Out Of The Sand

The Guardian (UK) ^ | 3-11-2006 | Rory McCarthy

[blam]

Out of the sand

It was built in 1504, but abandoned 13 years later and left to crumble. Now, after a huge restoration project, Yemen's Amiriya palace is considered the world's most beautiful mosque.

By Rory McCarthy

Saturday March 11, 2006
The Guardian (UK)

Amiriya palace ... the exterior during restoration and (right) paintings inside one of the domes. Photographs: Yahya Arhab/EPA

There is a photograph of a small town in Yemen taken a century ago by a German photographer called Hermann Burchardt. It is one in a series of remarkable pictures taken during an expedition through the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula, where the Red Sea washes down between the port of Aden and the horn of Africa and out into the Indian Ocean. The photograph, only slightly scratched and fogged with age, shows the town of Rada sitting on a broad plain beneath a range of mountains that stretch row upon row into the distance. The plain is divided into neat, rectangular wheat fields that seem to grow right into Rada's high street. Most of the dozen or so houses are of the familiar Yemeni design: built of baked brick or adobe, narrow, four or five storeys tall and dotted with arched windows.

In the middle of the photograph is a vast building that dwarfs its neighbours in scale and accomplishment. Even in a country with Yemen's remarkable history of building, this complex stands out. It is a white, three-storeyed palace with two towers, six close-knit, bulging domes on the roof, crenellations along its ramparts, long arched balconies, ornate wooden window boxes and remnants of fine stone carving. What Burchardt could not have realised is that inside, hidden under layers of grime and thick whitewash, were walls of the most delicate stucco carving...

[blam]

I saw this featured in Discover Magazine. When the woman in charge of the restoration was asked by one of the Islamist locals when he would be able to go there and pray, she said, never! It's a museum.

[operation clinton cleanup]

Never before seen depiction of Muhammad also found at the mosque...

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

Laughing Hysterically!

Great. I'm still laughing. You are tooooo much!

[operation clinton cleanup]

Thanks... that picture makes me laugh just thinking of it! Will take every opportunity to post it all over the web.

[SunkenCiv]

A Blast from the Past. Was in the keyword, but never got pinged or posted.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)