The world class boanical collections in Waimea Valley owe there existence to Mir. Keith Woolliams, a dedicated botanical horticulturist who was trained at the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew, on the outskirts of London.

Keith led a rich life traveling around the globe studying botanical collections in England, Japan, Papua New Guinea and Bermuda. He brought to Hawaii his expertise and knowledge of uncommon horticultural treasures, and he acquired seeds, plants, and cuttings from remote places and botanical gardens all over the world. In pre-internet days dozens of letters and packages were dispatched and received daily.

His theme of "Conservation Through Cultivation" resulted in a balance of rare and useful native and Polynesian-introduced plants among exotic horticultural specimens.

What was once an ungroomed valley, filled with koa haole and ravaged by feral cattle was transformed into what you see today by Keith and the many dedicated people he inspired. They oversaw the design, landscaping and construction of the pathways, stone walls and stairs that frame the gardens. Keith's high standards for record keeping and signage persist to this day. He left us in 1998 with a library full of his propagation knowledge, cultivation practices and plant lore which survives to ensure that the precious life forms brought to this valley will thrive here long into the future.

Keith was an inspiring advocate for Hawatian plant conservation and he influenced many young people across the state. He connected Waimea with state, federal and international agencies such as the Center for Plant Conservation, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, and the Botanical Gardens Conservation International - partnerships that Waimea Valley continues to uphold today.

Keith was instrumental in bringing in critically endangered plants from Japan's Ogasawara Islands, hibiscus relatives from all over the world, and with international colleagues he tried to assemble wild-source collections of every species of Erythrina in the world. In the periodical, "Notes from Waimea Arboretum and Botanical Garden" published twice a year until 1992 he stated "Waimea is a labeled and documented collection of plants for educational and scientific purposes, a living gene pool for future generations".

It is with great honor and gratitude that we remember Mr. Keith Woolliams and his dedication to Waimea Valley.

continuing.

Pyramidology (or pyramidism) refers to various religious or pseudoscientific speculations regarding pyramids, most often the Giza pyramid complex and the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. Some "pyramidologists" also concern themselves with the monumental structures of pre-Columbian America (such as Teotihuacan, the Mesoamerican Maya civilization, and the Inca of the South American Andes), and the temples of Southeast Asia.

 

Some pyramidologists claim that the Great Pyramid of Giza has encoded within it predictions for the exodus of Moses from Egypt, the crucifixion of Jesus, the start of World War I, the founding of modern-day Israel in 1948, and future events including the beginning of Armageddon; this was discovered by using what they call "pyramid inches" to calculate the passage of time where one British inch equals one solar year.

 

Pyramidology reached its peak by the early 1980s. Interest revived when in 1992 and 1993 Rudolf Gantenbrink sent a miniature remote-controlled robot rover, known as upuaut, up one of the "air shafts" in the Queen's Chamber of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Upuaut discovered the shaft closed off by a stone block with decaying copper hooks attached to the outside. In 1994 Robert Bauval published the book The Orion Mystery, attempting to prove that the pyramids on the Giza plateau were built to mimic the stars in the belt of the constellation Orion, a claim that came to be known as the Orion correlation theory.

Types of pyramidology

The main types of pyramidological accounts involve one or more aspects which include: metrological: theories regarding the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza by hypothetical geometric measurements numerological: theories that the measurements of the Great Pyramid and its passages have esoteric significance, and that their geometric measurements contain some encoded message. This form of pyramidology is popular within Christian Pyramidology (e.g. British Israelism and Bible Students). "pyramid power": claims originating in the late 1960s that pyramids as geometrical shapes possess supernatural powers pseudoarchaeological: varying theories that deny the pyramids were built to serve exclusively as tombs for the Pharaohs; alternative explanations regarding the construction of the pyramids (for example the use of long-lost knowledge; anti-gravity technology, etc...); and hypotheses that they were built by someone other than the historical Ancient Egyptians (e.g. early Hebrews, Atlanteans, or even extra-terrestrials)

History

Metrological

Metrological pyramidology dates to the 17th century. John Greaves, an English mathematician, astronomer and antiquarian, first took precise measurements of the Great Pyramid at Giza using the best mathematical instruments of the day. His data was published in Pyramidographia (1646) which theorized a geometric cubit was used by the builders of the Great Pyramid (see: Egyptian royal cubit). While Greave's measurements were objective, his metrological data was later misused by numerologists:

 

J. Greaves in his Pyramidographia, 1646, made an objective description of these structures, but using his measurements, some philosophers started to propose a more subjective reading of them: Kircher suggested that they had mystical and hidden meanings; Th. Shaw thought the Great Pyramid was a temple to Osiris; I. Newton created the concept of “sacred code” to denote one of the two supposed instruments used to erect them.

 

John Taylor

In his work The great pyramid; why was it built: & who built it? (1859) John Taylor described a possible connection with the dimensions of the pyramid and the golden ratio (see Kepler triangle). He also proposed that the inch used to build the Great Pyramid (see pyramid inch) was 1/25 of the "sacred cubit" (whose existence had earlier been postulated by Isaac Newton). Taylor was also the first to claim the pyramid was divinely inspired, contained a revelation and was built not by the Egyptians, but instead the Hebrews pointing to Biblical passages (Is. 19: 19-20; Job 38: 5-7) to support his theories.[8] For this reason Taylor is often credited as being the "founder of pyramidology". Martin Gardner noted:

 

[...] it was not until 1859 that Pyramidology was born. This was the year that John Taylor, an eccentric partner in a London publishing firm, issued his The Great Pyramid: Why was it Built? And Who Built it? [...] Taylor never visited the Pyramid, but the more he studied its structure, the more he became convinced that its architect was not an Egyptian, but an Israelite acting under divine orders. Perhaps it was Noah himself.

Christian pyramidology

British Israelism

Taylor in turn influenced the Astronomer Royal of Scotland Charles Piazzi Smyth, F.R.S.E., F.R.A.S., who made numerous numerological calculations on the pyramid and published them in a 664-page book Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid (1864) followed by Life, and Work in the Great Pyramid (1867). These two works fused pyramidology with British Israelism and Smyth first linked the hypothetical pyramid inch to the British Imperial Unit system.

Smyth's theories were later expanded upon by early 20th century British Israelites such as Colonel Garnier (Great Pyramid: Its Builder & Its Prophecy, 1905), who began to theorise that chambers within the Great Pyramid contain prophetic dates which concern the future of the British, Celtic, or Anglo-Saxon peoples. However this idea originated with Robert Menzies, an earlier correspondent of Smyth's. David Davidson with H. Aldersmith wrote The Great Pyramid, Its Divine Message (1924) and further introduced the idea that Britain's chronology (including future events) may be unlocked from inside the Great Pyramid. This theme is also found in Basil Stewart's trilogy on the same subject: Witness of the Great Pyramid (1927), The Great Pyramid, Its Construction, Symbolism and Chronology (1931) and History and Significance of the Great Pyramid... (1935). More recently a four-volume set entitled Pyramidology was published by British Israelite Adam Rutherford (released between 1957–1972).[11] British Israelite author E. Raymond Capt also wrote Great Pyramid Decoded in 1971 followed by Study in Pyramidology in 1986.

Joseph A. Seiss

Joseph Seiss was a Lutheran minister who was a proponent of pyramidology. He wrote A Miracle in Stone: or, The Great Pyramid of Egypt in 1877. His work was popular with contemporary evangelical Christians.

Charles Taze Russell

In 1891 pyramidology reached a global audience when it was integrated into the works of Charles Taze Russell, founder of the Bible Student movement. Russell however denounced the British-Israelite variant of pyramidology in an article called The Anglo-Israelitish Question . Adopting Joseph Seiss's designation that the Great Pyramid of Giza was "the Bible in stone" Russell taught that it played a special part in God's plan during the "last days" basing his interpretation on Isaiah 19:19-20 which says - "In that day shall there be an altar (pile of stones) to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar (Hebrew matstebah, or monument) at the border thereof to the Lord. And it shall be for a sign, and for a witness unto the Lord of Hosts in the land of Egypt." Two brothers, archaeologists John and Morton Edgar, as personal associates and supporters of Russell, wrote extensive treatises on the history, nature, and prophetic symbolism of the Great Pyramid in relation to the then known archaeological history, along with their interpretations of prophetic and Biblical chronology. They are best known for their two-volume work Great Pyramid Passages and Chambers, published in 1910 and 1913.

Pyramid power

Pyramid power refers to the belief that the ancient Egyptian pyramids and objects of similar shape can confer a variety of benefits. Among these assumed properties are the ability to preserve foods, sharpen or maintain the sharpness of razor blades, improve health, function "as a thought-form incubator", trigger sexual urges, and cause other effects. Such unverified theories regarding pyramids are collectively known as pyramidology.

 

There is no scientific evidence that pyramid power exists.

Another set of speculations concerning pyramids have centered upon the possible existence of an unknown energy concentrated in pyramidical structures.

 

Pyramid energy was popularized in the early 1970s, particularly by New Age authors such as Patrick Flanagan (Pyramid Power: The Millennium Science, 1973), Max Toth and Greg Nielsen (Pyramid Power, 1974) and Warren Smith (Secret Forces of the Pyramids, 1975). These works focused on the alleged energies of pyramids in general, not solely the Egyptian pyramids. Toth and Nielsen for example reported experiments where "seeds stored in pyramid replicas germinated sooner and grew higher"

 

Although most Bible Student groups continue to support and endorse the study of pyramidology from a Biblical perspective, the Bible Students associated with the Watchtower Society, who chose ’Jehovah's Witnesses’ as their new name in 1931, have abandoned pyramidology entirely since 1928.In the 1930s, a French ironmonger[9] and pendulum-dowsing author, Antoine Bovis, developed the idea that small models of pyramids can preserve food. The story persists that Bovis, while standing inside the King's Chamber of the Great Pyramid in Egypt, saw a garbage can inside the chamber piled with dead animals that had wandered into the structure, noticed that these small carcasses were not decaying and inferred that the structure somehow preserved them. However, Bovis never claimed to have visited Egypt.In his self-published French-language booklet Bovis ascribes his discovery to reasoning and experiments in Europe using a dowsing pendulum:

 

I have supposed that Egyptians were already very good dowsers and had oriented their pyramid by means of rod and pendulum. Being unable to go there to experiment and verify the radiations of the Keops Pyramid, I have built with cardboard some pyramids that you can see now, and I was astonished when, having built a regular pyramid and oriented it, I found the positive at the East, the negative at the West, and at the North and the South, dual-positive and dual-negative...

 

A new supposition: since with the help of our positive 2000° magnetic plates we can mummify small animals, could the pyramid have the same property? I tried, and as you can observe with the small fish and the little piece of meat still hanging, I succeeded totally.

 

In 1949, inspired by Bovis, a Czechoslovakian named Karel Drbal applied for a patent on a "Pharaoh's shaving device", a model pyramid alleged to maintain the sharpness of razor blades. According to the patent (#91,304), "The method of maintaining the razor blades and straight razor blades sharp by placing them in the magnetic field in such a way that the sharp edge lies in the direction of the magnetic lines."Drbal alleged that his device would focus "the earth's magnetic field", although he did not make it clear how this would work, or whether the device's shape or materials exerted the effect.

 

Drbal's contention that razors could be sharpened or have their sharpness maintained by alignment with Earth's magnetic field was not new. In 1933, The Times carried letters claiming, "if I oriented my razor blades…N. and S. by the compass…they tend to last considerably longer"and "The idea of keeping razor blades in a magnetic field is not quite new. About the year 1900 I found this out…."

 

Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder, authors of the paranormal, visited Czechoslovakia in 1968, where they happened upon a cardboard pyramid manufactured commercially by Drbal. They met Drbal, and dedicated a chapter of their popular 1970 book Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain to pyramid power. This book introduced both the concept of pyramid power and the story about Antoine Bovis to the English-speaking world.

Popularisation

Flanagan’s book was featured on the cover and in the lyrics of The Alan Parsons Project album Pyramid. "Pyramania", a song from the album, mocked the idea of pyramid power.

 

Pyramid power was the subject of a famous spoof by Martin Gardner in his "Mathematical Games" column in the Scientific American issue of June 1974, featuring his favorite characters Dr. Matrix and Iva Matrix.

 

The theories behind Pyramid Power convinced the Onan Family, hotel and condo developers in Gurnee, Illinois, to build the "Pyramid House" in 1977.

 

Summerhill Pyramid Winery in Kelowna, British Columbia built a four-story replica of the Great Pyramid, alleged by the winery to improve the quality of wine aged within it.

 

A religion founded in 1975, called Summum, completed the construction of a pyramid called the Summum Pyramid in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1979.

 

Pyramid power was used by the Toronto Maple Leafs and their coach Red Kelly during the 1975–76 quarter-final series, to counter the Philadelphia Flyers' use of Kate Smith's rendering of "God Bless America". Kelly hung a plastic model of a pyramid in the team's clubhouse after a pair of away defeats at the start of the series, and each player took turns standing under it for exactly four minutes. The Maple Leafs managed to win all three of their home matches before losing the series' decisive game seven.

 

Terry Pratchett's fantasy novel Pyramids incorporates elements of the theory when an industry develops based around pyramids' ability to stop time.

