World Tourism

France's Dordogne River Valley

2011-06-27T06:31:00.000+07:00

Shadows flickered on the walls of the narrow cavern as we groped and felt our way forward, following our guide's lantern deeper into the Grotte de Font-de-Gaume. Our eyes were still not accustomed to the low level of light and the going was slow. Fifty meters into the cave we encountered the narrow Rubicon, a meter-wide passageway where we squeezed single-file between limestone walls to reach the main gallery.

"Gallery" it was, for here perfectly preserved on the walls and ceiling were 15,000-year-old polychrome paintings of animals that no longer inhabit our earth. Life-size bisons, reindeer, horses, and mammoths, rendered in black, ochre, and red, galloped along the limestone contours. The Magdalenian painters who filled this gallery were inspired emotion-filled artists. Our guide described the succession of friezes and reverentially explained the painstaking process by which these ancient people had captured their world in art. The highlight of the 50-meter-long gallery was a frieze of five bisons, both males and females, perfectly preserved with such excellent detail that we imagined Ayla startling them as she emerged from a cavern in "Clan of the Cave Bear."

Grotte de Font-de-Gaume is just one of a number of caverns housing prehistoric artwork in southwest France's Dordogne region. During a recent weeklong sojourn we visited other prehistoric sites, reveled in the history of medieval cliff-perched castles and bastide villages, and canoed a beautiful section of the Dordogne River. It was a week of true discovery.

Medieval Sarlat

The town of Sarlat was the perfect place to settle down for our explorations. After finding a hotel room we enjoyed an afternoon strolling the cobbled alleyways with their medieval homes dating from the 12th through the 16th centuries. The ancient cathedral with its high tower provided a convenient orientation site from its location in the central square. Just up the hill from the cathedral we encountered an architectural puzzle. A huge cone-shaped stone structure looked like an alien spacecraft. We learned that it was the Lanterne des Morts or Lantern of the Dead, an ancient tomb where the region’s early big shots had the honor of being buried.

The highlight of Sarlat was its Saturday market. All the proprietors of the numerous small farms in the region came to the central square and set up booths with their wares…honey, Cabécou goat cheese, truffles, foie gras, confit de canard (duck meat preserved in its fat), sweet fruits, flowers, wines, and vegetables. Clearly, this was the big regional social event of the week as farmers and townspeople caught up on local news and continued their discussions from the previous week.

Another advantage of staying in Sarlat was that we were able to choose from a number of restaurants around the main square each evening. After a day of exploration we’d have a relaxing outdoor terrace dinner, sampling the fare for which Dordogne’s cuisine is renown: nuts, cheeses, salads, foie gras, and a repertoire of dishes utilizing duck, pork, and potatoes.

Castles and Pilgrims

The Dordogne Valley held a powerful aura of brave knights and damsels in distress from the middle ages. We felt this most strongly when we visited famous Beynac castle perched high atop a 500-foot-high cliff overlooking the river. Richard the Lion-Hearted captured the castle in 1184 before becoming King Richard I of England. He lived there for a time in 1194 after his release from capture following the Third Crusade. Beynac later became the stronghold of the French during the Hundred Years War with England, 1337-1453. As we toured the castle we marveled at its architecture and its inner castle ramp from where steed-mounted knights rode into battle. Incredible views of the river, countryside, and Castlenaud Castle, stronghold of the English forces across the river, were captivating.

Beynac village sat along the river just below the castle. Known as one of France’s most beautiful villages it was recently featured in the popular film "Chocolat" starring Johnny Depp and France’s own Juliette Binoche. Just upriver from Beynac we also explored the smaller village of La Roque-Gageac. The village of two streets sits at the base of a perpendicular cliff along the river and displays a number of troglodyte homes, or cave dwellings, human abodes for thousands of years.
Definitely worth a day’s excursion was the pilgrimage site of Rocamadour, situated a 1-1/2 hour drive from Sarlat on an upriver tributary of the Dordogne. The pilgrimage cluster of chapels seemed to hang at the mid-way point of a perpendicular cliff. Below was a small village while atop the cliff sat an ancient castle.

Rocamadour became one of Catholicism’s major pilgrim sites in 1166 when a perfectly preserved corpse, believed to be Saint Amadour, was unearthed at the entrance of the village’s first chapel. Other miracles were attributed here, and the clergy started to construct an ever-enlarging complex of chapels and religious shrines for the crowds of devoted pilgrims. A still-visible rusted sword driven into the cliff there was said to be that of Roland, Charlemagne’s famous knight of the 8th century.

