The world is full of places with baffling natural phenomenon and man-made wonders. Click here to go on a tour and explore these places.
Do you know that there are numerous mysterious places here on earth? These spots are an enigma.
Take for example, the Nazca Lines in Peru that were scratched on the ground between 500 B.C. and A.D. 500. They are believed to have had ritual astronomical functions. Or, the Door to Hell in Turkmenistan. More than 40 years ago, a gaping, fiery crater opened up in the desert of northern Turkmenistan and it continues to burn.
We bring you five of them. Move the slider to discover more.
Lake Natron is a petrifying lake turning birds into stone. This salt and soda reservoir in Tanzania is extremely dangerous with soaring temperature and a pH value of 1 making it extremely acidic.
Devil’s Bridge, Germany: From anywhere you look at it, the bridge and its reflection on the water appear to form a perfect circle. The bridge is located a few hours away from Berlin.
Moai Statues, Easter Island, Chile: The now-barren island was once populated by the Rapa Nui civilisation and is home to around 6,000 permanent residents. It is famous for its 887 giant statues created by the Rapa Nui people. The figures are some of the strongest remaining evidence of the thriving civilisation.
Racetrack Playa, Death Valley, California: It is located in a remote valley between the Cottonwood and Last Chance Ranges. The Racetrack is a place of spectacular beauty and mystery. It is a playa, a dry lake bed, best known for its strange moving rocks. It looks like they “sailed” through the valley. The trails indicate that the rocks move when the floor is covered with soft mud after it rains.
Uluru, Australia is an enormous sandstone rock that is about 1,140 feet high. The Australians call it The Rock. They believe it is one of the last remaining homes of the creators of the earth.
A fort provides protection, but with its long history and varied past, it has also come to be a symbol of mystery.
Forts have been symbols of protection, regal splendour, and even intrigue. They have encaptured within their walls, the secrets of the kingdom and the architecture showcasing their culture, taste, and style. Let’s look at some of them.
Golkonda Fort, Hyderabad, Telengana
The original Golconda Fort, known as Mankal, was constructed during the Kakatiya empire, when a shepherd boy discovered an idol on the site. The initial structure was made of mud, and later expanded by rulers like Rani Rudrama Devi, and the Qutb Shahi Empire. Situated in the western part of Hyderabad, about nine km from the Hussain Sagar Lake, the fort retains its magnificent halls, stables, four drawbridges, and mounted cannons. One of its main attractions is the Fateh Darwaza (Victory Gate), named after Mughal emperor Aurangzeb captured the fort after a siege of over eight years. This fort also holds the distinction of having mines that produced the Hope Diamond and Darya-i-noor, among others. Today, this fort comes to life with the light-and-sound show, every evening, where snippets of its past take us on a fascinating journey.
Quick quiz:
Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur, Rajasthan
Mehrangarh Fort, one of the largest in the country, looms over Jodhpur from atop a rocky hill. It was built by the Rathore Rajputs. King Rao Jodha began constructing the fort in 1459, when he established his capital in Jodhpur. However, the work was completed only in the 20th century. Because of this long span of years, the fort has diverse architecture. The Mehrangarh fort continues to be maintained by the royal family, as a tourist destination. There are a series of palaces, restaurants, and even museums within the fort. Acclaimed music festivals are hosted here. An example of this is the World Sacred Spirit Festival held every year, in February.
Quick quiz:
Vellore Fort, Tamil Nadu
This was once the seat of the Aravidu dynasty of the Vijayanagara Empire. It passed through many hands — from the Vijayanagara kings, the sultans of Bijapur, the Marathas, the Carnatic Nawabs, to the British, until India became independent. In 1806, the first uprising against the British broke out here. The British commander-in-chief of the Madras Army had prescribed a new round hat for the sepoys, to replace their turbans. He insisted on the removal of beards, caste markings and jewellery. The sepoys considered these orders to be offensive to their religious beliefs. The situation took a turn for the worse when the hat included a leather cockade, made from cow hide. On July 10, before sunrise, the sepoys stationed in the fort attacked the European barracks, and by late morning killed 15 officers, 100 British soldiers and ransacked their houses.
