Tag: History Travel View All Tags
Tags: Seven Wonders of the World / Seven Wonders of Russia / History Travel / Huge Statues / → All Tags
In Russia, Seven Wonders Find You
Russians do not like to be dissed, so when the so-called Official New 7 Wonders of the World list came out recently without one Russian wonder, the great bear sprang into action. More than 26 million people cast their online ballots for the most amazing wonders of Russia, and we can now debate whether any of the Seven Wonders of Russia belong on the global list.
Tags: Amelia Earhart / Mysteries / Movie Travel / History Travel / Aviation / Aviation Travel / → All Tags
Only the Coconut Crabs Really Know Where Amelia Earhart Is
Just as a biopic of her life is released, a group of researchers claim to have found the spot in the western Pacific where Amelia Earhart disappeared on an attempted round-the-world flight in 1937. As the Discovery Channel points out, the awkwardly-acronymed The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) said it has evidence that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, made a forced landing on a coral atoll called Nikumaroro - part of the Phoenix Islands, Kiribati - and became castaways and eventually succumbed to disease, thirst, hunger, or injury.
Tags: Revolutionary War / American Revolutionary War / History Travel / Dangerous Travel / The British Are Coming / Getting Shot by a Cannon / Historic Reenactments / → All Tags
Revolutionary War Drags On as British Soldiers Blast Dude With Cannon in Upstate New York
Most people think the American Revolutionary War ended with the surrender of General Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781, but there appear to be a handful of British holdouts still battling from a fort in in upstate New York. As msnbc.com points out, an American tourist and his wife were recently shot by a British cannon as they enjoyed a picnic lunch on the southern shore of Lake George.
Tags: Ostalgia / Cold War Travel / History Travel / Communism / → All Tags
Tour the Secret Escape Tunnels Under the Berlin Wall
East Germany must have been a really nasty place to live, because so many people risked their lives to escape to the west. A creepy tour in Berlin provides a stark reminder of the lengths people will go for freedom, with walks through some of the escape tunnels under the Berlin Wall. An interesting AP story points out that about 300 people managed to escape through various tunnels in the years after the wall was built in 1961, with many continuing to work from the west to free family members.
Tags: Music Travel / Beatles / Abbey Road / History Travel / → All Tags
Beatles Fans Celebrate 40th Anniversary of Abbey Road Photo
The iconic photo of the Beatles crossing Abbey Road that graced the album of the same name was snapped 40 years ago today, drawing hundreds of fans to the famous north London street to mark the event with songs, tributes, and other remembrances. As the AP explains, on August 8, 1969, police held up traffic while photographer Iain Macmillan stood on a stepladder and shot photos of the band walking back and forth across the crosswalk. The shot that made the cover depicted Paul McCartney barefoot and out of step with the others, launching countless conspiracy theories that Paul was dead and an impostor had taken his place in the band.
Tags: History Travel / History / Big Ben / Parliament / Bongs / → All Tags
Great Bongs of the World: Big Ben Turns 150
The London bell known as Big Ben turns 150 years old this year, giving writers around the world license to use the word bong in dozens of news stories. After all, bong describes the sound this famous bell makes throughout the day, striking the musical note E every hour. Four other bells strike G sharp, F sharp, E, and B on the quarter hours, broadcasting the song Westminster Quarters throughout the Parliament grounds and beyond. How about those bongs?
Tags: Dan Brown / Literary Travel / Freemasons / History Travel / US Capitol / → All Tags
Dan Brown's 'Lost Symbol' Cover Reveals The U.S. Capitol
It's been five years since Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown put out his last book and the world has been anxiously anticipating a follow-up featuring the symbologist Robert Langdon. But (not surprisingly for a man who writes about secrets), he hasn't made it easy for us.
