window Detail.
window patterns.
Rock Art.
Note the depiction of very large hands & feet.
Some sort of battle ?
The Grand Design: New Answers to the Ultimate Questions of Life.
The Grand Design: New Answers to the Ultimate Questions of Life.
By Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow.
ISBN-13: 978-0593058299.
It turns out that the answer to ‘Life the Universe and Everything” is not 42 after all…. See The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: A Trilogy in Five Parts by Douglas Adams.
Ho… there I am thinking I had cracked it when along comes M – Theory. Which it is hoped could unite the two currently incompatible theories of quantum mechanics and general relativity.
If M – Theory allows for 10500 possible universes, why couldn’t I have found myself in one where Guinness is free……!
This is not ‘A brief history of Time’ one needed to probably read that a couple of times (well I did anyway) to understand it(?). It is quite light reading for a subject that presents recent discoveries that help explain the expansion in the universe, with the reintroduction of the cosmic constant and the unknown repulsive force (dark matter).
It also introduces the universe in the context of 11 dimensions and suggests the quantum possibility of many universes, each with their own fundamental rules of nature.
Tree Study.
Rock Art near Ghamar.
The rocks around the Ghamar area near Al Hamra are full of rock art; from the old to the relatively new (being less than a 1000 years old! age being a rather difficult thing to quantify – subject matter helps)
Jebel al Qal`ah.
Rock Art near Hasat Bani Salt.
This has got me thinking: at first I thought it was erosion but if you look closely enough at the lower middle of this image, a figure? can be made out. This along with the uniformity of the indentations, clearly suggest ‘man made’ but what does it represent?
It can be found directly across the wadi from the Hasat Bani Salt carvings.
Rock Art near Al Hamra.
I am pleased with this, it kept me waiting for over an hour until the light was right: very difficult to see and quite high up on the rock.
Wadi Bani Awf (Auf).
Entrance to Wadi Al Abyadh.
A day out with my Bronica S2a.
A day out testing my Bronica after having stripped it down cleaned and lubricated all the gears. I then recovered it with new ‘Griptac’ from “cameraleather.com” so it is nice and new looking.
A Shell.
Old Bones – Masirah.
Jebel Village.
Dried Roots.
Door fittings.
Jebel-Misht looking from Jebel Shams.
Jebel-Misht: blue toned.
Jebel Shams.
Arabia and the Arabs: by R G Hoyland.
Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam.
Robert G. Hoyland ISBN: 0415195357.
An interesting insight into the Arabian Peninsula, from prehistory to the coming of Islam. Even with the limitations imposed by the lack of direct archaeological evidence (not because there is none – rather the reluctance until very recently of some areas allowing archaeological research to be carried out) The book is very readable and is enhanced by numerous maps, figures and plates.
Holiday for a month.
On holiday in UK & the weather is cold and wet!
Qalhat.
Mausoleum of Bibi Maryam.
Qalhat is about 20km from Sur, follow the new coastal road from Muscat.
The mausoluem built by the wife of Baha al-Din, Maryam, is thus call the Bibi Maryam mausoleum. Located on the coast near the town of Qalhat, described by Marco Polo and visited by Ibn Battuta in the second quarter of the fourteenth century.
Philip Ward’s Travels in Oman about Qalhat:
At the end of the fourteenth century Qalhat was struck by a heavy earthquake that destroyed many of the city’s buildings and falaj systems. In 1507, the Portuguese arrived in Oman ransacking Quriyat and then in the following year they destroyed Qalhat, killing many of the local population.
Portuguese quote:
“They did not stop to put fire to the building until it was completely burnt down….”
See entry World Heritage Centre from the link below.
Way Beyond Monochrome.
“Way Beyond Monochrome Edition 2” ISBN: 9780240816258 by Ralph Lambrecht and Chris Woodhouse – Advanced Techniques for Traditional Black & White photography. This book has 560 pages and over 1000 illustrations, it provides all the important requirements of the craft of photography (it even has a bit on digital!).
This is not a beginner’s book: but for those requiring in depth information about the use of traditional materials used in the production of film based images, it is probably one of the best available.
Rub’ al Khali (الربع الخالي).
You need to be up early! for this sort of light.
(From the Encyclopaedia Britannica.)
The Rubʿ al-Khali sand desert, covering about 250,000 square miles (650,000 square km) is the largest area of continuous sand in the world. The topography is varied. In the west the elevation is as high as 2,000 feet (610 m) and the sand is fine and soft, while in the east the elevation drops to 600 feet (183 m) with sand dunes, salt flats, and sand sheets. One of the driest regions in the world, it is virtually uninhabited and largely unexplored.
David A Lockwood 