Mysteries And Wonders of People, World and Nature

The Eye Of Africa - The Richat Structure

2007-11-26T10:27:00.000-08:00

The Richat Structure is one of those geological features that are more clearly observed from space than from down on the ground. It was first observed from space by Gemini 4 astronauts McDivitt and White in June 1965.
Located in the center of Mauritania, the western end of the Sahara desert this prominent circular feature has attracted attention since the earliest space missions because it forms a conspicuous bull's-eye in the otherwise rather featureless expanse of the desert. Described by some as looking like an outsized ammonite in the desert, this 'eye of Africa' , which has a diameter of almost 50 kilometers (30 miles) has become a landmark astronauts since the earliest manned missions.

Credits: ESA

Most of the image looks yellowish, indicating sand desert. The dark brown part is bare sedimentary rocks, and within that you can see the Richat Structure, a gigantic ring structure of some 40 km in diameter.

The onion-like formation is formed by concentric bands of resistant paleozoic quartzite rocks form ridges, and between with valleys of less-resistant rock between them.

The part of the sedimentary rock corresponding to the white of the eye is a plateau standing some 200 m above the sand desert. The Richat Structure corresponding to the iris of the eye lies in a depression, and the peak of the outer rim is 485 m above sea level. The Richat Structure consists of Early Paleozoic rocks, some 600 million years old. Around the center, rocks resistant to weathering and erosion (purple and blue-green part) make 100 m high ridges, and nonresistant rocks (yellow and brown part) form valleys. These features alternate and are concentric.

Credit: Landsat 7, USGS, NASA

The Richat Structure was previously thought to have been formed by metorite impact or volcanic activity, but field surveys have demonstrated that neither are correct. The current thinking is that these features were formed by an uplift and subsequent erosion from wind and water.
However, why the structure is circular remains a mystery.

Weird Beauty

2007-11-16T07:17:00.000-08:00

You can love them or hate them, but you can't be indifferent...

Here are some really strange and weird flowers you will probably never get from anyone (unless you live on some exotic island).

Amorphophallus titanum
Giant Voodoo Lily

Voodoo Lily has the world's largest inflorescence of any plant...to 8 feet tall, and they emit a foul odor.

Paeonia brownii
Brown's Peony

Sauromatum venosum

Clematis

Clematis seeds

Daylily "Barracuda Bay"

Tricyrtis formosana
Toad Lily

Tacca integrifolia
White Bat Flower

Tacca chantrierei

Black Bat Flower, Cat's whiskers or Devil flower

Stapelia grandiflora

Stapelia Mutabilis

Banksia

Grevillea

Rafflesia

(This one looks like something from Harry Potter's Herbology class)

Dutchman's Pipe
Aristolochia trilobata

Protea

Passion Flower

Barringtonia asiatica

Commonly known as: barringtonia, fish-killer tree, queen of the shores, sea poison tree...

Dracunculus vulgaris

is variously called the Dragon Arum, Voodoo Lily, Ragons, Snake Lily, Black Arum, Black Dragon, Dragonwort, Stink Lily, Viagra Lily...

And here are some I'm not sure about the names...

Tutankhamun - Mystery solved

2007-11-05T11:52:00.000-08:00

The most famous Egyptian pharaoh today is, without doubt, Tutankhamun. The boy king died in his late teens and remained at rest in Egypt's Valley of the Kings for over 3,300 years.
These days, the true face of Tutankhamun was revealed to the public for the first time since he died in mysterious circumstances.

On November 22, 1922 Howard Carter found Tutankhamen's tomb , by far the best preserved and most intact pharaonic tomb ever found in the Valley of the Kings. Although Tutankhamun was only ever minor royalty, he is the iconic figure of ancient Egypt because his tomb, well-hidden from grave robbers, yielded such unsurpassed treasure.
The tomb was intact and contained an amazing collection of treasures including a stone sarcophagus.

On February 16, 1923, Carter opened the burial chamber and first saw the sarcophagus of Tutankhamun.

The sarcophagus contained three gold coffins nested within each other. Inside the final one was the mummy of the boy-king, Pharaoh Tutankhamen.

Tutankhamun's mummy was badly damaged when Howard Carter tried to remove its glittering golden death mask.
The body was broken into 18 pieces when the archaeologist took it from the tomb and tried to pull off the famous mask.
While unwrapping the linens of the mummy, presumably looking for treasure, the skull of the ancient king fell away from the body. The impact from its fall out of the tomb made a dent in the skull.

Speculation surrounding Tutankhamun's death has been rife since his tomb was broken into. X-rays of the mummy taken in 1968 indicated a swelling at the base of the skull, suggesting "King Tut" was killed by a blow to the head.
The mystery behind the sudden death of Tutankhamun may have been finally solved by scientists who believe that he fell from a fast-moving chariot while out hunting in the desert.
More recent studies using a CT medical scanner, however, revealed he suffered a badly broken leg, just above his knee just before he died. That in turn probably led to lethal blood poisoning. Now further evidence has come to light suggesting that he suffered the fracture while hunting game from a chariot.

While many thousands of people have seen the sarcophagus, until yesterday only about 50 were believed to have seen the body.
Restoration work has been carried out over the past two years ahead of the public unveiling.
The body was moved because of fears that increased humidity, caused by the breath and sweat of 5,000 visitors a day to the chamber, were damaging it where it lay in the sarcophagus.
Egypt’s antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said the move was made because the breath and sweat of visitors to the chamber was causing increased humidity, leading to fears the mummy could deteriorate.

Archeologists carefully lifted the fragile mummy out of its quartz sarcophagus decorated with stone-carved protective goddesses, pulling aside a beige linen covering to reveal a shriveled black body.

The linen was then replaced over King Tut's body so only his face and feet were exposed, and the 19-year-old king, whose life and death has captivated people for nearly a century, was moved to the simple glass case.

