The Great Mosque of Samarra, Iraq

The Great Mosque of Samarra is the most prominent structure, spiraling up from the ground. The Great Mosque of Samarra is located in Samarra city, in Iraq, about 120 km north of Baghdad, on the banks of river Tigris. It is known as malwiya, this 180 foot tower was the main focal point of Mosque. The snail shell minaret covered 42 acres as its peak and 108 feet wide with a spiral ramp. The eye-catching Mosque was built in 9^th century by Abbasid caliph Al-Mutawakkil who reigned (in Samarra) from 847 until 861. In the 12^th century, the Mosque was gradually destroyed and fell into disuse after Hulagu Khan's invasion of Iraq.

However, only the outer wall and its minaret remained. The great mosque had 17 aisles, and its walls were paneled with mosaics of dark blue glass, the art and architecture of the mosque were influential; stucco carvings within the mosque in floral and geometric designs represent early Islamic decoration. The Great Mosque was spread over an area of 17 hectares; the building itself covered 38,000 square meters. The Mosque surrounding courtyard was a triple portico with octagonal columns. The practitioners could walk through the gates to enter into the interior with its dense grid of pillars and teakwood roof. Thus, over each entrance were numerous arched windows, and in between the towers, square niches were placed along its facade.

The Malwiya Minaret initially constructed with sandstone, used for the "call to prayer". Although, its height made it more prominent and it is visible from a considerable distance in the area around Samarra and therefore may have been designed as a strong visual statement of the presence of Islam in the Tigris Valley. The minaret's unique spiral design was given a new life during the war in Iraq, as US troops used it for observation. Sadly, in 2005, the famous minaret was partially destroyed during a bombing raid by insurgents. After 1000 years of proudly standing in the medieval Abbasid capital, it finally began to crumble under the firepower of modern weaponry. Therefore, the lifespan of the minaret could be dramatically shortened given the uncertain and unstable political situation in Iraq. Moreover, the mosque of Ibn Tulun in Cairo, Egypt was based on the Samarra mosque in many regards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sacred Valley of the Incas, Peru

The Sacred Valley of the Incas, in the Southern Sierra in Peru, contains many famous and lovely Inca ruins. The Sacred Valley of the Incas is also called Urubamba Valley is a valley in the Andes of Peru, 20km at its closest north of the Inca capital of Cusco. It was called the Sacred Valley because it contains some of the best land in the region and was not a part of the Empire but the property of the Emperor or Inca himself. The Sacred Valley was incorporated slowly into the incipient Inca Empire during the period from 1000 to 1400 CE. The Sacred Valley was the most important area for maize production in the heartland of the Inca Empire and access through the valley to tropical areas facilitated the import of products such as coca leaf and Chile peppers to Cuzco.

Agricultural terraces, called andenes, were built up hillsides flanking the valley floor and are today the most visible and widespread signs of the Inca civilization in the Sacred Valley. The Sacred Valley was undoubtedly a key area of settlement to the Incas. Its agree-able climate and fertile plains make a rare and fruitful combination for the high Andes. It was also the route to the jungle and therefore an area with access to the fruits and plants of the tropical lowlands. The Sacred Valley served as a buffer zone, protecting Cusco from incursions of the Antis, the fierce jungle tribes who from time to time raided the highlands.

The sacred valley is famous among tourists due to scenic and historical archaeological site. Every year, more than one million tourist visited sacred valley. The valley was formed by the Urubamba River is fed by numerous tributaries which descend through adjoining valleys and gorges, and contains numerous archaeological remains and villages. The scared valley, running generally west to east, is understood to include everything along the Urubamba River between the town and Inca ruins. The Sacred Valley has elevations above sea level along the river ranging from 3,000 metres at Pisac to 2,050 metres at the Urubamba River below the citadel of Macchu Piccu. On both sides of the river, the mountains rise to much higher elevations, especially to the south where two prominent mountains Sahuasiray, and Veronica overlook the valley.

The Incas built extensive irrigation works throughout the valley to counter deficiencies and seasonality in precipitation. Peru’s Sacred Valley is encompassing what was the fertile homeland of the Inca Empire is a quiet expanse of country that is steeped in Andean history and culture. Moreover massive scale of maize production in the Sacred Valley was apparently facilitated by varieties bred in nearby Moray, either a governmental crop laboratory or a seedling nursery of the Incas.

The Bochnia Salt Mind in Poland,

The Bochnia Salt Mine in Bochnia, Poland is one of the oldest salt mines in the world. Bochnia’s irrefutable asset is its exclusive combination of severity, naturalness and state-of-the-art multimedia expositions which never fail to captivate visitors. This is also oldest min in Poland was actually established between the 12th and 13th centuries after salt was first discovered in Bochnia. This was starting era of salt mining in this year, and became part of the Royal mining company zupy krakowskie "Kraków salt works". In the World War I, the mine activities were stopped and closed for some time. Bochnia Salt mine shafts approximately 4.5km in length and about 330 to 470 meters in depth below the surface at 16 different levels. More than 800 years of working, it now has a character of an underground town where tourist can take a ride by the underground train, slide down the world’s longest underground slide and take an underground ferry ride crossing the brine lake flooding the chamber. In 1981 it mine was declared a heritage monument, and excavated chambers, shafts and passages form an underground town, which is now open to tourists. It is situated in the middle salt deposits creating effective patterns, the so called Bochnia stripes and where the “Wazynek” restaurant, a souvenir shop, a sports field and a children's playground are located. During the tour, tourists have chance to explore a network of chambers and galleries with exceptional shapes and geological structure including a horse stable, wooden treadmill expositions and the Saint Kinga’s Chapel.

