The East · Art · Moscow · Museums
When Miziano and Krasteva, the curators of the exhibition "Service of Time" at Garage, wrote about the relation between spiritual labour and time, and about the different forms time may take in art, what did they have in mind, and how is it expressed in t. Step, say,
The East · Observations · Society · People
Speaking of the French and the English language, one might recall François Hollande or Jacques Chirac, who took a master's degree in the United States and naturally knew the language perfectly well, though I have heard his pronunciation criticised. In reply I offer this footage, famous in its
The East · Observations · Science · Humour
Ever wondered what the Sumerian language sounded like? There is a simple lesson on Sumerian pronunciation. Nobody now living has heard Sumerian spoken, naturally, with the possible exception of Brendan Fraser, who has been known to go gadding about with mummies through worlds several millennia old. So reconstructions of Sumerian
The East · Books · Observations · Nature
For all who remember the opening lines of my book, where the drink haoma is mentioned, and never learnt what this bracing tipple was: remember this little herb, which grows in many lands of Eurasia. This handsome plant goes by many names: Kuzmich's grass, steppe raspberry, soma and,
Archaeology · The East · Museums · Heritage · Paris · Humour
The sarcophagus discovered in a Franco-Lebanese house is a cast of the original kept in the National Museum of Beirut, incidentally one of its chief treasures. The magnificent sarcophagus of Ahiram, found by the French archaeologist Pierre Montet in 1923, is considered a symbol of Franco-Lebanese friendship: that,
NB! · Archaeology · Architecture · The East · Observations
Archaeologists beside an imposing 20-tonne Corinthian capital at the excavation site in Cyzicus, in the west of modern Turkey. If the capital crowning the column is 2.5 metres high and 1.9 metres in diameter, can you imagine how large the column itself must have been?
Faith · The East · Books
The sixth Angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth Angel which had the trumpet: Loose the four Angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four Angels were loosed, which were
Faith · The East · Observations
This year Holy Week for the Orthodox falls from 26 April to 1 May. I offer a set of desktop wallpapers, one for each day of the week before Easter: A close-up of the 2,000-year-old tree from the Garden of Gethsemane. The stone from the Church
The East · Geography · Maps
On a European map of the North-East Passage to China from the early seventeenth century, two names, CHINA and Cathay, stand side by side, separated by India Orientalis. The map illustrates not only the currency in Europe of Russian geographical names, but also the conviction, unshakeable at the time,
Architecture · The East · Monarchies · Heritage · 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! · Faith · The East · Observations
The Pope in Iraq. Sometimes a photograph alone is enough
Archive · The East · People · Pop Culture
In 1976 Elizabeth Taylor visited Tehran in the company of her friend, the celebrated Hollywood photographer and cousin of the Iranian ambassador to the United States, Firooz Zahedi. The series of photographs Zahedi took on that trip was shown in Los Angeles in 2011. According to Firooz Zahedi's