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Pyramidal orchid Anacamptis pyramidalis. Dune grassland, Saltfleetby-Theddlethorpe Dunes NNR. Credit: © Natural England/Peter Roworth
Pyramid Lake is the geographic sink of the Truckee River Basin, 40 mi (64 km) northeast of Reno. Pyramid Lake is fed by the Truckee River, which is mostly the outflow from Lake Tahoe. The Truckee River enters Pyramid Lake at its southern end. Pyramid Lake has no outlet, with water leaving only by evaporation, or sub-surface seepage (an endorheic lake). The lake has about 10% of the area of the Great Salt Lake, but it has about 25% more volume. The salinity is approximately 1/6 that of sea water. Although clear Lake Tahoe forms the headwaters that drain to Pyramid Lake, the Truckee River delivers more turbid waters to Pyramid Lake after traversing the steep Sierra terrain and collecting moderately high silt-loaded surface runoff.
A remnant of the Pleistocene Lake Lahontan (~890 feet deep), the lake area was inhabited by the 19th-century Paiute, who used the Tui chub and Lahontan cutthroat trout from the lake(the former is now endangered and the latter is threatened). The lake was first mapped in 1844 by John C. Frémont, the American discoverer of the lake who also gave it its English title.
In the 19th century two battles were fought near the lake, major actions in the Paiute War. In the 1960s a marker was placed commemorating these battles.
Because of water diversion beginning in 1905 by Derby Dam, the lake's existence was threatened, and the Paiute sued the Department of the Interior. By the mid-1970s, the lake had lost 80 feet of depth, and according to Paiute fisheries officials, the life of the lake was seriously under threat.
Pyramid Lake is located in southeastern Washoe County in western Nevada. It is in an elongated intermontane basin between the Lake Range on the east, the Virginia Mountains on the west and the Pah Rah Range on the southwest. The Fox Range and the Smoke Creek Desert lie to the north.
In a parallel basin to the east of the Lake Range is Winnemucca Lake now a dry lake bed. Prior to the construction of the Derby Dam in 1905 both lake levels stood at near 3,880 ft (1,180 m).[8] Following the dam completion the water levels dropped to 3,867 ft (1,179 m) and 3,853 ft (1,174 m) for Pyramid and Winnemucca respectively. In 1957 Pyramid Lake level was at 3,802 ft (1,159 m) and the dry Winnemucca Lake bed at 3,780 ft (1,150 m) had been dry since the 1930s.
The lake is the largest remnant of ancient Lake Lahontan that covered much of northwestern Nevada at the end of the last ice age. Pyramid Lake was the deepest point in Lake Lahontan, reaching an estimated 890 feet (270 m) due to its low level relative to the surrounding basins.
The name of the lake comes from the impressive cone or pyramid shaped tufa formations found in the lake and along the shores. The largest such formation, Anaho Island, is home to a large colony of American White Pelicans and is restricted for ecological reasons. Access to the Needles, another spectacular tufa formation at the northern end of the lake has also been restricted due to recent vandalism.
Major fish species include the cui-ui lakesucker, which is endemic to Pyramid Lake, the Tui chub and Lahontan cutthroat trout (the world record cutthroat trout was caught in Pyramid Lake). The former is endangered, and the latter is threatened. Both species were of critical importance to the Paiute people in pre-contact times.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_Lake_(Nevada)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...
The Art Deco Gulf Tower in Pittsburgh.
We begin our slideshow of Pittsburgh with architecture. This is the top of the Gulf Tower which was built by Gulf Oil (long before it became part of Chevron).
Wikipedia has this to say: [The Gulf Tower was] designed by the firm of Trowbridge & Livingston and completed in 1932 at a cost of $10.05 million ($140.4 million today). Now called Gulf Tower, it has 44 floors and rises 177.4 m (582 ft) above Downtown Pittsburgh. The crown of the skyscraper is modeled after the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus in the style of a step pyramid. The building was listed as a Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmark in 1973.
The Southern Memorial Pyramid was constructed by the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad in 1898 at the behest of the Confederate Memorial Literary Society. Also known as Meade's Pyramid, as it is located near the site of General's Meade's Union breakthrough of Stonewall Jackson's lines on December 13, 1862. The pyramid would inform RF&P passengers that they were passing through the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania Battlefield area. It remains along the CSX right-of-way today. View from Prospect Hill.
There has been much speculation about the meaning of this pyramid.
Washington Post, January 8, 1898, p. 3. "President E.T.D. Myers of the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad has commenced the erection of a monument to mark the battle-fields of Spotsylvania, near Hamilton's Crossing. The monument will be of rough rubble granite, in the shape of a pyramid. Its base will be thirty feet and its height twenty-four feet. It is situated at the fifty mile post from Richmond and about three miles from Fredericksburg, in full view of passing trains. The land was donated by Mrs. William Pratt, and the monument is being built by the railroad company. "
On April 19, 1898, the Washington Post, p. 3, reported the monument had been completed on April 18.
Contributing Resource, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial National Military Park. National Register of Historic Places 66000046
Virginia347a
A small selection of photos from the Pyramid's 10th Birthday Party
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The pyramid at Meidum is believed to be Egypt's second oldest (after the step-pyramid of Djoser, whose design Meidum followed to some degree) but is also the earliest attempt at a true pyramid with four smooth side elevations.
Its original builder is usually considered to be Huni, last pharaoh of the 3rd Dynasty, but most likely the larger part was constructed under the reign of his successor Sneferu (who also built two major pyramids at Dashur much further north).
The building we see today looks as much like a massive tower as a pyramid; which is due to the ancient collapse of much of the outer structure after the design was modified from a step-pyramid form (like its predecessor at Saqqara) toa smooth-sided one. The extra weight of the additional outer casing was too much and the pyramid was reduced to the present tower of masonry rising from a mass of debris.
There are several internal passages on different levels that lead to the relatively small burial chamber, beginning with a steep descent from the northern face. The ceiling of the chamber is remarkable for its tapering form, corbelled inwards as it rises in the manner of the better known but later grand gallery of the great pyramid of Khufu.
Near the pyramid are several large mudbrick mastaba tombs of a similar age, one of which is accessible by a series of narrow tunnels and passages that only the more intrepid traveller should attempt.
For more on this remarkable site see below:-
this man was stood on the pyramid and i thought it would give some perspective the the size of these things
A small selection of photos from the Pyramid's 10th Birthday Party
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