They could be used with students as small flashcards, or used as a larger size to decorate classrooms. There’ll be some more of these in a more structured format, and greater range of languages in the near future.

In this book the author tells the story of a number of people who live in a slum near Mumbai airport, Annawadi. Katherine is a journalist who has written a lot about the poor in America, but this most recent publication shifts the focus to life in in a Mumbai slum. The way this book is written in gripping, the author tells the story of each character less like a journalist would usually do so, but more like it was  a novel. The difference being, that this was not a novel, this was the reality. I would highly recommend anyone with an interest in geography, India, poverty, slum redevelopment and development more generally to read this book.

“Annawadi is a ‘sumpy plug of slum’, a garish, seething, stinking, frantic wriggling community of 3,000 people, flanked by Mumbai airport and several luxury hotels, and fenced off by hoardings advertising Italian­ate floor tiles decorated with the slogan ‘Beautiful Forever, Beautiful Forever…’ Boo’s descriptions of life within are almost Dickensian, as are her characters: the former slumlord who paints his horses with stripes to look like zebras which he hires out for children’s parties; Kalu, the little thief with a legendary pain threshold whose skills at mimicry keep everyone entertained; Sunil, a touching scavenger who pretends that he goes to school. And there is Asha, the aspiring slumlord, uneducated, ambitious, unscrupulous but somehow very appealing, and her gorgeous daughter Manju, the only college graduate in Annawadi.” The Telegraph

Annawadi isn’t located the map, as is typical for many growing slum settlements, however, if you google Mumbai airport you can see the spread of the settlement behind the runway.

The lesson takes places as follows:

• Starer: Pupils to write down the first 10 words they can think of which relate to social deprivation and poverty in HICs. Going around the class to find their answers can be quite revealing about their initial perceptions about social deprivation and poverty.

• Activity 1 is based on a map produced by the UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis which is entitled Living on the Line. The map displays child poverty and life expectancy on a tube map of London – tube stops show the life expectancy number for that area, and the grey tones (which usually indicate tube zones) indicate level of child poverty. Pupils are given a map of London where life expectancy and poverty is displayed. I have removed the life expectancy numbers for the central line (red line) and pupils are to fill in the missing life expectancy for tube stops and to describe the patterns of poverty and life expectancy along the Central Line (they are provided at the bottom of the worksheet). Pupils can then begin to think about the factors that are causing these patterns. The worksheet is available below:

• This can be followed by a class discussion to identify what patterns they observed and what factors they felt were causing these patterns.
• Activity 2 is an investigation of social poverty and deprivation in London, but a little more in-depth.Pupils are given a range of materials  from the London Poverty Profile report related to different elements of social deprivation and poverty in London. These can be used to identify where some of the most deprived areas are located and symptoms associated with them. Images can also be used to describe some of the conditions experienced. There is a worksheet for students to write down their ideas based on the information they have been presented with. Those who finish early can begin to think about how to categorise these  symptoms into social, economic and environmental groups. The worksheet, maps and images are available below.

It’s ok if students don’t work through all the material. Ideally different pupils will use different pieces of data and the ideas generated from this can be shared in the discussion that can follow this exercise.

This began as an inspiration from a history magazine where each month an introduction was provided about individuals considered to be ‘history heroes’ by different people. This made me think about the potential for ‘geographical heroes’. I had intended this to be a mix of geographers from all time periods, however at present it has been largely focused on the early explorers, with a couple of exceptions:

Geographical Heroes: Ernest Shackleton
Geographical Heroes: Vasco de Gama
Geographical Heroes: Mary Kingsley
Geographical Heroes: Alexander von Humboldt
Geographical Heroes: Hugh Clapperton
Geographical Heroes: Sarah Outen
Geographical Heroes: John Hanning Speke
Geographical Heroes: Richard Francis Burton
Geographical Heroes: David Livingstone
Geographical Heroes: John Hemming
Geographical Heroes: Henry Morton Stanley

In the future I will be publishing a regular post on a different geographical hero with a mix of the historical and contemporary. Now my idea of a geographical hero will be affected by the places that I have studied, the lecturers I have had the opportunity to work with, and the books/journals I have read. Posts coming soon will be about David Harvey, Peter Dicken and Doreen Massey.

I would really love to hear from other people: which geographers – or people who have contributed to geographical understanding – have inspired you, or should be considered ‘heroes’? I will try to write posts on the suggested heroes too!

Image: Wikimedia

Hearing reports of a man who fitted Livingstone’s description on the east shore of Lake Tanganyika, he assembled an army of porters, guides, hunters and pack animals and began the journey inland. It was 236 days and 700 miles late that he finally found Livingstone in Ujiji, greeting him with the famous words: “Dr. Livingstone I presume?”

Image: RGS

He spent some months exploring the southern end of the lake with Living stone before returning to write his account: How I Found Livingstone (which is free at the minute on the Kindle should you want to read it). The book has all the heroic and wild ingredients that appealed to the imagination of Victorian England and became hugely popular.

