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Le belvédère, petit pavillon de forme octogonale, surmonté d'un dôme de plomb caché par une balustrade, se dresse sur une butte dominant le petit lac. Il est édifié de mars 1778 à mai 1781 et fait partie de la série de fabriques construites par Richard Mique. Il est utilisé par Marie-Antoinette comme salon de musique. Le pavillon est gardé par des paires de sphinges symbolisant les saisons, sculptées en 1778 par Joseph Deschamps, comme la décoration des façades. Il abrite un luxueux salon circulaire, aux murs revêtus de stuc par Louis Mansiaux et peints d'arabesques à l'huile par Sébastien-François Leriche. La coupole, de Jean-Jacques Lagrenée le Jeune, représente des Amours dans un ciel. Le sol est pavé d'une mosaïque de marbre bleu turquin, vert, blanc veiné et rouge.
Le « Grand rocher », dont la construction, laborieuse, nécessite quatre années, est le pendant naturel du belvédère : cette montagne artificielle, entourée de conifères et constituée de gros blocs de pierre, est la source même de l'effet aquatique de cette « petite Suisse», parfois aussi surnommée le « Jardin alpin ». Depuis un réservoir situé à l'arrière et alimenté par le bassin du Trèfle, les eaux se jettent en torrent dans le petit lac.
Après une année de travaux de restauration financés par les mécènes Vinci et World Monument Fund pour un montant d'un million d'euros, le belvédère et son rocher sont inaugurés le 6 juin 2012.
La grotte
À droite du belvédère, une colline artificielle porte le nom de « montagne de l'escargot », en raison de son dédale de chemins escarpés et ombragés, lesquels aboutissent à une terrasse. Ce paysage prétendument montagnard est composé d'une succession d'étages scientifiquement hiérarchisés de pins, mélèzes, sapins ou genévriers, rappelant les précipices du Valais. Une petite vigne couvre l'un des versants.
Au pied de la montagne, une petite vallée conduit à la grottef 9. L'entrée en est à dessein peu repérable afin de ménager l'effet de surprise. Le page Félix d'Hézecques la décrit ainsi : « si obscure que les yeux, d'abord éblouis, avaient besoin d'un certain temps pour découvrir les objets. Toute tapissée de mousse, [elle] était rafraîchie par le ruisseau qui la traversait ». La grotte permet à la Reine de s'isoler et d'échapper aux visiteurs inopportuns ; elle est fermée d'une grille du côté de l'escalier, le bruit de la cascade couvre le son des conversations et un orifice laisse apercevoir de l'intérieur ceux qui voudraient s'approcher, disposition sans doute volontaire de l'architecte qui entretient le mystère et alimente les rumeurs du temps de Marie-Antoinette, alors que ce réduit est avant tout une décoration de jardin. L'idée est d'ailleurs répandue d'aménager, dans les jardins de l'époque, des « grottes sauvages » : on en trouve au Désert de Retz, à Ermenonville, à Méréville, à Neuilly ou à Rambouillet. Mais celle-ci est de dimensions réduites, un refuge bucolique et romantique favorable à la mélancoliea 6. Elle est couverte de peluche teintée de vert, donnant l'illusion d'un tapis de mousse sur l'intégralité de la grotte, complété d'un décor en trompe-l'œil.
La grotte est restaurée, en 2000, grâce au mécénat de Friends of Vieilles Maisons Françaises tandis que la recomposition végétale et paysagère de la butte a bénéficié du soutien de Parcs et Jardins de France. (Wikipedia)
The Postcard
A postally unused postcard that was published by the National Art Service Co. Inc. of Washington, D.C. On the divided back in the space for a stamp it states:
'Place One Cent
Stamp Here.'
To see the exterior of the mansion, please search for the tag 24CTM89
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery is a United States military cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., in whose 639 acres (259 ha) the dead of the nation's conflicts have been buried, beginning with the Civil War, as well as re-interred dead from earlier wars.
The national cemetery was established during the Civil War in the grounds of Arlington House, previously the estate of Mary Anna Custis Lee, a great-granddaughter of Martha Washington, and wife of Robert E. Lee.
The Cemetery, along with Arlington House, Memorial Drive, the Hemicycle, and Arlington Memorial Bridge form the Arlington National Cemetery Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in April 2014.
Early History of the Cemetery
George Washington Parke Custis, grandson of Martha Washington and adopted grandson of George Washington, acquired the land that now is Arlington National Cemetery in 1802, and began construction of Arlington House, which was named after the village of Arlington, Gloucestershire, England, where his family was originally from.
The estate passed to Custis's daughter, Mary Anna, who had married United States Army officer Robert E. Lee. Custis's will gave a "life inheritance" to Mary Lee, allowing her to live at and run Arlington Estate for the rest of her life but not enabling her to sell any portion of it. Upon her death, the Arlington estate passed to her eldest son, George Washington Custis Lee. The building had previously been known as the Custis-Lee Mansion.
When Virginia seceded from the Union after the start of the American Civil War at Fort Sumter, Robert E. Lee resigned his commission on the 20th. April 1861, and took command of the armed forces of the Commonwealth of Virginia, later becoming commander of the Army of Northern Virginia.
On the 7th. May 1861, troops of the Virginia militia occupied Arlington House. With Confederate forces occupying Arlington's high ground, the capital of the Union was left in an untenable military position.
General Winfield Scott ordered Brigadier General Irvin McDowell to clear Arlington and the city of Alexandria, Virginia, of all troops not loyal to the United States.
Despite not wanting to leave Arlington House, Mary Lee believed that her estate would soon be recaptured by federal soldiers, and so on the 14th. May, she buried many of her family treasures in the grounds and left for her sister's estate at Ravensworth in Fairfax County, Virginia. McDowell occupied Arlington without opposition on the 24th. May 1861.
Arlington House
At the outbreak of the Civil War, most military personnel who died in battle near Washington, D.C. were buried at the United States Soldiers' Cemetery in Washington, D.C., or Alexandria Cemetery in Alexandria, Virginia.
However by late 1863 both were nearly full, and so on the 16th. July 1862, Congress passed legislation authorizing the U.S. federal government to purchase land for national cemeteries for military dead, and they put the U.S. Army Quartermaster General in charge of this program.
In May 1864, Union forces suffered large numbers of dead in the Battle of the Wilderness. Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs ordered that an examination of eligible sites be made for the establishment for a large new national military cemetery.
Within weeks, his staff reported that the Arlington Estate was the most suitable property in the area. The property was high and free from floods, it had a view of the District of Columbia, and it was aesthetically pleasing.
It was also the home of the leader of the armed forces of the Confederate States of America, and denying Robert E. Lee use of his home after the war was a valuable political consideration.
The first military burial at Arlington, for William Henry Christman, was made on the 13th. May 1864.
The US Government acquired Arlington at a tax sale in 1864 for $26,800, Mrs. Lee did not appear in person, but rather sent an agent, attempting to pay the $92.07 in property taxes assessed on the estate in a timely manner. However the Government turned him away, refusing to accept the tendered payment.
In 1874, Custis Lee, heir under his grandfather's will passing the estate in trust to his mother, sued the United States, claiming ownership of Arlington. On the 9th. December 1882, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Lee's favor, deciding that Arlington had been confiscated without due process.
After that decision, Congress returned the estate to him, and on the 3rd. March 1883, Custis Lee sold it back to the government for $150,000. The land then became a military reservation.
Freedman's Village
Beginning in 1863, the Federal Government used the southern portion of the land now occupied by the cemetery as a settlement for freed slaves, giving the name of "Freedman's Village" to the land.
The Government constructed rental houses that up to 3,000 freed slaves eventually occupied while farming 1,100 acres (450 ha) of the estate. They received schooling and occupational training during the Civil War and after the war ended.
However, after the land became part of a military reservation, the government asked the villagers to leave. When some remained, John A. Commerford, the Superintendent of Arlington National Cemetery, asked the Army's Quartermaster General in 1887 to close the village on the grounds that people living in the Village had been taking trees at night from the cemetery for use as firewood.
The Quartermaster General and the Secretary of War then approved Commerford's request. The last of the village's residents departed after Congress appropriated $75,000 in 1900 to settle the government's debts to them.
Expansion of the Cemetery
With limited space but large numbers of World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, and other veterans dying and needing to be buried at Arlington, the requirement for additional burial space at the cemetery became a pressing issue.
In 1991, Cemetery superintendent John C. Metzler Jr. implemented a $1.4 million plan to clear a former 13-acre (5.3 ha) parking lot in order to create space for about 9,000 new graves.
The Cemetery was authorized to transfer 12 acres (4.9 ha) of woodland from the NPS-controlled Arlington House in 1996. Additional parcels of land totalling 59 acres (23.9 ha) were also subsequently acquired between 1999 and 2005, including land from Fort Myer.
In 2007, Metzler implemented the Millennium Project, a $35 million expansion plan to begin utilizing the Arlington woodland, Fort Myer, and Navy Annex land.
The project also included converting 40 acres (16 ha) of unused space and 4 acres (16,000 m2) of maintenance property on the cemetery grounds into burial space in 2006 and 2007 in order to allow an additional 26,000 graves and 5,000 inurnments.
The Millennium Project expanded the cemetery's physical boundaries for the first time since the 1960's, and was the largest expansion of burial space at the site since the American Civil War. Several environmental and historical preservation groups criticized Metzler's plans, as did the NPS and the manager of Arlington House.
Arlington Woods Expansion Controversy
On the 22nd. February 1995, the United States Department of the Interior and the United States Department of the Army signed an agreement to transfer from Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial, to the Army a part of Arlington Woods. The property transfer, which involved 12 acres (4.9 ha) of NPS land, was intended to permit Metzler to start expanding the cemetery beyond its existing boundaries.
Environmentalists were concerned that this would result in the partial destruction of the 24-acre (9.7 ha) remnant of a historically important stand of native trees. A historical marker near the woodland notes that, while visiting Arlington House in 1825, Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette had warned Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis:
"Cherish these forest trees around
your mansion. Recollect how much
easier it is to cut a tree than to make
one grow."
The marker further notes that the Virginia Native Plant Society has recognized the woodland as being one of the best examples of old growth terraced gravel forest remaining in Virginia.
On the 23rd. September 1996, the Secretary of the Interior was authorized to transfer to the Secretary of the Army all of the land in Section 29 that was within an "Arlington National Cemetery Interment Zone" and some of the land in the Section that was within a "Robert E. Lee Memorial Preservation Zone".
On the 5th. March 1998, the NPS stated that it wanted to transfer only 4 acres (1.6 ha) to the cemetery, rather than the 12 acres (4.9 ha) that the 1995 agreement had described. In response, Metzler stated:
"I was surprised. But we will continue
to work with the Department of Interior
and see what happens."
On July 12, 1999, the NPS issued a notice of an environmental assessment (EA) for the transfer. The EA stated that the Interment Zone contained the oldest and largest tract of eastern hardwood forest in Arlington County.
This forest was the same type that once covered the Arlington estate, and had regenerated from trees that were present historically. A forestry study determined that a representative tree was 258 years old.
The 2010 Mismanagement Controversy
On the 9th. June 2010, United States Secretary of the Army John M. McHugh reprimanded the cemetery's superintendent, John C. Metzler, Jr., and his deputy, Thurman Higgenbotham, after a DOD inspector general's report revealed that cemetery officials had placed the wrong headstones on tombs, buried coffins in shallow graves, and buried bodies on top of one another.
Metzler, who had already announced his intention to retire on the 2nd. July 2010, admitted some mistakes had been made, but denied allegations of widespread or serious mismanagement.
The investigation also found that:
"Cemetery employees are burdened in their
day-to-day work by dysfunctional management,
lack of established policy and procedures, and
an overall unhealthy organizational climate."
Both Metzler and Higgenbotham retired soon after the investigation commenced.
In March 2011, as a result of the problems discovered, Kathryn Condon, executive director of the Army National Military Cemeteries, announced that the cemetery's staff had been increased from 102 to 159. She added that the cemetery was also acquiring additional equipment because:
"They don't have the proper equipment
to do the job really to the standard they
need to do."
The mismanagement controversy included a limitation on mass media access to funerals, which also proved controversial. Until 2005, the cemetery's administration gave free access, with the family's permission, to the press to cover funerals at the cemetery.
