I’ve been lucky enough to be in places where the Milky Way feels so close that you might as well be swimming in it – and I have had a WowWowWow relationship with Dark Night Skies!So I was very excited when I saw the Expedition Society/Lumen call. In the middle of the pandemic, during the first lockdown, …
As I started to visit Iran, I started to meet Iranian craftsmen – often high up on rudimentary scaffolding. I also started to realise how little is understood about their impressive skills and knowledge. With many master craftmen (ustads) relatively old, and relatively few young men now wanting to undergo the lengthy, often dirty, and …
As I washed my dad’s dead body, I thought of how much of a Cycle of Life there is. How life cycles on and on. My dad must have washed me when I was a baby: his first child. I freshened him up through his time in the hospice. Just because he died, I wasn’t going to stop washing …
Many travellers stop at Natanz to see the gorgeous Ilkhanid (early 14th century) façade. It’s one of the most spectacular sights in Iranian architecture, and it’s only an hour or so from Isfahan, on the way to Kashan. With its blend of glazed tile, stucco, and terra cotta it’s been described as a 3-D version …
Even though the Safavid ‘Coronation carpet’ failed to sell at Sothebys recently, its story can’t fail to interest you. It was used at the coronation of two British Kings, Edward VII (in 1902) and George V (1911), as well as at the marriage of Princess Mary (1922). Click here to see what I’m talking about The …
Orientalist display techniques continued even into the famous 1910 exhibition in Munich – which expressly aimed to avoid having an Arabian Nights-style impression “somehow arousing the impression that [the exhibition halls] were buildings, halls, chambers of the Orient” . The exhibition started in an elegant foyer with pointed arches and mashrabiya. This was just a prelude to …
Kuh-e Khwaja is a complex 30 kilometers southwest of Zabol in the eastern part of Sistan-Baluchestan Province, very near the Afghan border. The main ruins are on the southeastern promontory of a high hill overlooking the marshes of Lake Hamun (the historical Lake of Zereh) in the delta of the ancient Hirmand River. This small …
Muqarnas, sometimes called ‘stalactite vaulting’, are a three-dimensional form of architectural decoration of domes, niches and the underside of vaults. For the craftsmen-constructors, they require the application of detailed geometric principles; for the viewer, they allow infinitely imaginative reviewing. This Timurid muqarnas – from the Khargird madrese in NE Iran – has additional painted stucco …
As I started to visit buildings in Iran, I started to meet Iranian craftsmen – often high up on rudimentary scaffolding. I also started to realise how little is understood about their impressive skills and knowledge. With many master craftmen (ustads) relatively old, and relatively few young men now wanting to undergo the lengthy, often …
These two short films (both with sound) explore the Ghiyathiyya Madrese at Khargerd in NE Iran. The madrese (religious school) was constructed in 1438-45 and is a showpiece of Timurid decorative art: with six different sorts of tiles, some elegantly geometrical wallpainting and amazing plaster effects in the muqarnas (stalactite vaulting).