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Post Apocalyptic London

February 27th 2008 10:23

This is an awesome panoramic view of what London might look like after the apocalypse.
Click on the image and open a much larger version!

Panoramic high definition picture of London after the apocalypse.

*This image used with permission from Damn Funny Pictures.

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Venice is a city in northern Italy, the capital of region Veneto, and has a population of 271,251. Venice has been known as the "Queen of the Adriatic", "City of Water", "City of Bridges", and "The City of Light".

The city stretches across 117 small islands in the marshy Venetian Lagoon along the Adriatic Sea in northeast Italy. The saltwater lagoon stretches along the shoreline between the mouths of the Po (south) and the Piave (north) Rivers. The population estimate of 272,000 inhabitants includes the population of the whole Comune of Venezia; around 62,000 in the historic city of Venice (Centro storico); 176,000 in Terraferma (the Mainland), mostly in the large frazione of Mestre and Marghera; and 31,000 live on other islands in the lagoon.

Venice is world-famous for its canals. It is built on an archipelago of 118 islands formed by about 150 canals in a shallow lagoon. The islands on which the city is built are connected by about 400 bridges. In the old center, the canals serve the function of roads, and every form of transport is on water or on foot. In the 19th century a causeway to the mainland brought a railway station to Venice, and an automobile causeway and parking lot was added in the 20th century. Beyond these land entrances at the northern edge of the city, transportation within the city remains, as it was in centuries past, entirely on water or on foot. Venice is Europe's largest urban car free area, unique in Europe in remaining a sizable functioning city in the 21st century entirely without motorcars or trucks.

St Mark's Campanile is the bell tower of St Mark's Basilica in Venice

The buildings of Venice are constructed on closely spaced wood piles, which were imported from Russia, (under water, in the absence of oxygen, wood does not decay) which penetrate alternating layers of clay and sand. Wood for piles was cut in the most western part of today's Slovenia, resulting in the barren land in a region today called Kras, and in two regions of Croatia, Lika and Gorski kotar (resulting in the barren slopes of Velebit). Most of these piles are still intact after centuries of submersion. The foundations rest on the piles, and buildings of brick or stone sit above these footings. The buildings are often threatened by flood tides pushing in from the Adriatic between autumn and early spring.

Six hundred years ago, Venetians protected themselves from land-based attacks by diverting all the major rivers flowing into the lagoon and thus preventing sediment from filling the area around the city. This created an ever-deeper lagoon environment.
During the 20th century, when many artesian wells were sunk into the periphery of the lagoon to draw water for local industry, Venice began to subside. It was realized that extraction of the aquifer was the cause. This sinking process has slowed markedly since artesian wells were banned in the 1960s. However, the city is still threatened by more frequent low-level floods (so-called Acqua alta, "high water") that creep to a height of several centimeters over its quays, regularly following certain tides. In many old houses the former staircases used by people to unload goods are now flooded, rendering the former ground floor uninhabitable. Thus, many Venetians resorted to moving up to the upper floors and continuing with their lives.

Rialto Bridge is one of the three bridges spanning the Grand Canal in Venice.

Some recent studies have suggested that the city is no longer sinking, but this is not yet certain; therefore, a state of alert has not been revoked. In May 2003 the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi inaugurated the MOSE project, an experimental model for evaluating the performance of inflatable gates; the idea is to lay a series of 79 inflatable pontoons across the sea bed at the three entrances to the lagoon. When tides are predicted to rise above 110 centimetres, the pontoons will be filled with air and block the incoming water from the Adriatic sea. This engineering work is due to be completed by 2011.

*These images used with permission from Damn Funny Pictures.

**This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation Licence. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Venice.

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World Pilgrimage Sites

January 30th 2008 05:46

Members of every major religion participate in pilgrimages. A person who makes such a journey is called a pilgrim.

Buddhism offers four sites of pilgrimage, one such site is Bodh Gaya where Buddha attained Enlightenment.

Pilgrimage site at Bodh Gaya in India. Where Buddha attained Enlightenment.

Bodh Gaya or Bodhgaya in the Gaya district of the Indian state of Bihar.

