FUN-travel: New 7 Wonders of the World Runner Up: Easter Island, Chile

July 1, 2013 by · Comments Off on FUN-travel: New 7 Wonders of the World Runner Up: Easter Island, Chile 

Easter Island FUN-facts

  1. Dutch explorers landed on Easter Sunday, April 5, 1722, and named it Easter Island.Easter Island, Chile 192
  2. There are 887 “moai” stone statues – the biggest at 32 ft high and weighing 82 tons.
  3. They were carved with stone chisels between 1100 & 1680 AD and took a team of 5 -6 men one year to finish.
  4. Over half of all the statues are located around the quarry at Rano Raraku.
  5. It’s one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world and a long way to the middle of nowhere. 2200 miles from Chile, it takes 5 hours by plane, and 5 days by ship.
  6. 15 miles long by 7.5 miles at the widest and a total of 63 square miles.
  7. Easter Island is pretty primitive and our best guess is probably what Hawaii was like in the 60’s.
  8. Hanga Roa is the only town and has paved roads. Most of the other roads are bumpy dirt roads.
  9. It’s part of the Polynesian triangle with Hawaii at the top and Tahiti to the west.
  • In the summer of 2007, more than 90 million people cast their votes to determine which architectural marvels in the world deserved to be one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. There were a total of twenty-one landmarks vying for that title.
Easter Island, Chile 72

Rano Raraku

  • Of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World, only the Great Pyramids in Giza, Egypt still stand. The pyramids were given an automatic spot after infuriated Egyptian officials said it was a disgrace to have to compete for something that had belonged to their country for so long. I agree!  We saw them in 2007.Easter Island, Chile 6
  • It is our goal to see all twenty-one landmarks. Also, Chris and I have collectively seen a lot of the twenty-one, however, not together. So the rule is, we go back and see all of them together!

New 7 Wonders of the World we’ve been to:

#1 Chichen Itza, Mexico – 2005
#2 Great Wall of China – 2010
#3 Machu Picchu, Peru – 2012
#4 Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 2012
#5 The Colosseum, Rome, Italy – 2012

New 7 Wonders of the World Runner Ups we’ve been to:

#9  Statue of Liberty, New York – 2005
#10 Sydney Opera House, Australia – 2005
#11 Hagia Sophia, Istanbul – 2007
#12 Acropolis, Athens – 2007
#13 Angkor Wat, Cambodia – 2010
#14 Eiffel Tower, Paris – 2010
#15 Stonehenge, England – 2011
#16 Easter Island, Chile – 2013

119 Easter Island, Chile

Ahu Tongariki

 

FUN-travel: New 7 Wonders of the World # 6 Petra, Jordan

June 25, 2013 by · Comments Off on FUN-travel: New 7 Wonders of the World # 6 Petra, Jordan 

#6 Petra, Jordan – March, 2013

Petra, Jordan 139

  • Petra dates back to 300 BC and in our opinion is on the same scope as Angkor Wat in beauty and scale. It is a marvelously preserved massive city of carved sandstone tombs and temples.
Petra, Jordan 31

The Treasury

  • As-Siq is the ancient main entrance that consists of an impressive long, deep, narrow gouge over half mile long, hemmed by massive cliffs 250 feet high. The bizarre looking colorful rock formations include water channels cut into the cliffs and votive niches carved into the rock.
  • The Treasury is the most beautiful and most photographed monument standing almost 140’ high and 90’ wide. It was carved in 1st century BC as a tomb of important Nabataean King. To reach it you walk for almost two miles. On the way to the city center you pass the Street of Facades consisting of rows of tombs with intricate carvings.
  • The city center includes The Theatre which seated 3000 and was carved into solid rock; Colonnaded Street which contained temples, public buildings, and shops; and The Royal Tombs which are a series of carved temples in the side of the mountain with commanding views across the city center.
  • The Monastery is the most colossal temple and sacred site and the most difficult to reach. It requires walking up over 970 carved sandstone steps and pathways to reach it.  You could spend several days hiking to see all of Petra.
Petra, Jordan 128

