1. Chichen Itza, Mexico

The Maya were an ancient civilization of southern Mexico and the Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras Belize and El Salvador. Today there are an estimated 6 million Maya living in these regions and speaking a variety of Maya languages. Chichen Itza is one of the most visited archaeological sites in Mexico; an estimated 1.2 million tourists visit the ruins every year. How they build this is one other phenomena. During the first millennium AD the Maya observed and mapped the movements of the sun, moon, planets and stars. These celestial objects were incorporated into a complex cosmology and mythology that explained the past and predicted the future. The Maya built their sophisticated and highly decorated ceremonial architecture, including temple-pyramids, palaces and observatories apparently without the use the wheel. While no physical evidence has yet been found of the Mayan use of large wheels for transportation purposes numerous toys have been discovered that do have wheels, therefore it cannot be categorically stated that the Maya did not use larger wheels. [Read More at Wikipedia]

2. Machu Pichu, Peru

The people who lived here were Inca but unfortunately they extinguish. Ancient Inca were great masons. Buildings at the site are so well-built that anyone would be wondering how the early Inca people built all of those. There are buildings at the sight as well as baths and temples. Since Machu Picchu is a peak and living there is already challenging as it is, having 150 buildings constructed is phenomenal. Machu Picchu is one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.

3. Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Angkor Wat is the world’s largest religious building. Angkor was the seat of Khmer empire. Unfortunately in new history we remember only Red Khmer’s and not in a good way. Anyhow, to build this sanctuary was expected to spend 37 years in the construction that was all of the reign of King Suriyavoraman II. There were 500 builders, 1,000,000 laborers, and 5,000 stone dragging elephants. Even Arnold Toinebee, an English historian who had traveled around the world, said when he saw Angkor Wat that, “See Angkor Wat and Die”.

4. Memphis, Egypt

The Memphis is now an open air museum at Mit Rahina is a small diversion between Saqqara and Giza. It has a number of statues tagged as belonging to Ramses II, an alabaster sphinx, pieces of other statues and the colossi of Ramses II. Most of the displayed artefacts seem to be New Kingdom relics. The open air museum takes about 45 minutes to get around, and that is looking at and photographing each piece on display.

5. Petra, Jordan

The ancient city of Petra was literally carved from the sandstone cliffs of southern Jordan. The site remained unknown to the Western world until 1812, when it was introduced by Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. It was described as “a rose-red city half as old as time” in a Newdigate Prize-winning poem by John William Burgon. UNESCO has described it as “one of the most precious cultural properties of man’s cultural heritage”. Petra was chosen by the BBC as one of “the 40 places you have to see before you die”. [Read More at Wikipedia]

6. Palmyra, Syria

The extensive ruins at Palmyra reveal the network plan of the ancient city. The Corinthian order marks almost all the monuments, but the influence of Mesopotamia and Iran is also clearly evident. The art found on monuments and tombs also reflects the influences of the surrounding Roman and Persian empires. As UNESCO puts it, “the art and architecture of Palmyra, standing at the crossroads of several civilizations, married Graeco-Roman techniques with local traditions and Persian influences.” This city is mentioned in Bible, too as a city in the desert.

7. Pompeii, Italy

The city of Pompeii is a partially buried Roman town-city near modern Naples in the Italian region of Campania, in the territory of the comune of Pompei. Along with Herculaneum, Pompeii was destroyed and completely buried during a long catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius spanning two days in the year AD 79. The eruption buried Pompeii under 4 to 6 m (13 to 20 ft) of ash and pumice, and it was lost for nearly 1700 years before its accidental rediscovery in 1749. Since then, its excavation has provided an extraordinarily detailed insight into the life of a city at the height of the Roman Empire. Today, this UNESCO World Heritage Site is one of the most popular tourist attractions of Italy, with approximately 2,500,000 visitors every year. [Read More at Wikipedia]
The inhabitants of Pompeii did not know that Vesuvius was a volcano, as it hadn’t erupted in 1,800 years. There isn’t even a Latin word for volcano. The longer a volcano sleeps, the more deadly the eruption. There were signs that Vesuvius was beginning to stir – earthquakes, ground rising up and underground springs drying up – but the people didn’t know how to read these signs or understand what they meant.

8. Ephesus, Turkey

Ephesus was founded between 1500-1000 B.C. Ephesus was destroyed by an earthquake in A.D. 17 and then rebuilt and enlarged by Tiberius. Ephesus is the best preserved classical city of the Eastern Mediterranean, and among the best places in the world enabling one to genuinely soak in the atmosphere of Roman times. The Marble Street is 800 meters long and Curetes Street is 1km long. The Grand Theatre in Ephesus has seating capacity of 24000 and a high of 38meters. the Celsus Library in Ephesus was the third largest library with the capacity of 12,000 scrolls after the Alexandra and Pergamum. The first church dedicated to Virgin Mary is in Ephesus. The Virgin Mary lived her last years of her life in Turkey, here in a small cottage near Ephesus. The Virgin Mary’s house in Ephesus is visited by Pope the 6th Paul and Pope Jean Paul as well. Temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders is Ephesus. Artemis Temple covers an area of 125meters by 60meters, as big as a soccer field.

