The Taj Mahal

I read a story about the Taj Mahal that you can find here.

When the story starts, it is 1592 and India is ruled by the Mughals. A prince is born that year, and he is named Khurram. He grew up, learning from teachers but rarely had any contact with women his age. One of the few exceptions was the Meena Bazaar during a festival celebrating the New Year. He went to the Bazaar with his friends, and found a women selling jewels. He falls in love with the woman and bought a jewel from her. Eventually they married and become a happy couple. The emperor decided to rename the woman to Mumtaz Mahal, which means "Jewel of the Palace".  They lived together happily and Khurram was a successful prince, controlling the armies and conquering other land. His father died and he became the King. He had many children with Mumtaz. However, Mumtaz became sick after having another child. She died, and her last words to Khurram were "I wish that all the world will know of our love." Khurram decided that this was Mumtaz's way of asking for an elaborate tomb. He imagined a white heavenly palace, and decided to have it built. He spared no expense and made it extremely elaborate, importing materials from far away. After many long years of construction, it was finally done.

 It was called "Taj Mahal". A few years later he became ill. He decided that wanted to have an identical tomb built, but in black stone. However, his son was greedy with power and took control of the empire, and locked his father into the Red Fort in Agra, the city near where the tomb was built. He stayed there for eight years until he died.

I've actually been to the Taj Mahal, and although it is very old, it is still a great place to visit. I took the photo above.

The Buddhist Eightfold Path

One of the parts of the Buddhist Eightfold Path is Right Effort. Right Effort means to work hard, and to put a lot of effort into everything you do. I could incorporate this quality into my life by working hard and doing my homework on time, even it it is unusually difficult to do. I think that this is hard to do, because it requires a lot of dedication, but it is not impossible to do.

Maps of India

I made three maps of India:

A 2d Climate map and an elevation map

And a 3d clay physical features map.

How do physical features, climate and elevation relate to each other?
Physical features and elevation often cause the climate to be the way it is. For example, the Himalayas are cold because they are high up. In general, very high places are cold. Also the climate can shape the physical features. Whether an area is rainy or not determines whether it is a desert or not.
What conclusions can you draw? (Think about natural resources, climate/weather, and human settlement.)
I have come to the conclusion that physical features, climate and elevation are significant to humans because they affect where they can settle. The climate determines some of an area's natural resources (e.g. lush fruit trees won't grow in a desert) and they both affect whether an area is settlable. 

Surya - The Hindu God

As I was instructed to do here, I read a section of notes and now I need to write a paragraph about a Hindu god. I wanted to pick a god that nobody else in my class would pick, so I went to the Wikipedia list of Hindu gods and chose a random one. That one ended up being Surya, who is the main solar deity. In other words, Surya is the god of the sun. Surya is a male, and he has multiple wives. The word Surya can be used while speaking in Hindi to refer to the sun.
One interesting thing about Surya is that in Hindu literature, it says that Surya is a god that you can see every day.

Surya is usually depicted with a lotus or flower in each hand, and sometimes with a horse and chariot.
There a many temples around India dedicated to Surya. There is usually a chariot wheel on these temples. Although Surya isn't one of the most popular gods in India, people still worship it. Thousands of people go to the eastern banks of the Ganges river in Varanasi, where they can bathe, get blessings from priests and pray. When they are there, some people pray to Ganga, the goddess of the Ganges river, but others pray to Surya.

Sources
Hartley, C. "Surya the Sun God." Hartwick College | Sites of Students, Faculty, and Staff. 2001. Web. 19 May 2011. <http://users.hartwick.edu/hartleyc/surya.htm>.
"Surya." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 19 May 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravi_(god)>.

Mohenjo Daro

I read this article here from National Geographic. It was about Mohenjo Daro, which was a city in the Indus river floodplain, which is in modern Pakistan.
The article starts out by explaining how Mohenjo Daro was a sophisticated city with a complicated drainage system and an excellent street grid.
The article goes on to explain that archaeologists know about the city and how it was physically, but they do not know much about the inhabitants of the city. To quote the article, "There's no obvious central seat of government or evidence of a king or queen." 
Although not a lot is known about the people, some of their habits are known. Archaeologists know that hygiene and cleanliness were very important to the people. There were bathing areas in almost every house.  
Mohenjo Daro was first found in 1911, and there were excavations and digs until 1954. The city is on elevated language. 
Some statuettes have been found. A nude female statuette was found in 1926, and a few statuettes of men sitting were found. The statuettes of men were called "Priest King" even thought there is no proof of a priest or a king. 

This is a broken "Priest King" figurine.

Another thing that is unknown about Mohenjo Daro is the downfall of the city. All of the statuettes were broken, which suggests that they were destroyed by whoever invaded the city. 


Source
Roach, John. "Lost City of Mohenjo Daro -- National Geographic." Science and Space Facts, Science and Space, Human Body, Health, Earth, Human Disease - National Geographic. Web. 19 May 2011. <http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/archaeology/mohenjo-daro/>.

Ancient Egypt Unit Reflection

Our unit on ancient Egypt is over and like always I have to do a unit reflection.
In this unit, I was an inquirer because I did lots of research on ancient Egypt and found out a lot of information. I was knowledgeable because of all the information that I gained from researching. I think being knowledgeable is a result of being an inquirer.
Out of the ATLs, I tried to work on my organizational skills this unit because I met due dates and I even tried working ahead on our projects instead of leaving them  to the last minute. I also organized my teaching project in a logical way that helped people understand what I was teaching.
And to answer our unit question:
How did the physical environment affect the development of civilizations?
The physical environment was one of the most important factors in the development of civilization. The physical environment dictated where people could live and where they could not. For example, all humans need water to live, and so civilizations need water too. If there is no source of water near the civilization, people cannot live there. The physical environment sometimes also served as a barrier between one civilization and another. Egypt was protected by desert from invaders, which made it a strong and invasion-resistant city. Additionally, the physical environment controlled how people interacted with other civilizations. Egypt had the Nile River which could be use as transport to other civilizations for trade or warfare. Without the river, many things would not exist in Egypt, but one of them is that there would be no trade with other civilizations. All in all, the physical environment is one of the most influential things in the the development of civilization.

My Ancient Egyptian Art

Our latest assignment was to create art in the style of ancient Egyptian art. It had to be realistic so that it could be on a tomb or palace wall, and the subject of the art had to be a something that ancient Egyptian artists would normally paint. I'm a pretty terrible artist, but I tried my best when making my art.

 In my artwork, there is a slave on his knees fanning a pharaoh who is sitting on a chair. Around the two men there are words and phrases written in hieroglyphics. The pharaoh is no pharaoh in particular, it can represent any pharaoh. I'll call him Pharaoh Adrianus. The pharaoh is elevated but the slave is on the ground, which represents the fact that the pharaoh is much more important than the slave. Also the pharaoh is adorned with fancy jewelry while the slave is wearing nothing but a skirt-type thing. This also represents the pharaoh's superiority over the slave.