Wonderfulness is right before you. Bird’s Nest is always with you proclaims a sign at the entrance to the still magnificent 2008 Olympic Stadium. The spectacular Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing, hailed as the finest arena in the world and the centre-piece of the most expensive Olympics in history, is full of hidden symbolism. In Chinese mythology, the sun is represented by a circle and the moon by a square, reflected by the shape of the bird's nest and the Water Cube aquatic centre opposite, reinforced when the venues are lit at night, red for the Bird's Nest and blue for the Water Cube. The forms also echo the Chinese symbols for male and female, and are built either side of the north-south axis road which runs in a perfect straight line for three miles through Beijing, centered on the Forbidden City. Located in the Olympic Green, the US$423 million stadium is the world's largest steel structure. The design was awarded to a submission from the Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron in April 2003. The design, which was inspired by a study of Chinese ceramics, implemented steel beams in order to hide supports for the retractable roof; giving the stadium the appearance of a "Bird's nest".
Monkey god guardians of the Banteay Srei in Cambodia. Dedicated to the god Shiva, Banteay Srei was constructed from a local pink sandstone, which is easier than most of the other local stones to carve into exquisitely fine detail, but it is also quite hard and durable, so it has eroded less than most of the other temples’ intricate carvings. Consequently, the sculpted religious imagery here has kept its form better than many much later decorations.
Some people look for a beautiful place, others make a place beautiful - Hazrat Inayat Khan. A candid shot thru the gate connecting Terrace of The Elephants and Phimeanakas temple.
