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Teotihuacan pyramids to grab the sky

In Rome, was recently opened an exhibition of Mesoamerican civilization. Visit in June 1998 on the archaeological site Mexican.

It's not magic, smoky sensations new age, or passing vague à l'âme . Going under the scorching sun the worn steps of the pyramid of the sun, you feel the heart beat of the people of Teotihuacan, two thousand years later, a little less. They rose to the sky, framed by the rigid political and religious ceremonial places them in the step up to that level in the hierarchy of land, maybe the mirror of heaven. Watched the bloody sacrifices of human hearts offered to the Creator God, or those that appear now more cosmological deities as beings intermediate between God and the creature, rather than actual deities. A civilization that arouses curiosity, because in some ways it is modern, suddenly disappeared before the second millennium after Christ. Why? It is not known. There are only hypotheses that the passionate Mexican academia.

In 1878, Jose Maria Velasco, Mexican painter of media fame and a little inspiration, he painted a picture in a way that marks the beginning of the rediscovery of the site where once stood the "City of the Gods," Teotihuacan translation ostium. He placed the tripod on top of the hill that hid the Pyramid of the Moon, and realistic portrayal of the way of the dead, the pyramid of the sun and the roughness of the area. Still not imagine what that landscape hidden that alternated regularly suspicious lumps and natural topography.

Just a couple of decades earlier, Baron Alexander von Humbolt, famous and inveterate traveler Teutonic, had attracted the attention of the adventurers of the time on those remains covered with earth and vegetation to which the memory was lost in the mists of time without, however, that fame was never completely disappeared: among others, the same Charles V he was interested in three centuries earlier. Von Humbolt and Velasco mark so without knowing the beginning of a wild looting, which lasted until a few decades ago. As for the Etruscans here.

was Ramon Almaraz, just over half of the nineteenth century to take the first official excavations, followed by other famous people, such as French Désiré Charnay. But it was not until the sixties of this century to see the light return of an architectural complex that most unsettling human eye can see.

So here some time to fix the reference points necessary to understand this lost civilization. Scholars seem to have come to the conclusion that we should go back to the second century before Christ to find the rural origins of Teotihuacán, with a rapid concentration of population on the slopes of the mountains around the site. About a century later began the construction of the two main pyramids of the complex now visible, it was a ceremonial center that allowed the Community of joining the nascent society more easily. The construction of the main structures in the area of \u200b\u200bworship continued for a couple of centuries, but added it lasted until the sixth century, when the Teotihuacan civilization reached its peak. As in other Mesoamerican civilizations, was indeed a widespread tradition of covering the places of worship now fallen into disuse with other buildings, a symbol of the power of the rulers of the moment.

Meanwhile, the city had expanded to an area of \u200b\u200b22 square kilometers, the company was rigidly structured and its influence had spread in a radius of about a thousand kilometers around the main center. It was during this time that the city was probably the largest in the world, much more than Istanbul, Rome being reduced to nothing by the collapse of the empire.

One element to emphasize in this development, which is impressive for its time, is the presence of many foreign groups in the city, from people Zapotec, Maya, and some groups huaxtechi núhualt. But these very presence seems to have not been without fault in the collapse of civilization. The climax, in fact, at the same time marked the beginning of the rapid decline of the city and the whole of civilization. On this subject, the discussions between scholars are fierce, and has not yet reached a final conclusion on the reasons for their disappearance. However, it appears to have been problems related to overcrowding and a long drought which have led to the end of Teotihuacán in the space of a couple of centuries. External attacks and riots engulfed the population that held political power and religious society, in favor of cities-satellites, which became the most powerful city-mother herself, to supplant it completely.

