At the very foothills of the Pyrenees, sits Our Lady of Lourdes, one of France’s most popular destinations. Luckily for visitors, this year the town celebrates the 150^th Jubilee of the Marian apparitions.

Lourdes is the second most popular destination in France, after Paris – with a capacity for playing host to about 5000000 tourists each season. This however - year book your hotel in time, as more pilgrims than usual are expected to attend the Jubilee. Your visit will also be made even more interesting if it coincides with the visit of the Pope, who will attend the Jubilee from Saturday 13 to Monday 15 of September.

Although it is considered mainly a place of Christian pilgrimage, Lourdes has other attractions that should not be disregarded – here are just a few.

The château fort de Lourdes has a very interesting history: an official historic monument, built sometime during the Roman occupation, the castle was besieged in 778 by Charlemagne and during its tumultuous history the castle was even a royal and state prison. Today the château is the largest museum of popular arts and traditions in the Pyrenees.

If nature and its beauty are what you long for, you will not be disappointed in Lourdes. Only 15 km away you can see some of the most beautiful natural caves in the world: the Bétharram Grottoes with their five superimposed levels boasting huge limestone deposits and waterfalls.

Aix en Provence

Aix-en-Provence is known as the city of water and fountains, the city of art and the city of light and activity, and yes, it deserves all these metaphors. The city was founded in 122 BV by Sextius Calvinus, who first had to destroy the Ligurian oppidum at Entremont. Later César declared Aix a colony, and in 15 BC the thermal baths were developed using the local mineral hot springs.

Today the “Thermes Sextius” are the main tourist attraction in the city, although they are not the original Roman baths. Of course in the “city of water and fountains” you can expect to see many fountains, some of them of exquisite beauty. The oldest of these is the Espéluque fountain, built in the 15^th century. On the Cours Mirabeau you’ll also find other beautiful fountains, including Moussue – the very fountain from which flow the hot waters of the Bagniers.

In mid-September Aix hosts the fête Mistralienne, which celebrates the modernity and universality of Frédéric Mistral‘s work. Don’t be deceived however into believing that a fiesta dedicated to a local poet only attracts local enthusiasts. On the 13^th of September each year tourists from all over the world gather in the Parc Jourdan to experience a real taste of Provencal cuisine and the richness of culture resident at Aix.

Marseille

Marseille is France’s second largest city and France’s largest commercial port. Its history originates from the dawn of time: the Paleolithic cave paintings in its underwater caves are the relics of the first inhabitants of the area. This is the oldest city in France, and naturally the traveler will encounter traces of old civilizations everywhere. Over 26 centuries of history and tradition define this amazing city!

Despite its numerous attractions, Marseille was not a popular destination before the 1998 FIFA World Cup. Now the city offers a new face to the world, a mixture of old and new from historic monuments to breathtaking new architectural edifices. Vieux Port is one of the main attractions of the city, along with the Canebière, the Quartier du Panier, the fifth century Abbaye de Saint Victor and a multitude of museums, including Musée de la Mode (The Fashion Museum) and Musée de Beaux Arts, all accentuating a deeply rich visitor experience.

There’s something special for ever member of a family in this city: history, tradition, exquisite cuisine, fishing and water sports, natural attractions and even a rich nightlife. This is the city that never sleeps, with festivals all year around: a Carnival, a Garlic fair and even a Kite-flying fair! For centuries Marseille was known for its soaps made of pure olive oil, alkali from sea plants and sea water – these soaps are still famous all over the world.

Toulouse

The “Pink City” is France’s fifth-largest metropolitan areas and one of the fastest growing in Europe.

The city’s main attraction is La Cité de l’espace (The City of Space) situated in Parc de la Plaine. The park has a large number of facilities for children, over 250 interactive exhibitions that will help the young learn more about space and the stars, life-size spacecrafts, including an exact replica of the Russian space station Mir, a 53 meter high rocket (Ariane 5), a Planetarium with 360° circular screen and an astronomic simulator and much more. The placement of La Cité de l’espace in Toulouse is not accidental: the city hosts the largest space center in Europe and Europe’s largest satellite manufacturer Thales Alenia Space is also located here.

