Myra

Author(s):  
Clyde E. Fant ◽  
Mitchell G. Reddish

At one time one of the most important cities in Lycia, Myra almost has passed into obscurity. In addition to some interesting tombs and a theater, the most enduring legacy of ancient Myra is the tradition that developed around its most famous resident and bishop, St. Nicholas, who was the historical person behind the legend of Santa Claus. Popular etymology explained the name of the city as being derived from the Greek word for myrrh, an aromatic spice, but this is unlikely. Myra was a city in the Lycian region of Anatolia, along the Mediterranean coast approximately 85 miles southeast of modern Antalya. The ruins of ancient Myra lie about a mile north of Demre (or Kale), a small town along highway 400, the coastal road. Signs in the town point the way to Myra. The ancient city was considered a port city, even though it was about 3.5 miles from the coast. Its port was actually Andriace, but the name Myra often included the city proper and its port at Andriace. Thus, for example, when Acts 27:5 states that the ship carrying Paul landed at Myra, the actual port would likely have been Andriace. Whether Paul and the others with him went to Myra after disembarking from the ship is not known. The Myrus, or Andracus, River (Demre Çayï) flowed past the city on its way to the Mediterranean. Settled probably as early as the 5th century B.C.E., Myra became one of the leading cities of the Lycian League by the 2nd century B.C.E. Myra was one of the six most important members of the league, which consisted of twenty-three cities. As such, it was entitled to three votes in the league (the maximum allowed). In spite of its importance, the city does not seem to have played a major role in ancient history. During Roman times the city apparently enjoyed good relations with Rome. Augustus (and after him, Tiberius as well) was honored by the people of Myra by their bestowing on him the title of “imperator of land and sea, benefactor and savior of the whole universe.”

Author(s):  
Clyde E. Fant ◽  
Mitchell G. Reddish

Certainly a striking city in its day, Perga (also spelled Perge) today still is an impressive place to visit. Its theater, stadium, agora, towers, baths, and colonnaded streets give the visitor a good sense of what an ancient city was like. Perga is located in the ancient region of Pamphylia, approximately 9 miles east of Antalya. To visit the site, take highway 400 east from Antalya to the town of Aksu, in which there is a yellow sign on the left that points to Perga, which is a little more than a mile north of Aksu. The Aksu Çayï (the ancient Cestrus River) comes within 3 miles of the site on its way to the Mediterranean, approximately 7 miles away. In ancient times Perga apparently had a port on the river, which was navigable, thus allowing the city to benefit commercially from the river. Ancient tradition claims that Perga was founded after the Trojan War by Greek settlers under the leadership of Calchas (a seer whose prophecies helped the Greeks in the war) and Mopsus (another ancient seer). The acropolis at Perga, however, was inhabited much earlier than this, even during the Bronze Age. When Alexander the Great came through the area in 333 B.C.E., the city of Perga offered no resistance to him. Some of the people from Perga even served as guides to lead a part of Alexander’s army from Phaselis into Pamphylia. After Alexander’s death, the city was controlled by the Ptolemies and then by the Seleucid rulers. One of the most famous natives of Perga during the Hellenistic period was Apollonius, a 3rd-century-B.C.E. mathematician who wrote a ninevolume work on conics. His works were important contributions to astronomy and geometry. He studied in Alexandria and later lived in Pergamum. After the defeat of the Seleucids by the Romans in 189 B.C.E. at the battle of Magnesia, Perga became a part of the Pergamene kingdom. Bequeathed to Rome in 133 B.C.E. by the last Pergamene king, Attalus III, the city came under Roman control four years later, as a part of the Roman province of Asia Minor.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Alicia Lawrie

<p>Whangarei City has a dying Commercial Centre. This has resulted from population shifts that have occurred over time. Significant issues have driven movement of people toward much larger cities (seeking better economic, cultural and social outcomes) and more spacious urban fringes (seeking improved environmental outcomes). The Whangarei CBD incorporates both the dying Commercial Centre and a thriving Town Basin which is the centre for Arts and Recreation within the city. The two areas are a juxtaposition. The investigation reveals reasons why two such contrasting areas exist and defines a design solution that seeks to resolve this and leverages the success of the Town Basin to revive the Commercial Centre. The aim of this thesis is to investigate ways that architecture can be used to invigorate Whangarei’s dying Commercial Centre by creating a place of activity, engagement and informal learning and by re-establishing the important connection Whangarei has with its river as well as other positives within the city.   Thesis objectives:  • Identify the reasons for the decline of the Commercial Centre and the success of the Town Basin and how a connection can be established between the two.  • Establish a beating heart within the dying Commercial Centre and provide a life source in the form of people movement into the centre from all parts of the city.  • Provide dynamic spaces which encourage informal learning, social interaction, playfulness and creativity that will engage the people of Whangarei including youth and children.  • Use the natural environment as a means of engaging people of all ages by weaving together water, a restored ecology and architecture.</p>


Author(s):  
Henry George Farmer

Among the folk instruments of music in North Africa the primitive lute, guitar, or pandore known as the gunbrī or gunībrī stands facile princeps. Look where you will from Egypt to Morocco, from the Mediterranean to the southern confines of the Sūdān, and you will find this instrument in some form or other, although its name may have slight variation.2 It is essentially an instrument of the people, and is but rarely found in the hands of the professional musician of the town orchestra (ribā'a al-āla), who usually confines his attention to the more refined 'ūd (lute), kūītra (mandoline), or ṭtunbūr (pandore) among the stringed instruments whose strings are plucked. All and sundry among the people at large who are impelled to try their hand at music, take up the igunbrī or gurībrī——the noisy youth, the whining beggar, the strolling minstrel, the industrious workman, the respectable merchant, and the faqīr of the religious fraternity (zāwiya)——each thinking himself an adept as a performer.


