PAVAN MICKEY

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Swords in Rock, Norway

Sverd i Fjell or Swords in Rock, The Three Swords Monument is one of the most spectacular and imposing monuments. This Monument was created by sculptor Fritz Røed and inaugurated by King Olav in 1983. Three gigantic Viking swords 10 meter high, stick into the hard rock of the Norwegian region Møllebukta, Stavanger, in honor of the battle in 872 A.D, united all under the command of Norway Harald Hårfagre. Thus beginning one of the golden ages of the Scandinavian country. The monument represents peace, unity and freedom.

Image credit Atle

The crowns and the size of the swords also symbolize the three different states which took part in the battle. The two smaller swords represent the defeated petty kings and the biggest sword represents the Viking King Harald, and symbolism the peace, since they, being nailed in the rock, will not return to be used and they may never be removed.

Image credit Øyvind Andersen

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Image credit Esteban Manchado

Image credit Edgar Vonk

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Image credit Lauren Horoszewski

Image credit Alicia Castellano

Sverd i fjell Giant Sword Monument in Norway

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The Merry Cemetery of Sapanta, Romania

The Merry Cemetery of Sapanta in the province of Maramure is one of the most picturesque places in Romania. It is notable for its colorful tombstones with naïve paintings describing, in an original and poetic manner, the persons that are buried there as well as portrait scenes from their lives or with a drawing depicting a scene from the life of the deceased. Thus we find farmers, carpenters, shepherds, artisans, among many scenes depicting symbolic or beautiful life of the deceased. The Merry Cemetery became an open-air museum and a national tourist attraction. The Merry Cemetery owes its name to the vivid colors of headers that are naively painted scenes narrating the biography of the deceased. The sentences are sometimes lyrical, sometimes ironic, but always sincere. The Merry Cemetery of Sapanta, called "Popular Art Museum" is a pride, unique community in the world.

Image credit Vivek Pundir

This curious initiative started in 1935 and has continued til today, The cemetery's origins are linked with the name of Stan Ioan Patras, a local artist who sculpted the first tombstone crosses. In 1960, 800 sculpted crosses and headstones were counted and after the death of Stan Patras Ionas in 1977, other local artists have continued their work. The Patras himself is buried in the Merry Cemetery gravestone that reflects you as it was with the following epitaph —

Since I was a little boy

I was known as Stan Ion Patras

Listen to me, fellows

There are no lies in what I am going to say

All along my life

I meant no harm to anyone

But did good as much as I could

To anyone who asked

Oh, my poor World

Because It was hard living in it

Image credit Vivek Pundir

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Image credit SBA73

Image credit Rex Harris

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Image credit Serge Bystro

Image credit Vivek Pundir

Image credit Serge Bystro

The Red Beach in Panjin, China

The Red Beach is located in the Liao River Delta, Panjin, China, it is regarded as a famous state-level nature reserve. The beach is red due to a kind of grass growing there. When autumn comes, the grass turns red. The sea of red grass moves like the waves of the nearby sea when the wind blows. It is strongly recommended that visitors take a walk on the wood bridge, enjoying the wind, the sunset, and the red grass sea. More than 236 species of birds, like red-crowned crane, saunder’s cull, etc., settle down in the wetland of reeds with the coverage of over 20 square kilometers near Pohai. It gets its reputation for the best preserved and the largest resource of wetland. With its rare Red Beach and the largest winding waves of reeds, it belongs to a pure eco-tourism system as well as a perfect combination with natural scenery and human landscape.

Image credit Tintori

The Red Beach in Panjin are plants that are considered to be very hearty ones that flourish in the mud flats of the mouth of Liaohe River. It calls the seablite plants which grow every April or May. The color of the plant is green at beginning, and gradually becomes redder. By September, the plant is a vivid red, covering the whole alkaline beach. The stunning red beach scenery appears only at the mud flat in Panjin, northeast China's Liaoning Province.

The location of the Red Beach Dock lies in the estuary of Liao River Delta, 18km far from the reception center which is the only one in the China and even the world that a pure wooden tourism attraction is based on wooden structure of building group. The Nine-Zigzag Bridge on the dock is 680m long, supported by 519 wooden poles, spreading from the bank into the sea. The coverage of wooden platform reaches more than 2000 square meters. On the beach are 1998 wooden poles standing out and lying quietly on the waves.

