Wander Lord

Interesting on art, nature, people, history

Category Archive: Countries and cities

Mysterious Stonehenge

Mysterious Stonehenge

Mysterious Stonehenge

The group of huge, rough-cut stones is surrounded by mystery and redolent with romance. Riddle of the Ages is called Stonehenge — place of the “hanging stones”. It is situated on the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, a county in southwestern England. It is the most famous and probably the most remarkable of all prehistoric monuments in the country.
At the hour of dawn, when the sun rises majestically over the ancient stones, it is very beautiful.
Stonehenge always captured the imagination of writers and thinkers. Archaeologists and astronomers have disputed and argued violently among themselves as to its origin, its age and its purpose and use through the dark centuries. But many questions remain unanswered.
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Aztecs – American Indian people

Aztecs - American Indian people

Aztecs – American Indian people

Aztecs were American Indian people who ruled a mighty empire on the territory of modern Mexico during the 1400s and early 1500s. The Aztec Empire spread over 80,000 square miles (207,000 square kilometers).
Montezuma II was the last great Aztec emperor and ruled over 5 to 6 million people.
The capital city of the Aztec was Tenochtitlan. It was built on land that today is part of Mexico City. They conquered neighboring peoples to build up their empire. According to Aztec legend, the site of their capital city was chosen around the year 1325, when one of their holy men saw fulfilled the prophecy of their principal god, Huitzilopochtli: an eagle perched on a cactus, in some versions devouring a snake. The site was a small outcropping of rocks on the western edge of the southern part of Lake Texcoco. On this site the Aztecs began building their capital city, an island linked to the mainland by causeways, which they called Tenochtitlan (Place of the Cactus Fruit).
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Solomon Guggenheim Museum

Solomon Guggenheim Museum

Solomon Guggenheim Museum

Guggenheim Museum is home to one of the world’s top collections of modern art. This strangely- shaped house is one of the most famous buildings in New York.
Solomon R. Guggenheim, a rich American businessman, was fond of art. When he retired from business he began collecting art seriously. His friend Hilla Rebay, a German baroness and artist, helped him to buy pictures for his collection.
Solomon’s favorite artist was Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, who became the first ‘abstract’ artist in the world. Kandinsky believed colors and forms could express and inspire. Guggenheim was so fascinated by Kandinsky’s works that he bought more than 150 pictures by the Russian artist. He also collected pictures by other Modernist artists – Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, Paul Klee.
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Mysterious Pyramids

Mysterious Pyramids

Mysterious Pyramids


People throughout the world have built pyramids at different times. The word ‘pyramid’ comes from the Greek word pyramis which means ‘a wheat cake’. The Greeks thought that the pyramids looked like cakes.
The most famous pyramids were built in ancient Egypt more than 4,500 years ago. The pyramids of Mexico, Central America, and South America are also well known.

The Americas
Many ancient peoples of Mexico and Central and South America built pyramids. They usually used dirt and stone.
The Maya built a famous pyramid called the Castillo in what is now southeastern Mexico. The people of the ancient city of Teotihuacan, in central Mexico, built the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon.
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Roman baths in Bath

Roman baths in Bath

Roman baths in Bath

According to legend, the city of Bath was founded by Bladud, the eldest son of the Celtic King Lud, who lived around 800 BC. In Greece, where Bladud studied, he contracted leprosy. When he returned home, he didn’t want other people to catch the disease, so he left the royal palace and became a swineherd. Soon his pigs contracted leprosy too.
One day, when Bladud was driving his pigs through the Avon Valley, he saw a spring. Suddenly his pigs ran to the spring and started rolling in the mud around it. The mud and the spring water were warm. Then Bladud saw something very strange – where the mud was washed off by the spring water the pigs no longer had marks on the skin. Bladud bathed in the hot muddy water of the spring and was cured of his illness. He could return to his father’s court.
When Biadud became king, he built a temple by the spring and founded a city around it.
When the Romans arrived in Britain, they made great use of the natural hot springs.
Luxurious spa center was built. It had five healing hot baths, swimming pools and cold rooms. The most luxurious of them was the Great Bath (now rebuilt as the King’s Bath), surrounded by statues of the gods.
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The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour

The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour

The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour

The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was built in the 19th century for the money collected by ordinary people all over the country. It was devoted to the victory of the Russian army over Napoleon’s troops in the Patriotic War of 1812.
Initially, it was planned to build the cathedral on the Vorobyovy Hills. Emperor Alexander I approved the project of A. Vitberg. Russian artist and mystic wanted to erect three temples on the spot. The first one was to be built underground and have the form of a coffin, symbolizing and death. The second temple, as the symbol of the soul was to appear in the form of a cross above the first one. The foundations of the cathedral were laid in 1817, but the project was not carried out.
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Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year

China is a country of traditions and superstitions. It is not surprising that the Chinese New Year is celebrated with numerous and mysterious rituals. And you won’t meet Santa Claus there.
New Year’s Festival linked with an interesting myth about the mysterious beast called Nian. On the first day of the New Year monster was particularly hungry and could eat cattle, the villagers and their children. So people left food in front of their houses to make him kinder. Nian, as it turned out, was afraid of the red color, so people began to wear red clothes and hang red lanterns in the streets to scare him.
There is also a tradition to bring 2 tangerines when you go to your friends and relatives and hosts give you two others. It turns out that in the Chinese language, the phrase “a couple of tangerines” sounds exactly like the word “gold”. This tradition is about 3 thousand years old.
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