Bahasa Inggris

Bahasa Inggris adalah bahasa Jermanik Barat, yang berasal dari Inggris. Bahasa ini merupakan kombinasi antara beberapa bahasa lokal yang dipakai oleh orang-orang Norwegia, Denmark, dan Anglo-Saxon dari abad ke-6 sampai 10. Lalu pada tahun 1066 dengan ditaklukkan Inggris oleh William the Conqueror, sang penakluk dari Normandia, Perancis Utara, maka bahasa Inggris dengan sangat intensif mulai dipengaruhi bahasa Latin dan bahasa Perancis. Dari seluruh kosakata bahasa Inggris modern, diperkirakan ±50% berasal dari bahasa Perancis dan Latin.

Sejarah bahasa Inggris
Perkembangan bahasa Inggris biasa dibagi menjadi tiga masa:

1.Bahasa Inggris Kuno atau bahasa Anglo-Saxon, 700 – 1066

2.Bahasa Inggris Tengahan, antara 1066 – 1500

3.Bahasa Inggris Baru, mulai dari abad ke 16

Bahasa–bahasa kerabat

Bahasa Inggris tergolong rumpun bahasa Jermanik, dan terutama dari cabang Jermanik Barat. Kerabat terdekatnya adalah bahasa Friesland. Selain itu bahasa Belanda (termasuk pula bahasa-bahasa Jerman hilir lainnya) juga masih dekat. Bahasa Jerman (Bahasa Jerman hulu) agak lebih jauh lagi.

Tetapi dari semua bahasa Jermanik, bahasa Inggris adalah bahasa yang paling lain secara tatabahasa dan kosakata. Kosakata bahasa Inggris banyak dipengaruhi oleh bahasa Perancis, yang masuk melalui penaklukan bangsa Norman dan belakangan melalui penggunaan bahasa Perancis sebagai bahasa resmi selama beberapa abad di lingkungan pemerintahan.

Status bahasa

Bahasa Inggris adalah bahasa pertama di Amerika Serikat, Antigua dan Barbuda, Australia, Bahama, Barbados, Bermuda, Britania Raya, Guyana, Jamaika, Saint Kitts dan Nevis, Selandia Baru dan Trinidad dan Tobago.

Selain itu bahasa Inggris juga merupakan salah satu bahasa resmi di organisasi internasional seperti Perserikatan Bangsa-Bangsa dan Komite Olimpiade Internasional, serta bahasa resmi di berbagai negara, seperti di Afrika Selatan, Belize, Filipina, Hong Kong, Irlandia, Kanada, Nigeria, Singapura, dan lainnya.

Di dunia bahasa Inggris merupakan bahasa kedua pertama yang dipelajari. Bahasa Inggris bisa menyebar karena pengaruh politik dan imperialisme Inggris dan selanjutnya Britania Raya di dunia. Salah satu pepatah Inggris zaman dahulu mengenai kerajaan Inggris yang disebut Imperium Britania (British Empire) adalah tempat “Matahari tidak pernah terbenam” (“where the sun never sets”).

Tata bahasa

Tata bahasa Inggris memiliki variasi dalam struktur dan penggunaannya, itu tergantung tradisi yang digunakan oleh suatu negara yang dipengaruhi oleh bahasa asli dari negara tersebut. Secara umum, tata bahasa yang dipedomani adalah tata bahasa Inggris Amerika dan Inggris Britania Raya (British).

Sejarah Bahasa Inggris

Sejarah bahasa Inggris bermula dari lahirnya bahasa Inggris di pulau Britania kurang lebih 1.500 tahun yang lalu. Bahasa Inggris adalah sebuah bahasa Jermanik Barat yang berasal dari dialek-dialek Anglo-Frisia yang dibawa ke pulau Britania oleh para imigran Jermanik dari beberapa bagian barat laut daerah yang sekarang disebut Belanda dan Jerman. Pada awalnya, bahasa Inggris Kuno adalah sekelompok dialek yang mencerminkan asal-usul beragam kerajaan-kerajaan Anglo-Saxon di Inggris. Salah satu dialek ini, Saxon Barat akhirnya yang berdominasi. Lalu bahasa Inggris Kuno yang asli kemudian dipengaruhi oleh dua gelombang invasi.

Gelombang invasi pertama adalah invasi para penutur bahasa dari cabang Skandinavia keluarga bahasa Jerman. Mereka menaklukkan dan menghuni beberapa bagian Britania pada abad ke-8 dan ke-9.

Lalu gelombang invasi kedua ini ialah suku Norman pada abad ke-11 yang bertuturkan sebuah dialek bahasa Perancis. Kedua invasi ini mengakibatkan bahasa Inggris "bercampur" sampai kadar tertentu (meskipun tidak pernah menjadi sebuah bahasa campuran secara harafiah).

Hidup bersama dengan anggota sukubangsa Skandinavia akhirnya menciptakan simplifikasi tatabahasa dan pengkayaan inti Anglo-Inggris dari bahasa Inggris.

Bahasa Inggris Purba (Bahasa Inggris Proto)

Suku-sukubangsa Jermanik yang memelopori bahasa Inggris (suku Anglia, Saxon, Frisia, Jute dan mungkin juga Frank), berdagang dengan dan berperang dengan rakyat Kekaisaran Romawi yang menuturkan bahasa Latin dalam proses invasi bangsa Jermanik ke Eropa dari timur. Dengan itu banyak kata-kata Latin yang masuk kosakata bangsa-bangsa Jermanik ini sebelum mereka mencapai pulau Britania. Contohnya antara lain adalah camp (kamp), cheese (keju), cook (memasak), dragon (naga), fork (porok, garpu), giant (raksasa), gem (permata), inch (inci), kettle (ketel), kitchen (dapur), linen (kain linen), mile (mil), mill (kincir angin), noon (siang), oil (oli, minyak), pillow (bantal), pin (paku), pound (pon), soap (sabun), street (jalan), table (meja), wall (tembok), dan wine (anggur). Bangsa Romawi juga memberi bahasa Inggris beberapa kata yang mereka sendiri pinjam dari bahasa-bahasa lain seperti kata-kata: anchor (jangkar), butter (mentega), cat (kucing), chest (dada), devil (iblis), dish (piring, makanan), dan sack (saku).

Menurut Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, sekitar tahun 449, Vortigern, Raja Kepulauan Britania, mengundang "Angle kin" (Suku Anglia yang dipimpin oleh Hengest dan Horsa) untuk menolongnya dalam penengahan konflik dengan suku Pict. Sebagai balasannya, suku Angles diberi tanah di sebelah tenggara Inggris. Liet5uryi 5u6 wsdalu pertolongan selanjutnya dibutuhkan dan sebagai reaksi "datanglah orang-orang dari Ald Seaxum dari Anglum dari Iotum" (bangsa Saxon, suku Anglia, dan suku Jute). Chronicle ini membicarakan masuknya banyak imigran atau pendatang yang akhirnya mendirikan tujuh kerajaan yang disebut dengan istilah heptarchy. Para pakar modern berpendapat bahwa sebagian besar cerita ini merupakan legenda dan memiliki motif politik. Selain itu identifikasi para pendatang di Inggris dengan suku Angle, Saxon, dan Jute tidak diterima lagi dewasa ini (Myres, 1986, p. 46 dst.), terutama setelah diterima bahwa bahasa Anglo-Saxon ternyata lebih mirip dengan bahasa Frisia daripada bahasa salah satu sukubangsa yang disebut di atas ini.

Bahasa Inggris Kuno

Para pendatang yang menginvasi pulau Britania mendominasi penduduk setempat yang menuturkan bahasa Keltik. Bahasa Keltik akhirnya bisa lestari di Skotlandia, Wales dan Cornwall. Dialek-dialek yang dipertuturkan oleh para pendatang yang menginvasi Britania pada zaman sekarang disebut dengan nama bahasa Inggris Kuno, dan akhirnya bahasa Anglo-Saxon. Kemudian hari, bahasa ini dipengaruhi bahasa Jermanik Utara; bahasa Norwegia Kuna yang dipertuturkan oleh kaum Viking yang menginvasi dan akhirnya bermukim di sebelah timur laut Inggris (lihat Jórvík). Para pendatang yang bermukim lebih awal menuturkan bahasa-bahasa Jermanik dari cabang yang berbeda. Banyak dari akar kosakata mereka memang sama atau mirip, meski tatabahasanya agak lebih berbeda termasuk prefiks (awalan), sufiks (akhiran), dan hukum infleksi (takrifan) dari banyak kata-kata. Bahasa Jermanik dari orang-orang Britania yang berbahasa Inggris Kuno ini, terpengaruhi kontak dengan orang-orang Norwegia yang menginvasi Britania. Hal ini kemungkinan besar merupakan alasan daripada penyederhanaan morfologis bahasa Inggris Kuno, termasuk hilangnya jenis kelamin kata benda dan kasus (kecuali pronominal). Karya sastra ternama yang masih lestari dari masa Inggris Kuno ini adalah sebuah fragmen wiracarita "Beowulf". Penulisnya tidak diketahui, dan karya ini sudah dimodifikasi secara besar oleh para rohaniwan Kristen, lama setelah digubah.

Kemudian introduksi agama Kristen di Britania menambah sebuah gelombang baru yang membawa banyak kata-kata pinjaman dari bahasa Latin dan bahasa Yunani.

Selain ada yang berpendapat bahwa pengaruh bahasa Norwegia berlangsung sampai pada Abad Pertengahan awal.

Masa Inggris Kuno secara resmi berakhir dengan Penaklukan Norman, ketika bahasa Inggris secara drastik dipengaruhi bahasa kaum Norman ini yang disebut bahasa Norman dan merupakan sebuah dialek bahasa Perancis.

Penggunaan istilah Anglo-Saxon untuk mendeskripsikan pembauran antara bahasa serta budaya Anglia dan Saxon merupakan sebuah perkembangan modern. Menurut Lois Fundis, (Stumpers-L, Jum’at, 14 Des 2001)
"The first citation for the second definition of 'Anglo-Saxon', referring to early English language or a certain dialect thereof, comes during the reign of Elizabeth I, from an historian named Camden, who seems to be the person most responsible for the term becoming well-known in modern times."
"Kutipan pertama untuk definisi kedua 'Anglo-Saxon', merujuk pada bahasa Inggris awal atau dialek tertentu dari bahasa ini, muncul selama pemerintahan Elizabeth I, dari seorang sejarawan bernama Camden, yang kelihatannya menjadi orang paling bertanggung jawab untuk menjadi terkenalnya istilah ini pada masa modern."

Bahasa Inggris pertengahan

Selama 300 tahun setelah invasi kaum Norman di Britania pada tahun 1066, raja-raja Norman dan kaum bangsawan hanya menuturkan bahasa Perancis dialek Norman saja yang disebut dengan nama bahasa Anglo-Norman. Sementara itu bahasa Inggris berlanjut sebagai bahasa rakyat. Sementara Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tetap ditulis sampai tahun 1154, sebagian besar karya sastra lainnya dari masa ini ditulis dalam bahasa Perancis Kuna atau bahasa Latin.

Sejumlah besar kata-kata Norman dipinjam dalam bahasa Inggris Kuno dan menghasilkan banyak sinonim (sebagai contoh diambil ox/beef (sapi), sheep/mutton (kambing), dan lain-lain). Pengaruh Norman ini memperkuat kesinambungan perubahan-perubahan bahasa Inggris pada abad-abad selanjutnya dan menghasilkan sebuah bahasa yang sekarang disebut dengan istilah bahasa Inggris Pertengahan. Salah satu perubahannya adalah meningkatnya pemakaian sebuah aspek unik tatabahasa Inggris yang disebut dengan istilah continuous tense dengan imbuhan atau sufiks -ing.

Ejaan bahasa Inggris juga dipengaruhi bahasa Perancis pada periode ini. Bunyi-bunyi /θ/ dan /ð/ sekarang dieja sebagai th dan bukan dengan huruf Inggris Kuno þ and ð, yang tidak ada dalam bahasa Perancis.

Selama abad ke-15, bahasa Inggris Pertengahan berubah lebih lanjut lagi. Perubahan ini disebut sebagai The Great Vowel Shift ("Pergeseran Vokal Besar"), dan dimulai dengan penyebaran dialek London bahasa Inggris yang mulai dipakai oleh pemerintahan dan munculnya buku-buku cetak. Bahasa Inggris modern sendiri bisa dikatakan muncul pada masa William Shakespeare. Penulis ternama dari masa Inggris Pertengahan ini ialah Geoffrey Chaucer, dengan karyanya yang terkenal The Canterbury Tales.

