a moment of beauty

[anotheranon]

A cenote - a sacrificial underground lake used by the Mayans. The photographer was lucky enough to be there the one day of the year where a tiny beam of light from the surface aligns perfectly with the tip of one of the stalactites - amazing :)

Taken from the Mysterious Places website, which also includes photo essays of Easter Island and Stonehenge.

Anyone have any favorite "mysterious" places, or ones they'd like to visit? I'd like to see Stonehenge one day, along with Oak Island (It IS in Canada, jlsjlsjls!) and Rosslyn Chapel (warning, site has music with no "off" button).

Comments

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

Oak Island (It IS in Canada

Well, whaddya know? For some reason I always associated it with points further south. ***peering at map of Nova Scotia in atlas and finding no Oak Island marked, but can see Mahone Bay ... just beside Lunenberg*** Thanks for seeking that out and letting me know. :-))))))

Someday I'd like to have the chance to go to Edinburgh ... to see my great-grandfather's paintings there (which will mainly involve poking my nose into a lot of old churches, although he did do other work as well, including a portrait of Mrs. Andrew Carnegie). For the more exotic, Papua New Guinea and Madagascar are the places that have always intrigued me ... the wildlife, and plants and the people. :-)

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

I seem to remember something about the unusual wildlife of Madagascar, but I can't seem to remember what it was - I think the dodo was originally from there, before it was killed off. What am I forgetting?

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

One species of dodo was found on Mauritius, one of the Mascarene Islands located east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean (another variety, the less-well-known white dodo lived on the neighbouring island of Réunion) ... actually I'd love to visit the Mascarenes as well ... pink pigeons and fruit bats and kinky kestrels! (readers of Douglas Adams' wonderful Last Chance To See ... will know what that last one is about ***grin***)

Madagascar is the last stronghold of lemurs, aye-ayes and several other ancient plant and animal species that died out on mainland Africa long ago.

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

P.S. The cenoté IS beautiful!!!!!!!

[hadesgirl.livejournal.com]

That cenote is TOO KEWL. Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[timcharmorbien.livejournal.com]

I would LOVE to see Stonehenge, and the cave paintings at Lascoux (sp?) though the odds of the latter happening are quite slim these days; prehistoric paintings don't hold up well to tourist traffic. :( I've also always been fascinated by the Nazca lines in Peru, though those are best appreciated from an aerial view. :)

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Next CZ klatch - rent helicopter and go to Nazca!! I've always been intrigued by the lines as well - how they were planned, and most of all, why.

I seem to remember that a full-scale reproduction of the Lascoux caves was being created for tourists, but a quick Google can't seem to find anything about that. Not the original, but perhaps better than nothing?

[timcharmorbien.livejournal.com]

No helicopters, please! I like airborne vehicles that can actually glide to a landing if something goes wrong! :)

And a replication of the cave is the next best thing; I'd better start saving now for that trip! :P

Lascaux rewind!

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Aha! Just found this (http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/infoprat.htm). And evidently it's old news; the reproduction has been available since 1983 (http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/lascaux2.htm) [blush]!