Banaue Rice Terraces

Carved into the mountains of Ifugao in the Philippines by ancestors of the indigenous people, the Banaue Rice Terraces also known as Payew, are 2000-year old terraces known to be built with minimal equipment, largely by hand. The terraces are located approximately 1500 meters (5000 ft) above sea level and cover 10,360 square kilometers (about 4000 square miles) of mountainside. They are fed by an ancient irrigation system from the rainforests above the terraces. It is said that if the steps are put end to end it would encircle half the globe. Rice and vegetables are planted on the terraces by the people, although more and younger Ifugaos do not find farming appealing, often opting for the more lucrative hospitality industry generated by the Rice Terraces. The result is the gradual erosion of the characteristic "steps", which need constant reconstruction and care. In 2010 a further problem was drought, with the terraces drying up completely in March of that year.

Ifugao rice terraces were declared free from Genetically Modified Organism (GMO)in March, 2009. An event was organized in Dianara Viewpoint for this announcement where it was graced by Gov. Teodoro Baguilat, Mayor Lino Madchiw, Greenpeace campaigner for Southeast Asia Daniel Ocampo, and Cathy Untalan who was executive director of the Miss Earth Foundation. Before the announcement ceremonies, 3 Mumbakis performed an Alim, a tribal ritual to ask for blessings where an animal is offered to the gods.

Many terraces are found in the province of Ifugao and the Ifugao people have been its caretakers. Ifugao culture is basically woven around rice and the culture displays an elaborate array of rice culture feasts linked with agricultural rites from rice cultivation to rice consumption. Harvest season generally calls for thanksgiving feasts while the concluding harvest rites tungo or tungul (the day of rest) entail a strict taboo of any agricultural work. Partaking of the bayah (rice beer), rice cakes, and betel nut constitutes an indelible practice during the festivities and ritual activities.

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Bali

Bali is one of the 33 provinces of Indonesia which is also an island located in the western most end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. The island is home to most of Indonesia's small Hindu minority. In the 2000 census about 92.29% of Bali's population adhered to Balinese Hinduism while most of the remainder follow Islam. It is also the largest tourist destination in the country and is renowned for its highly developed arts, including traditional and modern dance, sculpture, painting, leather, metalworking, and music. 

The island lies 3.2 km (2 mi) east of Java whereas Bali and Java are separated by the Bali Strait. East to west, the island is approximately 153 km (95 mi) wide and spans approximately 112 km (69 mi) north to south; its land area is 5,632 km². Bali's highest is Mount Agung (3,142 m), known as the "mother mountain" which is an active volcano. Mountains range from centre to the eastern side, with Mount Agung the easternmost peak. Bali's volcanic nature has contributed to its fertility and its tall mountain ranges provide the high rainfall that supports the highly productive agriculture sector. South of the mountains is a broad, steadily descending area where most of Bali's large rice crop is grown. The northern side of the mountains slopes more steeply to the sea and is the main coffee producing area of the island, along with rice, vegetables and cattle. The longest river, Ayung River, flows approximately 75 km.

Surrounded by coral reefs,  Bali’s beaches in the south have white sand while those in the north and west have black sand. Bali has no major waterways, although the Ho River is navigable by small sampan boats. Black sand beaches between Pasut and Klatingdukuh are being developed for tourism, but apart from the seaside temple of Tanah Lot, they are not yet used for significant tourism. The largest city is the provincial capital, Denpasar, near the southern coast. Bali's second-largest city is the old colonial capital, Singaraja, which is located on the north coast. Other important cities include the beach resort, Kuta, which is practically part of Denpasar's urban area; and Ubud, which is north of Denpasar, and is known as the island's cultural centre.

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Perito Moreno Glacier

This can be called one of the most important tourist attractions in the Argentine Patagonia located in the Los Glaciares National Park in the south west of Santa Cruz province, Argentina. The 250 km2 (97 sq mi) ice formation, and 30 km (19 mi) in length, is one of 48 glaciers fed by the Southern Patagonian Ice Field located in the Andes system shared with Chile. This ice field is supposed to be the world's third largest reserve of fresh water. This is one of the three Patagonian glaciers that is growing and Theterminus of the Perito Moreno Glacier is 5 kilometres (3 mi) wide, with an average height of 74 m (240 ft) above the surface of the water of Lake Argentino, in Argentina. It has a total ice depth of 170 metres (558 ft).

