Speaker 1: Welcome. This is Marcia for Radio I and today I
Speaker 1: will be reading National Geographic Magazine dated December twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: As a reminder, RADIOI is a reading service intended for
Speaker 1: people who are blind or have other disabilities that make
Speaker 1: it difficult to read printed material. Please join me now
Speaker 1: for the first article Why cats make Great Sailors by
Speaker 1: Scott Christensen. They famously detest water, but have been fixtures
Speaker 1: on ships since the dawn of seafaring. They had names
Speaker 1: such as Tom the Terror, wakele Beunce, Dirty Face, and
Speaker 1: Bilge Water. They traveled thousands of miles on the most
Speaker 1: storied warships with some of history's saltiest sailors. They were
Speaker 1: valued members of the crew, often even issued custom miniature
Speaker 1: uniforms for photographs and their own tiny hammocks for cat napping.
Speaker 1: They were the cats that served in the world's navies.
Speaker 1: Shipcats are not a recent phenomenon. They have been so
Speaker 1: serving on ships for almost as long as humans have
Speaker 1: been going to see Ancient Egyptian tune paintings depict them
Speaker 1: hunting from boats sailing down the Nile, and cats made
Speaker 1: their way across the Mediterranean aboard Phoenician and Greek trading vessels.
Speaker 1: Cats hunting prowess on land made them valuable companions at sea.
Speaker 1: Rodent infestations caused major problems on ships, as rats and
Speaker 1: mice contaminated and consumed food stores, chewed through equipment, and
Speaker 1: spread disease. Cats were a cheap and effective solution to
Speaker 1: the vermin, and they were also good company on long voyages.
Speaker 1: They could provide a vessel's crew with a morale boost
Speaker 1: in the form of much needed affection and a bit
Speaker 1: of softness in the spartan environment of a ship. Since
Speaker 1: cats were considered mascots to be shared by all the sailors,
Speaker 1: they also helped create bonds among the crew. Perhaps not surprisingly,
Speaker 1: sailors developed plenty of superstitions around feline behavior. Seamen preparing
Speaker 1: to sail considered at good luck when cats chose to
Speaker 1: board their vessels, but it was a dreadful sign indeed
Speaker 1: when a cat decided to jump ship, and even worse
Speaker 1: omen the sight of two cats fighting out a pier,
Speaker 1: which could be forewarning that those setting sail would perish.
Speaker 1: Some early mariners believed that cats could control the weather
Speaker 1: with their tails. Twitching them in a certain manner meant
Speaker 1: that the cats were angry and preparing to unleash a
Speaker 1: violent storm. Sailors later realized that cats twitched their tails
Speaker 1: when they were agitated by a sudden drop in air pressure,
Speaker 1: indicating that the ship could soon face unfavorable weather. Crews
Speaker 1: began to monitor all the mannerisms of their ship's cats
Speaker 1: and viewed any unusual behavior as a storm warning. The
Speaker 1: felines were, in a sense, little furry barometers. Though cats
Speaker 1: are known for their aversion to water, their biology makes
Speaker 1: them surprisingly suited to life at sea. Unlike sailors such
Speaker 1: as the Limeys of the Royal Navy, who famously drank
Speaker 1: sick t used to prevent scurvy, cats can make their
Speaker 1: own vitamin sea and can therefore survive on a diet
Speaker 1: that lacks fruits and vegetables. Cats are also able to
Speaker 1: obtain most of the water they need from their prey,
Speaker 1: so they do not require a lot of poudable water,
Speaker 1: as human sailors do. In addition, cats have an excellent
Speaker 1: internal filtration system that allows them to drink a bit
Speaker 1: of sea water if necessary. Throughout the so called Age
Speaker 1: of Discovery, cats were a mainstay on European vessels and
Speaker 1: even played a role in the insurance protocols of the day.
Speaker 1: Legal codes published in Valencia and Spain in fourteen ninety
Speaker 1: four held the patron of a vessel responsible for any
Speaker 1: damage done to merchandise by rats if he had neglected
Speaker 1: to provide for on board feline protection. If cats were
Speaker 1: on board, then the patron was in the clear. Into
Speaker 1: the twentieth century, cats remained fixtures on ships in the
Speaker 1: United Kingdom. One of the earliest and largest cat rescue
Speaker 1: programs occurred during the First World War, when thousands of
Speaker 1: strays were rounded up in cities and given to the military.
