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Singapore Botanic Gardens / National Orchid Garden
The Singapore Botanic Gardens is a 160-year-old tropical garden located at the fringe of Singapore's Orchard Road shopping district. It is one of only three gardens, and the only tropical garden, to be honoured as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Botanic Gardens has been ranked Asia's top park attraction since 2013, by TripAdvisor Travellers' Choice Awards. It was declared the inaugural Garden of the Year, International Garden Tourism Awards in 2012, and received Michelin's three-star rating in 2008.
The Botanic Gardens was founded at its present site in 1859 by an agri-horticultural society. It played a pivotal role in the region's rubber trade boom in the early twentieth century, when its first scientific director Henry Nicholas Ridley, headed research into the plant's cultivation. By perfecting the technique of rubber extraction, still in use today, and promoting its economic value to planters in the region, rubber output expanded rapidly. At its height in the 1920s, the Malayan peninsula cornered half of the global latex production.
The National Orchid Garden, within the main gardens, is at the forefront of orchid studies and a pioneer in the cultivation of hybrids, complementing the nation's status as a major exporter of cut orchids. Aided by the equatorial climate, it houses the largest orchid collection of 1,200 species and 2,000 hybrids.
Early in the nation's independence, Singapore Botanic Gardens' expertise helped to transform the island into a tropical Garden City, an image for which the nation is widely known. In 1981, the hybrid climbing orchid, Vanda Miss Joaquim, was chosen as the nation's national flower. Singapore's "orchid diplomacy" honours visiting head of states, dignitaries and celebrities, by naming its finest hybrids after them; these are displayed at its popular VIP Orchid Gardens.
The Singapore's Botanic Gardens is open from 5 a.m. to 12 midnight daily. There is no admission fee, except for the National Orchid Garden. More than 10,000 species of flora is spread over its 82-hectares area, which is stretched vertically; the longest distance between the northern and southern ends is 2.5 km (1.6 mi). The Botanic Gardens receives about 4.5 million visitors annually.
National Orchid Garden, Singapore
The National Orchid Garden, located within the Singapore Botanic Gardens, was opened on 20 October 1995 by Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.
The Singapore Botanic Gardens has been developed along a 3-Core Concept. The three Cores consist of Tanglin, which is the heritage core that retains the old favourites and rustic charms of the historic Gardens; Central, which is the tourist belt of the Gardens; and Bukit Timah, which is the educational and recreational zone. Each Core offers an array of attractions.
The National Orchid Garden is located in the Central Core of the gardens.
The Garden is located on the highest hill in the Singapore Botanic Gardens. Providing a place for 60,000 orchid plants - consisting of 1000 species and more than 2,000 hybrids - is the three hectares of carefully landscaped slopes.
The design concept presenting the display of plants in four separate colour zones: the spring zone with its prevailing colours of bright and lively shades of gold, yellow and creams; the summer zone with its major tones of strong reds and pinks; the autumn zone of matured shades; and the winter zone of whites and cool blues. A careful combination of selected trees, shrubs, herbs and orchids (mostly hybrids) with matching foliage and floral colours depicts the colour combination.
The Singapore Botanic Gardens is a 160-year-old tropical garden located at the fringe of Singapore's Orchard Road shopping district. It is one of only three gardens, and the only tropical garden, to be honoured as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Botanic Gardens has been ranked Asia's top park attraction since 2013, by TripAdvisor Travellers' Choice Awards. It was declared the inaugural Garden of the Year, International Garden Tourism Awards in 2012, and received Michelin's three-star rating in 2008.
The Botanic Gardens was founded at its present site in 1859 by an agri-horticultural society. It played a pivotal role in the region's rubber trade boom in the early twentieth century, when its first scientific director Henry Nicholas Ridley, headed research into the plant's cultivation. By perfecting the technique of rubber extraction, still in use today, and promoting its economic value to planters in the region, rubber output expanded rapidly. At its height in the 1920s, the Malayan peninsula cornered half of the global latex production.
The National Orchid Garden, within the main gardens, is at the forefront of orchid studies and a pioneer in the cultivation of hybrids, complementing the nation's status as a major exporter of cut orchids. Aided by the equatorial climate, it houses the largest orchid collection of 1,200 species and 2,000 hybrids.
Early in the nation's independence, Singapore Botanic Gardens' expertise helped to transform the island into a tropical Garden City, an image for which the nation is widely known. In 1981, the hybrid climbing orchid, Vanda Miss Joaquim, was chosen as the nation's national flower. Singapore's "orchid diplomacy" honours visiting head of states, dignitaries and celebrities, by naming its finest hybrids after them; these are displayed at its popular VIP Orchid Gardens.
The Singapore's Botanic Gardens is open from 5 a.m. to 12 midnight daily. There is no admission fee, except for the National Orchid Garden. More than 10,000 species of flora is spread over its 82-hectares area, which is stretched vertically; the longest distance between the northern and southern ends is 2.5 km (1.6 mi). The Botanic Gardens receives about 4.5 million visitors annually.
National Orchid Garden, Singapore
The National Orchid Garden, located within the Singapore Botanic Gardens, was opened on 20 October 1995 by Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.
The Singapore Botanic Gardens has been developed along a 3-Core Concept. The three Cores consist of Tanglin, which is the heritage core that retains the old favourites and rustic charms of the historic Gardens; Central, which is the tourist belt of the Gardens; and Bukit Timah, which is the educational and recreational zone. Each Core offers an array of attractions.
The National Orchid Garden is located in the Central Core of the gardens.
The Garden is located on the highest hill in the Singapore Botanic Gardens. Providing a place for 60,000 orchid plants - consisting of 1000 species and more than 2,000 hybrids - is the three hectares of carefully landscaped slopes.
The design concept presenting the display of plants in four separate colour zones: the spring zone with its prevailing colours of bright and lively shades of gold, yellow and creams; the summer zone with its major tones of strong reds and pinks; the autumn zone of matured shades; and the winter zone of whites and cool blues. A careful combination of selected trees, shrubs, herbs and orchids (mostly hybrids) with matching foliage and floral colours depicts the colour combination.
White Tank Campground
Joshua Tree National Park is located in southeastern California. Declared a U.S. National Park in 1994 when the U.S. Congress passed the California Desert Protection Act (Public Law 103-433), it had previously been a U.S. National Monument since 1936. It is named for the Joshua trees (Yucca brevifolia) native to the park. It covers a land area of 790,636 acres (1,235.37 sq mi; 3,199.59 km2) —an area slightly larger than the state of Rhode Island. A large part of the park, some 429,690 acres (173,890 ha), is a designated wilderness area. Straddling the San Bernardino County/Riverside County border, the park includes parts of two deserts, each an ecosystem whose characteristics are determined primarily by elevation: the higher Mojave Desert and lower Colorado Desert. The Little San Bernardino Mountains run through the southwest edge of the park.
The rock formations of Joshua Tree National Park were formed more than 100 million years ago from the cooling of magma beneath the surface into monzogranite, with roughly rectangular joints. Groundwater then filtered through the joints to erode away the corners and edges to create rounded stones, and flash floods washed away covering ground to create piles of boulders. These prominent outcrops are known as inselbergs.
(Wikipedia)
Der Joshua-Tree-Nationalpark ist eine Wüstenlandschaft im Südosten Kaliforniens, die den Übergang zwischen der Mojave-Wüste und der Colorado-Wüste bildet. Der Park ist nach der auffälligen, im Englischen „Joshua Tree“ genannten Josua-Palmlilie (Yucca brevifolia) benannt, der größten Art der Gattung der Palmlilien (Yucca), die auch Josuabaum genannt wird.
Neben den Joshuabaum-Wäldern bietet der Park eine der interessantesten geologischen Formationen, die man in den kalifornischen Wüsten findet. Es herrschen kahle Felsen vor, die in der Regel in einzelne Felsformationen aufgebrochen sind.
Joshua-Tree wurde 1936 zum National Monument und 1994 zum Nationalpark erklärt. Er wird jährlich von über einer Million Menschen – darunter Tausende von Felskletterern aus aller Welt – besucht.
(Wikipedia)
Templo Y Convento de la Santa Cruz at twilight.
The historic center of Queretaro was declared by UNESCO, in 1996, as a World Cultural Heritage Site because of the rich architecture of the many 17th and 18th century religious and civic buildings.
Queretaro, Mexico is a beautiful colonial city, but the magic of the place comes alive at night.
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The first official document with which the Carnival of Venice was declared a public celebration dates back to 1296 – an edict by the Senate of the “most Serene Republic,” making the day before Lent a holiday.
Established by the Venetian oligarchy as a concession to the people, its objective was fun and merrymaking, where the mask dominated as a means to briefly ignore any signs of belonging to social class, gender or religion.
Today the Carnival of Venice is an evocative and much-anticipated popular fest, unique in terms of its history, its masks and its atmosphere. Highly-reputed and appreciated in all the world, it brings thousands of tourists to Italy every year.
During the Lagoon’s two-week Carnival celebration, all can watch and take part in the numerous events and displays filling the piazzas and main waterways of the city.
As in the past, private parties and masquerade balls still happen behind the scenes today, inside Venice’s grand noble palaces. In these places, where time seems to stand still, guests can jump into this world of ancient splendor, reliving the Carnival tradition of long ago.
Some of the most spectacular moments during the Venetian carnival are the Flight of the Angel (or Flight of Colombina), a tradition that began with a Turkish acrobat in mid-1500s. In this amazing spectacle an artist in flesh and bone hangs from a metal cable, and, suspended in air, makes his descent from the top of St. Mark’s Bell Tower to the Doge’s Palace. It is a magnificent sight to see!
Venice, city of art and UNESCO World Heritage Site, exudes its charm all throughout the year, but only Carnival can render it even more magical than it already is!
Cathedral Peak
The uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park is in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa, covering 2,428.13 km2 (938 sq mi) of area. The park includes Royal Natal National Park, a provincial park, and covers part of the Drakensberg, the highest mountain range in Southern Africa.
The park and the adjoining Sehlabathebe National Park in the Kingdom of Lesotho are part of the Maloti-Drakensberg Park, which was first declared a World Heritage Site on 30 November 2000. It is described by UNESCO as having "exceptional natural beauty in its soaring basaltic buttresses, incisive dramatic cutbacks, and golden sandstone ramparts... the site’s diversity of habitats protects a high level of endemic and globally threatened species, especially birds and plants... [and it] also contains many caves and rock-shelters with the largest and most concentrated group of paintings in Africa south of the Sahara".
Plans to boost tourism in the area include a long-awaited cable car project by the KZN Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs Department.
The Drakensberg mountain range is characterized by a high level of endemism of both invertebrates and vertebrates.
Most of the higher South African parts of the Drakensberg mountain range have been designated as game reserves or wilderness areas. The uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park is also in the List of Wetlands of International Importance (under the Ramsar Convention). Adjacent to the park is the Cathkin Estates Conservation and Wildlife Sanctuary, which spans 1,044 ha (10 km2) of virgin grassland and represents the largest privately owned game park in the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg region.
(Wikipedia)
Der uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park (isiZulu uKhahlamba = „Barriere aus Speeren“) ist ein Nationalpark in den Drakensbergen in Südafrika. Im November 2000 wurde der Park in die UNESCO-Welterbe-Liste eingetragen. Der Park wird von der Provinzbehörde Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife verwaltet.
Der Park bedeckt eine Fläche von 2428 km². Er liegt in der Provinz KwaZulu-Natal und bildet einen 180 Kilometer langen und bis zu 20 Kilometer breiten Streifen entlang der Grenze zum Königreich Lesotho. Weitere Bestandteile des uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park sind die getrennt liegenden Gebiete Royal-Natal-Nationalpark und Spioenkop Dam Nature Reserve weiter im Norden.