Bastide Village Circuit

Just prior to and during the Hundred Years War the French and English established hundreds of bastide villages in southwest France. These self-defending walled villages were designed for the war-torn region with a crosshatch of alleyways centered on a central market square. We took a day to make a tour of several bastides, including two exceptional examples, Domme and Monpazier. We approached Domme through the 13th-century arched Tower Gate to the central market and strolled through the village with pale stone houses accented by colorful flower boxes and bright orange-tiled roofs. Domme also provided a unique panorama of the Dordogne River Valley. The village of Monpazier was dominated by its large central square with an inviting array of craft and specialty shops housed in the ancient stone buildings.

Lascaux Cavern

After the incredible Font-de-Gaume we couldn’t resist a visit to the most famous of Europe’s prehistoric caves at nearby Lascaux. Since the actual site has been restricted to only archeologists, France has recreated an exact replica cave site called Lascaux II, accurate down to every rock contour and paint mark. It took millions of dollars and ten years to complete. The large array of cave paintings was even more spectacular than Font-de-Gaume’s. We were most impressed by the "Hall of the Bulls" gallery where the lines and colors of the 15,000-year-old masterpieces told us that the artists held a tremendous respect for these creatures.

Going With the Flow

We couldn’t leave the magical Dordogne region without experiencing its river firsthand. A number of firms provided single-day and multi-day trips. We chose to rent a canoe for a solo paddle down the Dordogne’s most scenic river section between Cénac and Beynac. The two-hour ten-mile trip provided unforgettable sights of villages and castles, including storied Beynac and Castelnaud. The cool deep river flowed very swiftly, yet safely with no rapids. We "went with the flow" to crest an incredible week of Dordogne region experiences.

Altai Mountains Rusia

2011-06-26T06:19:00.000+07:00

Altai Mountains are the mountain ranges that stretched across Central Asia and through the state borders Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan. Altai Mountains became the source of the river Irtysh, Ob and Yenisei. Besides Mountain Altai is also known as the cradle of the Turkish Nation ancestors. The final line in the northwest is located at 52 ° northern latitude and between 84 ° and 90 ° east longitude where he joined the Sayan Mountains in the east. Then leads to the southeast with coordinates 45 ° N and 99 ° East, and eventually becomes lower and join the plateau known as the Gobi Desert.

Altes Museum The Old Museum in Berlin, Germany

2011-06-25T22:41:00.000+07:00

The Altes Museum (German for Old Museum), is one of several internationally renowned museums on Museum Island in Berlin, Germany. Since restoration work in 1966, it houses the Antikensammlung (antique collection) of the Berlin State Museums. The museum was built between 1823 and 1830 by the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel in the neoclassical style to house the Prussian royal family's art collection. The historic, protected building counts among the most distinguished in neoclassicism and is a high point of Schinkel's career. Until 1845, it was called the Königliches Museum (Royal Museum). Along with the other museums and historic buildings on Museum Island, the Altes Museum was designated an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.

In the early nineteenth century, Germany's bourgeoisie had become increasingly self-aware and self-confident. This growing class began to embrace new ideas regarding the relationship between itself and art, and the concepts that art should be open to the public and that citizens should be able to have access to a comprehensive cultural education began to pervade society. King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia was a strong proponent of this humboldtian ideal for education and charged Karl Friedrich Schinkel with planning a public museum for the royal art collection.

Schinkel's plans for the Königliches Museum, as it was then known, were also influenced by drafts of the crown prince, later King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, who desired a building that was heavily influenced by antiquity. The crown prince even sent Schinkel a pencil sketch of a large hall adorned with a classical portico.

Schinkel's plans incorporated the Königliches Museum into an ensemble of buildings, which surround the Berliner Lustgarten (pleasure garden). The Stadtschloss in the south was a symbol of worldly power, the Zeughaus in the west represented military might, and the Berliner Dom in the east was the embodiment of divine authority. The museum to the north of the garden, which was to provide for the education of the people, stood as a symbol for science and art—and not least for their torchbearer: the self-aware bourgeoisie.

Schinkel had developed plans for the Königliches Museum as early as 1822/23, but construction did not begin until 1825. Construction was completed in 1828 and the museum was inaugurated on 3 August 1830. Schinkel was also responsible for the renovation of the Berliner Dom in the neo-classical style (which was originally a baroque cathedral), and he exercised considerable influence on Peter Joseph Lenné's renovation of the Lustgarten, which coincided with the construction of the museum, resulting in a harmonized and integrated ensemble.