Banyak sumber sezaman menyatakan bahwa dalam kurun waktu lima puluh tahun setelah Invasi kaum Norman, sebagian besar kaum Norman di luar istana berganti bahasa dan menuturkan bahasa Inggris. Bahasa Perancis kala itu tetap menjadi bahasa resmi pemerintahan dan perundang-undangan yang bergengsi di luar dinamika sosial. Sebagai contoh, Orderic Vitalis, seorang sejarawan yang lahir pada tahun 1075 dan seorang anak ksatria Norman, menyatakan bahwa ia hanya mempelajari bahasa Perancis sebagai bahasa kedua.

Sastra Inggris mulai muncul kembali pada sekitar tahun 1200 Masehi ketika perubahan iklim politik dan jatuhnya bahasa Anglo-Norman membuat hal ini lebih bisa diterima. Pada akhir abad tersebut, bahkan kalangan kerajaan sudah berganti menuturkan bahasa Inggris. Sedangkan bahasa Anglo-Norman masih tetap dipakai pada kalangan tertentu sampai agak lama, namun akhirnya bahasa ini juga tidak merupakan bahasa hidup lagi.

Bahasa Inggris Modern Awal

Mulai dari abad ke-15, bahasa Inggris berubah menjadi bahasa Inggris Modern, yang seringkali ditarikh bermula dengan Great Vowel Shift (“Pergeseran Bunyi Besar”).

Setelah itu bahasa Inggris mulai banyak mengambil kata-kata pungutan dari bahasa-bahasa asing, terutama bahasa Latin dan bahasa Yunani semenjak zaman Renaisans. Karena banyak kata-kata dipinjam dari bahasa yang berbeda-beda, dan ejaan bahasa Inggris bisa dikatakan tidak konsisten, maka risiko pelafazan salah kata-kata cukup tinggi. Namun sisa-sisa dari bentuk-bentuk yang lebih kuna masih ada pada beberapa dialek regional, terutama pada dialek-dialek di West Country.

Contoh fragmen bahasa Inggris dari masa ke masa

Fragmen bahasa Inggris Kuno

Beowulf baris 1 sampai 11, kurang lebih 900 MasehiHwæt! Wē Gār-Dena in geārdagum,
þēodcyninga, þrym gefrūnon,
hū ðā æþelingas ellen fremedon.
Oft Scyld Scēfing sceaþena þrēatum,
monegum mǣgþum, meodosetla oftēah,
egsode eorlas. Syððan ǣrest wearð
fēasceaft funden, hē þæs frōfre gebād,
wēox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þāh,
oðþæt him ǣghwylc þāra ymbsittendra
ofer hronrāde hȳran scolde,
gomban gyldan. þæt wæs gōd cyning!



Fragmen ini bisa diterjemahkan sebagai:
Lihat, pujian keahlian rakyat-raja-raja
orang Denmark yang dipersenjatai dengan tombak, di hari panjang meluncur,
kami sudah mendengar, dan kehormatan di mana para atheling (“pangeran mahkota”) menang!
Oft Scyld Scefing dari musuh yang dibagi menjadi skuadron,
dari banyak suku, merusak bangku pesta,
membuat para bangsawan terpesona. Sejak pertama dia ialah
tanpa teman, seorang bayi terlantar, nasib membalasnya:
karena dia membesar di bawah angkasa, di kekayaan dia berkembang pesat,
sampai di hadapannya rakyat, baik jauh maupun dekat,
yang memiliki rumah dekat jalan ikan paus, mendengar amanatnya,
memberinya hadiah: seorang raja baik dia!
Fragmen Bahasa Inggris Pertengahan

Kutipan dari The Canterbury Tales oleh Geoffrey Chaucer, abad ke-14
Here bygynneth the Book of the Tales of Caunterbury

Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open eye-
So priketh hem Nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages

Terjemahan:
Di sini bermula Kitab Cerita-Cerita dari Canterbury

Ketika pada bulan April, dengan hujannya yang manis
Kekeringan bulan Maret telah menembus akarnya
Dan memandikan semua pembuluh darah dengan cairan seperti ini,
Untuk menghasilkan di dalam dan menumbuhkan bunga;
Juga ketika Zephirus ("angin barat") dengan nafasnya yang manis
Memberikan ilham pada semua pohon dan heeth
Tunas-tunas lembut dan matahari muda
Telah berlari separuh jalan pada rasi Aries,
Dan burung-burung kecil bernyanyi,
Yang pada malam hari tidur dengan mata terbuka-
Dan kemudian alam menusuki keberaniannya);
Kemudian orang-orang menginginkan untuk pergi berziarah

Fragmen Bahasa Inggris Modern Awal

Dari Paradise Lost oleh John Milton, 1667
Of man's disobedience, and the fruit
of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,
Sing, Heavenly Muse, that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst ispire
That shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed,
In the beginning how the Heavens and Earth
Rose out of chaos: or if Sion hill
Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowed
Fast by the oracle of God, I thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventures song,
That with no middle Flight intends to soar
Above the Aonian mount, whyle it pursues
Things unattempted yet in prose of rhyme.

Terjemahan:
Ketidakpatuhan manusia, dan buah
pohon terlarang itu, di mana rasanya yang mematikan
membawa kematian ke dalam dunia, dan sama sekali kesengsaraan kami,
Dengan kehilangan Firdaus, sampai seorang Manusia yang lebih hebat
Mengembalikan kami, dan mendapat kembali tempat duduk yang terberkati,
Menyanyilah, Dewa Lagu Sorgawi, bahwa dia puncak rahasia
Oreb, atau Sinai, memberikan semangat
pada gembala itu, yang terlebih dulu mengajar bibit yang dipilih,
Pada mulanya bagaimana Langit dan Bumi
Muncul dari kekacauan: atau jika bukit Zion
Menerangimu lebih banyak, dan parit Siloa yang mengalir
Cepat oleh sang orakel, lalu akupun
Memanggil bantuanmu pada lagu petualanganku,
Bahwa dengan tak ada Penerbangan tengah bermaksud berteriak
di atas sandaran Aonian, ketika ia mengejar
Hal yang masih tak dicoba pada syair gancaran.

Fragmen Bahasa Inggris Modern

Kutipan dari Proklamasi Kemerdekaan Amerika Serikat, 1776, oleh Thomas Jefferson
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to
dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to
assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which
the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the
opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel
them to the separation.

Terjemahan:
DI CONGRESS, 4 Juli 1776.

Deklarasi unanim tigabelas Negara Bagian Amerika,
Kalau di Jalan peristiwa manusia, menjadi perlu untuk satu orang untuk
membubarkan ikatan politik yang sudah menyambung mereka dengan lain, dan untuk
bergabung di antara para penguasa Bumi, posisi pisah dan setara di mana
Hukum Alam dan Sifat Tuhan memberi hak mereka, hal pantas kepada
pendapat manusia yang memerlukan bahwa mereka sebaiknya mengumumkan sebab yang mendorong mereka sampai pemisahan.

Pada tahun 1755 Samuel Johnson menerbitkan kamus penting bahasa Inggris pertama, yang berjudul Dictionary of the English Language.
                                                                                                                                                                                           

Bahasa Dunia-Bahasa Tionghoa

Bahasa Tionghoa (汉语/漢語, 华语/華語, atau 中文; pinyin: hànyǔ, huáyǔ, atau zhōngwén) adalah bagian dari rumpun bahasa Sino-Tibet. Meskipun kebanyakan orang Tionghoa menganggap berbagai varian bahasa Tionghoa lisan sebagai satu bahasa, variasi dalam bahasa-bahasa lisan tersebut sebanding dengan variasi-variasi yang ada dalam misalkan bahasa Roman; bahasa tertulisnya juga telah berubah bentuk seiring dengan perjalanan waktu, meski lebih lambat dibandingkan dengan bentuk lisannya, dan oleh sebab itu mampu melebihi variasi-variasi dalam bentuk lisannya.

Sekitar 1/5 penduduk dunia menggunakan salah satu bentuk bahasa Tionghoa sebagai penutur asli, maka jika dianggap satu bahasa, bahasa Tionghoa merupakan bahasa dengan jumlah penutur asli terbanyak di dunia. Bahasa Tionghoa (dituturkan dalam bentuk standarnya, Mandarin) adalah bahasa resmi Cina dan Taiwan, salah satu dari empat bahasa resmi Singapura, dan salah satu dari enam bahasa resmi PBB.

Istilah dan konsep yang digunakan orang Tionghoa untuk berpikir tentang bahasa berbeda dengan yang digunakan orang-orang Barat; ini disebabkan oleh efek pemersatu aksara Tionghoa yang digunakan untuk menulis dan juga oleh perbedaan dalam perkembangan politik dan sosial Cina dibandingkan dengan Eropa. Cina berhasil menjaga persatuan budaya dan politik pada waktu yang bersamaan dengan jatuhnya kerajaan Romawi, masa di mana Eropa terpecah menjadi negara-negara kecil yang perbedaannya ditentukan oleh bahasa.

Sebuah perbedaan utama antara konsep Cina mengenai bahasa dan konsep Barat akan bahasa, ialah bahwa orang-orang Cina sangat membedakan bahasa tertulis (wen) dan bahasa lisan (yu). Pembedaan ini diperluas sampai menjadi pembedaan antara kata tertulis (zi) dan kata yang diucapkan (hua). Sebuah konsep untuk sebuah bahasa baku yang berbeda dan mempersatukan bahasa lisan dengan bahasa tertulis ini dalam bahasa Tionghoa tidaklah terlalu menonjol. Ada beberapa varian bahasa Tionghoa lisan, di mana bahasa Mandarin adalah yang paling penting dan menonjol. Tetapi di sisi lain, hanya ada satu bahasa tertulis saja. (Lihat paragraf di bawah ini).

Bahasa Tionghoa lisan adalah semacam bahasa intonasi yang berhubungan dengan bahasa Tibet dan bahasa Myanmar, tetapi secara genetis tidak berhubungan dengan bahasa-bahasa tetangga seperti bahasa Korea, bahasa Vietnam, bahasa Thai dan bahasa Jepang. Meskipun begitu, bahasa-bahasa tersebut mendapat pengaruh yang besar dari bahasa Tionghoa dalam proses sejarah, secara linguistik maupun ekstralinguistik. Bahasa Korea dan bahasa Jepang sama-sama mempunyai sistem penulisan yang menggunakan aksara Tionghoa, yang masing-masing dipanggil Hanja dan Kanji. Di Korea Utara, Hanja sudah tidak lagi digunakan dan Hangul ialah satu-satunya cara untuk menampilkan bahasanya sementara di Korea Selatan Hanja masih digunakan. Bahasa Vietnam juga mempunyai banyak kata-kata pinjam dari bahasa Tionghoa dan pada masa dahulu menggunakan aksara Tionghoa.

Hubungan bahasa tionghoa Lisan dan tulisan

Hubungan antara bahasa Tionghoa lisan dan tertulis cukup kompleks - kompleksitas hubungan ini makin dipersulit dengan adanya bermacam-macam variasi bahasa Tionghoa lisan yang telah melewati evolusi selama berabad-abad sejak setidaknya zaman akhir-dinasti Han. Meskipun begitu, bentuk tulisannya tidak mengalami perubahan yang sebesar itu.

Hingga abad ke-20, kebanyakan tulisan Tionghoa yang formal berbentuk Tionghoa Klasik (wenyan) yang sangat berbeda dari semua varian lisan Tionghoa seperti halnya bahasa Latin Klasik berbeda dari bahasa Roman modern. Aksara Tionghoa yang lebih mirip dengan bahasa lisannya digunakan untuk menulis karya-karya informal seperti novel-novel yang mengandung bahasa sehari-hari.

Sejak Gerakan 4 Mei (1919), standar formal tulisan Tionghoa adalah baihua (Bahasa Tionghoa Vernakular), yang mempunyai tata bahasa dan kosa kata yang mirip - namun tidak sama - dengan tata bahasa dan kosa kata bahasa Tionghoa lisan modern. Meskipun hanya sedikit karya baru yang ditulis dalam Tionghoa Klasik, Tionghoa Klasik masih dipelajari di tingkat SMP dan SMU di Cina dan menjadi bagian dari ujian tes masuk universitas.

