TRAVELOG

  Master Storyteller:                  The powerful effect of the chapel lies more than anything in Giotto’s narrative skill.   He laid out the chosen scenes in chronological sequence, beginning at the top of the walls with the lives of Mary’s   mother and father, Anna and Joachim, and the Virgin’s early life.   The earthly life of Jesus is depicted along the central tier, finishing with the Passion cycle and Resurrection.   Giotto also placed thematically related scenes above and below each other: the miracle of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, for example, is above the resurrection of Christ, the first scene foreshadowing the second.                   Selecting the key moment in each story – the reaction to a miracle, Judas’s betrayal of Jesus with a kiss – Giotto imagined how the character...

 Jewel-like interior:                  Giotto covered every inch of wall space around the chapel’s nave with scenes from the lives of the Virgin Mary and of Jesus, all executed in glorious, glowing colours.  Adjacent scenes were separated with bands painted to imitate inlaid marble and precious stones.  On the west wall is a vast Last Judgement where, among the throngs of the saved, Giotto included his patron, Enrico, presenting a model of his chapel to the Virgin Mary.  The barrel-vaulted ceiling above is a brilliant blue studded with glittering golden stars, and Giotto repeated the blue in the background of several scenes. Lasting influence:                  Consecrated in 1305, the chapel was an instant success with visitors, to the consternation of the Augustinian monks living nearby.  The monks...

 Arena Chapel FRESCOES:                 A fresco cycle of unmatched beauty and humanity adorns a small chapel in Padua.  Painted more than a century before the start of the Renaissance, it set a standard for others to follow.                 In the early 1300’s, wealthy Paduan banker Enrico Scrovegni asked the Florentine painter Giotto di Bondone (who lived around 1267-1337) to decorate the newly completed Scrovegni family chapel.  Giotto chose for his subject a series of scenes from the New Testament, then set about his task using the fresco technique, which involves painting directly onto wet plaster.  In a decisive break with the art of the immediate past, which favoured subdued colours and stylised figures, Giotto injected an unprecedented degree of realism and emotion into his retelling of the Christian story. ...

 The pride of Angkor Wat:                          Striking bas-reliefs embellish almost every surface within the main temple – walls, columns, lintels, roofs and, most stunning of all, the inner wall of the second enclosure, where a bas-relief frieze stretchers for half a mile (0.8 km) around the perimeter.                           Most of the bas-reliefs date back to the 12 th century, with some later additions.  Intended to be instructional, they depict heroic scenes from the great Hindu epics of the Ramayana and Mahabharata.  Here, mighty battles rage between demons and gods; Vishnu rides a great mythical bird, the garuda, and slays demon enemies as they approach him on all sides; and the legendary Battle of Lanka is told...

  A heavenly quest:                        A tour around Angkor Wat inevitably involves a step-by-step journey – inwards and upwards – towards the central tower.   Starting at the moat, on the west side of the complex, the way leads through the west entrance, one of several gopuras, or gateways, in the wall (including one at each compass point).   The entrance opens onto a second causeway, lined with nagas, that continue past libraries and reflecting pools and across a raised terrace.                         The space   on either side of the terrace was occupied by original palace and city of Angkor.   Built of perishable materials, both have been destroyed by centuries of decay.                   ...

  Where on Earth?                     Angkor Wat is part of Angkor Archaeological Park, a 150 sq mile (400 sq km) park north of the modern town of Siem Reap in northern Cambodia. It can be reached by bus, car or bicycle. The best time to visit is in the dry, relatively cool season from December to March.   The nearest airport is Siem Reap International. The building of Angkor Wat:                      Angkor Wat was commissioned by the great Khmer king, Suryavarman II, in 1112 and dedicated to the Hindu god, Vishnu.   Unlike other Angkorian temples, Angkor Wat faces west, the point of the compass that symbolised death, and bas-reliefs tell their story anticlockwise, the direction associated with ancient funeral rites.   Scholars are divided on the significance of this, ...

  Angkor Wat:                         Monumental, perfectly symmetrical, Angkor Wat rises from the plain, an iconic ‘temple mountain’ built by mortals to please the gods.                         The first sight of Angkor Wat is a heart-stopping moment, its appearance changing throughout the day – now bathed in a soft golden glow, now burning in the midday sun, or draped, stark and awesome, in deepening shadows.   Sunsets are hauntingly beautiful, sending shivers down the spine as towers and turrets glow coppery gold in the shadow of Bakheng Hill where the city of Angkor was built.   A sandstone causeway leads across a wide moat sprinkled with lotus to an entrance in the outer wall, whose golden – coloured towers and colonnades are reflected in the...

  Ripple effect:                       Chicago’s Aqua Building is a sublime continuation of this tradition.  Wave after wave of balconies curve around the 82-storey building as it rises into the sky, producing a rippling effect quite unlike Chicago’s usual square-cut style.  Between the waves, planes of smooth glass mimic the surface of still water and glint in the sunlight.  From inside there are unique and stunning views of Lake Michigan and the city.  From street level, the facade resembles a multi-layered rock formation.  From any angle, the 250m (820ft) high building is more sculpture than skyscraper, its appearance changing with the light at different times of the day.                        The balconies, some of which stretch outwards...

