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Showing posts with label town. Show all posts
Showing posts with label town. Show all posts

Bozouls: A French Town Perched Above A ‘Hole’

Trou de Bozouls, or “the hole of Bozouls”, is a large horseshoe-shaped canyon located near the commune of Bozouls in the Aveyron department in southern France. The meander was dug out in the limestone by the erosive action of running water of the Dourdou river as it flows through the large limestone plateau of Causse Comtal in Massif Central. The canyon is 400 meters across and more than 100 meters deep. The most striking feature of this natural monument is the town of Bozouls perched right at the edge of the bend. Bozouls's geographical location, high above one of the bends of the Dourdou river, gives the town a naturally defensive stronghold.

The Massif Central region, consisting of mountains and plateaus, and covering approximately 15 percent of the entire country of France, began forming some 600 million years ago when hercynian folding resulted in the thrusting up of great mountain ranges. New mountains kept forming as recently as 60 million years go. About two million years, a succession of ice ages caused glaciers to advance and recede, causing rivers rise and fall. The landscape that we see today is the result of this.

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Photo credit: syl.lemouzy/Flickr

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Photo credit: Mairie-bozouls/Wikimedia

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Photo credit: syl.lemouzy/Flickr

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Photo credit: syl.lemouzy/Flickr

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Photo credit: syl.lemouzy/Flickr

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Photo credit: syl.lemouzy/Flickr

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Photo credit: Mya Klips/Flickr

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Photo credit: Sonia Thuery/Flickr

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Photo credit: INRA DIST/Flickr

Sources: www.experiencemyfrance.com / Wikipedia

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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.

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Texas Town Erects a Selfie Statue

The town of Sugar Land, Texas, has got the Internet talking after it erected a strange new piece of public art —a bronze statue featuring two smiling girls, one of them holding a smartphone at arm’s length taking a selfie. The statue stands right outside the city hall building. Of course, people are already taking selfies with the statue.

The selfie statue is said to be part of a 10-piece collection that is being donated by a resident to the City through the Sugar Land Legacy Foundation, and is being installed all over the city. Sugar Land Town Square’s public plaza got two statues — the selfie statue, and another one depicting a guitar player sitting on the ledge of a fountain facing City Walk. According to the press release, “both show activities common in the plaza.” The cost of installing both statues is estimated to be about $32,500.

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The Toxic Town of Times Beach, Missouri

The former town of Times Beach, in Missouri, United States, about 27 km southwest of St. Louis, was founded as part of a strange marketing program. In 1925, a newspaper called the St. Louis Star-Times secured this large tract of land along the Meremec River, and started selling off plots measuring 20 foot by 100 foot in size. For just $67.50, which is about $900 today accounting for inflation, a purchaser could secure a plot along with a 6-month subscription to the newspaper. The plots sold off alright, but the town never became the booming resort the newspaper had hoped for. The Great Depression followed by gasoline rationing during World War II instead turned Times Beach into a community of lower-middle-class families. Around 2,000 people lived here until their forced evacuation in 1985.

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Photo credit: NPR.org
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