Parque da Cidade Manuel Braga; Coimbra’s emblematic park is one of the most cherished spaces in the city, with a beautiful location next to the Mondego River. Initially, it was a space that belonged to the Benedictine monks, located by the river water and therefore subject to constant flooding. In 1888, the Municipality of Coimbra acquired the land, consisting of an orange groves area, an open area where horse races were held and a soccer field on the east side. In 1920 the associated lands were formed into a park.
The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore is a U.S. national lakeshore consisting of 21 islands (Apostle Islands) and shoreline encompassing 69,372 acres on the northern tip of Wisconsin on the shore of Lake Superior. It is known for its collection of historic lighthouses, sandstone sea caves, a few old-growth remnant forests, and natural animal habitats.
The Great Wall of China is the collective name of a series of fortification systems generally built across the historical northern borders of China to protect and consolidate territories of Chinese states and empires against various nomadic groups of the steppe and their polities. Several walls were being built from as early as the 7th century BC by ancient Chinese states; selective stretches were later joined together by Qin Shi Huang (220–206 BC), the first emperor of China. Little of the Qin wall remains. Later on, many successive dynasties have built and maintained multiple stretches of border walls. The most well-known sections of the wall were built by the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). The defensive characteristics of the Great Wall were enhanced by the construction of watch towers, troop barracks, garrison stations, signaling capabilities through the means of smoke or fire, and the fact that the path of the Great Wall also served as a transportation corridor.
Beijing is the best destination to admire the Great Wall of China. Most famous Beijing Great Wall sections are located in its suburban areas, including the well-preserved Badaling and Mutianyu, the renovated Juyonguan, Jinshanling and Simatai, and wild Jiankou and Gubeikou. They are all not far from downtown Beijing, 1-2 hours’ driving away.
Bring sturdy shoes, if you hike just a few hundred meters from the parking lot the majority of visitors will be left behind you will have a more uninterrupted view. One caution over the centuries the stairs and steps have become tremendously uneven. One step may be a six inch rise and the next nearly a foot! Not so bad going up but on the way back down it can be quite jarring.
America’s Stonehenge is an archaeological site consisting of a number of large rocks and stone structures scattered around roughly 30 acres within the town of Salem, New Hampshire. It is open to the public for a fee as part of a recreational area which includes snowshoe trails and an alpaca farm. A number of hypotheses exist as to the origin and purpose of the structures. One viewpoint is a mixture of land-use practices of local farmers in the 18th and 19th centuries and construction of structures by owner William Goodwin, an insurance executive who purchased the area in 1937. Some claim that the site has a pre-Columbian European origin, but this is regarded as pseudoarchaeological or the result of an early-20th century hoax. The site was first dubbed Mystery Hill by William Goodwin. This was the official name of the site until 1982, when it was renamed “America’s Stonehenge”, a term coined in a news article in the early 1960s. The rebranding was an effort to separate it from roadside oddity sites and to reinforce the idea that it is an ancient archaeological site. The area is named after Stonehenge in England, although there is no cultural or historical connection between the two. The site is most likely the result of work of Jonathan Pattee, a nineteenth century owner of the site.
The most famous artifact on site is the “sacrificial stone” this is more likely a Lye Stone commonly used to make soap, many similar looking stones at other colonial era sites can be found.
Although not a pre-columbian archeological site it is still worth a visit for its stone colonial remains and insight into how a roadside attraction comes about.
The Summer Palace is a vast ensemble of lakes, gardens and palaces in Beijing. It was an imperial garden in the Qing dynasty. Mainly dominated by Longevity Hill and Kunming Lake, it covers an expanse of 2.9 square kilometers (1.1 square miles), three-quarters of which is water. Longevity Hill is about 200 feet high and has many buildings positioned in sequence. The front hill is rich with splendid halls and pavilions, while the back hill, in sharp contrast, is quiet with natural beauty. The central Kunming Lake, covering 540 acres, was entirely man-made and the excavated soil was used to build Longevity Hill. In December 1998, UNESCO included the Summer Palace on its World Heritage List. It declared the Summer Palace “a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design. The natural landscape of hills and open water is combined with artificial features such as pavilions, halls, palaces, temples and bridges to form a harmonious ensemble of outstanding aesthetic value”.
The “Long Corridor” Stretches from the Hall of Joy and Longevity in the east to Shizhang Pavilion in the west. The entire corridor is 728 meters long and contains artistic decorations, including paintings of famous places in China, and scenes from Chinese mythology and folktales.
The Stone Boat is 36 meters long. The original wooden boat was burnt in 1860 and has been replaced with a marble copy with western style paddle wheels.
