A Path Becomes a Stairway

What I was noticing in the tea country of Yunnan, China, were primitive, pragmatic stairs, as they emerged from the curving, well-worn paths up and down the hills. By contrast, I think of A Sea of Steps, by photographer Frederick Evans, of Wells Cathedral and its refined architecture in the early 1900's. In that photograph, the steps are so skillfully laid down that they take the shape of a wave. The paths in Yunnan, although similarly worn, could have been cleared by creatures other than men, but the cuts and ruts seem to be made by the tools and intentions of bipedal men. Could they be the first, most elemental form of architecture? In looking at these beginnings, I am able to feel/imagine the choices made long ago, the pride and even triumph, if only momentary. Similarly, each type of stairway tells a story of those who conceived and constructed it.     -- Edward Fausty