Tropical beaches during the summer.
With all the problems that are coming in the United States of America's way, I thought that these images of the United States Capitol building, standing proudly through the turmoil of the night, befits the circumstances.
The main image is the façade of the Coptic Museum in Cairo. Also included are details of said façade.
I assume that the cross above the main entrance is an early Coptic cross. (Please click on images for a fuller view.) This cross is also flanked on either side with other similar crosses, placed above the windows. It's amazing to me how much these early Coptic crosses are so similar to the eight-pointed Maltese cross.
The Coptic Orthodox is a separate church from the Orthodox Churches of Greece and Turkey and the Catholic Church in Rome, having split from the main stream of Christianity early in its history on account of a theological disagreement about the nature of Christ and the Holy Spirit.
The original San Francisco City Hall (shown here) was completed in 1897. It took seven lead architects, 27 years and $6 million to build – that would be around $227 million today. Just nine years later, it was destroyed in the deadly 1906 earthquake, which killed over 3,000 people and left more than 80% of the city in ruins. An architect's report following this expensive disaster found the building had been designed "without any of the principles of the steel frame construction having been used."
The city eventually built a new City Hall (also shown here) just two city blocks away, with construction started in 1913, and completed in 1916. This new building as a whole contains 7,900 tons (7,035 metric tons) of structural steel. It cost $3.4 million to build – that would be around $98 million today.
Located at a lofty altitude of about 12,000 feet above sea level, Salar de Uyuni is the world’s largest salt flat (or salt pan), spanning just over 4,000 square miles. It was formed when prehistoric lakes dried up over centuries, leaving behind a desert of bright white salt that can be seen from space. During the months from December to April, a thin layer of water covering the salt transforms the area into a giant mirror that reflects the beautiful Bolivian skies. If you’re driving across the surface at such times, it can appear as though you are navigating through a highway of clouds.
The Great Himalayan Range in Nepal famously includes Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain, in the shadow of which lies Namche Bazaar (the informal capital of the Sherpa people) and the Tibetan Buddhist Tengboche Monastery (both of which are shown here in these images, please click on image for full view).
For more Tibetan Buddhist Monasteries perched in splendid isolation on the Himalayan Rim, check also this post here below: zafoid.com/post/view/11134
Tibetan Buddhist monasteries perched splendidly on Ladakh's mountains, a region that is one of the most sparsely populated within India, and with a culture and history that is tightly related to that of Tibet.
A view of the distinctive roof of the Reading Room at the British Museum’s Great Court in London, from above/outside, and from underneath/inside. (Click on the images for full view.)