Aksara Tionghoa adalah huruf-huruf yang tidak berubah meskipun cara pengucapannya berbeda. Jadi meskipun "satu" dalam bahasa Mandarin adalah "yi", dalam bahasa Kantonis adalah "yat" dan dalam bahasa Hokkien adalah "tsit/cit", mereka semua berasal dari satu kata Tionghoa yang sama dan masih menggunakan satu huruf yang sama: 一. Namun demikian, cara penggunaan huruf-huruf tersebut tidak sama dalam setiap dialek Tionghoa. Kosa kata yang digunakan dalam dialek-dialek tersebut juga telah diperluas. Selain itu, meski kosa kata yang digunakan dalam karya sastra masih sering mempunyai persamaan antara dialek-dialek yang berbeda (setidaknya dalam penggunaan hurufnya karena cara bacanya berbeda), kosa kata untuk bahasa sehari-hari seringkali mempunyai banyak perbedaan.

Interaksi yang kompleks antara bahasa Tionghoa tertulis dan lisan bisa digambarkan melalui bahasa Kantonis. Terdapat dua bentuk standar yang digunakan untuk menulis bahasa Kantonis: Kantonis tertulis formal dan Kantonis tertulis biasa (bahasa sehari-hari). Kantonis tertulis formal sangat mirip dengan bahasa Tionghoa tertulis dan bisa dimengerti oleh seorang penutur bahasa Tionghoa tanpa banyak kesulitan, namun Kantonis tertulis formal cukup berbeda daripada Kantonis lisan. Kantonis tertulis biasa lebih mirip dengan Kantonis lisan tapi sulit dimengerti oleh penutur bahasa Tionghoa yang belum terbiasa.

Bahasa Kantonis mempunyai keistimewaan dibandingkan dengan bahasa-bahasa daerah non-Tionghoa lainnya karena mempunyai bentuk tulisan standar yang digunakan secara luas. Bahasa-bahasa daerah lainnya tidak mempunyai bentuk tulisan standar alternatif seperti Kantonis namun mereka menggunakan huruf-huruf lokal atau menggunakan huruf-huruf yang dianggap kuno di "baihua".

Selain bahasa diatas, ada pula jenis bahasa Tionghoa lain yang dituturkan seperti bahasa Hakka atau khek dan bahasa Tiochiu.

Perkembangan Bahasa Tionghoa

Kategorisasi perkembangan bahasa Tionghoa masih menjadi perdebatan di antara para ahli-ahli bahasa. Salah satu sistem yang pertama diciptakan oleh ahli bahasa Swedia bernama Bernhard Karlgren; sistem yang sekarang dipakai merupakan revisi dari sistem ciptaannya.

Bahasa Tionghoa Lama adalah bahasa yang umum pada zaman awal dan pertengahan dinasti Zhou (abad ke-11 hingga 7 SM) - hal ini dibuktikan dengan adanya ukiran pada artifak-artifak perunggu, puisi Shijing, sejarah Shujing, dan sebagian dari Yijing (I Ching). Tugas merekonstruksi Bahasa Tionghoa Lama dimulai oleh para filologis dinasti Qing. Unsur-unsur fonetis yang ditemukan dalam kebanyakan aksara Tionghoa juga menunjukkan tanda-tanda cara baca lamanya.

Bahasa Tionghoa Pertengahan adalah bahasa yang digunakan pada zaman dinasti Sui, dinasti Tang dan dinasti Song (dari abad ke-7 hingga 10 Masehi). Bahasa ini dapat dibagi kepada masa awalnya - yang direfleksikan oleh tabel rima Qieyun 切韻 (601 M) dan masa akhirnya pada sekitar abad ke-10 - yang direfleksikan oleh tabel rima Guangyun 廣韻. Bernhard Karlgren menamakan masa ini sebagai 'Tionghoa Kuno'. Ahli-ahli bahasa yakin mereka dapat membuat rekonstruksi yang menunjukkan bagaimana bahasa Tionghoa Pertengahan diucapkan. Bukti cara pembacaan bahasa Tionghoa Pertengahan ini datang dari berbagai sumber: varian dialek modern, kamus-kamus rima, dan transliterasi asing. Sama seperti bahasa Proto-Indo-Eropa yang bisa direkonstruksi dari bahasa-bahasa Eropa modern, bahasa Tionghoa Pertengahan juga bisa direkonstruksi dari dialek-dialek modern. Selain itu, filologis Tionghoa zaman dulu telah berjerih payah dalam merangkum sistem fonetis Tionghoa melalui "tabel rima", dan tabel-tabel ini kini menjadi dasar karya ahli-ahli bahasa zaman modern. Terjemahan fonetis Tionghoa tehadap kata-kata asing juga memberikan banyak petunjuk tentang asal-muasal fonetis bahasa Tionghoa Pertengahan. Meskipun begitu, seluruh rekonstruksi bahasa tersebut bersifat sementara; para ahli telah membuktikan misalnya, melakukan rekonstruksi bahasa Kantonis modern dari rima-rima musik Kantonis (Cantopop) modern akan memberikan gambaran yang sangat tidak tepat mengenai bahasanya.

Perkembangan bahasa Tionghoa lisan sejak masa-masa awal sejarah hingga sekarang merupakan perkembangan yang sangat kompleks. Klasifikasi di bawah menunjukkan bagaimana kelompok-kelompok utama bahasa Tionghoa berkembang dari satu bahasa yang sama pada awalnya.

Hingga pertengahan abad ke-20, kebanyakan orang Cina yang tinggal di selatan Cina tidak dapat berbahasa Tionghoa. Bagaimanapun juga, walaupun adanya campuran antara pejabat-pejabat dan penduduk biasa yang bertutur dalam berbagai dialek Tionghoa, Mandarin Nanjing menjadi dominan setidaknya pada masa dinasti Qing yang menggunakan bahasa Manchu sebagai bahasa resmi. Sejak abad ke-17, pihak Kekaisaran telah membentuk Akademi Orthoepi (正音書院 Zhengyin Shuyuan) dalam usaha untuk membuat cara pembacaan mengikuti standar Beijing (Beijing adalah ibukota Qing), namun usaha-usaha tersebut kurang berhasil. Mandarin Nanjing akhirnya digantikan penggunaannya di pengadilan kekaisaran dengan Mandarin Beijing dalam 50 tahun terakhir dinasti Qing pada akhir abad ke-19. Bagi para penduduk biasa, meskipun berbagai variasi bahasa Tionghoa telah dituturkan di Cina pada waktu itu, bahasa Tionghoa yang standar masih belum ada. Penutur-penutur non-Tionghoa di selatan Cina juga terus berkomunikasi dalam dialek-dialek daerah mereka dalam segala aspek kehidupan.

Keadaan berubah dengan diciptakannya (di Cina dan Taiwan) sistem pendidikan sekolah dasar yang mempunyai komitmen dalam mengajarkan bahasa Tionghoa. Hasilnya, bahasa Tionghoa sekarang dituturkan dengan lancar oleh hampir semua orang-orang di Cina Daratan dan Taiwan. Di Hong Kong, bahasa pendidikan masih tetap bahasa Kantonis namun bahasa Tionghoa semakin menunjukkan kepentingannya.

Lighthouse of Alexandria

The Lighthouse of Alexandria, also known as the Pharos of Alexandria, was a tower built between 280 and 247 BC on the island of Pharos at Alexandria, Egypt. Its purpose was to guide sailors into the harbour at night time.

With a height variously estimated at between 393 and 450 ft (120 and 140 m), it was for many centuries among the tallest manmade structures on Earth. It was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

History

Pharos was a small island just off the coast of Alexandria. It was linked to the mainland by a man-made connection named the Heptastadion, which thus formed one side of the city's harbor. The tower erected there guided mariners at night, through its fire and reflective mirrors, as well as being a landmark by day.

Legend holds that Ptolemy forbade Sostratus to put his name on his work. But the architect left the following inscription on the base's walls nonetheless:

"Sostratus of Cnidus, son of Dexiphanes, to the Gods protecting those upon the sea" (original Greek inscription: "ΣΟΣΤΡΑΤΟΣ ΔΕΞΙΦΑΝΟΥ ΚΝΙΔΙΟΣ ΘΕΟΙΣ ΣΩΤΕΡΣΙΝ ΥΠΕΡ ΤΩΝ ΠΛΩΙΖΟΜΕΝΩΝ")

These words were hidden under a layer of plaster, on top of which was chiseled another inscription honoring Ptolemy the king as builder of the Pharos. After centuries the plaster wore away, revealing the name of Sostratus.

The lighthouse was badly damaged in the earthquake of 956, then again in 1303 and 1323. The fullest description of it comes from the Arab traveller Abou Haggag Youssef Ibn el-Andaloussi, who visited the structure in 1165 AD. His description runs:“ The Pharos rises at the end of the island. The building is square, about 8.5 metres (28 ft) each side. The sea surrounds the Pharos except on the east and south sides. This platform measures, along its sides, from the tip, down to the foot of the Pharos walls, 6.5 metres (21 ft) in height. However, on the sea side, it is larger because of the construction and is steeply inclined like the side of a mountain. As the height of the platform increases towards the walls of the Pharos its width narrows until it arrives at the measurements above.

... The doorway to the Pharos is high up. A ramp about 183 metres (600 ft) long used to lead up to it. This ramp rests on a series of curved arches; my companion got beneath one of the arches and stretched out his arms but he was not able to reach the sides. There are 16 of these arches, each gradually getting higher until the doorway is reached, the last one being especially high. ”

There are ancient claims the light from the lighthouse could be seen from up to 29 miles (47 km) away. Unconfirmed legends claim the light from Pharos could burn enemy ships before they reached shore.

Constructed from large blocks of light-coloured stone, the tower was made up of three stages: a lower square section with a central core, a middle octagonal section, and, at the top, a circular section. At its apex was positioned a mirror which reflected sunlight during the day; a fire was lit at night. Extant Roman coins struck by the Alexandrian mint show that a statue of a triton was positioned on each of the building's four corners. A statue of Poseidon stood atop the tower during the Roman period. The Pharos' masonry blocks were interlocked, sealed together using molten lead, to withstand the pounding of the waves.

The two earthquakes in 1303 and 1323 damaged the lighthouse to the extent that the Arab traveler Ibn Battuta reported no longer being able to enter the ruin. Even the stubby remnant disappeared in 1480, when the then-Sultan of Egypt, Qaitbay, built a medieval fort (Citadel of Qaitbay) on the former location of the building using some of the fallen stone.

Recent archaeological research

Divers discovered remains of the lighthouse in Autumn 1994 on the floor of Alexandria's Eastern Harbour. Some of these remains were brought up and were lying at the harbour on public view at the end of 1995. A Nova program chronicled the discovery.Subsequent satellite imaging has revealed further remains. It is possible to go diving and see the ruins.

Significance

Pharos became the etymological origin of the word 'lighthouse' in Greek (φάρος), and many Romance languages, such as French (phare), Italian (faro), and Romanian (far).

In 2008 it was suggestedthat the Pharos was the vertical yardstick used in the first precise measurement of the size of the earth.

Pharos in culture

In architecture

A well-preserved ancient tomb in the town of Abusir, 48 kilometres (30 mi) southwest of Alexandria, is thought to be a scaled-down model of the Alexandria Pharos. Known colloquially under various names – the Pharos of Abusir, the Abusir funerary monument and Burg al-Arab (Arab's Tower) – it consists of a 3-story tower, approximately 20 metres (66 ft) in height, with a square base, a hexagonal midsection and cylindrical upper section, like the building upon which it was apparently modelled. It dates to the reign of Ptolemy II (285–246 BC), and is therefore likely to have been built at about the same time as the Alexandria Pharos.
The design of minarets in many early Egyptian Islamic mosques followed a similar three-stage design to that of the Pharos, attesting to the building's broader architectural influence.
A scale replica of the Lighthouse of Alexandria was constructed in the Window of the World Cultural Park in Shenzhen, China.

In film
 
In Cleopatra (1963 film), the lighthouse appears briefly in the one long shot of Alexandria sea, royal enclosure and royal palace, when Caesar arrives is approaching the city.

