The Great Meso......

Mesopotamia:

The Cradle of Life, where some of the first civilization emerged. Elements like The Hanging Garden of Babylon, The Tower of Babel, The Istar Gate, The Ziggurats are some of the familiar ones when one mentions about Mesopotamia. A region of various civilizations, replacing or succeeding one another, had now been lost under what is now known as The Middle East. What really fascinates me is the existence of The Hanging Garden of Babylon during that time. This is considered to an engineering feat though not the greatest at that time. It is also one of the 7 Ancient Wonders of the World. But sadly it took only the recent century for planting above ground to reappear(rooftop gardening)

But sadly, Alexander The Great from Macedonia, Greece, overran the entire Mesopotamia, Egypt, as well as parts of India and planted marks of Greek culture everyway, changing the entire culture game in the region, and worst naming lots of cities as Alexandria until everyone got confused!

The Indus valley civilization:

Hail to great planners of the ancient civilizations!

I'm rather curious about the Indus valley civilization, were the cities built before of after the invasion of the Aryans? (The Aryans were nomadic tribes from the north who invaded India during ???BC and intermarriage with the native people) This can be crucial as there might have been a clash in cultural differences. Through the Aryans, the caste system and a new pantheon of gods were introduced. This will in turn influence the architecture style as well as the landscape around. Over time, it had developed into a unique style of its own.

Also, I had found out that generally, basic building materials like mud, clay bricks, and stones were constructed into series of dwelling compartments and public facilities. These in turn were confined behind walls made of similar materials that eventually became a city. But nonetheless it was the various architecture styles of the ancient civilizations that made them unique.

It is through the various architecture styles that defined the landscapes although there are also other factors contributing to a landscape. Architecture and Landscape are together, inseparable as a whole.

Personally I feel that most of these understandings of ancient landscape do not affect us greatly towards the contemporary theories of landscape design. But it helps us the see the big picture behind everything that had been made over aeons of modification through "artificial creations"

Carpe Diem!

Ancient Egyptian Landscape...............

Egyptology: the study of the ancient Egyptian culture, is considered to be one of the most popular historical studies in the world. It is unique in its architecture style, its cultural developments, as well as its religious and philosophical influences in its landscape and its social activities. Elements like the pyramids, the sphinx, the mummified corpse, pharoahs spark interest when one talks about Egyptology. The Nile River is consider to be a vital point where all Egyptians drew life on. The unification of Lower and Upper Egypt also saw the marriage of two geographical connected civilizations to merged into what we now known as the Ancient Egypt.

In the context of modern day landscaping, we can use these ancient elements to spark interest in different places. For example, Luxor Las Vegas, a casino theme park in Las Vegas, USA, and also the Pyramide du Louvre in Paris, France http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Pyramide_du_Louvre.html.

Here's something which I find it interesting: Everyone knows about the story of Atlantis. But did you believe in its existence? Does it occur to you that it could well be a real place that had been blasted off the surface of the earth?.... Well the reason why I included this discussion here is because I've read books of Atlantis and there have been many findings and evidence to prove its existence through some underwater archaeological findings. What interest me is that it has been said after the City of Atlantis was destroyed and submerged underwater, the remnants fled to places like the Egyptian lands and also as far as South America. Both side of the former Atlantian began spreading cultures and technologies to the local people. That may be the case when pyramids can be found in Egypt as well as in Mexico. This however, can be daunting. If you are interested you may look into books on this topic. Who knows, we may be unlocking another mysteries of ancient civilization and perhaps adding it into our theories of Landscape Architecture!

Carpe Diem!

Blogging the history out of aeons of artificial creations...

Erm.........what can I say.........ok, well, does landscapes occur to human unsconciously or consciously??? What exactly did landcsape and its surrounding means to the early human thoughts in the first place???
How did landscape form and how and why do each and every traditions, cultures, regions and religions differs in their landscape??? Looks like knowing just the landscape designs is not enough to actually see the big picture.

As far as it is concern, histories are created by us.....even right now we are making history.....ok lets cut this crap....:)

Well it can be said that the general lanscape are affected or influence by traditions, culture, regions(terrians), and religions. There have been stories of how the world is created. Such like the biblical genesis, the Chinese Pangu and Nu Wa, the Egyption Sun god Ra, the Norse Ymir, and even the Indonesian Sky People...etc...
Modern has also an explanation of creation through the Big Bang theory.......
But can it be taken that one or all or none of them must be true???

This is just a food for thought for everyone and may create an interest if you are really interested in these topics. But what I'm trying to convey here is that we should look in all aspect of different type of sources before we made the appropriate decision.

Generally I find that HIstory and Theory of Landscape Design is DEFINITELY RELEVANTto our course as it helps us to understand the centuries of landscape making and centuries of waste of resources human had forged. LOLx.....perhaps we may see it in this way: the Earth have been created for us and we puny humans are trying to re-create(modified) the things around us.

Erm...... more comments and critics will be posted soon.
Carpe Diem!