 

It is common in New Age magazines to see advertisements for open metal-poled pyramids large enough to meditate under. The New Age group Share International, founded by Benjamin Creme, practices a form of meditation called 'Transmission Meditation' using an open metal-poled tetrahedron in order to tune into the cosmic energy of Maitreya and other spiritual masters.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_power

 

Pseudoarchaeology

Lewis Spence in his An Encyclopaedia of Occultism (1920) summed up on the earliest of pseudoarcheological claims on the ancient Egyptian pyramids as follows:

 

"...in the 1880s, Ignatius Donnelly had suggested that the Great Pyramid had been built by the descendants of the Atlanteans. That idea was picked up in the 1920s by Manly Palmer Hall who went on to suggest that they were the focus of the ancient Egyptian wisdom schools. Edgar Cayce built upon Hall's speculations."

 

Ignatius Donnelly and later proponents of the hyperdiffusionist view of history claimed that all pyramid structures across the world had a common origin. Donelly claimed this common origin was in Atlantis. While Grafton Elliot Smith claimed Egypt, writing: "Small groups of people, moving mainly by sea, settled at certain places and there made rude imitations of the Egyptian monuments of the Pyramid Age."

 

Ancient astronauts

 

Several proponents of ancient astronauts claim that the Great Pyramid of Giza was constructed by extraterrestrial beings, or influenced by them (e.g., through their advanced technology). Proponents include Erich von Däniken, Robert Charroux, W. Raymond Drake, and Zecharia Sitchin. According to Erich Von Däniken, the Great Pyramid has advanced numerological properties which could not have been known to the ancient Egyptians and so must have been passed down by extraterrestrials: "...the height of the pyramid of Cheops, multiplied by a thousand million—98,000,000 miles—corresponds approximately to the distance between the Earth and the sun".

Orion correlation theory

Robert Bauval and Graham Hancock (1996) have both suggested that the 'ground plan' of the three main Egyptian pyramids was physically established in c. 10,500 BC, but that the pyramids were built around 2,500 BC. This theory was based on their initial claims regarding the alignment of the Giza pyramids with Orion ("…the three pyramids were a terrestrial map of the three stars of Orion's belt"— Hancock's Fingerprints of the Gods, 1995, p. 375) are later joined with speculation about the age of the Great Sphinx (Hancock and Bauval, Keeper of Genesis, published 1996, and in 1997 in the U.S. as The Message of the Sphinx).

Advanced technology

Linked to the pseudoarchaeological ancient astronaut theory and Orion correlation theory are related claims that the Great Pyramid was constructed by the use of an advanced lost technology. Proponents of this theory often link this hypothetical advanced technology to extraterrestrials but also Atlanteans, Lemurians or a legendary lost race.Notable proponents include Christopher Dunn and David Hatcher Childress. Graham Hancock also in his book Fingerprints of the Gods assigned the 'ground plan' of the three main Egyptian pyramids, in his theory to an advanced progenitor civilization which possessed advanced technology.

Alan F. Alford

Author Alan F. Alford interprets the entire Great Pyramid in the context of ancient Egyptian religion. Alford takes as his starting point the golden rule that the pharaoh had to be buried in the earth, i.e. at ground level or below, and this leads him to conclude that Khufu was interred in an ingeniously concealed cave whose entrance is today sealed up in the so-called Well Shaft adjacent to a known cave called the Grotto. He has lobbied the Egyptian authorities to explore this area of the pyramid with ground penetrating radar.

 

The cult of creation theory also provided the basis for Alford's next idea: that the sarcophagus in the King's Chamber - commonly supposed to be Khufu's final resting place - actually enshrined iron meteorites.He maintains, by reference to the Pyramid Texts, that this iron was blasted into the sky at the time of creation, according to the Egyptians' geocentric way of thinking. Alford says the King's Chamber, with its upward inclined dual 'airshafts', was built to capture the magic of this mythical moment.

 

Alford's most speculative idea is that the King's Chamber generated low frequency sound via its 'airshafts', the purpose being to re-enact the sound of the earth splitting open at the time of creation

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramidology

Deep shade and strong wind made for this interesting capture. The overhead branches were hiding and revealing sunlight. The windy gusts and resulting motion accounts for the soft muted focus.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

  

Some background:

The Bell XP-68A owed its existence to the manufacturer’s rather disappointing outcome of its first jet fighter design, the XP-59A Airacomet. The Airacomet was a twin jet-engined fighter aircraft, designed and built during World War II after Major General Henry H. "Hap" Arnold became aware of the United Kingdom's jet program when he attended a demonstration of the Gloster E.28/39 in April 1941. He requested, and was given, the plans for the aircraft's powerplant, the Power Jets W.1, which he took back to the U.S. He also arranged for an example of the engine, the Whittle W.1X turbojet, to be flown to the U.S., along with drawings for the more powerful W.2B/23 engine and a small team of Power Jets engineers. On 4 September 1941, he offered the U.S. company General Electric a contract to produce an American version of the engine, which subsequently became the General Electric I-A. On the following day, he approached Lawrence Dale Bell, head of Bell Aircraft Corporation, to build a fighter to utilize it. As a disinformation tactic, the USAAF gave the project the designation "P-59A", to suggest it was a development of the unrelated, canceled Bell XP-59 fighter project. The P-59A was the first design fighter to have its turbojet engine and air inlet nacelles integrated within the main fuselage. The jet aircraft’s design was finalized on 9 January 1942 and the first prototype flew in October of the same year.

 

The following 13 service test YP-59As had a more powerful engine than their predecessor, the General Electric J31, but the improvement in performance was negligible, with top speed increased by only 5 mph and a slight reduction in the time they could be used before an overhaul was needed. One of these aircraft, the third YP-59A, was supplied to the Royal Air Force, in exchange for the first production Gloster Meteor I for evaluation and flight-offs with domestic alternatives.

British pilots found that the YP-59A compared very unfavorably with the jets that they were already flying. The United States Army Air Forces were not impressed by its performance either and cancelled the contract when fewer than half of the originally ordered aircraft had been produced. No P-59s entered combat, but the type paved the way for the next design generation of U.S. turbojet-powered aircraft and helped to develop appropriate maintenance structures and procedures.

 

In the meantime, a new, more powerful jet engine had been developed in Great Britain, the Halford H-1, which became later better known as the De Havilland Goblin. It was another centrifugal compressor design, but it produced almost twice as much thrust as the XP-59A’s J31 engines. Impressed by the British Gloster Meteor during the USAAF tests at Muroc Dry Lake - performance-wise as well as by the aircraft’s simplicity and ruggedness - Bell reacted promptly and proposed an alternative fighter with wing-mounted engine nacelles, since the XP-59A’s layout had proven to be aerodynamically sub-optimal and unsuited for the installation of H-1 engines. In order to save development time and because the aircraft was rather regarded as a proof-of-concept demonstrator instead of a true fighter prototype, the new aircraft was structurally based on Bell’s current piston-engine P-63 “Kingcobra”. The proposal was accepted and, in order to maintain secrecy, the new jet aircraft inherited once more a designation of a recently cancelled project, this time from the Vultee XP-68 “Tornado” fighter. Similar to the Airacomet two years before, just a simple “A” suffix was added.

 

Bell’s development contract covered only three XP-68A aircraft. The H-1 units were directly imported from Great Britain in secrecy, suspended in the bomb bays of B-24 Liberator bombers. A pair of these engines was mounted in mid-wing nacelles, very similar to the Gloster Meteor’s arrangement. The tailplane was given a 5° dihedral to move it out of the engine exhaust. In order to bear the new engines and their power, the wing main spars were strengthened and the main landing gear wells were moved towards the aircraft’s centerline, effectively narrowing track width. The landing gear wells now occupied the space of the former radiator ducts for the P-63’s omitted Allison V-1710 liquid-cooled V12 engine. Its former compartment behind the cockpit was used for a new fuel tank and test equipment. Having lost the propeller and its long drive shaft, the nose section was also redesigned: the front fuselage became deeper and the additional space there was used for another fuel tank in front of the cockpit and a bigger weapon bay. Different armament arrangements were envisioned, one of each was to be tested on the three prototypes: one machine would be armed with six 0.5” machine guns, another with four 20mm Hispano M2 cannon, and the third with two 37mm M10 cannon and two 0.5” machine guns. Provisions for a ventral hardpoint for a single drop tank or a 1.000 lb (550 kg) bomb were made, but this was never fitted on any of the prototypes. Additional hardpoints under the outer wings for smaller bombs or unguided missiles followed the same fate.

 

The three XP-68As were built at Bell’s Atlanta plant in the course of early 1944 and semi-officially christened “Airagator”. After their clandestine transfer to Muroc Dry Lake for flight tests and evaluations, the machines were quickly nicknamed “Barrelcobra” by the test staff – not only because of the characteristic shape of the engine nacelles, but also due to the sheer weight of the machines and their resulting sluggish handling on the ground and in the air. “Cadillac” was another nickname, due to the very soft acceleration through the new jet engines and the lack of vibrations that were typical for piston-engine- and propeller-driven aircraft.

 

Due to the structural reinforcements and modifications, the XP-68A had become a heavy aircraft with an empty weight of 4 tons and a MTOW of almost 8 tons – the same as the big P-47 Thunderbolt piston fighter, while the P-63 had an MTOW of only 10,700 lb (4,900 kg). The result was, among other flaws, a very long take-off distance, especially in the hot desert climate of the Mojave Desert (which precluded any external ordnance) and an inherent unwillingness to change direction, its turning radius was immense. More than once the brakes overheated during landing, so that extra water cooling for the main landing gear was retrofitted.

Once in the air, the aircraft proved to be quite fast – as long as it was flying in a straight line, though. Only the roll characteristics were acceptable, but flying the XP-68A remained hazardous, esp. after the loss of one of the H-1s engines: This resulted in heavily asymmetrical propulsion, making the XP-68A hard to control at all and prone to spin in level flight.

 

After trials and direct comparison, the XP-68A turned out not to be as fast and, even worse, much less agile than the Meteor Mk III (the RAF’s then current, operational fighter version), which even had weaker Derwent engines. The operational range was insufficient, too, esp. in regard of the planned Pacific theatre of operations, and the high overall weight precluded any considerable external load like drop tanks.

However, compared with the XP-59A, the XP-68A was a considerable step forward, but it had become quickly clear that the XP-68A and its outfit-a-propeller-design-with jet-engines approach did not bear the potential for any service fighter development: it was already outdated when the prototypes were starting their test program. No further XP-68A was ordered or built, and the three prototypes fulfilled their test and evaluation program until May 1945. During these tests, the first prototype was lost on the ground due to an engine fire. After the program’s completion, the two remaining machines were handed over to the US Navy and used for research at the NATC Patuxent River Test Centre, where they were operated until 1949 and finally scrapped.

  

General characteristics.

Crew: 1

Length: 33 ft 9 in (10.36 m)

Wingspan: 38 ft 4 in (11.7 m)

Height: 13 ft (3.96 m)

Wing area: 248 sq ft (23 m²)

Empty weight: 8,799 lb (3,995 kg)

Loaded weight: 15,138 lb (6,873 kg)

Max. take-off weight: 17,246 lb (7,830 kg)

 

Powerplant:

2× Halford H-1 (De Havilland Goblin) turbojets, rated at 3,500 lbf (15.6 kN) each

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 559 mph (900 km/h)

Range: 500 mi (444 nmi, 805 km)

Service ceiling: 37,565 ft (11,450 m)

Rate of climb: 3.930 ft/min (20 m/s)

Wing loading: 44.9 lb/ft² (218.97 kg/m²)

Thrust/weight: 0.45

Time to altitude: 5.0 min to 30,000 ft (9,145 m)

 

Armament:

4× Hispano M2 20 mm cannon with 150 rounds

One ventral hardpoint for a single drop tank or a 1.000 lb (550 kg) bomb

6× 60 lb (30 kg) rockets or 2× 500 lb (227 kg) bombs under the outer wings

  

The kit and its assembly:

This whiffy Kingcobra conversion was spawned by a post by fellow user nighthunter in January 2019 at whatifmodelers.com about a potential jet-powered variant. In found the idea charming, since the XP-59 had turned out to be a dud and the Gloster Meteor had been tested by the USAAF. Why not combine both into a fictional, late WWII Bell prototype?

The basic idea was simple: take a P-63 and add a Meteor’s engine nacelles, while keeping the Kingcobra’s original proportions. This sounds pretty easy but was more challenging than the first look at the outcome might suggest.

 

The donor kits are a vintage Airfix 1:72 Gloster Meteor Mk.III, since it has the proper, small nacelles, and an Eastern Express P-63 Kingcobra. The latter looked promising, since this kit comes with very good surface and cockpit details (even with a clear dashboard) as well as parts for several P-63 variants, including the A, C and even the exotic “pinball” manned target version. However, anything comes at a price, and the kit’s low price point is compensated by soft plastic (which turned out to be hard to sand), some flash and mediocre fit of any of the major components like fuselage halves, the wings or the clear parts. It feels a lot like a typical short-run kit. Nevertheless, I feel inclined to build another one in a more conventional fashion some day.

 

Work started with the H-1 nacelles, which had to be cut out from the Meteor wings. Since they come OOB only with a well-visible vertical plate and a main wing spar dummy in the air intake, I added some fine mesh to the plate – normally, you can see directly onto the engine behind the wing spar. Another issue was the fact that the Meteor’s wings are much thicker and deeper than the P-63s, so that lots of PSR work was necessary.

 

Simply cutting the P-63 OOB wings up and inserting the Meteor nacelles was also not possible: the P-63 has a very wide main landing gear, due to the ventral radiators and oil coolers, which were originally buried in the wing roots and under the piston engine. The only solution: move the complete landing gear (including the wells) inward, so that the nacelles could be placed as close as possible to the fuselage in a mid-span position. Furthermore, the - now useless - radiator openings had to disappear, resulting in a major redesign of the wing root sections. All of this became a major surgery task, followed by similarly messy work on the outer wings during the integration of the Meteor nacelles. LOTS of PSR, even though the outcome looks surprisingly plausible and balanced.

