Metrans 386 016-0 mit einem Containerzug aus Hamburg Dradenau auf der KBS 100 zwischen Hamburg und Büchen in Reinbek

 

Metrans 386 016-0 with a container train from Hamburg Dradenau on the KBS 100 between Hamburg and Büchen in Reinbek

This grave contains the remains of nearly 1000 Soviet soldiers and officers who fell in the heavy fighting for the Shilovo bridgehead between July and September 1942.

 

The Battle of Voronezh, or First Battle of Voronezh, was a battle on the Eastern Front of World War II, fought in and around the strategically important city of Voronezh on the Don river, 450 km (280 mi) south of Moscow, from 28 June-24 July 1942, as opening move of the German summer offensive in 1942.

 

The battle was marked by heavy urban fighting, and ferocious street-fighting, showing what was to come at the Battle of Stalingrad.

 

The German attack had two objectives. One was to seed confusion about the ultimate goals of the overall campaign. There was widespread feeling by almost all observers, especially Soviet high command, that the Germans would reopen their attack on Moscow that summer. By strongly attacking toward Voronezh, near the site of the German's deepest penetration the year before, it would hide the nature of the real action taking place far to the south. Soviet forces sent to the area to shore up the defenses would not be able to move with the same speed as the Germans, who would then turn south and leave them behind. The other purpose was to provide an easily defended front line along the river, providing a strong left flank that could be protected with relatively light forces.

 

The plan involved forces of Army Group South, at this time far north of their ultimate area of responsibility. The attack would be spearheaded by the 4th Panzer Army under the command of General Hermann Hoth. Hoth's highly mobile forces would move rapidly eastward to Voronezh and then turn southeast to follow the Don to Stalingrad. As the 4th moved out of the city, the slower infantry forces of the Second Army following behind them would take up defensive positions along the river. The plan called for the 2nd to arrive just as the 4th had cleared the city, and Hoth was under orders to avoid any street-to-street fighting that might bog down their progress.

 

The city was defended by the troops of the 40th Army as part of the Valuiki-Rossosh Defensive Operation (28 June-24 July 1942) of General of Army Nikolai Fyodorovich Vatutin's Southwestern Front. Hoth's powerful armored forces moved forward with little delay and the only natural barrier before the city was the Devitsa River, an arm of the Don running through Semiluki, a short distance to the west. For reasons that are unclear, the bridge over the Devitsa was not destroyed, and Hoth's forces were able to sweep aside the defensive forces placed there and reach the outskirts of Voronezh on 7 July. Soviet forces then mounted a successful counterattack that tied up Hoth's forces.

 

At this point they should have been relieved by the infantry forces, but they were still far from the city. Intense house-to-house fighting broke out, and Hoth continued to push forward while he waited. At one point the 3rd Motorized Division broke across the Don, but turned back. The Soviet command poured reserves into the city and a situation not unlike what would be seen at Stalingrad a few months later broke out, with the German troops clearing the city street by street with flamethrowers while tanks gave fire support.

 

The 2nd did not arrive for another two days, by which time the 4th was heavily engaged and took some time to remove from the line. The 2nd continued the battle until 24 July, when the final Soviet forces west of the Don were defeated and the fighting ended. Adolf Hitler later came to believe that these two days, when combined with other avoidable delays on the drive south, allowed Marshal Semyon Timoshenko to reinforce the forces in Stalingrad before the 4th Panzer Army could arrive to allow taking of Stalingrad.

 

The Soviet forces recaptured the city in the Battle of Voronezh of 1943.

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This street contains a lot of listed buildings

 

"The road led through the Altwismar gate, which was demolished in 1868, to the former Slavic village of Altwismar, which was located on today's mill pond at the military cemetery. When the Holstein, East and Westphalian population settled the land of the Obotrites, many places had the suffixes Old or New, which have only been partially preserved." (Wikipedia)

 

"Die Straße führte durch das 1868 abgerissene Altwismartor zu dem früheren slawischen Dorf Altwismar, das am heutigen Mühlenteich am Soldatenfriedhof lag. Als die holsteinische sowie ost- und westfälische Bevölkerung das Land der Obotriten besiedelte, hatten viele Orte die nur teils erhaltenen Namenszusätze Alt oder Neu."

Artits Point

 

Colorado National Monument is a National Park Service unit near the city of Grand Junction, Colorado. Sheer-walled canyons cut deep into sandstone and granite–gneiss–schist rock formations. This is an area of desert land high on the Colorado Plateau, with pinyon and juniper forests on the plateau. The park hosts a wide range of wildlife, including red-tailed hawks, golden eagles, ravens, jays, desert bighorn sheep, and coyotes. Activities include hiking, horseback riding, road bicycling, and scenic drives; a visitor center on the west side contains a natural history museum and gift shop. There are scenic views from trails, Rim Rock Drive, which winds along the plateau, and the campground. Nearby are the Book Cliffs and the largest flat-topped mountain in the world, the Grand Mesa.

 

The monument's feature attraction is Monument Canyon, which runs the width of the park and includes rock formations such as Independence Monument, the Kissing Couple, and Coke Ovens. The monument includes 20,500 acres (32.0 sq mi; 83 km2), much of which has been recommended to Congress for designation as wilderness.

 

The area was first explored by John Otto, who settled in Grand Junction in the early 20th century. Prior to Otto's arrival, many area residents believed the canyons to be inaccessible to humans. Otto began building trails on the plateau and into the canyons. As word spread about his work, the Chamber of Commerce of Grand Junction sent a delegation to investigate. The delegation returned praising both Otto's work and the scenic beauty of the wilderness area, and the local newspaper began lobbying to make it a National Park. A bill was introduced and carried by the local Representatives to the U.S. Congress and Senate but a Congressional slowdown in the final months threatened the process. To ensure protection of the canyons President William Howard Taft (who had visited the area) stepped in and used the highest powers available to him via the Antiquities Act and presidential proclamation to declare the canyons as a national monument.

 

The area was established as Colorado National Monument on May 24, 1911. Otto was hired as the first park ranger, drawing a salary of $1 per month. For the next 16 years, he continued building and maintaining trails while living in a tent in the park.

 

A herd of bison was introduced and maintained from 1925 to 1983. After a failed effort to introduce elk, Otto obtained two cows and one bull. The herd grew to as many as 45 animals, but generally the herd was kept at about 20-25 animals.

 

The park became more well known in the 1980s partly due to its inclusion as a stage of the major international bicycle race, the Coors Classic. The race through the park became known as "The Tour of the Moon", due to the spectacular landscapes the race passed through on Rim Rock Drive.

 

The issue of national park status has arisen time and again, usually during bust cycles brought on by the uranium industry and later oil and gas. As of June, 2014 Congressman Scott Tipton and Senator Mark Udall have carried the process closer to fruition than any other representatives since the initial effort in 1907. The two Representatives appointed an 18-member committee of locals to study the issue and learn the facts in 2011. After a groundswell of support from local residents and business owners, the Representatives then appointed a committee of five local residents to write draft legislation. The draft legislation was announced and released in early 2014. A public comment period on the draft legislation began soon after with an end date of June 29. Documentary producer Ken Burns (National Parks: America's Best Idea) weighed in of the effort, endorsing national park status for the Colorado National Monument. Burns compared the area to Seward, Alaska, which overcame opposition to create Kenai Fjords National Park. Burns said Seward locals came to refer to Kenai Fjords National Park as a "permanent pipeline".

 

Climate

 

Ecologically, Colorado National Monument sits on a large area of high desert in Western Colorado, though under the Köppen climate classification, it, like neighbouring Grand Junction, is temperate semi-arid. Summers are hot and dry while winters cold with some snow. Temperatures reach 100 °F (38 °C) on 6.0 days, 90 °F (32 °C) on 62.3 days, and remain at or below freezing on 12.9 days annually.

 

Trails

 

The Monument contains many hiking trails, with lengths and difficulties to suit all tastes. Summer storms can cause flash floods as well as dangerous trail conditions. Rattlesnakes are found on the Monument, and rough terrain exists everywhere, but most trails are well-maintained. Winter cross-country skiing is occasionally possible on trails such as the Liberty Cap Trail.

 

Serpents Trail, perhaps the most popular, follows the route of the original road to the top of the Monument. This trail is accessible by parking lots at both ends, both located off Rim Rock Drive. Serpents Trail provides views of both the Monument itself and the Grand Valley below. One of the shortest trails, also popular, is Devil's Kitchen. The trailhead is located near the eastern entrance of the park on Rim Rock Drive. This trail is about 1 mile long, and ends in a sandstone grotto.

 

Liberty Cap trail starts from the valley floor and climbs to the rim of the Monument. Liberty Cap itself is an ancient sand dune, and provides a beautiful view of the Grand Valley. Corkscrew Trail, closed for many years but reopened in mid-2006, branches off the Liberty Cap and skirts a small canyon and cliffs that cannot be seen from the valley floor. This trail, the only loop trail on the Monument, is about 3 miles long and features a less rigorous climb than Liberty Cap.

 

Monument Canyon trail follows Monument Canyon for about 5 miles. This trail is often hiked up-and-back, and provides close-up views of Independence Monument, the Colorado National Monument's most distinct feature, as well as a formation named Kissing Couple. The lower trailhead is accessible from CO 340 (Broadway).

 

No Thoroughfare Trail starts at the bottom of No Thoroughfare Canyon, near the east entrance. As the name implies, there is no official trail to the top of this canyon. The dead-end trail goes a few miles into the canyon, and up-and-back hiking is required. Some hikers have found a way to get through the entire canyon, but after a certain point the trail becomes difficult and unmarked. No Thoroughfare Canyon does have small waterfalls during the spring runoff, but is dry for most of the year.

 

Colorado National Monument was rated in 2017 as the best campsite in Colorado in a 50-state survey conducted by Msn.com.

 

Historic preservation

 

Many of the early visitor facilities at Colorado National Monument were designed by the National Park Service and constructed by the Public Works Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps. Several of these areas have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places in recognition of this and in consequence of their adherence to the National Park Service Rustic design standards of the time. The entire Rim Rock Drive is a National Historic District, as well as the Serpents Trail, the Devils Kitchen Picnic Shelter, and three places in the Saddlehorn area: the Saddlehorn Caretaker's House and Garage, Saddlehorn Comfort Station, and the Saddlehorn Utility Area Historic District. The Visitor Center complex is also included as an example of the Mission 66 program.

 

Geology

 

The park's geologic record preserves three different groups of rock and sediment. The oldest rocks are Early to Middle Proterozoic gneiss and schist, including the Ute Canyon Stock. Overlying these, and separated by an angular unconformity, are mostly horizontally bedded Mesozoic sedimentary rocks, including the cliff-forming Wingate Sandstone. Overlying these are various types of Quaternary unconsolidated deposits such as alluvium, colluvium, and dunes. The sedimentary rocks are folded into monoclines by several faults, including the Redlands Thrust Fault.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Das Colorado National Monument ist ein Naturschutzgebiet vom Typ eines National Monuments im Westen des US-Bundesstaates Colorado. Es umfasst auf 83 km² eine Halbwüste im Bereich des Uncompahgre Uplift, das seinerseits die Nordost-Ecke des Colorado-Plateaus bildet.

 

Die Attraktivität des Gebietes wurde 1907 von einem Siedler namens John Otto erkannt, er überzeugte mit Hilfe der lokalen Behörden Präsident William H. Taft, die Region 1911 als National Monument auszuweisen. Das Schutzgebiet wird vom National Park Service verwaltet. Im Westen schließt sich die Black Ridge Canyons Wilderness unter der Verwaltung des Bureau of Land Management an, ein Wilderness Area und damit ein Naturschutzgebiet der strengsten Schutzkategorie der USA. Wegen der Bedeutung für Greifvögel ist das National Monument seit 2000 als Important Bird Area auf nationaler und Staatsebene ausgewiesen.

 

Beschreibung

 

Die vielfarbigen Sandstein-Formationen des Colorado National Monuments erheben sich mehr als 2000 Fuß (610 m) über dem Tal des Colorado River. Erosion durch Wind und Wasser, Hitze und Frost hat tiefe Abbrüche, steile Felswände und unverwechselbare Steinformationen geformt. Die Gesteinsschichten sind zwischen 1,5 Milliarden und etwa 80 Millionen Jahren alt; ihr Farbspektrum, das von orange über rot und purpur bis braun reicht, verdankt es den Einlagerungen von Eisen und anderen Mineralien.

 

Der 23 Meilen lange Rim Rock Drive führt vom Westeingang, der etwa 4 km von Fruita entfernt auf 1430 Metern (4690 Fuß) Höhe liegt, in vielen Windungen und durch Tunnel steil zum Hochplateau hinauf. Dort hat man einen Blick über das breite Tal des Colorado bis zu den Bookcliffs auf der anderen Seite, die sich als rosa und grau gestreifte Wand erstrecken, so weit das Auge reicht. Der Rim Rock Drive folgt dem Canyonrand und von vielen Aussichtspunkten kann man in die Abbruchkanten und auf die Sandsteinformationen sehen, die von frühen Besuchern sprechende Namen erhalten haben wie Balanced Rock, Window Rock, Sentinel Spire, Saddlehorn, Pipe Organ, Independence Monument, Kissing Couple, Cleopatras Couch, Coke Ovens, Squaw Fingers, Fallen Rock und Devils Kitchen. Den höchsten Punkt erreicht die Straße in der Nähe des Ute Canyon View mit 2024 Metern (6640 Fuß). Der Osteingang, von dem es bis Grand Junction noch 6 Kilometer sind, liegt auf 1503 Metern (4930 Fuß).

 

Geschichte

 

Der Nordosten des Colorado-Plateaus war in prähistorischer Zeit dünn durch Indianer der Basketmaker-Kultur besiedelt. Das Klima der Halbwüste auf dem Hochplateau machte die Region nicht attraktiv, die meisten Funde der Region liegen außerhalb des Schutzgebiets nahe dem Flussufer. In der Archaischen Periode reichte die Fremont-Kultur bis an den Colorado. In historischer Zeit gehörte das heutige Monument zum Jagdgebiet der Ute-Indianer. Die beiden letztgenannten hinterließen im Schutzgebiet vielfältige Petroglyphen und Felszeichnung.

 

Die Besiedelung der Region durch Weiße begann erst 1881, nachdem es vereinzelte Expeditionen durch das Gebiet gegeben hatte und 1838 ein Handelsposten für Geschäfte mit den Ute eingerichtet worden war. Das Hochland und die Canyons wurden für unzugänglich gehalten. Für den Siedler John Otto, der diese faszinierende Landschaft im Jahre 1907 zum ersten Mal sah, war sie „das Herz der Welt“. Er zog allein in den abgelegenen Canyon und überschüttete einflussreiche lokale Politiker und die zuständigen Stellen in Washington mit Briefen und Anträgen, um das Gebiet zu einem Nationalpark erklären zu lassen. Gleichzeitig legte er Wanderwege an, die auf das Plateau und in die Canyons führten, damit auch andere Menschen sich an der Landschaft erfreuen konnten. Er drängte die Bewohner Grand Junctions, ihn bei seinem Vorhaben durch weitere Briefe und Petitionen für den Schutz dieses Landes zu unterstützen. 1911 hatte er Erfolg: Am 24. Mai 1911 erklärte Präsident William H. Taft das Land zum Colorado National Monument. Otto wurde der erste Ranger des Schutzgebiets. Für ein symbolisches Gehalt von 1 Dollar im Monat übte er diese Tätigkeit bis 1927 aus.

 

Während der Great Depression gründete Präsident Franklin D. Roosevelt im Rahmen des New Deals 1933 das Civilian Conservation Corps, in dem junge arbeitslose Freiwillige unter Anleitung von Armee-Offizieren öffentliche Infrastruktur in den Vereinigten Staaten ausbauten. Ein Camp des CCC spielte eine wesentliche Rolle beim Bau des bereits seit 1929 geplanten Rim Rock Drive, der Erschließungsstraße des Gebiets mit Aussichtspunkten und Picknickplätzen.

 

Ökosysteme

 

Das Gebiet weist vielfältige Lebensräume für Tiere und Pflanzen auf. Die Halbwüste der Hochebene, die nackten Felswände und geschützte schattige Bereichen in den Canyons bieten völlig unterschiedliche Umweltbedingungen. Es gibt keine ganzjährigen Wasserläufe oder Quellen.

 

Das Hochplateau gehört geoökologisch zu den östlichsten Ausläufern der Wüste des Großen Beckens. Hier stehen vereinzelte Pinyon-Kiefern, die dominierenden Pflanzenfamilien sind Kakteen und Sukkulenten. Besonders fallen die Opuntien auf und darunter der Opuntia ficus-indica. Auf dem Plateau leben die größten Säugetiere des Gebietes, Maultierhirsche und Dickhornschafe. An Reptilien gibt es je neun Eidechsen und Schlangenarten im Schutzgebiet, darunter fallen der Halsbandleguan und die einzige giftige Schlange der Region, die midget faded rattlesnake, eine Unterart der Pazifik-Klapperschlange, auf.

 

Die Felswände sind der Lebensraum für neun Arten Greifvögel, darunter Wanderfalke, Steinadler, Rotschwanzbussard und Truthahngeier, und einige Singvögel wie Weißbrustsegler, Trauertauben und Kolkraben. Risse und Höhlen werden von mehreren Fledermausarten bewohnt. Am Fuß und in Spalten stehen Pinyon-Kiefern und Wacholder-Büsche.

 

Auf den Sohlen der Canyons gibt es geschützte Standorte, in denen Eschen wachsen. Hier leben auch Amphibien, die man in der Halbwüstenumgebung nicht vermuten würde. Darunter sind Laubfrösche und Amerikanische Schaufelfußkröten, die nach den seltenen Regenfällen innerhalb kürzester Zeit temporäre Gewässer zur Fortpflanzung nutzen. Der Großteil der Tieflagen ist mit lockerer Vegetation aus Wüsten-Beifuß und Gräsern bewachsen. Im Frühjahr und Spätsommer werden sie durch vielfältige Blütenpflanzen geprägt. Hier leben Baumwollschwanzkaninchen, Felsenhörnchen, Antilopenziesel und Streifenhörnchen. Andere Nagetiere wie Kängururatten, Buschratten und Pinyon-Mäuse sind seltener oder leben überwiegend versteckt. Die wichtigsten Vogelarten der Canyons sind Helmwachteln, Buschhäher und Nacktschnabelhäher, Schluchtenzaunkönige, Felsenzaunkönige, Lerchenstärlinge und Grauvireos.

 

Durch das ganze Gebiet streifen Graufüchse, Pumas, Kojoten und Rotluchse, Katzenfrette (ringtails) und Baumstachler (porcupines) bewohnen die dichter bewaldeten Anteile.

 

Das National Monument

 

Im Besucher-Zentrum, das sich rund 4 Meilen vom Westeingang entfernt befindet, kann man sich über die Geschichte und Entstehung des Parks, über die Geologie sowie die Tier- und Pflanzenwelt anhand von Büchern, Filmen und Karten informieren. Ranger bieten Vorträge und geführte Wanderungen an. Im Norden des Parks liegt ein einfacher Campingplatz. Für mehrtägige Wanderungen mit Übernachtung im Hinterland wird eine Genehmigung verlangt.

 

Die hauptsächliche Aktivität von Besuchern ist Wandern. Die kurvige und teils steile Parkstraße gilt auch als anspruchsvolle Radtour, da sich die Steigungen auf rund 37 Kilometern Strecke auf etwas über 700 Höhenmeter summieren. In der Tradition von John Otto besteigen Kletterer jährlich zum Independence Day am 4. Juli die 150 m hohe Steinformation Independence Monument und hissen das Sternenbanner.

 

Der Park leidet unter unmittelbar an seine Grenzen heranrückender Bebauung durch die zwischen den 1970er und 2000er Jahren verdoppelte Bevölkerung im Grand Valley. Der in den 1930er Jahren für den Freizeitverkehr gebaute, kurvige Rim Rock Drive wird von Bewohnern der Region auf dem täglichen Arbeitsweg genutzt. Die in den letzten Jahren stark gewachsene Siedlung Glade Park ist nur durch das Schutzgebiet zu erreichen.

 

(Wikipedia)

Kuwait City (Arabic: مدينة الكويت, transliteration: Madīnat al-Kūwait), is the capital and largest city of Kuwait. It has an estimated population of 63,600 (2006 estimate) within city limits and 2.38 million in the metropolitan area. Located at the heart of the country on the shore of the Persian Gulf, and containing Kuwait's parliament (Majlis Al-Umma), most governmental offices, the headquarters of most Kuwaiti corporations and banks, it is the indisputable political, cultural and economic center of the emirate.

 

The Liberation Tower (2nd highest building on the right of the photo) is the highest structure in Kuwait. Construction of the tower commenced before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990. It was meant to be called The Kuwait Telecommunications Tower. When the invasion took place, construction, which was almost half-way complete, was put on hold. However, the structure received no damage, and construction resumed after Saddam Hussein's forces were expelled on February 27, 1991. Upon completion in 1993, the tower was renamed the Liberation Tower, symbolizing Kuwait's liberation from Iraq. The tower contains a revolving restaurant and observation platform (in the first disc-shaped pod; now closed to the public for security reasons), and also houses radio and other telecommunications offices. The structure stands at 372 meters high (1,220 ft) at its pinnacle. The roof of the second pod on the tower is 308 meters high (1,010 ft). It is similar to the CN Tower because both contain a revolving restaurant, observation platform, telecommunications equipment and the same look.

 

As in all Middle East, the city skyline is constantly changing also in Kuwait City . The tower on the very right is a new addition to the city scape. Weather across Middle East has changed in last few days and Kuwait is experiencing humidity over 80% from its usual 10%. Change of weather has brought some clouds to Kuwaiti sky, which beautifully enhance colors in the evening sky.

  

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Lens: Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM

Focal Length: 70mm

Aperture: f/14.0

Shutter Speed : 0.2 sec (1/5)

ISO: 100

Exposure: Manual

This pack contains:

* 1 Bento Shape compatible with Catwa Susan and Maitreya Body.

* 1 Bento Shape compatible with Catwa Susan and Legacy Body.

* 1 Eyebrows fixer (must wear)

* 1 Style card containing all the information to look exactly as pictured

* All my love and best wishes ♡

 

marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Uni-k-Shapes-Martina-for-Cat...

Wimpole Estate is a large estate containing Wimpole Hall, a country house located within the civil parish of Wimpole, Cambridgeshire, England, about 8+1⁄2 miles (13.7 kilometres) southwest of Cambridge. The house, begun in 1640, and its 3,000 acres (12 km2) of parkland and farmland are owned by the National Trust. The estate is regularly open to the public and received over 335,000 visitors in 2019.[1] Wimpole is the largest house in Cambridgeshire.

 

History

Sited close to the great Roman road, Ermine Street, Wimpole was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086. At that time there was a moated manor house set in a small 81 hectares (200 acres) deer-park.[2] Situated to the north and south of this were three medieval villages: Bennall End, Thresham End and Green End.

 

The estate was held by the Chicheley family for over 250 years,[3] beginning in 1428 with Henry Chichele who was Archbishop of Canterbury.[4] The last of this family to hold the house was the politician Thomas Chicheley, who was responsible for the "new" house that was completed in 1650.[5] Chicheley established the "formal gardens and architectural landscape".[2] He enjoyed the house for 36 years until, weighed down by financial problems, he was forced to sell to Sir John Cutler.[6] In 1689, Sir John gave it as a marriage settlement to his daughter Elizabeth and her husband Charles Robartes, 2nd Earl of Radnor.[6] Lord Radnor extended the formal gardens and dug out fishponds.[2] On the death of Elizabeth in 1697, without an heir, the estate passed to Edmund Boulter, nephew of Sir John Cutler. In 1710 it was in the possession of John Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who left it to his daughter Lady Henrietta Cavendish Holles upon his death the following year.[7] Upon Henrietta's marriage, in 1713, it became the possession of her husband Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer.[8] In 1740, Edward sold Wimpole to Philip Yorke, Earl of Hardwicke, in order to pay off his debts.[9] The Earls of Hardwicke held it until it passed into the hands of Thomas Agar-Robartes, 6th Viscount Clifden,[10] and then his son, Francis Agar-Robartes, 7th Viscount Clifden[11] who, in 1930, departed to Lanhydrock upon the death of his father.[2]

 

On 27 October 1843, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited the hall. They listened to speeches by local politicians including the Earl of Hardwicke, and dinner was served for 26 people. A ball was held in the evening. On 28 October 1843, Her Majesty visited the farm in the morning before departing for London.[12]

 

In 1938, Capt. George Bambridge and his wife, Elsie, daughter of Rudyard Kipling, purchased it after having been tenants since 1932.[11][13] They used the inheritance left to them by her father, and the royalties from his books, for the long-needed refurbishment of the house and grounds. During the War, for instance, the house had no running water nor electricity.[13] During her time at Wimpole Hall, Elsie was known to become irritated by members of the public gathering too close to the house for picnics, so much so, she once returned to the offending couple's property and had her own picnic on their lawn.[13]

 

Over the centuries many notable architects have worked on it, including James Gibbs (between 1713 and 1730), Henry Flitcroft (around 1749), John Soane (1790s), and H. E. Kendall (1840s).[14] There are decorative schemes by the painter James Thornhill (1721).

 

Carved marble busts of the Roman emperors Trajan and Galba were returned to Wimpole in 2014 and placed on the original wooden plinths which had been carved for them by Rattee and Kett in around 1860. Wikipedia

Düsseldorf-Hafen means the harbour of Düsseldorf. More than that, Hafen is the name of the Düsseldorf district in which the habour is located.

 

The borough covers 3.85 km2, but there were only 212 inhabitants in the year 2000. With 55 inhabitants per km², this is the thinnest density of population in Düsseldorf.

 

For decades the harbour has been an area of workers, industry and trade. But after the Mannesmann company had discontinued its tube production in Düsseldorf, parts of the central harbour lost their reason for being (another harbour is in Düsseldorf-Reisholz). As a result the eastern part of the harbour started to be redeveloped.

 

Mainly third sector businesses were attracted to move to the Hafen: media companies, but also fashion and design offices. One of the first new residents to the so-called Media Harbour was Westdeutscher Rundfunk with its current affairs TV and radio studios. There is also Düsseldorf's local radio station, Antenne Düsseldorf, in the harbour. CNN used to have an office there. One of the largest cinemas of Düsseldorf is in the Hafen. The Landtag (State parliament) of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Rheinturm are situated right next to the harbour.

 

The Hafen district itself contains some spectacular post-modern architecture, most famously three twisted constructions by Frank Gehry. Other than that there are many restaurants, bars, and a few clubs, which make the Hafen a prominent lifestyle district. But one of its main attractions, the beach bar "Monkey's Island", had to close for the sake of one further newly planned upscale hotel.

 

The western part of the harbour is still industrially used, but there are plans for further redevelopment with the construction of high end apartment buildings.

  

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data [2023], processed by Sentinel Hub/Pierre Markuse

 

Fires near Kondinskoye, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Russia - 3 May 2023

 

Iimage is about 33 kilometres wide.

 

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Tilted red tower marks entrance to Polish war museum by Kwadrat, Gdansk

An angled tower wrapped in red concrete panels and glazing contains the entrance to this second world war museum, which is mostly housed beneath the surface of a public plaza in the Polish city of Gdansk. A jury headed by Daniel Libeskind awarded Studio Architektoniczne Kwadrat the project for the Museum of the Second World War following an international competition in 2010. The studio, which is based in the nearby town of Gdynia, said it put forward a proposal that was "a bit risky", but also "something unusual, very distinctive and memorable".

A tower rising 40.5 metres above the new public square provides the dominant feature of the building, which is located next to a canal in a district called Wiadrownia that was destroyed during fighting in 1945. "The idea behind the design is simple enough," said the architects, "to position the main part of the museum underground so as not to completely use up the small plot of land intended for investment. We have concealed the other functions in a sculptural form. In this way, it was possible to find space for a vast square, and the whole premise became symbolic."

The project comprises three distinct but connected parts, with the underground spaces dedicated to the past, the plaza representing the present, and the tower symbolising the future. The monolithic tower features surfaces set at angles as much as 45 degrees from the vertical, lending it a dynamic appearance that alters when viewed from different directions. Three of its four trapezoidal facades are clad in terracotta-red panels, while the fourth side and kinked roof are filled in with glazing that allows natural light to flood into the interior.

"This simple sculptural form, devoid of literal meaning, evokes various associations," said the architects. "It has already been likened to a bastion, a barrier, a crumbling house or a bunker, and when illuminated at night, it resembles a burning candle. At the same time, it fits in with the city image and the geometry of shipyard cranes – the symbol of the port of Gdansk."

The glazed facade of the tower incorporates an entrance at its base, which is situated at basement level and is reached by a wide set of steps leading down from the plaza. The tower contains a library, lecture halls and a restaurant with a viewpoint looking out across the city skyline. The majority of the 23,000 m2 building is located beneath the paved public square, which aims to provide people with a place to meet, socialise and relax. Staircases descend from the entrance through a large void to the level of the ticket office, cloakroom and exhibition spaces dedicated to telling the story of the war in Poland. A corridor with a narrow skylight at its apex guides visitors through a series of austere exhibition rooms featuring a palette of concrete, steel and oak details.

In addition to digital displays and physical exhibits, the spaces include several recreations of places such as a pre-war shopping street, ruined buildings surrounding a Soviet tank, and the interior of a Warsaw apartment reflecting different stages of the conflict. At the level of the plaza, a bridge connects the tower with a long, narrow volume containing offices. A walkway that passes beneath the bridge is lined with gabion cages filled with red brick and rubble from Gdansk. A further wedge-shaped structure that emerges from the square contains the entrance to an underground parking garage. Both this volume and the offices are clad in the same red tiles as the tower to create a consistent aesthetic across the museum's different spaces.

