16–17th century.
43.
Monk
–
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of other monks. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many religions, in the Greek language the term can apply to women, but in modern English it is mainly in use for men. The word nun is typically used for female monastics, although the term monachos is of Christian origin, in the English language monk tends to be used loosely also for both male and female ascetics from other religious or philosophical backgrounds. However, being generic, it is not interchangeable terms that denote particular kinds of monk, such as cenobite, hermit, anchorite, hesychast. In Eastern Orthodoxy monasticism holds a special and important place. Orthodox monastics separate themselves from the world in order to pray unceasingly for the world and they do not, in general, have as their primary purpose the running of social services, but instead are concerned with attaining theosis, or union with God. However, care for the poor and needy has always been an obligation of monasticism, the level of contact though will vary from community to community. Hermits, on the hand, have little or no contact with the outside world. Orthodox monasticism does not have religious orders as are found in the West, basil the Great and the Philokalia, which was compiled by St. Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain and St. Makarios of Corinth. Hesychasm is of importance in the ascetical theology of the Orthodox Church. Meals are usually taken in common in a dining hall known as a trapeza. Food is usually simple and is eaten in silence while one of the brethren reads aloud from the writings of the Holy Fathers. The monastic lifestyle takes a deal of serious commitment. Within the cenobitic community, all monks conform to a way of living based on the traditions of that particular monastery. In struggling to attain this conformity, the comes to realize his own shortcomings and is guided by his spiritual father in how to deal honestly with them. For this same reason, bishops are almost always chosen from the ranks of monks, Eastern monasticism is found in three distinct forms, anchoritic, cenobitic, and the middle way between the two, known as the skete. One normally enters a community first, and only after testing and spiritual growth would one go on to the skete or, for the most advanced. However, one is not necessarily expected to join a skete or become a solitary, in general, Orthodox monastics have little or no contact with the outside world, including their own families
Monk
–
St. Anthony the Great of Egypt, considered the Father of
Christian Monasticism
Monk
–
Monastery of St. Dionysius on
Mount Athos.
Monk
–
General view of
Holy Trinity-Makaryev Monastery, on the
Volga River in
Nizhny Novgorod Oblast,
Russia.
Monk
–
Order of Saint Benedict
44.
Tomb of Zechariah
–
The Tomb of Zechariah is an ancient stone monument adjacent to the Tomb of Benei Hezir. The monument is a monolith—it is completely carved out of the solid rock, the lowest part of the monument is a crepidoma, a base made of three steps. Above it there is a stylobate, upon which there is a decoration of two columns between two half ionic columns and at the corners there are two pilasters. The capitals are of the Ionic order and are decorated with the egg-and-dart decoration, the upper part of the monument is an Egyptian-style cornice upon which sits a pyramid. Interestingly the fine masonry and decoration that is visible on the western side, on the other sides of the tomb the work is extremely rough and unfinished, it seems as if the work was abruptly stopped before the artists could finish the job. Because ye have forsaken the Lord, he hath also forsaken you
Tomb of Zechariah
–
Tomb of Zechariah
45.
Zechariah ben Jehoiada
–
Zechariah ben Jehoiada /zɛkəˈraɪ. ə/ is regarded as one of the Prophets of the Tanakh in Judaism, and is possibly alluded to in the New Testament. He is mostly known for the event that led to his martyrdom, Zechariah was the son of Jehoiada, the High Priest in the times of Ahaziah and Jehoash of Judah. After the death of Jehoiada, Zechariah condemned both King Jehoash and the people for their rebellion against God and this so stirred up their resentment against him that at the kings commandment they stoned him, and he died in the court of the house of the Lord. In rabbinical literature, Zechariah was the son-in-law of the king, and, being also a priest, prophet and he was killed in the priests courtyard of the Temple on a Sabbath which was likewise the Day of Atonement. Later, when Nebuzar-adan, the captain of Nebuchadnezzars body-guard, came to destroy the Temple, the Assyrian asked the Jews what that phenomenon meant, but when they replied that it was the blood of sacrifices, he proved the falsity of their answer. Still the blood continued to boil, whereupon Nebuzar-adan cried, Zechariah, Zechariah. for thee have I slain the best of them, and at these words the blood ceased to effervesce. Most modern Christian commentators identify this Zechariah with the one whose murder Jesus alluded to in Matthew 23,35 and Luke 11, Zechariah is then understood as representing as the last of the martyrs recorded in the Masoretic Text. D. C. Allison notes that Luke 11, 49-51 echoes 2 Chron 24, 17-25 by referring to the sending of the prophets, the blood of Zechariah, the Gospel of Matthew records his name as Zechariah son of Berechiah. This identification can be reconciled if Jehoiada was Zechariahs grandfather, however, the prophet Zechariah is listed as the son of Berechiah and some therefore make this identification. The Book of Zechariah is commonly dated to c, 520-518 BC, several hundred years after the reign of Jehoash of Judah, and in this interpretation Zechariah is chronologically the last of the martyrs. According to Jewish tradition, an ancient monument in the Kidron Valley outside the Old City of Jerusalem is identified as the tomb of Zechariah, Zechariah Ben Jehoiada in the Jewish Encyclopedia
Zechariah ben Jehoiada
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The Murder of Zechariah by
William Brassey Hole.