In 1841, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV announced in a royal decree, that the entire northern part of the Spree Island (known as Museum Island) "be transformed into a sanctuary for art and science." In 1845, the Königliches Museum was renamed the Altes Museum, the name it holds to this day.

The Altes Museum was originally constructed to house all of the city's collections of fine arts. However, since 1904, the museum has housed the Antikensammlung (Collection of Classical Antiquities). Since 1998 the Collection of Classical Antiquities has displayed its Greek collection, including the treasury, on the ground floor of the Altes Museum. Special exhibitions are displayed on the second floor of the museum.

Parang Kusumo Beach Yogyakarta Indonesia

2011-06-24T18:08:00.001+07:00

Yogyakarta is one of the world tourist destination in Indonesia. Besides having a lot of beautiful places in Yogyakarta is also known as the Student City and Town Gudeg. Precisely in Bantul near the Indian Ocean coast certainly has a lot of them are Parang Kusumo Beach.

Parang Kusumo Beach This beach is located west Parangtritis, Bantul, Yogyakarta. has a natural beauty that is not inferior to the beach Parangtritis. Also near this beach there are 2 rocks in the fence surrounding concrete. Sacred places by people around the Cepuri known.

The visitors should not be arbitrarily and out of the region petilasan Senopati Panembahan this. They are required to remove the pedestal feet before entering the territory Cepuri and should not be noisy. The visitors most of the pilgrims who came from various regions. They come with different intentions, there is a wish quickly to mate, want to be rich, add prestige and so forth.

The place is open every day and most crowded visitors on Tuesday night and Friday night it still keeps many mysteries. As told by the caretaker leader Cepuri, many pilgrims have possessed. Largely because they violate the rules and have bad intentions. "This proves the greatness of God and as a gesture to human so as not to be arrogant and not 'adigang, adigung, Adiguna' to all of God's creation,"advises Surakso Tarwono as caretaker leader Cepuri. So what do you think about this place??? many mysteries and many pilgrims have possessed, are you wont to come in this place?? dont worry this place is very wonderful place.

Komodo Island The Amazing Island in Indonesia

2011-06-23T07:32:00.000+07:00

In 1910 the Dutch named the island on the south side of East Nusa Tenggara Province is the nickname of the island of Komodo. This story begins with Lieutenant Steyn van Broek Hens that Dutch troops tried to prove statements about the existence of a large animal like a dragon on the island. Steyn then kill a dragon and bring documentation to the Museum and Botanical Garden in Bogor to be investigated.

In 2009, the Park has been named a finalist in the "New Seven Wonders of Nature" newly announced in 2010 by online voting at www.N7W.com

Komodo Island is an island located in the Nusa Tenggara Islands. Komodo Island is known as a habitat for animals native Komodo dragon. The island is also the Komodo National Park which is managed by the Central Government. Komodo Island in the eastern island of Sumbawa, which are separated by the Sape Strait.

Administratively, this island including the District of Komodo, West Manggarai regency, East Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia. Komodo Island is the most western tip of Nusa Tenggara Timur province, bordering the province of West Nusa Tenggara.

Arrive in Komodo National Park, the first thing we should do is go to PHPA (Forest Protection and Nature Conservation). The forest guards and handlers dragons will lead us directly to see dragons in their natural life. Komodo Faranus Comodoensis an animal or mammal that has a weight of 150 kg and has a good olfactory abilities, especially for the smell of blood.

On the island of Komodo dragons animals live and breed well. Until August 2009, on the island there are about 1,300 Komodo dragons tail. Coupled with other islands, like the island of Rinca and Gili and Motang, their numbers totaled about 2500 tails. There are also approximately 100 individuals dragons Wae Wuul Nature Reserve on the mainland island of Flores, but not including the Komodo National Park.

Observing the dragons in their natural life is really stressful because we must always be careful. Although apparently only stunned silence, but we must be careful because they are actually being observed around and implement strategies to prey on prey. Now the attraction groups are scrambling dragons devouring a goat or chicken is prohibited. The reason that dragons are living freely in nature can survive without relying on the feeding of the National Park and visitors.

One more interesting from a conservation area of the island of Komodo is the beauty of the amazing Red beach. The reflection of sunlight that falls into the sand mixed with red coral on the beach this gives a very beautiful red color. Red Beach is also a fun location for snorkelling and swimming.

