Firenze

Basilica di Santa Croce – Florence, Italy.

Copyright 2007 Jordan Kevrekidis

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Evia Firefighting 06

August 25-29, 2007.

Canadair firefighting aircraft in Central Evia, Greece.

Wildfires continued to ravage Evia, Peloponnesus and other parts of Greece with 63 people dead, hundreds of houses and thousands of acres burned. After Greece declared a nationwide state of emergency on Saturday, many European Union and Mediterranean countries such as Cyprus, France, Italy, Spain, Germany and Israel began sending firefighting aircraft to Greece. Greek firefighters and Army aided by foreign volunteers, fought blazes on the island of Evia and on the Peloponnesian prefectures of Ileia, Arcadia and Messinia. The deadliest forest fires in the past 150 years that have torn through Greece since Friday are believed to have left hundreds of people homeless. Hospitals in fire-affected areas have been providing temporary accommodation to citizens whose homes have been destroyed.

Copyright 2007 Jordan Kevrekidis

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Windsurfing

South Evian Gulf - Greece

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Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Χρόνια Πολλά, Καλή Χρονιά!

Orange and Pine

Eretria - Greece

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Arancione

Florence – Italy
Copyright 2007 Jordan Kevrekidis

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Kevrekidis Photography 2007

Bella

A filly named “Bella”…

Copyright 2007 Jordan Kevrekidis

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Amphitheatrum Flavium

The Colosseum (Amphitheatrum Flavium - Colosseo) is an eliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire. It is one of the greatest works of Roman architecture and engineering. Originally capable of seating around 50,000 spectators, the Colosseum was used for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles.

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Ionic Capital

Ionic capitals – Archeological Museum of Eretria, Greece.

(Click for full-size image 900 x 600)


There were two main styles (or "orders") of Greek architecture, the Doric and the Ionic. The Ionic order originated in the mid-6th century BC in Ionia, the southwestern coastland and islands of Asia Minor settled by Ionian Greeks, where an Ionian dialect was spoken. The Ionic order was being practised in mainland Greece in the 5th century BC. It became dominant in the Hellenistic period, since its more decorative style suited the aesthetic of the period better than the more restrained Doric. The Corinthian style was a later development of the Ionic. Most of our knowledge of Greek architecture comes from the few surviving buildings of the Classical, Hellenistic and Roman periods (since Roman architecture heavily copied Greek).

Copyright 2007 Jordan Kevrekidis

Basilica di San Pietro

The Basilica of Saint Peter, officially known in Italian as the Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano and commonly called Saint Peter's Basilica, is one of four major basilicas of Rome. It is the most prominent building inside the Vatican City and built on the ruins of Old Saint Peter's Basilica. Possibly the largest church building in Christianity has a capacity of over 60,000 people. There is a widespread assumption that the dome, or cupola, as it presently stands, was designed by Michelangelo, who became chief architect in 1546. In fact, Michelangelo's design called for a spherical dome. At the time of his death (1564), only the drum set, the base on which a dome rests, had been completed.

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Copyright 2007 Jordan Kevrekidis

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Pantheon

The Pantheon (Latin Pantheon, from Greek Πάνθεον , meaning "Temple of all the Gods") is a building in Rome which was originally built as a temple to the seven deities of the seven planets in the state religion of Ancient Rome. It is the best preserved of all Roman buildings, and perhaps the best preserved building of its age in the world. It has been in continuous use throughout its history.

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Copyright 2007 Jordan Kevrekidis

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Basilica of Santa Croce

The Basilica di Santa Croce (Basilica of the Holy Cross)
is the principal Franciscan church in Florence, Italyi, and a minor basilica of the Roman Catholic Church. It is situated on the Piazza di Santa Croce, about 800 metres south east of the Duomo. The site, when first chosen, was in marshland outside the city walls. It is the burial place of some of the most illustrious Italians, such as Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, Gentile and Rossini, thus it is known also as the Pantheon of the Italian Glories. The Basilica is the largest Franciscan church in the world. Its most notable features are its sixteen chapels, many of them decorated with frescoes by Giotto and his pupils, and its tombs and cenotaphs. Legend says that Santa Croce was founded by St Francis himself.

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Copyright 2007 Jordan Kevrekidis


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Halkida - Greece

Chalkis or Halkida is the capital of the island of Evia (Euboea) in Greece. It’s situated on the strait of the Evripos (Euripus) at its narrowest point. This straight connects two gulfs and it is the place where a strange natural phenomenon occurs. Particularly in this place, the tide gives the viewer the impression that there is a river, the water of which flows sometimes to the north and sometimes to the south. One has the impression that the one gulf empties its water to the other one. This phenomenon attracted the curiosity of many scientists from the ancient years until today. The Evripos Strait which separates the city and the island from the mainland was bridged in 1962 with sliding bridge.

