Living With Giraffes At Nairobi's Giraffe Manor

 This luxury boutique hotel is not what you would expect from your standard vacation lodging! Located in Kenya, just about 12 miles outside of Nairobi, Giraffe Manor is 12 acres of private land and 140 acres of indigenous forest that is home to a herd of Rothschild Giraffe.
The website explains that the Giraffe Center, located on the Giraffe Manor grounds “was set up by AFEW (African Fund for Endangered Wildlife) as a breeding centre for the endangered Rothschild Giraffe, and has now evolved to operate conservation and educational programs for Kenyan school children. Giraffe Centre has preserved the original habitat intact for the giraffes and a variety of birds and animals including warthogs, hyenas and sometimes a leopard.”
Built in 1932, the manor décor is a combination of traditional and modern, with a two-story entrance hall, majestic staircase, and immaculately furnished interiors. Guests are offered the opportunity to interact with the giraffes at all times of day. According to the website, “Giraffe Manor offers you an unparalleled experience of the giraffes, with them vying for your attention at the breakfast table, the front door and even your bedroom window.”

The grounds also accommodate various animals including warthogs, bushbuck, dik dik (a type of small antelope), and 180 species of birds. There are a number of unique things to do when you visit Giraffe Manor—you can spend the day interacting with the animals, meander along the nature trail, or even visit the nearby capital city of Nairobi.

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Amazing Sanzhi UFO Houses

The Sanzhi UFO houses, also known as the Sanzhi pod houses or Sanzhi Pod City, were a set of abandoned pod-shaped buildings in Sanzhi District, New Taipei City, Taiwan. The buildings resembled Futuro houses, some examples of which can be found elsewhere in Taiwan. The site where the buildings were located was owned by Hung Kuo Group.Construction and Abandonment — The UFO houses were constructed beginning in 1978. They were intended as a vacation resort in a part of the northern coast adjacent to Tamsui, and were marketed towards U.S. Military officers coming from their East Asian postings.
However, the project was abandoned in 1980 due to investment losses and several car accident deaths during construction, which is said to have been caused by the unfortuitous act of bisecting the Chinese dragon sculpture located near the resort gates for widening the road to the buildings.
Other stories indicated that the site was the former burial groun
d for Dutch soldiers. The pod-like buildings became a minor tourist attraction due in part to their unusual architecture. The structures have since been subject of a film, used as a location by MTV for cinematography, photographed by people, and become a subject in online discussions, described as a ghost town or "ruins of the future".Demolition — The buildings were scheduled to be torn down in late 2008, despite an online petition to retain one of the structures as a museum.
Demolition work on the site began on 29 December 2008, with plans to redevelop the site into a tourist attraction with hotels and beach facilities. As of 2010, all UFO houses have been demolished and the site is in the process of being converted to a commercial seaside resort and water-park.

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The Pyramid Of The Sun In Mexico

Pyramid of the Sun, It was massive, one of the first great cities of the Western Hemisphere. And its origins are a mystery. It was built by hand more than a thousand years before the swooping arrival of the Nahuatl-speaking Aztec in central Mexico. But it was the Aztec, descending on the abandoned site, no doubt falling awestruck by what they saw, who gave it a name: Teotihuacan. A famed archaeological site located fewer than 30 miles (50 kilometers) from Mexico City, Teotihuacan reached its zenith between 100 B.C. And A.D. 650. It covered 8 square miles (21 square kilometers) and supported a population of a hundred thousand, according to George Cowgill, an archaeologist at Arizona State University and a National Geographic Society grantee.

"It was the largest city anywhere in the Western Hemisphere before the 1400s," Cowgill says. "It had thousands of residential compounds and scores of pyramid-temples and was comparable to the largest pyramids of Egypt."  Oddly, Teotihuacan, which contains a massive central road (the Street of the Dead) and buildings including the Temple of the Sun and the Temple of the Moon, has no military structures—though experts say the military and cultural wake of Teotihuacan was heavily felt throughout the region.