Der Park verfügt über hochaufragende Bergformationen und ist mit einem gut ausgebauten Netz von Wanderpfaden durchzogen. Basaltene, senkrecht aufragende Bergpfeiler, Bastionen aus goldbraunem Sandstein sowie skulpturierte Bögen, Höhlen, Säulen und Felswannen prägen das Landschaftsbild. Die Kette der Drakensberge im uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park umfasst mehrere über 3000 Meter hohe Gipfel wie den Mafadi, den Giant’s Castle, den Cathedral Peak, den Monk’s Cowl, den Champagne Castle und den Njesuthi. Die Berghänge sind teilweise als Naturschutzgebiete ausgewiesen, in denen sich rund 30.000 Felsmalereien in etwa 600 Höhlen finden, die von San-Menschen über einen Zeitraum von 4000 Jahren erstellt wurden. In dieser Region entspringen die meisten großen Flüsse der Provinz KwaZulu-Natal. Sie bilden tiefe Schluchten und Täler. Einzige Straßenverbindung durch den Park nach Lesotho ist die Strecke über den Sanipass.
Es gibt eine Vielfalt endemischer Pflanzenarten, darunter Zuckerbüsche. Im Frühjahr übersäen in den Niederungen Teppiche von Wildblumen den Park, darunter Watsonia-Arten.
Zu den Vogelarten gehören Kapgeier (Gyps coprotheres) und Bartgeier (Gypaetus barbatus). Zahlreiche im Park beheimatete Wirbeltiere und Wirbellose sind endemisch. Weiterhin leben im Park Buschböcke, Ducker, Elenantilopen und Paviane.
1903 beschloss die Regierung der Kolonie Natal die Errichtung eines Naturschutzgebietes in den Drakensbergen. 1905 wurde eine klare Grenzziehung des Schutzbereichs proklamiert. 1916 wurde der Royal Natal National Park eingerichtet. Ab den 1950er Jahren wurden in den Drakensbergen diverse Naturschutzgebiete ausgewiesen, so 1951 das Kamberg Nature Reserve, 1953 das Nature Reserve de Lotheni und 1967 Vergelegen. Dabei wurde der Gewässerschutz vorangetrieben. 1973 kamen die Schutzgebiete Mdedelelo und Mkomazi hinzu.
Im Juni 2001 wurde des Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation Area (etwa: Maloti-Drakensberge-Grenzüberschreitendes-Erhaltungsgebiet) gegründet. Dieses verbindet den ukhahlamba-Drakensberg Park mit dem Sehlabathebe-Nationalpark in Lesotho. Ihm liegt der Anspruch an einen Peace Park (Transfrontier Conservation Area/TFCA) zugrunde. Die zwölf Kilometer lange Staatsgrenze kann zu Fuß passiert werden. Seit 2013 sind beide Nationalparks zusammen als Maloti Drakensberg Transboundary World Heritage Site in der UNESCO-Welterbe-Liste verzeichnet. Der gesamte Park ist nunmehr 2493 km² groß, wobei 65 km² der Fläche auf das Terrain Lesothos entfallen.
„… exceptional natural beauty in its soaring basaltic buttresses, incisive dramatic cutbacks, and golden sandstone ramparts … the site’s diversity of habitats protects a high level of endemic and globally threatened species, especially birds and plants … [and it] also contains many caves and rock-shelters with the largest and most concentrated group of paintings in Africa south of the Sahara. – … außergewöhnliche Schönheit der Natur in seinen aufragenden Basaltpfeilern, prägnante dramatische Einschnitte, und goldene Sandstein-Wälle … Die Vielfalt der Lebensräume beschützt ein hohes Maß an endemischen und vom Aussterben bedrohten Arten, vor allem Vögel und Pflanzen … [und es] enthält viele Höhlen und Felsnischen mit der größten und dichtesten Gruppe von Gemälden in Afrika südlich der Sahara.“
– Beschreibung des Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation Area auf der Website der UNESCO: Begründung zur Auswahl 2013
Teile der Drakensberg-Gebirgskette sind zu Schutzzwecken mit übergeordneter Bedeutung als Totalreservate ausgewiesen, sowie für touristische Zwecke daneben als Wildreservate. Entsprechend der Ramsar-Konvention wird der uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park auch als Schutzgut der List of Ramsar wetlands of international importance geführt. Private Eigentumsrechte hält an kleineren Gebietsteilen die Cathkin Estates Conservation and Wildlife Sanctuary.
(Wikipedia)
Reino Unido de Gran Bretaña - Escocia - Glasgow - Necrópolis
ENGLISH
The Glasgow Necropolis is a Victorian cemetery in Glasgow, Scotland. It is on a low but very prominent hill to the east of Glasgow Cathedral (St. Mungo's Cathedral). Fifty thousand individuals have been buried here. Typically for the period only a small percentage are named on monuments and not every grave has a stone. Approximately 3500 monuments exist here.
Following the creation of Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris a wave of pressure began for cemeteries in Britain. This required a change in the law to allow burial for profit. Previously the parish church held responsibility for burying the dead but there was a growing need to give an alternative solution. Glasgow was one of the first to join this campaign, having a growing population, with fewer and fewer attending church. The planning of the cemetery began formally by the Merchants' House of Glasgow in 1831, in anticipation of a change in the law. The Cemeteries Act was passed in 1832 and the floodgates opened. Glasgow Necropolis officially opened in April 1833. Just prior to this, in September 1832 a Jewish burial ground had been established in the north-west section of the land. This small area was declared "full" in 1851.
Predating the cemetery, the statue of John Knox sitting on a column at the top of the hill, dates from 1825.
Alexander Thomson designed a number of its tombs, and John Bryce and David Hamilton designed other architecture for the grounds.
The main entrance is approached by a bridge over what was then the Molendinar Burn. The bridge, which was designed by David Hamilton was completed in 1836. It became known as the "Bridge of Sighs" because it was part of the route of funeral processions (the name is an allusion to the Bridge of Sighs in Venice). The ornate gates (by both David and James Hamilton) were erected in 1838, restricting access onto the bridge.
Three modern memorials lie between the gates and the bridge: a memorial to still-born children; a memorial to the Korean War; and a memorial to Glaswegian recipients of the Victoria Cross.
Across the bridge the original scheme was to enter the area via a tunnel but this proved unviable. The ornate entrance of 1836 remains.
The cemetery, as most early Victorian cemeteries, is laid out as an informal park, lacking the formal grid layouts of later cemeteries. This layout is further enhanced by the complex topography. The cemetery's paths meander uphill towards the summit, where many of the larger monuments stand, clustered around the John Knox Monument.
The Glasgow Necropolis was described by James Stevens Curl as "literally a city of the dead". Glasgow native Billy Connolly has said: "Glasgow's a bit like Nashville, Tennessee: it doesn't care much for the living, but it really looks after the dead."
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ESPAÑOL
La Necrópolis de Glasgow (en inglés: Glasgow Necropolis) es un cementerio victoriano de Glasgow, Escocia, Reino Unido. Está en una colina baja, pero muy importante, en el este de la Catedral de Glasgow (Catedral de San Mungo). Cincuenta mil personas han sido enterradas aquí. Típicamente, para el período sólo un pequeño porcentaje fue nombrado en los monumentos y no todas las tumbas tienen una lápida. Hay aproximadamente 3.500 monumentos.
La planificación del cementerio comenzó formalmente por la Cámara de Glasgow de Comerciantes en 1831, a la espera de un cambio en la ley. La Ley de Cementerios se aprobó en 1832 lo que permitió su apertura. La necrópolis se inauguró oficialmente en abril de 1833. Justo antes de esto, en septiembre 1832 un cementerio judío se había establecido en la sección noroeste de la tierra. Esta pequeña área fue declarada "completa" en 1851.
La Necrópolis de Glasgow está en una tierra llamada ‘The Craigs’ la cual fue comprada por la Casa de los Comerciantes de Glasgow en 1650 y se convirtió en un parque público durante casi 200 años. El concepto de un cementerio jardín se basó en el Cementerio Pere laChaise después de que un miembro de la Casa de los Comerciantes hubiera visitado a París. La Necrópolis fue abierta oficialmente en 1833. Este cementerio fue creado con la intención de ser multi-religioso y el primer entierro en 1832 fue el de un judío, Joseph Levi, joyero, que murió de disentería y fue enterrado en el recinto de los judíos. En 1833 el primer entierro cristiano fue el de Elizabeth Miles, madrastra del superintendente George Mylne. Después de 1860, las primeras extensiones este y sur fueron hechas encima de la Pedrera de Ladywell y en 1877 y 1892/3 fueron construidas las extensiones finales al norte y al sureste, casi doblando el área del cementerio. La Necrópolis ahora tiene 37 acres (15 has).
Tuvieron lugar 50.000 entierros en la Necrópolis con 3.500 monumentos, lo que parecen ser espacios verdes abiertos en varias zonas de las tierras son de hecho sepulcros no marcados. En 1877 el río Molendinar, que corría debajo del Puente de Sighs, era subterrá- neo. Este río pequeño fue en el que se dijo que St. Mungo pescaba salmones y que ahora es subterráneo en dirección a Clyde.
La Necrópolis fue uno de los pocos cementerios en guardar los expedientes de los muertos, incluyendo la profesión, la edad, el sexo y la causa de la muerte. En julio de 1878 el libro de visitantes mostró que 13.733 personas visitaron la Necrópolis de Glasgow - 12.400 ciudadanos y 1.333 otros visitantes. En 1966, la Casa de los Comerciantes donó £50,000 y la Necrópolis al Ayuntamiento de la Ciudad de Glasgow es el que ahora la administra y mantiene. Se han quitado los bancos y las divisiones de los sepulcros y la mayor parte del área ha sido plantada de césped como medida de mantenimiento.
Hay aquí monumentos diseñados por los principales arquitectos y escultores de la época, incluyendo Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson, Charles Rennie Mackintosh y JT Rochead, uno de cada estilo arquitectónico, dichos monumentos no sólo eran creados para los empresarios y ricos prominentes de la designada ‘segunda ciudad del imperio' sino también erigidos por aportaciones públicas para algunos ciudadanos que no habrían podido de otra manera ser enterrados aquí.
La Necrópolis de Glasgow fue el primer cementerio jardín pero otros le siguieron incluyendo Sighthill en 1840, la Necrópolis meridional en 1840 y la Necrópolis del este en 1847. La comunidad católica abrió el St Mary’s Churchyard en Calton en 1839 y el cementerio de St Peter en Dalbeth en 1851.
El acto ‘Burial Grounds’ (Escocia) de 1855 condujo al cierre de la vieja iglesia y del cementerio. Los primeros de los nuevos cementerios en las cercanías de la ciudad fueron Craigton en 1873, Cathcart en 1878, Lambhill (85 acres) en 1881, la Necrópolis occidental en 1882 y St Kentigern en 1882 (noroeste de la ciudad).
El primer crematorio que se construyo en Escocia fue el Crematorio de Glasgow en las tierras de la Necrópolis occidental en 1895.
So I know that I declared May the month of levitations, but this was for my sculpture class, i know random, but this is my "performance piece" i covered myself in mud and crawled in this hole between a split and fallen tree.
but anyways, I was editing this and then this happy little color accident happened, it wasn't intentional, but it reminded me of Sarah's painter series and I fell in love with it!
issue 5 of golden age magazine!|tumblr|facebook fanpage| formspring|my lookbook!
ps. my website is currently expired due to financial issues, hopefully it'll be up soon.
**after spending some time looking at this on different computer screens...etc... i decided to de-contrast it a bunch, it looks better this way!
Slowenien - Nanos
Pleša
Nanos (pronounced [ˈnaːnɔs]; Italian: Monte Re) is a karst limestone plateau at the eastern border of the Inner Carniola in southwestern Slovenia.
