Category Amazing Places

What are the unique hiking trails in the world?

Today, let us learn about six unique trails in the world, some of which might involve treading grand old staircases or trundling down the steps in the wilderness.

BRAMANTE STAIRCASE, VATICAN CITY

Think about the structure of the DNA. Now imagine a staircase like that. That’s how the Bramante Staircase in Vatican Museums in Vatican City, looks like. It was an architectural wonder during that time and continues to remain so even now with its unique double helix shape. The spiralling staircase was designed by the famous architect of Tuscany Donato Bramante. The staircase was designed to link the Belvedere Palace to the streets of Rome. In fact, there are two staircases with the same name in the Vatican Museums. The one under our purview is the original Bramante Staircase which was built in 1505. The modem one based on the original was built in 1932.

MACHU PICCHU, PERU

Thousands of steps will take you through a trail of an ancient civilisation. The Machu Picchu mountain trail leads you to the ruins of the Incan civilisation. The 43km Inca trail replete with archeological sites is unique. It leads to a stone citadel comprising living quarters of Inca royalty, ritualistic and sacrificial areas, and an elaborate irrigation system. It is believed that the citadel was built for Inca ruler Pachacuti who ruled from 1438 until his death.

THE VESSEL NEW YORK CITY, U.S.

Located in Manhattan’s Midtown West, the Vessel is often called “New York’s Staircase”. A 46-metre high, steel and glass building that offers a bird’s eye view of the city, this spiral staircase sits as a centrepiece of the Hudson Yards (an urban development project) and is a 16-floor circular stairway structure with around 2500 steps. There is a labyrinth of 154 intricately interconnecting flights of stairs and the structure looks more like an art installation.

NONGRIAT DOUBLE-DECKER ROOT BRIDGE, MEGHALAYA, INDIA

In the forests of Meghalaya, there is an ancient, living bridge. It is the double-decker root bridge of Nongriat village in Meghalaya. The root bridges are made by weaving together the secondary roots of the rubber fig tree by Khasi villagers. And to visit this bridge, one will have to embark on a climb down from the village of Tyrna. It will take you some 3000 steps to reach here.

TIGER & TURTLE MAGIC MOUNTAIN, GERMANY

Some of you must have been on a roller coaster ride. What if we told you there was a structure that looked like a roller coaster and you could walk on it? The Tiger & Turtle Magic Mountain is a tangled structure designed by German artists Heike Mutter and Ulrich Genth. One can walk through these many loops and get rewarded with magnificent views of the countryside of Duisburg, Germany.

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What are the terms which start from Red?

Red Cross

The Red Cross is an organisation that helps people suffering both during peace time and war. Even countries at war respect the neutrality of the Red Cross and allow its volunteers to serve the wounded. It was started by Henry Dunant and was formally launched in 1863 at Geneva, Switzerland. The Red Cross owes its name to its flag. Its flag is a red cross on a white background. May 8 is celebrated as World Red Cross Day to honour Henry Dunant’s birthday.

 Red giant

It is any luminous giant star with a radius between 10 and 100 times larger than that of the Sun. When a star reaches the end of its life, the temperature at its core increases, thus causing it to expand. Hence the giant size. Red giants are stars that have run out of hydrogen supply in their cores and start deriving energy from thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen outside their core.

Redwood

It is a magnificent forest tree that grows along the west coast of the U.S. Redwoods are among the world’s tallest living trees measuring 60 to 85 m high. The tallest redwood tree is in California. It is 110 m high. These trees grow so close together that little sunlight reaches the ground. The wood is soft and red but it is remarkably resistant to insects and decay. In fact, the bark of the restwood tree is even fireproof because of its high water content.

Red Sea

The Red Sea is a long narrow arm of the Indian Ocean that separates the Arabian Peninsula from north-eastem Africa. It covers about 4,56,000 sq.km. The Red Sea is connected to the Mediterranean Sea by the Suez Canal, and is one of the busiest waterways in the world. It is called so probably because of the reddish brown algae that floats on its surface in summer.