The Kaaba is the ancient stone building towards which all Muslims pray. It was originally one of multiple such buildings in Arabia, but was the only one made of stone, and therefore is the only one still standing. Many Muslims believe that it dates back to the time of Abraham in 2000 BC. All pilgrims are required to walk counter-clockwise around the Kaaba seven times, in a ritual called the Tawaf.

The Kaaba, inside the al-Masjid al-Haram mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

The Western Wall, or simply the Kotel, is a Jewish religious site located in the Old City of Jerusalem. It is sometimes referred to as the Wailing Wall.

The Western wall or Wailing wall in the old city of Jerusalem, Israel.

Below are two more of the architecturally beautiful pilgrimage sites. You can see even more here.

Temple in Ethiopia. Perhaps the tomb of Haile Selassie

*These pictures used with permission from Damn Funny Pictures.

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Petra Carvings

January 21st 2008 10:16

Petra is an archaeological site in southwestern Jordan, lying on the slope of Mount Hor in a basin among the mountains which form the eastern flank of Arabah (Wadi Araba), the large valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba. It is renowned for its rock-cut architecture.

Pictures of the Petra rock carvings in Melbourne

The site remained unknown to the Western world until 1812, when it was discovered by Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. It was famously described as "a rose-red city half as old as time" in a Newdigate prize-winning sonnet by John William Burgon. UNESCO has described it as "one of the most precious cultural properties of man's cultural heritage."

Photos of the Petra tourist attraction in Jordan

On December 6, 1985 Petra was designated a World Heritage Site.
In 2006 a team of architects began designing a "Visitor Centre," and Jordan's tourist revenue is expected to increase dramatically with the attraction of visitors on package holidays. The Jordan Times reported in December 2006 that 59,000 people visited in the two months October and November 2006, 25% fewer than the same period in the previous year, which may suggest that the flow of visitors may be affected by perception of political instability or travel safety considerations.

On July 7, 2007, Petra was named one of New Open World Corporation's New Seven Wonders of the World.

The picturesque site is a popular sight and featured in various works of art such as the movies Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Passion in the Desert and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, the Sisters of Mercy-Video "Dominion", the game Spy Hunter, or the novels Left Behind and Appointment with Death as well as in The Red Sea Sharks in The Adventures of Tintin.

The Temple of Petra was featured in the Critically-panned Mortal Kombat: Annihilation in 1997 as the Temple of the Elder Gods, The Temple was destroyed by the character Queen Sindel with her scream.

*These images used with permission from Damn Funny Pictures.

**This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation Licence. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Petra

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The World Underground

October 24th 2007 12:19

There are different worlds beneath the surface. Some lie below our modern day cities, and some towns are almost entirely underground. The pictures below give some examples.

Catacombs

Underground houses in Coober Pedy Australia

Coober Pedy, South Australia

*These pictures used with permission from Damn Funny Pictures.

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Golden Pavilion Temple

October 1st 2007 10:25

Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion Temple) is the informal name of Rokuon-ji ( Deer Garden Temple) in Kyoto, Japan. It was originally built in 1397 to serve as a retirement villa for Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, as part of his estate then known as Kitayama. It was his son who converted the building into a Zen temple of the Rinzai school. The temple was burned down several times during the Onin War.

The Golden Pavilion, or Kinkaku, is a three-story building on the grounds of the temple. The top two stories of the pavilion are covered with pure gold leaf. The pavilion functions as a shariden, housing relics of the Buddha. On the roof is a golden fenghuang or "Chinese phoenix

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Lost Cities

September 28th 2007 12:34

In the popular imagination lost cities were real, prosperous, well-populated areas of human habitation that fell into terminal decline and whose location was later lost. Most lost cities are found, and have been studied extensively by scientists. Abandoned urban sites of relatively recent origin are generally referred to as ruins.

Lost cities generally fall into three broad categories: those whose disappearance has been so complete that no knowledge of the city existed until the time of its rediscovery and study, those whose location has been lost but whose memory has been retained in the context of myths and legends, and those whose existence and location have always been known, but which are no longer inhabited. The search for such lost cities by European adventurers in the Americas, Africa and in Southeast Asia from the 15th century onwards eventually led to the development of the science of archaeology

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Beautiful Norway

September 12th 2007 10:32

Norway comprises the western part of Scandinavia in Northern Europe. The rugged coastline, broken by massive fjords and thousands of islands, stretches over 2,500 km. Norway shares a 2,542 km land border with Sweden, Finland, and Russia to the east. To the west and south, Norway is bordered by the Norwegian Sea, the North Sea, and Skagerak. The Barents Sea washes on Norway's northern coasts.

