If you have ever been lost in a city or even a large town without the help of a street plan you will have some idea of the problems which confronted scientist of old when they tried to imagine exactly where Earth was in the Universe. You might be able to work out where you were in the city if …

The Bridge of Sighs is a bridge in Venice, northern Italy. The enclosed bridge is made of white limestone and has windows with stone bars. It passes over the Rio di Palazzo and connects the old prisons to the interrogation rooms in the Doge’s Palace. It was designed by Antoni Contino (whose uncle Antonio da Ponte had designed the Rialto …

Magnetic Hill is a gravity hill located near Leh in Ladakh, India. The hill is alleged to have magnetic properties strong enough to pull cars uphill and force passing aircraft to increase their altitude in order to escape magnetic interference; in reality, the effect is an optical illusion created by the gravity hill. The “magnetic hill” is located on the …

The ‘Lemon Festival’ is also celebrated in Goleta Valley in California, where lemon farming is an important agricultural activity. To commemorate the role of lemons in their lives and economies, they started celebrating the festival, which includes lemon food, family entertainment and other business activities.

The Gobi desert, the extensive area of southern Mongolia and northern China and the largest desert in Asia, is also known as Shamo. It’s the Chinese word for ‘sand desert’. The Gobi extends 1,600 km from East to West and 1,000 km from North to South. It is bound by Da Hinggan Ling (Greater Khingan Range) on the East, Altun …

Mullaperiyar Dam is a gravity dam made with lime stone and surkhi and the cunstruction technologies of 19th century on the Periyar River. It is located 881 m (2,890 ft) above mean sea level on the Cardamom Hills of Western Ghats in Thekkadi, Idukki District of Kerala, India. It was constructed in 1895 by the British Government, to divert water …

The fantastic wrought-iron spires of the Cathedral of Holy Family are among the most famous sights in Barcelona. The great Catalan architect Antonio Gaudi designed it in 1852-1926. The work began on the cathedral in 1882 but it is still unfinished today.

The French words amber gris mean grey amber, but amber bears no relation to ambergris. The first is derived from plants and the second from animals. Amber is a yellowish, translucent fossil resin. Millions of years ago large heaps of resin which oozed from pine trees were buried by soil, and hardened into amber. Insects now extinct have been found …

This dates back to a 15th century song sung by English ploughmen on Plough Monday, the first Monday after Twelfth Day, the end of the Christmas holidays. Before farm laborers went back to the fields, they dressed all in white and went from door to door drawing a plough and soliciting “plough money” to spend on a last celebration. The …

Caviare is the role of the female members of the sturgeon family. These fish are found in northern and central Asia, Europe and North America. The best quality black caviare comes from sturgeon caught during the winter months in the estuaries of rivers which flow into the Baltic Sea. It is regarded as a great delicacy and has been known …