NB! · Architecture · Faith · The East · Art
Section
· 585 stories
The East
Archaeology · Archive · In the Press · The East · Observations
I have told this story before, but in view of the alternative news I shall repeat myself
In 1913 a number of English-language newspapers carried an article reporting that several chambers of a temple-like character had been discovered inside the Great Sphinx. The text claimed that a fairly large room existed both inside the head and inside the body, and that in one of these
Archaeology · The East · Science
A second Sphinx may lie beneath the Giza plateau
A second Sphinx may have been discovered beneath the Giza plateau. The team of researchers claims to be 80% certain of its find. The monumental statue is said to lie buried under 55 metres of hardened sand. A group of Italian enthusiasts used satellite radar to corroborate an existing image
Archaeology · Architecture · The East · Heritage
A photograph published by the Lebanese outlet Jdeed Magazine shows evidence of an air strike on Baalbek: a column of black smoke rising behind the columns of the Temple of Jupiter
A photograph published by the Lebanese outlet Jdeed Magazine shows evidence of an air strike on Baalbek: a column of black smoke rising behind the columns of the Temple of Jupiter. It is the closest to the site of any strike documented during the present war. The NNA agency reported
Listings · Moscow · Coming Up · The East · Art · Museums
In the Where to Go rubric: a new selection of Moscow exhibitions
📌 26 March: opening of the exhibition “Family: My Heritage” on the Benois and Morozov dynasties, until 30 April Museum of Moscow 📌 26 March: opening of the exhibition “Art in the Russian Backwoods: The Oriental Collection of Dmitry Burylin”, until 24 May Museum of Oriental Art 📌 The exhibition “Formulae of Eternity”
The East · Interviews · Museums · Heritage · Saint Petersburg
The most important thing I managed to discuss with Mikhail Piotrovsky was not the perpetual succession of museum directors in Moscow, nor the robbery of the Louvre, nor even the hysterics around "colonial museums", but a very specific and direct question:
What lamps? Lamps of the 14th century, a fine example of Islamic applied art, once presented by Timur to the mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi and kept there until the early 20th century. There were six such lamps in all. The Hermitage, it turned out, has two and a half,
The East · Interviews · Books · Museums · Heritage · People · Saint Petersburg
My long interview with Mikhail Piotrovsky has been published, timed to the release of his new book "I Am an Arabist" but focused mainly on the modern museum and the cultural environment around it
I met Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky after the presentation of his book at the Peredelkino House of Creativity. After several hours with the public, an autograph session and filming, the legendary Piotrovsky nonetheless received me with energy and good humour. I tried not to ask the questions that every journalist has
Archive · The East · Cinema · People
Sergei Parajanov and Yuri Mgoyan in Tbilisi in 1988
Parajanov met Mgoyan in Tbilisi. The young man had no connection with cinema whatever, but the director saw in him the hero of Lermontov's oriental tale, all the more so as he expected no psychological game, wanting instead to see plastic expressiveness and the ability to be a
Archive · The East · Cinema
Scenes from Sergei Parajanov's film Ashik Kerib
Photographs by Elena Karusaar, 1988
Faith · The East · Society
Let us recall the teaching of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem:
When you see the desolation of the holy place, know that what the Lord warned of is drawing near. Do not say: this is impossible. It is precisely the impossible that comes to pass in the last times Christ warned his disciples of the coming end of the world shortly
Faith · The East · Heritage · Society
For the first time in the history of Christianity, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is closed indefinitely
For the first time in the history of Christianity, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is closed indefinitely. The closure was ordered by the Israeli authorities. Holy Week and Easter services in the Church are forbidden, and Sunday masses and divine services have been cancelled. In the coming weeks the
The East · Books · Observations · Science
My warmest thanks to the staff of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences for making freely available to all the books written by the institute's researchers throughout its existence up to 2023
In essence, this is a colossal library of the finest Russian-language studies and books on the history, cultural studies and linguistics of Central Asia, the Middle East, Japan, China and other regions, together with the Russian translations, made by the Institute's own translators, of the world classics