Store in Petra

  • In the summer of 2007, more than 90 million people cast their votes to determine which architectural marvels in the world deserved to be one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. There were a total of twenty-one landmarks vying for that title.
  • Of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World, only the Great Pyramids in Giza, Egypt still stand. The pyramids were given an automatic spot after infuriated Egyptian officials said it was a disgrace to have to compete for something that had belonged to their country for so long. I agree!  We saw them in 2007.
zPetra, Jordan 88

The Monastery

  • It is our goal to see all twenty-one landmarks. Also, Chris and I have collectively seen a lot of the twenty-one, however, not together. So the rule is, we go back and see all of them together!

New 7 Wonders of the World we’ve been to:

#1 Chichen Itza, Mexico – 2005
#2 Great Wall of China – 2010
#3 Machu Picchu, Peru – 2012
#4 Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 2012
#5 The Colosseum, Rome, Italy – 2012

New 7 Wonders of the World Runner Ups we’ve been to:Petra, Jordan 123

#9  Statue of Liberty, New York – 2005
#10 Sydney Opera House, Australia – 2005
#11 Hagia Sophia, Istanbul – 2007
#12 Acropolis, Athens – 2007
#13 Angkor Wat, Cambodia – 2010
#14 Eiffel Tower, Paris – 2010
#15 Stonehenge, England – 2011
#16 Easter Island, Chile – 2013

 

New 7 Wonders of the World: Machu Picchu & Christ the Redeemer

July 9, 2012 by · Comments Off on New 7 Wonders of the World: Machu Picchu & Christ the Redeemer 

#3 Machu Picchu, Peru – February, 21, 2012

Machu Picchu is not an easy place to get to. From the town of Cusco it took 90 minutes by car to get to the Peru Rail Dome Train. (You can take the train from Cusco but not during the rainy season due to mud and rock slides.) Then it takes another 90 minutes to go 27 miles to the town of Aguas Calientes at the base of the mountain. From there you have a 10 minute walk to the center of the town where you board a bus that takes you up a narrow, one lane, twisty road with 18 switchbacks. After 30 minutes you arrive at the top at 8000 ft. After walking up a lots of steps you see the breathtaking city.

And actually that is the easy way to get there! If you want you can hike there and it will take you four days and three nights. Machu Picchu was built around 1450 and was probably the most amazing urban creation of the Inca Empire at its height. Its giant walls, terraces and ramps seem as if they have been cut naturally in the continuous rock escarpments. The natural setting, situated in the midst of a tropical mountain forest on the eastern slopes of the Andes, encompasses the upper Amazon basin and is extraordinarily beautiful.

Aguas Calientes

#4 Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – February 24, 2012

The statue of Christ the Redeemer is located at the top of Corcovado Mountain and commands a panoramic view of the city and the bay. The entire monument of statue of Christ the Redeemer is 125 ft high with the statue accounting for 98 ft and overlooking the city of Rio de Janeiro is one of the tallest statues in the world; the span from finger tip to fingertip is 92ft and there is a small chapel housed in the base.

Heitor da Silva Costa was the engineer who designed the statue. Construction was started in 1927 and completed in 1931. This was much easier to get to. It took 15 minutes to get to the train station and then a 20 minute ride to the top. From there you have 222 more steps to reach the base of the statue.

In the summer of 2007, more than 90 million people cast their votes to determine which architectural marvels in the world deserved to be one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. There were a total of twenty-one landmarks vying for that title.

Of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World, only the Great Pyramids in Giza, Egypt still stand. The pyramids were given an automatic spot after infuriated Egyptian officials said it was a disgrace to have to compete for something that had belonged to their country for so long. I agree!  We saw them in 2007.

It is our goal to see all twenty-one landmarks. Also, Chris and I have collectively seen a lot of the twenty-one, however, not together. So the rule is, we go back and see all of them together!

