VISHNU, ANCIENT HINDU GOD AND BUDDHA LATER

I start my series about Angkor Wat presenting you Vishnu, an ancient hindu God.

Angkor Wat was constructed in XII century as a temple dedicated to Vishnu.

Let´s start the tour with Vishnu, this is the most interesting and original God in the temple.

Let’s hope he brings us luck.

Vishnu, God of Protection, Preservation of Good, Dharma restoration. I think this hindu god is lovable. Old God of old Khmer people.

Later on, khmer civilization abandoned Vishnu to honor Buddha, and Angkor Wat became a budhist temple.

Buddha is better showed in Myanmar and Bangkok´s temples.

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If you want read more about Angkor Wat: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat
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A WORLD HERITAGE TEMPLE

Famous and world-wide known Vishnu Temple of Angkor Wat.

APSARAS AND DANCERS

Female spirit of the clouds and waters in Hindu culture. In Angkor Wat Temple, you can see them all around as much as the dancers. In fact, we cannot distinguish well if Apsaras are also the dancers or if the dancers are other character…

These girls compound the beauty of this super temple by appearing in hundreds or thousands of sculptures.

ENTRANCES AND SECONDARY TEMPLES IN ANGKOR WAT – CAMBODIA

Fine architecture on entries of Angkor Wat Temple. Note the big snakes, protectors of the entrances.

EXTERIORS AND SURROUNDINGS TEMPLES

CORRIDORS AND PASSAGES

Succession of portals forming a crazy perpective in the endless corridors of Angkor Wat.

FINEST ART AT ANGKOR WAT

Introducing the famous khmer old architecture: Angkor Wat! Cambodia the fine art temple from XII centurie.

TOWERS

Grandiosity of famous Angkor Wat Towers at Cambodia, the largest religious temple in the world.

CENTRAL PATIO

Central courtyard at Angkor Wat reveals well the architectural refinement of the ancient Khmer civilization in present-day Cambodia.

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Felix Waterfall – Minas Gerais – Brasil

Machado Waterfall – Minas Gerais – Brasil

Cascavel Waterfall – Bueno Brandão

Bueno Brandao Waterfalls

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Perito Moreno is easily accessible by bus from the city of El Calafate, Santa Cruz Province. You can fly from Buenos Aires to the local airport.

Located inside Los Glaciares National Park, you can have a taste of Antactica in a very funny way.

Having about 80 km of extension, this glacier is a tiny tongue of giant Southern Ice Field, a big icefield that cross Patagonia between Chile and Argentina. This region is the third in size in the world. Just Antartica and Greenland is bigger than this icefield.

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On this series I will show you the gorgeous Miscanti Lagoon, located in the meeting of the Andes Mountains with the Atacama Desert, a mixed region called “Altiplano”. At a height of more than 4.000 meters, its waters are derived from the melting of tops of volcanoes and surrounding mountains.

Miscanti is the name of this lagoon but also of the volcano that formed it.

To reach this lagoon you better rent a car. Can be a regular one, if you are a quite good driver, otherwise, prefer a 4×4 car. Just leave the town of San Pedro de Atacama, on North Chile,  and goes towards the border of Argentina.  On this road, you will see lots of mountains and volcanoes and great landscapes. Drive about 120 km and you will reach the entrance of Miscanti, leave the road and enter a dirt road. Just go slow and you won’t have problems. No need to be afraid or suspicious. The ascent is pretty amazing and the road is a spectacle apart.

In this reserve, belonged to indians, you can see flamingos and some wild and free camelideos, as guanucos and alpacas.

To complete this trip and make it more surprising, you have a second lagoon hidden to the right of Miscanti. It’s called Miniques and it’s super gorgeous. 

Buddy, I can tell you for sure, Atacama is the best part of South America.

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The impressive Archeological Museum of Amman, located inside the Citadel, has a beautiful collection of ancient objects that come from many cultures that passed through the Jordan region. The cultures date from pre-historical time and move on until they reach the predominance of the more recent Ayyubid culture.

Curiously, the museum shows the oldest plaster sculptures worldwide found, in addition to clay sarcophagus sui generis, characteristic of the region.

Statues brought from Petra, heads of Roman gods, mythological beings, pre-historical bones and skulls, plates and ceramics objects of many periods of time are ornamenting this museum dedicated to local history.

(This post is an excerpt from my book “Jordan´s Historical Treasures”, from 2014, ISBN 978-85-67911-01-4)

Photos, video and text by Marcelo Ozorio

Marcelo Ozorio at Citadel – Amman – Jordan

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On top of the Citadel it’s possible to view all the grandiosity of the roman amphitheater of Amman and realize the importance of this building of the 2nd century A.D., ingrown on a hill deliberately chosen to protect the spectators from the sun.

The amphitheater of Amman is a beautiful remaining of this so classic institution of the Greek-Roman world.

With room for six thousand people, it was divided in sectors destined to three castes: the noble stayed in the lower section, close to the actors. For the emperor and the rulers, a place was especially reserved in the lower section, centered to the stage offering the perfect view.