This will ... make the golden boy live forever," he said, after the mummy was moved to the cabinet, which will preserve it.

"They who enter this sacred tomb shall swift be visited by wings of death."
This was allegedly engraved on the exterior of King Tutankhamen's Tomb.

The rumor of an ancient curse didn't stop this archaeologist from opening the tomb of King Tut.
The day the tomb was opened was one of joy and celebration for all those involved. Nobody seemed to be concerned about a curse.

What is behind the story about the Tutankhamun's curse?
In year 1922, the world of media still belonged to newspapers, and information traveled much more slowly, and less reliably. It was a more superstitious time, and the media was fully adjusted to take advantage of the attribute to sell their publications. It was a time when reporters often simply made up facts in order to sensationalize their stories, and in print, people believed them.
The treasures that Howard Carter discovered in Tutankhamun's tomb were factually sensational, and so the media went into a frenzy covering the event, and the world paid attention.

In late March of 1923, a novelist named Mari Corelli (Mary Mackay) published a warning that there would be dire consequences for anyone who had entered the sealed tomb. Perhaps this revelation was inspired by the fact that on the day Howard Carter opened the tomb, his pet canary was swallowed by a cobra. Cobras, as the goddess Wadjet, were the protectors of the Pharaoh.

Lord CarnarvonLord Carnarvon financed Howard Carter's explorations. He had been in poor health for over 20 years following a motoring accident. When he died of pneumonia in Cairo on April 5th, 1923, only a few weeks after Mari Corelli's warnings, newspapers and other media throughout the world simply went crazy.
It was said that at the moment of Lord Carnarvon's death, the lights went out in Cairo (an event that is still not uncommon today), and that back in England his dog, susie, howled and died in the same instant. These reported events are difficult to prove or disprove.
However, other facts were simply invented by the press.
In addition, newspapers appear to have arbitrarily killed off many of the people surrounding the tomb's discovery. According to one list, 26 people associated with the find died within a decade of its discovery. In reality, only six people died during this first decade, while many others lived to an old age.
Perhaps, the power of a curse is in the mind of the person who believes in it. Howard Carter, the man who actually opened the tomb, never believed in the curse and lived to a reasonably old age of 66 before dying of entirely natural causes.

Even Tutankhamun himself might have been pleased with the discovery of his tomb. The ancient Egyptians believed that their souls were kept alive when their name was remembered, and this has been ensured.

New 7 Wonders of the World

2007-10-28T14:54:00.000-07:00

Bernard Weber is founder and president of the New7Wonders Campaign.
After 7 years of campaigning and 100 million votes received, the results of the world’s first-ever global vote were announced on July 7, 2007 in Lisbon, Portugal.
A little more then 2,200 years after the Ancient 7 Wonders (which represented buildings built over a period of 2,000 years) were declared in 200 B.C. by a single man, Philon of Byzantium in Athens, more than 100 million votes from people from every corner and country in the world, elected the New 7 Wonders of the World.
This truly new set of 7 Wonders covers, once again, the time span of 2,000 years—from the Arab city of Petra and the Roman Colosseum, both of which date from the 1st Century A.D., to the wide-armed statue of Christ Redeemer on Rio de Janeiro’s Corcovado mountain, built in 1931.
The most weighty role in choosing the New7Wonders played the children and young people of our world. Children up to a certain age do not have a strong national sense of pride, so they were our most objective voters, they voted for what they genuinely liked best.
People from all over the world voted for what they thought deserved to be new wonder, no metter which country they come from.
More people from Korea and Japan voted for the Eiffel Tower than did people from France. Many children worldwide loved Neuschwanstein Castle, but the Germans didn’t. The United States, whose inhabitants voted very passionately and in truly huge numbers, did not vote for their Statue of Liberty.
Reflecting the diversity of our world, there are three of the New 7 Wonders in Latin America, two in Asia, one in the Middle-East and one in Europe. They represent some of the most important civilizations of the past two millennia — Arab, Chinese, Inca, Indian, Mayan and Roman.
There was 21 New 7 Wonders Finalist Candidates. Although only 7 wonders were selected , all of the finalists and a lot of candidates represent the best that people and civilizations have left behind. So, they all will find their place on this blog...

Taj Mahal -Symbol of Eternal Love.

2007-10-28T05:05:00.000-07:00

Taj Mahal stands on the bank of River Yamuna, in Agra, once the capital of the Mughal Empire during the 16th and early 18th centuries.
The Taj Mahal is regarded as the most perfect jewel of Muslim art in India. This huge mausoleum mosque was built by Shah Jahan, the fifth Muslim Mogul emperor, in memory of his beloved wife, a Persian princess born as Arjuman Bano Begum but known as Mumtaz Mahal. She was a significant influence in his life and in his policies, but died at age thirty-nine while giving birth to their fourteenth child in 1631.
The ruler went into deep mourning. Her last wish to her husband was "to build a tomb in her memory such as the world had never seen before." So Shah Jahan set about building this fairytale-like marvel of white marble, surrounded by formally laid-out walled gardens.

The Taj rises on a high red sandstone base topped by a huge white marble terrace on which rests the famous dome flanked by four tapering minarets. Within the dome lies the jewel-inlaid cenotaph of the queen. So exquisite is the workmanship that the Taj has been described as "having been designed by giants and finished by jewellers".

The dome is made of white marble, but the tomb is set against the plain across the river and it is this background that works its magic of colours that, through their reflection, change the view of the Taj. The colours change at different hours of the day and during different seasons. Like a jewel, the Taj sparkles in moonlight when the semi-precious stones inlaid into the white marble on the main mausoleum catch the glow of the moon. The Taj is pinkish in the morning, milky white in the evening and golden when the moon shines. These changes, they say, depict the different moods of woman.