 

Chichinautzin volcanic field, Mexico City, D.F. This volcanic field immediately south of Mexico City represents and present volcanic threat to Mexico City and environs. Stretching some 90 kilometers east and west south of the city, the field contains more than 220 eruptive vents. Many of the largest are seen in this photograph taken from the top of the Latin American Tower in January 1974. In the far background, two of the three highest volcanic peaks of Mexico are seen: Iztaccíhuatl and Popocatepetl, one of Mexico's most active volcano attaining nearly 18,000 feet above sea level while Iztaccíhuatl is slightly lower and has not erupted in historical times. Thinking we were acclimatized to high altitude by staying in Mexico City (elevation above 7,000 feet) for more than a week, we set out to conquer Volcán Popocatepetl, but alas we failed after a four day effort due to my case of high altitude sickness. We managed to make about the 16,000 level on foot with our back packs. Overnights were extremely cold. We slept inside our tent, inside our down filled sleeping bags with our downfilled jackets and clothes on and our boots with wool socks. We could have been fried as well had the volcano erupted while we slept instead of just letting off a cloud of steam. My headache caused by the high altitude would not sufficiently abate even with the taking of Darvon in an effort to quell the pain, so we took the medical authorities' advice being told if conditions didn't change, go down to a lower elevation. Shoot. We've never been that high on foot again. We did walk down a good portion of the mountain on our way down, camping and hiking to the entrance to the National Park. Landscape is awesome.

 

To our particular interest are the volcanic stuctures which are seen in the near back ground just beyond the city buildings:

Volcán Pelado, and Cerro Chichinautzin. The significance of this view is to show a few of the hundreds of volcanic vents that occupy the Valley of Mexico and the contemporary danger the volcanoes present. Today everything is quiet except for the nearly daily detonations of distant Popocatepetl hidden in this view by clouds. One of the cones, Xitle, erupted 1600 years ago and covered important prehistoric urban centers - a threat that continues today. For a comparison of the Valley of Mexico in the 19th century to 1974, see this link to a painting by José María Velasco, the famous 19th Century landscape painter of Mexico.

 

ka-perseus-images.s3.amazonaws.com/cfa98cadec908d579fa47b...

 

To see some of his other work and the significance of his art, check out the link below. We viewed his work at the Museum of Anthropology which itself is at the foot of a recent (geologically speaking) lava flow.

 

www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/later-europ...

 

And Dr. Atl's interpretation of the same valley:

 

www.artnet.com/artists/dr-atl-gerardo-murillo/los-volcane...

 

If you ever make it to Mexico City and Covid is under control, both the Museums of Anthropology and Modern Art at Chapultepec Park are not to be missed.

 

35mm slide taken with Konica AutoreflexA w/Hexanon AR lens, 1974

 

"Asclepias L. (1753), the milkweeds, is a genus of herbaceous perennial, dicotyledonous plants that contains over 140 known species. It previously belonged to the family Asclepiadaceae, but this is now classified as a subfamily Asclepiadoideae of the dogbane family Apocynaceae.

Milkweeds are an important nectar source for bees and other nectar seeking insects, and a larval food source for monarch butterflies and their relatives, as well as a variety of other herbivorous insects (including numerous beetles, moths, and true bugs) specialized to feed on the plants despite their chemical defenses. Milkweed is named for its milky juice, which contains alkaloids, latex, and several other complex compounds including cardenolides. Some species are known to be toxic.

Carolus Linnaeus named the genus after Asclepius, the Greek god of healing, because of the many folk-medicinal uses for the milkweed plants.

The milkweed filaments from the follicles are hollow and coated with wax, and have good insulation qualities. Tests have shown them to be superior to down feathers for insulation. During World War II, over 11 million pounds (5000 t) of milkweed floss were collected in the United States as a substitute for kapok. As of 2007, milkweed is grown commercially as a hypoallergenic filling for pillows.

In the past, the high dextrose content of the nectar led to milkweed's use as a source of sweetener for Native Americans and voyageurs.

The bast fibers of some species were also used for cordage.

Milkweed latex contains about 1 to 2% caoutchouc, and was attempted as a natural source for rubber by both Germany and the United States during World War II. No record has been found of large-scale success.

Milkweed is a common folk remedy used for removing warts. Milkweed sap is applied directly to the wart several times daily until the wart falls off. Dandelion sap is often used in the same manner.

Milkweed is beneficial to nearby plants, repelling some pests, especially wireworms.

Milkweed also contains cardiac glycoside poisons which inhibit animal cells from maintaining a proper K+, Ca+ concentration gradient. As a result many natives of South America and Africa used arrows poisoned with these glycosides to fight and hunt more effectively. Milkweed is toxic and may cause death when animals consume 1/10 its body weight in any part of the plant. Milkweed also causes mild dermatitis in some who come in contact with it.

Milkweed sap is also externally used as a natural remedy for Poison Ivy.

Being the sole food source of Monarch Butterfly larva, the plant is often used in Butterfly gardening." wikipedia.org

It contains what is thought to be the best surviving Eleanor cross. The monument dates from 1294, when the crosses were raised as a memorial by Edward I (1239–1307) to his late wife, Eleanor of Castile (1244–1290). There were originally 12 monuments, one in each resting place of the funeral procession as they travelled to Westminster Abbey. Three now remain; the other two being in Hardingstone (near Northampton) and Waltham Cross, with a more recent replica at Charing Cross in London.

Borgund Stave Church (Norwegian: Borgund stavkyrkje) is a former parish church of the Church of Norway in Lærdal Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It was built around the year 1200 as the village church of Borgund, and belonged to Lærdal parish (part of the Sogn prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Bjørgvin) until 1868, when its religious functions were transferred to a "new" Borgund Church, which was built nearby. The old church was restored, conserved and turned into a museum. It is funded and run by the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments, and is classified as a triple-nave stave church of the Sogn-type. Its grounds contain Norway's sole surviving stave-built free-standing bell tower.

 

Borgund Stave Church was built sometime between 1180 and 1250 AD with later additions and restorations. Its walls are formed by vertical wooden boards, or staves, hence the name "stave church." The four corner posts are connected to one another by ground sills, resting on a stone foundation. The intervening staves rise from the ground sills; each is tongued and grooved, to interlock with its neighbours and form a sturdy wall. The exterior timber surfaces are darkened by protective layers of tar, distilled from pine.

 

Borgund is built on a basilica plan, with reduced side aisles, and an added chancel and apse. It has a raised central nave demarcated on four sides by an arcade. An ambulatory runs around this platform and into the chancel and apse, both added in the 14th century. An additional ambulatory, in the form of a porch, runs around the exterior of the building, sheltered under the overhanging shingled roof. The floor plan of this church resembles that of a central plan, double-shelled Greek cross with an apse attached to one end in place of the fourth arm. The entries to the church are in the three shorter arms of the cross.

 

Structurally, the building has been described as a "cube within a cube", each independent of the other. The inner "cube" is formed by continuous columns that rise from ground level to support the roof. The top of the arcade is formed by arched buttresses, knee jointed to the columns. Above the arcade, the columns are linked by cross-shaped, diagonal trusses, commonly dubbed "Saint Andrew's crosses"; these carry arched supports that offer the visual equivalent of a "second storey". While not a functional gallery, this is reminiscent of contemporary second story galleries of large stone churches elsewhere in Europe. Smaller beams running between these upper supporting columns help clamp everything firmly together. The weight of the roof is thus supported by buttresses and columns, preventing downward and outward movement of the stave walls.

 

The roof beams are supported by steeply angled scissor trusses that form an "X" shape with a narrow top span and a broader bottom span, tied by a bottom truss to prevent collapse. Additional support is given by a truss that cuts across the "X", below the crossing point but above the bottom truss. The roof is steeply pitched, boarded horizontally and clad with shingles. The original outer roof would have been weatherproofed with boards laid lengthwise, rather than shingles. In later years wooden shingles became more common. Scissor beam roof construction is typical of most stave churches.

 

Borgund has tiered, overhanging roofs, topped at their intersection by a shingle-roofed tower or steeple. On each of its four gables is a stylised "dragon" head, swooping from the carved roof ridge crests, Hohler remarks their similarity to the carved dragon heads found on the prows of Norse ships. Similar gable heads appear on small bronze church-shaped reliquaries common in Norway and Europe in this period. Borgund's current dragon heads are possible 18th century replacements; similar, original dragon heads remain on older structures, such as Lom Stave Church and nearby Urnes Stave Church. Borgund is one of the only stave churches to have preserved its crested ridge caps. They are carved with openwork vine and entangled plant designs.

 

The four outer dragon heads are perhaps the most distinctive of all non-Christian symbols adorning Borgund Stave Church. Their function is uncertain, and disputed; if pagan, they are recruited to the Christian cause in the battle between Good and Evil. They may have been intended to keep away evil spirits thought to threaten the church building; to ward off evil, rather than represent it,

 

On the lower side panel of the steeple are four carved circular cutouts. The carvings are weather-beaten, tarred and difficult to decipher, and there is disagreement about what they symbolize. Some[who?] believe they represent the four evangelists, symbolised by an eagle, an ox, a lion and a man. Hauglid describes the carvings as "dragons that extend their heads over to the neighboring field's dragon and bite into it", and points out their similarity to carvings at Høre Stave Church.

 

The church's west portal (the nave's main entrance), is surrounded by a larger carving of dragons biting each other in the neck and tail. At the bottom of the half-columns that flank the front entrance, two dragon heads spew vine stalks that wind upwards and are braided into the dragons above. The carving shares similarities with the west portal of Ål Stave Church, which also has kites[clarification needed] in a band braiding pattern, and follows the usual composition[clarification needed] in the Sogn-Valdres portals, a larger group of portals with very clear similarities. Bugge writes that Christian authority may have come to terms with such pagan and "wild scenes" in the church building because the rift could be interpreted as a struggle between good and evil; in Christian medieval art, the dragon was often used as a symbol of the devil himself but Bugge believes that the carvings were protective, like the dragon heads on the church roof.

 

The church interior is dark, as not much daylight enters the building. Some of the few sources of natural light are narrow circular windows along the roof, examples of daylighting. It was supposed that the narrow apertures would prevent the entry of evil spirits. Three entrances are heavily adorned with foliage and snakes, and are only wide enough for one person to enter, supposedly preventing the entry of evil spirits alongside the churchgoers. The portals were originally painted green, red, black, and white.

 

Most of the internal fittings have been removed. There is little in the building, apart from the row of benches that are installed along the wall inside the church in the ambulatory outside of the arcade and raised platform, a soapstone font, an altar (with 17th-century altarpiece), a 16th-century lectern, and a 16th-century cupboard for storing altar vessels. After the Reformation, when the church was converted for Protestant worship, pews, a pulpit and other standard church furnishings were included, however these have been removed since the building has come under the protection of the Fortidsminneforeningen (The Society for the Preservation of Norwegian Ancient Monuments).

 

The interior structure of the church is characterized by the twelve free-standing columns that support the nave's elevated central space. On the long side of the church there is a double interval between the second and third pillars, but with a half pillar resting on the lower bracing beam (the pier) which runs in between. The double interval provides free access from the south portal to the church's central compartment, which would otherwise have been obstructed by the middle bar. The tops of the poles are finished with grotesque, carved human and animal masks. The tie-bars are secured with braces in the form of St. Andrew's crosses with a sun - shaped center and carved leaf shapes along the arms. The crosses reappear in less ornate form as braces along the church walls. On the north and south sides of the nave, a total of eight windows let in small amounts of light, and at the top of the nave's west gable is a window of more recent date - probably from pre-Reformation times. On the south wall of the nave, the inauguration crosses are still on the inside of the wall. The interior choir walls and west portal have engraved figures and runes, some of which date to the Middle Ages. One, among the commonest of runic graffiti, reads "Ave Maria". An inscription by Þórir (Thor), written "in the evening at St. Olav's Mass" blames the pagan Norns for his problems; perhaps a residue of ancient beliefs, as these female beings were thought to rule the personal destinies of all in Norse mythology and the Poetic Edda.

 

The medieval interior of the stave church is almost untouched, save for its restorations and repairs, though the medieval crucifix was removed after the Reformation. The original wooden floor and the benches that run along the walls of the nave are largely intact, together with a medieval stone altar and a box-shaped baptismal font in soapstone. The pulpit is from the period 1550–1570 and the altarpiece dates from 1654, while the frame around the tablet is dated to 1620. The painting on the altarpiece shows the crucifixion in the centre, flanked by the Virgin Mary on the left and John the Baptist on the right. In the tympanum field, a white dove hovers on a blue background. Below the painting is an inscription with golden letters on a black background. A sacrament from the period 1550–1570 in the same style as the pulpit is also preserved. A restoration of the building was carried out in the early 1870s, led by the architect Christian Christie, who removed benches, a second-floor gallery with seating, a ceiling over the chancel, and various windows including two large windows on the north and south sides. As the goal was to return the church to pre-Reformation condition, all post-Reformation interior paintwork was also removed.

 

Images from the 1990s show deer antlers hung on the lower, east-facing pillars. A local story claims that this is all that remains of a whole stuffed reindeer, shot when it tried to enter during a Mass. A travelogue from 1668 claims that a reindeer was shot during a sermon "when it marched like a wizard in front of the other animal carcasses"

 

To the south of the church is a free-standing stave-work bell tower that covers remnants of the mediaeval foundry used to cast the church bell. It was probably built in the mid-13th century. It is Norway's only remaining free-standing stave-work bell tower.It was given a new door around the year 1700 but this was removed and not replaced at some time between the 1920s and 1940s, leaving the foundry pit was exposed. To preserve the interior, new walls were built as cladding on the outside of the stave walls in the 1990s. One of the medieval bells is on display in the new Borgund church.

 

Management

In 1868 the building was abandoned as a church but was turned into a museum; this saved it from the commonplace demolition of stave churches in that period. A new Borgund Church was built in 1868 a short distance south of the old church. The old church has not been formally used for religious purposes since that year. Borgund Stave Church was bought by the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments in 1877. The first guidebook in English for the stave church was published in 1898. From 2001, the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage has funded a program to research, restore, conserve and maintain stave churches.

 

Legacy

The church served as an example for the reconstruction of the Fantoft Stave Church in Fana, Bergen, in 1883 and for its rebuilding in 1997. The Gustav Adolf Stave Church in Hahnenklee, Germany, built in 1908, is modeled on the Borgund church. Four replicas exist in the United States, one at Chapel in the Hills, Rapid City, South Dakota, another in Lyme, Connecticut, the third on Washington Island, Wisconsin, and the fourth in Minot, North Dakota at the Scandinavian Heritage Park.

 

Borgund is a former municipality in Sogn og Fjordane county, Norway. It was located in the southeastern part of the traditional district of Sogn. The 635-square-kilometre (245 sq mi) municipality existed from 1864 until its dissolution in 1964. It encompassed an area in the eastern part of the present-day Lærdal Municipality. The administrative center of Borgund was the village of Steinklepp, just northeast of the village of Borgund. Steinklepp was the site of a store, a bank, and a school. The historical Filefjell Kongevegen road passes through the Borgund area.

 

Location

The former municipality of Borgund was situated near the southeastern end of the Sognefjorden, along the Lærdalselvi river. The lower parts of the municipality were farms such as Sjurhaugen and Nedrehegg. They were at an elevation of about 270 m (890 ft) above sea level. Høgeloft, on the border with the neighboring municipality of Hemsedal, is a mountain in the Filefjell range and it was the highest point in Borgund at 1,920 m (6,300 ft) above sea level. The lakes Eldrevatnet, Juklevatnet, and Øljusjøen were also located near the border with Hemsedal.

 

History

Borgund was established as a municipality in 1864 when it was separated from the municipality of Lærdal. Initially it had a population of 963. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the municipality of Borgund (population: 492) was merged with the Muggeteigen area (population: 11) of the neighboring Årdal Municipality and all of Lærdal Municipality (population: 1,755) were all merged to form a new, larger municipality of Lærdal

 

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway , is a Nordic , European country and an independent state in the west of the Scandinavian Peninsula . Geographically speaking, the country is long and narrow, and on the elongated coast towards the North Atlantic are Norway's well-known fjords . The Kingdom of Norway includes the main country (the mainland with adjacent islands within the baseline ), Jan Mayen and Svalbard . With these two Arctic areas, Norway covers a land area of ​​385,000 km² and has a population of approximately 5.5 million (2023). Mainland Norway borders Sweden in the east , Finland and Russia in the northeast .

 

Norway is a parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy , where Harald V has been king and head of state since 1991 , and Jonas Gahr Støre ( Ap ) has been prime minister since 2021 . Norway is a unitary state , with two administrative levels below the state: counties and municipalities . The Sami part of the population has, through the Sami Parliament and the Finnmark Act , to a certain extent self-government and influence over traditionally Sami areas. Although Norway has rejected membership of the European Union through two referendums , through the EEA Agreement Norway has close ties with the Union, and through NATO with the United States . Norway is a significant contributor to the United Nations (UN), and has participated with soldiers in several foreign operations mandated by the UN. Norway is among the states that have participated from the founding of the UN , NATO , the Council of Europe , the OSCE and the Nordic Council , and in addition to these is a member of the EEA , the World Trade Organization , the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and is part of the Schengen area .

 

Norway is rich in many natural resources such as oil , gas , minerals , timber , seafood , fresh water and hydropower . Since the beginning of the 20th century, these natural conditions have given the country the opportunity for an increase in wealth that few other countries can now enjoy, and Norwegians have the second highest average income in the world, measured in GDP per capita, as of 2022. The petroleum industry accounts for around 14% of Norway's gross domestic product as of 2018. Norway is the world's largest producer of oil and gas per capita outside the Middle East. However, the number of employees linked to this industry fell from approx. 232,000 in 2013 to 207,000 in 2015.

 

In Norway, these natural resources have been managed for socially beneficial purposes. The country maintains a welfare model in line with the other Nordic countries. Important service areas such as health and higher education are state-funded, and the country has an extensive welfare system for its citizens. Public expenditure in 2018 is approx. 50% of GDP, and the majority of these expenses are related to education, healthcare, social security and welfare. Since 2001 and until 2021, when the country took second place, the UN has ranked Norway as the world's best country to live in . From 2010, Norway is also ranked at the top of the EIU's democracy index . Norway ranks third on the UN's World Happiness Report for the years 2016–2018, behind Finland and Denmark , a report published in March 2019.

 

The majority of the population is Nordic. In the last couple of years, immigration has accounted for more than half of population growth. The five largest minority groups are Norwegian-Poles , Lithuanians , Norwegian-Swedes , Norwegian-Syrians including Syrian Kurds and Norwegian-Pakistani .

 

Norway's national day is 17 May, on this day in 1814 the Norwegian Constitution was dated and signed by the presidency of the National Assembly at Eidsvoll . It is stipulated in the law of 26 April 1947 that 17 May are national public holidays. The Sami national day is 6 February. "Yes, we love this country" is Norway's national anthem, the song was written in 1859 by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1832–1910).

 

Norway's history of human settlement goes back at least 10,000 years, to the Late Paleolithic , the first period of the Stone Age . Archaeological finds of settlements along the entire Norwegian coast have so far been dated back to 10,400 before present (BP), the oldest find is today considered to be a settlement at Pauler in Brunlanes , Vestfold .

For a period these settlements were considered to be the remains of settlers from Doggerland , an area which today lies beneath the North Sea , but which was once a land bridge connecting today's British Isles with Danish Jutland . But the archaeologists who study the initial phase of the settlement in what is today Norway reckon that the first people who came here followed the coast along what is today Bohuslân. That they arrived in some form of boat is absolutely certain, and there is much evidence that they could easily move over large distances.

 

Since the last Ice Age, there has been continuous settlement in Norway. It cannot be ruled out that people lived in Norway during the interglacial period , but no trace of such a population or settlement has been found.

 

The Stone Age lasted a long time; half of the time that our country has been populated. There are no written accounts of what life was like back then. The knowledge we have has been painstakingly collected through investigations of places where people have stayed and left behind objects that we can understand have been processed by human hands. This field of knowledge is called archaeology . The archaeologists interpret their findings and the history of the surrounding landscape. In our country, the uplift after the Ice Age is fundamental. The history of the settlements at Pauler is no more than fifteen years old.

 

The Fosna culture settled parts of Norway sometime between 10,000–8,000 BC. (see Stone Age in Norway ). The dating of rock carvings is set to Neolithic times (in Norway between 4000 BC to 1700 BC) and show activities typical of hunters and gatherers .

 

Agriculture with livestock and arable farming was introduced in the Neolithic. Swad farming where the farmers move when the field does not produce the expected yield.

 

More permanent and persistent farm settlements developed in the Bronze Age (1700 BC to 500 BC) and the Iron Age . The earliest runes have been found on an arrowhead dated to around 200 BC. Many more inscriptions are dated to around 800, and a number of petty kingdoms developed during these centuries. In prehistoric times, there were no fixed national borders in the Nordic countries and Norway did not exist as a state. The population in Norway probably fell to year 0.

 

Events in this time period, the centuries before the year 1000, are glimpsed in written sources. Although the sagas were written down in the 13th century, many hundreds of years later, they provide a glimpse into what was already a distant past. The story of the fimbul winter gives us a historical picture of something that happened and which in our time, with the help of dendrochronology , can be interpreted as a natural disaster in the year 536, created by a volcanic eruption in El Salvador .

 

In the period between 800 and 1066 there was a significant expansion and it is referred to as the Viking Age . During this period, Norwegians, as Swedes and Danes also did, traveled abroad in longships with sails as explorers, traders, settlers and as Vikings (raiders and pirates ). By the middle of the 11th century, the Norwegian kingship had been firmly established, building its right as descendants of Harald Hårfagre and then as heirs of Olav the Holy . The Norwegian kings, and their subjects, now professed Christianity . In the time around Håkon Håkonsson , in the time after the civil war , there was a small renaissance in Norway with extensive literary activity and diplomatic activity with Europe. The black dew came to Norway in 1349 and killed around half of the population. The entire state apparatus and Norway then entered a period of decline.

 

Between 1396 and 1536, Norway was part of the Kalmar Union , and from 1536 until 1814 Norway had been reduced to a tributary part of Denmark , named as the Personal Union of Denmark-Norway . This staff union entered into an alliance with Napoléon Bonaparte with a war that brought bad times and famine in 1812 . In 1814, Denmark-Norway lost the Anglophone Wars , part of the Napoleonic Wars , and the Danish king was forced to cede Norway to the king of Sweden in the Treaty of Kiel on 14 January of that year. After a Norwegian attempt at independence, Norway was forced into a loose union with Sweden, but where Norway was allowed to create its own constitution, the Constitution of 1814 . In this period, Norwegian, romantic national feeling flourished, and the Norwegians tried to develop and establish their own national self-worth. The union with Sweden was broken in 1905 after it had been threatened with war, and Norway became an independent kingdom with its own monarch, Haakon VII .

 

Norway remained neutral during the First World War , and at the outbreak of the Second World War, Norway again declared itself neutral, but was invaded by National Socialist Germany on 9 April 1940 .

 

Norway became a member of the Western defense alliance NATO in 1949 . Two attempts to join the EU were voted down in referendums by small margins in 1972 and 1994 . Norway has been a close ally of the United States in the post-war period. Large discoveries of oil and natural gas in the North Sea at the end of the 1960s led to tremendous economic growth in the country, which is still ongoing. Traditional industries such as fishing are also part of Norway's economy.

 

Stone Age (before 1700 BC)

When most of the ice disappeared, vegetation spread over the landscape and due to a warm climate around 2000-3000 BC. the forest grew much taller than in modern times. Land uplift after the ice age led to a number of fjords becoming lakes and dry land. The first people probably came from the south along the coast of the Kattegat and overland into Finnmark from the east. The first people probably lived by gathering, hunting and trapping. A good number of Stone Age settlements have been found which show that such hunting and trapping people stayed for a long time in the same place or returned to the same place regularly. Large amounts of gnawed bones show that they lived on, among other things, reindeer, elk, small game and fish.

 

Flintstone was imported from Denmark and apart from small natural deposits along the southern coast, all flintstone in Norway is transported by people. At Espevær, greenstone was quarried for tools in the Stone Age, and greenstone tools from Espevær have been found over large parts of Western Norway. Around 2000-3000 BC the usual farm animals such as cows and sheep were introduced to Norway. Livestock probably meant a fundamental change in society in that part of the people had to be permanent residents or live a semi-nomadic life. Livestock farming may also have led to conflict with hunters.

 

The oldest traces of people in what is today Norway have been found at Pauler , a farm in Brunlanes in Larvik municipality in Vestfold . In 2007 and 2008, the farm has given its name to a number of Stone Age settlements that have been excavated and examined by archaeologists from the Cultural History Museum at UiO. The investigations have been carried out in connection with the new route for the E18 motorway west of Farris. The oldest settlement, located more than 127 m above sea level, is dated to be about 10,400 years old (uncalibrated, more than 11,000 years in real calendar years). From here, the ice sheet was perhaps visible when people settled here. This locality has been named Pauler I, and is today considered to be the oldest confirmed human traces in Norway to date. The place is in the mountains above the Pauler tunnel on the E18 between Larvik and Porsgrunn . The pioneer settlement is a term archaeologists have adopted for the oldest settlement. The archaeologists have speculated about where they came from, the first people in what is today Norway. It has been suggested that they could come by boat or perhaps across the ice from Doggerland or the North Sea, but there is now a large consensus that they came north along what is today the Bohuslän coast. The Fosna culture , the Komsa culture and the Nøstvet culture are the traditional terms for hunting cultures from the Stone Age. One thing is certain - getting to the water was something they mastered, the first people in our country. Therefore, within a short time they were able to use our entire long coast.

 

In the New Stone Age (4000 BC–1700 BC) there is a theory that a new people immigrated to the country, the so-called Stone Ax People . Rock carvings from this period show motifs from hunting and fishing , which were still important industries. From this period, a megalithic tomb has been found in Østfold .

It is uncertain whether there were organized societies or state-like associations in the Stone Age in Norway. Findings from settlements indicate that many lived together and that this was probably more than one family so that it was a slightly larger, organized herd.

 

Finnmark

In prehistoric times, animal husbandry and agriculture were of little economic importance in Finnmark. Livelihoods in Finnmark were mainly based on fish, gathering, hunting and trapping, and eventually domestic reindeer herding became widespread in the Middle Ages. Archaeological finds from the Stone Age have been referred to as the Komsa culture and comprise around 5,000 years of settlement. Finnmark probably got its first settlement around 8000 BC. It is believed that the coastal areas became ice-free 11,000 years BC and the fjord areas around 9,000 years BC. after which willows, grass, heather, birch and pine came into being. Finnmarksvidda was covered by pine forest around 6000 BC. After the Ice Age, the land rose around 80 meters in the inner fjord areas (Alta, Tana, Varanger). Due to ice melting in the polar region, the sea rose in the period 6400–3800 BC. and in areas with little land elevation, some settlements from the first part of the Stone Age were flooded. On Sørøya, the net sea level rise was 12 to 14 meters and many residential areas were flooded.

 

According to Bjørnar Olsen , there are many indications of a connection between the oldest settlement in Western Norway (the " Fosnakulturen ") and that in Finnmark, but it is uncertain in which direction the settlement took place. In the earliest part of the Stone Age, settlement in Finnmark was probably concentrated in the coastal areas, and these only reflected a lifestyle with great mobility and no permanent dwellings. The inner regions, such as Pasvik, were probably used seasonally. The archaeologically proven settlements from the Stone Age in inner Finnmark and Troms are linked to lakes and large watercourses. The oldest petroglyphs in Alta are usually dated to 4200 BC, that is, the Neolithic . Bjørnar Olsen believes that the oldest can be up to 2,000 years older than this.

 

From around 4000 BC a slow deforestation of Finnmark began and around 1800 BC the vegetation distribution was roughly the same as in modern times. The change in vegetation may have increased the distance between the reindeer's summer and winter grazing. The uplift continued slowly from around 4000 BC. at the same time as sea level rise stopped.

 

According to Gutorm Gjessing, the settlement in Finnmark and large parts of northern Norway in the Neolithic was semi-nomadic with movement between four seasonal settlements (following the pattern of life in Sami siida in historical times): On the outer coast in summer (fishing and seal catching) and inland in winter (hunting for reindeer, elk and bear). Povl Simonsen believed instead that the winter residence was in the inner fjord area in a village-like sod house settlement. Bjørnar Olsen believes that at the end of the Stone Age there was a relatively settled population along the coast, while inland there was less settlement and a more mobile lifestyle.

 

Bronze Age (1700 BC–500 BC)

Bronze was used for tools in Norway from around 1500 BC. Bronze is a mixture of tin and copper , and these metals were introduced because they were not mined in the country at the time. Bronze is believed to have been a relatively expensive material. The Bronze Age in Norway can be divided into two phases:

 

Early Bronze Age (1700–1100 BC)

Younger Bronze Age (1100–500 BC)

For the prehistoric (unwritten) era, there is limited knowledge about social conditions and possible state formations. From the Bronze Age, there are large burial mounds of stone piles along the coast of Vestfold and Agder, among others. It is likely that only chieftains or other great men could erect such grave monuments and there was probably some form of organized society linked to these. In the Bronze Age, society was more organized and stratified than in the Stone Age. Then a rich class of chieftains emerged who had close connections with southern Scandinavia. The settlements became more permanent and people adopted horses and ard . They acquired bronze status symbols, lived in longhouses and people were buried in large burial mounds . Petroglyphs from the Bronze Age indicate that humans practiced solar cultivation.