In September lovers of the visual arts will find Toulouse a perfect destination: Le Printemps de Septembre. This is a free festival dedicated to the visual arts that takes place between 26 September and 19 October. The festival can be enjoyed day and night, as Toulouse is one of the French metropolises that never sleep. The city lights are some of the most beautiful in France too – the latest lighting technology enhances the night-time face of Toulouse, transforming it into a veritable “city of light.”

Bordeaux

The city of wine, Bordeaux’s center is also the largest urban entity listed by UNESCO in the World Heritage List as an “outstanding urban and architectural ensemble.” This 18^th century architectural patrimony covers half of the city, from the outer boulevards to the banks of the river Garonne. There are over 350 historic monuments to quench your thirst for history and culture and the thirst of wine… well, that’s something else…

Daily wine tours from Bordeaux attract large numbers of tourists and enthusiasts each year. One of the most important events is the free wine exhibition “Wine Keys”, which takes place between 28^th June and 31^st August – book your stay to enjoy the real flavors of the oldest wine producing region in the world! Your time is worth spending: you’ll even get the chance to attend free wine tasting courses and guided tours of wine chateaux in the main Bordeaux appellations. The choice is extreme: over 57 appellations that produce over 800 million bottles of wine each year!

The scenery in Bordeaux and its surrounding countryside is spectacular: the nearby forest opens into vineyards that host about 4000 châteaux! A detour through Périgord will reward you with outstanding prehistoric sites like the Grottes de Lascaux and hair-raising stories like that of the man-eating wolves of Périgord.

Last, but not least, only a one hour drive from Bordeaux - the Atlantic Ocean awaits with its white sands and Pyla, the highest sand dune in Europe.

As you can see, even a short list of French destinations conveys the sense of the place. France is a place steeped in history and tradition, where the old is seamlessly blended with the modern – always leaving the visitor enthralled.

ShareThis

After hours of searching these plateaus amid dense cloud cover, Crawford yelled above the drone of the engine for Jimmy Angel, his pilot, to land atop one of the mysterious formations that filled the horizon. As the pilot nosed the plane toward a thin clearing in the sandstone top of the mesa, McCracken wondered to himself; “I hope they weren’t lieing about this SOB being able to land on a dime”. Luckily, the exploits of “barnstormer” Jimmy Angel were no myth, and the two came to rest safely beside a rock strewn river bed at world’s end.

3 Years before, in 1921, J.R. McCracken had met Angel in a bar in Panama, and after having inquired of Angel about his flying skill, retained his services for $5000. Angel used most of the money to purchase the Bristol monoplane, and the two set about planning a trip to a destination and a destiny of which only McCracken had a clue to.

Angel, who had been a member of Charles Lindberg’s flying circus, was one of the most legendary pilots of the time. McCracken, a geologist and prospector from Alaska, had a secret and a dream that a man like Angel could help bring it to fruition. So, it was that a legendary adventure was born - in a smoke filled cantina in Central America - Hollywood could not have scripted it better.

Rivers Of Gold

Angel and McCracken dismounted the plane and explored the nearby terrain for a few minutes before McCracken bent over something in a stream bed. Angel watched with interest as the prospector gazed first at a rock he was holding in his hand, and then out across the length and breadth of the stream before him. The steamy jungle heat coaxed rivlets of sweat from the faces of the men as Angel asked; “What ya got there J.R.?” McCracken turned and shoved a golf ball sized gold nugget before Angel’s wide stretched eyes.

After what seemed like minutes, Angel looked past the nugget at McCracken, who was beaming from ear to ear. McCracken stared first at Jimmy, then at the gold nugget in the flyer’s hand and finally down at their feet planted in the stream bed. Jimmy instinctively followed the prospector’s attentive glance. At their feet, all around them and as far as Angel could see were larger and smaller specimens of the solid gold nugget he held in his hand. Like something only resident in a storybook or a child’s dream, they were literally standing in a river of gold.