Its stunning architectural beauty is beyond adequate description, particularly at dawn and sunset. The Taj seems to glow in the light of the full moon. On a foggy morning, the visitors experience the Taj as if suspended when viewed from across the Jamuna river.

As a tribute to a beautiful woman and as a monument for enduring love, the Taj reveals its subtleties when one visits it without being in a hurry. The rectangular base of Taj is in itself symbolic of the different sides from which to view a beautiful woman. The main gate is like a veil to a woman’s face which should be lifted delicately, gently and without haste on the wedding night. In indian tradition the veil is lifted gently to reveal the beauty of the bride. As one stands inside the main gate of Taj, his eyes are directed to an arch which frames the Taj.

Unlike other Mughal tombs, the Taj Mahal gardens are all in front of the tomb and do not play any part in the background. Instead, the background is the sky. Since the tomb is set against a plain across a river,this background of eternal sky works its magic of colors that, through their reflection, subtly reflect on the white marble surface of the Taj Mahal, always changing its color and complexion. The composition of the forms and lines of the Taj Mahal is perfectly symmetrical. The colossal height of the tomb, along with its pyramidal appearance, fill it with grace and make it seem to float or soar.
The only asymmetrical object in the Taj is the casket of the emperor which was built beside the queen’s as an afterthought.

The entire mausoleum (inside as well as outside) is decorated with inlaid design of flowers and calligraphy using precious gems such as agate and jasper. The main archways, chiseled with passages from the Holy Qur’an and the bold scroll work of flowery pattern, give a captivating charm to its beauty. The central domed chamber and four adjoining chambers include many walls and panels of Islamic decoration.

The emperor, later buried in the Taj, was overthrown by his son and imprisoned in the nearby Great Red Fort for eight years, from which, it is said, he could see the Taj Mahal out of his small cell window.

Taj Mahal indeed is, like Rabindranath Tagore called it: "a teardrop on the cheek of time"

Big Bang - The Beginning?

2007-10-22T14:20:00.001-07:00

The big bang theory of cosmology says that the universe came into existence in a single event some ten or twenty billion years ago from a single, infinitely dense and hot pointlike ball of light, smaller than the smallest atom. In a fraction of a second, it expanded trillions of times creating all of the space, matter and energy that now makes up the galaxies and stars. The universe has been expanding and cooling since that initial event.

The Big Bang is often thought as the start of everything, including time, making any questions about what happened during it or beforehand nonsensical. Recently scientists have instead suggested the Big Bang might have just been the explosive beginning of the current era of the universe, hinting at a mysterious past.

One of the biggest mysteries in cosmology could be explained by a controversial theory in which the universe explodes into existence not just once, but repeatedly in endless cycles of death and rebirth.

Called the cyclic universe theory, it could potentially explain why a mysterious repulsive form of energy known as the "cosmological constant" and which is accelerating the expansion of the universe is several orders of magnitude smaller than predicted by the standard Big Bang model.
The constant was once much larger, but that its value decayed with each incarnation of the universe.
Because there can be endless cycles, the universe would be far older than the 14.7 billion years that scientists currently estimate.

A new theory for the origin of the Universe is intriguing astronomers with the idea that a "Big Splat" preceded the Big Bang.
It proposes that there may be an unseen parallel universe to ours.
The idea, which is still at the development stage, may provide hints about what happened before our Universe exploded into existence some 15 billion years ago.
M-theory looks at events before the Big Bang, proposing that the Universe has 11 dimensions, six of them rolled up into microscopic filaments that can, for all intents, be ignored.
M-theory brings the idea of more than one universe embedded in higher-dimensional space.
The action of the Universe takes place in five-dimensional space. Before the Big Bang occurred the Universe consisted of two perfectly flat four-dimensional surfaces.

One of these sheets is our Universe; the other, a "hidden" parallel universe.

The question is : Will we ever find out the truth?

The Jesus Christ Lizard - Run on Water

2007-10-20T06:00:00.001-07:00

The Green Basilisk lizard is also called a plumed or double-crested basilisk; but its amazing ability to run on water gives this species its most recognizable moniker: the Jesus Christ lizard.

It has a seemingly miraculous ability to scurry across liquid, apparently at odds with the usual laws of physics.

How they do it?

To accomplish this, they have long toes on their rear feet with fringes of skin that unfurl in the water, increasing surface area. As they rapidly churn their legs, they slap their splayed feet hard against the water, creating a tiny air pocket that keeps them from sinking, provided they maintain their speed. They can move along the surface like this for 15 feet (4.5 meters) or more. When gravity eventually does take over, the basilisk resorts to its excellent swimming skills to continue its flight.

Basilisk lizards are excellent swimmers and are capable of remaining underwater for up to 30 minutes.

Part of the iguana family, green basilisks grow to about 2 feet (61 centimeters) in length, including their long, whip-like tail. Males have distinctive, high crests on their heads and backs, which they use to impress females.

Don't believe it? See for yourself...

Terracotta Army - The Infinite Power of Emperor

2007-10-18T14:43:00.000-07:00

The Terracotta Warriors and Horses are the most significant archeological excavations of the 20th century. Located approximately 30 km outside of the present-day capital, X'ian (called Chang'an in ancient times), of the Shensi province of modern China, the tomb of Qin Shi Huangdi remains a symbol of the infinite power and ego of China's first Emperor.

The Terracotta Army was buried with the Emperor of Qin (Qin Shi Huangdi) in 210-209 BC (his reign over Qin was from 247 BC to 221 BC and unified China from 221 BC to the end of his life in 210 BC). Their purpose was to help rule another empire with Shi Huangdi in the afterlife. Consequently, they are also sometimes referred to as "Qin's Armies".