In the upper section, destined to the medium caste, was where the military and probably the merchants stayed. The last sector, the highest and furthest from the stage, was destined to the people in general.

The speeches from the actors, though, was audible in any part of the amphitheater, even in the highest levels, thanks to the acoustic projected to attend to all the sectors of the building.

The higher part of the amphitheater was figured with statues and sculptures of gods.

On the sides of the stage, there were support rooms for the show, where the musicians, actors and helpers stayed.

Even today, at the current Amman, the amphitheater is used sporadically for cultural events, like great operas.

In front of the amphitheater, tall columns still remain as the only remains of an extinct Roman forum.

(This post is an excerpt from my book “Jordan´s Historical Treasures”, from 2014, ISBN 978-85-67911-01-4)

Photos, video and text by Marcelo Ozorio

Marcelo Ozorio at Roman Amphitheater of Amman – Jordan

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Nowadayr Umm Qais in Jordan used to be called Gadara, founded about 300 B.C. and was one of the ten cities united at the time as the Decapolis.

These ancient cities of hellenistic origin were founded by Greek merchants, to the east of Jordan River. They didn’t represent an official group, but were united by the similarities in language and the same origin. Although they were attached to the Roman Empire, they had certain autonomy in regard to it. They represented a cultural counterpoint in a region where the Semitic influence predominated, composed by Nabataean, Aramaic and Judaic cultures.

Gadara became famous for being home to the famous miracle of the pigs performed by Jesus. As said in the Bible, after having crossed the Sea of Galilee, Jesus arrived at Gadara, finding a man possessed by a legion of demons who terrorized the city. Jesus ordered the demons to leave the body of the man and transfer themselves to the body of pigs that grazed on the hills. It was told there was about two thousand pigs there. After his command, the demons entered the pigs and then suddenly ran down the hills, at last drowning themselves in the sea, freeing the city and the possessed man from the subjection of the demons.

Little remained of this ancient Greek-Roman city. Built in basaltic stones, it has buildings of a characteristic dark grey color. There are still remnants of a circular church, apparently erected to celebrate the miracle of Jesus, built over an even more ancient tomb, very mysterious.

In this archeological site, one can see the typical roman main avenue, flanked on both sides by adorned pillars.

After the Christian period, the city was conquered by the Arabs and finally was abandoned after an earthquake in 747 A.D.

(This post is an excerpt from my book “Jordan´s Historical Treasures”, from 2014, ISBN 978-85-67911-01-4)

Photos, video and text by Marcelo Ozorio

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One of the most famous archeological sites of Jordan, Jerash is one of the most well-preserved Greek-Roman cities from the beginning of the Christian Era, where you can admire the urban and architectonic labor of that period.

Buried because of earthquakes during the Middle Age, Jerash was rediscovered in 1806. When the excavations began, proofs were found that its occupation dated from before the Bronze Age.

Jerash was one of the cities that composed Decapolis.

(This post is an excerpt from my book “Jordan´s Historical Treasures”, from 2014, ISBN 978-85-67911-01-4)

Photos, video and text by Marcelo Ozorio

Marcelo Ozorio at Jerash – Jordan

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The Citadel is an admirable place and is one of the few spots in all the planet where man is constantly present since very remote times.

The Citadel is the historical and civilizational axis of Amman, the beautiful capital of present-day Jordan, for all cultures, in their ancestry, posted there first their legacy.

Occupied since Prehistory, the Citadel houses vestiges and objects that date back to the beginning of civilization (6000 to 7000 B.C.).

When entering the Citadel, the first thing you see are slabs representing this long journey of human saga. The slabs show all the different civilizations that lived there throughout the ages.

Located on the top of a circular mountain offering a 360 degree view, it gives us the impression of being in a majestic and strategic Olympus, which reigns until today as a geographical and testimonial vestige of times and ages past…

We can admire, surprised, the pharaonic grandeur of giant pillars of the monumental Temple of Hercules. Little has remained, except for two or three whole columns and a few others partially preserved, but one can clearly realize the architectural power of the Greek-Roman civilization that resided in Amman, called at the time as Philadelphia, one of the pillars of sustenance and power in the East.

Entering the simple museum, we realize all the legacy of the place. We find the oldest statues created by human beings, preserved to this day, dated to 6500 B.C.

Besides pre-historical pieces, the museum also brings collections of Rome, the Nabataean kingdom and other ancient civilizations, some not very known in the West, found in Jordan lands. Interesting are the clay sarcophagus, which points to the practice of burying the dead vertically, until then never found at another place or culture.

The Citadel still brings testimony to the passage of religions through time, showing the polychrome faith of the Romans, passing from the monotheistic Christian Byzantine civilization that pulsed from the neighbor Constantinople, evolving to the current mosques of Muslin faith.

At the Citadel, the many archeological sites reveal this indivisible line of the history that goes through the labyrinthine centuries of human adventure.

(This post is an excerpt from my book “Jordan´s Historical Treasures”, from 2014, ISBN 978-85-67911-01-4)

Photos, video and text by Marcelo Ozorio

Marcelo Ozorio at Citadel – Amman – Jordan

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Photos, video and text by Marcelo Ozorio

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