Reading The Walls
Bab Zuwaila has survived from 1092 to the present by humbly accepting layers added to it or letting go of layers subtracted from its original entity. Layers added during later periods are usually distinguished from earlier ones, while layers removed tend to leave traces. To "read a wall" is to visiually detect these differences.
Abrupt changes in a wall such as the unexpected use of different materials, different sizes or types or stone, different mortars or different surface renderings are the visual elements among many that constitute the language of "reading walls". the area between Bab Zuweila and Al-Muayyad Mosque has varied and distinct building layers and is an ideal place for the visual detection of additional periods.
Read more about this topic: Bab Zuweila
Famous quotes containing the words reading and/or walls:
“How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book! The book exists for us, perchance, that will explain our miracles and reveal new ones. The at present unutterable things we may find somewhere uttered.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“If a man, cautious,
hides his limp,
Somebody has to limp it! Things
do it; the surroundings limp.
House walls get scars,
the car breaks down; matter, in drudgery, takes it up.”
—Robert Bly (b. 1926)