Palm Jumeirah - Dubai

The Palm Jumeirah, an artificial island in the shape of a palm tree. It has been created using land reclamation by Nakheel, a company owned by the Dubai government in United Arab Emirates and was designed and developed by HHCP architects. It is one of three islands called the Palm Islands (Palm Jumeirah, Palm Jebel Ali and Palm Deira) which extend into the Persian Gulf, increasing Dubai’s shoreline by a total of 520 kilometres (320 mi). The Palm Jumeirah is the smallest and the original of three Palm Islands under development by Nakheel. It is located on the Jumeirah coastal area of the emirate of Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

It consists of a trunk, a crown with 16 fronds, and a surrounding crescent island that forms an 11 kilometre long breakwater. The island is 5 kilometres by 5 kilometres and its total area is larger than 800 football pitches. The crown is connected to the mainland by a 300-metre bridge and the crescent is connected to the top of the palm by a subsea tunnel. Over the next few years, as the tourism phases develop, The Palm Jumeirah Dubai is touted as soon to be one of the world’s premier resorts. The Palm Island is the self-declared ‘Eighth Wonder of the World’. The island doubles the length of the Dubai coastline.

The Palm Jumeirah island features themed hotels, three types of villas namely Signature Villas, Garden Homes and Canal Cove Town Homes, and the exquisite apartment buildings. Built entirely on natural rock and sand, and surrounded by coral reefs, Palm Jumeirah is proving the ideal place to live, invest or enjoy the holiday of a lifetime.

Making of Palm Jumeirah:

The Palm Islands are artificial peninsulas constructed of sand dredged from the bottom of the Persian Gulf by the Belgian company Jan De Nul and the Dutch company Van Oord.

The sand is sprayed by the dredging ships, which are guided by DGPS, onto the required area in a process known as rain-bowing because of the arcs in the air when the sand is sprayed. The outer edge of each Palm’s encircling crescent is a large rock breakwater. The breakwater of the Palm Jumeirah has over seven million tons of rock.

Each rock was placed individually by a crane, signed off by a diver and given a GPS coordinate. The Jan De Nul Group started working on the Palm Jebel Ali in 2002 and had finished by the end of 2006. The reclamation project for the Palm Jebel Ali includes the creation of a four-kilometre-long peninsula, protected by a 200-metre-wide, seventeen-kilometre long circular breakwater.

210,000,000 m3 of rock, sand and limestone were reclaimed (partly originating from the Jebel Ali Entrance Channel dredging works). There are approximately 10,000,000 cubic metres of rocks in the slope protection works.


Amazing Palm Jumeirah:

Palm Jumeirah offers everything you want for a luxurious lifestyle. From a wide range of daytime activities to the breathtaking sunsets, from aquariums to themed-parks, from swimming to water sports, from shopping to amusement, and from restaurants to bars, Palm Jumeirah Dubai is the exceptional place for you. The breathtaking views, miles of beautiful beaches, stunning gardens, swimming pools, spas, the world’s most impressive marinas and a variety of retail outlets, make the Palm Jumeirah one of the world’s most sought-after residential and tourist destinations. Undoubtedly, Palm Jumeirah Dubai can make your dreams become reality.

The Monastery of Tatev - Armenia !!

Tatev Monsatry (Tatev) is a masterpiece of confluence of ingenious medieval architecture and fabulous nature of Armenia. There is no doubt, that Tatev is one of the most spectacular tourist attractions on the Planet. Tatev was also widely regarded as one of the most famous spiritual and educational centers of the Middle Ages.

The Monastery of Tatev (Armenian: Տաթև) is a 9th century Armenian monastery located on a large basalt plateau near the Tatev village in Syunik Province in southern Armenia. It stands on a plateau on the edge of the deep gorge of the Orotan (Vorotan) River. It became the bishopric seat of Syunik and played a significant role in the history of the region as a centre for economic, political, spiritual and cultural activity.

In its day the monastery itself had a population of 1,000 and owned 680 villages.  A vast wealth.  It was a huge center of learning, art and culture.  The Tondrakians, a medieval Armenian hippie sect fought the church rule in widespread revolt, including those in villages belonging to Tatev, before finally being stamped out.  In 990AD, King Vasak even burned down Tsuraberd village to end their revolt.

The Sts. Paul and Peter church was built between 895 and 906. An arched hall was added adjacent to the southern wall of the Sts. Paul and Peter in 1043. Soon afterwards, in 1087, the church of St. Mary was added along the northern fortifications. In 1295, the church of St. Gregory, which had been destroyed during an earthquake, was replaced with a new one through the initiative of then Metropolitan Stepanos Orbelian. In 1787, the mausoleum of St. Grigor Tatevatsi was built adjacent to the western wall of the St. Gregory Church and in the end of 19th century a vestibule and bellfry were added at the west entrance of the Sts. Paul and Peter.

The monastery was seriously damaged after an earthquake in 1931, the dome of the Sts. Paul and Peter church and the bell tower were destroyed. In the latter years the Sts. Paul and Peter church was reconstructed, but the bell tower remains destroyed up to today.

