The name “Akumal” means “place of the turtles” in Maya language. Surrounding bodies of water and beautiful, white sandy beaches provide the ideal setting for many sea turtles’ breeding grounds.

Akumal was established in 1958 mainly as a location for scuba divers to experience the many species and types of turtles which call the area “home”. Akumal Bay and Half Moon Bay provide optimal opportunities to survey the land and underwater life during diving tours and expeditions.

For experienced divers, local dive shops offer a variety of different diving trips to the 30 reef sites which include shipwrecks, cenotes and caverns and a breathtaking amount of marine life that you can view. The dive shop makes all the arrangements and you can lease a scuba tank and regulator, mask, flippers and anything else you want. You can book an all day diving trip or if you are more adventurous, you can visit the caves, caverns and cenotes that make Akumal unique. Travelers from all over the globe come to explore the cenotes and caves of Akumal and this small village is truly a diver’s paradise.

Dive shops also teach courses so you can get certified to dive in open sea. They teach all levels from resort course to advanced cave diving. And what better place to learn to dive than Akumal, one of the best locations in the world to go diving? These PADI Certified Instructors will guide you through the process of certification so you can enjoy exploring the wonders of the reef that awaits you in Akumal.

Cavern and cave diving is a popular activity for tourists. These caves are called “cenote”, which means “sacred well” in Maya. Dive packages offer several locations and various depths of diving, group packages, equipment rental and instruction to fit varying diver needs.

One of the easy dive sites which is very popular is Cuevas de Tiburones. This site features rock overhangs which provide an optimum sleeping spot for nurse sharks. Las Redes offers an array of marine life, schools of fish, barracudas, stingrays, lobsters and sea turtles. Yal ku is a popular feeding site chock full of Elkhorn coral structures, tunnels and lobster.

Other popular shallow dives are found at Dick’s Reef and Motorcycle Reef. Motorcycle Reef is named so for the 15 year old motorcycle which is now covered with living coral and plankton that protects local ocean life.
Deep divers can enjoy an afternoon at Tzimin Ha, which features parts from a 20 foot fishing boat wreck. Dives up to 100’ deep are located at Trigger Fish, which is a favorite deep dive spot for locals. Here, huge patches of coral contrast with the sandy white bottom with various forms of tropical fish providing a colorful array of rare beauty.
Xaar Beach and Gonzalo’s Reef offer various kinds of feeding grounds for several different species of sea turtles for a once in a lifetime diving experience. Xaar features reef fingers reaching 30’ up from the ocean floor, as well as turtles, nurse sharks and stingrays. Gonzalo’s Reef is famous for its large and vivid reef fingers; visitors are usually guaranteed a view of Hawksbill, Green, or Loggerhead turtles which use the area for feeding and lounging.

Written By Macon Gravlee

Several volcanic eruptions have so far been marked as deadly as far as their destructive power is concerned. Deadliness of a volcano is always not measured considering only the direct erupt-impact; post-eruption impact on the adjoining environment also contributes greatly in deciding deadliness of a volcanic eruption. It’s not feasible to portrait all the deadly volcanoes here; however, devastating descriptions for only 5 deadliest volcanoes are given below.

1. The Tambora volcano. The volcano is located in Sumbawa, Indonesia with a summit elevation of 2850 m. It is a stratovolcano.

More than 92 000 people had been killed as a direct impact of the historic Tambora eruption occurred in 1815. Pyroclastic flows had taken ten thousand lives immediately. Another around 117,000 deaths were reported in the post-eruption period owing to starvation and diseases. Around 100 cubic km of magma was released during the deadly eruption and a tsunami with a wave height of 10 m was reported. The year 1816 is known as the year without a summer as the Tambora aerosols had affected the global climate severely by blocking out sunlight and thereby reducing the global temperature considerably.

The Tambora eruption of 1815 is considered as the deadliest volcanic explosions known. After starting on April 5, 1815, the eruption reached its peak on April 10, 1815. Severe darkness was observed for 2 days around the volcano covering about 600 km.

Source: todayshistorylesson

2. The Krakatau volcano. The volcano is located in Sunda Strait, Indonesia with a summit elevation of 813 m.

It was August of 1883, when a series of deadly explosions was heard from the Krakatau volcano. The devastating explosions were so intensive that they were experienced even from a distance of nearly 2,000 km! More than 4,600 people were died immediately facing the extremely hot pyroclastic flow. Additionally, about 32,000 people lost their lives hit by a tsunami resulted out of the lethal Krakatau eruptions.

