Travel & Tourist Maps, Utilities and Curiosities from the World
The pillars are up to 300 meters high and the area is an important archaeological site, with loads of Cambrian fossils and ancient human rock paintings.
The UNESCO World Heritage site of Fanjingshan, also known as Mount Fanjing is a stunning mountain area located in the Wuling Mountains, in the Guizhou province of China.
The mountain site is formed by three peaks: the Mushroom Rock (2.318 m), the Old Golden Peak (2.474 m) and the spectacular Red Cloud Golden Peak (2.336 m) on whose top, onto a 100 meters high rock pinnacle, the Mile Temple and the Shijia Temple are connected by a bridge above the rift that splits the peak into two parts. Visitors can reach the two temples by the whole walking trail (8.888 steps, 5-6 hours), or by cable car and a shorter trail of about 2.300 steps.
Fanjingshan is a sacred Buddhist mountain, a pilgrimage destination for thousands of worshipers every year.
The whole Wuling Mountains area has plentiful biodiversity with more than two thousand species of plants and endemic endangered animals like the grey snub-nosed monkey, the Chinese giant salamander and the forest musk deer.
Mount Fanjing can be reached from the city of Tongren by a two hours bus drive and the best period to visit it is from March to November.
For any further information visit the Fanjingshan Official Website.
Impact craters on earth are difficult to preserve due to the continuous remodeling of the earth’s crust by orogenesis, plate tectonics and atmospheric agents.
Others have instead brought wealth as the Popigai crater in Russia, whose impact transformed graphite into diamonds within about 13 km radius.
1. Vredefort Dome, South Africa: 160 km diameter, 2.02 billion years old.
2. Chicxulub crater, Mexico: 150 km diameter, 65 million years old.
3. Sudbury crater, Canada: 130 km diameter, 1.85 billion years old.
4. Popigai crater, Russia: 100 km diameter, 35 million years old.
5. Manicouagan crater, Canada: 100 km diameter, 214 million years old.
6. Acraman crater, Australia: 90 km diameter, 580 million years old.
7. Chesapeake Bay crater, USA: 85 km diameter, 35 million years old.
8. Morokweng crater, South Africa: 70 km diameter, 145 million years old.
9. Kara crater, Russia: 65 km diameter, 70 million years old.
10. Beaverhead crater, USA: 60 km diameter, 600 million years old.
Tenoumer crater, Mauritania
30.000 years old, 1,9 km diameter, 100 m depth.
The Roter Kamm crater, Namibia
5 million years old, 2,5 km diameter, 130 m depth.
Lonar crater lake, India
50.000 years old, 1,2 km diameter, 137 m depth.
Monturaqui crater, Chile
One million years old, 460 m diameter, 34 m depth.
Gosses Bluff crater, Australia
142 million years old, 6 km diameter, 180 m depth.
Pingualuit crater, Canada
1,4 million years old, 3,44 km diameter, 270 m depth.
Amguid crater, Algeria
100.000 years old, 450 m diameter, 30 m depth.
Wolfe Creek crater, Australia
300.000 years old, 875 m diameter, 25 m depth.
Barringer crater, USA
40.000 years old, 1,2 km diameter, 170 m depth.
Also known as Stone of Peñol (since this rock formation is claimed by both the bordering towns of Peñol and Guatapé) the Rock of Guatapé is a granitic monolith located in the Peñol – Guatapé reservoir, about 40 km East of Medellìn.
The rock is 200 meters high and it is surrounded by a magnificent lagoon, which is formed by the hydro-electric dam, built in the 1960-70s.
Visitors can reach the top of the rock climbing up the 650 steps on the stairway, enjoy the stunning view and visit two Benedictine monasteries.
Located in the southeast of Spain, between the city of Murcia and the Sierra Espuña Regional Park, the Barrancos de Gebas is one of the most fascinating landscapes in Spain.
The semi-desert area, reminiscent of the American badlands, has a lunar landscape characterized by spectacular gullies, canyons and the turquoise waters of the Embalse de la Rambla of Algeciras.
The Tassili n’Ajjer National Park, UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1982, is an outstanding plateau of about 70.000 km² composed mostly of black and red sandstone that, due to the erosion, has spectacular shapes of canyons, natural rock arches and volcanic ridges.
The National Park, located in the south-eastern area of Algeria at the borders of Mali, Niger and Libya, reachable from the town of Djanet, is one of the most important archaeological sites in the world, with a well-preserved collection of remains and over 15,000 rock engravings and drawings dating back to the Neolithic era.
The area (about 42.000 hectares) is divided into three well-defined zones: the Bardena Negra, the Plano and the Bardena Blanca.
Landscape, temperature and movie-location (in 1999 it was the set of a nuclear bunker in James Bond – The World is not Enough and recently it has become the Dothraki Sea in the popular tv series Game of Thrones) make this area similar to the Western U.S.A. famous national parks.
