Archive · Monarchies · Paris · People

“My dear Mama, on Tuesday there was a festival that I shall never forget

“My dear Mama, on Tuesday there was a festival that I shall never forget. We made our solemn entry into Paris. As for honours, we received all the honours one could possibly imagine, but it was not these that touched me most. What truly impressed me were the poor people,

Black and white photograph of men in white caps and women by a stone wall with steps and a dark doorway, one man stepping into the opening.

NB! · Archaeology · Archive · Monarchies · People

Nicholas II leaving a crypt at Chersonesos in a photograph banned by the censor

Nicholas II emerges from an adjoining wall crypt at Chersonesos. The original photograph is in Chersonesos; on the reverse side the censor has written "Not for publication". Because the Emperor had adopted an awkward posture

NB! · Archive · Mores · Humour

Graffiti by the Vandals of Tsarist Russia

NB! · Archive · Museums · Society

A photograph from the Black Sea Fleet Museum

A photograph from the Black Sea Fleet Museum. Especially for those who tell us that the St George ribbon was invented by perfidious propagandists in 2009

NB! · Archaeology · Archive · The East · Geography

1926: Workmen Carrying Out the Contents of Tutankhamun's Tomb

Old engraving of a rhinoceros seen from behind, standing on a plinth beside a large scroll with a Latin inscription.

NB! · Archive · Books · Nature · Humour

A rhinoceros from the 1642 Gazophylacium Anglicanum and its etymology of the word daughter

A rhinoceros from the English dictionary of 1642, Gazophylacium Anglicanum, in which an anonymous author supplies the etymologies of words. It contains some curious conjectures: e.g., that daughter derives from dos (a dowry)

Black-and-white photograph of a group of people standing at the foot of a huge Buddha statue carved into a rock niche.

NB! · Archaeology · Archive · Faith · The East · Heritage

Buddha statues in Afghanistan, erected in the 6th century and blown up by the Taliban in 2000

1931, archaeologists beside a statue of the Buddha in the Afghan desert. The Buddhas of Bamiyan were raised in the 6th century. The largest of them, at 55 metres, was the tallest statue in the world. In 2000 the statues were blown up by the Taliban

The drained Niagara riverbed at the falls, with workers on a rocky ledge, a yellow excavator and pipes laid across the site.

NB! · Archive · Geography · Science · Nature

Engineers stopped the Niagara River before the falls in 1969 to clear rocks from its bed

In 1969 the Niagara River was stopped just above the Falls. Engineers intended to clear the riverbed of rocks, the accumulation of which threatened the very existence of the waterfall. In this, however, they did not succeed.

A man with raised arms, in a red "I ♥ Dinosaur" sweater and blue trousers, rides a green painted dinosaur with open jaws. Photo-and-paint collage.

NB! · Archive

Collage of a man in a red sweater riding a green painted dinosaur

NB! · Archive · Geography · Saint Petersburg

On 29 August the last two trains of evacuees left Leningrad; that same day, over Mga station, 7 Soviet fighters fought against 70 bombers

NB! · Archive · Nature

Battle Elephant, First World War

Old photograph of a narrow stone chamber with geometric patterns on its walls and four people sitting at its base.

NB! · Archaeology · Archive · Observations · Humour

Old photograph of a Mexican excavation with people seated by an ornamented wall

While we are in Mexico, here is another old photograph, from an excavation. I shan't go into details, just look at how romantic it appears. Indiana Jones would shed a tear