On August 26, 1883, the deadly volcanic eruption had created an ash column of a height of 36 km. Main island consisting of about 165 villages were completely destroyed during the devastating 1883 Krakatau volcanic eruption.

Source: swisseduc

3. The Mount Pelee eruption. Mount Pelée can be seen located in the Lesser Antilles island arc of the Caribbean. It is a stratovolcano with an elevation of 4583 feet and is famous for the massive destruction it caused in the first week of May, 1902.

The 1902 Mount Pelee volcanic eruption is marked as the worst volcanic catastrophe of the last century. Lethal pyroclastic flows of the in-famous eruption took the lives of more than 30,100 people severely destroying the Saint-Pierre, Martinique.

While giving description of the devastating tragedy, Compère-Léandre, a lucky survivor, said “I felt a terrible wind blowing, the earth began to tremble, and the sky suddenly became dark. I turned to go into the house, with great difficultuy climbed the three or four steps that separated me from my room, and felt my arms and legs burning, also my body. I dropped upon a table. At this moment four others sought refuge in my room, crying and writhing with pain, although their garments showed no sign of having been touched by flame. At the end of 10 minutes one of these, the young Delavaud girl, aged about 10 years, fell dead; the others left. I got up and went to another room, where I found the father Delavaud, still clothed and lying on the bed, dead. He was purple and inflated, but the clothing was intact. Crazed and almost overcome, I threw myself on a bed, inert and awaiting death. My senses returned to me in perhaps an hour, when I beheld the roof burning. With sufficient strength left, my legs bleeding and covered with burns, I ran to Fonds-Sait-Denis, six kilometers from Saint-Pierre.”

Area affected by the Mount Pelee eruption
Image source: tulane

4. The Nevado del Ruiz volcanic eruption. The Nevado del Ruiz, alias El Mesa de Herveo, is a stratovolcano that has an elevation of 17,388 ft and is located in the Tolima Department of Colombia.

On the ill-fated night of November 13, 1985, the Nevado del Ruiz volcano eruption had caused about 23,000 people to lost their lives. During the eruption, devastating pyroclastic flows carrying boiling mudflows had completely inundated Armero, thereby causing massive destruction to the sleeping Columbian town. Chinchina is the other town that was largely gutted by the eruption.

The Nevado del Ruiz had generated a massive 35 million tonnes of erupted material during the historic 1985 eruption. In Volcanic Explosivity Index, the eruption has been marked against a value of 3.

Source: biocrawler

5. The Unzen volcanic eruption. The Unzen stratovolcano is sited on the Kyushu island, Japan. It had erupted in 1792 killing about 9,500 people by its hot pyroclastic flows. The eruption had triggered a devastating tsunami that caused another 5,500 people to die taking the total toll to nearly 15,000.

Source: gi.alaska

The entire site has two large buildings, the main house and the pavilion. The two have an artificial channel in between. The site is enclosed by high concrete walls on almost all sides. The water mesh fence allows a view of some areas. They plan to put up cascading fountains and creating a landscaped park. The work seems to be very important to the owners as it cannot be spotted by Google. You will see in the last picture how the entire site is hidden.

Lost city of Atlantis

Lost city of Atlantis

link

The Greek philosopher Plato in his writings mentioned about a legendry island that was the most technically advanced city of its times. The location of the island has often been debated. While some point to the Mediterranean Sea there are those who say the island lies west of the Strait of Gibraltar near the Azores Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. Caribbean locations have also been proposed as sites of Atlantis but to dismay; all hopes have been dashed against the evidence.
Plato revealed the high technology and fine architectural skills of the Atlantians. The capital city was said to be built on a hill that was surrounded by rings of water, joined by tunnels large enough for a ship to sail through. These outer rings were connected to the ocean through a canal. The city had remarkable buildings covered with precious metals and the people were wealthy and prosperous.

link

According to Plato the city was a naval power lying “in front of the pillars of Hercules”. The army had conquered large parts of the Western Europe and Africa but their failed attempt to defeat the city of Athens sank the magnificent empire into the ocean “in a single day and night of misfortune”. The disputes over the story to be true still persist amongst the scholars but the lost city of Athens still remains as an embodiment of supposed advanced prehistoric lost civilizations.