Qin Shi Huangdi (259 BC - 210 BC), the first emperor of China, ascended the throne at the age of 13, and immediately began construction of his extraordinary mausoleum. On completion of his many conquests, he ordered 720,000 laborers to hurry up on building his royal tomb. It was finished just-in-time in 210 BC for his use, 36 years after the work commenced. His son, second Qin Emperor, saw to his entombment.

The Terracotta Army was discovered in March 1974 by local farmers drilling a water well to the east of Mount Lishan. Mount Lishan is also where the material to make the terracotta warriors originated. In addition to the warriors, an entire man-made necropolis for the emperor has been excavated.

Archaeologists were uncertain when the excavations began of the great magnitude of this site. The although the tomb itself is, according to legend, very elaborate and beautiful, the center piece of Shi Huangdi's mausoleum is the terra-cotta army of approximately 8,000 life-sized men and horses.

Individually sculpted of 3 inch thick terracotta clay, each soldier and horse is unique, each with its own style of dress (the mineral paints used to cover the figures in bright, gay colors have since dissolved), weaponry, and facial expressions. Grouped into a specific military formation with crouching crossbowmen and bowmen at the point, archers at the flanks, large groups of infantry, chariots and cavalry, and a final guard of heavily armored infantry pulling up the rear, all are arranged according to the proper military procedures of the day.

All 8,000 troops are housed in three separate chambers for each section of the army: active duty troops in the largest chamber, reserves in another smaller chamber, and a small group of 68 commanders and elite officers in the third.
The three chambers are themselves part of a much larger burial complex.

According to the Grand Historian Sima Qian (145 BC-90 BC), the First Emperor was buried alongside great amounts of treasure and objects of craftsmanship, as well as a scale replica of the universe complete with gemmed ceilings representing the cosmos, and flowing mercury representing the great earthly bodies of water. Pearls were also placed on the ceilings in the tomb to represent the stars, planets, etc. Recent scientific work at the site has shown high levels of mercury in the soil of Mount Lishan, tentatively indicating an accurate description of the site’s contents by historian Sima Qian.The tomb of Qin Shi Huangdi is near an earthen pyramid 76 meters tall and nearly 350 square meters. The tomb presently remains unopened.

Qin Shi Huangdi’s necropolis complex was constructed to serve as an imperial compound or palace. It comprises several offices, halls and other structures and is surrounded by a wall with gateway entrances. The remains of the craftsmen working in the tomb may also be found within its confines, as it is believed they were sealed inside alive to keep them from divulging any secrets about its riches or entrance. It was only fitting, therefore, to have this compound protected by the massive terracotta army interred nearby. In July 2007 it was determined, using remote sensing technology, that the mausoleum contains a 90-foot tall building built above the tomb, with four stepped walls, each having nine steps. Researchers theorized it was built "for the soul of the emperor to depart."

Lost Forever - Ancient Wonders

2007-10-14T10:49:00.000-07:00

THE HANGING GARDENS OF BABYLON

A magnificent garden paradise said to have been built in the 7th century B.C. in the middle of the arid Mesopotamian desert, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were testimony to one man's ability to, against all the laws of nature, create a botanical oasis of beauty amid a bleak desert landscape. King Nebuchadnezzar II created the gardens as a sign of love for his wife homesick Amyitis, who, according to legend, longed for the forests and roses of her homeland. Amyitis, daughter of the king of the Medes, was married to Nebuchadnezzar to create an alliance between the nations. The land she came from, though, was green, rugged and mountainous,and she found the flat, sun-baked terrain of the Mesopotamia depressing. The king decided to recreate her homeland by building an artificial mountain with rooftop gardens.

The Hanging Gardens probably did not really "hang" in the sense of being suspended from cables or ropes. The name comes from an inexact translation of the Greek word kremastos or the Latin word pensilis, which means not just "hanging" but "overhanging," as in the case of a terrace or balcony. The gardens were terraced and surrounded by the city walls, with a moat of water outside the walls to repel invading armies.

When Alexander's soldiers reached the fertile land of Mesopotamia and saw Babylon, they were impressed. When they later returned to their rugged homeland, they had stories to tell about the amazing gardens and palm trees at Mesopotamia.

It wasn't until the twentieth century that some of the mysteries surrounding the Hanging Gardens were revealed. Archaeologists are still struggling to gather enough evidence before reaching the final conclusions about the location of the Gardens, their irrigation system, and their true appearance.

THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES

Originally, Colossus stood over 2,000 years ago at the Islands of Rhodes. It is located off of the southwestern tip is Asia Minor, where the Agean Sea meets the Mediterranean Sea. The capitol city, Rhodes, was built in 408 B.C.
In 357 B.C the island which was conquered by Mausolus of Halicarnassus (one of the other seven wonders) fell to the Persians in 340 B.C. and was finally captured by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C. When Alexander died at an early age people could not decide who would reign. Three people: Ptolemy, Seleucus, and Antigous divided the kingdom between themselves. Antigous sent his son Semetrious to capture and punish Rhodes. The war was very long and painful. The city was protected by a strong wall. The attackers were forced to use siege towers and try to climb over it. Diameters had a second tower built. The second tower stood 150 feet high and 70 feet square at the base. It carried water tanks that were used to fight fires. The tower was mounted on iron wheels, and could be rolled. When Demetrious attacked the city, defenders stopped the machine by flooding a ditch outside the wall and moving the heavy machine in the mud.
To celebrate their freedom, the Rhodians built a giant statue of their patriot God Helious. Colossus was a Latin word, meaning any statue that is larger than life size.

Salvador Dali's painting of Colossus

Colossus was built in 304 B.C. and it took twelve years to build it. The statue was 110 feet high and stood on the pedestal. Colossus was posed in a traditional Greek manner: nude, wearing a spiky crown, with his eyes shaded from the bright sun with his right hand while holding a cloak over his left hand.

