Mughal Emperor Jahangir Tomb

In 1637, a mausoleum built by Mughal Emperor Jahangir is located in Shahdara adjacent to Lahore, Pakistan. This is called Tomb of Jahangir, along the banks of River Ravi. Emperor Jahangir, who ruled the Mughal Empire from 1605 to 1627 C.E. The Janangir mausoleum is most popular due to its fantasist interiors extensively embellished with frescoes and marbles. This spot had been a favorite area of Jahangir and his wife Nur Jahan when they resided in Lahore, and this spot was usually used as a point of departure for travels to and from Kashmir and Lahore. The Jahangir Tomb along with Akbari Sarai, Tomb of Asif Khan are in the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage status. Much of mausoleum’s exterior that is richly decorated with pietra dura. This was rural area famous for its many pleasure gardens. The tomb in located in Nur Jahan's pleasure garden, the Dilkusha Garden, that had been laid out in 1557. The tomb of Jahangir's wife Nur Jahan is located slight southwest of Asif Khan's tomb. However, the Tomb of Asif Khan, built in 1645, and the Akbari Sarai, built in 1637, are located immediately west of Jahangir's tomb complex. Flooding from the nearby River Ravi threatened or damaged the site sustained water damage during flooding in 1988 that covered much of the site in 10 feet of water for 5 days.

Jahangir was died on 28 October 1627 in the foothills Kashmir when he was on travelling to town of Rajauri. His dead body was carried from Kashmir to Shahdara on 12 Nov 1627. The Dilkusha Garden was his favourite spot of Jahangir and his wife Nur Jahan, when they lived in Lahore.  The funeral procession done by his son (Emperor Shah Jahan) in that place , ordered a mausoleum befitting an Emperor should be built in his father's honor to inter his remains. Jahangir has renewed interest in minarets; however some historians attribute construction of tomb to Jahangir’s son Shah Jahan. Jahangir’s wife Nur Jahan had vision of constructing tomb, taking inspiration from her father’s burial place. It is believed, that construction cost was around 10 lakh and it took three years to finish. The tomb's gardens are laid out in the Persian Chahar Bagh style. Hence, the construction work of the mausoleum lasted 10 years, from 1627 to 1637, and was most likely funded by the imperial treasury (though there is some evidence that Jahangir's wife, Nur Jahan, may have financed the construction).

In 1814, some repair work done by Sikh rule when they were pillaged by the army of Ranjit Singh, with building materials used for decoration of the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The tomb complex, was also desecrated and pillaged grounds were then converted for use as a private residence for an officer in the army of Ranjit Singh.  The monuments suffered further under British rule, when a railway line was built between the tombs of Asif Khan and Nur Jahan. The site was then repaired by the British between somewhere 1889-1890. The tombs walls are inlaid with carved marble.

The walls of the tomb are inlaid with red sandstone and carved marble motifs. Arcades surround the tomb and feature ghalib kari, or ribs inlaid into arched surfaces on the arch's curved areas. The square shaped mausoleum’s is 22 foot tall and roof is embellished with marble. The building rise four octagonal ornamental minarets decorated with geometric inlaid stone. The minarets rise to a height of 100 feet and the body of the minaret rests, called by white marble cupolas. Also, the burial chamber contains the Emperor's cenotaph. The series of vaulted compartments are richly adorned with Mughal buon fresco. In the center of the mausoleum is an octagonal chamber lined with carved marble in which the remains of the Mughal Emperor rest in a crypt below a cenotaph.

 

The interior of the tomb features a white-marble cenotaph inlaid with pietra dura in vegetal patterns, as well as the 99 Names of Allah, a common theme in Islamic mysticism. The mausoleum is set in a large quadrangle with gates facing each of the cardinal directions. Thus, entry to the quadrangle is through the western edge via the Akbari Sarai. Also there is a gate featuring a small mosque. To the immediate west of the Akbari Sarai is the Tomb of Asif Khan - Jahangir's brother-in-law. Nowadays, the tomb of Jahangir holds exceptional significance for Pakistanis as it is the only Mughal tomb located in present-day Pakistan. Its image appears on the 1,000 rupee banknote and it remains one of Lahore's most popular attractions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source: CP

Thilafushi: A Garbage Island of Maldives

In the initial thoughts, you would probably listen about the unimagined beauty of Maldives. But, what you have heard is that really Garbage Island in Maldives? Yes, millions of tourists and four hundred thousands of permanent residents dump garbage each day. They dump it into another island of course. What does an island with not a speck of land to spare do to get rid of garbage? The spectacular tropical island of Maldives is famous for its sandy beaches, luxury accommodation and turquoise waters. However, very people know the drawback of dirty side of Maldives.

As per official statistics, a single tourist produces 3.5kg of garbage a day, twice as much as someone from Malé and five times more than anyone from the rest of the Maldives archipelago. The landfill island is a sort of eerie, beautiful apocalyptic art piece. Instead of looking at this wasteland is really horrific. The west of Male’ we could clearly see the thick cloud of smoke that endlessly leaves Thilafushi and disperses ever so gently into the blue sky.

