This scenery was not formed overnight — Nature took its sweet time to create these marvels. These images from the Arches National Park in Utah, USA, show the end result of almost 300 million years of erosion, uplift, and weathering. Over time, layers of sandstone cracked, moved, and wore away, revealing almost 2,000 natural arches, composed mostly of Entrada and Navajo sandstone. These natural arches were formed from the salt beds left behind by long gone oceans from the past. This park was designated as a national monument in 1929, and elevated to national park status in 1971.

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In the Atacama Desert region of northern Chile, the skies are exceptionally clear and dry for more than 300 days of the year. These conditions have attracted the world's scientific community to develop highly interesting astronomical projects in the Atacama Desert, as seen here in the images below.

Malta's rural and historical landscape along the Cottonera Lines, is unfortunately currently under imminent damage of irreversible damage by an unnecessary €8 million project that is being proposed by Transport Malta, consisting of a two-way bypass between Żabbar and Smart City. This project will destroy 5,686 square meters of agricultural land — half of which remains productive — disrupting local ecosystems and further eroding our already shrinking green spaces and agriculture. Moreover, this road will pass through and disturb an area rich in history and protected heritage. The project’s route threatens the context of Notre Dame Gate, the Cottonera bastions, the Capuchin Convent, and the surrounding scheduled structures — some of which are Grade I-listed and located in Areas of High Landscape and Ecological Importance.

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Mount Teide is the highest peak in Spain, and the 3rd tallest volcano in the world, measured from its base on the ocean. It is found in the Spanish Canary Islands.



For a short period of time, during sunrise, Mount Teide throws an impressive large shadow that is perfectly pyramidal in shape, with long straight lines. It is an awesome sight, especially when viewed from the peak of Mount Teide itself. Here are some images of that magnificent shadow, together with one image of Mount Teide itself.





(click on any image to view it full size.)

The Louvre museum, located inside the Louvre Palace, in the center of Paris, adjacent to the Tuileries Gardens, is the largest museum in the world in terms of the floor area of its exhibition space (72,735 m²). It opened to the public on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, the majority of the works being royal and confiscated church property.



Before the Grand Louvre overhaul of the late 1980s and 1990s, the Louvre had several street-level entrances, most of which are now permanently closed. Since 1993, the museum's main entrance has been the underground space under the Louvre Pyramid, or Hall Napoléon (pictured in the accompanying video), which can be accessed from the Pyramid itself.



The Grand Louvre project was announced in 1981 by François Mitterrand, the President of France, and the Louvre Pyramid was its centerpiece. The pyramid and the underground lobby beneath it were created because of deficiencies with the Louvre's earlier layout, which could no longer handle the increasing number of visitors on an everyday basis. Visitors entering through the pyramid descend into the spacious lobby then ascend into the main Louvre buildings.



The Grand Louvre project also created another world right under the Louvre Museum — a shopping mall that is entirely underground, called the Carrousel du Louvre, centred on the Inverted Pyramid glass sculpure — which has a large, upturned base, that could be easily viewed from outside. This shopping mall opened on the 15 October 1993.



The Grand Louvre project also included the Louvre Inverted Pyramid, which essentially acts as a skylight for the shopping mall below. The main pyramid has a square base of 35.4m and a height of 21.6m, while the inverted one has a square base of 15.5m and a height of just 7m. Underground, a small stone pyramid, mirroring the larger inverted glass pyramid above, is a stands about 1 metre tall. The tips of the stone pyramid and the larger inverted glass one almost touch, they are only about 40cm apart.



The construction of the glass pyramids triggered many years of lively aesthetic and political debate. Those criticizing the aesthetics said it was sacrilegious to tamper with the Louvre's majestic old French Renaissance architecture, and called the pyramid an anachronistic intrusion of an Egyptian death symbol in the middle of Paris.

Fantastic photographs from Marco Bottigelli, a master of his art, of two different lakes in the Italian Dolomites. (Click on image to view full size.)

The backwaters of Alappuzha in Kerala, as well as the Jhelum River, in Srinagar, Kashmir, are famous for their houseboats, which are typically rented out to tourists as accommodation, comprising of bedrooms, living room and kitchen, during vacations. (Click on an image to view full size.)

The Sombrero Galaxy (also known as M104 or NGC 4594), as seen from the Hubble Telescope. (Click on image to view full-size.)

Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada with its iconic Parliament Hill Clock Tower that is visible in each of these four images. (Click on an image to see full size.)