Gardens Of The Gods

"Gardens of the Gods" reveals the symbolic language of garden design, exploring the gardens of China, with their moon gates and immortal rocks, the Zen gardens of Japan, the paradise gardens of Islam, those of Renaissance Italy with their richly mythological imagery, the landscaped parks of England, the gardens of New Harmony in the US and some striking, modern examples of symbolic gardens, including the Tarot Garden of the sculptress Niki de Saint Phalle in Italy. This illustrated book also includes a chapter with suggestions for creating a "garden of meaning" and a selected catalogue of plants with symbolic or mythological associations. Based on ten years of research, travel and curiostiy, this text is also the result of a personal quest - to reveal the mystical codes written in the astonishing worlds of gardens worldwide.

Different seasons in Garden of the Gods - Colorado.

"Gardens of the Gods" reveals the symbolic language of garden design, exploring the gardens of China, with their moon gates and immortal rocks, the Zen gardens of Japan, the paradise gardens of Islam, those of Renaissance Italy with their richly mythological imagery, the landscaped parks of England, the gardens of New Harmony in the US and some striking, modern examples of symbolic gardens, including the Tarot Garden of the sculptress Niki de Saint Phalle in Italy. This illustrated book also includes a chapter with suggestions for creating a "garden of meaning" and a select.

Zeus, Medusa, Hercules, Aphrodite. Did you know that these and other dynamic deities, heroes, and monsters of Greek and Roman mythology live on in the names of trees and flowers? Some grow in your local woodlands or right in your own backyard garden. In this delightful book, botanist Peter Bernhardt reveals the rich history and mythology that underlie the origins of many scientific plant names. Unlike other books about botanical taxonomy that take the form of heavy and intimidating lexicons, Bernhardt's account comes together in a series of interlocking stories. Each chapter opens with a short version of a classical myth, then links the tale to plant names, showing how each plant "resembles" its mythological counterpart with regard to its history, anatomy, life cycle, and conservation. You will learn, for example, that as our garden acanthus wears nasty spines along its leaf margins, it is named for the nymph who scratched the face of Apollo. The shape-shifting god, Proteus, gives his name to a whole family of shrubs and trees that produce colorful flowering branches in an astonishing number of sizes and shapes. Amateur and professional gardeners, high school teachers and professors of biology, botanists and conservationists alike will appreciate this book's entertaining and informative entry to the otherwise daunting field of botanical names. Engaging, witty, and memorable, Gods and Goddesses in the Garden transcends the genre of natural history and makes taxonomy a topic equally at home in the classroom and at cocktail parties.

One of the most critical environmental challenges facing both Californians and Australians in the 1860s involved the aftermath of the gold rushes. Settlers on both continents faced the disruptive impacts of mining, grazing, and agriculture; in response to these challenges, environmental reformers attempted to remake the natural environment into an idealized garden landscape. As this cutting-edge history shows, an important result of this nineteenth-century effort to "renovate" nature was a far-reaching exchange of ideas between the United States—especially in California—and Australia. Ian Tyrrell demonstrates how Californians and Australians shared plants, insects, personnel, technology, and dreams, creating a system of environmental exchange that transcended national and natural boundaries. True Gardens of the Gods traces a new nineteenth-century environmental sensibility that emerged from the collision of European expansion with these frontier environments. Tyrrell traces historical ideas and personalities, provides in-depth discussions of introduced plants species (such as the eucalyptus and Monterey Pine), looks at a number of scientific programs of the time, and measures the impact of race, class, and gender on environmental policy. The book represents a new trend toward studying American history from a transnational perspective, focusing especially on a comparison of American history with the history of similar settler societies. Through the use of original research and an innovative methodology, this book offers a new look at the history of environmentalism on a regional and global scale.

Since prehistoric times, the Garden of the Gods has been a source of fascination. This geologic formation in Colorado Springs was a seasonal camping site and source of spiritual significance for Ute Indians. Later, scientists studied the formation and found evidence of dinosaurs, prehistoric cultures, and unusual biological associations. Artists, writers, and photographers have been inspired by the beauty of this geologic wonder, and tourists and entrepreneurs once left their marks on the rocks. Through the efforts of Gen. William Jackson Palmer and Charles Elliot Perkins, the park became a reality and was given to the city of Colorado Springs. Today, the Garden of the Gods draws 1.7 million visitors per year, who bicycle, run, ride horses, enjoy hiking, go rock climbing, and savor the natural beauty of the park.

Ancient religions are definitely complex systems of gods, which resist our understanding. Divine names provide fundamental keys to gain access to the multiples ways gods were conceived, characterized, and organized. Among the names given to the gods many of them refer to spaces: cities, landscapes, sanctuaries, houses, cosmic elements. They reflect mental maps which need to be explored in order to gain new knowledge on both the structure of the pantheons and the human agency in the cultic dimension. By considering the intersection between naming and mapping, this book opens up new perspectives on how tradition and innovation, appropriation and creation play a role in the making of polytheistic and monotheistic religions. Far from being confined to sanctuaries, in fact, gods dwell in human environments in multiple ways. They move into imaginary spaces and explore the cosmos. By proposing a new and interdiciplinary angle of approach, which involves texts, images, spatial and archeaeological data, this book sheds light on ritual practices and representations of gods in the whole Mediterranean, from Italy to Mesopotamia, from Greece to North Africa and Egypt. Names and spaces enable to better define, differentiate, and connect gods.