A compendium of interesting places, hidden wonders, Beautiful Places, strange travel destination, tourist attractions.
Wednesday 24 May 2017
Friday 19 May 2017
Salar de Uyuni: The Nature Best Piece on Planet Earth
The South America salt flats in
Bolivia are a natural wonder that are not only awe-inspiring, but also seem to
be the best place to play with perspective. With reflections that play tricks
on the eye and constant bright sunshine, Salar de Uyuni is a veritable
dreamland for the photographer with a sense of humor. Salar de Uyuni also
called Salar de Tunupa (can be translated from Spanish as ‘salt flat
enclosure’) is the world's largest salt flat at 10,582 square kilometers. Salar
de Uyuni is located in the Daniel Campos Province in Potosà in southwest
Bolivia, near the crest of the Andes and is at an elevation of 3,656 meters above
sea level.
The Salar was formed as a result
of transformations between several prehistoric lakes. It is covered by a few
meters of salt crust, which has an extraordinary flatness with the average
elevation variations within one meter over the entire area of the Salar. The
crust serves as a source of salt and covers a pool of brine, which is
exceptionally rich in lithium. It contains 50 to 70% of the world's known
lithium reserves, which is in the process of being extracted. The large area,
clear skies, and exceptional flatness of the surface make the Salar an ideal
object for calibrating the altimeters of Earth observation satellites. The
Salar serves as the major transport route across the Bolivian Altiplano and is
a major breeding ground for several species of flamingos. Salar de Uyuni is
also a climatological transitional zone since the towering tropical cumulus
congestus and cumulonimbus incus clouds that form in the eastern part of the
salt flat during the summer cannot permeate beyond its drier western edges,
near the Chilean border and the Atacama Desert. The Salar de Uyuni also holds
other associated records when flooded, it becomes the largest mirror in the
world, and it also holds the largest land reserves of lithium.
There are a lot of places on
Earth considered to be spectacular in a unique and mysterious fashion.
Bolivia’s popular salt flats or Salar de Uyuni definitely qualifies. One of the
most popular attractions in Salar de Uyuni is a cemetery for trains! It
contains all the trains that were used in mining during the 1940s and currently
attracts thousands of tourists every year. Moreover, at times the salt flat is
covered in very clear water, making it the largest natural mirror in the world,
an estimated 11 billion tons of salt is believed to be within Salar de Uyuni.
There are 80 species of birds (visiting and migrating) at Salar de Uyuni, including
three species of flamingos, as well as a few islands, where the main foliage is
cacti, as well as hot springs and geysers.. It was believed that Salar de Uyuni
was completely flat, but later some small undulations were discovered on the
surface. NASA uses Salar de Uyuni, since it is unmoving and easily spottable,
to figure the positioning of NASA’s satellite. To be honest strictly speaking
not a real lake, since almost completely dried up, the Salar de Uyuni is the
largest salt desert we can observe on Earth, surrounded by mountains, water
evaporation, leaving behind the heavy elements and salt residues. The Salar de
Uyuni simply is the largest land reserve of salt in the world, which has a
surprisingly high rate of lithium, the same metallic element that we're using
in our computer's lithium batteries. The salt desert actually represents by
itself, one-third of the known reserves of this element.
And when it's rainy season, and
the desert becomes a lake, the water salinity and the underlying layer allow
the light to be perfectly reflected, so as lake turns into the largest mirror
in the world. It is so flat and calm that it gives the best opportunity for the
calibration of satellite, 5 times more efficient compared to a conventional
waterbody (sea or another lake).
The Granite Dells of Prescott, Arizona
The Granite Dells is located
outside the city of Prescott in the US state of Arizona. The Granite Dells are
a exclusive geological formation comprising of colossal granite boulders that
have eroded into rounded bumpy and strange shapes giving the rocks a rippled
appearance. It is believed that these exclusives rocks formed 1.4 billion years
ago at a depth of 2-3 km, before they were exposed by weathering. This process is
known as spheroidal weathering, common in granitic terrains, the rocks assumed
rounded shapes and other rare rock formations that characterize the Granite
Dells.
Thus, two very picturesque artificial reservoirs
“Watson Lake and Willow Lake” situated nearby the formation. The two lakes
combined with abundant hiking trails offer a great place for boating,
picnicking, hiking, and birding. The Granite Dells rugged beauty and dramatic
rock shapes is the perfect backdrop of surrounding mountains, with acres of
open space, and planned hiking trails with connection to more than 400 miles of
public trails. The Dells' granite has strangely high uranium content, and thus
homes built over the granite should be checked for radon leaking from the
granite.
The Oriental Lion, The World’s Largest Redwood Sculpture
A huge wooden
sculpture of a roaring lion now stands proudly in a Central Chinese city
square, and the journey it took to get there makes it all the more remarkable.
The Oriental Lion has been dubbed, carved from a single redwood tree trunk more
than three years. It is established by Chinese architect Dengding Rui Yao, assisted
more than 20 people. The project was initiated
in Myanmar, where the carving was seen through. Lastly, when the great beast
was completed in Dec 2015, it was transported more than 3000 miles to reach the
Wuhan’s Fortune Plaza Times Square. Moreover, Oriental Lion‘s head, paws, and
tail have been sculpted into a smooth finish, with the torso maintaining the
trunk's uneven texture. The giant 47.5 feet long, 16.5 feet high, and 13 feet
wide, the Oriental Lion is a force to be reckoned with.
The Lions
play an important role in traditional Chinese culture. It is seen as
protectors, lion statues became a common installation at the gates of imperial
palaces, including the legendary Forbidden City in Beijing. Nowadays, they can
even be found outside of hotels and restaurants, just in case any evil spirits
drifted from the Han dynasty into modern times. This is world's largest redwood
sculpture according to Guinness World Records. It's unknown if the wood was
sourced from China, it was a tree that was sick or dying rather than being
chopped down for the project. If it did come from China, it's most likely a Met-asequoia,
a fast growing tree found in the Hubei Province. Since its installation in
Wuhan, the giant lion has become a favorite new monument in the city.
First International Bamboo Architecture Biennale
A small village in Baoxi China is celebrating bamboo as a
construction material, the first International Bamboo Architecture Biennale.
The agricultural mountain village is located 12 hours from Shanghai and is now
home to these incredible structures designed by twelve international
architects. The below images, shot by photographer Julien Lanoo, give an
essence at how the bamboo buildings blend into the community as permanent
structures. For centuries, bamboo was used in these rural communities in many
different ways. A construction material with many qualities, it has or is
disappearing quickly on the Chinese mainland in favor of concrete. The fast and
vast expansion of new Chinese cities overruled many traditional ways of
building.
In its place, the Bamboo Biennale demonstrates that
contemporary architecture and traditional materials are not mutually exclusive.
Among the buildings are a youth hostel, ceramics museum, and bamboo bridge.
This contemporary cluster of architecture is an innovative way to renew the
village, giving something back as well as adding value in the form of new
tourist destinations.
This engagement with the community and integration of
sustainable materials is part of what drew Lanoo to the site. However, after the Biennale, this will become
a visitor’s center, hotel and lodge and learning center, will give a new lifeline
for the village, attracting outsiders, for its peace and quiet, and its
representation of the roots of Chinese culture and the importance and beauty of
bamboo. Within these photo series, my main goal was to reflect this context. Moreover,
the incorporation within this valley landscape and the link to its community
that embraced it.
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