Architecture in Central Asia has a very long history—the oldest evidence of human-made structures was discovered in early farming settlements dated around 7000 BCE. These sites lie in the oases north of the Kopet Dag Mountains that extend about...

The West Asian nations of Iran, Turkey, and Iraq have a rich and varied architectural heritage dating back thousands of years. Many civilizations have left their mark on this region, and architecture has always been important to this region. In fact,...

Throughout Asia indigenous peoples use local resources in developing regional types of architecture. Desert regions use clay, adobe, and fired bricks. In Western Asia, parts of India, China, Japan, and Korea, builders used carved wood. Great stone...

To understand Islamic architecture in the region comprising present-day Iran, Iraq, and Turkey, one must first understand its roots. The builders of Islamic cities that arose in the desert where no city existed before used architectural styles that...

Islamic architecture has encompassed a wide range of both secular and religious styles from the foundation of Islam to the present day, influencing the design and construction of buildings and structures within the sphere of Islamic culture. The...

An Outline of Islamic Architecture. By RAFIQUE ALI JAIRAZBHOY. Rpt. Oxford: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2003. Pp. 216, maps, illus. $19.95 (paper). Oxford University Press's recent reprint of R. A. Jairazbhoy's An Outline of Islamic Architecture (first published in 1972) provides readers with...

THIS HANDSOME LARGE BOOK with 400 illustrations covers a key period of Islamic civilisation. From 1250, the cultures of the Arab heartlands were devastated by the Mongol conquests. The first to recover were the Persian lands, where lavish patronage soon helped bring about...

Those wondrously intricate tile mosaics that adorn medieval Islamic architecture may cloak a mastery of geometry not matched in the West for hundreds of years.Historians have long assumed that sheer hard work with the equivalent of a ruler and compass allowed medieval craftsmen to create...

What do Paris, London and New York have in common with Bled, Slovenia, and Luang Prabang in Laos? All of them appear in Lonely Planet's new "Cities: A Journey Through the Best Cities in the World" ($50), a coffee-table book...