In books

The enduring memory of the lighthouse is reflected in literature. It was described at length in the Zhufan Zhi (諸蕃志, "Records of Foreign Peoples") by Zhao Rugua (1170–1228), a Chinese customs inspector for the port city of Quanzhou during the Song Dynasty.

Matthew Reilly uses this ancient wonder as the location of a piece of the golden capstone in his novel that states in the cultural section from Book 2 of the Cambridge Latin Course, the Pharos of Alexandria is mentioned, along with the history of Alexandria, as one of the greatest international ports of the ancient world. Also mentioned in Enid Blyton's Five Go To Demon's Rocks (1961), in a conversation between "Julian" and "Anne" about an earthquake destroying a lighthouse.

7 Keajaiban Dunia-Mercusuar Iskandariyah(Bahasa Indonesia)

Mercusuar Iskandariah atau Pharos Alexandria (dari bahasa Yunani o Φάρος της Αλεξάνδρειας) adalah sebuah mercusuar yang dibangun pada abad ke-3 SM di pulau Pharos berdekatan dengan kota Iskandariah kuna, Mesir Kuno. Ketinggiannya diperkirakan melebihi 115 meter dan merupakan antara struktur tertinggi ciptaan manusia selama beratus-ratus tahun. Antipater dari Sidon telah menyenaraikannya dalam senarai Tujuh Keajaiban Dunianya.

Sejarah

Kawasan pesisiran pantai merupakan tanah rata dan kurang sesuai sebagai pelabuhan kerana tidak mempunyai panduan untuk pedagang dan pelayar. Oleh karena itu, sebuah mercusuar yang dilengkapi dengan api dan cermin pantulan telah dibangun.

Pembangunan

Bangunan mercusuar dirancang oleh Sostratus dari Snidus atas petunjuk Satrap (Gubernur) Ptolemeus I, seorang panglima Alexander Agung. Selepas Alexander meninggal dunia, Ptolemeus memproklamasikan diri sebagai raja baru dan mengarahkan pembangunan mercusuar. Bangunan ini disiapkan semasa pemerintahan anaknya, Ptolemeus II Philadelphus.

Menurut legenda, Sostratus dihalang oleh Ptolemeus meletakkan namanya di bangunan. Namun, Sostratus juga mengukir namanya di tapak bangunan itu, serta prasasti: Sostratus, anak Dexiphanes dari Cnidia membaktikan bangunan ini kepada Dewa-Dewa, bagi pihak pelayar dan penjelajah. Prasasti itu disorokkan di bawah selapis gips, dan di bagian luarnya tertulis satu lagi prasasti mengagungkan Ptolemeus.

Cerita-cerita dongeng pula menyatakan bahawa rumah api ini dapat dilihat dari jarak sejauh 56 km. Bangunan ini dibangun menggunakan batu berwarna muda dan mempunyai tiga bahagian: bahagian segi empat tepat bawah dengan teras pusat, bagian delapan sisi tengah dan bagian bulat atas. Sebuah cermin besar yang memantul cahaya matahari diletakkan di mercunya, manakala api digunakan pada waktu malam. Arca Dewa Laut, Poseidon didirikan di puncaknya pada zaman Kekaisaran Romawi.

Dinding bangunan mampu menahan ombak air laut. Bangunan ini berdiri kokoh dan merupakan antara tujuh keajaiban terakhir (kecuali Piramida Giza) yang roboh.

Kemusnahan

Dua gempa bumi pada 1303 dan 1323 telah meruntuhkan bangunan agung ini.

Temple of Artemis

The Temple of Artemis (Greek: Ἀρτεμίσιον, or Artemision), also known less precisely as Temple of Diana, was a Greek temple dedicated to a goddess Greeks identified as Artemis that was completed, in its most famous phase, around 550 BC at Ephesus (in present-day Turkey). Though the monument was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, only foundations and sculptural fragments of the temple remain. There were previous temples on its site, where evidence of a sanctuary dates as early as the Bronze Age. The whole temple was made of marble except for the roof.  

The temple antedated the Ionic immigration by many years. Callimachus, in his Hymn to Artemis, attributed the origin of the temenos at Ephesus to the Amazons, whose worship he imagines already centered upon an image. In the seventh century the old temple was destroyed by a flood. The construction of the "new" temple, which was to become known as one of the wonders of the ancient world, began around 550 BC. It was a 120-year project, initially designed and built by the Cretan architect Chersiphron and his son Metagenes, at the expense of Croesus of Lydia.

It was described by Antipater of Sidon, who compiled the list of the Seven Wonders:

I have set eyes on the wall of lofty Babylon on which is a road for chariots, and the statue of Zeus by the Alpheus, and the hanging gardens, and the colossus of the Sun, and the huge labour of the high pyramids, and the vast tomb of Mausolus; but when I saw the house of Artemis that mounted to the clouds, those other marvels lost their brilliancy, and I said, "Lo, apart from Olympus, the Sun never looked on aught so grand".

Location

Synthesizing Artemis of Ephesus: an 18th-century engraving of a Roman marble copy of a Greek replica of a lost Geometric period xoanon.

The Temple of Artemis was located near the ancient city of Ephesus, about 50 km south from the modern port city of İzmir, in Turkey. Today the site lies on the edge of the modern town of Selçuk.

Ephesian Artemis

Artemis was a Greek Goddess, the virginal huntress and twin of Apollo, who supplanted the Titan Selene as goddess of the Moon. Of the Olympian goddesses who inherited aspects of the Great Goddess of Crete, Athena was more honored than Artemis at Athens. At Ephesus, a goddess whom the Greeks associated with Artemis was passionately venerated in an archaic, certainly pre-Hellenic cult image that was carved of wood and kept decorated with jewelry. Robert Fleischer identified as decorations of the primitive xoanon the changeable features that since Minucius Felix and Jerome's Christian attacks on pagan popular religion had been read as many breasts or "eggs" — denoting her fertility (others interpret the objects to represent the testicles of sacrificed bulls that would have been strung on the image, with similar meaning). Most similar to Near-Eastern and Egyptian deities, and least similar to Greek ones, her body and legs are enclosed within a tapering pillar-like term, from which her feet protrude. On the coins minted at Ephesus, the apparently many-breasted goddess wears a mural crown (like a city's walls), an attribute of Cybele (see polos). On the coins she rests either arm on a staff formed of entwined serpents or of a stack of ouroboroi, the eternal serpent with its tail in its mouth. Something the Lady of Ephesus had in common with Cybele was that each was served by temple slave-women, or hierodules (hiero "holy", doule "female slave"), under the direction of a priestess who inherited her role, attended by a college of eunuch priests called "Megabyzoi" and also by young virgins (korai).

The "eggs" or "breasts" of the Lady of Ephesus, it now appears, must be the iconographic descendents of the amber gourd-shaped drops, elliptical in cross-section and drilled for hanging, that were rediscovered in 1987-88; they remained in situ where the ancient wooden cult figure of the Lady of Ephesus had been caught by an eighth-century flood (see History below). This form of breast-jewelry, then, had already been developed by the Geometric Period. A hypothesis offered by Gerard Seiterle, that the objects in Classical representations represented bulls' scrotal sacs cannot be maintained (Fleischer, "Neues zur kleinasiatischen Kultstatue" Archäologischer Anzeiger 98 1983:81-93; Bammer 1990:153).

A votive inscription mentioned by Florence Mary Bennett,[6] which dates probably from about the third century BC, associates Ephesian Artemis with Crete: "To the Healer of diseases, to Apollo, Giver of Light to mortals, Eutyches has set up in votive offering [a statue of] the Cretan Lady of Ephesus, the Light-Bearer."

The Greek habits of syncretism assimilated all foreign gods under some form of the Olympian pantheon familiar to them— in interpretatio graeca— and it is clear that at Ephesus, the identification with Artemis that the Ionian settlers made of the "Lady of Ephesus" was slender. The Christian approach was at variance with the tolerant syncretistic approach of pagans to gods who were not theirs. A Christian inscription at Ephesus suggests why so little remains at the site:

"Destroying the delusive image of the demon Artemis, Demeas has erected this symbol of Truth, the God that drives away idols, and the Cross of priests, deathless and victorious sign of Christ."

The Lady of Ephesus, 1st century AD (Museum of Efes, Turkey)

The assertion that the Ephesians thought that their cult image had fallen from the sky, though it was a familiar origin-myth at other sites, is only known at Ephesus from Acts 19:35:

"What man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the [image] which fell down from Jupiter?"

Lynn LiDonnici observes that modern scholars are likely to be more concerned with origins of the Lady of Ephesus and her iconology than her adherents were at any point in time, and are also prone to creating a synthetic account of the Lady of Ephesus by drawing together documentation that ranges over more than a millennium in its origins, creating a falsified, unitary picture, as of an unchanging icon.

History

The sacred site at Ephesus was far older than the Artemision. Pausanias understood the shrine of Artemis there to be very ancient. He states with certainty that it antedated the Ionic immigration by many years, being older even than the oracular shrine of Apollo at Didyma. He said that the pre-Ionic inhabitants of the city were Leleges and Lydians. Callimachus, in his Hymn to Artemis, attributed the origin of the temenos at Ephesus to the Amazons, whose worship he imagines already centered upon an image (bretas).

Pre-World War I excavations by David George Hogarth,who identified three successive temples overlying one another on the site, and corrective re-excavations in 1987-88 have confirmed Pausanias' report.

Test holes have confirmed that the site was occupied as early as the Bronze Age, with a sequence of pottery finds that extend forward to Middle Geometric times, when the clay-floored peripteral temple was constructed, in the second half of the eighth century BC.The peripteral temple at Ephesus was the earliest example of a peripteral type on the coast of Asia Minor, and perhaps the earliest Greek temple surrounded by colonnades anywhere.

In the seventh century, a flood destroyed the temple, depositing over half a meter of sand and scattering flotsam over the former floor of hard-packed clay. In the flood debris were the remains of a carved ivory plaque of a griffin and the Tree of Life, apparently North Syrian. More importantly, flood deposits buried in place a hoard against the north wall that included drilled amber tear-shaped drops with elliptical cross-sections, which had once dressed the wooden effigy of the Lady of Ephesus; the xoanon itself must have been destroyed in the flood. Bammer notes that though the flood-prone site was raised by silt deposits about two metres between the eighth and sixth centuries, and a further 2.4 m between the sixth and the fourth, the site was retained: "this indicates that maintaining the identity of the actual location played an important role in the sacred organization" (Bammer 1990:144).

The new temple, now built of marble, with its peripteral columns doubled to make a wide ceremonial passage round the cella, was designed and constructed around 550 BC by the Cretan architect Chersiphron and his son Metagenes. A new ebony or grapewood cult statue was sculpted by Endoios,and a naiskos to house it was erected east of the open-air altar.

This enriched reconstruction was built at the expense of Croesus, the wealthy king of Lydia. The rich foundation deposit of more than a thousand items has been recovered: it includes what may be the earliest coins of the silver-gold alloy electrum. Fragments of the bas-reliefs on the lowest drums of Croesus' temple, preserved in the British Museum, show that the enriched columns of the later temple, of which a few survive (illustration, below right) were versions of the earlier feature. Marshy ground was selected for the building site as a precaution against future earthquakes, according to Pliny the Elder.The temple became a tourist attraction, visited by merchants, kings, and sightseers, many of whom paid homage to Artemis in the form of jewelry and various goods. Its splendor also attracted many worshipers.

Croesus' temple was a widely respected place of refuge, a tradition that was linked in myth with the Amazons who took refuge there, both from Heracles and from Dionysus.

Destruction

The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus was destroyed on July 21, 356 BC in an act of arson committed by Herostratus. According to the story, his motivation was fame at any cost, thus the term herostratic fame.

A man was found to plan the burning of the temple of Ephesian Diana so that through the destruction of this most beautiful building his name might be spread through the whole world. Valerius Maximus, VIII.14.ext.5

The Ephesians, outraged, consigned Herostratus to torture and his name to oblivion. Theopompus later noted the name, which is how it is known today.

That very same night, Alexander the Great was born. Plutarch remarked that Artemis was too preoccupied with Alexander's delivery to save her burning temple. Alexander later offered to pay for the temple's rebuilding, but the Ephesians refused. Eventually, the temple was restored after Alexander's death, in 323 BC.