Out of all of the wonders, Colossus was the one that stood the least amount of time. It stood for only 56 years, but in brief time won fame throughout the entire civilized world.
The statue stood for only 56 years until Rhodes was hit by an earthquake in 224 BC. The statue snapped at the knees and fell over onto the land. Ptolemy III offered to pay for the reconstruction of the statue, but an oracle made the Rhodians afraid that they offended Helios, and they declined to rebuild it. The remains lay on the ground for over 800 years, and even broken, they were so impressive that many travelled to see them.

In the 7th century (A.D.) the Arabs conquered Rhodes and broke up Colossus, and sold it as scrap metal. It took 900 camels to take away the statue. It was a sad ending for what was a majestic work of art.

THE STATUE OF ZEUS

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia was carved by the famed Classical sculptor Phidias (5th century BC) circa 435 BC in Olympia, Greece.
They built the temple to house the statue of Zeus, made of ivory and gold over wooden frame. The statue was 22 feet by 40 feet tall. Zeus, placed on a throne, almost touched the ceiling. "It seems that if Zeus were to stand up," the geographer Strabo noted early in the 1st century BC, "he would unroof the temple."

Zeus was carved from ivory (technically the ivory was soaked in a liquid that made it softer, so it was probably both carved and shaped as necessary) then covered with gold plating (thus chryselephantine) and was seated on a magnificent throne of cedarwood, inlaid with ivory, gold, ebony, and precious stones.

In Zeus' right hand there was a small statue of Nike, the goddess of victory, and in his left hand, a shining sceptre on which an eagle perched. Visitors like the Roman general Aemilius Paulus, the victor over Macedon, were moved to awe by the godlike majesty and splendor that Phidias had captured.

The circumstances of its eventual destruction are a source of debate: some scholars argue that it perished with the temple in the 5th century AD, others argue that it was carried off to Constantinople, where it was destroyed in the great fire of the Lauseion.

THE TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS

The Temple of Artemis (Diana) was the largest temple of ancient times and was the first building made entirely of marble except for its tile covered wooden roof. It was built about 550 B.C., although the foundation of the building dates back to the 7th century B.C. Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo, the god of truth and love.
It took 120 years to make the temple. It stood in the Greek city of Aphasias, on the west coast which we all know as Turkey.

The temple was decorated with bronze statues sculpted only by the most skilled artists of their time: Phidias, Polycleitus, Kresilas, and Phradmon. Built on a platform measuring 430 feet by 259 feet, the rectangular temple was larger than the Parthenon in Athens that measured 366 by 170 feet. The huge roof was supported by over 120 elaborately carved columns. Each column consisted of about 12 cylindrical blocks of marble that were raised into place with pulleys and placed on top of one another to form a column. There was also a room that sheltered a magnificent statue of Artemis. She was the goddess of the forest and the goddess of fertility.

On the night of 21 July, 356 B.C. , a man named Herostratus burned the temple to the ground in order to have his name immortalized in history. The Ephesians, outraged, announced that Herostratus' name never be recorded. That same night Alexander the Great was born. Eventually the temple was rebuilt by Alexander the Great who conquered Ephesus. The reconstructed temple lasted for many years but was looted by Goths and then flooded. By A.D. 262 the temple was destroyed beyond repair. If you go to the site today you will find that one column is still standing and traces of the foundation and road can still be seen.

THE LIGHTHOUSE OF ALEXANDRIA

Alexander the Great had seventeen cities named after him. Most of them are no longer around except for Alexandria, Egypt. This city is where the Lighthouse of Alexandria stood. Alexander died in 323 B. C. The city was completed by Ptolemy Soter, the new ruler of Egypt.
Ptolemy I, started building the lighthouse in 290 B.C. It was completed 20 years later and was the first lighthouse of the world. It was also the tallest building with the exception of the Great Pyramid.
It was built on island of Pharos in Alexandria.

Constructed from large blocks of light-colored stone, the tower was made up of three stages: a lower square section with a central core, a middle octagonal section, and, at the top, a circular section.

At its apex was positioned a mirror which reflected sunlight during the day; a fire was lit at night. Extant Roman coins struck by the Alexandrian mint show that a statue of a Triton was positioned on each of the building's 4 corners. A statue of Poseidon stood atop the tower during the Roman period.

Legends tell of the light from the Pharos being used to burn enemy ships before they could reach shore, however this is highly unlikely due to the relatively poor quality of optics and reflective technology in the time period in which the building existed.

Only slightly less impressive - and probably more accurate - is the claim that the light from the lighthouse could be seen up to 35 miles (56 km) from shore.

Pharos later became the etymological origin of the word 'lighthouse' in many Romance languages, such as French (phare), Italian (faro), Portuguese (farol), Spanish (faro) and Romanian (far).

The Pharos guided sailors into the city harbor for 1,500 years and was the last of the six lost wonders to disappear. Earthquakes toppled it in the 14th century A.D.

A reconstruction of the Lighthouse of Alexandria in the "Window of the World" Cultural Park in Changsha, China.

Floating Egg - The National Grand Theatre in Beijing

2007-10-13T11:37:00.000-07:00

The National Grand Theatre in Beijing, China is considered to be the greatest architectural innovation in the city for several decades. This magnificent building includes an opera hall, concert hall and two theatres.

The main building of the National Grand Theater consists of an exterior shell, within which are a 2,416-seat opera house, a 2,017-seat concert hall, a 1,040-seat theater, a lobby and other supporting facilities.

The exterior of the theater is a titanium accented glass dome that is completely surrounded by a man-made lake. It is said to look like an egg floating on water. Guests arrive in the building after walking through a hallway that goes underneath the lake. It was designed as an iconic feature, something that would be immediately recognizeable.