Fortune’s Fate

Nightfall was quickly approaching atop the mesa and Angel knew they had to lift off from the mountain top soon. McCracken pulled his backpack off and the two began gathering as many nuggets as they could from the stream beds along the path back to the Bristol. All told, the lifted off with over 70 pounds of gold in the full knowledge that the subsequent expedition would be better organized. As fate would have it, this was not to be the case, for not long after their return to civilization McCracken fell deathly ill and died. The irony was that the two had only used McCracken’s “dead reckoning” and a miner’s compass to find the location of the cache. Just Jimmy Angel’s share of the gold in that backpack was worth $24,000 in 1924 valuation.

It should be noted that an ounce of gold back then sold for about $32. At today’s prices what the two hurriedly gathered together would be worth in excess of $720,000. The enormity of the find would lead Jimmy Angel on a lifelong quest to once again find the river of gold.

Unfavored By The Gods

Twice in 1930 Angel flew over the largest of the Tupuy (which by the way means “house of the gods”) - Auyantepui, but could not land atop it. Then in 1935 Case Pomeroy Company financed another expedition to find the legendary mountain of gold, which proved to be only partially unsuccessful. On this expedition Angel and his companions failed to find the “river of gold”, but they noted the most amazing waterfall any of them had ever dreamed of, the one which now bears Angel’s name - Angel Falls, the tallest waterfall in the world.

In 1937 Angel married, and soon after, accompanied by his new wife and a friend, they flew once again to the falls and attempted an ill fated landing atop it. Through no fault of Angel’s the end of the landing zone was muddy and the plane nose dived into the sandstone, leaving the adventurers unharmed but stranded in one of the most isolated places on Earth. Luckily, Angel’s friend had climbed the Tupuy before and was able to lead the group on an 11 day trek out of the wilderness. Angel’s plane remained atop the mountain where it lay until 1970, when it was copter lifted out to display in Ciudad Bolivar.

To put Angel’s quest in some perspective, in 1942 Angel got lost in the jungle in the “house of the gods” and finally emerged 9 days later. The Venezuelan military teams sent to look for the hero also got lost. The enormity and remoteness of this place is a little outside of what most of us can imagine. The airplane that Angel and McCracken first flew over the Tupuy with in 1924 was scarcely more than a toy airplane with no instruments and no canopy.

Atop the world, the world below obscured by clouds and hundreds of miles from anywhere Angel and his friend looked down on a lost world, lost to civilization and even the imagination.This is a story of adventure not even portrayable on the silver screen. Imagine the adrenaline rush and wonder of such a magnitude when the age of flying was so young.

Lost World - Lost Forever

Once again in 1956 Jimmy Crawford Angel donned his flying gear to venture in search of a lost world and the dream of a lifetime. The fates were not kind to the stalwart flyer on this day however, as his small Cessna was hit by a crosswind on the taxi off the runway in Panama - causing it to flip over. Angel suffered massive head injuries and died a few days later in the hospital.

According to his last wishes, he was cremated and his ashes were scattered over the top of Angle Falls. A sad but fitting end to one of the most courageous and adventurous men of modern times. The “Lost World” and the river of gold still elude discovery. Somehow, we all know they exist however, waiting there - high atop the world - gold glittering in the moonlight within arms reach. The stuff dreams are made of, sadly for Jimmy Angel - only a lifelong dream.

Angel Falls - Natural Wonder

One of the natural wonders of the world, Angel Falls dwarfs any other in shear majesty. Plummeting some 3000 feet, a ribbon of water descends the plateau like a bride’s veil.

More than 15 times higher than Niagara falls, the water from Angel Falls takes over 14 seconds to reach the base. Known by the Indians of Venezuela for thousands of years it is believed that Sir Walter Raleigh may have heard tales of it from the locals he encountered on his quest for El Dorado.

More recently, the famed Venezuelan explorer Ernesto Sánchez La Cruz, reportedly discovered it back in 1910. It was Jimmy Crawford Angel who is credited with it discovery however, and it is he for whom the wonder is named.

Interesting Lost World Notes

In his quest for El Dorado, Sir Walter Raleigh discovered Guiana and explored the jungles of Venezuela and Guiana extensively in search for the fabled city. According to a report to Queen Elizabeth by Raleigh;

“The country hath more quantity of gold, by manifold, than the best parts of the Indies, or Peru.”

As stated, Raleigh probably hear tales of Angel Falls from the Indians he encountered in 1595.