New 7 Wonders of the World  we’ve been to:

  • #1 Chichen Itza, Mexico – 2005
  • #2 Great Wall of China – 2010

New 7 Wonders of the World  Runner Ups we’ve been to:

  • #9  Statue of Liberty, New York – 2005
  • #10 Sydney Opera House, Australia – 2005
  • #11 Hagia Sophia, Istanbul – 2007
  • #12 Acropolis, Athens – 2007
  • #13 Angkor Wat, Cambodia – 2010
  • #14 Eiffel Tower, Paris – 2010
  • #15 Stonehenge, England – 2011

 

New 7 Wonders of the World Runner Ups: Angkor Wat – Eiffel Tower – Stonehenge

January 12, 2012 by · Comments Off on New 7 Wonders of the World Runner Ups: Angkor Wat – Eiffel Tower – Stonehenge 

In the summer of 2007, more than 90 million people cast their votes to determine which architectural marvels in the world deserved to be one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. There were a total of twenty-one landmarks vying for that title.

Of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World, only the Great Pyramids in Giza, Egypt still stand. The pyramids were given an automatic spot after infuriated Egyptian officials said it was a disgrace to have to compete for something that had belonged to their country for so long. I agree!  We saw them in 2007.

It is our goal to see all twenty-one landmarks. Also, Chris and I have collectively seen a lot of the twenty-one, however, not together. So the rule is, we go back and see all of them together!

Chichen Itza

New 7 Wonders of the World  we’ve been to:

The Great Wall

#1 Chichen Itza, Mexico – 2005
#2 Great Wall of China – 2010

New 7 Wonders of the World  Runner Ups we’ve been to:

#9  Statue of Liberty, New York – 2005
#10 Sydney Opera House, Australia – 2005
#11 Hagia Sophia, Istanbul – 2007
#12 Acropolis, Athens – 2007

#13 Angkor Wat, Cambodia – 2010 – It is the world’s largest religious monument covering 200 hectares and is an architectural masterpiece of fine proportions and rich detail of Kmer construction. It consists of 600 meters of bas relief & 2000 apsaras (celestial dancers).  The temple is a representation of Mount Meru, the home of the gods: the central quincunx of towers symbolizes the five peaks of the mountain, and the walls and moat the surrounding mountain ranges and ocean. There are over 80 temples in the area and one of them is where Tomb Raiders was filmed. We saw 9 of them and I wished I had spent more time here!

Angkor Wat

Eiffel Tower

#14 Eiffel Tower, Paris – 2010 – On our way home from our Africa trip we stopped in Paris for 3 days. Unfortunately they were on strike (again) so I didn’t get to go to Versailles. We did have a very nice time walking in the city and taking the “hop on, hop off” boat on the Seine.  The Eiffel Tower  was named after one the most influential people in its construction, a contractor, engineer, architect and showman by the name of Gustave Eiffel. It took around two years and two months to build and was completed on March 31, 1889. You can see around 59 kilometers or around 37 miles from the top of the Eiffel Tower. It is made of 2.5 million rivets, 15,000 pieces of iron and 40 tons of paint and is approximately 984-990 feet tall/high (depending on temperature).

#15 Stonehenge, England – 2011 – This was our last stop on our Ireland, Scotland, UK and Belgium trip in the fall. Stonehenge (meaning hanging stones) is as old as the Pyramids (5000 yrs) and older than the Acropolis and Colosseum (both also Runner Ups).  Called a stone circle “built by giants” it is different from others in England. (There are over 900 stone circles in the British Isles) It is believed that more than 30 million hours of labor were spent in the construction work. It has cross-pieces spanning the vertical monoliths and the only one with smooth, uniform stones – each one designed to calculate the movement of the sun, moon and stars. The monoliths were built out of sandstone, weigh about 35 tons, and came from 20 miles away. The shorter “bluestones” came from  Wales which is 240 miles away. The question is, “How did they get there? And why didn’t they use the stones that were nearby?”

Stonehenge

 

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