Category Archives: Structures, History and Countries

The Louvre

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The Louvre

“A place for bringing together monuments of all the sciences and arts” – The Louvre

  • The Louvre is one of the greatest and largest museums on Earth, located in France’s Paris, Europe, and it is officially known as the ‘Louvre Museum’, or ‘Musée du Louvre’ in French.
  • The Louvre started out as a fortress, built in 1190 by King Philip II of France; and the fortress was converted into a palace in the 1500s.
  • The Louvre first opened in August 1793 after ownership rights of the palace were forfeited by King Louis XVI, due to his arrest in 1792 as a result of the French Revolution, and the museum opened with 537 art pieces in its collection.
  • Under the direction of Napoléon Bonaparte in the late 1700s and early 1800s, the Louvre, called ‘Musée Napoléon’ at the time, acquired thousands of artworks through raids, although around 5000 of these were given back to their original owners after his abdication.
  • The Louvre is known for its four glass and metal pyramids that were completed in 1989, with the largest covering the main entrance to the building and reaching more than 21 metres (69 feet) in height.

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The Louvre
Image courtesy of JH Images/Flickr
  • The Louvre saw 9.7 million visitors in 2012, a record breaking year, making it the most popular and visited museum in the world, while 70 percent of visitors are said to be foreigners.
  • Despite having around 35,000 artworks on display, the Louvre is said to have in its collection approximately 380,000 pieces.
  • The Louvre is famed for housing the Mona Lisa, ever since 1797, and other collections include sculptures, paintings, prints, drawings, Egyptian artefacts, and Greek and Roman relics.
  • On a single visit, it is not humanely possible to view each artwork on display in the Louvre, as doing so would take more than 12 days straight, if each piece was viewed for 30 seconds without stopping over the period.
  • The Louvre covers a total of 60,600 square metres or 15 acres (652,300 square feet or 6 hectares) in area, and spreads beyond its original building.

Visit the Louvre using The Paris Pass! The Paris Pass has also provided additional facts that you can view here.

Bibliography:
25 Interesting Facts About The Louvre, 2015, Unpublished Text Document, The Paris Pass, Paris
Louvre, 2015, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louvre

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Lake Vostok

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Lake Vostok

Lake Vostok is a preserved jewel of Antarctica.

  • Lake Vostok is a very large water lake that exists underneath an ice glacier in Antarctica, and despite being submerged in darkness, it contains numerous micro-organisms, some of which are not uncommon in other water bodies.
  • Lake Vostok is the largest known underground lake in Antarctica, covering up to 14,000 square kilometres (5405 square miles) in area and reaching estimated depths of 510 to 900 metres (1700 to 3000 feet).
  • Andrey Kapitsa, Russian geographer, accurately predicted the existence and location of Lake Vostok in the early 1960s.
  • ‘Lake Vostok’ was named after the Russian research station, Vostok Station, that is situated directly above the lake.
  • The Russians were not only the discoverers of Lake Vostok, but also the earliest to theorise the existence of underground lakes in Antarctica, first led by Peter Kropotkin, scientist, in the 1800s.
Lake Vostok, Satellite, Colour, Blue, Ice, Ten Random Facts, NASA, AntarticaSatellite Image of Lake Vostok
Image courtesy of NASA
  • Despite evidence of Lake Vostok’s existence, the lake was never actually confirmed until 1993, and it was not until early 2012 when the lake’s surface was first penetrated.
  • It is possible that the water of Lake Vostok is gradually cycled throughout thousands of years, as water is lost while the above glacier is mobile, and is in turn replaced by ice melting.
  • Despite the freezing temperatures of Antarctica, and even though the water temperature of Lake Vostok is approximately minus three degrees Celsius (26.6 degrees Fahrenheit), the lake remains unfrozen due to the enormous pressure it sits under.
  • Tides are evident in Lake Vostok, and therefore are dependent on planetary positioning, while the lake’s surface can reach up to 1.2 centimetres (0.47 inches) higher than normal as a result.
  • One of the longest ice cores,  drilled from more than 3,600 metres (11,811 feet) deep, has been extracted during the studies of Lake Vostok, despite the lake being only 500 metres (1640 feet) below sea level, as the ice above is up to 4 kilometres (2.5 miles) thick.
Bibliography:
Lake Vostok, 2015, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Vostok
Lake Vostok mysteries: Biologists find over 3,500 life forms in isolated Antarctic basin, 2013, RT, http://rt.com/news/lake-vostok-bacteria-dna-745/
Maxwell B, Broughton D, Rogers J & Weymouth W, Ethics of Subglacial lake Exploration in Antarctica, 2012, University of Canterbury, http://www.anta.canterbury.ac.nz/documents/PCAS_14/SyndicateReports/Subglacial%20Lake%20Exploration%20Syndicate%20Report.pdf

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CN Tower

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CN Tower

The CN Tower is quite a flabbergasting architectural achievement.