The glacier first ruptured in 1917, taking with it an ancient forest of arrayán (Luma apiculata) trees. The last rupture occurred in July 2008, and previously in 2006, 2004, 1988, 1984, 1980, 1977, 1975, 1972, 1970, 1966, 1963, 1960, 1956, 1953, 1952, 1947, 1940, 1934 and 1917. Periodically the glacier advances over the L-shaped "Lago Argentino" ("Argentine Lake") forming a natural dam which separates the two halves of the lake when it reaches the opposite shore. The water-level on the Brazo Rico side of the lake can rise by up to 30 meters above the level of the main lake. The enormous pressure produced by the height of the dammed water finally breaks the ice barrier holding it back, in a spectacular rupture event. 

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Yangshuo County

Yangshuo County is found in Guilin, Guangxi Province, China. It is located in Yangshuo Town. Surrounded by karst peaks and bordered on one side by the Li River, it has become a popular hot spot for foreign backpackers. Two main roads situated away from the water and form the central part of the town, Chinese Street Die Cui Lu and West Street Xi Jie. 

There are plenty of activities to do around Yangshuo. Tourists and visitors can swim in the Li River or the cleaner Yu Long also known as the Dragon River. Or else you can climb one of many nearby karst peaks, hire a bicycle for a cycling trip through the karst scenery, arrange a sightseeing trip on the Li River by bamboo raft or cruise boat, or visit a number of local cave systems, including a butterfly cave. The mild climate is also good for health and such activities will make your body burn the extra unwanted calories. Yangshuo is also China's foremost venue for rock climbing, with around 300 bolted routes and several companies offering guiding and equipment hire.

Zhang Yimou's folk musical "Impression Liu Sanjie" is a popular extravaganza performed outdoors in a river and mountain setting with a cast of 600 singers and dancers. Basically most of the town’s traditional culture has been devoted to the tourist industry, and tourists can pay a fee to watch fishermen fishing with cormorants, hire local women in traditional ethnic dress to pose for photographs, or take classes in Chinese calligraphy, tea ceremony, or cooking.

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Carlsbad Caverns National Park

 It is a United States National Park in the Guadalupe Mountains in southeastern New Mexico. The park consist of the show cave, Carlsbad Caverns where people who come to visit the cave can hike in on their own via the natural entrance, or take the elevator (the exit for everyone) directly to the Underground Lunchroom some 750 feet (230 m) below. The park has two entries on the National Register of Historic Places: The Caverns Historic District and the Rattlesnake Springs Historic District. Approximately two thirds of the park has been set aside as a wilderness area, helping to ensure no future changes will be made to the habitat. Carlsbad Caverns consist of a large cave chamber, the Big Room, a natural limestone chamber which is almost 4,000 feet (1,220 m) long, 625 feet (191 m) wide, and 350 feet (110 m) high at the highest point. It is the third largest chamber in North America and the seventh largest in the world. The largest in the world is the Sarawak Chamber in Malaysia.

From a young age, Jim White explored the caverns with his homemade wire ladder. When he grew older, most people did not even believe such caves existed. He gave many of the rooms their names, including the Big Room, New Mexico Room, King's Palace, Queen's Chamber, Papoose Room, and Green Lake Room. He also named many of the cave's more prominent formations, such as the Totem Pole, Witch's Finger, Giant Dome, Bottomless Pit, Fairyland, Iceberg Rock, Temple of the Sun, and Rock of Ages.

The town of Carlsbad, which lends its name to the Caverns and National Park, is in turn named after the Czech town formerly known by the German name Karlsbad and now known by the Czech name Karlovy Vary, both of which mean "Charles' Bath." Until 1932, visitors to the cavern had to walk down a switch back ramp-sidewalk that took them 750 feet below the surface. The walk back up was hard on a lot of visitors. In 1932 the National Park opened up a large visitor center building that contained two elevators that would take visitors to the caverns below. The new center included a cafeteria, waiting room, museum and first aid area. 

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Galápagos Islands

    They are an archipelago of volcanic islands scattered around the equator in the Pacific Ocean. Part of continental Ecuador lying 972 km (525 nmi) west of it, Galapagos Islands are geologically young and home for various number of endemic species.  Observations on these species lead to the rise of theories like the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. The exact location is found in the eastern Pacific Ocean, 973 km (525 nmi; 605 mi) off the west coast of South America. The closest is the mainland of Ecuador to the east, to the north is Cocos Island at 720 km (389 nmi; 447 mi) and to the south is Easter Island and San Felix Island at 3,200 km (1,730 nmi; 1,990 mi).