 

Work on the fuselage started in parallel. It was built mainly OOB, using the optional ventral fin for a P-63C. The exhaust stubs as well as the dorsal carburetor intake had to disappear (the latter made easy thanks to suitable optional parts for the manned target version). Since the P-63 had a conventional low stabilizer arrangement (unlike the Meteor with its cruciform tail), I gave them a slight dihedral to move them out of the engine efflux, a trick Sukhoi engineers did on the Su-11 prototype with afterburner engines in 1947, too.

 

Furthermore, the whole nose ahead of the cockpit was heavily re-designed, because I wanted the “new” aircraft to lose its propeller heritage and the P-63’s round and rather pointed nose. Somewhat inspired by the P-59 and the P-80, I omitted the propeller parts altogether and re-sculpted the nose with 2C putty, creating a deeper shape with a tall, oval diameter, so that the lower fuselage line was horizontally extended forward. In a profile view the aircraft now looks much more massive and P-80esque. The front landing gear was retained, just its side walls were extended downwards with the help of 0.5mm styrene sheet material, so that the original stance could be kept. Lots of lead in the nose ensured that the model would properly stand on its three wheels.

 

Once the rhinoplasty was done I drilled four holes into the nose and used hollow steel needles as gun barrels, with a look reminiscent of the Douglas A-20G.

Adding the (perfectly) clear parts of the canopy as a final assembly step also turned out to be a major fight against the elements.

  

Painting and markings:

With an USAAF WWII prototype in mind, there were only two options: either an NMF machine, or a camouflage in Olive Drab and Neutral Grey. I went for the latter and used Tamiya XF-62 for the upper surfaces and Humbrol 156 (Dark Camouflage Grey) underneath. The kit received a light black ink wash and some post shading in order to emphasize panels. A little dry-brushing with silver around the leading edges and the cockpit was done, too.

 

The cockpit interior became chromate green (I used Humbrol 150, Forest Green) while the landing gear wells were painted with zinc chromate yellow (Humbrol 81). The landing gear itself was painted in aluminum (Humbrol 56).

Markings/decals became minimal, puzzled together from various sources – only some “Stars and Bars” insignia and the serial number.

  

Somehow this conversion ended up looking a lot like the contemporary Soviet Sukhoi Su-9 and -11 (Samolyet K and LK) jet fighter prototype – unintentionally, though. But I am happy with the outcome – the P-63 ancestry is there, and the Meteor engines are recognizable, too. But everything blends into each other well, the whole affair looks very balanced and believable. This is IMHO furthermore emphasized by the simple paint scheme. A jet-powered Kingcobra? Why not…?

347/365

1/13/14

smu.gs/1iKnotK

Helios 44m F/2

The North Star of Herschel Island

 

The original owners of The North Star of Herschel Island, Carpenter and Wolkie, never knew anything about the need to register a ship ... they probably had never heard of such a thing. She was not registered when Sven Johansson, purchased her in 1967 from Fred Carpenter.

 

The Registrar of Shipping had no knowledge of the existence of the vessel at all even though she had been operating in Canada since 1936 and the original duty had been paid to the RCMP at the time of purchase.

 

The schooners were loaded by crane in San Francisco and carried right to Herschel Island. There the unloading process would begin. The Patterson would shift her cargo so that the ship would begin to list to the side on which the schooners were being carried as deck cargo.

 

The schooners were hoisted by special rigging attached to the mastheads. The vessels were shipped off–centre on the Patterson. First the ship had to be made to list so that the mastheads were directly over the vessel.

 

This was so that it wouldn’t swing into the centre line as it was hoisted and could be shifted to the water side.

 

Eventually as the Patterson continued to list dramatically the schooner would eventually be sitting over the water. The crew would then lower the schooner into the water. This was all done with the aid of a steam donkey engine on the deck but still required a great deal of work by the crew.

 

The North Star of Herschel Island was built in San Francisco California for the arctic fox trapping activity.

 

Brought up in the Paterson in 1936 by Captain C.T. Pedersen after being ordered in 1935 by Jim Wolkie and Fred Carpenter.

 

They told Captain Pedersen that they wanted a schooner and described the features that they wanted on it and the size and so on. They wanted the pilot house to be built on it unlike other boats which were usually delivered without any superstructure. This was the last voyage by Pedersen in the Paterson and The North Star of Herschel Island was the last of the large schooners to be delivered in that manner.

 

She was purchased from the brother and sister co–owners: Fred Carpenter, and Susie Sydney. Susie had married James Wolkie and then Peter Sydney, Peter. She died at Sachs Harbour a few years ago. She was originally ordered by two trappers Fred Carpenter and James Wolkie. She was built at the George W. Kneass Shipyard in San Francisco California in 1935.

 

She was finished in the winter of 1936. The ship was loaded on the deck of the Patterson, a 600 ton trading vessel she was owned by C.T. Pederson. She was delivered to Wolkie and Carpenter in 1936.

 

They paid $23,000 for her which was a considerable sum of money at the height of the depression. It was paid in bank drafts and cash.

 

She was owned and operated by Fred Carpenter. He had a reputation as an extremely good navigator in the Western Arctic in spite of being unable to read and write. He had a partner named James Wolkie, James whose brother James was married to Fred’s sister, Susie Sydney. The vessel was used until 1960 or 1961.

 

When the vessel was sold to Sven Johansson in 1967 the she was jointly she was owned by Susie Sydney, Susie and Fred Carpenter. Originally when the ship was built Captain Pedersen had to go to Atlas Engines in San Francisco to request that the North Star be installed with an Atlas 3 cylinder 35hp slow–turning make–and–break gasoline marine engine.

 

They told him "we don’t make them any more." But Fred Carpenter had told him that that particular engine was they only one he trusted and would accept. "I want that engine. I know that engine. I don’t want any other engine." he had implored Pedersen at the time of ordering the previous year.

 

By that time there were a few diesel engines around the Arctic but being very familiar with the Atlas gas engine Fred Carpenter had made up his mind. The Atlas representative said that they would assemble one from spare parts. In that way they assembled the very last engine of its type.

 

She was used at Banks Island to travel between Aklavik and Sachs Harbour for trapping supply. Sven Johansson thinks he has some 16mm film footage by Fred Carpenter when she was launched one year at Sachs Harbour. She was about 45’ in length.

 

The Bankslanders, as they were called, would travel to Aklavik in the spring with the fur they had trapped during the fall and winter to sell or ship to the fur auction in Edmonton.

 

They would load up with supplies and travel home. They first two winters they didn’t have the equipment to pull the ship out of the water at Sachs Harbour and she was frozen–in in thick ice. They were living in cabins and tents. They didn’t live in the boat because that was colder than the tent. They would trap all winter and repeat another cycle of trading in the spring. This went on until 1961 or 1962.

 

One year the North Star of Herschel Island, under Fred Carpenter, found itself in a small harbour near Cape Bathurst with another boat. They were frozen–in for the winter.

 

During that winter, unable to get home they trapped fox and marten until breakup in the spring. The harbour is now marked on the charts as North Star Harbour.

 

If they could they would pull the boat out of the water. This was usually a major operation of seamanship and engineering. Using block and tackle and a 5 ton manual winch on the running end it could be accomplished. The vessels were always pulled out sideways.

 

The tidal range is only about twelve inches so the effects of tides is negligible for such a launching operation. Using drift logs (which are all very smooth in the North) as a ramp they would attach cables at the bow and stern.

 

The logs would have freshly killed seal skins over them so that the blubber would act as a natural lubrication under the keel. With a deadman ashore holding the winch they would commence pulling in the cables (through triple–purchase blocks) until the vessel began to slide up the ramp.

 

They would "walk" the vessel up the ramp ... pulling first on the bow cable, then on the stern cable.. until the vessel literally wiggled up to its resting place. If the job was very difficult they would use double triple-purchase blocks for greater mechanical advantage.

 

Those seamen certainly had to have a fundamental understanding of some principles of physics!

 

In late summer, in the first week of September the freeze–up has arrived. August was the best month for travel and they would try to depart by the end of July. Around the last week in August, they would return from Herschel Island to Sachs Harbour. The whole operation of the pullout would take a couple of days.

 

Those inuit and white trappers who owned these vessels were very efficient at all of their tasks. If they couldn’t manage to pull the vessels out they were, of course, frozen–in.

 

The North Star of Herschel Island was frozen–in three or four winters. It may have been because the beach was the wrong configuration or perhaps they waited too long or there wasn’t any driftwood to use as a ramp.

 

Also the owners didn’t own the proper equipment for the first two winters they owned her. One winter she was frozen-in at what is now called North Star Harbour at Cape Bathurst. They used her from 1936 to about 1961 or 62.

 

Then she was pulled up on the beach at Sachs Harbour where she was based throughout her life. In the beginning she travelled between Aklavik and Sachs Harbour after Herschel Island was shut down in 1936 when Pedersen sold out to the Hudson’s Bay Company.

 

Aklavik and Fort MacPherson became the important administrative places then. Sven Johansson has a picture of her, pulled up on the beach, taken in 1960 or 1961 with the bow facing east. When Johansson bought her in 1967 the bow was facing west.

 

So she had been in the water at least one more time. Fred Carpenter told him that at that time the government started sending in a supply ship every year to support the Upper Air Weather Station. The people got their suppplies then too. There was also an airlift every two months, then every two weeks ... so the need for a trading schooner vanished.

 

At that time the electrical system of the engine gave up too. That Atlas engine was still in the boat when Sven Johansson bought it. But it wasn't operable. It was beautiful shape and only the electrical system prevented it’s further use in the ship. It weighed close to two tons. It had a large flywheel and three large cylinders. It took up about one quarter of the inside of the ship. It would have been started with a steel bar inserted in holes in the flywheel to turn it over. The hole was designed so that the bar would slip out as the wheel turned to save the engineer from potential injury. The engine did’nt have spark plugs, using instead a series of contacts which would make and break according to the cycle of the engine.

 

The owner of the Omingmuk (another trading schooner) donated the mast to Johansson for use on the The North Star as he was then planning to rig The North Star with three masts in a ship–rig. Johansson sent the mast down to Vancouver so that it was in Vancouver in 1974 when he arrived after bringing the ship down from Alaska. Johansson had also gotten hold of what was left of the original mast of the Nanuk II (yet another schooner). She had been damaged one year when they pulled her out of the water after Johnny Norberg had skippered the boat. The top broke off.

 

Johansson trimmed it off and sent it on to Vancouver too. Now on the North Star of Herschel Island, as it is presently rigged, the foremast is the original mast of the Omingmuk.

 

The mainmast is the original mast of the North Star. And the lower mizzen mast is the original mast of the Nanuk II. The topmast was made out of a tree by Johansson. Johansson when he bought the North Star of Herschel Island in 1967.

 

She was probably registered in 1968 ... she had never been registered previously. She was on the beach at Sachs Harbour until August 1968 when Sven Johansson took her down to Inuvik. In 1969 Sven Johansson had her surveyed for registration in the Canada List of Shipping. He swore out a statement signed by Wolki and witnessed by the RCMP.

 

On the bill of sale though it indicates that Sven Johansson was the owner in 1967! Pedersen probably purchased it from the builder and sold it again to the customers taking his profit in the middle. Luckily on the bill of sale it is stated that they had paid import duty.. otherwise if they hadn’t Sven Johansson would have had to pay it when he bought her. There is no American number carved in the main beam. Sven Johansson carved the Canadian number himself and could find no trace of her ever having had a register previously carved anywhere in the main beam. She was legally brought to Canada, the duty paid, but never registered at the time of import.

 

Johansson loved his ship – and used her as a focus for attention to all things marine. For years she was a favourite sight anchored in Victoria Harbour. Every couple of years he would sail her to a small island to careen her hull, make repairs and scrape off the accumulating marine growth. She is now lovingly owned and operated by Sheila and Bruce MacDonald. North Star is the home of her present owners and is no longer a commercial ship but is now a private vessel. She is not available for charter. They have a very nice website which is worth visiting that shows the history of the vessel.

 

For an account of the last careening of the North Star of Herschel Island see the recent article Careening The North Star of Herschel Island.

www.nauticapedia.ca/Articles/North_Star_history.php

Walking on foot brings you down to the very stark, naked core of existence. We travel too much in airplanes and cars. It’s an existential quality that we are losing. It’s almost like a credo of religion that we should walk.

 

There is, of course, something inherently romantic—if not heroic—about the extreme solitary explorer enveloped by nature. The very image of Herzog on foot recalls the iconic 19th-century paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, especially his Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, with its lone figure staring out at the wide vista above the clouds.

 

'Truth itself wanders through the forests,' Herzog writes near the end. Yet here he embroiders his memories for effect: The vast swath of geography between Munich and Paris is littered with industrial towns and cities.

 

Once he comes out on the other end, traversing the deforested Champs-Élysées (“We were close to what they call the breath of danger”), Herzog emerges victorious.

― Of Walking in Ice: (Munich-Paris, 23 November–14 December 1974)

by Werner Herzog

 

Source: Werner Herzog’s Maniacal Quests ―A newly published travel journal shows how walking, like filmmaking, brings us to the naked core of existence. (Noah Isenberg)

All Rights Reserved © Mark Baker-Sanchez

Desert Garden - Balboa Park

In the Gir Forest!