Geography
The plateau is about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) wide and 12 km (7.5 mi) long in the northern extension of the Dinaric Alps. The highest point of the plateau is Dry Peak (Slovene: Suhi vrh, 1,313 metres or 4,308 feet). The plateau is traversed by the Slovene Mountain Trail, the oldest interconnecting trail in Slovenia. The most popular destination on Nanos and part of the trail is Pleša Peak (1,262 metres or 4,140 feet) with the Vojko Lodge (Slovene: Vojkova koča, named for the Slovene Partisan Janko Premrl, a.k.a. Vojko) below its summit. In 1987, the southern and western slopes of Nanos were declared a regional park with an area of 2,632 hectares (6,500 acres).
History
In Antiquity, Nanos was known as Ocra. Strabo reckoned it the last peak of the Alps. In the 1st century, the pass at Nanos was an important route for civilian and military traffic from Trieste (Tergeste) to Ljubljana (Emona) and beyond to Carnuntum at the Danube. It lost its importance when a faster road connected Emona to Aquileia further north in the 2nd century. Nanos is mentioned as Nanas in Johann Weikhard von Valvasor's 1689 work The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola.
Nanos has an important symbolic place in the history and identity of Littoral Slovenes. In September 1927, the anti-Fascist insurgent organization TIGR was founded on the Nanos Plateau. On 18 April 1942, the Battle of Nanos took place at Nanos. It was one of the first battles between the Partisan insurgence in the Slovene Littoral, led by Janko Premrl, and the Italian Army, and was the beginning of the struggle for the western border between the two nations.
Demographics and economy
There are around 35 residents domiciled on Nanos Plateau. They were finally connected to the electricity grid in 2006. Their most highly valued product is the Nanos cheese, produced already in the 16th century and, since October 2011, the protected designation of origin label. Today, it is made of cow milk, although before World War II, it was made of sheep milk. The number of sheep on the plateau dropped significantly since then. Residents also make a living from tourism.
The Nanos transmitter
The Nanos transmitter is an FM/DAB[10]/TV-broadcasting facility consisting of a 50 m guyed tower, a guyed mast, which may be a bit less tall, and a small guyed mast. The transmitter building has many dishes for radio relay links. The Nanos transmitter went into service in 1962 and played an important role in introducing PAL-standard color TV in the former Yugoslavia. The facility was attacked during the Slovene independence war in 1991. It is operated by the broadcaster RTV Slovenija.
(Wikipedia)
Nanos ist ein mittelgebirgiger Bergzug am südöstlichen Rand der Julischen Alpen respektive Nordrand des Karst im Südwesten Sloweniens, zwischen Postojna und Triest gelegen, seine höchste Erhebung mit 1313 m ist der Suhi Vrh.
Geographie
Der östliche Rand der Karsthochebene fällt vom Berg Pleša (1262 m) steil zum Razdrto ab, nach Westen senkt sich der Bergzug allmählich auf 500 m ab. Im Nordosten grenzt er an den Höhenzug des Birnbaumer Waldes (Hrušica).
Der Nanos bildet zusammen mit dem Birnbaumer Wald, der Hochebene von Schwarzenberg (Črni vrh), dem Hinterland des Flusses Hubelj, den westlichen Teilen des Ternowaner Waldes (Trnovski gozd) und Banjšice-Plateau eine hydrogeologische Einheit, deren Karstwasserkörper von mesozoischen Dachsteinkalken und Kalkbreccien bestimmt ist. Diese bilden hochporöse Karstgrundwasserleiter mit hoher hydraulischer Leitfähigkeit. Es handelt sich dabei durchweg um tiefen Karst. Auf drei Seiten wird der Karstwasserleiter von Nanos und Birnbaumer Wald von Flysch begrenzt und grenzt im Nordosten an die Predjama-Störung. Das Gebiet bildet eine wichtige Wasserscheide zwischen den Einzugsgebieten von Adria und Donau (siehe Wasserscheiden in den Alpen).
Klimatisch liegt der Höhenzug des Nanos an der Grenze zwischen dem gemäßigten Kontinentalklima und dem inländisch-submediterranen Klima des Wippachtales. Das Gebiet zählt zu den niederschlagsreichsten Regionen Sloweniens (bis über 2000 mm). Die Vegetation der dünn besiedelten Region ist Teil des Dinarischen Tannen-Buchenwaldes.
In der Antike wurde der Nanos und die umliegenden Regionen als Okra-Gebirge bezeichnet. Nach Angaben des griechischen Geographen Strabon siedelte hier der keltisch-illyrische Stamm der Iapoden. Zu römischer Zeit lag der Nanos an der Grenze zwischen Italien und der Provinz Pannonien.
Sendeanlage
Auf der Pleša befindet sich seit 1953 eine Sendeanlage des slowenischen Rundfunks für Hörfunk und Fernsehen. Als Antennenträger dienen zwei Sendetürme mit 52 und 35 Metern Höhe. Während des 10-Tage-Krieges wurde der Sender am 28. Juni 1991 von der jugoslawischen Luftwaffe bombardiert.
In der Nähe der Sendeanlage befindet sich die Vojkova-Berghütte (Vojkova koča), die auch über einen Fahrweg erreicht werden kann.
Hieronymus-Kirche
Die Kirche liegt auf einer kleinen Verebnung unterhalb des Nebengipfels Grmada in einer Höhe von 1019 m, etwa eine halbe Stunde von der Vojkova-Hütte entfernt. Ein Schrein des Heiligen Hieronymus befand sich hier bereits im 14. Jahrhundert. Die Kirche bekam ihre heutige Größe und Form wahrscheinlich zu Ende des 16. oder im ersten Viertel des 17. Jahrhunderts. Sie wurde später aufgegeben und verfiel, wurde jedoch im Jahr 1990 wieder geweiht. Der Marmoraltar mit zwei Säulen wurde errichtet, als die Kirche renoviert wurde. Sehenswert ist der geschnitzte, vergoldete Altar.
Nach mündlicher Überlieferung pflegten in früheren Jahrhunderten Triestiner Seeleute jährlich etwa 280 Liter Öl zu spenden, um die Kirche zur Orientierung für die Schifffahrt nachts zu beleuchten.
(Wikipedia)
Die Pleša ist ein 1262 m. i. J. hoher Berg im Nanos in Südwest-Slowenien.
Lage und Landschaft
Die Pleša liegt etwa 50 Kilometer südwestlich von Ljubljana, 30 Kilometer nordöstlich von Triest, und 20 Kilometer östlich von Gorica (Gorizia, Görz). Sie bildet den südlichsten Sporn des Hochplateaus des Nanos. Dieses bricht hier allseits steil ab, im Westen in das Vipava-Tal (Vipavska dolina), über das es sich gut 1000 Meter erhebt, im Osten in das Becken von Postojna (Postojnska kotlina, Pivka-Becken), das auf etwa 500 Meter Seehöhe liegt. Westlich liegt Vipava, östlich Postojna, südlich unterhalb der Pass Razdrto (Sattel von Präwald, 599 m. i. J.). Damit bildet der Berg eine von Osten, Süden und Westen weithin sichtbare, orographisch prägnante Landmarke. Der Grat des Nanos läuft nordwärts zum Laniški Vrh (1236 m. i. J.), in diesem Grat ist die Pleša eine unscheinbare Erhebung.
Da man die Grenze zwischen den Alpen und dem Dinarischen Gebirge (Dinariden) traditionell an der Pforte von Postojna (Adelsberger Pforte, Postojnska vrata) östlich sieht, stellt die Pleša den südlichsten Berg der Ostalpen dar. Heute ist es aber auch üblich, die Berge nördlich noch zum Karst (im weiteren Sinne) zu rechnen und die Grenze der Julischen Alpen nördlicher anzutragen. Die orographisch prägnanteste Umgrenzung der Alpen ist aber hier. Daneben gab es früher auch noch Grenzziehungen viel weiter südlich, etwa bei Delnice auf der Höhe Rijeka, nach denen der Berg gänzlich alpin war.
Westwärts geht der Močilnik zur Vipava, einem Nebenfluss des Isonzo (slowenisch Soča), ostwärts geht die Nanoščica zur Pivka. Der Isonzo geht zur Adria, die Pivka gehört zum Einzugsgebiet der Ljubljanica (Laibach) und der Sava (Save). Damit bildet der Berg die Wasserscheide Mittelmeer–Schwarzes Meer.
Erschließung
Unweit des Gipfels steht der im Jahr 1953 erbaute Sender Nanos, eine wichtige Medien- und Telekommunikationsstation des Raumes zwischen Triest und Ljubljana. Bis dorthin führt eine Straße.
(Wikipedia)
PLANT A TREE AND STAND !!!
VIDEO :
www.youtube.com/watch?v=szlFqjxwkos
In America the police have declared war on America, it's people and every law she is founded on. They abuse and slaughter more of us than any attacking force in recent history. In doing these acts and failing to stop those who do, the Blue Line is little different than the Redcoats or a usurping army. Our police are engaged in treason.
This is the direct result of failing to love our neighbors and stand up. No politician can fix it. It's sad to see unprincipled behavior in the streets, only remember that for every shock and awe story on the news, many are standing people from every faction.
Stands are springing up all over America and the people have both right and duty to resists this government of treason. Only let us remind ourselves to never be the lynch mob and to act with honor. Be the principled unwavering resistance.
The Inverrary Waterfall is one of the most well-known landmarks in Broward County and has become one of the most popular scenic backgrounds for photos in South Florida. Originally built by the Walt Disney Company, it was shipped in sections and reassembled at its present site.
The Inverrary Waterfall was declared a historical landmark by the Lauderhill City Commission and ACT Board under the Lauderhill Historical Designation Program on May 8, 2017.
Credit for the data above is given to the historical marker placed near the Falls and the following website:
www.orlandosentinel.com/travel/explore-florida/fl-sb-hist...
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
Aurangzeb declared his father, Shah Jahan, incompetent to rule and put him under house arrest in Agra Fort. During his eight-year-long illness and imprisonment, Shahjahan would often gaze intently at The Taj (the monument of love that Mughal Emperor Shahjahan gave to the world as a testament to his intense love for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal). The last days of his life were spent helplessly looking at his beloved Taj from his captivity in the Shah Burj of the Agra Fort across the river Yamuna. It is said that Shahjahan kept gazing at the Taj Mahal until his last breath. When you visit the Agra Fort, you can sense the solitude and grief of an old, powerless emperor even centuries later. It reminds us of the grief of a once-powerful emperor reduced to poverty in his final days and the longing of a lover to be reunited with their beloved.
The Old Town Hall:
Broken Hill was declared a municipality in September 1888 and the first council meeting was held in a wooden building on the current town hall site in December 1888. The iconic town hall was designed by Adelaide architects Whitall and Wells in the South Australian Italianate style using stone from the Block 14 Mine. The foundation stone was laid by Sir Henry Parkes in April 1890. The large hall at the rear was demolished in 1974 following the erection of a new civic centre, and the facade was restored in 1976.
The Broken Hill Post Office:
In September 1883, Charles Rasp, a boundary rider on the Mount Gipps sheep station, pegged out a mineral lease on the property, in the belief that a rock outcrop within the lease area bore tin oxide. Rasp was joined by two other property workers, who in turn advised the manager of Mount Gipps, George McCulloch. McCulloch suggested a 'syndicate of seven' investors to pay for the development of the lease. Early samples proved to have a low bearing of tin and the main settlement was at Silverton to the north.
It was not until January 1885, when silver ore was discovered in the tailings of the Rasp shaft that people began to take an interest in the Broken Hill area. In June, the 'syndicate' decided to register itself as the Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited, to mine the ore load. With the establishment of the mine, the town began to grow rapidly with a Broken Hill Progress Committee being established in November to encourage the town's development. The first storekeeper, Walter Sully, operated a postal service pending the construction of a post office.
