The East - The Parnassian (Page 5)

The East · Observations · Society · Humour

With a Light Wave of the Hand, Donald Trump Becomes an Elegant Turkmenbashi, Whose Face Stood at Once on Banknotes, School Textbooks and State Documents, and in Whose Honour the Months of the Calendar Were Renamed

For the 250th anniversary of the United States, the State Department will issue a special print run of passports bearing Trump's face and signature on the inside cover, over the text of the Declaration of Independence. American passports have never before carried a living president. Trump's

Archaeology · The East · Art

In the ancient city of Laodicea in south-western Turkey, a marble statue of Athena almost two metres tall has been found in the ruins of the western theatre

In the ancient city of Laodicea in south-western Turkey, a marble statue of Athena almost two metres tall has been found in the ruins of the western theatre. The statue lay face down in a collapse of rubble by the outer wall of an administrative building. The head and

Archaeology · The East · Books · Mores · Education

The first documented case of sucking up to a teacher was preserved for us by Sumerian literature

The first documented case of sucking up to a teacher was preserved for us by Sumerian literature. It is probably one of the most popular texts in Sumerian: a poem about a negligent pupil, written around 2000 BC by an unknown teacher. The poem was called "Schooldays". The

The East · Geography · Society

Forever in Iran's Hands

A Persian inscription on a propaganda billboard depicting the Strait of Hormuz in Tehran. Photo: Abedin Taherkenareh, EPA agency

NB! · The East · Society · Humour

So Atatürk turns his back on you as the money runs out

Archaeology · The East · Books · Science

At Egyptian Oxyrhynchus, the Hispano-Egyptian expedition of the University of Barcelona has concluded another season of excavation and returned with something genuinely strange

At Egyptian Oxyrhynchus, the Hispano-Egyptian expedition of the University of Barcelona has concluded another season of excavation and returned with something genuinely strange. Among the Roman-period mummies was one inside which lay a papyrus bearing a fragment of the second book of the Iliad, the famous "Catalogue

The East · Art · Books · People · Ethnography

Engraving of the funeral procession of the kings of Tonkin, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, "Six Voyages Made by Him in Turkey, Persia and the Indies", Paris, 1677, with the supplement "Continuation of the Voyages", 1679

Jean-Baptiste Tavernier was the son of a map engraver, became a dealer in precious stones and from 1623 crossed the road from Paris to Persia, and onward into India, six times. He traded at the courts of the Great Mughals and brought back from India a diamond that later

NB! · Faith · The East

A Stunning Shot from the Ceremony of the Holy Fire on Holy Saturday, 11 April 2026

A stunning shot from the Ceremony of the Holy Fire on Holy Saturday, 11 April 2026. Photo by Ohad Zwigenberg

Archaeology · Faith · The East · Monarchies · Rome

In AD 217 the Praetorians murdered the Emperor Caracalla at Edessa

In AD 217 the Praetorians murdered the Emperor Caracalla at Edessa. The Praetorian Guard were the emperors' personal bodyguard, elite troops stationed in Rome itself. Over two centuries they had dispatched more than one ruler and had grown used to deciding who would come next. Power passed to the

Architecture · The East · Art · Heritage

A Thoroughly Epic Memorial Complex in Georgia

A thoroughly epic memorial complex in Georgia. Built by Zurab Tsereteli. Possibly the best of his projects. "Sakartvelo Matiane", or "The History of Georgia", "The Chronicle of Georgia", "The Annals of Georgia": it took about 20 years to build, from 1985 to

In the Press · The East · Museums · Heritage · Society · Paris

"The Angel of History," wrote Benjamin, "has his face turned toward the past, but a storm is blowing from Paradise and propels him irresistibly into the future

"The Angel of History," wrote Benjamin, "has his face turned toward the past, but a storm is blowing from Paradise and propels him irresistibly into the future. What to us appears as a chain of events, to him is one single catastrophe." March turned out to

Faith · The East · Books · Society

The Pharisees tried to prevent the Italian cardinal and Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, from celebrating Palm Sunday at the Holy Sepulchre

Instead of the closed Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the cardinal decided to move the Mass to the Mount of Olives, precisely to the place where Jesus wept over Jerusalem. Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a