Most of the shell is covered by titanium panels, and it is broken in the middle by a curtain of glass that opens gradually from top to bottom.

The pool surrounding the ellipsoid shell covers an area of 35,500 square meters, the main north entrance is an 80-meter-long corridor under the pool. The south entrance and other passages are under the pool too. The pool is surrounded by leisure squares made up of large greeneries.

Aurora Borealis - Gift From The Sun

2007-10-08T09:35:00.000-07:00

Long ago,some Asians thought the lights were dragons battling in the sky. Russians thought that it meant the spirits were lighting the way for a new birth of a child. To some Scandinavians, the auroras indicated a change of luck, good to bad, bad to good. American Indians thought that the red auroras were fires of enemies ready to battle and white auroras the torches of spirits fishing at night. New Zealand Natives considered auroras as campfires of lost souls. Other stories said that auroral displays were for reminding them of their creator or to announce the end of the world. Fifty years ago people believed that auroras were nothing but reflecting light from the sun or moon on the ice or from crystals in the atmosphere. In 1619, Galileo named the glow in the sky "Aurora" after the Roman goddess of the dawn. He mistakenly believed the glow was a reflection of the dawn. He was wrong, but the name stuck.

So, what are Auroras?

Aurora Borealis is celestial phenomenon of bands, curtains or streamers of coloured light that appear in the sky predominantly in the Arctic and Antarctic regions of the earth.
The lights by the North Pole are now called the Aurora Borealis - Northern lights. The South Pole lights are called the Aurora Austrealis - Southern lights. Not many people can see the Southern lights. It wasn't until 1773 when James Cook reported he saw them on a voyage in the South Seas, and it became known that the South Pole had auroras. Usually the North and South Poles auroras happen at the same time, and when they do, they have the same exact patterns, only reversed, like a mirror. Now that, you have to admit, is pretty cool!

Auroras are gift from the sun.
The sun gives off high-energy charged particles (also called ions) that travel out into space at speeds of 300 to 1200 kilometres per second. A cloud of such particles is called a plasma. The stream of plasma coming from the sun is known as the solar wind. As the solar wind interacts with the edge of the earth's magnetic field, some of the particles are trapped by it and they follow the lines of magnetic force down into the ionosphere, the section of the earth's atmosphere that extends from about 60 to 600 kilometres above the earth's surface. When the particles collide with the gases in the ionosphere they start to glow, producing the spectacle that we know as the auroras. The array of colours consists of red, green, blue and violet.

The Northern Lights are constantly in motion because of the changing interaction between the solar wind and the earth's magnetic field. The solar wind commonly generates up to 1000,000 megawatts of electricity in an auroral display and this can cause interference with power lines, radio and television broadcasts and satellite communications

The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus

2007-10-05T13:13:00.000-07:00

The Mausoleum of Maussollos, or Mausoleum of Halicarnassus was a tomb built between 353-350 BC at Halicarnassus (present Bodrum, Turkey), for Mausolus a provincial king in the Persian Empire, and Artemisia, his wife and sister.
It was designed by the Greek architects Satyrus and Pythius.
The structure was approximately 45-metres (135 feet) in height, and each of the four sides was adorned by a freize created by one of four famous Greek sculptors.

In 377 B.C the city of Halicarnassus was the capitol of a small kingdom along the Mediterranean coast of Asia Minor. It was that year that Hecatomnus of Mylasa, died and left control of his kingdom to his son Mausolus. Mausolus in his life extended the territory even further so that it finally included most of Asia Minor. Mausolus, with his queen Artimisia, ruled over Halicarnassus and the surrounding territory for 24 years.

Maussollos decided to build a new capital, a city as hard to capture as it was magnificent to look at. He chose the town Halicarnassus.

Mausolus and Artemisia spent their huge amount of tax money on beautifying the city. They bought statues, temples, and buildings of gleaming marble. In the center of the city Mausolus planned to place a resting place for his body after he was dead. It would be a tomb that would forever show how rich he and his queen were.

Then in 353 B.C, Mausolus died, leaving Artimisia brokenhearted. As a tribute to him, she decided to build him a splendid tomb. It became a structure so famous that Mausolus's name is now associated with all tombs throughout our modern world - "mausoleum." The building was so beautiful and unique it became one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the world!

The tomb was built on a hill overlooking the city. The whole structure sat in an enclosed courtyard. At the center of the courtyard was a stone platform on which the tomb sat. The staircase was flanked by stone lions to the top of the platform. Along the outer wall of the temple there were many statues of gods and goddesses. At each corner were statues of warriors mounted on horseback, guarding the tomb.

At the center of the platform was the tomb itself. Made mostly of marble, it formed a square block which tapered to about 1/3 of the size of the mausoleums 140 foot height. This section was covered with relief sculptures showing action scenes from Greek myth/history. One statue showed the Greeks in combat with the Amazons, a race of the Warrior Women.

On top of this section of the tomb were 36 slim columns, nine per side, that rose another 1/3 of the height. Standing between each column was another statue
Artimisia lived only two years longer than Mausolus, both would be buried in the finished temple . According to the historian Pliny, the craftsman decided to stay and finish the tomb even after their leaders' deaths.

The Mausoleum overlooked the city of Halicarnassus for many centuries. It was untouched when the city fell to Alexander the Great in 334 BC and still undamaged after attacks by pirates in 62 and 58 BC. It stood above the city ruins for some 16 centuries. Then a series of earthquakes shattered the columns and sent the stone chariot crashing to the ground.

By 1404 only the very base of the Mausoleum was still recognizable.

Some of the sculptures survived and are today on display at the British Museum in London. These include fragment of statues and many slabs of the frieze showing the battle between the Greeks and the Amazons.

