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Jul 26

Why does Paris look the way it does?

Well, until the year 1853 it was a diseased and overcrowded Medieval city — then the biggest urban renovation in history was announced.

This is the story of how Paris was transformed into the world's most popular city...

First: the context.

King Louis-Philippe of France was overthrown in 1848 and Louis-Napoleon, nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, was elected President of the Second Republic that same year.

Three years later he staged a coup and became Emperor Napoleon III — France's final monarch.

For centuries — ever since the Dark Ages — Paris had been one of Europe's biggest and most important cities.

But by the 19th century, as famously described in the works of Victor Hugo, Paris had become overcrowded and ravaged by disease — the urban poor were suffering.

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The Cultural Tutor

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Jul 24

Exactly 113 years ago today an explorer called Hiram Bingham III was led to some mysterious ruins in the mountains of southern Peru.

Those ruins turned out to be Machu Picchu.

This is the story of the last citadel of the Inca Empire...

Historians generally agree that there were six "cradles" of human civilisation.

These "cradles" were places where civilisations emerged independently and without external influence.

First in Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq, and also in Egypt, the Indus Valley, China and Mexico.

The sixth cradle was in modern-day Peru, and is known as the Caral-Supe or Norte Chico civilisation.

It was the first in the Americas and was fully established by the end of the 4th millennium BC.

These now-ruined stumps are the remains of a 5,000 year old city:

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The Cultural Tutor

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Jul 23

It's easy to ignore them, but roofs are often the most interesting part of a building.

Why? Because they have an endless variety.

So here is a very brief introduction to the surprising beauty of roofs...

There are exceptions, but pretty much every type of building needs a roof, from the humblest home to the grandest temple.

The very origins of architecture itself lie in the need for shelter — for a roof above our heads.

It gives protection, from the elements or other people.

And so we have been making roofs since the dawn of civilisation.

At something like the Dolmen of Menga in Spain, a burial chamber built in the 4th millennium BC, we find a roof made of huge stone slabs.

Rudimentary beginnings, but still impressive five thousand years later.

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Jul 21

Angkor Wat in Cambodia is one of the most famous places in the world, and rightly so.

But what is it, who built it, and when?

Well, the first thing to say is that Angkor Wat stands at the heart of a colossal, abandoned city...

Angkor is the name of an historic (and ruined) city in northwestern Cambodia.

It was the capital of the Khmer Empire from the 9th to the 13th centuries AD, and in those years it rose to become one of the world's major urban centres.

But Angkor was abandoned in the year 1431.

Angkor Wat itself was built during the 12th century, in about thirty years, under King Suryavarman II.

Suryavarman had reunited the Khmer Empire and extended its borders — Angkor Wat was supposed to be both the empire's primary temple and his final resting place.

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The Cultural Tutor

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Jul 19

174 years ago there was a huge storm in northern Scotland, and it uncovered something strange.

From beneath the soil emerged a perfectly preserved village older than the Pyramids, and it even had furniture.

This is the 5,000 year old story of Skara Brae...

Orkney is the name of an archipelago just off the coast of northern Scotland.

It was here, in 1850, that a colossal storm partly destroyed a grassy hill by the sea.

When locals investigated they discovered that it had revealed what seemed to be walls made of large stones.

A local landowner and amateur archaeologist called William Watt started a proper dig, and after excavating four houses he brought in an expert called George Petrie.

By 1868 the importance of the discovery — which some claimed to have known about for years — was clear.

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The Cultural Tutor

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Jul 17

Rembrandt, who lived 400 years ago, is usually called one of the greatest artists who ever lived.

But why? What made him so good?

Strange as it sounds, what made Rembrandt special was the way he painted himself — and how many times he did it...

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was born in the Netherlands in 1606.

By 18 he was a painter, but unlike others of his generation he refused to study in Italy and remained at home.

At 22 he painted this brooding, supremely confident self-portrait — and a star was born.

This was the Dutch Golden Age, a time of cultural and economic flourishing when the Netherlands found itself at the centre of global politics and its cities were booming with trade.

And, of course, an impossibly talented generation of artists like Vermeer and Rubens had arisen.

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