The Galápagos Archipelago consists of 7,880 km2 (3,040 sq mi) of land spread over 45,000 km2 (17,000 sq mi) of ocean. The largest of the islands, Isabela, measures 4,640 km2 (1,790 sq mi) and makes up half of the total land area of the Galápagos. Volcán Wolf on Isabela is the highest point, with an elevation of 1,707 m (5,600 ft) above sea level. The island chain consists of 15 main islands, 3 smaller islands, and 107 rocks and islets. The archipelago is located on the Nazca tectonic plate, which is moving east/southeast, diving under the South American Plate at a rate of about 2.5 inches per year. It is also atop the Galapagos hotspot, a place where the Earth's crust is being melted from below by a mantle plume, creating volcanoes. The oldest island is thought to have formed between 5 million and 10 million years ago. The youngest islands, Isabela and Fernandina, are still being formed, with the most recent volcanic eruption in April 2009, where lava from the volcanic island Fernandina started flowing both towards the island's shoreline and into the centre caldera.

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Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Ngorongoro is a conservation site found in Tanzania, with various attractions and natural creations such as Ngorongoro crater, Olduvai Gorge and many flora and fauna.  Based on fossil evidence, the area was home to many hominid species for 3 million years. Hunter-gatherers were replaced by pastorialists a few thousand years ago. The Mbulu came to the area about 2,000 years ago, and were joined by the Datooga around the year 1700. Both groups were driven from the area by the Maasai in the 1800s. Massive fig trees in the northwest of the Lerai Forest are sacred to the Maasai and Datooga people. Some of them may have been planted on the grave of a Datago leader who died in battle with the Maasai around 1840.

The Ngorongoro area originally was part of the Serengeti National Park when it was created by the British in 1951. Maasai continued to live in the newly created park until 1959, when repeated conflicts with park authorities over land use led the British to evict them to the newly declared Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Ngorongoro area is supposed to be the only place that provides protection for wild life as well as that allows human habitation. Anyhow several limitations are posed in order to protect wild life such as prohibition of cultivation except at subsistence levels. 

The area is part of the Serengeti ecosystem, and to the north-west, it adjoins the Serengeti National Park and is contiguous with the southern Serengeti plains, these plains also extend to the north into unprotected Loliondo division and are kept open to wildlife through trans-human pastoralism practiced by Maasai. The south and west of the area are volcanic highlands, including the famous Ngorongoro Crater and the lesser known Empakai. The southern and eastern boundaries are approximately defined by the rim of the Great Rift Valley wall, which also prevents animal migration in these directions. 

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White Immensity of Antarctica

  What is so beautiful about a land completely covered by ice??? Well, beauty lies in different forms in different places. Antarctica is the ice cover we find near South Pole. It is a permanently frozen ground surrounded by water, and is about 1 1/2 times larger than the United States. The world’s largest desert is on Antarctica. 98 percent of the land is covered with a continental ice sheet; the remaining 2 percent of land is barren rock. Antarctica has about 87% of the world’s ice. 

The South Pole is the coldest, windiest, and driest place on Earth. On average, most of Antarctica gets less than 2 inches of snow fall each year. Antarctica is a fast developing tourist attraction. There is now ample opportunity to ascend Mount Erebus, the southernmost active volcano on Earth; to fly via helicopter or venture by boat to penguin colonies; and to really make the most of a terrain that teems with wildlife, with a multitude of birds, seals, albatrosses and enormous whales; and so on.

Another wonderful sight you can experience here is its wild life. Although there are only a few native species, those that have adapted to the harsh environment thrive in large numbers. Penguin populations are counted in the tens of thousands in some rookeries.

If you plan to go on a trip, spend time visiting the Antarctic Peninsula, Falkland Islands and the mountainous South Georgia. Antarctica cruises offer zodiac excursions for up-close encounters with wildlife and the blue icebergs that float quietly in the surrounding waters. You can experience Antarctic kayaking or onshore camping. On Antarctica tours, onboard experts lecture on the region's natural history, weather, and captivating wildlife commonly seen during a cruise to the frozen continent.

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Angkor City

Being the largest preindustrial city in the world, with an elaborate system of infrastructure connecting an urban sprawl of at least 1,000 square kilometres (390 sq mi) to the well-known temples at its core, Angkor city in Cambodia served as the Khmer Empire from 9th to 15th centuries. The temples of the Angkor area number over one thousand, ranging in scale from nondescript piles of brick rubble scattered through rice fields to the magnificent Angkor Wat, said to be the world's largest single religious monument. Many of the temples at Angkor have been restored, and together, they comprise the most significant site of Khmer architecture.