 

Finnmark

In the last millennium BC the climate became cooler and the pine forest disappears from the coast; pine forests, for example, were only found in the innermost part of the Altafjord, while the outer coast was almost treeless. Around the year 0, the limit for birch forest was south of Kirkenes. Animals with forest habitats (elk, bear and beaver) disappeared and the reindeer probably established their annual migration routes sometime at that time. In the period 1800–900 BC there were significantly more settlements in and utilization of the hinterland was particularly noticeable on Finnmarksvidda. From around 1800 BC until year 0 there was a significant increase in contact between Finnmark and areas in the east including Karelia (where metals were produced including copper) and central and eastern Russia. The youngest petroglyphs in Alta show far more boats than the earlier phases and the boats are reminiscent of types depicted in petroglyphs in southern Scandinavia. It is unclear what influence southern Scandinavian societies had as far north as Alta before the year 0. Many of the cultural features that are considered typical Sami in modern times were created or consolidated in the last millennium BC, this applies, among other things, to the custom of burying in brick chambers in stone urns. The Mortensnes burial ground may have been used for 2000 years until around 1600 AD.

 

Iron Age (c. 500 BC–c. 1050 AD)

 

The Einangsteinen is one of the oldest Norwegian runestones; it is from the 4th century

 

Simultaneous production of Vikings

Around 500 years BC the researchers reckon that the Bronze Age will be replaced by the Iron Age as iron takes over as the most important material for weapons and tools. Bronze, wood and stone were still used. Iron was cheaper than bronze, easier to work than flint , and could be used for many purposes; iron probably became common property. Iron could, among other things, be used to make solid and sharp axes which made it much easier to fell trees. In the Iron Age, gold and silver were also used partly for decoration and partly as means of payment. It is unknown which language was used in Norway before our era. From around the year 0 until around the year 800, everyone in Scandinavia (except the Sami) spoke Old Norse , a North Germanic language. Subsequently, several different languages ​​developed in this area that were only partially mutually intelligible. The Iron Age is divided into several periods:

 

Early Iron Age

Pre-Roman Iron Age (c. 500 BC–c. 0)

Roman Iron Age (c. 0–c. AD 400)

Migration period (approx. 400–600). In the migration period (approx. 400–600), new peoples came to Norway, and ruins of fortress buildings etc. are interpreted as signs that there has been talk of a violent invasion.

Younger Iron Age

Merovingian period (500–800)

 

The Viking Age (793–1066)

Norwegian Vikings go on plundering expeditions and trade voyages around the coastal countries of Western Europe . Large groups of Norwegians emigrate to the British Isles , Iceland and Greenland . Harald Hårfagre starts a unification process of Norway late in the 8th century , which was completed by Harald Hardråde in the 1060s . The country was Christianized under the kings Olav Tryggvason , fell in the battle of Svolder ( 1000 ) and Olav Haraldsson (the saint), fell in the battle of Stiklestad in 1030 .

 

Sources of prehistoric times

Shrinking glaciers in the high mountains, including in Jotunheimen and Breheimen , have from around the year 2000 uncovered objects from the Viking Age and earlier. These are objects of organic material that have been preserved by the ice and that elsewhere in nature are broken down in a few months. The finds are getting older as the melting makes the archaeologists go deeper into the ice. About half of all archaeological discoveries on glaciers in the world are made in Oppland . In 2013, a 3,400-year-old shoe and a robe from the year 300 were found. Finds at Lomseggen in Lom published in 2020 revealed, among other things, well-preserved horseshoes used on a mountain pass. Many hundreds of items include preserved clothing, knives, whisks, mittens, leather shoes, wooden chests and horse equipment. A piece of cloth dated to the year 1000 has preserved its original colour. In 2014, a wooden ski from around the year 700 was found in Reinheimen . The ski is 172 cm long and 14 cm wide, with preserved binding of leather and wicker.

 

Pytheas from Massalia is the oldest known account of what was probably the coast of Norway, perhaps somewhere on the coast of Møre. Pytheas visited Britannia around 325 BC. and traveled further north to a country by the "Ice Sea". Pytheas described the short summer night and the midnight sun farther north. He wrote, among other things, that people there made a drink from grain and honey. Caesar wrote in his work about the Gallic campaign about the Germanic tribe Haruders. Other Roman sources around the year 0 mention the land of the Cimbri (Jutland) and the Cimbri headlands ( Skagen ) and that the sources stated that Cimbri and Charyds lived in this area. Some of these peoples may have immigrated to Norway and there become known as hordes (as in Hordaland). Sources from the Mediterranean area referred to the islands of Scandia, Scandinavia and Thule ("the outermost of all islands"). The Roman historian Tacitus wrote around the year 100 a work about Germania and mentioned the people of Scandia, the Sviones. Ptolemy wrote around the year 150 that the Kharudes (Hordes) lived further north than all the Cimbri, in the north lived the Finnoi (Finns or Sami) and in the south the Gutai (Goths). The Nordic countries and Norway were outside the Roman Empire , which dominated Europe at the time. The Gothic-born historian Jordanes wrote in the 5th century about 13 tribes or people groups in Norway, including raumaricii (probably Romerike ), ragnaricii ( Ranrike ) and finni or skretefinni (skrid finner or ski finner, i.e. Sami) as well as a number of unclear groups. Prokopios wrote at the same time about Thule north of the land of the Danes and Slavs, Thule was ten times as big as Britannia and the largest of all the islands. In Thule, the sun was up 40 days straight in the summer. After the migration period , southern Europeans' accounts of northern Europe became fuller and more reliable.

 

Settlement in prehistoric times

Norway has around 50,000 farms with their own names. Farm names have persisted for a long time, over 1000 years, perhaps as much as 2000 years. The name researchers have arranged different types of farm names chronologically, which provides a basis for determining when the place was used by people or received a permanent settlement. Uncompounded landscape names such as Haug, Eid, Vik and Berg are believed to be the oldest. Archaeological traces indicate that some areas have been inhabited earlier than assumed from the farm name. Burial mounds also indicate permanent settlement. For example, the burial ground at Svartelva in Løten was used from around the year 0 to the year 1000 when Christianity took over. The first farmers probably used large areas for inland and outland, and new farms were probably established based on some "mother farms". Names such as By (or Bø) show that it is an old place of residence. From the older Iron Age, names with -heim (a common Germanic word meaning place of residence) and -stad tell of settlement, while -vin and -land tell of the use of the place. Farm names in -heim are often found as -um , -eim or -em as in Lerum and Seim, there are often large farms in the center of the village. New farm names with -city and -country were also established in the Viking Age . The first farmers probably used the best areas. The largest burial grounds, the oldest archaeological finds and the oldest farm names are found where the arable land is richest and most spacious.

 

It is unclear whether the settlement expansion in Roman times, migrations and the Iron Age is due to immigration or internal development and population growth. Among other things, it is difficult to demonstrate where in Europe the immigrants have come from. The permanent residents had both fields (where grain was grown) and livestock that grazed in the open fields, but it is uncertain which of these was more important. Population growth from around the year 200 led to more utilization of open land, for example in the form of settlements in the mountains. During the migration period, it also seems that in parts of the country it became common to have cluster gardens or a form of village settlement.

 

Norwegian expansion northwards

From around the year 200, there was a certain migration by sea from Rogaland and Hordaland to Nordland and Sør-Troms. Those who moved settled down as a settled Iron Age population and became dominant over the original population which may have been Sami . The immigrant Norwegians, Bumen , farmed with livestock that were fed inside in the winter as well as some grain cultivation and fishing. The northern border of the Norwegians' settlement was originally at the Toppsundet near Harstad and around the year 500 there was a Norwegian settlement to Malangsgapet. That was as far north as it was possible to grow grain at the time. Malangen was considered the border between Hålogaland and Finnmork until around 1400 . Further into the Viking Age and the Middle Ages, there was immigration and settlement of Norwegian speakers along the coast north of Malangen. Around the year 800, Norwegians lived along the entire outer coast to Vannøy . The Norwegians partly copied Sami livelihoods such as whaling, fur hunting and reindeer husbandry. It was probably this area between Malangen and Vannøy that was Ottar from the Hålogaland area. In the Viking Age, there were also some Norwegian settlements further north and east. East of the North Cape are the scattered archaeological finds of Norwegian settlement in the Viking Age. There are Norwegian names for fjords and islands from the Viking Age, including fjord names with "-anger". Around the year 1050, there were Norwegian settlements on the outer coast of Western Finnmark. Traders and tax collectors traveled even further.

 

North of Malangen there were Norse farming settlements in the Iron Age. Malangen was considered Finnmark's western border until 1300. There are some archaeological traces of Norse activity around the coast from Tromsø to Kirkenes in the Viking Age. Around Tromsø, the research indicates a Norse/Sami mixed culture on the coast.

 

From the year 1100 and the next 200–300 years, there are no traces of Norwegian settlement north and east of Tromsø. It is uncertain whether this is due to depopulation, whether it is because the Norwegians further north were not Christianized or because there were no churches north of Lenvik or Tromsø . Norwegian settlement in the far north appears from sources from the 14th century. In the Hanseatic period , the settlement was developed into large areas specialized in commercial fishing, while earlier (in the Viking Age) there had been farms with a combination of fishing and agriculture. In 1307 , a fortress and the first church east of Tromsø were built in Vardø . Vardø became a small Norwegian town, while Vadsø remained Sami. Norwegian settlements and churches appeared along the outermost coast in the Middle Ages. After the Reformation, perhaps as a result of a decline in fish stocks or fish prices, there were Norwegian settlements in the inner fjord areas such as Lebesby in Laksefjord. Some fishing villages at the far end of the coast were abandoned for good. In the interior of Finnmark, there was no national border for a long time and Kautokeino and Karasjok were joint Norwegian-Swedish areas with strong Swedish influence. The border with Finland was established in 1751 and with Russia in 1826.

 

On a Swedish map from 1626, Norway's border is indicated at Malangen, while Sweden with this map showed a desire to control the Sami area which had been a common area.

 

The term Northern Norway only came into use at the end of the 19th century and administratively the area was referred to as Tromsø Diocese when Tromsø became a bishopric in 1840. There had been different designations previously: Hålogaland originally included only Helgeland and when Norse settlement spread north in the Viking Age and the Middle Ages, Hålogaland was used for the area north approximately to Malangen , while Finnmark or "Finnmarken", "the land of the Sami", lay outside. The term Northern Norway was coined at a cafe table in Kristiania in 1884 by members of the Nordlændingernes Forening and was first commonly used in the interwar period as it eventually supplanted "Hålogaland".

 

State formation

The battle in Hafrsfjord in the year 872 has long been regarded as the day when Norway became a kingdom. The year of the battle is uncertain (may have been 10-20 years later). The whole of Norway was not united in that battle: the process had begun earlier and continued a couple of hundred years later. This means that the geographical area became subject to a political authority and became a political unit. The geographical area was perceived as an area as it is known, among other things, from Ottar from Hålogaland's account for King Alfred of Wessex around the year 880. Ottar described "the land of the Norwegians" as very long and narrow, and it was narrowest in the far north. East of the wasteland in the south lay Sveoland and in the north lay Kvenaland in the east. When Ottar sailed south along the land from his home ( Malangen ) to Skiringssal, he always had Norway ("Nordveg") on his port side and the British Isles on his starboard side. The journey took a good month. Ottar perceived "Nordveg" as a geographical unit, but did not imply that it was a political unit. Ottar separated Norwegians from Swedes and Danes. It is unclear why Ottar perceived the population spread over such a large area as a whole. It is unclear whether Norway as a geographical term or Norwegians as the name of a ethnic group is the oldest. The Norwegians had a common language which in the centuries before Ottar did not differ much from the language of Denmark and Sweden.

 

According to Sverre Steen, it is unlikely that Harald Hårfagre was able to control this entire area as one kingdom. The saga of Harald was written 300 years later and at his death Norway was several smaller kingdoms. Harald probably controlled a larger area than anyone before him and at most Harald's kingdom probably included the coast from Trøndelag to Agder and Vestfold as well as parts of Viken . There were probably several smaller kingdoms of varying extent before Harald and some of these are reflected in traditional landscape names such as Ranrike and Ringerike . Landscape names of "-land" (Rogaland) and "-mark" (Hedmark) as well as names such as Agder and Sogn may have been political units before Harald.

 

According to Sverre Steen, the national assembly was completed at the earliest at the battle of Stiklestad in 1030 and the introduction of Christianity was probably a significant factor in the establishment of Norway as a state. Håkon I the good Adalsteinsfostre introduced the leasehold system where the "coastal land" (as far as the salmon went up the rivers) was divided into ship raiders who were to provide a longship with soldiers and supplies. The leidange was probably introduced as a defense against the Danes. The border with the Danes was traditionally at the Göta älv and several times before and after Harald Hårfagre the Danes had control over central parts of Norway.

 

Christianity was known and existed in Norway before Olav Haraldson's time. The spread occurred both from the south (today's Denmark and northern Germany) and from the west (England and Ireland). Ansgar of Bremen , called the "Apostle of the North", worked in Sweden, but he was never in Norway and probably had little influence in the country. Viking expeditions brought the Norwegians of that time into contact with Christian countries and some were baptized in England, Ireland and northern France. Olav Tryggvason and Olav Haraldson were Vikings who returned home. The first Christians in Norway were also linked to pre-Christian local religion, among other things, by mixing Christian symbols with symbols of Odin and other figures from Norse religion.

 

According to Sverre Steen, the introduction of Christianity in Norway should not be perceived as a nationwide revival. At Mostratinget, Christian law was introduced as law in the country and later incorporated into the laws of the individual jurisdictions. Christianity primarily involved new forms in social life, among other things exposure and images of gods were prohibited, it was forbidden to "put out" unwanted infants (to let them die), and it was forbidden to have multiple wives. The church became a nationwide institution with a special group of officials tasked with protecting the church and consolidating the new religion. According to Sverre Steen, Christianity and the church in the Middle Ages should therefore be considered together, and these became a new unifying factor in the country. The church and Christianity linked Norway to Roman Catholic Europe with Church Latin as the common language, the same time reckoning as the rest of Europe and the church in Norway was arranged much like the churches in Denmark, Sweden and England. Norway received papal approval in 1070 and became its own church province in 1152 with Archbishop Nidaros .

 

With Christianity, the country got three social powers: the peasants (organized through the things), the king with his officials and the church with the clergy. The things are the oldest institution: At allthings all armed men had the right to attend (in part an obligation to attend) and at lagthings met emissaries from an area (that is, the lagthings were representative assemblies). The Thing both ruled in conflicts and established laws. The laws were memorized by the participants and written down around the year 1000 or later in the Gulationsloven , Frostatingsloven , Eidsivatingsloven and Borgartingsloven . The person who had been successful at the hearing had to see to the implementation of the judgment themselves.

 

Early Middle Ages (1050s–1184)

The early Middle Ages is considered in Norwegian history to be the period between the end of the Viking Age around 1050 and the coronation of King Sverre in 1184 . The beginning of the period can be dated differently, from around the year 1000 when the Christianization of the country took place and up to 1100 when the Viking Age was over from an archaeological point of view. From 1035 to 1130 it was a time of (relative) internal peace in Norway, even several of the kings attempted campaigns abroad, including in 1066 and 1103 .

 

During this period, the church's organization was built up. This led to a gradual change in religious customs. Religion went from being a domestic matter to being regulated by common European Christian law and the royal power gained increased power and influence. Slavery (" servitude ") was gradually abolished. The population grew rapidly during this period, as the thousands of farm names ending in -rud show.

 

The urbanization of Norway is a historical process that has slowly but surely changed Norway from the early Viking Age to today, from a country based on agriculture and sea salvage, to increasingly trade and industry. As early as the ninth century, the country got its first urban community, and in the eleventh century we got the first permanent cities.

 

In the 1130s, civil war broke out . This was due to a power struggle and that anyone who claimed to be the king's son could claim the right to the throne. The disputes escalated into extensive year-round warfare when Sverre Sigurdsson started a rebellion against the church's and the landmen's candidate for the throne , Magnus Erlingsson .

 

Emergence of cities

The oldest Norwegian cities probably emerged from the end of the 9th century. Oslo, Bergen and Nidaros became episcopal seats, which stimulated urban development there, and the king built churches in Borg , Konghelle and Tønsberg. Hamar and Stavanger became new episcopal seats and are referred to in the late 12th century as towns together with the trading places Veøy in Romsdal and Kaupanger in Sogn. In the late Middle Ages, Borgund (on Sunnmøre), Veøy (in Romsdalsfjorden) and Vågan (in Lofoten) were referred to as small trading places. Urbanization in Norway occurred in few places compared to the neighboring countries, only 14 places appear as cities before 1350. Stavanger became a bishopric around 1120–1130, but it is unclear whether the place was already a city then. The fertile Jæren and outer Ryfylke were probably relatively densely populated at that time. A particularly large concentration of Irish artefacts from the Viking Age has been found in Stavanger and Nord-Jæren.

 

It has been difficult to estimate the population in the Norwegian medieval cities, but it is considered certain that the cities grew rapidly in the Middle Ages. Oscar Albert Johnsen estimated the city's population before the Black Death at 20,000, of which 7,000 in Bergen, 3,000 in Nidaros, 2,000 in Oslo and 1,500 in Tunsberg. Based on archaeological research, Lunden estimates that Oslo had around 1,500 inhabitants in 250 households in the year 1300. Bergen was built up more densely and, with the concentration of exports there, became Norway's largest city in a special position for several hundred years. Knut Helle suggests a city population of 20,000 at most in the High Middle Ages, of which almost half in Bergen.

 

The Bjarkøyretten regulated the conditions in cities (especially Bergen and Nidaros) and in trading places, and for Nidaros had many of the same provisions as the Frostating Act . Magnus Lagabøte's city law replaced the bjarkøretten and from 1276 regulated the settlement in Bergen and with corresponding laws also drawn up for Oslo, Nidaros and Tunsberg. The city law applied within the city's roof area . The City Act determined that the city's public streets consisted of wide commons (perpendicular to the shoreline) and ran parallel to the shoreline, similarly in Nidaros and Oslo. The roads were small streets of up to 3 cubits (1.4 metres) and linked to the individual property. From the Middle Ages, the Norwegian cities were usually surrounded by wooden fences. The urban development largely consisted of low wooden houses which stood in contrast to the relatively numerous and dominant churches and monasteries built in stone.

 

The City Act and supplementary provisions often determined where in the city different goods could be traded, in Bergen, for example, cattle and sheep could only be traded on the Square, and fish only on the Square or directly from the boats at the quayside. In Nidaros, the blacksmiths were required to stay away from the densely populated areas due to the risk of fire, while the tanners had to stay away from the settlements due to the strong smell. The City Act also attempted to regulate the influx of people into the city (among other things to prevent begging in the streets) and had provisions on fire protection. In Oslo, from the 13th century or earlier, it was common to have apartment buildings consisting of single buildings on a couple of floors around a courtyard with access from the street through a gate room. Oslo's medieval apartment buildings were home to one to four households. In the urban farms, livestock could be kept, including pigs and cows, while pastures and fields were found in the city's rooftops . In the apartment buildings there could be several outbuildings such as warehouses, barns and stables. Archaeological excavations show that much of the buildings in medieval Oslo, Trondheim and Tønsberg resembled the oblong farms that have been preserved at Bryggen in Bergen . The land boundaries in Oslo appear to have persisted for many hundreds of years, in Bergen right from the Middle Ages to modern times.

 

High Middle Ages (1184–1319)

After civil wars in the 12th century, the country had a relative heyday in the 13th century. Iceland and Greenland came under the royal authority in 1262 , and the Norwegian Empire reached its greatest extent under Håkon IV Håkonsson . The last king of Haraldsätten, Håkon V Magnusson , died sonless in 1319 . Until the 17th century, Norway stretched all the way down to the mouth of Göta älv , which was then Norway's border with Sweden and Denmark.

 

Just before the Black Death around 1350, there were between 65,000 and 85,000 farms in the country, and there had been a strong growth in the number of farms from 1050, especially in Eastern Norway. In the High Middle Ages, the church or ecclesiastical institutions controlled 40% of the land in Norway, while the aristocracy owned around 20% and the king owned 7%. The church and monasteries received land through gifts from the king and nobles, or through inheritance and gifts from ordinary farmers.

 

Settlement and demography in the Middle Ages

Before the Black Death, there were more and more farms in Norway due to farm division and clearing. The settlement spread to more marginal agricultural areas higher inland and further north. Eastern Norway had the largest areas to take off and had the most population growth towards the High Middle Ages. Along the coast north of Stad, settlement probably increased in line with the extent of fishing. The Icelandic Rimbegla tells around the year 1200 that the border between Finnmark (the land of the Sami) and resident Norwegians in the interior was at Malangen , while the border all the way out on the coast was at Kvaløya . From the end of the High Middle Ages, there were more Norwegians along the coast of Finnmark and Nord-Troms. In the inner forest and mountain tracts along the current border between Norway and Sweden, the Sami exploited the resources all the way down to Hedmark.

 

There are no censuses or other records of population and settlement in the Middle Ages. At the time of the Reformation, the population was below 200,000 and only in 1650 was the population at the same level as before the Black Death. When Christianity was introduced after the year 1000, the population was around 200,000. After the Black Death, many farms and settlements were abandoned and deserted, in the most marginal agricultural areas up to 80% of the farms were abandoned. Places such as Skien, Veøy and Borgund (Ålesund) went out of use as trading towns. By the year 1300, the population was somewhere between 300,000 and 560,000 depending on the calculation method. Common methods start from detailed information about farms in each village and compare this with the situation in 1660 when there are good headcounts. From 1300 to 1660, there was a change in the economic base so that the coastal villages received a larger share of the population. The inland areas of Eastern Norway had a relatively larger population in the High Middle Ages than after the Reformation. Kåre Lunden concludes that the population in the year 1300 was close to 500,000, of which 15,000 lived in cities. Lunden believes that the population in 1660 was still slightly lower than the peak before the Black Death and points out that farm settlement in 1660 did not reach the same extent as in the High Middle Ages. In 1660, the population in Troms and Finnmark was 6,000 and 3,000 respectively (2% of the total population), in 1300 these areas had an even smaller share of the country's population and in Finnmark there were hardly any Norwegian-speaking inhabitants. In the High Middle Ages, the climate was more favorable for grain cultivation in the north. Based on the number of farms, the population increased 162% from 1000 to 1300, in Northern and Western Europe as a whole the growth was 200% in the same period.

 

Late Middle Ages (1319–1537)

Due to repeated plague epidemics, the population was roughly halved and the least productive of the country's farms were laid waste. It took several hundred years before the population again reached the level before 1349 . However, those who survived the epidemics gained more financial resources by sharing. Tax revenues for the state almost collapsed, and a large part of the noble families died out or sank into peasant status due to the fall in national debt . The Hanseatic League took over trade and shipping and dominated fish exports. The Archbishop of Nidaros was the country's most powerful man economically and politically, as the royal dynasty married into the Swedish in 1319 and died out in 1387 . Eventually, Copenhagen became the political center of the kingdom and Bergen the commercial center, while Trondheim remained the religious center.

 

From Reformation to Autocracy (1537–1660)

In 1537 , the Reformation was carried out in Norway. With that, almost half of the country's property was confiscated by the royal power at the stroke of a pen. The large seizure increased the king's income and was able, among other things, to expand his military power and consolidated his power in the kingdom. From roughly the time of the Reformation and in the following centuries, the state increased its power and importance in people's lives. Until around 1620, the state administration was fairly simple and unspecialised: in Copenhagen, the central administration mainly consisted of a chancellery and an interest chamber ; and sheriffs ruled the civil (including bailiffs and sheriffs) and the military in their district, the sheriffs collected taxes and oversaw business. The accounts were not clear and without summaries. The clergy, which had great power as a separate organization, was appointed by the state church after the Reformation, administered from Copenhagen. In this period, Norway was ruled by (mainly) Danish noble sheriffs, who acted as intermediaries between the peasants and the Oldenborg king in the field of justice, tax and customs collection.

 

From 1620, the state apparatus went through major changes where specialization of functions was a main issue. The sheriff's tasks were divided between several, more specialized officials - the sheriffs retained the formal authority over these, who in practice were under the national administration in Copenhagen. Among other things, a separate military officer corps was established, a separate customs office was established and separate treasurers for taxes and fees were appointed. The Overbergamtet, the central governing body for overseeing mining operations in Norway, was established in 1654 with an office in Christiania and this agency was to oversee the mining chiefs in the Nordenfjeld and Sønnenfjeld areas (the mines at Kongsberg and Røros were established in the previous decades). The formal transition from county government to official government with fixed-paid county officials took place after 1660, but the real changes had taken place from around 1620. The increased specialization and transition to official government meant that experts, not amateurs, were in charge of each area, and this civil service meant, according to Sverre Steen that the dictatorship was not a personal dictatorship.

 

From 1570 until 1721, the Oldenborg dynasty was in repeated wars with the Vasa dynasty in Sweden. The financing of these wars led to a severe increase in taxation which caused great distress.

 

Politically-geographically, the Oldenborg kings had to cede to Sweden the Norwegian provinces of Jemtland , Herjedalen , Idre and Särna , as well as Båhuslen . As part of the financing of the wars, the state apparatus was expanded. Royal power began to assert itself to a greater extent in the administration of justice. Until this period, cases of violence and defamation had been treated as civil cases between citizens. The level of punishment was greatly increased. During this period, at least 307 people were also executed for witchcraft in Norway. Culturally, the country was marked by the fact that the written language became Danish because of the Bible translation and the University of Copenhagen's educational monopoly.

 

From the 16th century, business became more marked by production for sale and not just own consumption. In the past, it was particularly the fisheries that had produced such a large surplus of goods that it was sold to markets far away, the dried fish trade via Bergen is known from around the year 1100. In the 16th century, the yield from the fisheries multiplied, especially due to the introduction of herring in Western Norway and in Trøndelag and because new tools made fishing for herring and skre more efficient. Line fishing and cod nets that were introduced in the 17th century were controversial because the small fishermen believed it favored citizens in the cities.

 

Forestry and the timber trade became an important business, particularly because of the boom saw which made it possible to saw all kinds of tables and planks for sale abroad. The demand for timber increased at the same time in Europe, Norway had plenty of forests and in the 17th century timber became the country's most important export product. There were hundreds of sawmills in the country and the largest had the feel of factories . In 1680, the king regulated the timber trade by allowing exports only from privileged sawmills and in a certain quantity.

 

From the 1520s, some silver was mined in Telemark. When the peasants chased the German miners whereupon the king executed five peasants and demanded compensation from the other rebellious peasants. The background for the harsh treatment was that the king wanted to assert his authority over the extraction of precious metals. The search for metals led to the silver works at Kongsberg after 1624, copper in the mountain villages between Trøndelag and Eastern Norway, and iron, among other things, in Agder and lower Telemark. The financial gain of the quarries at that time is unclear because there are no reliable accounts. Kongsberg ma

This fig took the longest time to make and I have no idea why...Most of the detail is on the back of the fig but I'll show that later. This also took the most preparation ever. The fence took me 10 minutes to cut and then another 20 minutes to add the wire above it and the posts to help prop it up. The tat on the guys arm kind of inspired me so I may make a cyberpoc fig in the future. And yes that is kind of random, but that's how I roll. Drop a comment down below!

-Shankasaur

 

What I've been listening to:

 

youtu.be/Y3kAH4dHWZ4

 

youtu.be/Diabumv_OJ4

The building's residences contain floor to ceiling windows.

Units in this high-rise offer spectacular views over the Atlantic Ocean, downtown Miami, and Biscayne Bay.

The 29th floor is was designed for amenities, including a health spa and gymnasium.

This residential tower contains one to four bedroom floorplans.

The unit prices range from about US $500,000 to $8,000,000 as of summer 2005.

The building contains an impressive four story lobby.

The tower was designed with laminated glass windows in order to protect residences from extreme atmospheric conditions.

All of the glass used in the construction of the tower underwent wind tunnel and missile impact tests.

This structure surpassed La Gorce Palace in 1997 as the tallest building in Miami Beach, and was the city's tallest until completion of Blue and Green Diamond in 2000.

 

Credit for the data above is given to the following website:

www.emporis.com/buildings/128241/portofino-tower-miami-be...

 

© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.

  

Cuckmere Haven (also known as the Cuckmere Estuary) is an area of flood plains in Sussex, England where the river Cuckmere meets the English Channel between Eastbourne and Seaford. The river is an example of a meandering river, and contains several oxbow lakes. It is a popular tourist destination with an estimated 350,000 visitors per year, where they can engage in long walks, or water activities on the river. The beach at Cuckmere Haven is next to the famous chalk cliffs, the Seven Sisters.

 

At low tide, one can spot ironwork in the sea close to the river mouth. This is the wreck of the Polynesia, a German sailing ship that ran aground in April 1890 west of Beachy Head; it was laden with a cargo of sodium nitrate.

 

The beach was commonly used by smugglers in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. For example, in 1783 two gangs of smugglers (each numbering 200 or 300) overcame officers of the law by weight of numbers and carried away a large quantity of goods.

 

In the Second World War, the site was studied by the Luftwaffe as they flew missions to identify potential landing sites for the invasion of the UK mainland. As a result, the British constructed a series of counter-landing defences, of which numerous pillboxes, anti-tank obstacles, ditches and tank traps survive. Admiralty scaffolding blocked the inlet, but is now gone. Cuckmere Haven featured heavily in the war effort: at night lights were placed to confuse bombers into thinking they were above Newhaven and an airfield was set up further inland. In addition to the permanent land-based constructions, the river was heavily mined.

 

The East Sussex Transport and Trading Company extracted gravel from the beach at Cuckmere Haven. They transported the material to the road at Exceat on a 2-foot (610 mm) gauge tramway a mile (1.6 km) long, established in the early 1930s and closed in 1964. The tramway began in what is now the car park on the southern side of the main road. The footpath to Cuckmere Haven (east of the river) follows the line of the tramway.

 

In popular culture

 

The beach at Cuckmere Haven was used for the opening scene in Kevin Costner's Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

The Seven Sisters cliff face was briefly featured in the Harry Potter film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

The beach was featured in the film Atonement (2007): a postcard of the coastguard cottage overlooking the beach was a central element of the plot, with Robbie Turner focusing on it as the idyll where he and Cecilia Tallis would retire after World War II.

