1000 Monuments of Genius. Christopher E.M. Pearson
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notions of monumentality. Even by this rather limited definition of architecture, however, sub-Saharan Africa has produced some remarkable but still lesser-known architectural masterpieces. In early times we find traces of skilled stonemasonry being practised in Ghana, by the Kush civilisation in Sudan, and in the Ethiopian kingdom of Aksum. In the medieval period the spread of Islam produced major monuments throughout East and West Africa, most notably the Great Mosque of Djenné in Mali. And in southern Africa, the curvilinear stone walls of Great Zimbabwe make up the largest medieval city of sub-Saharan Africa. The Royal palaces at Abomey, Benin (1625–1900) constitute one of the most historic sites in West Africa; built over many years as part of the capital of the ancient kingdom of Dahomey, the elaborately decorated edifices record the history and religion of their builders. Although such international bodies as UNESCO have taken up the cause in recent years, it has to be said that much remains to be done in the archaeological investigation, scholarly study, and popularisation of African achievement in architecture, and historical preservation has now become a pressing need at many sites.
Moving once again to the east, we encounter in the Arabian Peninsula the birthplace of the Islamic religion, which began its remarkable expansion through the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe from the 7th century. As a largely tribal and nomadic people, the first Muslims had few real architectural traditions of their own, but took over local building forms and techniques in every country they conquered. The Muslim house of worship, or mosque, can be found in its most essential form as early as 622, when the Prophet’s own mosque was built in Medina. Here, based around an extensive colonnaded courtyard with a central fountain for ritual cleansing, we find the basic elements of Islamic typology: the large prayer room, the mihrab (prayer niche indicating the direction of Mecca), the minbar (elevated stand), the muhajar (balustrade), the pulpit, the midha (purification room) and one or more minarets (tall towers from which the call to prayer is made, a feature originally derived from converted church towers in Syria).
Islam’s first great ruling dynasty, the Umayyads, were based in Damascus, and oversaw the creation of some of the most enduring monuments of Islam, including the Dome of the Rock (technically a sanctuary or shrine rather than a mosque) and the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, as well as the Great Umayyad Mosque at Damascus, which incorporated a Classical temple that had since been converted into a church. Typically Islamic building features, such as the horseshoe arch and barrel-vaulted masonry tunnels, as well as a love of rich ornamentation, emerged here. At about the same time, the Tulunids in Cairo initiated a great program of mosque-building in that city, and by the 9th century monumental mosques were being erected across North Africa. The Seljuks in Persia introduced several innovations in mosque design at the start of the second millennium, notably the incorporation of a huge iwan (giant arch) on each side of the courtyard, a feature taken from the earlier Sassanian culture. The extraordinarily beautiful mosques at Isfahan, Iran, built from the 11th century, exemplify the Islamic genius for colourful and geometrically complex tilework. In the meantime the last of the Umayyads, expelled from the east, had taken up residence in Spain, and the Great Mosque of Córdoba, with its famous forest of arcaded columns, was built and rebuilt from the 8th century. In conquered Constantinople, now renamed Istanbul, the Muslims took the church of the Hagia Sophia as the pre-eminent prototype for new mosque design, and the 16th-century structures of the architect Sinan, which draw clear lessons from Byzantium, are among the most masterful and attractive of all mosques. In terms of domestic architecture, the Alhambra palace in Granada, Spain, bears eloquent witness to the high level of Muslim architecture and taste in the last century and a half before their expulsion. Another important Muslim typology, dating back at least to the 12th century, is the madrasa, or religious school, consisting of a large central courtyard surrounded by the students’ rooms. Recent study of traditional Islamic architecture, as carried out by Hassan Fathy and others, has revealed a wealth of practical knowledge regarding ventilation, heat regulation, economy and social aptitude, factors which can only become increasingly relevant in an energy-conscious future. And as particularly seen in Saudi Arabia and the wealthy states of the Persian Gulf, Islamic architecture continues to grow and evolve, even to the extent that Western architects (like the American firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill) have been hired to take charge of religious buildings, and modern aesthetics and construction techniques have comfortably found their place in mosques of ever-increasing scale, comfort and sophistication.
2. Pyramid of Djoser, Saqqara, c. 2750 BCE and later (Egypt)
3. Funerary Temple of Mentuhotep, Deir el-Bahri, c. 2061–2010 BCE (Egypt)
4. Great Pyramids of Giza, Giza, c. 2600 BCE and later (Egypt)
Khufu, like his successors, was concerned to supervise the construction of his own funerary monument during his lifetime. Each pyramid was originally connected to a temple on the banks of the Nile, where the body of the dead ruler would be held before burial. In the long and labour-intensive construction process, blocks of rough stone were unloaded from arriving boats, shaped on the riverbank, then hauled up huge temporary ramps to add a new layer of masonry to the rising structure. With their angles aligned to the cardinal directions, the pyramids betray a geometrical precision that confirms the Egyptian mastery of calculation. Weighing more than 5 million tons and comprising some 2 million stone blocks, the Great Pyramid of Khufu is the largest of all Egyptian pyramids, and the only surviving ‘Wonder’ of the ancient world; it was, in fact, the tallest building on earth for a period of almost 4000 years. The pyramids’ present appearance is very dilapidated: they would originally have had a veneer of smooth limestone, and the Great Pyramid had sheets of gold covering its summit. Ironically, no trace of Khufu’s mummy was ever found in the Great Pyramid, and only one image of him is known to exist.
5. Great Ziggurat, Ur, c. 2100 BCE (Iraq)
6. Great Temple of Amun, Karnak, c. 1550 BCE and later (Egypt)
7. Funerary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, Deir el-Bahri, c. 1473–1458 BCE (Egypt)
This great tomb-temple dedicated to the sun god Amun dates from the 18th dynasty, the first of Egypt’s New Kingdom, but it continues an older Middle Kingdom tradition of rock-cut tombs. The general typology of Hatshepsut’s monument was borrowed from the earlier and smaller temple-tomb of Mentuhotep, which is immediately adjacent. The visible part of the temple consists of three superimposed terraces fronted by rows of square piers; backed by fluted round columns, these are often interpreted as predecessors of the Doric Order that would later be developed by the Greeks. Accessed by ramps, the terraces were once irrigated and the site of lush plantings of scented trees. The temple is partly carved into the rocky cliff behind. As with earlier rock-cut tombs, the actual grave of the Queen was located on the far side of the mountains, in the Valley of the Kings; this step was taken as part of the never-ending battle against grave robbers. This is one of the few ancient monuments for which we have the name of a specific builder: its design is sometimes attributed to Senmut, a courtier, and also to Hatshepsut herself, making her history’s first known woman architect.
8. Temple of Ramses II, Abu Simbel, begun c. 1280 BCE (Egypt)
9. Temple of Amun, Luxor, Thebes, c. 1408–1300 BCE (Egypt)
10. Temple of Isis, Philae, 500–164 BCE (Egypt)
11. Temple of Horus, Edfu, 237–57 BCE (Egypt)
12. Palace complex at Persepolis, 6th-5th century BCE (Iran)
13. Ishtar Gate, Babylon (now in the Pergamon Museum, Berlin), c. 600 BCE (Iraq)
Rising from the banks of the Euphrates and covering some 10 square kilometres,