9.Carthage, Tunisia

Carthage was an ancient city in north Africa located on the eastern side of Lake Tunis, across from the center of modern Tunis in Tunisia. It remains a popular tourist attraction. ” Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam“( “And therefore I believe that Carthage must be destroyed.”) were the words of Marcus Porcius Cato who always ended his speeches with this sentence. He lived 234-149 BC, during a glorious, powerful time in the Roman Empire. Rome’s military dominance was overwhelming. The empire had expanded across the entire Mediterranean region – from Syria to Greece to southern France, and its army kept on conquering with no end in sight. Carthage, an ancient city near what today is Tunis, had been controlling most of the western Mediterranean since around 300 BC, but soon had been challenged by Rome, which was expanding west and didn’t want another strong power in the area. Rome launched two wars, in which Carthage lost its possessions outside of Africa as well as its war ships, but despite that and the sanctions and conditions imposed by Rome, the city quickly recovered and regained prosperity and thus continued to play an important role in the region. In particular, it owned a lot of fertile land and successfully grew olives, grapes, grain, and other agricultural products. After three years of brutal fighting against fierce resistance, Rome emerged victorious, burning and razing the city and taking the few remaining survivors to Rome as slaves. It is believed that he even salted the ground in order nothing to grow there any more.

10. Troy, Turkey

The great works of the Greek poet Homer, the Odyssey and the Iliad, tell of a war between the Greeks and the city of Ilium, which was also called Troy after the region in which it was located.
According to Homer, Troy was a fortified city in present-day Turkey, near the shore of the Aegean Sea. The Greeks attacked Troy to bring back Helen, the kidnapped wife of a Greek warrior. They laid seige to the city for ten years before they captured and destroyed it. The city of Troy disappeared from history in the fourth century. In the centuries since then, there have been many disputes about the exact location of this city. Then in the nineteenth century, archaeologists began digging up a mound of earth in Turkey. The found not one city of Troy, but nine! The first five were small villages. But the sixth, built on top of the other five, was a walled city dating from the twelfth century B.C., the period in which the Trojan War was supposed to have been fought! And there were three more cities on top of that one!
The discovery of the ancient city of Troy didn’t prove that all the stories told in the Odyssey and Iliad were true. But it did much to prove that the Trojan War really happened.

© vedrisha for Lazy Palace, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: carthage, cities, city, extindish, lost, machu picchu, palmyra, petra, troy

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

And today Walpurgis, night on April 30 is an old pagan festival, which borrowed its name from Saint Walburga whose feast occurs on May Day. On this night witches ride on their broomsticks to places of old pagan sacrifices in the Harz Mountains, especially to the Brocken. The Brocken, the highest peak in the Harz Mountains, is considered to be the point of Walpurgisnacht. Its peak has 1142-meter and it’s always in mist and clouds, lending it a mysterious atmosphere that has contributed to its legendary status as the home of witches (Hexen) and devils (Teufel). There, they dance around a huge fire and worship their lord the devil, who bestows them with new magic power.
The writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) in Faust writes that the witches come on Walpurgis night and sing:

“Now to the Brocken the witches ride; the stubble is gold and the corn is green; There is the carnival crew to be seen, And Squire Urianus will come to preside. So over the valleys our company floats, with witches a-farting on stinking old goats.“

If scary tales of witches, and devil and ghosts are not enough for you, the Brockenber has a meteorological phenomenon: the Brockengespenst, or spectre of the Brocken. Given the right atmospheric conditions, the mountain can produce an optical illusion. As the sun sinks, the shadow of a walker cast from a ridge becomes magnified and an enormous silhouette appears on low-lying clouds or mist banks below the mountain. If you are not afraid of the shadows than you’ll get scared when you find out that the distant shadow starts walking, tracking the observer’s path. The name Brocken spectre came into use among mountaineers after a climber fell to his death on the Brocken. Not realising that he was observing his own shadow, the climber lost his footing after being startled by a rainbow haloed figure emerging from the mists. Forest pathways snake through Brocken National Park, shrouded in mist, their gnarled limbs dripping with moss and lichens, the trees seem to close in behind the hiker. With names such as the Witch’s Altar and Devil’s Pulpit, bizarre rock formations rise from the forest floor. In the brooding green half-light, the rocks take on a malevolent appearance.

