How old is the Aral Sea?

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The shallow Aral Sea was once the world’s fourth largest body of inland water. The remnants of it nestle in the climatically inhospitable heart of Central Asia, to the east of the Caspian Sea. The Aral Sea and its demise are of great interest and increasing concern to scientists because of the remarkable shrinkage of its area and volume that began in the second half of the 20th century - when the region was part of the Soviet Union - and...
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Missing photographs of the existing drawings. Where are they?

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The first photograph published in an American newspaper - actually a photomechanical reproduction of a photograph - appeared in the Daily Graphic on March 4, 1880. Before that time it was common practice for American editors to enlist artists to sketch and report on news events, from steamboat explosions to the battles of the Civil War. It was not until 1919, with the launching of New York's Illustrated Daily News, that American newspapers...
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1860s Submarine: Ictíneo II by Narcís Monturiol

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Ictíneo II was a pioneering submarine launched in 1864 by the Spanish engineer Narcís Monturiol and was the first air independent and combustion powered submarine and was the first submarine to overcome the basic problems of machine powered underwater navigation. The Ictíneo II was originally intended as an improved version of the handpowered Ictíneo I. The Ictíneo II made her maiden voyage under human power on 20 May 1865, submerging to...
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Victory Columns were Airship Mooring Masts?

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A mooring mast, or mooring tower, is a structure designed to allow for the docking of an airship outside of an airship hangar or similar structure. More specifically, a mooring mast is a mast or tower that contains a fitting on its top that allows for the bow of the airship to attach its mooring line to the structure. When it is not necessary or convenient to put an airship into its hangar between flights, airships can be moored on the...
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1783 Calabria Earthquake Phenomena. Was it a deliberate attack?

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The 1783 Calabrian earthquakes were a sequence of five strong earthquakes that hit the region of Calabria in southern Italy (then part of the Kingdom of Naples), the first two of which produced significant tsunamis. The epicenters form a clear alignment extending nearly 100 km from the Straits of Messina to about 18 km SSW of Catanzaro. The epicenter of the first earthquake occurred in the plain of Palmi. The earthquakes occurred over a...
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Ancient Greek Juan de Fuca - who was he?

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In April 1596, English merchant Michael Lok and Apostolos Valerianos, a Greek pilot and mariner, meet in Venice to discuss a voyage that Valerianos had taken in 1592. The mariner, who was better known as Juan de Fuca, describes how he sailed from Mexico, north along the Pacific Coast in search of the Strait of Anian, later called the Northwest Passage. Juan de Fuca says that he had reached 47 degrees latitude, turned east, and sailed into the...
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1906: Seattle Central Library. Demolished in 1957.

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The structure is 200 feet long, having its main front on Fourth Avenue, or towards the west. It is set back 40 feet from the street line, where it rises from a terrace that breaks the grade of the incline and forms a desirable setting for the building. A foreground of 20 feet is allowed on either side and is contemplated for the rear after the erection of future extensions. ... The main floor is reached by a monumental stairway from the...
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1770s: Seattle, Tsunami, Earthquakes, Lake Washington and Underwater Forests

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A major earthquake occurred on the Seattle Fault about 900 C.E., creating multiple forms of evidence that led to the discovery of the fault and its description in Science in 1992. The landslides on heavily wooded land created "bizarre submerged forests" of old-growth timber, preserved by the cool water and low oxygen in the deep lake. These sunken forests were known to early European settlers of the Seattle area, for whom the snags could be a...
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Underground Seattle - How and When did it get Buried

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The Great Seattle Fire was a fire that destroyed the entire central business district of Seattle, Washington on June 6, 1889. The conflagration lasted for less than a day, burning through the afternoon and into the night, and during the same summer as the Great Spokane Fire and the Great Ellensburg Fire. Seattle quickly rebuilt using brick buildings that sat 20 feet (6.1 m) above the original street level. Its population swelled during...
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19th Century: Public & Private Steam Transportation

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Regular intercity bus services by steam-powered buses were pioneered in England in the 1830s by associates of Sir Goldsworthy Gurney and by Walter Hancock among others, running reliable services over road conditions which were too hazardous for horse-drawn transportation. Steam carriages were much less likely to overturn, and did not "run away with" the customer as horses sometimes did. They travelled faster than horse-drawn carriages. They...
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1892 Pioneer Building in Seattle: how and when was it built?