It is thought that the adventures of Jimmy Angel, at least in part, inspired the making of the movie “The Lost World” from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s book back in 1925.

Another notable influence of the lost world is supposedly that the movie King Kong drew much from both the area and the ethereal nature of this wonderful place.

The Lost World is actually a website dedicated to promoting CANAIMA NATIONAL PARK where visitors can experience Angel Falls and the other nearby natural wonders.

For those of you who would like more information on visiting Angel Falls, please visit Stay.com for local accommodation.

The trip to Angel Falls and Canaima National Park includes walking, hiking, swimming and river travel in large canoes (curiaras).

Related stories from the web:

• Jimmy Angel: Member in Good Standing in Steve’s “Bush Pilot”
• Wikipedia Tepui
• The Discovery of Guiana, 1595
• The Ultimate Angel Falls Adventure

ShareThis

Photo Alan L. Baughman

Naturalistic explanations include man-made hoaxes or geological anomalies, while paranormal theories are typically considered to be created by UFO’s.

Many are widely known to be made by man such as those created by Doug Bower, Dave Chorley, and John Lundberg. A 2000 study into circle hoaxing concluded that 80% of UK circles were definitely man-made.

Bower and Chorley were awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in 1992 for their crop circle hoaxing. One of the best known formations showed the image of a highly complex set of shapes known as The Julia Set, measuring 900 by 500 feet (150 meters) with 151 circles, 12 years ago on Windmill Hill near Yatesbury, Wiltshire on July 7 1996.

Most Complex Crop Circle Ever Discovered in Britain

The most complex “mind-boggling” crop circle ever to be discovered in Britain has been found earlier this month in a barley field in Wiltshire with a perfectly coded representation of pi to the 10th significant figure for the first 10 digits, 3.141592654, baffling mathematicians.

Crop Circle Wiltshire. Photo Apex Pictures

The crop circle measuring about 150 feet (46 meters) in diameter appeared in a field near Barbury Castle, an iron-age hill fort above Wroughton, Wilts.

“It shows a coded image representing the first ten digits of Pi - the ratio of the circumference of a circle to the diameter.” - said Astrophysicist Michael Reed.

“The tenth digit has even been correctly rounded up. The little dot near the centre is the decimal point. The code is based on 10 angular segments with the radial jumps being the indicator of each segment.”

“Starting at the centre and counting the number of one-tenth segments in each section contained by the change in radius clearly shows the values of the first 10 digits in the value of pi.”

“This is an astounding development — it is a seminal event.” said Lucy Pringle, a researcher of crop formations.

Top 10 Google Earth British Crop Circles

Recent crop circles such as the pi figure cut into a barley field in Wiltshire cannot be found on Google Earth, as they’re not real-time images, usually at least 6 months old. However, many of the circles created in the past can still be seen. Here are 10 of the most remarkable British formations found on Google Earth.

You can explore the following locations yourself by going to Google Earth or Google Maps, and discover the sights of the nearby fields.
http://earth.google.com/
http://maps.google.com/

Crop circle West Somerton, Norfolk. Photo Telegraph

Crop circle Martham, Norfolk. Photo Telegraph

Crop circle Newbury, Berkshire. Photo Telegraph

Crop circle Near Barnsley, Yorkshire. Photo Telegraph

Crop circle West Meon, Hampshire. Photo Telegraph

Crop circle Hexton, Hertfordshire. Photo Telegraph

Crop circle Darfield, South Yorkshire. Photo Telegraph

Crop circle Broad Hinton, Wiltshire. Photo Telegraph

Crop circle Burwell, Lincolnshire. Photo Telegraph

Crop circle Colchester, Essex. Photo Telegraph

Crop Circle Designs

Early crop circles were typically simple circular patterns of various sizes, but more complex geometric patterns have emerged in recent years. From 1970 through 2000, formations generally appeared to be based on the principles of sacred geometry. But later formations seem to be based on other principles, natural sciences and mathematics designs, including fractals.

Crop Circle - Waylands Smithy. Oxfordshire 08/ 07/ 06 - Wheat. Photo Oddsocks

Many crop circles now feature intricate detail, regular symmetry, and careful composition. Elements of 3-D have come to be more frequent, and spectacular images of cube-shaped structures have recently been seen.