Visiting the city of the gods, going up and down thousands of steps of different sizes that cover the different buildings, not just worship, and imagining the splendor that must have covered the different constructions renderings and precious decorations, one can not meditate on the vicissitudes of human fate. The long and not yet completed restoration of the site has revived the bold architecture of buildings - always linked to elements of worship, and in particular the observation of the sun and stars of the night - without being able to reproduce the decorations, but you can admire important remains in the local museum or in the Anthropology of Mexico City. Teotihuacán but has yet to reveal at least half of its wonders, hidden from the earth in which nature and man - it seems that, for reasons of religion and superstition, the various structures "obsolete" are been intentionally covered by the population now unable to erect other larger - have hidden so much beauty. From the pyramids of the Sun and the Moon, even a cursory glance reveals a tourist movements that can not be natural.

But already found the statues, decorations and rebuilt the urban structures, we have the double wonder of a lost civilization: a population that, while ignoring the metallurgy, failed even to pervert the course of a great river and to erect buildings seventy feet high, without compromising the aesthetic that sometimes amazes, as before certain masks decorated with rare and modern beauty.

Teotihuacán manifested by its very presence the tension "natural" for human Mesoamerican deity. It seems that the populations were originally monotheistic, with a large pantheon of deities related to the intermediate nature, especially the sun and the moon.

Marithe Francois Girbaud Online

Dublin, Old Library at Trinity


The financial situation of the Republic of Ireland is under close observation. Seems to have been thought too great ... Visit a sacred place of culture "Irish" in February 2004.

It is a sacred place and does not want be. Yet something tells me that in this long tunnel is something immortal breath. The Old Library Trinity hidden treasures of ancient leather-lined paper, but above all riches of the soul and spirit accumulated over the centuries. Dusty volumes thousands of times, and then lovingly dusted carefully, as if even the dust that was as old paper. And there's also the truth, because in the interstices of the pages have been deposited centuries have yielded. What? How? When? The mysteries remain buried under the repeated and ever new layers of dust, those confused with gunpowder, those others are mixed to dust of drought and famine, and even those with mixed confetti of gaining independence.

In the "long room" conversation with Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Swift and Defoe, whose busts stand guard strutting the wooden alcoves that contain the ever printed, cataloged the centuries from the bottom up: a, b, c ... and yet aa, bb, cc ... Each alcove has its own ladder, which allows access to higher shelves, alphabetically mature ones. The pegs keep track of the research of scientists and curious to rise, as they appear less worn, bear the traces of the hunger for knowledge of the centuries gone by. Everything has been repainted several times, most recently - the walls, shelves, sometimes parquet - pins except those that trace the history of discriminating.

The silence is absolute, or nearly so. The books absorb the sounds, and so the wood and carpets. Even the most ancient Gaelic harp, you know - dates back to 1014, and according to legend, belonged to Brian Boru, then king of Ireland - is silent, and indeed absorbs phonemes and decibels to sublimate them in near-silence of every library-as-you -must. They are not even bearable clicks of the cameras, even the most subtle because digital: technology seems to be rejected by the paper and parchment and papyrus and cornucopia

... The sense of time expands in this gallery where the culture is eternal in the woods, but even more prominent in the marble busts. But where even the transience of human destiny is spreading dramatically, pointing out that the dust is the heritage not only of things, but also man. So is the Old Library, the jewel of Dublin very proud of its ancient treasures. Rare.

Pokemon Firered Nature

Belém, wealth and debt


Portugal experienced a deep economic crisis. Chinese President Hu Jintao offered to cover the holes by "buying" the debt of the country. But the wealth of Belém are certainly not for sale. Visit of 2004.

must be abstraction from the bridge when it was dedicated to Salazar, and now to April 25, the day of his fall from power. Forget the shame of the monumental stool at Christ the King and dramatic silhouette of refineries across the Tagus. Then you can put to imagine the caravels set sail for new worlds and new markets, started by those rulers who possessed the spirit of commerce in the blood. As Manuel I, to whom we owe these masterpieces of art Manueline, in fact, who made a charming port of Belem to the ocean, while an encouragement and an exorcism. Marble and gold.

note passing sailboats driven by strong winter breeze and driven by oil strength of the engine roaring from the balcony of the Renaissance Tower of Belém, built by Manuel I between 1515 and 1521. I am sure that the boat owner on Sunday and the Both of professional driver looking in the direction of the tower, or rather, the statue of the Virgin and Child, also known as Our Lady of the happy return home, a symbol of protection for sailors who undertake short or long travel. The statue faces the sea. And at the time of construction of the tower was also in the midst of the waves, because the bank is at least a hundred meters further than it does today.