  • The CN Tower is a very tall structure built for media reception and communications, and it houses restaurants – one of which revolves, a theatre and a shop, and also features a number of observation decks.
  • Erected in Canada’s Ontario, in North America, the CN Tower was built in the middle of a disused train shunting yard, in the Railway Lands of Toronto, at a cost that totalled $63 million Canadian Dollars, and it has become a popular tourist attraction.
  • The ‘CN Tower’ is also known as the ‘Canadian National Tower’, ‘Canada’s National Tower’ and ‘Tour CN’, the latter in French; and ‘CN’ stands for ‘Canadian National’, the company who initially owned the tower.
  • The CN Tower has a central hexagonal column that has three large supports at the base, with an antenna spire at the top, and totals 553.33 metres (1,815.4 feet) in height, and has 147 floors.
  • The concept of the CN Tower was first proposed in 1968 by the Canadian National railway, who were the original owners of the tower and had the structure built, although it was not until early 1973 that construction commenced.

CN Tower, Toronto, Canada, Skyline, Water, City, Ten Random Facts, Flickr,

CN Tower
Image courtesy of elPadawan/Flickr
  • When officially opened on 1 October, 1976, the CN Tower was the tallest tower and the tallest freestanding structure in the world; and it held these positions for more than three decades, while in 2014, it ranked third and sixth respectively.
  • The total concrete volume used to construct the CN Tower was around 40,500 cubic metres (52,972 cubic yards), and the concrete was all made at the construction site.
  • Before the use of LED lights, that were installed in 2007 and are controlled in Ontario’s Burlington, the CN Tower used the original incandescent lights until around 1997, and discontinued the use of them due to expensive running and repair costs.
  • Ice can form on the CN Tower, which can prove hazardous in winds, as the ice can fall away from the tower and smash glass and damage objects, including cars.
  • The CN Tower attracts lightning due to its height, and in one year, it is hit by lightning around 75 times; and to protect against this, pieces of copper run from the top of the tower to the base and are used to direct the electrical energy into the ground.
Bibliography:
CN Tower, 2012, World Federation of Great Towers, http://www.great-towers.com/towers/cn-tower/
CN Tower, 2015, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CN_Tower
CN Tower, n.d, Canada Lands Tower, http://www.cntower.ca/site_Files/Content/PDF/Facts_at_a_Glance_2013.pdf

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Ely Cathedral

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Ely Cathedral

Ely Cathedral is another inspiring work of art.

  • Ely Cathedral is a large Romanesque stone church, that is part of the Anglican Diocese of Ely and the home to its bishop, located in England’s Cambridgeshire, in Europe.
  • ‘Ely Cathedral’ is also known as the ‘Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Ely’ and ‘the Ship of the Fens’.
  • The highest point of Ely Cathedral is the west tower measuring 66 metres (216.5 feet) and the building spreads over a distance of nearly 164 metres (538 feet) and covers an area of 4273 square metres (46,000 square feet).
  • Ely Cathedral is situated on the spot, that, in 673 AD, a monastery for both genders was established, by the saint, and Queen, Etheldreda, whose shrine existed at the site for many centuries.
  • The original monastery at the location of Ely Cathedral was thought to be destroyed in the 9th century, by Vikings, while a revival in the area caused the re-establishment and rebuilding of the abbey from 970.
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Ely Cathedral
Image courtesy of Steve Cadman/Flickr
  • Normans, who seized control of the monastery at the site of the Ely Cathedral in the 11th century, ordered the rebuilding of most monasteries, including Ely, and a number of additions were made to the cathedral over the centuries, and restoration works have been undertaken at various times.
  • The construction of Ely Cathedral commenced during the 1080s by Abbot Simeon, although it was halted for a number of years after his death in 1093; and the first bishop was appointed in 1109.
  • In 1322, the central tower of Ely Cathedral collapsed, and was reconstructed as an octagonal tower; while some time later, another part of the building gave way and was never repaired.
  • The Ely Cathedral has numerous panels of stained glass artwork, mainly originating in the 1800s, and the building originally housed numerous sculptures, which were mostly destroyed along with other objects, in the reformation in the 1500s.
  • Two main towers exist in the Ely Cathedral, the west tower comprising of almost 290 steps; and the site also has a number of chapels, a cafe, restaurant, shop, and a stained glass museum.
Bibliography:
Ely Cathedral, 2015, Sacred Cathedral, http://www.sacred-destinations.com/england/ely-cathedral
Ely Cathedral, 2015, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ely_Cathedral
Ely Cathedral, n.d, Eastern Cathedrals, http://easterncathedrals.org.uk/members/ely-cathedral.php
The Story of the Ely Cathedral, 2015, Ely Cathedral, http://www.elycathedral.org/history-heritage/the-story-of-ely-cathedral

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Olympus Mons

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Olympus Mons

Olympus Mons is reserved for the mightiest mountain.

