Khooni Darwaza

The Khooni Darwaza looks deceivingly pleasant.  But it's not really so friendly a spot and it's history is as disturbing as it's name:  Bloody Gate.

There are violent tales of the monument's bloodstained past.  Which are true and which stories belong to other gates is lost to history.

Maybe this is where Mughal emperors Jehangir and Aurangzeb executed rivals.

Maybe this is where refugees were murdered during the 1947 riots.

Maybe this is a gate where criminals were executed and displayed.

Two incidents associated with the archway are accurate:
The 1857 murder of the last three princes and heirs to the Mughal dynasty,
and the 2002 rape of a medical student.

I like gates, I like history, and I like a well-told story. 
But here the echoes of brutality from days gone by are a little too easy to hear, especially in a city nicknamed "the rape capital".
Perhaps when the dynasty of violence toward women is finally ended and they can feel safe on their own streets, this gate's bloody history can fade away

Jerome

The wickedest town in the west?  The fourth largest town in Arizona territory?

These are the things Jerome used to be known for.

Now it's known as a good day trip from Phoenix and the home of several art galleries.

It's hillside 1930s state is mostly preserved and it gets enough attention to save it from being a complete ghost town. 

Tacoma Narrows Bridge

While paying the toll to cross the bridge over the Tacoma Puget Sound, my friend asked the toll-taker about the history of the bridge. 

My realization:  I know so little about Washington or Tacoma in context. 

Back in school when we learned about structural vibration and resonance, we watched a short clip of Galloping Gertie, a bridge that collapsed in a 1940 windstorm.  It was a dramatic bridge failure.

"I haven't had a question about that before," said the toll-taker.  I don't know much about the history, except that the one to the north there was built to replace Galloping Gertie, and this one here's been open about six years and I've worked here since then."
I nodded at the reference to the replaced bridge, but still did not connect it to my actual location.  The Tacoma Narrows Bridge today is two bridges--the one built in the 1950s to replace the collapsed bridge, and a second added in 2007 to help with traffic flow.

Galloping Gertie bridge's structural collapse was sort of Titanic-like.  Awe-inspiring man-made construction, first of its kind is a gigantic failure laying at the bottom of a body of water. 
When I saw the video in high school, the state of Washington and its bridges were so far away, and the Mackinaw bridge was built structurally sound because of the engineering lessons learned--all was still right with the world (read:  me and any bridge I might cross over were safe).
I never expected to find myself actually on the Tacoma Narrows bridge that had replaced the most epic bridge failure ever captured on film. 
Even when I actually drove over it, I still did not realize where I was or connect it to it's historical context.

 A bridge in Washington collapsed only a few days before I arrived in the state.
And I drove over Galloping Gertie.

The things you never imagined you would connect to your own life outside of science class...wild.

King George's legacy

A friend and I wandered through an old hotel in Delhi and I found this photograph on the wall--evidence that the statue of King George V used to inhabit the chatri near India Gate.
It reminded me that I wanted to go visit the statue and see how the park was coming along.

In some ways, I was not surprised by what I found:  the park was still under construction, though it had been over a year.

But I was surprised by other things.
King George was all wrapped up and bound in black plastic.

As were some of the other statues.
It's disturbing, isn't it?

The construction workers and their families had "moved in" and were slowly improving the surroundings.  The scrub brush was all gone, replaced by granite and marble walkways.  But there was a long way to go yet.
Before they are through there will be an amphitheater and a 31 meter flag pole to tower over the coronation pillar left behind by the British.

The only news I could find said the park might be ready in a year's time.  The authorities were also hard at work trying to come up with a name to replace "coronation park", something to be proud of.

I understand the love/hate tension with King George.  And I admire the efforts of the park committee--they could just throw out all the old, unwanted statues and erase this part of their history. 
Instead, they're going to turn it into a nice place to play cricket--admirable.

An old water tank

Since I'm always searching for step wells, this landmark was interesting to me.
At one time it must have been a man made tank, but now the water is all dried up--within the last five years even, the residents told me. 

There is evidence of walls and possibly stairs, but it's all buried by dirt and weeds.

Now it's just a big crater in the ground behind the neighborhood.
The way water sources shift and history is overgrown and forgotten is fascinating to me.  Somewhere, someone knows this story--it's just a matter of finding that person.

Who was Humayan?

If I'm visiting an already-been-there place, I like to be sure to still see something and learn something new--or to help someone else to.
To see the place through a new view.

This time around, I read up on who Humayan was.
The son of Babur of the Timurid dynasty, he was a slight disappointment as a warrior. He preferred books, poetry and art (and opium).
It was probably these preferences that caused him to loose his empire and flee to Persia when one of his rivals defeated him in battle.
In Persia, though, he made friends and gained a whole new appreciation for design and gardening.
After fifteen years, he returned to Delhi and took back his empire.
For a while anyway, 'cause it's rather anti-climactic that he died within a year. There are several versions of how he died; here are three:

1. Humayan was standing on the roof of the library at his palace when he heard the call to prayer.
He rushed down the stairs to pray.
Fell.
And died.

2. He was reading a book as he descended the steep stairs of his library.
Fell.
And died.

3. His habit of using opium did not help his balance on the steep stairs.
So he fell.
And died.

Take your pick.

So Akhbar and Haji Begum built the magnificent tomb.
It was the first of it's kind, heavily influenced by Persian architects.
It was the first use of marble combined with red sandstone (meaning very expensive). No cost was spared, as the statement made was meant to be: this is the tomb of not just any man, but an emperor.
And it was the first tomb to be built on a raised platform--which was later perfected in the design of the Taj Mahal.