The lodge is the most elegant imaginable in a building, however, defensive Thanks to the elegant arches inspired by Italian architecture of the time. Today the light is crystal clear, the sun kisses the white stone of the tower turning it into vertical momentum towards the deep blue winter sky. The sun's rays can barely penetrate the thick stone walls, and to illuminate the narrow spiral staircase that links the four upper levels of the tower, giving relief to the wasting of time and many steps that have relied on these irremediably steps carved and deformed. Once they were the footsteps of soldiers, animated by the spirit of territorial conquest, and today are the steps of carefree tourists animated by the spirit of conquest photo, and nothing more. But then the war was rife, now rule the money, or maybe the money then prevailed and now the war. Who knows.

imperial steps instead are those that allow access to the various buildings that make up the other great masterpiece of Manueline, the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, built from our usual king Manuel I, around 1501, just returned to the caravels conquering Vasco de Gama. A triumph of architectural and sculptural skill, daring and bold decorative perspective. The cloister. Ah, the cloister of João de Castilho, its arches and its perforated stone balustrades and carved precious! One would stay there no limits dìorari and timing draconian omnivores by tourists! But you should find yourself in solitude, meditating on the fallacy of human wealth, the thirst for conquest that never disappears, although the depth of the human soul that came to more intimacy turns to the most superhuman superhuman appearance.

If the cloister calls to the vertically downward, toward the intimacy, the church instead of pushing to the vertically upward, toward the God who is in heaven. That is somewhere over the vaults of the nave is supported by those palm trees that are octagonal columns, thin but highly decorated. A space wisely distributed by the light filtering from colored stained glass.

The modern monument to the discoveries, massive construction built by Salazar in 1960, to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the death of Henry the Navigator, does not contrast too much on the banks of the Tagus, at the monastery. Magellan, Vasco de Gama, Cabral, Colombo, hoisted on the bow of a caravel declining imaginary we are doing well, staring into the ocean that had challenged as you embark on a bold down in the depths of the soul, or how to scale the way to the sky, terrifying vertical ascents. Perhaps they have taken the infinite horizontal ocean depths or because they can not get to ascend the throne of God. Heroism in the plural.

Bubble Breaker For Pc

Milan, with the sun and the rain


there are more allegations in the capital city of Lombardy for the pollution they besieged it, a brief visit to the town of Ambrose.

is beautiful or not beautiful Milan? It depends on the sun. If there is, and the smog is blown away by the wind, the city radiates art and history, is mandatory if the fog and damp gray side of the city overwhelms the aesthetic aspirations.

Milan version # 1 meet in a fantastic morning of October, coming from the mouth of the metro to the Sforzesco Castle. Even the employees on strike Cobas Atm seem happy and peaceful in their demonstration, and their yellow flags and red flags seem medieval background of one of the most beautiful manor architecture Italic. Circuit, the first castle, the circumnavigation, observing light and shadow polygons, which alternate in the ditch - les DUVES , the French would say - around the imposing walls of the construction of the Sforza, the giant colas on the first floor windows protected by the same sturdy railings. The two large courtyards of red bricks and green grass seem even cheerful, as they are today lit by the sun, softened in the openings and closings, humanized in size, pleasing even in conditions which are so unpleasant to the cobblestone walking. I'm here, in fact, to pay homage, I would say to contemplate Michelangelo's last sculpture, the Pieta Rondanini that made the climax of his imperfection of perfection. Since truth is even more fascinating than in detailed black and white photographs that have stripped and coated with light. The route of entry and exit - long corridors, narrow, dark staircase, frescoed halls as if they were covered with simple geometries and crazy at the same time - seems a treaty protology ed'escatologia, assigning members to the Michelangelo sculpture of the burden of this honor, the "already and not yet."

