My Science School

Qutubuddin Aibak, a ruler of medieval India, was the first ruler of the Delhi Sultanate and also the founder of the Slave dynasty.

He was very well treated by the Qazi and imparted good education, including training in archery and horsemanship in his childhood. However when the master died, his jealous sons, sold Qutubuddin Aibak to a slave merchant.

Qutubuddin Aibak, crowned himself the Sultan of Delhi in 1206, when Muhammad Ghori was killed in the battlefield. After his death when Aibak came to throne he ruled over those places where he was appointed as the local receiver-general of Sultan Ghori. Despite the rebellions by nobles like Taj-ud-din Ildiz and Nasir-ud-din Qubachah, he strengthened the administrative system, which was established by Ghori.

In 1210, Qutb-ud-din Aibak died in an accident while he was playing polo. He fell from the horseback and was severely injured. He was buried in Lahore near the Anarkali bazaar. He was succeeded by Iltutmish, another slave who rose to the level of a Sultan, thus extending the Slave Dynasty.

 

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The construction of the Qutub Minar was started by Qitub-ud-Din Aibak, but he only constructed the basement. The construction of the tower was later taken over by his successor Iltutmish who constructed three more stories. The last two storeys were completed Firoz Shah Tuglak. The different architectural styles from the time of Aibak to Tuglak are clearly visible in the Qutub Minar.

Iltutmish’s eldest son died before he did, and his other sons were incompetent. He gave an excellent education to his daughter Raziyya (Raziyyat al-D?n) and desired that she should succeed him. His wishes were offensive to the administrative Council of Forty, Iltutmish’s personal slaves who served as his advisers. Raziyya did succeed briefly to the throne, but her appointment of an African to an important position was considered insulting to the council, which shortly brought about her downfall. This marked the beginning of the decline of the line of Iltutmish.

 

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The Roman aqueduct was a channel used to transport fresh water to highly populated areas. Aqueducts were amazing feats of engineering given the time period. Though earlier civilizations in Egypt and India also built aqueducts, the Romans improved on the structure and built an extensive and complex network across their territories. Evidence of aqueducts remain in parts of modern-day France, Spain, Greece, North Africa, and Turkey.

Aqueducts required a great deal of planning. They were made from a series of pipes, tunnels, canals, and bridges. Gravity and the natural slope of the land allowed aqueducts to channel water from a freshwater source, such as a lake or spring, to a city. As water flowed into the cities, it was used for drinking, irrigation, and to supply hundreds of public fountains and baths.

The most recognizable feature of Roman aqueducts may be the bridges constructed using rounded stone arches. Some of these can still be seen today traversing European valleys. However, these bridged structures made up only a small portion of the hundreds of kilometers of aqueducts throughout the empire. The capital in Rome alone had around 11 aqueduct systems supplying freshwater from sources as far as 92 km away (57 miles). Despite their age, some aqueducts still function and provide modern-day Rome with water. The Aqua Virgo, an aqueduct constructed by Agrippa in 19 B.C. during Augustus’ reign, still supplies water to Rome’s famous Trevi Fountain in the heart of the city.

 

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Gol Gumbaz, situated in Bijapur district of Karnataka, is the largest dome in India. Gol Gumbaz has a diameter of 124 feet and is the second largest dome in the world, next only to St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The dome was built by Muhammad Adil Shah in the year 1656. It has a floor area of 1700 m2 and a height of 51 m. The walls of the structure are 3 m. thick. The dome contains tombs of Muhammad Adil Shah, his two wives, his mistress, his daughter and grandson. Gol Gumbaz is an architectural wonder as it stands unsupported by pillars. The most remarkable feature of Gol Gumbaz is its acoustical system. Even the faintest whisper around the dome echoes several times.

The tomb is a giant cube that is topped with a hemispherical dome. Each storey of the structure has seven arched windows that are crowned by smaller domes. Surrounded by beautiful lush green gardens, the monument is not only Vijayapura's most important tourist spot but also invites visitors from all corners of the world.

 

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The Hagia Sophia, whose name means “holy wisdom,” is a domed monument originally built as a cathedral in Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) in the sixth century A.D.

