Heaven's Touch -(B)In the Presence of Gods

Four Places under this category are:

1. Bagan Temple, Myanmar
2. The Parthenon's Old World Order, Athens, Greece
3. The Grandeur of Angkor Wat, Cambodia
4. Ancient Ephesus of Turkey

1.Bagan Temple, Myanmar

On the banks of the Irrawaddy River, more than 3,000 temples stretch across a 30-square-mile plain in Pagan, Myanmar (formerly Burma). Most were constructed between 1057 and 1287 during a building frenzy initiated by King Anawrahta, who formed the first Burmese kingdom in 1044.

Bagan Temples

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/specialsections/lifelists/lifelist-pagan.html#ixzz1Z3zlSFdR

Travel Guide:
http://wikitravel.org/en/Bagan




2.The Parthenon's Old World Order, Athens, Greece

Goddess Athena

From: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/specialsections/lifelists/lifelist-parthenon.html#ixzz1Z40KJoov

More than 2,400 years after its construction, the Parthenon—the sanctuary to the goddess Athena—still dominates the skyline of the Acropolis in Athens. The structure, originally painted in brilliant shades of red, green and blue, remained largely intact until 1687, when a force of Venetians laying siege to invading Turkish troops ignited a gunpowder magazine stored there. The explosion reduced the sanctuary to near ruins.

Parthenon

Travel Guide:

http://www.athensguide.org/

http://iguide.travel/Parthenon

3.Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat

The 12th century temple is the worlds largest religious structure and a jewel of Khmer architectural style.

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/specialsections/lifelists/lifelist-angkor-wat.html#ixzz1Z41MLvQk

From:http://www.southeastasia.org/index.php/things-to-do/detail/siem-reap-angkor-wat-travel-guide/

Angkor Wat attracts several million tourists every year. The 12th-century temple, literally known as the Capital Temple, is just one of hundreds in Siem Reap province in northwestern Cambodia. In 1992, the famous temple, part of Angkor Archaeological Park, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Khmer Architecture

Travel Guide:

http://wikitravel.org/en/Angkor_Archaeological_Park

4.Ephesus

Ruled over the centuries by Greek, Persian, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman empires, there is much to see of the city’s former splendor.

Ephesus was much larger than Parthenon

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/specialsections/lifelists/lifelist-ephesus.html#ixzz1Z43D8tno

Over the centuries, a succession of empires—Greek, Persian, Roman, Byzantine and, finally, Ottoman—ruled over the city of Ephesus. Yet no matter how many times it changed hands, the city remained one of the most vibrant metropolises of the ancient world. Located on Turkey's western coast, nearly 300,000 people lived there at its height, in the second century A.D. Its busy seaport ferried goods from Asia to Greece, Italy and beyond.

Ephesus' greatest claim to fame was its temple to the goddess Artemis. One of the "seven wonders" of the ancient world, it was almost four times larger than the Parthenon in Athens. According to the New Testament, the Apostle Paul preached in Ephesus, prompting a riot led by silversmiths who crafted shrines to the goddess and feared for both their livelihoods and the future of the temple.

Today, a few columns are all that remain of the temple. But there is still much to see that evokes the city's former splendor. A three-tiered theater, built into the slope of a hill, once seated 25,000. Just outside the city stands the Church of Saint John, built in the fourth century over the evangelist's presumed tomb and expanded into a basilica some 200 years later.

Ephesus

Travel Guide:

http://wikitravel.org/en/Ephesus

28 Travel destinations around the world

This blog is dedicated to all those who love to travel. I have always wanted to write about the best places in the world to visit. I have never traveled outside my country, so I don't really qualify to write about it. I Was just browsing through the net and I came across an article about 28 travel destinations in the world. Posting one at a time.. 


Categories are snagged from the internet:
Courtesy: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/specialsections/lifelists/lifelist.html


Category:A:Here today, gone tomorrow..
There are 4 places under this category

1. Venice
2. The Amazon Rain Forests
3. The great Barrier Reef
4. The Galapagos Islands

1.Venice:
I would love to describe it as a city of canals
A jewel of a city audaciously built on 118 tiny islands and a network of waterways, Venice is an imperiled treasure that stubbornly endures. Due to the plodding geological shifts of the continents, the city is sinking at a rate of two and a half inches per decade. A watery demise for Venice by the end of the century may be inevitable.

