The Daily Croissant |
Eclectic Perambulations in the Noosphere |
"The Tuamotu Archipelago is part of French Polynesia, and forms the largest chain of atolls in the world. This astronaut photograph features Mataiva Atoll, the westernmost atoll of the Tuamotu chain. An atoll is a ring-shaped island that encloses a central lagoon."
"I was blown away by the effect of the Earth's shadow beyond this butte located in northern Arizona. The small tree in the foreground made the shot."—Rex Naden
There were once thousands of caravanserai, staging posts for the weary traveler, dotted throughout Asia, North Africa and the South-Eastern parts of Europe. The Silk Road, an important and extensive trans-continental network of routes, was dotted with them. Many still survive, but more, like the one in the Lut desert of Iran (above) are abandoned and slowly turning to dust.
Think, in this batter'd Caravanserai
Whose Portals are alternate Night and Day,
How Sultan after Sultan with his Pomp
Abode his destined Hour, and went his way.
Stanza 17, Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Sand dunes sprawl along the coast of northeastern Brazil, sometimes extending kilometers inland.
The Mitchell Corn Palce was inaugurated in 1892, as an ingenious way to showcase the fertile lands of South Dakota, and encourage people to move here. Back then it was just a wooden building, but as its popularity kept growing, it suffered several redesigns, and became a national attraction.
Derinkuyu Underground City is located in the homonymous Derinkuyu district in Nevşehir Province, Turkey...
Photograph by Dinodia Dinodia
A man steps through a doorway at the Varadarajaswamy Temple in Kanchipuram, “city of a thousand temples.” Kanchipuram is also known for silk saris—a thriving business here.
In western Mongolia, braided streams of sand dunes stretch east-west across the arid landscape. One ribbon of sand, spanning roughly 200 kilometers, extends from an area south of Khyargas Lake in the west to a smaller lake, Telmen Nuur, in the east. In between, sand dunes march past Har Nuur, or "Black Lake."
Har Nuur sits in the Valley of Lakes of western Mongolia. Bordered by multiple mountain ranges, the Valley of Lakes hosts remnant basins of larger ancient lakes, dune fields, and salt marshes. Har Nuur, like other lakes in the region, is a closed-basin lake fed by precipitation.
