Thursday, September 17, 2026

The Haran Minar And The Golden Temple

I noticed this just looking around the world on Google Earth, and cannot see it referred to anywhere.

Around the beginning of the Seventeenth Century what is now called the Golden Temple was completed in the Indian city of Amritsar. This is the best-known temple of the Sikh religion. There is the causeway across the pool of water to the Temple.

Images from Google Earth and Street View.



Not long after the Golden Temple was completed the Mughal Emperor Jahangir built a tomb for his pet antelope in exactly the same style. Although it is not as elaborate as the Golden Temple it's pool is larger. The pool is shown from the same altitude as that of the Golden Temple.


I believe that this adjoining tower is the site or the actual tomb of the antelope.
 

The Haran Minar is outside the Pakistani city of Sheikhupura. I measure it as being 88 km from the Golden Temple.

Apocalyptic Developments

This is in regard to the parallel postings "The End Of The World As We Know It" and "Inducing The Apocalypse", both June 2026.

We are really in a new world with the development of drones, and working out all of the technology and tactics, in the Ukraine war. What is so perilous about drones is not that each drone is particularly deadly. It is that drones are so inexpensive, easy to make, and easy to use. 

Electrical substations are easy targets for drones. Guarding such targets on the ground won't do much to secure them. A few inexpensive drones can turn off the electricity in a city, which will shut down facilities such as airports.

These four images, from Google Street View, are of two substations near here.





In "The End Of The World As We Know It", we saw how robots and drones will make future warfare especially deadly. Drones are now moving beyond the air to the sea, and this week saw the first naval battle, in the Ukraine war, consisting entirely of drones.

"Inducing The Apocalypse" described the religious and apocalyptic aspect of Russia's war in Ukraine. It was in the news this week that the bones of a medieval prince were brought to the battlefront to provide spiritual support for the war effort. The bones of Alexander Nevsky, a medieval prince and saint, had previously been brought to the battlefront.

If these two wars merged together we would have Armageddon. This week we saw a link between the wars in the destruction of U.S. planes on the ground, in bases in the Middle East, by Iranian missiles and drones. Russia is getting back at the West for helping Ukraine by helping Iran.

The apocalyptic series of wars will be preceded by the reign of the Antichrist, which we know will be based in a united Europe. Donald Trump's hostility is pushing Canada closer to Europe and this week the Canadian Prime Minister discussed Canada having "associate membership" in the European Union.

The latest in surveillance is that some garbage trucks now have cameras that take an image of the house at each stop. A search is then made for code violations or anything illegal. Some big box stores now have a system with an electronic chip on each shopping cart that enables the overhead lights to keep track of where the cart goes in the store. The store doesn't actually know who the shopper is until they use a debit or credit card at the checkout.


Things To Think About

Here are a couple of things to think about.

If there is a two-dimensional square, and we add another dimension to it, then it is called a cube. If there is a two-dimensional circle, and we add another dimension to it, then it is called a sphere. But what if there is a two-dimensional rectangle, with two unequal pairs of sides, and we add another dimension to it, what is it called? We might just call it a "box" but it doesn't have a real mathematical name.

The United Nations recently updated the generally-accepted map of the world. But why do we habitually put north at the top on maps? South should be at the top, based on the moon. Whenever you see a lunar or solar eclipse you can see that the moon moves leftward, from right to left. We know that the earth rotates eastward and the moon orbits the earth in the same direction. So the moon moves leftward and eastward. For east to be to the left we have to be facing south. Therefore south should be at the top on maps. Maps with north at the top are accurate only if we are looking at the earth from above the orbit of the moon. I have written about this here before but noticed it only recently.

Image from Google Earth. The moon moves according to the red arrow. During an eclipse we can see that the moon is moving leftward. This means that south should be at the top on maps.


The Houthis And The Yemeni Monarchy

The Houthis must have something going for them in Yemen. But the news almost always refers to them as the "Houthi Rebels". But what are they "rebels" against? The Republican government of presidents Saleh and Hadi was itself formed from a rebellion against the former Kingdom of Yemen. 

