Home / island
Showing posts with label island. Show all posts
Showing posts with label island. Show all posts

The Sunken City on Kekova Island

The ancient Lycian city of Simena, often referred to as Kekova-Simena, once straddled the long and narrow island of Kekova in the Mediterranean Sea near the Turkish coastline. In the olden times, Simena was a small fishing village and was later an outpost of the Knights of Rhodes.

Part of the city lies on the mainland, where today stands the charming fishing village of Kaleköy. The mixture of ancient, medieval and modern history on Kaleköy makes it one of the of the most visited places in Turkey today. Worth seeing here is the well-preserved castle built by the Knights of Rhodes, and the Lycian necropolis overlooking the sea and surrounded by ancient olive trees. Across the bay, on Kekova Island, lies Simena’s other half. This part of the city today lies half-submerged in the waters. The land slipped into the ocean when a terrible earthquake struck Turkey in the 2nd century. Half of the houses, now in ruins, are submerged with staircases descending into the water. Some of foundations of buildings and the ancient harbor are totally beneath the water’s surface.

kekova-sunken-city-3

Photo credit: Alessandra Kocman/Flickr

The entire Kekova region was declared a specially protected area in 1990 by Turkish government, and subsequently diving and swimming here was prohibited. Although the prohibition was lifted in later years, the area where the sunken city is is still restricted.

kekova-sunken-city-1

Photo credit: Vladimer Shioshvili/Flickr

kekova-sunken-city-2

Photo credit: Chris Walsh/Flickr

kekova-sunken-city-4

Photo credit: Alessandra Kocman/Flickr

kekova-sunken-city-6

Photo credit: Massimiliano Giani/Flickr

kekova-sunken-city-7

Photo credit: Bengt Flemark/Flickr

kekova-sunken-city-5

Photo credit: JJ Hall/Flickr

Sources: www.traveltofethiye.co.uk / lycianturkey.com / Wikipedia

Subscribe to our Newsletter and get articles like this delieverd straight to your inbox

The House in the Island of Elliðaey



If there ever is an ultimate holiday getaway location, it has to be the island of Elliðaey near Vestmannaeyjar, a small archipelago off the south coast of Iceland, and the enchanting little house on it.

house-ellidaey3

Elliðaey is the third largest island in Iceland having an area of 0.45 square km in area. It is believed to have formed in an eruption about 5-6 thousand years. The island is accessible via a rope on its lower east side and by a boat from the mainland. There are a few lonesome cattle to keep you company on the island and thousands of sea birds that use it for a nesting site.

Not much information is available about the island or the house. The only source of reliable information seems to be an Icelandic website that is very poorly translated by Google:

Spectacular Caves and Rocks at Staffa Island

 

The island of Staffa in Scotland is probably best known for its unique geological features, such as the many caves and the unique shape of the basalt columns which are also found in the Giant's Causeway. This remarkable little island, located south-west off the isle of Ulva and halfway between the Ross of Mull and the Treshnish Isles is one of the smallest in the Southern Hebrides.

staffa-island9

Whale Bone Alley of Yttygran Island

Along the northern shore of the remote Siberian island of Yttygran, in the Bering Sea, is an area known as the “Whale Bone Alley”. Forty years ago, Soviet archaeologists here discovered dozens of bowhead whale bones, and skulls carefully arranged in the ground stretching for 550 meters and running parallel to the shore. The rib bones are either stuck into the ground or propped up by rocks in a double line to form a sort of alley. Down the middle of the alley were huge skulls and square pits once thought to have contained tons of meat.

Archaeologists believe that the Whale Bone Alley was built as a shrine and sacred meeting place by the Eskimos in the 14th century. At that time there was a temporary ice age, that resulted in prolonged winter and food shortages which could have led to conflicts between Inuit tribes. Whale Bone Alley may have been the neutral place where they could come together to discuss their problems, take part in sacrificial offerings and store their meat in the square pits that once existed between the bone walls.

whale-bone-alley-9

Photo credit: www.beringiapark.ru

The Island Town of Sviyazhsk

When Ivan the Terrible, the Grand Prince of Moscow and the first Tsar of Russia, ascended the throne in the middle of the 16th century, he decided to put an end to the Khanate of Kazan, a medieval Bulgarian-Tatar Turkic state occupying the territory of former Volga Bulgaria, and ruled by the descendants of Genghis Khan. The Khanates and the Muscovites had been at conflict for the last hundred years. The bone of contention between the two was Kazan’s strategic location on the Volga River near its confluence with the Kama, the major river in the western Ural Mountains. As long as Kazan existed as a threat, Russian movement into and beyond the Urals, as well as south toward the Caspian Sea, was blocked.

sviyazhsk-7

Amazing Summer House on a Greek Island

Amazing Summer House on a Greek Island

Located on the Greek island of Paros, the Maison Kamari is a jewel of architecture studio Re-act Architects. Imagined like a summer modern shelter, this holiday house re-imagines the Cycladic architecture. Inspired by the cubic shape, architects Natasha Deliyianni and Yiorgos Spiridonos brought a minimalist touch, in the heart of this wild and free nature with a view on the Aegean Sea.

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)