photo contest i.d. revealed; winners announced

interestingly enough, no one was able to correctly identify both places. several entries recognized the "edicule" constructed over the tomb of jesus in CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHER in jerusalem, but no one recognized the other image. the "edicule" was built in "the Ottoman Baroque style" in 1809-11, after a fire destroyed the previous structure. it was damaged in an earthquake of in 1927. in 1949 under the british mandate iron girders were installed to prop it up. hence the odd, post-modern look of this, the holiest site in all of christendom, where jesus was buried and rose from the dead.

if you want to see more of it, including a live webcam feed, google it. what would jesus think?

and what would abraham lincoln think? the second photo shows the neo-neo-classical memorial ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S BIRTHPLACE in hodgenville, kentucky. Now a national park, this grandiose edifice was designed in 1909-11 by the architect john russell pope (better known as the architect of the west wing of the national gallery of art and the jefferson memorial in washington, d.c.). inside it is the "symbolic log cabin" where the rugged, modest president wasn't born in 1809 (just as the Ottomans were cooking up the edicule).

judith first commented how inappropriate this bombastic building housing the "symbolic" log cabin seems to the spriit of her hero abraham lincoln and made the comparison to the strangly surreal edicule enclosing the tomb of jesus.

with judith and your blogmistress in front of the memorial is our friend the well-known author Kristin Johannson, from berea, kentucky, who has written about the comic farce of the "symbolic log cabin." maybe she will contribute to the blog on this subject; she was not eligible for the contest.

since no contestant (including the architecturally sophisticated m in a northern city) precisely knew the memorial building, no one should feel badly. there were 12 entries, including two from faint-hearted art historians who said they knew the sepulcher but weren't playing the game.

and now, congratulations to the WINNERS in different categories:

first prize: SUSAN HIGMAN LARSEN for a correct i.d. of the holy sepulcher (after revising her original answer "the guggenheim eskilstuna") and very close with "a memorial to a Civil War Soldier or long-past president" way to go, susan!

honorable mention: MARCIA WEIL BOROWSKI for being both right and wrong: correct on the holy sepulcher, amusingly wrong on lincoln's birthplace, guessing it to be "General Lee's tomb? Stonewall Jackson's? the tomb of some Southern martyr?"

ODED BOROWSKI for the silliest answer, calling the birthplace monument "my barn" (correct, of couse, on the other, since he teaches a history of jerusalem)

SARAH MINOR SMITH for the most imaginative: "the foyer of Gringott's bank off of Diagon Alley and a Temple to Mammon in Fargo, SD" (you go, cousin!)

honorable mention: MAYA HOPTMAN for the sepulcher as "the place of my great-great-great-great grandfather's bar mitzvah and catherine the great's outhouse"

INGRID HANSEN WOOD for the most creative format: a somewhat cryptic knock-knock joke, correct on the jesus part and correct that such a memorial would not be for a woman

winners will be individually notified and invited to choose their prizes: either they can write an entry for posting on the blog, or can request that the blogmistress write an entry on the topic of their choice.

MANY THANKS to all the entrants, and check back for future postings by the winners (hopefully) as guest authors on the blog.