Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem

The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is a major Christian holy site, as it marks the traditional place of Christ's birth. It is also one of the oldest surviving Christian churches.

The first evidence of a cave in Bethlehem being venerated as Christ's birthplace is in the writings of Justin Martyr around 160 AD. The tradition is also attested by Origen and Eusebius in the 3rd century.

In 326, Constantine and his mother St. Helena commisioned a church to be built over the cave. This first church, dedicated on May 31, 339, had an octagonal floor plan and was placed directly above the cave. In the center, a 4-meter-wide hole surrounded by a railing provided a view of the cave. Portions of the floor mosaic survive from this period. St. Jerome lived and worked in Bethlehem from 384 AD, and he was buried in a cave beneath the Church of the Nativity.

The Constantinian church was destroyed by Justinian in 530 AD, who built the much larger church that remains today. The Persians spared it during their invasion in 614 AD because, according to legend, they were impressed by a representation of the Magi — fellow Persians — that decorated the building. This was quoted at a 9th-century synod in Jerusalem to show the utility of religious images.

Muslims prevented the application of Hakim's decree (1009) ordering the destruction of Christian monuments because, since the time of Omar (639), they had been permitted to use the south transept for worship.

The Crusaders took Jerusalem on 6 June 1009. Baldwin I and II were crowned there, and in an impressive display of tolerance the Franks and Byzantines cooperated in fully redecorating the interior (1165-69). A Greek inscription in the north transept records this event.

The Church of the Nativity was much neglected in the Mamluk and Ottoman periods, but not destroyed. Much of the church's marble was looted by the Ottomans and now adorns the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. An earthquake in 1834 and a fire in 1869 destroyed the furnishings of the cave, but the church again survived.

In 1847, the theft of the silver star marking the exact site of the Nativity was an ostensible factor in the international crisis over the Holy Places that ultimately led to the Crimean War (1854–56).

In 1852, shared custody of the church was granted to the Roman Catholic, Armenian and Greek Orthodox churches. The Greeks care for the Grotto of the Nativity.

Petra

      Petra is a historical and archaeological city in the southern Jordanian governorate of Ma'an that is famous for its rock-cut architecture and water conduit system. Another name for Petra is the Rose City due to the color of the stone out of which it is carved.

On the edge of the Arabian Desert, Petra was the glittering capital of the Nabataean empire of King Aretas IV (9 B.C. to 40 A.D.). Masters of water technology, the Nabataeans provided their city with great tunnel constructions and water chambers. A theater, modelled on Greek-Roman prototypes, had space for an audience of 4,000. Today, the Palace Tombs of Petra, with the 42-meter-high Hellenistic temple facade on the El-Deir Monastery, are impressive examples of Middle Eastern culture.

The site remained unknown to the Western world until 1812, when it was introduced by Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. It was described as "a rose-red city half as old as time" in a Newdigate Prize-winning poem by John William Burgon. UNESCO has described it as "one of the most precious cultural properties of man's cultural heritage". Petra was named amongst the New7Wonders of the World in 2007 and was also chosen by the Smithsonian Magazine as one of the "28 Places to See Before You Die".

                                      MONA LISA

           The Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait of a woman by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, which has been acclaimed as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world".

Despite being the most famous painting in the world, the Mona Lisa is - like all of Leonardo's works - neither signed nor dated. Its title comes from the biography of Leonardo written by the 16th century Mannerist painter and biographer Giorgio Vasari (1511-74), and published around 1550, which reported his agreement to paint the portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo, a Florentine dignitary and wealthy silk merchant. Vasari also mentioned that Leonardo employed musicians and troubadours to keep her amused, which might explain her enigmatic smile. As usual, Leonardo procrastinated endlessly over the painting - notably the position of the subject's hands - and continued working on it for another 20 years. Sadly, La Gioconda has become so famous and so valuable that it is almost impossible to catch more than a quick glimpse of her, as she sits inscrutably in the Louvre behind the non-reflective glass of her temperature-controlled security box

The portrait shows the subject sitting upright and sideways in a chair, with her face and chest turned slightly towards the viewer: a posture derived from the 'pyramid' image used to depict a sitting Madonna. Her left arm sits comfortably on the armrest of the chair and is clasped by the hand of her right arm which crosses her front. The slightly protective position of her arms, as well as the armrest, creates a sense of distance between sitter and spectator.

The background landscape behind the sitter was created using aerial perspective, with its smoky blues and no clearly defined vanishing point. It gives the composition significant depth, although its details reveal a clear imbalance between the (higher) rocky horizon to the right, compared to the (lower) flatlands stretching away on the left. This imbalance adds to the slightly surreal atmosphere of the picture.

Another slightly surreal feature of the Mona Lisa is her lack of eyebrows and eyelashes. This was not a deliberate act of the artist, as scans indicate that originally she was given both. It is possible that the colour pigment used for these facial features has since faded or been inadvertently removed during cleaning.

The Mona Lisa exemplifies Leonardo's contribution to the art of oil painting, namely his mastery of sfumato. This painterly technique involves the smooth, almost imperceptible, transition from one colour to another, by means of ultra-subtle tonal gradations. Evident throughout the painting, Leonardo's use of sfumato is particularly visible in the soft contouring of Lisa Gherardini's face, around the eyes and mouth. It was a technique of oil painting that he had already demonstrated with great success in The Virgin of the Rocks (1483-5).

The general impression created by the Mona Lisa portrait is one of great serenity, enriched by a definite air of mystery. The serenity comes from the muted colour scheme, the soothing sfumato tonality, and the harmony created by the sitter's pyramid-shaped pose and understated drapery. The mystery stems from a number of factors: first, her enigmatic half-smile; second, her gaze, which is directed to the right of the viewer; her hands which have a slightly unreal, lifeless quality - almost as if they belonged to a different body.

Created by one of the greatest Old Masters in the history of art, the Mona Lisa is a wonderful example of High Renaissance aesthetics of the early cinquecento, and has become an unmistakable icon of Western culture: a fact recognized by Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), the father of modern art, in his parody entitled L.H.O.O.Q.

Pyramid Construction

Pyramid is a structure whose outer surfaces are traingular and converge to a single point at the top , making the shap roughly a pyramid in the geometric sence .

A pyramid's design, with the majority of the weight closer to the ground, and with the pyramid- ion on top means that less material higher up on the pyramid will be pushing down from above. This distribution of weight allowed early civilizations to create stable monumental structures. More recently, it was shown that the common shape of the pyramids of antiquity, from Egypt to Central America, represents the dry-stone construction that requires minimum human work .

The Step Pyramid 

The earliest form of pyramid, the step, dates back to the 3rd Dynasty, and consists of several steps. A descending passage from the north leads to the burial chamber. Underground galleries surround the pyramid on all but the south sides. The first, and probably the only step pyramid ever completed, is that of King Netjerykhet Djoser at Saqqara. The Step pyramid is not near as pleasing to the eye as the True pyramid, which could explain the quick abandonment of this type of pyramid.

The True Pyramid

The true pyramid is a natural development and improvement on the step pyramid. The first true pyramids were introduced in at the beginning of the 4th Dynasty. The structure of a True Pyramid is virtually the same as a step pyramid. Packing blocks are stacked until the dimensions were right, and then finishing blocks (usually limestone) were the last touch. The aesthetics are much more pleasing than the step pyramid, but the construction isn't really that different.