The cliffhanger of the TV sitcom Green Wing Series 1 was filmed at Cuckmere Haven.

The beach and house were the location of Cheryl Cole's video for The Flood.

The beach was used in an episode of Foyle's War.

Most of the film Mr. Holmes is set just west of and inland from the Seven Sisters.

The location was used in the fourth season of the show Luther.

 

Cuckmere Haven is home to a large variety of wildlife, and has a rich ecosystem. Sheep and cattle graze, keeping the fields at a constant vegetation level. Woodpigeons and rooks pick at the stubble, and aquatic birds such as oystercatchers forage in the water meadows. The result is a fertile area of land providing varied habitats. The beaches are made up of shingle and, right by the sea, rock pools. Chalk is eroded from the cliffs, but not much ends up on the beach. Driftwood and rubbish end up on the beach but do not seem to pollute the environment and do not spoil the view of the beach.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Die Cuckmere-Mündung (auch bekannt als Cuckmere Haven) ist eine Überschwemmungen ausgesetzte Ebene im südenglischen Sussex zwischen den Seebädern Eastbourne und Brighton.

 

Hier mündet der mäanderartig verlaufende Fluss Cuckmere in den Ärmelkanal ein. Cuckmere Haven ist ein beliebtes Touristenziel mit geschätzten 350.000 Besuchern pro Jahr, die sich mit ausgedehnten Strandspaziergängen und Wasseraktivitäten beschäftigen. Der Strand von Cuckmere Haven befindet sich unmittelbar an den bekannten Kalksteinklippen, den Seven Sisters, an denen eine Route des Wanderweges South Downs Way entlangführt. Bei Niedrigwasser ist es möglich, unmittelbar flussabwärts ein Wrack ausfindig zu machen. Dabei handelt es sich um die Polynesia, ein deutsches Segelschiff, welches im April 1890 beladen mit Nitrat und Soda westlich von Beachy Head auf Grund lief. Cuckmere Haven bietet auch einer Vielzahl von geschützten Vögeln und anderen Tieren eine Heimat.

 

Der Strand wurde vom 16. bis 18. Jahrhundert häufig von Schmugglern benutzt. Beispielsweise überwältigten im Jahr 1783 zwei Schmugglerbanden (jede 200 bis 300 Mitglieder stark) die zahlenmäßig unterlegenen königlichen Beamten und schafften eine große Menge von Waren fort.

 

Im Zweiten Weltkrieg erregte diese Gegend die Aufmerksamkeit der deutschen Luftwaffe bei ihrem Auftrag, potentielle Landungsziele für eine Invasion Großbritanniens auszuspähen. Als Ergebnis dieser deutschen Aktivitäten entstanden zahlreiche Abwehrkonstruktionen wie Bunker, Panzerhindernisse, Panzerfallen und Gräben. Cuckmere Haven wurde während des Krieges nachts beleuchtet, um deutschen Bombern vorzugaukeln, sie befänden sich über Newhaven. Weiter im Hinterland wurde ein Flugfeld erstellt. Neben diesen festen Hindernissen wurde auch der Fluss Cuckmere stark vermint.

 

Cuckmere Haven als Filmdrehort

 

Der Strand von Cuckmere Haven erschien in der Anfangsszene von Kevin Costners Abenteuerfilm Robin Hood – König der Diebe von 1991.

Die Seven Sisters Klippen waren 2005 auch Drehort in der Harry-Potter-Verfilmung Harry Potter und der Feuerkelch.

Im Sommer 2006 diente der Strand als Kulisse für den 2007 erschienenen Film Abbitte. Eine Postkarte mit den Cottages für die Rettungsboote und dem dahinterliegenden Strand samt den Seven Sisters war ein zentrales Element der Handlung des Filmes. Robbie Turner, dargestellt von James McAvoy, betrachtet in diesem Drama immer wieder diese Postkarte und sehnt sich nach der Idylle, die ihn hier nach dem Krieg mit Cecilia Tallis, dargestellt von Keira Knightley, erwartet. Die Schlussszene mit den herumalbernden Robbie und Cecilia wurde am Strand von Cuckmere Haven gefilmt.

 

(Wikipedia)

Very large container ship entering the new Cocoli locks of the Panama Canal from the Pacific Ocean. Control tower for the new locks is also visible.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Sarum

 

Old Sarum (Latin: Sorbiodunum) is the site of the earliest settlement of Salisbury, in England. The site contains evidence of human habitation as early as 3000 BC. Old Sarum is mentioned in some of the earliest records in the country. It is located on a hill about two miles north of modern Salisbury adjacent to the A345 road.

 

Old Sarum was originally an Iron age hill fort strategically placed on the conjunction of two trade routes and the River Avon. The hill fort is broadly oval in shape, 400 metres (1,300 ft) in length and 360 metres (1,180 ft) in width, it consists of a double bank and intermediate ditch with an entrance on the eastern side. The site was used by the Romans, becoming the town of Sorviodunum. The Saxons used the site as a stronghold against marauding Vikings, and the Normans built a stone curtain wall around the Iron age perimeter and a centrally placed castle on a motte protected by a deep dry moat. A royal palace was built within the castle for King Henry I and subsequently used by Plantagenet monarchs. A Norman cathedral and bishop's residence were built at the western end of the town.

 

In 1219, the cathedral was demolished in favour of the new one built near the river and the townspeople moved down to the new city, then called New Salisbury or New Sarum. The castle fell out of use and was sold for materials by King Henry VIII.

 

By the 19th century, the settlement was officially uninhabited and yet still had formal parliamentary representation, making it the most notorious of the rotten boroughs that existed before the Reform Act 1832.

 

It is now an English Heritage property and open to the public.

  

Early history

 

Archaeological remains of rough stone tools suggest people have occupied the hilltop area of Old Sarum since Neolithic times (around 3000 BC).[1] There is evidence that early hunters and, later, farming communities occupied the site. A protective hill fort was constructed by the local inhabitants during the British Iron Age (around 500 BC) by creating enormous banks and ditches surrounding the hill. Numerous other hillforts of the same period can be found locally, including Figsbury Ring to the east and Vespasian's Camp to the north. The archaeologist Sir R.C. Hoare described it as "a city of high note in the remotest periods by the several barrows near it, and its proximity to the two largest stone circles in England, namely, Stonehenge and Avebury."[2]

The Romans who occupied Britain between AD 43 and AD 410, held the site as a military station, strategically placed near the convergence of five important roads. The hill fort was marked on Roman roadmaps by the name of Sorviodunum. The name is believed to be derived from the Celtic language name for 'the fortress by a gentle river'.[3] In the Chronicle of the Britons,[4] the place is referred to as Kaer Gradawc.

In 552, Cynric King of Wessex, was said to have captured the place. Under the Anglo Saxons, it ranked among the most considerable towns of the West Kingdom, and it gained ecclesiastical establishments soon after the conversion of the Saxons to Christianity.[5] In the early part of the ninth century, it was a frequent residence of Egbert of Wessex, and, in 960, King Edgar assembled a national council there to plan a defence against the Danes in the north.[6]

  

Norman expansion

A motte and bailey castle was built in around 1069, three years after the Norman conquest, and the town was renamed. It is listed in the Domesday Book as Sarisburia, from which the names Sarum and Salisbury are derived.[3] In 1086, William the Conqueror convened the prelates, nobles, sheriffs and knights of his dominions at Old Sarum to pay him homage.[7] It is probable that part of the Domesday Book was also written at this time. Two other national councils were held there; one by William Rufus, in 1096, and another by Henry I in 1116.

 

Palace ruins

The construction of a cathedral and bishop's palace occurred between 1075 and 1092, during the time of Bishop Osmund. However, only five days after the cathedral was consecrated, a storm destroyed the tower roof. The final completion of the cathedral was left to the third bishop of Old Sarum, Roger of Salisbury, chancellor to King Henry I. He also oversaw the construction, between 1130–1139, of a stone Royal Palace on the castle motte.

A contemporary observer, Peter of Blois (c.1135–1203) described Old Sarum as "barren, dry, and solitary, exposed to the rage of the wind; and the church (stands) as a captive on the hill where it was built, like the ark of God shut up in the profane house of Baal."[8] Henry II of England held his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, prisoner at Old Sarum.

Decline

 

By 1219, the limitations of space on the hilltop site had become cause for concern, with the cathedral and castle in close proximity and their respective chiefs in regular conflict. When Bishop Poore's men were held out of the hill-fort by the King's men, Poore formally requested the cathedral's relocation.

The site of a new cathedral was consecrated later that year, and in 1220 the bishop started construction on the banks of the Avon. A new settlement grew up around it, called New Salisbury or New Sarum — eventually just known as Salisbury. By 1217, the inhabitants of Old Sarum had removed their residence, and constructed their new habitations with the materials they razed from their old. As one city increased in population and extent, so the other almost as rapidly decayed.

From the reign of Edward II in the 14th century, the borough of Old Sarum elected two members to the House of Commons, despite the fact that from at least the 17th century it had no resident voters at all. One of the members in the 18th century was William Pitt the Elder. In 1831 it had eleven voters, all of whom were landowners who lived elsewhere. This made Old Sarum the most notorious of the rotten boroughs. The Reform Act 1832 completely disfranchised Old Sarum.

 

This montage is a representative selection of the ten themes, and contains at least one image per theme and at least one image per member. This particular canvas showcases 13 photos, selected from the 93 photos (a new record) entered by 10 members, 7 of whom completed all ten themes.

 

To view the complete challenge and entries, click Here.

 

Thanks Sharon for this brill Compositionally Challenged Group challenge.

Nikon Z6

Old gasoline pump in Earl, NC

 

stephenbishop.smugmug.com/

Treasure Island Hotel and Casino (also known as Treasure Island Las Vegas and "TI") is a pirate-themed hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, USA. It includes 2,885 rooms and a 47,927 sq ft (4,452.6 m2) casino. The resort is owned and operated by businessman Phil Ruffin.

 

Treasure Island was developed by casino owner Steve Wynn through his company, Mirage Resorts. Project designers included Joel Bergman and Jon Jerde. Wynn announced Treasure Island in October 1991, and construction began four months later. The resort opened on October 26, 1993. Treasure Island was among several family-oriented resorts to open in Las Vegas during the 1990s, taking advantage of the growing tourist demographic. Treasure Island's facade was built with a lagoon containing two pirate ships. Free pirate battles were performed daily for spectators over the next two decades. The resort has also hosted Mystère since 1993, making it the longest-running show by Cirque du Soleil.

 

In 2000, MGM Grand Inc. acquired Mirage Resorts and was renamed MGM Mirage. Treasure Island's pirate theme was scaled back during a 2003 project aimed at attracting a more mature audience, in contrast to the family trend of the 1990s. MGM's revamp included new signage abbreviating the resort's name as "TI", while the original pirate show, Battle of Buccaneer Bay, was replaced by Sirens of TI.

 

MGM struggled financially during the Great Recession. In 2009, it sold Treasure Island to Ruffin for $755 million. Ruffin targeted a middle-class clientele, making various changes to appeal to the demographic. He added two signature restaurants: Gilley's Saloon in 2010, and Señor Frog's in 2012. The pirate shows ended the following year, although the ships remain on display.

 

History

 

In 1986, casino owner Steve Wynn purchased property on the Las Vegas Strip extending north to Spring Mountain Road. He opened a resort, The Mirage, on the southern portion of the land in 1989. Wynn had always wanted to build a second casino on the remaining acreage, which was being used as a parking lot for the Mirage.

 

Wynn's company, Mirage Resorts, announced the Treasure Island project on October 30, 1991. Like other new resorts in Las Vegas, Treasure Island was planned as a family-oriented property, taking advantage of the growing tourist demographic. It would also cater to a middle-class clientele, unlike the Mirage. Groundbreaking took place on March 2, 1992, earlier than anticipated. Construction was originally expected to cost $300 million, but the final cost rose to $430 million.

 

Employees and their families stayed at Treasure Island a couple days before the opening to put the resort through a trial run. Treasure Island opened to the public at 10:00 p.m. on October 26, 1993, following a private opening for VIPs, including Nevada governor Bob Miller. The resort's facade featured a free pirate show taking place in a man-made lagoon. Wynn's other Strip resort, the shuttered Dunes, was imploded the following night in a grand ceremony which incorporated the pirate show. One of the ships fired its cannon as the implosion began, simulating the resort's destruction by cannonballs.

 

In 1996, Treasure Island hosted a naturalization ceremony for 93 workers. It was the first Las Vegas resort to hold such an event.[

 

A man robbed the casino twice in 2000, stealing more than $30,000. He was arrested after a failed third attempt, during which he shot a security guard. He was sentenced to 130 years in prison.

 

The Prairie Island Indian Community, owners of a Treasure Island casino resort in Minnesota, filed a $250 million damages lawsuit against Mirage Resorts in May 2000. The suit alleged that Wynn violated trademark law by using the "Treasure Island" name for his own casino resort. The suit also requested that Wynn be barred from using the name, which Wynn said he registered in 1993.

 

Wynn departed Mirage Resorts in 2000, when it was acquired by MGM Grand Inc., later renamed MGM Mirage.

 

Treasure Island's family amenities included the pirate show and an arcade. However, the pirate theme and family appeal would be gradually scaled back in subsequent years. In April 2003, Treasure Island announced a major revamp to transform the resort into a more sophisticated property aimed primarily at adults, although children would still be welcomed. Describing the resort's transformation, Treasure Island president Scott Sibella said, "We've seen a return of Las Vegas to its roots as an adult destination. As the city has evolved, so too has Treasure Island." He said, "We've evolved from a yo-ho-ho feel to a more sophisticated feel. We want to change the exterior to introduce the outside to what we've already done inside." As part of the revamp, Treasure Island began using the abbreviated name "TI". Sibella described the new name as trendy and sexy, and said it was a name that residents and guests already used. He compared the abbreviated name to the former Desert Inn resort, also known as "D.I." MGM Mirage began a marketing campaign for TI in June 2003, including advertisements in various publications.

 

MGM struggled financially during the Great Recession, and businessman Phil Ruffin made an offer to buy Treasure Island. MGM accepted and announced the deal at the end of 2008. The purchase was finalized on March 20, 2009, at a cost of $755 million. At the time, Treasure Island was the only hotel-casino on the Strip to be owned by a single individual, as others are corporate-owned. Because of the sale, Treasure Island was removed from MGM's extensive customer database. Later that year, the resort joined K Hotels, a worldwide collection of approximately 50 hotels. Amid the recession, Ruffin spent $20 million on various changes to target a middle-class clientele. The hotel rooms were left untouched, as MGM had conducted a $92 million renovation of them shortly before selling the resort to Ruffin.

 

A rooftop swamp cooler caught fire in July 2012, sending smoke through hallways of the upper hotel floors, which were evacuated. The fire caused $20,000 in damage, but resulted in only minor injuries for guests.

 

Ruffin is a business partner of Donald Trump's and a supporter of his presidential campaign. Trump has held several campaign rallies at Treasure Island, including one in 2016 during which an audience member attempted to assassinate him.

 

In 2019, Treasure Island's hotel joined Radisson Hotel Group. Under the agreement, the resort kept its name and exterior signage. Room renovations began that year. State casinos were temporarily closed in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Nevada, and the closure allowed planned renovations across the resort to accelerate. Among the additions was an expanded sportsbook.

 

Features

 

Treasure Island includes a 47,927 sq ft (4,452.6 m2) casino, and has 2,885 rooms, located in a 36-story tower. As part of the 2003 transformation, the tower was given a darker paint color, using 6,200 gallons of terra cotta/"Salmon Stream" paint, replacing an earlier pink coloring. Treasure Island received a Four Diamond Award every year from 1999 to 2013.

 

Tangerine, a nightclub featuring an orange and white interior, operated from 2004 to 2007. Fashion designer Christian Audigier opened an eponymous nightclub at Treasure Island in 2008, in partnership with Pure Management Group. The decor included rhinestone-encrusted skulls and two large tanks containing jellyfish. Audigier said, "When you're going into a club, you want to see sparkling and glitter and rhinestones". Christian Audigier did not perform as well as Ruffin would have liked, prompting its closure in 2010. Ruffin's other changes included a $3 million makeover of the spa, with renovations overseen by his wife Oleksandra Nikolayenko. At one point, Treasure Island had 18,000 sq ft (1,700 m2) of convention space, which received a $4 million renovation in 2012. Four years later, the space was expanded to 30,500 sq ft (2,830 m2).

 

In 2013, the resort announced plans to build a three-story mall, replacing the northern portion of the pirate lagoon area. It was completed two years later, and includes a CVS Pharmacy on the first floor. At the end of 2015, the resort announced that it would lease the upper floors to Victory Hill Exhibitions. In 2016, the company opened the Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N., an interactive self-guided exhibit based on the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

 

The Mirage-Treasure Island Tram travels between the two resorts.

 

Theme and design

 

Various themes were considered for the resort, until a friend of Wynn's suggested the name "Treasure Island", resulting in a pirate theme. It is named after the 1880s novel Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. The resort was designed by Joel Bergman, who previously designed the Mirage. Bergman designed the Treasure Island tower with a floorplan that branched out three ways in a Y-shape, with elevators in the center. This was done for convenience to guests, making the walk to their rooms brief. The Y-shape was modeled after the Mirage hotel tower.

 

Wynn's Atlandia Design worked with Jon Jerde and Olio Design to create the pirate village and lagoon area, originally known as Buccaneer Bay, and later as Siren's Cove. During the design phase, the hotel's lobby entrance was moved to the resort's south side, in order to maintain Buccaneer Bay's location on the east side along the Strip. Jerde's assistants traveled across Europe, India and Nepal searching for historic objects such as doors and columns, which were then replicated for Buccaneer Bay. The lagoon is 65 feet deep, and originally contained 2 million gallons of water. It uses wastewater recycled from a water treatment plant located beneath the resort's parking garage. A maintenance team, including divers, works to keep the lagoon clean.

 

According to interior designer Roger Thomas, "We thought it would be great fun to create a pirate village with sinking ships and pyrotechnics. The day after it opened we all looked at each other and said, 'What have we done? This is so not us'". Executives realized that the resort's heavy pirate theme did not appeal to people interested in a weekend getaway. By 1998, efforts had begun to downplay the theme. Mirage conducted focus group testing to determine upcoming renovation plans for Treasure Island. A $60 million remodeling of the hotel rooms took place in 1999.

 

The resort initially included a roadside sign featuring an 8,000-pound pirate skull, made of fiberglass and measuring 27 1/2 feet. The skull sign was removed on July 10, 2003, in a ceremony accompanied by fireworks. Sibella said, "It's a cool sign, but it needs to complement what we're doing inside", referring to the property's revamp. The skull portion was donated to the city's Neon Museum, while much of the remaining sign was scrapped. The sign was replaced by an LED neon "TI" sign with a modern and sophisticated design. The new sign measures 137 feet high and 84 feet wide.

 

Various pirate memorabilia had been removed from the resort over the course of three years, and was auctioned in September 2003.

 

Restaurants

 

Treasure Island opened with several restaurants, including Buccaneer Bay Club, which overlooked the lagoon and its pirate shows. Its menu included steak and seafood. A fine-dining Italian restaurant, Francesco's, was added in 1998. It featured artwork by celebrities such as Tony Bennett and Phyllis Diller.

 

The arcade was replaced in 2001 by a tropical-themed restaurant and bar named Kahunaville, part of efforts to appeal to a more-adult demographic. Kahunaville included a dinner show space for live entertainment. A new buffet, Dishes, was added in 2005. An Asian restaurant known as Social House opened a year later, replacing Buccaneer Bay Club.

 

Ruffin made numerous restaurant changes upon taking ownership. In 2009, he replaced Francesco's with a pizzeria by the same name, stating, "It's quick and it's cheap and that's what people are looking for these days". Ruffin also replaced Social House with his own Asian restaurant, Khotan, featuring jade and ivory antiques from his personal collection. In 2010, he opened Gilley's Saloon, a popular Western-themed restaurant, bar and dance hall. It previously operated at Ruffin's New Frontier hotel-casino, which closed in 2007. The new location replaced Treasure Island's Mist Lounge.

 

In 2012, Ruffin opened a Señor Frog's restaurant and bar to complement Kahunaville and Gilley's. It replaced Christian Audigier and Khotan, the latter relocating elsewhere in the resort. Another new restaurant, Seafood Shack, also opened in 2012. Its interior was created with recycled materials, including reclaimed wood which lines the walls. The restaurant's centerpiece is an anchor pulled from the Atlantic Ocean. The resort also has Phil's Steak House, named after Ruffin. Kahunaville closed in 2016.

 

Live entertainment

 

Treasure Island opened with the free Battle of Buccaneer Bay pirate show, performed in the lagoon along the Strip. The 15-minute show was performed several times a day and featured 22 actors. It depicted the landing and subsequent sacking of a Caribbean village by pirates, serving to attract customers from the Strip and into the resort after each show in the same fashion as the volcano fronting the Mirage resort. Notable special effects included a full-scale, crewed British Royal Navy sailing ship that sailed nearly the full width of the property, a gas-fired "powder magazine" explosion, pyrotechnics, and the sinking of the sailing ship Brittania along with its captain.

 

Battle of Buccaneer Bay held its final performance on July 6, 2003, with a total of 16,334 shows performed over the course of nearly 10 years. It ended as part of the resort's ongoing revamp, which would include a new pirate show. Sibella described the original show as something that would be expected at Disneyland, while calling its successor a "sexy and beautiful, adult Broadway-caliber show."

 

The new Sirens of TI pirate show debuted in October 2003, marking the resort's 10th anniversary. The Buccaneer Bay was renamed Sirens' Cove and the new show utilized many of the technical elements of its predecessor. The live, free show was intended to appeal more to adults by including singing, dancing, audio-visual effects, bare-chested pirates and attractive women in the large outdoor show produced by Kenny Ortega. The original two ships were kept for the new show but repainted and altered, as well as some special effects.

 

Sirens of TI was closed on October 21, 2013. The closure was initially intended to be temporary, but was made permanent the following month, to the dismay of the show's actors. The reason cited by Treasure Island was the construction of the new retail space nearby. The shows had cost $5 million to put on annually. While Ruffin said the shows brought "a tremendous amount of attention" to Treasure Island, they amounted to minimal foot traffic inside the resort. The pirate ships remain on display in the lagoon, and are lit up at night.

 

Treasure Island is home to Cirque du Soleil's Mystère, which introduced the entertainment style of Franco Dragone. It opened on December 25, 1993, and has been voted nine times as the best production show in the city by the Las Vegas Review-Journal reader's poll. It is Cirque's longest-running Las Vegas show, reaching 13,000 performances in 2022. Mystère has been updated several times throughout its run. It takes place in a 1,600-seat theater, designed by Scéno Plus. To maximize use of the Mystère theater, Ruffin signed entertainers to perform there on nights when the show is not running. Such entertainers have included Bill Cosby, LeAnn Rimes, and Sinbad. The resort has also hosted boxing matches.

 

In popular culture

 

An hour-long promotional program, Treasure Island: The Adventure Begins, aired on NBC in January 1994. It stars Corey Carrier as a 12-year-old on vacation with his parents at the resort. There, he meets and teams up with Long John Silver (Anthony Zerbe) to find lost treasure. Mirage Resorts paid NBC $1.7 million to air the program. It was directed and produced by Scott Garen, and written by James V. Hart. The special includes an appearance by Wynn, and incorporates the Dunes' implosion as its climax. The program received low viewership ratings, and was considered an infomercial by critics, who lambasted NBC for not labeling it as such.

 

Treasure Island has been shown or referenced in other media as well:

 

In the 2004 movie Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, while Steve the Pirate is walking down Fremont Street, someone drives by yelling "Go back to Treasure Island". An alternative ending to the movie was that the Average Joes lost the dodgeball tournament, but got their money back when Steve won it at Treasure Island.

Treasure Island appears in the 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas under the name "Pirates in Men's Pants", a pun referencing Pirates of Penzance.

The resort was a major production location for the 2005 film Miss Congeniality 2, which included filming of the Sirens of TI show.

In the 2007 film Knocked Up, Ben (Seth Rogen) and Pete (Paul Rudd) see Mystère at Treasure Island during their visit to Las Vegas.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

The Venetian Las Vegas is a luxury hotel and casino resort located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States. It is owned by Vici Properties and operated by Apollo Global Management. It was developed by businessman Sheldon Adelson through his company, Las Vegas Sands. The Venetian was built on the former site of the Sands Hotel and Casino, which was closed and demolished in 1996.

 

Construction on the Venetian began in April 1997, and the resort opened on May 4, 1999. Some amenities had yet to be finished, with construction continuing until the end of the year. Subcontractors later filed mechanic's liens against the resort for unpaid work, leading to lengthy litigation. The Venetian also feuded with the Culinary Workers Union regarding Adelson's decision to open the property as a non-union resort.

 

The Venetian was designed by Stubbins Associates and Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo. The resort is themed after Venice and has replicas of numerous landmarks from the city, including a canal with gondola rides. The Venetian includes a 120,000 sq ft (11,000 m2) casino and opened with 3,036 suites in a 35-story tower. A 12-story tower, the Venezia, was completed in 2003, bringing the room count to 4,049. The Palazzo, a sister property with its own hotel and casino, opened north of the Venetian in 2007.

 

The Venetian was built to accommodate convention-goers in particular, as Adelson felt that this demographic was underserved in Las Vegas. The resort includes its own meeting space, as well as the adjoining Venetian Expo. The property also includes the Grand Canal Shoppes, and was home to the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum from 2001 to 2008. The Venetian has several performance venues, which have hosted entertainment such as the Blue Man Group (2005–2012), Phantom: The Las Vegas Spectacular (2006–2012), and Human Nature (2013–2020). A sphere-shaped venue and arena, known as Sphere at The Venetian Resort, is scheduled to open in September 2023.

 

By the end of 2020, Las Vegas Sands sought to focus on its Macau properties, which include The Venetian Macao. In February 2022, Apollo Global Management acquired the operations of the Venetian, Palazzo, and Venetian Expo for $2.25 billion, while Vici Properties purchased the land beneath the facilities for $4 billion.

 

History

 

Background and construction

 

The Venetian was built on land previously occupied by the Sands Hotel and Casino, which opened in 1952. Las Vegas Sands, a company founded by businessman Sheldon Adelson, purchased the Sands resort in 1989. Adelson eventually devised plans to replace the aging resort, which he felt was no longer competitive with newer properties. The Sands closed in June 1996, and was demolished five months later to make way for the Venetian.

 

Construction began on April 14, 1997, with a low-key groundbreaking ceremony. Lehrer McGovern Bovis served as the general contractor. Work began without the issuance of final permits, a strategy used by several previous resorts on the Strip. The Venetian's foundation was poured two months after groundbreaking, followed by the construction of three stories. Further work could not begin until the approval of a traffic study. An extranet was used during construction to keep the project on schedule. It contained 4,500 items, including photos, illustrations, legal documents, and budgets. Project team members, based in various locations, could access the items via the extranet, increasing efficiency.

 

A key demographic would be convention-goers, whom Adelson considered underserved in Las Vegas. At the end of 1997, the project acquired $523 million in funding through the sale of bonds. The final cost was $1.5 billion. Financial analysts were skeptical about whether the resort would be finished, while gambling executives questioned Adelson's decision to focus on business travelers and conventions. Up to that time, gambling had been the most significant revenue generator in Las Vegas. The Venetian was expected to employ more than 4,000 people, and it saw more than 100,000 applications.

 

Safety at the construction site was questioned after several incidents, including a worker death in January 1998, which occurred as the result of a fall. At the end of the year, another worker was crushed and killed by an 8,000-pound facade, which fell 32 stories while being lifted by a crane. In February 1999, a trio of workers had to be rescued from the hotel tower's exterior after a cable for their scaffolding became tangled by high winds, stranding the workers 22 stories above ground. In March 1999, a natural gas leak occurred on-site after workers accidentally struck a line, closing one block of the Strip for two hours. The following day, an electrician died after falling more than 30 feet through an open hole, marking the third death since the start of construction. Bovis had previously been fined $9,300 for safety violations which included a lack of fall protection near holes.

 

Opening

 

The opening was initially scheduled for April 21, 1999. Adelson had wanted it to open a week earlier to accommodate convention-goers who were booked at the hotel. However, both opening dates were delayed due to ongoing construction work, as well as building inspections by the county. As a result, 900 convention guests had to be transferred to other hotels.

 

A soft opening was eventually scheduled for May 3, 1999. A private opening ceremony was held that morning and attended by thousands of VIP guests, including actress Sophia Loren and more than 500 journalists from around the world. County inspections delayed the public opening until 12:45 a.m. the following day. It was one of three new resorts to open on the Strip in 1999, along with Mandalay Bay and Paris Las Vegas.

 

Because construction was still ongoing, the resort opened without all of its amenities, including a retail mall and some restaurants. Much of the hotel tower was also unavailable initially, due to the inspection work. Because of this, many guests were sent to other resorts. Hotel inspections continued for several days after the opening, with only the first six floors and 320 rooms approved to operate. Construction continued after the opening, and concluded in December 1999. The resort did not receive a permanent certificate of occupancy until June 2001.

 

Construction litigation

 

Shortly after the opening, numerous subcontractors alleged that they were owed money for work performed on the Venetian. More than $230 million in mechanic's liens were filed, including $145 million from Lehrer McGovern Bovis, which also filed a fraud lawsuit against the resort. The Venetian stated that it was not responsible for covering subcontractor costs, according to its contract with Bovis. The resort also said that, despite Adelson's request, Bovis had failed to acquire mechanics-lien waivers when hiring subcontractors. According to Bovis, the Venetian had made more than 400 design changes during the final eight months of construction, while denying requests for construction extensions.