Speaker 1: The cats supplied to the Royal Navy even received a
Speaker 1: weekly victually allowance of one shilling and sixpence to pay
Speaker 1: for treats from the ship's canteen. The large U. S
Speaker 1: Navy vessel could be home to as many as two
Speaker 1: dozen cats, some that prowled the galley and grew fat,
Speaker 1: while others preferred the bowels of the ship, where they
Speaker 1: could find refuge from the loud sounds of a ship's guns.
Speaker 1: Cats have a reputation for being notoriously difficult to train,
Speaker 1: but some sailors claimed they learned to speak cat and
Speaker 1: were able to get their mascots to perform feats such
Speaker 1: as standing at attention, saluting, walking tight ropes, and ringing bells.
Speaker 1: This especially contributed to the U. S. Navy's good wild
Speaker 1: efforts in foreign ports. When locals were invited for ship
Speaker 1: tours that included a brief show featuring performing cats, the
Speaker 1: friendliest felines were happy to stay in the birthing area,
Speaker 1: where they received plenty of attention from sailors. They could
Speaker 1: also sleep in hammocks that reduced the sensation of swaying
Speaker 1: felt aboard a ship. After all, ship cats would get
Speaker 1: just as seasick as humans. Following the end of the
Speaker 1: Second World War, the special position that cats held on
Speaker 1: Navy ships began to decline. In the United States, improvements
Speaker 1: in fumigation and pest control made them somewhat redundant as
Speaker 1: chief mousers. Some commanding officers even viewed them as distractions.
Speaker 1: But the bigger problem for cats in the U. S.
Speaker 1: Navy lay in public relations. In the immediate post World
Speaker 1: War two era, members of Congress were looking to enact
Speaker 1: deep defense cuts, including to the Navy's budget. To make
Speaker 1: a point about inefficiency, legislators revealed that one ship had
Speaker 1: staffed a three man committee to plan a funeral for
Speaker 1: their mascot cat. The example was misleading. The true costs
Speaker 1: of keeping cats to maintain morale were nominal and often
Speaker 1: paid by the crew themselves, but the charge of frivolous
Speaker 1: spending none the less embarrassed navy brass more than anything.
Speaker 1: The long run of the ship cat was ended by
Speaker 1: stricter international quarantine laws imposed after the war. Prior to
Speaker 1: the nineteen fifties, many nations gave ship cats special status
Speaker 1: that made them exempt from quarantine laws, allowing them to
Speaker 1: roam free in foreign ports, where perhaps the worst consequence
Speaker 1: was a scrap with a local tom the news. The
Speaker 1: new laws enacted by many countries mandated a lengthy quarantine
Speaker 1: period for disembarking cats. If local officials caught one sneaking
Speaker 1: off ship, the captain could be heavily fined or even
Speaker 1: placed under arrest. Recognizing the cats our natural escape artists,
Speaker 1: the U. S. Navy wanted to avoid having its captains
Speaker 1: involved in legal and diplomatic dust ups due to a
Speaker 1: curious feline trying to circumvent quarantine. Current U. S. Navy
Speaker 1: policy does not explicitly ban cats on ships, but the
Speaker 1: special permission that sailors now need to bring a feline
Speaker 1: friend on board is almost ever granted. Most davies of
Speaker 1: the world have adopted a similar policy, except for Russia.
Speaker 1: Next The New Stars of Polar Science by Lois Harshly.
Speaker 1: As climate research becomes more critical, a small Arctic research
Speaker 1: station in Dorway has emerged as a scientific boomtown. It's
Speaker 1: a haven for an increasingly female lead contingent of experts
Speaker 1: doing some of the planet's most important studies, and for
Speaker 1: the workers who make life in this demanding place more hospitable.