1994 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. A. Houston

Political participation in eighteenth-century Scotland was the preserve of the few. A country of more than one and a half million people had less than 3,000 parliamentary electors in 1788. Scottish politics was orchestrated from Westminster by one or two powerful patrons and their northern clients—a fact summarized in book titles like The People Above and The Management of Scottish Society. The way Edinburgh danced to a London tune is well illustrated in the aftermath of the famous Porteous riots of 1736. After a government official was lynched the Westminster government leaned heavily on the city and its council. And the nation as a whole was kept under tight rein after the Jacobite rising of 1745-46.This does not mean that ordinary people could not participate in political life, broadly defined. Burgesses could influence their day-to-day lives through membership of their incorporations (guilds) and through serving as constables and in other town or “burgh” (borough) offices. Ecclesiastical posts in the presbyterian church administration—elders and deacons of kirk sessions—had also to be filled. Gordon Desbrisay estimates that approximately one in twelve eligible men would be required annually to serve on the town council and kirk session of Aberdeen in the second half of the seventeenth century. With a 60% turnover of personnel each year, distribution of office holding must have been extensive among the middling section of burgh society from which officials were drawn. For burgesses and non-burgesses alike, other avenues of expression were open. In periods when political consensus broke down or when sectional interests sought to prevail townspeople could resort to riot.


1978 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 55-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Brett

In the Seventh Annual Report of the Society I published an account of the journey of the shaykh Al-Tijānī to Tripoli at the beginning of the fourteenth century A. D./eighth century A. H., with particular reference to the Arab tribes and chiefs whom he encountered.What follows is a translation of the passages from the Riḥla in which he describes the city of Tripoli as he saw it during the eighteen months of his residence. Page references are to the 1958 Tunis edition of the work, followed by references to the nineteenth century French translation by Alphonse Rousseau. The latter is incomplete, and not always accurate.221, trans. 1853, 135Our entry into (Tripoli) took place on Saturday, 19th Jumāḍā II (707).237, trans. 1853, 135–6As we approached Tripoli and came upon it, its whiteness almost blinded the eye with the rays of the sun, so that I knew the truth of their name for it, the White City. All the people came out, showing their delight and raising their voices in acclaim. The governor of the city vacated the place of his residence, the citadel of the town, so that we might occupy it. I saw the traces of obvious splendour in the citadel (qaṣba), but ruin had gained sway. The governors had sold most of it, so that the houses which surrounded it were built from its stones. There are two wide courts, and outside is the mosque (masjid), formerly known as the Mosque of the Ten, since ten of the shaykhs of the town used to gather in it to conduct the affairs of the city before the Almohads took possession. When they did so, the custom ceased, and the name was abandoned.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yusriadi Yusriadi

Decentralization is a policy for regions to maximize the functions of a regional government authority. Proportional and optimal power in mobilizing every resource in the area will make the region have independence in developing the part. The method used is a literature study; besides, the authors also use media such as newspapers, magazines, bulletins, and other sources relating to the discussion as reference material in reviewing the debate, analysis using descriptive-analytic methods. Decentralization implemented in the city of Makassar has made a very positive contribution to the people of Makassar, because, with devolution, the Makassar city government can plan its development independently for the sake of a sustainable city. The implementation of decentralization in the town of Makassar has implications for the progress of regional development; this can see in the physical event in the city and the level of economic growth.


Author(s):  
Clyde E. Fant ◽  
Mitchell G. Reddish

Izmir, the modern name for the city that once was known as Smyrna, is the third largest city in Turkey, with a population of around 3 million. Situated on the Aegean coast, it is Turkey’s second busiest port. Not only is Izmir an interesting place itself to visit, but the city also serves as a good base from which to visit several important sites in the area, such as the ancient cities of Ephesus, Sardis, Miletus, Didyma, and Priene. The ancient city of Smyrna, which according to some reports was the birthplace of Homer, was commercially successful due to its harbor and its location (approximately 35 miles north of Ephesus) at the end of a major route through Asia Minor. The earliest settlement at this location was in the first half of the 3rd millennium B.C.E. on a hill known as Tepekule in the Bayraklï suburb of the city. In the 10th century B.C.E., the first Greek colonists from Aeolia settled at Tepekule. They remained there until the end of the 8th century, when Ionian Greeks took over. Excavations at the site have uncovered houses from the 9th to the 7th centuries B.C.E. In the 7th century a temple to Athena was built. This temple was destroyed around 600 B.C.E. by King Alyattes of Lydia when he captured the city. The people of Smyrna rebuilt and enlarged the temple, but it was destroyed again around 545 B.C.E., this time by the Persians. An insignificant settlement in the 5th and 4th centuries B.C.E., the site was finally abandoned. According to a story related by Pausanias (Description of Greece 7.5.1–3), the city was refounded by Alexander the Great, who was instructed in a dream to establish a new city on Mt. Pagus (now the site of the Kadifekale, or “Velvet Fortress”). The new city was actually not started until the beginning of the 3rd century by the Hellenistic ruler Lysimachus. During the subsequent centuries Smyrna, situated around the harbor, grew and prospered. By the 1st century B.C.E., Strabo was able to describe Smyrna as “the most beautiful of all” cities (Geography 14.646).