Zechariah ben Jehoiada
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Tomb of Zechariah
46.
Tomb of Benei Hezir
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The Tomb of Benei Hezir is the oldest of four monumental rock-cut tombs that stand in the Kidron Valley, Jerusalem and date to the period of the Second Temple. It is a complex of burial caves, the tomb was originally accessed from a single rock-cut stairwell which descends to the tomb from the north. At a later period an additional entrance was created by quarrying a tunnel from the courtyard of the Tomb of Zechariah and this is also the contemporary entrance to the burial complex. The facade of the tomb is a classical dystillos-in-antis two pillars between two pilasters above which there is undecorated architrave containing an engraved a Hebrew inscription, above the architrave there is a Doric frieze and a cornice. The tombs architectural style is influenced by ancient Greek architecture only, the tomb dates to the second century B. C. the Hellenistic period and the time of the Hasmonean monarchy in Jewish history. Architecturally the Tomb of Zechariah postdates the complex, and the Tomb of Absalom is considered to have been erected even later, the tomb is effectively a burial cave dug into the cliff. It features a Hebrew inscription which makes it clear that this was the site of a Priestly family by the name of Benei Hezir. The inscription on the monument mentions the sons of Hezir, meaning, the Hebrew term is bnei Hezir, usually written in English as Benei Hazir. The common misspelling Hazir is clearly wrong, since that means pig in Hebrew, the tombs inscription reveals that the cave was used by several generations of the Benei Hezir family. As well, it indicates that this was a wealthy family, in the Hebrew Bible there are two mentions of men with the name of Hezir. One was the founder of the 17th priestly division, the one was among the leaders who set their seal to the covenant with Nehemiah. It is not known if there is a relation between the family buried here and the biblical Hezirs, the inscription mentions a nefesh, which is also a designation for a magnificent structure built on or alongside the tomb. It has been proposed that the Tomb of Zechariah, a solid object which stands by the entrance. Another option is that the facade to the north of the Doric dystilos-in-antis was the original nefesh. Although it did not survive it is possible to reconstruct the upper part of the facade as a Nabatean tower with a decorative door and window
Tomb of Benei Hezir
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Benei Hezir tomb
Tomb of Benei Hezir
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Detail of the surviving half of the loggia
47.
Simeon (Gospel of Luke)
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According to the Biblical account, Simeon had been visited by the Holy Spirit and told that he would not die until he had seen the Lords Christ. On taking Jesus into his arms he uttered a prayer, which is used liturgically as the Latin Nunc dimittis in many Christian churches. In some Christian traditions, this meeting is commemorated on February 2 as Candlemas or more formally, the Presentation of the Lord and his prophecy is used in the context of Our Lady of Sorrows. Simeon is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and his feast day is February 3. The sole mention in the New Testament of Simeon is as follows, some writers have identified this Simeon with Shimon ben Hillel, though Hillel was not a priest. According to a tradition in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Simeon had been one of the translators of the Septuagint. As he hesitated over the translation of Isaiah 7,14 and was going to correct it to γυνή and this would make him well over two hundred years old at the time of the meeting described in Luke, and therefore miraculously long-lived. Holy Simeon is the term used in Catholic sources. Though St. Simeon the Prophet and St. Simeon the Elder are also found, Simeon senex occurs in some Latin texts. Aged Simeon in poetry and music, including the Candlemas anthem When Mary to the Temple Went by Johannes Eccard, Simeon Theodochos is used in Greek Orthodox tradition. In Russian Orthodox tradition this becomes Simeon Bogo-priimets, the events in the life of Saint Simeon the Righteous are observed on both February 2 and 3. Since this day focuses more on Jesus and Mary, the observation on February 3 is specific to St. Simeon, in Christian tradition, the day of a saints death is often celebrated as his feast day. The Christian Feast of the Purification therefore corresponds to the day on which Mary, according to Jewish law and it is also used in the Roman Catholic Compline and Orthodox Vespers. The Nunc dimittis has been set to music by notable composers. In the Roman Catholic Church, the Presentation is the fourth Joyful Mystery of the Rosary, in the Church of England, the Presentation of Christ in the Temple is a Principal Feast. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, it is one of the twelve Great Feasts, Simeon the Righteous is commemorated in his own right on February 3. In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, Simeon is commemorated with Anna the Prophetess on February 3 on the Feast of the Holy and Righteous Simeon the God-Receiver, december 25 currently occurs 13 days later on the Julian Calendar than on the Gregorian calendar. The Gregorian revision of the calendar occurred in 1582, well after the Great Schism between the Eastern and Western Christian churches in 1054, as a result, many Orthodox Christians celebrate St. Simeons feast day on February 16
Simeon (Gospel of Luke)
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Simeon the Godreceiver by
Alexei Egorov. 1830–40s
Simeon (Gospel of Luke)
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Simeon in the Temple, by
Rembrandt van Rijn, 1631
Simeon (Gospel of Luke)
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The Meeting of Our Lord (Russian icon, 15th century)
Simeon (Gospel of Luke)
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Chest of Saint Simeon from year 1380 in
Zadar, photographed around 1900
48.