Speaker 1: Nay Alisund, a small international research outpost nestled among the
Speaker 1: snowy mountains and icy fiords of Swalbard, a Norwegian archipelago
Speaker 1: and the Arctic Ocean, is one of the northernmost settlements
Speaker 1: on Earth. During the winter months, it's a frigid, inhospitable
Speaker 1: place where the sun never rises, leaving the community's low
Speaker 1: song buildings bathed in the inky blue darkness of an
Speaker 1: unbroken polar night. Despite the harsh weather, Spalbard is unmistakably
Speaker 1: warming and at an alarming rate, more than four times
Speaker 1: faster than the global average. This has caused unsettling changes
Speaker 1: to its environment. Take the arrival of helmet jellyfish, thought
Speaker 1: to have entered these far north Arctic waters about a
Speaker 1: decade ago. They feed on krill and small fish that
Speaker 1: native marine life such as cod and herring depend on.
Speaker 1: Or the continually warming permafrost, which is threatening to release
Speaker 1: previously locked in place carbon into the atmosphere. In Spalbard,
Speaker 1: the averaged air temperature has increased by about seven degrees
Speaker 1: fahrenheit since the early nineteen seventies. In nay Ellisund, it's
Speaker 1: now just a few degrees below freezing. This summer and
Speaker 1: extreme heat wave led to extensive melting across the archipelago's
Speaker 1: ice caps, but other ships are happening in the region too.
Speaker 1: Dozens of scientists from over ten countries continue to deepen
Speaker 1: or under standing about climate change when it's needed more
Speaker 1: than ever, and many are women. That's a striking shift
Speaker 1: for the outpost, where men have historically predominated and haven't
Speaker 1: always been particularly inviting. Originally found founded as a coal
Speaker 1: mining settlement, naig Ellisund began its conversion into a research
Speaker 1: hub in the nineteen sixties after a fatal accident precipitated
Speaker 1: the end of mining operations. Climate scientist Ingar Hanssenbauer spent
Speaker 1: the winter of nineteen eighty three eighty four in Nile
Speaker 1: assunt working for the Norwegian Polar Institute. She remembers the
Speaker 1: isolation she felt as the only woman at the station.
Speaker 1: I gradually understood that there was communication between the men
Speaker 1: in which I was not a part, and there was
Speaker 1: no parallel female female Gravine change, Hassenbauer says, has come
Speaker 1: incrementally alongside the long overdue rise of more women in
Speaker 1: science and in areas involving the MRSA fieldwork. Julia Boiki,
Speaker 1: a research with Berlin's Humboldt University and the Alfred Wegener
Speaker 1: Institute in Potsdam, Germany, was still among the minority when
Speaker 1: she began collecting data on permafrost in nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 1: Last year, however, she looked around and realized that for
Speaker 1: the first time her three persentine was entirely women. The
Speaker 1: work atmosphere has improved, she says, noting better fur, food
Speaker 1: and general hygiene, but at the same time their jobs
Speaker 1: have gotten harder as a result of the climate change.
Speaker 1: They are documenting. Rainfall has increased, Boike says, and the
Speaker 1: snow cover period has shrunk. Diminishing sea ice means small
Speaker 1: bards polar bears spend more time on land, making Boykes
Speaker 1: Field work more difficult. She won't go to her long
Speaker 1: standing research site when the predators are near by. In
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, photographer Esther Horbough, who specializes in covering
Speaker 1: scientific expeditions in polar regions, arrived to chronicle the lives
Speaker 1: of these researchers, hoping to humanize their increasingly urgent work.
Speaker 1: She begran photographing the kind of role models she wished
Speaker 1: she'd had as a child growing up in Hungary. I
Speaker 1: always imagined that I would love to feel this fighting
Speaker 1: cold on my face, Corvoth says. But I was a girl.
Speaker 1: I only saw men doing that. I didn't even dare
Speaker 1: to dream that one day I would experience it. In
Speaker 1: these photographs, Krvoth highlights researchers and staff who make life
Speaker 1: in the community possible. He just pictured with something that
Speaker 1: sustains her or represents her work. Bodol Houvic, community shop
Speaker 1: manager King's Bay s unexpected items make life at the
Speaker 1: station easier. How Vic works for the Norwegian state owned
Speaker 1: company's stores, supplying residents with toiletries and some essential goods,
Speaker 1: including warm socks and chocolate. She's holding a baritone horn
Speaker 1: and instruments she learned to play as a child and
Speaker 1: picked up again recently. Instruments, how VIC purchased have made
Speaker 1: it possible for amateur musicians at the station to play together.
Speaker 1: Xena Garcia Espada, station manager and engineer, Norwegian Mapping Authority.
