First built around 1,600 years ago, the Mati Temple Grottoes (马蹄寺石窟) are a group of Buddhist cave temples located in Lingsong Mountain in northwest China’s Gansu Province. There’s no building that could be classified as a temple in the strict sense of the term; instead, this is a whole mountain carved into a temple.
No trip to Athens would be complete without taking in the amazing ancient ruins like the The Temple of Olympian Zeus. The tall columns made this temple one of the largest ever built in the ancient world!
I love how quiet temples tell stories of centuries. I imagine them to have this steady deep voice which resonates with knowledge. Someone made this temple and decked it with the finest craftsmanship and thought it could be an abode of God. God went to the ones which were built with love. And the walls of those temples silently embrace the presence of the divinity.
These here are Selinunte’s temples, I live really close to them so they are part of my history, origins and culture. These are in Sicily, Italy. I always think they don’t get the attention they need. If you don’t know the origins, the temples were builted up carrying huge blocks from a far place to another and then they were sculpted with an amazing technique so that you could see them in all their beauty. The dimension are huge, you really feel a small little human compared to them. They were dedicated to Gods, and the entrance is always toward east because that’s were the sun rises, and that indicates life. The temple you see there, still standing after a massive earthquake is the E Temple dedicated to Hera, Zeus’s sister and wife. There everyone bringed gifts and treasures to donate. Today it felt amazing, I feel myself when I am there, these structures define my culture, our “massive simplicity”. I love my country, I am so excited to learn about lots of places but this here will always be mine.
Today we visited one of my favourite places, Arashiyama. I’d been there on my last trip to Japan but didn’t get around to the whole park. This time I wanted to see more.
We took a wander through the bamboo grove, visited Tenryu-ji Temple and, of course, fed the monkeys at Iwatayama Monkey Park. It was a good day for it, with relatively clear skies and no rain. Only later in the day did the sky turn grey.
If you love animals, temples, walking and the great outdoors, you simply can’t go passed Arashiyama. You can even hire a bicycle to get around!
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