Panama Canal

Panama Canal

The Isthmus of Panama connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and the Panama Canal allows ships to pass through and access the West Coast of the United States. The Panama Canal, finished in 1915, was an important part of history, taking many years and several rounds of planning to accomplish.
There are two local museums devoted to the history and construction of the Panama Canal, one at Casco Antiguo, and another at Miraflores Locks. The museums exhibit the engineering marvels that were accomplished during the building of the canal, and explain the technical parts of the canal.

Olympic National Park

Olympic National Park

Olympic National Park, which receives nearly 3 million annual visitors, consists of a variety of landscapes, including mountains, ancient forests, rainforests, the coast and tide pools. First established as Mount Olympus National Monument in 1909, the park was re-designated with National Park status on June 29, 1938.

Olympic National Park is home to a variety of wildlife, and was named an International Biosphere Reserve in 1976. About 95% of the park is designated Olympic Wilderness.

Some of the mountains in Olympic National Park are topped with ancient glaciers, including the 5 kilometer long Hoh Glacier. Along the western edge of the park are the temperate rainforests, one of the wettest areas in the country.

 Popular activities for visitors to Olympic National Park include hiking, backpacking, and fishing.

Cueva de las Manos in Aegentina

Cueva de las Manos or Cave of hands in province of Santa Cruz, Argentina

Cueva de las Manos, meaning “cave of the hands” in Spanish, is a series of famous paintings on the walls of caves. Located in the Santa Cruz province of Argentina, the cave paintings date back to between 9,000 and 13,000 years ago, and were created by the hunter-gatherer people who resided in Patagonia. These communities were some of the earliest in South America, making this site very important. The caves were inhabited by several waves of people, though the most recent of these were probably ancestors of the Tehuelche people around 700 CE.

Archaeologists have found that the cave dwellers used pipes carved from bones to spray paint the cave walls, using their hands as stencils to create hundreds of silhouettes of their hands in varying shades of red, purple, yellow, and brown. Most of the hands are left hands, suggesting that the artists were right handed, and painted their own hands.

There is also art featuring humans and animals in hunting scenes, with the indigenous guanacos and rheas, as well as abstract designs like shapes and zigzags. The hunters are depicted using bolas, their traditional hunting weapons.

The Excelsior Geyser

Excelsior Geyser – The Largest Geyser in the World

Located in Yellowstone’s Midway Geyser Basin, Excelsior Geyser is the largest geyser in the world. The geyser is largely dormant these days. The last major eruptions of the geyser were in the 1880s, when the water would reach a height of up to 300 feet. The stunning display of natural splendor gave Excelsior Geyser its fame. According to geologists, the ferocity of the eruptions in the 19th century may have damaged the ground formations resulting in gas leaks,and resulting causing the geyser to die out. The Excelsior Geyser erupted again 1985 for about two days, but the foamy spurts managed to reach a height of only about 20 and 80 feet. The hot spring remains and is reputed to be rich in natural minerals and have healing properties.

The spring currently discharges over 4050 gallons of water in each minute. The serene blue expanse of the spring now remains one of the best-loved attractions of the Yellowstone National Park. The water discharged by the Excelsior Geyser flows directly into the Firehole River. It is believed that when the geyser was active the waters in the Firehole River would be scalding and horses would refuse to cross the river. The Midway Geyser Basin is a collection of huge springs. It forms part of the Lower Geyser Basin. Rudyard Kipling, who visited Yellowstone in 1889, referred to the basin as “Hell’s Half Acre”.  The basin is still referred to by that name. The Yellowstone National Park spans over 2,219,791 acres and recorded a footfall of over 3,394,326 visitors in 2012. It is one of the top attractions of the west American state of Wyoming.

The Pillars of the Weathering in Russia

The Pillars of Weathering at Komi Republic, Russia

The Pillars of the Weathering are a breathtaking natural attraction located in the Komi Republic region of Russia. The seven towering pillars approximately 98 feet to 137 feet (30 – 42 meters) in height are some of the most spectacular geographic formations known to mankind. Though, designated one of the Seven Wonders of Russia, the Pillars of Weathering are relatively little known outside the country and hence largely untainted by teeming tourists. The Manpupuner rock formations pose one of the toughest challenges to rock climbers across the world due to their massive height and unique shapes.

According to an ancient Russian legend, the Pillars of Weathering were once a group of Samoyeds giants heading towards Siberia with the intent of calling to war the Vogulsky people. The sight of the holy Vogulsky Mountains made their leader drop his drum and turned them into these giant monoliths exuding massive power and a stern deportment.

It is often suspected that the Pillars of Weathering were built by the Mansi community which inhabited the Troitsko-Pechersk district of Russia, north of the Ural mountains, but it seems more likely that they are the result of frost and weathering on what may have been huge boulders or mounds.

The existence of many legends among the Mansi, the Kopi, and the Russians is proof enough that these stone giants have captured the imaginations of people since ancient times. The Pillars of Weathering have come a long way from being a sacred place of worship to become a great tourist destination.