Design was an integral part of what the Mughals left behind in India. They especially had a thing for symmetry.
As I learned this time around,
the back of the tomb is pretty similar to the front. Symmetry at work.

Right.
So there's your history lesson for Humayan, who he was, and why his tomb is so grand.

Coronation Park part I: Construction park

Way out north, there is a
statuary graveyard. When India gained it's independence, there were several British statues that found themselves to be homeless. So they were moved all together to a new location.

In the move and over time, the identities of most of these statues were lost. Former viceroys, military officers... the whole place was forgotten and unvisited.

Until recently, when the Delhi centennial was in the news and someone paid attention to it.
Then it was decided to clean up the park, trim down the shrubbery and make it a nice, visitable place.

The whole statue graveyard/construction site park is kind of amusing.

It should be nice when it's actually finished.

But for the time being, we were walking around amongst the mud and dirt and unlaid bricks. We would not have been let in to a place like that in the US.
I find it very ironic to walk around somewhere with forgotten statues next to piles of brick next to big machinery.
Ironic how history turns out. It's not even close to what the original creators of the statues had in mind.

Pir Ghaib

A short walk away from the Mutiny Memorial is Pir Ghaib.
Being that it's located in the civil lines area, some of the fighting of 1857 took place here.
If time hasn't damaged the buildings enough, the battle did and there is not a lot left of what used to be a palace.

Pir Ghaib is named for the 'Disappearing Saint'. The story goes that a holy man came to this remote area to meditate. People would come to him with their requests and gone was his peace and quiet.
So one day he just disappeared.

The buildings are from around 1360 when Firoz Shah Tuglak--who also used to visit the saint--built himself a hunting lodge and what seems to be an observatory here.

Maybe Firoz thought he could find the missing saint with the astronomical tools.
Maybe he looked for another connection to a higher power.
Maybe he just wanted to go hunting and sleep under the stars.

Glimpses of the Qutab

What if you had the Qutab Minar looking down on you every day all day?

As I was walking around the Mehrauli district, I couldn't help but catch glimpses of it here and there among the buildings.

How wild is that?
I mean, HISTORY, right there looking at you from the end of your street.
That's cool stuff.

The Qutab

The amazing Qutab Minar.
This 800 year old tower is the tallest--and oldest?--minaret in India.

It is the first example of Muslim architecture within India and, therefore, has some unique qualities.

It combines Hindu and Muslim art and architecture, with its rounded and angled design, its elaborate carvings,
and the combination of wheels (typical in Hindu design) and Koranic verses.

Another unique detail is the lack of keystone in the arches.
The builders making the mosque complex had never themselves seen an arch, only had it described to them. So they did not understand the concept of a keystone for support. Instead they just made the stones the shape they were told to make.
No keystone, yet here stand the arches all these years later.

Something else in the Qutab complex is an iron pillar that has the claim of being a metallurgic mystery: all these centuries later and it is still not rusted.
Hm.

Yeah, it's a pretty cool place, the Qutab Complex.
Lots of history hangs out there.

Cow on a pillar

The Kansas City Stockyards: where you'd come to buy and sell your cows. Where cows became beef.
The giant cow marks the spot.

Here's a little bit of history trivia for you today.
Sixteen railroad lines converged here in Kansas City because this is the place you wanted to be if beef was your line of business. Bring the cows, sell the cows, slaughter the cows, pack the meat, and ship 'em out again.

The reason I took note of the stockyard area is not only because there's a giant statue of a cow high above the tree line, but also because it's kind of horrifying compared to the holy cow-ness of India. I've not seen a cow on a pillar here, but I wouldn't be surprised to--and for entirely different and religious reasons.

The cow--to eat it or to worship it.

Actually, I suppose there are those in America who "worship" their steak, burgers, bbq ribs...

Cow on a pillar. Thought-provoking.

Westport pioneers

We were looking for Lewis and Clark.
And this is what we found: the Westport Pioneers.
Alexander Majors, the guy who came up with the idea of the Pony Express.
John Calvin McCoy, the guy who founded Kansas City.
And Jim Bridger, whose claim to fame is being a "mountainman".

There was a map at their feet which did not tell us much about where we were or where we wanted to go.
But maybe it only meant to tell us where we'd come from, historically, that is.

Our stop with the pioneers was brief. Just long enough to leave with some fun pictures and a good memory.

The Last Supper

So this is the image we're all familiar with: DaVinci's famous Last Supper fresco.

He was inspired by those like Fra Angelico, whose work was always very two dimensional, but told the story it needed to tell.

But I have this same question. I know that with everyone sitting on one side of the table it's easier to paint them and give them all equal respect. It was believed to be an important technique for the story telling of the day. And it has become what we expect to see when the Last Supper is mentioned.
I think we can be pretty certain, though, that Jesus and his disciples were not sitting all on one side of a table with halos on anyone's head.

Tintoretto had an interesting take on the usual icon--turn it on an action angle and give it, ya, lots of action. That guy had an imagination.

Harry Anderson was bold enough to paint the back of some of the disciples.

And Nikolai Ge suggests they weren't even at a table.
!

I think it's safe to say none of the artists were actually there and know what it was truly like when Jesus and his closest friends took their last meal together. It was a moment just before the whole world was about to change, never to be same again.
Your perspective does make a pretty big difference.

Tughlaq and his city

There used to be gold palaces and great armies here.
Not much is left.

When wars and intrigue left an opening for a slave to take over the throne of Delhi, he built his own city and named it after himself: Tughlaqabad.
But then, assassinated by his own son, Tughlaq and his city faded into ruins.

If you look beyond the mud and cricket players to imagine the glorious heyday of the city, maybe you can see a shimmer of gold from long ago.