Dragon's Blood Tree of Socotra Island

Socotra is part of the Republic of Yemen. It is one of the most-isolated landforms on Earth of continental origin. Socotra is a small archipelago of four islands in the Indian Ocean. The largest island, also called Socotra, is about 95% of the landmass of the archipelago. The most amazing features about this Socotra island is the Dragon's Blood Tree.

Dragon's Blood Tree is also known as Socotra Dragon Tree and the scientific name is Dracaena cinnabari. The Dragon blood tree is the most famous and distinctive plant of the island of Socotra. It has a unique and strange appearance, described as "upturned, densely-packed crown having the shape of an uprightly held umbrella". This evergreen species is named after its dark red resin, that is known as "dragon's blood".

Lake Turkana | Largest Alkaline Lake in the World

Lake Turkana – also called the Jade Sea, is the largest alkaline lake in the world as well as the largest lake in Kenya. Lake Turkana is a massive inland sea, the largest desert lake in the world. The lake is famous for its greenish-blue colors and it is notorius for the strong desert winds making sailing on the lake a sometimes harzardous affair. All this features makes this lake one of the natural wonders of the world.

 

Lake Turkana was originally named Lake Rudolph by Count Samuel Teleki and Lieutenant Von Höhnel in 1888 and was renamed Lake Turkana in 1975. At a length of 300 km long in North-South direction and a width of 50 km wide, Lake Turkana is the largest lake in Kenya and Kenya shares it with Uganda and Tanzania. At an altitude of only 300m above sea level lake Turkana is one of the hottest places in Kenya and the world with temperatures in the region often reaching 50 degrees C.

Ice Canyon of Greenland | An Amazing and Marvelous Place to Visit

Ice Canyon is the most visited place in Greenland. With water flowing deep through massive ice bergs presents an immense eye catching and marvelous scenes. Impressive ice structure and water flowing makes this place one of the most photographed places of Greenland.

The canyon reaches 30-40 meters depth. The water from the melting icebergs forms turquoise rivers, that run through the canyon and add up to the eye catching landscape. The weather is not so freezing during May and July, therefore might be the best time to visit the country.

Hashima || The Abandoned Ghost Island of Japan

Hashima, also known as Gunkajima or Battleship Island due to its shape, is an abandoned ghost island about 15 kilometers away from the port of Nagasaki in Japan. The island was inhabited in 1887 as a coal mining facility. Sturdy buildings that have been abandoned and the sea wall around it that make this island be impressed armature and therefore more people know this as the Ghost Island.

Mitsubishi bought the island in 1890 to use it as a base for an underwater coal mining facility. There, they built Japan's first concrete building (9 stories high) in 1917 to accommodate the workers. In the following decades, Hashima became the most densely populated place on earth. In 1959, the 6.3-hectare (16-acre) island's population reached its peak of 5,259, with a population density of 835 people per hectare (83,500 people/sq.km, 216,264 people per square mile) for the whole island, or 1,391 per hectare (139,100 people/sq.km) for the residential district.

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, between 1943 and 1945, the Japanese government and Mitsubishi transported Korean and Chinese prisoners to the island on Mitsubishi-owned ships known as "hellships," and then forced them to handle the most dangerous work in the coal mines. Hundreds or thousands of the prisoners died to to the poor living conditions and coal mining accidents. Eventually, captives were freed in 1945 when the atomic bomb shook the windows of the island's apartment blocks.

The island shut down in 1974 as a result of the decline in coal industry during the previous years. Since then, it was left abandoned before it was reopened for travel again in 2009. Hashima is also featured in the 2012 James Bond movie, Skyfall. Today, a process is underway to designate the island as an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Nara Dreamland | Beautiful Abandoned Amusement Park in Japan

Nara Dreamland was built in 1961. This amusement theme park is located in city Nara, Japan. This Nara Dreamland is a replication of the Disneyland in California. The entrance to the park was designed to look almost identical to Disneyland, including the Train depot, large Matterhorn mountain, the monorail, a Main Street, U.S.A. and the familiar Sleeping Beauty Castle at the hub.

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The park contained several rides prior to closing, including:

•     Aska, a wooden roller coaster based on The Cyclone at Coney Island
•     Screw Coaster, an Arrow Dynamics designed double corkscrew steel roller coaster
•     Bobsleigh, a steel roller coaster modeled after the Matterhorn Bobsleds
•     Fantasy Coaster
•     Kid's Coaster
•     Figure-8 monorail

Other rides included a carousel, a small powered coaster, a Jungle Cruise styled ride, and a log flume.

The park was closed in 2006 because of low visitor numbers. But rather than sell off the rides, or look at an alternative use for the land, it was just abandoned. Nothing has been done to it at all. The ticket booths still stand next to the ride entrances, the carriages still sit on the tracks of the roller coasters, even the chairs and the coffee machines are still in the restaurants. It was all but a ghost town and the fun part exists due to Nara Dreamland being left abandoned but not demolished.