Venice:The city of Canals is rapidly sinking at a rate of 2.5 inches/decade

Venice travel guide:
http://wikitravel.org/en/Venice




2:Amazon rain forests:

Amazon rain forests are ecologically important because of their rich flora and fauna formed mainly from the delta of Amazon river. Due to various factors like human invasion,these forests are disappearing at a rapid rate than you can imagine.

Amazon in Peru

Try to visit the place before it is completely gone!
From:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/specialsections/lifelists/lifelist-amazon-rain-forest.html

The Amazon rain forest covers more than two million square miles of the earth's surface, spanning eight South American countries.Although the region has no seasons, the Amazon River rises and falls by as much as 30 feet during the year, and the variety of living things one can see changes with it. Every journey reveals new wonders.

San Rafael Falls, Quijos River, Ecuador

Most travelers visit the western areas of the rain forest that remain largely untouched,such as the Loreto region of Peru, so they may not notice that the ecosystem is under siege. Already 20 percent of the forest has been cut down for timber or burned to make way for farms, with thousands more acres disappearing each day. "I've seen areas along the river where it's been beautiful, pristine forest one year, and the next it's been clearcut," says Harris. "That's pretty hard to take."

Amazon in Brazil(Human deforestation :(

Save the Mighty Amazon!

Amazon Travel Guide:

http://www.travellerspoint.com/guide/Amazon_Rainforest/

3.Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef in Australia is one of the most beautiful ecological Wonders that You ever come across. It is the largest coral reef in the world and is in the state of deterioration due to pollution. It is our duty to preserve such ecosystems. Go visit the place before it is completely destroyed!

From: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/specialsections/lifelists/lifelist-barrier-reef.html

To say that the Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef may be understating things; the Australian government notes that it is "the only living organic collective visible from Earth's orbit." Certainly, it is vast—a conglomeration of some 3,000 reefs and 600 islands stretching more than 1,250 miles along Australia's northeast coast. Green turtles, dolphins and whales live there, along with 200 species of birds, 1,500 species of fish, 4,000 species of mollusks and, yes, an abundance of corals.

Coral Reef

The reef attracts about two million visitors a year, but that's OK, says Terry Hughes, director of the Australian Research Council's Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies. "The tourism industry is an active advocate for the reef," he explains. "Tourists are taught to look but not touch, and to be careful when reef walking or snorkeling."

Diving in the coral reef

The Great Barrier Reef Travel Guide:

http://wikitravel.org/en/Great_Barrier_Reef

4.The Galapagos Islands:
These are the famous islands which Charles Darwin (Evolutionist) Visited and the facts he observed there prompted him to propose the main theories of genetics and evolution.

The Galapagos Island

From: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/specialsections/lifelists/lifelist-galapagos.html

Giant tortoises lumber across the lava rocks, while iguanas defy desert stereotypes and plunge into the sea. The strange, conspicuously adapted wildlife that impressed Charles Darwin when he visited the Galápagos Islands in 1835—and that would later kindle his discovery of the
 process of evolution by natural selection—is still there. In fact, the Galápagos, 14 major and many smaller islands spanning the Equator 620 miles off the coast of Ecuador, 
remains the world's most biologically intact tropical archipelago.

The Galapagos Islands Beach

But pollution, overfishing and development are harming efforts to conserve habitat and wildlife. A tourism boom is also taking its toll. The number of visitors has more than tripled in the past 15 years, to at least 145,000 in 2006. The islands are mostly under the control of Galapagos National Park, which restricts access to designated areas. Still, people over the years have unwittingly or deliberately introduced invasive life-forms that can undermine the natural order—some 750 alien plant species and 490 insect species, according to a 2007report by the Charles Darwin Foundation. Scientists warn that the damage could be irreversible.

Volcanoes at The Galapagos Islands

The Galapagos Islands Travel Guide:
http://wikitravel.org/en/Galapagos_Islands