Eggs of the rare Carolina Gopher Frog, Lithobates capito. This is one of many southeastern species associated with longleaf ecosystems that have experienced dramatic declines for decades, mostly attributed to fire suppression, conversion to industrial pine forests/agriculture, and other development. The species has been petitioned for listing under the Endangered Species Act and states where gopher frogs and other closely related species occur are working cooperatively to keep populations stable in the meanwhile.

Sometimes you just need to train your self to be alone.

So that in the end, whenever they leave you, you'll be brave enough to accompany your self.

The Sil Canyon is, without a doubt, one of the most important elements of Ribeira Sacra. This deep gorge of rock, water and winding curves does not leave anyone indifferent. Its vertical slopes, worked since ancient times, continue to be the livelihood of many inhabitants of the area, who produce excellent quality grapes on them. This place is also a refuge for many animal and plant species, which find within these walls and in its waters the conditions they need for their existence.

In this sunflower you are seeing a sturdy black ant, a ladybird larva and a few aphids (green and yellow). Aphids are great food for the larva and the ants protect aphids from their enemies. Here the ant is waiting to attack the larva if it attempts to eat aphids. What a combination !!!

  

வஞ்சநமன் வாதனைக்கும் வன்பிறவி வேதனைக்கும்

அஞ்சி உனையடைந்தேன் ஐயா பராபரமே !!!

  

தாயுமானவர் பராபரக்கண்ணி

   

Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2011

 

Both angels and demons exists alongside in a human.

Lets sacrifice the demons on the occasion of Eid-Ul-Azha.

 

Eid Mubarak to all of my flickr friends.

 

Our world is so beautiful and peaceful from a distance. It is so sad that this beautiful earth is filled with hatred and anger for such a long time. People killing each other and stepping on each other daily, just to get ahead in life. In the end, does it all really matter? Our existence is only temporary and that one day, we will all have to leave. Why don't we all make a good impression while we are here, to love and help one another, so that we can make this earth as beautiful as it appears.

 

Please view in Lightbox.

 

Peace to all my flickr friends!

 

Note: The picture of the earth and saturn were not captured by me, ofcourse :) Everything else was captured by me.

*Leica M7 *Noctilux f/1.0 50mm *Kodak EBX100

“Who if I cried out, would hear me among the angel's hierarchies?

and even if one of them pressed me suddenly against his heart:

I would be consumed in that overwhelming existence.

For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror which we are still just able to endure.

and we are so awed because it serenely disdains to annihilate us.

Every angel is terrifying.”

(From "Duino Elegies" by Rainer Maria Rilke - Austro-German lyric poet, 1875-1926)

 

This was shot from the main room leading to the Tomb of the Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great (1555–1605) which is in Sikandra, a suburb of Agra, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

 

Whenever my brother Manish and I drive from Delhi to Benaras we often stop there or at the Taj Mahal for a break.

The fun is to try to take pictures of those places with a new angle.

That day the heat was almost unbearable, I went inside the mausoleum hoping to find some freshness, Manish sat at the door surounded by jali screens and I took this picture...

 

Join the photographer at www.facebook.com/laurent.goldstein.photography

 

© All photographs are copyrighted and all rights reserved.

Please do not use any photographs without permission (even for private use).

The use of any work without consent of the artist is PROHIBITED and will lead automatically to consequences.

 

The Saint Hilarion Castle lies on the Kyrenia mountain range, in Cyprus. This location provided the castle with command of the pass road from Kyrenia to Nicosia. It is the best preserved ruin of the three former strongholds in the Kyrenia mountains, the other two being Kantara and Buffavento.

 

History

The castle is not named after St. Hilarion, active in Palestine and Cyprus in the 4th century. It was named after an obscure saint, who is traditionally held to have fled to Cyprus after the Arab conquest of the Holy Land and retired to the hilltop on which the castle was built for hermitage. An English traveller reported the preservation of his relics in the 14th century. It has been proposed that a monastery built in his name preceded the castle, which was built around it. However, this view is not supported by any substantial evidence.

 

Starting in the 11th century, the Byzantines began fortification. Saint Hilarion, together with the castles of Buffavento and Kantara, formed the defense of the island against Arab raids against the coast. Some sections were further upgraded under the Lusignan dynasty, whose kings may have used it as a summer residence. During the rule of Lusignans, the castle was the focus of a four-year struggle between Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and Regent John d' Ibelin for control of Cyprus.

 

Much of the castle was dismantled by the Venetians in the 15th century to reduce the cost of garrisons.

 

Architecture

The castle has three divisions or wards. The lower and middle wards served economic purposes, while the upper ward housed the royal family. The lower ward had the stables and the living quarters for the men-at-arms. The Prince John tower sits on a cliff high above the lower castle.

 

The upper ward was surrounded by a 1.4 metre-thick Byzantine wall, made of rough masonry. The entrance is through a pointed arch built by the Lusignans. This was protected by a semicircular tower to the east. Within the ward is a courtyard, with twin peaks being situated to either side of it. To the north-east is an extremely ruined kitchen. To the west are the royal apartments, dated by various sources to the 13th or 14th centuries. Although mostly ruined today, this was a structure in the northeast-southwest axis, with a length of 25 m and width of 6 m. It has a basement containing a cistern and two floors. The ground floor has a height of 7 m and a pointed barrel vault. The upper floor is known for its carved windows, one of which is dubbed the Queen's Window. These are placed on the western wall, which has a scenic view of the northern coast of Cyprus, especially the plains of Lapithos.

 

In fiction

Two of the main characters in the 1958 historical novel, Exodus, by Leon Uris, spend a day walking around the castle ruins. Featured in the 1999 novel “Race of Scorpions” by Dorothy Dunnett. The Castle of Saint Hilarion appears in the 2009 action-adventure video game Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines, the 2015 novel "The Lost Treasure of the Templars" by James Becker, and Death in Cyprus by M. M. Kaye. The castle is also featured in the 2016 crypto-thriller The Apocalypse Fire by Dominic Selwood.

 

The Kyrenia Mountains (Greek: Κερύνειο Όρος; Turkish: Girne Dağları) is a long, narrow mountain range that runs for approximately 160 km (100 mi) along the northern coast of the island of Cyprus. It is primarily made of hard crystalline limestone, with some marble. Its highest peak is Mount Selvili, at 1,024 m (3,360 ft). Pentadaktylos (also spelt Pentadactylos; Greek: Πενταδάκτυλος; Turkish: Beşparmak) is another name for the Kyrenia Mountains, though Britannica refers to Pentadaktylos as the "western portion" of the latter, or the part west of Melounta. Pentadaktylos (lit. "five-fingered") is so-named after one of its most distinguishing features, a peak that resembles five fingers.

 

The Kyrenian mountains are named after the Kyrenian mountains in Achaia, Greece, which are well known from mythology because of the connection with one of the 12 labours of Hercules, the capture of the Kerynitis deer that lived there. This sacred deer of Artemis with golden horns and bronze legs ran so fast that no one could reach it. Hercules, however, after pursuing it for a whole year, managed to catch it and transport it alive to Mycenae.

 

A devastating fire in July 1995 burned large portions of the Kyrenia Mountains, resulting in the loss of significant forest land and natural habitat.

 

The only other mountain range in Cyprus is the Troodos Mountains.

 

Geology

These mountains are a series of sedimentary formations from the Permian to the Middle Miocene pushed up by a collision of the African and Eurasian plates. Though only half the height of the Troodos Mountains, the Kyrenia Mountains are rugged and rise abruptly from the Mesaoria plain.

 

History

The location of the mountains near the sea made them desirable locations for watch towers and castles overlooking the northern Cyprus coast, as well as the central plain. These castles generally date from the 10th through the 15th centuries, primarily constructed by the Byzantines and Lusignans. The castles of St. Hilarion, Buffavento, and Kantara sit astride peaks and were of strategic importance during much of the history of Cyprus during the Middle Ages.

 

Painted flag

A flag of Northern Cyprus is painted on the southern slope of the Kyrenia Mountains. It is reportedly 425 metres wide and 250 metres high, and is illuminated at night.

 

The flag is considered controversial as evidenced in the Parliamentary Question put to the European Parliament by Antigoni Papadopoulou on 22 October 2009, "How can it permit the existence of such a flag which, apart from the catastrophic environmental damage it causes, the use of chemical substances and the brutal abuse of the environment, involves an absurd waste of electricity at a time of economic crisis? Does Turkey show sufficient respect towards the environment to justify its desire to open the relevant chapter of accession negotiations?"

 

Legends

There are many legends about the Pentadactylos mountains. One tells the story of a conceited villager who fell in love with the local queen and asked for her hand in marriage. The queen wished to be rid of the impertinent young man and requested that he bring her some water from the spring of Apostolos Andreas monastery in the Karpas, a perilous journey in those days. The man set off and after several weeks returned with a skin full of that precious water. The queen was most dismayed to see that he had succeeded, but still refused to marry him. In a fit of rage, he poured the water on to the earth, seized a handful of the resulting mud and threw it at the queens head. She ducked and the lump of mud sailed far across the plain to land on top of the Kyrenia mountain range, where it is to this day, still showing the impression of the thwarted villager’s five fingers.

 

Another famous one is of the Byzantine hero Digenis Akritas. Tradition has it that Digenis Akritas's hand gripped the mountain to get out of the sea when he came to free Cyprus from its Saracen invaders, and this is his handprint. He also threw a large rock across Cyprus to get at the Saracen ships. That rock landed in Paphos at the site of the birthplace of Aphrodite, thus known to this day as Petra Tou Romiou or "Rock of the Greek".

 

Northern Cyprus, officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), is a de facto state that comprises the northeastern portion of the island of Cyprus. It is recognised only by Turkey, and its territory is considered by all other states to be part of the Republic of Cyprus.

 

Northern Cyprus extends from the tip of the Karpass Peninsula in the northeast to Morphou Bay, Cape Kormakitis and its westernmost point, the Kokkina exclave in the west. Its southernmost point is the village of Louroujina. A buffer zone under the control of the United Nations stretches between Northern Cyprus and the rest of the island and divides Nicosia, the island's largest city and capital of both sides.

 

A coup d'état in 1974, performed as part of an attempt to annex the island to Greece, prompted the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. This resulted in the eviction of much of the north's Greek Cypriot population, the flight of Turkish Cypriots from the south, and the partitioning of the island, leading to a unilateral declaration of independence by the north in 1983. Due to its lack of recognition, Northern Cyprus is heavily dependent on Turkey for economic, political and military support.

 

Attempts to reach a solution to the Cyprus dispute have been unsuccessful. The Turkish Army maintains a large force in Northern Cyprus with the support and approval of the TRNC government, while the Republic of Cyprus, the European Union as a whole, and the international community regard it as an occupation force. This military presence has been denounced in several United Nations Security Council resolutions.

 

Northern Cyprus is a semi-presidential, democratic republic with a cultural heritage incorporating various influences and an economy that is dominated by the services sector. The economy has seen growth through the 2000s and 2010s, with the GNP per capita more than tripling in the 2000s, but is held back by an international embargo due to the official closure of the ports in Northern Cyprus by the Republic of Cyprus. The official language is Turkish, with a distinct local dialect being spoken. The vast majority of the population consists of Sunni Muslims, while religious attitudes are mostly moderate and secular. Northern Cyprus is an observer state of ECO and OIC under the name "Turkish Cypriot State", PACE under the name "Turkish Cypriot Community", and Organization of Turkic States with its own name.

 

The Turkish invasion of Cyprus began on 20 July 1974 and progressed in two phases over the following month. Taking place upon a background of intercommunal violence between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, and in response to a Greek junta-sponsored Cypriot coup d'état five days earlier, it led to the Turkish capture and occupation of the northern part of the island.

 

The coup was ordered by the military junta in Greece and staged by the Cypriot National Guard in conjunction with EOKA B. It deposed the Cypriot president Archbishop Makarios III and installed Nikos Sampson. The aim of the coup was the union (enosis) of Cyprus with Greece, and the Hellenic Republic of Cyprus to be declared.

 

The Turkish forces landed in Cyprus on 20 July and captured 3% of the island before a ceasefire was declared. The Greek military junta collapsed and was replaced by a civilian government. Following the breakdown of peace talks, Turkish forces enlarged their original beachhead in August 1974 resulting in the capture of approximately 36% of the island. The ceasefire line from August 1974 became the United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus and is commonly referred to as the Green Line.

 

Around 150,000 people (amounting to more than one-quarter of the total population of Cyprus, and to one-third of its Greek Cypriot population) were displaced from the northern part of the island, where Greek Cypriots had constituted 80% of the population. Over the course of the next year, roughly 60,000 Turkish Cypriots, amounting to half the Turkish Cypriot population, were displaced from the south to the north. The Turkish invasion ended in the partition of Cyprus along the UN-monitored Green Line, which still divides Cyprus, and the formation of a de facto Autonomous Turkish Cypriot Administration in the north. In 1983, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) declared independence, although Turkey is the only country that recognises it. The international community considers the TRNC's territory as Turkish-occupied territory of the Republic of Cyprus. The occupation is viewed as illegal under international law, amounting to illegal occupation of European Union territory since Cyprus became a member.

 

Northern Cyprus, officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), is a de facto state that comprises the northeastern portion of the island of Cyprus. It is recognised only by Turkey, and its territory is considered by all other states to be part of the Republic of Cyprus.

 

Northern Cyprus extends from the tip of the Karpass Peninsula in the northeast to Morphou Bay, Cape Kormakitis and its westernmost point, the Kokkina exclave in the west. Its southernmost point is the village of Louroujina. A buffer zone under the control of the United Nations stretches between Northern Cyprus and the rest of the island and divides Nicosia, the island's largest city and capital of both sides.