Who Built It? — Cowgill says the site's visible surface remains have all been mapped in detail. But only five percent has been scientifically excavated.
Scholars once pointed to the Toltec culture. Others note that the Toltec peaked far later than Teotihuacan's zenith, undermining that theory. Some scholars say the Totonac culture was responsible.
No matter its principal builders, evidence shows that Teotihuacan hosted a patchwork of cultures including the Maya, Mixtec, and Zapotec. One theory says an erupting volcano forced a wave of immigrants into the Teotihuacan valley and that those refugees either built or bolstered the city.
The main excavations, performed by Professors Saburo Sugiyama of Aichi Prefectural University in Japan and Rubén Cabrera, a Mexican archaeologist, have been at the Pyramid of the Moon. It was there, beneath layers of dirt and stone, that researchers realized the awe-inspiring craftsmanship of Teotihuacan's architects was matched by a cultural penchant for brutality and human and animal sacrifice. Inside the temple, researchers found buried animals and bodies, with heads that had been lobbed off, all thought to be offerings to gods or sanctification for successive layers of the pyramid as it was built.
 
It's unclear why Teotihuacan collapsed; one theory is that poorer classes carried out an internal uprising against the elite.For Cowgill, who says more studies are needed to understand the lives of the poorer classes that inhabited Teotihuacan, the mystery lies not as much in who built the city or in why it fell.

"Rather than asking why Teotihuacan collapsed, it is more interesting to ask why it lasted so long," he says. "What were the social, political, and religious practices that provided such stability?"

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Park Buddhas — Laos

 Nature - The best artist, but sometimes it interferes with the idea man, and because such an alliance appear surprising places. We offer you a selection of the most unusual parks in the world.

Park Buddhas — Laos

The park was started in 1958 by Luang Pu (Venerable Grandfather) Bunleua Sulilat. Luang Pu Bunleua Sulilat was a priest-shaman who integrated Hinduism and Buddhism. His unique perspective was influenced by a Hindu rishi under whom he studied in Vietnam. After the revolution in 1975, anxious about the repercussions of the rule of Pathet Lao, he fled from Laos to Thailand where he built another sculpture park, Sala Keoku in Nong Khai. Both parks are located right next to the Thai-Lao border (Mekong river), only a few kilometers apart from each other, and the tallest structures of the Buddha Park can actually be seen from the Thai side of Mekong.

The statues are made of reinforced concrete and are ornate, and sometimes bizarre, in design. The statues appear to be centuries old, though they are not. There are sculptures of humans, gods, animals, and demons. There are numerous sculptures of Buddha, characters of Buddhist beliefs like Avalokitesvara, and characters of Hindu lore, including Shiva, Vishnu, and Arjuna. These sculptures were presumably cast by unskilled workers under the supervision of Luang Pu Bunleua Sulilat. One notable sculpture resembles a giant pumpkin. It has three stories representing three levels - Hell, Earth and Heaven. Visitors can enter through an opening which is a mouth of a 3-metre-tall demon head (9.8 ft) and climb staircases from hell to heaven. Each story contains sculptures depicting the level. At the top, there is a vantage point where the entire park is visible. Another sculpture, an enormous 120-metre-long (390 ft) reclining Buddha, is also a park attraction. 

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Bailong Elevator Built Into The Side Of Huge Cliff

Have you ever taken an elevator ride to the top of a mountain? No? Then you haven’t been to Wulingyuan in Zhangjiajie, China, because if you had, you would have surely seen the towering Bailong Elevator built into the side of a huge cliff. Also known as Hundred Dragons Elevator, this glass elevator stands 330 meters tall and is claimed to be the highest and heaviest outdoor elevator in the world. Quite possibly, it is the only elevator in the world that lets people ride up a cliff.

The elevator can take ~48 passengers at once to the top, a journey that takes 2 seconds shy of 2 minutes. After it was built, the lift was said to be the world's tallest full-exposure outdoor lift, tallest double-deck sightseeing elevator, and the fastest passenger elevator with the biggest capacity. The elevator was built during 1999 and 2002 at the cost of 120 million yuan or $19 million. The project was met with fierce criticism from environmentalists who were angry that it was sited in the middle of a World Heritage Site.  

In the rocks were cut mines and tunnels to provide the infrastructure elevator. In addition, in the event of an earthquake or a natural disaster people from all three elevator cars can be quickly evacuated.

Supporters of the project say that the lifts with the highest passenger capacity in the world, saved the mountain trails of the excess load.But their opponents point to the fact that the region, which is visited by 5 million people every year and is already saturated with tourists and is another attraction that will increase their number, only hurt the environment.Despite the protests, the lift is available for tourists, and indeed promotes the growth of popularity of this region of Hunan.After the building was put into operation in 2002, he was temporarily closed for safety reasons. 