Image credit geoffmaterna

Image credit Douglas Du

Panjin red beach. Image credit Douglas Du

The Red Beach Pier, Panjin, China. Image credit chanahenry

Image credit School Year Abroad

Image credit Douglas Du

Image credit Thomas Mader

The Red Beach Pier, Panjin, China. Image credit chanahenry

Image credit Elena Hsieh

The Red Beach in Panjin, China. Image credit Elena Hsieh

Dry Tortugas Islands of Florida, USA

Fort Jefferson is one of the central features of the seven small "Dry Tortugas Islands" in the Gulf of Mexico. Fort Jefferson constructed between 1845 and 1876, Fort Jefferson named after the third President Thomas Jefferson, and Fort Jefferson is a 19th-century third system coastal fortification that occupies the majority of Garden Key in the remote Dry Tortugas National Park in the Florida Keys. Nearly thirty years in the making, Fort Jefferson was never finished nor fully armed. The largest masonry structure in the Americas, and it is made-up of over 16 million bricks. The design called for a four-tiered six-sided 1000 heavy-gun fort, with two sides measuring 415 feet, and four sides measuring 564 feet. It was named Dry Tortugas because there is no fresh water. The fort is located on Bush Key later called Garden Key in the lower Florida Keys within the Dry Tortugas National Park. In 1825 Spain sold these Islands to United States for $5 million.

Image credit Steve

After the Civil War, the fort was used as a federal prison, while the most frequent transgression for the civilian prisoners was robbery. In July 1865 four special civilian prisoners arrived. These were Dr. Samuel Mudd, Edmund Spangler, Samuel Arnold, and Michael O'Laughlen, who had been convicted of conspiracy in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. The most famous prisoner was Dr. Samuel Mudd, the physician who set the broken leg of John Wilkes Booth. Construction of Fort Jefferson was still under way when Dr. Mudd and his fellow prisoners arrived, Mudd provided much-praised medical care during a yellow fever epidemic at the fort in 1867, which killed many prisoners including O'Laughlen, and was eventually pardoned by President Andrew Johnson and released. By 1888, the military usefulness of Fort Jefferson had waned, and the cost of maintaining the fort due to the effects of frequent hurricanes and the corrosive and debilitating tropical climate could no longer be justified. In 1888, the Army turned the fort over to the Marine Hospital Service to be operated as a quarantine station.

Image credit BY Chu

In January 4, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who visited the area by ship, designated the area as Fort Jefferson National Monument. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 10, 1970. On October 26, 1992 the Dry Tortugas, including Fort Jefferson, was established as a National Park.

Image credit Chris Wadkins

Image credit skjoiner

Image credit Dry Tortugas NPS

Image credit Brandon Kopp

Image credit Bob Gundersen

Image credit Shane Hawke

Image credit Brandon Kopp

Image credit Alan Cressler

Image credit Joshua West

The Cardrona Bra Fence

The Cardrona Bra Fence was a controversial tourist attraction in Central Otago, New Zealand. The story began sometime between Christmas 1999 and New Year's Day 2000, when four bras were hanging on the fence. The fence gradually became a famous site as the number of bras grew to hundreds. It is still unknown the origin of this fact. News spread of the addition, which was left on the fence by the local landowners, and more bras began to appear. After two months there were some 60 bras, but at about this time they were all removed anonymously. This was reported in the local press, and the story gained widespread dissemination through the New Zealand media, leading to more bras appearing, and in October 2000 around 200 bras were removed and the fence was cleared of bras and this time the story spread even wider, as the fence had by this time become to some a quirky tourist attraction, and media sources from as far afield as Europe became interested in the fence. Due to this interest the number of bras being added to the fence personally or sent to be added increased dramatically.

Photo credit The Q Speaks

After unsuccessful legal challenges, and the burning of many bras (the ones on the fence), it was found that the fence sat on public land. The Queenstown Lakes District council stepped in and ordered the removal of the bras from the fence, on the grounds that they were an eyesore and a traffic hazard. On September 9, 2006, over 1500 bras were finally removed from the fence. An attempt to use the fence to get the record of the longest bra chain fell short a few years back, but the juxtaposition of bras of every color against a backdrop of rolling hills and sheep make it a unique New Zealand attraction.