You would find a Red Giant on the Sierra Nevada mountains of California in North America. It is a huge redwood tree, called a giant sequoia. These trees, members of the conifer family, are the largest in the world and grow to a height of 300 feet. They have a very hard, reddish brown wood and a thick, very rough …

Numerous fossil remains have been found of coelacanth fish which died over 70 million years ago. In fact the coelacanth is said to have first appeared some 350 million years ago. But to the amazement of experts the first living coelacanth was found in 1938 of the coast of South Africa. In 1952 a second one was caught on a …

In tropical America and the Southern United States. The Black Widow is one of the most poisonous of all the spiders, the female having a deadly bite which is not always counteracted by a person being given anti-poison serum…so beware the Black Window!

It is said that hookahs in a sophisticated fashion were first used in Persia during the reign of Shah Jamashap, but gypsies and bedouin tribes used it in a crude form since ancient times all over West Asia. In ancient India, tobacco smoking was common, and the chillum and hookah were popular. It was made from empty coconut shells and …

The wheel is one of man’s most important inventions, but no one is sure, how, when, or where it was first developed. It is probable that early in man’s development, the idea came to someone of using a tree trunk as a huge roller for moving heavy objects. We do have proof that, by 3500 BC, the wheel was in …

The ancient board game of Pachisi was first played in India, and is still the national game. The modren version, called Parcheesi, is based on its Indian predecessor.

The Tower of London, which stands on the north bank of the River Thames in London, is a mediaeval castle and includes and ancient fortress, a prison, an early Norman chapel and former royal residence. The group of buildings is surrounded by a high stone wall and a moat. The Tower Today is a peaceful place, a showplace and museum …

We listened to weather forecasts to find our how warm and sunny, wet or windy the weather is likely to be. People in eastern Sahara, in North Africa, don’t have this problem. This is the world’s sunniest place, with an average of over 4,300 hours of sunshine a year nearly 12 hours a day!

Lots of people complaint about the weather, especially when they get wet. But in tropical lands, rain is often a matter of life and death. For example, in India, farmers pray for the summer monsoons rains to help their young rice plants grow. North-eastern India is particularly wet, and the villages of Cherrapunji hold the world record rainfall for one …

The first city to build an underground railway was London. Once the route was planned, a great trench was cut along the streets, the railway tracks were laid and the trench was covered over again, to restore the road and create a railway tunnel underneath. This method of tunnel making is called ‘cut and cover’. The original route of the …