The Angkorian period began in AD 802, when the Khmer Hindu monarch Jayavarman II declared himself a "universal monarch" and "god-king", until 1351, when Angkor first fell under Ayutthayan suzainry, to 1431, when Ayutthaya put down a rebellion and sacked the Khmer capital, causing its population to migrate south to the area of Phnom Penh. In 889, Yasovarman took over the throne who was a great ruler. He built a new city known as Yasodharapura and a new reservoir called Baray.  

Over the next 300 years, between 900 and 1200, the Khmer Empire produced some of the world's most magnificent architectural masterpieces in the area known as Angkor. Most are concentrated in an area approximately 15 miles (24 km) east to west and 5 miles (8.0 km) north to south, although the Angkor Archaeological Park, which administers the area, includes sites as far away as Kbal Spean, about 30 miles (48 km) to the north. Some 72 major temples or other buildings are found within this area, and the remains of several hundred additional minor temple sites are scattered throughout the landscape beyond. Because of the dispersed, low-density nature of the medieval Khmer settlement pattern, Angkor lacks a formal boundary, and its extent is therefore difficult to determine. However, a specific area of at least 1,000 km2 (390 sq mi) beyond the major temples is defined by a complex system of infrastructure, including roads and canals that indicate a high degree of connectivity and functional integration with the urban core. In terms of spatial extent, this makes it the largest urban agglomeration in human history prior to the Industrial Revolution, easily surpassing the nearest claim, that of the Mayan city of Tikal. In fact, in terms of its urban sprawl, medieval Angkor even approaches the size of modern Los Angeles, and is said to have been seventeen times larger than Manhattan Island. 

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City of Venice

It is suppose to be one of the world’s most romantic cities. With canals of water instead of roads and smiling people always ready to guide you through the city and the magnificent structures displaying eras’ worth of architecture and legends, Venice is a number one choice in Europe for anyone. The name is derived from the ancient Veneti people who inhabited the region by the 10th century B.C. The city historically was the capital of the Venetian Republic. Venice has been known as the "La Dominante", "Serenissima", "Queen of the Adriatic", "City of Water", "City of Masks", "City of Bridges", "The Floating City", and "City of Canals".  The city stretches across 117 small islands in the marshy Venetian Lagoon along the Adriatic Sea in northeast Italy. The saltwater lagoon stretches along the shoreline between the mouths of the Po (south) and the Piave (north) Rivers. 

The classical Venetian boat is the gondola, although it is now mostly used for tourists, or for weddings, funerals, or other ceremonies. Many gondolas are lushly appointed with crushed velvet seats and Persian rugs. Less well-known is the smaller sandolo. The main transportation means are motorised waterbuses (vaporetti), which ply regular routes along the major canals and between the city's islands, and private boats. The only gondolas still in common use by Venetians are the traghetti, foot passenger ferries crossing the Grand Canal at certain points without bridges.

Azienda Consorzio Trasporti Veneziano (ACTV) is the name of the public transport system in Venice. It combines land transportation, with buses, and canal travel, with water buses (vaporetti). In total, there are 25 routes that connect the city. The Venice People Mover (managed by ASM) is a cable operated public transit system connecting Tronchetto Island with Piazzale Roma. Water taxis are also active. 

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Trincomalee

Trincomalee is a district of the Eastern province of Sri Lanka best known for its maritime activities and natural harbor. Trincomalee originally scraped its name from Tamil giving the meaning “Lord of the sacred hill” and it lies on the east coast of the island, about 113 miles south of Jaffna. The Bay of Trincomalee harbour is renowned for its large size and security; unlike every other in the Indian Sea, it is accessible to all types of craft in all weathers. The beaches are used for surfing, scuba diving, fishing and whale watching. The city also has the largest Dutch fort in Sri Lanka. It is home to major Sri Lankan naval bases and a Sri Lankan Air Force base. 

Sanskrit texts, as well as an inscription unearthed by archeologists, call it Gokanna. The Vayu Purana refers to a Siva temple on Trikuta hill on the eastern coast of Lanka in the 3rd century. The Mahavamsa documents that the King Mahasena destroyed a Deva temple and built a Buddhist shrine in its stead to expiate for an earlier heresy on his part. Tamil texts, as well as excavated inscriptions detail the Saivite principalities that formed in Trincomalee in service of the Koneswaram temple by the medieval age. The South Indian Tamil literature Tevaram of Tiru-gnana Sambandar makes mention to the Siva temple in Trincomalee in the 6th century. Koneswaram and the royal administration of the city is documented in several late medieval texts such as the Konesar Kalvettu and the Dakshina Kailasa Puranam. 

