Tea at Trianon: Ancient Egypt’s Oldest-Known Stone Structure

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, June 19, 2020

Ancient Egypt’s Oldest-Known Stone Structure

From Curiosmos:

Although Djoser’s revolutionary pyramid is regarded as the earliest colossal stone building in ancient Egypt, long before Djoser, the ancient Egyptians were already experimenting with megalithic structures. One of the best examples that predate even Egypt’s oldest pyramid is called Gisr el-Mudir, and its Egypt’s oldest known stone structure. Its commonly referred to as the Great Enclosure, and not many people know it exists. Located no more than a few hundred meters away from the famous Step Pyramid Complex of Djoser and the Buried Pyramid, its exact purpose has eluded experts for more than one hundred years.The structure has a rectangular shape and measures 650 by 350 meters. The walls of the colossal structure consist of two outer double walls, which were constructed using roughly hews limestone, located 15 meters apart. (Read more.)