New year, same challenge

My grand return to France completed, I am now trudging through the terribly predictable struggle that is my US to Europe jetlag. I don't know why it always hits me so hard in only one direction. Jetlag or none, the Museum Challenge goes on, and with a mere two months to go, the clock is ticking.

In the mood for a classic, today Peter and I hit up the Louvre. We mostly focused on the ancient civilizations, with a splash of Islamic art at the very end of our visit. Here is a visual highlight of the trip.

Top left is a dreary view of the sky through the bare trees in the Jardin de Tuileries where we walked as we approached the Louvre. Top center-left is just one column of an ancient building from one of the first towns. Can you just imagine the impression that would have left on people from smaller villages or nomadic tribes? Top center-right is part of a sculpture which clearly used to have something else attached... In the right column, from top to bottom we've got samples of cuneiform and two different styles of Islamic writing. In the mid-left and bottom second-to-left, we have examples of sculptures from Nineveh, the ancient Mesopotamian/Syrian city. And last, in center-bottom, we've got two fine examples of men sporting similar fashion statements, namely lion skin hat/cloaks. To the left is the bust of Mithradates IV "Eupador," the last king of the Pontus Kingdom in Asia Minor, who unsuccessfully challenged Rome in the last century BC. The amphora to the right dates to several hundred years before Mithradates, around 510-515 BC, indicating such lion fashion statements had some real staying power. And of course, in the bottom right corner we've got a classic shot of the Louvre and its pyramids illuminated on this rainy evening as the museum was closing.