Ancient Civilization found in Brazil
(August 28, 2008) "Dozens of ancient, densely packed, towns, villages, and hamlets arranged in an organized pattern have been mapped in the Brazilian Amazon, anthropologists announced today. The finding suggests that vast swathes of "pristine" rain forest may actually have been sophisticated urban landscapes prior to the arrival of European colonists.

"It is very different from what we might expect using certain classic models of urbanism," noted study co-author Michael Heckenberger, an anthropologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Nevertheless, he said, the repeated patterns within and among settlements across the landscape suggest a highly ordered and planned society on par with any medieval European town."
Read More: news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/08...8-amazon-cities.html

StarsChildren wrote:
I was quite blown away by them also StarsChildren

Here is another pic of them, Humanspirit

The Tree with the Largest Diameter in the World:
El Arbol del Tule

This tree is an Ahuehuete or Montezuma Cypress growing in Oaxaca, Mexico in the town of Santa Maria del Tule. The trunk of the tree is 33 feet in diameter and has a circumference of 178 feet. Originally thought to be multiple trees that had grown and fused together, DNA tests have shown that it is actually all one tree.

At the top of one of the Friulian Dolomites in Italy

Garden Of The Gods Park In Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA

Image Credit : John Hoffman

Restaurant on a cliff on the East Coast of Zanzibar. Depending on the tide, the restaurant can be reached both on foot and by boat.

The glowing firefly squid are pushed to the shore's edge by the current while spawning in the bay of Toyama, Japan... "The spawning season of the firefly squid runs from March to May. During this time, the squid can be seen gathering in large numbers in Toyama Bay in Japan. They gather here by the millions, and sometimes by the billions, to lay their eggs. Once the eggs have been released into the water and fertilized, the adult squid begin to die. This completes the one-year life cycle of the squid. This annual light show is so spectacular that the area where they gather has been designated as a special natural monument. Toyama Bay lies above a deep, v-shaped canyon in which the sea floor drops away suddenly. The flow of the ocean currents usually wells up from the bottom of this canyon and pushes the squid to the surface. Occasionally the squid can be found washed up on the shore in large numbers during a phenomenon referred to by locals as 'squid drowning themselves'. This event can cover the shoreline for miles, bathing the beaches in an erie blue glow."

AMAZING!...

Read more: www.amusingplanet.com/2012/03/firefly-sq...toyama-bay-japan.htm

Credit: Jim Richardson of National Geographic

Fingal’s Cave is located on the uninhabited rock island of Staffa, off the West coast of Scotland. This fascinating cave is formed from hexagon shaped basalt columns. The basalt formed into hexagonal columns when a lava flow cooled in the ocean. The lava flow that created Fingal’s Cave also created the amazing Giant’s Causeway rock formation in Scotland. In Gaelic, Fingal’s Cave is known as Uamh-Binn, meaning “cave of melody”, due to the lovely sounds made by echos of waves crashing inside.

Poulnabrone Dolmen, Ireland-4200 BC ("hole of the quern stones" in Irish)* "The dolmen consists of a twelve-foot, thin, slab-like, tabular capstone supported by two slender portal stones, which lift the capstone 1.8 m (6 ft) from the ground, creating a chamber in a 9 m (30 ft) low cairn. The cairn helped stabilize the tomb chamber, and would have been no higher during the Neolithic. The entrance faces north and is crossed by a low sill stone...A crack was discovered in the eastern portal stone in 1985. Following the resulting collapse, the dolmen was dismantled, and the cracked stone was replaced. Excavations during this time found that between 16 and 22 adults and 6 children were buried under the monument."

Read More: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poulnabrone_dolmen