Bagan | A Historic Royal City in Myanmar

Once the capital city of the Kingdom of Pagan now one of the great place of historic significance and archaeological sites in Southeast Asia. During the kingdom's height between the 11th and 13th centuries, over 10,000 Buddhist temples, pagodas and monasteries were constructed in the Bagan plains alone, of which the remains of over 2200 temples and pagodas still survive to the present day.
  

Bagan is an area in the Central region of Myanmar. Bagan is the current Mandalay Division , 155 km southwest of the city of Mandalay on the eastern bank of the Irrawaddy , midway between its source and it flows into the Indian Ocean.
The culture of Bagan was dominated by religion. The religion of Bagan was fluid, syncretic and by later standards, unorthodox. Now the Bagan Archaeological Zone is a main draw for the country's nascent tourism industry.

The Parthenon on Acropolis in Greece

The Parthenon is a temple on the Athenian Acropolis and the most important surviving building of Classical Greece. The Parthenon is regarded as an enduring symbol of Ancient Greece, Athenian democracy, western civilization and one of the world's greatest cultural monuments. Its construction began in 447 BC when the Athenian Empire was at the height of its power. It was completed in 438 BC, although decoration of the building continued until 432 BC and was dedicated to the maiden goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their patron deity.

Acropolis of Athens has the great architectural and historic significance and among this structure in Acropolis Parthenon is the most famous.

Brenner Pass | An Epic Route for Business-Trade and Communication in Europe

This epic route is mountain pass through the Alps along the border between Italy and Austria, and is one of the principal passes of the Alps. The natural beauty of Brenner pass is really wonderful. The scenery of two sides of mountain that kisses the clouds, the amazing green leafy textures on mountain, wonderful sun light display in the morning are really thrilling. Below the pass, high Alpine pastures have been used by dairy cattle for summer grazing, making space available at lower altitudes for cultivating and harvesting hay for winter fodder.

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Brenner pass has long historical and cultural importance. History says that this pass was first legally used by the Romans and in medieval the ongoing of this mountain pass increase. In 1777 the construction of rain route began and in 1867 this giant construction ended. The most important event happened in this Brenner pass on 18 March 1940 during World War II, the German leader Adolf Hitler and the Italian leader Benito Mussolini met there to celebrate their Pact of Steel .  

This beautiful historical mountain pass is now an important business-trade route for Europe. In 1963 a modern six-lane autobahn concrete bridge was built at a height of 180 meters and a length of 820 meters over the valley of the Sill River for large number of traffic can ply. 

The Wave, Arizona | Place looks like another planet

"The Wave" is a wonderful sandstone rock formation located in the high desert region between Arizona and Utah. The rock faces swirl and roll and undulate, hence the name. “The Wave” consists of intersecting U-shaped troughs that have been eroded into Navajo Sandstone of Jurassic age. It is famous among hikers and photographers for its colorful, undulating forms, and the rugged, trackless hike required to reach it.

"The Wave" is difficult to reach.  It is a very remote desert area south of Lake Powell, accessed only via a long dirt road. Once you're on foot, there is no marked trail for most of the way, about three miles across open desert and sand dunes. It is not a place for inexperienced desert hikers or people who can't find their way very well.

It's a photographer's dream. The colors and shapes are wild, like swirls of candy or the fossilized remains of some incredibly large alien beast. An ideal time to photograph "The Wave" is the few hours around midday when there are no shadows in the center, although early morning and late afternoon shadows can also make for dramatic photos. After a rain storm, numerous pools form which can contain hundreds of tadpoles and fairy shrimp. These pools can be present for several days.

The Wonderful Blue Lagoon Hot Springs of Iceland

The wonderful Blue Lagoon is a geothermal spa and it is one of the most visited attraction in Iceland. The water temperature in the bathing and swimming area of the lagoon averages 37–39 °C (98–102 °F). The warm waters are rich in minerals like silica and sulphur and bathing in the Blue Lagoon is reputed to help some people suffering from skin diseases such as psoriasis

The lagoon is a man-made lagoon which is fed by the water output of the nearby geothermal power plant Svartsengi and is renewed every 2 days. Superheated water is vented from the ground near a lava flow and used to run turbines that generate electricity. The Blue Lagoon was used as the pit stop for the first leg of The Amazing Race 6. The Blue Lagoon was used for the thermal spa scenes in the filming of Hostel: Part II. It was also shown in the Incubus documentary Look Alive, when the band visited Iceland. It was also shown in fifth cycle of Britain's Next Top Model which used as photo shoot location.

The beautiful therapeutic Blue Lagoon is located in a lava field in Grindavík on the Reykjanes Peninsula, southwestern Iceland. In 1976 a pool formed at the site from the waste water of the geothermal power plant that had just been built there. In 1981 people started bathing in it after the discovery of its healing powers for psoriasis. In 1992 the Blue Lagoon company was established and the bathing facility was opened for the public.