Missile Park United States

The Missile Site Park is great opportunity to step back into the Cold War Era of national defense. White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) in southern New Mexico, at nearly 8,300 square km, is one of the largest military installations in United States. The White Sands Missile Range Museum is situated within the premises of the military facility, about 100 km south of the Trinity Site. Missile Park is one of those cold war relics the static displays of handiwork. This is not a conventional park by any stretch of the imagination.  There's no large grass field, few trees and no place to play ball. 

Basically it is a test range with the main function of supporting missile development and test programs for the Army, Navy, Air Force, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), other government agencies and private industry. Such as most large military installations in the West, White Sands was created during World War II, which is officially established in July 9, 1945, one week before the world's first nuclear explosion, the Trinity test. From several years, most of the missile systems in the United States arsenal were tested at WSMR, including the V-2, Nike, Viking, Corporal, Lance and Multiple Launch Rocket Systems. As a bonus, the park is located at the East end of the Mugu runway, so you can hang out and watch all the cool military hardware take off and land.  

The missile museum is packed with information about the origin of America’s nuclear program, its pioneering ventures into space and the development of rockets as weapons, and about the achievements of scientists like Dr.Wernher von Braun and Dr. Clyde Tombaugh. However what you do get is an awesome little snapshot of various missiles produced from the late 50's until the present, along with a couple jet aircraft (An F4 Phantom and an F14 Tomcat)? The most captivating display of the museum is the missile park. Several of these missiles were classified, state-of-the-art and were engineered and built at a feverish pace as part of a nuclear deterrence strategy.  Both sides were utterly convinced that these WMD's were essential and helped her citizens sleep at night.  It is an outdoor display of over 60 diverse rockets used in combat from WWII to the Gulf War.

These include everything from the WAC Corporal and Loon (U.S. version of the V-1) to a Pershing II, a Patriot and the V-2, the world’s first long range ballistic missiles and the first man-made thing to reach the fringe of space. These rockets are well installed outside the museum building in an acre-sized garden, and most of them are pointing towards the sky just like to ready to blast off. Aside from housing a wealth of missile related technology, the museum has sections dedicated to the local flora and fauna, the native peoples who once lived on the land, and a room of paintings by a survivor of the brutal Bataan forced march of WWII, in which up to 10,000 Filipinos and 650 Americans died at Japanese hands. For any peaceniks out there, you maybe will not appreciate the exorbitant hard working and millions of man hours invested in these now harmless displays, but at least you can observe them close up and consider one of the most exciting and frightening times in our world's history. If you like the missile park, you'll love the Seabee museum who is just 10 minutes away.

Stairs To Heaven Gate Tianmen Shan China

China’s Tianmen Shan also famous with “The Heaven's Gate” Mountain in Hunan province is named after an unbelievable cave natural arch eroded through the karst syncline. The Heaven’s Gate, as the arch is called, is situated about 8 kilometers south of the city of Zhangjiajie. The Heaven’s Gate is accessed from Zhangjiajie by what may be the world's longest passenger cableway at a length of 7.5 kilometers, followed by a bus ride along an 11 kilometers long winding road with 99 bends called the “Heaven Linking Avenue” that reaches the top of the mountain. The purpose of these huts is contested in Chinese legend, looking for to serve either as a place of rest and worship, or to relax looking out over the world. This wonderful site, Heaven’s Gate is typically shadowed by blazing sunlight or mystical fog.

From there a set of stairs with exactly 999 steps take visitor’s right underneath the 130-meters tall and 57-meters wide arch. Tianmen Shan may be distinctive among the world's great arches in that its formation is recorded in history. Documents from China's "Three Kingdoms" period report that the full opening formed in one cataclysmic event when the back of a giant cave collapsed in 263 AD. Which in  result, the name of the mountain was changed from Songliang Shan to Tianmen Shan, which is also one of the very few natural arches with a precisely known age. In the recent times Tianmen Shan has become a target for stunt fliers, because of its location adjacent to the Zhangjiajie airport as well as its large opening. Acrobatic flying teams have flown through the opening. Tianmen Shan has a span of about 55 meters and a height of about 130 meters. It is really amazing how the Chinese managed to package this entire place for tourism. A hole is the mountain is now a major RMB/dollar earner. Anyway, the walk around the mountain and finally the Tianmen Cave, it would seem to be well worth.