After some improvements elevator resumed operation in 2003 and is now a cult destination among tourists. The lift can save 3 hours of walking and just one minute gives travelers the mountain, which offers a beautiful view of the valley from the quartzite pillars.Wulingyuan - cliffs in Zhangjiajie National Park, which is located in Hunan Province in the southeast of China. This is a place of amazing beauty and at the same time a natural zoo, botanical and geological reserve. The place is famous for its quartzite cliffs up to 800 meters. 

The highest peaks of Wulingyuan reach a height of more than 3 km above sea level. Mountains are a picturesque sight: the huge stone pillars above the rainforest cut by sharp peaks, waterfalls, a giant cave system.

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A Natural Wall Of Tears

Mount Waialeale (or Wai'ale'ale) is a volcanic crater and the second highest point on the island of Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands. In the Hawaiian language, Wai'ale'ale means “rippling water” or “overflowing water.” Averaging more than 452 inches (11,500 mm) of rain a year since 1912, with a record 683 inches (17,300 mm) in 1982, its summit is one of the wettest spots on earth. 

As this rainwater makes its way down the 5,148-feet tall peak, they form innumerable streams. 

One spot on Mt. Waialeale is called the “Wall of Tears” because there are so many waterfalls plummeting down the deep, tropical green sides of the mountain that it looks as if it is  crying.
Mount Waialeale isn’t easily accessible on foot. The sides are near vertical and ground is covered with trees and plants with a thick undergrowth of ferns. There are a few hiking trails in the area. 

The only way to really see the Wall of Tears is by helicopter, and even then you have to get lucky since the area is usually shrouded with clouds.

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SonicStar Jet - Successor To The Concorde

This plane,  will be twice as fast as Concorde,  with a top speed of Mach 3.6.   Plans for 20-seat craft were unveiled at The Paris Air Show.   HyperMach claims,   its SonicStar aircraft will be so quick that travelling from London to New York will take just two hours   !    A trip from New York to Sydney,   meanwhile,   will be cut by a staggering 75 per cent - from 20 hours on a commercial airliner to just five hours.   A jet that can fly from London to Sydney in three and a half hours could rob Concorde of its title as the fastest-ever passenger plane.

Plans have been unveiled for the HyperMach SonicStar,  a business jet which will be capable of a top speed of 2,664 mph twice as fast as Concorde.   It will fly at 62,000 ft,  allowing passengers to see the curvature of the earth.   HypeMach chief executive Richard Lugg,  wants the plane in the skies within ten years,  and has already secured funding from the Department of Trade and Industry, which has agreed to support the company in Britain .

Long-range cruise speed - Mach 3.1
High-speed cruise speed - Mach 3.4
Engines - Two SonicBlue S-MAGJET Hybrid Supersonic 4000-X Series
Thrust - Flat-rated to 54,700 lb
Wing area - 1,800 square feet
Landing distance - 4,800 ft
Range - 6,000 nautical miles
Highest Altitude - 62,000 ft
CABIN
Length - 64
metersHeight at maximum - 2.6
 metersWidth at maximum - 2.7 meters

Visiting the Paris Air Show,  Mr. Lugg said:  " We have access to revolutionary engine technology and a unique very high speed aircraft design,  to make this kind of earth-shatteringly fast air travel possible,  and we have a date.   Our plan is to build and fly the world's first very high speed supersonic hybrid aircraft by June 2021  ! "

Propulsion for the 20-seat aircraft will come from two hybrid engines which will be 30 per cent more fuel efficient than the Rolls-Royce engines used in Concorde.   It has been eight years since The Concorde,  was retired from service and with it the supersonic dreams of millions around the world.   It will be able to cruise at Mach 3.1,  a speed made possible by S-MAGJET hybrid gas turbine engine technology.   Nobody has ever traveled that fast before,  on a passenger plane  !