Aside from the buildings, the monastery boasts an upright pendulum, known as the Gavazan (staff). This column was built in the tenth century following the completion of the Sts. Paul and Peter church and has survived numerous invasions and earthquakes relatively unscathed.

There is a lot to see at the Tatev Monastery, from churches to tombs to khachkars (cross stones) to medieval living quarters. Undoubtedly, your trip will be full of savory moments not to be forgotten.

Battle at Krugur - Amazing Team work

In the Spring of 2007 what would become one of YouTube's hottest videos was posted, ‘The Battle at Kruger’. The clip, seen 35 million times and counting, captures an amazing predator encounter as lions and a crocodile fight over a buffalo calf in South Africa’s Kruger National Park.

The dramatic eight-minute clip that enthralled the world was filmed by an amateur whilst on safari. It’s the type of encounter that National Geographic filmmakers spend years trying to capture, with unexpected twists and turns of nature. In Autumn 2004, David Budzinski, a supply manager working for Chevron on a safari in Kruger National Park with friend Jason Schlosberg, filmed what could be some of the wildest footage ever seen. We take the men back to Kruger to recount the attack they witnessed.

This is the Battle at Kruger. This is an amazing battle between a pride of lions and a heard of buffalo. When the lions capture the baby buffalo, they think the battle is over - but really it's just begun. An army of buffaloes come back in a mobilized front to take the baby back. For good measure, a couple of crocodiles join the foray, but don't make much of an impact.

Taken from a vehicle on the opposite side of the watering hole, the video begins with the herd of buffalo approaching the water, unaware of the lions resting nearby. The lions charge and disperse the herd, picking off a young buffalo and knocking it into the water. While trying to drag the buffalo out of the water, it is grabbed by a pair of crocodiles, who fight strenuously for it before giving up and leaving it to the lions. The lions sit down and prepare to eat, but are quickly surrounded by the reorganized buffalo, who move in and start kicking at the lions. After a battle which includes one lion being tossed through the air, the baby buffalo (who is miraculously still alive) escapes into the herd. The emboldened buffalo chase the remainder of the lions away. It is not known if the youngster survived the ordeal.

Amazon Jungle - World's Most Unique and Mysterious Forest

The Amazon rainforest, also known as Amazonia, or the Amazon jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America. This basin encompasses seven million square kilometers (1.7 billion acres), of which five and a half million square kilometers (1.4 billion acres) are covered by the rainforest.

 The Amazon represents over half of the planet's remaining rainforests, and it comprises the largest and most species-rich tract of tropical rainforest in the world. The Amazon rainforest was short-listed in 2008 as a candidate to one of the New7Wonders of Nature by the New Seven Wonders of the World Foundation.

Amazon River

The Amazon Basin is the planets largest reservoir of fresh water. One fifth of all running water on the planet flows through the Amazon

The Amazon River is 6,868 km (4000 miles) long, the same distance as North Cape (Honningsvåg - Norway) to Las Palmas (Canary Islands - Spain), a trip that will take you 4 days and 5 hours if you are traveling by car and don't stop to eat and sleep (Ship from Cadiz to Las Palmas).

Special Things about Amazon Jungle

One hectare in the Amazon rainforest has been calculated to have a value of $6.820 (USD) if intact forest is sustainable harvested for fruits, latex, and timber; $1.000 (USD) if clear-cut for commercial timber (not sustainable harvested); or $148 (USD) if used as cattle pasture. In money, the Amazon rainforest should be worth USD 4.092.000.000.000 if sustainable harvested or only 2% of that number if used as cattle pasture.

For the global climate (and you) the Amazonian rainforest has a much bigger value. The Amazonian rainforest is estimated to accumulate 0.62 ±0.37 tonnes of carbon per hectare, per annum. Approximately, 300 million tons, but the logging and deforestation of the Amazon produces 200 million tons of CO2 every year, so a sustainable harvesting of the resources in the Amazon would really make a big difference for the global climate.

The Startling Diversity of Life

• The Amazon is one of the richest areas in the world in animal and plant diversity.
• There are more plant species in one hectare in Amazon than the whole of Europe.
• Over 200 species of trees can be found on one hectare in the Amazon region.
• One tree has been shown to have 72 different species of ants living in it.
• There are about 30 times more fish species in the Amazon river than in all European rivers.

The diversity and contrast of life in the Amazon rainfores

• The Amazon Water Lily (Vitoria-Regia) is the biggest flower in the world with a diameter of two meters
• The caranguejeira spider is bigger than a baseball.
• One species of monkey weighing 130 grams is about the size of a toothbrush. 
•  World's Longest Snake of 30meter length was found in amazon jungle only.
  

Yet, the range of plant and animal species in Amazon remains largely unknown.Scientists estimate that only 40 % of all insect species have so far been identified. Over 30,000 species of plants have been identified so far but another 20, 000 are estimated to remain undiscovered. Only during the 1990's seven species of monkeys, two species of birds and dozens of species of frogs and fish have been discovered.