Napoleon
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Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars. As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814, Napoleon dominated European and global affairs for more than a decade while leading France against a series of coalitions in the Napoleonic Wars. He won most of these wars and the vast majority of his battles, one of the greatest commanders in history, his wars and campaigns are studied at military schools worldwide. Napoleons political and cultural legacy has ensured his status as one of the most celebrated and he was born Napoleone di Buonaparte in Corsica to a relatively modest family from the minor nobility. When the Revolution broke out in 1789, Napoleon was serving as an officer in the French army. Seizing the new opportunities presented by the Revolution, he rose through the ranks of the military. The Directory eventually gave him command of the Army of Italy after he suppressed a revolt against the government from royalist insurgents, in 1798, he led a military expedition to Egypt that served as a springboard to political power. He engineered a coup in November 1799 and became First Consul of the Republic and his ambition and public approval inspired him to go further, and in 1804 he became the first Emperor of the French. Intractable differences with the British meant that the French were facing a Third Coalition by 1805, in 1806, the Fourth Coalition took up arms against him because Prussia became worried about growing French influence on the continent. Napoleon quickly defeated Prussia at the battles of Jena and Auerstedt, then marched the Grand Army deep into Eastern Europe, France then forced the defeated nations of the Fourth Coalition to sign the Treaties of Tilsit in July 1807, bringing an uneasy peace to the continent. Tilsit signified the high watermark of the French Empire, hoping to extend the Continental System and choke off British trade with the European mainland, Napoleon invaded Iberia and declared his brother Joseph the King of Spain in 1808. The Spanish and the Portuguese revolted with British support, the Peninsular War lasted six years, featured extensive guerrilla warfare, and ended in victory for the Allies. The Continental System caused recurring diplomatic conflicts between France and its client states, especially Russia, unwilling to bear the economic consequences of reduced trade, the Russians routinely violated the Continental System and enticed Napoleon into another war. The French launched an invasion of Russia in the summer of 1812. The resulting campaign witnessed the collapse of the Grand Army, the destruction of Russian cities, in 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russian forces in a Sixth Coalition against France. A lengthy military campaign culminated in a large Allied army defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813, the Allies then invaded France and captured Paris in the spring of 1814, forcing Napoleon to abdicate in April. He was exiled to the island of Elba near Rome and the Bourbons were restored to power, however, Napoleon escaped from Elba in February 1815 and took control of France once again. The Allies responded by forming a Seventh Coalition, which defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in June, the British exiled him to the remote island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died six years later at the age of 51
Napoleon
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The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries, by
Jacques-Louis David, 1812
Napoleon
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Imperial coat of arms
Napoleon
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Napoleon's father
Carlo Buonaparte was
Corsica 's representative to the court of
Louis XVI of France.
Napoleon
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Napoleon Bonaparte, aged 23, Lieutenant-Colonel of a battalion of Corsican
Republican volunteers
49.
