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Little Tibet
Little Tibet The robust architecture is in harmony with the severe landscape. We imagine ourselves to be in Tibet but we are in Ladakh, the western corner of the Tibetan cultural region that became part of India in the 19th century. Neighbouring Tibet is now, much to its chagrin, part of China. A ‘Line of…
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Moonscape
Moonscape Hiking in the rarified atmosphere of the deserted mountain scenery of Ladakh, a sporadic cairn may remind you that you are not walking on the moon but on earth. Or else the mirage of a distant buddhist monastery can enlighten you. Photo of the week: Temisgam, seen from Meptak La, 3845m, Trek from Himis…
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Red mountain
Red mountain After last week’s blue lake, today a red mountain. Wonders of the high altitude desert of Trans Himalayan Ladakh. Photo of the week: Between Rongti La and Meptak La, Trek from Himis Shukpa to Ang, Ladakh, India 2019
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Blue lake
Blue lake Unlike Lake Pangong where bullets of the Indian and Chinese armies may whizz past your head, the other big lake of Ladakh, Tsomoriri, is all peace and quiet. At 4500 m. altitude only the thin air may cause some discomfort. Photo of the week: Tsomoriri Lake, Ladakh, India 2019
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David
David In last week’s post we could find a tiny plastic David at the Trevi Fountain in Rome. Here he is a full-size bronze copy of the original marble sculpture, overlooking Florence from the elevated Piazzale Michelangelo. For a stone replica we have to descend into town to the Piazza della Signora. And if we…
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Fontana di Trevi
Fontana di Trevi Except for Mary with her dead son on her lap, Venus, David, the Sabine woman … I think they all would rather like splashing about in the fountain under the watchful eye of Oceanus. I miss Anita Ekberg, she would have fit in nicely among them. Photo of the week: Souvenir stall,…
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Selinunte
Selinunte This photo tells a similar story as the one of last week, through its subject as well as its composition. Here we are in an ancient Greek city, not in western Turkey but on the south coast of Sicily, Italy. And the temple in the distance on the left is not of Ionic but…
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Priene
Priene The temple of Athena in Priene was built in the Ionic order, clearly recognizable from the shape of the capitals with two volutes (scrolls). In the course of time the whole temple had collapsed or was destroyed. All the pillars were down and their drums were spread around. Only in the sixties of the…
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Drum field
Drum field After last week’s Gerasa-Jerash, another example of past and present next to each other, 24 centuries apart. In the foreground, drums of pillars of the temple of Athena in the ancient Greek city of Priene, Turkey. In the background, the neatly organized agricultural fields of the plain below. Archaic Priene had a sea…
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Gerasa-Jerash
Gerasa-Jerash Only a stone’s throw away: Walk down the South Decumanus road of Roman Gerasa into present day Jerash – or vice versa – and you bridge a time span of two thousand years in just a few minutes. Actually this switching in time is nothing extraordinary. It happens with every visit to historical monuments…
καιρός remembered
… the right moment, position chosen, shoot …
καιρός remembered 