© vedrisha for Lazy Palace, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Brocken, connditions, germany, scary, weather, witch, witchcraft, witches, women

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

The former calligraphy teacher has purchased 11 tonnes of excrement from a panda breeding center to fertilize a tea crop in the mountains of Szechuan province in southwestern China, home to the black and white bears.

An says he will harvest the first batch of tea leaves this spring and it will be the “world’s most expensive tea” at almost 220,000 yuan ($34,000) for 500 grams.

Chinese tea drinkers regard the first batch of tea to be harvested in the early spring as the best and successive batches, regarded as inferior, will sell for around 20,000 yuan.

He quit his job at Szechuan University to throw himself “heart and soul” into his company, Panda Tea, whose logo features a smiling panda wearing a bow tie and holding a steaming glass of green tea.

While An hopes to make money from the tea, which he has planted on just over 2.5 acres (one hectare) of land, his main mission is to convince the world to protect the environment and replace chemical fertilizers with animal feces – before it is too late.

© vedrisha for Lazy Palace, 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: china, most expensive, panda, poop, tea, world

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Dresden, Germany

Rome, Italy

Victoria, BC, Canada

Dyrhólaey, Iceland

Mt. Moran, Wyoming, USA

Death Valley National Park, California, USA

London, England

New York, New York, USA

Porticello, Sicily, Italy

Queenstown, New Zealand

Cinque Terre, Italy

Shanghai, China

Istanbul, Turkey

Yellowstone, Montana, USA

San Francisco, California, USA

Washington D.C., USA

Schwyz, Switzerland

Charminar, Hyderabad, India

Rialto Bridge, Venice, Italy

Paris, France

© vedrisha for Lazy Palace, 2011. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: amazing. blue hour, around the world, photos, travel, world

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Monkey Buffet Festival

The Monkey Buffet Festival is held annually in Thailand in Lopburi Province. This province is 150km North from the Bangkok. The festival was described as one of the strangest festivals by London’s The Guardian newspaper along with Spain’s baby-jumping festival. Monkey enjoy this festival, since they get treated with lots of fruit on this day. The festival is being held on November 26.

Songkran Festival

Songkran or the Thai New Year is a great festival being held in April. Thai New Year is on the 13th April, and on Thailand it is always nice and sunny, so this watering festival has sense here. Originally it was celebrated as the beginning of new year, where you should enter clean and wash all bad from you, a new beginning. It was performed by Buddhist monks, but soon tourist were caught in this ceremony and this is one big party with watering and great music.

Vegetarian Festival

The Phuket Vegetarian Festival is an annual event held during the 9th lunar month of the Chinese calendar. It is believed that the vegetarian festival and its accompanying sacred rituals bestow good fortune upon those who religiously observe this rite. During this time, local residents of Chinese ancestry strictly observe a 10-day vegetarian or vegan diet for the purposes of spiritual cleansing and merit-making. Sacred rituals are performed at various Chinese shrines and temples and aesthetic displays such as walking barefooted over hot coals and ascending ladders with bladed rungs are performed by entranced devotees known as “Ma Song”.

Full Moon Party

This festival is being held on the island Koh Pangan, Thailand. The story goes on something like this..Once upon a time, a group of tourist found that the moon looks specially nice on the beach of Hadrin on Koh Pangan and decided to celebrate it. Since that time, every full moon is being celebrated on that very place and people from all over the world come and join the celebration. The magic of the moon and good vibrations are the reason of so many people coming to this place and join the party.

Ubon Ratchathani Candle Festival

Each year at the start of the Buddhist Lent on Thailand they have the largest parade of candle floats made by temples right down to small villages. The floats from bigger temples are huge, I would say around 30mtrs plus long and around 15 to 20mtrs in height at times. The floats are made from wax, they are big projects and the past week the temple doors have hardly been closed as local have helped the monks with the melting of wax and pouring it into templates.

Bosang Umbrella Fair

Bosang Umbrella Fair is one of the most significant events in Thailand which takes place during the month of January. Bosang Umbrella Fair is renowned for offering a wide collection of vibrant paper umbrellas and a diverse array of local handicrafts. It is located near Chang Mai, but it is very popular all over the Thailand.

Pee Ta Khon

Pee Ta Khon (the Ghost Festival) is the most common name for a group of festivals held in Dan Sai, Loei province, Isan, Thailand. The events take place over three days some time between March and July, the dates being selected annually by the town’s mediums.

Kite Fesival

International Kite Festival on Thailand is being held in March, on March there is a great hot wind blowing, which is ideal for the kite-flying. This festival is being held in order to preserve the kite-flying tradition this people always had. It is nice to see sky colored with kites. Must go and see this great event.

Naga fireball

The Naga fireballs are a phenomenon seen in the Mekong river—in Thailand (Nong Khai province in Isan) and in Laos (Vientiane Province)—in which glowing balls rise from the water high into the air. The balls are reddish and have diverse size from smaller sparkles up to the size of basketballs.