Once some of the creators made public admissions, crop circle activity soared, with new designs becoming ever-more complex. Today, formation designs have increased in complexity to the point where they’ve become an art form.

Crop circle maker John Lundberg spoke about this change in crop circle designs in an interview with Mark Pilkington, “I am rather envious of circle makers in other countries. Expectations about the size and complexity of formations that appear in the UK are now very high, whereas the rather shabby looking Russian formation made the national news.”

Advertisers using Crop Circles

UK based artists Circlemakers.org have been hired to create various crop circles since the mid 1990’s for movies, TV shows, music videos, adverts and PR stunts with clients including Royal Bank of Scotland, Red Bull, Greenpeace, Microsoft, Nike, Pepsi, Weetabix, BBC, Mitsubishi, Big Brother, National Geographic, NBC-TV, History Channel and the Discovery Channel.

New Age author Dan Joy in 1991 suggested that “crop circles are an advertising campaign displaying the logos of galaxy-wide corporations, preparing Earth for its forthcoming admission to the Galactic Federation of Planets.”

Paranormal and Fringe Beliefs

Since the 1970’s, crop circles have become the subject of many paranormal and fringe beliefs, ranging from theories of being created by freak meteorological phenomena to messages from extra terrestrials and trails of UFO landings.

Crop Circle - Savernake Forrest. Wiltshire 06/ 07/ 06 - Wheat. Photo Oddsocks

The BLT institute published papers stating that anomalies found at some circle sites in England and the U.S. are consistent with having been created when localized columns of ionized air –called plasma vortices/vortexes — form over standing crops. Other hypotheses credit formations to atmospheric phenomena such as freak tornadoes or ball lightning.

The location of many crop circles near ancient sites such as Stonehenge has led to many New Age belief systems such as being formed in relation to ley lines and that they give off energy that can be detected through dowsing. New Age followers have been known to gather at crop circle sites to meditate, and some believe they can use the circles to contact spirits.

UFO’s and other lights in the sky have been reported in connection with many crop circle sites, leading to them becoming associated with UFO’s and aliens. Some people claim to have seen UFO’s forming crop circles or overflying them, though photographs have been dismissed by skeptics as hoaxes.

Analysis of Crop Circles

The main criticism of non-human creation of crop circles is that evidence of these origins is scarce. Crop circles are often revealed to be the result of human pranksters. Numerous cases in which researchers declared crop circles to be “the real thing” have been exposed along with the people who created the circle and documented the fraud. Many others have demonstrated how complex crop circles are created.

Crop Circle Windmill Hill. Photo Oddsocks

Carl Sagan wrote in his book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, of alien-based theories of crop circle formation, concluding that no pragmatic evidence existed to link UFO’s with crop circles. Sagan stated there were no credible cases of UFO’s being observed creating a circle, but there are many cases known of human agents, such as Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, to be responsible. Circle creators Doug Bower and Dave Chorley agreed.

Researcher Colin Andrews conducted a 2-year investigation into crop circle hoaxing in 1999 and formed a team to study crop circles that had been commissioned by media outlets and infiltrated several groups known to be creating man-made circles.

Using man-made circles as a base, Andrews studied data from circles found in England in 1999 and 2000, concluding that 80% of all circles studied showed “unassailable” signs of having been man-made. Evidence included post holes used to demarcate circle layouts and human tracks underlying the circle sites, but he could not account for the remaining 20%.

There are cases of circle makers being caught in the act, including one high-profile case in 1998 when a circle was made for the media and the makers interrupted when seen creating them. Most crop circles are formed at night, so nothing is usually reported. During one attempt to observe the creation of a crop circle, numerous people witnessed nothing out of the ordinary, yet were amazed to see a crop circle in the field 500 yards away from the one they had been watching the next morning.

Discovery Channel commissioned 5 aeronautics and astronautics students from MIT to create crop circles in 2002. The team consulted with crop circle researcher Nancy Talbott, who provided them with attributes which she believed set “real” crop circles apart from known man-made circles such as those created by Doug and Dave.

