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→ Submit a place to see, or ask me anything.Celebrate Earth Day in Super High Resolution
Enormous cloudbanks roll along as day changes to night on our planet Earth in this incredibly high resolution time-lapse video.
The sequence was created by James Drake, a student at the University of Victoria in Canada, using data from the Russian Federal Space Agency’s Elektro-L 1 satellite.
(via jtotheizzoe)
![The great wall of China stretches roughly 5,500 miles through the rolling Chinese hillside.
Up until the year 220 BCE, China was controlled by many different states. These states were constantly at war with one another. China was not a unified nation, until in 221 BCE, Qin Shi Huang conquered all the opposing states and united China, establishing the Qin dynasty. He is regarded as the first emperor of China.
Qin Shi Huang saw that many of the states had begun to build feeble walls. Under the Qin reign, these walls were fortified and connected, making one great wall. [Map] [Wiki]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2wdepT2h31ruu4omo1_500.jpg)
The great wall of China stretches roughly 5,500 miles through the rolling Chinese hillside.
Up until the year 220 BCE, China was controlled by many different states. These states were constantly at war with one another. China was not a unified nation, until in 221 BCE, Qin Shi Huang conquered all the opposing states and united China, establishing the Qin dynasty. He is regarded as the first emperor of China.
Qin Shi Huang saw that many of the states had begun to build feeble walls. Under the Qin reign, these walls were fortified and connected, making one great wall. [Map] [Wiki]
Mount Roraima is a 9,219 foot tall plateau in Venezuela. In ancient times, the Pemon and Kapon tribes thought that Roraima was the stump of a giant tree which had once held all the fruits and vegetables in the world. [Map] [Wiki]
The Mona Lisa, by Leonardo Da Vinci, is on display at the Louvre museum in Paris.
The Louvre is one of the most-visited art museums in the world. The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, which began as a fortress built in the late 12th century under Philip II. Remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. The building was extended many times to form the present-day Louvre Palace.
French royalty once lived in the Louvre Palace, until in 1682, Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles for his household. He left the Louvre primarily as a place to display the royal collection of antique sculpture. In 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years. During the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum, to display the nation’s masterpieces. [Map] [Wiki]
In 1631, Shah Jahan was emperor of the great Mughal empire, which spanned roughly the area of what is now India. His third wife, Mumtaz Mahal, died in labor giving birth to their 14th child. Shah Jahan was overcome with grief, and in 1632, ordered the construction of the Taj Mahal as a mausoleum to honor his wife. Today, the Taj Mahal still stands ss a stunning example of Mughal architecture. [Map] [Wiki]
The sand at Punalu’u Beach on the Big Island of Hawai’i, USA, is pitch black.
All of the Hawaiian islands were formed by lava hot flowing into the sea, cooling, and hardening. At Punalu’u beach, when lava hits the water, the temperature change is so intense that the basalt (volcanic rock) explodes, creating the fine black sand and pebbles along the shore. The lava that forms Punalu’u comes from the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park.
Punalu’u beach is a sanctuary for Hawkbill and Green Sea Turtles, which are endangered. [Map] [Wiki]
Central Park is a lush 843-acre park in the middle of bustling New York City, New York, USA. It opened in 1857, and today it’s still a patch of green in the middle of a busy, grey city. [Map] [Wiki]
![The Washington Monument in Washington, DC, USA, was built from 1848-1884. It is the world’s tallest stone structure and the world’s tallest true obelisk. [Map] [Wiki]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2vf9pzrjk1ruu4omo1_500.jpg)