Archaeology · Faith · Ethnography

The Maya built pyramids over caves and underground lakes as gateways to the other world

Interestingly, a stepped altar of six to eight tiers was built beside the cave, and it survived until the later period of Chersonesos. A similar deification of caves is characteristic of the Maya, who raised pyramids over caves and subterranean lakes and regarded them as a link with the other

A dark opening in a broken stone surface beside a wall of pale limestone at an excavation site.

NB! · Archaeology · Architecture · Faith

Natural cave found beneath 9th-century housing in Chersonesos, linked by a corridor to a sanctuary

A natural cave has been found beneath the ninth-century residential quarter at Chersonesos, reached by a corridor from a sanctuary of the fifth to fourth century BC. The ancient Chersonesites, like many peoples of antiquity, endowed caves with sacred meaning

Stone remains of a foundation with three graves, the middle one filled with dark soil, surrounded by rubble and sparse grass.

NB! · Archaeology · Faith

Necropolis of three graves under the foundation of an 11th-century church, one holding the remains of 120 people

You are looking at a necropolis of three graves beneath the foundations of an 11th-century church. In the middle grave, with its dark fill, the remains of 120 people were found. The neighbouring ones held a single person each. Why this should be so is a mystery

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

In the Bamiyan Valley of Afghanistan, statues of the Buddha, presumably 55 m, 37 m, 13 m, 5 m and 2 m in height, were carved into the cliffs

In the Bamiyan Valley of Afghanistan, statues of the Buddha, presumably 55 m, 37 m, 13 m, 5 m and 2 m in height, were carved into the cliffs. All of them were destroyed by the Taliban "as they were objects of worship, which Islam forbids"

NB! · Faith · The East · Art · Heritage · Society

The world community, which protested loudly against the destruction of cultural heritage sites, could do nothing to stop the Taliban from blowing up a unique complex of Greco-Buddhist art

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

NB! · Faith · The East · Society

The Japanese Mark the Anniversary of a Surrender in the Russo-Japanese War

The Japanese mark the anniversary of a surrender in the Russo-Japanese War. For Shintoists, all countrymen who have fallen in Japan's wars are objects of veneration

NB! · Architecture · Faith · Heritage · People