Architectural History
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Sunset at Shwe Sandaw Pagoda
Shwe Sandaw Pagoda was built in Bagan, Myanmar, in 1057 AD by King Anawrahta. It consists of five levels of red brick and a large stupa that is topped with a golden umbrella. The white color you see on the temple now wasn’t always there. Up until 1957, Shwe Sandaw Pagoda had retained most of its original design, aside from aging, minor repairs and upkeep. But in 1957, the Pagoda Trustees decided to renovate and modernize the temple by adding plaster embellishments and limewash on the upper half of the temple. When full-scale restorations began in the 1990’s, they restored the plaster and limewash finish instead of removing it to make it…
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The Standing Buddha and Wat Indharavihan
Hidden in the heart of Bangkok is a small 200-year-old Buddhist temple built in honor of one of Thailand's most revered Buddhist monks. Complete with a small temple and a 100ft standing Buddha, this temple is worth stopping to see.
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Pura Penataran Pande Peliatan
One of the fascinating things about Bali is that there are, literally, temples everywhere. Because of this, Bali is known as “the Island of a Thousand Puras”. Any street you turn down will have a temple of some sort, whether it be a grand edifice or a ‘small’ local establishment. I hesitate to call them small, though, because even the small ones are of a decent size. On our first day in Bali, we got to see one of the smaller temples and were just fascinated by the layout and design. We had been on our way to Gunung Kawi and saw this neat temple shortly after leaving our hotel. We…
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The Great Mosque of Cordoba
In the southern half of Spain, in one of the oldest cities in the region, lies one of the most unique structures in religious history. Beginning in 152 BC, in a city that would become the capital of the Islamic Emirate and, for a time, the most populous city in the world, a sacred edifice was erected that has fascinated the public for generations. First, it was a temple built by the Romans, next it was converted to a Catholic church by the Visigoths and then it became an Islamic mosque built by Abd al-Rahman I in 784 AD before being altered in a way that has never been done…
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The Caryatid of the Erechtheion
In the time around 420 BC in Athens, the creation of one of the world’s most classic pieces of architecture was taking place. The Persians had destroyed much of the city during a recent invasion, so Pericles, the general of Athens from 461-429 BC, commissioned two men to restore the damaged buildings atop the Acropolis. Along with restoring the sacred religious building the Persians had destroyed, Pericles also requested that they build another building, The Erechtheion. It was then that Mnesicles, an architect, and Phidias, a sculptor and mason, created what is now known as The Caryatid of the Erechtheion (khanacademy.org; Ross). Purpose The purpose for the Erechtheion is lightly…
