xkecken Mexico

The cenote is the name for a lake that form underground when the water table breaks through fragile limestone. Where you can swim. Xkeken Cenote has been on my travel “wish list” since National Geographic published this photo last year.  There are literally hundreds of cenotes, or sinkholes filled with groundwater located in Mexico, but Xkeken Cenote is the one of the most famous. Located in Mexico’s Yucatan region, it was a point of spiritual connection for the Mayans, who believed that this natural well led to the underworld. Today, it’s one of Yucatan’s most popular tourist spots, drawing thousands of visitors each year. The...

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Tawang Monastery, India

The Tawang Monastery was founded near the small town of the same name in the northwestern part of Arunachal Pradesh, India by Merak Lama Lodre Gyatso in 1680-1681in accordance with the wishes of the 5th Dalai Lama. The monastery belongs to the Gelugpa school and has a religious association with Drepung Monastery in Lhasa, which continued during the period of British rule. It is very close to the Tibetan border, located in the valley of the Tawang-chu which flows down from Tibet. Located at an elevation of about 3,300 metres (10,000 feet) in the district capital, Tawang town. It has a capacity of about 700 monks and presently is home...

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Ivanhoe Lake- Silver Lake Reservoir

US is best know to use plastic for various uses. In December 2007, the DWP announced that the Silver Lake and Elysian reservoirs had both become contaminated with unusually high levels of the cancer-causing chemical bromate, and were immediately isolated.The reservoirs were both drained over several weeks in March 2008, and refilled in May 2008. Two months later, 400,000 black hollow plastic "shade balls" were dumped in the body of water, in the hopes to reduce the likelihood of the sunlight-fueled bromate. Los Angeles water officials discovered that several open reservoirs had elevated levels of bromate. Bromate, a carcinogen, forms...

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Gläserne Manufaktur - Transperant factory,Germany

Transparent Factory is the English name of an automobile production plant owned by German carmaker Volkswagen, designed by architect Gunter Henn, and opened in 2002. The original German name is Gläserne Manufaktur (factory made of glass, literally vitreous manufactory).  Both the German and English names are a word play on the double meaning of transparent and glassy, referring to both optical transperancy and transperancy of production process....

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Underwater Sculputures - By Jason De Caires Taylor

How do you take sculptures and make them worthy enough for the world to travel specifically to see them? 'Drown them' was the idea Jason De Caires Taylor came up with. Jason de Caires Taylor’s underwater sculptures create a unique, absorbing and expansive visual seascape. Highlighting natural ecological processes Taylor’s interventions explore the intricate relationships that exist between art and environment. His works become artificial reefs, attracting marine life, while offering the viewer privileged temporal encounters, as the shifting sand of the ocean floor, and the works change from moment to moment. From 'Jason De Caires Taylors'...

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