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Sunday, January 31, 2010

Tourism in Devil's Town Serbia

Tourism in Devil's Town Serbia

Djavolja Varos is a strange rock formation in south Serbia, created by strong water erosion of the surrounding soil

Djavolja Varos, which means ���Devil���s Town��� in Serbian, features 202 earth pyramids, each between 2-15 meters high and 4-6 meters wide. Most of these rock towers have an andesit cap that protects them from further erosion. When an earth pyramid protects its protective cap, it is quickly disintegrated by the falling rains, but they form just as quick, because of the heavy water erosion. This is what inspired locals to name this extraordinary site Djavolja Varos, because they believe changes like these happen when demons fight each other for power.

The strange sounds made by the wind in this place are also behind its creepy name. The murmurs, howling and squeaking coming from Djavolja Varos on windy nights have frightened local population for centuries and are at the bottom of their eerie legends.

Tourism in Devil's Town Serbia

Tourism in Devil's Town Serbia

Tourism in Devil's Town Serbia

Tourism in Devil's Town Serbia

Tourism in Devil's Town Serbia



Grotto Of The Redemption, Germany

 

Grotto Of The Redemption, Germany

The Grotto of the Redemption is an excellent example of what man can achieve with faith and hard work.

Paul Dobberstein was a German immigrant ordained as a priest in 1897. At some point he fell critically  ill with pneumonia and vowed he would dedicate his life to building a shrine to The Virgin Mary, if she would save his life. Father Dobberstein survived and soon after his recovery began gathering piles of rocks for his mission. His search for materials lasted 14 years.

Construction of the Grotto of the Redemption, in West Bend, Iowa,  began in 1912. Foundations were poured, stone slabs were set into place, all in the name of The Holy Virgin. Father Dobberson was actively involved in the building process and many times his hands would crack and bleed from all the cement. He would say “there isn’t any redemption without a little bloodâ€�..

Though West Bend isn’t the best place to look for crystals and semi-precious stones, Paul Dobberstein traveled to Hot Springs, Black Hills and Carlsbad Caverns and managed to gather truckloads of materials for his Grotto of the Redemption. The redeeming priest worked on expanding and improving the grotto until he died, in 1954, at the end of a long day’s work.

At the time of Dobberstein’s death, the Grotto of the Redemption was the size of a city block and is still expanding today. The crystals, semi-precious stones and petrified wood used to decorate the structures of the grotto are said to be worth over $4,300,000.

Considered “the world’s most complete man-made collection of minerals, fossils, shells and petrifications in one place�, the Grotto of the Redemption welcomes over 100,000 visitors every year. It reminds me a lot of the Ideal Palace.

INDIAN NOMADS

INDIA'S NOMADS

http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Nomads

INDIAN NOMADS

A roof overhead is new for Punkti, a shepherd's daughter in Rajasthan.

Family men still live under the stars, staying close to their animals.

INDIAN NOMADS

Drumbeats draw a crowd as acrobats from the Nat nomadic group perform outside Jodhpur in Rajasthan.

INDIAN NOMADS

Open space keeps shrinking for itinerant herders. In the Kutch region of Gujarat,

construction of a coal-fired power plant forces Sangbhai and his buffalo to detour down paved roads and past boundary walls to find what grazing land remains.

INDIAN NOMADS

During the dry season herding activity slackens, and the Rabari alter their routines.

In Rajasthan, women turn to grueling wage labor, earning two dollars a day for digging a reservoir.

INDIAN NOMADS

Men hunker down to shear sheep. Once the rains return, they'll set out with their flocks,

depending on landowners for access to water and pasture.

INDIAN NOMADS

Pleased with his day, a Rabari herdsman leads his animals to the spot where they'll bed for the night.

He'll sleep with them outdoors on a simple cot called a charpoy.

INDIAN NOMADS

A small boy practices with a slithery partner as his parents, members of the Vadi snake-handling community, watch and teach.

The Vadi, like many nomadic entertainers, increasingly depend on begging to survive.

INDIAN NOMADS

All Ali the magician and his two partners need for their escape act is a patch of dirt, a cluster of fascinated children,

and parents who will throw a few rupees at the performers' feet.

INDIAN NOMADS

Sand slows the progress of a group traveling by cart and foot. At the rear men push and a camel peers, while in front a mother carries the youngest child.

Their destination is a village in Rajasthan where the men will perform one of the world's oldest arts: storytelling.

A banner depicting figures in the tale will be unfurled, a fiddle will scratch, and voices will sing and chant of kings and gods.

INDIAN NOMADS

The scavenged tarp on their cart—and home—may advertise modernity,

but the skills and lowly status of the Gadulia Lohar haven't changed for generations.

Once weapon-makers for royalty, the blacksmiths now make and repair tools at roadside camps.

INDIAN NOMADS

A Rabari woman in Gujarat visits the grave of an ancestor.