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The Pioneer Building is a Richardsonian Romanesque stone, red brick, terra cotta, and cast iron building located on the northeast corner of First Avenue and James Street, in Seattle's Pioneer Square District. Completed in 1892, the Pioneer Building was designed by architect Elmer Fisher, who designed several of the historic district's new buildings following the Great Seattle Fire of 1889. Constructed at a cost of $270,000, the Pioneer...
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19th Century: The Boynton Bicycle Railroad

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The Boynton Bicycle Railroad was a monorail in Brooklyn on Long Island, New York. It ran on a single load-bearing rail at ground level, but with a wooden overhead stabilizing rail engaged by a pair of horizontally opposed wheels. According to the Scientific American of 28 March 1891, the steam locomotive and cars were in regular and continuous operation for passenger service during several weeks in the summer of 1890. The service was provided...
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Ancient Romans built the General Post Office of Dublin

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The front, which extends 220 ft, has an Ionic portico 80 ft wide, of six fluted Ionic columns, 54 inches in diameter. The frieze of the entablature is highly enriched, and in the tympanum of the pediment were the royal arms until removed following restoration in the 1920s. On the acroteria of the pediment are three statues by John Smyth: when facing the building Mercury on the left, with his Caduceus and purse; Fidelity on the right, with a...
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1897: Suspension Electric Railway by Eugen Langen

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The Schwebebahn runs 18 trains per direction, per hour during the day, making it more frequent than just about any transit line in the U.S., and many German lines, too. It’s also an exceedingly rare design. The Schwebebahn is an urban Galapagos, a vision of a different evolutionary track that never quite spread beyond the Wupper Valley. The privately funded line connecting destinations in Elberfeld and Barmen began operation in 1901...
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1888: The Bohdan Khmelnytsky Monument

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History of creating the monument appeared in public on initiative of a historian and professor of the Kyiv University Nikolay Kostomarov in 1840s. The assistant director of the Kyiv School District Mikhail Yuzefovich supported that idea and originally wanted to establish the monument for the 200th anniversary of the 1654 Council of Pereyaslav. The monument was supposed to be installed at the Bessarabian Square, for which the square carried...
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Fort Frederica and town Frederica

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Fort Frederica National Monument, on St. Simons Island, Georgia, preserves the archaeological remnants of a fort and town built by James Oglethorpe between 1736 and 1748 to protect the southern boundary of the British colony of Georgia from Spanish raids. About 630 British troops were stationed at the fort. A town of up to 500 colonial residents had grown up outside the fort; it was laid out following principles of the Oglethorpe Plan for...
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Catacombs of Paris, Mud Flood Victims and Unidentified Dead. Reset?

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It appears that we do not have any cemeteries out there, to account for the dead as they relate to various historical time frames. Sure we could go with cremations, and some other modes of riddance of the dead bodies. At the same time we pay the due respect to our dead, and we have places to show for it. Why didn't they? If we go along with the traditional linear development narrative, we would expect to see thousands of very old cemeteries...
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1882: Spain. Sagrada Família by the architect Antoni Gaudí

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Gaudí left hardly any written documents, apart from technical reports of his works required by official authorities, some letters to friends (particularly to Joan Maragall) and a few journal articles. Some quotes collected by his assistants and disciples have been preserved. The only written document Gaudí left is known as the Manuscrito de Reus (Reus Manuscript) (1873–1878), a kind of student diary in which he collected diverse impressions...
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The Town of Ebenezer and its Silk Mills

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Ebenezer, also known as New Ebenezer, is a ghost town in Effingham County, Georgia, along the banks of Ebenezer Creek. The town was established in 1734 by Salzburger emigrants. With the consent of governor James Oglethorpe, New Ebenezer was moved closer to the Savannah River in 1736, and at its new location many silk mills were opened. The Salzburger's pastor, the Reverend Johann Martin Boltzius, sought to build "a religious utopia on the...
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La Luz Silver Project, Real de Catorce, Ogarrio Tunnel and the First Majestic Silver Corp

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La Luz Silver Project is a proposed mining venture in the Real de Catorce Desert, San Luis de Potosi, Mexico, by Canadian mining company First Majestic Silver. The project has been met with opposition from groups including the Wixakari, or Huichol tribe, as well the Wirikuta Defense Front. Wirikuta has been a sacred territory for the Wixarika people for thousands of years. Despite the 2008 of Hauxa Manaka pledging to protect it, at least 70...
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Roman Capriccio. The Pantheon and Other Monuments
Tartaria Explained. Part1: The Irish Connection
Saint Mark Baptizing Anianos
Pre-Mud Flood Railway in Siberia #1.
The Old Market House at 188 Meeting Street
Architectural capriccio with figures
Giant door #15.jpg
Master Masons & Canals
Remains of the Mausoleum of Octavian Augustus
Kublai Khan, the Emperor of the Tartars

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