Quidditch World Cup 5 | Randall's Island, NYC | International Quidditch Association. Mystical, Magical & Magnificent Monasteries in Meteora (20 Pics) The caves in Meteora, Greece, had inhabitants for fifty millennia, but due to raids, “hermit monks” moved to the safety of sandstone rock pinnacles in the 9th century and began building monasteries. More monks and nuns came, building more monasteries perched high upon the cliffs. Wikipedia reports, “Access to the monasteries was originally (and deliberately) difficult, requiring either long ladders lashed together or large nets used to haul up both goods and people.
This required quite a leap of faith — the ropes were replaced, so the story goes, only ‘when the Lord let them break.’” UNESCO World Heritage says, “The net in which intrepid pilgrims were hoisted up vertically alongside the 1,224 ft. cliff where the Varlaam monastery dominates the valley symbolizes the fragility of a traditional way of life that is threatened with extinction.” Photo #1 by Vaggelis Vlahos A view of Meteora monasteries in Greece. Photo #5 by Gabriele Quaglia The Holy Monastery of St. Horsetail Falls (Yosemite National Park, California, USA)
Horsetail Falls (aka "The Firefall") Yosemite National Park / Yosemite Valley, California, USA Rating: 2 Difficulty: 1 I was first turned onto Horsetail Falls after seeing it on a small black-and-white Ansel Adams print (then consequently buying and hanging it at home). However, I didn't associate this waterfall with the firefall until I saw it in Galen Rowell's book titled Mountain Light in his "Natural Firefall" photograph.
Then, Michael Frye's The Photographer's Guide to Yosemite gave me some of the specifics needed to finally act on trying to witness and capture the firefall effect myself. While I've photographed this waterfall as early as 2004, I wasn't able to capture the firefall effect until late February 2006. Back then, it was still a relatively unknown event where all of us shared the special event in silence. However, since that visit, this otherwise obscure ephemeral waterfall became quite popular. One, the falls needs to be flowing. [Back to top] [Back to top] [Back to top] Mount Sanqingshan National Park. Mount Sanqingshan National Park Mount Sanqingshan National Park, a 22,950 ha property located in the west of the Huyaiyu mountain range in the northeast of Jiangxi Province (in the east of central China) has been inscribed for its exceptional scenic quality, marked by the concentration of fantastically shaped pillars and peaks: 48 granite peaks and 89 granite pillars, many of which resemble human or animal silhouettes.
The natural beauty of the 1,817 metre high Mount Huaiyu is further enhanced by the juxtaposition of granite features with the vegetation and particular meteorological conditions which make for an ever-changing and arresting landscape with bright halos on clouds and white rainbows. The area is subject to a combination of subtropical monsoonal and maritime influences and forms an island of temperate forest above the surrounding subtropical landscape. It also features forests and numerous waterfalls, some of them 60 metres in height, lakes and springs. source: UNESCO/ERI.
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