Over the course of a single night the team was able to create a stereotypical “man-made” circle. Using lengths of rope to plot their design they trampled the wheat down in a spiral pattern with lengths of wooden board attached to loops of rope. They constructed a portable microwave emitter to heat the moisture inside the corn stalks until it burst out as steam. A device was built — dubbed the “Flammschmeisser” — which sprayed iron particles through a heated ring which became too time consuming, so they completed the task using a pyrotechnic charge to distribute the iron around the circle.

The circle was later analyzed by graduate students from MIT, who declared it to be “on a par with any of the documented cases,” which was later questioned by Talbott, noting that the team had not been able to recreate all criteria found in unexplainable circles and expressed concerns that the iron particles were not distributed laterally.

The creation of the circle was recorded and used in the Discovery channel documentary “Crop Circles: Mysteries in the Fields.”

Known Creators of Crop Circles

In 1991, 2 men from Southampton, England announced that they had conceived the idea as a prank at a pub one evening in 1976. Doug Bower and Dave Chorley made their crop circles using planks, rope, hats and wire as their only tools — with a 4-foot-long plank attached to a rope, they easily created circles 8 feet in diameter and were able to make a 40-foot (12 meter) circle in 15 minutes.

Southern Colorado as seen from FL380. Photo Global Jet

They became frustrated when their work didn’t receive significant publicity, so in 1981 they created a circle in Matterley Bowl, a natural amphitheatre just outside Winchester, Hampshire — an area surrounded by roads from which a clear view of the field is available to drivers passing by.

In the beginning their designs were simple circles, but when newspapers claimed they could be easily explained by natural phenomena, the pair made increasingly complex patterns. A simple wire with a loop hanging down from a cap — the loop positioned over one eye — could be used to focus on a landmark to aid in the creation of straight lines.

Bower’s wife became suspicious of him, noticing a lot of mileage in their car. Fearing that his wife suspected him of messing around with other women, Bower confessed to her, and he and Chorley informed a British national newspaper. Chorley died in 1996, and Doug Bower has made crop circles as recently as 2004. Bower said had it not been for his wife’s suspicions, he would have taken the secret to his deathbed, never revealing the hoax.

Circlemakers.org, a group of crop circle makers have demonstrated that making what self-appointed cereologist experts state are “unfakeable” crop circles is possible. On more than one occasion such cereologists have claimed that a crop circle was genuine when the people making the circle had previously been filmed making the circle.

Scientific American published an article by Matt Ridley — who started making crop circles in northern England in 1991 — about how easy it is to develop techniques using simple tools that can easily fool observers. He reported on “expert” sources such as the Wall Street Journal who had been easily fooled, and mused about why people want to believe supernatural explanations for phenomena that are not yet explained. Methods to create a crop circle are now well-documented on the Internet.

On the night of July 11 1992, a crop-circle making competition for a prize of several thousand UK pounds was held in Berkshire. The winning entry was produced by 3 helicopter engineers, using rope, PVC pipe, a trestle and a ladder. Another competitor used a small garden roller, a plank and some rope.

Gábor Takács and Róbert Dallos were the first to be legally charged with creating a crop circle. The students of the St. Stephen Agricultural Technicum school in Hungary specializing in agriculture created a 118 foot (36 meter) diameter crop circle in a wheat field near Székesfehérvár, 43 miles (69 kilometers) southwest of Budapest, on June 8 1992. On September 3rd they appeared on a Hungarian TV show and exposed the circle as a hoax showing photos of the field before and after.

Owners of the land sued them for approximately $3000 US in damages. A judge ruled that the students were only responsible for the damage caused in the 36-meter diameter circle, amounting to about $30 US and that 99% of the damage to the crops was caused by the thousands of visitors that flocked to Szekesfehervar following the media’s promotion of the circle. The students’ fine and legal fees were paid by the TV show.

History of Crop Circles

The earliest recorded image resembling a crop circle is depicted in a 17th century English woodcut called the Mowing-Devil, portraying the Devil with a scythe cutting a circular design in a field of oats.

Photo Knitgirl63

A historical report of crop circles was republished from Nature, volume 22 July 29 1880 in the January 2000 issue of the Journal of Meteorology describing the 1880 investigations by amateur scientist John Rand Capron.

