Thursday 14 January 2016

Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport: The Shortest Commercial Runway in the World

Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport is an airport on the Dutch Caribbean island of Saba. The airport has the shortest commercial runway in the world, just 396 meters (1,299 ft) long, flanked on one side by high hills, with cliffs that drop into the sea at both ends. The airport (also known as Saba airport) named after the Aruban Minister Juancho Irausquin, although is closed to jet traffic, regional airline propeller aircraft are able to land there under waivers from The Netherlands Antilles' Civil Aviation Authority. The most common aircraft to land there are the Twin Otter and BN-2 Islander. Some aviation experts are of having similar opinion that the airport is one of the most dangerous in the world, in spite of the fact that no major tragedies have happened at the facility.

The runway is too short, so jet aircraft are unable to land at the airport. Though, smaller airplanes and helicopters are common to land at the airport. It is well known among experienced fliers for the way in which airplanes must approach or take off from the airport. There is a small ramp and terminal on the southwest flank of the runway, and also has a designated helipad. The terminal building houses offices for Winair, immigration and security, a fire department with one fire truck and a tower. The tower is an advisory service only and does not offer air traffic control. Moreover, aviation fuel is not available on the island of Saba. 

Therefore, the local airline Winair (A government owned airline based in St. Maarten) is presently serving Yrausquin Airport, which operates daily flights to Sint Maarten aboard a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter. The largest airplane ever to manage flights to and from Saba is the DHC-7. However, the average flights to Saint Maarten last no longer than a quarter of an hour. There’s possibility that an airplane might overshoot the runway during landing or takeoff and end up in the sea or on the cliffs. 

Sunday 10 January 2016

Cave of Kelpius

People have been involved to religious cults throughout the history. However, when the 17th century ended, countless people were fleeing from Europe to avoid persecution and some headed for the new world or America as we know it nowadays. Indeed Cave of Kelpius is a mysterious cave in Philadelphia, located in the dense woods really weird connection to a secret society and even extraterrestrials. Cave of Kelpius is built by a man named Johannes Kelpius, famous as “Monk of the Ridge”.  Johannes Kelpius was born in Halwagen, Germany, near Denndorf about 1673, and he was an astronomer and a scientist, had a Ph. D degree. He has different interest, but his most liked action is to looking at the sky through a telescope for bizarre arrival. He was extremely talented and far ahead of his times in terms of his knowledge in technology which cause people thought that he was a magician.

Well, if you look cave outside closely, you’ll observer it is built with extra care with a nice rusted door hinge, however the other is broken. The cave was built in 1694 and as anticipated, it is dark inside, but had a fireplace and chimney. Kelpius use to make his experiments alone in this cave. The cave roof is arched not flat, which shows how well constructed this Cave is? The inside of cave, an earthen floor and cross on walls a popular symbol of Satan. Therefore, other strange symbols and codes painted on the walls. Thus, no other artifacts or anything, but most of belongings of Kelpius, carefully taken away and ultimately given to Benjamin Franklin who was founding father of U.S and a great astronomer as well.  

The purpose of Cave building in Philadelphia is interesting, when Kelpius sailed all the way from Europe in a severe weather, actually convinced by a woman from sky, would be landing in Philadelphia. Though, the prediction was not only based on his astronomical observation but also the verses in Revelation 12:14 through 12:16. It talks about a woman who had wings and gives birth to a baby son who was destined to rule the world. Therefore, Kelpius reaches at Philadelphia with 40 men; all of them were college graduates. This huge numbers of astronomers and scientists has been observing the stars and planets. They wanted to extract information of extraterrestrial landing would take place precisely, where this Cave is now situated. As they’ve settled them, Kelpius sets up the first astronomical observatory in the Province of Pennsylvania. These 40 men’s team took turns to keep looking at the sky 24 hours a day, uses sophisticated telescope, which is so special and still preserved in the American Philosophical society founded by Benjamin Franklin. He keeps Kelpius belongings and put a lot of efforts into preserving the gadgets. Benjamin Franklin was a strong believer in extraterrestrials and hoping that aliens would land on earth sooner or later.

Well, a large marble stone right next to this cave, set by a secret society named Rosicrucians. They believe Kelpius was the first Rosicrucian to come to the U.S. The most intriguing information about this stone is some kind of code only read by Rosicrucians. i.e. a word written on the TOP is “Cro Maat” means “The Truth shall be” is a Egyptian word, however, Rosicrucian society is officially called “The Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis”. Although, this is entirely irrelevant, but if you reverse the order of words,  


But the most intriguing detail about this stone is that it is some kind of a code that can be read only by Rosicrucians. I'll give you an example: On the top, you can see the words "Cro Maat". If you Google Cro Maat, you'll see that it is Egyptian for the words "The Truth Shall Be". But, the Rosicrucian Society is officially called "The Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis". This seems totally irrelevant, but if you reverse the order of these words, Crucis Rosae Order Mystical and Ancient the" and then take the first letter of every word, you get "Cro Maat".

