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 …

A swallow builds its nest inside farm buildings and on ledges in old chimneys. The nest is made of mud, straw and saliva, with feathers and wool to line the inside. It takes a pair of swallows up to several weeks to make the saucer-shaped nest in the rafters of a barn. Swallows starts arriving in Europe at the end …

Leeches, which are rather slimy worms and vary in length from an inch to several inches, have two suckers, a big one at the rear and a smaller one at the mouth end. They have powerful muscles, which enable them to expand and contract their bodies. This makes them excellent swimmers. They can also use their suckers to crawl on …

A bee keeps its sting at the end of its abdomen. At tip of a bee’s abdomen is a shaft where its stinging thorn is to be found. It can sting several times, but once it leaves the thorn in its victim’s flesh it will not be able to sting again. It is not true to say that a bee …

We expect you know there are some active volcanoes either today or in the very recent past, because when one erupts it always makes the headlines in the newspapers for example, we have already mentioned the eruption of Mount St Helens, and, of course, Mount Etna in Sicily is still active as are some of the volcanoes on the Hawaiian …