Pictures of the Sliding Bridge and the port of Halkida
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Kevrekidis Photography 2007

Archeological Eretria

The earliest surviving mention of Eretria was by Homer (Iliad), who listed Eretria as one of the Greek cities which sent ships to the Trojan War. In the 8th century BC, Eretria and her near neighbour and rival, Chalcis, were both powerful and prosperous trading cities, and the Eretrians controlled the Aegean islands of Andros, Tenos and Ceos. They also held lands in Boeotia on the Greek mainland. At the end of the 8th century, however, Eretria and Chalcis fought the Lelantine War. Little is known of the details of this war, but it is clear that Eretria was defeated, and lost her lands in Boeotia and her Aegean dependencies. Neither Eretria nor Chalcis ever again counted for much in Greek politics. As a result of this defeat, Eretria turned to colonisation. She planted colonies in the northern Aegean, on the coast of Macedon (Macedonia – Northern Greece), and also in Italy and Sicily. The Eretreans were Ionians, and were thus natural allies of Athens. When the Ionian Greeks in Asia Minor rebelled against Persia in 499, Eretria joined Athens in sending aid to the rebels. As a result, Darius made a point of punishing Eretria during his invasion of Greece. In 490 the city was sacked and burned by the Persians.

During the 5th century the whole of Euboea became part of the Delian League, which later became the Athenian Empire. During the Peloponnesian War Eretria was an Athenian ally against her Dorian rivals Sparta and Corinth. But soon the Eretrians, along with the rest of the Empire, found Athenian domination oppressive. When the Spartans defeated the Athenians at the battle of Eretria in 411, the Euboian cities all rebelled. After her eventual defeat by Sparta, Athens soon recovered, and re-established her hegemony over Euboea, which was an essential source of grain for the urban population. The Eretrians rebelled again in 349, and this time the Athenians could not recover control. In 343 supporters of Philip II of Macedon gained control of the city, but the Athenians under Demosthenes recaptured it in 341. The Battle of Chaeronea in 338, in which Philip defeated the combined forces of Athens and Thebes, securing Macedonian hegemony, and Eretria dwindled to become a provincial town. In 198 it was plundered by the Romans. In 87 it was finally destroyed in the Mithridatic Wars and abandoned.

Archeological Museum of Eretria, Greece.


Terracotta Gorgoneion, 4th century BC.


Funerary Stele with Rams on either side of a vase.
The inscription on it reads "Pantauchos son of Theodoros".

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Greece - Archeology & History

The Acropolis of Athens, Greece

The Parthenon
The Parthenon is the most important and characteristic monument of the ancient Greek civilization and still remains its international symbol. It was dedicated to Athena Parthenos, the patron goddess of Athens. It was built between 447 and 438 B.C. The construction of the monument was initiated by Perikles; the supervisor of the whole work was Pheidias, the famous Athenian sculptor, while Iktinos and Kallikrates were the architects of the building. The temple is built in the Doric order and almost exclusively of Pentelic marble.


The Erechtheion
The Erechtheion was built in 420 B.C. in the Ionic order. It has a prostasis on the east side, a monumental propylon on the north, and the famous porch of the Caryatids on the south. The main temple was divided into two sections, dedicated to the worship of the two principal gods of Attica, Athena and Poseidon - Erechtheus.


The Caryatids
Statues of young women clad in peplos. They supported the roof of the south porch of the Erechtheion (420 B.C.), and probably were the work of Alkamenes, a student of the great sculptor Pheidias.


The Propylaea
The monumental gateway of the Acropolis was designed by the architect Mnesikles and constructed in 437-432 B.C. It comprises a central building and two lateral wings. The colonnades along the west and east sides had a row of Doric columns while two rows of Ionic columns divided the central corridor into three parts.


The Odeon of Herodes Atticus
The Odeon of Herodes Atticus is a stone theatre structure located on the south slope of the Acropolis of Athens. It was built in 161 AD by Herodes Atticus in memory of his wife, Regilla. It was originally a steep-sloped amphitheater wide with a three-storey stone front wall and a wooden roof, and was used as a venue for music concerts and had a capacity of 5,000. The audience stands and the orchestra (stage) were restored in the 1950s. Since then it has been hosting the theatrical, musical, and dance performances of the Athens Festival, which runs from June through September each year.

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Greece - Archeology & History

Firefighting in Greece

Dozens of villages have burned down while hundreds of thousands of acres of forest have been destroyed in the fires that broke out across central and southern Greece in August 2007.
After Greece declared a nationwide state of emergency, many European Union and Mediterranean countries such as Cyprus, France, Italy, Spain, Germany and Israel began sending firefighting aircraft to Greece.
Greek firefighters and Army aided by foreign volunteers, fought blazes on the island of Evia and on the Peloponnesian prefectures of Ileia, Arcadia and Messinia. It is estimated that more than 100,000 people have been affected by the wildfires while 67 people have lost their lives.
The fires are also responsible for the destruction of a large number of homes, damage to communications, electric, and water infrastructure.

Fire-fighting pictures from Evia, Greece (on deviantART):

More Fire-fighting pictures at deviantART.

More Fire-fighting pictures at Webshots.

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