In January 1886 the first post office was opened in Broken Hill following pressure from the Progress Committee on the postmaster at Silverton, the nearest post office. The Broken Hill office was run by Mrs Marie Wilson from a small building attached to Walter Sully's general store in Argent Street. Mrs Wilson was the first Government Official appointed in Broken Hill.
In August 1886 a telegraph station was established in Broken Hill, also operating out of the post office building, with Mr William Newtown appointed as Post and Telegraph Master. By the end of 1886, Broken Hill's population had risen to 3000, and the post office building was deemed no longer adequate for the bustling mining town. From October 1886, the Progress Committee began to make official requests to the Post Master General's (PMG) Department for the erection of an official post office. Initially, the PMG Department was reluctant to approve the erection of a large office due to the uncertainty of Broken Hill settlement being permanent. Many other frontier mining towns had disappeared when the ore had dried up. However, by October 1888, the Department had accepted Broken Hill's permanency and plans had been drawn up by the Colonial Architects Office under James Barnet, for a large office, with a residence attached. These were rejected on the grounds of being too small and it was not until the 11th of November 1889 that the final plans were accepted.
The tender for the construction was awarded to Mr John Dobbie of Balmain for £6475 on the condition that the new office be erected in twelve months.
The new office was finished in 1892, opening for business on the 9th of May. The most striking feature of the new office was the tower, standing 86 feet high. A balcony adorned the tower and second storey of the office, with a verandah encircling the ground level. The internal fittings, including entrance door in Argent Street, mail counters, and stairways were made out of cedar. The postmaster was accommodated within the building, with a residence for a postal assistant also provided.
In 1973 the rear section of the Post Office was removed to make way for the building of a new telephone exchange. The postmaster's residence was also removed at this stage. Between August and November 1979 a major refurbishment and renovation program was undertaken in the post office, during which time the service operated out of temporary accommodation.
Source: City Of Broken Hill & New South Wales Heritage Register.
The Inverrary Waterfall is one of the most well-known landmarks in Broward County and has become one of the most popular scenic backgrounds for photos in South Florida. Originally built by the Walt Disney Company, it was shipped in sections and reassembled at its present site.
The Inverrary Waterfall was declared a historical landmark by the Lauderhill City Commission and ACT Board under the Lauderhill Historical Designation Program on May 8, 2017.
Credit for the data above is given to the historical marker placed near the Falls and the following website:
www.orlandosentinel.com/travel/explore-florida/fl-sb-hist...
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
I have declared it a Lingerie Weekend. Nothing but satin, lace and stockings until I get up for work Monday morning!!! TGIF!!
Queenscliffe (pop 3,000). After the pastoral era the Borough of Queenscliffe was declared in 1863 when the town was already a sizeable. Its location at the entrance to Port Phillip Bay was strategically important. Pilot boats helped ships navigate the dangerous entrance. The town had two lighthouses by 1863 as the early sandstone one of 1844 had been replaced by a white painted stone lighthouse in 1863. At the same time a black basalt second lighthouse was erected within the fort precinct. Some sources say with imported Scottish bluestone however, other sources say the black basalt came from Footscray! The first pilot to tend his services to shipping began work in 1838 and by 1840 the settlement had four pilots. They lived in tents on the shores and they helped with six major shipwrecks before 1863. It was a treacherous place during a storm. By the late 19th century pleasure boats plied the waters mainly across to Sorrento. But Queenscliffe was also fortified to protect Port Phillip Bay. In 1863 three guns were placed here and the first part of the fort was built between 1863 and 1869. Once the railway from Geelong reached the town in 1879 and troops could be quickly moved there if needed further fortifications were erected. Two gun batteries and the Fort were completed in 1882. Then a garrison of troops, engineers and naval men were stationed there. The keep was finished in 1885 and the defensive gorge was dug in 1886. The colonies especially feared attack from Russia in the 1880s. The troops remained in place from 1883 to 1946. It became a museum in 1982. The fishing village of Queenscliffe was surveyed and named after Queen Victoria in 1853. A town pier followed shortly after land sales. The first houses, a group of ten, were built in 1853 for the pilot service men. A school, hotel and church opened in 1854 and the post office gained a telegraphic link to Melbourne in 1855. The first Mechanic’s Institute was erected in 1859. When the borough council was formed in 1863 it had 250 residences. The town has three museums – the Historical Museum in the Info Centre (free); the Maritime Museum (about $10); and the Fort Museum highlights the strategic and military history ($12). In the 1880s Queenscliffe became a popular summer retreat for Melbournians and hotels and guest houses dotted the town. Holidaymakers arrived by train or steamer.
[ENG] The Cordoba Courtyard Festival, declared World Heritage in 2012, is a Cordoba (Spain) courtyard contest held every year since 1920, usually during the second and third weeks of May (suspended in 2020 by the covid-19 pandemic) in which the residents of the city decorate their patios with the dream of obtaining the prestigious award granted by the City Council and showing them free to numerous visitors. The Cordovan patio has its origin in the Roman occupation in which the houses with their rooms were built around a patio with a central well, with the Arab invasion the “border” was introduced (narrow strip along to the walls to grow ornamental plants), and with the arrival of Fernando III another plant was added to install the bedrooms. Patios are an effective way to combat summer heat. Other pictures in Cordoba Courtyard Festival album.
[ESP] La Fiesta de los Patios de Córdoba, declarada Patrimonio Inmaterial Cultural de la Humanidad en 2012, es un concurso de Patios de Córdoba (España) que se celebra cada año desde 1920, habitualmente durante la segunda y tercera semanas de mayo (suspendido en 2020 por la pandemia del covid-19) en la que los vecinos de la ciudad engalanan sus patios con la ilusión de obtener el prestigioso galardón otorgado por el Ayuntamiento y de mostrarlos gratuitamente a numerosos visitantes. El patio cordobés tiene su origen en la ocupación romana en la que se construían las viviendas con sus habitaciones alrededor de un patio con un pozo central, con la invasión árabe se introdujo el “arriate” (franja estrecha junto a las paredes para cultivar plantas de adorno), y con la llegada de Fernando III se añadió otra planta para instalar los dormitorios. Los patios constituyen una forma eficaz para combatir los calores del verano. Más fotografías en el álbum Fiesta de los Patios de Córdoba.
193316
Österreich / Vorarlberg / Kleinwalsertal - Hoher Ifen (2.229 m)
seen from Fellhorn
gesehen vom Fellhorn
The Hoher Ifen (also Hochifen) is a 2,230 metre (according to German survey: 2,229 m) high mountain in the Allgäu Alps, west of the Kleinwalsertal valley. In winter it forms the backdrop for a small ski area. It lies on the border between Germany and Austria. The summit is the highest point on the gently, tilted Ifen plateau.
Northeast of the Ifen plateau is the Gottesacker plateau, a karst landscape which has been designated a nature reserve and which has numerous caves and rare mountain plants. The most important caves are the Hölloch im Mahdtal and the Schneckenloch Cave near Schönenbach. On the eastern slopes of the massif a Stone Age dwelling site was discovered on the mountain pasture of Schneiderkürenalpe at a height of about 1,500 m.
On the southern side of the mountain an undisturbed wildlife area has been declared by the Bregenz district commission at the instigation of the Walser Hunting Club (Walser Jägerschaft), that has restricted the usual Austrian freedom of passage in accordance with § 33 of the Forestry Act. Mountaineering clubs, in particular the German Alpine Club, the Austrian Alpine Club and Allgäu Climbing Group (IG Klettern Allgäu) have criticised the regulation by the Bregenz district commission, because, within its boundaries, on the southern edge of the plateau and at Bärenköpfe is one of the best sport climbing areas in the Alps. The south faces are called the Céüse of the Allgäu, a comparison to the most famous climbing area in Europe.
At the beginning of the 1970s the first ski lifts appeared on the Ifen, from which today's company, the Ifen-Bergbahn-Gesellschaft, emerged. For a long time it was mostly owned by Ruth Merckle, the wife of the pharmaceutical businessman Adolf Merckle. By taking over the Merckle family's 82% share and the 18% share of the family of Kleinwalsertal tourism pioneer, Alfons Herz, on 1 July 2009, the Ifen Bergbahn GmbH u. Co gained full ownership of the Kleinwalsertaler Bergbahn (KBB), Riezlern, whose main shareholders are the Allgäuer Überlandwerk and the Raiffeisen Holding Kleinwalsertal. The Kleinwalsertaler Bergbahn AG plans to build a link lift to the Walmendinger Horn The expansion plans were sharply criticised by several associations because they were viewed as damaging to the environment and would promote mass tourism. The Austrian Alpine Club section in the Kleinwalsertal criticised the plans as follows: The construction of this lift cannot be done in harmony with nature as we would wish to remind those launching such an initiative!
The Kleinwalsertal Landscape Protection Society (Landschaftsschutz Kleinwalsertal) expressed similar views. On October 21, 2012 a referendum was held. About 55% of the voters rejected the proposal to build the lift.
(Wikipedia)
Der Hohe Ifen (auch Hochifen) ist ein 2230 m ü. A. bzw. 2229 m ü. NHN hoher Berg in den Allgäuer Alpen, westlich des Kleinwalsertals. Im Winter bildet er die Kulisse für ein kleines Skigebiet. Er liegt an der Grenze zwischen Deutschland und Österreich. Der Gipfel stellt den höchsten Punkt des leicht geneigten Ifenplateaus dar. Auf ihm treffen die Gemeindegrenzen von Egg, Mittelberg (beide Vorarlberg) und Oberstdorf (Allgäu/Schwaben/Bayern) zusammen.
Nordöstlich des Ifenplateaus befindet sich das Gottesackerplateau, eine unter Naturschutz stehende Karstlandschaft mit zahlreichen Höhlen und seltenen Gebirgspflanzen. Die bedeutendsten Höhlen sind das Hölloch im Mahdtal und die Schneckenlochhöhle bei Schönenbach. Am östlichen Abhang des Bergstocks wurde 1998 auf der Schneiderkürenalpe in etwa 1500 m Höhe vom Amateurarchäologen Detlef Willand eine steinzeitliche Wohnstätte entdeckt und mit fachlicher Begleitung durch die Universität Innsbruck freigelegt.
Auf der Südseite des Berges befindet sich ein Wildruhegebiet, dessen Errichtung von Bergsteigerverbänden wie dem IG Klettern Allgäu heftig kritisiert wurde, da es auch zuvor beliebte Sportklettergebiete umfasst. Trotz einer späteren Aufweichung des Kletterverbotes hält die Kritik an. Auch bei der Planung von Skitouren ist das Wildruhegebiet zu berücksichtigen.
Anfang der 1970er Jahre entstanden erste Skilifte am Ifen, aus denen die heutige Ifen-Bergbahn-Gesellschaft entstand. Sie war lange Zeit mehrheitlich im Besitz von Ruth Merckle, der Ehefrau des Pharmaunternehmers Adolf Merckle. Durch die Übernahme des 82-%-Anteils der Familie Merckle und des 18-%-Anteils der Familie des Kleinwalsertaler Tourismuspioniers Alfons Herz gehört die Ifen Bergbahn GmbH u. Co seit 1. Juli 2009 vollständig der Kleinwalsertaler Bergbahn (KBB), Riezlern, deren Hauptaktionäre das Allgäuer Überlandwerk und die Raiffeisen Holding Kleinwalsertal sind.
Im Jahr 1961 wurde der Olympialift als Schlepplift/Hotellift errichtet. In den Jahren 1971/1972 folgten die Doppelsesselbahn Ifenhütte zwischen Auenhütte und Ifenhütte und der Schlepplift Ifen, der von der Ifenhütte weiter bergaufwärts führte. Seit 1976 besteht der Tellerlift/Übungslift Gaisbühl, der eine Übungswiese zugänglich macht. Die kuppelbare Doppelsesselbahn Hahnenköpflebahn, deren Talstation sich nordöstlich der Ifenhütte befand, wurde im Jahr 1978 gebaut. Die beiden Doppelsesselbahnen wurden in den Jahren 1991/1992 modernisiert.