 

In July 1999, the resort filed a $50 million federal lawsuit against Bovis over the liens, as well as breach of contract. The resort claimed that its reputation had been damaged by the scattered opening of its amenities. Bovis filed its $145 million lien the following month. Both sides subsequently agreed to try resolving the dispute out of court. However, this did not pan out. A civil jury trial eventually began in August 2002, lasting 10 months. It was the longest-running civil jury trial and the largest construction lien case in Nevada history. The trial concluded in June 2003, when jurors found both the Venetian and Bovis in breach of contract. For incomplete and defective construction work, Bovis had to pay $2.3 million in damages to the resort, which was also ordered to pay $44.2 million to Bovis. Las Vegas Sands appealed the decision, and eventually reached an agreement with Bovis in 2005.

 

Subsequent years

 

By 2002, Condé Nast Traveler had named the Venetian as one of North America's top 20 hotels. It had also received Four Diamond and Four Star ratings from American Automobile Association and Mobil Travel Guide respectively. As of 2004, the Venetian was among the most profitable resorts in Las Vegas, second to the Bellagio. A Chinese counterpart, the The Venetian Macao, opened in Macau in 2007. That year, the Las Vegas location also added a sister property, The Palazzo. In 2020, readers of USA Today ranked the Venetian and Palazzo among the 10 best casinos in Las Vegas.

 

In 2004, the Venetian agreed to pay a $1 million penalty to settle a 12-count Gaming Control Board complaint. One of the complaints alleged the resort had held a drawing for a Mercedes-Benz that was rigged to be won by a high roller who had lost a large amount in the casino. The executives involved were fired.

 

On the morning of October 10, 2012, a man entered a closed gaming area and acquired $1.6 million in casino chips from a locked box that he broke open. He left the resort unnoticed, and the theft was not discovered until the following morning. He was arrested later in the month, with authorities recovering $396,000 in chips.

 

In 2013, Las Vegas Sands reached a non-prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, following a two-year investigation into money laundering at the Venetian. Zhenli Ye Gon, a businessman and high-stakes gambler suspected of drug trafficking, had made numerous large deposits at the casino in 2006 and 2007. Las Vegas Sands acknowledged that it failed to take the matter seriously, and agreed to pay $47.4 million to the Department of Justice.

 

Like other casinos in Nevada, the Venetian closed indefinitely in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the state. The following month, the resort announced plans to incorporate emergency medical personnel and automatic camera-based body temperature scans into its eventual reopening, which occurred on June 4, 2020.

 

By the end of 2020, Las Vegas Sands wanted to focus on its operations in Macau, as Asia was expected to recover from the pandemic's impact at a faster rate. The company was in early discussions to sell the Venetian, the Palazzo, and the adjoining Sands Expo. Adelson died in January 2021, and Las Vegas Sands announced two months later that it would sell the three Las Vegas facilities for $6.25 billion. Through the deal, Vici Properties bought the land under the facilities for $4 billion, and Apollo Global Management acquired the operations for $2.25 billion as part of a triple net lease agreement with Vici.The sale was finalized in February 2022.

 

Union history

 

Background

 

Before the start of construction, Adelson indicated that the Venetian would be a non-union resort,[83] unlike the Sands. This prompted criticism from the Culinary Workers Union, which represents the majority of Strip resort workers.[86] The union wanted Adelson to rehire Sands workers without going through the application process. In March 1997, the union urged Clark County Commissioners to reject the Venetian project, citing traffic concerns if it should be built. Later that year, the union held protests in front of a Venetian preview center, which resulted in a restraining order that limited the level of noise allowed during the protests.

 

Resort executives said the property would offer a wages and benefits package matching or exceeding those offered by the union. Adelson outsourced key elements of the resort to third parties, including restaurant and retail operations. He said it would be up to employees to decide on unionization, stating that the Culinary's actions were an "attempt to intimidate employers like me into signing contracts for workers I haven't hired yet, to stop me from trying to give my future employees a chance to choose whether they want union representation, and stop me from attracting like-minded, brand-name restaurateurs who want to give their employees that same freedom to choose". The union sought assurance that the Venetian would take a neutral stance during eventual union elections. Ultimately, the resort never unionized under Las Vegas Sands' ownership.

 

1999 protests and aftermath

 

A traffic study had determined that the public sidewalk in front of the future Venetian had to be removed, allowing for a widening of Las Vegas Boulevard. In an agreement with the county, the resort built a sidewalk on its own property with the condition that it be accessible by the public. More than 1,000 Culinary members picketed on the sidewalk in front of the resort on March 1, 1999, two months prior to its opening. Resort officials accused them of trespassing and warned of arrests, although the district attorney determined the sidewalks to be public property. Georgia congressman John Lewis spoke at the rally and also attempted to meet with Adelson, who turned down the offer because Lewis wanted to include union representatives. Although the protest had a permit to proceed, the Venetian contacted the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) to intervene, despite the latter stating that it would not do so. The Venetian used loudspeakers to warn union members against protesting in front of the resort, and one Venetian security guard performed a citizen's arrest on a union member.

 

Several days after the protest, the resort filed a federal lawsuit against the union, the county, the district attorney, and the LVMPD. The resort stated that the protest took place on a private walkway separate from the sidewalk, and it sought a court order declaring the former as private property. The union responded: "We've been through this before, and we'll be through it again. We've battled this guy before, and we'll battle him as long as it takes. We're never going away. It's a long way from over". A judge denied the Venetian's request for a restraining order, and thousands of Culinary members protested at the resort's grand opening. However, most tourists were reportedly unaware or uninterested in the union battle, proceeding to visit the property. The Venetian accused the union of trespassing and unlawful picketing, and filed suit to prevent such activity in the future. A district court ruled later in 1999 that the resort's sidewalks constitute a public forum where individuals can exercise their First Amendment rights. The decision was appealed but upheld in 2001.

 

After the district court ruling, the union filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in regard to the sidewalk dispute. The agency eventually determined that the resort violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The Venetian appealed, but eventually lost the case when it went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear it in 2008. However, a year later, the NLRB did withdraw its finding that the Venetian violated the NLRA when it contacted police.

 

After Apollo's purchase was announced in 2021, the Culinary union questioned the company's prior management of Caesars Entertainment, which included a workforce cut of more than 20,000 over a 10-year period. Upon taking ownership in 2022, Apollo expressed no opposition to unionization. In 2023, a card check neutrality agreement was reached between Apollo and the Culinary union, as well as other unions. Under the deal, employees would determine whether to unionize while Apollo management refrains from taking a position on the matter.

 

Design

 

The Venetian is themed after Venice during the 1400s and 1500s, and it features numerous landmarks from the city. Initially, Adelson did not plan for the resort to have a theme. His second wife, Miriam, eventually suggested theming the resort after Venice, where they had honeymooned in 1991.

 

Two architectural firms worked on the project: Stubbins Associates, and Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo. Many of the resort's landmarks and statues were created by Treadway Industries. The design project included 250 artists and sculptors. For historical authenticity, the resort hired two Venice historians, while Treadway sent a team there to photograph the city. Venice mayor Massimo Cacciari was critical of the design, calling it a "mega-galactic example of kitsch" and comparing the resort with a "street walker".

 

The exterior entrance along the Las Vegas Strip is replicated after Doge's Palace and includes a recreation of the Rialto Bridge. It also features a 315-foot-high replica of St Mark's Campanile, topped by a statue depicting Gabriel. A revolving restaurant or lounge had been considered for the top of the tower, but it was deemed too small, measuring only 40 square feet. The Grand Canal Shoppes occupy an Indoor plaza, which depicts St. Mark's Square and features a sky-painted ceiling. Another area of the resort features 21 Renaissance-era paintings that were framed and attached to the ceiling.

 

The Venetian includes a replica of Venice's Grand Canal that goes through the resort's interior and exterior. Gondolas travel throughout the canal, and visitors can ride on them for a fee. In 2013, the indoor canals were drained for a month-long renovation, the first since the resort opened. At the time, the gondolas attracted an annual 500,000 riders.

 

Features

 

Casino and hotel

 

The Venetian includes a 120,000 sq ft (11,000 m2) casino. Due to lack of demand, the resort's poker room closed in 2000, with plans to expand the race and sports book. Amid a resurgence in poker popularity, the resort added a new $2.6 million poker room in 2006, featuring 39 tables. At 11,000 sq ft (1,000 m2), it was the third largest poker room on the Strip.[125][126] The resort eventually replaced it with the larger Sands Poker Room, which debuted in 2012. It was the largest on the Strip, measuring 14,000 sq ft (1,300 m2).

 

In 2001, the Venetian announced changes aimed at accommodating high rollers. This would include expansion of the baccarat pit, modifications to 18 suites, and the addition of semi-private gaming and dining areas. In 2005, the Venetian opened the Paiza Club, a high-rise private gaming area catering to Asian high rollers. Las Vegas Sands had opened the Sands Macao in China a year earlier, building up a new customer base in Asia.

 

In 2006, Nevada became the first state to approve mobile gambling, and the Venetian reached a deal with Cantor Gaming to provide such a service at the resort. The mobile gaming devices, developed and operated by Cantor, offered games such as blackjack and video poker. They were usable in public areas of the resort such as restaurants and the pool area. The Venetian introduced the devices in 2008, becoming the first Las Vegas resort to offer them. Cantor took over the Venetian's sports book operations in 2011, and spent $30 million to renovate the facility, which measured 10,000 sq ft (930 m2). A high-limit slot salon opened in 2013, featuring 118 machines and butler service.

 

The Venetian opened with 3,036 suites. The original hotel tower is 35 stories and 480 feet in height. Plans were evaluated in 2000 for a second tower, to be built atop the resort's 10-story parking garage. Construction eventually began in July 2002. The 12-story Venezia tower opened in June 2003 and added 1,013 rooms, for a total of 4,049.

 

The 50-story Palazzo, directly north of the Venetian, includes more than 3,000 rooms. When considered as a single property, the Venetian-Palazzo complex ranked as the world's largest hotel, with approximately 7,100 rooms. The complex has a total of 225,000 sq ft (20,900 m2) in gaming space.

 

In 2010, the Venetian and Palazzo partnered with InterContinental Hotels Group through a 10-year deal. The Venetian rooms were renovated in 2015. Two years later, the Venetian became the first Las Vegas resort to allow hotel bookings through Facebook Messenger.

 

Clubs and lounges

 

A nightclub, C2K, opened in late 1999 and was leased out to a third-party operator. The Venetian closed the club in August 2000, alleging rampant drug use and sexual activities. The closure came a month after a woman died at the club of an ecstasy overdose. It reopened two months later, under new management.

 

In its early years, the Venetian included a club known as the Venus Lounge. In 2005, Vivid Entertainment leased the space and opened it as Vivid, a 7,000 sq ft (650 m2) nightclub. Vivid closed in 2006, and sat vacant until the 2009 opening of Smokin' Hot Aces, a rock and roll bar.

 

Tao, a popular nightclub and restaurant, opened in 2005. It covers 60,000 sq ft (5,600 m2), including 12,000 sq ft (1,100 m2) for the nightclub. A dayclub, known as Tao Beach, opened in 2007.[ The five-acre Tao Beach covers the nightclub's rooftop.

 

In 2012, the Venetian opened The Bourbon Room, a 1980s-themed lounge. It took over the former La Scena lounge and accompanied the resort's new Rock of Ages show, which was performed in a separate venue. The show and lounge closed in early 2016. The Bourbon Room was replaced by the Dorsey, a cocktail bar opened later in 2016. It went on to become one of the most popular bars in Las Vegas. It is scheduled to close in June 2023, to be replaced by Juliet Cocktail Room.

 

Restaurants

 

The Venetian initially featured 15 restaurants, three of which were ready for the resort's soft opening.[ Notable chefs at the resort included Emeril Lagasse, Joachim Splichal, Stephan Pyles, and Wolfgang Puck. In contrast to most Las Vegas resorts, the Venetian opened without a buffet, as Adelson sought an upper-class clientele: "The people who want buffets are not consistent with the luxury and quality that we've put together here".

 

Tao Asian Bistro has consistently ranked as the highest-grossing independent restaurant in the U.S. since its 2005 opening, in part due to alcohol sales in its bar. The restaurant features Asian decor, including a giant Buddha statue. Another restaurant, Royal Star, also served Chinese food until its closure in 2006.

 

Bouchon, a French bistro by chef Thomas Keller, has operated since 2004. It is located in the Venezia tower and was designed by Adam Tihany. Yardbird Southern Table & Bar opened its second location in 2015, at the Venetian. Chef Mario Batali had two restaurants at the Venetian, both of which closed in 2018, after sexual misconduct allegations were made against him. Estiatorio Milos, a Greek seafood restaurant, opened in 2021.

 

Convention space

 

The resort opened with the Venetian Congress Center, offering 500,000 sq ft (46,000 m2) of meeting space, in addition to the adjoining Sands Expo behind the Venetian, which opened in 1990 as part of the earlier Sands resort. A 150,000 sq ft (14,000 m2) expansion of the Congress Center and Sands Expo brought the resort's total meeting space to 1.9-million sq ft (180,000 m2). The expansion cost $45 million and was finished in 2003.

 

The Venetian helped popularize Las Vegas as a convention city, particularly thanks to its Sands Expo. Las Vegas Sands renamed it as the Venetian Expo in 2021, while in the process of selling the facility. The Venetian Congress Center was also renamed The Venetian Convention Center.

 

Museums

 

Two museums, affiliated with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, opened at the Venetian on October 7, 2001. Both were designed by architect Rem Koolhaas.

 

The Guggenheim Las Vegas operated in a 63,700 sq ft (5,920 m2) building until January 2003, hosting only one exhibit up to that point: Guggenheim's The Art of the Motorcycle. The facility and exhibition cost $37 million to develop, and averaged 666 daily visitors; it needed 3,000 to 4,000 to justify operating expenses. The low attendance was partly attributed to decreased tourism brought on by the September 11 attacks. Several new exhibits had been considered as replacements, but none came to fruition due to lack of funding.[206] The Venetian announced in May 2003 that the Guggenheim Las Vegas space would become a new performance theater for the resort.

The Guggenheim Hermitage Museum operated in partnership with the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. The facility measured 7,660 sq ft (712 m2) and hosted 10 exhibitions before closing in May 2008.

 

Other features

 

Since 1999, the resort has included a Madame Tussaud's wax museum, marking the first U.S. location. The resort also features the Grand Canal Shoppes, an 875,000 sq ft (81,300 m2) shopping mall. In 2000, the Venetian became the first Strip resort to open a child-care center for its employees. The Venetian opened with five pools, and the 2003 Venezia addition included another pool deck and the resort's first wedding chapel. Upon its opening, the resort also included the 63,000 sq ft (5,900 m2) Canyon Ranch SpaClub. The spa was expanded during construction of the Palazzo, bringing it to 134,000 sq ft (12,400 m2). It is among the largest spa and fitness centers in Las Vegas.

 

Entertainment venues

 

Showroom

 

The Venetian's C2K club served as the resort's original performance venue, known as the Showroom during live entertainment. It was managed by H&H; Entertainment, which leased the space from the resort and rented it out to performers. The venue struggled in its early years, and the Venetian had a strained relationship with H&H;, disagreeing with the type of shows being put on.[ Performers – such as impressionist André-Philippe Gagnon, magician Melinda Saxe, and singer Robert Goulet – also had disagreements with H&H;'s management style. In its early years, the Showroom had been host to several shows, though none garnered substantial success until the 2003 openings of Lord of the Dance and V: The Ultimate Variety Show.

 

Opaline Theatre

 

Lord of the Dance and V both closed in 2004, making way for construction of a new theater with 1,760 seats. The Blue Man Group opened in the new space in 2005, and performed there until 2012. The Blue Man Group Theatre subsequently became the Rock of Ages Theatre, hosting the Rock of Ages musical from 2012 to 2016, with more than 1,000 performances during that time. The theater sat vacant for the next year, eventually hosting Steely Dan in 2017, under the new name of Opaline Theatre. A circus-themed show by Base Entertainment, titled Revive, was being developed for the Opaline Theater, but was canceled in 2018, stalling plans to renovate the venue. Base has since used the theater as a rehearsal space for other, off-site shows. The venue remains vacant as of 2022.

 

Venetian Theatre

 

In 2003, the Venetian announced that Guggenheim Las Vegas would be converted into a second performance venue. The new theater has seating for 1,815 people. It debuted with Phantom: The Las Vegas Spectacular, a shortened, 95-minute version of The Phantom of the Opera. The theater cost $42 million to build, and the show's production cost another $35 million. The show opened in 2006, and ran for six years, ending after nearly 2,700 performances. The former Phantom Theatre has since been renamed the Venetian Theatre.

 

At the end of 2012, country singers Tim McGraw and Faith Hill took over the theater space for a 10-weekend series of concerts. In 2013, they signed on for another 10-weekend set of shows. Georgia on My Mind, a Ray Charles tribute show, ran during 2014, with Clint Holmes, Nnenna Freelon, and Take 6 as performers. Although scheduled for a six-week run, it closed two weeks early due to poor ticket sales. In 2015, after nearly five years, The Judds reunited for a series of shows at the Venetian. Singer John Fogerty also had a concert residency in the theater during 2016, in a show incorporating smoke and pyrotechnics.

 

The Summit

 

A third performance venue, the Gordie Brown Theatre, was added in October 2006, taking former ballroom space. The 742-seat venue was custom-built to host singer Gordie Brown, with a design by The Rockwell Group. In 2007, Wayne Brady also signed on to perform in the venue, which was renamed the Venetian Showroom.

 

Brown ended his run in 2008. An interactive game show, The Real Deal, ran in the Venetian Showroom later that year. The show involved certain audience members being selected to compete against professional poker players. It was produced by Merv Adelson, who was later accused by the resort of stopping production and thereby breaching contract. In 2009, actor Chazz Palminteri performed his one-man show, A Bronx Tale, in the showroom.

 

In 2013, pop musical group Human Nature began performing in the space, which was renamed the Sands Showroom. Human Nature ended its show in 2020, amid uncertainty regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

In 2014, the resort debuted an all-female comedy series in the Sands Showroom. Puppets Up! Uncensored, an adult-oriented puppet show, opened in the showroom in July 2016. The short-lived show, created by Brian Henson and directed by Patrick Bristow, closed in September 2016.

 

In 2021, the Sands Showroom was renamed The Summit, and Derek Hough launched a dance show which continued into the following year. Lin-Manuel Miranda and his musical group Freestyle Love Supreme had a residency in the showroom from 2022 to 2023.

 

Sphere at The Venetian Resort

 

A sphere-shaped music and entertainment arena, known as Sphere at The Venetian Resort, is scheduled to open in September 2023. The arena's interior is covered in LED screens which accompany live entertainment. The venue includes seating for 17,500 people.

 

Film and television history

 

Films

 

The Venetian's casino, lobby, and exterior were among the filming locations for the 2001 film Rat Race. The hotel rooms were also portrayed in the film, although these scenes were shot on a sound stage in Canada.

The Venetian hosted the premiere of the 2003 film The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

The Venetian was a prominent filming location for the 2005 film Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous.

 

Television

 

In 2000, the cooking program Emeril Live shot several episodes in the Showroom.

By 2003, the resort had made several appearances on the television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

A 2005 episode of Megastructures, titled "Ultimate Casino", focuses on the resort's design and construction.

The U.S. TV series What Not to Wear shot its series finale at The Venetian and Palazzo in 2013, inviting more than 100 past contributors from the show's 10-year run to participate.

The American game show Wheel of Fortune filmed episodes for its 31st season at the Venetian and Palazzo in 2013.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Das Treasure Island Las Vegas ist ein 4-Sterne-Hotel mit 2885 Zimmern in 36 Stockwerken in Paradise. Das Hotel liegt am Las Vegas Boulevard („Strip“) und ist durch eine Hochbahn mit dem Mirage verbunden. Das Hotel wurde 1993 vom ehemaligen Großunternehmen Mirage Resorts eröffnet. Dieses wurde später von der MGM-Mirage-Gruppe übernommen. Am 15. Dezember 2008 erfolgte der Verkauf an Phil Ruffin, den ehemaligen Besitzer des New Frontier.

 

Das Treasure Island wurde durch gefährlich-romantische Seefahrer-Abenteuer in der Karibik inspiriert. Jeden Abend wurde vor dem Hotel um 17:30, 19:00, 20:30 und 22:00 Uhr die berühmte Wassershow „Sirens of TI“ in Szene gesetzt. Als Hotelgast erhielt man Zugang zum VIP-Bereich, von welchem man die Wassershow hautnah miterleben konnte.

 

Die Show „Sirens of TI“ wurde am 21. Oktober 2013 eingestellt. Die Schließung sollte ursprünglich nur vorübergehend sein, aber im November 2013 fiel die Entscheidung die Show komplett aufzugeben. Der Grund soll der Bau von neuen Einzelhandelsflächen sein.

 

Außerdem findet im Hotel eine permanente Aufführungsserie des Programms Mystère des Cirque du Soleil statt.

 

Im Casino-Bereich befindet sich das Buffet „Dishes“.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Das Venetian Resort Hotel ist ein Luxushotel am Las Vegas Strip, das der italienischen Stadt Venedig nachempfunden wurde.

 

Ausstattung

 

Wie die meisten Hotels am Strip liegt auch das Venetian auf der Gemarkung von Paradise (Nevada). Zu dem 4.049 Suiten umfassenden Hotel gehören achtzehn Restaurants, zahlreiche Geschäfte und Boutiquen, ein Kasino und ein Madame Tussauds-Wachsfigurenkabinett.

 

In dem Hotel sind venezianische Sehenswürdigkeiten wie die Rialtobrücke, der Markusplatz oder der Campanile wiederzuerkennen. Selbst die venezianischen Kanäle wurden im und vor dem Hotel nachgebaut (allerdings nur knietief), einschließlich Gondeln mit singenden Gondolieri.

 

Der Eigentümer Las Vegas Sands eröffnete am 28. August 2007 mit dem The Venetian Macao ein Hotel mit demselben Thema in Macau.

 

Am 30. Dezember 2007 wurde das Schwesterhotel „The Palazzo“ zwischen dem Venetian und dem Wynn eröffnet. Zusammen haben beide Hotels 7.128 Zimmer, es war somit zwischen 2008 und 2015 der größte Hotelkomplex der Welt. Mittlerweile wurde das Venetian vom First World Hotel in Malaysia (7.351 Zimmer) überholt und steht nun an zweiter Stelle der Hotels mit den meisten Zimmern.

 

Die Irish Dance Show Lord of the Dance hat eine Truppe, die nur hier auftritt.

 

Im Februar 2010 wurde im Venetian ein Pokerturnier veranstaltet, welches für ESPN aufbereitet wurde.

 

In dem Nobelhotel wurde die Actionkomödie Miss Undercover 2 – Fabelhaft und bewaffnet mit Schauspielerin Sandra Bullock von 2005 gedreht.

 

Technische Daten

 

Höhe: 145 m

Etagen (oberirdisch): 40

Fertigstellung: 1999

Architekten: The Stubbins Associates, Inc., TSA of Nevada, LLC

 

Restaurants

 

Aquaknox, ein Fischrestaurant

Bouchon, klassisches französisches Bistro

Canaletto, venezianisches Ambiente mit Grillspezialitäten.

Delmonico Steakhouse, Steakhouse mit Südstaaten-Küche

Lutece, Restaurant im New-York-Stil

Pinot Brasserie

Postrio

Royal Star

Tao

Tsunami Asian Grill, Asia-Fusion-Küche

Valentino

Zeffirino Ristorante, traditionelle italienische Küche

Canyon Ranch Cafe

Grand Lux Cafe

Noodle Asia

Taqueria Canonita

The Grill at Valentino

Tintoretto Bakery

 

(Wikipedia)

DISCLAIMER: THIS ISSUE CONTAINS GRAPHICALLY DEPICTED VIOLENCE. PROCEED WITH CAUTION

 

Klarion the Witch Boy had teleported himself to the headquarters of the illegal smuggling organization “The Otherkind”, in hopes of purchasing an item he’d had his eyes on for quite a while. “The Helm of Flame”. An ancient weapon, myths say that the mask can transform your body into that of a demon, if you read a specific ancient script. There is no known proof of this, however. On opposite sides of the room stood several members of the group, working in different ways, like stocking shelves or chopping up wood to make more shelves. Waiting to purchase this item, Klarion had stood silent in the dark, cold, damp cement building, unnoticed.

 

Klarion: …Ahem?

 

A bearded man was sitting on the floor, who now looked up from his can of tomato soup to look into Klarion’s demonic eyes.

 

Bearded man: Eh? Oh, uh… Is this the guy?

 

The bearded man spoke with a raspy Russian accent, before looking up to The Rip, who was the organization’s leader. The Rip’s appearance was an odd one. A silhouette, entirely blacked out, standing at roughly 6’7”.

 

The Rip: Indeed it is. Klarion. It is an honour to meet you.

 

The Rip spoke in a very smooth but deep voice. It wasn’t loud, but when he spoke, it felt as if it was the only thing you could hear. It grabbed your attention instantly.

 

Klarion: Why, thank you. You know what I came for, yes?

 

The Rip: I do remember, yes. The Helm of Flame.

 

Klarion: Mhm! Now shall your servant fetch it for me, along with the script?

 

The Rip: I’d prefer if you weren’t to degrade my coworkers, but yes, Alec shall grant it to you. Alec?

 

He turned to the bearded man… Or at least Klarion assumed he did. With a man who appears physically as a mass of darkness it’s hard to tell.

 

Alec: Alrighty… Just a second…

 

He took one last spoonful from the tin can, a small portion of it spilling on his bright blue overcoat before he stood up. He set the can and spoon on the filthy stone floor before he waddled to the Helm of Flame on the shelf, before handing it to Klarion.

 

Alec: Here ya’ go.

 

Klarion: …There’s chowder on the script. It’s filthy, and that’s unacceptable..! Fetch me another.

 

Alec: Uh… Y’know there’s only one of ‘em, right?

 

The Rip walked over to Klarion, and tapped his fingers against the corner of the script.

 

The Rip: Ghålli-shï.

 

Suddenly, the script was cleaned.

 

Klarion: Thank you, that is much more adequate… Now, how much for each?

 

Klarion rummaged through a leather wallet, while holding the helm and script under his arm.

 

The Rip: 1.5 million in total-

 

Klarion: 5 million, you say? Alrighty…

 

Klarion handed The Rip the 5 million dollars.

 

The Rip: Ötałlo-kå.

 

With a poof of purple smoke, the money vanished.

 

Klarion: Pleasure doing business with you.

 

The Rip: The pleasure is mine, Klarion.

 

Klarion: Shalån-Greėm.

 

Klarion vanished. A moment after, a worker in an orange sweater walked from the shadows. He hadn’t been doing anything to help the organization, unlike the others.

 

Man in orange: What a brat.

 

Both Alec and The Rip turned to the man in orange…

 

The Rip: …What did you just say, Walter?

 

Alec: Sh#t, dude…

 

The two other members of The Otherkind stopped working and turned to “Walter”. One was a man in a black coat and orange scarf, the other a young woman in a purple sweater.

 

Man in scarf: Oh, dear lord…

 

The woman in purple simply put her hands over her mouth in shock.

 

Walter: I’m just sayin’. What? You all thought it, be real.

 

The Rip: You understand in the 2 months of being here you’ve done nothing but stand around, correct? Watching your coworkers work painfully hard while all you have to do is stock shelves, and yet you can’t even do that right? The others have been doing their jobs correctly for years, and after being here for 2 months, you can’t even manage to be kind to my client.

 

Walter: I really don’t see what the big deal is.

 

Alec: Shut up! Dude, seriously!

 

The Rip: I hadn’t had to speak to you about your laziness, as much as it had frustrated me. But this? Mocking a client? You think you have the right to do that?This is where I draw the line.

 

The Rip walked slowly and ominously towards Walter while speaking…

 

Walter: He was just a kid, who cares?

 

The Rip: You’re not listening to me, are you? You never listen to me. You don’t deserve to be part of this organization. You have such little respect that probably didn’t even attempt to remember my name.

 

Walter: “Rip”, right?

 

The Rip stood in place…

 

The Rip: Yes. Surprisingly, you got that right… But do you know why that is?

 

Walter: Uh… No.

 

The Rip: Well… Let me show you.

 

The Rip’s chest and stomach spread open like a vertical mouth, pointed with jagged fang-like spikes. From the gaping void in his torso appeared long, reddish tendrils. The first latched around Walter’s right arm. Then the left. And then his legs. This was the first time The Rip had seen Walter express genuine fear.

 

Walter: Agh, Christ..! I-… I can’t move!

 

The rest of The Otherkind were silent, watching what was happening. The tentacles seemed to grow even longer, pulling Walter high into the air as his eyes opened wider, his forehead shining with sweat. More tendrils appeared, rubbing their pointed tips against Walter’s freakishly warm skin. The man in the scarf ran to help Walter, only to be knocked back by one of the tentacles, causing him to be bashed against a stone wall.

 

Man in scarf: *uff*!

 

The Rip: Stay back, Malcolm. This is necessary.

 

Suddenly, one of the tentacles tore the left leg straight off of Walter, it dropped to the floor, blood spilling out from the gaping wound and onto the limb in puddles. Walter tried to scream, but his mouth was being filled by the tentacles. Tears ran down both his and most of the other members’ faces.

 

Alec: What the hell!?

 

Malcolm: Jesus…

 

The woman in purple was silent, her pupils microscopic, her whole body was shaking. This horrific sight had seemed to effect her the most out of the members. Through the gaps between the hands covering her eyes she noticed the tentacles tugging even harder on each of the limbs, the sound of cracking bones echoed through the room. Eventually all three remaining limbs split apart, leaving a pile of broken pieces on the floor. Walter was nothing but broken bones, torn skin, muscle, and large masses of blood. Walter’s head was still fully intact when it hit the floor, however, his eyes were still wide open and his jaw fully extended, staring into the souls of the remaining members.

