Ferrari World Theme Park in Abu Dhabi

Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi is the world’s largest and the only Ferrari branded indoor theme park that sits at the center of a 2,500 hectare Yas island. Typical of UAE, the island is entirely dedicated to leisure, entertainment and lifestyle, and Ferrari World is its central attraction. Opened in 2010, the park features more than 20 Ferrari inspired rides and attractions, in addition to a wide variety of Italian delicacies and shopping malls, and is reportedly a must-visit for all Ferrari enthusiasts.

However, one of the theme park’s iconic attraction can only be experienced from the air – the enormous roof inspired by the classic double curve side profile of the Ferrari GT body, spanning 200,000 sq meters and carrying the largest Ferrari logo ever created. The theme park, measuring 86,000 sq meter is located under this 50 meter high roof. The perimeter of the roof is more than 2 km in length. More than 12,370 tonnes of steel has been used to support this roof. At the center, there is a 100 meter glazed funnel. The Ferrari logo that adorns the roof of the building measures 65 meters across.

Due to the shape of the island and the position of Ferrari World Abu Dhabi in close proximity to the airport, the building was conceived as a very simple 'ground hugging' form, peeling up from the landscape in flowing lines like a red sand dune. The visually distinctive form and shape crowns the Yas Marina Circuit and due to its location, the sleek shape and beauty of the building can be experienced by anyone driving past or flying over the Island.

Among the various rides and attractions inside include the world’s fastest roller coaster that accelerates from 0 to 100 km/hr in less than 5 seconds and attains a dizzying speed of 240 km/hr. The enormous funnel that you see in the center of the roof houses the “G-Force”, another attraction where passengers are strapped into Ferrari-styled seats and blasted through the roof to a height of 62m with the same g-forces an F1 driver feels at high speed on the track. It propels the passengers out of the park, taking them to heights from where they get eagle-eye panoramic view of Yas Island before plunging back to earth.

Elsewhere, a huge reproduction of the Maranello factory displays the entire manufacturing sequence starting from the design stage and going up to the finished product, several 3D and 4D shows and other entertainment park usual.

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Hidden Beach Inside The Big Rock

The beach is one of the favorite destination of the traveler. But who would have thought that there is beautiful beach just hidden in the rocks.

Taken From Oddity Central, Monday (05/06/2013) hidden beach is located in the Marieta Islands, off the coast of Puerto Vallarta. This beach named Playa del Amor formed by volcanic activity in this area.

During the 1900s, the uninhabited island was originally used by the Mexican government for military purposes. For decades made ​​destructive activities of flora and fauna of the tropical beach.

 

Good fortune began to favor Playa del Amor, when scientists led by Jacques Cousteau managed to convince the government.

Mexico make this place as a protected national park. Residents of islands around the island of Marieta eventually utilize this island by renting a boat to facilitate the tourists who will visit there.

When you visit there, do not forget to see the beauty of Beaches Playa Del Amor, because it is one of the unique natural wonders that you should not miss. Just imagine, there is a giant rock that hole in the middle like a donut. Well, in the middle of it there is a white sandy beach caressed waves.

 

From where the waves? Sea water apparently coming from a fairly large gully. The gully at the same time connecting the waves on the beach hidden by the Pacific Ocean outside of this rock.

To get there, visitors enter through a tunnel of water along the 27 meter that connects to the Pacific Ocean. You do not have to wear scuba gear, because there is a distance of 2 meters from the water surface to the tunnel ceiling coral, so that tourists can freely breathe.

 

 

 

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A Gorgeous Ice Cave in Kamchatka

This surreal-looking ice cave is located on the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia. The almost kilometer long tunnel was formed by a hot water spring flowing beneath the glacial ice fields on the flanks of the nearby Mutnovsky volcano. Because glaciers on Kamchatka volcanoes have been melting in recent years, the roof of this cave is now so thin that sunlight penetrates through it, eerily illuminating the icy structures within.

The Kamchatka Peninsula, in the far east of Russia, is a region of exceptional natural beauty with its large symmetrical volcanoes, lakes, wild rivers and spectacular coastline. The peninsula has only been recently explored due to it remaining off-limits to foreigners until the 1990s. The modest human exploitation has kept the peninsula and its flora in largely pristine condition.

 

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Neptune Memorial Reef: An Underwater Cemetery

Originally known as the Atlantis Memorial Reef, the Neptune Memorial Reef is an underwater mausoleum for cremated remains. Located 3.25 miles east of Key Biscayne in Miami, Florida, it is also the world's largest man-made reef, covering over 65,000 square-meters of ocean floor, at a depth of 40 feet.

Instead of spreading ashes over ocean waters, people can take the remains of a loved one to Neptune Memorial Reef, where the ashes are mixed with cement designed for underwater use and fitted into a mold, which a diver then places and secures into the reef. A copper and bronze plaque is then installed next to the structure and you are given a photo album with images from the installation

The project was initially supposed to be simply a replica of “the Lost City of Atlantis”, but then it shifted towards a more profitable goal by becoming the world’s first underwater cemetery and memorial park. Only a half an acre has been constructed, but when completed the cemetery-cum-reef will cover 16 acres. Already the reef has started to resemble the Lost City with bronze statues of lions, majestic columns and sculptures of shells and starfish. There will be underwater roads leading to a central feature with benches and statuary. The first phase is estimated to be able to accommodate 850 remains, with an eventual goal of more than 125,000.

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The White Towns of Andalusia

 

In southern Spain, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, between the Atlantic in the west and the Mediterranean in the east, lies some of the prettiest towns in Spain - perfectly whitewashed with red and brown tiled roofs, narrow, winding, cobblestone streets, and ornate churches atop cliffs and river gorges, and all offering rolling views of the hills below. These are the famous ‘White Towns of Andalusia’, or Pueblos Blancos. The towns are located the northern part of the provinces of Cádiz and Málaga in southern Spain, mostly within the Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park.

The Towns were originally built and settled by Berber farmers from North Africa who came to Andalusia between the 9th and 10th centuries - the early heyday of Moorish rule. While the Moors were in charge, these farmers peacefully worked the valleys. By the late 11th century, when the Christian Reconquest began to topple the Muslim kingdoms in Northern Spain, these farmers began heading for the hills. Choosing the highest vantage points, some of which had already been the sites of former Roman settlements, and enclosing their streets of Moorish-style whitewashed homes in fortified walls, they found safety in their isolated pueblos.

Although the Catholic troops eventually triumphed, it is often the Moorish influence that makes these towns architecturally interesting, with their labyrinths of narrow, cobblestone streets, their fortress-like walls, and their little whitewashed houses with the characteristic wrought-iron grilles. Despite having a distinct, Arabic feel to them, each village has at least one Roman Catholic church – a sign of Catholic victory over the Muslims.

Whitewashing buildings were done because of the antibacterial properties of the alkaline whitewash, and also because a wholly whitewashed village appears socially cohesive. However, it is nevertheless a fact that there is no evidence that the majority of the villages were whitewashed before the 1920s. Indeed, investigation of paint layers on the buildings have revealed that few were whitewashed before that time, and further, that an array of pigments were added to the annual whitewashing activity, chiefly red and yellow ochres. Some decorative effects were also recorded, from the eighteenth century onwards, in a number of villages. These coloured buildings survived until the dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera passed an instruction to the leader's local political allies to suppress differences in villagers' choices and to disallow any deviation from a politically engineered appearance of normality.

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