Red card

It is a penalty card shown to players in many sports to indicate that the player has committed a serious offence and must leave the pitch for breaking the rules. The player is often barred from playing the next game as well.

Red Fort

The Red Fort in Delhi is the largest of old Delhi’s monuments, it was the palace of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, It once housed the legendary Peacock Throne and the Koh-i-noor diamond. The fort’s massive defensive wall, two to 2.5-km long and 18 to 33m high, is made entirely of red sandstone. It is here that the Prime Minister hoists the national flag every Independence Day.

Redbreast

It is a small, European, thrush-like bird with a red breast, and commonly called robin. The bird, noted for its tameness, nests in ivy or other creepers on trees and walls, in plant pots or other containers. It has a sweet, warbling song and a loud penetrating ‘tic tic alarm call.

 Red Square

It is the most famous landmark of Moscow. The historical square, built in the 15th Century during the reign of Ivan III, has remained the venue for important state functions. It lies in the heart of the city and is lined by some of Moscow’s most significant structures, including the Kremlin and St. Basil’s Cathedral. The Red Square is also home to Vladimir Lenin’s mausoleum.

Red blood cells

They are the disc-like cells from which the blood gets its familiar colour. They are so small that a drop of blood the size of a pinhead contains five million of them. Their main constituent is the red pigment haemoglobin.

Red carpet

It is traditionally rolled out on the route taken by Heads of State and dignitaries on ceremonial and formal occasions. In recent times, it has been extended to VIPS and celebrities as well on events such as award functions. This practice gave rise to the expression ‘red carpet treatment’.

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What is unique about Poison Garden?

The Poison Garden at England’s Alnwick Garden is home to around 100 toxic plants. Entry to this space is allowed only through guided tours.

A stroll through a garden is highly refreshing. But do you dare to visit the Poison Garden in England wherein the visitors are explicitly told not to touch, taste or smell the flowers? The sign on the black iron gate says: These plants can kill, and is emblazoned with a skull and crossbones warming.

The deadliest garden was established in 2005 by Jane Percy, Duchess of Northumberland, who decided to have a poison garden instead of a herb garden. She established the garden intending to educate students about the hazards of hazardous and illegal substances specifically the kinds of compounds these plants produce The Poison Garden at the Alnwick Garden in Northumberland is home to around 100 toxic, intoxicating and narcotic plants. Some of these plants are grown in cages. One of the dangerous plants cultivated here is monkshood, or wolf’s bane, which contains aconitine, a neurotoxin, and cardiotoxin. However, this is not the worst one. The ganten also has ricin, better known as castor bean or castor oil plant, which according to Guinness World Records is the world’s most poisonous plant. Surprisingly, many poisonous plants grown in the garden are quite common such as rhododendrons whose leaves contain grayanotoxin which will attack a person’s nervous system if eaten.

Entry to the garden is allowed only through guided tours. Before the visitors are allowed to enter, they are given a safety briefing, warning them against touching, tasting, or smelling anything.

Despite all precautions, the visitors have fainted occasionally from inhaling the toxic fumes of the poisonous plants, the garden website notes. The staff at the Poison Garden is mandated by law to meticulously monitor, count, and file reports on their plants.

The authorities also have to submit proof that they’ve destroyed them at the end of every season.

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PICTURESQUE HOMES OF FAMOUS AUTHORS

Ever been curios to find out about the origins of Tom Sawyer, Faust and more? Here’s peek into the past that will take you where it all began.

THE ANNE FRANK HOUSE, AMSTERDAM: Located on a canal called the Prinsengracht, close to the Westerkerk, in central Amsterdam in the Netherlands, this is the house where Anne Frank hid alongside her family and four others, and later became a biographical museum. The house also became famous as the Secret Annex. While Anne did not survive the war, her wartime diary was published in 1947. Ten years later, the Anne Frank Foundation was established to protect the property from developers who wanted to demolish the block.