The Kingdom of Yemen, actually occupying what used to be called North Yemen, was formed in 1918 when, at the end of the Ottoman Empire, a religious leader, Imam Yahya, entered Sanaa and proclaimed himself as king. This was actually a continuation of the monarchy that goes back to the Ninth Century, originating with the Rassid Dynasty. My impression of the Zaydi branch of Shiite Islam that is practiced in Yemen is that the imam, the religious leader, is also the king.

The Kingdom lasted until the 1960s, when the Republican rebellion against it took place. It resulted in civil war that drew in foreign powers. Egypt supported the Republican side with a military force while Saudi Arabia supported the monarchy.

The Republican side ultimately triumphed and the monarchy was abolished. It inadvertently helped Israel because, when the 1967 Six-Day War came, much of Egypt's military was tied down in Yemen.

As part of the Arab Spring the Republic, led by presidents, was displaced by the Houthis. But the Houthis were led by Zaydi religious leaders, just as was the Kingdom of Yemen. Zaydism is one of the branches of Shiite Islam.

So shouldn't the Houthis be considered as a new dynasty of the Yemeni Monarchy, which is now back in power? With the leader of the Houthis as the King of Yemen?

The Full Story Of 9/11

To fully understand 9/11, we have to look at the past event that ultimately led to it. It was the 1979 seizure of the Grand Mosque. This posting is actually not the complete story. The complete story would include the events that led to the seizure of the Grand Mosque that we saw in "The Far-Reaching Story Of Charles Manson", June 2025. This is a copy of that posting, leaving out Charles Manson.

THE 1979 SEIZURE OF THE GRAND MOSQUE 

In 1979 the year 1400, on the Islamic Calendar, was soon to begin. There were those who thought this meant someone would show up to revitalize and purify the Islamic religion. On November 20, hundreds of militants entered the Grand Mosque in Mecca, it is also called the "Sacred Mosque", which is the most important place in Islam. They pulled guns from under their robes, and from in coffins, and took over the mosque. Many of the other pilgrims were taken as hostages, although most of those were soon released.

The leader of the seizure was named Juhayman. A proclamation was made that his brother-in-law, who was among the militants, was the Mahdi, a messianic figure, and all Moslems were to obey and follow him. They considered the Saudi Government as corrupt and illegitimate because of the western influences that it allowed in.

The operation had been well-prepared and well-planned. There are many underground rooms at the mosque, that had been stocked with food and ammunition. The minarets made an ideal position for snipers. The first efforts to regain control of the mosque were futile, and suffered heavy casualties. Both the king and the crown prince of Saudi Arabia were out of the country at the time.

This event didn't register with Americans more than it did simply because it was going on at the same time as the Iran Hostage Crisis, which began with the seizure of the U.S. Embassy and the taking of it's staff as hostages on November 4. I remember when this seizure was on the news every night. The lead story would be whatever new developments there were in the hostage crisis, and then this would follow.

The two events were not connected, although it might be said that they were part of the same general atmosphere. Ayatollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of Iran, accused America of being behind the seizure of the Grand Mosque. The militants who seized the Grand Mosque were Sunni Moslems and expressed no support or solidarity with Khomeini's Shiite revolution.

The seizure went on for two weeks. French special forces were used as advisors, according to the official account of the story, and supplied grenades and chemicals with which to assault the militants in the underground rooms of the mosque. Only Moslems are officially allowed in the city of Mecca, although curious non-Moslems have long made a game of having a look at it in disguise.

It was no easy task to recapture the mosque. Many of the militants had military experience. They were well prepared and trained, and highly motivated. They were ready for martyrdom. The Saudi forces tasked with recapturing the mosque suffered heavy casualties. What might finally have dampened the spirit of the militants was that the one who was supposed to be the Mahdi was killed.

This event changed Saudi Arabia. It put more emphasis on it's strict Wahhabist strain of Islam than it had during the 1970s. Later in the month of December would come the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. This would provide the battle theater for the new atmosphere of Jihad, or holy war.

It just so happens that the Grand Mosque was being renovated when the seizure took place. The name of the construction company was Bin Laden. Salem Bin Laden provided diagrams and blueprints to the Saudi forces that were very helpful in facilitating the recapture of the mosque.