Indeed, the details of new book have been kept as fiercely guarded as anti-matter or the scandals of the Vatican. There has been no hint as to what the new story is about or where it will take place. Pretty much all we can legitimately assume is that Robert Langdon is back and he will probably find some PYT to uncover some age-old mysteries with. What mysteries those will be, we aren't sure of but with the release of the cover for his new novel, The Lost Symbol, due out in September, we think it may have something to do with the freemasons.
The U.S. cover version shows a lit-up U.S. Capitol building and a giant red wax seal which has symbols embedded in it. The U.K. version has a larger picture of the capitol building and instead of a wax seal, a key that looks, to our untrained eye, to be a masonic key.
Tags: Scary Travel / Abandoned Places / Japan Travel / History Travel / → All Tags
Creepy Travel: Japan's Abandoned Hashima Island Now Open for Tourists
Abandoned towns are always fun to visit, and they're even more enticing if they've been off-limits for decades. Such is the case with Japan's Hashima Island, more commonly known as Battleship Island. This speck of an island about 15 kilometers from Nagasaki was once home to the densest population in the world, housing thousands of workers between 1887 and 1974 who harvested coal from the sea floor for the massive Mitsubishi company.
Tags: Ancient History Travel / Elgin Marbles / Museum Travel / Historical Travel / History / History Travel / → All Tags
New Acropolis Museum Reopens Age-Old Debate Over Elgin Marbles
Today's a big day in the world of Greek antiquities, as the massive New Acropolis Museum in Athens opens its doors to the public for the first time. The fancy new building was designed by architect Bernard Tschumi, and incorporates classic and contemporary elements to display 4,000 artifacts, more than ten times the number of the inadequate old museum it replaces. The New York Times has a nifty article and slide show of the $200 million museum, which it calls "one of the highest-profile cultural projects undertaken in Europe in this decade."
Tags: Angkor Wat / Temples / History Travel / Religious Travel / → All Tags
Would You Be More Likely to Visit Angkor Wat if it was Illuminated At Night?
The 12th century temple complex known as Angkor Wat is by far the most popular tourist site in Cambodia, drawing a million travelers a year to walk among its austere columns and soaring spires, many of which are overgrown with tree roots that resemble the tentacles of an octopus. Hoping to wring a few more dollars out of tourists - and enhance the visitor experience, of course - the government recently announced that it is considering installing artificial lighting throughout the ancient city so the temples can be open at night. The AP points out that visitors are typically ushered out of the area at sunset, and the new lighting will enable the park to stay open as late as 8:30 p.m.
Tags: Dominican Republic Field Trip / Christopher Columbus / Rafael Trujillo / History Travel / Santo Domingo Travel / → All Tags
Santo Domingo: Columbus Probably Slept Here
Jaunted editor Ellen Wernecke just got back from a trip to the Dominican Republic and, truly, has not finished unpacking yet. But that won't stop her from sharing the highlights of her trip, no siree.
The historical relativism and occasional indifference included in any given tour of old Santo Domingo would make a history professor's head explode. Our hired Dominican guide, absent the ability to ad-lib in English, repeated his frequently outlandish statements about, say, the former church where pregnant women would go and then magically have their babies in two hours.
He was a fount of these stories, doubtless rooted in truth, as well as the locations of every cigar store that offered him a premium for bringing by American shoppers.
Tags: History Travel / Pol Pot / Wars / Dangerous Travel / Khmer Rouge / → All Tags
Holiday In Cambodia: Khmer Rouge Historical Sites to Be Developed for Tourism
The era of Pol's Pot's Khmer Rouge is among the most brutal and horrific of any in history, resulting in the death of about a quarter of the Cambodian population. This grisly fact is reason enough for the government of present-day Cambodia to implement a $1 million plan to develop 15 Khmer Rouge sites for tourism - including Pol Pot's cremation site (pictured) - and charge tourists admission to see for themselves where the bad stuff went down. As the AP points out, the landmarks in Anlong Veng include Khmer Rouge hideouts, execution sites, and battlefields, all serene reminders of the atrocities that took place from 1975 to 1979.
