Magnificence Quotes
The Hagia Sophia was the greatest architectural and engineering enterprise of that era and remained so for centuries. The Church was so massive that there was a permanent city of 7000 people on the second level balconies with wide ramps so that horses and carts could go to the upper level. The dome was the largest unsupported dome for centuries and historians are still ignorant of exactly how it was constructed. It changed the history of architecture. The reference to Solomon referred to the building of the original Jewish Temple in Jerusalem which was up to then considered the greatest building ever constructed.
The Muslims conquered Spain and controlled it to one extent or another for 600 years. In the strict Muslim culture access to sex with was a major attraction. The Moors brought few women with them and in their 600 year dominance of much of Spain interbred profusely do that today there is some Moorish blood in most Spanish families.
Hastings founded a colony in Brazil for Confederates who were unwilling to live in the South during Reconstruction. He was trying to raise recruits. His book was effusive in its description of Brazil—without mentioning the yellow fever, poisonous animals, sweltering jungles and some of the less desirable elements of Brazil.