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Airports and Runways

August 24th 2007 11:49

Here are some mixed pictures from Airports all over the world.
Some of the runways look a little short don't they?
There are many more airport and runway photos here.

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Fiji

July 9th 2007 11:39

Fiji, officially the Republic of the Fiji Islands, is an island nation in the South Pacific Ocean east of Vanuatu, west of Tonga and south of Tuvalu. The name Fiji is the old Tongan word for the islands, which in turn is derived from the Fijian name Viti.

Fiji consists of 322 islands, of which 106 are inhabited, and 522 smaller islets. The two most important islands are Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. The islands are mountainous, with peaks up to 1,300 metres (4,250 ft), and covered with tropical forests. Viti Levu hosts the capital city of Suva, and is home to nearly three quarters of the population. Other important towns include Nadi (the location of the international airport), and Lautoka (the location of a large sugar mill and a sea-port). The main towns on Vanua Levu are Labasa and Savusavu. Other islands and island groups include Taveuni and Kadavu (the third and fourth largest islands respectively), the Mamanuca Group (just outside Nadi) and Yasawa Group, which are popular tourist destinations, the Lomaiviti Group, outside of Suva, and the remote Lau Group. Rotuma, some 500 kilometres (310 mi) north of the archipelago, has a special administrative status in Fiji

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Malbork Castle

July 6th 2007 09:03

Malbork Castle is situated on the right bank of the river Nogat in Poland. It was founded by the Teutonic Knights in 1274, and was named Marienburg after the Virgin Mary, patron saint of the order.

The castle is the largest fortified Gothic building in Europe, and rose to become the seat of the Teutonic Order in the 14th century. The favourable position of the castle on the river Nogat and its relatively flat surrounding allowed for easy access by barges and trading ships. During their governance of Prussia, the Teutonic Knights collected river tolls on passing ships in tandem with the other castles along the river, imposing a monopoly on the trade of amber

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Egypt

July 2nd 2007 07:10

Egypt is one of the most populous countries in Africa. The vast majority of its estimated 78 million people live near the banks of the Nile River (about 40,000 km² or 15,450 sq miles) where the only arable agricultural land is found. Large areas of land form part of the Sahara Desert and are sparsely inhabited. Around half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with the majority spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile Delta. Today, Egypt is widely regarded as an important political and cultural centre of the Middle East.

Egypt is famous for its ancient civilization and some of the world's most famous monuments. The Great Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza, built during the Old Kingdom, are modern national icons that lie at the heart of Egypt's thriving tourism industry. The southern city of Luxor also contains a particularly large number of ancient artefacts such as the Karnak Temple and the Valley of the Kings

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Australia

June 29th 2007 11:49

Tourism in Australia is a very large sector of the economy, the tourism industry represents 4.7% of Australia's GDP, is responsible for 11.2% of Australia's export earnings, and employs 6% of the workforce. Australia also received the 10th biggest revenue from being a tourist destination in 2002, 2003 and 2004.

Australia's international tourism campaigns have largely centred around the image of Australia as a wild, expansive, almost uninhabited continent, with all manner of exotic scenery and wildlife, endless beaches, large coastal cities and friendly, relaxed locals. A famous advertising campaign of the 1980s featuring Paul Hogan offering American tourists the chance to "throw another shrimp on the barbie" serves as an exemplar of this marketing approach. Whilst often criticised in Australia as presenting an unrealistic and embarrassing image of Australians and Australia as unsophisticated and uncultured, the approach seems to have succeeded in attracting visitors. A 2006 Tourism campaign using Australian colloquialisms was typified with the slogan: "So where the bloody hell are you

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Italy

June 27th 2007 11:14

With more than 38.9 million tourists a year, Italy is the fourth most visited country in the world, behind France (77 million), Spain (51.7 million) and United States (41.9 million).

Italy has some of the world's most ancient tourist resorts, dating back to the time of the Roman Republic, when destinations such as Pompeii, Naples Ischia, Capri and especially Baiae were popular with the rich of Roman society

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