Blue Lake, Nelson, New Zealand

In the middle of New Zealand, which is famous as one of the most beautiful countries in the world, is a lake that will absolutely blow your mind. It’s known as the Blue Lake. The body of water is also recognized as Rotomairewhenua, and it holds the title of the world’s clearest lake. 

Blue Lake is a small fresh water lake in Nelson Lakes National Park, in New Zealand's. Researchers of NIWA (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research) have found that lake has extreme visual clarity, almost up to 75 to 80 meters.  The clarity of Blue Lake has passed Te Waikoropupu Springs in Golden Bay which has visibility of 60 to 65 meters. Blue Lake is considered as “Optically Clear” as distilled water. The gorgeous Blue Lake has characterized by blue-violet hues seen only in the very clearest natural waters. The blue lake is spring fed from the neighboring glacial Lake Constance, but the water passes through landslide debris that forms a dam between the two lakes. The natural dam filters out nearly all the particles suspended in the water giving the lake the most intense natural blue-violet color.

Blue Lake recognized is optically outstanding, having observed on tramping trips that this water body appeared broadly similar to Te Waikoropupu. Several specialists believe visibility of Blue Lake has exceeded that of Te Waikoropupu. Mark Gall, The NIWA scientist in ocean optics instrumentation pays many visits by helicopter established that the horizontal visibility in the lake typically ranges from 70 to 80 metres as estimated from the best available instrumental measurements in the laboratory. So Blue Lake is a close approach to optically pure water. In some rare occasions, after torrential rain, Blue Lake can become temporarily murky, when particles washed in by surface runoff have been dispersed in the water.

Museum of Islamic Art in Doha Qatar

There is nothing timid about the motivations of the new Museum of Islamic Art. Rising on its own island just off the city’s just now developed waterfront corniche, it is the centerpiece of an massive effort to transform Qatar into an arts destination. The museum’s colossal geometric form has an ageless quality, evoking a past when Islamic art and architecture was a nexus of world culture. At the same time it conveys a hope for reconnecting again. The museum of Islamic art draws much influence from ancient Islamic architecture yet has an exclusive design. It was the first of its kind in the Persian Gulf and has a very large collection of Islamic art, plus a study, a library, and numerous restaurants. Sabiha Al Khemir served as the founding director of the museum from 2006 to 2008. The museum has a total area of 45,000 m2 and lies on the edge of Doha harbor at the south end of Doha Bay.

It’s construction done by Baytur Constr.Co. (Turkey), which is completed in 2006, but the interior was subjected to a range of changes thereafter. The museum celebrated a VIP opening on November 22, 2008, and opened to the general public on December 1, 2008. The lovely building seems austere by the standards of the flashy attention-grabbing forms that we have come to associate with Persian Gulf cities like Dubai and Abu Dhabi. It is designed by I. M. Pei, 91, who has described it as his last major cultural building, it recalls a time when architectural expression was both more earnest and more optimistic, and the rift between modernity and tradition had yet to reach full pitch.

The museum, which consist houses manuscripts, textiles, ceramics and other works generally assembled over the last 20 years, has emerged as one of the world’s most encyclopedic collections of Islamic art. The origins of its artifacts range from Spain to Egypt to Iraq, Iran, Turkey, India and Central Asia. The architecture is very solid and simple and there is nothing unnecessary. The imposing simplicity of this new museum is brought to life by the play of light and shadow under the gulf’s blazing sun. Doha in various ways is virginal and there is no real context there, no real life unless you go into the souk. It is seen from across the water is gorgeous sand-colored stone blocks call to mind the Tunisian fortresses it is modeled after. The museum is an object and it is treated as a piece of sculpture.