This reconstruction was itself destroyed during a raid by the Goths, an East Germanic tribe, in 262, in the time of emperor Gallienus: "Respa, Veduc and Thuruar, leaders of the Goths, took ship and sailed across the strait of the Hellespont to Asia. There they laid waste many populous cities and set fire to the renowned temple of Diana at Ephesus," reported Jordanes in Getica.

The Ephesians rebuilt the temple again. The temple appears multiple times in Christian accounts of Ephesus. According to the New Testament, the appearance of the first Christian missionary in Ephesus caused locals to fear for the temple's dishonor.The second-century Acts of John includes a story of the temple's destruction: the apostle John prayed publicly in the very Temple of Artemis, exorcising its demons and "of a sudden the altar of Artemis split in many pieces... and half the temple fell down," instantly converting the Ephesians, who wept, prayed or took flight.Over the course of the fourth century, perhaps the majority of Ephesians did convert to Christianity; all temples were declared closed by Theodosius I in 391.

In 401, the temple in its last version was finally destroyed by a mob led by St. John Chrysostom,and the stones were used in construction of other buildings. Some of the columns in Hagia Sophia originally belonged to the temple of Artemis,and the Parastaseis syntomoi chronikai records the re-use of several statues and other decorative elements throughout Constantinople.

The main primary sources for the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus are Pliny the Elder's Natural History XXXVI.xxi.95, Pomponius Mela i:17, and Plutarch's Life of Alexander III.5 (referencing the burning of the Artemiseum).

Rediscovery

After sixty years of searching, the site of the temple was rediscovered in 1869 by an expedition sponsored by the British Museum led by John Turtle Wood;excavations continued until 1874.A few further fragments of sculpture were found during the 1904-06 excavations directed by David George Hogarth. The recovered sculptured fragments of the fourth-century rebuilding and a few from the earlier temple, which had been used in the rubble fill for the rebuilding, were assembled and displayed in the "Ephesus Room" of the British Museum.

Today the site of the temple, which lies just outside Selçuk, is marked by a single column constructed of dissociated fragments discovered on the site.

Architecture and art

Most of the physical description and art within the Temple of Artemis comes from Pliny, though there are different accounts, and the actual size varies.

Pliny describes the temple as 377 feet (115 meters) long and 180 feet (55 meters) wide, made almost entirely of marble, making its area about three times as large as the Parthenon. The temple's cella was enclosed in colonnades of 127 Ionic columns, each 60 feet (18 meters) in height.

The Temple of Artemis housed many fine works of art. Sculptures by renowned Greek sculptors Polyclitus, Pheidias, Cresilas, and Phradmon adorned the temple, as well as paintings and gilded columns of gold and silver. The sculptors often competed at creating the finest sculpture. Many of these sculptures were of Amazons, who were said to have founded the city of Ephesus.

Pliny tells us that Scopas, who also worked on the Mausoleum of Mausollos, worked carved reliefs into the temple's columns. Athenagoras of Athens names Endoeus, a pupil of Daedalus, as the sculptor of the main statue of Artemis in Ephesus.

Cult and influence

The Temple of Artemis was located at an economically robust region, drawing merchants and travellers from all over Asia Minor. The temple was influenced by many beliefs, and can be seen as a symbol of faith for many different peoples. The site also drew pilgrims, peasants, and artisans. The Ephesians worshiped Cybele, and incorporated many of their beliefs into the worship of Artemis. Artemisian Cybele became quite contrasted from her Roman counterpart, Diana. The cult of Artemis attracted thousands of worshipers from far-off lands.

7 keajaiban dunia-Kuil Artemis(Bahasa Indonesia)

Kuil Artemis (Bahasa Yunani: Ἀρτεμίσιον Artemision, Latin: Artemisium), adalah kuil Yunani yang didirikan untuk Artemis, sekitar 550 SM di Efesus dibawah dinasti Achaemenid dari kekaisaran Persia. Kuil ini merupakan salah satu dari tujuh keajaiban dunia kuno. Kini, kuil ini telah hancur.

7 Keajaiban Dunia-Ka'bah(Bahasa Indonesia)

Ka'bah (Arab الكعبة) adalah sebuah bangunan mendekati bentuk kubus yang terletak di tengah Masjidil Haram di Mekah. Bangunan ini adalah monumen suci bagi kaum muslim (umat Islam). Merupakan bangunan yang dijadikan patokan arah kiblat atau arah patokan untuk hal hal yang bersifat ibadah bagi umat Islam di seluruh dunia seperti sholat. Selain itu, merupakan bangunan yang wajib dikunjungi atau diziarahi pada saat musim haji dan umrah.

Sejarahwan, narator dan lainnya memiliki pendapat berbeda tentang siapa yang telah membangun Ka'bah. Beberapa pendapat itu ada yang mengatakan Malaikat, Adam dan Seth.Dimensi struktur bangunan ka'bah lebih kurang berukuran 13,10m tinggi dengan sisi 11,03m kali 12,62m. Juga disebut dengan nama Baitallah.

Sejarah perkembangan

Ka'bah yang juga dinamakan Bayt al `Atiq (Arab:بيت ال عتيق, Rumah Tua) adalah bangunan yang dipugar pada masa Nabi Ibrahim dan Nabi Ismail setelah Nabi Ismail berada di Mekkah atas perintah Allah SWT. Dalam Al-Qur'an, surah 14:37 tersirat bahwa situs suci Ka'bah telah ada sewaktu Nabi Ibrahim menempatkan Hajar dan bayi Ismail di lokasi tersebut.

Pada masa Nabi Muhammad SAW berusia 30 tahun (sekitar 600 M dan belum diangkat menjadi Rasul pada saat itu), bangunan ini direnovasi kembali akibat banjir bandang yang melanda kota Mekkah pada saat itu. Sempat terjadi perselisihan antar kepala suku atau kabilah ketika hendak meletakkan kembali batu Hajar Aswad namun berkat penyelesaian Muhammad SAW perselisihan itu berhasil diselesaikan tanpa pertumpahan darah dan tanpa ada pihak yang dirugikan.

Pada saat menjelang Muhammad SAW diangkat menjadi Nabi sampai kepindahannya ke kota Madinah. Lingkungan Ka'bah penuh dengan patung yang merupakan perwujudan Tuhan bangsa Arab ketika masa kegelapan pemikiran (jahilliyah) padahal sebagaimana ajaran Nabi Ibrahim yang merupakan nenek moyang bangsa Arab dan bangsa Yahudi serta ajaran Nabi Musa terhadap kaum Yahudi, Tuhan tidak boleh disembah dengan diserupakan dengan benda atau makhluk apapun dan tidak memiliki perantara untuk menyembahnya serta tunggal tidak ada yang menyerupainya dan tidak beranak dan tidak diperanakkan (Surat Al Ikhlas dalam Al-Qur'an) . Ka'bah akhirnya dibersihkan dari patung patung ketika Nabi Muhammad membebaskan kota Mekkah tanpa pertumpahan darah.

Selanjutnya bangunan ini diurus dan dipelihara oleh Bani Sya'ibah sebagai pemegang kunci ka'bah dan administrasi serta pelayanan haji diatur oleh pemerintahan baik pemerintahan khalifah Abu Bakar, Umar bin Khattab, Utsman bin Affan, Ali bin Abi Thalib, Muawiyah bin Abu Sufyan, Dinasti Ummayyah, Dinasti Abbasiyyah, Dinasti Usmaniyah Turki, sampai saat ini yakni pemerintah kerajaan Arab Saudi yang bertindak sebagai pelayan dua kota suci, Mekkah dan Madinah.

Bangunan Ka'bah

Pada awalnya bangunan Ka'bah terdiri atas dua pintu serta letak pintu Ka'bah terletak di atas tanah, tidak seperti sekarang yang pintunya terletak agak tinggi. Pada saat Muhammad SAW berusia 30 tahun dan belum diangkat menjadi rasul, dilakukan renovasi pada Ka'bah akibat bencana banjir. Pada saat itu terjadi kekurangan biaya,maka bangunan Ka'bah dibuat hanya satu pintu. Adapula bagiannya yang tidak dimasukkan ke dalam bangunan Ka'bah, yang dinamakan Hijir Ismail, yang diberi tanda setengah lingkaran pada salah satu sisi Ka'bah. Saat itu pintunya dibuat tinggi letaknya agar hanya pemuka suku Quraisy yang bisa memasukinya, karena suku Quraisy merupakan suku atau kabilah yang dimuliakan oleh bangsa Arab saat itu.

Nabi Muhammad SAW pernah mengurungkan niatnya untuk merenovasi kembali Ka'bah karena kaumnya baru saja masuk Islam, sebagaiman tertulis dalam sebuah hadits perkataannya: "Andaikata kaumku bukan baru saja meninggalkan kekafiran, akan aku turunkan pintu Ka'bah dan dibuat dua pintunya serta dimasukkan Hijir Ismail ke dalam Ka'bah", sebagaimana pondasi yang dibangun oleh Nabi Ibrahim.

Ketika masa Abdullah bin Zubair memerintah daerah Hijaz, bangunan itu dibangun kembali menurut perkataan Nabi Muhammad SAW, yaitu diatas pondasi Nabi Ibrahim. Namun ketika terjadi peperangan dengan Abdul Malik bin Marwan penguasa daerah Syam (Suriah, Yordania dan Lebanon sekarang) dan Palestina, terjadi kebakaran pada Ka'bah akibat tembakan peluru pelontar (onager) yang dimiliki pasukan Syam. Abdul Malik bin Marwan yang kemudian menjadi khalifah, melakukan renovasi kembali Ka'bah berdasarkan bangunan di masa Nabi Muhammad SAW dan bukan berdasarkan pondasi Nabi Ibrahim. Ka'bah dalam sejarah selanjutnya beberapa kali mengalami kerusakan sebagai akibat dari peperangan dan karena umur bangunan.

Ketika masa pemerintahan khalifah Harun Al Rasyid pada masa kekhalifahan Abbasiyyah, khalifah berencana untuk merenovasi kembali ka'bah sesuai pondasi Nabi Ibrahim dan yang diinginkan Nabi Muhammad SAW. namun segera dicegah oleh salah seorang ulama terkemuka yakni Imam Malik karena dikhawatirkan nanti bangunan suci itu dijadikan ajang bongkar pasang para penguasa sesudah beliau. Sehingga bangunan Ka'bah tetap sesuai masa renovasi khalifah Abdul Malik bin Marwan sampai sekarang.

Penentuan arah kiblat

Untuk menentukan arah kiblat dengan cukup presisi dapat dilakukan dengan merujuk pada kordinat Bujur / Lintang dari lokasi Ka'bah di Mekkah terhadap masing-masing titik lokasi orientasi dengan menggunakan perangkat GPS. Untuk kebutuhan tersebut dapat digunakan hasil pengukuran kordinat Ka'bah berikut sebagai referensi penentuan arah kiblat. Lokasi Ka'bah,

• 21°25‘21.2“ Lintang Utara
• 039°49‘34.1“ Bujur Timur
• Elevasi 304 meter (ASL)                                                                                                       Adapun cara sederhana dapat pula dilakukan untuk melakukan penyesuaian arah kiblat. Pada saat-saat tertentu dua kali satu tahun, Matahari tepat berada di atas Mekkah (Ka'bah). Sehingga jika pengamat pada saat tersebut melihat ke Matahari, dan menarik garis lurus dari Matahari memotong ufuk/horizon tegak lurus, pengamat akan mendapatkan posisi tepat arah kiblat tanpa harus melakukan perhitungan sama sekali, asal pengamat tahu kapan tepatnya Matahari berada di atas Mekkah. Tiap tahun, Matahari berada pada posisi tepat di atas Mekkah pada tanggal 28 Mei pukul 16:18 WIB dan tanggal 16 Juli pukul 16:27 WIB.
  
  Bumi berputar pada sumbu rotasinya dengan periode 24 jam. Bagi pengamat yang berada di Bumi, efek yang diamati dari gerak rotasi adalah benda-benda langit terlihat seolah-olah berputar mengelilingi Bumi dengan arah gerak berlawanan dengan arah rotasi Bumi. Bintang-bintang terlihat bergerak dari timur ke barat. Ini mirip dengan gerak pohon-pohon yang diamati saat mengendarai mobil, seolah-olah pohon-pohon itu bergerak berlawanan arah dengan gerak mobil. Efek rotasi ini menyebabkan pengamat mengamati benda-benda langit (termasuk Matahari) terbit di timur dan terbenam di barat.
  
