Peaks and Summits: 31 Photos of Majestic Mountain Adventures: National Geographic

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/activities/mountaineering/photos-mountain-adventures-peaks-summits/

10 of Africa's best water adventures: CNN

http://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/africa-water-adventures/index.html

These Breathtaking Natural Wonders No Longer Exist: National Geographic

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/features/photography/natural-wonders-that-disappeared/

Canyons and Valleys: Striking Landscapes Across the World: National Geographic

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/lists/photos-canyons-valleys-striking-landscapes-across-world/

Beach hut

A beach hut (also known as a beach cabin or bathing box) is a small, usually wooden and often brightly coloured, box above the high tide mark on popular bathing beaches. They are generally used as a shelter from the sun or wind, changing into and out of swimming costumes and for the safe storing of some personal belongings. Some beach huts incorporate simple facilities for preparing food and hot drinks by either bottled gas or occasionally mains electricity.

The noted bathing boxes at Brighton in Australia are known to have existed as far back as 1862. The bathing boxes are thought to have been constructed and used largely as a response to the Victorian morality of the age, and are known to have existed not only in Australia but also on the beaches of England, France and Italy at around the same time. They had evolved from the wheeled bathing machines used by Victorians to preserve their modesty. George III gave royal approval to the new fashion when he took a medicinal bath at Weymouth to the musical accompaniment of ‘God Save the King.’, while Queen Victoria installed one at Osbourne House on the Isle of Wight in the 1840s.

In the early 20th century, beach huts were regarded as "holiday homes for the toiling classes", but in the 1930s their image revived, George V and Queen Mary spent the day at a beach hut in Sussex, and other owners have included the Spencer family and Laurence Olivier. During World War II all UK beaches were closed, the reopening in the late 1940s and 1950s led to resurgence of the British beach holiday and the heyday of the Beach Hut. Source: Wikipedia

 

Inside of a luxurious beach hut

Photo Source: Collected from Internet

17 of the World's Most Wild and Beautiful Places: National Geographic

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/photography/photos-worlds-most-beautiful-places/

Epic Trails Across the Globe: National Geographic

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/lists/trails/epic-trails-around-world/

30 Jaw-Dropping Ways to Experience Chile: National Geographic

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/destinations/south-america/chile/photos-jaw-dropping-adventure-experiences-chile/

How students around the world are learning in new ways: CNN

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/18/health/gallery/schools-learning-new-ways/index.html

Star Forts (bastion fort) around the world

Palmanova from the air.

A bastion fort, star fort or trace italienne, is a fortification in a style that evolved during the age of gunpowder when the cannon came to dominate the battlefield. It was first seen in the mid-15th century in Italy. The design of the fort is normally a pentagon or hexagon with bastions at the corners of the walls. These outcroppings are present for the purpose of a total, panoramic view of the battlefield. Because of the bastions, archers and cannon operators can hit any target on the battlefield without having to lean over the wall and expose themselves. Many bastion forts also feature cavaliers, which are raised secondary structures based entirely inside the primary structure. Source: Wikipedia

Aerial photograph of Neuf Brisach.

fort-bourtange-

Elvas Fortress, Portugal

Fort de Bellegarde, Le Perthus

Fort George on Citadel Hill, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Josefov Fortress in Jaroměř

Citadel of Quebec, in Quebec City.

The 19th-century Goryokaku.

Fort Stanwix, Rome, New York.

Kronborg Castle, Helsingør

Castillo de San Marcos in St Augustine, Florida

Photo Source: Collected from Internet

Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Blue Mosque)

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque or Sultan Ahmet Mosque (Turkish: Sultan Ahmet Camii) is a historic mosque located in Istanbul, Turkey. A popular tourist site, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque continues to function as a mosque today; men still kneel in prayer on the mosque's lush red carpet after the call to prayer. The Blue Mosque, as it is popularly known, was constructed between 1609 and 1616 during the rule of Ahmed I. Its Külliye contains Ahmed's tomb, a madrasah and a hospice. Hand-painted blue tiles adorn the mosque’s interior walls, and at night the mosque is bathed in blue as lights frame the mosque’s five main domes, six minarets and eight secondary domes. It sits next to the Hagia Sophia, another popular tourist site.

After the Peace of Zsitvatorok and the crushing loss in the 1603–1618 war with Persia, Sultan Ahmet I, decided to build a large mosque in Istanbul to reassert Ottoman power. It would be the first imperial mosque for more than forty years. While his predecessors had paid for their mosques with the spoils of war, Ahmet I procured funds from the Treasury, because he had not gained remarkable victories.