According to The Washington Post in 2008, the cemetery gradually imposed increasing restrictions on media coverage of funerals beginning about 2005.
Wreaths Across America
In 1992, the Worcester Wreath company in Harrington, Maine, had a surplus at the end of the Christmas holiday season. Recalling a boyhood trip to the cemetery, company founder Morrill Worcester donated to the cemetery 5,000 wreaths to honor the cemetery's dead, with the help of volunteers and a local trucking company.
After thirteen years of similar donations, in 2005 a photo of snowy gravestones covered with wreaths at the cemetery received widespread circulation on the internet. Thousands of people called Worcester wanted to replicate the wreath-laying service at their own veteran cemeteries.
In 2014, volunteers were able to place wreaths in all sections of the cemetery for the first time.
150th. Anniversary
During May and June 2014, the cemetery celebrated the 150th. anniversary of its founding with a month-long series of events, tours, and lectures.
During these celebrations, cemetery officials formally re-designated the Old Amphitheater as the James Tanner Amphitheater. James R. Tanner was a Union Army officer who lost both legs during the war.
He later became a War Department stenographer, and recorded much of the early evidence in the investigation into the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. He later was active in the Grand Army of the Republic, a Union Army veterans group. Tanner is buried a few yards from the amphitheater.
Sections of the Cemetery
The Cemetery is divided into 70 sections, with some sections in the southeast and western part of the cemetery reserved for future expansion.
Section 60, in the southeast part of the cemetery, is the burial ground for military personnel killed in the "war on terror" since 2001.
Section 21, also known as the Nurses Section, is the burial site for many nurses, and the location of the Spanish–American War Nurses Memorial and the Nurses Memorial.
Another section – Chaplains Hill – includes monuments to Jewish, Protestant, and Roman Catholic military chaplains.
In 1901, Confederate soldiers who had been buried at the Soldiers' Home and various locations within Arlington were re-interred in a Confederate section that was authorized by Congress in 1900.
On the 4th. June 1914, the United Daughters of the Confederacy dedicated the Confederate Memorial designed by Moses Ezekiel. Upon his death in 1917, Ezekiel was buried at the base of the monument as he was a veteran of the Confederate army. All Confederate headstones in this section are peaked rather than rounded.
More than 3,800 formerly enslaved people, called "Contrabands" during the Civil War, are buried in Section 27. Their headstones are designated with the word "Civilian" or "Citizen".
Grave Markers, Niches, and Headstones
Placement of inscriptions and faith emblems are made at no charge to the estate of the deceased, submitted with information provided by the next of kin that is placed on upright marble headstones or columbarium niche covers.
The Department of Veterans Affairs currently offers 63 authorized faith emblems for placement on markers to represent the deceased's faith. Over time this number grew as the result of legal challenges to policy.
Prior to 2007, the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) did not allow the use of the pentacle as an "emblem of belief" on tombstones in military cemeteries. This policy was changed following an out-of-court settlement following a legal challenge by the family of Patrick Stewart.
Between 1947 and 2001, privately purchased markers were permitted in the cemetery. The sections in which the cemetery permitted such markers are nearly filled, and the cemetery generally does not allow new burials in these sections.
Nevertheless, the older sections of the cemetery have a wide variety of private markers placed prior to 2001, including an artillery piece.
There are 32 British Commonwealth war dead burials, 11 from the Great War and 19 from World War II, and some headstones are Commonwealth War Graves Commission style.
Arlington Memorial Amphitheater
The Tomb of the Unknowns is part of the Arlington Memorial Amphitheater. The Memorial Amphitheater has hosted state funerals and Memorial Day and Veterans Day ceremonies. Ceremonies are also held for Easter. About 5,000 people attend these holiday ceremonies each year.
The structure is mostly built of Imperial Danby marble from Vermont. The Memorial Display room, between the amphitheater and the Tomb of the Unknowns, uses Botticino stone, imported from Italy.
The amphitheater was the result of a campaign by Ivory Kimball to construct a place to honor America's servicemen/women. Congress authorized the structure on the 4th. March 1913. Woodrow Wilson laid the cornerstone for the building on the 15th. October 1915. The cornerstone contains 15 items, including a Bible and a copy of the Constitution.
Before the Arlington Memorial Amphitheater was completed in 1921, important ceremonies were held at what is now known as the "Old Amphitheater." This structure sits where Robert E. Lee once had his gardens.
The amphitheater has an encircling colonnade with a latticed roof that once supported a web of vines. The amphitheater has a marble dais, known as "the rostrum", which is inscribed with the U.S. national motto found on the Great Seal of the United States, E pluribus unum ("Out of many, one").
The rostrum was designed by General Montgomery C. Meigs, then Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army. The amphitheater seats 1,500 people.
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier stands on top of a hill overlooking Washington, D.C. The tomb is made from Yule marble quarried in Colorado. It consists of seven pieces, with a total weight of 79 short tons. The tomb was completed and opened to the public on the 9th. April 1932, at a cost of $48,000.
Other unknown servicemen were later placed in crypts there, and it also became known as the Tomb of the Unknowns, though it has never been officially named. The soldiers entombed there are:
-- Unknown Soldier of World War I, entombed 11th. November 1921; President Warren G. Harding presided
-- Unknown Soldier of World War II, interred 30th. May 1958; President Dwight D. Eisenhower presided
-- Unknown Soldier of the Korean War, also interred 30th. May 1958; President Dwight Eisenhower presided again, Vice President Richard Nixon acted as next of kin
-- Unknown Soldier of the Vietnam War, interred 28th. May 1984; President Ronald Reagan presided. The remains of the Vietnam Unknown were disinterred, under the authority of President Bill Clinton, on the 14th. May 1998, and were identified as those of Air Force 1st. Lt. Michael J. Blassie, whose family had them reinterred near their home in St. Louis, Missouri. It has been determined that the crypt at the Tomb of the Unknowns that contained the remains of the Vietnam Unknown will remain empty.
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier has been perpetually guarded since the 2nd. July 1937, by the U.S. Army. There is a meticulous routine that the guard follows when watching over the graves. The Tomb Guard:
-- Marches 21 steps southward down the black mat behind the Tomb
-- Turns left, facing east for 21 seconds
-- Turns left, facing north for 21 seconds
-- Takes 21 steps down the mat
-- Repeats the routine until the soldier is relieved of duty at the changing of the guard
-- After each turn, the Guard executes a sharp "shoulder-arms" movement to place the weapon on the shoulder closest to the visitors to signify that the Guard stands between the Tomb and any possible threat.
Twenty-one was chosen because it symbolizes the highest military honor that can be bestowed – the 21-gun salute.
At each turn, the guard makes precise movements followed by a loud click of the heels as the soldier snaps them together. The guard is changed every half-hour during daylight in the summer, and every hour during daylight in the winter and every two hours at night (when the cemetery is closed to the public), regardless of weather conditions.
The USS Maine Mast Memorial
Near the Tomb of the Unknowns stands the USS Maine Mast Memorial, which commemorates the 266 men who lost their lives aboard the USS Maine. The memorial is built around a mast salvaged from the ship's wreckage.
The Space Shuttle Challenger Memorial
The Space Shuttle Challenger Memorial was dedicated on the 20th. May 1986, in memory of the crew of flight STS-51-L, who died during launch on the 28th. January 1986.
Transcribed on the back of the stone is the text of the John Gillespie Magee, Jr. poem High Flight, which was quoted by then President Ronald Reagan when he addressed the disaster.
Although many remains were identified and returned to the families for private burial, some were not, and were laid to rest under the marker. Two crew members, Dick Scobee and Michael Smith, are buried in Arlington.
On the 1st. February 2004, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe dedicated a similar memorial to those who died when the Shuttle Columbia broke apart during re-entry on the 1st. February 2003. Astronauts Laurel Clark, David Brown, and Michael Anderson, who were killed in the Columbia disaster, are also buried in Arlington.
The Lockerbie Cairn
The Lockerbie Cairn is a memorial to the 270 killed in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The memorial is constructed of 270 stones, one for each person killed in the disaster.
The Pentagon Memorial
In section 64, a memorial to the 184 victims of the September 11 attacks on the Pentagon was dedicated on the 11th. September 2002. The memorial takes the shape of a pentagon, and lists the names of all the victims that were killed. Unidentified remains from the victims are buried beneath it.
The Commonwealth Cross of Sacrifice
On the 25th. June 1925, President Calvin Coolidge approved a request to erect a Commonwealth Cross of Sacrifice with the names of all the citizens of the United States who lost their lives fighting in the Canadian forces during the Great War. The monument was dedicated on the 11th. November 1927, and after the Korean War and World War II, the names of US citizens who died in those conflicts were added.
The Laos Memorial
The Laos Memorial, or Lao Veterans of America memorial, dedicated to Lao and Hmong veterans who served with US Special Forces and CIA advisors during the Vietnam War, to defend the Royal Kingdom of Laos from the North Vietnamese invasion of Laos, is located on Grant Avenue near the eternal flame memorial to U.S. President John F. Kennedy.
Burial Procedures
The flags in the cemetery (including the one at Arlington House) are flown at half-staff from a half-hour before the first funeral until a half hour after the last funeral each day. Funerals are normally conducted five days a week, excluding weekends.
Funerals, including interments and inurnments, average between 27 and 30 per day. The cemetery conducts approximately 6,900 burials each year.
With more than 400,000 interments, the cemetery has the second-largest number of burials of any national cemetery in the United States. The largest of the 130 national cemeteries is the Calverton National Cemetery, on Long Island, near Riverhead, New York, which conducts more than 7,000 burials each year.
In addition to in-ground burial, the cemetery also has one of the largest columbaria for cremated remains in the country. Four courts are currently in use, each with 5,000 niches. When construction is complete, there will be nine courts with a total of 50,000 niches, giving a capacity for 100,000 remains. Any honorably discharged veteran is eligible for inurnment in the columbarium, if they served on active duty at some point in their career.
Burial Criteria
Due to limited space, the criteria for ground burial eligibility are more restrictive than at other national cemeteries, as well as more restrictive than for inurnment in the columbarium.
The persons specified below are eligible for ground burial in the cemetery, unless otherwise prohibited. The last period of active duty of former members of the armed forces must have ended honorably. Interment may be of casketed or cremated remains:
-- Any active-duty member of the armed forces (except those members serving on active duty for training only)
-- Any veteran who is retired and eligible for retirement pay from service in the armed forces, including service members retired from a reserve component who served a period of active duty (other than for training)
-- Any former member of the armed forces separated honorably prior to October 1, 1949, for medical reasons and who was rated at 30% or greater disabled effective on the day of discharge
-- Any former member of the armed forces who has been awarded one of the following decorations:
---- Medal of Honor
---- Distinguished Service Cross, Navy Cross, or Air Force Cross
---- Silver Star
---- Purple Heart
-- Any former member of the armed forces who served on active duty (other than for training) and who held any of the following positions:
---- An elective office of the U.S. Government (such as a term in Congress)
---- Office of the Chief Justice of the United States or of an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
---- An office listed, at the time the person held the position, in 5 USC 5312 or 5313
-- Any former prisoner of war who, while a prisoner of war, served honorably in the active military, naval, or air service, whose last period of military, naval or air service terminated honorably and who died on or after November 30, 1993
-- The spouse, widow or widower, minor child, or permanently dependent child, and certain unmarried adult children of any of the above eligible veterans
-- The widow or widower of:
---- A member of the armed forces who was lost or buried at sea or fell out of a plane or officially determined to be permanently absent with a status of either missing or missing in action
---- A member of the armed forces who is interred in a US military cemetery overseas that is maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission
-- The spouse, minor child, or permanently dependent child of any person already buried in Arlington National Cemetery
-- The parents of a minor child, or permanently dependent child whose remains, based on the eligibility of a parent, are already buried at Arlington.
A spouse divorced from the primary eligible, or widowed and remarried, is not eligible for interment
Provided certain conditions are met, a former member of the armed forces may be buried in the same grave with a close relative who is already buried and is the primary eligible
Inurnment criteria for columbarium
Notable Burials at Arlington National Cemetery
Five state funerals have been held at Arlington: those of Presidents William Howard Taft and John F. Kennedy, his two brothers, Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy, as well as General of the Armies John J. Pershing.