 

A coup d'état in 1974, performed as part of an attempt to annex the island to Greece, prompted the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. This resulted in the eviction of much of the north's Greek Cypriot population, the flight of Turkish Cypriots from the south, and the partitioning of the island, leading to a unilateral declaration of independence by the north in 1983. Due to its lack of recognition, Northern Cyprus is heavily dependent on Turkey for economic, political and military support.

 

Attempts to reach a solution to the Cyprus dispute have been unsuccessful. The Turkish Army maintains a large force in Northern Cyprus with the support and approval of the TRNC government, while the Republic of Cyprus, the European Union as a whole, and the international community regard it as an occupation force. This military presence has been denounced in several United Nations Security Council resolutions.

 

Northern Cyprus is a semi-presidential, democratic republic with a cultural heritage incorporating various influences and an economy that is dominated by the services sector. The economy has seen growth through the 2000s and 2010s, with the GNP per capita more than tripling in the 2000s, but is held back by an international embargo due to the official closure of the ports in Northern Cyprus by the Republic of Cyprus. The official language is Turkish, with a distinct local dialect being spoken. The vast majority of the population consists of Sunni Muslims, while religious attitudes are mostly moderate and secular. Northern Cyprus is an observer state of ECO and OIC under the name "Turkish Cypriot State", PACE under the name "Turkish Cypriot Community", and Organization of Turkic States with its own name.

 

Several distinct periods of Cypriot intercommunal violence involving the two main ethnic communities, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, marked mid-20th century Cyprus. These included the Cyprus Emergency of 1955–59 during British rule, the post-independence Cyprus crisis of 1963–64, and the Cyprus crisis of 1967. Hostilities culminated in the 1974 de facto division of the island along the Green Line following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. The region has been relatively peaceful since then, but the Cyprus dispute has continued, with various attempts to solve it diplomatically having been generally unsuccessful.

 

Cyprus, an island lying in the eastern Mediterranean, hosted a population of Greeks and Turks (four-fifths and one-fifth, respectively), who lived under British rule in the late nineteenth-century and the first half of the twentieth-century. Christian Orthodox Church of Cyprus played a prominent political role among the Greek Cypriot community, a privilege that it acquired during the Ottoman Empire with the employment of the millet system, which gave the archbishop an unofficial ethnarch status.

 

The repeated rejections by the British of Greek Cypriot demands for enosis, union with Greece, led to armed resistance, organised by the National Organization of Cypriot Struggle, or EOKA. EOKA, led by the Greek-Cypriot commander George Grivas, systematically targeted British colonial authorities. One of the effects of EOKA's campaign was to alter the Turkish position from demanding full reincorporation into Turkey to a demand for taksim (partition). EOKA's mission and activities caused a "Cretan syndrome" (see Turkish Resistance Organisation) within the Turkish Cypriot community, as its members feared that they would be forced to leave the island in such a case as had been the case with Cretan Turks. As such, they preferred the continuation of British colonial rule and then taksim, the division of the island. Due to the Turkish Cypriots' support for the British, EOKA's leader, Georgios Grivas, declared them to be enemies. The fact that the Turks were a minority was, according to Nihat Erim, to be addressed by the transfer of thousands of Turks from mainland Turkey so that Greek Cypriots would cease to be the majority. When Erim visited Cyprus as the Turkish representative, he was advised by Field Marshal Sir John Harding, the then Governor of Cyprus, that Turkey should send educated Turks to settle in Cyprus.

 

Turkey actively promoted the idea that on the island of Cyprus two distinctive communities existed, and sidestepped its former claim that "the people of Cyprus were all Turkish subjects". In doing so, Turkey's aim to have self-determination of two to-be equal communities in effect led to de jure partition of the island.[citation needed] This could be justified to the international community against the will of the majority Greek population of the island. Dr. Fazil Küçük in 1954 had already proposed Cyprus be divided in two at the 35° parallel.

 

Lindley Dan, from Notre Dame University, spotted the roots of intercommunal violence to different visions among the two communities of Cyprus (enosis for Greek Cypriots, taksim for Turkish Cypriots). Also, Lindlay wrote that "the merging of church, schools/education, and politics in divisive and nationalistic ways" had played a crucial role in creation of havoc in Cyprus' history. Attalides Michael also pointed to the opposing nationalisms as the cause of the Cyprus problem.

 

By the mid-1950's, the "Cyprus is Turkish" party, movement, and slogan gained force in both Cyprus and Turkey. In a 1954 editorial, Turkish Cypriot leader Dr. Fazil Kuchuk expressed the sentiment that the Turkish youth had grown up with the idea that "as soon as Great Britain leaves the island, it will be taken over by the Turks", and that "Turkey cannot tolerate otherwise". This perspective contributed to the willingness of Turkish Cypriots to align themselves with the British, who started recruiting Turkish Cypriots into the police force that patrolled Cyprus to fight EOKA, a Greek Cypriot nationalist organisation that sought to rid the island of British rule.

 

EOKA targeted colonial authorities, including police, but Georgios Grivas, the leader of EOKA, did not initially wish to open up a new front by fighting Turkish Cypriots and reassured them that EOKA would not harm their people. In 1956, some Turkish Cypriot policemen were killed by EOKA members and this provoked some intercommunal violence in the spring and summer, but these attacks on policemen were not motivated by the fact that they were Turkish Cypriots.

 

However, in January 1957, Grivas changed his policy as his forces in the mountains became increasingly pressured by the British Crown forces. In order to divert the attention of the Crown forces, EOKA members started to target Turkish Cypriot policemen intentionally in the towns, so that Turkish Cypriots would riot against the Greek Cypriots and the security forces would have to be diverted to the towns to restore order. The killing of a Turkish Cypriot policeman on 19 January, when a power station was bombed, and the injury of three others, provoked three days of intercommunal violence in Nicosia. The two communities targeted each other in reprisals, at least one Greek Cypriot was killed and the British Army was deployed in the streets. Greek Cypriot stores were burned and their neighbourhoods attacked. Following the events, the Greek Cypriot leadership spread the propaganda that the riots had merely been an act of Turkish Cypriot aggression. Such events created chaos and drove the communities apart both in Cyprus and in Turkey.

 

On 22 October 1957 Sir Hugh Mackintosh Foot replaced Sir John Harding as the British Governor of Cyprus. Foot suggested five to seven years of self-government before any final decision. His plan rejected both enosis and taksim. The Turkish Cypriot response to this plan was a series of anti-British demonstrations in Nicosia on 27 and 28 January 1958 rejecting the proposed plan because the plan did not include partition. The British then withdrew the plan.

 

In 1957, Black Gang, a Turkish Cypriot pro-taksim paramilitary organisation, was formed to patrol a Turkish Cypriot enclave, the Tahtakale district of Nicosia, against activities of EOKA. The organisation later attempted to grow into a national scale, but failed to gain public support.

 

By 1958, signs of dissatisfaction with the British increased on both sides, with a group of Turkish Cypriots forming Volkan (later renamed to the Turkish Resistance Organisation) paramilitary group to promote partition and the annexation of Cyprus to Turkey as dictated by the Menderes plan. Volkan initially consisted of roughly 100 members, with the stated aim of raising awareness in Turkey of the Cyprus issue and courting military training and support for Turkish Cypriot fighters from the Turkish government.

 

In June 1958, the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, was expected to propose a plan to resolve the Cyprus issue. In light of the new development, the Turks rioted in Nicosia to promote the idea that Greek and Turkish Cypriots could not live together and therefore any plan that did not include partition would not be viable. This violence was soon followed by bombing, Greek Cypriot deaths and looting of Greek Cypriot-owned shops and houses. Greek and Turkish Cypriots started to flee mixed population villages where they were a minority in search of safety. This was effectively the beginning of the segregation of the two communities. On 7 June 1958, a bomb exploded at the entrance of the Turkish Embassy in Cyprus. Following the bombing, Turkish Cypriots looted Greek Cypriot properties. On 26 June 1984, the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktaş, admitted on British channel ITV that the bomb was placed by the Turks themselves in order to create tension. On 9 January 1995, Rauf Denktaş repeated his claim to the famous Turkish newspaper Milliyet in Turkey.

 

The crisis reached a climax on 12 June 1958, when eight Greeks, out of an armed group of thirty five arrested by soldiers of the Royal Horse Guards on suspicion of preparing an attack on the Turkish quarter of Skylloura, were killed in a suspected attack by Turkish Cypriot locals, near the village of Geunyeli, having been ordered to walk back to their village of Kondemenos.

 

After the EOKA campaign had begun, the British government successfully began to turn the Cyprus issue from a British colonial problem into a Greek-Turkish issue. British diplomacy exerted backstage influence on the Adnan Menderes government, with the aim of making Turkey active in Cyprus. For the British, the attempt had a twofold objective. The EOKA campaign would be silenced as quickly as possible, and Turkish Cypriots would not side with Greek Cypriots against the British colonial claims over the island, which would thus remain under the British. The Turkish Cypriot leadership visited Menderes to discuss the Cyprus issue. When asked how the Turkish Cypriots should respond to the Greek Cypriot claim of enosis, Menderes replied: "You should go to the British foreign minister and request the status quo be prolonged, Cyprus to remain as a British colony". When the Turkish Cypriots visited the British Foreign Secretary and requested for Cyprus to remain a colony, he replied: "You should not be asking for colonialism at this day and age, you should be asking for Cyprus be returned to Turkey, its former owner".

 

As Turkish Cypriots began to look to Turkey for protection, Greek Cypriots soon understood that enosis was extremely unlikely. The Greek Cypriot leader, Archbishop Makarios III, now set independence for the island as his objective.

 

Britain resolved to solve the dispute by creating an independent Cyprus. In 1959, all involved parties signed the Zurich Agreements: Britain, Turkey, Greece, and the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders, Makarios and Dr. Fazil Kucuk, respectively. The new constitution drew heavily on the ethnic composition of the island. The President would be a Greek Cypriot, and the Vice-President a Turkish Cypriot with an equal veto. The contribution to the public service would be set at a ratio of 70:30, and the Supreme Court would consist of an equal number of judges from both communities as well as an independent judge who was not Greek, Turkish or British. The Zurich Agreements were supplemented by a number of treaties. The Treaty of Guarantee stated that secession or union with any state was forbidden, and that Greece, Turkey and Britain would be given guarantor status to intervene if that was violated. The Treaty of Alliance allowed for two small Greek and Turkish military contingents to be stationed on the island, and the Treaty of Establishment gave Britain sovereignty over two bases in Akrotiri and Dhekelia.

 

On 15 August 1960, the Colony of Cyprus became fully independent as the Republic of Cyprus. The new republic remained within the Commonwealth of Nations.

 

The new constitution brought dissatisfaction to Greek Cypriots, who felt it to be highly unjust for them for historical, demographic and contributional reasons. Although 80% of the island's population were Greek Cypriots and these indigenous people had lived on the island for thousands of years and paid 94% of taxes, the new constitution was giving the 17% of the population that was Turkish Cypriots, who paid 6% of taxes, around 30% of government jobs and 40% of national security jobs.

 

Within three years tensions between the two communities in administrative affairs began to show. In particular disputes over separate municipalities and taxation created a deadlock in government. A constitutional court ruled in 1963 Makarios had failed to uphold article 173 of the constitution which called for the establishment of separate municipalities for Turkish Cypriots. Makarios subsequently declared his intention to ignore the judgement, resulting in the West German judge resigning from his position. Makarios proposed thirteen amendments to the constitution, which would have had the effect of resolving most of the issues in the Greek Cypriot favour. Under the proposals, the President and Vice-President would lose their veto, the separate municipalities as sought after by the Turkish Cypriots would be abandoned, the need for separate majorities by both communities in passing legislation would be discarded and the civil service contribution would be set at actual population ratios (82:18) instead of the slightly higher figure for Turkish Cypriots.

 

The intention behind the amendments has long been called into question. The Akritas plan, written in the height of the constitutional dispute by the Greek Cypriot interior minister Polycarpos Georkadjis, called for the removal of undesirable elements of the constitution so as to allow power-sharing to work. The plan envisaged a swift retaliatory attack on Turkish Cypriot strongholds should Turkish Cypriots resort to violence to resist the measures, stating "In the event of a planned or staged Turkish attack, it is imperative to overcome it by force in the shortest possible time, because if we succeed in gaining command of the situation (in one or two days), no outside, intervention would be either justified or possible." Whether Makarios's proposals were part of the Akritas plan is unclear, however it remains that sentiment towards enosis had not completely disappeared with independence. Makarios described independence as "a step on the road to enosis".[31] Preparations for conflict were not entirely absent from Turkish Cypriots either, with right wing elements still believing taksim (partition) the best safeguard against enosis.

 

Greek Cypriots however believe the amendments were a necessity stemming from a perceived attempt by Turkish Cypriots to frustrate the working of government. Turkish Cypriots saw it as a means to reduce their status within the state from one of co-founder to that of minority, seeing it as a first step towards enosis. The security situation deteriorated rapidly.

 

Main articles: Bloody Christmas (1963) and Battle of Tillyria

An armed conflict was triggered after December 21, 1963, a period remembered by Turkish Cypriots as Bloody Christmas, when a Greek Cypriot policemen that had been called to help deal with a taxi driver refusing officers already on the scene access to check the identification documents of his customers, took out his gun upon arrival and shot and killed the taxi driver and his partner. Eric Solsten summarised the events as follows: "a Greek Cypriot police patrol, ostensibly checking identification documents, stopped a Turkish Cypriot couple on the edge of the Turkish quarter. A hostile crowd gathered, shots were fired, and two Turkish Cypriots were killed."