El Dorado-Lost City of Gold

El Dorado-Lost-City of Gold

link

For centuries, archaeologists, explorers, and fortune seekers have made quests to search this lost city of gold with majority of them only loosing lives and time. The history points to the story of El Hombre Dorado - the golden man or gilded man. He was a South American Muisca tribal chief or king who was immensely wealthy and was covered in gold dust. As a part of a religious ceremony on being crowned the king, he threw gold and precious jewels into the Lake Guatavita to mollify a god that lived underwater. The practice ended around 1480 when they were subdued by another tribe.

link

This very story inspired several expeditions to the world of immeasurable riches. In a similar attempt, the Spaniards tried to drain out Lake Guatavita and found hundreds of pieces of gold along the lake’s edge. But the treasure still remained in the deep water beyond their reach and the hunt is still on.

The Lost Land of Lyonesse

The Lost Land of Lyonesse

link

The Saxon Chronicle talks about a fertile land that once connected the Scilly Islands with Western Cornwall. The island called Lyonesse, was inhabited by the Silures, who were known for their industriousness and devoutness. There were more than 140 churches in the region.
11th November 1099, a very high a tide destroyed the island submerging it under the sea.

link

The Isles of Scilly are all that remain of the island which are the old hilltops of Lyonesse. The remains of a sunken forest can be seen at low tide in Mount’s Bay. Domes, towers, spires, and fortifications and such remains of stone buildings have often been reported to be seen while some even say they’ve heard the church bells ring when the sea has been stormy. The lost land is an amalgam of facts and myths and that makes it a fascinating mystery of the history.

The Lost Lands of Mu and Lemuria

The Lost Lands of Mu and Lemuria

link

Lemuria was an ancient civilization that existed during the time of Atlantis. The lost land is believed to be located somewhere in either the southern Pacific or Indian Oceans. Also referred to as Mu, or the Motherland (of Mu), it was the home of an advanced and highly spiritual culture.
The name Lemuria was coined by 19th century English zoologist P.L. Sclater after his investigations of the Maya ruins. According to him a volcanic activity had destroyed the island and the survivors of the cataclysm had later formed the Mayan civilization. Easter Island, Tahiti, Hawaii and Samoa are said to be amongst a few scattered islands that survived the waves.  James Churchward later popularized the existence of Mu stating that he had found an Indian high priest with stone tablets that had inscriptions written in Naacal, the native tongue of Mu.

link

Also In 1985 off the southern coast of Yonaguni Island , a Japanese dive tour operator discovered a rectangular stone ziggurat, part of a complex of underwater stone structures in the area that resembled ramps, steps and terraces. These remains were by large regarded as the remnants of the oldest civilization.

Teotihuacan

Teotihuacan

link

The archeological remains of the one of the most ancient cities of America narrate a tale of an amazing urban development by an unknown human race. It was the largest metroplex in the America that covered around 14-16 square miles and supported a population between 100,000 to 250,000. Destroyed around A.D. 750,the site was excavated by the Aztecs who named the city as Teotihaucan — “the place where the gods are created.” The pyramid of the Sun which spreads over 12 square miles, dominates the site.

link

The other architectural ruins showcase the contribution of engineering geniuses of the ancient times.

In another corner is Caroline, a waifish 9-year-old who sleeps in a crib. She is a whispering, otherworldly child, pretty and fragile. Her parents are dead, and she is severely malnourished. I have just given her a teddy bear and accessories from a bag of toys we brought from the U.S. When I gave her the bear, she looked at me in disbelief. This, I realize, is probably the first time she has had a toy all her own. Now she sits in her crib slowly undressing and dressing the bear, over and over again.

Then there’s Benedict, a 2-year-old boy dressed in pink. He cannot walk by himself or talk, although he’s trying. A child his age should be running after a ball, but Benedict struggles to stay upright.

I look at my 11-year-old daughter, Indigo, and wonder whether this is just all too much for her. But she smiles back at me, happily playing with Claudia. Claudia is 18 months old. She arrived three weeks ago weighing 13 pounds, the size of the average American 2-month-old. Now she is 26 pounds, still not talking or walking, but a beautiful, happy child.

These children have HIV/AIDS and are orphans, or their parents are simply too poor to feed them sufficiently. But they are fortunate. Rose, who was staring death in the face, now has a feeding tube and a nurse to watch her 24 hours a day. Unlike 12% of Kenya’s children under age 5, she will live.

We are in the “respite wing” at Nyumbani, a home for abandoned, HIV-infected children located in a leafy suburb of Nairobi. After eight glorious days on safari, we are spending the next two days helping out in Nyumbani and New Life — both homes for HIV-positive babies, then visiting the Harambee Community Center in the Mukuru slum.