Stanley took inspiration from Livingstone and his taste for adventure and wanted to complete the exploration of Central Africa.  In 1874 he travelled to Zanzibar, where he set out to chart the regions great lakes. He circumnavigated Victoria Nyanza (Lake Victoria), and in doing so confirming the John Hanning Speke was right to claim it was a major Nile source, and carried on west across the continent, tracing the Congo river down to its mouth.

Stanley led many other expeditions, including those in the Congo between 1880-1885 he sought suitable colonies for Leopold II of Belgium. His last expedition, was a relief mission to the Governor of Southern Sudan’s Equatorial province. The expedition made some important discoveries such as the link between Lakes Albert and Edward, and the extent of Ruwenzori mountains. The mystery of the sources of the Nile had become closer to being solved. In 1882, Stanley settled in England, and served in the House of Commons from 1895 and was knighted in 1899. Another fine example of an early explorer who changed the way we saw the world, in particular, Africa.

If you’d like to find out more about this explorer I would highly recommend Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa’s Greatest Explorer by Tim Jeal.

Abd-al-Rahman I began construction of the Great Mosque in 786, on the site of a Roman temple of Janus which had been converted into a church by the Visigoths.

“Córdoba became the centre of a great realm renowned for its artistic and intellectual predominance and its liberal toleration of other religions. At its height the city is said to have enclosed over 300 mosques and innumerable palaces and public buildings, rivalling the splendours of Constantinople, Damascus, and Baghdad. The Caliphate of Córdoba collapsed after the bitter civil war of 1009-31, and only the Great Mosque survived as a symbol of its achievements.” Unesco website

However, in 1236 Córdoba was captured by Ferdinand III and the city became under Christian control. The Great Mosque became was transformed into a cathedral. Inside the cathedral you can see the influence of both Islamic and Christian architecture and decoration.

You can find out more about the Historic centre of Cordoba on the UNESCO website here.

First the Monastery of the Hieronymites was built on the site of a chapel which was founded by Henry the Navigator, famous for being the place where Vasco da Gama and his crew spent the night before leaving for their voyage to India. It is thought the monastery was in part, built by King Manuel I to commemorate the success of the voyage. Vasco da Gama’s tomb was placed inside the entrance the monastery, as well as the tomb of Luis de Camões, a famous poet. The monastery was home to monks of the Order of Saint Jerome (Hieronymites), whose job was to pray for the king’s soul as well as to provide spiritual guidance to sailors and navigators.

Built in 1515, the Tower of Belém (or the Tower of St. Vincent as it is officially known) is a fortified tower which was part of the defence system for Lisbon in the 16th century. In order to enhance Lisbon’s defence, King João II devised  a plan which consisted of  a three-fortress-defence on the Tagus’s estuary. It formed a triangle and on each angle, a fortress was constructed: Cascais’s fortress on the right bank, S. Sebastião da Caparica on the left bank and Belém Tower in the water. For the many Portuguese explorers and sailors this tower would have been the last sight of their homeland.

You can find out more about these monuments on the Unesco website here.

Aside from the fortifications, the other important aspect of this settlement are the remains of the  the 7km-long Amoreira Aqueduct which was built in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. This was a key feature of the settlements which enabled the ability to withstand a relatively lengthy siege.

The Unesco site includes seven components:

• the Historic Centre
• the Amoreira Aqueduct
• the Fort of Santa Luzia, and the covered way linking it to the Historic Centre,
• the Fort of Graça,
• the Fortlets of São Mamede, São Pedro and São Domingos.

The historic centre of Elvas with its castle, remnant walls and civil and religious buildings demonstrates the incorporation into the major fortification works of the Portuguese War of the Restoration period (1641-1668.). The extent of the fortification, and the star shaped patterns they make in the ground become clearer when looking from above.

You can find out more about the Garrison border town of Elvas on the Unesco website here.

“Mérida is symbolic of the process of Romanization in a land that had hitherto not been influenced by the urban phenomenon. It contains the substantial remains of a number of important elements of Roman town design, considered to be one of the finest surviving examples of its type; the aqueducts and other elements of Roman water management are also especially well preserved and complete.” Unesco website

The Roman amphitheatre constructed around the same time as the theatre was inaugurated in 8 B.C. according to inscriptions.

The amphitheatre in its time would have held 15,000 spectators. Marcus Agrippa ordered the building of the theatre, which was inaugurated between 16 and 15B/C. Around 105 A.D. the big façade at the front of the amphitheatre was also added. The building fell into disuse due to the introduction of Christianity which at the time considered theatrical performances like the ones produced here ‘immoral’. Over the years parts of the structures collapsed and became submerged to leave only the upper sections of the seating in the amphitheatre visible. This in effect preserved a lot of the site. Excavation on the Roman theatre began in 1910. You can find out more about the archaeological ensemble at Mérida on the Unesco website here.

Under Roman occupation, Evora was a city of great importance and this is clear when visiting due to wealth of Roman remains in the city, the most prominent of which is the Temple of Diana seen in the photographs below.

You can find out more about the Historic centre of Évora on the Unesco website here, and can view a video showing more views of Évora here.