  Aqua Tower:                           Inspired by the waves that ripple across nearby Lake Michigan, the balconies of Chicago’s Aqua Tower seem to spiral into the heavens.                         Think of modern Architecture and shiny surfaces, hard edges and sharp angles come to mind.   But think again – modern design often uses natural forms, putting nature and eco-friendly elements at the heart of a building.   Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi was the first to make use of irregular curves and motifs.   Then, in Fallingwater, designed in 1935, Frank Lloyd Wright showed how nature can be an integral part of a home with a modern look and geometric shape.             ...

  Last post:                     One of the peninsula’s delightful little surprises is the southernmost branch of the British Post Office at Port Lockroy on Goudier Island.   In summer, when it is manned on behalf of the United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Trust, it attracts more than 6,000 visitors a year, which makes it the most popular stopping-off place for cruise ships in the Antarctic. On the beach is the skeleton of a giant fin whale, a species second only to the blue whale is size.   The skeleton is reconstructed every spring after the winter storms have demolished it, and it remains a sad remainder of a whaling industry that almost wiped out the world’s whale populations during the 20 th Century. Changing Habitats:                         Climatic chan...

  Island wildlife:                 The many accessible islands on the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula are packed with wildlife.  The islands have chinstrap, gentoo and Adelie penguin rookeries, as well as nest sites for kelp gulls, Antarctic skuas, fulmars, blue-eyed shags and petrels.  Weddell and crab- eater seals haul out on beaches and ice floes, and leopard seals, armed with powerful jaws, hunt penguins close to shore.  Offshore, pods of killer whales search for seals they can tip from ice floes, and humpback, minke and fin whales feed on enormous swarms of shrimp – like krill.                   It is so cold for most of the year that only two plucky flowering plants grow here, mainly on the western side of Peninsula.   One is a scruffy, hardy hair grass, and the other is a pearlwort, a cushion – shaped plant that hugs the g...

  Ice and snow sculptures:                 Despite the summer thaw, large snow and ice fields persist throughout the year, both on the islands that fringe the peninsula and in the mountains on the mainland, and giant glaciers move inexorably to the sea.   Wind, sea, rain, and sun mould these natural features to create the enchanting ice sculptures that moved Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen to describe this as a ‘land [that] looks like a fairy tale’.                                At Jougla Point, deep snowfields, precipitous snow cliffs and snow cornices with the fluffy smoothness of meringues dominate the natural harbour of Port Lockroy in the Palmer Archipelago.   In Paradise Bay, glaciers end in towering ice cliffs that plummet into the sea, groaning and creaking as crev...

  Antarctic Peninsula:                    Once described as a land that looks ‘like a fairy tale’, this lonely peninsula reveals the planet’s most sublime icy landscape.                     The first person known to set eyes on this stunning scenery was Fabian Gottlieb Thaddeus von Bellingshausen, a captain in the Russian Imperial Navy, but he did not recognise what he saw as land, believing it to be made up to ice.   As a result it was William Smith and Edward Bransfield of the British Royal Navy, arriving just three days after Bellingshausen in 1820, who became the first to identify a new continent: Antarctica. They charted the extreme northern part of the peninsula, which later became known a Trinity Peninsula, reporting ‘high mountains, covered with snow’.     ...

  From decay to rebirth:                         The rubber boom was not to last. As production moved to plantations in Asia and Africa, the fortunes of Manaus warned.  With the invention of synthetic rubber, they vanished.  In 1907, a mere decade after that first operatic performance, the theatre saw its last.  And the lights went out not just on the theatre, but on the whole city as it could not afford to run its generators.                            Decay rapidly set in as the theatre fell prey to termites and the humid climate.  Renovation was attempted in 1929 and again in 1974, but it was 1988 before a successful project got underway.  Two years and $8 million later, opera finally returned to the stage the...

  Building the dream:                       Construction began in 1884 to a design by Italian architect Celestial Sacardim.   No expense was spared as the finest materials were shipped across the Atlantic from Europe,   then taken 900 miles (1450 km) inland up the Amazon.   White Carrara marble was brought from Italy for the columns, statues and stairs.   From Alsace came 36,000 yellow, green and blue tiles to crown the rooftop dome in the pattern of the Brazilian flag – a colourful nationalist statement visible for miles around.   Louis XV – style furniture was imported from Paris.                            To top it all, the Amazon Theatre was fitted with electricity long before this was common in Europe or America: this bui...

  Amazon Theatre:                  The world’s most extraordinary opera house is not in Sydney of Milan, but deep in the Amazon rain forest.  Built against all the odds in the 1890s and recently restored, it still stands in all its opulent glory.                    The second half of the 19 th century was boom –time in Manaus, a steamy city that sprang up at the junction  of the Amazon and Negro rivers, right in the heart of the Amazon basin.  Brazil had a world monopoly on rubber, which grew naturally in the Amazon jungle, and Manaus was at the centre of this trade.                      The immense wealth generated by rubber exports funded an extravagant lifestyle for the city’s rubber barons, who lit their cigars with dollar bills and bought diamonds on a grand scale: more...

