A-Z Blogging Challenge: U Stands For: Underground Cities

There's lots of stuff underground. For one thing, if you want to go really far down, there's Earth's core which is approximately 5505 C.

And a bit closer to home there are underground cities, which is what this post is to focus on.

Some notables:

The largest underground city in the world is Montreal's RÉSO, or La Ville Souterraine. It has 30 kilometers (19 miles) of tunnel, spread across 12 square kilometers (4.6 square miles). The 3.6 square kilometers (1.4 square miles) of floor space provide 80% of Montreal's office space, 35% of its commercial space, and during the winter around 500,000 thousand people use the city. There are 10 metro stations, 1,200 offices, 2,000 stores, 1,600 housing units, 200 restaurants, 2 universities, 40 banks, 7 hotels, a cathedral, exhibition halls, and a sports complex.

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The catacombs of Rome are under and close to the city. There are at least 40 catacombs discovered. They began in the 100s and, due to overcrowding and shortage of land, systems were built on top of each other by the excavators; the catacombs cover 2.4 square kilometers. There are also 6 known Jewish catacombs, discovered in 1918, which extend for 13,000 square meters (140,000 square feet) and are from around 100-200 AD, possibly still used in the 400s.

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Derinkuyu is the largest excavated underground city in Turkey. It is part of a network of underground complexes found across Cappadocia, which is what the area including the provinces of Aksaray, Nevsehir, Nigde, Kayseri and Kirsehir, is called, in the Central Anatolian region. Derinkuyu has 11 floors, goes to a depth of 85 meters, and could hold between 35,000 and 50,000 people. There were wine and oil presses, cellars, stables, chapels, and, unique to Derinkuyu, a religious school set in a chamber with a barrel-vaulted ceiling.

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Dìxià Chéng is a bomb shelter under Beijing, China. It was built in the 1970s in case there was a nuclear war with the Soviet Union, and because it was for military defense, it has been called the Underground Great Wall. It covers 85 square kilometers (33 square miles), and is 8-18 meters (26-59 feet) below the surface. There were 90 hidden entrances to the tunnels, but now there is only one at Chongwen Qu. The complex had restaurants, schools, factories, warehouses, theaters, clinics, a skating rink, a mushroom farm for growing foods that don't require much light, and over 70 sites for potential water wells. There was protection from chemical attack, radioactive fallout, and even flood.

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Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_city
http://montreal.streetviewtours.com/attractions/montreal-underground-city/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_City,_Montreal
http://www.aviewoncities.com/montreal/reso.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catacombs_of_Rome
http://www.tours-italy.com/rome/catacombs.htm
http://www.cappadociaturkey.net/
http://www.cappadociaturkey.net/derinkuyu_underground_city.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derinkuyu_Underground_City
http://www.stay.com/beijing/attractions/9589/dixia-cheng-underground-city/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_City_(Beijing)

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Have you ever visited an underground city? If so, which one? If not, do you want to?


I hope you all had a happy Easter!


-----The Golden Eagle

A-Z Blogging Challenge: K Stands For: Kites

I'm mean the string-paper-cloth-wood-plastic-whatever things you send up into the air. Not the bird. Although I do think the bird is cool, with the white head and colorful feathers--

Ahem.

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A little history:

Kites were first used around 800 BCE in China. At that time, they were made out of silk and bamboo--silk for both the cloth and the string, bamboo for the framework. They were even fitted with whistles and strings to make musical sounds while flying, and decorated with symbols.

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In the 1200s, Marco Polo--that well-known explorer--went to Europe with stories about kites, and sailors from Japan and Malaysia in the 1500s and 1600s brought them back. Even so, it was until the 1700s and the 1800s that kites began to be used for scientific purposes. (One of the more famous examples would be sending up a kite to see if it attracts lightning.)

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The first known example of hang gliding, for a glider is a kind of kite, is Yuan Huangtou, a Chinese Emperor who was flown down from a tower in 559 AD against his will. He survived (although he was to be executed later), unlike some other royalty who have gotten into the air, such as King Bladud who fell to his death in 880 BC.

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As for me, I have a bad history with kites. They always seem to have some kind of agenda. It's either a.) the kite breaks b.) refuses to go up in the air c.) the wind doesn't cooperate or d.) there isn't enough space. Maybe I read too much Peanuts.

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Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kite

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Have you ever flown a kite?


-----The Golden Eagle