Saturday 9 January 2016

Aokigahara Forest - The Suicide Forest

Well, it is easily called "the perfect place to die," the Aokigahara forest has the ill-fated distinction of the worlds second most popular place to take one's life. It is believed that the first is the Golden Gate Bridge. Aokigahara is also recognized as the Suicide Forest or Sea of Trees is a 35-square-kilometre forest that lies at Mount Fuji's northwest base in Japan. The so called suicide forest holds a number of rocky, icy caverns, a few of which are popular tourist destinations.

The forest has a historic association with demons in Japanese mythology, and it is an infamously common suicide site, and a sign at the head of the main trail urges suicidal visitors to think about their families and contact a suicide prevention association. The forest comprises of volcanic rock and really an arduous task to penetrate with hand tools like picks or shovels. One can get easily lost, if side out from official trails. Many adventure lovers’ uses plastic tape to mark their paths in order to avoid getting lost. 

Since the 1950s, Japanese businessmen have wandered in, and at least 500 of them haven't wandered out, at an increasing rate of between 10 and 30 per year. However these numbers have bigger even more, with a record 78 suicides in 2002. Therefore, Japanese spiritualists have strongly believed that the suicides committed in the forest have permeated “Aokigahara's trees”, creating paranormal activity and preventing a lot of who enter from escaping the forest's depths.

However, complicating matters further is the common experience of compasses being rendered useless by the rich deposits of magnetic iron in the area's volcanic soil. Furthermore, this is very unique forest, and barely having any wildlife, however very quiet making hides a more macabre side. 
As the forest is too vast and adventure hunters are unlikely to encounter anyone once inside the so-called "Sea of Trees," so the police have escalate signs reading "Your life is so precious gift from your parents," and " it is highly suggest to consult the police before you decide to die!" on trees throughout.

Even this statement leaving no prevention on adventure seekers, and they’re determined to commit suicide in this dense forest. Some analytical figures showing, those 70 corpses have founded by volunteers who clean the woods, and many of them lost in thick woods forever.  Therefore, Japanese authorities publishing the suicide numbers in order to prevent the peoples to visit this forest, and making this even more popular.  

The Aokigahara was a place where Japanese carried their elders to die of starvation (a practice called ubasute), hence it became extremely popular after the 1960’s when a novel by famed author Seichō Matsumoto was published. In this novel called "Tower of Waves", a couple commit suicides in the Aokigahara forest. Therefore, the author described the “Aokigahara” is the perfect place to commit suicide and even described which parts of the forests are less circulated so the bodies cannot be found later on.

The local legends have different opinions, they have easily spotted three types of visitors to the forest: trekkers interested in scenic vistas of Mount Fuji, the curious hoping for a glimpse of the macabre, and those souls who don’t plan on returning. Moreover, what those hoping to take their lives may not consider is the impact the suicides have on the locals and forest workers. A local man has expressed his words like this, “It bugs the hell out of me that the area's famous for being a suicide spot." The local police said, we've seen plethora of bodies that have been really badly decomposed, or been killed by wild animals. Hence, there's nothing beautiful about dying in there.

Furthermore, the local forest workers have it even worse than the police. The workers carry the bodies down from the forest to the local station, where the bodies are put in a special room used distinctively to house suicide corpses. They play jan-ken-pon—rock, paper, scissors—to see who has to sleep in the room with the corpse. So, they might have different superstitions, that if the corpse is left alone, it is considered bad luck for the yurei (ghost) of the suicide victims. Their spirits are said to scream through the night, and their bodies will move on their own. Source: Charismatic Planet

















A Slice of Colorado’s Autumn

During September and October of 2013 and 2015 I drove from San Francisco back to my birth state of Colorado to experience a bit fall. Growing up there, I was young and not really into photography yet. So it is amazing to go back every year now and see it with a whole new perspective. I did sneak one clip in from summer.
View Full Project with Photos: tobyharriman.com/portfolio/a-slice-of-colorados-autumn/
Cameras:
Canon 6D, 5D MK III
iPhone 6s Plus
DJI Inspire 1
Special thanks to Induro Tripods, VÌ Filters, Adobe, Guayaki, Rhino, eMotimo and Russell Brown from Adobe with DJI for supporting me on my adventures with incredible products.
Music Licensed From: James Everingham Music
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A Slice of Colorado's Autumn from Toby Harriman on Vimeo.