Trincomalee features a tropical wet and dry climate under the Koppen climate classification. The city appears to feature a dry season from March through July and a wet season for the remainder of the year. Technically however, May which sees on average 70 mm of precipitation, is a wet season month. In essence, Trincomalee features two dry seasons. The city sees on average roughly 1650 mm of precipitation annually. Average temperatures in Trincomalee range from around 25 degrees Celsius in January to approximately 30 degrees Celsius during the warmest months of the year.

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Hawaii Islands

Hawaii is the newest state of US and the only state completely made of islands. Hawaii’s natural and diverse scenery, warm tropical climate, abundance of public beaches and oceanic surrounding, and active volcanoes make it a popular destination for tourists, surfers, biologists, and volcanologists alike. Its capital is Honolulu on the island of Oʻahu. The state comprises hundreds of islands spread over 1,500 miles (2,400 km). At the southeastern end of the archipelago, the eight main islands are (from the northwest to southeast) Niʻihau, Kauaʻi,Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, Maui, and Hawai’i. The last is by far the largest and is often called "The Big Island" to avoid confusion with the state as a whole. The archipelago is physiographically and ethnologically part of the Polynesian sub region of Oceania. 

Hawaii means “homeland” in Hawaiian language. Talking about Hawaii and its nature, Hawaii’s tallest mountain, Mauna Kea, stands at 13,796 ft (4,205 m) but is taller than Mount Everest if followed to the base of the mountain, which, lying at the floor of the Pacific Ocean, rises about 33,500 ft(10,200 m). All the Hawaiian Islands were formed from volcanic activity initiated at an undersea magma source called a hotspot. As the tectonic plate beneath much of the Pacific Ocean moves to the northwest, the hot spot remains stationary, slowly creating new volcanoes. Due to the hotspot’s location, the only active volcanoes are located around the southern half of the Big Island. The newest volcano, Lōʻihi Seamount, is located south of the Big Island’s coast. The last volcanic eruption outside the Big Island occurred at Haleakalā on Maui before the late 18th century, though it could have been hundreds of years earlier. In 1790, Kīlauea exploded with the deadliest eruption (of the modern era) known to have occurred in what is now the United States. As many as 5,405 warriors and their families marching on Kīlauea were killed by that eruption. Volcanic activity and subsequent erosion have created impressive geological features. The Big Island has the third highest point among the world’s islands. 

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Eiffel Tower

Once the tallest structure in the world, Eiffel Tower has been the iconic symbol for Paris and to the France.  It was built in 1889 as a puddle iron lattice tower standing magnificently above all. The tower is the tallest building in Paris and the most-visited paid monument in the world; millions of people ascend it every year. Named after its designer, engineer Gustave Eiffel, the tower was built as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair. The tower stands 324 metres (1,063 ft) tall, about the same height as an 81-storey building. The tower has three levels for visitors. Tickets can be purchased to ascend, by stairs or lift, to the first and second levels. The walk from ground level to the first level is over 300 steps, as is the walk from the first to the second level. The third and highest level is accessible only by elevator. Both the first and second levels feature restaurants.

Three hundred workers joined together 18,038 pieces of puddle iron (a very pure form of structural iron), using two and a half million rivets, in a structural design by Maurice Koechlin. Eiffel was assisted in the design by engineers Émile Nouguier and Maurice Koechlin and architect Stephen Sauvestre. The risk of accident was great as, unlike modern skyscrapers, the tower is an open frame without any intermediate floors except the two platforms. However, because Eiffel took safety precautions, including the use of movable stagings, guard-rails and screens, only one man died. The tower was inaugurated on 31 March 1889, and opened on 6 May. Eiffel had a permit for the tower to stand for 20 years; it was to be dismantled in 1909, when its ownership would revert to the City of Paris. The City had planned to tear it down (part of the original contest rules for designing a tower was that it could be easily demolished) but as the tower proved valuable for communication purposes, it was allowed to remain after the expiry of the permit. The military used it to dispatch Parisian taxis to the front line during the First Battle of the Marne.

