Customer Reviews

The Past From Above: Aerial Photographs of Archaeological Sites

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is more than a 'coffee table' book.
It consists of 249 photographs from around the world -- all archeological (and many world heritage) sites.
It's uniqueness is this: There are large sharp color photographs as well as duplicate small color photographs.
Appended to the smaller photographs is a signed discussion and description which, while succinct, is comprehensive and satisfactory.
I have not seen a book like this one. Both the photographs, the worldwide areas covered, and the text are very fine.
Strongly recommended.

Exceeded expectations. The views were unexpectedly revealing, and the written descriptions of each view were also unexpectedly revealing.

If you want to review the wonder of human kind's imprint on the earth, enjoy this book. If you want to wonder at the uses of the earth's treasures to show creativity and genius spend time with this book. That these architectural remains can be seen from the air in entirety is made possible by Georg Gerster's incredible artistry.

The pictures are spectacular, giving you another perspective on nearly every major monument throughout the world. Also is provided a brief history of the monument and what archaeologists believe was the main purpose of it. Great book - highly recommend it to anyone

this is a beautiful book. I could sit for hours looking at the pictures and wishing I could be there. Not only are the photos lovely, but there are bibliographic notes so that you can read more about what you are seeing in the photos. That seemed the most valuable to me, giving one a chance to learn more about this fascinating ruins.

This is in every way a splendid book. The photographs are superb, and present a well-chosen selection of the world's great archeological sites. The one-column authoritative descriptions are a bonus. Don't ignore the historical introduction or the hilarious jottings from the photographer, Georg Gerster. It all brings back so many memories.

I ordered this book "new" and the spine wasn't broken, but the cover of the book was very creased and not "new" looking. Unfortunately, i had no time to return it before i gave it as a birthday present. Obviously the book had not been read, but the cover was very sad looking. Probably won't order from this vendor again.

The photographs in this book are fascinating, as you can see every little detail of the numerous locales and historic places, such as Stonehenge, the Great Wall of China, the Tower of Babel, and Antarctica. The terrain around the ancient St. John's Basilica in Turkey where the apostle John was buried in the sixth century and the stone monastry in Ireland amid all the rocks with the vivid green are amazing to see.

The first known aerial photo was taken from a balloon in 1858. In the beginning, this type of photography was used for military reconnaissane, and you were deemed a spy to be taking pictures of important places from above. Even now, the Middle East is off limits to such spying. Charles Lindbergh and wife, Anne, took aerial photos of the Maya ruins in the jungles of Central America in 1929. Historian Charlotte Trumpler declares, in the introduction of this book (she also has a book with the same title), that the Lindbergh pictures were "unsystematic and lacking in any true understanding of the local geography." That wasn't the intention of the adventuresome couple.

George Gerster has photographed the Parthenon in Greece and located the three-hundred giant figures etched into the sand of Lima, Peru, which date back to 200 B.C. His career in aerial photography started in 1963 when he chartered a small plane to take pictures of Egyptian sites which were due to be flooded by a dam. In 1997, he took a marvelous shot of the city of Elba in Syria, with the ancient ruins south of the town with designs of different colors surrounding it.

Modern-day crop designs in Austria, America, and other places occur seemingly overnight and have a meaning known only to those who have the skill and patience to complete them. A White Horse made out of the chalk of Oxforshire is shown in this book, dating back to 1200 B.C. Now, USA has a new one out in the remote desert surrounding Albuquerque, New Mexico. They resemble crop circles and can be seen only from high altitude, thus the secrecy for their being there in the northern barren area to serve as aerial signposts showing the location of a huge vault built into a mountainside. This elusive underground vault was built for the express purpose of keeping the writings of L. Ron Hubbard in case of the human extinction as we know it; with this sign for Scientologists to find when they come back to Earth in the far-off future. All of Hubbad's works have been engraved on stainless steel tablets and encased in titanium capsules far underground. In the event of nuclear distruction, these writings by a sci-fi founder of the church will be waiting and the space ships will know the location. Other religions have preserved their sacred texts. After all, Joseph Smith discovered the gold plates of Mormonism in upstate New York.

Professor William Sumnre of the University of Chicago believes in the importance of preserving archaeology in aerial photographs. He says of the display in Gerster's book, "The thing about Georg's images is they are superb. If there's anything to be seen, it's in his images." Mr. Gerster lives in his native Switzerland and is at an age to retire, but perhaps he will fly over New Mexico and take some detailed photographs of the giant circles on the scrubland outside of Albuquerque. which proclaim the archiving project of a group whose cadre is "We come back." This book would be a great reference book of antiquity of the future for the future.