What is it about stairways? Few inventions (although, arguably, nature thought of them first) are so metaphorical. Say, “Stairway” and people think “to Heaven” before they think of literal stairs. We can’t help but make metaphors out of them. They have to be ascended—evoking a sense of labor, beginnings, mystery, hope. Or descended—evoking a sense of failure, departure, endings, loss. Why? Because life is impermanent, yet we harbor hope. True, there’s a highway to hell. But there’s also a stairway to heaven. We hope.
(Click on any image to enlarge it, or to begin slide show)
Haiku Stairs, Hawaii
Street art stairs
Chand Baori Well, India
Chand Baori Well up close
Aqua spiral
16th Avenue tiled steps, San Francisco
Abandoned Asylum (this staircase would effect anyone’s sanity)
Book Cover Stairs (Branham)
Stairs as a canvas
Bristol Palace Hotel, Genoa, Italy
Baghsu Temple, India – Enter if you dare!
Fire escape
Garvan Institute, Sydney
“Go ahead, I got this.”
“Here’s looking at you” (Lamberti Tower, Verona, Italy)
Haunted stairs?
Hotel Danieli
Infinity Steps (photo by Martin Widlund)
Livaria Lello bookstore, Porto, Portugal
Livaria Lello bookstore, Porto, Portugal
Lloyds (photo by Lee Pelling)
Lost in Infinity (note the hand)
Magic Mountain Stairway, Germany
Madame Sherri Forest, Chesterfield, New Hampshire
Musée Gustave Moreau, Paris
It’s a mystery
Spiral staircase, Tyayhan Linchzhou, China
Niesenbahn Funicular stairway, Bern, Switzerland – 2.2 miles long (Guinness Book of World Records)
Peles Castle, Romania
Piano Uno (photo by John Galbo)
Piedra de Peñol, Medellín, Colombia
Puzzle steps
Street art stairs
Spiral Staircase (photo by Jaroslaw Blaminsky)
Street art stairs
Street art stairs
Stairs created by Jop van Driel
Stairway to dreams
Street art stairs
Street art stairs
Stained Glass Staircase, Kanagawa, Japan
Everlasting teardrop
Upward
Unraveling stairs
Overenthusiastic stairs?
“There’s a princess up there, I know it!”
Where’s the beanstalk?
Owl-eyes stairs (Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs)
Mitch Teemley 
Reblogged this on Blue Dragon Journal.
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Love this collection of photos and quotes. Onward and upward!
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Wow! Where to start???…architectural essay (?) philosophisal discussion of creativity (?) the economics (and psychology) of getting money from sane people for these projects (?) How about a coffee-table book? Thanks for helping us while-away our seclusion, Mitch.
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My privilege, Vernon.
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My knees hurt just looking at some of these 😂
Some absolutely incredible designs. I love the architecture and especially the grand spiralling staircases, amazing. xx
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Wow, awesome collections of stairs… and stairs quotes of which some are legendary.
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Most of these staircases would require much better stamina than I have!
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Looking all these reminds me of the Tesseract scene from Labyrinth.
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Indeed, Lloyd, some of them are quite labyrinthine.
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Who knew there could such an infinite variety of stairs?! The photo from Madame Sherri Forest caught my eye because it’s less than two hours away from where I live in New Hampshire. I had no idea it was there! I’ve bookmarked it for a day trip.
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Enjoy the day trip, Liz!
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Thank, Mitch! I’m going to wait for the weather to get just a wee bit warmer.
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You find the most interesting things. I never realized there were so many fascinating stairs.
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Amazingly innovative creativity! Thanks for sharing this! 🤩😍👏
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Fascinating stairs and I love the quotes.
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Such splendid stairways! Thank you, Mitch.
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It was difficult to choose between the interesting photos or the poignant quotes that you posted. Either way, you have created a banner post. Keep up the great works.
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Thanks, J.W.
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You are welcome.
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Beautiful post and well-chosen pictures. Great work! It is metaphorical, my friend, a poet chose this very symbol in the title for his poetry collection which was published a few years back.
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I enjoyed looking at all of these stairs, Mitch. Thanks for sharing, they are truly amazing works of art themselves! I’m glad I can look from here and not have to climb them!
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Wow!
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The street art stairs are all amazing, but the dog in the second picture is a little disconcerting.
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Hi Mitch,
Love, love, love it! Great images as always. I am praying for great creative days, brother.
Thank you,
Gary
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