It caused the anger of the ulema, the Muslim jurists. The mosque was built on the site of the palace of the Byzantine emperors, in front of the basilica Hagia Sophia (at that time, the primary imperial mosque in Istanbul) and the hippodrome, a site of significant symbolic meaning as it dominated the city skyline from the south. Big parts of the south shore of the mosque rest on the foundations, the vaults of the old Grand Palace. Source: Wikepedia

 

Picture Source: Collected from Internet

China's newest UNESCO site: CNN

http://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/china-unesco-site-kulangsu/index.html

The Most Beautiful Autumn Adventures in the U.S. : National Geographic

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/destinations/united-states/most-beautiful-fall-autumn-adventures-united-states/

দামতুয়া জলপ্রপাত: Waterfall of Bangladesh

http://www.prothom-alo.com/life-style/article/1327336

Rohingya crisis explained in maps: Aljazeera

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2017/09/rohingya-crisis-explained-maps-170910140906580.html

Calcata, Lazio, Italia

Calcata is a comune and town in the Province of Viterbo in the Italian region Latium, located 47 kilometres (29 mi) north of Rome by car, overlooking the valley of Treja river. Calcata borders the following municipalities: Faleria, Magliano Romano, Mazzano Romano, Rignano Flaminio.

In the 1930s, the hill towns's fortified historic center was condemned by the government for fear that the volcanic cliffs the ancient community was built upon would collapse. Local residents moved to nearby Calcata Nuova. In the 1960s, the emptied historical centre began to be repopulated by artists and hippies who squatted in its medieval stone and masonry structures. Many of the squatters eventually purchased their homes, the government reversed its condemnation order, and the residents of what had become an artistic community began restoring the ancient town.

This trend has continued. Today the town has a thriving artistic community described in The New York Times as what "may be the grooviest village in Italy, home to a wacky community of about 100 artists, bohemians, aging hippies and New Age types." Source: Wikipedia

Photo Source: Collected from Internet

Ciudad Perdida, Colombia

Ciudad Perdida (Spanish for "Lost City") is the archaeological site of an ancient city in Colombia's Sierra Nevada. It is believed to have been founded about 800 CE, some 650 years earlier than Machu Picchu. This location is also known as Teyuna and Buritaca. 

Ciudad Perdida was discovered in 1972, when a group of local treasure looters found a series of stone steps rising up the mountainside and followed them to an abandoned city which they named "Green Hell" or "Wide Set". When gold figurines and ceramic urns from this city began to appear in the local black market, archaeologists headed by the director of the Instituto Colombiano de Antropologia reached the site in 1976 and completed reconstruction between 1976-1982.

Members of local tribes—the Arhuaco, the Koguis and the Wiwas—have stated that they visited the site regularly before it was widely discovered, but had kept quiet about it. They call the city Teyuna and believe it was the heart of a network of villages inhabited by their forebears, the Tairona. Ciudad Perdida was probably the region's political and manufacturing center on the Buritaca River and may have housed 2,000 to 8,000 people. It was apparently abandoned during the Spanish conquest.

Ciudad Perdida consists of a series of 169 terraces carved into the mountainside, a net of tiled roads and several small circular plazas. The entrance can only be accessed by a climb up some 1,200 stone steps through dense jungle.

The area is now completely safe but was at one time affected by the Colombian armed conflict between the Colombian National Army, right-wing paramilitary groups and left-wing guerrilla groups like National Liberation Army (ELN) and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). On September 15, 2003, ELN kidnapped eight foreign tourists visiting Ciudad Perdida, demanding a government investigation into human rights abuses in exchange for their hostages. ELN released the last of the hostages three months later. The United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), the paramilitary right-wing groups in that country, continued attacking aborigines and non-aborigines in the zone for a while. For some time the zone has been free of incidents.

In 2005, tourist hikes became operational again and there have been no problems since then. The Colombian army actively patrols the area, which is now deemed to be very safe for visitors and there have not been any more kidnappings. For a six day return hike to the lost city, the cost is approximately US$300. The hike is about 44 km of walking in total, and requires a good level of fitness. The hike includes a number of river crossings and steep climbs and descents. It is a moderately difficult hike. Source: Wikipedia

Photo Source: Collected from Internet