It contains two floors centered on a giant nave that has a great dome ceiling, along with smaller domes, towering above.

The story of the construction of the Hagia Sophia began in A.D. 532 when the Nika Riots, a great revolt, hit Constantinople. At the time Emperor Justinian I had been ruler of the empire for five years and had become unpopular. It started in the hippodrome among two chariot racing factions called the blue and green with the riot spreading throughout the city the rioters chanting “Nika,” which means “victory,” and attempting to throw out Justinian by besieging him in his palace.

In 1934, the government of Turkey secularized the Hagia Sophia and turned it into a museum. The Turkish Council of Ministers stated that due “to its historical significance, the conversion of the (Hagia Sophia) mosque, a unique architectural monument of art located in Istanbul, into a museum will please the entire Eastern world and its conversion to a museum will cause humanity to gain a new institution of knowledge.”

 

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A true arch allows the building of very high and wide doorways. To form a true arch, stones are laid against each other in a semicircular pattern in such a way that load or weight of the entire structure is shifted to the ‘keystone’, a specially shaped stone at the apex (highest point) of the arch. Because of this offsetting pressure, the overall structure does not collapse due to its own excessive weight, as it would otherwise do. So, true arches allow much larger and more majestic-looking doorways than straight doors, which would need many, many pillars around the room to hold up the structure.

The first use of the True Arch in India is perhaps in the mausoleum of the last slave king Ghiyas-ud-din Balban in 1287. The Turks were familiar with the True Arch for much longer, in fact Emperor Septimius Severus rebuilt the provincial city of Byzantium in 203 CE and endowed it with a Hippodrome — a course for horse racing, I have seen a fully preserved True Arch in one of the walls of the Hippodrome and there will be more. The True Arch existed in Ephesus from at least the 1st century of the Common Era and at the capital city from 200 years earlier and the Turks could not have been unaware of the form.

 

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Ancient Indian architecture was lush and ornate, with sculptures small and big, adorning the gates, the walls and the tall conical roofs of sprawling temple complexes. However, with the Turkic invasions and Sultanate rule in North India from the 12th century, there was suddenly a totally new style in vogue.

Calligraphy replaced statues, and single roomy buildings replaced many smaller ones, topped by the larger curved arches and domes we associate with Islamic architecture in India, and indeed, across the world. Well, this is the story of how the arch and dome first came to India!

Part of Islamic culture

The arch was extensively used across their empire by the Romans, and could be seen everywhere, from their gigantic aqueducts to triumphal arches and the Colosseum. Its popularity spread to pre-Islamic Persia. Like other aspects of Persian culture – calligraphy, geometric designs and so on – arches eventually became an essential part of Islamic culture.

When Qutb-ud-din Aibak became the governor of Delhi in 1192 AD many centuries later, he ordered a brand new mosque to be built to mark his victory. He naturally wanted to have it look like the mosques of his homeland...except, Indian stonemasons, talented and skilled as they were, did not know how to construct ‘true’ arches and domes at all!

Many attempts

What they did know was a common technique used in Hindu architecture called ‘corbelling’, in which successively overhanging layers of bricks rose up to cover the span of the doorway. However, this method did not have the load-bearing capacity to support very large openings. Thus Indian temple gates were very tall, but narrow. Aikbak’s Indian stone-masons decided to improvise – they continued to build arch-like openings using the stacked corbelling (i.e. the ‘fake’ arch). However, they simply chiselled away the inner surfaces of the protruding brick corbels into curved shapes, so it would look a true arch!

Now because they were not ‘true’ load-bearing arches, the gates were still much narrower than the ones found in Central Asia, but happily enough, the Sultans were happy with it! Early tombs like those of Sultan Ghari and Iltutmish are good examples of this fake-but-true arch style.

Now, it’s perfected

It was only with the tomb of Balban in 1287 CR, nearly fifty years later, that the first true arch was employed in India, after the Indian stone-masons had learned the technique from their foreign counterparts! Other early examples were the Alai Darwaza in the Qutb complex, and the Jamat Khana Masjid in Nizamuddin, built during Khilji times.

The arch technique was soon honed and expanded, and by Mughal times, we see large exquisite arches, such as in Humayun’s  tomb and of course, the Taj Mahal.

