This is a closer view of the minaret from my previous post. The special thing about these two minarets is that if one of them is shaken (for example if someone goes inside it and tries to shake it) the movement will shake the other one as well. This is really strange and people come to see the phenomena on daily on special hours. A masonary building dating back from 600 years ago which its minarets still dance some 10 times a day.Nobody knows how the builders managed to do this but it's said that they made a dancing building in order to cope with earthqauke which is a very common thing in the region.
7 comments:
wow, that´some architectual wonder, i can´t imagine how the minaret might look like when it´s shaken! amazing!
Thats pretty interesting stuff, earthquake proof buildings?
That are that old, shows how young North America is.
Yes it's a very old and as such more interesting, or as Cynthia puts, it's a wonder. Unfortunately I haven't taken any films of the it's being shaken. There's a small bell attached to the second minaret which starts ringing when the first one is being shaken.
A "Gate from Heaven to Earth" is certainly how it must feel when an earthquake shakes!
Could you imagine being up in the tower to call the faithful to pray and suddenly a earthquake?
As I live in a region in which earthquakes occur frequently, and because I am an architect, I think about earthquake regularly. The formulas say that in my hometown which is a huge metropolice with more than 15millions of population, a large earhtquake is expected from something about 15 years ago. However I was not thinking about earthquake while taking these pictures. I think at that moments I was deeply into the architecture of the tomb, pondering somewhere out of the temporal time.
I see where Iran is on the most active fault lines anywhere in the world. Nearly daily quakes or at least several times a week. I would think as an architect it's location, location, location. Stay as far away from the thousands of fault lines as possible. Then you put of your "engineer's hat" and concern yourself with shifts from the seismic activities on your structure's integrity. A difficult task indeed.
In South Carolina we don't have a problem with earthquakes. However a major fault line does run directly under our state capital building here in Columbia. After a recent renovation some "earthquake proof" measures were taken in the foundation. We are concerned with hurricanes on the coastal areas. Schools in that area are now protected better against a hurricane. Better wall construction, better technology for roof shear from high winds, and storm shutters for windows and doors (put up with advanced warning). They have adopted much of the hurricane code of Miami Dade County.
Our biggest concerns in commercial building are fire codes and egress; more electronic security issues; and complying with the needs of the disabled (ADA).
hard for me to envision the shaking of the minarets...
probably need to be in person to really appreciate it...
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