Author(s):  
Clyde E. Fant ◽  
Mitchell G. Reddish

Antalya, the modern name for ancient Attalia, is a delightful city perched on the Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey. The eleventh largest city in modern Turkey, Antalya is a thriving tourist center. Although many visitors to the city use it as a base for visiting beaches along Turkey’s Mediterranean coast or archaeological sites in nearby locations, Antalya has plenty of charm and interest of its own. Attalia was a city in the region known as Pamphylia, an area bounded by the Taurus Mountains on the north and the Mediterranean Sea on the south. Situated on what is now called the Gulf of Antalya, the city served as the major port in Pamphylia during Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine times. Attalus II, who was king of Pergamum from 159 to 138 B.C.E., founded the city and named it after himself. When Attalus III (r. 138–133 B.C.E.) bequeathed the Pergamum kingdom to Rome in his will, Attalia was one of the areas excluded and thus became a free city for a while. In 77 B.C.E. Attalia was annexed by the Romans. During the 2nd century C.E. Emperor Hadrian conferred the status of colony on the city and visited Attalia in 130 C.E. The Hadrian Gate was built to commemorate this visit. Dedicated to the emperor, the triple-arched gate was made of marble and contained a dedicatory inscription in bronze letters. During the Byzantine era the city was known as Adalia and continued to serve as an important port city. Used by the Crusaders as a harbor on their way to the Holy Land, the city was conquered by the Seljuk Turks in 1207. The Seljuks left their mark upon the city by means of several buildings, some of which still decorate the city’s landscape. Around the end of the 14th century, the Ottomans gained control of the city. During this period Antalya continued to flourish and serve as an important harbor on the Mediterranean. When the Allies dismantled the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I, Antalya was given to Italy, only to be retaken by the Turkish army in 1921.


2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 200
Author(s):  
Samir El-Youssef

Palestinian novelist Samir El-Youssef writes that the question in the title of this essay, “is the Levant a zone of conflict or culture?” is an ironic one indeed. Anyone with a token knowledge of the Levant, argues El-Youssef, knows that these lands are of both conflict and culture; the problem dwells in the fact that the people of the Levant need to be reminded that theirs is a land of great culture that deserves recognition and valorization as such. The author was born and brought up in Rashidiyyé—a Palestinian refugee camp in Southern Lebanon. Rashidiyyé, writes El-Youssef, was and still is as bad as a refugee camp could get. Yet, a mere fifteen minutes walk from the camp stood the ancient Phoenician port-city of Tyr; a harbour town housing the awesome vestiges of one of the greatest, most pacifist, most benevolent builders of civilization.  El-Youssef concludes that "the refugee camp (in its indigence,) and the ancient city (in all its glory,) standing side by side, are a stark example of the Levant being both a land of conflict and culture."


Author(s):  
Robert G. Macdonald

This paper lays out a particular way of ‘seeing’ or looking at cities – one that allows us to see beneath the physical surface of buildings and infrastructure and which thus opens the door to considering the ‘shadows’ of a city as a source of inspiration. In these shadows, it suggests, we can see the city as a ‘laboratory of ideas.’ Specifically, the paper examines the city of Liverpool but its themes are applicable worldwide. It aims to expose Liverpool’s ‘poetic’ qualities and suggests that those best placed to understand it, and guide its development, may not be architects or planners, but rather those that inhabit it most intensely – its people. As a result, the paper becomes a tale about time and movement and the everyday (and night) life of a port city with a history stretching back over centuries. Despite this history, the city has over the past two decades received a whole range of development grants that have and are, right now, changing the physical nature of its urban environment radically. In the context of these physical, externally funded changes to the city’s make-up that mirror conditions found in cities across the world, it is perhaps more important than ever to redirect our thoughts to what lies beneath the surface – to the city’s social, economic and cultural heart. The thinking and experience that underlies this suggestion began in the 1960s when architecture was taught alongside sociology. Imagine a radical School of Art & Design with a sociologist on the staff, in which Richard Hoggart’s The Uses and Misuses of Literacy was on the agenda, and the writings of the Marxist social theorist Raymond Williams were essential reading – Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society , in particular. This author comes out of this tradition, and it is in this tradition that this paper sees the future of cities to be a future without architects or, at least, a future in which architects do not dictate to the people for whom they design. It is an argument applicable across the globe.


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