Our World Still Has Many Nice Places as Well

[Ivan Drago]

This forum and the news on TV shows plenty of the darker sides on this planet. There are also many beautiful parts of the world to see. Thought maybe I'd post a thread that shows the beautiful parts of the world.




EASTER ISLAND

Easter Island covers roughly 64 square miles in the South Pacific Ocean, and is located some 2,300 miles from Chile’s west coast and 2,500 miles east of Tahiti. Known as Rapa Nui to its earliest inhabitants, the island was christened Paaseiland, or Easter Island, by Dutch explorers in honor of the day of their arrival in 1722. It was annexed by Chile in the late 19th century and now maintains an economy based largely on tourism. Easter Island’s most dramatic claim to fame is an array of almost 900 giant stone figures that date back many centuries. The statues reveal their creators to be master craftsmen and engineers, and are distinctive among other stone sculptures found in Polynesian cultures. There has been much speculation about the exact purpose of the statues, the role they played in the ancient civilization of Easter Island and the way they may have been constructed and transported.



IMAGE #1>The lone moai at Tongariki with the Ahu Tongariki moai in the background. The Poike peninsula can be seen in the background.

IMAGE #2>Easter Island off Chile dawn over Moais at Ahu Tahai.

IMAGE #3>Ahu Tongariki Moai at Sunrise on Easter Island.

IMAGE #4>Scenic view of beach and mountains against cloudy sky.

IMAGE #5>Birdman petroglyph on Easter Island, off Chile.

 

[Ivan Drago]

AMAZON RAINFOREST



Found on every continent except Antarctica, rainforests are ecosystems filled with mostly evergreen trees that typically receive high amounts of rainfall. Tropical rainforests are found near the equator, with high average temperatures and humidity, while temperate rainforests lie mostly in coastal, mountainous areas within the mid-latitudes. A rainforest is typically made up of four key layers: emergent, upper canopy, understory, and forest floor. In the top emergent layer, trees as tall as 200 feet (60 meters) grow far apart and tall, their branches reaching above the canopy. The upper canopy, a deep layer of vegetation roughly 20 feet (6 meters) thick, houses most of the rainforest's animal species and forms a roof that blocks most light from reaching below. Below the canopy, the under story is a low-light layer dominated by shorter plants with broad leaves, such as palms and philodendrons. On the dark forest floor, few plants are able to grow and decaying matter from the upper layers is prevalent, feeding the roots of the trees.




IMAGE #1>Dramatic colorful landscape on a river in the amazon state Venezuela at sunset.

IMAGE #2>Sunset in the Amazonian Jungle in the country of Peru.

IMAGE #3>A high dynamic range photo of a sunset over the Amazon Rainforest.

IMAGE #4>Ecuador, Amazon River region, treetops in rain forest.

IMAGE #5>Photo taken in Macas, Ecuador.

 

[Ivan Drago]

MOUNT RUSHMORE


Carved into the southeastern face of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota’s Black Hills National Forest are four gigantic sculptures depicting the faces of U.S. Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. The 60-foot high faces were shaped from the granite rock face between 1927 and 1941, and represent one of the world’s largest pieces of sculpture, as well as one of America’s most popular tourist attractions. To many Native Americans, however, Mount Rushmore represents a desecration of lands considered sacred by the Lakota Sioux, the original residents of the Black Hills region who were displaced by white settlers and gold miners in the late 19th century.



IMAGE #1>Mount Rushmore National Monument, Black Hills of South Dakota.

IMAGE #2>Rushmore at dusk.

IMAGE #3>This view of Mount Rushmore National Monument, from the George Washington side, shows the mountain in front of and behind the monument. The only visible part of the monument is a profile view of George Washington.

IMAGE #4>American flag over Mount Rushmore National Memorial.

IMAGE #5>Mount Rushmore National Monument is pictured ahead of a large fireworks display on July 03, 2020 near Keystone, South Dakota. President Donald Trump is scheduled to speak before the start of the fireworks display, the first at the monument in about a decade.