 

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Mirabai was a little late to the Bhakti movement but embraced it so fiercely and with si much devotion that her name and her poems continue to awe people even today. Mirabai, who had devoted herself to Lord Krishna from an early age, struggled for many years to be an ardent devotee to her favourite god. Her battle against society has eventual life as a wandering poet is an example of resilience and quiet strength.

Historical records don’t reveal much about the life of Mirabai (also Meera or Meerabai), the bhakti saint whose songs about Krishna continue to be sung today. Many of the stories we know of her now were pieced together from secondary literature and oral traditions.

Mirabai was born into n aristocratic Rajasthani family and it is said that her family were ardent devotees of Lord Krishna. Mirabai became one too, and her devotion was so deep that she considered herself married to her beloved god. When she was old enough, Mirabai was forcefully married to the crown prince of Mewar, and his family did not take too well to her devotion. It is also said that she refused to pray to their family goddess.

Five years into her marriage, her husband died at war. The story goes that Mirabai refused to jump into the funeral pyre of her husband, customary of Rajasthani women during her time.

In the end, Mirabai left her in-laws and became a wandering poet of the Bhakti movement. She left Mewar and travelled to places considered sacred – especially those associated with Krishna – such as Vraj (near Mathura) and Dwaraka. It is uncertain how and when she died.

Even though Mirabai was seen as a rebel and a revolutionary of her time, scholars often point out that it did not reflect in her work, because in her poems, she was always a dutiful wife to Krishna.

A legend surrounding Mirabai’s life is that Emperor Akbar heard of her and visited her in disguise. It is believed he even presented her a necklace. But the historical accuracy of this incident has been heavily contested because of the time periods they lived in.

Mirabai’s poems were often emotional and intense, especially when she wrote about being separated from Krishna.

Sigiriya, sometimes, called Sinhagiri, is an ancient rock fortress located in the northern Matale District near the town of Dambulla in Sri Lanka. A site of historical and archaeological significance, Sigiriya is dominated by a massive 200 metre-high column of rock surrounded by dense jungle. It gets its name from the giant lion statue between whose paws lies a staircase which gives access to the site.

Built in the 5th Century, Sigiriya is home to an ancient palace, beautiful gardens and fabulous frescos. It remained covered by the jungle until British archaeologists discovered it in the 1800s.

Today, Sigirita is a UNESCO World Heritage Site visited by thousands of tourists every year.

History of the city

Sigiriya was built by King Kashyapa I, who ruled the Moriya, the native Sinhalese dynasty. According to legends, Kashyapa orchestrated the assassination of his own father King Dhatusena, and expelled his half-brother to usurp the throne. Fearing attack by his half-brother, Kashyapa moved his capital from Anuradhapura to Sigiriya and built a giant fortress and palace on top of the cliff there.

Sigiriya remained the capital of the Moriya until Kashyapa’s half-brother returned and defeated Kashyapa. Unwilling to concede defeat, Kashyapa killed himself. Following his death, Sigiriya is said to have been used as a Buddhist Monastery until the 14th Century.

After the 14th Century, Sigiriya remained hidden from the outside world and was known only to the world and was known only to the locals. Once the British took over Sri Lanka, civil servant George Turnour worked with a Buddhist monk to translate an ancient 5th Century chronicle, the Mahavamsa, from the Sri Lankan Pali language into English. He also studied the Culavamsa, which narrated the story of Kashyapa. In 1827, Jonathan Forbes, a Scottish officer, befriended Turnour and decided to look for Sigiriya upon hearing Kashyapa’s story.

In 1831, he set off to find Sigiriya, based on information given by the locals. Eventually, he found the large rock and noticed platforms and galleries cut into the rock face. Forbes, however, was unsure if it was the Sigiriya he had read about in texts and decided to abandon the expedition. A few years later, when he returned, he traced the moat around the gardens at the foot of the rock. However, he did not climb it.

Finally, British mountaineers reached the top in 1851, and the task of surveying the site fell in the hands of the Archaeological Commissioner of Ceylon, Harry C.P. Bell. Bell’s study at the end of the 19th Century has since served as the basis for all the studies conducted on the site.