Speaker 1: Observing changes on Earth involves looking up at the stars.
Speaker 1: Espada stands in the authority's Geodetic Observation Office, where scientists
Speaker 1: track changes in Earth's shape, gravity, field, and rotation. These
Speaker 1: measures help them more precisely monitor sea level rise and
Speaker 1: ice melt. Charlotte Habermann's marine zoologist, University of Bremen, Germany.
Speaker 1: As the Arctic warms, its ecosystems are changing dramatically, scientists
Speaker 1: began documenting the presence of helmet jellyfish, a species generally
Speaker 1: found in more temperate waters near Spalbard about a decade ago.
Speaker 1: Havermant stands with a net for sampling jellyfish. She uses
Speaker 1: environmental DNA to detect the animals in the waters off
Speaker 1: nigh Ellisund and models their predictive expansion farther into the Arctic.
Speaker 1: Ingrid shares God coordinator Norwegian Polar Institute Kiersgard visits Gessbo,
Speaker 1: a hot two miles outside of Nila sund with her
Speaker 1: dog Yukon. The half malamut half husky, is one of
Speaker 1: Kiersgod's two dogs. He regularly accompanies her on trips away
Speaker 1: from the station, though she notes he is more interested
Speaker 1: in small birds than polar bears. Even if he's not
Speaker 1: the best guard dog, she says, Yukon is still the
Speaker 1: best buddy. Marie Kotch Marine biology doctoral student Alfred Wegener
Speaker 1: Institute Hatch, shown with the sampling net containing sea urturns,
Speaker 1: is researching how warming waters affect the physiology and feeding
Speaker 1: behavior of the spiny palm size omnivores, a key link
Speaker 1: in the Arctic food chain. The threat of climate change
Speaker 1: is ever present, she says, which makes it even more
Speaker 1: important to understand all the tiny parts of this system.
Speaker 1: The next article from the National Geographic History Magazine, November
Speaker 1: December twenty twenty two. Soaring Buddhist temples of Bagan brought
Speaker 1: to greatness by a unifying ruler. The Kingdom of Bagan
Speaker 1: was home to thousands of towering Buddhist temples the seat
Speaker 1: of an empire. This sacred sky line would enthrall pilgrims
Speaker 1: for centuries. For centuries, visitors to a bend of the
Speaker 1: Ayari Wadi River in central Mayanmar Burma have been greeted
Speaker 1: with a breadth taking spectacle, hundreds of rose colored from
Speaker 1: godhas and temples rising above red soil and emerald green vegetation.
Speaker 1: This vast sacred landscape is one of the largest concentrations
Speaker 1: of Buddhist temples anywhere in the world. Designated a UNESCO
Speaker 1: World Heritage seve in twenty nineteen, Bagan is the legacy
Speaker 1: of a complex relationship between religion and culture, whose role
Speaker 1: in the forging of Burmese identity would be explored by
Speaker 1: scholars in the early nineteen hundreds rapid rise. The name
Speaker 1: of the modern state of Mayanmar and its previous name
Speaker 1: of Burma both derive from a people known either as
Speaker 1: the Maramma or the Burman. Historians believed the Burman originated
Speaker 1: in the lands bordering western China and Tibet. In the
Speaker 1: mid nineteenth century, a d As the Burman swept south
Speaker 1: to occupy the lands of the Pew culture. Then in
Speaker 1: military decline, establishing Bagan as their capital in eighty eight
Speaker 1: four nine. It was not a total conquest, however, The
Speaker 1: Pew had been shaped by cultural and economic ties with India.
Speaker 1: They practiced Buddhism, which the newcomers adopted accustomed to the
Speaker 1: train and climate of much higher altitudes. The Burman also
Speaker 1: learned from the Pew wet and rice algriculture that is
Speaker 1: still practiced in the Ayayaruada Delta. Bagan was a modest
Speaker 1: kingdom until ten forty four, when its greatest ruler, King Onowahta,
Speaker 1: ascended the throne. As accession heralded a major shift in
Speaker 1: the fortunes of Baga in the region. The new king
Speaker 1: improved his kingdom's irrigation systems to make Bagan a major
Speaker 1: rice producer. He also laid ambitious military plans. In ten
Speaker 1: fifty seven, he captured the city of Thatan, capital of
Speaker 1: the rich and cultured Man kingdom to the south, encouraging
Speaker 1: other Man rulers to submit to Burman authority. Onoratha rapidly
Speaker 1: united the whole Arawadi region under Bagan rule, creating the
Speaker 1: first Burmese Empire. Anawatra's achievement was as much about cultural
Speaker 1: exchange as military conquest. He fell under the influence of
Speaker 1: the mad variety of Theravada Buddhism, and seeing this practice
Speaker 1: as a useful means of unification, the king promoted it
Speaker 1: across the Bagan realm, building Bagan Honoratha also recognized the
Speaker 1: enormous value of Man culture, which was steeped in Indian influences.