  Sementara itu, Bumi mengedari Matahari dengan periode 1 tahun. Akibatnya, relatif terhadap bintang-bintang pada bola langit, Matahari sendiri terlihat berubah posisinya dari hari ke hari, dan setelah satu tahun, kembali ke posisi semula. Matahari bergerak kurang lebih ke arah timur. Namun karena bidang edar Bumi (ekliptika) tidak sebidang dengan bidang rotasi Bumi (Ekuator langit), maka gerak Matahari tadi pun tidak tepat ke arah timur, tetapi membentuk sudut 23,5º, sesuai dengan besar sudut antara ekliptika dan ekuator langit.
  
  Dari Bumi, pengamat melihat seolah-olah Matahari mengitari Bumi. Pengamat melihat Matahari mengitari Bumi pada bidang ekliptika. Karena Bidang ekliptika membentuk sudut terhadap bidang ekuator Bumi, dalam interval satu tahun itu, Matahari pada satu saat berada di utara ekuator, dan disaat yang lain berada di selatan ekuator. Matahari bisa sampai sejauh 23,5º dari ekuator ke arah utara pada sekitar tanggal 22 Juni. Enam bulan kemudian, sekitar tanggal 22 Desember, Matahari berada 23,5º dari ekuator ke arah selatan. Antara 22 Juni dan 22 Desember, Matahari bergerak ke arah selatan ekuator, bergerak relatif terhadap bintang-bintang. Sedangkan antara tanggal 22 Desember dan 22 Juni, Matahari bergerak ke arah utara ekuator.
  
  Karena gerak tahunannya tersebut dikombinasikan dengan gerak terbit terbenam Matahari akibat rotasi Bumi, maka Matahari menyapu daerah-daerah yang memiliki lintang antara 23,5º LU dan 23,5º LS. Pada daerah-daerah di permukaan Bumi yang memiliki lintang dalam rentang tersebut, Matahari dua kali setahun akan berada kurang lebih tepat di atas kepala. Karena Mekkah memiliki lintang 21º 26' LU, yang berarti berada dalam daerah yang disebutkan di atas, maka dua kali dalam setahun, Matahari akan tepat berada di atas kota Mekkah. Kapan hal ini terjadi, bisa dilihat dalam almanak, misalnya Astronomical Almanac.
  
  Penentuan arah kiblat dengan cara melihat langsung posisi Matahari seperti yang disebutkan di atas (pada tanggal-tanggal tertentu yang disebutkan di atas), tidaklah bisa dilakukan di semua tempat. Sebabnya karena bentuk Bumi yang bundar. Tempat-tempat yang bisa menggunakan cara di atas untuk penentuan arah kiblat adalah tempat-tempat yang terpisah dengan Mekkah kurang dari 90º. Pada tempat-tempat yang terpisah dari Mekkah lebih dari 90º, saat Matahari tepat berada di Mekkah, Matahari (dilihat dari tempat tersebut) telah berada di bawah horizon. Misalnya untuk posisi pengamat di Bandung, saat Matahari tepat di atas Mekkah (tengah hari), dilihat dari Bandung, posisi Matahari sudah cukup rendah, kira-kira 18º di atas horizon. Sedangkan bagi daerah-daerah di Indonesia Timur, saat itu Matahari telah terbenam, sehingga praktis momen itu tidak bisa digunakan di sana. Bagi tempat-tempat yang saat Matahari tepat berada di atas Ka'bah, Matahari telah berada di bawah ufuk/horizon, bisa menunggu 6 bulan kemudian. Pada tiap tanggal 28 November 21:09 UT (29 November 04:09 WIB) dan 16 Januari 21:29 UT (17 Januari 04:29 WIB), Matahari tepat berada di bawah Ka'bah. Artinya, pada saat tersebut, jika pengamat tepat menghadap ke arah Matahari, pengamat tepat membelakangi arah kiblat. Jika pengamat memancangkan tongkat tegak lurus, maka arah jatuh bayangan tepat ke arah kiblat.
  

Ka'bah

The Kaaba (Arabic: الكعبة al-Kaʿbah, IPA: [ˈkɑʕbɐ]: "Cube")is a cube-shaped building in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and is the most sacred site in Islam.The building predates Islam, and, according to Islamic tradition, the first building at the site was built by Abraham. The building has a mosque built around it, the Masjid al-Haram. All Muslims around the world face the Kaaba during prayers, no matter where they are.

One of the Five Pillars of Islam requires every Muslim to perform the Hajj pilgrimage at least once in his or her lifetime if they are able to do so. Multiple parts of the Hajj require pilgrims to walk seven times around the Kaaba in a counter-clockwise direction (as viewed from above). This circumambulation, the Tawaf, is also performed by pilgrims during the Umrah (lesser pilgrimage).However, the most dramatic times are during the Hajj, when about three million (officially) pilgrims simultaneously gather to circle the building on the same day.

Location and physical attributes

The Kaaba is a large masonry structure roughly the shape of a cube. It is made of granite from the hills near Mecca, and stands upon a 25 cm (10 in) marble base, which projects outwards about 35 cm (14 in).It is approximately 13.1 m (43 ft) high, with sides measuring 11.03 m (36.2 ft) by 12.86 m (42.2 ft).The four corners of the Kaaba roughly point toward the four cardinal directions of the compass.In the eastern corner of the Kaaba is the Ruknu l-Aswad "the Black Corner"" or al-Ħajaru l-Aswad "the Black Stone". At the northern corner is the Ruknu l-ˤĪrāqī "the Iraqi corner". The western corner is the Ruknu sh-Shāmī "the Levantine corner" and the southern is Ruknu l-Yamanī "the Yemeni corner".

The Kaaba is covered by a black silk and gold curtain known as the kiswah, which is replaced yearly.About two-thirds of the way up runs a band of gold-embroidered calligraphy with Qur'anic text, including the Islamic declaration of faith, the Shahada.

In modern times, entry to the Kaaba's interior is generally not permitted except for certain rare occasions and for a limited number of guests. The entrance is a door set 2 m (7 ft) above the ground on the north-eastern wall of the Kaaba, which acts as the façade.There is a wooden staircase on wheels, usually stored in the mosque between the arch-shaped gate of Banū Shaybah and the well of Zamzam. Inside the Kaaba, there is a marble and limestone floor. The interior walls are clad with marble halfway to the roof; tablets with Qur'anic inscriptions are inset in the marble. The top part of the walls are covered with a green cloth decorated with gold embroidered Qur'anic verses. Caretakers perfume the marble cladding with scented oil, the same oil used to anoint the Black Stone outside.

There is also a semi-circular wall opposite, but unconnected to, the north-west wall of the Kaaba known as the hatīm. This is 90 cm (35 in) in height and 1.5 m (4.9 ft) in width, and is composed of white marble. At one time the space lying between the hatīm and the Kaaba belonged to the Kaaba itself, and for this reason it is not entered during the tawaf (ritual circumambulation). Some believe that the graves of Abu Simbel, prophet Ishmael and his mother Hagar are located in this space.

Muslims throughout the world face the Kaaba during prayers, which occur five times a day. For most places around the world, coordinates for Mecca suffice. Worshippers in the Sacred Mosque pray in concentric circles around the Kaaba.

Black Stone

The Black Stone is a significant feature of the Kaaba, believed by Muslims to date back to the time of Adam and Eve.Located at the eastern corner of the Kaaba, it is about 30 cm (12 in) in diameter and surrounded by a silver frame. Although not strictly obligatory, pilgrims can kiss the Stone, as Muhammad is said to have done.

The following passage gives an insight to the significance of the Black Stone in Islam:

Narrated 'Abis bin Rabia: Umar came near the Black Stone and kissed it and said, "No doubt, I know that you are a stone and can neither benefit anyone nor harm anyone. Had I not seen God's Apostle kissing you, I would not have kissed you." 

Large crowds can make kissing the Stone impossible, so as pilgrims walk round the Kaaba they point to the Stone on each pass.

History

Islamic tradition

According to the Qur'an, the Kaaba was re-built by Ibrahim (Abraham) and his son Ismāʿīl (Ishmael).Islamic traditions assert that the Kaaba "reflects" a house in heaven called al-Baytu l-Maʿmur (Arabic: البيت المعمور‎) and that it was first built by the first man, Adam and is believed that it is the first building ever built on earth. Ibrahim and Ismail rebuilt the Kaaba on the old foundations.

Before Islam

As little is known of the history of the Kaaba, there are various opinions regarding its formation and significance.

The early Arabian population consisted primarily of warring nomadic tribes. When they did converge peacefully, it was usually under the protection of religious practices.Writing in the Encyclopedia of Islam, Wensinck identifies Mecca with a place called Macoraba mentioned by Ptolemy. His text is believed to date from the second century AD, before the rise of Islam, and described it as a foundation in southern Arabia, built around a sanctuary. The area probably did not start becoming an area of religious pilgrimage until around the year AD 500. It was around then that the Quraysh tribe (into which Muhammad was later born) took control of it, and made an agreement with the local Kinana Bedouins for control.The sanctuary itself, located in a barren valley surrounded by mountains, was probably built at the location of the water source today known as the Zamzam Well, an area of considerable religious significance.

In her book, Islam: A Short History, Karen Armstrong asserts that the Kaaba was dedicated to Hubal, a Nabatean deity, and contained 360 idols which either represented the days of the year, or were effigies of the Arabian pantheon. Once a year, tribes from all around the Arabian peninsula, be they Christian or pagan, would converge on Mecca to perform the Hajj.

Imoti contends that there were multiple such "Kaaba" sanctuaries in Arabia at one time, but this is the only one built of stone. The others also allegedly had counterparts to the Black Stone. There was a "red stone", the deity of the south Arabian city of Ghaiman, and the "white stone" in the Kaaba of al-Abalat (near the city of Tabala, south of Mecca). Grunebaum in Classical Islam points out that the experience of divinity of that time period was often associated with stone fetishes, mountains, special rock formations, or "trees of strange growth."The Kaaba was thought to be at the center of the world with the Gate of Heaven directly above it. The Kaaba marked the location where the sacred world intersected with the profane, and the embedded Black Stone was a further symbol of this as a meteorite that had fallen from the sky and linked heaven and earth.According to the Boston Globe, the Kaaba was a shrine for the Daughters of God (al-Lat, al-Uzza, and Manat) and Hubal.

According to Sarwar,about four hundred years before the birth of Muhammad, a man named "Amr bin Lahyo bin Harath bin Amr ul-Qais bin Thalaba bin Azd bin Khalan bin Babalyun bin Saba", who was descended from Qahtan and king of Hijaz (the northwestern section of Saudi Arabia, which encompassed the cities of Mecca and Medina), had placed a Hubal idol onto the roof of the Kaaba, and this idol was one of the chief deities of the ruling Quraysh tribe. The idol was made of red agate, and shaped like a human, but with the right hand broken off and replaced with a golden hand. When the idol was moved inside the Kaaba, it had seven arrows in front of it, which were used for divination.

To keep the peace among the perpetually warring tribes, Mecca was declared a sanctuary where no violence was allowed within 20 miles (32 km) of the Kaaba. This combat-free zone allowed Mecca to thrive not only as a place of pilgrimage, but also as a trading center.

Patricia Crone disagrees with most academic historians on most issues concerning the history of early Islam, including the history of the Kaaba. In Makkan Trade and the Rise of Islam, Crone writes that she believes that the identification of Macoraba with the Kaaba is false, and that Macoraba was a town in southern Arabia in what was then known as Arabia Felix.

Many Muslim and academic historians, stress the power and importance of the pre-Islamic Mecca.[weasel words] They depict it as a city grown rich on the proceeds of the spice trade. Crone believes that this is an exaggeration and that Makkan may only have been an outpost trading with nomads for leather, cloth, and camel butter. Crone argues that if Mecca had been a well-known center of trade, it would have been mentioned by later authors such as Procopius, Nonnosus, and the Syrian church chroniclers writing in Syriac. However, the town is absent from any geographies or histories written in the last three centuries before the rise of Islam.

According to The Encyclopædia Britannica, "before the rise of Islam it was revered as a sacred sanctuary and was a site of pilgrimage."According to the German historian Eduard Glaser, the name "Kaaba" may have been related to the southern Arabian or Ethiopian word "mikrab", signifying a temple.Again, Crone disputes this etymology.

