By Patrick Hunt – Olaf Tryggvason Olaf I Tryggvason (ca. 960-1000 CE) was the Viking king who forcibly began to Christianize the people of Norway at the end of the 10th century, a change suggested at times by his detractors as conversion forced at swordpoint. If depicted as a bloody […]
A section of the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, ca. 1550 BCE.  It consists of reference tables, arithmetic, algebraic and geometric problems including volumes, and fractions (Courtesy of British Museum. London) By Susanne L. Houfek – The ancient Egyptians may not have taken trigonometry in school for entry level to a good university […]
By P. F. Sommerfeldt – Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-78) is well known as a Neoclassical engraver of Roman monuments and shadowed architectural fantasies (such as invented or imaginary carcere or “prisons”). But his work as a pioneer in archaeology is not as familiar, although his work provides ample details about […]
By Patrick Hunt – Aachen Cathedral (also known in German as the Kaiserdom) is one of the most important monuments in the Early Medieval World, begun circa. 796, and symbolically identified with the end of the Dark Ages when literacy was finally resurgent in the Carolingian Age. Charlemagne built Aachen’s […]
By P. F. Sommerfeldt – When you are first driven through the park gatehouse for the Schlosshotel Kronberg nestled in the lower forested slopes of the Taunus Mountains of Germany above Frankfurt and see its grandeur of towers and steep roofs, it is fairly obvious it was originally a royal […]
By Alessandra Scola- Villa Monastero is one of the several monumental villas mostly built or enlarged between the 17th and 19th centuries on one of the long coasts of Lake Como (also known in antiquity as Lago Lario) the deepest Italian lake. The villa is located in Varenna, an enchanting […]
St.  Basil’s Church, Red Square, Moscow   (photo P. Hunt, 2017) By P. F. Sommerfeldt - Moscow’s Red Square is one of the most recognizable places in the world, and dominating its southern end is the landmark St. Basil’s Cathedral, the 16th century monastic structure that millions can easily identify […]
        View up Riquewihr’s central street, Rue de General de Gaulle (Photo P. Hunt 2016) By Patrick Hunt - Those who love the best of Alsace know that although it is now part of France, it has been fought over though history, involuntarily […]
By Patrick Hunt -Â Almost any informed list of the most famous historic buildings of the world will include the Pantheon of Rome. Its longevity since the mid-second century is important but not the most important reason why; its grandeur and size are staggering, even more so when one one […]
Mandalay’s Golden Palace  (Image courtesy of Oway Agency, Myanmar) By Catherine Clover - On a recent trip to Myanmar (Burma) I made a stop in the crossroads city of Mandalay. Linking the route from the south of the country in Yangon to the states of the north, in modern times […]