Moreover, one of largest preserved chambers has been converted into a sanatorium. The mine has a precise microclimate, with a continuous temperature between 14–16 °C (57–61 °F), high humidity (about 70%) and favorable ionization of the air saturated, at the same time, by sodium chloride and valuable microelements, like: magnesium, manganese and calcium. The massive mine tour ends up with a stay in the largest chamber, the Wazyn, considered the heart of the mine. The biggest conserved chambers in the Bochnia mine, placed on Sienkiewicz level. The Mysiur Stable was created before 1771 by adapting a chamber exploited in the 18th century. It was arranged for horses which worked at an adjacent treadmill over the Wazyn shaft. In the chamber, the original wooden manger has been preserved. The site is one of the Polish National Historic Monuments, as designated October and in 2013 the mine was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Moss Covered Lava Fields in Iceland

In Iceland Moss is a common plant, widely grows in the mountainous region. The moss has a special characteristic of Iceland’s lava fields. However, the southern coast of Iceland over Eldraun Lava field is one of the most remarkable moss blankets in Iceland. The recorded history exposed a devastating eruption created the lave fields in Eldraun. In 1783 the Laki fissure and the adjoining Grímsvötn volcano poured out an expected 14 cubic kilometers of basalt lava and clouds of poisonous gases that contaminated the soil, killing half of Iceland's cattle and horses, and more than three-quarter of sheep. Moss can be easily damaged and potentially irreparably. Moss areas are particularly sensitive and damage caused by footprints and tire marks can take a very long time to heal.

However, in that year, nothing grew on the fields and no fish found in the sea. This was resulting in famine killed approximately a quarter of the island’s human population. Therefore, Laki’s eruption had even more widespread effects. In the years following the eruption, the climate across the Northern Hemisphere deteriorated. In the winter of 1784, the North America became the longest and one of the coldest on record. Thus, massive snowstorm hit the South, the Mississippi River froze at New Orleans and there were reports of ice floes in the Gulf of Mexico.

Moreover, huge Haze from the eruption floated east as far away as India weakening monsoon circulations and leading to drought and crop failures. Moreover, in 1784 the famine that hit Egypt, as a result of the eruption, killed approximately 1/6 of its population. Hence, the worst consequences were felt in Europe. The summer of 1783 was the hottest on record and a rare high-pressure zone over Iceland caused the winds to blow to the south-east. The poisonous cloud drifted across Europe, and its inhalation killed tens of thousands. In Great Britain alone, it caused some 23,000 deaths.

As the weather became hot, thunderstorms became more severe and large hailstones rained down from the sky causing injury and death to cattle. The following winter was tremendously cold and result in 8,000 extra deaths in the UK. Even though, in the during the spring thaw, Germany and Central Europe reported faced catastrophic flood damage. A series of crop failures in France and the causing poverty and famine eventually triggered the French Revolution of 1789-1799. Nowadays, the Eldraun Lava Field looks very serene and tranquil. The thick green moss has helped softened the rugged landscape, almost disguising Eldhraun’s violent past.

Shell Beach, Australia

There’s a unique beach located 45 km south east of Denham, covered shells for 60km stretch to a depth of 7 to 10m. Shell Beach is a beach in the Shark Bay region of Western Australia, on the northeastern side of the Taillefer Isthmus along the L'Haridon Bight. Shell beach is one of only two beaches in the world made entirely from shells. The beach name derived because of great abundance of the shells of the cockle species Fragum erugatum. The shells have formed a limestone that is acknowledged as coquina. However, before Shark Bay became a World Heritage Site, the coquina was mined and used for the construction of a number of buildings in Denham. Shark Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, unique marine life found in and near its waters including dugongs, Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins, various whales and whale sharks, and the largest seagrass bank in the world, contributed to the formation of Shell Beach.

The sea-water in the L'Haridon Bight has a high salinity due to both the geomorphology and local weather of the area. The high salinity has allowed the cockle to thrive unchecked, since its natural predators have not adapted well to this environment. The shells were once used to build the office walls of buildings in the area, some of which can still be seen today. This beautiful snow-white beach is made up of millions of tiny shells transforms into a palette of the most intense greens and blues - and the water is very salty (hyper-saline), making it easy to float for those who aren’t solid swimmers. Therefore, L’Haridon Bight has been a veritable cockle paradise for thousands of years, letting the little bivalves to propagate, flourish, die, and have their shells wash up on shore over and over and over and over again, enough times to create a dazzling snow white beach. Nowadays, special licenses are still granted to mine the shells as a source of calcium for mulch and poultry feed. However, hypersalinity of L’Haridon Bight keeps out predators of humans as well as cockles, making Shell Beach a popular place to go for a swim. Also See: Cleft Island, A Granite Island of Wilsons Promontory in Australia