Author: Ms. R.

A formation made of basaltic columns in the middle of gentle and green hills. Also called “Mansion Rock” because, from a distance, it resembles a castle. It can be viewed and climbed freely. Panská skála is located near the village of Prácheň, and since 1895, it has been the oldest geological reserve in Czechia. The volcanic basalt formation is made of hexagonal columns, which are arranged vertically extend up to 12 meters long. There is a small lake by the rock……

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Located just east of Wielenbach, Hardtkapelle Wielenbach is a small chapel. North of this chapel, there is a way of the cross with 15 stations. But the most important and most unique feature of this chapel is a hole in a stone in front of the altar, which looks like a footprint. According to local legend, this hole a footprint of the devil. It originated around the year 1250 during an argument between Haunshofen and Weilheim regarding the pasturage rights……

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The Great Western Tiers in Tasmania is a region of dense, dark forests, sleeting rain, and Antarctic winds—at turns wild and beautiful, rugged and unforgiving. It is perhaps because of this harsh environment that one of the most comfortable and well-built chair designs in the world was born.  The Jimmy Possum chair is simplistic in design and ingenious in function. First appearing around 1875, the chairs were hewn from scrap wood and built with interlocking components, a feature borne……

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Prior to the founding of Alexandria, there were two primary landowners in the area—Dame Margaret Brent who had obtained a patent in 1654 for a 700-acre plot, and English ship captain Robert Howson, who had received an overlapping grant from Virginia Governor William Berkeley in 1669. Within a month, Howson sold his land to Scottish merchant John Alexander. By the 1700s, tobacco plantations had started popping up along the Potomac. Hugh West constructed a tobacco warehouse at what is……

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This impressive 173 foot (53 meters) tall structure is the most significant and intriguing remnant of an 18th-century plan gone wrong. Presa El Gasco was designed to be the starting point for a waterway extending well over 400 miles (771 kilometers), and dropping over 2,000 feet to Lisbon. A partial collapse and financial problems put a stop to the project years after it was clear no significant shipping could have been supported with the available water supply. Today, the……

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Near the city of Košice the cold geyser of Her’lany can be seen erupting nearly every day. An impressive 30-meter high fountain in the middle of a green garden. The geyser is maintained mostly through rainwater infiltration and the circulation of underground water. The geyser has existed for a little more than a century. The first eruption occurred in 1870, while a well was being dug in Her’lany. When the well reached a depth of 330 meters, water erupted for……

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Roughly a 30-minute drive from the small Idaho town of Salmon, the trailhead to this hot spring can be found down a residential dirt road with several parking spots. The trailhead has a bathroom as well. The ascent to the hot springs requires a two-mile jaunt, which can be a bit exhausting depending on your fitness level. Steep switchbacks kick off the hike, then level off comfortably for the middle of the hike. The last portion of the climb……

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This story was originally published in Undark and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. In 1823, the chief surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, John Warren, prepared to autopsy a 2,500-year-old corpse. Warren figured examining the Egyptian mummy—a gift from a patron that had been placed in the hospital’s surgical ward to collect quarters from gawkers—would advance knowledge of the ancients. He carefully began cutting through the old linen, and then stopped. He had exposed a blackened……

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