Surin Elephant Round-up

The Surin Elephant Round-up usually takes place on the third weekend of November in Surin province, Isan, Thailand. It is of recent origin, first held in 1960. The people of Surin were traditionally excellent at capturing elephants in Cambodia, then training them as working animals. Civil war in Cambodia and the elephant’s decreasing economic importance has forced the elephant handlers (mahouts) to turn to entertainment to make a living. Here is no surprise to see elephants playing football or preforming some other interesting stuff.

© vedrisha for Lazy Palace, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: festivals, intersting, new year, origins, people, thailand, traditon, unusual

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

What forced her to move from her “home” was osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis. She moved with her daughter in new York. She is a former pilot, who began her carrier at 50, including a stint at the White House.

The death of her husband, Glenn, from cancer gave her no pause in returning to work in 2001, which landed her at the Towne Place Suites.

Extended hotel stays were not unusual, Towne Place Suites general manager Carla Berberich said.

“For less than the price of many apartment rentals in the Washington metro area (roughly $US1500-$US1700 ($1400-$1600) a month) Bricker’s room was supplied with wi-fi, which fuelled her hours of daily online research and reading a day, and the added benefit of daily room cleaning, and round-the-clock security. Though she says she still makes her bed each day, though not nearly as well,” CNN said.

“Bricker has become a pillar of the transient, makeshift community. She’s made friends of staff and short-term neighbours alike. Next door, her new Kuwaiti friend brings traditional meals of spiced stew for them to share.

“It was this family of hotel staff who came to her aid when, last year, a late-night fall landed her in the hospital with a broken hip.
“General manager Bobby Bellinger was the first person Bricker saw when she awoke in her hospital bed.”

© vedrisha for Lazy Palace, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 10 years, home, hotel, moving out, photos, suit, woman

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

It is easy to guess what color and how the house looks like. Everything is pink inside and out. Even though, kitten is white, but the ribbon in her fur is pink, and that used as a motive in house. You can find pink ribbons all over the house. No matter where, it is everywhere, on the drapes, cushions, blankets and even on home appliances. Girls just love this house, so interest in visiting this Hello Kitten “museum” is really big.

© vedrisha for Lazy Palace, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: hello kitty, house, museum, pink, Shanghai

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Taj Mahal, India

Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China

Mecca, Saudi Arabia

La Alhambra, Granada

Kinderdijk, The Netherlands

Stonehenge, England

Pyramids of Giza, Egypt

The Acropolis in Athens, Greece

Chichen Itza, Mexico

Mount Fuji, Japan

World Trade Center in New York

Niagara Falls, NY

The Colosseum in Rome, Italy

Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany

(...)
Read the rest of Merged Tourist Photos (16 words)

© julia for Lazy Palace, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: amazing, art, Arts, awesome, cool, famous buildings, great, images, interesting, Karina Vionnet, merged tourist photos, photos, photos of tourists, pics, travel, world

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Wat Rong Khun
In Chiang Mai, Thailand, is unlike any Buddhist temples in the world.

Prambanan
It’s a Hindu temple in Central Java, Indonesia. The temple was built in 850 CE, and is composed of 8 main shrines and 250 surrounding smaller ones.

Shwedagon Paya ( Pagoda )
No one knows exactly when this temple in Myanmar was built. Legend has it that it is 2,500 years old though archaeologists estimate that it was built between the 6th and 10th century.

Temple of Heaven
It is a Taoist temple in Beijing, the capital of China. The temple was constructed in 14th century by Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty.

Chion-in Temple
It was built in 1234 CE to honor of the founder of Jodo (Pure Land) Buddhism, a priest named Honen, who fasted to death in the very spot.

Borobudur
In the 19th century, Dutch occupiers of Indonesia found a massive ancient ruin deep in the jungles of Java. What they discovered was the complex of Borobudur, a gigantic structure built with nearly 2 million cubic feet of stones. The temple has nearly 2,700 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues.

Golden Temple
The Harmandir Sahib ( meaning The Abode of God ) or simply the Golden Temple in Punjab, India, is the most sacred shrine of Sikhism.

Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple
The Temple of Srirangam ( Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple ) in the Indian city of Tiruchirapalli ( or Trichy ) is the largest functioning Hindu temple in the world. (Ankor Wat is the largest of all temple, but it is currently non-functioning as a temple – see below).

Ankor Wat
It is the largest temple in history and the inspiration to countless novels and action movies of Hollywood.

© julia for Lazy Palace, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: amazing, beautiful, earth, temples, world

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

© julia for Lazy Palace, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: amazing, awesome, cool, crazy, funny, gum, gum wall, gums, interesting, photos, pics, Seattle

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh