Author: Ms. R.

Abkhazia, the breakaway republic of Georgia, is home to all four of the deepest known caves in the world, including Krubera Cave, once the deepest and now second to Veryovkina Cave, which, at 1.3 miles (2,212 meters) down, holds the record.  When it was first documented in 1968, only 377 feet of it were charted, but since then, with additional expeditions, it has grown deeper and deeper. The entrance to this vertical cave system lies between two mountains—Fortress and……

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Much like the cult-like red phone boxes of the United Kingdom, Sweden is full of green Rikstelefon phoneboxes. Also, like the British phoneboxes, these have largely fallen out of use.  Due to their aesthetics most of them are still found all around the country, but with their phones stripped out. They are popular photo spots and sometimes offer a short moment of privacy along an otherwise busy street.  However, the residents of Sigtuna had a rather unique idea for……

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Little remains of the leather factory that occupied this site in the 1970s, a period when Peng Chau was an industrialized island home to important Hong Kong factories. Since then, the largely car-free island has developed a reputation as an idyllic spot, known for its seafood, fishing, and beaches, and in place of the factory, a colorful community art space has sprung up, with junk-art sculptures, murals, and installations set against a backdrop of crumbling walls. From Wing On Street,……

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In Nepal’s southeastern region of Terai the Sapta Koshi River, a tributary of the Ganges, is the lifeblood of a 43,000-acre wildlife reserve. Known today for hosting nearly 500 bird species, the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve was originally established to protect the last remaining population of Asian wild buffalos in Nepal. The Asian buffalo has been endangered for decades and current worldwide numbers stand around 4,000. When the reserve was established in 1976, Nepal had a total population of……

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Staro Selo Open-Air Museum is a complex in the Serbian village of Sirogojno that was declared a national cultural heritage site in 1980. It contains 55 buildings, 32 of which are in permanent museum exhibition, all built in the traditional style. It is one of the most popular destinations in Zlatibor Mountain and all of western Serbia because it represents the lifestyle of local residents that lasted for several centuries. Every building is authentically furnished, and there are historic……

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At a time when many people’s workplaces are empty and quiet, Jeremy Dodd’s is suddenly crowded with creatures from the Cretaceous and beyond. Dodd, the owner of the British Columbia-based Able Auctions, is gearing up to sell a gaggle of animatronic dinosaurs on August 6. But before the Mesozoic mechanical menagerie finds a new home, it’s hanging out at the auction house’s warehouse, where it’s causing a prehistoric ruckus. The auction facility can run a maximum of eight or……

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First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt wanted to plant vegetables on the White House lawn. It was early 1942 and American troops were departing daily for the battlefields of Europe. Her garden would be a small act of patriotism, a symbol of shared commitment and sacrifice recognizable to anyone who had lived through the Great War 25 years earlier—to anyone, that is, except Claude Wickard. President Franklin Roosevelt’s new Secretary of Agriculture believed the war gardens of 1917 and 1918 had……

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In Japanese archaeology, Kodai-sanjō, or “ancient mountainside castle,” denotes a type of hill castle found in the southernmost regions of the mainland of Japan. They generally can be dated to the 7th-8th centuries. Such castles were often left unfinished, however, this was not the case with Ki Castle.  Ki Castle, or Ki-no-Jō in Japanese, was constructed by the Yamato dynasty after its defeat against the united forces of Tang China and Silla. It was designed to defend the mainland from……

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In February 1941, a British cargo ship known as SS Politician was grounded and wrecked on a submerged sandbar off the coast of Eriskay, one of the islands in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. On board were trade goods ranging from cotton to biscuits, en route to would-be customers in Jamaica and New Orleans. If, however, there was a marquee item among the ship’s inventory, it was surely the whisky—264,000 bottles of it. There was so much whisky on board that—following……

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Nepal’s civil war, also known as the Maoist Insurgency, lasted for over ten years before the monarchy was abolished, giving rise to the People’s Republic. Today, a four-and-a-half-acre park near the Narayanhiti Palace Museum commemorates those who fought and witnessed the falling of the world’s last Hindu kingdom.  The road to democracy began long before the Civil War. In 1951, power was seized from the oligarchical Rana family and the first democratically elected government was established in 1959. When……

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