The Thilafushi, the location of Maldives’s municipal landfill few miles west of Male is the capital of Maldives and most densely populated islands on earth. Thilafushi, an artificial island 7km from the capital, is nicknamed Rubbish Island. You would be amazed to hear, that Thilafushi was not even an island and not always a garbage island. Somewhere 25 years ago, Thilafushi was a pristine lagoon called “Thilafalhu”. However in 1991 a decision was taken to reclaim the lagoon as a landfill to address the ongoing problems of waste disposal generated by tourism industry.

Hence within few months the garbage started to thrive here. Massive pits were dug into the sand and waste received from Male and other inhabited islands of Maldives were deposited into the pits. Then topped off with a layer of construction debris and then uniformly leveled with white sand. Much of the rubbish comes from the luxury resorts which, reportedly, do not follow the rules on crushing their waste. In a BBC report in May 2012, the island of waste was described as "apocalyptic" A local environmental organization “Bluepeace”, charges that used batteries, asbestos, lead and other possibly hazardous waste, mixed with the municipal solid waste from Malé, is seeping into the water and creating severe ecological and health problems in the Maldives.

Thilafushi,  obvious that this island isn’t like any other island in Maldives. There were NO white sandy beaches, swaying palm trees, grass huts or crystal clear turquoise water. As Thilafushi’s landmass started to grow, the Maldives government started leasing out land to industries such as boat manufacturing, cement packing, methane gas bottling and many large scale warehousing. So these days more than three dozen factories at Thilafushi, and homes of 200 Bangladeshi migrants who sift through the 330 hundred tons of waste that arrive on the island each day.

The routine is for mainly Bangladeshi workers to sift through the trash to look for materials their employers can sell. Therefore, much is being deposited that the island is developing by a square meter each day. One of drastic effect is, some of the waste is now drifting into the ocean and getting washed at Male’s beaches and polluting many dive sites around the region. Environmentalists also accuse impatient boatmen of dumping waste directly into the lagoon because proper unloading could take up to seven hours. Further waste became such a big problem that the government once banned dumping garbage on the island in 2011.

A little chunk of the waste is now getting exported to India to be recycled. However, these images show the darker side to the Maldives - with huge amounts of rubbish washed up on the island’s pristine sands. It saddens that islands are being trashed all over the place. Some of beaches are magnets for the world’s trash. The currents bring in debris literally from all over the world. It needs to stop because Thilafushi islands and the sea life are paying a heavy toll.

Presently this is a big problem but the country relies on bottled water for health and hygiene. The Garbage Island to take care of the rubbish and it's plume of smoke as you fly into Male. Many local islands have a garbage problem at the high tide line too. The culture is not educated in the ways of proper rubbish disposal and dropping litter is widespread. Just like the rest of the world, they all have to learn.

A plastic recycling company needs to create an agreement with the government to collect the plastic, educate the people and create a "greener" environment. The Maldives may claim to be the first carbon neutral Country but in reality they have isolation and bad infrastructure for waste management. They need help! Let's not forget the waters really are that clear, the sea life really it's that amazing, tourism is their life blood- let's not ruin that!

 

Island of Dolls, Mexico

Every year hundreds of photographers and thrill seekers travel to haunt Isla De Las Mulecas (island of the Dolls). That doesn’t mean it’s a tourist destination. After a two-hour canal ride from Mexico City, a nightmarish clearing deep in the woods where thousands of mutilated dolls hang from the trees and hide among the dense branches. A reclusive Mexican man who believed dedicated to the soul of young girl, appease the troubled ghost who passed away at a tender age there over 50 years ago, still haunts the woods today. It is also known locally as the 'chinampas' where, grew vegetables and flowers to sell in the nearest town but never spoke to anyone while he was there.

The island of dolls is a creepiest destination in Xochimilco, Mexico. It was a floating garden, now home to hundreds of terrifying, mutilated dolls. Their severed limbs, decapitated heads, and blank eyes hung on trees, fences and nearly every available surface. The dolls appear menacing even in the bright light of midday, but in the dark they are particularly haunting. The tragic story behind this haunted island lies occurred in 1950. Don Julian Santana Barrera was the only dweller and caretaker of the island. He found a little girl drowned, in a canal surrounding the island strangely. He wasn’t able to save her life. Hence, shortly thereafter, Julian saw a floating doll near the canal, assuming it to be the girl’s doll.

He later discovered a doll floating in the same waters and, assuming it belonged to the deceased girl, hung it from a tree as a sign of respect. His descent into madness began with this seemingly innocent act. He was feeling so guilty of not saving the girl’s life. She has made Julian restless. He felt that the island was haunted by the girl’s spirit. Only one doll, he felt was not enough to please the child, he felt the girl needed company. Barrera began to hear whispers, footsteps and the anguished wails of a woman in the darkness even though his hut - hidden deep inside the woods of Xochimilco - was miles away from civilization. Terrified by the spirit, he started collecting dolls. He would find in the canal, from heaps of trash and hundreds of toys. Then some missing body parts from the trees and the wire fencing which surrounded his wooden shack.