 

[Rabidface]

Easter Island = Aliens
Amazon Rainforest = Aliens....

 

[SPHINCTERPUNCH]

Very Nice "Black Lotus" Thanku for that Compilation! It was Very Refreshing! Wicked Cool...SP

 

[Rabidface]

There was a man/artist /stonemason involved in the making of Mount Rushmore who I believe was fired or asked to leave before completion. This upset him. He then went on to make the stone carving of Crazy Horse which is considerably bigger than the heads on mount Rushmore. That was his fuck you

 

[SPHINCTERPUNCH]

There was a man/artist /stonemason involved in the making of Mount Rushmore who I believe was fired or asked to leave before completion. This upset him. He then went on to make the stone carving of Crazy Horse which is considerably bigger than the heads on mount Rushmore. That was his fuck you

Excellent! Fuuuuuuck Youuuuuuu! Lmao...SP

 

[Guipago]

Nice

 

[Brainfart]

This forum and the news on TV shows plenty of the darker sides on this planet. There are also many beautiful parts of the world to see. Thought maybe I'd post a thread that shows the beautiful parts of the world.




EASTER ISLAND

Easter Island covers roughly 64 square miles in the South Pacific Ocean, and is located some 2,300 miles from Chile’s west coast and 2,500 miles east of Tahiti. Known as Rapa Nui to its earliest inhabitants, the island was christened Paaseiland, or Easter Island, by Dutch explorers in honor of the day of their arrival in 1722. It was annexed by Chile in the late 19th century and now maintains an economy based largely on tourism. Easter Island’s most dramatic claim to fame is an array of almost 900 giant stone figures that date back many centuries. The statues reveal their creators to be master craftsmen and engineers, and are distinctive among other stone sculptures found in Polynesian cultures. There has been much speculation about the exact purpose of the statues, the role they played in the ancient civilization of Easter Island and the way they may have been constructed and transported.



IMAGE #1>The lone moai at Tongariki with the Ahu Tongariki moai in the background. The Poike peninsula can be seen in the background.

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IMAGE #2>Easter Island off Chile dawn over Moais at Ahu Tahai.

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IMAGE #3>Ahu Tongariki Moai at Sunrise on Easter Island.

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IMAGE #4>Scenic view of beach and mountains against cloudy sky.

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IMAGE #5>Birdman petroglyph on Easter Island, off Chile.

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Not true...when I sailed round Tahiti, went to Raiatea and saw a Marae that was a massive stone square. It was originally a step pyramid. They carved statues and all sorts of stone objects all through Tahiti...The people of Easter island are believed to come from Raiatea. They reckon the heads face Raiatea, which was their home land. Raiatea was the home of Polynesian Royal family and the centre of their civilisation...I think I read that even the Maori of new Zealand Set out from there...

Pyramids in Tahiti - Crystalinks

 

[Brainfart]

Easter Island = Aliens
Amazon Rainforest = Aliens....

Believe it or not, A lot of the Amazon is a man made environment...They now think that it was densely populated and cleared...So a big part of the Amazon isn't old like we have been told, but a young environment...

Soil and Satellites Are Telling a New Story About Ancient Civilizations in the Amazon

With new technologies, scientists are looking for clues in manmade “terra preta.”

www.google.com

 

[DrJ]

I hope this will be here when they let us out of America in a year...

 

[Ivan Drago]

THE GRAND CANYON


The Grand Canyon is a mile-deep gorge in northern Arizona. Scientists estimate the canyon may have formed 5 to 6 million years ago when the Colorado River began to cut a channel through layers of rock. Humans have inhabited the area in and around the canyon since the last Ice Age. The first Europeans to reach the Grand Canyon were Spanish explorers in the 1540s. President Benjamin Harris first protected the Grand Canyon in 1893 as a forest reserve, and it became an official United States National Park in 1919.