Salem Bin Laden had a younger brother, named Osama. Osama Bin Laden would join the Jihad in Afghanistan. In 2001, 22 years after the seizure of the Grand Mosque, Osama Bin Laden would launch his own operation, the attacks of 9/11.

THE MAHDI PLOT 

Here is what you have never read about 9-11.

ALL FOLLOWING IMAGES ARE FROM GOOGLE EARTH OR STREET VIEW UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED 

THE BIN LADEN CONSTRUCTION COMPANY 

It just so happens that the Grand Mosque was being renovated when the seizure took place. The name of the construction company was Bin Laden. Salem Bin Laden ran the company after the patriarch had died in a plane crash.

Salem Bin Laden had a younger brother, named Osama. Osama Bin Laden would soon join the Jihad in Afghanistan. In 2001, 22 years after the seizure of the Grand Mosque, Osama Bin Laden would launch his own operation, the attacks of 9/11.

Do you really believe that the seizure of the Grand Mosque, in 1979, isn't what put the idea in the youthful Osama Bin Laden's mind about someday launching his own earth-shaking operation against what he considered to be opposing his version of Islam?

I have always thought that this event deserves much more attention. 

THE COMPLETION OF THE MISSION BY THE 9-11 ATTACKS 

During the 1980s and 90s, the militants who seized the Grand Mosque had gotten some of what they had wanted as Saudi Arabia became more strict with Islamic law, to forestall such an event from happening again. But there was still the connection with the West. The worst outrage had been when western military forces had invaded Moslem lands, in 1990, in order to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation.

Osama Bin Laden, a son of the construction company family that was renovating the Grand Mosque at the time of the seizure, had fought as a Jihadi against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Although I have never seen it written, my belief is that he developed a plan to complete their mission by severing relations with the West, and bringing about the coming of the Mahdi.

His plan was to repeat the pattern of the seizure, in order to honor the militants, in such a way that would get the West, and America in particular, to sever relations with Moslem countries, and leave them alone, and to set events in motion that would bring about the arrival of the Mahdi.

The result was the attacks of 9/11.

One thing that was striking about 9/11 was the nationalities of the hijackers. Investigators had no difficulty in obtaining the identities of the hijackers, photos of them, and their nationalities. This was done purposely.

The hijackers were all from countries that were allies of America. Mostly Saudis, two Emeratis, one Egyptian and one Lebanese. This was calculated to alienate Americans from their allies in the Middle East.

Mohammed Atta was the ringleader of the attack and the pilot of the plane into the North Tower. He was the only Egyptian among the attackers. But if 15 of the 19 attackers were Saudis, as was Osama Bin Laden, why would they choose a foreigner as the ringleader? The obvious answer is that Egypt is the largest Arab country and they wanted to separate it from America by angering the American people.

At first glance, the 9-11 attacks had room for improvement in efficiency. The strike on the North Tower killed by far the most people, and evacuation of the adjacent South Tower began as soon as the North Tower was hit. The South Tower was hit 17 minutes later but the death toll was much lower, even though the South Tower would collapse first, because many people had been evacuated. The death toll could have been much higher if the two strikes had been as close together as possible.

But there was a reason for the delay. By the time of the second impact, many cameras would witness it because they would be focused on the impact that had just occurred on the North Tower.

The Pentagon was symbolic, as the headquarters of the U.S. military, but it was a low and broad building and far fewer people were killed there than at the two towers of the World Trade Center. It would have been much more efficient, in terms of casualties inflicted, to have hit another skyscraper.

I presume that the target of the fourth plane was the U.S. Capitol Building. But the attack did not succeed because it had a long way to fly and, by this time, people knew that the country was under attack. Passengers on the plane stormed the cockpit and the plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. In tactical terms it would have been better to aim at a closer target.

The attacks could have killed twice as many people if it had been more tactically efficient. But what I want to present is that there is more to it than this. The attacks were also planned to honor the militants who had seized the Grand Mosque in 1979, and complete their mission.

