When wind and earth strike what people built

Brief

This lesson asks you to assess what the forces of nature do to natural and built places, and to name ways people can reduce or increase those effects. The museum offers two records: a chronicle's account of wind and earthquake in 425 AH, and the rebuilding of one mosque after an earthquake. Whether people actually reduced the harm your class must judge from what the records say. ¹

What was struck, and what was it made of?

Separate what the wind struck from what the earthquake struck, and what was natural from what was built. Notice the building materials the record mentions.

Go deeper

The record of the year 425 AH tells of a black wind at Nisibin. The wind uprooted many of the town's orchards and knocked down a palace built of baked brick, stone and lime ². Then hail fell in the shapes of hands, pillars and fingers ². The record names the materials of the palace: baked brick, stone and lime ².

Think about it

The wind uprooted orchards and knocked down a palace of brick, stone and lime. Which would be harder to repair, the orchards or the palace, and why?

Into the museum

Earthquake at Ramla and the sea's recession, 425: the other things the record says happened in the same year.
The Fatimid rebuilding of al-Aqsa: what was built again after an earthquake.

Try this

Read Earthquake at Ramla and the sea's recession, 425 and then The Fatimid rebuilding of al-Aqsa. Make a two-column chart: what the forces struck, and what people did afterwards.