The Grand Canyon is located in northern Arizona, northwest of the city of Flagstaff. The canyon measures over 270 miles long, up to 18 miles wide and a mile deep, making it one of the biggest canyons in the world. This natural landmark formed about five to six million years as erosion from the Colorado River cut a deep channel through layers of rock. The Grand Canyon contains some of the oldest exposed rock on Earth. The mile-high walls reveal a cross section of Earth’s crust going back nearly two billion years. These rock layers have given geologists the opportunity to study evolution through time. The oldest known rocks in the canyon, called the Vishnu Basement Rocks, can be found near the bottom of the Inner Gorge. The Vishnu rocks formed about 1.7 billion years ago when magma hardened and joined this region—once a volcanic ocean chain—to the North American continent.



IMAGE #1>Sunset over Cape Royal, North Rim, Arizona.

IMAGE #2>Beautiful morning scene on the Colorado River at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, warm light clouds and reflections.

IMAGE #3>Sunrise in Monument Valley.

IMAGE #4>USA, Arizona, Grand Canyon, National Park, UNESCO, World Heritage, sunset along the South rim.

IMAGE #5>Grand Canyon thunderstorm.

 

[Ivan Drago]

The Giza Pyramids, built to endure an eternity, have done just that. The monumental tombs are relics of Egypt's Old Kingdom era and were constructed some 4,500 years ago. Egypt's pharaohs expected to become gods in the afterlife. To prepare for the next world they erected temples to the gods and massive pyramid tombs for themselves—filled with all the things each ruler would need to guide and sustain himself in the next world. Pharaoh Khufu began the first Giza pyramid project, circa 2550 B.C. His Great Pyramid is the largest in Giza and towers some 481 feet (147 meters) above the plateau. Its estimated 2.3 million stone blocks each weigh an average of 2.5 to 15 tons. Khufu's son, Pharaoh Khafre, built the second pyramid at Giza, circa 2520 B.C. His necropolis also included the Sphinx, a mysterious limestone monument with the body of a lion and a pharaoh's head. The Sphinx may stand sentinel for the pharaoh's entire tomb complex. The third of the Giza Pyramids is considerably smaller than the first two. Built by Pharaoh Menkaure circa 2490 B.C., it featured a much more complex mortuary temple.




IMAGE #1>View of the pyramid of Chephren just before sunrise. Taken from the top of the Menkaure pyramid which is the smallest at 65.5 metres (215 ft). The red circle around a human gives you an idea of just how large these bastards really are.

IMAGE #2>Landscape of Cairo, with the Giza pyramids behind.

IMAGE #3>Sunset at the Pyramids, Giza, Cairo, Egypt.

IMAGE #4>The Giza Necropolis stands on the Giza Plateau, on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt.

IMAGE #5>Dramatic storm cloud above pyramids, Giza, Egypt.

 

[Ivan Drago]

The Great Wall of China is an ancient series of walls and fortifications, totaling more than 13,000 miles in length, located in northern China. Perhaps the most recognizable symbol of China and its long and vivid history, the Great Wall was originally conceived by Emperor Qin Shi Huang in the third century B.C. as a means of preventing incursions from barbarian nomads. The best-known and best-preserved section of the Great Wall was built in the 14th through 17th centuries A.D., during the Ming dynasty.

Though the Great Wall never effectively prevented invaders from entering China, it came to function as a powerful symbol of Chinese civilization’s enduring strength. Though the beginning of the Great Wall of China can be traced to the fifth century B.C., many of the fortifications included in the wall date from hundreds of years earlier, when China was divided into a number of individual kingdoms during the so-called Warring States Period. Around 220 B.C., Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of a unified China under the Qin Dynasty, ordered that earlier fortifications between states be removed and a number of existing walls along the northern border be joined into a single system that would extend for more than 10,000 li (a li is about one-third of a mile) and protect China against attacks from the north.