With relatively low fuel consumption, the Sonic Star 'overcomes the economic and environmental challenges of supersonic flight,  to revolutionize the way we travel and drive air transportation forward into the future,   claims HyperMach.   By using electromagnetic currents across the fuselage to suppress the sonic boom,  the plane is able to overcome the noise regulations that constrict supersonic travel.  It has a range of 6,000 nautical miles and its 54,700 thrust class S-MAGJET engine - actually two engines - is optimized to fly the aircraft at 62,000 ft.   But it is the reduction in jet engine emissions that HyperMach believes will prove the secret of SonicStar's success.

Source :- http://www.funzug.com/

 

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Amazing Bridge Held By Three Big Helium Balloons

French artist Olivier Grossetête used three enormous helium balloons to float a rope bridge over a lake in Tatton Park, a historic estate in north-west England. Oliver Grossetête created Pont de Singe, which means "monkey bridge", for the Tatton Park Biennial, which this year was themed around flight. Located in the park's Japanese garden, the structure comprised a long rope bridge made of cedar wood held aloft by three helium-filled balloons. The ends of the bridge were left to trail in the water. Though visitors weren't allowed to use the bridge, it would theoretically be strong enough to hold the weight of a person, according to Grossetête.

Replacing the usual foundations and joints of a bridge with three balloons leads us to question our perceptions, the artist explained. "My artistic work tries to make alive the poetry and dreams within our everyday life," added Grossetête.

The artist had previously experimented with another floating bridge in his 2007 project Pont Suspendu, where he used a cluster of helium balloons to float a small bridge structure into the air.

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Dettifoss - A Most Powerful Waterfall

The waterfall Dettifoss is located in Vatnajökull National Park in Northeast Iceland, and reputed to be the most powerful waterfall in Europe. It is also the largest waterfall in Europe in terms of volume discharge, having an average water flow of 193 cubic meter per second. Its volume often increases, especially when the weather or volcanic activity prompts glacial melting on the Vatnajokull glacier icecap. The waterfall is so powerful that it makes the surrounding rocks vibrate, the vibrations can be felt by hand.

Dettifoss is situated on the Jökulsá á Fjöllum river, which flows from the Vatnajökull glacier and collects water from a large area in Northeast Iceland. The fall is 100 metres wide and have a drop of 45 metres down to the Jökulsárgljúfur canyon.

Since it’s partly buried in the canyon, Dettifoss is overlooked by cliffs on both sides. From the west, the full face of the waterfall can be seen, and a short walk places you on top of the lava dam and fault line, that are responsible for the waterfall’s location. The river water is almost always dark with sediment, in contrast with the white rapids and spray. During floods the river and the falls are often virtually black with sediment and debris.

The mighty Dettifoss is accompanied by two other substantial waterfalls. Selfoss is a few kilometers south and Hafragilsfoss is a few kilometers north. It is possible to reach the waterfalls from both sides of the glacial river Jokulsa, but one has to be careful when traversing the rugged terrain on foot. On the west bank there are no facilities and the view on the waterfall is somewhat hindered by the waterfall's spray. On the east bank there is an information panel maintained by the staff of Vatnajökull National Park (Vatnajökulsþjóðgarður) and a maintained track to the best viewpoints.

Dettifoss appeared in the opening scenes of the 2012 science-fiction film Prometheus. Since then, some people have been calling it “the Prometheus Waterfall”.

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Beautiful Cliffside City Of Ronda, Spain

Ronda is a city in the Spanish province of Málaga. It is located about 100 kilometres (62 MI) west of the city of Málaga with a population of approximately 35,000 inhabitants. Ronda was first settled by the early Celts, who, in the 6th century BC, called it Arunda. Later Phoenician settlers established themselves nearby to found Acinipo, known locally as Ronda la Vieja, Arunda or Old Ronda. The current Ronda is however of Roman origins, having been founded as a fortified post in the Second Punic War, by Scipio Africanus.

 Ronda received the title of city at the time of Julius Caesar. The city is situated in a very mountainous area about 750 meters (2,460 ft) above mean sea level. The Guadalevin River runs through the city, dividing it in two and carving out the steep, 100 plus meters deep El Tajo canyon upon which the city perches. Three bridges, Puente Romano, Puente Viejo and Puente Nuevo, span the canyon. The Puente Nuevo is the tallest of the bridges, towering 120 metres (390 ft) above the canyon floor.

 All three serve as some of the city’s most impressive features. American artists Ernest Hemingway and Orson Welles spent many summers in Ronda as part-time residents of Ronda’s old town quarter called La Ciudad. Both wrote about Ronda’s beauty and their collective accounts have contributed to Ronda’s popularity over time.