The pig iron structure of the Eiffel Tower weighs 7,300 tonnes while the entire structure, including non-metal components, is approximately 10,000 tonnes. As a demonstration of the economy of design, if the 7,300 tonnes of the metal structure were melted down it would fill the 125 metre square base to a depth of only 6 cm (2.36 in), assuming the density of the metal to be 7.8 tonnes per cubic metre. Depending on the ambient temperature, the top of the tower may shift away from the sun by up to 18 cm (7.1 in) because of thermal expansion of the metal on the side facing the sun. Researchers have found that Eiffel used empirical and graphical methods accounting for the effects of wind rather than a specific mathematical formula. Careful examination of the tower shows a basically exponential shape; actually two different exponentials, the lower section overdesigned to ensure resistance to wind forces. Several mathematical explanations have been proposed over the years for the success of the design; the most recent is described as a nonlinear integral equation based on counterbalancing the wind pressure on any point on the tower with the tension between the construction elements at that point. As a demonstration of the tower's effectiveness in wind resistance, it sways only 6–7 cm (2–3 in) in the wind.

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Teotihuacan

 Teotihuacan stands for "The City of the Gods" in the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs. It is an archeological site found in the basin of Mexico containing large pyramidal structures, large residential complexes, Avenue of the Dead, and numerous colorful, well-preserved murals. Additionally, Teotihuacan produced a thin orange pottery style that spread through Mesoamerica.  At its zenith, perhaps in the first half of the 1st millennium CE, Teotihuacan was the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas. At this time it may have had more than 200,000 inhabitants, placing it among the largest cities of the world in this period. Teotihuacan was even home to multi-floor apartment compounds built to accommodate this large population. The civilization and cultural complex associated with the site is also referred to as Teotihuacan or Teotihuacano.

The city and the archaeological site are located in what is now the San Juan Teotihuacán municipality in the State of México, Mexico, approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) northeast of Mexico City. The site covers a total surface area of 83 km² and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. It is the most visited archaeological site in Mexico.

For many years, archaeologists believed it was built by the Toltec. This belief was based on colonial period texts, such as the Florentine Codex, which attributed the site to the Toltecs. However, the Nahuatl word "Toltec" generally means "craftsman of the highest level" and may not always refer to the Toltec civilization centered at Tula, Hidalgo. Since Toltec civilization flourished centuries after Teotihuacan, the people could not have been the city's founders. In the Late Formative period, a number of urban centers arose in central Mexico. The most prominent of these appears to have been Cuicuilco, on the southern shore of Lake Texcoco. Some believed that the eruption of the Xitle volcano may have prompted a mass emigration out of the central valley and into the Teotihuacan valley. These settlers may have founded and/or accelerated the growth of Teotihuacan. Some have put forth the Totonac people as the founders of Teotihuacan. There is evidence that at least some of the people living in Teotihuacan came from areas influenced by the Teotihuacano civilization, including the Zapotec, Mixtec and Maya peoples. The culture and architecture of Teotihuacan was influenced by the Olmec people, who are considered to be the "mother civilization" of Mesoamerica. The earliest buildings at Teotihuacan date to about 200 BCE. The largest pyramid, the Pyramid of the Sun, was completed by 100 CE.

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Preikestolen

Preikestolen cliff has become a very famous tourist destination today. Preikestolen also known as the Pulpit rock is a cliff of height about 604 metres above Lysefjorden, opposite the Kjeragplateau, in Forsand, Ryfylke, Norway. The top of the cliff is approximately 25 by 25 metres (82 by 82 feet) square, almost flat. The Pulpit Rock is located in Rogaland, a county in Western Norway. The city of Stavanger, the fourth largest in Norway, is located only 25 kilometers from the site, and the parking facility of the Pulpit Rock is located about one hour from Stavanger by ferry and car.

The cliff was formed during the Ice age, about approximately 10,000 years ago, when the edges of the glacier reached the cliff. The water from the glacier froze in the crevices of the mountain and eventually broke off large, angular blocks, which were later carried away with the glacier. This is the cause of the angular shape of the plateau. Along the plateau itself there continues to be a deep crack. Geologists of the region, however, confirm the safety of the plateau. 

What is unique with this place is as the name indicates; this looks like a pulpit when seen from below. The rock itself is like 25 by 25 meters and when you stand on the edge it is 600 meters straight down. And on clear days you get a great view of the Lysefjord. The path leading up to Preikestolen is also very scenic - especially the last part when you start getting the first glimpse of the Lyse fjord.

There was a big debate a few years ago in the local community by the way. Some people suggested that a pier should be constructed in Lysefjord and a lift should be built from the fjord to the Pulpit rock. This would have attracted quite a lot of cruise ships to the Stavanger area but on the other hand it would have spoiled some of the experience. 

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