The way they would be honored is with symbolism, and this is how the targets of 9-11 were chosen, not with tactical efficiency as the primary consideration. 

The minarets of the Grand Mosque were important in the 1979 siege. It was difficult for Saudi forces to get close to the mosque because the militants had snipers in the minarets, and the Saudi authorities were hesitant to risk damaging the mosque. Look at the resemblance between the twin minarets and the twin towers that were selected as the target for 9-11. The top image is from Google Street View and the bottom image from the Wikipedia article "World Trade Center".


The way that the hijackers of 9-11 seized control of the planes is strikingly similar to how the militants seized control of the Grand Mosque in 1979, waiting for the flight to take off and then pulling out box cutters.

The surviving militants who had seized the Grand Mosque were all martyred by public beheading. This attack would honor them by the planes slicing into the buildings representing the knives slicing into their necks.

Look at how the Grand Mosque (top) is roughly the same shape as the Pentagon.


Look at how the dome of the Tomb of Muhammad resembles the dome of the U.S. Capitol. The tomb is at Medina, not the Grand Mosque.


There were two plane strikes each planned for New York City and Washington. The two holiest cities in Islam are Mecca and Medina. The distance between the two cities, 340 km, is just about exactly the same as the distance between New York and Washington.

The attacks of 9-11 were most certainly done to honor the militants who had seized the Grand Mosque in 1979, and to complete their mission. 

The militants in 1979 had announced that one of their number was the Mahdi. This is a messianic figure would is to appear in the Last Days. Apparently they were mistaken as the would-be Mahdi was killed during the siege. 

But no matter, Osama Bin Laden would take care of that too. The 9-11 attacks were an earth-shaking event that would be a major step toward the Last Days of the world, when the Mahdi would appear. I have given my Christian version of this in the postings "The End Of The World As We Know It" and "Inducing The Apocalypse".

It has always been clear that the militants in 1979 must have had assistance from inside the Grand Mosque. There were hundreds of militants and the siege went on for two weeks. An exact number isn't known because some of the militants escaped. The militants were well supplied with food, water and, ammunition from stores in the basement of the Grand Mosque. There must have been tons of supplies brought in. The supplies would have to be placed so that no one would find them. But I can't find that it was ever established exactly where that assistance came from.

At the time of the siege the Bin Laden Construction Company was doing renovation work on the Grand Mosque. This work on the vast mosque must have required tons of supplies. They wouldn't have driven the supplies across the sacred area. There would have been a back entrance where supplies could be driven into the basement.

I cannot see that anyone has ever "put two and two together" here. Doesn't it look like Osama Bin Laden was in on the seizure of the Grand Mosque? He arranged for the militants to bring in and store supplies so that it would appear to be construction materials being brought in. How else could they have gotten in the tons of necessary supplies and not had anyone notice them?

Osama Bin Laden (born 1957) was about the same age as the average militant in the siege, in his early twenties. There were hundreds of militants and he moved in the same circles that they did. It is very probable that Osama Bin Laden would have contact with the militants. I am sure that he was in on this seizure and, twenty-two years later, would set about completing the mission. 

One more thing is interesting. All of the biographical information that I can find on Osama Bin Laden is that he finished school in 1979 and then joined the Jihad against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. King Abdulaziz University operates on a Spring and Fall Semester. If he finished with the Spring Semester, the invasion of Afghanistan didn't happen until Christmas. I cannot find anything about where he was in the meantime. The siege of the Grand Mosque lasted from November 20 to December 4.

Could Osama Bin Laden have been one of the militants that escaped? We can see his Jihad spirit in that he signed up for Afghanistan almost immediately after the invasion. He is remembered as a capable warrior in Afghanistan. But I don't see in any biography of him that he had any military or paramilitary training or experience before going to Afghanistan. Could he have gotten his experience with these militants?

Thursday, September 10, 2026

Kolkata

Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, is the major city of the eastern part of India. I remember when it was the largest city in India, until overtaken by Mumbai in the mid-1980s.