 

Woman in purple: No… No no no…

 

She fell to her knees, her hands dropping to the floor, her tears breaking through like a waterfall. Malcolm stood beside her, putting his hand on her shoulder to comfort them. Meanwhile all the tentacles sucked themselves quickly back into The Rip, before he reached his hand down to Walter’s mutilated corpse.

 

The Rip: Ötałlo-kå.

 

What was rest of Walter disappeared. The Rip turned to the other members.

 

The Rip: I am deeply sorry if you found the visuals of Walter’s deserved punishment a tad graphic.

 

Malcolm: “A tad”? You slaughtered the poor guy. Look at Cindy here, look what you did.

 

“Cindy” looked up at The Rip, a hint of rage behind her tears.

 

Cindy: You monster!!!

 

She got up and lunged at The Rip, only for him to put his hand forward in a shielding position.

 

The Rip: Hīdoth-pöl.

 

She teleported back where she was before.

 

The Rip: Your anger is justified, though please, take this experience as a lesson. I love you all deeply, you’re like family to me. I’d rather not be forced to punish one of you like I did today. So stay in line. Thank you. Now, back to work.

 

~Madam Web

Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data [2023], processed by Sentinel Hub/Pierre Markuse

 

Hawaii, USA - 17 June 2023

 

Iimage is about 200 kilometers wide.

 

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Old Gas Pumps at Pete's Service.

  

Arches National Park is a national park in eastern Utah, United States. The park is adjacent to the Colorado River, 4 miles (6 km) north of Moab, Utah. More than 2,000 natural sandstone arches are located in the park, including the well-known Delicate Arch, as well as a variety of unique geological resources and formations. The park contains the highest density of natural arches in the world.

 

The park consists of 310.31 square kilometres (76,680 acres; 119.81 sq mi; 31,031 ha) of high desert located on the Colorado Plateau. The highest elevation in the park is 5,653 feet (1,723 m) at Elephant Butte, and the lowest elevation is 4,085 feet (1,245 m) at the visitor center. The park receives an average of less than 10 inches (250 mm) of rain annually.

 

Administered by the National Park Service, the area was originally named a national monument on April 12, 1929, and was re designated as a national park on November 12, 1971. The park received more than 1.6 million visitors in 2018.

 

As stated in the foundation document in U.S. National Park Service website:

 

The purpose of Arches National Park is to protect extraordinary examples of geologic features including arches, natural bridges, windows, spires, and balanced rocks, as well as other features of geologic, historic, and scientific interest, and to provide opportunities to experience these resources and their associated values in their majestic natural settings.

 

The national park lies above an underground evaporite layer or salt bed, which is the main cause of the formation of the arches, spires, balanced rocks, sandstone fins, and eroded monoliths in the area. This salt bed is thousands of feet thick in places and was deposited in the Paradox Basin of the Colorado Plateau some 300 million years ago (Mya) when a sea flowed into the region and eventually evaporated. Over millions of years, the salt bed was covered with debris eroded from the Uncompahgre Uplift to the northeast. During the Early Jurassic (about 200 Mya), desert conditions prevailed in the region and the vast Navajo Sandstone was deposited. An additional sequence of stream laid and windblown sediments, the Entrada Sandstone (about 140 Mya), was deposited on top of the Navajo. Over 5,000 feet (1,500 m) of younger sediments were deposited and have been mostly eroded. Remnants of the cover exist in the area including exposures of the Cretaceous Mancos Shale. The arches of the area are developed mostly within the Entrada formation.

 

The weight of this cover caused the salt bed below it to liquefy and thrust up layers of rock into salt domes. The evaporites of the area formed more unusual "salt anticlines" or linear regions of uplift. Faulting occurred and whole sections of rock subsided into the areas between the domes. In some places, they turned almost on edge. The result of one such 2,500-foot (760 m) displacement, the Moab Fault, is seen from the visitor center.

 

As this subsurface movement of salt shaped the landscape, erosion removed the younger rock layers from the surface. Except for isolated remnants, the major formations visible in the park today are the salmon-colored Entrada Sandstone, in which most of the arches form, and the buff-colored Navajo Sandstone. These are visible in layer-cake fashion throughout most of the park. Over time, water seeped into the surface cracks, joints, and folds of these layers. Ice formed in the fissures, expanding and putting pressure on surrounding rock, breaking off bits and pieces. Winds later cleaned out the loose particles. A series of free-standing fins remained. Wind and water attacked these fins until, in some, the cementing material gave way and chunks of rock tumbled out. Many damaged fins collapsed. Others, with the right degree of hardness and balance, survived despite their missing sections. These became the famous arches.

 

Although the park's terrain may appear rugged and durable, it is extremely fragile. More than 1 million visitors each year threaten the fragile high-desert ecosystem. The problem lies within the soil's crust, which is composed of cyanobacteria, algae, fungi, and lichens that grow in the dusty parts of the park. Factors that make Arches National Park sensitive to visitor damage include being a semiarid region, the scarce, unpredictable rainfall, lack of deep freezing, and lack of plant litter, which results in soils that have both a low resistance to and slow recovery from, compressional forces such as foot traffic. Methods of indicating effects on the soil are cytophobic soil crust index, measuring of water infiltration, and t-tests that are used to compare the values from the undisturbed and disturbed areas.

 

Geological processes that occurred over 300 million years ago caused a salt bed to be deposited, which today lies beneath the landscape of Arches National Park.[ Over time, the salt bed was covered with sediments that eventually compressed into rock layers that have since been named Entrada Standstone. Rock layers surrounding the edge of the salt bed continued to erode and shift into vertical sandstone walls called fins. Sand collected between vertical walls of the fins, then slightly acidic rain combined with carbon dioxide in the air allowed for the chemical formation of carbonic acid within the trapped sand. Over time, the carbonic acid dissolved the calcium carbonate that held the sandstone together. Many of the rock formations have weaker layers of rock on bottom that are holding stronger layers on top. The weaker layers would dissolve first, creating openings in the rock. Gravity caused pieces of the stronger rock layer to fall piece by piece into an arch shape. Arches form within rock fins at points of intense fracturing localization, or weak points in the rock's formation, caused by horizontal and vertical discontinuities. Lastly, water, wind, and time continued this erosion process and ultimately created the arches of Arches National Park. All of the arches in the park are made of Entrada Sandstone, however, there are slight differences in how each arch was developed. This allows the Entrada Sandstone to be categories into 3 groups including Slick rock members, Dewey rock members, and Moab members. Vertical arches can be developed from Slick rock members, a combination of Slick rock members and Moab members, or Slick rock members resting above Dewey rock members. Horizontal arches (also called potholes) are formed when a vertical pothole formation meets a horizontal cave, causing a union into a long arch structure. The erosion process within Arches National Park will continue as time continues to pass. Continued erosion combined with vertical and horizontal stress will eventually cause arches to collapse, but still, new arches will continue to form for thousands of years.

 

Humans have occupied the region since the last ice age 10,000 years ago. Fremont people and Ancestral Puebloans lived in the area until about 700 years ago. Spanish missionaries encountered Ute and Paiute tribes in the area when they first came through in 1775, but the first European-Americans to attempt settlement in the area were the Mormon Elk Mountain Mission in 1855, who soon abandoned the area. Ranchers, farmers, and prospectors later settled Moab in the neighboring Riverine Valley in the late 1870s. Word of the beauty of the surrounding rock formations spread beyond the settlement as a possible tourist destination.

 

The Arches area was first brought to the attention of the National Park Service by Frank A. Wadleigh, passenger traffic manager of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. Wadleigh, accompanied by railroad photographer George L. Beam, visited the area in September 1923 at the invitation of Alexander Ringhoffer, a Hungarian-born prospector living in Salt Valley. Ringhoffer had written to the railroad to interest them in the tourist potential of a scenic area he had discovered the previous year with his two sons and a son-in-law, which he called the Devils Garden (known today as the Klondike Bluffs). Wadleigh was impressed by what Ringhoffer showed him, and suggested to Park Service director Stephen T. Mather that the area be made a national monument.

 

The following year, additional support for the monument idea came from Laurence Gould, a University of Michigan graduate student (and future polar explorer) studying the geology of the nearby La Sal Mountains, who was shown the scenic area by local physician Dr. J. W. "Doc" Williams.

 

A succession of government investigators examined the area, in part due to confusion as to the precise location. In the process, the name Devils Garden was transposed to an area on the opposite side of Salt Valley that includes Landscape Arch, the longest arch in the park. Ringhoffer's original discovery was omitted, while another area nearby, known locally as the Windows, was included. Designation of the area as a national monument was supported by the Park Service in 1926 but was resisted by President Calvin Coolidge's Interior Secretary, Hubert Work. Finally, in April 1929, shortly after his inauguration, President Herbert Hoover signed a presidential proclamation creating the Arches National Monument, consisting of two comparatively small, disconnected sections. The purpose of the reservation under the 1906 Antiquities Act was to protect the arches, spires, balanced rocks, and other sandstone formations for their scientific and educational value. The name Arches was suggested by Frank Pinkely, superintendent of the Park Service's southwestern national monuments, following a visit to the Windows section in 1925.

 

In late 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a proclamation that enlarged the Arches to protect additional scenic features and permit the development of facilities to promote tourism. A small adjustment was made by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1960 to accommodate a new road alignment.

 

In early 1969, just before leaving office, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a proclamation substantially enlarging the Arches. Two years later, President Richard Nixon signed legislation enacted by Congress, which significantly reduced the total area enclosed, but changed its status. Arches National Park was formally dedicated in May 1972.

 

In 1980, vandals attempted to use an abrasive kitchen cleanser to deface ancient petroglyphs in the park, prompting park officials to recruit physicist John F. Asmus, who specialized in using lasers to restore works of art, to use his technology to repair the damage. Asmus "zapped the panel with intense light pulses and succeeded in removing most of the cleanser".

 

Climbing Balanced Rock or any named or unnamed arch in Arches National Park with an opening larger than 3 ft (0.9 m) is banned by park regulations. Climbing on other features in the park is allowed but regulated; in addition, slacklining and BASE jumping are banned parkwide.

 

Climbing on named arches within the park had long been banned by park regulations, but following Dean Potter's successful free climb on Delicate Arch in May 2006, the wording of the regulations was deemed unenforceable by the park attorney. In response, the park revised its regulations later that month, eventually imposing the current ban on arch climbing in 2014.

 

Approved recreational activities include auto touring, hiking, bicycling, camping at the Devils Garden campground, backpacking, canyoneering, and rock climbing, with permits required for the last three activities. Guided commercial tours and ranger programs are also available.

 

Astronomy is also popular in the park due to its dark skies, despite the increasing light pollution from towns such as Moab.

 

Delicate Arch is the subject of the third 2014 quarter of the U.S. Mint's America the Beautiful Quarters program commemorating national parks and historic sites. The Arches quarter had the highest production of the five 2014 national park quarters, with more than 465 million minted.

 

American writer Edward Abbey was a park ranger at Arches National Monument in 1956 and 1957, where he kept journals that became his book Desert Solitaire. The success of Abbey's book, as well as interest in adventure travel, has drawn many hikers, mountain bikers, and off-pavement driving enthusiasts to the area. Permitted activities within the park include camping, hiking along designated trails, backpacking, canyoneering, rock climbing, bicycling, and driving along existing roads, both paved and unpaved. The Hayduke Trail, an 812 mi (1,307 km) backpacking route named after one of Edward Abbey's characters, begins in the park.

 

An abundance of wildlife occurs in Arches National Park, including spadefoot toads, antelope squirrels, scrub jays, peregrine falcons, many kinds of sparrows, red foxes, desert bighorn sheep, kangaroo rats, mule deers, cougars, midget faded rattlesnakes, yucca moths, western rattlesnakes, and collared lizards.

 

A number of plant species are common in the park, including prickly pear cactus, Indian ricegrass, bunch grasses, cheatgrass, moss, liverworts, Utah juniper, Mormon tea, blackbrush, cliffrose, four-winged saltbrush, pinyon pine, evening primrose, sand verbena, yucca, and sacred datura.

 

Biological soil crust consisting of cyanobacteria, lichen, mosses, green algae, and microfungi is found throughout southeastern Utah. The fibrous growths help keep soil particles together, creating a layer that is more resistant to erosion. The living soil layer readily absorbs and stores water, allowing more complex forms of plant life to grow in places with low precipitation levels.

 

Among the notable features of the park are the following:

Balanced Rock – a large balancing rock, the size of three school buses

Courthouse Towers – a collection of tall stone columns

Dark Angel – a free-standing 150 ft-tall (46 m) sandstone pillar at the end of the Devils Garden Trail

Delicate Arch – a lone-standing arch that has become a symbol of Utah and the most recognized arch in the park

Devils Garden – many arches and columns scattered along a ridge

Double Arch – two arches that share a common end

Fiery Furnace – an area of maze-like narrow passages and tall rock columns (see biblical reference, Book of Daniel, chapter 3)

Landscape Arch – a very thin and long arch in the Devils Garden with a span of 290 ft (88 m) (the longest arch in the park)

Petrified Dunes – petrified remnants of dunes blown from the ancient lakes that covered the area

The Phallus – a rock spire that resembles a phallus

Wall Arch – located along the popular Devils Garden Trail; collapsed sometime on August 4/5, 2008

The Three Gossips –a mid-sized sandstone tower located in the Courthouse Towers area.

 

Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It borders Colorado to its east, Wyoming to its northeast, Idaho to its north, Arizona to its south, and Nevada to its west. Utah also touches a corner of New Mexico in the southeast. Of the fifty U.S. states, Utah is the 13th-largest by area; with a population over three million, it is the 30th-most-populous and 11th-least-densely populated. Urban development is mostly concentrated in two areas: the Wasatch Front in the north-central part of the state, which is home to roughly two-thirds of the population and includes the capital city, Salt Lake City; and Washington County in the southwest, with more than 180,000 residents. Most of the western half of Utah lies in the Great Basin.

 

Utah has been inhabited for thousands of years by various indigenous groups such as the ancient Puebloans, Navajo, and Ute. The Spanish were the first Europeans to arrive in the mid-16th century, though the region's difficult geography and harsh climate made it a peripheral part of New Spain and later Mexico. Even while it was Mexican territory, many of Utah's earliest settlers were American, particularly Mormons fleeing marginalization and persecution from the United States via the Mormon Trail. Following the Mexican–American War in 1848, the region was annexed by the U.S., becoming part of the Utah Territory, which included what is now Colorado and Nevada. Disputes between the dominant Mormon community and the federal government delayed Utah's admission as a state; only after the outlawing of polygamy was it admitted in 1896 as the 45th.

 

People from Utah are known as Utahns. Slightly over half of all Utahns are Mormons, the vast majority of whom are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), which has its world headquarters in Salt Lake City; Utah is the only state where a majority of the population belongs to a single church. A 2023 paper challenged this perception (claiming only 42% of Utahns are Mormons) however most statistics still show a majority of Utah residents belong to the LDS church; estimates from the LDS church suggests 60.68% of Utah's population belongs to the church whilst some sources put the number as high as 68%. The paper replied that membership count done by the LDS Church is too high for several reasons. The LDS Church greatly influences Utahn culture, politics, and daily life, though since the 1990s the state has become more religiously diverse as well as secular.

 

Utah has a highly diversified economy, with major sectors including transportation, education, information technology and research, government services, mining, multi-level marketing, and tourism. Utah has been one of the fastest growing states since 2000, with the 2020 U.S. census confirming the fastest population growth in the nation since 2010. St. George was the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the United States from 2000 to 2005. Utah ranks among the overall best states in metrics such as healthcare, governance, education, and infrastructure. It has the 12th-highest median average income and the least income inequality of any U.S. state. Over time and influenced by climate change, droughts in Utah have been increasing in frequency and severity, putting a further strain on Utah's water security and impacting the state's economy.

 

The History of Utah is an examination of the human history and social activity within the state of Utah located in the western United States.

 

Archaeological evidence dates the earliest habitation of humans in Utah to about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Paleolithic people lived near the Great Basin's swamps and marshes, which had an abundance of fish, birds, and small game animals. Big game, including bison, mammoths and ground sloths, also were attracted to these water sources. Over the centuries, the mega-fauna died, this population was replaced by the Desert Archaic people, who sheltered in caves near the Great Salt Lake. Relying more on gathering than the previous Utah residents, their diet was mainly composed of cattails and other salt tolerant plants such as pickleweed, burro weed and sedge. Red meat appears to have been more of a luxury, although these people used nets and the atlatl to hunt water fowl, ducks, small animals and antelope. Artifacts include nets woven with plant fibers and rabbit skin, woven sandals, gaming sticks, and animal figures made from split-twigs. About 3,500 years ago, lake levels rose and the population of Desert Archaic people appears to have dramatically decreased. The Great Basin may have been almost unoccupied for 1,000 years.

 

The Fremont culture, named from sites near the Fremont River in Utah, lived in what is now north and western Utah and parts of Nevada, Idaho and Colorado from approximately 600 to 1300 AD. These people lived in areas close to water sources that had been previously occupied by the Desert Archaic people, and may have had some relationship with them. However, their use of new technologies define them as a distinct people. Fremont technologies include:

 

use of the bow and arrow while hunting,

building pithouse shelters,

growing maize and probably beans and squash,

building above ground granaries of adobe or stone,

creating and decorating low-fired pottery ware,

producing art, including jewelry and rock art such as petroglyphs and pictographs.

 

The ancient Puebloan culture, also known as the Anasazi, occupied territory adjacent to the Fremont. The ancestral Puebloan culture centered on the present-day Four Corners area of the Southwest United States, including the San Juan River region of Utah. Archaeologists debate when this distinct culture emerged, but cultural development seems to date from about the common era, about 500 years before the Fremont appeared. It is generally accepted that the cultural peak of these people was around the 1200 CE. Ancient Puebloan culture is known for well constructed pithouses and more elaborate adobe and masonry dwellings. They were excellent craftsmen, producing turquoise jewelry and fine pottery. The Puebloan culture was based on agriculture, and the people created and cultivated fields of maize, beans, and squash and domesticated turkeys. They designed and produced elaborate field terracing and irrigation systems. They also built structures, some known as kivas, apparently designed solely for cultural and religious rituals.

 

These two later cultures were roughly contemporaneous, and appear to have established trading relationships. They also shared enough cultural traits that archaeologists believe the cultures may have common roots in the early American Southwest. However, each remained culturally distinct throughout most of their existence. These two well established cultures appear to have been severely impacted by climatic change and perhaps by the incursion of new people in about 1200 CE. Over the next two centuries, the Fremont and ancient Pueblo people may have moved into the American southwest, finding new homes and farmlands in the river drainages of Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico.

 

In about 1200, Shoshonean speaking peoples entered Utah territory from the west. They may have originated in southern California and moved into the desert environment due to population pressure along the coast. They were an upland people with a hunting and gathering lifestyle utilizing roots and seeds, including the pinyon nut. They were also skillful fishermen, created pottery and raised some crops. When they first arrived in Utah, they lived as small family groups with little tribal organization. Four main Shoshonean peoples inhabited Utah country. The Shoshone in the north and northeast, the Gosiutes in the northwest, the Utes in the central and eastern parts of the region and the Southern Paiutes in the southwest. Initially, there seems to have been very little conflict between these groups.

 

In the early 16th century, the San Juan River basin in Utah's southeast also saw a new people, the Díne or Navajo, part of a greater group of plains Athabaskan speakers moved into the Southwest from the Great Plains. In addition to the Navajo, this language group contained people that were later known as Apaches, including the Lipan, Jicarilla, and Mescalero Apaches.

 

Athabaskans were a hunting people who initially followed the bison, and were identified in 16th-century Spanish accounts as "dog nomads". The Athabaskans expanded their range throughout the 17th century, occupying areas the Pueblo peoples had abandoned during prior centuries. The Spanish first specifically mention the "Apachu de Nabajo" (Navaho) in the 1620s, referring to the people in the Chama valley region east of the San Juan River, and north west of Santa Fe. By the 1640s, the term Navaho was applied to these same people. Although the Navajo newcomers established a generally peaceful trading and cultural exchange with the some modern Pueblo peoples to the south, they experienced intermittent warfare with the Shoshonean peoples, particularly the Utes in eastern Utah and western Colorado.

 

At the time of European expansion, beginning with Spanish explorers traveling from Mexico, five distinct native peoples occupied territory within the Utah area: the Northern Shoshone, the Goshute, the Ute, the Paiute and the Navajo.

 

The Spanish explorer Francisco Vázquez de Coronado may have crossed into what is now southern Utah in 1540, when he was seeking the legendary Cíbola.

 

A group led by two Spanish Catholic priests—sometimes called the Domínguez–Escalante expedition—left Santa Fe in 1776, hoping to find a route to the California coast. The expedition traveled as far north as Utah Lake and encountered the native residents. All of what is now Utah was claimed by the Spanish Empire from the 1500s to 1821 as part of New Spain (later as the province Alta California); and subsequently claimed by Mexico from 1821 to 1848. However, Spain and Mexico had little permanent presence in, or control of, the region.

 

Fur trappers (also known as mountain men) including Jim Bridger, explored some regions of Utah in the early 19th century. The city of Provo was named for one such man, Étienne Provost, who visited the area in 1825. The city of Ogden, Utah is named for a brigade leader of the Hudson's Bay Company, Peter Skene Ogden who trapped in the Weber Valley. In 1846, a year before the arrival of members from the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints, the ill-fated Donner Party crossed through the Salt Lake valley late in the season, deciding not to stay the winter there but to continue forward to California, and beyond.

 

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as Mormon pioneers, first came to the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. At the time, the U.S. had already captured the Mexican territories of Alta California and New Mexico in the Mexican–American War and planned to keep them, but those territories, including the future state of Utah, officially became United States territory upon the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2, 1848. The treaty was ratified by the United States Senate on March 10, 1848.

 

Upon arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormon pioneers found no permanent settlement of Indians. Other areas along the Wasatch Range were occupied at the time of settlement by the Northwestern Shoshone and adjacent areas by other bands of Shoshone such as the Gosiute. The Northwestern Shoshone lived in the valleys on the eastern shore of Great Salt Lake and in adjacent mountain valleys. Some years after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley Mormons, who went on to colonize many other areas of what is now Utah, were petitioned by Indians for recompense for land taken. The response of Heber C. Kimball, first counselor to Brigham Young, was that the land belonged to "our Father in Heaven and we expect to plow and plant it." A 1945 Supreme Court decision found that the land had been treated by the United States as public domain; no aboriginal title by the Northwestern Shoshone had been recognized by the United States or extinguished by treaty with the United States.

 

Upon arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormons had to make a place to live. They created irrigation systems, laid out farms, built houses, churches, and schools. Access to water was crucially important. Almost immediately, Brigham Young set out to identify and claim additional community sites. While it was difficult to find large areas in the Great Basin where water sources were dependable and growing seasons long enough to raise vitally important subsistence crops, satellite communities began to be formed.

 

Shortly after the first company arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, the community of Bountiful was settled to the north. In 1848, settlers moved into lands purchased from trapper Miles Goodyear in present-day Ogden. In 1849, Tooele and Provo were founded. Also that year, at the invitation of Ute chief Wakara, settlers moved into the Sanpete Valley in central Utah to establish the community of Manti. Fillmore, Utah, intended to be the capital of the new territory, was established in 1851. In 1855, missionary efforts aimed at western native cultures led to outposts in Fort Lemhi, Idaho, Las Vegas, Nevada and Elk Mountain in east-central Utah.

 

The experiences of returning members of the Mormon Battalion were also important in establishing new communities. On their journey west, the Mormon soldiers had identified dependable rivers and fertile river valleys in Colorado, Arizona and southern California. In addition, as the men traveled to rejoin their families in the Salt Lake Valley, they moved through southern Nevada and the eastern segments of southern Utah. Jefferson Hunt, a senior Mormon officer of the Battalion, actively searched for settlement sites, minerals, and other resources. His report encouraged 1851 settlement efforts in Iron County, near present-day Cedar City. These southern explorations eventually led to Mormon settlements in St. George, Utah, Las Vegas and San Bernardino, California, as well as communities in southern Arizona.

 

Prior to establishment of the Oregon and California trails and Mormon settlement, Indians native to the Salt Lake Valley and adjacent areas lived by hunting buffalo and other game, but also gathered grass seed from the bountiful grass of the area as well as roots such as those of the Indian Camas. By the time of settlement, indeed before 1840, the buffalo were gone from the valley, but hunting by settlers and grazing of cattle severely impacted the Indians in the area, and as settlement expanded into nearby river valleys and oases, indigenous tribes experienced increasing difficulty in gathering sufficient food. Brigham Young's counsel was to feed the hungry tribes, and that was done, but it was often not enough. These tensions formed the background to the Bear River massacre committed by California Militia stationed in Salt Lake City during the Civil War. The site of the massacre is just inside Preston, Idaho, but was generally thought to be within Utah at the time.

 

Statehood was petitioned for in 1849-50 using the name Deseret. The proposed State of Deseret would have been quite large, encompassing all of what is now Utah, and portions of Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona, Oregon, New Mexico and California. The name of Deseret was favored by the LDS leader Brigham Young as a symbol of industry and was derived from a reference in the Book of Mormon. The petition was rejected by Congress and Utah did not become a state until 1896, following the Utah Constitutional Convention of 1895.

 

In 1850, the Utah Territory was created with the Compromise of 1850, and Fillmore (named after President Fillmore) was designated the capital. In 1856, Salt Lake City replaced Fillmore as the territorial capital.

 

The first group of pioneers brought African slaves with them, making Utah the only place in the western United States to have African slavery. Three slaves, Green Flake, Hark Lay, and Oscar Crosby, came west with this first group in 1847. The settlers also began to purchase Indian slaves in the well-established Indian slave trade, as well as enslaving Indian prisoners of war. In 1850, 26 slaves were counted in Salt Lake County. Slavery didn't become officially recognized until 1852, when the Act in Relation to Service and the Act for the relief of Indian Slaves and Prisoners were passed. Slavery was repealed on June 19, 1862, when Congress prohibited slavery in all US territories.

 

Disputes between the Mormon inhabitants and the federal government intensified after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' practice of polygamy became known. The polygamous practices of the Mormons, which were made public in 1854, would be one of the major reasons Utah was denied statehood until almost 50 years after the Mormons had entered the area.

 

After news of their polygamous practices spread, the members of the LDS Church were quickly viewed by some as un-American and rebellious. In 1857, after news of a possible rebellion spread, President James Buchanan sent troops on the Utah expedition to quell the growing unrest and to replace Brigham Young as territorial governor with Alfred Cumming. The expedition was also known as the Utah War.

 

As fear of invasion grew, Mormon settlers had convinced some Paiute Indians to aid in a Mormon-led attack on 120 immigrants from Arkansas under the guise of Indian aggression. The murder of these settlers became known as the Mountain Meadows massacre. The Mormon leadership had adopted a defensive posture that led to a ban on the selling of grain to outsiders in preparation for an impending war. This chafed pioneers traveling through the region, who were unable to purchase badly needed supplies. A disagreement between some of the Arkansas pioneers and the Mormons in Cedar City led to the secret planning of the massacre by a few Mormon leaders in the area. Some scholars debate the involvement of Brigham Young. Only one man, John D. Lee, was ever convicted of the murders, and he was executed at the massacre site.

 

Express riders had brought the news 1,000 miles from the Missouri River settlements to Salt Lake City within about two weeks of the army's beginning to march west. Fearing the worst as 2,500 troops (roughly 1/3rd of the army then) led by General Albert Sidney Johnston started west, Brigham Young ordered all residents of Salt Lake City and neighboring communities to prepare their homes for burning and evacuate southward to Utah Valley and southern Utah. Young also sent out a few units of the Nauvoo Legion (numbering roughly 8,000–10,000), to delay the army's advance. The majority he sent into the mountains to prepare defenses or south to prepare for a scorched earth retreat. Although some army wagon supply trains were captured and burned and herds of army horses and cattle run off no serious fighting occurred. Starting late and short on supplies, the United States Army camped during the bitter winter of 1857–58 near a burned out Fort Bridger in Wyoming. Through the negotiations between emissary Thomas L. Kane, Young, Cumming and Johnston, control of Utah territory was peacefully transferred to Cumming, who entered an eerily vacant Salt Lake City in the spring of 1858. By agreement with Young, Johnston established the army at Fort Floyd 40 miles away from Salt Lake City, to the southwest.

 

Salt Lake City was the last link of the First Transcontinental Telegraph, between Carson City, Nevada and Omaha, Nebraska completed in October 1861. Brigham Young, who had helped expedite construction, was among the first to send a message, along with Abraham Lincoln and other officials. Soon after the telegraph line was completed, the Deseret Telegraph Company built the Deseret line connecting the settlements in the territory with Salt Lake City and, by extension, the rest of the United States.

 

Because of the American Civil War, federal troops were pulled out of Utah Territory (and their fort auctioned off), leaving the territorial government in federal hands without army backing until General Patrick E. Connor arrived with the 3rd Regiment of California Volunteers in 1862. While in Utah, Connor and his troops soon became discontent with this assignment wanting to head to Virginia where the "real" fighting and glory was occurring. Connor established Fort Douglas just three miles (5 km) east of Salt Lake City and encouraged his bored and often idle soldiers to go out and explore for mineral deposits to bring more non-Mormons into the state. Minerals were discovered in Tooele County, and some miners began to come to the territory. Conner also solved the Shoshone Indian problem in Cache Valley Utah by luring the Shoshone into a midwinter confrontation on January 29, 1863. The armed conflict quickly turned into a rout, discipline among the soldiers broke down, and the Battle of Bear River is today usually referred to by historians as the Bear River Massacre. Between 200 and 400 Shoshone men, women and children were killed, as were 27 soldiers, with over 50 more soldiers wounded or suffering from frostbite.