 

In the morning after the shooting, crowds gathered in protest in Northern Nicosia, likely encouraged by the TMT, without incident. On the evening of the 22nd, gunfire broke out, communication lines to the Turkish neighbourhoods were cut, and the Greek Cypriot police occupied the nearby airport. On the 23rd, a ceasefire was negotiated, but did not hold. Fighting, including automatic weapons fire, between Greek and Turkish Cypriots and militias increased in Nicosia and Larnaca. A force of Greek Cypriot irregulars led by Nikos Sampson entered the Nicosia suburb of Omorphita and engaged in heavy firing on armed, as well as by some accounts unarmed, Turkish Cypriots. The Omorphita clash has been described by Turkish Cypriots as a massacre, while this view has generally not been acknowledged by Greek Cypriots.

 

Further ceasefires were arranged between the two sides, but also failed. By Christmas Eve, the 24th, Britain, Greece, and Turkey had joined talks, with all sides calling for a truce. On Christmas day, Turkish fighter jets overflew Nicosia in a show of support. Finally it was agreed to allow a force of 2,700 British soldiers to help enforce a ceasefire. In the next days, a "buffer zone" was created in Nicosia, and a British officer marked a line on a map with green ink, separating the two sides of the city, which was the beginning of the "Green Line". Fighting continued across the island for the next several weeks.

 

In total 364 Turkish Cypriots and 174 Greek Cypriots were killed during the violence. 25,000 Turkish Cypriots from 103-109 villages fled and were displaced into enclaves and thousands of Turkish Cypriot houses were ransacked or completely destroyed.

 

Contemporary newspapers also reported on the forceful exodus of the Turkish Cypriots from their homes. According to The Times in 1964, threats, shootings and attempts of arson were committed against the Turkish Cypriots to force them out of their homes. The Daily Express wrote that "25,000 Turks have already been forced to leave their homes". The Guardian reported a massacre of Turks at Limassol on 16 February 1964.

 

Turkey had by now readied its fleet and its fighter jets appeared over Nicosia. Turkey was dissuaded from direct involvement by the creation of a United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) in 1964. Despite the negotiated ceasefire in Nicosia, attacks on the Turkish Cypriot persisted, particularly in Limassol. Concerned about the possibility of a Turkish invasion, Makarios undertook the creation of a Greek Cypriot conscript-based army called the "National Guard". A general from Greece took charge of the army, whilst a further 20,000 well-equipped officers and men were smuggled from Greece into Cyprus. Turkey threatened to intervene once more, but was prevented by a strongly worded letter from the American President Lyndon B. Johnson, anxious to avoid a conflict between NATO allies Greece and Turkey at the height of the Cold War.

 

Turkish Cypriots had by now established an important bridgehead at Kokkina, provided with arms, volunteers and materials from Turkey and abroad. Seeing this incursion of foreign weapons and troops as a major threat, the Cypriot government invited George Grivas to return from Greece as commander of the Greek troops on the island and launch a major attack on the bridgehead. Turkey retaliated by dispatching its fighter jets to bomb Greek positions, causing Makarios to threaten an attack on every Turkish Cypriot village on the island if the bombings did not cease. The conflict had now drawn in Greece and Turkey, with both countries amassing troops on their Thracian borders. Efforts at mediation by Dean Acheson, a former U.S. Secretary of State, and UN-appointed mediator Galo Plaza had failed, all the while the division of the two communities becoming more apparent. Greek Cypriot forces were estimated at some 30,000, including the National Guard and the large contingent from Greece. Defending the Turkish Cypriot enclaves was a force of approximately 5,000 irregulars, led by a Turkish colonel, but lacking the equipment and organisation of the Greek forces.

 

The Secretary-General of the United Nations in 1964, U Thant, reported the damage during the conflicts:

 

UNFICYP carried out a detailed survey of all damage to properties throughout the island during the disturbances; it shows that in 109 villages, most of them Turkish-Cypriot or mixed villages, 527 houses have been destroyed while 2,000 others have suffered damage from looting.

 

The situation worsened in 1967, when a military junta overthrew the democratically elected government of Greece, and began applying pressure on Makarios to achieve enosis. Makarios, not wishing to become part of a military dictatorship or trigger a Turkish invasion, began to distance himself from the goal of enosis. This caused tensions with the junta in Greece as well as George Grivas in Cyprus. Grivas's control over the National Guard and Greek contingent was seen as a threat to Makarios's position, who now feared a possible coup.[citation needed] The National Guard and Cyprus Police began patrolling the Turkish Cypriot enclaves of Ayios Theodoros and Kophinou, and on November 15 engaged in heavy fighting with the Turkish Cypriots.

 

By the time of his withdrawal 26 Turkish Cypriots had been killed. Turkey replied with an ultimatum demanding that Grivas be removed from the island, that the troops smuggled from Greece in excess of the limits of the Treaty of Alliance be removed, and that the economic blockades on the Turkish Cypriot enclaves be lifted. Grivas was recalled by the Athens Junta and the 12,000 Greek troops were withdrawn. Makarios now attempted to consolidate his position by reducing the number of National Guard troops, and by creating a paramilitary force loyal to Cypriot independence. In 1968, acknowledging that enosis was now all but impossible, Makarios stated, "A solution by necessity must be sought within the limits of what is feasible which does not always coincide with the limits of what is desirable."

 

After 1967 tensions between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots subsided. Instead, the main source of tension on the island came from factions within the Greek Cypriot community. Although Makarios had effectively abandoned enosis in favour of an 'attainable solution', many others continued to believe that the only legitimate political aspiration for Greek Cypriots was union with Greece.

 

On his arrival, Grivas began by establishing a nationalist paramilitary group known as the National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston B or EOKA-B), drawing comparisons with the EOKA struggle for enosis under the British colonial administration of the 1950s.

 

The military junta in Athens saw Makarios as an obstacle. Makarios's failure to disband the National Guard, whose officer class was dominated by mainland Greeks, had meant the junta had practical control over the Cypriot military establishment, leaving Makarios isolated and a vulnerable target.

 

During the first Turkish invasion, Turkish troops invaded Cyprus territory on 20 July 1974, invoking its rights under the Treaty of Guarantee. This expansion of Turkish-occupied zone violated International Law as well as the Charter of the United Nations. Turkish troops managed to capture 3% of the island which was accompanied by the burning of the Turkish Cypriot quarter, as well as the raping and killing of women and children. A temporary cease-fire followed which was mitigated by the UN Security Council. Subsequently, the Greek military Junta collapsed on July 23, 1974, and peace talks commenced in which a democratic government was installed. The Resolution 353 was broken after Turkey attacked a second time and managed to get a hold of 37% of Cyprus territory. The Island of Cyprus was appointed a Buffer Zone by the United Nations, which divided the island into two zones through the 'Green Line' and put an end to the Turkish invasion. Although Turkey announced that the occupied areas of Cyprus to be called the Federated Turkish State in 1975, it is not legitimised on a worldwide political scale. The United Nations called for the international recognition of independence for the Republic of Cyprus in the Security Council Resolution 367.

 

In the years after the Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus one can observe a history of failed talks between the two parties. The 1983 declaration of the independent Turkish Republic of Cyprus resulted in a rise of inter-communal tensions and made it increasingly hard to find mutual understanding. With Cyprus' interest of a possible EU membership and a new UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 1997 new hopes arose for a fresh start. International involvement from sides of the US and UK, wanting a solution to the Cyprus dispute prior to the EU accession led to political pressures for new talks. The believe that an accession without a solution would threaten Greek-Turkish relations and acknowledge the partition of the island would direct the coming negotiations.

 

Over the course of two years a concrete plan, the Annan plan was formulated. In 2004 the fifth version agreed upon from both sides and with the endorsement of Turkey, US, UK and EU then was presented to the public and was given a referendum in both Cypriot communities to assure the legitimisation of the resolution. The Turkish Cypriots voted with 65% for the plan, however the Greek Cypriots voted with a 76% majority against. The Annan plan contained multiple important topics. Firstly it established a confederation of two separate states called the United Cyprus Republic. Both communities would have autonomous states combined under one unified government. The members of parliament would be chosen according to the percentage in population numbers to ensure a just involvement from both communities. The paper proposed a demilitarisation of the island over the next years. Furthermore it agreed upon a number of 45000 Turkish settlers that could remain on the island. These settlers became a very important issue concerning peace talks. Originally the Turkish government encouraged Turks to settle in Cyprus providing transfer and property, to establish a counterpart to the Greek Cypriot population due to their 1 to 5 minority. With the economic situation many Turkish-Cypriot decided to leave the island, however their departure is made up by incoming Turkish settlers leaving the population ratio between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots stable. However all these points where criticised and as seen in the vote rejected mainly by the Greek Cypriots. These name the dissolution of the „Republic of Cyprus", economic consequences of a reunion and the remaining Turkish settlers as reason. Many claim that the plan was indeed drawing more from Turkish-Cypriot demands then Greek-Cypriot interests. Taking in consideration that the US wanted to keep Turkey as a strategic partner in future Middle Eastern conflicts.

 

A week after the failed referendum the Republic of Cyprus joined the EU. In multiple instances the EU tried to promote trade with Northern Cyprus but without internationally recognised ports this spiked a grand debate. Both side endure their intention of negotiations, however without the prospect of any new compromises or agreements the UN is unwilling to start the process again. Since 2004 negotiations took place in numbers but without any results, both sides are strongly holding on to their position without an agreeable solution in sight that would suit both parties.

In Gatchina, the former residence of the Russian emperors in the vicinity of St. Petersburg, on the shore of the "Black Lake", stands a small palace which bears the name "Priory Palace". Although it was originally intended to serve for only twenty years, it is already in its third century of existence. The Priory Palace is so exceptional that it surely ought to be in the "Guinness Book of Records". Everything about this building is unusual: its name, its architectural appearance, the materials and techniques of its construction, as well as the legends which are bound up with it.

 

Constructed for a prior of the Maltese Order, the palace never actually became a priory, although it was presented to the Order of St. John of Jerusalem by a decree of Paul I dated 23 August 1799. In the 19th century, the Priory was occupied first by the Court choristers, then by the master of the royal hunt; in Soviet times it became a place for outings, a "house of rest", a Pioneers' house, then a museum of local history. Then the palace was closed, being by now in a state of such disrepair that it seemed about to collapse into the Black Lake. At that time the palace bore a new name - people called it the "Crumbling Castle".

 

A romantic page of Russian history is bound up with the knights of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta. The year 1999 was the 900th anniversary of the founding of the order, which today numbers about 12,000 members, as well as the 200th year since the election of Tsar Paul I as the order's Grand Master.

 

It is in Jerusalem, the "city of cities", that the tomb of Our Lord is located. Thousands of Christian pilgrims made their way to the Holy Land to visit it. In the pilgrims' refuge attached to the church of St. John the Baptist, not far from Jerusalem, monks tended the pilgrims and received donations from them as a mark of their gratitude. The emblem of the order is a white eight-pointed cross, symbolising the eight virtues - faith, charity, truth, justice, innocence, humility, sincerity and patience. The monks were bound by their rules not only to provide help for the injured, but also to defend Christianity against the followers of Islam. Thus the order became an order of warrior-monks, who were known as "Knights of St. John" or "Knights Hospitallers". But the crusades undertaken by the order ended in failure and they were forced to flee to the island of Rhodes, which was their home for two centuries. In the year 1522 the forces of the Turkish sultan Suleiman the Magnificent attempted to capture Rhodes. After a six-month siege the Grand Master of the order, Philippe de l'Isle-Adam, surrendered the island. Full of admiration for the knights' courage, Suleiman allowed them to leave the island by ship.

 

A new place of refuge for the knights was found in 1530, when Charles V, king of Spain and Sicily, gave the island of Malta to the order in return for a symbolic annual payment of one hunting falcon. During the years of its residence in Malta the order of St. John developed into a very powerful and wealthy community; its knights combined a high degree of monasticism with a code of knightly honour. In the north-east of the island they built a fortress which, during the 400 years of its history, no-one has ever succeeded in taking by storm. The name of its builder - Grand Master Jean de La Vallette - has been immortalised in the name of Malta's capital, Valletta.

 

The French Revolution drove the knights from Malta and deprived the order of its wealth; its estates were confiscated for the benefit of the people. On 6 June 1798 Napoleon Bonaparte, on the way to Egypt, raided Malta. The order allowed the general's forces to enter the harbour, and the invulnerable fortress of Valletta fell without a shot being fired. By Napoleon's decree, all the silver from the churches built by the Hospitallers was melted down. The Grand Master von Gompesch was exiled, and the knights were compelled to leave the island within 72 hours.

 

Relations between the Russian state and the Maltese order were first established in 1698, when Peter I's ambassador Boris Petrovich Sheremetev was received with honour in Valletta by the head of the order Grand Master Raymond de Pereylos, and, though he was not a Catholic, became the first Russian knight of this Catholic order. During the reign of Catherine II an alliance was formed between Russia and Malta against Turkey. In the Turkish war several officers of the order fought on Russia's side. One of these was Count Yuliy Pompeevich Litta, who received a golden sword "for valour" and the third degree of the Order of St. George. And it was Litta who brought the insignia of the order to Russia for Paul I, with the request that he should take the order under his patronage. On the 29th November 1798 the solemn ceremony took place by which the Russian emperor assumed the title of Grand Master. From Malta certain holy relics were brought to Gatchina - a piece of Christ's cross, the icon of the Mother of God from Philerma, the right hand of John the Baptist.