Mirror Wall

This wall was once so highly polished than the king could see his reflection as he walked alongside it. Today, however, the polish has faded, and what’s left are scribbles by visitors on a range of subjects – some dating back to the 8th Century.

The wall is currently barricaded to protect the scribbles and whatever little polish remaining on the wall.

Lion’s Paws

The lion’s paws are located at the northern end of the rock. Sigiriya derives its name from this. The paws were discovered by Bell in 1898. At the time, a gigantic lion stood here. The final ascent to the top began here on a staircase that would pass between the lion’s paws and end at its mouth. Today, however, the 5th Century lion’s head has disappeared and only its paws and a few flights of stairs remain.

Frescoes and paintings

When it was found, Sigiriya’s rock face had extensive galleries decorated with wall paintings. These wall paintings are some of Sri Lanka’s most prized possessions. There are a total of 21 surviving frescoes in Sigiriya. These mostly represent apsaras, celestial singers and dancers.

The walls of the rock face have over 1,000 graffiti done by monks and pilgrims who visited the site between the eighth and 13th Centuries.

Gardens

Found at the foot of the rock, the gardens of Sigiriya are among the oldest landscaped gardens in the world. They are divided into three distinct forms – water gardens, boulder gardens and terraced gardens.

The water gardens include bathing pools, little islands with pavilions, and landscaped borders among others. The boulder gardens features boulders that once served as the base for monastery buildings, while the terraced gardens are formed from a natural hill at the base of the rock.

 

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How it all began?

According to a few food historians, the earliest known cotton candy dates back to 15th Century Italy, where sculptures were made from spun sugar, a predecessor of cotton candy. This was done by melting sugar and spinning thin strands using forks. Spun-sugar sculptures were popular among the noble classes in the 17th and 18th Centuries. The technique behind the production of spun-sugar was tricky and labour-intensive, and hence it was reserved only for special occasions.

The invention of modern-day cotton candy (also known as cotton floss) is attributed to Americana dentist William Morrison. He invented and patented the electric candy machine and created cotton candy with the help of confectioner John C. Wharton. This candy machine gained popularity at the St. Louis World’s Fair, Missouri, the U.S., in 1904, where Morrison and Wharton sold over 68,600 cotton candy servings packed in wooden boxes and marketed it as ‘fairy floss’.

In the year 1921, Joseph Lascaux, another American dentist invented a similar machine, and chose to call the sugar treat “cotton candy”. Over the years, the process of making the candy became easier.

Science behind the fluffiness

Do you know how the fluffy texture of the sugar candy arises? The chemical composition of sugar allows the candy to gain the airy, cloud-like form. The candy machine melts the sugar and reduces it to syrup. This syrup spins in the machine with strong force and is cooled rapidly. This doesn’t give the sugar molecules enough time to crystallise, resulting in the formation of thin and long strands. The colours and flavours of one’s choice can be added while the sugar spins in the machine.

Beware of moisture!

Th structure of cotton candy and its shelf depends on the humidity. Moisture in the air can make the cotton candy to clump into a dense ball. This is because the candy is composed of hygroscopic sugar (a substance that absorbs moisture from the air). It is therefore better to enjoy the cotton candy right after it is made.

In order to store the candy, plastic packaging is often used to prevent exposure to moisture.

Colours and flavours

Cotton candy without any colouring agent is white-coloured. The most commonly available colours are pink, blue, yellow and purple. Today the cotton candy is available in several quirky flavours such as bubble gum, mango, salted caramel, strawberry, peanut butter, mint, cherry and coconut. In the recent past, cotton candies are also being prepared in creative forms. There are cotton candy burritos, ice-creams, frappuccinos, milkshakes, burgers and cupcakes.

 

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This is a mixed heritage site which includes Lake Ohrid in North Macedonia, and the area around it for its natural and cultural values. Lake Ohrid provides refuge to several endemic species of freshwater fauna and flora dating from the Tertiary period. On the shores of the lake lies Ohrid town, one of the oldest human settlements in Europe. Built between the 7th and the 19th Centuries, the property has the oldest Slav monastery, and over 800 Byzantine-style icons. Three sites near the lake testify to the presence of prehistoric pile dwellings. Besides, the remains of an Early Christian church founded in the mid-6th Century are found in the regions Lin Peninsula.