 

Beginning in 1865, Utah's Black Hawk War developed into the deadliest conflict in the territory's history. Chief Antonga Black Hawk died in 1870, but fights continued to break out until additional federal troops were sent in to suppress the Ghost Dance of 1872. The war is unique among Indian Wars because it was a three-way conflict, with mounted Timpanogos Utes led by Antonga Black Hawk fighting federal and Utah local militia.

 

On May 10, 1869, the First transcontinental railroad was completed at Promontory Summit, north of the Great Salt Lake. The railroad brought increasing numbers of people into the state, and several influential businessmen made fortunes in the territory.

 

Main article: Latter Day Saint polygamy in the late-19th century

During the 1870s and 1880s, federal laws were passed and federal marshals assigned to enforce the laws against polygamy. In the 1890 Manifesto, the LDS Church leadership dropped its approval of polygamy citing divine revelation. When Utah applied for statehood again in 1895, it was accepted. Statehood was officially granted on January 4, 1896.

 

The Mormon issue made the situation for women the topic of nationwide controversy. In 1870 the Utah Territory, controlled by Mormons, gave women the right to vote. However, in 1887, Congress disenfranchised Utah women with the Edmunds–Tucker Act. In 1867–96, eastern activists promoted women's suffrage in Utah as an experiment, and as a way to eliminate polygamy. They were Presbyterians and other Protestants convinced that Mormonism was a non-Christian cult that grossly mistreated women. The Mormons promoted woman suffrage to counter the negative image of downtrodden Mormon women. With the 1890 Manifesto clearing the way for statehood, in 1895 Utah adopted a constitution restoring the right of women's suffrage. Congress admitted Utah as a state with that constitution in 1896.

 

Though less numerous than other intermountain states at the time, several lynching murders for alleged misdeeds occurred in Utah territory at the hand of vigilantes. Those documented include the following, with their ethnicity or national origin noted in parentheses if it was provided in the source:

 

William Torrington in Carson City (then a part of Utah territory), 1859

Thomas Coleman (Black man) in Salt Lake City, 1866

3 unidentified men at Wahsatch, winter of 1868

A Black man in Uintah, 1869

Charles A. Benson in Logan, 1873

Ah Sing (Chinese man) in Corinne, 1874

Thomas Forrest in St. George, 1880

William Harvey (Black man) in Salt Lake City, 1883

John Murphy in Park City, 1883

George Segal (Japanese man) in Ogden, 1884

Joseph Fisher in Eureka, 1886

Robert Marshall (Black man) in Castle Gate, 1925

Other lynchings in Utah territory include multiple instances of mass murder of Native American children, women, and men by White settlers including the Battle Creek massacre (1849), Provo River Massacre (1850), Nephi massacre (1853), and Circleville Massacre (1866).

 

Beginning in the early 20th century, with the establishment of such national parks as Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park, Utah began to become known for its natural beauty. Southern Utah became a popular filming spot for arid, rugged scenes, and such natural landmarks as Delicate Arch and "the Mittens" of Monument Valley are instantly recognizable to most national residents. During the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, with the construction of the Interstate highway system, accessibility to the southern scenic areas was made easier.

 

Beginning in 1939, with the establishment of Alta Ski Area, Utah has become world-renowned for its skiing. The dry, powdery snow of the Wasatch Range is considered some of the best skiing in the world. Salt Lake City won the bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics in 1995, and this has served as a great boost to the economy. The ski resorts have increased in popularity, and many of the Olympic venues scattered across the Wasatch Front continue to be used for sporting events. This also spurred the development of the light-rail system in the Salt Lake Valley, known as TRAX, and the re-construction of the freeway system around the city.

 

During the late 20th century, the state grew quickly. In the 1970s, growth was phenomenal in the suburbs. Sandy was one of the fastest-growing cities in the country at that time, and West Valley City is the state's 2nd most populous city. Today, many areas of Utah are seeing phenomenal growth. Northern Davis, southern and western Salt Lake, Summit, eastern Tooele, Utah, Wasatch, and Washington counties are all growing very quickly. Transportation and urbanization are major issues in politics as development consumes agricultural land and wilderness areas.

 

In 2012, the State of Utah passed the Utah Transfer of Public Lands Act in an attempt to gain control over a substantial portion of federal land in the state from the federal government, based on language in the Utah Enabling Act of 1894. The State does not intend to use force or assert control by limiting access in an attempt to control the disputed lands, but does intend to use a multi-step process of education, negotiation, legislation, and if necessary, litigation as part of its multi-year effort to gain state or private control over the lands after 2014.

 

Utah families, like most Americans everywhere, did their utmost to assist in the war effort. Tires, meat, butter, sugar, fats, oils, coffee, shoes, boots, gasoline, canned fruits, vegetables, and soups were rationed on a national basis. The school day was shortened and bus routes were reduced to limit the number of resources used stateside and increase what could be sent to soldiers.

 

Geneva Steel was built to increase the steel production for America during World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had proposed opening a steel mill in Utah in 1936, but the idea was shelved after a couple of months. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States entered the war and the steel plant was put into progress. In April 1944, Geneva shipped its first order, which consisted of over 600 tons of steel plate. Geneva Steel also brought thousands of job opportunities to Utah. The positions were hard to fill as many of Utah's men were overseas fighting. Women began working, filling 25 percent of the jobs.

 

As a result of Utah's and Geneva Steels contribution during the war, several Liberty Ships were named in honor of Utah including the USS Joseph Smith, USS Brigham Young, USS Provo, and the USS Peter Skene Ogden.

 

One of the sectors of the beachhead of Normandy Landings was codenamed Utah Beach, and the amphibious landings at the beach were undertaken by United States Army troops.

 

It is estimated that 1,450 soldiers from Utah were killed in the war.

The 2nd cup clash of the season between the two City sides saw Bunny Shaw score 4 on her way to a record breaking tally as a Man City goalscorer.

 

Result: Bristol City 1-8 Man City

 

Please do not use my photos without permission. Feel free to contact me if you have a request.

Hi everyone!

Fortunately I have the time to upload my newest creation! It's a train and it's the model of an ICE 3. It is 196 stud (157 cm) long and contains more than 3300 pieces, two IR receivers, two battery boxes and two train motors. Hope you like it! Oh, and another important information is, that it will be visible on Zusammengebaut 2016 in November and on Bricks am Meer in April 2017 in Germany!

 

At first please watch these two videos! The first one shows a crash. The place, where I made the video, wasn't horizontal, and on the slope the train got a too high speed. Well, I can say it is quite stable construction, despite the building techniques of the front. During the crash, only the boogies fell down!

 

The records of the second one were made after I repaired the train. You can watch it behind this link!

 

I'm really happy, that it is ready! It took me almost a year to build and become satisfied with the result. You may know, if someone build a train, the front is the most important thing. If it's not good, it's unnecessary to build the other sections. Everything started with an LDD model from a front-idea. I built something in the program, but I didn't like it. Later it came always into my mind and didn't allow me to be calm. So I started to develope the construction. Some month later it looked nice enough to order some parts and make it in real life. It contained so many interesting and strange techniques, that it was a real challenge to put the bricks together in the program, and with real bricks it was hard, too. And the real 3D model was ugly! But I said, that it has to be possible to find out something, which makes the model better. So I made some changes, and some more, and some more, and finally I liked it, and I thought that I found the maximum! I stored the train (only the front section) and some other parts on the table in the middle of our house. And one night, I couldn't sleep. I woke up and went out to the table to do something. And I don't know why, but I put an element into the middle of the front. And I said 'wow'! It was perfect (for me of course, for you, I still don't know, but I will read the comments :) )! Some gaps disappeared, some sections got new positions. That element made so big changes on the overall look, that it was incredible! I felt high, but next day I was very sleepy. :D

 

More pictures are on MOCpages!

A plain fence with eye appeal!

Happy Fence Friday--HFF!

Avebury is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles, around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, in southwest England. One of the best known prehistoric sites in Britain, it contains the largest megalithic stone circle in the world. It is both a tourist attraction and a place of religious importance to contemporary pagans.

 

Constructed over several hundred years in the third millennium BC, during the Neolithic, or New Stone Age, the monument comprises a large henge (a bank and a ditch) with a large outer stone circle and two separate smaller stone circles situated inside the centre of the monument. Its original purpose is unknown, although archaeologists believe that it was most likely used for some form of ritual or ceremony. The Avebury monument is a part of a larger prehistoric landscape containing several older monuments nearby, including West Kennet Long Barrow, Windmill Hill and Silbury Hill.

 

By the Iron Age, the site had been effectively abandoned, with some evidence of human activity on the site during the Roman period. During the Early Middle Ages, a village first began to be built around the monument, eventually extending into it. In the Late Medieval and Early Modern periods, local people destroyed many of the standing stones around the henge, both for religious and practical reasons. The antiquarians John Aubrey and William Stukeley took an interest in Avebury during the 17th century, and recorded much of the site before its destruction. Archaeological investigation followed in the 20th century, led primarily by Alexander Keiller, who oversaw a project which reconstructed much of the monument.

 

Avebury is owned and managed by the National Trust. It has been designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument, as well as a World Heritage Site, in the latter capacity being seen as a part of the wider prehistoric landscape of Wiltshire known as Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites.

 

- Wikipedia

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Abandoned Abused Street Dogs.

Nikon D300 DX Camera.

Nikkor 17-55 2.8 lens.

 

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Back Story .................

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This is a mini series containing 5 photos taken this morning.

Little Baby Betty has a very bad infection on her hind left leg.

In my opinion it was the result of a monkey bite that got way out of control. She was having great difficulty putting any weight on it and try as I might the infection was winning. That meant death was waiting around the corner.That my friend is unacceptable !

Yesterday the proper transportation was prepared to do the transport.

Early, like real early this morning no#1 wife and I took

off on our mission to rescue Little Baby Betty and get her

to the Vet.

 

I told no# 1 this is not going to be just some simple event cuz MS2 isn't going to be happy at all about this plan of ours.

We're going to do a kidnapping so follow my rules and Do Not Deviate unless I call out a new plan while we're in motion !

 

We arrived, had to hunt down the baby up on floor 2, got her down to floor 1 and started the feeding process. MS2 gobbled her morning rations while helping the baby do the same. All is going as planned so far.

 

The minute MS2 wandered out the gate to do her private business in the jungle I gave the signal to no# 1. Little Baby Betty was gently wrapped in a soft blanket and all three of us jumped into the waiting vehicle and were gone in less than 60 seconds, more like 30 or 33 seconds.

 

Slightly over an hour later we pulled to the curb right in front of the Vets office. Noticed I used the term "Curb" ? Well it's a small office open to the street on two sides with his home in the back. It is also in the middle of the morning market where we do our very early morning shopping.

Please remember this is a third world country and this is how it works here.

Plus Mr Vet and his family are quality people, we've known them for years.

 

Alright then, Baby Betty was taken care of quickly as Mr Vet could see she was in trouble and suffering from a lot of unneeded pain.

Her leg was drained and cleansed, her little bottom was poked with two different shot needles.

She cried a little bit but overall was pretty good girl.

 

Once finished at the Vets we took off straight back to her home in the jungle knowing MS2 was in panic mode.

 

Pulled right up to the old rusty gate, bailed out as fast as possible and returned Little Baby Betty to her mom.

As you all know MS2 won't let anyone touch her but me and she was right next to my leg in a heart beat.

The last photo shows MS2, LBB and my hand, everyone's happy ..;-)

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No# 1 found out some more info from one of the monks about the other puppies.

He told her the last 2 or 3 puppies all live with the Nuns. Interesting as I haven't been over by their homes for a long time.

So when we left we drove by real slow and sure enough two were spotted playing with some older dogs

that the Nuns had rescued a few years ago. If MS2 wants to see her other puppies it's only a couple

hundred meters from her palace. And it's all part of the temple grounds, small world.

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Time to end this post, but first I want to thank everyone for your ongoing support, always appreciated.

 

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Thanks once again, Jon and crew somewhere in Thailand ..;-)

  

Before you add me as a contact please read

my profile.

 

Thank You.

Jon&Crew.

 

Please help with your donations here.

www.gofundme.com/saving-thai-temple-dogs.

  

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No Political Statements, Awards, Invites,

Large Logos or Copy/Pastes.

© All rights reserved.

  

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Chalybion californicus

 

Distribution / Verbreitung: Mexico to Southern Canada (Great Lakes Region)

 

The name "mud" dauber refers to the nests that are made by the female wasps, which consist of mud molded into place by the wasp's mandibles. The nest is a simple, one-cell, urn-shaped mud structucture that is attached to crevices, cracks and corners. Each cell contains one egg. Adults of both sexes frequently drink flower nectar, but they stock their nests with spiders, which serve as food for their offspring. Mud daubers prefer particular kinds and sizes of spiders for their larders. Instead of stocking a nest cell with one or two large spiders, mud daubers cram as many as two dozen small spiders into a nest cell. Chalybion californicum, the blue mud wasp, is most famous for its predation of black widow spiders. To capture a spider, the wasp grabs it and stings it. The venom from the sting does not kill the spider, but paralyzes and preserves it so it can be transported and stored in the nest cell until consumed by the larva. A mud dauber usually lays its egg on the prey item and then seals it into the nest cell with a mud cap. It then builds another cell or nest. The young survive the winter inside the nest.

 

Die Weibchen bauen ihre „Mörtel"-Nester aus feuchter Erde oder feuchtem Lehm. Die urnenartigen Nester werden an Pflanzen, Mauern, überhängenden Felsen und dergl. an einer geschützten Stelle, wie etwa an einer Nische, angebracht. Häufig kann man die Nester an Gebäuden entdecken. Die erwachsenen Tiere sind Blütenbesucher und fliegen häufig Pfützen an, um Material für den Nestbau zu beschaffen. Die Brut wird mit Spinnen versorgt. Diese werden nicht spezifisch ausgewählt, wobei pro Zelle je nach Größe der Beute mitunter bis zu zwei Dutzend Spinnen enthalten sein können. Die Wespe sticht ihre gefangene Spinne und lähmt sie. Die Spinne wird im Nest untergebracht, die Wespe legt ein Ei darauf ab; die Nestzelle wird dann mit Lehm „zugemauert" und die Wespe baut die nächste Zelle. Die aus dem Ei ausschlüpfende Larve frisst die mit ihr eingemauerte lebendige, gelähmte Spinne. Die jungen Wespen überwintern im Nest.

 

[Source / Quelle: Wikipedia]

Pembroke Castle (Welsh: Castell Penfro) is a medieval castle in the centre of Pembroke, Pembrokeshire in Wales. The castle was the original family seat of the Earldom of Pembroke. A Grade I listed building since 1951, it underwent major restoration during the early 20th century.

 

In 1093, Arnulf of Montgomery built the first castle at the site when he fortified the promontory beside the Pembroke River during the Norman invasion of Wales. A century later, the castle was given by Richard I to William Marshal, who became one of the most powerful men in 12th-century Britain. He rebuilt Pembroke Castle in stone, creating most of the structure that remains today. The castle is open to the public and is the largest privately owned castle in Wales.

 

The castle is sited on a strategic rocky promontory by the Milford Haven Waterway. The first fortification on the site was a Norman motte-and-bailey. It had earthen ramparts and a timber palisade.

 

In 1189, Pembroke Castle was acquired by William Marshal. He soon became Lord Marshal of England, and set about turning the earth and wood fort into an impressive Norman stone castle. The inner ward, which was constructed first, contains the huge round keep with its domed roof. Its original first-floor entrance was through an external stairwell. Inside, a spiral staircase connected its four stories. The keep's domed roof also has several putlog holes that supported a wooden fighting-platform. If the castle was attacked, the hoarding allowed defenders to go out beyond the keep's massive walls above the heads of the attackers.

 

The inner ward's curtain wall had a large horseshoe-shaped gateway. But only a thin wall was required along the promontory. This section of the wall has a small observation turret and a square stone platform. Domestic buildings including William Marshal's Great Hall and private apartments were within the inner ward. The 13th century keep is 23 metres (75 ft) tall with walls up to 6 metres (20 ft) thick at its base.

 

In the late 13th century, additional buildings were added to the inner ward, including a new Great Hall. A 55-step spiral staircase was also created that led down to a large limestone cave, known as Wogan Cavern, beneath the castle. The cave, which was created by natural water erosion, was fortified with a wall, a barred gateway and arrowslits. It may have served as a boathouse or a sallyport to the river where cargo or people could have been transferred.

 

The outer ward was defended by a large twin-towered gatehouse, a barbican and several round towers. The outer wall is 5 metres (16 ft) thick in places and constructed from Siltstone ashlar.

 

Although Pembroke Castle is a Norman-style enclosure castle with great keep, it can be more accurately described as a linear fortification because, like the later 13th-century castles at Caernarfon and Conwy, it was built on a rocky promontory surrounded by water. This meant that attacking forces could only assault on a narrow front. Architecturally, Pembroke's thickest walls and towers are all concentrated on its landward side facing the town, with Pembroke River providing a natural defense around the rest of its perimeter.

 

Pembroke Castle stands on a site that has been occupied at least since the Roman period. Roger de Montgomerie, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury founded the first castle here in the 11th century. Although only made from earth and wood, Pembroke Castle resisted several Welsh attacks and sieges over the next 30 years. The castle was established at the heart of the Norman-controlled lands of southwest Wales. Arnulf de Montgomery appointed Gerald de Windsor as his castellan at Pembroke.

 

When William Rufus died, Arnulf de Montgomery joined his elder brother, Robert of Bellême, in rebellion against Henry I, William's brother and successor as king; when the rebellion failed, he was forced to forfeit all his British lands and titles. Henry appointed his castellan, but when the chosen ally turned out to be incompetent, the King reappointed Gerald in 1102. By 1138 King Stephen had given Pembroke Castle to Gilbert de Clare who used it as an important base in the Norman invasion of Ireland.

 

In August 1189 Richard I arranged the marriage of Isabel, de Clare's granddaughter, to William Marshal who received both the castle and the title, Earl of Pembroke. He had the castle rebuilt in stone and established the great keep at the same time. Marshal was succeeded in turn by each of his five sons. His third son, Gilbert Marshal, was responsible for enlarging and further strengthening the castle between 1234 and 1241. All of Marshal's sons died childless. In 1247, the castle was inherited by William de Valence (a half-brother of Henry III), who had become Earl of Pembroke through his marriage to Joan de Munchensi, William Marshal's granddaughter.

 

The de Valence family held Pembroke for 70 years. During this time, the town was fortified with defensive walls, three main gates and a postern. Pembroke Castle became de Valence's military base for fighting the Welsh princes during the conquest of North Wales by Edward I between 1277 and 1295. On the death of Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, William de Valence's son, the castle passed through marriage to the Hastings family. In 1389, 17-year-old John Hastings died in a jousting accident, ending a line of inheritance stretching back 250 years.

 

Pembroke Castle then reverted to Richard II. Short tenancies were then granted by The Crown for its ownership. By 1400 Owain Glyndŵr had begun a rebellion in Wales. However, Pembroke escaped attack because the castle's Constable, Francis а Court, paid off Glyndŵr in gold. Then in 1452, the castle and the earldom were presented to Jasper Tudor by his half-brother Henry VI. Tudor brought his widowed sister-in-law, Margaret Beaufort, to Pembroke where, in 1457, she gave birth to her only child, who was to become King Henry VII of England.

 

In the 15th and 16th centuries, the castle was a place of peace until the outbreak of the English Civil War. Although most of South Wales sided with the King, Pembroke declared for Parliament. It was besieged by Royalist troops but was saved after Parliamentary reinforcements arrived by sea from nearby Milford Haven. Parliamentary forces then went on to capture the Royalist castles of Tenby, Haverfordwest and Carew.

 

In 1648, at the beginning of the Second Civil War, Pembroke's commander Colonel John Poyer led a Royalist uprising alongside Colonel Powell, Tenby Castle, and Sir Nicholas Kemoys, Chepstow Castle. Oliver Cromwell came to Pembroke on 24 May 1648 and took the castle after a seven-week siege. Its three leaders were found guilty of treason and Cromwell ordered the castle to be destroyed. Townspeople were even encouraged to disassemble the fortress and re-use its stone for their purposes.

 

The castle was then abandoned and allowed to decay. It remained in ruins until 1880, when a three-year restoration project was undertaken. Nothing further was done until 1928, when Major-General Sir Ivor Philipps acquired the castle and began an extensive restoration of the castle's walls, gatehouses, and towers. After his death, a trust was set up for the castle, jointly managed by the Philipps family and Pembroke town council.

 

In July 2022, archaeological survey funded by the Natural History Museum and the British Cave Research Society uncovered evidence of prehistoric megafauna such as reindeer and woolly mammoth bones, in addition to seashells, pigs and deer at Wogan Cavern. According to the researchers, the cave was occupied by residents as far back as the Paleolithic and Mesolithic Periods.

 

Pembroke has appeared in numerous feature films. These include the 1968 film The Lion in Winter, the 1976 film Jabberwocky, the BBC adaptation of C.S. Lewis's Prince Caspian, the film of Shakespeare's Richard II, and the 2016 Anglo-American romantic film Me Before You. It features as the fictional Penleven Castle in Cornwall in the 2015 comedy film The Bad Education Movie.

 

The Castle Pond has only been a ‘pond’ since the barrage was built in the late 1970s. To the west of the barrage wading birds can be seen feeding in the mud sediments, and redshank, curlew, common sandpiper, little egret and kingfisher are frequently seen from the barrage. It is a delight during the summer when the weather is warm to stand and watch dozens of swallows swooping to feed low over the water, martins flashing past you on the wing, and swifts screaming as they slice through the sky above hunting food.

 

Pembroke River is a short waterway near Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, West Wales.

 

Rising at Hogeston Hill, near Manorbier Newton, the river meanders through Lamphey and flows past Pembroke Castle to its confluence with Milford Haven Waterway at Pennar Mouth.

 

When the river reaches the town of Pembroke, there are three pools, the first of which is Mill Pond, then downstream is Middle Mill Pond, followed by Castle Pond below the castle. The river is navigable to small craft from Pennar to Mill Pond, but is normally closed at Castle Pond. A rally is held once a year to allow small craft into Castle Pond, and since 1994 an annual canoe race has been held in the river.

 

Pennarmouth is the opening of that branch of the Haven upon which Pembroke town lies, where the Custom house of Milford is kept. The entrance or breadth between rock and rock, is but 200 yards at-high water, and 112 yards at low water, and from nine to twelve feet deep. The navigation up this river to Pembroke town is much impeded by the rubbish of the lime-stone quarries being thrown into the river, which ought to be prevented, or the place, in process of time, will be stopped up. Within Pennarmouth a dock might be made which would contain all the vessels in England, and which would be, perhaps, the greatest thing in the world of that kind.

 

A dockyard was built soon afterwards, not on the Pembroke River, but on the River Cleddau just to the north, which became Pembroke Dockyard, developing into the town of Pembroke Dock. Writing in 1810, Richard Fenton notes that there is a Pembroke Ferry, although he does not name the river, which may have been across the Cleddau. The River Pembroke, though, was clearly still an important waterway, as Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of 1833 describes:

The town is beautifully situated on an elevated ridge projecting into the head of the Pennar Mouth Pill, forming the largest southern creek of Milford Haven, and which it divides into two branches, by which, at high water, it is nearly insulated and over each of which is a neat bridge of stone...the inhabitants consisting of persons of small independent fortune, shop keepers, publicans, and a few whose business is at the dock.

 

Lewis also refers to the river as "a branch of Milford Harbour (which) terminates at the town". Further, it says:

The entrance from Milford Haven to the creek at the head of which the town of Pembroke is situated, at low water, is little more than a hundred yards wide, and from nine to twelve feet deep; but proceeding upwards it immediately expands into a wide oozy reach, called Crow Pool, containing an abundance of excellent oysters.

 

In February 1889 the river was the scene of a tragedy when the Bentlass ferry boat capsized and sank, drowning all 16 passengers and crew.

 

Pembroke is a town and community in Pembrokeshire, Wales, with a population of 7,552. The names of both the town and the county (of which the county town is Haverfordwest) have a common origin; both are derived from the Cantref of Penfro: Pen, "head" or "end", and bro, "region", "country", "land", which has been interpreted to mean either "Land's End" or "headland".

 

Pembroke features a number of historic buildings, town walls, complexes and Pembroke Castle which was the birthplace of Henry Tudor, who became Henry VII of England.

 

Pembroke Castle, the substantial remains of a stone medieval fortress founded by the Normans in 1093, stands at the western tip of a peninsula surrounded by water on three sides. The castle was the seat of the powerful Earls of Pembroke and the birthplace of King Henry VII of England. Gerald de Windsor was the first recorded Constable of Pembroke. Pembroke town and castle and its surroundings are linked with the early Christian church. Following the final extension of the castle about 1254 the town was extended and defensive perimeter walls erected around the edge of the town. The walls survive on their medieval foundations, although much rebuilt over the centuries. A great many of the town's original medieval burgage plots survive and are divided by early stone walls that are of significant national importance.

 

Monkton Priory, sited on a hill across the river from the castle, founded in 1098 by Arnulf de Montgomery and granted by him to the Benedictine order, has very early foundations and retains much of the Norman walls of the nave. The choir and sanctuary were renovated in the nineteenth century. Monkton Hall, close by the Priory church, is regarded as the oldest domestic building in Pembrokeshire and possibly Wales and is thought to have been the guesthouse for visitors to the Priory.

 

The first stone building in the town was a defensive tower, now known as the Medieval Chapel, at 69a Main Street and built on a cliff edge. There are the remains of a great hall to the north and recently filled-in arched cellars. The building was thought to have been later used as an early church as the layout is the same as St. Govan's Chapel and was used by John Wesley in 1764 to preach Methodism. In 1866 it became the brewery for the York Tavern which was briefly Oliver Cromwell's headquarters at the end of the Siege of Pembroke during the English Civil War.

 

The town's main bridge across the River Pembroke, which also acts as a dam, crosses and constrains the millpond. The first bridge was constructed to house a tide mill, originally granted to the Knight's Templar in 1199. The last mill building was destroyed by fire in 1956.

 

On both banks of the Pembroke River to the west of the castle are many remains of early activities. The North Shore Quarries are relatively complete as are the remains of medieval and Elizabethan slipways where wooden vessels were built before the industrial dockyard and admiralty town was built on the grid pattern of Pembroke Dock. There is a very early complete graving dock in what was Hancock's Yard.

 

During the English Civil War, the strategic maritime shire was primarily in the control of the parliamentary forces which aspired to prevent communication to Ireland.

 

At Pennar Flats there was an early submarine base used for experiments in submarine warfare. Three of the houses on the then foreshore, part of the shipyard before the Admiralty Dock Yard was built, are still standing but are heavily altered.[citation needed]

 

The ferry port of Pembroke Dock is 3 miles (4.8 km) to the northwest of Pembroke. It was established in 1814.

 

Pembroke town stands on the South Pembrokeshire limestone peninsula by the estuary of the River Cleddau, flanked on all sides by woodland and arable farmland. The town is 8 miles (13 km) south of the county town of Haverfordwest.

 

The town is centred on Main Street, which is the only street that is inside the original Pembroke town walls. Outside the walls, residential estates have been built to the north towards Pembroke Dock, to the east towards Lamphey, and to the south. To the west of the town lies the village of Monkton, which is included as part of the community of Pembroke. At the 2001 census, the community had a population of 7,214.

 

The conurbation of Pembroke Dock and Pembroke has a combined population of 15,890 and as such is one of the major population centres of West Wales.

 

There are two tiers of local government covering Pembroke, at community (town) and county level: Pembroke Town Council and Pembrokeshire County Council. Pembroke Town Council is based at Pembroke Town Hall. The community of Pembroke covers an area of 4.58 square miles (1,190 ha) and includes the Pembroke St Mary North, St Mary South, St Michael and Monkton wards.

 

For representation on the county council, the four wards comprising Pembroke community each elect one councillor.

 

Pembroke is part of the Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire Senedd constituency and UK Parliamentary constituency.

 

The local Member of Parliament (MP) is Simon Hart, a Conservative.

 

Pembroke was an ancient borough, with evidence of borough charters dating back to at least 1168. The borough covered the two parishes of Pembroke St Mary and Pembroke St Michael plus part of the parish of Monkton (also known as Pembroke St Nicholas). The borough was reformed to become a municipal borough in 1836. The borough included a sizeable rural area within its boundaries as well as the built up area of Pembroke itself. The town of Pembroke Dock, which developed from the early nineteenth century as a separate urban area was nevertheless within the borough boundaries of Pembroke, falling within the parish of Pembroke St Mary. The part of the parish of Monkton outside the borough boundaries became a separate parish called Hundleton in 1894.

 

As Pembroke Dock grew through the nineteenth century it began to rival the old town of Pembroke for position as the main settlement within the borough. By 1895 Pembroke Borough Council had adopted the practice of holding its meetings alternately at Pembroke Town Hall and at Pembroke Dock, where the council had established its main administrative offices at 37 Bush Street (renumbered 71 Bush Street in 1906). The council remained based at 71 Bush Street (and later also expanded into neighbouring 73 Bush Street) until the early 1970s when it acquired Llanion Park, part of the Llanion Barracks at Pembroke Dock, to serve as its headquarters.

 

Pembroke Borough Council was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972, with the area becoming part of the new district of South Pembrokeshire within the county of Dyfed on 1 April 1974. A community was established to cover the area of the former borough, with its council taking the name Pembroke Town Council. South Pembrokeshire District Council took over Llanion Park at Pembroke Dock to serve as its headquarters.

 

On 1 April 1986 the community of Pembroke was split into a Pembroke Dock community and a reduced Pembroke community, with Pembroke Town Council thereafter just covering the old town of Pembroke itself.

 

South Pembrokeshire was abolished in 1996, with the area becoming part of a re-established Pembrokeshire.