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A Scary Skywalk On Glass Bridge, China

On one side a sheer rock face, on the other a 4,000ft drop - and all to separate the brave traveller from a deadly plunge is a  3ft-wide, 2.5in thick walkway. And if that is not enough to bring terror into the pit of your stomach, the path running alongside a Chinese mountainside is made out of glass, allowing a crystal-clear view of where one false step can take you.

 So it was perhaps understandable that this woman tackled the walkway by sticking as close to the cliff as possible, feeling her way along with tentative steps. The skywalk is situated 4,700ft above sea level on the side of the Tianmen Mountain in Zhangjiajie, China.The 200ft long bridge joins the west cliff at the Yunmeng Fairy Summit, the summit of Tianmen Mountain and Zhang Jiajie. 

And it would appear to be too scary for the cleaners - tourists are asked to put on shoe covers before passing to help keep the path clean. The pathway, built earlier in the summer echoes the glass-bottomed walkway at the Grand Canyon in the U.S. The 70ft bridge is 4,000ft above the natural wonder and allows tourists to look through 2.5in of crystal-clear glass to the Canyon floor below.

 The Tianmen mountain, literally translated as Heavenly Gate Mountain is so called because of a huge natural cave that occurs halfway up to the summit. Situated in the Hunan Province, Its highest peak is around 5,000ft above sea level and it is home to a wealth of rare species of plants. 

A four-mile-long cable car was constructed in the park, which is said to be the longest of the same type in the world.And no matter how terrifying the glass walkway may be - it can only be an improvement from another sky high mountain walkway located in the same province.

 The Shifou Mountain, located 82 miles away, offers sightseers a 3ft-wide road made of wooden planks thousands of feet high. When finished the wooden 'road' - which is the width of a dinner table - will stretch for 1.8miles making it China's longest sightseeing path.

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A House Covered With Flowers

Blooming beautiful: Couple spend every evening and weekend for TWENTY-SIX YEARS covering their house in flowers.This is the blooming marvellous sight of a house completely covered in a rainbow of summer flowers - and it's been a labour of love for 26 years.

 

Anne and Robin Strange who devote every spare hour to their luscious house-gardensay they are still adding to the display almost three decades after they began. 

The pair spend hundreds of pounds every year on seeds and plantsnurturing them inside a greenhouse before putting them on display in mid-June.Colourful: Anne Strange amongst the thousands of rainbow coloured blooms almost covering her house in North Yorkshire

Mrs Strange said: 'We were in York one day looking at all the beautiful hanging baskets and we were inspired to create our own. 

'We have been planting more and more flowers ever since.' 

The couple of Coniston Cold North Yorkshire have had an amazing response from motorists who drive past their multi colored home.

Inspired: Motorists adore looking at the couple's home and one woman even sends a gift voucher every Christmas to express her appreciation of the spectacle.

Bright and beautiful: Even back in 1988 the Strange's house looked stunning but over the years it's become even more beautiful

One woman even sends them a gift voucher every Christmas to express her appreciation of the spectacle. 

Mrs Strange added: 'People think its great we get cards from people we have never even met.' 

Mr Strange who works for Tree Tops Forestry spends every weekend and evening seeing to the garden.

Dedication: Mr and Mrs Strange spend hundreds of pounds every year planting seeds and nurturing the blooms inside a greenhouse.

Mrs Strange said: 'I dread to think how much money goes on the garden but it definitely all adds up. 

'It is worth it though we are both very pleased with what we have created.' 

An irrigation system means the couple do not have to worry about the mammoth task of watering the flowers as it is done automatically. 

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French Street Art By OakOak

OakOak is a street artist from Saint-Étienne, France, whose playful diversions bring smiles to those who come across his work. The Outsiders Gallery sums up his style nicely:

Pen-pusher by day, street art superhero by night, Saint-Étienne sensation OakOak’s hilarious, imaginative, irreverent and sometimes a little macabre street work has filled column inches from BBC Brazil to Beijing’s biggest daily newspaper… Daubing simple graffiti and paintings on urban features – often the broken ones – OakOak does what street art does best, amuse and inspire people of all ages and demographics by appropriating the city’s less appealing elements.

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