Mortar (weapon)
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A mortar is a device that fires projectiles at low velocities and short ranges. The mortar has traditionally used as a weapon to propel explosive mortar bombs in high-arcing ballistic trajectories. The weapon is typically muzzle-loading with a short, often smooth-bore barrel, Modern mortars are light and easily portable. They can be used for fire support with a variety of ammunition. Mortars have been used for hundreds of years, originally in siege warfare, many historians consider the first mortars to have been used at the 1453 siege of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror. A European account of the 1456 siege of Belgrade by Giovanni da Tagliacozzo said that the Ottoman Turks used seven mortars that fired stone shots one Italian mile high. The time of flight of these was long enough that casualties could be avoided by posting observers to give warning of their trajectories. However, earlier mortars were used in Korea in a 1413 naval battle when Korean gunsmiths developed the Wangu, the earliest version of the Wangu dates back to 1407. Choe Hae-san, the son of Choe Mu-seon, is credited with inventing the first Wangu. Early mortars, such as the Pumhart von Steyr, were large and heavy. Simply made, these weapons were no more than iron bowls reminiscent of the kitchen, an early transportable mortar was invented by Baron Menno van Coehoorn. This mortar fired a shell, which had a fuse lit by the hot gases when fired. This innovation was taken up, necessitating a new form of naval ship. Mortars played a significant role in the Venetian conquest of Morea, an early use of these more mobile mortars as field weapons was by British forces in the suppression of the 1719 Jacobite rising at the Battle of Glen Shiel. High angle trajectory mortars held an advantage over standard field guns in the rough terrain of the West Highlands of Scotland. Coehorn-type mortars of approximately 180 pounds weight were used by both sides during the American Civil War and these answered as coehorns, and shells were successfully thrown from them into the trenches of the enemy. The mortar had fallen out of use by the Napoleonic era. The German Army studied the Siege of Port Arthur, where heavy artillery had been unable to destroy defensive structures like barbed wire, the solution they developed was a short-barrelled rifled muzzle-loading mortar called the Minenwerfer, and was built in three sizes
Mortar (weapon)
Mortar (weapon)
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French mortar diagram from the 18th century.
Mortar (weapon)
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Engraving depicting the Venetian siege of the
Acropolis of Athens, September 1687. The trajectory of the shell that hit the Parthenon, causing its explosion, is marked.
Mortar (weapon)
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US Army 13-inch mortar "Dictator" was a rail-mounted gun of the
American Civil War.
50.
French Invasion of Egypt (1798)
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It was the primary purpose of the Mediterranean campaign of 1798, a series of naval engagements that included the capture of Malta. On the scientific front, the led to the discovery of the Rosetta Stone. At the time of the invasion, the Directoire had assumed power in France. The notion of annexing Egypt as a French colony had been discussion since François Baron de Tott undertook a secret mission to the Levant in 1777 to determine its feasibility. Baron de Totts report was favorable, but no action was taken. Nevertheless, Egypt became a topic of debate between Talleyrand and Napoleon, which continued in their correspondence during Napoleons Italian campaign, in early 1798, Bonaparte proposed a military expedition to seize Egypt. Bonaparte wished to establish a French presence in the Middle East, with the dream of linking with Frances ally Tipu Sultan. At the time, Egypt had been an Ottoman province since 1517, but was now out of direct Ottoman control, in France, Egyptian fashion was in full swing – intellectuals believed that Egypt was the cradle of western civilization and wished to conquer it. French traders already based on the River Nile were complaining of harassment by the Mamluks and he assured the Directoire that as soon as he had conquered Egypt, he will establish relations with the Indian princes and, together with them, attack the English in their possessions. The Directoire agreed to the plan in March 1798, though troubled by its scope, however, they saw that it would remove the popular and over-ambitious Napoleon from the center of power, though this motive long remained secret. Rumors became rife as 40,000 soldiers and 10,000 sailors were gathered in French Mediterranean ports, a large fleet was assembled at Toulon,13 ships of the line,14 frigates, and 400 transports. To avoid interception by the British fleet under Nelson, the target was kept secret. It was known only to Bonaparte himself, his generals Berthier and Caffarelli, Bonaparte was the commander, with subordinates including Thomas Alexandre Dumas, Kléber, Desaix, Berthier, Caffarelli, Lannes, Damas, Murat, Andréossy, Belliard, Menou, and Zajączek. His aides de camp included his brother Louis Bonaparte, Duroc, Eugène de Beauharnais, Thomas Prosper Jullien, and the Polish nobleman Joseph Sulkowski. The fleet at Toulon was joined by squadrons from Genoa, Civitavecchia and Bastia and was put under the command of Admiral Brueys and Contre-amirals Villeneuve, Du Chayla, Decrès and Ganteaume. The fleet was about to set sail when a crisis developed with Austria, the crisis was resolved in a few weeks, and Bonaparte received orders to travel to Toulon as soon as possible. It is claimed that, in a meeting with the Directoire, Bonaparte threatened to dissolve them and directeur Reubell gave him a pen saying Sign there. Bonaparte arrived at Toulon on 9 May 1798, lodging with Benoît Georges de Najac, grand Master von Hompesch replied that only two foreign ships would be allowed to enter the port at a time
French Invasion of Egypt (1798)
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Battle of the Pyramids
French Invasion of Egypt (1798)
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Napoleon's arrival in Malta
French Invasion of Egypt (1798)
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French Campaign in Egypt, 1798–99