One of the most famous accounts of UFO traces happened in the town of Tully, Queensland, Australia in 1966. A sugar cane farmer said he witnessed a saucer-shaped craft rise 30 or 40 feet (9 to 12 meters) up from a swamp and fly away. When he investigated the location where he thought the saucer had landed, he found the reeds intricately weaved in a clockwise manner on top of the water. The woven reeds could hold the weight of 10 men.

Crop circles became highly prominent in the late 1970’s when many circles began appearing throughout the English countryside. The phenomenon of crop circles became widely known in the late 1980’s, after the media started to report crop circles in Hampshire and Wiltshire.

In 1996 a circle appeared near Stonehenge, and the farmer set up a booth and charged a fee, collecting £30,000 in 4 weeks.

To date, approximately 12,000 crop circles have been discovered throughout the world, including the former Soviet Union, the UK, Japan, the U.S. and Canada.

Sources: Metro, Telegraph, and Wikipedia

ShareThis

“Guess the City” (http://www.stay.com/game/) is open to users from all over the world who can win a one week hotel stay in one of the major cities of the world, based on their game scores.

The purpose of the game is to “Guess the City” from a set of pictures that is presented to users. The game was officially launched on June 5, 2008 and it will run until July 15 when the winners will be publicly announced on the corporate blog and on the game’s home page.

“Guess the City” is a free, interactive introduction to the travel destinations present at stay.com and it is also a prelude to what stay.com aims at becoming once the redesigned and rebranded corporate site is launched later this Fall.

The game is one of many interactive additions that will make stay.com the most inviting travel destination on the Web. Stay.com promises to build the most extensive, richly interactive travel site on the Web, with services that go beyond online travel search and booking.

Stay.com has a vision of reducing or removing negative aspects of the travel experience by delivering a transparent online preview to our travelers. In doing so, Stay.com can reduce or eliminate the unknowns or confusions and allow people to stay where they truly want to. – declared Joachim Paasche, Stay.com Founder and CEO.

ShareThis

Uther commissioned Merlin to transport the legendary stones to this spot in the hopes that his brother might be brought back to the living by their legendary healing powers. But no magic remained in the stones save the cold stares of the once animated giants. The father of Arthur wept at the thought of an intended resurrection becoming nothing more than a shrine to his fallen brother. A tomb, no matter how formidable, is still only a shadow misremembering of greatness he thought.

Legend of the Dance

Such are the legends of Stonehenge, the most significant prehistoric monument in all of England. In this colorful story, the legendary wizard Merlin is commissioned by Uther Pendragon, father of King Arthur, to transport these magic stones to Southern England to resurrect his brother Ambrosius. The legend of the “Dance Stones” was that they were once giants in Ireland who danced in a circle holding hands (as the Stonehenge monument suggests) until they were turned to stone for desecrating the sabbath. Even today, not much is known of this fantastic monument from pre-history, Stonehenge rains as much a mystery as much as a monument or ruin from the past.

Fairly tales and legends abound in the abyss of the unknown, though radio carbon dating presupposes this Arthurian tale by over 2000 years. Still, the shear immensity of the task of transporting and erecting these monoliths staggers the mind given archaic methodologies. The site is composed of 30 upright stones (sarasens over ten feet tall and weighing over 25 tons) aligned in a circle. There are also thirty lintels mounted atop the uprights, each weighing about 6 tons. The inner circle of smaller stones are also configured into a post and lintel architecture, giving an eerie symmetry to the site.

Gazing upon this site in the early dawn, just as Merlin might have, gives the visitor a faint glimpse of the power this place holds and as held for centuries. It is clear that something, perhaps many significant things occurred on this spot. Perhaps, somehow, Ambrosius or even Arthur himself at least visited this place?

The How of Stonehenge

Part of the mystique of Stonehenge arises because of the engineering necessary to transport such huge monoliths such great distances (from as far away as 240 miles). Secondly, the raising of such huge stones (25 tons or more) brings to mind hundreds of workers toiling to erect just one, let alone 30 or more. There were no Pharaoh’s let alone armies of workers resident in Britain at the time this monument was constructed. So, except for the chance that Merlin himself transported them, how was Stonehenge built?