 

Paul I was a great admirer of the order. From childhood he had read and re-read the Abbot Vertot's "History of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem". He was shaken by the fate of Malta and came to the aid of the order. An agreement was signed by which the Polish priorate became the Great Russian priorate. Two priorates were established - a Polish, Catholic priorate and a Russian, Orthodox priorate. The Maltese knights came to Russia, where they were granted lands and high office. The residence of the order was transferred to St. Petersburg. Paul judged that this powerful knightly order would be of assistance in the struggle against the revolutionary ideas which were then spreading in Europe. An institute of honorary commanders was established, admission to which was not dependent on proof of noble origin. The cross of the order was awarded for services to the state, either military or civil.

 

Paul gave to the knights of the Russian priorate the church of St. John the Baptist on St. Petersburg's Stone Island, and the Vorontsov Palace (now the Suvorov Military Academy). Next to the Vorontsov Palace the architect Giovanni Quarenghi built a Maltese chapel, and in Gatchina the architect N. A. Lvov created the Priory Palace for the French emigre Prince Conde, a former prior of the order. (A "prior" is one of the main officials of the order, and "priory" is the designation of a prior's residence.) Before succeeding to the throne, during his travels in Europe Paul had visited the country residence of Prince Conde at Chantilly. He recalled that in Paris Louis XVI had received him as a friend, but that in Chantilly Prince Conde had received him as a king. Mindful of the prince's hospitality, Paul wanted to construct a palace for him in his beloved Gatchina. But Conde never came to Gatchina, and the palace was used by the Maltese knights for meetings of the order under the presidency of their Grand Master, and as a "spare" palace.

 

cult.gatchina.ru/priorat/eindex.htm

For those who are unaware of their existence it would be easy to miss the four caves tucked high in to the hillside as you wander up the glen, preoccupied with the beautiful stream, curious deer and surrounding mountains. It was a short but steep climb up to the caves and, with a generous covering of snow on the hills, I slipped more times than I care to remember. Half way up the hill I witnessed one of the immense, dagger-like icicles drop from the opening of the cave to the ground with an almighty cracking sound. I made a mental note not to spend too long standing at the opening of the cave for fear of impalement and continued climbing. Finally, I reached one of the entrances and explored the cave system which began forming over 200,000 years ago when water began draining into the soft limestone, dissolving rocks and widening the cracks to form caves. Later, glaciers would push through the area, carving out the glen and sweeping away any evidence of life outside the caves. Inside the caves however, a series of digs have unearthed the remains of brown bears, Arctic foxes, lemmings, reindeer, Eurasian lynx, wolves, wild horses and, most spectacularly, a 20,000 year old fragment of polar bear skull! After taking a few shots we made short work of descending the hill by deciding to slide down on our behinds. Loads of fun. Highly recommend it. Who needs skis anyway? This image is a blend of 3 exposures. I would have achieved better results if I'd had a tripod to hand but this one will have to do for now.

 

Follow me on 500px

Sakharibazar, Old Dhaka, 2011

 

Normal people with extraordinary lifestyles

Along with smile and the gloomy, here life has its own rhyme, has its own colour.

Time passed by, humanity changed along with its history...

But these people remained here tolerating the hardest truth of existences

..........its their story of extraordinary existences.

 

Sakharibazar, Old Dhaka. A very interesting place for all of us to visit. Culture and customs of old Dhaka are the tribute to the ancient history of Bangladesh. Peoples still living in 100 years old building from generations after generations. With the reflection of their religious beauty Old Dhaka attracts peoples from here and abroad.

 

Shakhari Bazaar is one of the oldest mohallas (a traditional neighbourhood) in Puran Dhaka (Old Dhaka), located near the intersection of Islampur Road and Nawabpur Road;the two main arteries of the old city and only a block away from the Buriganga River. Shakhari Bazaar stretches along a narrow lane, lined with thin slices of richly decorated brick buildings, built during the late Mughal or Colonial period. Despite rampant modifications, accretion, extension over time, even redevelopment, many still bear the testimony of a rich tradition.

 

Shakhari Bazaar is the manifestation of the irrational policies, lack of adequate development control rules and distorted legal framework, all of which have left their indelible mark on this precious little mohalla that shares a long history of more than 400 years with Dhaka city itself.The history of Shakhari Bazaar goes back to the pre-Mughal days if not earlier. The first mention of Puran Dhaka can be found in the writings of Mirza Nathan, the general turned historian, who traveled with Subahdar Islam Khan. He mentioned Puran Dhaka, as the area between Dholai Khal and Buriganga river covering Shakhari Bazaar, Tanti Bazaar, Bangla Bazaar, Lakhsmi Bazaar, Bangla Bazaar, Kamar Nagar, Sutar Nagar, Goala Nagar, etc. Each mohalla belonged to separate communities depending on their craft and trade. The influences of the Mughal vocabulary in the planning of the spaces are literally evident in the use of Persian names to identify different spaces..

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIM5M6FmnmY&feature=related

Lazarevskoe Cemetery (Russian: Лазаревское кладбище) is a historic cemetery in the centre of Saint Petersburg, and the oldest surviving cemetery in the city.[1] It is part of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, and is one of four cemeteries in the complex. Since 1932 it has been part of the State Museum of Urban Sculpture , which refers to it as the Necropolis of the XVIII century. It covers 0.7 hectares.

The cemetery came into existence with the establishment of the city of Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great in the early eighteenth century. With the death of Peter's sister, Natalya Alexeyevna, in 1716, Peter instructed that she be buried in the grounds of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, which was under development at that time. In 1717 Natalya Alexeyevna was interred in the Church of St Lazarus, the first stone building in the monastery complex, and from which the cemetery took its name. The location soon became the burial site for other members of Peter's family and court, and became the most prestigious burial ground in the city, requiring Peter's personal permission to be interred there. The remains of Natalya Alexeyevna and other members of the imperial family were reinterred in the monastery's Annunciation Church soon after their original burial, but the church and cemetery complex remained popular sites for the St Petersburg elites, and many noble families established their family plots here.

By the early nineteenth century the cemetery was becoming full, and new cemeteries were opened in the monastery complex. The last burials in the Lazarevskoe Cemetery took place in the early twentieth century, and the cemetery was closed to new burials in 1919. During the Soviet period, the cemetery became a place of interest for its elaborate funerary monuments and the graves of historically important figures. In 1932 it was declared the "Necropolis of the XVIII century" and became part of the State Museum of Urban Sculpture . Graves deemed less significant were cleared away, while monuments and remains considered more artistically or historically important were moved into the cemetery from churches and burial grounds that were in the process of being demolished. Today the cemetery operates as a museum, displaying the funerary sculpture of a wide range of important artists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Burials began in 1717 when Natalya Alexeyevna, the sister of Peter the Great, was interred in the burial vault of the Church of St Lazarus, from which the cemetery took its name. During the early years of its existence it required the Emperor's permission to allow burials in the cemetery, making it the chosen location for the burial plots of St Petersburg's elite. By the end of the eighteenth century burial was extended to the wealthy merchant class, in exchange for the payment of large sums of money. The wealthy and powerful commissioned tombstones and monuments from the most prominent Russian sculptors. The cemetery includes funerary monuments by Ivan Martos, Mikhail Kozlovsky, Vasily Demut-Malinovsky, Andrey Voronikhin, Fedot Shubin, Fyodor Tolstoy and other masters.

By the nineteenth century the cemetery was becoming overcrowded, and the first of the new cemeteries in the Lavra, the Tikhvin Cemetery, was opened in 1823. Burials in the Lazarevskoe Cemetery became less frequent in the nineteenth century, and in the twentieth century occurred in only exceptional cases. One of the last people to be interred was Count Sergei Witte in 1915, and in 1919 the cemetery was closed to new burials.

During the Soviet period the cemetery was closed and placed under state protection, administered by the society "Old Petersburg" (Russian: «Старый Петербург») The People's Commissariat for Education proposed in the early 1920s that the cemetery become a museum displaying the sculpture of funerary monuments, a proposal that the Leningrad city administration, Lensovet agreed to. Work began on studying and recording the details of the memorials, and in 1932 it was declared a museum and part of the State Museum of Urban Sculpture , but remained generally closed to visitors. The head of its administration from 1932 was the historian N. V. Uspensky. A group of Soviet writers visited the cemetery in 1934, and with the support of Maxim Gorky, declared it of great cultural and historical significance.

From 1935 Lensovet proposed that the Museum of Urban Sculpture collect the most significant pieces of memorial sculpture into the cemetery. During the 1930s the Soviet authorities "sought to establish a formal pantheon of dead Russian cultural heroes modelled after the national pantheon in Paris." The Lazarevskoe and Tikhvin Cemeteries, as well as the Volkovo Cemetery, were designated as the sites for development. Those memorials thought to have low historical or artistic interest were cleared away, while those considered to have higher historical or artistic interest were brought from other cemeteries across the city, quite often without the remains that they commemorated. One such example is Agustín de Betancourt, originally interred in the Smolensky Lutheran Cemetery with a columnar monument designed by Auguste de Montferrand. Betancourt's remains and monument were transferred to the Lazarevskoe Cemetery in 1979, where the monument has undergone restoration. The remains and funerary monuments of architect Jean-François Thomas de Thomon and mathematician Leonhard Euler had been transferred from the Smolensky Lutheran Cemetery in 1940 and 1956 respectively. During the Second World War the museum carried out inspections of the city's monuments and carried out some repair and restoration work. Large scale restoration work was carried out after the ending of the Siege of Leningrad, with the museum opening to the public in 1952.

Many of the early burials were those of the associates of Peter the Great. These included military figures such as Field Marshal Boris Sheremetev and General Adam Veyde, and the Court Physician Robert Erskine. The cemetery's exclusivity made it a desirable burial site, and many of the leading figures and families of St Petersburg acquired plots. Among them were the academics Mikhail Lomonosov and Stepan Krasheninnikov; playwrights Denis Fonvizin and Yakov Knyazhnin; architects Ivan Starov, and Andrey Voronikhin; statesmen and politicians Alexander Stroganov, Nikolay Mordvinov, Mikhail Muravyov-Vilensky and Sergei Witte; and military officers such as Vasily Chichagov. The family vaults of the Beloselsky-Belozersky, Trubetskoy, Volkonsky and Naryshkin ancient noble houses were located here, as were those of some of the prominent merchant dynasties such as the Demidovs and Yakovlevs. Art historian Nikolai Vrangel wrote "It was as if all those who had once formed a close circle of court society gathered here after death. A whole epoch, a whole world of obsolete ideas, almost all the court society of Elizabeth, Catherine and Paul were buried in the small space of the Lazarevskoe cemetery".

The remains and monuments of Jean-François Thomas de Thomon, mathematician Leonhard Euler and engineer Agustín de Betancourt, all originally interred in the Smolensky Lutheran Cemetery, were transferred to the Lazarevskoe Cemetery in 1940, 1956 and 1979 respectively.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazarevskoe_Cemetery

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_burials_at_Lazarevskoe_Ceme...

amorbidfascination.blogspot.com/2010/03/lazarev-cemetery-...

 

www.monument-tracker.com/en/guide/6505-cemeteries-tikhvin...

www.monument-tracker.com/es/guia/6505-cementerios-tikhvin...

  

March for Our Lives Chicago, March 24, 2018

 

© Andy Marfia 2018 All Rights Reserved

 

Web Site | Flickr | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

Huge thank you to my beautiful friends Sisi for patiently modeling in this photo. XXX

Some remains in the city of Rawalpindi prove the existence of the Buddhist establishment, but less celebrated than Taxila.. This modern history starts with the Mahmood of Ghazni, who gifted the ruined city to a Ghakkar Chief. The town could not prosper and remain deserted until Jahanda Khan restored it and gave the name of Rawalpindi after the village "Rawal". Ghakkar were then defeated by Sikhs, who invited traders from other places to settle here. This brought the city into its todays importance. Sikhs then lost the city to British Army.

 

Over the century, Rawalpindi has retained its traditional flavor. One can find a variety of architectural achievement with cultural mix of Sikhs, Muslims, Hindu & Christian community living in harmony in the narrow streets of Inner Rawalpindi, which are still alive just like a century ago.

 

Taken: PhotoWalk, Bhabra Bazar, Inner Rawalpindi City, Pakistan.

 

View Details of the Structure

Astronomers have found the best evidence for the perpetrator of a cosmic homicide: a black hole of an elusive class known as "intermediate-mass," which betrayed its existence by tearing apart a wayward star that passed too close.

 

Weighing in at about 50,000 times the mass of our Sun, the black hole is smaller than the supermassive black holes (at millions or billions of solar masses) that lie at the cores of large galaxies, but larger than stellar-mass black holes formed by the collapse of a massive star.

 

These so-called intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) are a long-sought "missing link" in black hole evolution. Though there have been a few other IMBH candidates, researchers consider these new observations the strongest evidence yet for mid-sized black holes in the universe.

 

It took the combined power of two X-ray observatories and the keen vision of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to nail down the cosmic beast.

 

"Intermediate-mass black holes are very elusive objects, and so it is critical to carefully consider and rule out alternative explanations for each candidate. That is what Hubble has allowed us to do for our candidate," said Dacheng Lin of the University of New Hampshire, principal investigator of the study. The results are published on March 31, 2020, in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

 

The story of the discovery reads like a Sherlock Holmes story, involving the meticulous step-by-step case-building necessary to catch the culprit.

