Opulence And Grandeur In History

Can the extravagance and costs,both of currency and lives, be justified in the opulent architecture commissioned by “divinely empowered “ individuals of ancient cultures? Name a comparably example from today’s society.

The Pyramids of Ancient Egypt

In the ancient times, lavish grand structures were built by the individuals because they were considered to be divine beings or were powerful figures of their time. In ancient Egypt, the Pharaohs were considered as incarnations of their various Gods and Goddesses, thus the money spent or the people who were engaged in building the structures was justified according to their sense of judgment although a lot of people lost their lives while building such grand structures. The ancient kings of Egypt spent a lot of money to show their gratitude to the gods, they believed that they have to appease the Gods and then only then will attain glory in battles. Another reason the Egyptians built one of the most popular magnificent structures of history, the Pyramids, because they believed in the concept of afterlife (Condello, 2016). The Pharaohs were believed to be incarnations of Gods and that they were representatives of divine creatures on the earth, thus to ensure that they can have a lavish afterlife the Pyramids were built where their bodies were preserved and they were placed inside the pyramids with lots of riches to continue with their life after death in luxury.

The Colosseum was another grand structure, which has withstood the trials of time, and it displays magnificence and opulence through its sheer size and elaborate history. The structure was built as a display of wealth and power of the ancient kings and no expense was spared while building it, but the plight of the slaves who were captured in the Jewish war was not at all justified (Condello, 2016). The money and the display of power, thinking from ancient perspectives can be said to be justifiable but the people who were tortured in the name of grandeur is not an acceptable fact. Although there are instance where the people who were engaged in building the ancient structures were paid, but mostly throughout history the lives of the people lost while building these grand opulent structures is unjustified.

In the recent times, the Palm Islands which is situated in Dubai can be an example of opulence and grandeur although it was not commissioned by any “divinely empowered” being. In today’s society there are no kings or kingdoms thus the belief that our leaders are incarnations of Gods or Goddesses is absurd, but there are grand structures which are being built by the rich and the prosperous all around the world to display their wealth and power, to create a feeling of awe in the minds of people. The Palm Islands are a group of artificial islands created on the coast of Dubai (Virtudes, Abbara & Sá, 2017). The estimated cost of the entire structure is almost 13 billion dollars and to build the islands within a stipulated time frame more than 40000 workers were made to work day and night in a tight schedule, this fact almost is similar to the plight of the ancient workers who worked day and night tirelessly to built the ancient structures.

Thus to conclude, it can be said that the extravagance and expenditure of the ancient times was justified thinking from their perspectives. Thinking from another point of view the lives of the people involved in building these magnificent structures was neither justified in the ancient time nor can it be justified in the recent scenarios where people are made to work like slaves all for glory and display of opulence.    

Reference list:

Condello, A. (2016). The Architecture of Luxury. Routledge.

Virtudes, A., Abbara, A., & Sá, J. (2017, October). Dubai: a pioneer smart city in the Arabian territory. In IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering (Vol. 245, No. 5, p. 052071). IOP Publishing.