In the western mind, Kolkata is thought of as the mission field of Mother Theresa. Mother Theresa is remembered as a saint who dedicated her life to helping the poor. But the trouble is what that says about the city of Kolkata. When someone really wants to help the poor, the logical step is to think of the poorest place in the world, and go there. Since Mother Theresa went to Kolkata, westerners conclude that it must be poor.

ALL IMAGES ARE FROM GOOGLE STREET VIEW 


But what I want to show readers today is that this simply is not true. Kolkata could actually be considered as the cultural capital of India. It is a well-run city with an education rate that is higher, and a crime rate that is lower, than the national average.

My conclusion is that what brought so many poor people to Kolkata is it's proximity to Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan. The eastern part of India's Bengal State became East Pakistan, while Kolkata was the capital of West Bengal. Like Bangladesh, the main language in Kolkata is Bengali.

First, in the partition of the country in 1947, Kolkata was the natural destination of displaced Hindus moving westward, as their place was taken by Moslems moving through Kolkata from India into East Pakistan. This must have been a tremendous strain on the city.

Second, when East and West Pakistan split up in 1971, with the former East Pakistan becoming the new nation of Bangladesh, many millions of refugees poured into India when the former West Pakistan sent the military to restore order in East Pakistan. Possibly a majority of these refugees stayed, at least temporarily, in Kolkata.

The poverty that Mother Theresa so famously ministered to in Kolkata had nothing to do with the nature of the city itself. It was because of the millions of refugees pouring in. What would your city be like if millions of refugees suddenly arrived?

Let's have a look at what a great city Kolkata really is.

Kolkata does not have Mughal-era architecture like  Delhi, but it has plenty more. This is the Victoria Memorial, which looks very much like Kolkata's version of the Taj Mahal. The first image is of a statue of Queen Victoria on her throne but it is also a tribute to the Taj Mahal. The British often imitated what the Mughals had earlier done and this was their version of the Taj Mahal, in honor of Queen Victoria.









There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow, ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >. After clicking the up arrow you can then hide previews of successive scenes, if you so wish.

https://www.google.com/maps/@22.5448599,88.3426258,3a,75y,7.77h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1swU6o-DpV-mjpiTVwIut--Q!2e0!3e2!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DwU6o-DpV-mjpiTVwIut--Q%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D202.61652%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

This is the buildings around the river. The red building is the court.









The tall building near the Victoria Memorial is known as The 42.




This is the cricket stadium near the Victoria Memorial.


The Howrah Bridge is Kolkata's sibling to Buffalo's Peace Bridge.


This is the area around the Marble Palace, and the older part of the city.












One of the most prominent sights in Kolkata is the Dakshineswar Kali Temple.




The mosque with the green domes is the Tipu Sultan Masjid.




Outside of Kolkata, further north in West Bengal state, the name of Darjeeling is a very special name to anyone who likes tea. Here is a look around the city of Darjeeling.





https://www.google.com/maps/@27.0448562,88.2677211,3a,75y,260h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPPQl6ewMrQNA1DovhZcCGDh41KJxGlKov63myi!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPPQl6ewMrQNA1DovhZcCGDh41KJxGlKov63myi%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya185-ro0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352

When I was a boy, the world atlas that I had showed a country in the Himalayas called Sikkim. The country has since decided to join India. Just north of West Bengal state, let's have a look at how Sikkim is doing today.

https://www.google.com/maps/@27.3600314,88.6280869,3a,75y,277h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-3Ly0caZIM4Y%2FWCVMK4ORQQI%2FAAAAAAAAHaU%2F20E5XKpDPuECRENlf5XFGLRlbqZgqQBaACLIB!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh6.googleusercontent.com%2F-3Ly0caZIM4Y%2FWCVMK4ORQQI%2FAAAAAAAAHaU%2F20E5XKpDPuECRENlf5XFGLRlbqZgqQBaACLIB%2Fw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya353.49997-ro-0-fo100%2F!7i8704!8i4352

Finally, this is far up in the Himalayas, in the north of the Indian state of Sikkim. The Himalayas will remind Europeans of the Alps, mountains with sharp peaks that were formed by tectonic collision and not the smooth and rounded mountains of volcanic origin.