 

Primary and pre-school (ages 3–11) education in Pembroke is served by two state schools. In Pembroke town, Golden Grove CP School is a dual stream school established in 2002 following the amalgamation of Golden Manor Infants School and Grove Junior School. In Monkton, pupils can attend Monkton Priory CP School.

 

Secondary education is provided by Pembroke School (in Welsh: Ysgol Benfro), a mixed 11–18 comprehensive school of 1,600 pupils with a sixth form of about 200. The school was formed in 1972 as a result of the amalgamation of the former grammar school and secondary modern school. The school takes pupils from the Pembroke family of schools, which as well as Golden Grove and Monkton Priory includes community primary schools in Lamphey, Orielton, Pennar and Pembroke Dock, voluntary controlled primary schools in Angle, Cosheston and Stackpole, and St. Mary's Catholic Primary School in Pembroke Dock.

 

Pembroke 21C community association was founded in 2004, and is based out of the Foundry House building on the Commons, which they operate as a community centre. Activities carried out by 21C include organising the annual Pembroke Festival, running the town's fortnightly farmers' market and producing a quarterly newsletter which is distributed to all households in the town. Pembroke Rugby Club organises the town's annual carnival, which is usually held in June. Pembroke Library shares a building with the Tourist Information Centre on Commons Road and offers a full lending service and internet access.

 

Pembroke has been twinned with the towns of Bergen, Lower Saxony, Germany, since 1977 and Pembroke, Malta, since 2002.

 

Notable people

King Henry VII (1457–1509), King of England, born in Pembroke Castle.

William Lort Mansel (1753–1820), an English churchman and Cambridge fellow.

Frank Goodden (1889–1917), a pioneering British aviator and test pilot

Mervyn Johns (1899–1992), a Welsh stage, film and TV character actor.

W. F. Grimes CBE (1905–1988), a Welsh archaeologist, studied the prehistory of Wales.

Daniel Jones, OBE (1912–1993), a Welsh composer of classical music.

John Cooke CB, OBE (1922–2011), a British doctor and senior Royal Air force officer.

Peter Bishop (1953–2022), an English painter of mountain landscape of north Wales and an art historian.

 

Sport

William Bowen (1862–1925), a Welsh international rugby union player, capped 13 times for Wales.

Henry Davies (1865–1934), a Welsh horse racing jockey and first-class cricketer.

W. J. A. Davies OBE (1890–1967), a Welsh rugby union footballer, capped 22 times for England

Reg Thomas (1907–1946), a Welsh middle-distance runner, he competed at the 1928 and 1932 Summer Olympics

David Gwynne-James (1937−2011), a Welsh first-class cricketer, British Army officer and military historian.

Scott Gammer (born 1976), a Welsh former professional boxer, British heavyweight title-holder from 2006 to 2007

Jonathan Thomas (born 1982), a Welsh rugby union coach and former player, capped 67 times for Wales.

 

Pembroke Rugby Club is on Upper Lamphey Road. The ground is called Crickmarren. The club plays in WRU Division Five West. Pembroke's main game of the season is often the local derby with rivals the Pembroke Dock Harlequins. Pembroke produced Ospreys and Welsh international Jonathan Thomas, Welsh international Dominic Day and Scotland international Luke Hamilton.

 

Other sporting clubs in the area include the football team Monkton Swifts.

 

The town is home to Pembroke Cricket Club. The cricket club plays its home games at its Treleet ground on Upper Lamphey Road, opposite the rugby club. The club currently has a 1st and a 2nd team playing in divisions 2 and 4 of the Pembrokeshire league. The club colours are green and gold.

 

In February 2012, it was revealed that Pembroke was the UK's second-slowest broadband town. The average internet download speed in Pembroke was just over 1.6 Mbit/s (1600 kbit/s) compared to the UK average of 12.0 Mbit/s (12000 kbit/s) at the time.

 

BT's telephone exchange, which serves Pembroke and Pembroke Dock, was upgraded in 2014 under the Superfast Cymru programme and new cabinets were built to provide FTTC technology. Additional exchanges across Pembrokeshire are also being upgraded under the programme, with a goal of bringing superfast broadband to 96% of Wales by spring 2016.

 

Pembrokeshire is a county in the south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and is otherwise surrounded by the sea. Haverfordwest is the largest town and administrative headquarters of Pembrokeshire County Council.

 

The county is generally sparsely populated and rural, with an area of 200 square miles (520 km2) and a population of 123,400. After Haverfordwest, the largest settlements are Milford Haven (13,907), Pembroke Dock (9,753), and Pembroke (7,552). St Davids (1,841) is a city, the smallest by population in the UK. Welsh is spoken by 17.2 percent of the population, and for historic reasons is more widely spoken in the north of the county than in the south.

 

Pembrokeshire's coast is its most dramatic geographic feature, created by the complex geology of the area. It is a varied landscape which includes high sea cliffs, wide sandy beaches, the large natural harbour of Milford Haven, and several offshore islands which are home to seabird colonies. Most of it is protected by Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, and can be hiked on the 190-mile (310 km) Pembrokeshire Coast Path. The interior of Pembrokeshire is relatively flat and gently undulating, with the exception of the Preseli Mountains in the north.

 

There are many prehistoric sites in Pembrokeshire, particularly in the Preseli Mountains. During the Middle Ages several castles were built by the Normans, such as Pembroke and Cilgerran, and St David's Cathedral became an important pilgrimage site. During the Industrial Revolution the county remained relatively rural, with the exception of Milford Haven, which was developed as a port and Royal Navy dockyard. It is now the UK's third-largest port, primarily because of its two liquefied natural gas terminals. The economy of the county is now focused on agriculture, oil and gas, and tourism.

 

Human habitation of the region that is now Pembrokeshire extends back to between 125,000 and 70,000 years  and there are numerous prehistoric sites such as Pentre Ifan, and neolithic remains (12,000 to 6,500 years ago), more of which were revealed in an aerial survey during the 2018 heatwave; in the same year, a 1st-century Celtic chariot burial was discovered, the first such find in Wales. There may have been dairy farming in Neolithic times.

 

There is little evidence of Roman occupation in what is now Pembrokeshire. Ptolemy's Geography, written c. 150, mentioned some coastal places, two of which have been identified as the River Teifi and what is now St Davids Head, but most Roman writers did not mention the area; there may have been a Roman settlement near St Davids and a road from Bath, but this comes from a 14th-century writer. Any evidence for villas or Roman building materials reported by mediaeval or later writers has not been verified, though some remains near Dale were tentatively identified as Roman in character by topographer Richard Fenton in his Historical Tour of 1810. Fenton stated that he had "...reason to be of opinion that they had not colonized Pembrokeshire till near the decline of their empire in Britain".

 

Part of a possible Roman road is noted by CADW near Llanddewi Velfrey, and another near Wiston. Wiston is also the location of the first Roman fort discovered in Pembrokeshire, investigated in 2013.

 

Some artefacts, including coins and weapons, have been found, but it is not clear whether these belonged to Romans or to a Romanised population. Welsh tradition has it that Magnus Maximus founded Haverfordwest, and took a large force of local men on campaign in Gaul in 383 which, together with the reduction of Roman forces in south Wales, left a defensive vacuum which was filled by incomers from Ireland.

 

Between 350 and 400, an Irish tribe known as the Déisi settled in the region known to the Romans as Demetae.  The Déisi merged with the local Welsh, with the regional name underlying Demetae evolving into Dyfed, which existed as an independent petty kingdom from the 5th century.  In 904, Hywel Dda married Elen (died 943), daughter of the king of Dyfed Llywarch ap Hyfaidd, and merged Dyfed with his own maternal inheritance of Seisyllwg, forming the new realm of Deheubarth ("southern district"). Between the Roman and Norman periods, the region was subjected to raids from Vikings, who established settlements and trading posts at Haverfordwest, Fishguard, Caldey Island and elsewhere.

 

Dyfed remained an integral province of Deheubarth, but this was contested by invading Normans and Flemings who arrived between 1067 and 1111.  The region became known as Pembroke (sometimes archaic "Penbroke":), after the Norman castle built in the cantref of Penfro. In 1136, Prince Owain Gwynedd at Crug Mawr near Cardigan met and destroyed a 3,000-strong Norman/Flemish army and incorporated Deheubarth into Gwynedd.  Norman/Flemish influence never fully recovered in West Wales.  In 1138, the county of Pembrokeshire was named as a county palatine. Rhys ap Gruffydd, the son of Owain Gwynedd's daughter Gwenllian, re-established Welsh control over much of the region and threatened to retake all of Pembrokeshire, but died in 1197. After Deheubarth was split by a dynastic feud, Llywelyn the Great almost succeeded in retaking the region of Pembroke between 1216 and his death in 1240.  In 1284 the Statute of Rhuddlan was enacted to introduce the English common law system to Wales, heralding 100 years of peace, but had little effect on those areas already established under the Marcher Lords, such as Cemais in the north of the county.

 

Henry Tudor, born at Pembroke Castle in 1457, landed an army in Pembrokeshire in 1485 and marched to Cardigan.  Rallying support, he continued to Leicestershire and defeated the larger army of Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field. As Henry VII, he became the first monarch of the House of Tudor, which ruled England until 1603.

 

The Laws in Wales Act 1535 effectively abolished the powers of the Marcher Lords and divided the county into seven hundreds, roughly corresponding to the seven pre-Norman cantrefi of Dyfed. The hundreds were (clockwise from the northeast): Cilgerran, Cemais, Dewisland, Roose, Castlemartin, Narberth and Dungleddy and each was divided into civil parishes; a 1578 map in the British Library is the earliest known to show parishes and chapelries in Pembrokeshire. The Elizabethan era brought renewed prosperity to the county through an opening up of rural industries, including agriculture, mining and fishing, with exports to England and Ireland, though the formerly staple woollen industry had all but disappeared. 

 

During the First English Civil War (1642–1646) the county gave strong support to the Roundheads (Parliamentarians), in contrast to the rest of Wales, which was staunchly Royalist. In spite of this, an incident in Pembrokeshire triggered the opening shots of the Second English Civil War when local units of the New Model Army mutinied. Oliver Cromwell defeated the uprising at the Siege of Pembroke in July 1648.  On 13 August 1649, the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland began when New Model Army forces sailed from Milford Haven.

 

In 1720, Emmanuel Bowen described Pembrokeshire as having five market towns, 45 parishes and about 4,329 houses, with an area of 420,000 acres (1,700 km2). In 1791 a petition was presented to the House of Commons concerning the poor state of many of the county's roads, pointing out that repairs could not be made compulsory by the law as it stood. The petition was referred to committee.  People applying for poor relief were often put to work mending roads. Workhouses were poorly documented. Under the Poor Laws, costs and provisions were kept to a minimum, but the emphasis was often on helping people to be self-employed. While the Poor Laws provided a significant means of support, there were many charitable and benefit societies. After the Battle of Fishguard, the failed French invasion of 1797, 500 French prisoners were held at Golden Hill Farm, Pembroke. From 1820 to 1878 one of the county's prisons, with a capacity of 86, was in the grounds of Haverfordwest Castle. In 1831, the area of the county was calculated to be 345,600 acres (1,399 km2) with a population of 81,424.

 

It was not until nearly the end of the 19th century that mains water was provided to rural south Pembrokeshire by means of a reservoir at Rosebush and cast iron water pipes throughout the district.

 

Throughout much of the 20th century (1911 to 1961) the population density in the county remained stable while it rose in England and Wales as a whole. There was considerable military activity in Pembrokeshire and offshore in the 20th century: a naval base at Milford Haven because German U-boats were active off the coast in World War I and, in World War II, military exercises in the Preseli Mountains and a number of military airfields. The wartime increase in air activity saw a number of aircraft accidents and fatalities, often due to unfamiliarity with the terrain. From 1943 to 1944, 5,000 soldiers from the United States Army's 110th Infantry Regiment were based in the county, preparing for D-Day. Military and industrial targets in the county were subjected to bombing during World War II. After the end of the war, German prisoners of war were accommodated in Pembrokeshire, the largest prison being at Haverfordwest, housing 600. The County of Pembroke War Memorial in Haverfordwest carries the names of 1,200 of those that perished in World War I.

 

In 1972, a second reservoir for south Pembrokeshire, at Llys y Fran, was completed.

 

Pembrokeshire's tourism portal is Visit Pembrokeshire, run by Pembrokeshire County Council. In 2015 4.3 million tourists visited the county, staying for an average of 5.24 days, spending £585 million; the tourism industry supported 11,834 jobs. Many of Pembrokeshire's beaches have won awards, including Poppit Sands and Newport Sands. In 2018, Pembrokeshire received the most coast awards in Wales, with 56 Blue Flag, Green Coast or Seaside Awards. In the 2019 Wales Coast Awards, 39 Pembrokeshire beaches were recognised, including 11 awarded Blue Flag status.

 

The Pembrokeshire coastline is a major draw to tourists; in 2011 National Geographic Traveller magazine voted the Pembrokeshire Coast the second best in the world and in 2015 the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park was listed among the top five parks in the world by a travel writer for the Huffington Post. Countryfile Magazine readers voted the Pembrokeshire Coast the top UK holiday destination in 2018, and in 2019 Consumers' Association members placed Tenby and St Davids in the top three best value beach destinations in Britain. With few large urban areas, Pembrokeshire is a "dark sky" destination. The many wrecks off the Pembrokeshire coast attract divers. The decade from 2012 saw significant, increasing numbers of Atlantic bluefin tuna, not seen since the 1960s, and now seen by some as an opportunity to encourage tourist sport fishing.

 

The county has a number of theme and animal parks (examples are Folly Farm Adventure Park and Zoo, Manor House Wildlife Park, Blue Lagoon Water Park and Oakwood Theme Park), museums and other visitor attractions including Castell Henllys reconstructed Iron Age fort, Tenby Lifeboat Station and Milford Haven's Torch Theatre. There are 21 marked cycle trails around the county.

 

Pembrokeshire Destination Management Plan for 2020 to 2025 sets out the scope and priorities to grow tourism in Pembrokeshire by increasing its value by 10 per cent in the five years, and to make Pembrokeshire a top five UK destination.

 

As the national sport of Wales, rugby union is widely played throughout the county at both town and village level. Haverfordwest RFC, founded in 1875, is a feeder club for Llanelli Scarlets. Village team Crymych RFC in 2014 plays in WRU Division One West. There are numerous football clubs in the county, playing in five leagues with Haverfordwest County A.F.C. competing in the Cymru Premier.

 

Triathlon event Ironman Wales has been held in Pembrokeshire since 2011, contributing £3.7 million to the local economy, and the county committed in 2017 to host the event for a further five years. Ras Beca, a mixed road, fell and cross country race attracting UK-wide competitors, has been held in the Preselis annually since 1977. The record of 32 minutes 5 seconds has stood since 1995. Pembrokeshire Harriers athletics club was formed in 2001 by the amalgamation of Cleddau Athletic Club (established 1970) and Preseli Harriers (1989) and is based in Haverfordwest.

 

The annual Tour of Pembrokeshire road-cycling event takes place over routes of optional length. The 4th Tour, in April 2015, attracted 1,600 riders including Olympic gold medallist Chris Boardman and there were 1,500 entrants to the 2016 event. Part of Route 47 of the Celtic Trail cycle route is in Pembrokeshire. The Llys y Fran Hillclimb is an annual event run by Swansea Motor Club, and there are several other county motoring events held each year.

 

Abereiddy's Blue Lagoon was the venue for a round of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series in 2012, 2013, and 2016; the Welsh Surfing Federation has held the Welsh National Surfing Championships at Freshwater West for several years, and Llys y Fran Country Park hosted the Welsh Dragonboat Championships from 2014 to 2017.

 

While not at major league level, cricket is played throughout the county and many villages such as Lamphey, Creselly, Llangwm, Llechryd and Crymych field teams in minor leagues under the umbrella of the Cricket Board of Wales.

 

Notable people

From mediaeval times, Rhys ap Gruffydd (c. 1132-1197), ruler of the kingdom of Deheubarth, was buried in St Davids Cathedral. and Gerald of Wales was born c. 1146 at Manorbier Castle. Henry Tudor (later Henry VII) was born in 1457 at Pembroke Castle.

 

The pirate Bartholomew Roberts (Black Bart) (Welsh: Barti Ddu) was born in Casnewydd Bach, between Fishguard and Haverfordwest in 1682.

 

In later military history, Jemima Nicholas, heroine of the so-called "last invasion of Britain" in 1797, was from Fishguard, Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Picton GCB, born in Haverfordwest, was killed at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and Private Thomas Collins is believed to be the only Pembrokeshire man that fought in the Battle of Rorke's Drift in 1879.

 

In the arts, siblings Gwen and Augustus John were both born in Pembrokeshire, as was the novelist Sarah Waters; singer Connie Fisher grew up in Pembrokeshire. The actor Christian Bale was born in Haverfordwest.

 

Stephen Crabb, a former Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Secretary of State for Wales, was brought up in Pembrokeshire and is one of the county's two Members of Parliament, the other being Simon Hart,[90] who served as Secretary of State for Wales from 2019 to 2022.

Facts

 

The building contains five levels of parking and 33 floors at a height of 337.00 feet.

 

The Floridian was purchased for $96 million in February 2004 by Carlyle/DKE Floridian LP and was converted to condominiums.

 

Unit prices range from US $450,000 to $690,000 as of summer 2005.

 

Outdoor amenities include a lap pool, swimming pool, and a public bayside walkway.

 

According to developers, the building was constructed under budget.

 

Four pyramid finials top the building's cap.

 

The building contains one to three bedroom floorplans.

Inland units offer views over Biscayne Bay and toward downtown Miami; oceanside units offer views over South Beach and the Atlantic Ocean.

 

The building contains twelve units per typical floor.

 

Credit for the data above is given to the following website:

www.emporis.com/buildings/128245/the-floridian-miami-beac...

The Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM) is an art museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Its collection contains nearly 25,000 works of art. It is one of the largest museums in the United States. Beginning around 1872, multiple organizations were founded in order to bring an art gallery to Milwaukee, as the city was still a growing port town with little or no facilities to hold major art exhibitions. Over the span of at least nine years, all attempts to build a major art gallery had failed. Shortly after that year, Alexander Mitchell donated all of her collection into constructing Milwaukee's first permanent art gallery in the city's history. In 1888, the Milwaukee Art Association was created by a group of German panorama artists and local businessmen. The same year, British-born businessman Frederick Layton built, endowed, and provided artwork for the Layton Art Gallery, now demolished. In 1911, the Milwaukee Art Institute, another building constructed to hold other exhibitions and collections, was completed. The institute was built right next to the Layton Art Gallery. The Milwaukee Art Museum was founded in 1888 and is purported to be Milwaukee's first art gallery, though that claim is disputed by the Layton Art Gallery, which opened the same year. The Milwaukee Art Center (now the Milwaukee Art Museum) was formed when the Milwaukee Art Institute and Layton Art Gallery merged their collections in 1957 and moved into the newly built Eero Saarinen-designed Milwaukee County War Memorial. In the latter half of the 20th century, the museum came to include the War Memorial Center in 1957 as well as the brutalist Kahler Building (1975) designed by David Kahler and the Quadracci Pavilion (2001) created by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. The Quadracci Pavilion contains a movable, wing-like brise soleil that opens up for a wingspan of 217 feet (66 m) during the day, folding over the tall, arched structure at night or during inclement weather. The pavilion received the 2004 Outstanding Structure Award from the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering. This iconic building, often referred to as "the Calatrava", is used in the museum logo. In November 2015, the museum opened a $34 million expansion funded jointly by a museum capital campaign and by Milwaukee County. The new building, the Shields Building, designed by Milwaukee architect James Shields of HGA, provides an additional 30,000 square feet for art, including a section devoted to light-based media, photography, and video installation. The building includes a new atrium and lakefront-facing entry point for visitors and was designed with cantilevered elements and concrete columns to complement, respectively, the existing Calatrava and Kahler structures on the site. The final design emerged after a lengthy process that included the main architect's departure because of design disputes and his return to the project. The museum houses nearly 25,000 works of art housed on four floors, with works from antiquity to the present. Included in the collection are 15th- to 20th-century European and 17th- to 20th-century American paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, decorative arts, photographs, and folk and self-taught art. Among the best in the collection are the museum's holding of American decorative arts, German Expressionism, folk and Haitian art, and American art after 1960. The museum holds one of the largest collections of works by Wisconsin native Georgia O'Keeffe. Other artists represented include Gustave Caillebotte, Nardo di Cione, Francisco de Zurbarán, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Winslow Homer, Auguste Rodin, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Gabriele Munter, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Frank Lloyd Wright, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Wassily Kandinsky, Mark Rothko, Robert Gober, and Andy Warhol. It also has paintings by European painters Francesco Botticini, Jan Swart van Groningen, Ferdinand Bol, Jan van Goyen, Hendrick Van Vliet, Franz von Lenbach (Bavarian Girl), Ferdinand Waldmüller (Interruption), Carl Spitzweg, Bouguereau, Gerome (2 Majesties), Gustave Caillebotte, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Kowalski (Winter in Russia), Jules Bastien-Lepage (The Wood Gatherer), and Max Pechstein.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee_Art_Museum

Out @ Mainstore!

 

Contains a Stamp card to collect prizes after travelling to all the shops! <3 One Stamp Card = One prize!!

 

Have fun <3

 

Standard Sizing

Available in a range of colors and one flowery texture

 

Demo at the scene <3

 

maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Juicy%20La%20Jolla/117/197/24

The tomb of Psusennes I was found to contain the sepulchres and grave goods of other pharaohs from later periods, such as Shoshenq II, the third king of the Libyan Dynasty, whose silver sarcophagus and canopic vases were deposited in Psusennes' antechamber. The body and grave goods of Amenemope (Psusennes' successor) were also found here although the tomb had been built for Psusennes I. Even Siamun, Psusennes II and the army general Undjebauendjed, were buried in separate bays in the tomb.

The commonest method of dealing with the internal organs from the Middle Kingdom was to embalm them in canopic vases and only rarely, as in this case, were the organs placed in human-shaped containers.

Both the hawk-headed sarcophagus and the four containers of Sheshonq II are made from silver. The container themselves are miniature sarcophaguses in the image of the pharaoh with the nemes headdress, the royal uraeus serpent, the false beard and heavily made-up eyes.

22nd Dynasty

Provenance: Tanis, Tomb of Psusennes I, Burial chamber of Psusennes I

(The Illustrated Guide to The Egyptian Museum in Cairo, edited by Alessandro Bongioanni and Maria Sole Croce)

JE 72154

 

Egyptian Museum, Cairo

 

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence

 

Florence (Italian: Firenze; Tuscan: Fiorenza) is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 383,084 inhabitants in 2013, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.

 

Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of that era. It is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has been called "the Athens of the Middle Ages". Its turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family and numerous religious and republican revolutions. From 1865 to 1871 the city served as the capital of the Kingdom of Italy (established in 1861). The Florentine dialect forms the base of Standard Italian and it became the language of culture throughout Italy due to the prestige of the masterpieces by Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, Niccolò Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini.

 

The city attracts millions of tourists each year, and UNESCO declared the Historic Centre of Florence a World Heritage Site in 1982. The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art and architecture and monuments. The city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics. Due to Florence's artistic and architectural heritage, Forbes has ranked it as one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

 

Florence plays an important role in Italian fashion, and is ranked in the top 15 fashion capitals of the world; furthermore, it is a major national economic centre, as well as a tourist and industrial hub. In 2008 the city had the 17th-highest average income in Italy.

 

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Croce,_Florence

 

The Basilica di Santa Croce (Basilica of the Holy Cross) is the principal Franciscan church in Florence, Italy, and a minor basilica of the Roman Catholic Church. It is situated on the Piazza di Santa Croce, about 800 meters south-east of the Duomo. The site, when first chosen, was in marshland outside the city walls. It is the burial place of some of the most illustrious Italians, such as Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, the poet Foscolo, the philosopher Gentile and the composer Rossini, thus it is known also as the Temple of the Italian Glories (Tempio dell'Itale Glorie).

M5 is about 24500 LY away and contains at least 100000 stars. It is 165 LY across and is one of the larger globular clusters to orbit our galaxy.

 

Probably the core remnant of a small dwarf galaxy largely devoured by our galaxy, it is about 13 billion years old and contains a large number of variable RR Lyrae type stars. These are similar to Cepheid variables and have a luminosity/period relationship that can be used to precisely estimate their distance.

 

Serpens is quite low in the sky for me and M5 only just brushed over my neighbour's rooftop. I managed 6 x 10 minute subs before cloud crept in. There was quite a strong background gradient.

 

The large star nearby is 5 Serpens.

 

Equipment-

480/80mm f/6 Altair Starwave triplet refractor.

Altair Planostar 1.0 x FF with 2 inch IDAS LPS D1 filter

Astro-modified Canon 80D at ISO400; 6 x 10 minute subs (60 mins total integration).

 

NEQ6 Pro Mount with Rowan modified belt drives. 1-star align.

Laptop with BackyardEOS for focusing and acquisition.

 

Calibration-

60 dark frames - sensor temperature matched from Dark Library (17c)

80 bias frames

60 flat frames (Electroluminescent panel @ 1/40s)

 

QHY Polemaster alignment -

Error measured by PHD2= 1.3 arc minute.

RA drift +1.75 arcsec/min

Dec drift +2.70 arcsec/min

 

Guiding-

PHD2 guiding with ZWO ASI290mm/Altair lightwave 209/50mm secondary scope. Alternate subs dithered.

RA RMS error 0.88 arcsec, peak error -3.50 arcsec

Dec RMS error 0.60 arcsec, peak error 3.32 arcsec

 

Astrometry-

Center (RA, hms): 15h 18m 31.213s

Center (Dec, dms): +2° 14' 36.94"

Size: 85 x 61 arcmin

Pixel scale:1.59 arcsec/pixel

 

Light Pollution-

SQM (L) at middle of session (0140 hrs UT) 20.48 mag/arcsec2 Typical of rural/suburban edge - Bortle scale = 4/9 Green/Yellow

 

Environmental-

Temp =11.8c

Humidity = 55%

Dew point = 4.2c

Light cloud, 2 subs lost to cloud - session terminated.

 

Post processed in PixInsight 1.8.

The heart that breaks open can contain the whole universe. - Joanna Macy

 

photo © Jennifer Esperanza

This photo contains my first attempts at an actual large format display of my own work. It all turned out really well... very proud.

 

This shot is 3 of the 6 photographs on display (that I have taken in the past six months) @: East Pointe Commons Starbucks until May 11th, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

All photos were taken here in Milwaukee, and adequately showcase the variety of photos one could take within an urban setting.

 

These 3 photos can be found throughout my photostream.

 

I really dig the center one, once again; maybe because of its size? The one on the left - abstract shot of the Milwaukee Art Museum, the one on the right, a night skyline shot - City of Milwaukee. It's really a lot better of a place than you probably assume. I love it.

Matting cut by local gallery,

framing design and construction (myself).

 

If you so happen to be in the area... feel free to stop by!

I really think you have to see them (not through your computer screen).

Sunset over the travertine terraces at Pamukkale, Turkey.

 

"Pamukkale, meaning "cotton castle" in Turkish, is a natural site in Denizli Province in south-western Turkey. The city contains hot springs and travertines, terraces of carbonate minerals left by the flowing water. It is located in Turkey's Inner Aegean region, in the River Menderes valley, which has a temperate climate for most of the year.

 

The ancient city of Hierapolis was built on top of the white "castle" which is in total about 2,700 metres (8,860 ft) long, 600 m (1,970 ft) wide and 160 m (525 ft) high."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamukkale

Lodi Gardens is a park in Delhi, India. Spread over 90 acres (360,000 m2), it contains, Mohammed Shah's Tomb, Sikander Lodi's Tomb, Sheesh Gumbad and Bara Gumbad, architectural works of the 15th century Sayyid and Lodis, a Pashtun dynasty which ruled much of Northern India during the 16th century, and the site is now protected by the Archeological Survey of India (ASI). The gardens are situated between Khan Market and Safdarjung's Tomb on Lodi Road. It is beautiful and serene, and is a hotspot for morning walks for the Delhiites. The tomb of Mohammed Shah, the last of the Sayyid dynasty rulers, the earliest of the tombs in the garden, was built in 1444 by Ala-ud-din Alam Shah as a tribute to Mohammed Shah. As there is little architecture from these two periods remaining in India, Lodi Gardens is an important place of preservation. The tomb of Mohammed Shah is visible from the road, and is the earliest structure in the gardens. The architecture is characterised by the octagonal chamber, with stone chhajjas on the roof and guldastas on the corners. Another tomb within the gardens is that of Sikander Lodi, which is similar to Mohammed Shah's tomb, though without the chhatris, it was built by his son Ibrahim Lodi in 1517, the last of Sultan of Delhi from Lodi dynasty, as he was defeated by Babur, First battle of Panipat in 1526, this laying the foundation of the Mughal Empire. His tomb is often mistaken to be the Sheesh Gumbad, and is actually situated in near the tehsil office in Panipat, close to the Dargah of Sufi saint Bu Ali Shah Qalandar. It is a simple rectangular structure on a high platform approached by a flight of steps. The tomb was renovated by the British, and an inscription mentioning Ibrahim Lodi's defeat at the hands of Babur and the renovation was included in 1866. Under the Mughals major renovations would often take place depending on what occasions they would use the gardens for, under Akbar the Great the garden was used as an observatory and to keep records in a purpose built library. In the centuries, after the 15th century Sayyid and Lodi dynasties, two villages grew around the monuments, but the villagers were relocated in 1936 in order to create the gardens. During British Raj, it was landscaped by Lady Willingdon, wife of Governor-General of India, Marquess of Willingdon, and hence named the 'Lady Willingdon Park' upon its inauguration on April 9, 1936,and 1947, after Independence, it was given its present name, Lodi Gardens.

 

Source : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lodi_Gardens