IMAGE #1>This photo took in the early morning in Beijing, China.

IMAGE #2>Jinshanling Great Wall is one of the Great Wall, the most representative of the lot, located at the junction of Hebei Province the Luanping and Beijing Miyun County.

IMAGE #3>Jinshanling Great WallBeijing.

IMAGE #4>Sunset over the Great Wall of China.

IMAGE #5>Double Rainbow appear above Jinshanling section of the Great Wall after the thunderstorm at Luanping County on June 15, 2016 in Chengde, Hebei Province of China.

 

[Ivan Drago]

BANFF NATIONAL PARK


Established in 1885, Banff is Canada’s oldest national park. It is located amid the Canadian Rockies, in the Province of Alberta, to the West of Calgary. Covering 2,564 square miles (6641 km sq.), Banff is famed for its dramatic beauty: rippling tarns, alpine meadows and snow-capped mountains are home to a plethora of plant and animal life. The area is paradise for outdoor enthusiasts, with hiking, horseback riding, mountain climbing, ice diving and sightseeing opportunities abound. Visit and you will discover one of the most pristine, picture perfect destinations in world. Four million visitors a year can’t be wrong.

In 1883, three railway workers, Thomas McCardell, William McCardell and Frank McCabe discovered a number of hot springs (now known as cave and basin) at the base of what is now called Sulphur Mountain. In 1885, a federal reserve of 26 sq. km. was declared around the hot springs. 2 years later, this area was increased to 673 sq. km. and was named the ‘Rocky Mountains Park’. This move was the start of Banff’s long journey to becoming a hotspot for International tourism.

The Town of Banff was named in 1886, after ‘Banffshire’, the Scottish region from which two Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) directors were born. CPR was quick to realize the potential of the Canadian Rockies, and in 1888 opened the original, 250-room, log framed Banff Springs hotel. A series of other grand construction project along the main railway line followed, and the company started to advertise Banff as an international tourism stopover. As a result, the Canadian Rockies were quickly established as a popular destination with Victorian gentry, who visited to drink in the picturesque scenery and relax in the calm hot springs.



IMAGE #1>Mount Rundle and Vermillion Lakes at dawn in Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies.

IMAGE #2>Mountains reflecting in calm lake at sunrise.

IMAGE #3>View of Moraine lake with colorful mountains at sunrise in Banff National park.

IMAGE #4>An adult grizzly bear walks through a nearby campground and picnic area on June 27, 2013 in Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada. Major flooding along the Bow River in June washed out the Trans-Canada Highway 1 for nearly a week, forcing park visitors to cancel their vacation plans. (Doesn't look like an adult bear to me. Just saying.)

IMAGE #5>This photo was taken at Moraine Lake, the famous one of Canadian Rockies. The most popular activity during summer is kayaking in the lake. The background mountain range is called the Valley of the ten peaks located in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada.

 

[Ivan Drago]

Galapagos Islands, Spanish Islas Galápagos, officially Archipiélago de Colón (“Columbus Archipelago”), island group of the eastern Pacific Ocean, administratively a province of Ecuador. The Galapagos consist of 13 major islands (ranging in area from 5.4 to 1,771 square miles [14 to 4,588 square km]), 6 smaller islands, and scores of islets and rocks lying athwart the Equator 600 miles (1,000 km) west of the mainland of Ecuador. Their total land area of 3,093 square miles (8,010 square km) is scattered over 23,000 square miles (59,500 square km) of ocean. The government of Ecuador designated part of the Galapagos a wildlife sanctuary in 1935, and in 1959 the sanctuary became the Galapagos National Park. In 1978 the islands were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site, and in 1986 the Galapagos Marine Resources Reserve was created to protect the surrounding waters.

The Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz (Indefatigable) Island promotes scientific studies and protects the indigenous vegetation and animal life of the Galapagos.The Galapagos Islands are formed of lava piles and dotted with shield volcanoes, many of which are periodically active. The striking ruggedness of the arid landscape is accentuated by high volcanic mountains, craters, and cliffs. The largest of the islands, Isabela (Albemarle), is approximately 82 miles (132 km) long and constitutes more than half of the total land area of the archipelago; it contains Mount Azul, at 5,541 feet (1,689 metres) the highest point of the Galapagos Islands. The second largest island is Santa Cruz.



IMAGE #1>Red rock crab (Grapsus grapsus), also known as Red Sally Lightfoot crab or abuete negro - one of the most common crabs along the western coast of the Americas. Inage taken on Santa Cruz island, Galapagos, Ecuador.

IMAGE #2>The sand on the Galapagos is unbelievably soft and pure.

IMAGE #3>Big rock at sea coast in morning sunlight.

IMAGE #4>Galapagos Brown Pelican on a mangrove on quiet postcard like Tortuga Bay Beach on Santa Cruz Island in the Galapagos archipelago.

IMAGE #5>Galapagos in the early evening.

 

[Ivan Drago]

Victoria Falls, spectacular waterfall located about midway along the course of the Zambezi River, at the border between Zambia to the north and Zimbabwe to the south. Approximately twice as wide and twice as deep as Niagara Falls, the waterfall spans the entire breadth of the Zambezi River at one of its widest points (more than 5,500 feet [1,700 metres]). At the falls, the river plunges over a sheer precipice to a maximum drop of 355 feet (108 metres). The falls’ mean flow is almost 33,000 cubic feet (935 cubic metres) per second.The Zambezi River does not gather speed as it nears the drop, the approach being signaled only by the mighty roar and characteristic veil of mist for which the Kalolo-Lozi people named the falls Mosi-oa-Tunya (“The Smoke That Thunders”). The lip of the falls’ precipice is split into several parts by various small islands, depressions, and promontories along its edge. The eastern portions of the falls are mostly dry during times of low river flow.




IMAGE #1>Aerial few of the world famous Victoria Falls with a large rainbow over the falls. This is right at the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe in Southern Africa. The mighty Victoria Falls at Zambezi river are one of the most visited touristic places in Africa.

IMAGE #2>Aerial Victoria falls with rainbow, Livingstone, Zambia/Zimbabwe.

IMAGE #3>The "Devil's Cataract" at sunrise, at the Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.

IMAGE #4>Victoria Falls, Devils Cataract, Zimbabwe.

IMAGE #5>Zimbabwe side of Victoria Falls, (Mosi-oa-Tunya). Victoria Falls is a waterfall of 355ft (109m) on the Zambezi River on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe in Southern Africa.

 

[Graziani]

The Great Wall of China is an ancient series of walls and fortifications, totaling more than 13,000 miles in length, located in northern China. Perhaps the most recognizable symbol of China and its long and vivid history, the Great Wall was originally conceived by Emperor Qin Shi Huang in the third century B.C. as a means of preventing incursions from barbarian nomads. The best-known and best-preserved section of the Great Wall was built in the 14th through 17th centuries A.D., during the Ming dynasty.

Though the Great Wall never effectively prevented invaders from entering China, it came to function as a powerful symbol of Chinese civilization’s enduring strength. Though the beginning of the Great Wall of China can be traced to the fifth century B.C., many of the fortifications included in the wall date from hundreds of years earlier, when China was divided into a number of individual kingdoms during the so-called Warring States Period. Around 220 B.C., Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of a unified China under the Qin Dynasty, ordered that earlier fortifications between states be removed and a number of existing walls along the northern border be joined into a single system that would extend for more than 10,000 li (a li is about one-third of a mile) and protect China against attacks from the north.



IMAGE #1>This photo took in the early morning in Beijing, China.

View attachment 432864


IMAGE #2>Jinshanling Great Wall is one of the Great Wall, the most representative of the lot, located at the junction of Hebei Province the Luanping and Beijing Miyun County.