There the images of Mausolus and his queen forever watch over the few broken remains of the beautiful tomb she built for him and that is now lost to eternity.
Colossal statue of a woman from the Mausoleum at Halikarnassos, traditionally identified as ArtemisiaColossal statue of a man from the Mausoleum at Halikarnassos, traditionally identified as Maussollos

Green Towers in Seoul - Community of the Future

2007-10-03T14:56:00.000-07:00

Seoul Commune 2026 - project that offers alternative in overpopulated metropolises of near future.

Green Towers are located in the southern part of Seoul, one of the most densely populated places on Earth. Covering 393,400 square meters of land and bound by the Han River on the northern side, 15 towers of varying height -from 16 to 53 floors-function like one giant house in this park-like setting.

The concept is based on a mixture of purely private rooms, so called 'cells', and communally used spaces.
Seoul Commune 2026 suggests a minimized private space consisting of a bedroom and a bathroom in several spatial variations. Spaces where social interactions take place, such as living and dinning rooms, are situated outside the private units. The living cells operate as personalized hotel rooms and each basic residential unit satisfies private spatial needs, while the hotel's public space is shared and utilized by all.

The top floors of the towers have three distinctive spatial structures: the dome, the inverted dome, and the inverted cone, all serving as a sky lounge for the commune and include shared living and dining facilities. The dome type can be as large as 63 meters in diameter and 31.5 meters high, thus creating a huge atrium. The inverted dome and inverted cone type allow for large public spaces on the roof to be used as a roof garden or as an outdoor arena.

Between the top and the base of the tower, the trunk is composed of cells and bulbs for public activities. These bulb areas consist of at least 12 floors and have six variations in the size of plan and section. With diameters ranging from 64 meters to 34 meters, these spaces serve as offices, medical facilities, public services, welfare facilities, and other supporting commercial spaces.

The base of the 15 towers, where the park merges with the towers, creates the widest spaces of the site. Above, the first floor is 75 meters wide and extends up to the height of the first five stories. The ground floor space is reserved for pedestrians. Three walkways converge there and circulate around each tower's elevator core. Two out of three pedestrian walkways expand vertically and create the vertical connective tissue for the double helix stairs/terrace, thus expanding the park vertically. All vehicular circulation moves below the ground and is connected to underground parking spaces at each of the towers. A monorail loop on the second floor offers public transportation and people movers connect the neighboring towers.

A circulating canal along the edge of the park turns the whole site into an island, and utilizing the adjacent Han River as cooling water for each towers' independent power plant. A 30,175-square-meter pond at the center of the site is designed for leisure activities.

The exterior skin of the towers consists of hexagonal lattice structures that derive from the unique spatial structure and create the unique appearance of the towers.

The hexagonal openings are filled with various types of glass. Photovoltaic glass panels are placed in sunny areas for energy efficiency. Some exterior glass windows are recessed to create shaded balconies.

The outer surface covering the lattice structure is made of a geotextile that creates an environment where vines can grow during the summer months to shade the openings. These integrated green structures have an internal watering system and a fog machine with automatic temperature and humidity sensors to optimize the environmental conditions of the plants. The water distribution system also carries up to 30 percent of the cooling load during the summer and cleans the glass windows of the building in the heavily polluted city of Seoul.

Great Pyramid - the Only Remaining Ancient Wonder

2007-10-01T13:16:00.000-07:00

The Great Pyramids at Giza, which date from the Old Kingdom (2700-2300 B. C. ), are the oldest and most famous of the Seven Wonders of the World.

The Pyramids of Egypt are three pyramids at Giza, outside modern Cairo.The 3 main pyramids were built as tombs for 3 Egyptian Pharaohs who were considered to be gods on earth. The first and largest pyramid, known as the Great Pyramid was a tomb for Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops to the Greeks), who ruled the 4th dynasty around 2575 BC,had an original estimated height of 482 ft (now approximately 450 ft). The base has sides 755 ft long. It contains 2,300,000 blocks; the average weight of each is 2.5 tons. Estimated date of completion is 2680 BC.

The question of who built the pyramids, and how, has long been debated by Egyptologists and historians and there is really no completely satisfactory answer. According to the earliest known historian of the Egyptian Pyramid Age, the ancient Greek historian Herodotus (5th cent. BC), the Great Pyramid took 20 years to construct and demanded the labor of 100,000 men, yet it is hard to believe that any of these enormous monuments could have been built in one pharaoh's lifetime. Even the ancient Herodotus was still 2200 years after the actual building of the pyramids.

Few texts concerning Egyptian engineering methods have survived the centuries, and in recent years experimental archaeology has been the main means for discovering the methods used for building the structure. Despite this, there are still many questions concerning the quarrying, dressing and transportation of the stone building blocks, let alone the methods by which they were placed meticulously in position.How these stones were cut is great mystery. Even with today's technology the cutting of these stones is an awesome task.Now there are all types of theories about the construction of the Great pyramid but there are further questions still about how the gigantic edifice was erected on a totally horizontal base, and aligned precisely with the stars.

It is clear that the Egyptians were using their knowledge of the stars to assist them in their architectural projects They were very particular about the direction the pyramid would be facing. The Egyptian astonomers had incredible skill lining up the sides of the pyramids on a particular star which causes the sides to face almost exactly North, South, East, and West.They usually achieved this with an error of less than half a degree.
The Great Pyramid is built on a perfectlu level ground. Its level is so exact that it varies less that 1/2 inches over the 13 acres. This is an amazing feat for the ancient surveyors and would have been difficult, if not almost impossible to match, even today with our advanced technology.

The Great Pyramid of Cheops at Giza, Egypt, demonstrates the remarkable character of its placement on the face of the Earth.
The Pyramid lies in the center of gravity of the continents. It also lies in the exact center of all the land area of the world, dividing the earth's land mass into approximately equal quarters.
The north-south axis (31 degrees east of Greenwich) is the longest land meridian, and the east-west axis (30 degrees north) is the longest land parallel on the globe. There is obviously only one place that these longest land-lines of the terrestrial earth can cross, and it is at the Great Pyramid!