Der Ifenlift musste im Jahr 2016 dem kuppelbaren 6er-Sessellift Olympiabahn weichen, die vom Tal bis zur Mitte des Schleppliftes führte. In der Sommersaison 2017 wurden die beiden Sessellifte abgebaut, dadurch war keine Liftbeförderung von Personen zur Ifenhütte möglich. Zur Wintersaison 2017/2018 ersetzte die 10er-Gondelbahn Ifen (System D-Line von Doppelmayr) in zwei Sektionen die alte Ifenbahn und Hahnenköpflebahn.
Den Skifahrern stehen etwa 22 Pistenkilometer in allen Schwierigkeitsgraden zur Verfügung, wobei der Anteil schwarz markierter Pisten verglichen mit den Nachbarskigebieten hoch ist. Wegen der Länge und geringen Anzahl der Lifte sind auch die Abfahrten überdurchschnittlich lang.
Die Talstation der Ifenbahn stellt den Einstieg in das Skigebiet dar. Dieser ist über eine durch das Schwarzwassertal führende Straße von Hirschegg aus erreichbar. Auf dieser Straße verkehrt auch ein Linienbus; außerdem besteht eine Busverbindung zwischen der Talstation und der benachbarten Heuberg-Arena.
Eine Anfang der 2010er Jahre geplante Verbindungsbahn über das Schwarzwassertal zum Walmendinger Horn wurde von verschiedenen Verbänden als umweltzerstörend und den Massentourismus fördernd scharf kritisiert.
Die Kleinwalsertaler Bergbahn AG hielt dagegen, dass diese Infrastrukturmaßnahme dazu beitragen würde, den touristischen Abwärtstrend der Region zu stoppen, da durch die neue Bahn ein zusammenhängendes Skigebiet geschaffen würde. Die Mehrheit der Mittelberger Gemeindevertreter sprach sich für den Bau der Bahn aus, für die auch rund 1.600 Unterschriften gesammelt und dem Bürgermeister übergeben wurden. Da auch die Gegner des Projekts mehr als 1.200 Unterstützungsunterschriften sammeln konnten, kam es am 21. Oktober 2012 schließlich zu einer Volksabstimmung. Bei einer Wahlbeteiligung von 74,4 % sprachen sich dabei 55 % der Stimmberechtigten gegen den Bau der geplanten Panoramabahn aus und verhinderten damit eine Umsetzung der Pläne.
(Wikipedia)
The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the one-mile-wide (1.6 km) strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the U.S. city of San Francisco, California—the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula—to Marin County, carrying both U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1 across the strait. It also carries pedestrian and bicycle traffic, and is designated as part of U.S. Bicycle Route 95. Being declared one of the Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers, the bridge is one of the most internationally recognized symbols of San Francisco and California. It was initially designed by engineer Joseph Strauss in 1917.
The Frommer's travel guide describes the Golden Gate Bridge as "possibly the most beautiful, certainly the most photographed, bridge in the world." At the time of its opening in 1937, it was both the longest and the tallest suspension bridge in the world, with a main span of 4,200 feet (1,280 m) and a total height of 746 feet (227 m).Before the bridge was built, the only practical short route between San Francisco and what is now Marin County was by boat across a section of San Francisco Bay. A ferry service began as early as 1820, with a regularly scheduled service beginning in the 1840s for the purpose of transporting water to San Francisco.
The Sausalito Land and Ferry Company service, launched in 1867, eventually became the Golden Gate Ferry Company, a Southern Pacific Railroad subsidiary, the largest ferry operation in the world by the late 1920s. Once for railroad passengers and customers only, Southern Pacific's automobile ferries became very profitable and important to the regional economy. The ferry crossing between the Hyde Street Pier in San Francisco and Sausalito Ferry Terminal in Marin County took approximately 20 minutes and cost $1.00 per vehicle, a price later reduced to compete with the new bridge. The trip from the San Francisco Ferry Building took 27 minutes.
Many wanted to build a bridge to connect San Francisco to Marin County. San Francisco was the largest American city still served primarily by ferry boats. Because it did not have a permanent link with communities around the bay, the city's growth rate was below the national average. Many experts said that a bridge could not be built across the 6,700-foot (2,000-metre) strait, which had strong, swirling tides and currents, with water 372 ft (113 m) deep at the center of the channel, and frequent strong winds. Experts said that ferocious winds and blinding fogs would prevent construction and operation.
Although the idea of a bridge spanning the Golden Gate was not new, the proposal that eventually took hold was made in a 1916 San Francisco Bulletin article by former engineering student James Wilkins. San Francisco's City Engineer estimated the cost at $100 million (equivalent to $2.4 billion today), and impractical for the time. He asked bridge engineers whether it could be built for less. One who responded, Joseph Strauss, was an ambitious engineer and poet who had, for his graduate thesis, designed a 55-mile-long (89 km) railroad bridge across the Bering Strait. At the time, Strauss had completed some 400 drawbridges—most of which were inland—and nothing on the scale of the new project. Strauss's initial drawings were for a massive cantilever on each side of the strait, connected by a central suspension segment, which Strauss promised could be built for $17 million (equivalent to $404 million today).
Local authorities agreed to proceed only on the assurance that Strauss would alter the design and accept input from several consulting project experts. A suspension-bridge design was considered the most practical, because of recent advances in metallurgy.
Strauss spent more than a decade drumming up support in Northern California. The bridge faced opposition, including litigation, from many sources. The Department of War was concerned that the bridge would interfere with ship traffic. The US Navy feared that a ship collision or sabotage to the bridge could block the entrance to one of its main harbors. Unions demanded guarantees that local workers would be favored for construction jobs. Southern Pacific Railroad, one of the most powerful business interests in California, opposed the bridge as competition to its ferry fleet and filed a lawsuit against the project, leading to a mass boycott of the ferry service.
In May 1924, Colonel Herbert Deakyne held the second hearing on the Bridge on behalf of the Secretary of War in a request to use federal land for construction. Deakyne, on behalf of the Secretary of War, approved the transfer of land needed for the bridge structure and leading roads to the "Bridging the Golden Gate Association" and both San Francisco County and Marin County, pending further bridge plans by Strauss. Another ally was the fledgling automobile industry, which supported the development of roads and bridges to increase demand for automobiles.
The bridge's name was first used when the project was initially discussed in 1917 by M.M. O'Shaughnessy, city engineer of San Francisco, and Strauss. The name became official with the passage of the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District Act by the state legislature in 1923, creating a special district to design, build and finance the bridge. San Francisco and most of the counties along the North Coast of California joined the Golden Gate Bridge District, with the exception being Humboldt County, whose residents opposed the bridge's construction and the traffic it would generate.
South tower seen from walkway, with Art Deco elements
Strauss was the chief engineer in charge of the overall design and construction of the bridge project. However, because he had little understanding or experience with cable-suspension designs, responsibility for much of the engineering and architecture fell on other experts. Strauss's initial design proposal (two double cantilever spans linked by a central suspension segment) was unacceptable from a visual standpoint. The final graceful suspension design was conceived and championed by Leon Moisseiff, the engineer of the Manhattan Bridge in New York City.
Irving Morrow, a relatively unknown residential architect, designed the overall shape of the bridge towers, the lighting scheme, and Art Deco elements, such as the tower decorations, streetlights, railing, and walkways. The famous International Orange color was Morrow's personal selection, winning out over other possibilities, including the US Navy's suggestion that it be painted with black and yellow stripes to ensure visibility by passing ships.
Senior engineer Charles Alton Ellis, collaborating remotely with Moisseiff, was the principal engineer of the project. Moisseiff produced the basic structural design, introducing his "deflection theory" by which a thin, flexible roadway would flex in the wind, greatly reducing stress by transmitting forces via suspension cables to the bridge towers. Although the Golden Gate Bridge design has proved sound, a later Moisseiff design, the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge, collapsed in a strong windstorm soon after it was completed, because of an unexpected aeroelastic flutter. Ellis was also tasked with designing a "bridge within a bridge" in the southern abutment, to avoid the need to demolish Fort Point, a pre–Civil War masonry fortification viewed, even then, as worthy of historic preservation. He penned a graceful steel arch spanning the fort and carrying the roadway to the bridge's southern anchorage.
Ellis was a Greek scholar and mathematician who at one time was a University of Illinois professor of engineering despite having no engineering degree. He eventually earned a degree in civil engineering from the University of Illinois prior to designing the Golden Gate Bridge and spent the last twelve years of his career as a professor at Purdue University. He became an expert in structural design, writing the standard textbook of the time. Ellis did much of the technical and theoretical work that built the bridge, but he received none of the credit in his lifetime. In November 1931, Strauss fired Ellis and replaced him with a former subordinate, Clifford Paine, ostensibly for wasting too much money sending telegrams back and forth to Moisseiff. Ellis, obsessed with the project and unable to find work elsewhere during the Depression, continued working 70 hours per week on an unpaid basis, eventually turning in ten volumes of hand calculations.
With an eye toward self-promotion and posterity, Strauss downplayed the contributions of his collaborators who, despite receiving little recognition or compensation, are largely responsible for the final form of the bridge. He succeeded in having himself credited as the person most responsible for the design and vision of the bridge. Only much later were the contributions of the others on the design team properly appreciated. In May 2007, the Golden Gate Bridge District issued a formal report on 70 years of stewardship of the famous bridge and decided to give Ellis major credit for the design of the bridge.
Alternative title: "The Faeries have declared war on the Leprechauns"
About this photo:
Toadstools are often associated with fairies (faeries), and clovers (resemble shamrocks, and also can come in the lucky 4-leaf variety) are sometimes associated with leprechauns. So, when I discovered a toadstool growing in a cluster of clovers, I figured: Hmm, the faeries and leprechauns must engaged in a legendary battle, or else they are dancing. I don't know which...
About the process:
I enhanced the color by processing this as a single-exposure HDR. Then I set the HDR version on a "color" layer over top of the original. I used the high-pass filter to separate the foreground from the background.
© Copyright Arielle Kristina
[ENG] The Cordoba Courtyard Festival, declared World Heritage in 2012, is a Cordoba (Spain) courtyard contest held every year since 1920, usually during the second and third weeks of May (suspended in 2020 by the covid-19 pandemic) in which the residents of the city decorate their patios with the dream of obtaining the prestigious award granted by the City Council and showing them free to numerous visitors. The Cordovan patio has its origin in the Roman occupation in which the houses with their rooms were built around a patio with a central well, with the Arab invasion the “border” was introduced (narrow strip along to the walls to grow ornamental plants), and with the arrival of Fernando III another plant was added to install the bedrooms. Patios are an effective way to combat summer heat. Other pictures in Cordoba Courtyard Festival album.
[ESP] La Fiesta de los Patios de Córdoba, declarada Patrimonio Inmaterial Cultural de la Humanidad en 2012, es un concurso de Patios de Córdoba (España) que se celebra cada año desde 1920, habitualmente durante la segunda y tercera semanas de mayo (suspendido en 2020 por la pandemia del covid-19) en la que los vecinos de la ciudad engalanan sus patios con la ilusión de obtener el prestigioso galardón otorgado por el Ayuntamiento y de mostrarlos gratuitamente a numerosos visitantes. El patio cordobés tiene su origen en la ocupación romana en la que se construían las viviendas con sus habitaciones alrededor de un patio con un pozo central, con la invasión árabe se introdujo el “arriate” (franja estrecha junto a las paredes para cultivar plantas de adorno), y con la llegada de Fernando III se añadió otra planta para instalar los dormitorios. Los patios constituyen una forma eficaz para combatir los calores del verano. Más fotografías en el álbum Fiesta de los Patios de Córdoba.