Before we left the U.S., Indigo collected school supplies, clothing and soccer balls. People gave generously, and we had brought four extra bags with us. And now, at Nyumbani, I am wishing that we had many more bags so the boys would not have to wear pink and every one of the 110 children would get their own toy. Later, Indigo, my wise child, chided me. “Wearing pink is the least of their problems, Mama, and we did our best.”

OK, I admit it. When I heard I was off to Moldova all I could think of was Amanda Carrington and that dishy Moldovan Prince Michael in Dynasty. It might have been subliminal memories of the dishy one that made me agree to go in the first place.

The episode, as Dynasty fans will recall, ends in a wedding-day massacre. Understandably, it’s not something the Moldovan tourist board makes much of.

Oosawano town in Toyama Prefecture

Toyama city, is the political and economic hub of the prefecture, and the gateway to the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route. The area is very famous for its eastern medicine, particularly the “Han-Gon-Han”, mixture made from the extract of the musk bag of a deer, herbs and other animal medicinal sources.

Jinzukyo
The upper portion of the Jinzu River offers some of Toyoma Prefecture’s most picturesque scenery. The river cuts a deep gorge with steep cliffs. On the right bank is a place know as “Nobotoke-no-sato,” where a myriad of stone buddhas reside.

Gohyakurakan (Toyama Folk Craft Museum)
Here you can learn about Toyama’s rich history and culture. Visit the folk craft museum, ceramic art museum, folk customs information center, medicine information center, and other buildings in this village setting. You can also stroll through the grounds of nearby Chokeiji, where more than 500 stone statues of Rakan, Buddha’s disciples, are enshrined.

See more:

Amazing Rainy places in the world!

Incredible places in Antarctica for adventure!

Five destinations not to miss in Iceland!

Art that includes negative handprints is one of the unique features of this site. Like in Wadi Sora, this site also has a few headless animals although their symbolism isn’t very clear. They have a combination of paintings and engravings where the figures are drawn using a combination of these methods. The paintings and the art in general is very detailed and everything is very well sheltered.

Egypt’s antiquities chief announced he will formally demand that a 3,300-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti displayed at Berlin’s Neues Museum for 85 years be returned to its homeland.

Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, found that the bust—one of the most copied works of ancient Egypt—was smuggled out of Cairo through fraudulent documents, according to a report by the Associated Press.

Hawass has been leading an aggressive campaign to reclaim treasures allegedly stolen from Egypt. Since assuming his role as head of antiquities in 2002, he has recovered some 5,000 artifacts.

Just this past week, Hawass convinced the Louvre in Paris to return 3,200-year-old painted wall fragments from that were stolen from a tomb excavation in 1975. Hawass pressured the museum to hand over the artifacts by suspending their current excavation in southern Cairo.

The bust of Nefertiti is one of the high-profile items Hawass is demanding. Egypt has asked for it to be returned since it was first displayed in Germany in 1924.

It is believed that German excavator Ludwig Borchart disguised the bust’s true value by covering it with clay, and then listed the artifact in official documents as simply “a painted plaster bust of a princess.”

However, Borchardt clearly refers to the artifact as the head of Nefertiti in his diary—meaning he may have intentionally written a deceitful description so Germany could obtain the statue.

According to German news source Deutsche Welle, Friedrike Seyfried, director of the Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection at the Neues Museum has rebuffed Hawass’ claims.

“The German position is clear and unequivocal,” she said. “The acquisition of the bust by the Prussian state was lawful.”

German authorities have also ruled out temporarily lending the treasured artifact to Egypt, maintaining the bust is too fragile to move.

The bust was discovered in 1912 at Tell el-Amarna and shipped to Germany in 1913. Egypt first requested the statue be returned in 1930 but each successive German government has refused.

Nefertiti—whose name means the beautiful one has come—is the wife of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaton. The royal couple is known for changing Egypt’s religion from polytheism to a religion worshipping just one god, Aten, the sun. Some scholars believe Nefertiti ruled Egypt for a brief period after her husband’s death.

Among the other famous artifacts on Hawass’ list include the painted ceiling of the Dendera temple showing the Zodiac at the Louvre, the bust of Achhaf from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and a statue of the Hemiunu from Germany’s Roemer-Pelizaeu museum.

Rumors are also circulating that Hawass will ask for the Rosetta Stone, a multilingual slab that was key to deciphering hieroglyphics that has been on display almost continuously at the British Museum since 1802.