One very unusual feature of the Great Pyramid is a concavity of the core that makes the monument an eight-sided figure, rather than four-sided like every other Egyptian pyramid. That is to say, that its four sides are hollowed in or indented along their central lines, from base to peak. This concavity divides each of the apparent four sides in half, creating a very special and unusual eight-sided pyramid; and it is executed to such an extraordinary degree of precision as to enter the realm of the uncanny. For, viewed from any ground position or distance, this concavity is quite invisible to the naked eye. The hollowing-in can be noticed only from the air, and only at certain times of the day. This explains why virtually every available photograph of the Great Pyramid does not show the hollowing-in phenomenon, and why the concavity was never discovered until the age of aviation.
It was discovered quite by accident in 1940, when a British Air Force pilot, P. Groves, was flying over the pyramid. He happened to notice the concavity and captured it in the now-famous photograph.

Aerial photo by Groves, 1940

Ikonos satelliteAerial photo by Groves

Although Classical Egyptologist's maintain that there is no significance to the way the pyramids are laid out, be it the terrain of the plateau or just an accident, recent studies has raised another possibility, were the pyramids built in a specific manner or more importantly, were they built in a specific position?
Below are two pictures one an aerial view of The Great Pyramids and the other a picture of The Belts Of Orion:

From the dimensions of the Great Pyramid, one can clearly see that the knowledge displayed there is more advanced than the Egyptians or any human civilization had at that time.
This pyramid is an architectural feat that cannot be duplicated with our modern technology and advanced knowledge.
So, there's still a lot of questions regarding WHO, HOW and WHY was the Great Pyramid built.

The Pyramids are shared world culture and heritage site and as the only remaining of the 7 Ancient Wonders are designated as the Honorary New7Wonders Candidate.

When Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798, his pride was expressed through his famous quote:"Soldiers! From the top of these Pyramids, 40 centuries are looking at us".
There are two centuries more, loking at us now and there will be much more looking at our future.

7 Ancient Wonders of the World

2007-10-01T13:10:00.000-07:00

The commonly known Seven Ancient Wonders of the World were all man-made monuments, selected by Philon of Byzantium in 200 B.C.
His selection of wonders was essentially a travel guide for fellow Athenians, and the stunning sites were all located around the Mediterranean basin, the then-known world.

The monuments he chose, to be remembered in perpetuity, were:

" The Lighthouse of Alexandria
" The Temple of Artemis
" The Statue of Zeus
" The Colossus of Rhodes
" The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
" The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus
" The Pyramids of Egypt

All had been built between 2,500 B.C. and 200 B.C. Today, only the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt remain.

BAOBAB - oldest living thing

2007-09-29T04:31:00.000-07:00

Baobab, the oldest and strangest living relics of ancient times, could be found in the remote deserts of Australia, Africa or Madagascar. Baobab trees tower over the landscape like great living monuments.
It can grow to enormous sizes. One ancient hollow Baobab tree in Zimbabwe is so large that up to 40 people can shelter inside its trunk.The colossal form of these trees is matched by their usefulness, for they provide shade, shelter, water and food for a wide variety of creatures.With their massive trunks, crooked branches and furry fruit, it’s no wonder baobabs are described as bizzare.

The secret of the baobab's success in surviving in harsh environments and the reason for its massive trunk is that it has little wood fibre but a large water storage capacity. Each tree can hold up to 300 litres of water, enabling it to live through long periods without rain.Baobabs may be the oldest life forms on the African continent, and many of the specimens still standing today have certainly been around since the birth of Christ; others for far longer. Their life-cycle is as impressive as their bulk - most live over 500 years and some specimens in Africa are believed to be up to 5000 years old.

They have no branches on the lower part of their smooth, silvery trunks, making them difficult to climb. Instead a spray of twisted boughs sprouts from the top of the trunk, which gave rise to the colloquial term of the "upside-down tree".

Dr.David Livingstone called it a 'giant carrot planted upside down'.

Various Baobabs have been used as a shop, a prison, a house, a storage barn and a bus shelter.

Or a toilet.

Along the Zambezi, the tribes believe that when the world was young the Baobabs were upright and proud. However for some unknown reason, they lorded over the lesser growths.The gods became angry and uprooted the Baobabs , thrusting them back into the ground, root upwards.

A little further up the coast, two baobabs nicknamed 'the lovers' are entwined around each other in an embrace that has lasted over 600 years.

Although the baobas are solitary beings, the most popular place for baobab spotters is 'Baobab Alley', twenty bumpy kilometres north of Morondava.

Baobab trees flower for the first time at about 20 years.

The Baobab tree has large whitish flowers which open at night. In mid-summer, dozens of luminous white blossoms - the size of saucers - open at sunset and their strong musky odour attracts fruit bats and hosts of insects.

If you find yourself near baobab flower and wish to pick it up – don’t! The legend says that evil spirits now haunt the sweet white flowers and anyone who picks one will be killed by a lion.

The life of the flower is short lived and it drops to the ground within hours of being serviced. The resultant seeds are housed in a hairy pod which resembles a miniature rugby ball (inside of which is a white pulp from which 'cream of tartar' is derived). Once they fall to the ground, the pods are fed upon by baboons, monkeys, antelope and elephants, which serve to disperse the hard seeds within.

The baobab fruit looks like a leftover Christmas decoration.

A Baby Baobab tree looks very different from its adult form and this is why the Bushmen believe that it doesn't grow like other trees, but suddenly crashes to the ground with a thump, fully grown, and then one day simply disappears. No wonder they are thought of as magic trees.