Quick quiz:
Kangra Fort, Himachal Pradesh
The fort is said to be built around 3,500 years ago by Maharaja Susharma Chandra, a descendant of the Katoch dynasty. It is supposed to have had a great quantity of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls ever to be collected in a royal treasury. Little wonder that it was plundered and came under siege innumerable times by Mahmud Ghazni in 1009, Firuz Shah Tughluq in 1360, and Sher Shah in 1540. Akbar laid siege to it but could not conquer it. It would be his son, Jahangir who would have that success. The British took it over in 1846 after the Sikh war.
The March sky promises to sizzle with many sights on offer. All you need to is look up and catch the action.
March brings longer days for the Northern Hemisphere, especially by the time of the equinox. Early risers are treated to the majority of the bright planets dancing in the morning skies, with the moon passing between them at the beginning and end of the month.
Venus is always brilliant, and shining with a steady, silvery light. It will be visible in the mornings in the eastern sky at dawn. The planet will look like a fat crescent moon when seen through a telescope.
Before you take a look at this month’s timeline to know what else is in store for sky-watchers, here are some terms you may want to get familiar with if you are keen on observing the skies this month
Supermoon: It looks bigger than an average Full Moon, and happens when a Full or New Moon is near the moon’s closest approach to the earth. The early Native American tribes called it the Full Worm Moon because this was the time of year when the ground would soften, allowing earthworms to reappear. This moon has also been known as the Full Crow Moon, Full Crust Moon, Full Sap Moon, and the Lenten Moon.
Equinox: It means “equal night”, and the perfect balance between day and night occurs because of the distance and angles between the sun and the earth. The sun shines equally on the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, which is why the March and September equinoxes are the only times of the year when the north and south poles receive sunlight simultaneously.
Comet Taylor: Comet Taylor was first sighted in 1915 and is a periodic comet with an orbital period of approximately seven years.
In 15 days, IPL will begin. Which is your favourite team? Do you know its punch line? Play this memory game and get set for the action.
March 23 will be an important day for all cricket lovers as Season 12 of the Indian Premier League is set to begin. Defending Champions Chennai Super Kings will take on Royal Challengers Bangalore at the M A Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. While you still have a fortnight to go, why not brush up on some of the teams and their tag lines? Play this game to know more.
Some say staying out in the cold for too long can make you catch a cold. Is that right? Find out in this true or false quiz about the common cold.
Everyone catches a cold once in a while, and you have probably heard many things about what to do when you have a cold or how you catch it. However, do you know what’s fact or fiction? Here’s a simple quiz to help you find out…
The street is his canvas and everything is his subject. Artist Banksy’s work is displayed almost everywhere, but not many people have seen the genius himself.
Have you heard about Banksy? Everyone has heard about him, but not many people have seen him. Last October, he pulled off one of his biggest pranks. An artwork of his titled, Balloon Girl was sold in an auction at Sotheby’s in London for a record sum of £1.04 million. The gavel dropped to announce the sale of the picture, when an alarm sounded in the picture frame and the canvas passed through a shredder hidden within the frame, partially shredding the picture. Everyone was shocked. Banksy posted an image of the shredding on Instagram and captioned it “Going, going, gone…”
The auction house acknowledged that the self-destruction of the work was a prank by the artist. It received wide news coverage around the world, with one newspaper stating that it was “quite possibly the biggest prank in art history”.
So who is this person? He is an anonymous England-based street artist, vandal political activist, and film director. His street art is critical, sarcastic and ironic. His graffiti has a distinctive stenciling technique, almost like his signature. His art is not restricted to England alone but is apparent in many cities around the world.
Banksy says, he was inspired by 3D, a graffiti artist who later became a founding member of the English musical group Massive Attack.
A small number of Banksy’s works are officially, non-publicly, sold through Pest Control. His documentary film “Exit Through the Gift Shop” (2010) made its début at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. In January 2011, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary for the film. In 2014, he was awarded Person of the Year at the 2014 Webby Awards.
There’s so much happening around the world, Here’s an interactive map that will help you stay on top of it. Click on the hotspots and learn more.
SpaceX celebrated the successful launch of a new astronaut capsule. The Solomon Museum, Alabania’s only Jewish history museum, is on the brink… Read on to learn more about what is happening in the world around you.