 

Lin and his team used Hubble to follow up on leads from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA's (the European Space Agency) X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission (XMM-Newton). In 2006 these satellites detected a powerful flare of X-rays, but they could not determine whether it originated from inside or outside of our galaxy. Researchers attributed it to a star being torn apart after coming too close to a gravitationally powerful compact object, like a black hole.

 

Surprisingly, the X-ray source, named 3XMM J215022.4−055108, was not located in a galaxy's center, where massive black holes normally would reside. This raised hopes that an IMBH was the culprit, but first another possible source of the X-ray flare had to be ruled out: a neutron star in our own Milky Way galaxy, cooling off after being heated to a very high temperature. Neutron stars are the crushed remnants of an exploded star.

 

Hubble was pointed at the X-ray source to resolve its precise location. Deep, high-resolution imaging provides strong evidence that the X-rays emanated not from an isolated source in our galaxy, but instead in a distant, dense star cluster on the outskirts of another galaxy — just the type of place astronomers expected to find an IMBH. Previous Hubble research has shown that the mass of a black hole in the center of a galaxy is proportional to that host galaxy's central bulge. In other words, the more massive the galaxy, the more massive its black hole. Therefore, the star cluster that is home to 3XMM J215022.4−055108 may be the stripped-down core of a lower-mass dwarf galaxy that has been gravitationally and tidally disrupted by its close interactions with its current larger galaxy host.

 

IMBHs have been particularly difficult to find because they are smaller and less active than supermassive black holes; they do not have readily available sources of fuel, nor as strong a gravitational pull to draw stars and other cosmic material which would produce telltale X-ray glows. Astronomers essentially have to catch an IMBH red-handed in the act of gobbling up a star. Lin and his colleagues combed through the XMM-Newton data archive, searching hundreds of thousands of observations to find one IMBH candidate.

 

The X-ray glow from the shredded star allowed astronomers to estimate the black hole's mass of 50,000 solar masses. The mass of the IMBH was estimated based on both X-ray luminosity and the spectral shape. "This is much more reliable than using X-ray luminosity alone as typically done before for previous IMBH candidates," said Lin. "The reason why we can use the spectral fits to estimate the IMBH mass for our object is that its spectral evolution showed that it has been in the thermal spectral state, a state commonly seen and well understood in accreting stellar-mass black holes."

 

This object isn't the first to be considered a likely candidate for an intermediate-mass black hole. In 2009 Hubble teamed up with NASA's Swift observatory and ESA's XMM-Newton to identify what is interpreted as an IMBH, called HLX-1, located towards the edge of the galaxy ESO 243-49. It too is in the center of a young, massive cluster of blue stars that may be a stripped-down dwarf galaxy core. The X-rays come from a hot accretion disk around the black hole. "The main difference is that our object is tearing a star apart, providing strong evidence that it is a massive black hole, instead of a stellar-mass black hole as people often worry about for previous candidates including HLX-1," Lin said.

 

Finding this IMBH opens the door to the possibility of many more lurking undetected in the dark, waiting to be given away by a star passing too close. Lin plans to continue his meticulous detective work, using the methods his team has proved successful. Many questions remain to be answered. Does a supermassive black hole grow from an IMBH? How do IMBHs themselves form? Are dense star clusters their favored home?

 

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy in Washington, D.C.

 

For more information: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/hubble-finds-best-evide...

 

Credits: NASA, ESA and D. Lin (University of New Hampshire)

 

 

Photo taken by Chris Witt and uploaded with his kind permission.

  

München-Riem

January 1980

 

N8071Z

Douglas C-53D-DO

11746

Atlas Aircraft Corporation, ex-Yugoslav Air Force

  

This plane has a long and interesting history, and it’s probably still in existence today (the most recent picture I found is from September 2018).

 

C-53D N8071Z (c/n 11746) was one of three ex-Yugoslav Air Force Dakotas that arrived at Riem around December 1979 and stayed there till spring/summer 1981.

 

The other two were C-47A N8071X (c/n 12704) and C-47B N8071Y (c/n 14101/25546).

 

N8071X and N8071Y were repainted with a white top and grey belly, while N8071Z only received the white top and kept the Yugoslav Air Force camouflage below (photo as such with SAAF as 6875 (2) exists).

 

N8071X and N8071Y left Riem in September 1981 with fake registrations TN-ADS and TN-ADT, respectively. N8071Z already left in April 1981 with registration 9Q-CYI, apparently also fake. All three went to the SAAF, busting the sanctions in force at the time.

  

www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1942_3a.html has a very detailed entry on this airframe.

 

The following information is from www.dc-3.co.za/dc-3-individual-aircraft-history/cn-11746.... (slightly adapted):

 

C/N 11746 was built as Skytrooper 42-68819 and delivered to the USAAF (United States Army Air Force) on 28 June 1943. On 24 February 1944 it was assigned to the US 8th Air Force in Europe and named “Hay Stack Annie”. It was later transferred to the 9th Air Force – probably taking part in the D-Day landings of 1944 – and by 17 December 1945 it was declared surplus to requirements. On 26 July 1946 the aircraft was registered to Svenska Kyrkaus Missionflyg in Sweden as SE-APG and was then passed on to the Nordiskt Missionsflyg. During its service with Nordiskt it was named “Ansgar”. The aircraft wore the titles Scandinavian Missionary Flights.

 

It went to AB Aerotransport (Swedish Air Lines) on 26 July 1948 and then to Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) on 8 July 1949. SAS named the aircraft “Gran Viking”. SE-APG was then sold to SNCASO in France as F-BEIS and named “Lucille”. 25 January 1951 saw the ownership transferred to J. and Violet Freres and on 24 July 1959 the aircraft joined the Armee de L’Air (French Air Force) as ‘68819’. On 1 May 1960 it was assigned to Boufarik near Algiers with Groupe de Liaisons Aeriennes 45, using radio call-sign FSCDJ. In July 1964 it returned to France where it was based at Villacoubly with Groupe Transporte de Liaison Aerien GTLA 2/20. It then used the radio call-sign FRAJZ. The aircraft was eventually placed in storage at Chateaudun and advertised for sale during 1971.

 

The aircraft became the property of Brabier in Brevanne on 6 November 1972 and took up the French civil registration F-BRGI. Later that year the Dakota was bought by the Yugoslav Air Force and received the military serial 71237. It’s home base was at Zagreb. The aircraft was registered to Obrazovni Centar Zračnog Saobraćaja (O.C.Z.S.) 2 August 1979 and transferred to the Yugoslav Civil Aircraft Register as YU-ABW. On 5 November 1979 it’s ownership changed again when it was sold to Atlas Aircraft Corporation in Miami, USA as N8071Z.

 

This airframe with South African Air Force:

 

6875 (2) was delivered to the South African Air Force in 1981 as one of several ‘sanction-busting’ acquisitions. The aircraft was apparently bought from the Atlas Aircraft Corporation in Miami, Florida with whom it was registered as N8071Z. The aircraft, which was stored at Munich, West Germany, was flown out to Zaire in April 1981 as 9Q-CYI before it traveled further south to join the SAAF’s increasing fleet of C-47s. The Zaire registration was apparently only used for convenience sake in order to fly the aircraft unhindered across Africa to South Africa. It was taken on strength with No 44 Squadron based at Swartkop Air Force Base. The aircraft was subsequently converted by the SAAF to a Turbo Dak and was last in service with No 35 Squadron in Cape Town where it was employed in coastal patrol duties.

 

It was the second use of serial 6875 (for obvious reasons): 6875 (1) c/n 12065 was destroyed by fire on 3 July 1964 while serving with No 28 Squadron. 6875 (2) was the only C-53 to serve with the SAAF. It was also the only C-53 to serve with the Yugoslav Air Force.

 

This airframe as SE-APG with Scandinavian Missionary Flights:

4.bp.blogspot.com/_mVpgAi1oCVg/TASm2GMpHNI/AAAAAAAAAKg/2A...

 

This airframe as F-BEIS with Byrrh in 1953, used as an advertising airplane and equipped with additional Turbomeca Palas turbojet engines mounted under each wing:

www.bsl-mlh-planes.net/bigpicture/picture_id/4225

 

This airframe as N8071Z in December 1980 at Riem:

www.flickr.com/photos/161645265@N08/49263499476

 

This airframe as 6875 (2) with South African Air Force, still in the paint scheme it received at Riem:

cdn2.cdnme.se/cdn/8-2/28197/images/2008/se_apg_1208801824...

 

This airframe as 6875 (2) with South African Air Force in September 2008:

www.flickr.com/photos/satransport/6923193439

 

This airframe as 6875 (2) stored at Ysterplaat (FAYP) in August 2017:

imgproc.airliners.net/photos/airliners/9/5/0/4543059.jpg

 

This airframe as 6875 (2) stored at Ysterplaat (FAYP) in September 2018:

www.rodbearden.com/South%20Africa%202018/Miscellaneous/Do...

  

Scan from Kodachrome K25 slide.

Joë Bousquet est né à Narbonne en 1897. Le 27 mai 1918, une balle l'atteint, lui sectionnant la moelle épinière. Il entre dans une existence immobile, à vingt-et-un ans. De 1924 à sa mort, il occupe à Carcassonne « la chambre aux volets clos ». C'est là qu'il entreprend de « naturaliser sa blessure ». Il commence à écrire. Telle une araignée noire au centre de sa toile, Joë Bousquet attend au centre de sa chambre. Au milieu des vapeurs d'opium et des parfums que de belles visiteuses laissent s'évaporer, il est là gisant, guettant les bruits du monde et échangeant des lettres avec ceux qui marchent. Lui, colonne vertébrale brisée, il peut sentir physiquement en lui la terre tourner, alors que les bien portants n'y prennent garde.

Dans cette maison de la rue de Verdun à Carcassonne, cette maison aux volets toujours clos, il y a son lit immense avec le coussin réceptacle de son corps, un petit guéridon rond plein de médicaments, une

table pour les manuscrits et la bibliothèque basse. Quelques tableaux et des lampes toujours allumées. De 1925 à sa mort, le soleil n'est jamais entré dans cette chambre, quelques amis et amies, oui. Cette chambre est maintenant un musée, « La maison des mémoires ». Joë Bousquet reste une de nos espérances. Dans cette tanière, il attend Aragon, Gide, le grand ami René Nelli qui lui parle de l'amour courtois et bien d'autres encore qui viennent se faire adouber dans la chambre close aux parfums. Car cette chambre dévouée « à la vie de l'esprit » devient l'antichambre des lettres françaises. Tapi dans la douleur, Joë Bousquet réussit à habiter la douleur. Lançant ses innombrables correspondances avec les peintres, les poètes, il a - si ce n'est sauvé le monde -, du moins, sauvé le sien. « Les miracles de l'amitié » l'ont tenu debout et éloigné des ténèbres. Dans sa chambre (l'oubliette aérienne, disait-il), il s'entoure de toiles qui l'aident à vivre (Paul Klee, Max Ernst, Fautrier, Magritte...).

 

Joë Bousquet meurt le 28 septembre 1950 à cinquante-trois ans, laissant une oeuvre foisonnante, curieusement totalement inachevée. Mais ces copeaux, ces étincelles, toutes ces « aumônes du soir » sont une forme de salut à tous ceux qui seraient perdus sans sa poésie.

 

Le Moulin à papier de Brousse et Villaret

Datant du XVIII siècle, il permet aujourd’hui la découverte des techniques ancestrales de fabrication

manuelle de papier, ainsi qu’un atelier de typographie et impression sur presse ancienne.

 

Joë Bousquet was born to Narbonne in 1897. On May 27th, 1918, a bullet reaches him(, splitting him the spinal cord. He enters an immovable existence, in twenty one years. Of 1924 in his death, he occupies in Carcassonne " the room in the closed shutters ". It is there that he begins " to naturalize his wound ". He begins to write. Such a black spider in the center of its painting, Joë Bousquet waits in the center of its room. In the middle of the vapors of opium and the flavors that beautiful visitors let evaporate, it is recumbent effigy there, watching for the rumours of the world and exchanging letters with those who walk(work). He, broken vertebral column, he can feel physically in him the earth turning, while good carrying are careful there.

In this house of the street from Verdun to Carcassonne, this house in shutters always closed, there is the immense bed with the pillow receptacle of the body, a small round pedestal table full of medicines, a table for manuscripts and low library. Some paintings and lamps always lit. Of 1925 in its death, the sun never entered this room, some friends and friends, yes. This room is now a museum, " The house of reports ". Joë Bousquet remains one of our expectations. In this den, he waits for Aragon, Gide, the great friend René Nelli who speaks to him about the courtly love and many others else who come be knighted in the room closed in flavors Because this room devoted " to the life of the spirit " the anteroom of the French letters becomes. Hidden in the pain, Joë Bousquet manages to live in the pain. Throwing(launching) his(its) uncountable correspondences with the painters, the poets, he(it) has - if it is not saved the world-, at least, saved his. " The miracles of the friendship " him(her,it) stood and took away the darkness. In his(her,its) room(chamber) (the air dungeon, he said), he surrounds himself with paintings(clothes) which help him(it) to live (Paul Klee, Max Ernst, Fautrier, Magritte).

 

Joë Bousquet dies on September 28th, 1950 in fifty three years, leaving an abundant, curiously totally unfinished work. But these shavings, these sparks, all these "evening charities" are a shape of hello to everybody those who would be lost without hispoetry.

 

The Mill with paper of Bush and Villaret

Dating the XVIIIth century, he allows the discovery of the ancestral techniques of manual manufacturing of paper today, as well as a workshopof typography) and impression on forme)press.