At the time of Muhammad

At the time of Muhammad (CE 570–632), his tribe the Quraysh was in charge of the Kaaba, which was at that time a shrine containing hundreds of idols representing Arabian tribal gods and other religious figures, including Jesus and Mary. Muhammad earned the enmity of his tribe by claiming the shrine for the new religion of Islam that he preached. He wanted the Kaaba to be dedicated to the worship of the one God alone, and all the idols evicted. The Quraysh persecuted and harassed him continuously,and he and his followers eventually migrated to Medina in 622.

After this pivotal migration, or Hijra, the Muslim community became a political and military force. In 630, Muhammad and his followers returned to Mecca as conquerors, and he destroyed the 360 idols in and around the Kaaba.While destroying each idol, Muhammad recited Qu'ran 17:81 which says "Truth has arrived and falsehood has perished for falsehood is by its nature bound to perish."

The Kaaba was re-dedicated as an Islamic house of worship, and henceforth, the annual pilgrimage was to be a Muslim rite, the Hajj, which visits the Kaaba and other sacred sites around Mecca.Islamic histories also mention a reconstruction of the Kaaba around 600. A story found in Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasūl Allāh, one of the biographies of Muhammad (as reconstructed and translated by Guillaume), describes Muhammad settling a quarrel between Meccan clans as to which clan should set the Black Stone cornerstone in place. According to Ishaq's biography, Muhammad's solution was to have all the clan elders raise the cornerstone on a cloak, and then Muhammad set the stone into its final place with his own hands.Ibn Ishaq says that the timber for the reconstruction of the Kaaba came from a Greek ship that had been wrecked on the Red Sea coast at Shu'ayba, and the work was undertaken by a Coptic carpenter called Baqum.

It is also claimed by the Shīʿa that the Kaaba is the birth place of ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib, the fourth caliph and cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

Since Muhammad's time

The Kaaba has been repaired and reconstructed many times since Muhammad's day. Abd-Allah ibn al-Zubayr, an early Muslim who ruled Mecca for many years between the death of ʿAli and the consolidation of Ummayad power, is said to have demolished the old Kaaba and rebuilt it to include the hatīm, a semi-circular wall now outside the Kaaba. He did so on the basis of a tradition (found in several hadith collections) that the hatīm was a remnant of the foundations of the Abrahamic Kaaba, and that Muhammad himself had wished to rebuild so as to include it.

This structure was destroyed (or partially destroyed) in 683, during the war between al-Zubayr and Umayyad forces commanded by Al-Hajjaj bin Yousef. Al-Hajjaj used stone-throwing catapults against the Meccans.

The Ummayads under ʿAbdu l-Malik ibn Marwan finally reunited all the former Islamic possessions and ended the long civil war. In 693 he had the remnants of al-Zubayr's Kaaba razed, and rebuilt on the foundations set by the Quraysh.The Kaaba returned to the cube shape it had taken during Muhammad's lifetime.

During the Hajj of 930, the Qarmatians attacked Mecca, defiled the Zamzam Well with the bodies of pilgrims and stole the Black Stone, removing it to the oasis region of Eastern Arabia known as al-Aḥsāʾ, where it remained until the Abbasids ransomed it back in 952 CE.

Apart from repair work, the basic shape and structure of the Kaaba have not changed since then.
The Kaaba is depicted on the reverse of 500 Saudi Riyal, and the Iranian 2000 rials banknotes.

Cleaning

The building is opened twice a year for a ceremony known as "the cleaning of the Kaaba." This ceremony takes place roughly fifteen days before the start of the month of Ramadan and the same period of time before the start of the annual pilgrimage.

The keys to the Kaaba are held by the Banī Shaybat (بني شيبة) tribe. Members of the tribe greet visitors to the inside of the Kaaba on the occasion of the cleaning ceremony. A small number of dignitaries and foreign diplomats are invited to participate in the ceremony.The governor of Mecca leads the honored guests who ritually clean the structure, using simple brooms. Washing of the Kaaba is done with a mixture of Zamzam and Persian rosewater. 

Qibla and prayer

The Qibla is the Muslim name for the direction faced during prayer[Qur'an 2:143–144] While it may appear to some non-Muslims that Muslims worship the Kaaba, it is simply the focal point for prayer, similar to the direction of an altar in Christian churches. From 610 to 623, the direction of the Qibla had been toward the Noble Sanctuary (Temple Mount) in Jerusalem.

Great Pyramid of Giza

The Great Pyramid of Giza (also called the Pyramid of Khufu and the Pyramid of Cheops) is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza Necropolis bordering what is now El Giza, Egypt. It is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to remain largely intact. It is believed the pyramid was built as a tomb for fourth dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops in Greek) and constructed over a 20-year period concluding around 2560 BC. The Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years. Originally the Great Pyramid was covered by casing stones that formed a smooth outer surface; what is seen today is the underlying core structure. Some of the casing stones that once covered the structure can still be seen around the base. There have been varying scientific and alternative theories about the Great Pyramid's construction techniques. Most accepted construction hypotheses are based on the idea that it was built by moving huge stones from a quarry and dragging and lifting them into place.

There are three known chambers inside the Great Pyramid. The lowest chamber is cut into the bedrock upon which the pyramid was built and was unfinished. The so-called Queen's Chamber and King's Chamber are higher up within the pyramid structure. The Great Pyramid of Giza is the main part of a complex setting of buildings that included two mortuary temples in honor of Khufu (one close to the pyramid and one near the Nile), three smaller pyramids for Khufu's wives, an even smaller "satellite" pyramid, a raised causeway connecting the two temples, and small mastaba tombs surrounding the pyramid for nobles.

Building of the Great pyramid of Giza

It is believed the pyramid was built as a tomb for Fourth dynasty Egyptian pharaoh Khufu and constructed over a 14  to 20 year period. Khufu's vizier, Hemon, or Hemiunu, is believed by some to be the architect of the Great Pyramid.It is thought that, at construction, the Great Pyramid was originally 280 Egyptian cubits tall, 146.478 metres (480.57 ft) but with erosion and absence of its pyramidion, its present height is 138.75 metres (455.22 ft). Each base side was 440 royal cubits, 230.37 metres (755.81 ft) in length. A royal cubit measures 0.524 metres. The mass of the pyramid is estimated at 5.9 million tonnes. The volume, including an internal hillock, is roughly 2,500,000 cubic meters.Based on these estimates, building this in 20 years would involve installing approximately 800 tonnes of stone every day. The first precision measurements of the pyramid were done by Egyptologist Sir Flinders Petrie in 1880–82 and published as The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh.Almost all reports are based on his measurements. Many of the casing stones and inner chamber blocks of the Great Pyramid were fit together with extremely high precision. Based on measurements taken on the north eastern casing stones, the mean opening of the joints are only 0.5 millimeters wide (1/50th of an inch).

The pyramid remained the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years, unsurpassed until the 160-meter-tall spire of Lincoln Cathedral was completed c. 1300. The accuracy of the pyramid's workmanship is such that the four sides of the base have an average error of only 58 millimeters in length The base is horizontal and flat to within 21 mm. The sides of the square base are closely aligned to the four cardinal compass points (within 4 minutes of arc)based on true north, not magnetic north, and the finished base was squared to a mean corner error of only 12 seconds of arc. The completed design dimensions, as suggested by Petrie's survey and subsequent studies, are estimated to have originally been 280 cubits in height by 440 cubits in length at each of the four sides of its base. These proportions equate to π/2 to an accuracy of better than 0.05% (corresponding to the approximation of π as 22/7). Some Egyptologists consider this to have been the result of deliberate design proportion. Verner wrote, "We can conclude that although the ancient Egyptians could not precisely define the value of π, in practice they used it".Petrie, author of Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh, who was the first accurate surveyor of Giza and the excavator and surveyor of the Pyramid of Meidum, concluded: "but these relations of areas and of circular ratio are so systematic that we should grant that they were in the builders design".Earlier in the chapter he wrote more specifically, that: “We conclude therefore that the approximation of 7 to 22 as the ratio of diameter to circumference was recognised”.These proportions equated to the four outer faces sloping by 51.843° or 51° 50′ 34″, which would have been understood and expressed by the Ancient Egyptians as a seked slope of 5½ palms.

Materials

The Great Pyramid consists of an estimated 2.3 million limestone blocks with most believed to have been transported from nearby quarries. The Tura limestone used for the casing was quarried across the river. The largest granite stones in the pyramid, found in the "King's" chamber, weigh 25 to 80 tonnes and were transported more than 500 miles away from Aswan. Traditionally, ancient Egyptians cut stone blocks by hammering wooden wedges into the stone which were then soaked with water. As the water was absorbed, the wedges expanded, causing the rock to crack. Once they were cut, they were carried by boat either up or down the Nile River to the pyramid.

Casing stones

At completion, the Great Pyramid was surfaced by white 'casing stones' – slant-faced, but flat-topped, blocks of highly polished white limestone. These were carefully cut to what is approximately a face slope with a seked of 5 1/2 palms to give the required dimensions. Visibly, all that remains is the underlying stepped core structure seen today. In AD 1300, a massive earthquake loosened many of the outer casing stones, which were then carted away by Bahri Sultan An-Nasir Nasir-ad-Din al-Hasan in 1356 to build mosques and fortresses in nearby Cairo. The stones can still be seen as parts of these structures to this day. Later explorers reported massive piles of rubble at the base of the pyramids left over from the continuing collapse of the casing stones, which were subsequently cleared away during continuing excavations of the site. Nevertheless, a few of the casing stones from the lowest course can be seen to this day in situ around the base of the Great Pyramid, and display the same workmanship and precision as has been reported for centuries. Petrie also found a different orientation in the core and in the casing measuring 193 centimeters ± 25 centimeters. He suggested a redetermination of north was made after the construction of the core, but a mistake was made, and the casing was built with a different orientation.Petrie related the precision of the casing stones as to being "equal to opticians' work of the present day, but on a scale of acres." and "to place such stones in exact contact would be careful work; but to do so with cement in the joints seems almost impossible."

Construction theories

Many alternative, often contradictory, theories have been proposed regarding the Pyramid's construction techniques.Not all even agree that the blocks were quarried; Davidovits claims that they were cast in situ using a "limestone concrete", a theory which is rejected by other Egyptologists. The rest accept that it was built by moving huge stones from a quarry, being only unable to agree whether they were dragged, lifted or even rolled into place. The Greeks believed that slave labour was used, but modern Egyptologists accept that it was built by many tens of thousands of skilled workers. They camped near the pyramids and worked for a salary or as a form of paying taxes until the construction was completed.[citation needed] Their cemeteries were discovered in 1990 by archaeologists Zahi Hawass and Mark Lehner. Verner posited that the labor was organized into a hierarchy, consisting of two gangs of 100,000 men, divided into five zaa or phyle of 20,000 men each, which may have been further divided according to the skills of the workers.

One mystery of the pyramid's construction is its planning. John Romer suggests that they used the same method that had been used for earlier and later constructions, laying out parts of the plan on the ground at a 1 to 1 scale. He writes that "such a working diagram would also serve to generate the architecture of the pyramid with precision unmatched by any other means." He devotes a chapter of his book to the physical evidence that there was such a plan.[24] The 1925 Cole survey discovered as part of some planning an actual Original Builder's Mark, engraved into the pavement perpendicular to the N face.

Interior

The original entrance to the Great Pyramid is 17m (55’7”) vertically above ground level and 7.29m (23'11”) east of the center line of the pyramid. From this original entrance there is a Descending Passage 0.96m (3'2") in height and 1.04m (3'5") in width which goes down at an angle of 26° 31'23" through the masonry of the pyramid and then into the bedrock beneath it. After 105.23m (345’3”) the passage becomes level and continues for an additional 8.84m (29’) to the lower Chamber, which appears not to have been finished. There is a continuation of the horizontal passage in the south wall of the lower chamber; there is also a pit dug in the floor of the chamber. Some Egyptologists suggest this Lower Chamber was intended to be the original burial chamber, but that King Khufu later changed his mind and wanted it to be higher up in the pyramid.