Speaker 1: Thanks to the wealthy gained from conquering the manport, Anawahra
Speaker 1: could pay mon artists, engineers, goldsmiths, and woodworkers to beautify Bagan.
Speaker 1: He commissioned countless stupas, pagodas, and temples, each one seemingly
Speaker 1: grander than the next. Following Anaratha's death, Bagan's golden age
Speaker 1: rolled on, with buoyant trade paying for the fast expanding
Speaker 1: temple legacy. Sharing the fate of so many other states,
Speaker 1: Pagan power was eventually crushed under the onslaught of Mongol invasions.
Speaker 1: At first void by victories, King Narathapati shunned diplomacy with
Speaker 1: Kublai Khan, leader of the Mongols. Bagan's luck changed, and
Speaker 1: a major defeat in twelve seventy seven at the Battle
Speaker 1: of Nyanga, Sagan was the beginning of the end. A
Speaker 1: decade later, Bagan fell, Although many of the temples and
Speaker 1: pagodas fell into disuse in the following centuries, Pagan resumed
Speaker 1: importance as a place of Buddhist pilgrimage in the fifteenth century.
Speaker 1: The thousands of surviving monuments include temples, monasteries, and stupas,
Speaker 1: structures which house Buddhist relics that are shaped like bounds,
Speaker 1: bell like domes or clones. These sacred buildings are nearly
Speaker 1: all constructed of brick based with stucco. Among the thousands
Speaker 1: of structures, from tiny one room monasteries to sprawling temples,
Speaker 1: several landmarks stand out. The Lakwanada Pagoda, built by Anaratha,
Speaker 1: astonished as visitors with its gleaming dome topped with an
Speaker 1: umbrella shaped finial known as a padhi. This pagoda contains
Speaker 1: a relic believed to be one of the Buddha's teeth.
Speaker 1: It was obtained by Anaratha in Sri Lanka. Finding the
Speaker 1: story Bagan could not be discovered as it had been
Speaker 1: treasured by the Burmese for centuries. However, its history was
Speaker 1: based on royal chronicles. The eighteenth century Maha Yazauen and
Speaker 1: the nineteenth century Kaman Yawazi. These accounts placed the origins
Speaker 1: of Bagan in the very distant pass and mixed legends
Speaker 1: with veritable history. In the early nineteen hundreds, Burmese scholars
Speaker 1: sought new data to provide more solid historical information on Bagan.
Speaker 1: Among these were Burmese scholar u Pei muang Tin and
Speaker 1: the British academic Gordon Luz. After graduating in classics at
Speaker 1: Cambridge University, LuSE taught literature in Rangoon today Yangon, the
Speaker 1: capital of Burma today Mayanmar when it was part of
Speaker 1: the British Empire. There at Luis befriendreed u Pei muang Tin,
Speaker 1: a specialist in Pali, the sacred language of Theravada Buddhism.
Speaker 1: The friendship kindled Lusa's passion for Burmese history. He spent
Speaker 1: much time at U Peng wang Tin's home, where he
Speaker 1: fell in love with his sister, nay t T. The
Speaker 1: two married in nineteen fifteen. In nineteen eighteen, Loose published
Speaker 1: his first article on Bagan. Two years later, when he
Speaker 1: applied for a professorship at Rangoon University, he was told
Speaker 1: by the British Chancellor that he had been excluded because
Speaker 1: of his marriage to a Burmese woman. Disappointed, Luis returned
Speaker 1: to Europe, where he continued his studies of Burmese history, language,
Speaker 1: and culture in Paris and London, where he studied Chinese.