  Salt and Survival:                 Only drought-resistant trees and grasses grow here.   The wildlife includes herbivores such as gazelle, oryx and the last population of African wild ass, along with hundreds of species of birds.   Only hard goats and camels can survive here; agriculture is out of the question.   The economic mainstay of the Afar people is salt.                  The region’s lowest point is Lake Assal in Djibouti.   At 157m (515ft) below sea level, it is the lowest point in Africa.   Here, and at Lake Asele, are salt flats formed from circular tablets of salt, resembling monochromatic patchwork quilt.   People rise at 5am to chisel, lever and smash the salt into blocks – known as amole – which are carried by camels to the trading settlements of Berahile or Mekelle.

 Where on Earth?                The Afar Depression is to the northeast of Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia. It extends into Ethiopia’s neighbours, Eritrea and Djibouti, and is part of the Great Rift Valley that stretches from the Middle East to southern Africa.   It is the hottest place on Earth and one of the inhospitable. Lava lakes and hot Springs                 The region’s most memorable feature is Erta Ale (‘smoking mountain’ in the afar language) in the remote northeast of Ethiopia.   This active volcano’s summit crater contains the world’s oldest existing molten lava lake: known as the ‘gateway to hell’, it is thought to have been bubbling away like burned porridge for more than 100 years.   The volcano, which attracts only the most intrepid tourists, explorers and archaeologists, is most striking at night, w...

  AFAR DEPRESSION:               Intense heat and volatile geology make this landscape the hottest in Africa in more ways than one.   Though extreme and inhospitable today, millions of years ago this was the cradle of humankind.               The Afar, or Danakil, Depression in Ethiopia is the hottest place on Earth.   Even in winter, the daytime temperature in this scrubland desert can soar above 42C(108F); in summer it exceeds 50C (122F).   It is so dry and hot, and there is so little shade, that local people – mainly salt traders and nomadic herders – are often confined to their tents during the day.   It is a political as well as climatic tinderbox.   The Afar encompasses Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti.   War between Ethiopia and Eritrea combines with extreme physical hardships to make Afar almost uninhabitable.      ...

  Art of the Master craftsmen:                     Every surface of the Alhambra is clothed with beautiful and intricate surface decoration; indeed, this is one of the distinguishing features of the Nasrid palaces the Alhambra.   While the structures of the building were made from strong and durable materials, such as marble for the floors and supporting columns, the decorations that covered the walls and ceilings were carved from wood, plaster and local clay.                    Wood was used for ceiling decoration.   In the Hall of the Ambassadors, for example, the ceiling is made up of more than 8000 seperate carved and painted pieces (perhaps to prevent distortion of the ceiling during the changing seasons).   Extraordinarily visual effects were achieved with plaster, as in the ceiling of the Hall of the Two Sisters in ...

  Palace Contrasts:                   The two surviving palaces present very different visions of Nasrid royal architecture.   The Comares Palace (Palacio de Comares) was built by Yusuf I and acted as the official palace for state visits and visiting dignitaries.   The Palace of the Lions (Palacios de los Leones) was added by Muhammad V in 1370, and was used as a more private residence or place of learning.                    The Court of the Myrtles (Patio de los Arrayanes) in the Comares Palace is dominated by a central pool of still water, making this a tranquil and contemplative space.   The massive Comares Tower that houses the Hall of the Ambassadors overshadows the pool and served as the throne room.   Every part of this small, high space is covered with intricately carved plaste...

  Towering Horizons:                         The Palace sits on a 14 ha (35-acre) plateau over a rocky outcrop of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.   Even today, the forbidding walls with their 23 towers and four gates dominate the Granada skyline.   The foundations were laid by Sultan Muhammad ibn Nasr in the 13 th century, and the palace complex was completed in the 14 th Century by Yusuf I (reigned 1333-54) and Muhammad V (who reigned 1354-59 and 1362-91).                            The self-contained city has palaces, prisons, homes for craftsmen, bathhouses, barracks, workshops and mosques.   At one point it housed 40,000 people.   The site also included the Royal Mint and necropolis.   Only two of the original six main palaces survive – the Comares Palace and the Palace ...

  ALHAMBRA:                            Behind the dazzling beauty of the Alhambra in Andalucia lies the complex and fascinating story of the Moorish empire in Spain and the finest surviving medieval Muslim palace in western Europe.                        The last stronghold of the Moors in southern Spain towers above the modern city of Granada, with the red mountain of the Sierra Nevada rising behind.   A Moorish citadel has stood on the site since the 9 th century, but the surviving palace complex was begun in the mid-13 th century by Muhammad ibn Nasr, first sultan of the Nasrid Dynasty .   The Alhambra story is entwined with that of the Nasrid sultans, the last Muslim Dynasty to rule in Spain.   In 1237, Muhammad ibn Nasr ibn al-Ahmar, the founder of the Nasrid Dynasty, located his capita...