Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal was built by a Mongul emperor named Sahah Jahan, for his wife Mumtaz Mahal. Sahah Jahan was born in 1592, while his favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal was born in 1593. They married in 1612 and had seven children. In 1628 Shah Jahan became the Mongul Emperor. Only three years later his beloved wife died shortly after childbirth. In 1632 Sahah Jahan began the project of building a mausoleum, or tomb for his wife, the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal is located on the banks of the Yamuna River. It took twenty-two years to complete with an estimated 20,000 workers. The building is surrounded by four 138 ft. minarets and sits on a 315 ft. square marble platform. Each side has a 110 ft. arch and center dome is around 200 ft. high. The building is built in an Islamic style of architecture. Centered in the building is a tomb for Mumtaz Mahal. Next to her tomb, is the tomb for Sahah Jahan. The tombs in the building are empty. The bodies of the two are buried in a crypt below the building. The entire plan of the Taj Mahal is symmetrical, with one exception. Symmetrical means that one side of the building could mirror the other side if cut down the middle. The only exception is the tomb of Sahah Jahan which was added later to the building. There is a story which suggest that Sahah Jahan was planning on building a replica of the Taj Mahal for himself on the other side the river, though no evidence or plans of this has ever been found. Sahah Jahan was overthrown by his own son and imprisoned in the Red Fort within sight of the Taj Mahal. He was forced to spend the last eight years of his life in prison till his death in 1666.

Choose one practice from the Buddhist Eightfold Path and describe how you could incorporate it in your life OR provide an example from your life of a

#6 RIGHT EFFORT:

Without putting effort into something, or anything really, nothing can be achieved. Right now I may be putting my minimum, or my maximum amount of effort. I tend to try and put my maximum efforts in school, basketball, and my social life. Not all at the same time of course, that's not putting the right amount of effort, but more effort than my body, and brain can manage. Whenever I want to improve my shot in basketball, or get a good grade in a Humanities project, I try hard. Sometimes it is hard putting your maximum efforts, but sometimes it is also necessary. After hearing the two powerpoint presentations from Ms. Moore about Hinduism and Buddhism, i was extremely motivated, and decided I will try to do my best, and give all my EFFORTS in humanities class, and all the other classes, trying to get a 6 or a 7 on my report card. As i do not have the reputation of the student with the best grades in the Middle School, I would like that to change by putting more efforts. If you do not put in all your efforts, you will feel disappointed usually, or you won't be proud of your own work. Therefore if you want to be proud of yourself and of your own work, you must put in all your efforts.

Reflection on Maps

Physical features, climate, and elevation, they are all relates to each other somehow, and all affect each other. One example of how they affect each other could be a desert - the desert, being the physical feature, is only created by the climate of that area, which is a very arid, dry climate. If the desert had a different climate, it wouldn't be a desert!
I personally, learned a lot from this mapping project, mainly about India. I also learned that in any country, the physical features depend on the type of climate, and the elevation somewhat depends on the physical features. People usually settle in places where there are many natural resources, created by the physical features, the climate and the elevation of the location.

Lost City of Mohenjo Daro

Located, in the nowadays Pakistan, lays the lost city of Mohenjo Daro. Mohenjo Daro stood from about 2500 to 1900 B.C., But then at 1900 B.C. it was abandoned completely and was left as a 'Ghost City'. Scientists claim it was abandoned because the people were in jeopardy of starvation because of Earthquakes that occurred, leaving them without an ability to grow their foods.

The city was found in the year 1911, and many excavations were done in the 1920's through the 1940's. Scientists have found that this was an extremely advanced city. It was a fairly large city, and very advanced. It was built on a hill to prevent floods from the nearby Indus river, and it was one of the only cities of its time to have a sewerage system. It was obvious by the artifacts found that it was a fairly wealthy city, thriving in wealth and trade. Many scientists, archaeologists, and historians have studied every inch of this city, and we still have no idea what happened to make the majority of the cities population leave. It reaches some kind of obvious archaeological fruition about 1900 B.C.," Said Jonathan Mark Kenoyer. "What drives that, nobody knows."

Unlike most religions and beliefs their one was based on something else. The closest found to a temple in the town of Mohenjo Daro was a building that somewhat represented a temple. It is believed that this ancient civilization believed in cleanness every house had a well and a bathroom.

Shiva - The Destroyer

I know, that Shiva, the Destroyer, was definitely a popular choice, I think it would be really interesting to to my blog post about her, and what she did. In the Hinduism religion, it is believed that for something to be born, or re-born, something has to die. Shiva is the god, who takes and recycles the soul. Shiva -- The Destroyer, is worshiped by the Hindus because what the Hindus believe is that when you die, you soul is reincarnated... or else enlightened. When one dies, Hindus believe he is reborn either to higher, or a lower social class ranking. People can be reborn, into as high a rank as royalty, or as low as a poor man/slave/animal. Shiva is the God who takes away life... but she is also the God that reincarnates the soul.

Egyptian Art

For this piece of artwork I decided to depict Israeli workers making the great pyramids for a pharoah. The pharoah is in the after life, watching his workers work away. You can tell because the head of the pharoah is in the sky and his skin is a shiny silver color. The workers basically created the Egyptian pyramid legacy and brought them to life. They worked long and hard to finish them for their mighty pharoahs and they were very determined and strong people. I put 100% of my effort into this piece of art because I used may different colors, angles and thoroughly enjoyed making this picture and showing how hard the Israeli people worked. Their hard work to keep the Pyramids alive and for us to witness is possible and without them being strong we would never witness such a site. This piece of art could be found in tombs or in temples because it depicts the Pyramids being made for a certian pharoah. It can also be showed as a picture during the passover when the Israeli people escaped the Egyptian torture.

How do natural features such as rivers, lakes and mountains unite people or keep them isolated from each other?

The Nile river is important to the Ancient Egyptians because it kept them alive and developed their knowledge. They depended on it for food, water, transportation and much more. They even thought of it as a kind of god. It flooded once every year, creating fertile soil for growing crops.

The Nile river is important to the ancient Egyptians because it kept them alive and it gave the Egyptian water to drink. It is also grew the material made to make papyrus. Another way that the Nile River is useful is that it floods usually, this helps them because then it can fertilize the Egyptians crops. The Nile River provided rich farmland. It provided water for crops, a way of transportation, water to drink, water to bathe in, and many other useful things. It also gave them protection form the other side of the Nile.

The Nile was one of the main factors in the ancient Egyptians' lives, although it was not very safe for the people living next to the Nile. Once per year, the Nile would flood. When the Nile wouldn't flood enough the farmlands would become useless the crops would not grow and people wouldn't have food; and if the Nile would flood too much the water would scoop away a lot; for example some of the crops would get washed away and the people that lived near it would drown. Once these problems occurred, the people would meet up and try to think of decisions. One of the major decisions they made, was to make the calender, with the same amount of days as there are now, and in that calender were 3 seasons, to see when it would flood, and when their crops would grow. That is when that led to the worlds' first Nation-State.