Speaker 1: In nineteen twenty three, he and u peim Wang King
Speaker 1: collaborated on the first English translation of the Manan Yahwazin. Later,
Speaker 1: having returned to Rangoon, LUs concentrated on researching the Bagan
Speaker 1: Empire by compiling references to Bagan in medieval texts in Chinese.
Speaker 1: Combining this knowledge with his and u Peimwang King's study
Speaker 1: of inscriptions at Bagan, both men set out to charge
Speaker 1: the history of Burma and of Bagan that is accepted
Speaker 1: today that the Burmese originated in the ninth century AD
Speaker 1: with the Burman conquest of the Pew, and not centuries
Speaker 1: earlier as the chronicles claimed. Bogan has faced challenges in
Speaker 1: the twentieth century. Restoration of the site by Mayanmar's Mille
Speaker 1: military government has been criticized by archaeologists. Two earthquakes in
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy five and twenty sixteen destroyed many structures. Specialists
Speaker 1: of Bagan history hope that the World Heritage designation will
Speaker 1: foster a cooperation between specialists and the Mayanbar government to
Speaker 1: preserve Bagan's sacred structures for years to come. This article
Speaker 1: written by Julius Purcell, Down to Earth Thought bay Yinu
Speaker 1: is the tallest temple in Bagan, consisting of five stories
Speaker 1: standing some two hundred feet tall. It was built by
Speaker 1: King a Langshidu also known as Sithu I, at the
Speaker 1: end of his reign in the eleven sixties. Photographed in
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty one for National Geographic the main Buddha statue
Speaker 1: inside the pagoda sits in a posture called Uma Parshana Mudrap,
Speaker 1: the ground touching gesture. His right hand touches the ground
Speaker 1: to request the Earth goddess to assist his victory over Marak,
Speaker 1: the demon King Thought Benini shows signs of two of
Speaker 1: the greatest threats to Bagan structures, significant earthquake damage and
Speaker 1: spaces where reliefs once hung and which were probably looted.
Speaker 1: Spiritual Center of Bagan Timeline eighty eight forty nine. A
Speaker 1: Western Chinese people, the Burman founded Bagan in the Aya
Speaker 1: Yarwadi Delta ten forty four to ten seventy seven, on
Speaker 1: Oratha founds an empire centered on Bagan and begins building temples.
Speaker 1: Eleven seventy four to twelve eleven. The Bagan Empire reaches
Speaker 1: its architectural and political zenith in the reign of Sichu
Speaker 1: the Second twelve eighty seven, the Pagan Empire falls to
Speaker 1: the Mongols, its temples become a pilgrimage site. Next tomb
Speaker 1: of Pared the Great, once standing eighty feet tall. The
Speaker 1: masoleam reflects Heron's allegiance with Greco Roman culture, with a
Speaker 1: nod to the Navitans, the Arab culture to which his
Speaker 1: mother had belonged. Its large square stones ashlars are carved
Speaker 1: from the limestone known as Meleke or royal stone, as
Speaker 1: it was used for royal constructions. Although historians are convinced
Speaker 1: this is indeed Herod's tomb, no inscription has yet been
Speaker 1: found to definitely confirm it as such. Foundation the podium,
Speaker 1: the base of the funerary building, was a square block
Speaker 1: more than thirty feet across and containing two rooms. The
Speaker 1: lower of these was some eleven feet high, and the
Speaker 1: upper one nearly twenty feet high. The outer walls were
Speaker 1: decorated with pilasters and around the top with rosettes funerary urns.
Speaker 1: The roof would have been adorned with decorative funerary urns.
Speaker 1: This decoration is typical of Navitaean culture, and it is
Speaker 1: notable in such sites as Petra, the ancient Navitaan capital
Speaker 1: to day in Jordan, sarcophagus chamber. Above the podium stood
Speaker 1: a circular structure known as a polos. Archaeologists believed that
Speaker 1: inside it was the chamber with the king's sarcophagus, surrounded
Speaker 1: by ionic style columns supporting a cornice decorated with rosettes.
Speaker 1: The main sarcophagus was covered with a triangular lid decorated
Speaker 1: with rosettes, a common motif in Jewish austuaries and in
Speaker 1: some sarcophagi of the time. The tomb of Mauzolis, the
Speaker 1: mausoleum at Helicarnassus, stood inside a teminos, or sacred enclosure.
