Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Most beautiful lady ever known: Cleopatra


Cleopatra VII was born in 69 BC in Alexandria, which was then the capital of Egypt. Her father was Egypt's pharaoh, Ptolemy XII, nicknamed Auletes or "Flute-Player." Cleopatra's mother was probably Auletes's sister, Cleopatra V Tryphaena. (It was commonplace for members of the Ptolemaic dynasty to marry their siblings.)
There was another Cleopatra in the family -- Cleopatra VII's elder sister, Cleopatra VI. Cleopatra VII also had an older sister named Berenice; a younger sister, Arsinoe; and two younger brothers, both called Ptolemy. The family was not truly Egyptian, but Macedonian. They were descended from Ptolemy I, a general of Alexander the Great who became king of Egypt after Alexander's death in 323 BC.
Ptolemy XII was a weak and cruel ruler, and in 58 BC the people of Alexandria rebelled and overthrew him. He fled to Rome while his eldest daughter, Berenice, took the throne. She married a cousin but soon had him strangled so that she could marry another man, Archelaus. At some point during Berenice's three-year reign Cleopatra VI died of unknown causes. In 55 BC Ptolemy XII reclaimed his throne with the help of the Roman general Pompey. Berenice was beheaded (her husband was executed, as well).
Cleopatra VII was now the pharaoh's oldest child. When her father died in 51 BC, leaving his children in Pompey's care, Cleopatra and her brother Ptolemy XIII inherited the throne.
Queen of Egypt
Cleopatra was 17 or 18 when she became the queen of Egypt. She was far from beautiful, despite her glamorous image today. She is depicted on ancient coins with a long hooked nose and masculine features. Yet she was clearly a very seductive woman. She had an enchantingly musical voice and exuded charisma. She was also highly intelligent. She spoke nine languages (she was the first Ptolemy pharaoh who could actually speak Egyptian!) and proved to be a shrewd politician.
In compliance with Egyptian tradition Cleopatra married her brother and co-ruler, Ptolemy XIII, who was about 12 at the time. But it was a marriage of convenience only, and Ptolemy was pharaoh in name only. For three years he remained in the background while Cleopatra ruled alone.
Ptolemy's advisors - led by a eunuch named Pothinus - resented Cleopatra's independence and conspired against her. In 48 BC they stripped Cleopatra of her power and she was forced into exile in Syria. Her sister Arsinoe went with her.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Landing on the MOON by Man


Saturday, April 19, 2008

Maile balla bujhe!

The Great "Great wall"


The Great Wall of China is not a continuous wall but is a collection of short walls that often follow the crest of hills on the southern edge of the Mongolian plain. Overall, the wall extends about 1500 miles (2400 kilometers).

A first set of walls, designed to keep Mongol nomads out of China, were built of earth and stones in wood frames during the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BCE).

Some additions and modifications were made to these simple walls over the next millennium but the major construction of the "modern" walls began in the Ming Dynasty (1388-1644 CE).

The Ming fortifications were established in new areas from the Qin walls. They were up to 25 feet (7.6 meters) high, 15 to 30 feet (4.6 to 9.1 meters) wide at the base, and from 9 to 12 feet (2.7 to 3.7 meters) wide at the top (wide enough for marching troops or wagons). At regular intervals, guard stations and watch towers were established.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Statue of Liberty: In Short




The Statue of Liberty, officially Liberty Enlightening the World, was designed by French sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi and completed in July 1884. Working with dreams of the famous figure over a decade before its completion, Bartholdi produced a number of miniaturized working models. Once the design was finalized, wooden molds were made, over which copper sheets were attached and hammered into shape. The copper shell was then joined to an internal iron structure designed by Gustave Eiffel, who later built the Eiffel Tower. The statue commemorates the alliance between the United States and France during the American Revolution from 1775 to 1783, and was funded completely The Statue of Liberty's torch on display at the 1876 centennial in Philadelphia.through the This 1885 edition of The Globe announces the completion of the fund-raiser for Lady Liberty's Pedestal. donation of the French people. On the 4th of July, 1884, The 151 feet (46 meters) tall 225 ton Statue of Liberty was delivered to the American Ambassador in Paris. People were awed as the colossal 15-story lady towered over the four and five-story buildings surrounding her. In order to bring it to New York Harbor, The Statue of Liberty was dismantled into 300 pieces and packed into 214 wooden crates. The pieces of her torch-bearing arm alone, which had been displayed previously in Philadelphia for the 1876 centennial- filled 21 boxes.

When the Statue of Liberty was finally ready to be shipped to the United States, problems across the Atlantic emerged. Emma Lazerath The pedestal on which she would be placed was no where near complete. At last on June 17, 1886, she arrived in New York Harbor, and was officially installed on a massive monument designed by Richard Morris Hunt, and built with funds raised by newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer. Located on Bedloe's Island, renamed Liberty Island in 1956 by an act of Congress, the concrete and granite pedestal was surrounded by a star-shaped wall, which was part of Fort Wood, built in the early 19th century to defend New York during the War of 1812. In October of 1886, President Grover Cleveland delivered a dedication address at Liberty's dedication ceremony, during which she was finally unveiled to the American people. To complete today's image of our beautiful lady, the sonnet "The New Colossus" by American poet Emma Lazarus was inscribed in bronze at the base of the statue in 1903.

The Statue of Liberty was declared a national monument in 1924. In order to prepare for the statue's centennial year in 1986, a French-American rehabilitation project repaired and cleaned the statue, replacing the glass-and metal torch with one covered in gold leaf. Ferries from Battery Park in New York City now take visitors to Liberty Island. They can take an elevator or climb 192 steps to an observation deck at the top of the pedestal. A museum located inside the pedestal gives full detail of the history of the monument and features the original torch and flame. The full climb of 354 steps take the most ambitious visitors from the pedestal to the crown, offering breathtaking views of New York Harbor and New York City. The complete Statue of Liberty national monument also includes Ellis Island, and both Liberty Island and Ellis Island lie in Upper New York Bay.

Nepali statue of liberty