Istanbul City 4K

This is the first video of our project CITIES in 4K. We choosed the amazing Istanbul City in 4K resolution to start the project with. Hope you will like it and follow our journey on youtube through other amazing cities.
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Some scenes which are part of the video are: Panoramic view on the Bosphorus Bridge and Eminonu square, Valens Aquaeduct with traffic, Amazing view from Camlica hill, Eminonu Pier, Maidens Tower, Interior of Sultan Ahmet Mosque, Inside of Hagia Sophia museum, People Crowd in Grand Bazaar, Kadikoy Harbor, New Mosque in Eminonu, Sehzade Mosque, Topkapi Palace, Ortakoy Mosque.
Filmed and Edited by Amir Kulaglic using: Canon 5D Mark III and GH4 with Emotimo and Rhino Slider. For Day to night transition i use Timelapse+ Intervalometer.
All videos are available for licensing, contact me here: citiesin4k@gmail.com
Music license by audiojungle
If you would like to hire me or license my clips you can reach me at: akfilmsnet@gmail.com

Istanbul city in 4K from amyrXA on Vimeo.

The Lanterns of Dead in France


Lanterns of the Dead in Sarlat-la-Canéda Dordogne are the architectural name for the small towers in stone found chiefly in the center and west of France. Lanterns of the dead are pierced with small openings at the top, where a light was exhibited at night to indicate the position of a cemetery. In the second half of 12th century, this imposing cylindrical structure topped by a cone has towered over the city’s cemetery. It wasn’t until the 13th century the true spelling was learned; however it was in fact a "Lantern of the Moors". Hence, this would explain its Islamic style, and the fact that this monument was probably built in memory of the second crusade to Jerusalem, in which St Bernard de Clairvaux took part.

This tower is generally circular, having a small entrance in the lower part offering access to inside interior.  This is France most perfect Cellefrouin “Charente”. One of the most perfect in France is that at Cellefrouin (Charente), consists of a series of 8 semicircular shafts, raised on a pedestal, and is crowned with a conical roof decorated with fir cones, and has only one aperture, towards the main road. Either one would be a most worthless tool anyway others suggest it was a funerary chapel where the body of the deceased would have been laid down in the ground-floor ample room, the shape of the monument would have allowed the soul, once escaped from the carnal envelope, to rise faster toward the sky.

In the Churchyard at Bisley in Gloucestershire a controversial lanterns poor souls light exist also said to be lanterns of the Moors.  The conical upper part of the tower is extremely narrow that no human being can enter it and therefore no one could light a candle or a lantern there. The lantern of the dead has strong oriental influences in France also called Saint Bernard Tower. So far till today, all the mystery surrounding the strange monument has yet to be solved. However, some see in it a lamp that would be lighted to mark the passing of a significant figure. It is true that in the Middle-Ages, to save the soul of a deceased, a candle was raised and kept burning until the body was buried. Source: Charismatic Planet




Intoxicating Aladdin’s Cave Grand Bazaar in Istanbul



Turkish shopkeepers stand in their Aladdin's cave of mystery in one of the oldest covered markets in the world, which is so popular in Istanbul's Grand Bazaar hosts over 3,000 stores and more than 250,000 people visit every day, and has 91 MILLION visitors every year. These days, in spite of increase in new modern shopping malls, the beauty and tradition of the Grand Bazaar continues to be a big enticement. This market is extremely famous among travelers, and in 2014 it was listed as the world's most visited tourist attraction, beating the 91.25m visitors who traipsed the colorful stores the previous year. 

Therefore, the 15th century Bazaar (Market) is famous for its hand-painted ceramics, lanterns, intricately patterned carpets and Byzantine-style jewelry and heaves with Turkish things, kilims, jewelry, backgammon boards, trinkets, leather goods and mother of pearl inlaid boxes. Thus, there’s a labyrinth of arcades and passageways, where it is easy to lose your sense of direction.  It is easily describes that it as 'one of the world’s most exciting shopping experiences. Moreover, several of the stalls in the market are grouped by type of goods, with special areas for leather, gold jewelry and the like. This market “bazaar” has been significant trading center since 1461, and its labyrinthine vaults feature two bedestens “domed buildings”, the first of which was constructed between 1455 and 1461 by the order of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror. 

Moreover, the beautiful complex houses two mosques, four fountains, two hamams and several cafés and restaurants. Furthermore, in the center it is high domed hall of the “Cevahir Bedesten”, where the most valued items and antiques were to be found in the past, and still are nowadays, with furniture, copperware, amber prayer beads, inlaid weapons, icons, mother-of-pearl mirrors, water pipes, watches and clocks, candlesticks, old coins, and silver and gold jewelry set with coral and turquoise.  The Bazaar is open Monday to Saturday from 9am until 7pm and is closed Sundays and Bank Holidays. If you’re shopping lover, then it is must place visit for you. Though, be careful, because prices are bit high for foreigners. But you can bargain the price with your skills.