The property was extended this year to include the rest of Lake Ohrid, located in Albania.

 

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Located on the northern edge of the semi-arid Great Plains of North America, on the border between Canada and the U.S., this property is a sacred site in a mixed grassland-prairie region. The cultural landscape of the region is characterized by a concentration of pillars or hoodoos – columns of rock sculpted by erosion into spectacular shapes. The Blackfoot Confederacy, or the Blackfeet people, left engravings on the Sandstone walls of the Milk River Valley, where this property sits, bearing testimony to messages from Sacred Beings. These engravings are dated between 4,500 BP (Before Present) and 3,500 years BP.

Writing-on-Stone / Aisinai’pi is entirely protected and managed by virtue of the provisions of the Provincial Parks Act of Alberta. The three components of the serial property and the associated buffer zones are included in the provincial park of Writing-on-Stone. Industrial and commercial development inside the property is prohibited. More than 21% of the property is located in a restricted access zone, preventing unauthorized public access to the zones that are most sensitive in cultural terms, although the Blackfoot people are still allowed access for traditional purposes. All the property’s cultural attributes are subject to the protection provisions of the Historical Resources Act of Alberta, the highest level of protection in this Canadian jurisdiction.

 

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This property consists of eight buildings in the U.S. designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright during the first half of the 20th Century. All these buildings reflect the ‘organic architecture’ developed by Wright. The architecture includes an open plan and unprecedented use of materials such as steel and concrete. Wright’s work had a great influence on the architecture in the U.S. and Europe.

The buildings employ geometric abstraction and spatial manipulation as a response to functional and emotional needs and are based literally or figuratively on nature’s forms and principles. In adapting inspirations from global cultures, they break free of traditional forms and facilitate modern life. Wright’s solutions would go on to influence architecture and design throughout the world, and continue to do so to this day.

These buildings are located variously in city, suburban, forest, and desert environments. The substantial range of function, scale, and setting in the series underscores both the consistency and the wide applicability of those principles. Each has been specifically recognized for its individual influence, which also contributes uniquely to the elaboration of this original architectural language.

 

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Located near Lisbon, Portugal, the Royal Building of Mafra was conceived by King Joao V in 1711 as a tangible representation of his conception of the monarchy and the State. The property, a quadrangular building, houses the king’s and queen’s palaces, the royal chapel, a Franciscan monastery and a library. The Cerco garden with its geometric layout, and the Tapada, the royal hunting park, complete the complex. The property bears witness to the power and reach of the mighty Portuguese empire.

This vast complex, largely built of Lioz stone, is among the most sumptuous Baroque buildings in Portugal and at 40,000 m², one of the largest royal palaces. Designed by the German architect João Frederico Ludovice, the palace was built symmetrically from a central axis, occupied by the basilica, and continues lengthwise through the main façade until two major towers. The structures of the convent are located behind the main façade. The building also includes a major library, with about 30,000 rare books. The basilica is decorated with several Italian statues and includes six historical pipe organs[6] and two carillons, composed of 98 bells.

 

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The Risco Caido and the Sacred Mountains of Gran Canaria Cultural Landscape is located in the vast mountainous area of the island of Gran Canaria, Spain. The landscape comprises ravines, cliffs and volcanic formations with rich biodiversity. The site also includes a large number of troglodyte settlements – habitats, granaries and cisterns – which bear testimony to the presence of a pre-Hispanic culture on the island. Cult cavities and two sacred temples, or almogarenes – Risco Caido and Roque Bentayga – are part of the troglodyte complex.

The property has troglodyte sites, which contain a large number of rock art images, some of which are very probably cultural, and farming settlements, giving rise to a cultural landscape that still conserves most of its original elements, and the visual relationships between them. The vestiges of this pre-Hispanic culture have survived in time and space, shaping the landscape, and conserving traditional practices such as transhumance, terrace-farming installations, and water management installations. The Libyco-Berber inscriptions constitute unquestionable proof of the local presence of a pre-Hispanic culture, and bear testimony to the westernmost expression of Amazigh culture, which, for the first time, evolved into another unique insular culture.

 

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