Great staircases remind us that architecture was once art. These are the world's most beautiful examples 🧵 1. The Imperial staircase, Savoy Castle, Valle d'Aosta (1904) 🇮🇹 2. The grand staircase, Palais Garnier Opera House, Paris (1875) 🇫🇷 3. The Bramante Staircase, the Vatican Museums, Vatican City (1932) 🇻🇦 4. The double-spiral staircase, Château de Chambord, Chambord (1547) 🇫🇷 5. Livraria Lello bookstore, Porto (1906) 🇵🇹 6. The grand staircase, Würzburg Residence, Würzburg (1737) 🇩🇪 7. The spiral staircase, Villa Farnese at Caprarola, Lazio (1559) 🇮🇹 8. The oval staircase at Prémontré Abbey, Aisne (17th Century) 🇫🇷 9. The Hall of Honour spiral staircase at Peleș Castle, Sinaia (1911) 🇷🇴 10. The Inverted Tower, Quinta da Regaleira, Sintra (1911) 🇵🇹 11. The Vertigo Staircase, Queen Victoria Building, Sydney (1898) 🇦🇺 12. The Baroque spiral staircase, Melk Abbey, Melk (1736) 🇦🇹 13. The Rococo staircase, Palazzo Biscari, Catania, Sicily (1763) 🇮🇹 14. The Gustave Moreau Museum, Paris (1895) 🇫🇷 15. The Halle State Courthouse, Halle (1905) 🇩🇪

The Statue of David is perhaps the most perfect work of art ever created, and yet it was carved from a rejected block of marble. This is the story of the Renaissance masterpiece 🧵

On this day 2,346 years ago Alexander the Great died in Babylon after a night of heavy drinking. But what made him so great? And why was he mentioned in both the Bible and the Quran? This is the story of the man who conquered the world before he was 30 years old... Alexander was born in 356 BC in a city called Pella, the capital of Macedonia, to the north of Greece. As a boy he was tutored by the famous Greek philosopher Aristotle, and imbued with a burning ambition by his mother, Olympias. Later legends would say he was the son of Zeus. Alexander's father, Philip II, has been overshadowed by his son. For when Philip came to power in 359 BC Macedonia was in a terrible state, threatened by Thrace and Illyria and by the Greek cities, and on the brink of collapse. But he was the right man at the right time... By the end of Philip's reign Macedonia had become the most powerful state in the region; Thrace and Illyria were subdued, and Philip had defeated the Greek cities and made himself de facto leader of Greece. He was an astute diplomant, inspired general, and sharp reformer. But Philip was assassinated in 336 BC by a bodyguard called Pausanias, who desperately desired fame. As the story goes, he thought the best way to become famous was by murdering the most famous man alive. And so, the twenty year old Alexander was declared king. Alexander's first job was to secure his position and put down the rebellions that arose after the death of Philip. He ruthlessly eliminated his rivals to the throne, defeated revolts in Thrace and Illyria, and asserted dominance over Greece by destroying the city of Thebes. With his kingdom secure, the Balkans subdued, and the Greeks united under his rule, Alexander set out on the campaign Philip had prepared for: an invasion of the Persian (or Achaemenid) Empire. For two centuries the mighty, wealthy Persians had been the Greeks' mortal enemies. With his Macedonian soldiers, battle-hardened under Philip, and supported by a circle of competent generals, Alexander swept eastwards, out of Europe and through modern-day Turkey, toward Mesopotamia, the heart of the Persian Empire. It was a rapid, unstoppable advance. One of the many myths about Alexander comes from this time. In a place called Gordium there was a famously complex knot tying an oxcart to a post; whoever could untie it was destined to rule Asia. Alexander stepped up... and simply cut the Gordian knot with his sword. But the Persian Emperor, Darius III, brought together all his many armies from across the many nations he ruled to halt Alexander's advance. At battle took place at Issus, on the modern Turkish-Syrian border, and Alexander won a clear and resounding victory. So Darius retreated and offered Alexander a deal: to make peace, and Alexander could have half his kingdom. Parmenion, one of Alexander's generals, said that he would accept the terms if he were Alexander. To which he replied, "So would I, if I were Parmenion." No peace deal. After the Battle of Issus Alexander conquered Egypt, before going on to Mesopotamia and decisively defeating Darius at the Battle of Gaugemala despite being heavily outnumbered. That was in 331 BC; the Persian Empire was no more, and the great Greek dream had been realised. Alexander pushed on even further, all the way into modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. He swept all before him and remained, until his death, undefeated in battle. Alexander next planned an invasion of Arabia, but northwestern India marked the limit of his conquest; the mutinous troops wanted to go home. He had left Macedonia less than ten years earlier and conquered half the known-world by the age of the thirty. Just compare the kingdom Alexander inherited to the one he created; we need not explore the details of his campaigns to know that this was one of history's greatest military strategists — and leaders outright. His brilliance was matched only by his audacity. Alexander was also, it turns out, a master of PR. For one, he made sure to bring with him on his campaign the finest poets, artists, and writers of the age. Whether his "official" historian Callisthenes, the sculptor Lysippos, the painter Apelles, or the engraver Pyrgoteles. He also named his two sons... Alexander and Hercules. And he was fond of founding cities and naming them after himself; like Alexandria, in Egypt, which would become the world's greatest city. Here's a map of all the cities he named after himself, from Greece to Afghanistan. But this wasn't all egoism; Alexander's curation of his image was about political legitimacy and stability. He sought to merge Graeco-Macedonian culture with that of Persia, intermarrying his generals with Persian nobles and mixing their customs to create a multicultural empire. But it was too much when Alexander demanded "proskynesis" — the traditional method of greeting a Persian king by prostrating yourself on the floor. The Greeks and Macedonians reserved proskynesis for their gods, and refused to do it for Alexander. In the immediate aftermath of his death there came the so-called Wars of the Diadochi. These were his leading generals — the likes of Ptolemy, Perdiccas, Seleucus, and Antigonus Monophthalmus — and they fought for several decades over the empire he had created. So Alexander's empire rapidly disintegrated, but several of the kingdoms established by his successors — such as Ptolemaic Egypt, Antigonid Macedonia, the Seleucid Empire — lasted for centuries. They only ceased to exist when they were eventually conquered by the Romans. In the long run, Alexander's legacy was to establish the "Hellenistic Age." He had shattered the Persian Empire, linking West with East, and spread both Greek language and culture all throughout Eurasia. So his legacy was, in the end, to reshape the world culturally. From the Delhi Sultanate to Christian Europe and everywhere between, Alexander has loomed large in political, religious, poetic, and popular culture for over two thousand years; he even features in the Bible and the Quran. One of few truly cross-cultural heroes. You can read more about the life of Alexander in accounts written by ancient historians like Arrian, Plutarch, or Diodorus Siculus. Was he hero or villain, liberator or megalomaniac? Was he Great... or not? Whatever he was, posterity will never forget Alexander of Macedon.