28.2m (98’7”) from the entrance is a square hole in the roof of the Descending Passage. Originally concealed with a slab of stone, this is the beginning of the Ascending Passage. The Ascending Passage is 39.3m (129') long, as wide and high as the Descending Passage and slopes up at almost precisely the same angle. The lower end the Ascending Passage is closed by three huge blocks of granite, each about 1.5m (5') long. At the start of the Grand Gallery on the right-hand side there is a hole cut in the wall (and now blocked by chicken wire). This is the start of a vertical shaft which follows an irregular path through the masonry of the pyramid to join the Descending Passage. Also at the start of the Grand Gallery there is a Horizontal Passage leading to the "Queen's Chamber". The passage is 1.1m (3'8") high for most of its length, but near the chamber there is a step in the floor, after which the passage is 1.73m (5'8") high.

The Queen's Chamber is exactly half-way between the north and south faces of the pyramid and measures 5.75m (18'10") north to south, 5.23m (17'2") east to west and has a pointed roof with an apex 6.23m (20'5") above the floor. At the eastern end of the chamber there is a niche 4.67m (15'4") high. The original depth of the niche was 1.04m (3'5"), but has since been deepened by treasure hunters[citation needed].

In the north and south walls of the Queen's Chamber there are shafts, which unlike those in the King's Chamber that immediately slope upwards, are horizontal for around 2m (6') before sloping upwards. The horizontal distance was cut in 1872 by a British engineer, Waynman Dixon, who believed on the analogy of the King's Chamber that such shafts must exist. He was proved right, but because the shafts are not connected to the outer faces of the pyramid or the Queen's Chamber, their purpose is unknown. At the end of one of his shafts, Dixon discovered a ball of black diorite and a bronze implement of unknown purpose. Both objects are currently in the British Museum.[citation needed]

The shafts in the Queen's Chamber were explored in 1992 by the German engineer Rudolf Gantenbrink using a crawler robot of his own design which he called "Upuaut 2". He discovered that one of the shafts was blocked by limestone "doors" with two eroded copper "handles". Some years later the National Geographic Society created a similar robot which drilled a small hole in the southern door, only to find another larger door behind it.The northern passage, which was difficult to navigate because of twists and turns, was also found to be blocked by a door.

The Grand Gallery continues the slope of the Ascending Passage, but is 8.6m (28') high and 46.68m (153') long. At the base it is 2.06m (6'9") wide, but after 2.29m (7'6") the blocks of stone in the walls are corbelled inwards by 7.6 cm (3") on each side. There are seven of these steps, so at the top the Grand Gallery is only 1.04m (3'5") wide. It is roofed by slabs of stone laid at a slightly steeper angle than the floor of the gallery, so that each stone fits into a slot cut in the top of the gallery like the teeth of a ratchet. The purpose was to have each block supported by the wall of the Gallery rather than resting on the block beneath it, which would have resulted in an unacceptable cumulative pressure at the lower end of the Gallery.[citation needed]

At the upper end of the Gallery on the right-hand side there is a hole near the roof which opens into a short tunnel by which access can be gained to the lowest of the Relieving Chambers. The other Reliving Chambers were discovered in 1837/8 by Colonel Howard Vyse and J. S. Perring, who dug tunnels upwards using blasting powder.

The floor of the Grand Gallery consists of a shelf or step on either side, 51 cm (1'8") wide, leaving a lower ramp 1.04m (3'5") wide between them. In the shelves there are 54 slots, 27 on each side matched by vertical and horizontal slots in the walls of the Gallery. These form a cross shape that rises out of the slot in the shelf. The purpose of these slots is not known, but the central gutter in the floor of the Gallery, which is the same width as the Ascending Passage, has led to speculation that the blocking stones were stored in the Grand Gallery and the slots held wooden beams to restrain them from sliding down the passage[citation needed]. This, in turn, has led to the proposal that originally many more than 3 blocking stones were intended, to completely fill the Ascending Passage[citation needed].

At the top of the Grand Gallery there is a step giving onto a horizontal passage approximately 1.02m (3'4") long, in which can be detected four slots, three of which were probably intended to hold granite portcullises. Fragments of granite found by Petrie in the Descending Passage may have come from these now vanished doors.

The King's Chamber is 10.47m (34'4") from east to west and 5.234m (17'2") north to south. It has a flat roof 5.974m (19'1") above the floor. 0.91m (3') above the floor there are two narrow shafts in the north and south walls (one is now filled by an extractor fan to try to circulate air in the pyramid). The purpose of these shafts is not clear: they appear to be aligned on stars or areas of the northern and southern skies, but on the other hand one of them follows a dog-leg course through the masonry so there was not intention to directly sight stars through them. They did not appear to contribute to air circulation, so the most likely explanation is a ritual one associated with the ascension of the king’s spirit[citation needed]. The King's Chamber is entirely faced with granite, the blocks of stone being fitted with such precision that it is impossible to insert a piece of paper between them. Above the roof, which is formed of nine slabs of stone weighing in total about 400 tons, are five compartments known as Relieving Chambers. The first four, like the King's Chamber, have flat roofs formed by the floor of the chamber above, but the final chamber has a pointed roof. Vyse suspected the presence of upper chambers when he found that he could push a long reed through a crack in the ceiling of the first chamber. From lower to upper, the chambers are known as "Davidson Chamber", "Wellington Chamber", "Lady Arbuthnot's Chamber" and "Campbell's Chamber". It is believed that the compartments were intended to safeguard the King's Chamber from the possibility of a roof collapsing under the weight of stone above the Chamber. As the chambers were not intended to be seen, they were not finished in any way and a few of the stones still retain mason's marks painted on them. One of the stones in Campbell's Chamber bears a mark, apparently the name of a work gang, which incorporates the only reference in the pyramid to Pharaoh Khufu.

The only object in the King's Chamber is a rectangular granite "sarcophagus", one corner of which is broken. The sarcophagus is slightly larger than the Ascending Passage, which indicates that it must have been placed in the Chamber before the roof was put in place. Unlike the fine masonry of the walls of the Chamber, the sarcophagus is roughly finished, with saw marks visible in several places. This is in contrast with the finely finished and decorated sarcophagi found in other pyramids of the same period. Petrie suggested that such a sarcophagus was intended but was lost in the river on the way north from Aswan and a hurriedly made replacement was used instead. This ingenious theory does not explain why the sarcophagus could not have been finished in situ.

Entrance

Today tourists enter the Great Pyramid via the Robbers' Tunnel dug by workmen employed by Caliph al-Ma'mun around AD 820. The tunnel is cut straight through the masonry of the pyramid for approximately 27m (90'), then turns sharply left to encounter the blocking stones in the Ascending Passage. Unable to remove these stones, the workmen tunnelled up beside them through the softer limestone of the Pyramid until they reached the Ascending Passage. It is possible to enter the Descending Passage from this point, but access is usually forbidden.

In recent years entrance to the pyramid has been restricted to groups of 100 morning and afternoon. As tickets are highly prized, those wishing to enter must queue outside the right ticket office for an hour or more before it opens. Under Zahi Hawass, photography inside the pyramid is now strictly forbidden.

King's Chamber and the Golden Mean

At the end of the lengthy series of entrance ways leading into the interior is the structure's main chamber, the King's Chamber. This granite room was originally 10 × 20 × 11.4 cubits, or about 5.235 m × 10.47 m × 5.974 m,comprising a double 10 × 10 cubit square floor, and a height equal to half the double square's diagonal. Some believed that the height was consistent with the geometric methods for determining the Golden Ratio φ (phi) as the height is approximately phi times the width minus ½, while phi can be derived from other dimensions of the pyramid,but evidence from Petrie’s surveys and later conclusions drawn by others shows that the circular proportions were deliberately incorporated into the internal and external designs of the Great Pyramid by its architects and builders for symbolic reasons.The so called golden ratio phi simply exists in the proportions of the architecture as an inadvertent by-product of the inclusion of the circular proportions. The reason for the inadvertent inclusion is that phi, the golden ratio, has a naturally occurring mathematical relation to the circular ratio pi that is unrelated to the architecture or geometry, and which was unknown to the pyramid's builders. Petrie confirmed that the King’s Chamber was a triumph of Egyptian geometry, the ratio of its length to the circuit of the side wall being the same as the ratio of 1 to pi, and that the exterior of the pyramid had been built to the same proportions.

Pyramid complex

The Great Pyramid is surrounded by the usual complex of buildings. The Pyramid Temple, which stood on the east side of the pyramid and measured 52.2m (171') north to south and 40m (132') east to west, has almost entirely disappeared apart from the black basalt paving. There are only a few remnants of the causeway which linked the pyramid with the valley and the presumed Valley Temple which, if it exists, is buried beneath the village of Kafr es-Samman.

On the south side are the subsidiary pyramids, popularly known as Queens' Pyramids. Three remain standing to nearly full height but the fourth was so ruined that its existence was not suspected until the recent discovery of the first course of stones and the remains of the capstone. Herodotus claims that Khufu was a tyrant who prostituted his daughter to raise money to build the Great Pyramid. She, however, requested a stone from each customer and used them to build her smaller pyramid. There is no evidence to support this tale (though it may reflect an arranged marriage advantageous for Khufu) and the Queens' Pyramids may not have housed members of the court. Some have suggested that they corresponded to the later canopic jars for burial of the royal viscera - heart, lungs, liver and entrails.

Hidden beneath the paving around the pyramid was the tomb of Queen Hetepheres, sister-wife of Sneferu and mother of Khufu. Discovered by accident by the Reisner expedition, the burial was intact, though the carefully sealed coffin proved to be empty. Reisner suggests that Hetepheres was originally buried near her husband's pyramid but the tomb was robbed and the mummy destroyed. Khufu transferred the burial to his own pyramid complex, but the priests responsible for the burial did not dare tell him that his mother's body was missing.

There are three boat-shaped pits around the pyramid, of a size and shape to have held complete boats, though so shallow that any superstructure must have been removed or disassembled. It is not clear how these pits were sealed, as the span is too large for stone slabs, which may be why they were found empty apart from ropes and a few fragments of gilded wood found in one pit by Reisner. However in May, 1954, the Egyptian archaeologist Kamal el-Mallakh discovered a fourth pit, a long, narrow rectangle, still covered with slabs of stone weighing up to 15 tons. Inside were 1224 pieces of wood, the longest 23m (75') in length, the shortest 10 cm (4"). These were entrusted to a native boat builder, Haj Ahmed Yusuf, who slowly and methodically worked out how the pieces fit together. The entire process, including conservation and straightening of the warped wood, took fourteen years.

The result is a spectacular cedar-wood boat 43.6m (143') long, its timbers held together by ropes. It is not clear how the boat was made water-tight. Early theories that soaking in water caused the wood to swell and thus become water-tight did not prove effective with the modern reconstruction "Horizon of Min" based on boats found in the Wadi Gawasis excavation and the reconstructers had recourse to traditional fibre caulking reinforced by beeswax. There is no sign of such measures on the Khufu boat, which may simply mean that the boat was never floated. The name "Djedefre", Khufu's son and successor, is found on some of the slabs of stone that sealed the pit, indicating that the boat was put there by Khufu's son.

The reconstructed boat is housed in a special boat-shaped, air-conditioned museum beside the pyramid. During construction of this museum, which stands above the boat pit, a second sealed boat pit was discovered. It was deliberately left unopened in the hope that future excavation techniques will allow more information to be recovered, however a hole was drilled in the sealing stones and air extracted from the pit in the hope of obtaining information about the ancient atmosphere. However as the air was found to be identical to modern air it was concluded that the pit is not hermetically sealed.

The Gizeh pyramid complex, which includes the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, is surrounded by a cyclopaean stone wall, outside which Mark Lehner has discovered the town where the workers on the pyramids were housed. Among the discoveries are communal sleeping quarters, bakeries, breweries and kitchens (with evidence showing that bread and fish were staples of the diet), a hospital and a cemetery (where some of the skeletons were found with signs of trauma associated with accidents on a building site).

Thieves, tourists and excavators

Although succeeding pyramids were smaller, pyramid building continued until the end of the Middle Kingdom. However, as authors Briar and Hobbs claim, "all the pyramids were robbed" by the New Kingdom, when the construction of royal tombs in a desert valley, now known as the Valley of the Kings, began.Joyce Tyldesley states that the Great Pyramid itself "is known to have been opened and emptied by the Middle Kingdom", before the Arab caliph Abdullah al-Mamun entered the pyramid around AD 820.