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IMAGE #3>Jinshanling Great WallBeijing.

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IMAGE #4>Sunset over the Great Wall of China.

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IMAGE #5>Double Rainbow appear above Jinshanling section of the Great Wall after the thunderstorm at Luanping County on June 15, 2016 in Chengde, Hebei Province of China.

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I dont want to visit creator of chinavirus. THEY fuck the world

 

[Ivan Drago]

MACHU PICCHU, PERU



Tucked away in the rocky countryside northwest of Cuzco, Peru, Machu Picchu is believed to have been a royal estate or sacred religious site for Inca leaders, whose civilization was virtually wiped out by Spanish invaders in the 16th century. For hundreds of years, until the American archaeologist Hiram Bingham stumbled upon it in 1911, the abandoned citadel’s existence was a secret known only to peasants living in the region. The site stretches over an impressive 5-mile distance, featuring more than 3,000 stone steps that link its many different levels. Today, hundreds of thousands of people tramp through Machu Picchu every year, braving crowds and landslides to see the sun set over its towering stone monuments and marvel at the mysterious splendor of one of the world’s most famous manmade wonders.

Historians believe Machu Picchu was built at the height of the Inca Empire, which dominated western South America in the 15th and 16th centuries. It was abandoned an estimated 100 years after its construction, probably around the time the Spanish began their conquest of the mighty pre-Columbian civilization in the 1530s. There is no evidence that the conquistadors ever attacked or even reached the mountaintop citadel, however; for this reason, some have suggested that the residents’ desertion occurred because of a smallpox epidemic.




IMAGE #1>The Inca ruins of the Machu Picchu sanctuary on January 18, 2014 near Cusco, Peru. The 15th-century Inca site, MachuPicchu also known as 'The Lost City of the Incas' is situated high above the Urubamba River. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site it was discovered in 1911 by the American historian Hiram Bingham.

IMAGE #2>The world heritage Inca site.

IMAGE #3>Sunrise at Machu Picchu.

IMAGE #4>Inca Trail

IMAGE #5>Scenic View of Machu Picchu.

 

[Ivan Drago]

SERENGETI NATIONAL PARK


It’s the only place where you can witness millions of migrating wildebeest over the Acacia plains, it’s the cradle of human life, and probably the closest to an untouched African wilderness you will ever get: welcome to the Serengeti National Park. Where time seems to stand still, despite the thousands of animals constantly on the move.The magic of the Serengeti is not easy to describe in words. Not only seeing, but also hearing the buzz of millions of wildebeest so thick in the air that it vibrates through your entire body is something you will try to describe to friends and family, before realizing it’s impossible. Vistas of honey-lit plains at sunset so beautiful, it’s worth the trip just to witness this. The genuine smiles of the Maasai people, giving you an immediate warming glow inside. Or just the feeling of constantly being among thousands of animals – it doesn’t matter what season of the migration you visit the Serengeti National Park, it’s magical all year round.



IMAGE #1>Sunset in the Serengeti.

IMAGE #2>African safari at sunset.

IMAGE #3>Lioness in the African savanna at sunset In Kenya.

IMAGE #4>Zebras an sunset.

IMAGE #5>A general view of part of the Serengeti national reserve on October 25, 2010. A proposed trade-route to cut right through the Serengeti, the annual stage for the internationally famous hartebeast migration to Kenya's Masai Mara, has environmentalists up-in-arms protesting that the proposed two-lane paved road on which work should begin in 2011linking Musoma on Lake Victoria (north) to Arusha (north) and crossing 50 km through northern Serengeti along the Kenyan border would according to Mike Rainy, a scientist based in Kenya for over 50 years, induced the risk of the eventual collapse of the Serengeti-Masai Mara ecosystem by creating increased carnage of by the road's users, introduction of animal diseases and ease of access and escape for poachers.