MARK TWAIN’S HOUSE CONNECTICUT: The Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford. Connecticut, was the home Mark Twain and his family from 1874 to 1891. Some of his best-known works, while living there  including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, Life on the Mississippi Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. A Tramp Abroad were written here. It was named one of the Ten Best Historic Homes in the world in The Ten Best of Everything, a National Geographic Books publication.

YASNAYA POLYANA, TULA, RUSSIA: A house which has seen the genesis of world classics such as War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Yasnaya Polyana was the house were Leo Tolstoy was born. Tolstoy referred to it as his inaccessible literary stronghold. In June 1921, the estate was nationalised and formally became his memorial museum, which contains the author’s personal artefacts. as well as his library of 22,000 volumes.

THE BRONTE PARSONAGE MUSEUM, WEST YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND: Built between 1778 and 1779, The Brontë Parsonage Museum, also known as Hawthorn Parsonage, was the former home of the Bronte family. This was where the renowned Bronte sisters-Charlotte, Emily and Anne- lived for most of their lives, and penned their famous novels. Listed Grade I on the National Heritage List for England, the house, now also a museum is maintained by the Bronte Society.

THE GOETHE HOUSE, GERMANY: It is the birthplace of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and the place where he penned his famous works including Faust, Götz von Berlichingen, and The Sorrows of Young Weather. It was destroyed during the Allied bombing of Frankfurt on May 22, 1944, but was restored after the war between 1947 and 1951, as closely as possible to its original condition.

RK NARAYAN’S HOUSE AND MUSEUM, YADAVAGIRI, MYSURU: The creator of Malgudi lived in this house for nearly two decades before moving to Chennai, in the early 1990s, where he lived until his death. The house is full of memorabilia-oh his family, friends. mentors like Graham Greene, and his study, which has his collections, among others. After his death in 2001, the house fell into complete disarray and a builder wanted to raze it down to build a multi-storey complex. The city’s people protested, and in mid-2016, the municipal corporation stepped in, the house was repaired, and made into a museum.

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Where is the highest post office is located in the world?

The world’s highest post office is located in Hikkim in Himachal Pradesh at 14,567 feet above sea level. India has the largest postal network in the world with 1,55,618 post offices.

There are myriad interesting facts about India that the world is not yet aware of and one of among those is that India is the place, where world’s highest post office is located. Yes, there is a beautiful village called Hikkim in the Lahaul-Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh; it is set at an elevation of 4440 m (14,567 ft above sea level). The location is credited for being the World’s Highest Post Office with the pin code 172114.

Located about 15 km from the town of Kaza in Spiti Valley, Hikkim has a population that is majorly Buddhist. For most of the months, this place remains cut off from rest of the world due to heavy snowfall over the passes.

In existence from November 5, 1983, the post office too gets shut down for six months due to extreme climatic conditions. Considering the rugged terrains and remoteness of the village, the journey uphill to this post office is quite a tough one. We can just imagine how difficult it must be for the post master, Rinchen Chhering, to send out mails from here.

Rinchen Chhering has been serving at the post office as a Post Master for more than 30 years now. He has been here since the inception of this post office and joined at the young age of 22, just because he was a fast runner and owned a bicycle. For all these years, the man has been doing all work single handedly and loyally, which is simply commendable.

Well, it is quite a long journey from here for the mails. All the posts and letters are firstly sent on foot to Kaza every day. These are then taken to Reckong Peo by bus and then to Shimla. Later, mails are loaded on a train and sent to Kalka; from here, a bus takes the cargo to Delhi. The mails’ journey to its real destination begins from Delhi. So, there is a lot sweat and hard work involved in this entire mail trail!

Is it all not fascinating? The journey, the job, and everything related to this post office that makes it a must-visit in India. If ever you get a chance, do not miss out on exploring this amazing place.

Credit : Times of india 

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