  • Olympus Mons is an extremely large volcano located on the surface of Mars, and it is a shield volcano created by lava piling.
  • Despite the belief that it is one of Mars’ more recent volcanoes, Olympus Mons is the largest discovered volcano in the known solar system.
  • Olympus Mons sits approximately 22 kilometres (13.7 miles) high above datum (zero level), or 26 kilometres (16 miles) above the plains, while Earth’s tallest mountain, Mount Everest is around a third the size, sitting 8.8 km (5.5 miles) above sea level.
  • Olympus Mons has a diameter slightly larger than 600 kilometres (373 miles) and the volcano’s name can be translated from Latin into ‘Mount Olympus’.
  • The location of Olympus Mons is situated in part of Mars’ dustiest areas, which, among other reasons, renders the site unsuitable for rover analysis.
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Olympus Mons (Centre)
Image courtesy of the Lunar and Planetary Institute/Flickr
  • Olympus Mons’ considerable height was predicted during the mid to late 1800s, by Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, and possibly others.
  • The enormous size of Olympus Mons is thought to be due to the lack of strong gravitational pulls and tectonic plates that exist on Earth, that normally prevent lava from piling significantly.
  • When the American probe Mariner 9 circled Mars from late 1971 to late 1972, Olympus Mons’ high peak was confirmed, and its volcanic nature was determined.
  • ‘Olympus Mons’ was originally named ‘Nix Olympia’, or ‘Olympic Snow’ when translated from Latin, until further details were returned from the Mariner 9 probe.
  • Olympus Mons is a similar colouring to the surface of planet Mars, a reddish rusty brown colour.
Bibliography:
Olympus Mons, 2015, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympus_Mons
Olympus Mons is How Tall?, n.d, The Martian Chronicles, https://martianchronicles.wordpress.com/2009/05/23/olympus-mons-is-how-tall/
Redd N, Olympus Mons: Giant Mountain of Mars, 2013, Space.com, http://www.space.com/20133-olympus-mons-giant-mountain-of-mars.html

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Channel Tunnel

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Channel Tunnel

Channel Tunnel is more than a World Wonder – it’s a beneficial construction.

  • Channel Tunnel is an underground and underwater European tunnel connecting Kent’s Folkestone, in England, to the town of Coquelles in Pas-de-Calais, France.
  • The ‘Channel Tunnel’ is also known as ‘Chunnel Tunnel’; in French, ‘Le tunnel sous la Manche’; and ‘Eurotunnel’, although this term generally refers to the company that manages the tunnel, or the shuttle service that travels through it.
  • The Channel Tunnel spans 50.5 kilometres (31.4 miles) in length, and reaches depths of 75 metres (246 feet) below sea level, and it sits underneath the English Channel.
  • The Channel Tunnel is a combination of three tunnels – two railway tunnels and a service tunnel, and passenger trains of high speeds, and freight trains that commonly carry vehicles with their passengers and pets, are able to travel in the tunnel, while the service tunnel is used by vehicles for maintenance, evacuations and other tasks.
  • The idea of constructing a Channel tunnel was evident in 1802, and was first expressed by the Frenchman Albert Mathieu-Favier, an engineer, and while various plans and ideas were put forward during the 19th century, it was not until 1880 that preliminary boring work began, although it was quickly abandoned due to perceived national security hazards.
Channel Tunnel. Service Tunnel, Chunnel Tunnel, Eurotunnel. Cycler, First, Ten Random Facts, England, France, Record
Inside the Service Tunnel of Channel Tunnel
Image courtesy of Jaguar MENA/Flickr
  • It was not until more than a century later, after various ideas were put forward, that construction of the Channel Tunnel began, after Britain and France agreed on a treaty, known as the Treaty of Canterbury, that allowed the beginning of the construction of the tunnel in late 1987; and the project was finished in 1994.
  • In the 20th century, the Channel Tunnel had the greatest length of tunnel, 37.9 kilometres (23.5 miles), underwater in the world, however the Japanese Seikan Tunnel was slightly longer in total length, and much deeper.
  • Channel Tunnel was officially opened in 1994, on the 6th May, by Queen Elizabeth II and France’s President François Mitterrand after a cost of then 4.65 billion pounds (worth 12 billion pounds in 2015).
  • A number of train failures have occurred in Channel Tunnel, and fires requiring temporary tunnel closures have also occurred over the years, while the 1996 and the 2008 fires caused extensive damage and partially closed the tunnel for approximately 6 months each.
  • In the late 1990s and the early 2000s, Channel Tunnel was commonly used illegally by those seeking asylum in Britain; and to help rectify the problem, a now closed refugee centre was made available, and later a £5 million fence and other security measures were put in place.
Bibliography:
Channel Tunnel, 2015, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_Tunnel
The Channel Tunnel Infrastructure, 2015, Groupe Eurotunnel, http://www.eurotunnelgroup.com/uk/the-channel-tunnel/infrastructure/

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