Shakespeare's best (and strangest) insults, a thread: "Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon." ~Timon of Athens "Thine face is not worth sunburning." ~Henry V "The rankest compound of villainous smell that ever offended nostril." ~The Merry Wives of Windsor "Thou damned and luxurious mountain goat." ~Henry V "Thou hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows." ~Troilus and Cressida "Thou whoreson zed; thou unnecessary letter!" ~King Lear "I do desire we may be better strangers." ~As You Like It "His wit’s as thick as a Tewkesbury mustard." ~Henry IV, Part 2 "I am sick when I do look on thee." ~A Midsummer Night's Dream "I’ll beat thee, but I would infect my hands." ~Timon of Athens "More of your conversation would infect my brain." ~Coriolanus "There’s no more faith in thee than in a stewed prune." ~Henry IV, Part 1 "The tartness of his face sours ripe grapes." ~Coriolanus "Thou leathern-jerkin, crystal-button, knot-pated, agatering, puke-stocking, caddis-garter, smooth-tongue, Spanish pouch!" ~Henry IV, Part 1 "Thy tongue outvenoms all the worms of Nile." ~Cymbeline "Thou art a Castilian King urinal!" ~The Merry Wives of Windsor "You have such a February face, So full of frost, of storm, and cloudiness." ~Much Ado About Nothing "This sanguine coward, this bed-presser, this horseback-breaker, this huge hill of flesh!" ~Henry IV, Part 1 "I think thy horse will sooner con an oration than thou learn a prayer without book." ~Troilus and Cressida "Thou concludest like the sanctimonious pirate." ~Measure for Measure "Let’s meet as little as we can." ~As You Like It "[Your] brain is as dry as the remainder biscuit after voyage." ~As You Like It "Some report a sea-maid spawn’d him; some that he was begot between two stock-fishes. But it is certain that when he makes water his urine is congealed ice." ~Measure for Measure "He has not so much brain as ear-wax." ~Troilus and Cressida "Thou art a boil, a plague sore, an embossed carbuncle in my corrupted blood." ~King Lear "Sell your face for five pence and ’tis dear." ~King John "You, minion, are too saucy." ~The Two Gentleman of Verona "I do wish thou were a dog, that I might love thee." ~Timon of Athens "This kiss is as comfortless as frozen water to a starved snake." ~Titus Andronicus "Thou crusty batch of nature!" ~Troilus and Cressida "Away thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant." ~The Taming of the Shrew "A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen as you are toss’d with." ~Henry IV, Part 1 "Drunkenness is his best virtue, for he will be swine drunk, and in his sleep he does little harm, save to his bedclothes about him." ~All's Well That Ends Well "A rare parrot-teacher!" ~Much Ado About Nothing "Thou lump of foul deformity!" ~Richard III "Would the fountain of your mind were clear again, that I might water an ass in it." ~Troilus and Cressida "Not Hercules could have knocked out his brains, for he had none." ~Cymbeline "Hang him, mechanical salt-butter rogue!" ~The Merry Wives of Windsor "If you had but looked big and spit at him, he'ld have run." ~The Winter's Tale "Get thee glass eyes, and like a scurvy politician seem to see the things thou dost." ~King Lear "Thou damned doorkeeper to every custrel that comes inquiring for his Tib!" ~Pericles "Thou flea, thou nit, thou winter-cricket thou!" ~The Taming of the Shrew "You scullion! You rampallian! You fustilarian! I’ll tickle your catastrophe!" ~Henry IV, Part 2 "Truly, thou are damned, like an ill-roasted egg, all on one side." ~As You Like It "'Sblood, you starveling, you elf-skin, you dried neat's tongue, you bull's pizzle, you stock-fish! O for breath to utter what is like thee! you tailor's-yard, you sheath, you bowcase; you vile standing-tuck!" ~Henry IV, Part 1 "A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking knave, a whoreson, glass-gazing, super-serviceable finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave... ...one that wouldst be a bawd, in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar, and the son and heir of a mongrel: one whom I will beat into clamorous whining, if thou deniest the least syllable of thy addition." ~King Lear And, to end, a classic from Titus Andronicus:

What is a controversial opinion you hold?

800 years ago we built things with such impossible detail that you could spend days staring at them. Does modern man have the patience to build something like this today? The Notre-Dame de Reims has over 2,000 statues on its walls. The west facade is the most awe-inspiring with many elaborately carved scenes, in particular the crowning of Mary by Christ above the central portal. But my favourite detail is to the right of the north portal - the Smiling Angel. Carved in the 13th century, it is an iconic symbol of Reims.