A power plant dominates what was once open grazing land surrounding the burial ground.

 

 


Tourism in Pushkar Rajasthan

Tourism in Pushkar Rajasthan

Pushkar Mela – annual fair of camels and other livestock, which is held in Pushkar in the Indian state of Rajasthan, where each year sell more than 25 thousand camels. The fair attracts thousands of tourists, camels, merchants, drivers, local residents and the faithful Indians, who came to bathe in the holy Pushkar lake. And in the last day of celebrating Kartik Purnima – Indian holy day, celebrated on the full moon in the month of Kartik. In this issue are pictures reporter agency «Associated Press» Kevin Fryer, made during his trip to the fair Pushkar Mela this year.

tourism in Pushkar Rajasthan

tourism in Pushkar Rajasthan

tourism in Pushkar Rajasthan

tourism in Pushkar Rajasthan

tourism in Pushkar Rajasthan

tourism in Pushkar Rajasthan

tourism in Pushkar Rajasthan

tourism in Pushkar Rajasthan

tourism in Pushkar Rajasthan

tourism in Pushkar Rajasthan

tourism in Pushkar Rajasthan

tourism in Pushkar Rajasthan

tourism in Pushkar Rajasthan


 

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LOST HISTORY IN THE SHADOWS

*LOST HISTORY IN THE SHADOWS*_*

http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Nubia

LOST HISTORY IN THE SHADOWS

One of the greatest—and last—of the Nubians who ruled Egypt in the seventh and eighth centuries B.C., the pharaoh known as Taharqa restored the grandeur of ancient temples

along the Nile while fighting off Assyrians who invaded from the north. Assyrian king Assurbanipal’ s troops finally pushed him south to his Nubian homeland, where he died in 664 B.C.

LOST HISTORY IN THE SHADOWS

After capturing city after city along the Nile River in 730 B.C., troops commanded by King Piye of Nubia storm the great walled capital of Memphis with flaming arrows.

Piye modeled himself after powerful pharaohs such as Ramses II (statues), claiming to be the rightful ruler of Egypt.

His triumph over the northern chiefs would unite all Egypt under Nubian rule for three-quarters of a century.

LOST HISTORY IN THE SHADOWS

Rows of Nubian archers march in stride in a wooden model, about 20 inches high, discovered in Assiut in the tomb of an 11th dynasty provincial governor named Mesehti.

This period, around 2000 B.C., was one of turmoil in Egypt, and many local chiefs recruited Nubians and other foreigners to fight in their armies.

LOST HISTORY IN THE SHADOWS

The ruins of columns, along with one restored to its full height, mark the entrance porch that King Taharqa added to the

Great Temple of Amun at Karnak, one of ancient Egypt’s most sacred sites.

LOST HISTORY IN THE SHADOWS

Statues of Nubian kings up to ten feet high were found buried at the Nubian capital of Kerma, in Sudan.

Smashed during Egyptian King Psamtek II’s incursion south around 593 B.C., they were recently reassembled.

LOST HISTORY IN THE SHADOWS

At the height of his power, King Taharqa leads his queens through the crowds during a festival at the temple complex of Nubia’s Jebel Barkal,

its pinnacle gleaming with gold. Accompanied by a sacred ship bearing an image of the god Amun,

Taharqa is robed in a priestly leopard skin and crowned with the double uraeus that declares him Lord of the Two Lands—ruler of both Nubia and Egypt.

LOST HISTORY IN THE SHADOWS

Queen Kawit, shown on her sarcophagus having her hair dressed, was one of the noble women

believed to have been sent from Nubia to make diplomatic marriages with 11th-dynasty pharaoh Mentuhotep II.

LOST HISTORY IN THE SHADOWS

At Jebel Barkal, Taharqa created a temple dedicated to the goddess Mut,

the consort of Amun—part of a grand building campaign throughout his empire, from northern Egypt down into Nubia.

LOST HISTORY IN THE SHADOWS

A lion devouring a Nubian, crafted during the 19th dynasty possibly as a fly-whisk handle,

symbolizes the valiant ruler of Egypt subjugating the Nubians to protect his country and avert chaos.

LOST HISTORY IN THE SHADOWS

Nubia was a major source of gold for ancient Egypt. At Thebes the tomb of King Tutankhamun’s viceroy to

Nubia—a man named Huy—shows Nubian royalty in procession delivering rings of gold as part of their tribute to their overlord.

LOST HISTORY IN THE SHADOWS

The skilled goldsmiths of Nubia created masterpieces such as a pendant of the goddess Isis from the tomb of a Nubian king at Nuri.

LOST HISTORY IN THE SHADOWS

Centuries after Nubia lost control of Egypt, it continued to follow its neighbor’s tradition of marking royal tombs with pyramids,

like these restored at Meroë. Today Sudan has more pyramids than Egypt.