Whether or not they were wartime service members, U.S. presidents are eligible to be buried at Arlington, since they oversaw the armed forces as commanders-in-chief.
Among the most frequently visited sites in the cemetery is the grave of President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy, who is buried nearby along with their son Patrick and their stillborn daughter Arabella.
Kennedy's remains were interred there on the 14th. March 1967, a re-interment from his original Arlington burial site, some 20 feet (6.1 m) away. The grave is marked with an eternal flame.
The remains of his brothers, Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Senator Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy, are buried nearby. The latter two graves are marked with simple crosses and footstones. On the 1st. December 1971, Robert Kennedy's body was re-interred 100 feet (30 m) from its original burial site.
Two of the astronauts who were killed on the 27th. January 1967 by a flash fire inside the Apollo 1 Command Module, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee, are buried at the cemetery. John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth and a longtime U.S. Senator from Ohio, was buried at the cemetery in April 2017.
British diplomat and Field Marshal Sir John Dill was buried at the cemetery when he died in Washington D.C. during World War II. The equestrian statue on Dill's grave is one of only two such statues at the cemetery
Lauri Törni, known for having served in the Finnish army during the Winter War, the German army during World War II, and the US army during the Vietnam War, is buried at Arlington. He is the only former member of the Waffen-SS to be interred there.
Security Procedures
In September 2016, acting superintendent of the cemetery Hallinan announced that the cemetery was increasing security measures for its visitors.
In addition to random identification checks and other security measures already in place, the cemetery would require pedestrians to enter at set access points: the main entrance on Memorial Avenue, the Ord and Weitzel gate, and the Old Post Chapel gate.
Before entering the cemetery through its main entrance, all pedestrians are now screened through the Welcome Center. All vehicle access requires presenting valid, government-issued photo identification, such as a driver's license or passport, when entering the cemetery. Vehicles are also subject to random inspections.
Formed 1.5 billion years ago from a dome of molten magma, the large granite boulders at Elephant Rocks State Park resemble a train of pink elephants. The reddish or pink granite has been quarried in this area since 1869, and has provided red architectural granite for buildings all across the country, particularly in nearby St. Louis, Missouri. Stones unsuitable for architectural use were made into paving stones that were used on the streets of St. Louis, as well as the wharf along the Mississippi River. The granite from this area is commercially known as Missouri Red monument stone.
One of the largest boulders, named “Dumbo,” measures 27 feet tall, 35 feet long and 17 feet wide, tipping the scales at a hefty 680 tons.
Elephant Rocks State Park was created in 1967 following donation of the land by geologist John Stafford, and is managed by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. It is located in Iron County, Missouri, and is part of the Saint Francois Mountains, which rise over the Ozark Plateau in southeastern Missouri. This mountain range is one of the oldest exposures of igneous rock in North America. The park has a one-mile paved Braille Trail designed for people with visual and physical disabilities.
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The Pyramid in The Louvre. Spotlights were shone through it to produce this colour.
More Paris pics on my blog post here!
The litany of Ra continues in the second corridor of the tomb, and in niches at the top of the walls, are depicted the seventy-four manifestations of the sun god. This is from the right side wall.
From the "turning point" (left to right) of the niche the manifestation names of the sun god are: 21 - The Brilliant One, 22 - The Hidden One, 23 - The Jubilating One, 24 - He Whose ways are correct, 25 - The Lightning One, 26 - The Shining Horn, 27 - He of the Exalted Forms, 28 - The Distant Ba, 29 - The High Ba, 30 - He of the Two Children, 31 - The Blazing One in the Earth, 32 - He of the Caldron and 33 - The Watchers.
The first part of the tomb was the work of Setnakht.
20th dynasty, tomb of Ramses III - KV11, Valley of the Kings
Yes, it is known as champagne pool. Its one of the main highlights of wai-o-tapu (sacred waters - in Maori language). A main tourist attraction in New Zealand, this pool is formed by volcanic activity over thousands of years. The orange tint is attributed to presence of antimony, while the green colour is because of colloidal sulphur and ferrous salts...
Zaha Hadid: Form in Motion at Philadelphia Museum of Art. Video at VernissageTV: vernissage.tv/blog/2011/09/30/zaha-hadid-form-in-motion-p...
From Wikipedia -
Wookey Hole Caves is a show cave and tourist attraction in the village of Wookey Hole on the southern edge of the Mendip Hills near Wells in Somerset, England.
Wookey Hole cave was formed by the action of the River Axe on the limestone hills. Before emerging at Wookey Hole the water enters underground streams and passes through other caves such as Swildon's Hole and St Cuthbert's Swallet. After resurging, the waters of the River Axe are used in a handmade paper mill, the oldest extant in Britain, which began operations circa 1610, although a corn grinding mill operated there as early as 1086.
Nearby is the limestone Ebbor Gorge, a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and a more tranquil spot than the busy Wookey Hole, which is itself an SSSI for both biological and geological reasons.
The cave is noted for the Witch of Wookey Hole – a roughly human shaped rock outcrop, reputedly turned to stone by a monk from Glastonbury. It is also the site of the first cave dives in Britain.
The caves, at a constant temperature of 11 °C (52 °F), have been used by humans for around 50,000 years. The low temperature means that the caves can be used for maturing Cheddar cheese.
History
Wookey is a corruption of the Celtic or Old English "Ogo" or "Ogof" which gave the early names for this cave of "Ochie" "Ochy". Hole is Anglo-Saxon for cave which is itself of Latin/Norman derivation. Therefore the name can be translated as cave, cave, cave.
Wookey Hole was occupied by humans in the Iron Age, while nearby Hyena Cave was occupied by Stone Age hunters. Badger Hole and Rhinoceros Hole are two dry caves on the slopes above the Wookey ravine near the Wookey Hole resurgence and contain in situ cave sediments laid down during the Ice Age.
In 1544 products of Roman lead working in the area were discovered. The lead mines across the Mendips have produced contamination of the water emerging from the underground caverns at Wookey Hole. The lead in the water is believed to have affected the quality of the paper produced.
Cave archaeology
Archaeological investigations were undertaken from 1859 to 1874 by William Boyd Dawkins, who moved to Somerset to study classics with the vicar of Wookey. On hearing of the discovery of bones by local workmen he led excavations in the area of the hyena den. His work led to the discovery of the first evidence for the use by Palaeolithic man in the Caves of the Mendip Hills.
Herbert E. Balch continued the work from 1904 to 1914, where he led excavations of the entrance passage (1904-15), Witch's Kitchen (Chamber 1) and Hell's Ladder (1926-1927) and the Badger Hole (1938-1954), where Roman coins from the 3rd century were discovered along with Aurignacian flint implements. The 1911 work found a 4 to 7 feet (1.2–2.1 m) of stratification, mostly dating from the Iron age and sealed into place by Romano-British artifacts. Finds included a silver coin of Marcia (124BC), pottery, weapons and tools, bronze ornaments, and Roman coins from Vespasian to Valentinian II.
E. J. Mason from 1946 to 1949, and G. R. Morgan in 1972 continued the work. Books by Dawkins and Balch are now prized items amongst those with an interest in cave archaeology.
Later work led by Edgar Kingsley Tratman (1899-1978) OBE DSc MD FSA explored the human occupation of the Rhinoceros hole, and showed that the fourth chamber of the great cave was a Romano-British cemetery.
During excavations in 1954-7 at Hole Ground, just outside the entrance to the cave, the foundations of a 1st century hut and Iron Age pottery were seen. These were covered by the foundations of Roman buildings, dating from the 1st to the late 4th century.
Exploration
The cave as far as the Third Chamber and side galleries has always been known. Prior to the construction of a dam at the resurgence to feed water to the paper mill downstream, two more chambers (the Fourth & Fifth) were accessible. Further upstream the way on lay underwater.
Diving was first tried by the Cave Diving Group under the leadership of Graham Balcombe in 1935. With equipment on loan from Siebe Gorman, he and Penelope ("Mossy") Powell penetrated 170 ft (51.8 m) into the cave, reaching "Chamber 7" using standard diving dress. The events marked the first successful cave dives in Britain.
Diving at Wookey resumed in early June 1946 when Balcombe used his home-made respirator and waterproof suit to explore the region between Resurgence and First Chamber, as well as the underground course of the river between Chamber 3 and Chamber 1. During these dives, the Romano-British remains were found and archaeological work dominated the early dives in the cave. The large Ninth Chamber was first entered on 24 April 1948 by Balcombe and Don Coase. Using this as an advance dive base, the Tenth and then the Eleventh Chambers were discovered. The way on, however, was too deep for divers breathing pure oxygen from a closed-circuit rebreather . Sadly, the cave claimed its first life on 9 April 1949 when Gordon Marriott lost his life returning from Chamber Nine. Another fatality occurred in 1981 when Keith Potter was drowned on a routine dive further upstream.
Further progress required apparatus which could overcome the depth limitation of breathing pure oxygen. Using an aqualung and swimming with fins, Bob Davies reached the bottom of Chamber 11 at 15 metres (49 ft) depth in clear water and discovered the 12th and 13th Chambers. Unfortunately, he got separated from his guideline and the other two divers in Chamber 11, ending up spending three hours trapped in Chamber 13 and had much trouble getting back to safety. Opinion hardened against the use of the short-duration aqualung in favour of longer-duration closed-circuit equipment. Likewise, the traditional approach of walking along the bottom was preferred over swimming.
Employing semi-closed circuit nitrogen-oxygen rebreathers, between 1957 and 1960 John Buxton and Oliver Wells (grandson of science fiction writer H. G. Wells) went on to reach the elbow of the sump upstream from Chamber 9 at a depth of 22 metres (72 ft). This was at a point known as "The Slot", the way on being too deep for the gas mixture they were breathing.
A six-year hiatus ensued while open circuit air diving became established, along with free-swimming and the use of neoprene wetsuits. The new generation of cave diver was now more mobile above- and under-water and able to dive deeper. Using this approach, Dave Savage was able to reach air surface in the 18th Chamber (Chambers did not have to have air spaces to be so named; they were the limits of each exploration) in May 1966. A brief lull in exploration occurred while the mess of guidelines laid from Chamber 9 was sorted out until John Parker progressed first to the large, dry, inlet passage of Chamber 20 and thence followed the River Axe upstream to Chamber 22 where the way on appeared to be lost.
Meanwhile, climbing operations in Chamber Nine found an abandoned outlet passage which terminated very close to the surface, as well as a dry overland route downstream though the higher levels of Chambers 8 to 6 as far as Chamber 5. These discoveries where used to enable the show cave to be extended into Chamber 9 and helping cave divers to start directly from here and bypassing the dive from Chamber 3.
Eventually, on 23 February 1976, Colin Edmunds found a way on in the static sump at the far end of Chamber 22. Controversially, he was beaten to the discovery of the magnificent active streamway of Chamber 24 by Geoff Yeadon and Oliver Statham a couple of days later. Edmunds returned with Martyn Farr on 27 February 1976 when the latter was able to dive from Chamber 24 into Chamber 25. To this day, Chamber 25 represents the furthest upstream air surface in Wookey Hole Cave. From here the River Axe rises up from a deep sump where progressive depth records for cave diving have been set: firstly by Farr (45m) in 1977, then Rob Parker (68m) in 1985, and finally by John Volanthen and Rick Stanton (76m) in 2004.
In 1996-1997 water samples were collected at various points throughout the caves and showed different chemical compositions. Results showed that the location of the "Unknown Junction", from where water flows to the Static Sump in Chamber 22 by a different route from the majority of the River Axe, is upstream of Sump 25.
Witch of Wookey Hole
The Witch of Wookey Hole is a stalagmite in the first chamber of the caves and the central character in an old English legend. The story has several different versions with the same basic features:
A man from Glastonbury is betrothed to a girl from Wookey. A witch living in Wookey Hole Caves curses the romance so that it fails. The man, now a monk, seeks revenge on this witch who—having been jilted herself—frequently spoils budding relationships. The monk stalks the witch into the cave and she hides in dark corner near one of the underground rivers. The monk blesses the water and splashes some of it at the dark parts of the cave. Catching the witch off guard, the monk splashes the water at the dark corner she is hiding in. The blessed water immediately petrifies the witch, and she remains in the cave to this day.
It was partly down to the legend of the witch that prompted TV's Most Haunted team to visit Wookey Hole Caves and Mill to explore the location in depth, searching for evidence of paranormal activity. The show, which aired on 10 March 2009, was the last episode transmitted in series eleven of the show's run on the satellite and cable TV channel Living.
In 2009 a new 'witch' was chosen by Wookey Hole Ltd amid much media interest. Carole Bohanan in the role of Carla Calamity was selected ahead of over 3,000 other applicants.
The current paper mill building, whose water wheel is powered by a small canal from the river, dates from around 1860 and is a Grade II-listed building. Unfortunately the production of handmade paper ceased in February 2008 after owner Gerry Cottle concluded there was no longer a market for the product, and therefore sold most of the historic machinery. Visitors to the site are still able to watch a short video of the paper made made from cotton. Other attractions include the dinosaur yard, a small museum about the cave and cave diving, a theatre with circus shows, House of mirrors and Penny arcades. Bear Shop.
The cave and mill were joined, after purchase, by Madame Tussauds in 1973 and operated together as a tourist attraction. The present owner is the former circus proprietor Gerry Cottle who purchased the site for around £6million.
At least one ghost, that of a drowned potholer, is said to haunt the cave. There are also uncanny powers associated with the Witch, all adding to the attraction's popularity with visitors.
The cave was used for the filming of episodes of the BBC TV series Doctor Who: the serial Revenge of the Cybermen (1975) starring Tom Baker. This has since been referenced in the comedy of The League of Gentlemen. The cave was also used in the filming of the British series "Robin of Sherwood" (1983).
On 1 August 2006, CNN reported that Barney, a Doberman Pinscher employed as a security dog at Wookey Hole, had destroyed parts of a valuable collection of teddy bears, including one which had belonged to Elvis Presley, which was estimated to be worth $75,000. The insurance company insuring the exhibition of stuffed animals had insisted on having guard dog protection. :“He just went berserk,” said Daniel Medley, general manager of Wookey Hole Caves near Wells, England, where hundreds of bears were chewed up Tuesday night by the six-year-old Doberman Pinscher named Barney. A security guard at the museum, Greg West, said he spent several minutes chasing Barney before wrestling the dog to the ground.
There are plans to open a new hotel as part of the complex in 2009.
In February 2009 Cottle turned the Victorian bowling green next to the caves into a crazy golf course without first obtaining planning permission.
In 1956, Olive Hodgkinson, a cave guide whose husband's family has owned the caves for over 500 years, was a contestant on What's My Line?
Some of the caves seen in the chamber in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film) were filmed at the Wookey Hole Caves.
Witch's Cavern (chamber 2) was used as the set for Herne's cavern in the television series Robin of Sherwood.
The Dr Who serial Revenge of the Cybermen, featuring Tom Baker as the Doctor, was filmed in Wookey Hole Caves in 1974 and 1975.
When you are driving, it is hard to see the speed limits. But traffic signs in Hong Kong are often placed on the ground. They are vertically scaled to match the eyesight of the driver.
These speed limits signage are seen on 西沙路 Sai Sha Road in 馬鞍山 Ma On Shan, a road in Hong Kong, which links together from Sai Kung District to Sha Tin District in the New Territories.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sai_Sha_Road
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RAF Swinderby was a Royal Air Force station airfield opened in 1940, one of the last of the stations completed under the RAF's expansion plans started in the 1930s. This photo shows the derelict control tower in the centre of the disused airfield. This has been demolished since my visit circa 2005.
Dungeness is a headland on the coast of Kent, England, formed largely of a shingle beach in the form of a cuspate foreland. It shelters a large area of low-lying land, Romney Marsh. Dungeness is also the name of the power station and a few other nearby buildings near the beach, and of an important ecological site at the same location.
Dungeness is one of the largest expanses of shingle in the world. It is of international conservation importance for its geomorphology, plant and invertebrate communities and birdlife. This is recognised and protected mostly through its conservation designations as a National Nature Reserve (NNR), a Special Protection Area (SPA), a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and part of the Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) of Dungeness, Romney Marsh and Rye Bay.
There is a remarkable variety of wildlife living at Dungeness, with over 600 different types of plant: a third of all those found in Britain. It is one of the best places in Britain to find insects such as moths, bees and beetles, and spiders; many of these are very rare, some found nowhere else in Britain.
The short-haired bumblebee, Bombus subterraneus, was last found in the UK in 1988, but has survived in New Zealand after being shipped there more than 100 years ago. It is to be reintroduced at Dungeness. It is planned that the first bees will be introduced in the spring of 2010.
The flooded gravel pits on Denge Beach, both brackish and fresh water, provide an important refuge for many migratory and coastal bird species. The RSPB has a bird sanctuary there and every year thousands of bird watchers descend on the peninsula to catch a glimpse of a rare bird from the bird observatory.
One of the most remarkable features of the site is an area known as 'the patch' or, by anglers, as 'the boil'. The waste hot water and sewage from the Dungeness nuclear power stations are pumped into the sea through two outfall pipes, enriching the biological productivity of the sea bed and attracting seabirds from miles around.
Beach fishing is popular at Dungeness, with the area being a nationally recognised cod fishing venue in the winter.
The name Dungeness derives from Old Norse nes: "headland", with the first part probably connected with the nearby Denge Marsh. Popular etymology ascribes a French origin to the toponym, giving an interpretation as "dangerous nose".
Seoul – officially the Seoul Special City – is the capital and largest metropolis of the Republic of Korea (commonly known as South Korea), forming the heart of the Seoul Capital Area, which includes the surrounding Incheon metropolis and Gyeonggi province, the world's 16th largest city. It is home to over half of all South Koreans along with 678,102 international residents.
Situated on the Han River, Seoul's history stretches back more than two thousand years when it was founded in 18 BCE by Baekje, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea. It continued as the capital of Korea under the Joseon Dynasty. The Seoul Capital Area contains five UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Changdeok Palace, Hwaseong Fortress, Jongmyo Shrine, Namhansanseong and the Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty. Seoul is surrounded by mountains, the tallest being Mt. Bukhan, the world's most visited national park per square foot. Modern landmarks include the iconic N Seoul Tower, the gold-clad 63 Building, the neofuturistic Dongdaemun Design Plaza, Lotte World, the world's second largest indoor theme park, Moonlight Rainbow Fountain, the world's longest bridge fountain and the Sevit Floating Islands. The birthplace of K-pop and the Korean Wave, Seoul received over 10 million international visitors in 2014, making it the world's 9th most visited city and 4th largest earner in tourism.
Today, Seoul is considered a leading and rising global city, resulting from an economic boom called the Miracle on the Han River which transformed it to the world's 4th largest metropolitan economy with a GDP of US$845.9 billion in 2014 after Tokyo, New York City and Los Angeles. In 2015, it was rated Asia's most livable city with the second highest quality of life globally by Arcadis. A world leading technology hub centered on Gangnam and Digital Media City, the Seoul Capital Area boasts 15 Fortune Global 500 companies such as Samsung, the world's largest technology company, as well as LG and Hyundai-Kia. In 2014, the city's GDP per capita (PPP) of $39,786 was comparable to that of France and Finland. Ranked sixth in the Global Power City Index and Global Financial Centres Index, the metropolis exerts a major influence in global affairs as one of the five leading hosts of global conferences.
Seoul is the world's most wired city and ranked first in technology readiness by PwC's Cities of Opportunity report. It is served by the KTX high-speed rail and the Seoul Subway, providing 4G LTE, WiFi and DMB inside subway cars. Seoul is connected via AREX to Incheon International Airport, rated the world's best airport nine years in a row (2005–2013) by Airports Council International. Lotte World Tower, a 556-metre supertall skyscraper with 123 floors, has been built in Seoul and become the OECD's tallest in 2016, with the world's tallest art gallery. Its Lotte Cinema houses the world's largest cinema screen. Seoul's COEX Mall is the world's largest underground shopping mall.
Seoul hosted the 1986 Asian Games, 1988 Summer Olympics, 2002 FIFA World Cup, the Miss Universe 1980 pageant, and the 2010 G-20 Seoul summit. A UNESCO City of Design, Seoul was named the 2010 World Design Capital.
ETYMOLOGY
The city has been known in the past by the names Wirye-seong (Hangul: 위례성; Hanja: 慰禮城, during the Baekje era), Hanju (Hangul: 한주; Hanja: 漢州, during the Silla era), Namgyeong (Hangul: 남경; Hanja: 南京, during the Goryeo era), Hanseong (Hangul: 한성; Hanja: 漢城, during both the Baekje and Joseon eras), Hanyang (Hangul: 한양; Hanja: 漢陽, during the Joseon era), Gyeongseong (京城, during the colonial era).
During Japan's annexation in Korea, "Hanseong" (Hangul: 한성; Hanja: 漢城) was renamed to "Keijō" (京城, or Template:Korean 한국, Gyeongseong) by the Imperial authorities to prevent confusion with the hanja '漢', as it also refers to the Han Chinese. In reality, the ancient name of Seoul, Hanseong (Hangul: 한성; Hanja: 漢城), originally had the meaning of "big" or "vast".
Its current name originated from the Korean word meaning "capital city," which is believed to be derived from the word Seorabeol (Hangul: 서라벌; Hanja: 徐羅伐), which originally referred to Gyeongju, the capital of Silla.
Unlike most place names in Korea, "Seoul" has no corresponding hanja (Chinese characters used in the Korean language). On January 18, 2005, Seoul government officially changed its official Chinese language name to Shou'er (simplified Chinese: 首尔; traditional Chinese: 首爾; pinyin: Shǒu'ěr) from the historic Hancheng (simplified Chinese: 汉城; traditional Chinese: 漢城; pinyin: Hànchéng), of which use is becoming less common.
HISTOY
Settlement of the Han River area, where present-day Seoul is located, began around 4000 BC.
Seoul is first recorded as Wiryeseong, the capital of Baekje (founded in 18 BC) in the northeastern Seoul area. There are several city walls remaining in the area that date from this time. Pungnaptoseong, an earthen wall just outside Seoul, is widely believed to have been at the main Wiryeseong site. As the Three Kingdoms competed for this strategic region, control passed from Baekje to Goguryeo in the 5th century, and from Goguryeo to Silla in the 6th century.
In the 11th century Goryeo, which succeeded Unified Silla, built a summer palace in Seoul, which was referred to as the "Southern Capital". It was only from this period that Seoul became a larger settlement. When Joseon replaced Goryeo, the capital was moved to Seoul (also known as Hanyang and later as Hanseong), where it remained until the fall of the dynasty. The Gyeongbok Palace, built in the 14th century, served as the royal residence until 1592. The other large palace, Changdeokgung, constructed in 1405, served as the main royal palace from 1611 to 1872.
Originally, the city was entirely surrounded by a massive circular stone wall to provide its citizens security from wild animals, thieves and attacks. The city has grown beyond those walls and although the wall no longer stands (except along Bugaksan Mountain (Hangul: 북악산; Hanja: 北岳山), north of the downtown area), the gates remain near the downtown district of Seoul, including most notably Sungnyemun (commonly known as Namdaemun) and Heunginjimun (commonly known as Dongdaemun). During the Joseon dynasty, the gates were opened and closed each day, accompanied by the ringing of large bells at the Bosingak belfry. In the late 19th century, after hundreds of years of isolation, Seoul opened its gates to foreigners and began to modernize. Seoul became the first city in East Asia to introduce electricity in the royal palace, built by the Edison Illuminating Company and a decade later Seoul also implemented electrical street lights.
Much of the development was due to trade with foreign countries like France and United States. For example, the Seoul Electric Company, Seoul Electric Trolley Company, and Seoul Fresh Spring Water Company were all joint Korean–American owned enterprises. In 1904, an American by the name of Angus Hamilton visited the city and said, "The streets of Seoul are magnificent, spacious, clean, admirably made and well-drained. The narrow, dirty lanes have been widened, gutters have been covered, roadways broadened. Seoul is within measurable distance of becoming the highest, most interesting and cleanest city in the East.
"After the annexation treaty in 1910, the Empire of Japan annexed Korea and renamed the city Gyeongseong ("Kyongsong" in Korean and "Keijo" in Japanese). Japanese technology was imported, the city walls were removed, some of the gates demolished. Roads became paved and Western-style buildings were constructed. The city was liberated at the end of World War II.
In 1945, the city was officially named Seoul, and was designated as a special city in 1949.
During the Korean War, Seoul changed hands between the Russian/Chinese-backed North Korean forces and the American-backed South Korean forces several times, leaving the city heavily damaged after the war. The capital was temporarily relocated to Busan. One estimate of the extensive damage states that after the war, at least 191,000 buildings, 55,000 houses, and 1,000 factories lay in ruins. In addition, a flood of refugees had entered Seoul during the war, swelling the population of the city and its metropolitan area to an estimated 1.5 million by 1955.
Following the war, Seoul began to focus on reconstruction and modernization. As Korea's economy started to grow rapidly from the 1960s, urbanization also accelerated and workers began to move to Seoul and other larger cities. From the 1970s, the size of Seoul administrative area greatly expanded as it annexed a number of towns and villages from several surrounding counties.
According to 2012 census data, the population of the Seoul area makes up around 20% of the total population of South Korea, Seoul has become the economic, political and cultural hub of the country, with several Fortune Global 500 companies, including Samsung, SK Holdings, Hyundai, POSCO and LG Group headquartered there.
Seoul was the host city of the 1986 Asian Games and 1988 Summer Olympics as well as one of the venues of the Football World Cup 2002.
GEOGRAPHY
Seoul is in the northwest of South Korea. Seoul proper comprises 605.25 km2, with a radius of approximately 15 km, roughly bisected into northern and southern halves by the Han River. The Han River and its surrounding area played an important role in Korean history. The Three Kingdoms of Korea strove to take control of this land, where the river was used as a trade route to China (via the Yellow Sea). The river is no longer actively used for navigation, because its estuary is located at the borders of the two Koreas, with civilian entry barred. Historically, the city was during the Joseon Dynasty bounded by the Seoul Fortress Wall, which stretched between the four main mountains in central Seoul: Namsan, Naksan, Bukaksan and Inwangsan. The city is bordered by eight mountains, as well as the more level lands of the Han River plain and western areas. Due to its geography and to economic development policies, Seoul is a very polycentric city. The area that was the old capital in the Joseon Dynasty, and mostly comprises Jongno District and Jung District, constitutes the historical and political center of the city. However, for example, the city's financial capital is widely considered to be in Yeouido, while its economic capital is Gangnam District.
CLIMATE
Seoul is either classified as a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cwa), using the −3 °C isotherm of the original Köppen scheme, or a humid continental climate (Köppen Dwa), using the 0 °C isotherm preferred by some climatologists. Summers are generally hot and humid, with the East Asian monsoon taking place from June until September. August, the warmest month, has average high and low temperatures of 29.6 and 22.4 °C with higher temperatures possible. Winters are often cold to freezing with average January high and low temperatures of 1.5 and −5.9 °C and are generally much drier than summers, with an average of 28 days of snow annually. Sometimes, temperatures do drop dramatically to below −10.0 °C, in odd occasions rarely as low as −15.0 °C in the mid winter period between January and February.
ADMINISTRATIVE DISTRICTS
Seoul is divided into 25 gu (Hangul: 구; Hanja: 區) (district). The gu vary greatly in area (from 10 to 47 km2) and population (from fewer than 140,000 to 630,000). Songpa has the most people, while Seocho has the largest area. The government of each gu handles many of the functions that are handled by city governments in other jurisdictions. Each gu is divided into "dong" (Hangul: 동; Hanja: 洞) or neighbourhoods. Some gu have only a few dong while others like Jongno District have a very large number of distinct neighbourhoods. Gu of Seoul consist of 423 administrative dongs (Hangul: 행정동) in total. Dong are also sub-divided into 13,787 tong (Hangul: 통; Hanja: 統), which are further divided into 102,796 ban in total.
DEMOGRAPHICS
Seoul proper is noted for its population density, which is almost twice that of New York and eight times greater than Rome. Its metropolitan area was the most densely populated in the OECD in Asia in 2012, and second worldwide after that of Paris. As of December 2013, the population was 10.14 million, in 2012, it was 10,442,426. As of the end of June 2011, 10.29 million Republic of Korea citizens lived in the city. This was a 24% decrease from the end of 2010. The population of Seoul has been dropping since the early 1990s, the reasons being the high costs of living and an aging population.
The number of foreigners living in Seoul is 255,501 in 2010 according to Seoul officials.[58] As of June 2011, 281,780 foreigners were located in Seoul. Of them, 186,631 foreigners (66%) were Chinese citizens of Korean ancestry. This was an 8.84% increase from the end of 2010 and a 12.85% increase from June 2010. The next largest group was Chinese citizens who are not of Korean ethnicity; 29,901 of them resided in Seoul. The next highest group consisted of the 9,999 United States citizens who were not of Korean ancestry. The next highest group were the Republic of China (Taiwan) citizens, at 8,717.
The two major religions in Seoul are Christianity and Buddhism. Other religions include Muism (indigenous religion) and Confucianism. Seoul is home to one of the world's largest Christians congregations, Yoido Full Gospel Church , which has around 830,000 members. Seoul is home to the world's largest modern university founded by a Buddhist Order, Dongguk University. Other Christian faiths like The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) maintains a presence in the city.
ECONOMY
Seoul is the business and financial hub of South Korea. Although it accounts for only 0.6 percent of the nation's land area, 48.3 percent of South Korea's bank deposits were held in Seoul in 2003, and the city generated 23 percent of the country's GDP overall in 2012. In 2008 the Worldwide Centers of Commerce Index ranked Seoul No.9. The Global Financial Centres Index in 2015 listed Seoul as the 6th financially most competitive city in the world. The Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Seoul 15th in the list of "Overall 2025 City Competitiveness" regarding future competitiveness of cities.
MANUFACTURING
The traditional, labour-intensive manufacturing industries have been continuously replaced by information technology, electronics and assembly-type of industries; however, food and beverage production, as well as printing and publishing remained among the core industries. Major manufacturers are headquartered in the city, including Samsung, LG, Hyundai, Kia and SK. Notable food and beverage companies include Jinro, whose soju is the most sold alcoholic drink in the world, beating out Smirnoff vodka; top selling beer producers Hite (merged with Jinro) and Oriental Brewery. It also hosts food giants like Seoul Dairy Cooperative, Nongshim Group, Ottogi, CJ, Orion, Maeil Dairy, Namyang dairy and Lotte.
FINANCE
Seoul hosts large concentration of headquarters of International companies and banks, including 15 companies on fortune 500 list such as Samsung, LG and Hyundai. Most bank headquarters and the Korea Exchange are located in Yeouido (Yeoui island), which is often called "Korea's Wall Street" and has been serving as the financial center of the city since the 1980s. The Seoul international finance center & SIFC MALL, Hanhwa 63 building, the Hanhwa insurance company head office. Hanhwa is one of the three largest Korean insurance companies, along with Samsung Life and Gangnam & Kyob life insurance group.
COMMERCE
The largest wholesale and retail market in South Korea, the Dongdaemun Market, is located in Seoul. Myeongdong is a shopping and entertainment area in downtown Seoul with mid- to high-end stores, fashion boutiques and international brand outlets. The nearby Namdaemun Market, named after the Namdaemun Gate, is the oldest continually running market in Seoul.
Insadong is the cultural art market of Seoul, where traditional and modern Korean artworks, such as paintings, sculptures and calligraphy are sold. Hwanghak-dong Flea Market and Janganpyeong Antique Market also offer antique products. Some shops for local designers have opened in Samcheong-dong, where numerous small art galleries are located. Itaewon caters mainly to foreign tourists and American soldiers based in the city. The Gangnam district is one of the most affluent areas in Seoul and is noted for the fashionable and upscale Apgujeong-dong and Cheongdam-dong areas and the COEX Mall. Wholesale markets include Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market and Garak Market.
The Yongsan Electronics Market is the largest electronics market in Asia. Electronics markets are Gangbyeon station metro line 2 Techno mart, ENTER6 MALL & Shindorim station Technomart mall complex.
Times Square is one of Seoul's largest shopping malls featuring the CGV Starium, the world's largest permanent 35 mm cinema screen.
KOREA WORLD TRADE CENTER COMPLEX which comprises COEX mall, congress center, 3 Inter-continental hotels, Business tower (Asem tower), Residence hotel,Casino and City airport terminal was established in 1988 Seoul Olympic . 2nd World trade trade center is planning at Seoul Olympic stadium complex as MICE HUB by Seoul city. Ex-Kepco head office building was purchased by Hyundai motor group with 9billion USD to build 115-storey Hyundai GBC & hotel complex until 2021. Now ex-kepco 25-storey building is under demolition.
ARCHITECTURE
The traditional heart of Seoul is the old Joseon Dynasty city, now the downtown area, where most palaces, government offices, corporate headquarters, hotels, and traditional markets are located. Cheonggyecheon, a stream that runs from west to east through the valley before emptying into the Han River, was for many years covered with concrete, but was recently restored by an urban revival project in 2005. Jongno street, meaning "Bell Street," has been a principal street and one of the earliest commercial steets of the city, on which one can find Bosingak, a pavilion containing a large bell. The bell signaled the different times of the day and controlled the four major gates to the city. North of downtown is Bukhan Mountain, and to the south is the smaller Namsan. Further south are the old suburbs, Yongsan District and Mapo District. Across the Han River are the newer and wealthier areas of Gangnam District, Seocho District and surrounding neighborhoods.
HISTORICAL ARCHITECTURE
Seoul has many historical and cultural landmarks. In Amsa-dong Prehistoric Settlement Site, Gangdong District, neolithic remains were excavated and accidentally discovered by a flood in 1925.
Urban and civil planning was a key concept when Seoul was first designed to serve as a capital in the late 14th century. The Joseon Dynasty built the "Five Grand Palaces" in Seoul – Changdeokgung, Changgyeonggung, Deoksugung, Gyeongbokgung and Gyeonghuigung – all of which are located in the district of Jongno District and Jung District. Among them, Changdeokgung was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1997 as an "outstanding example of Far Eastern palace architecture and garden design". The main palace, Gyeongbokgung, underwent a large-scale restoration project. The palaces are considered exemplary architecture of the Joseon period. Beside the palaces, Unhyeongung is known for being the royal residence of Regent Daewongun, the father of Emperor Gojong at the end of the Joseon Dynasty.
Seoul has been surrounded by walls that were built to regulate visitors from other regions and protect the city in case of an invasion. Pungnap Toseong is a flat earthen wall built at the edge of the Han River which is widely believed to be the site of Wiryeseong. Mongchon Toseong (Hangul: 몽촌토성; Hanja: 蒙村土城) is another earthen wall built during the Baekje period which is now located inside the Olympic Park. The Fortress Wall of Seoul was built early in the Joseon Dynasty for protection of the city. After many centuries of destruction and rebuilding, approximately ⅔ of the wall remains, as well as six of the original eight gates. These gates include Sungnyemun and Heunginjimun, commonly known as Namdaemun (South Great Gate) and Dongdaemun (East Great Gate). Namdaemun was the oldest wooden gate until a 2008 arson attack, and was re-opened after complete restoration in 2013. Situated near the gates are the traditional markets and largest shopping center, Namdaemun Market and Dongdaemun Market.
There are also many buildings constructed with international styles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Independence Gate was built in 1897 to inspire an independent spirit. Seoul Station was opened in 1900 as Gyeongseong Station.
MODERN ARCHITECTURE
Various high-rise office buildings and residential buildings, like the Gangnam Finance Center, the Tower Palace, N Seoul Tower and Jongno Tower, dominate the city's skyline. A series of new high rises are under construction, including the Lotte World Tower, scheduled to be completed by 2016. As of July 2016, and excluding the still unopened Lotte World Tower, the tallest building in the city is the 279-metre-high Three International Finance Center.
The World Trade Center Seoul, located in Gangnam District, hosts various expositions and conferences. Also in Gangnam District is the COEX Mall, a large indoor shopping and entertainment complex. Downstream from Gangnam District is Yeouido, an island that is home to the National Assembly, major broadcasting studios, and a number of large office buildings, as well as the Korea Finance Building and the Yoido Full Gospel Church. The Olympic Stadium, Olympic Park, and Lotte World are located in Songpa District, on the south side of the Han River, upstream from Gangnam District. Two new modern landmarks of Seoul are Dongdaemun Design Plaza & Park, designed by Zaha Hadid, and the new wave-shaped Seoul City Hall, by Yoo Kerl of iArc.
In 2010 Seoul was designated the World Design Capital for the year.
CULTURE
TECHNOLOGY
Seoul has a very technologically advanced infrastructure. It has the world's highest fibre-optic broadband penetration, resulting in the world's fastest internet connections with speeds up to 1 Gbps. Seoul provides free Wi-Fi access in outdoor spaces. This 47.7 billion won ($44 million) project will give residents and visitors Internet access at 10,430 parks, streets and other public places by 2015.
MUSEUMS
Seoul is home to 115 museums, including four national and nine official municipal museums. Amongst the city's national museum, The National Museum of Korea is the most representative of museums in not only Seoul but all of South Korea. Since its establishment in 1945, the museum has built a collection of 220,000 artifacts. In October 2005, the museum moved to a new building in Yongsan Family Park. The National Folk Museum is situated on the grounds of the Gyeongbokgung Palace in the district of Jongno District and uses replicas of historical objects to illustrate the folk history of the Korean people. The National Palace Museum of Korea is also located on the grounds of the Gyeongbokgung Palace. Finally, the Seoul branch of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, whose main museum is located in Gwacheon, opened in 2013, in Sogyeok-dong.
Bukchon Hanok Village and Namsangol Hanok Village are old residential districts consisting of hanok Korean traditional houses, parks, and museums that allows visitors to experience traditional Korean culture.
The War Memorial, one of nine municipal museums in Seoul, offers visitors an educational and emotional experience of various wars in which Korea was involved, including Korean War themes. The Seodaemun Prison is a former prison built during the Japanese occupation, and is currently used as a historic museum.The Seoul Museum of Art and Ilmin Museum of Art have preserved the appearance of the old building that is visually unique from the neighboring tall, modern buildings. The former is operated by Seoul City Council and sits adjacent to Gyeonghuigung Palace, a Joseon dynasty royal palace. Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, is widely regarded as one of Seoul's largest private museum. For many Korean film lovers from all over the world, the Korean Film Archive is running the Korean Film Museum and Cinematheque KOFA in its main center located in Digital Media City (DMC), Sangam-dong. The Tteok & Kitchen Utensil Museum and Kimchi Field Museum provide information regarding Korean culinary history.
RELIGIOUS MONUMENTS
There are also religious buildings that take important roles in Korean society and politics. The Wongudan altar was a sacrificial place where Korean rulers held heavenly rituals since the Three Kingdoms period. Since the Joseon Dynasty adopted Confucianism as its national ideology in the 14th century, the state built many Confucian shrines. The descendants of the Joseon royal family still continue to hold ceremonies to commemorate ancestors at Jongmyo. It is the oldest royal Confucian shrine preserved and the ritual ceremonies continue a tradition established in the 14th century. Munmyo and Dongmyo were built during the same period. Although Buddhism was suppressed by the Joseon state, it has continued its existence. Jogyesa is the headquarters of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism. Hwagyesa and Bongeunsa are also major Buddhist temples in Seoul.
The Myeongdong Cathedral is a landmark of the Myeongdong, Jung District and the biggest Catholic church established in 1883. It is a symbol of Catholicism in Korea. It was also a focus for political dissent in the 1980s. In this way the Roman Catholic Church has a very strong influence in Korean society.
There are many Protestant churches in Seoul. The most numerous are Presbyterian, but there are also many Methodist, Baptist, and Lutheran churches. Yoido Full Gospel Church is a Pentecostal church affiliated with the Assemblies of God on Yeouido in Seoul. With approximately 830,000 members (2007), it is the largest Pentecostal Christian congregation in the world, which has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records.
FESTIVALS
In October 2012 KBS Hall in Seoul hosted major international music festivals – First ABU TV and Radio Song Festivals within frameworks of Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union 49th General Assembly. Hi! Seoul Festival is a seasonal cultural festival held four times a year every spring, summer, autumn, and winter in Seoul, South Korea since 2003. It is based on the "Seoul Citizens' Day" held on every October since 1994 to commemorate the 600 years history of Seoul as the capital of the country. The festival is arranged under the Seoul Metropolitan Government. As of 2012, Seoul has hosted Ultra Music Festival Korea, an annual dance music festival that takes place on the 2nd weekend of June.
TRANSPORTATION
Seoul features one of the world's most advanced transportation infrastructures that is constantly under expansion. Its system dates back to the era of the Korean Empire, when the first streetcar lines were laid and a railroad linking Seoul and Incheon was completed. Seoul's most important streetcar line ran along Jongno until it was replaced by Line 1 of the subway system in the early 1970s. Other notable streets in downtown Seoul include Euljiro, Teheranno, Sejongno, Chungmuro, Yulgongno, and Toegyero. There are nine major subway lines stretching for more than 250 km, with one additional line planned. As of 2010, 25% of the population has a commute time of an hour or more.
BUS
Seoul's bus system is operated by the Seoul Metropolitan Government (S.M.G.), with four primary bus configurations available servicing most of the city. Seoul has many large intercity/express bus terminals. These buses connect Seoul with cities throughout South Korea. The Seoul Express Bus Terminal, Central City Terminal and Seoul Nambu Terminal are located in the district of Seocho District. In addition, East Seoul Bus Terminal in Gwangjin District and Sangbong Terminal in Jungnang District operate in the east of the city.
SUBWAY
Seoul has a comprehensive urban railway network that interconnects every district of the city and the surrounding areas. With more than 8 million passengers per day, Seoul has one of the busiest subway systems in the world. The Seoul Metropolitan Subway has 19 total lines which serve Seoul, Incheon, Gyeonggi province, western Gangwon province, and northern Chungnam province. In addition, in order to cope with the various modes of transport, Seoul's metropolitan government employs several mathematicians to coordinate the subway, bus, and traffic schedules into one timetable. The various lines are run by Korail, Seoul Metro, Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corporation, NeoTrans Co. Ltd., AREX, and Seoul Metro Line 9 Corporation.
TRAIN
Seoul is connected to every major city in South Korea by rail. Seoul is also linked to most major South Korean cities by the KTX high-speed train, which has a normal operation speed of more than 300 km/h. Major railroad stations include:
Seoul Station, Yongsan District: Gyeongbu line (KTX/Saemaul/Mugunghwa-ho), Gyeongui line (Saemaul/Commuter)
Yongsan Station, Yongsan District: Honam line (KTX/Saemaul/Mugunghwa), Jeolla/Janghang lines (Saemaul/Mugunghwa)
Yeongdeungpo Station, Yeongdeungpo District: Gyeongbu/Honam/Janghang lines (Saemaul/Mugunghwa)
Cheongnyangni Station, Dongdaemun District: Gyeongchun/Jungang/Yeongdong/Taebaek lines (Mugunghwa)
In addition, Suseo Station,in Gangnam District, is scheduled to open in late 2016, and offer KTX service on the newly built Suseo High Speed Railway.
AIRPORTS
Two international airports serve Seoul. Gimpo International Airport, formerly in Gimpo but annexed to Seoul in 1963, was for many years (since its original construction during the Korean War) the only international airport serving Seoul. Other domestic airports were also built around the time of the war, including Yeouido.
When it opened in March 2001, Incheon International Airport on Yeongjong island in Incheon changed the role of Gimpo Airport significantly. Incheon is now responsible for almost all international flights and some domestic flights, while Gimpo serves only domestic flights with the exception of flights to Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Osaka Kansai International Airport, Taipei Songshan Airport in Taipei, Hongqiao Airport in Shanghai, and Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing. This has led to a significant drop in flights from Gimpo Airport, though it remains one of South Korea's busiest airports.
Meanwhile, Incheon International Airport has become, along with Hong Kong, a major transportation center for East Asia.
Incheon and Gimpo are linked to Seoul by highways, and to each other by the Incheon International Airport Railroad, which is also linked to Incheon line #1. Gimpo is also linked by subway (line No. 5 and #9). The Incheon International Airport Railroad, connecting the airport directly to Seoul Station in central Seoul, was recently opened. Shuttle buses also transfer passengers between Incheon and Gimpo airports.
CYCLING
Cycling is becoming increasingly popular in Seoul and in the entire country. Both banks of the Han River have cycling paths that run all the way across the city along the river. In addition, Seoul introduced in 2015 a bicycle-sharing system named Ddareungi.
EDUCATION
UNICERSITIES
Seoul is home to the majority of South Korea's most prestigious universities, including Seoul National University, Yonsei University, Korea University, Sungkyunkwan University, Sogang University, Hanyang University, Chung-Ang University, Ewha Womans University, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Hongik University, Kyung Hee University, Soongsil University, Sookmyung Women's University, Korea Military Academy, and the University of Seoul.
SECONDARY EDUCATION
Education from grades 1–12 is compulsory. Students spend six years in elementary school, three years in middle school, and three years in high school. Secondary schools generally require that the students wear uniforms. There is an exit exam for graduating from high school and many students proceeding to the university level are required to take the College Scholastic Ability Test that is held every November. Although there is a test for non-high school graduates, called school qualification exam, most of Koreans take the test
Seoul is home to various specialized schools, including three science high schools (Hansung Science High School, Sejong Science High School and Seoul Science High School), and six foreign language High Schools (Daewon Foreign Language High School, Daeil Foreign Language High School, Ewha Girls' Foreign Language High School, Hanyoung Foreign Language High School, Myungduk Foreign Language High School and Seoul Foreign Language High School). Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education comprises 235 College-Preparatory High Schools, 80 Vocational Schools, 377 Middle Schools, and 33 Special Education Schools as of 2009.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Seoul is a member of the Asian Network of Major Cities 21 and the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group.
WIKIPEDIA
One thing I love Photograph is the small things.
Things we don’t pay attention to but are so beautiful.
Things that nature created with great precision and are crucial in the flora of life.
Something we need to preserve and nurture. Seeds in all forms.
A visit to the National Trust property that is Penrhyn Castle
Penrhyn Castle is a country house in Llandygai, Bangor, Gwynedd, North Wales, in the form of a Norman castle. It was originally a medieval fortified manor house, founded by Ednyfed Fychan. In 1438, Ioan ap Gruffudd was granted a licence to crenellate and he founded the stone castle and added a tower house. Samuel Wyatt reconstructed the property in the 1780s.
The present building was created between about 1822 and 1837 to designs by Thomas Hopper, who expanded and transformed the building beyond recognition. However a spiral staircase from the original property can still be seen, and a vaulted basement and other masonry were incorporated into the new structure. Hopper's client was George Hay Dawkins-Pennant, who had inherited the Penrhyn estate on the death of his second cousin, Richard Pennant, who had made his fortune from slavery in Jamaica and local slate quarries. The eldest of George's two daughters, Juliana, married Grenadier Guard, Edward Gordon Douglas, who, on inheriting the estate on George's death in 1845, adopted the hyphenated surname of Douglas-Pennant. The cost of the construction of this vast 'castle' is disputed, and very difficult to work out accurately, as much of the timber came from the family's own forestry, and much of the labour was acquired from within their own workforce at the slate quarry. It cost the Pennant family an estimated £150,000. This is the current equivalent to about £49,500,000.
Penrhyn is one of the most admired of the numerous mock castles built in the United Kingdom in the 19th century; Christopher Hussey called it, "the outstanding instance of Norman revival." The castle is a picturesque composition that stretches over 600 feet from a tall donjon containing family rooms, through the main block built around the earlier house, to the service wing and the stables.
It is built in a sombre style which allows it to possess something of the medieval fortress air despite the ground-level drawing room windows. Hopper designed all the principal interiors in a rich but restrained Norman style, with much fine plasterwork and wood and stone carving. The castle also has some specially designed Norman-style furniture, including a one-ton slate bed made for Queen Victoria when she visited in 1859.
Hugh Napier Douglas-Pennant, 4th Lord Penrhyn, died in 1949, and the castle and estate passed to his niece, Lady Janet Pelham, who, on inheritance, adopted the surname of Douglas-Pennant. In 1951, the castle and 40,000 acres (160 km²) of land were accepted by the treasury in lieu of death duties from Lady Janet. It now belongs to the National Trust and is open to the public. The site received 109,395 visitors in 2017.
Grade I Listed Building
History
The present house, built in the form of a vast Norman castle, was constructed to the design of Thomas Hopper for George Hay Dawkins-Pennant between 1820 and 1837. It has been very little altered since.
The original house on the site was a medieval manor house of C14 origin, for which a licence to crenellate was given at an unknown date between 1410 and 1431. This house survived until c1782 when it was remodelled in castellated Gothick style, replete with yellow mathematical tiles, by Samuel Wyatt for Richard Pennant. This house, the great hall of which is incorporated in the present drawing room, was remodelled in c1800, but the vast profits from the Penrhyn slate quarries enabled all the rest to be completely swept away by Hopper's vast neo-Norman fantasy, sited and built so that it could be seen not only from the quarries, but most parts of the surrounding estate, thereby emphasizing the local dominance of the Dawkins-Pennant family. The total cost is unknown but it cannot have been less than the £123,000 claimed by Catherine Sinclair in 1839.
Since 1951 the house has belonged to the National Trust, together with over 40,000 acres of the family estates around Ysbyty Ifan and the Ogwen valley.
Exterior
Country house built in the style of a vast Norman castle with other later medieval influences, so huge (its 70 roofs cover an area of over an acre (0.4ha)) that it almost defies meaningful description. The main components of the house, which is built on a north-south axis with the main elevations to east and west, are the 124ft (37.8m) high keep, based on Castle Hedingham (Essex) containing the family quarters on the south, the central range, protected by a 'barbican' terrace on the east, housing the state apartments, and the rectangular-shaped staff/service buildings and stables to the north. The whole is constructed of local rubblestone with internal brick lining, but all elevations are faced in tooled Anglesey limestone ashlar of the finest quality jointing; flat lead roofs concealed by castellated parapets. Close to, the extreme length of the building (it is about 200 yards (182.88m) long) and the fact that the ground slopes away on all sides mean that almost no complete elevation can be seen. That the most frequent views of the exterior are oblique also offered Hopper the opportunity to deploy his towers for picturesque effect, the relationship between the keep and the other towers and turrets frequently obscuring the distances between them. Another significant external feature of the castle is that it actually looks defensible making it secure at least from Pugin's famous slur of 1841 on contemporary "castles" - "Who would hammer against nailed portals, when he could kick his way through the greenhouse?" Certainly, this could never be achieved at Penrhyn and it looks every inch the impregnable fortress both architect and patron intended it to be.
East elevation: to the left is the loosely attached 4-storey keep on battered plinth with 4 tiers of deeply splayed Norman windows, 2 to each face, with chevron decoration and nook-shafts, topped by 4 square corner turrets. The dining room (distinguished by the intersecting tracery above the windows) and breakfast room to the right of the entrance gallery are protected by the long sweep of the machicolated 'barbican' terrace (carriage forecourt), curved in front of the 2 rooms and then running northwards before returning at right-angles to the west to include the gatehouse, which formed the original main entrance to the castle, and ending in a tall rectangular tower with machicolated parapet. To the right of the gatehouse are the recessed buildings of the kitchen court and to the right again the long, largely unbroken outer wall of the stable court, terminated by the square footmen's tower to the left and the rather more exuberant projecting circular dung tower with its spectacularly cantilevered bartizan on the right. From here the wall runs at right-angles to the west incorporating the impressive gatehouse to the stable court.
West elevation: beginning at the left is the hexagonal smithy tower, followed by the long run of the stable court, well provided with windows on this side as the stables lie directly behind. At the end of this the wall turns at right-angles to the west, incorporating the narrow circular-turreted gatehouse to the outer court and terminating in the machicolated circular ice tower. From here the wall runs again at a lower height enclosing the remainder of the outer court. It is, of course, the state apartments which make up the chief architectural display on the central part of this elevation, beginning with a strongly articulated but essentially rectangular tower to the left, while both the drawing room and the library have Norman windows leading directly onto the lawns, the latter terminating in a slender machicolated circular corner tower. To the right is the keep, considerably set back on this side.
Interior
Only those parts of the castle generally accessible to visitors are recorded in this description. Although not described here much of the furniture and many of the paintings (including family portraits) are also original to the house. Similarly, it should be noted that in the interests of brevity and clarity, not all significant architectural features are itemised in the following description.
Entrance gallery: one of the last parts of the castle to be built, this narrow cloister-like passage was added to the main block to heighten the sensation of entering the vast Grand Hall, which is made only partly visible by the deliberate offsetting of the intervening doorways; bronze lamp standards with wolf-heads on stone bases. Grand Hall: entering the columned aisle of this huge space, the visitor stands at a cross-roads between the 3 principal areas of the castle's plan; to the left the passage leads up to the family's private apartments on the 4 floors of the keep, to the right the door at the end leads to the extensive service quarters while ahead lies the sequence of state rooms used for entertaining guests and displayed to the public ever since the castle was built. The hall itself resembles in form, style and scale the transept of a great Norman cathedral, the great clustered columns extending upwards to a "triforium" formed on 2 sides of extraordinary compound arches; stained glass with signs of the zodiac and months of the year as in a book of hours by Thomas Willement (completed 1835). Library: has very much the atmosphere of a gentlemen’s London club with walls, columned arches and ceilings covered in the most lavish ornamentation; superb architectural bookcases and panelled walls are of oak but the arches are plaster grained to match; ornamental bosses and other devices to the rich plaster ceiling refer to the ancestry of the Dawkins and Pennant families, as do the stained glass lunettes above the windows, possibly by David Evans of Shrewsbury; 4 chimneypieces of polished Anglesey "marble", one with a frieze of fantastical carved mummers in the capitals. Drawing room (great hall of the late C18 house and its medieval predecessor): again in a neo-Norman style but the decoration is lighter and the columns more slender, the spirit of the room reflected in the 2000 delicate Maltese gilt crosses to the vaulted ceiling. Ebony room: so called on account of its furniture and "ebonised" chimneypiece and plasterwork, has at its entrance a spiral staircase from the medieval house. Grand Staircase hall: in many ways the greatest architectural achievement at Penrhyn, taking 10 years to complete, the carving in 2 contrasting stones of the highest quality; repeating abstract decorative motifs contrast with the infinitely inventive figurative carving in the newels and capitals; to the top the intricate plaster panels of the domed lantern are formed in exceptionally high relief and display both Norse and Celtic influences. Next to the grand stair is the secondary stair, itself a magnificent structure in grey sandstone with lantern, built immediately next to the grand stair so that family or guests should not meet staff on the same staircase. Reached from the columned aisle of the grand hall are the 2 remaining principal ground-floor rooms, the dining room and the breakfast room, among the last parts of the castle to be completed and clearly intended to be picture galleries as much as dining areas, the stencilled treatment of the walls in the dining room allowing both the provision of an appropriately elaborate "Norman" scheme and a large flat surface for the hanging of paintings; black marble fireplace carved by Richard Westmacott and extremely ornate ceiling with leaf bosses encircled by bands of figurative mouldings derived from the Romanesque church of Kilpeck, Herefordshire. Breakfast room has cambered beam ceiling with oak-grained finish.
Grand hall gallery: at the top of the grand staircase is vaulted and continues around the grand hall below to link with the passage to the keep, which at this level (as on the other floors) contains a suite of rooms comprising a sitting room, dressing room, bedroom and small ante-chamber, the room containing the famous slate bed also with a red Mona marble chimneypiece, one of the most spectacular in the castle. Returning to the grand hall gallery and continuing straight on rather than returning to the grand staircase the Lower India room is reached to the right: this contains an Anglesey limestone chimneypiece painted to match the ground colour of the room's Chinese wallpaper. Coming out of this room, the chapel corridor leads to the chapel gallery (used by the family) and the chapel proper below (used by staff), the latter with encaustic tiles probably reused from the old medieval chapel; stained and painted glass by David Evans (c1833).
The domestic quarters of the castle are reached along the passage from the breakfast room, which turns at right-angles to the right at the foot of the secondary staircase, the most important areas being the butler's pantry, steward's office, servants' hall, housekeeper's room, still room, housekeeper's store and housemaids' tower, while the kitchen (with its cast-iron range flanked by large and hygienic vertical slabs of Penrhyn slate) is housed on the lower ground floor. From this kitchen court, which also includes a coal store, oil vaults, brushing room, lamp room, pastry room, larder, scullery and laundry are reached the outer court with its soup kitchen, brewhouse and 2-storey ice tower and the much larger stables court which, along with the stables themselves containing their extensive slate-partitioned stalls and loose boxes, incorporates the coach house, covered ride, smithy tower, dung tower with gardeners' messroom above and footmen's tower.
Reasons for Listing
Included at Grade I as one of the most important large country houses in Wales; a superb example of the relatively short-lived Norman Revival of the early C19 and generally regarded as the masterpiece of its architect, Thomas Hopper.
A look around the inside of the castle / house.
The Grand Hall
Stained glass windows
Queen es una banda de rock británica formada en 1971 en Londres por el guitarrista Brian May, el cantante Freddie Mercury, el baterista Roger Taylor y el bajista John Deacon. Si bien presentan las bajas de dos de sus miembros (Mercury, fallecido en 1991 y Deacon, actualmente retirado de la industria musical), lo cierto es que la sociedad artística nunca se disolvió.3
El grupo gozó de un gran éxito en Gran Bretaña a mediados de los años 1970 con álbumes como Sheer Heart Attack en 1974 y A Night at the Opera del año siguiente. Este último álbum llamó la atención internacionalmente, colocando a Queen en un primer plano de la escena musical. Tuvieron una significativa repercusión en los Estados Unidos recién a mediados de los años 1980, ya con un numeroso repertorio de éxitos.1 Se destacaron por su diversidad musical, arreglos en múltiples capas y armonías vocales. Se les considera una banda de gran influencia en el desarrollo del hard rock y el heavy metal, incorporando elementos del glam rock, rock progresivo, folk, blues y pop. Fue la primera agrupación musical en hacer de sus conciertos espectáculos muy vistosos mediante el uso bombas de humo, flashpots, luces móviles y el principal componente, el carisma de Freddie Mercury, además de hacer participar al público del recital.4 Precisamente, se han reconocido actuaciones como en el Live Aid en 1985 o el célebre concierto de estadio de Wembley de 19865 como los mejores recitales de rock de la historia.6 7 Aunque el cuarteto siempre se encontró con una grandísima aceptación, popularidad y éxito comercial, en su momento, la crítica no tomó en serio al conjunto, siendo uno de los casos más recordados cuando la publicación musical estadounidense Rolling Stone tildo al álbum Jazz de "fascista".1
Tienen en su haber un total de quince álbumes de estudio, cinco álbumes en vivo y numerosas recopilaciones. Desde la muerte de Mercury y el retiro de Deacon del mundo musical, May y Taylor se han presentado juntos ocasionalmente en eventos especiales y programas televisivos como músicos invitados junto a otros artistas y/o bandas. Desde 2004 a 2009 trabajaron junto a Paul Rodgers, bajo el nombre de Queen + Paul Rodgers.8 9 10 11 Con más de 300 millones de discos vendidos, Queen es uno de los conjuntos más exitosos de todos los tiempos, su primer álbum compilatorio, Greatest Hits es el álbum más vendido en el Reino Unido.12 13 Queen fue nombrado el decimotercer mejor artista de hard rock de todos los tiempos en una lista elaborada por VH1 (VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock list).
CSX Transportation was formed on July 1, 1986, by combining the railroads of the former Chessie System with the Seaboard System Railroad. The originator of the Seaboard System was the former Seaboard Air Line Railroad, which previously merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1967, and later with the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, as well as several smaller subsidiaries such as the Clinchfield Railroad, Atlanta & West Point Railroad, Monon Railroad and the Georgia Railroad. The origin of the Chessie System was the former Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, which had merged with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and the Western Maryland Railway.
A visit to the National Trust property that is Penrhyn Castle
Penrhyn Castle is a country house in Llandygai, Bangor, Gwynedd, North Wales, in the form of a Norman castle. It was originally a medieval fortified manor house, founded by Ednyfed Fychan. In 1438, Ioan ap Gruffudd was granted a licence to crenellate and he founded the stone castle and added a tower house. Samuel Wyatt reconstructed the property in the 1780s.
