Domes

The Dome of the Rock is a 7th century building located in the walled Old City of Jerusalem in the center of the Temple Mount. It is the first domed shrine to be built and is a masterpiece of Islamic architecture. It is the oldest Islamic building to have survived intact in its original form. The building is not only sacred but is also recognised for its beauty. It is gorgeously decorated both inside and outside (Grabar, 2006). The realm of Islam had spread widely with the Islamic conquest of…

The architects of the Dome of the Rock deliberately designed the space with the intention of portraying a message both to the followers of the Islamic faith and to the other prominent religions in the area. The Dome of the Rock is one of the earliest and elaborate major construction projects of the Islamic rulers. The reason for the Dome of the Rock’s creation can be seen through the thoughtful choices made for its location, the structural design, and the inscriptions and mosaics within the…

summer morning in June. My mother and father started our car and waited for Sofia,my sister, sean ,my friend, and me to get inside. It was time to leave our dull suburban home in San Jose, and drive to the beloved National Park, Yosemite, to hike Half Dome. On the car ride there I had slept, but awoke right when we had gotten into the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Looking outside of the window and noticing all of the evergreen trees was surreal for me, as I rolled down my window a strong smell of…

The Dome of Florence Cathedral was a problem from the start, causing headaches for former engineers. Brunelleschi took on the challenge in 1419. He was possibly led to his hidden talent in architecture after losing a commision to build a sculpture for a baptistry in Florence. He then shied away from sculpting, although he did not quit and began his career in architecture. Some believe he was inspired by his surroundings in Italy, always visiting the works of art there. When he worked on the…

this is no show. This is the Oil Reserves Scandal also known as the Teapot Dome Scandal. The Teapot Dome Scandal took place in the early 1920s. It was the secret leasing of federal oils by the Secretary of Interior, Albert Fall. After President Harding switched the oil reserve lands from the Navy to the Department of Interior in 1921, Albert Fall secretly gave Harry F. Sinclair from Mammoth Oil exclusive rights to the Teapot Dome land in Wyoming. Fall also gave rights to Edward L. Doheny from…

In Brunelleschi’s Dome, Ross King discusses the life of the renowned Renaissance architect and creator of the dome that covers the Santa Maria del Fiore, Filippo Brunelleschi. Brunelleschi was a key figure during the Renaissance, where a well rounded education was promoted. This education made people well-versed in reading, writing, math, science, and other academic topics. This was also known as humanism, and it involved studying Greek and Latin sources, being less bound to tradition, and…

The Dome Florence’s old cathedral, was crumbling so they built a new one over the old one. They began construction in 1296. The cathedral was meant to show Florence's position as one of the greatest cities in the world. Many years later it was finished, all except for the dome. They had intended the dome to be the glory of the cathedral. In 1418 the Florentine fathers decide to finish the cathedral by putting a dome on but they did not want to use the Gothic style then favoured by rival…

Brunelleschi’s Dome The discovery I decided to research was about Filippo Brunelleschi and his famous dome. His discovery began in the early 1400’s, when the leaders of the town—Florence—decided that it was time to replace the roof on the cathedral. For centuries, the hole had been there, and bad weather was beginning to ruin parts of the exposed cathedral. So, they decided to hold a bit of a competition among all the artisans of Florence, offering a prize of 200 gold florins, for the best…

The project of the dome began as many human endeavors begin: someone wanted to do something to show that they were the best. In typical human fashion, the fathers of Florence, Italy had decided that Florence would be the best and most advanced city around. They wanted to beat out their rivals in Milan to be the best that Europe had to offer. How would they do this? By building a cathedral with a stunning dome; something that had never been done before. But, they soon ran into a problem: they had…

The Teapot Dome scandal involved national security, big oil companies, bribery and corruption at the highest level of the United States government. Before Nixon and the Watergate affair, this was the most serious scandal in our country’s history. The affair took its name from Teapot Dome, a rock formation in Wyoming that looked like a teapot and, more importantly, stood atop a large government naval oil reserve. Albert B. Fall, a rancher and New Mexico’s first U.S. Senator, served as secretary…