Speaker 1: It was accessed through a monumental door that abutted the
Speaker 1: city's agorath. The mausoleum itself was made up of three parts,
Speaker 1: one on top of the other. At the bottom was
Speaker 1: a square structure that tapered slightly toward the top. The
Speaker 1: middle section, called the pteron, was a peristyle formed of
Speaker 1: thirty six ionic columns with sculptures placed between them. A
Speaker 1: solid rock base supported a pyramid of twenty four steps,
Speaker 1: also adorned with statues. The pyramid was topped by the
Speaker 1: marble sculpture of a quadriga, a chariot drawn by four
Speaker 1: horses abreast, driven by Mazolus and Artemisia a would be
Speaker 1: conquered fate. The Assyrian king sena Cherab moved his capital
Speaker 1: to Nineveh, which he expanded and beautified. Despite Assyria's formidable
Speaker 1: military power, revolts arose in various parts of the empire,
Speaker 1: including Judah, which was ruled by King Hezekiah. The conflict
Speaker 1: with Senacherab is chronicled in several books of the Old Testament.
Speaker 1: In seven o one BC, in response to a revolt
Speaker 1: in Judah, Senecherab besieged Jerusalem, only spearing the city after
Speaker 1: Hazikiah paid a large ransom. The Bible recounts how God
Speaker 1: then sent an angel to strike down the Assyrians in
Speaker 1: their camp, causing Senecherab to abandon the siege. The Book
Speaker 1: of Kings recounts the monarch's unhappy end foretold by the
Speaker 1: prophet Isaiah. Now it came to pass, as he was
Speaker 1: worshiping in the temple of Nisrak, that his sons Adra,
Speaker 1: Melakh and Shirezar struck him down with the sword. Then
Speaker 1: Eserhad and his son reigned in his liad place two
Speaker 1: kings nineteen thirty seven next the Persian shortcut. Faint traces
Speaker 1: of the Xerxes Canal are still discernible today in the
Speaker 1: farmland on the narrowest part of the Mount Athos peninsula.
Speaker 1: The canal once ran between the modern day towns of
Speaker 1: Nearoda and Tripeiti. Research carried out between nineteen ninety one
Speaker 1: and two thousand and one revealed that at its widest
Speaker 1: point at the surface, the canal spanned some one hundred feet,
Speaker 1: tapering to about fifty feet above its base. The canal
Speaker 1: bed would have been around ten feet below sea level,
Speaker 1: deep enough for the try reams but not for heavy
Speaker 1: cargo ships. The Xerxes Canal is remarkable, but not unique
Speaker 1: in the ancient world. Darius, the first Xerxes father, had
Speaker 1: re excavated an ancient Ferwonic canal in Egypt that linked
Speaker 1: the Red Sea with the Nile Delta that canal had
Speaker 1: a maximum of almost one hundred and fifty feet of
Speaker 1: the surface and was over sixteen feet deep. In the
Speaker 1: Bronze Age fifteen fifty to fifteen hundred b C, Mysinaid
Speaker 1: artists create the gold Mask of Agamemnon, which will be
Speaker 1: discovered by archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann. In a d. Eighteen seventy
Speaker 1: six fourteen fifty b C. The Mycenaeans invade the island
Speaker 1: of Crete and adopt writing and artistic techniques from the
Speaker 1: Minoan civilization there. Twelve hundred to eleven ninety b C.
Speaker 1: The Hittites and Mycenaeans clash, and their battles are believed
Speaker 1: to inspire tales of the Trojan War. Circa eleven hundred
Speaker 1: b C. The Late Bronze Age collapse brings Mysenean dominance
Speaker 1: to an end and disrupts many cultures around the Mediterranean.
Speaker 1: Circa eighth century b C. Homer's epic poems The Illind
Speaker 1: and the Odyssey are written down, most likely based on
Speaker 1: older tales passed on through oral tradition. This concludes readings
Speaker 1: from National Geographic Magazine and National Geographic History Magazine for
Speaker 1: today Your reader has been marshaff I have enjoyed hearing
Speaker 1: this content. Please give us a call at eight five
Speaker 1: nine four two two six three nine zero. Thank you
Speaker 1: for listening and have a great day.