Architecture · The East · Monarchies · Heritage · Paris

Diagram of the installation of the Luxor Obelisk on Place de la Concorde in Paris

Diagram of the erection of the Luxor Obelisk in Paris, presented by Muhammad Ali, ruler of Egypt, to France and to Charles X, the last of the Bourbons to reign in fact, in the 1830s. The engraving on the other side of the pedestal shows the dismantling of the obelisk

NB! · Archive · Art · Monarchies · Humour

When She Put On All Her Best at Once

When she put on all her best at once. Photographs of Elizabeth II from 1986, when she was 60, taken by Curtis Hoopper for work on the Queen's portrait. These pictures were found in the artist's studio after his death.

NB! · Monarchies · Society Pages

King Felipe VI of Spain, 53, and Queen Letizia, 48, in Masks at a Dinner Party in Andorra

NB! · In the Press · Books · Moscow

The Parnassian Mockingbird makes the top 100 books at the Non/fiction intellectual literature fair, and the AST stand reported that it sold out yesterday

The Parnassian Mockingbird has made the top 100 books at the Non/fiction intellectual literature fair, and at the AST stand they said it had sold out as early as yesterday. But should you need it, the book is still available in the shops and online

Geography · Moscow · Observations · Reportage

Moscow Metro retro train styled after the first Series A cars

I rode the retro Metro train of 1935. The interior reproduces the finish of the first carriages of the Moscow Metro: metal wall lamps with white shades, original handrails, the colour scheme, aluminium edging painted to look like wood, beech crossbars at the windows, and embossed plastic panels on the

Observations · Society · Humour

The number of people who congratulated me on Culture Worker's Day equals the number of people whom I congratulated on the occasion

The number of people who congratulated me on Culture Worker's Day equals the number of people whom I congratulated on the occasion. But this identity is easily altered. I congratulate all my colleagues, the workers of this most vital sphere, whose efforts and talents, alas, too often remain

Black-and-white photograph in a black frame on a wall: a polo shirt made of contrasting black, white and grey geometric pieces, with textured sleeves and collar.

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Framed black-and-white photograph of a polo shirt in geometric colour blocks

Art · Moscow · Museums · Observations

The exhibition “Choosing Distance” on the Coronacene era opens at Garage

A new exhibition has opened at Garage that you want to go on looking at, and looking at. It is called “Choosing the Distance: Speculations, Fakes, Forecasts in the Era of the Coronacene”. It is hard to single out one exhibit or one artist, for literally everything impresses. We shall

Hundreds of monochrome figurines stand on a concrete floor: lions, dinosaurs, a crocodile, a sheep, a kangaroo, a snake. A white octopus lies in the foreground; translucent fabric hangs abov

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Many pale green toy animal figures arranged on the floor of an exhibition space

Education · Society

Government orders 5 billion roubles to be allocated in 2021 for modernising the infrastructure of higher education institutions, including major repairs to buildings and anti-terrorist protection

Moscow State University is to receive 165 million, Saint Petersburg State University 278.5 million, RANEPA 380 million, the Glazunov Academy 100 million, universities under the Ministry of Science and Higher Education 1.2 billion, those under the Ministry of Health 867 million, those under the Ministry of Agriculture 666

Archaeology · Science · Ethnography

Theories of the origin of the Karakachans and the view of Aris Poulianos

Many of the Greek shepherds belong to the once numerous Karakachan or Sarakatsani people, settled from Epirus and the Peloponnese to North Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania. There are several versions of the origin of the Sarakatsani. Their history is traced back to the Middle Ages and linked with a

Geography · Nature · Ethnography

The last Greek shepherds and the end of cross-border transhumance in the 20th century

Greek shepherds are a most interesting and, in our day, extremely small group, preserving age-old traditions of transhumant pastoralism and the way of life that goes with them. Barely a century ago, thousands of shepherds would calmly cross mountain valleys many kilometres wide to reach their ancestral pastures, scattered

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