Over half a century, he collected more than 1,500 of these little horrors. All the dolls are still there untouched. They look like decaying corpses of children. Later Santana died of a heart attack in 2001, and a small white cross near the water marks his grave. Some stories say that he was found drowned in the canal in the same manner as the dead girl. Julian Santana Barrera retreated to the woods soon after she drowned in the nearby canal. Driven by fear, he hung the dismembered toys from the trees to protect himself from her ghost and spent the next 50 years 'decorating' the woods in a desperate attempt to appease her.

He was also claimed that he could hear her tormented screams and footsteps in the darkness. However, the truth behind the story is still a mystery. Some even doubt the existence of the drowned girl. Some say Julian had made up this story in his loneliness. Some say that Julian had gone mad and felt that the dolls were the tortured spirits of children who passed early. People close to Julian say that it felt as if he was driven by a certain force, which had changed him completely. Even today after the 14 years of his own mysterious death in those woods. The visitors say they hear whispers in the night and feel the dolls' eyes following them through the trees.

The area was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987, which expanded tourism to the area. But there excitement turns to horror when they stumble upon the Island of the Dolls. The truth, as told by his family members who now run the island as a tourist attraction. Barrera simply believed the island was haunted by the spirit of the dead girl he found in the canal. After his death, the area became a popular tourist attraction where visitors bring more dolls. The locals describe it as 'charmed' not haunted and even though travelers claim the dolls whisper to them. For decades, many dolls were exposed to the elements and are certainly weathered and decayed with only doll-heads hanging from rusty wires in the tree. Visitors leave coins and trinkets at several of the doll shrines found inside some of the Island’s loosely-constructed buildings. Source: CP

 

 

Providence Canyon, Georgia

 

Providence Canyon is about 150 miles southwest of Atlanta, in the US state of Georgia. This is a network of gorges and huge gullies lovingly called Georgia's “Little Grand Canyon.” Providence Canyon is considered to be one of Georgia’s “Seven Natural Wonders”. Providence Canyon is a perfect example of a testament to the power of man’s influence on the land. Surprisingly it isn’t at all natural. Many Georgians aren't aware of Providence Canyon It's situated in an outdoor recreation area that encompasses 1,103 acres and 16 canyons. These imposing canyons were formed not by the action of a river, erosion of more than millions. It is of years by rainwater runoff from farm fields in less than a century. The canyon exquisitely-hued sediment walls are a product of inexperienced farmers making a colossal mess of things, and Mother Nature just kind of worked with it from there.

 

Providence Canyon started creating in the start of 18th century due to poor farming practices. That prevailed across the nation and especially in the south. In those days, land and agriculture was very cheap, infinite and seemingly expendable giving way to a combination of plantations. A small farms sooner or later a sharecropper system that not only degraded the land. Hence it also kept farmers in debt and uneducated. Native forest cover was cleared so the land could be farmed. No measures were taken to avoid soil erosion leading to huge loss of topsoil. Therefore, small gullies started to form and speedily grew deeper and more extensive, until they were three to five feet deep by the 1850s. These small channels started to further focus runoff increasing the rate of erosion. Nowadays, some of the gullies at Providence Canyon are about 150 feet deep.

 

In spite of its current formation, Providence Canyon is a treasure trove for geologists and visitors. Because, over the times passes, erosion has exposed the geologic record of many million years within its walls.  The minerals have stained the sediments, making a wide range of colors. The Canyons are lies in a region that was formed by deposition of marine sediments between somewhere 60 to 74 million years ago. Moreover, the soil in the top part of the canyon wall was deposited about 65 million years ago. It was just after the age of the dinosaurs. It’s fairly coarse sand is a reddish color caused by the presence of iron oxide.

 

Providence Canyon continues to erode, however, the floor of the canyon is more resistant and growth of pine trees, buses and other vegetation has helped stabilize the soil. Underneath this formation lies what is acknowledged as the Providence Sand. It makes up most of the canyon walls. It is 119 feet thick and was deposited about 72 million years ago. The upper part of this layer is very fine sand mixed with white clay. Thus, the middle layer is coarse and more intriguing, with beds of yellow (limonite) and purple (manganese) deposits. The lowest and oldest layer is black and yellow mica-rich clay. In addition to sightseeing and taking photographs, Georgia's Little Grand Canyon offers the many activities, i.e. hiking, camping, stargazing, picnic, and geological. 

 

The bottom of the Providence Canyon floor was deposited about 75 million years ago. Its orange color is poorly exposed and overgrown by vegetation. Visitors are advised to enjoy views of canyons from the rim trail, but need to stay behind fences and off the fragile canyon edge. Providence Canyon has a few other eccentricities that make it stand out from your standard canyon hike. Hiker’s likes to explore the deepest canyons will usually find a thin layer of water along the trail, indication of the water table below. There is a playground, picnic tables and overnight campgrounds available, with several trails of varying difficulty.