Ancient Architecture Arènes de Lutèce
The Arènes de Lutèce are among the most important remains from the Gallo-Roman era in Paris (formerly known as Lutèce in French or Lutetia in Latin), together with the Thermes de Cluny. Lying in what is now the Quartier Latin, this amphitheater could once seat 15,000 people, and was used to present gladiatorial combats.
Constructed in the 1st century AD, this amphitheater is considered the longest of its kind constructed by the Romans. The sunken arena of the amphitheater was surrounded by the wall of a podium 2.5 m (8.2 feet) high, surmounted by a parapet. The presence of a 41.2-m- (135-foot-) long stage allowed scenes to alternate between theatrical productions and combat. A series of nine niches aided in improving the acoustics. Five cubbyholes were situated beneath the lower bleachers, of which three appear to have been animal cages that opened directly into the arena. Historians believe that the bleachers, which surrounded more than half of the arena's circumference, could accommodate as many as 17,000 spectators.
Vastu Shastra: Indian Feng Shui
Vasthu Sastra (Indian Feng Shui) is an ancient Indian science of architecture which assures a dweller health, prosperity, happiness, love, bliss and peace of mind. How to purchase or create a "home sweet home" in accordance to the 5,000-year-old Indian science which can still be applied in modern times? It can be practised without tearing down walls or carrying out renovations as it is an art of the placement of things. Vasthu is not magic, superstition, a religion or religious ritual, and does not work on a belief system. It is also not a question of faith but a fact of life.
ancient architecture of a temple in Sri Lanka
The architecture of ancient Sri Lanka displays a rich variety of architectural forms and styles, varying in style and form from the Anuradhapura Kingdom to the Kingdom of Kandy. Ancient Sri Lankan architecure mainly grew around religion, styles of Buddhist monasteries were in excess of 25. Buddhism had a significant influence on Sri Lankan architecture, since it was introduced to the island in 3rd Century BC.Significant architectural buildings include the stupas of Jetavanaramaya, Ruwanvelisaya in the Anuradhapura kingdom and further in the Polonnaruwa Kingdom, the palace of Sigiriya is considered as a masterpiece of ancient architecure and ingenuity, the fortress in Yapahuwa and the Temple of the tooth in Kandy are also notable for their architectural qualities. Ancient Sri Lankan architecture is also significant to sustainability, notably Sigiriya which was designed as an environmentally friendly structure.
Monasteries were designed using the Manjusri Vasthu Vidya Sastra, a manuscript which outlines the layout of the structure. The text is in Sanskrit but written in Sinhala script. The script is believed to be from the fifth century AD, It is exclusively about Buddhist monasteries and is clearly from the Mahayana school. The text shows much originality and there is nothing similar in the existing Indian treatises, which deal only with Hindu temples.
The 'silent music' of ancient architecture
The architects designed and built these structures according to ancient philosophical tenets familiar to us in terms like "fen-shui," "yin/yang" and "ch'i." Thus the ravine becomes the building, the building is a cave, the landscape itself takes the form of a flying dragon or a giant turtle rising from the morning mist to embrace the sacred site itself.
The result of this ancient architecture of wonder is the production of a form of "silent music"-a sense of place, space and time that Foit-Albert described as "awful," "enthralling" and "transcendent."
The exhibit opens with a few of more than 130 sacred and historical structures scheduled to be submerged when the massive Three Gorges Dam of the Yangtze River Project is complete; the project is now in its final construction phase. Some of the sites that will disappear date to the Neolithic era; others are of historic and even mythic significance.
They are situated along the middle reaches of the Yangtze in central China, to which Foit-Albert and her group traveled. The dam project, which she said has produced rancorous dispute in China, will displace nearly 1.5 million people at the same time it inundates a section of the scenic Yangtze River Valley, now believed by archaeologists to rival the Yellow River Valley 300 miles to the north in its importance to the study of the origins of the Chinese people.
Among the treasures to be flooded this year is the 12-story Shibaozai pagoda, which "leans" on a 330-by-60-foot outcropping in the Xiling Gorge. Its internal staircase leads to the mountain summit where 16th-century Ming Emperor Wan Li built a temple courtyard to memorialize remains of the Buddha.
Many legends surround this site, including one about the "Duck's Hole," which penetrates from the temple courtyard above to the river below, emitting ch'i (the ethereal substance of which all things are composed) as a mysterious mist that fortifies the connection of earth to heaven and heaven to earth.
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