Prague’s Klementinum, The Most Beautiful Library in The World

Prague’s Klementinum library is one of most beautiful libraries in the world, and it was opened in 1722. Though, aside housing more than 20,000 books for your reading pleasure, this location showcases unquestionably spectacular Baroque architecture. As you are checking various timeworn bookshelves, you can take a moment to look up and see Jan Hiebl's heavenly, Renaissance-style ceiling paintings. Between his splendid works, there’re symbolic designs that represent the significance of education, along with fanciful portraits of Jesuit saints. Hence, Hiebl's paintings in fact pay homage to the fact that the library was formerly a Jesuit university. Several of the school's rare, 17th-century books are still amongst its collection these days. That would easily explain why Emperor Joseph II's portrait is displayed at the head of the hall, since he was the one who arranged for eliminated monastic libraries to send their books to “Klementinum”. At present, Google has numerous of these volumes in their possession because they're scanning them for Google Books. In 1777, Maria Theresa declared “Klementinum” to be a public and university library. This permitted the Prague community to observer this local treasure in person, to marvel at the globes that line the center of the library, and to study Jan Klein's intricate astronomical clocks. Source: Charismatic Planet

The Lion’s Mound of Battlefield of Waterloo

The Lion’s Mound is a big conical and artificial hill located in Braine-l’Alleud, Belgium, with a lion statue at the peak that memorializes the location on the battlefield of Waterloo where a musket ball struck William II of the Netherlands (the Prince of Orange) in the shoulder. Jean-François Van Geel (1756–1830) sculpted the model lion, which narrowly resembles the 16th-century Medici lions. It is also a memorial of the Battle of Quatre Bras, which had been fought two days earlier, on 16 June 1815. The mount is 141 feet in height and has a circumference of 1706 feet. Its volume is greater than 514,000 yd3, which far exceeds the frequent claim of 300,000 m3. These days, the surrounding area is used to cultivate beets. The hill giving a vista of the battlefield, and is the anchor point of the associated museums and taverns in the surrounding Lion’s Hamlet. Visitors who pay a fee may climb up the Mound’s 226 steps, which lead to the statue and its surrounding overlook where there are maps documenting the battle, along with observation telescopes.

The statue lion standing upon a stone-block pedestal surmounts the hill. The lion is the heraldic beast on the personal coat of arms of the monarch of The Netherlands, and symbolizes courage. At the behest of William I, the Royal Architect Charles Vander Straeten designed the monument. The engineer Jean-Baptiste Vifquain considered of it as a symbol of the Allied victory, rather than as venerating any sole individual.

The Mound's shape is that of a tumulus of the Belgae, whom Julius Caesar called the bravest of the Gallic tribes. The conic hill and its lion have become an icon of Waterloo, and these days they appear on the municipality's coat of arms. Moreover, earth from various parts of the battlefield, including the fields between “La Haye Sainte” farm and the Duke of Wellington's sunken lane, is in the huge man-made hill. Ictor Hugo, in his novel “Les Miserables”, wrote that the Duke of Wellington visited the site two years after the Mound's completion and said, they’ve altered my field of battle! The alleged remark by Wellington as described by Hugo was never documented, however. There is a legend that the foundry melted down brass from cannons that the French had left on the battlefield, in order to cast the metal lion. In fact, the foundry made nine separate partial casts in iron, and amassed those components into one statue at the monument site.

Kachaghakaberd, A Top Fortress Amazes Everybody With its Majestic Beauty

Kachaghakaberd is a mountain-top fortress in the Martakert Province of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic within Azerbaijan, where it lies in the Tartar Rayon. Kachaghakaberd is translated from Armenian as magpie's fortress, a combination of the words kachaghak, designating the bird “magpie” and “berd” meaning fortress. First time it was mentioned in the 8-th century when defending against Arab invasion. It is called magpie fortress, because it was an inaccessible place, and only magpies could reach to the top of the mountain. The bare, whitish rock is like a massive heavenly stone deep in forest, and which amazes everybody with its majestic beauty becomes more poetic when looks at the whitish stone with fortress rising out of completely green forests and reaching the blue of the sky. It seemed that the nature itself took care for Kachaghakaberd fort to be impregnable.

Kachaghakaberd was an asylum for the inhabitants of the nearest villages for centuries. According to some legends that Spram princess with her daughter overcame a hard way to reach Kachaghakaberd and found there a shelter after her husband`s death. The fortress was a significant fortification of the medieval Armenian Principality of Khachen that flourished in the High Middle Ages and is situated at over 1700 meters height. Moreover it is beautifully surrounded by vertical limestone cliffs with the heights of 50 to 60 meters, has a hard-to-reach entrance from the southern side of the fortress. During its prime historical chronicles no one could ever storm the fortress, as the parts of the defensive walls remain standing. The fortress territory actually occupies a large area, though it seems very small. Therefore, several rooms, secret passages cut into the cliffs, gun slots, and distinct "loopholes" for throwing stones at enemies are inside its territory. The problem of water supply was overcome by a distinctive method: two rock-cut reservoirs to store rain and melt-water are in the center of the fortress; hence fresh water was brought from a spring at the foot of the mountain. When you look from the top of the “Kachaghakaberd” hill there is a pleasing panoramic view opens to the mountains covered with thick woods and the river Tartar running beneath.

The Mysterious Manpupuner Rock Formations

The Manpupuner rock formations are a set of 7 huge stone pillars situated on a flat plateau, west of the Ural Mountains in the Troitsko-Pechorsky District of the Komi Republic. More than 200 million years ago this area was comprises with high mountains. However, natural weathering conditions by rain, wind, snow, coldness and heat progressively damaging the mountains, particularly the weaker rock. The comparatively hard sericite-quartzite schist, which the stone pillars are composed of, lasted and now towers over the surrounding plain. One of these pillars stand to some extent apart from the others, and with its slender bottom and broad mid-section look like a massive bottle, turned upside down. Moreover, six others are lined up at the edge of a cliff. People have seen all sorts of shapes in these pillars the figure of a man, or the head of a horse or a sheep. To each of these monoliths is between 30 to 42 meters high. This wonderful ready-made piece of folklore must have stimulated a thousand variations on the story over the millennia since people first come across the Manpupuner Rock Formations. And why not geologists still haven’t quite worked out what happened exactly to make the formation.

Moreover, these pillars are also called the "Seven Giants" or "Seven Strong Men" are mysterious, starkly contrasting their plateau environment. According to a several local legends, the stone pillars were once an entourage of Samoyeds giants walking through the mountains to Siberia in order to abolish the Mansi people. Though, the men were challenged by a shaman with the white face, called Yallingner, who turned all the warriors into stones. Yallingner himself was turned into a stone, and since then, the seven formations have been standing in this area, with one facing the other six. It is believed one of the Seven Wonders of Russia, the Manpupuner rock formations are a very popular attraction in Russia, though not well known internationally and comparatively unspoiled by tourism, thanks to their remote location. Visitors trying to understand these bizarre monuments, and looking for a greater challenge can attempt to climb the Strong Men. However, reaching the top of the Manpupuner Formations is in actual fact impossible considering their shape and texture and a number of expert climbers have failed in their face.