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This was one of the more interesting stops on the trip. Devils Tower was the first declared United States National Monument, established on September 24, 1906, by President Theodore Roosevelt.
The kids could not get over the story of how the tower was created. According to the Indian tribes of the Kiowa and Lakota, some girls went out to play and were spotted by several giant bears, who began to chase them. In an effort to escape the bears, the girls climbed atop a rock, fell to their knees, and prayed to the Great Spirit to save them. Hearing their prayers, the Great Spirit made the rock rise from the ground towards the heavens so that the bears could not reach the girls. The bears, in an effort to climb the rock, left deep claw marks in the sides, which had become too steep to climb. Those are the marks which appear today on the sides of Devils Tower. When the girls reached the sky, they were turned into the star constellation the Pleiades.
Even though the kids are 6 and 8 it was tough explaining the story, was a story and that some believed it, but its more a legend...it was difficult.
Also tough was explaining to the kids the "prayer scarfs" that were tied to so many trees around the site. Apparently the local tribes tie scarfs to the trees as they pray to the Tower. The kids were dying to play wit them. It lead to a long conversation of how others may pray differently. The whole tower was an interesting spiritual discussion I did not expect.
Back to photography. I was excited to find that the rains the day before had left this puddle. I had to contort into a pretzel to squeeze between two rocks and frame the image. I thought about taking the reflection and flipping the image in photoshop to make it more clear. I decided against it. I am all for editing an image and yes, this is a few layers to get the lighting right, but the idea of faking the reflection seemed to cross a line. I am sure there are many who would strongly disagree. This was about 7 frames with different density, blended with luminosity masks. I am still getting the hang of the masks, in fact, if anyone out there has a favorite tutorial I would love some guidance.
Here I am posting two versions, one closer, one further back. Let me know which you prefer.
Due to her many works for God and a high degree of holiness, Teresa de Jesus of Spain was declared a Saint by the Roman Catholic Church. Due to her Wisdom recorded, she is one of the three named female Doctors of the Church. She was born at Avila in Spain in 1515. She joined the Carmelite Order, made great progress in the way of perfection and enjoyed mystical revelations. When she reformed the Order, she met with much resistance, but she succeeded with undaunted courage. She also wrote books filled with sublime doctrine, the fruit of her own spiritual life. She died in Avila in 1582. Our class is beginning reading her book "The Way of Perfection" (2000 study edition with English text prepared by Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D., whom I have known for many years. It will be my second read of this classic). If you care to also read this edifying masterpiece on bettering your life spiritually, order from
For more information on this marvelous woman, start at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teresa_of_avila
Sepúlveda, Segovia.
Sepúlveda es un municipio y villa de la provincia de Segovia, comunidad autónoma de Castilla y León, (España).
En su término se encuentra parte del Parque Natural de las Hoces del Río Duratón y en la localidad está el Centro de Interpretación de las Hoces del Duratón (sito en la Iglesia de Santiago) en el que se puede ver todo lo relacionado con el Parque Natural y con Sepúlveda.
Sepúlveda está declarada Conjunto Histórico-Artístico desde 1951 y forma parte de la Asociación Los pueblos más bonitos de España.
Sepúlveda is a municipality and town in the province of Segovia, autonomous community of Castilla y León, (Spain).
In its term is part of the Natural Park of the Sickles of the Duratón River and in the locality is the Interpretation Center of the Hoces del Duratón (located in the Church of Santiago) where you can see everything related to the Natural Park and with Sepúlveda.
Sepúlveda has been declared a Historic-Artistic Site since 1951 and is part of the Association of the Most Beautiful Villages in Spain.
Not a welcome sighting in the Williamstown Botanic Gardens on Saturday with the FFF. These are a declared pest in Australia and this one is, most likely, an escapee from someones aviary. It has been reported to the relevant authority.
Excerpt from www.amo.gov.hk/en/historic-buildings/monuments/new-territ...:
The Tat Tak Communal Hall is the only surviving purpose-built communal hall in Hong Kong which served as both an assembly-cum-worshipping place for a joint village alliance, and a management office of a market place.
The establishment of Tat Tak Communal Hall in Ping Shan, Yuen Long was initiated by Tang Fan-yau (1812-1874), a member of the local gentry. The Communal Hall was completed in the seventh year of the Xianfeng reign (1857) of the Qing dynasty as an assembly place for the members of the Tat Tak Alliance, as well as the management office of Ping Shan Market. The Tat Tak Communal Hall is believed to be one of the meeting places at which the armed resistant against the British takeover of the New Territories in 1899 was organised.
As a venue for meeting, the Tat Tak Communal Hall was built with simple but functional design. The communal hall was originally a two-hall and three-bay structure. The Hall of Lonesome Consolation was added on the left side and the Hall of Bravery on the right side in the 5th year of the Tongzhi reign (1866). The building is mainly constructed of grey bricks with pitched roofs and granite blocks as lower course. Modern architectural elements in the communal hall, such as reinforced concrete structures on top of the grey-brick walls, are believed to have been added during later renovations carried out in the 20th century.
Tat Tak Communal Hall was declared a monument in 2013.
The first official document with which the Carnival of Venice was declared a public celebration dates back to 1296 – an edict by the Senate of the “most Serene Republic,” making the day before Lent a holiday.
Established by the Venetian oligarchy as a concession to the people, its objective was fun and merrymaking, where the mask dominated as a means to briefly ignore any signs of belonging to social class, gender or religion.
Today the Carnival of Venice is an evocative and much-anticipated popular fest, unique in terms of its history, its masks and its atmosphere. Highly-reputed and appreciated in all the world, it brings thousands of tourists to Italy every year.
During the Lagoon’s two-week Carnival celebration, all can watch and take part in the numerous events and displays filling the piazzas and main waterways of the city.
As in the past, private parties and masquerade balls still happen behind the scenes today, inside Venice’s grand noble palaces. In these places, where time seems to stand still, guests can jump into this world of ancient splendor, reliving the Carnival tradition of long ago.
Some of the most spectacular moments during the Venetian carnival are the Flight of the Angel (or Flight of Colombina), a tradition that began with a Turkish acrobat in mid-1500s. In this amazing spectacle an artist in flesh and bone hangs from a metal cable, and, suspended in air, makes his descent from the top of St. Mark’s Bell Tower to the Doge’s Palace. It is a magnificent sight to see!
Venice, city of art and UNESCO World Heritage Site, exudes its charm all throughout the year, but only Carnival can render it even more magical than it already is!
. . . it's nice to be reminded of happier times.
As I upload this image Bangkok is under a State of Emergency, declared by PM Samak Sundaravej after clashes between pro and anti government protesters left at least one person dead.
Thai society is deeply divided with the rural poor still strongly supporting Mr Thaksin, and his perceived proxy, PM Samak, and his PPP party which won the most votes in the elections last year. The current protests are lead by the PAD (People's Alliance for Democracy), originally formed in the months preceding the 2006 coup, to demand Mr Thaksin's resignation. PAD re-emerged after Mr Samak was elected last December. PAD has a passionate following in various parts of the country, especially Bangkok, and some powerful backers among the elite.
Thais are famous for always being able to find the compromise, but sadly, this time the nation is so deeply divided there appears to be very few ways out of the conflict. The country is polarised like never before.
The Inverrary Waterfall is one of the most well-known landmarks in Broward County and has become one of the most popular scenic backgrounds for photos in South Florida. Originally built by the Walt Disney Company, it was shipped in sections and reassembled at its present site.
The Inverrary Waterfall was declared a historical landmark by the Lauderhill City Commission and ACT Board under the Lauderhill Historical Designation Program on May 8, 2017.
Credit for the data above is given to the historical marker placed near the Falls and the following website:
www.orlandosentinel.com/travel/explore-florida/fl-sb-hist...
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
The community that would become known as Hot Springs was established as early as 1820, though it was not until 1832 that the United States government declared the area a federal reservation. Ironically, this act had the effect of retarding investment within the valley of the hot springs due to the reluctance of potential investors to develop property of which they might be dispossessed. Therefore, small, wood construction bathhouses predominated until after the Civil War, when a number of forces combined to both make Hot Springs and its remarkable natural resources both more attractive and more accessible. Primary among these were the growing interest among the general populace in such waters for their therapeutic and medicinal value; the ability of certain talented entrepreneurs to develop and advertise their bathhouses in conjunction with the federal government; the appeal of gambling, for the pursuit of which the city could boast many attractive institutions; and the arrival of the "Diamond Jo" railroad line in 1875, named for "Diamond Jo" Reynolds, a successful Chicago businessman who deplored the rough coach roads that had heretofore provided the only means of access from the Cairo and Fulton (later Missouri--Pacific) Railroad that ran through nearby Malvern.
It is difficult to overestimate the impact of this relatively early arrival of a railroad line to the growth and prosperity of what would become one of America's premier resort cities. The access and convenience afforded travelers by relatively dependable railroad transportation single-handedly transformed the remoteness and isolation of this young city's rugged, mountainous setting from obstacles into attractions. Both literally and figuratively, visitors came to "get away" from the hectic pace and dizzying growth of America's late-nineteenth century industrial and commercial centers, and Hot Springs offered the unique combination of comfortable accessibility, rustic surroundings, and a myriad assortment of recreational opportunities. The city grew dramatically thereafter, and continued to experience a relatively high level of prosperity well into the second half of the twentieth century.
The Missouri--Pacific Railroad Depot in Hot Springs (seen in the photograph above) was constructed circa 1917 after the Missouri--Pacific Railroad had acquired the old St. Louis, Iron Mountain, and Southern line that ran between Missouri and Texas as part of the its ambitious campaign to expand its network of rail lines all over the country, and to establish the railroad's corporate identity through the exclusive use of the Italianate/Mediterranean style of architecture for its passenger and freight depots. This particular depot is a single story, brick masonry freight and passenger depot designed in a distinctly Italian interpretation of the Mediterranean style. Its band of large, compound arched windows extending around the eastern, northern and western elevations, hipped Italianate tower and elaborate, decorative Italianate brackets that ornament the cornices throughout are all reflective of this influence, and also of the relatively high-style quality of this particular depot design. The plan is roughly V-shaped, a response to the triangular shape of its particular lot at the intersection of Broadway and Valley Street. The red clay tile roof and brick walls are supported upon a continuous, concrete foundation.
This passenger and freight railroad depot is associated with the Railroad Growth and Development in Arkansas, 1870-1940 historic context as a structure financed and erected under the auspices of one of the larger early twentieth-century railroads in the state. As such, it was nominated for and added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on June 11, 1992 via criterion A for these associations but also via criterion C as an excellent example of the Italianate/Mediterranean style of architecture. All of the above information was found on the original documents submitted for listing consideration and can be viewed here:
catalog.archives.gov/id/26139673
Three bracketed photos were taken with a handheld Nikon D7200 and combined with Photomatix Pro to create this HDR image. Additional adjustments were made in Photoshop CS6.
"For I know the plans I have for you", declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." ~Jeremiah 29:11
The best way to view my photostream is through Flickriver with the following link: www.flickriver.com/photos/photojourney57/
Bourges is a Roman Catholic church located in Bourges, France. The cathedral is dedicated to Saint Stephen and is the seat of the Archbishop of Bourges. Built atop an earlier Romanesque church from 1195 until 1230, it is largely in the High Gothic architectural style and was constructed at about the same time as Chartres Cathedral. The cathedral is particularly known for the great size and unity of its interior, the sculptural decoration of its portals, and the large collection of 13th century stained glass windows. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992.
15 September 2021: "Alberta has declared a State of Public Health Emergency to protect the health care system. New public health restrictions will be in place starting 12:01 AM Sept 16."
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I believe this was my first drive out to Kananaskis this year. Late last September 2020 and late November were my last visits. Normally, I would have gone earlier in the summer, but we had smoke from the wildfires, which blocked out the mountains. There are certain mountain peaks that I love to see each time I go, so I waited.
On 13 September 2021, my drive was so enjoyable, with all sorts of things to see and appreciate. I had hoped to leave home much earlier than I did, but I still had time to get to the places I really wanted to see. The sun was shining, the sky was blue.
One of my destinations was to check on any little Pikas that might happen to be around. I think I heard three different ones, but only got a few photos of one of them. As long as I see one, I am happy. They are so hard to see, especially with aging eyes.
The Larch trees hadn't really started turning yellow yet. I had the feeling that it might still be too early, but I wanted to make sure that I got at least one trip out there before the snow arrives. Last September, we had a snowstorm on 28 or 29 September!
At one place I stopped, I decided to park in a rough parking area instead of just turning my car around and stopping right by the road. Walking a few steps and avoiding the many small rocks that were scattered, I suddenly stopped in my tracks, completely in awe. There, in front of me, was a wonderful display of Shaggy Mane mushrooms, all at different stages! After photographing pretty well every single one, I walked maybe 20 feet further and there was another patch of them. I so rarely see these beautiful fungi and when I do, there is either just one, maybe two. Yesterday, there must have been around 50 in total.
This was not a birding trip, but I did see about eight hawks, one Common Raven and a Magpie or two. When I do this drive, it is to see the spectacular scenery that we are so lucky to have, and to spend just a little time with the Pikas.
Declared by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
Fantastic place for taking photos. I was very impressed by the stunning architecture, the brilliant construction and the dimension of this steel works.
Love that place and I definitely will upload a few more photographs about my visit in Völklingen.
Ruins of the Ancient Greek Theatre at Taormina, 1905, Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest
Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka (1853 – 1919), the Hungarian painter loved by Picasso.
"Csontváry’s works were exhibited in Paris in 1948. Picasso spent an hour outside the exhibition’s regular opening hours viewing them, and after emerging, declared “I did not realize there was another great painter in this century aside from myself.”
Csontváry probably would have taken issue with Picasso’s proclamation, arguing that he was a more significant painter even than Raphael."
"On the hot sunny afternoon of 13 October 1880, when Csontvary was 27 years old, he had a mystic vision. He heard a voice saying, 'You will be the greatest Sunway Painter, greater than Raphael!' He took journeys around Europe, visited the galleries of the Vatican, and returned to Hungary to earn money for his journeys by working as an apothecary. From 1890, he traveled around the world. He visited Paris, the Mediterraneum (Dalmatia, Italy, Greece), North Africa and the Middle East (Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, Syria) and painted pictures. Often his pictures are very large, several metres wide and height is not unusual."
"In recent decades, Tivadar Kosztka Csontváry has become a true national hero. After all, he has all the necessary attributes: he was only celebrated after his time, his canon of work is not only spectacular, but also unique, and his contemporaries in Hungarian society treated him as all future national heroes were: he was mocked and humiliated.
He painted his major works between 1901 and 1909. He had some exhibitions in Paris (1907) and Western Europe. Most of the critics in Western Europe recognized his abilities, art and congeniality, but in the Kingdom of Hungary during his life, he was considered to be an eccentric crank for several reasons, e. g. for his vegetarianism, anti-alcoholism, anti-smoking, pacifism, and his cloudy, prophetic writings and pamphlets about his life (Curriculum), genius (The Authority, The Genius) and religious philosophy (The Positivum). Some of his biographists considered this as a latent, but increasingly disruptive schizophrenia. Although he was later acclaimed, during his lifetime Csontváry found little understanding for his visionary, expressionistic style. A loner by nature, his “failure” impaired his creative power.
His art connects with post-impressionism and expressionism, but he was an autodidact and cannot be classified into one style. He identified as a "sunway"-painter, a term which he created.
The painter, after being derided for decades, ended up starving to death after the Soviet Republic took everything away from him.
He starved to death.
To give us an idea of how his life’s work was rated at the time, his heirs attempted to sell the paintings to delivery men as they were painted on high-quality canvas. Were it not for Gedeon Gerlóczy, who recognized Csontváry’s genius and bought them all up, there would be no paintings surviving to this day.
Today, a Csontváry is worth millions of Euros."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tivadar_Csontv%C3%A1ry_Kosztka
bestbudapest.blog.hu/2015/07/22/csontvary_the_hungarian_p...
The Inverrary Waterfall is one of the most well-known landmarks in Broward County and has become one of the most popular scenic backgrounds for photos in South Florida. Originally built by the Walt Disney Company, it was shipped in sections and reassembled at its present site.
The Inverrary Waterfall was declared a historical landmark by the Lauderhill City Commission and ACT Board under the Lauderhill Historical Designation Program on May 8, 2017.
Credit for the data above is given to the historical marker placed near the Falls and the following website:
www.orlandosentinel.com/travel/explore-florida/fl-sb-hist...
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
[ENG] The Cordoba Courtyard Festival, declared World Heritage in 2012, is a Cordoba (Spain) courtyard contest held every year since 1920, usually during the second and third weeks of May (suspended in 2020 by the covid-19 pandemic) in which the residents of the city decorate their patios with the dream of obtaining the prestigious award granted by the City Council and showing them free to numerous visitors. The Cordovan patio has its origin in the Roman occupation in which the houses with their rooms were built around a patio with a central well, with the Arab invasion the “border” was introduced (narrow strip along to the walls to grow ornamental plants), and with the arrival of Fernando III another plant was added to install the bedrooms. Patios are an effective way to combat summer heat. Other pictures in Cordoba Courtyard Festival album.
[ESP] La Fiesta de los Patios de Córdoba, declarada Patrimonio Inmaterial Cultural de la Humanidad en 2012, es un concurso de Patios de Córdoba (España) que se celebra cada año desde 1920, habitualmente durante la segunda y tercera semanas de mayo (suspendido en 2020 por la pandemia del covid-19) en la que los vecinos de la ciudad engalanan sus patios con la ilusión de obtener el prestigioso galardón otorgado por el Ayuntamiento y de mostrarlos gratuitamente a numerosos visitantes. El patio cordobés tiene su origen en la ocupación romana en la que se construían las viviendas con sus habitaciones alrededor de un patio con un pozo central, con la invasión árabe se introdujo el “arriate” (franja estrecha junto a las paredes para cultivar plantas de adorno), y con la llegada de Fernando III se añadió otra planta para instalar los dormitorios. Los patios constituyen una forma eficaz para combatir los calores del verano. Más fotografías en el álbum Fiesta de los Patios de Córdoba.
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The Inverrary Waterfall is one of the most well-known landmarks in Broward County and has become one of the most popular scenic backgrounds for photos in South Florida. Originally built by the Walt Disney Company, it was shipped in sections and reassembled at its present site.
The Inverrary Waterfall was declared a historical landmark by the Lauderhill City Commission and ACT Board under the Lauderhill Historical Designation Program on May 8, 2017.
Credit for the data above is given to the historical marker placed near the Falls and the following website:
www.orlandosentinel.com/travel/explore-florida/fl-sb-hist...
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
The first official document with which the Carnival of Venice was declared a public celebration dates back to 1296 – an edict by the Senate of the “most Serene Republic,” making the day before Lent a holiday.
Established by the Venetian oligarchy as a concession to the people, its objective was fun and merrymaking, where the mask dominated as a means to briefly ignore any signs of belonging to social class, gender or religion.
Today the Carnival of Venice is an evocative and much-anticipated popular fest, unique in terms of its history, its masks and its atmosphere. Highly-reputed and appreciated in all the world, it brings thousands of tourists to Italy every year.
During the Lagoon’s two-week Carnival celebration, all can watch and take part in the numerous events and displays filling the piazzas and main waterways of the city.
As in the past, private parties and masquerade balls still happen behind the scenes today, inside Venice’s grand noble palaces. In these places, where time seems to stand still, guests can jump into this world of ancient splendor, reliving the Carnival tradition of long ago.
Some of the most spectacular moments during the Venetian carnival are the Flight of the Angel (or Flight of Colombina), a tradition that began with a Turkish acrobat in mid-1500s. In this amazing spectacle an artist in flesh and bone hangs from a metal cable, and, suspended in air, makes his descent from the top of St. Mark’s Bell Tower to the Doge’s Palace. It is a magnificent sight to see!
Venice, city of art and UNESCO World Heritage Site, exudes its charm all throughout the year, but only Carnival can render it even more magical than it already is!
White Tank Campground
Joshua Tree National Park is located in southeastern California. Declared a U.S. National Park in 1994 when the U.S. Congress passed the California Desert Protection Act (Public Law 103-433), it had previously been a U.S. National Monument since 1936. It is named for the Joshua trees (Yucca brevifolia) native to the park. It covers a land area of 790,636 acres (1,235.37 sq mi; 3,199.59 km2) —an area slightly larger than the state of Rhode Island. A large part of the park, some 429,690 acres (173,890 ha), is a designated wilderness area. Straddling the San Bernardino County/Riverside County border, the park includes parts of two deserts, each an ecosystem whose characteristics are determined primarily by elevation: the higher Mojave Desert and lower Colorado Desert. The Little San Bernardino Mountains run through the southwest edge of the park.
The rock formations of Joshua Tree National Park were formed more than 100 million years ago from the cooling of magma beneath the surface into monzogranite, with roughly rectangular joints. Groundwater then filtered through the joints to erode away the corners and edges to create rounded stones, and flash floods washed away covering ground to create piles of boulders. These prominent outcrops are known as inselbergs.
(Wikipedia)
Der Joshua-Tree-Nationalpark ist eine Wüstenlandschaft im Südosten Kaliforniens, die den Übergang zwischen der Mojave-Wüste und der Colorado-Wüste bildet. Der Park ist nach der auffälligen, im Englischen „Joshua Tree“ genannten Josua-Palmlilie (Yucca brevifolia) benannt, der größten Art der Gattung der Palmlilien (Yucca), die auch Josuabaum genannt wird.
Neben den Joshuabaum-Wäldern bietet der Park eine der interessantesten geologischen Formationen, die man in den kalifornischen Wüsten findet. Es herrschen kahle Felsen vor, die in der Regel in einzelne Felsformationen aufgebrochen sind.
Joshua-Tree wurde 1936 zum National Monument und 1994 zum Nationalpark erklärt. Er wird jährlich von über einer Million Menschen – darunter Tausende von Felskletterern aus aller Welt – besucht.
(Wikipedia)
The sun sets in Hub City, gangsters on the prowl, victimizing the weak and poor, rising tensions between the U.S and Axis Powers, Roosevelt declared neutrality, though people doubt it will last long, but now we got back to the on shore crimes. Three gangsters waltz into a bank; their well shined shoes tap against the floor in a synchronized order. The staff in the bank freezes, seeing that these notorious scoundrels have decided to crash the party. Swing music plays from a record, but as they walk in it cuts short, as they realize the seriousness of this.
“Alright, I think you know what we want, I’m sure you read of our past escapades in the news, so you should know what we want” the bank tellers bring out the money and put it in a bag, as machine guns are painted directly at their head.
“Thanks, if our territory expands, we’ll make sure to go easy on you fellas” the mobsters share a laugh as they walk out the door, with barley any stress, is there any one that can save the day?
The taps of their shoes can be heard from a mile away, yet no one calls the officers, that’s because Hub City has been hit with hard times, and hasn’t been the same since the depression.
“So Charlie, what you gonna do with your cut?”
“I dunno Jones, but Zucco, what you gonna do with yours?”
“I got some money saved to move to Gotham, start anew, I gotta admit, Hub City has gone to crap” while it has gone to crap, there’s someone who will save it, and you’re about to learn who!
A shadow lurks over the three men, they don’t notice at first, but the mobster names Jones sees it out of the corner of his eye, he turns back slowly, like a jammed gear, desperately trying to move out of it’s one position. A look of confusion overcomes his face.
“Who the hell are yo-”suddenly the person jumps at him, giving him a swift punch to the face, following up with a roundhouse kick to the chest, and then two jabs, as he swipes his feet, knocking him down, just adding to the pain. He then lunges at the two other men, one of them holding a machine gun, he starts to divert his attention to him, the mobster named Zucco, he pulls the machine gun out of his hand and tosses it, then the punches him in the shoulder, at this point the other mobster, named Charlie, attempts to deliver a punch, but he dodges it, by speeding to the left, he then delivers a barrage of punches upon Zucco, followed with an uppercut, and kick to the chest, knocking him down for the count. Right after he turns his attention to the final gangster Charlie, he appears to be unarmed, but quickly pulls a firearm out of his suit.
The two stare at each other, as if their eyes themselves are interlocked in battle, at the base of it you all you see two men in suits, but one is fighting to stop corruption, the other champions it. But if you break it down to the most basic level, it’s yin and yang, one fighting for good, and one championing evil, things are different, yet stay the same. These two figures stand there, looking deep into each other’s eyes, both unsure of their fates, but knowing that it doesn’t matter, the only thing you can strive for in this is victory. A gust of wind picks up, blowing some dollars around, they swirl among our hero and villain, as if to resemble leaves from the autumnal season.
“So, you gonna make a move or what?” the mobster asks, as his hand begins to shake, nervous and unsure of the future, like a young man.
“I’m waiting for you, so whenever you want to let me test my powers go ahead."
BANG
The man grips his chest, looking like he’s in the worst pain imaginable.
“That’s what vigilantes like you get in this city, a shot in the chest” suddenly he regains his strength and removes his hand from his chest to reveal that there is no injury, and he swings his hand, throwing a device that resembles a throwing star, straight at him, it hits the gun, and he leaps in at him, a fury of punches land on his chest, like bombs landing on the surface of a war torn Europe.
“Who-who the hell are you?” he asks, hazily tired from being beaten by a mystery man.
"Me, oh you wouldn't know my name...yet, but tell your friends who defeated you, tell your friends who’s going clean up crime in Hub City, tell them it was THE BLUE BEETLE!”he lands one clean punch on his face, knocking him cold out. The police sirens wail and he escapes, now this mystery man will be known to the city, tune in next time to find out, THE ORIGIN OF THE BLUE BEETLE!
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Well I hope you guys enjoyed that app for Dan Garrett in the DCSG, It would ideally take place in late 1939, and eventually go into WW2, it would show the DCSG's world back in the old days, and eventually intertwine with the other parts of the DCSG, just in case you were wondering, this was Dan's first costume, which was a rip off of the Green Hornet, since charleton (BB's original company) had a habit of doing that, and I like to think it's a tradition that continues to today. I hope that you enjoyed it and leave your feedback in the description below, and get ready for part two of the app, have a good day!
Who was Hatshepsut?
Hatshepsut (Egypt) declared herself pharaoh, ruling as a man for over 20 years and portraying herself in statues and paintings with a male body and false beard.
Statue in Cairo Museum
Hatshepsut dressed as a king, even wearing a false beard. She began having herself depicted in the traditional king’s shendyt kilt and crown, along with a fake beard and male body as a way of asserting her authority.
Hatshepsut dropped her titles relating to those only a woman could hold, and took on those of the Pharaoh. She even, eventually, dropped the female ending from her name (‘t’) and became His Majesty, Hatshepsu
The Inverrary Waterfall is one of the most well-known landmarks in Broward County and has become one of the most popular scenic backgrounds for photos in South Florida. Originally built by the Walt Disney Company, it was shipped in sections and reassembled at its present site.
The Inverrary Waterfall was declared a historical landmark by the Lauderhill City Commission and ACT Board under the Lauderhill Historical Designation Program on May 8, 2017.
Credit for the data above is given to the historical marker placed near the Falls and the following website:
www.orlandosentinel.com/travel/explore-florida/fl-sb-hist...
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
611 Declared a failure today.... not good consideting its just been hired in by Colas but there trying to fix her so will see if she appears on tomorrow's Buxton run or if it even runs atall or with another 37 hire in possibly?
Oamaru.Oamaru at the estuary of the Waitaki River was a major Maori settlement area where over 1,000 middens have been searched. This was a major home of the Moa hunting Maoris of the 1300s and 1400s. Whalers visited the Otago coast here in the 1830s and the first white settlers came around 1850. The town of Oamaru was declared in 1859. Local quarries provided an extremely hard form of very white limestone for many of the buildings. The town grew as a service centre for the agricultural hinterland. Its boom period was in the 1870s and 1880s when its heritage buildings were erected. Since the port closed in 1970 the town has slumped industrially but has reinvented itself as a heritage city. It contains over 70 buildings on the NZ heritage list. Some of the historic buildings, many built of white Oamaru stone along Thames Street include the Waitaki Council Chambers, the former Municipal Chambers now the Opera House 1907, the Court House 1883, the Boer War Memorial, the Queens Hotel 1884, the Mechanics Institute 1882, the Post Office 1884, the National Bank 1870 etc. There are many more buildings in nearby Tyne Street and Harbour Street. This is adjacent to the port and the railway. Oamaru was a major exporter of frozen meat and this area blossomed with beautiful classical style warehouses in the late 1870s and the early 1880s. The warehouses stored grain and wheat and wool. Many of the buildings were designed by the well-respected local architectural partnership of Forrester and Lemon. This was the heyday of growth and importance of Oamaru. After the demise of the international port in the 1970s (in favour of Christchurch and Dunedin) the warehouses closed and the area became run down. Most of the area was taken over by the Oamaru Harbour Civic Trust in the late 1980s. The wonderful old buildings have been restored where necessary and they have been leased out to art galleries, bookshops, antiques stores, fashion houses, cafes and bed and breakfast establishments. Oamaru heritage precinct has become a major tourist draw card for the city and it is a wonderful example of what can be done with historic centres of cities to revitalise them rather than demolish them. New Zealand knows how to sensibly preserve the past.
China, Beijing, Temple of Heaven, declared UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1998, constructed from 1406 to 1420 during the sovereignty of the Yongle Emperor, who was also responsible for the building of the Forbidden City. The temple was turned into a park & for the first time open to the public in 1918.
The Temple covers almost 3 km² of parkland & includes three main groups of constructions, all built according to stringent philosophical requirements, the main buildings are the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, 36 mtr in diameter & 38 mtr tall is built completely wooden with no nails, on three levels of marble stone base. In 1889 the original building burned down by a fire caused by lightning, the current building was re-built several years after the incident.
The Imperial Vault of Heaven, a single-gabled circular building, built on a single level of marble stone base & the Circular Mound Altar, located south of the Imperial Vault of Heaven.
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15 September 2021: "Alberta has declared a State of Public Health Emergency to protect the health care system. New public health restrictions will be in place starting 12:01 AM Sept 16." Here we go again.
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These little Pikas/Rock Rabbits are only 6-9 inches long and are usually seen far away, running backwards and forwards over the scree (talus) slope that they call home. Very occasionally, one happens to come somewhat closer, usually for just a quick moment.
"The American Pika is a generalist herbivore. It eats a large variety of green plants, including different kinds of grasses, sedges, thistles and fireweed. Although pikas can meet their water demands from the vegetation they eat, they do drink water if it is available in their environment. Pikas have two different ways of foraging: they directly consume food (feeding) or they cache food in haypiles to use for a food source in the winter (haying). The pika feeds throughout the year while haying is limited to the summer months. Since they do not hibernate, pikas have greater energy demands than other montane mammals. In addition, they also make 13 trips per hour to collect vegetation when haying, up to a little over 100 trips per day." From Wikipedia.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_pika
A couple of short YouTube videos in case anyone wants to hear and see these absolutely cute creatures:
I believe this was my first drive out to Kananaskis this year. Late last September 2020 and late November were my last visits. Normally, I would have gone earlier in the summer, but we had smoke from the wildfires, which blocked out the mountains. There are certain mountain peaks that I love to see each time I go, so I waited.
On 13 September 2021, my drive was so enjoyable, with all sorts of things to see and appreciate. I had hoped to leave home much earlier than I did, but I still had time to get to the places I really wanted to see. The sun was shining, the sky was blue.
One of my destinations was to check on any little Pikas that might happen to be around. I think I heard three different ones, but only got a few photos of one of them. As long as I see one, I am happy. They are so hard to see, especially with aging eyes.
The Larch trees hadn't really started turning yellow yet. I had the feeling that it might still be too early, but I wanted to make sure that I got at least one trip out there before the snow arrives. Last September, we had a snowstorm on 28 or 29 September!
At one place I stopped, I decided to park in a rough parking area instead of just turning my car around and stopping right by the road. Walking a few steps and avoiding the many small rocks that were scattered, I suddenly stopped in my tracks, completely in awe. There, in front of me, was a wonderful display of Shaggy Mane mushrooms, all at different stages! After photographing pretty well every single one, I walked maybe 20 feet further and there was another patch of them. I so rarely see these beautiful fungi and when I do, there is either just one, maybe two. Yesterday, there must have been around 50 in total.
This was not a birding trip, but I did see about eight hawks, one Common Raven and a Magpie or two. When I do this drive, it is to see the spectacular scenery that we are so lucky to have, and to spend just a little time with the Pikas. Total drive was 334 km.
[ENG] The Cordoba Courtyard Festival, declared World Heritage in 2012, is a Cordoba (Spain) courtyard contest held every year since 1920, usually during the second and third weeks of May (suspended in 2020 by the covid-19 pandemic) in which the residents of the city decorate their patios with the dream of obtaining the prestigious award granted by the City Council and showing them free to numerous visitors. The Cordovan patio has its origin in the Roman occupation in which the houses with their rooms were built around a patio with a central well, with the Arab invasion the “border” was introduced (narrow strip along to the walls to grow ornamental plants), and with the arrival of Fernando III another plant was added to install the bedrooms. Patios are an effective way to combat summer heat. Other pictures in Cordoba Courtyard Festival album.
[ESP] La Fiesta de los Patios de Córdoba, declarada Patrimonio Inmaterial Cultural de la Humanidad en 2012, es un concurso de Patios de Córdoba (España) que se celebra cada año desde 1920, habitualmente durante la segunda y tercera semanas de mayo (suspendido en 2020 por la pandemia del covid-19) en la que los vecinos de la ciudad engalanan sus patios con la ilusión de obtener el prestigioso galardón otorgado por el Ayuntamiento y de mostrarlos gratuitamente a numerosos visitantes. El patio cordobés tiene su origen en la ocupación romana en la que se construían las viviendas con sus habitaciones alrededor de un patio con un pozo central, con la invasión árabe se introdujo el “arriate” (franja estrecha junto a las paredes para cultivar plantas de adorno), y con la llegada de Fernando III se añadió otra planta para instalar los dormitorios. Los patios constituyen una forma eficaz para combatir los calores del verano. Más fotografías en el álbum Fiesta de los Patios de Córdoba.
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The valley of La Geria, which has been declared a 'Protected Area', is Lanzarote’s main wine-growing region, occupying about 20 square miles (52 square kilometres) and stretching on both sides of the road from Masdache to Uga and right up to the volcanic slopes.
Located on the edge of the badlands and covered with black volcanic ash, the vineyards of La Geria valley look like they have been transplanted here from another planet. The Lanzaroteños found an indigenous way of cultivating vines on this arid and hostile ground. They dug more than 10,000 funnel-shaped hollows into the thick layers of picón (coarse volcanic ashes), planted the vines, only one vine per hollow, filled them with soil and poured thick layers of picón over it, as the porous volcanic granules ideally retain the night humidity to feed the plants. In order to protect them from the constant winds and drying out, they built low, semicircular walls around them.