Besides Komodo, the island is also storing a variety of exotic flora that Sepang wood by local people used as a medicine and dye clothes, nitak tree Sterculia oblongata in this or believe to be useful as medicines and seeds are tasty and delicious like peas.

Access to reach the Park: Denpasar-Mataram-Bima-Sape (travel overland and by ferry), from national parks Sape locations using the ferry. Denpasar-Labuan Bajo with the aircraft, and use the ferry or speedboat from Labuan Bajo to the Park.
KNP Office: Jl. Kasimo, Labuan Bajo. 86 554 West Manggarai, East Nusa Tenggara Tel. (0385) 41004, 41005

Foreign tourists will be charged admission to the plau these dragons for $ 5 per person for one day, while local tourists only Rp. 25,000 per person (March 2008). In addition, the island was also discovered international resorts, and lodgings provided by the local community.

Menara Eiffel One Of The Seven Wonders in The World

2011-06-22T05:55:00.002+07:00

Eiffel Tower (French: Tour Eiffel, / tuʀ ɛfɛl /) is an iron tower big and tall built on the Champ de Mars on the banks of the River Seine in Paris. The tower has become a global icon of France and one of the wonders of the world in the world. The Eiffel Tower is named for its designer engineer Gustave Eiffel. The Eiffel Tower is the tallest building in Paris and one of the seven wonders of the world.

The structure was built between 1887 and 1889 as the entrance to the Exposition Universelle, the World Exposition that celebrated the French Revolution a century. Eiffel originally planned to build the tower in Barcelona, for the Universal Exposition of 1888, but the responsible parties in Barcelona city hall thought strange and expensive, and does not fit the city. After the rejection of Plan of Barcelona, Eiffel send the draft to those responsible for the Universal Exposition in Paris, where he built the tower a year later, in 1889. The tower was inaugurated on March 31, 1889, and opened on May 6. Three hundred workers joined together 18,083 Embedded metal parts (pure form of structural iron), use two nails and a half million, in the structural form by Maurice Koechlin. The risk of accident was great, to the modern skyscrapers the tower is open without any intermediate floors except the two platforms. However, because Eiffel took a cautious stance, including the use of the moving pulley block, track and display aids, only one person who died.

The tower is getting criticism from the public when it was built, calling it disturbing eyes. Daily newspapers are filled with letters from the art community in Paris. One of them included in the U.S. Government Publishing Office of William Watson of the Paris Universal Exposition: Civil Engineering, Public Works, and Architecture 1892. The signing of this letter include Messonier, Gounod, Garnier, Gerome, Bougeureau, and Dumas.

Eiffel had a permit the tower to stand for 20 years, which means it must be dismantled in 1909, when ownership transferred to the City of Paris. The city had planned to tear it down (part of the original contest rules for designing a tower that could be easily demolished) but as the tower proved extremely profitable in terms of communication, the tower was left standing after the permit expires. The military uses it to set up a taxi at the forefront of Paris during the First Battle of the Marne, and the battle was a victory monument.

The first and second levels are accessible by stairs and elevator. A ticket booth at the south tower to sell tickets to the stairs which begin at that location. On the first platform the stairs continue up from the east tower and the third level summit is only accessible by lift. From the first or second platform the stairs were open to everyone who goes up and down depending on if they had bought tickets or tickets elevator stairs. Number 9 steps to the ticket counter at the bottom, 328 to the first level, 340 to the second level and 18 to the platform elevator at the second level. When out of the elevator on the third level there are 15 stairs up to the upper observation platform. The number of gradual steps printed on the side of the stairs to give an indication of the ascent. Most of the ascent to the scene directly beneath and around the tower although short steps beebrapa closed.

Mayaria Beach, Kendari Southeast Sulawesi Indonesia

2011-06-21T19:13:00.003+07:00

Mayaria Beach is a white sandy beach which is located in Kendari Southeast Sulawesi Indonesia approximately ± 10 km to the east of the central city of Kendari Southeast Sulawesi Indonesia. Mayaria is a beautiful beach with white sand that slope so that in addition to swimming, visitors can make traditional village tour around the coast by boat. For tourists who want to spend the night, In addition to the inn and cottages in this place also provided complementary facilities and restaurants For those of you who want to vacation with family might place is perfect for weekend excursions with your family. You now about the beautifully this beach? so come in this beach.