Language: EnglishPages: 450 (Throughout Color Illustrations)About the Book KumbhMela is the largest religious celebration on earthand the biggest public gathering in the world. The resulting settlement is avirtual mega city! The Kumbh Meladeploys its own roads, pontoon bridges as well as tents serving as residencesand venues for spiritual meetings, and social infrastructure such as hospitals,sanitation outlets and vaccination clinics-all replicating the functions of anactual city. The pop-up settlement seamlessly serves uptoseven million people, who gather for 55 days, and an additional flux of [0to20millionpeople, who come for za-hour cycles on the six mainbathing dates. In 2013, a teamfrom Harvard University, representing faculty from multiple disciplines,researched the large-scale event from its preparation to the actual celebrationitself. This was the first systematic study on the Melaas a City: a planned entity, and covers issues of social inclusion, diversity,and even democracy that emerge under the framework of a neutralizing grid ofroads that is the organizing armature of the city. This subdivision of the cityforms clusters of freedom and facilitates space for individual and groupexpression. The volume presents the comprehensive research findingsandincludes city maps, aerial images, analytical drawings and photographs of thisspectacular Ephemeral Mega City for the Kumbh Mela. About the Author RahulMehrotra is a practising architect and educator.He works in Mumbai and teaches at the Graduate School of Design at HarvardUniversity, where he is Professor - from Amzon