The present building was created between about 1822 and 1837 to designs by Thomas Hopper, who expanded and transformed the building beyond recognition. However a spiral staircase from the original property can still be seen, and a vaulted basement and other masonry were incorporated into the new structure. Hopper's client was George Hay Dawkins-Pennant, who had inherited the Penrhyn estate on the death of his second cousin, Richard Pennant, who had made his fortune from slavery in Jamaica and local slate quarries. The eldest of George's two daughters, Juliana, married Grenadier Guard, Edward Gordon Douglas, who, on inheriting the estate on George's death in 1845, adopted the hyphenated surname of Douglas-Pennant. The cost of the construction of this vast 'castle' is disputed, and very difficult to work out accurately, as much of the timber came from the family's own forestry, and much of the labour was acquired from within their own workforce at the slate quarry. It cost the Pennant family an estimated £150,000. This is the current equivalent to about £49,500,000.
Penrhyn is one of the most admired of the numerous mock castles built in the United Kingdom in the 19th century; Christopher Hussey called it, "the outstanding instance of Norman revival." The castle is a picturesque composition that stretches over 600 feet from a tall donjon containing family rooms, through the main block built around the earlier house, to the service wing and the stables.
It is built in a sombre style which allows it to possess something of the medieval fortress air despite the ground-level drawing room windows. Hopper designed all the principal interiors in a rich but restrained Norman style, with much fine plasterwork and wood and stone carving. The castle also has some specially designed Norman-style furniture, including a one-ton slate bed made for Queen Victoria when she visited in 1859.
Hugh Napier Douglas-Pennant, 4th Lord Penrhyn, died in 1949, and the castle and estate passed to his niece, Lady Janet Pelham, who, on inheritance, adopted the surname of Douglas-Pennant. In 1951, the castle and 40,000 acres (160 km²) of land were accepted by the treasury in lieu of death duties from Lady Janet. It now belongs to the National Trust and is open to the public. The site received 109,395 visitors in 2017.
Grade I Listed Building
History
The present house, built in the form of a vast Norman castle, was constructed to the design of Thomas Hopper for George Hay Dawkins-Pennant between 1820 and 1837. It has been very little altered since.
The original house on the site was a medieval manor house of C14 origin, for which a licence to crenellate was given at an unknown date between 1410 and 1431. This house survived until c1782 when it was remodelled in castellated Gothick style, replete with yellow mathematical tiles, by Samuel Wyatt for Richard Pennant. This house, the great hall of which is incorporated in the present drawing room, was remodelled in c1800, but the vast profits from the Penrhyn slate quarries enabled all the rest to be completely swept away by Hopper's vast neo-Norman fantasy, sited and built so that it could be seen not only from the quarries, but most parts of the surrounding estate, thereby emphasizing the local dominance of the Dawkins-Pennant family. The total cost is unknown but it cannot have been less than the £123,000 claimed by Catherine Sinclair in 1839.
Since 1951 the house has belonged to the National Trust, together with over 40,000 acres of the family estates around Ysbyty Ifan and the Ogwen valley.
Exterior
Country house built in the style of a vast Norman castle with other later medieval influences, so huge (its 70 roofs cover an area of over an acre (0.4ha)) that it almost defies meaningful description. The main components of the house, which is built on a north-south axis with the main elevations to east and west, are the 124ft (37.8m) high keep, based on Castle Hedingham (Essex) containing the family quarters on the south, the central range, protected by a 'barbican' terrace on the east, housing the state apartments, and the rectangular-shaped staff/service buildings and stables to the north. The whole is constructed of local rubblestone with internal brick lining, but all elevations are faced in tooled Anglesey limestone ashlar of the finest quality jointing; flat lead roofs concealed by castellated parapets. Close to, the extreme length of the building (it is about 200 yards (182.88m) long) and the fact that the ground slopes away on all sides mean that almost no complete elevation can be seen. That the most frequent views of the exterior are oblique also offered Hopper the opportunity to deploy his towers for picturesque effect, the relationship between the keep and the other towers and turrets frequently obscuring the distances between them. Another significant external feature of the castle is that it actually looks defensible making it secure at least from Pugin's famous slur of 1841 on contemporary "castles" - "Who would hammer against nailed portals, when he could kick his way through the greenhouse?" Certainly, this could never be achieved at Penrhyn and it looks every inch the impregnable fortress both architect and patron intended it to be.
East elevation: to the left is the loosely attached 4-storey keep on battered plinth with 4 tiers of deeply splayed Norman windows, 2 to each face, with chevron decoration and nook-shafts, topped by 4 square corner turrets. The dining room (distinguished by the intersecting tracery above the windows) and breakfast room to the right of the entrance gallery are protected by the long sweep of the machicolated 'barbican' terrace (carriage forecourt), curved in front of the 2 rooms and then running northwards before returning at right-angles to the west to include the gatehouse, which formed the original main entrance to the castle, and ending in a tall rectangular tower with machicolated parapet. To the right of the gatehouse are the recessed buildings of the kitchen court and to the right again the long, largely unbroken outer wall of the stable court, terminated by the square footmen's tower to the left and the rather more exuberant projecting circular dung tower with its spectacularly cantilevered bartizan on the right. From here the wall runs at right-angles to the west incorporating the impressive gatehouse to the stable court.
West elevation: beginning at the left is the hexagonal smithy tower, followed by the long run of the stable court, well provided with windows on this side as the stables lie directly behind. At the end of this the wall turns at right-angles to the west, incorporating the narrow circular-turreted gatehouse to the outer court and terminating in the machicolated circular ice tower. From here the wall runs again at a lower height enclosing the remainder of the outer court. It is, of course, the state apartments which make up the chief architectural display on the central part of this elevation, beginning with a strongly articulated but essentially rectangular tower to the left, while both the drawing room and the library have Norman windows leading directly onto the lawns, the latter terminating in a slender machicolated circular corner tower. To the right is the keep, considerably set back on this side.
Interior
Only those parts of the castle generally accessible to visitors are recorded in this description. Although not described here much of the furniture and many of the paintings (including family portraits) are also original to the house. Similarly, it should be noted that in the interests of brevity and clarity, not all significant architectural features are itemised in the following description.
Entrance gallery: one of the last parts of the castle to be built, this narrow cloister-like passage was added to the main block to heighten the sensation of entering the vast Grand Hall, which is made only partly visible by the deliberate offsetting of the intervening doorways; bronze lamp standards with wolf-heads on stone bases. Grand Hall: entering the columned aisle of this huge space, the visitor stands at a cross-roads between the 3 principal areas of the castle's plan; to the left the passage leads up to the family's private apartments on the 4 floors of the keep, to the right the door at the end leads to the extensive service quarters while ahead lies the sequence of state rooms used for entertaining guests and displayed to the public ever since the castle was built. The hall itself resembles in form, style and scale the transept of a great Norman cathedral, the great clustered columns extending upwards to a "triforium" formed on 2 sides of extraordinary compound arches; stained glass with signs of the zodiac and months of the year as in a book of hours by Thomas Willement (completed 1835). Library: has very much the atmosphere of a gentlemen’s London club with walls, columned arches and ceilings covered in the most lavish ornamentation; superb architectural bookcases and panelled walls are of oak but the arches are plaster grained to match; ornamental bosses and other devices to the rich plaster ceiling refer to the ancestry of the Dawkins and Pennant families, as do the stained glass lunettes above the windows, possibly by David Evans of Shrewsbury; 4 chimneypieces of polished Anglesey "marble", one with a frieze of fantastical carved mummers in the capitals. Drawing room (great hall of the late C18 house and its medieval predecessor): again in a neo-Norman style but the decoration is lighter and the columns more slender, the spirit of the room reflected in the 2000 delicate Maltese gilt crosses to the vaulted ceiling. Ebony room: so called on account of its furniture and "ebonised" chimneypiece and plasterwork, has at its entrance a spiral staircase from the medieval house. Grand Staircase hall: in many ways the greatest architectural achievement at Penrhyn, taking 10 years to complete, the carving in 2 contrasting stones of the highest quality; repeating abstract decorative motifs contrast with the infinitely inventive figurative carving in the newels and capitals; to the top the intricate plaster panels of the domed lantern are formed in exceptionally high relief and display both Norse and Celtic influences. Next to the grand stair is the secondary stair, itself a magnificent structure in grey sandstone with lantern, built immediately next to the grand stair so that family or guests should not meet staff on the same staircase. Reached from the columned aisle of the grand hall are the 2 remaining principal ground-floor rooms, the dining room and the breakfast room, among the last parts of the castle to be completed and clearly intended to be picture galleries as much as dining areas, the stencilled treatment of the walls in the dining room allowing both the provision of an appropriately elaborate "Norman" scheme and a large flat surface for the hanging of paintings; black marble fireplace carved by Richard Westmacott and extremely ornate ceiling with leaf bosses encircled by bands of figurative mouldings derived from the Romanesque church of Kilpeck, Herefordshire. Breakfast room has cambered beam ceiling with oak-grained finish.
Grand hall gallery: at the top of the grand staircase is vaulted and continues around the grand hall below to link with the passage to the keep, which at this level (as on the other floors) contains a suite of rooms comprising a sitting room, dressing room, bedroom and small ante-chamber, the room containing the famous slate bed also with a red Mona marble chimneypiece, one of the most spectacular in the castle. Returning to the grand hall gallery and continuing straight on rather than returning to the grand staircase the Lower India room is reached to the right: this contains an Anglesey limestone chimneypiece painted to match the ground colour of the room's Chinese wallpaper. Coming out of this room, the chapel corridor leads to the chapel gallery (used by the family) and the chapel proper below (used by staff), the latter with encaustic tiles probably reused from the old medieval chapel; stained and painted glass by David Evans (c1833).
The domestic quarters of the castle are reached along the passage from the breakfast room, which turns at right-angles to the right at the foot of the secondary staircase, the most important areas being the butler's pantry, steward's office, servants' hall, housekeeper's room, still room, housekeeper's store and housemaids' tower, while the kitchen (with its cast-iron range flanked by large and hygienic vertical slabs of Penrhyn slate) is housed on the lower ground floor. From this kitchen court, which also includes a coal store, oil vaults, brushing room, lamp room, pastry room, larder, scullery and laundry are reached the outer court with its soup kitchen, brewhouse and 2-storey ice tower and the much larger stables court which, along with the stables themselves containing their extensive slate-partitioned stalls and loose boxes, incorporates the coach house, covered ride, smithy tower, dung tower with gardeners' messroom above and footmen's tower.
Reasons for Listing
Included at Grade I as one of the most important large country houses in Wales; a superb example of the relatively short-lived Norman Revival of the early C19 and generally regarded as the masterpiece of its architect, Thomas Hopper.
Ice Tower - you can go up it to the first floor.
A photo of yellow cake uranium, a solid form of uranium oxide produced from uranium ore. Yellow cake must be processed further before it is made into nuclear fuel. Courtesy of Energy Fuels Inc.
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bonito de se ver ,formas no tradicional preto e branco com nuances e curvas seguindo o seu objetivo de ver e viver , assim ´e a vida.
Today, I went to Vancouver and a group of women where raising money for www.walk.com for world poverty and they where giving people henna for a small fee! So of course I got this beauty! I love it, I think it's so beautiful! the woman did a wonderful job. I'd love to learn how to do this!
ALSO!! guess who I saw at Whole Foods in Vancouver? Mark Harmon!!! from NCIS who plays Gibbs! I never see anyone famous so I got a little overly excited.
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African Lion
Panthera leo
Unlike other cats, lions live in social groups called prides that consist of a handful of females and their young and a coalition of two to three males. Males protect the pride and their territory by roaring and scent-marking as they patrol the area.
As the dominant predator on the African savannah, lions can take the largest prey of any other carnivore in the region. Working cooperatively as a team, the lions stalk and surround their prey, getting as close as they can before launching an attack. They are successful in only one of every four hunts.
Fact File
Where to see them: Africa Exhibit
Height: Male - Up to 4 ft, Female - Up to 3.6 ft
Weight: Male - 330 to 530 lbs, Female - 270 to 400 lbs
Lifespan: Up to 18 yrs in the wild
Habitat: Savannah, arid woodland, and scrubland
Diet: Primarily hoofed mammals such as gazelles and zebras; some small mammals, birds, and reptiles
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Our new African Lion named John is a shy guy. He wouldn't come out of his den to visit with us so I had to try to get a photo of him tucked inside the doorway. John is so new that he still needs more time to adjust to his new home. The photo is not good but at least you can see the new family member to our zoo.
Have a nice day & weekend everyone