Stage One - The Earth Works

Most experts believe that Stonehenge was initially a great earthwork or “henge”. The structure was probably comprised of a series of ditches and pits known as the “Aubrey holes“, which are thought to have been constructed around 3100 B.C. These holes, or pits, form a circle about 280 feet in diameter, from which excavations have rendered the cremated remains of people from the era. Given this, many now believe that the site was initially intended as a monument to some elite class of tribal leaders of the time. It is interesting to note that after this initial construct, that the site was left untouched for over a thousand years. This might indicate that those interned there were of particular importance.

2150 B.C. - Phase Two

This most important stage saw the introduction of some 82 blue stones from the Preseli mountains just to the southwest. Experts believe these stones were dragged via rollers or logs and sledges to Milford Haven where they were loaded onto rafts and floated along the coast of Wales and up the Avon. They would then have been dragged once again overland to near Whitshire and then floated once again along the river Wylye and finally to west Amesbury. This circuitous journey covered over 240 miles after which the stones were erected in the center of the site. These stones were also aligned so that the apparent avenue formed was perfectly aligned with the midsummer - midwinter solstice.

Part 3 - 2000 B.C.

It is thought that the “Sarsen stones” arrived on the scene about this time. The only logical source for these stones is Marlborough Downs close to Avenbury - North of Wiltshire. The journey for these massive monoliths would have certainly required hundreds of workers to literally drag stones weighing in excess of 50 tons the 25 miles. These are arranged in an outer circle, while inside five trilithons were placed in a sort of horseshoe arrangement.

Complete in 1600 -1500 B.C.

Finally, the bluestones were set in the horseshoe pattern visible today around this time. Originally there may have been as many as 60 or 80 of these, but many have long since been carried away. Each of these stones weighed up to 6 tons and two varieties are found at Stonehenge (the spotted and unspotted). No one knows if the site saw use after this latest modification, but Roman coins and medieval artifacts were discovered there. We can only speculate as to how the site may have been used throughout time and after the last construction there.

A Shrouded 5000 Years

Whether we believe in some rendition of the Arthurian legend, or more recent research indicating burial monuments of another kind, Stonehenge is one of our longest lived mysteries. If you think about it, it would seem that such a prominent fixture of the English countryside would possess more of a “linear” history that might have been recorded. One thing is for certain, Stonehenge is a captivating destination for anyone traveling to Britain. As for the legends, someone once said; “If given a choice whether to print a story of fact or legend - print the legend”. Merlin! Can you still see the giants dancing?

For more information about Stonehenge please visit their visitor website. If you would like to see great places to stay near Stonehenge and Salisbury please see the main site of Stay.com.

ShareThis

We have a vision to improve user experience so much that Stay.com will literally be the ultimate online travel destination on the Web. We are creating a site that aside traditional online hotel search and booking tools will also offer travel reviews, interactive social tools, and resources that will help make your trip an unforgettable experience.

Stay.com has evaluated the online travel niche for months now gathering data, feedback and ideas for what will be the most complete and enjoyable online travel destination on the Web. One would think that this niche would be full of rich and interactive tools for potential travelers, but this is simply not the case. Beyond simple booking features and some graphics, there simply is no genuine interactive showcase destination where people can build an itinerary.

Stay.com will use state-of-the-art Web technology to virtually carry the visitor to their destination before they embark. The goal will be to assure travelers that “what they see will be what they get” in as far as their booked accommodations.

“Guess the City” is the first simple step toward this end, allowing people to have fun while viewing and then knowing something about the places they dream of seeing. Imagine seeing the sites, hearing the actual people and sounds of places and even talking with people who live in those far off places. Travel decisions should be made based on credible information, and this is what is often missing in today’s travel industry.

“Guess the City” is just the beginning. It’s a fun image trivia game, challenging and addictive, free to play, and what’s even more exciting is it can make you the winner of a one week hotel stay in one of the major cities of the world. You can play each day if you want, as many times as you want, and even refer more friends to add points to your scores. Guess the City is just the first in a series of fun and interactive offerings for people who travel to and with Stay. Other, more complex and interactive games and features will show Stay.com visitors the world as it is; rich, beautiful and wonderful – even before they depart to their destination.

ShareThis