How not to conclude a visit to the Parco Sempione Castello Sforzesco which enhances the Triennale di Milano, fascist in its linear architecture, the best intellectual fascism. The library kissed by the sun filtering is an invitation to the culture slow and contemplative, while the coffee flooded by the rays is an uncontrollable incitement to talk of art and books, people and events, while the cup bears all of the Valtellina Rosso The color palette of the Sforza.

Milan completely different, but always bright, is that I see along the four miles of Via Padova, via which becomes China and the Philippines, North African and sub-Saharan Africa. But so far, despite some crime, despite the impatience of some League. Massage and barbers to 20 € to 4 € alternated with 24 shops open 24 hours where you can find everything, just everything. While riding the old park has been transformed into art and culture that immigrants are able to understand: the nature and the visual arts are able to brothers. Up to Piazzale Loreto, round country rich in history and architectural insignificance. Flee south to Porta Venezia, and then in the short area of \u200b\u200bVia Mozart, sublime collection of art nouveau , the villas of the good society and the nouveau riche, hanging from the balconies that look like forests raised to the goddess of light. Admired in the Villa Necchi Campiglio landscapes - graphic white and ocher and furrowed and striated green and red and blacks and segmented - by Tullio Pericoli seems appropriate elevations of the extraordinary care of the entire district.

The last rays of sun of the day I was at St. Ambrose, the Jewel, the story becomes stone and forms the soul of the Church Ambrogina, the pride of the Milanese industrious and sober, yet elegant to paroxysm of pure aesthetics. Breathtaking penetrate through the entrance to the south, to see the two towers - and the ... ... - and the steep gable roofs, the large porch in the maternal and paternal forms in austerity. A few steps to get off the roadway and then the porch of the basilica, and other pooch to climb the altar steps, polished and chipped, the marble alter their security, to death in the mad joy - another Milanese - below the altar of stones' gold and silver, polished stones and rounded, as if to remind the cobbled streets of the city once and institutionalize creativity of the people of Milan.

Milan version No. 2 instead of the meeting the next day in the most central of central Milan. I leave the station at the mouth of San Babila, in addition to living good finance and trade in Milan, at the mouth of the ways of fashion, haute couture. Everything here is meant to be "high", although there are not that high in fog and clouds. Follow Viale Vittorio Emanuele II, I run in the arcades of luxury boutiques, while the rich, especially the new I would say, the old seem to have recently chosen the path of sobriety of luxury that is not Pavesa modestly but is presents. The apse of the Cathedral restored, while the Madunina is still supported by scaffolding, but always unpleasant to read, gives a certain vision of the enormous effort of the cathedrals of Europe, but surrounded by the flood of people that Saving Silverman consumer is compelled in a few streets, and fifty yards further on the human carpet becomes human desert. A Europe of the consumer who does not know if you do not build more luxury goods, external finance and opulence of a European luxury falters, however, before the relentless penetration of the Army of the East, full of suggestions for marketing ed'imitazione, but with a human avalanche that has no limits.

Gallery is its exemplification, and so on Turin, Via Montenapoleone and all other avenues of luxury. Streets that do not know what to do with the ancient tradition of hard work in Milan. A myth, and like all myths not going to be more reality but expressions of reality. And more moves away from reality, that is more ed'ozio living annuity, the more the industry grows and the myth of the haughty and the lack of generosity are soaring. Cardinal Tettamanzi lives behind the Duomo, in a building of ancient lineage discreet and elegant, but simple, really simple. Few people go down there and just listen to his words that invoke the solidarity of the rich, the necessary justice, the overriding need to continue to think of the children, to another, to work more than the money. It looks like a Cassandra in cardinal, but the more necessary in an age gray, as the Milan version No. 2.