Hollywood Walk of Fame is 50 Years Old

The Hollywood Walk of Fame - the famous sidewalk along Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street in Hollywood celebrates 50 years today. The Walkway is embedded with more than 2,000 five-pointed stars featuring the names of not only human celebrities but also fictional characters honored by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce for their contributions to the entertainment industry.

Each star consists of a pink terrazzo five-pointed star rimmed with bronze and inlaid into a charcoal square. Inside the pink star is the name of the honoree inlaid in bronze, below which is a round bronze emblem indicating the category for which the honoree received the star.

The Walk of Fame was started as a part of the Hollywood Blvd. Improvement Program and on February 9, 1960, Joanne Woodward became the first performer to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6801 Hollywood Blvd.

Since then it has become one of the most visited place in Hollywood and a must visit spot for the tourists visiting Hollywood. It is nearly a three-and-a-half-(3 1/2)-mile (5.6 km) round-trip walk.

Image from Flickr is by Christian Haugen

Image from Flickr is by Zeetz Jones

Image from Flickr is by Christian Haugen

Image from Flickr is by urbnTHNKr

View general location in Google Earth

Here are some Google Street Views.

• Walk of Fame - Western End
• Walk of Fame - Vine Street Crossing
• Walk of Fame - Kodak Theatre

Source of info and more info: Wikipedia  - List of Stars: Wikipedia-List

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World's Largest Quarried Stones

The town of Baalbek in Lebanon is famous for huge sized temple ruins of the Roman period, when Baalbek was known as Heliopolis. Amongst these ruins are the ruins of the famous Temple of Jupiter Baal ("Heliopolitan Zeus").

Image from Flickr is by gordontour

Built in first century AD this temple was at that time the largest temple in the Roman Empire measuring 290 feet (~88.4 metres) by 160 feet (~48.8 metres) wide.

As impressive as the temple is, one of the most unique aspects of the temple complex are three gigantic stone blocks called the "Trilithon" located at the foundation of temple's rear side ruins.

Image from Flickr is by blacque_jacques

These three stone blocks are the Largest Stones used in a building anywhere in the world and weigh around 800 tons (~ 730,000 kg) each.  In comparison the fully laden weight of a Boeing 747 is only 439,985 kg. Each one of these stone is 70 feet long, 14 feet high, 10 feet thick (21.33 x 4.3 x 3.04 metres).

It is beyond comprehension how these massive stones were moved from the nearby query, raised up on the mound and placed at the present location. Even the Archaeologists/Historians are not sure about the methods employed by the master builders of that time, to move such gigantic stones. The necessity of using such large and heavy stones for building purposes, when smaller, easily transportable stones could have been used, also remains unexplained.

However this is not the end of story of these amazing stones.

 
A fourth and still larger stone called Hajar el Gouble (meaning: The Stone of the South) aka Hajar el Hibla (meaning: The Stone of the Pregnant Woman - This unusual name is due to local belief that touching the stone helps women to conceive) lies unused in a nearby quarry about 1.6 km from the town. Its weight, is estimated at 1,069 tons (~970,000 kg).

Image from Commons.wikimedia.org is by Ralph Ellis

Image from Flickr is by zongo69

Image from Flickr is by spdl_n1

To top it all, there is even larger but unfinished stone, weighing approximately 1,322 tons (~ 1.2 million kg), which lies in the second quarry across the road.

Image from Commons.wikimedia.org is by Ralph Ellis

View location of Baalbek ruins in Google Earth   Google Maps

Source of info and more info:

• About.com
• Bibliotecapleyades.net
• Wikipedia-Baalbek
• Wikipedia-Trilithon

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Vulcano Buono - The Good Volcano

On the outskirt of Naples, Italy and  close to Mt. Vesuvius, lies the city of Nola. It boasts of a huge and unique, volcano shaped commercial complex known as 'Vulcano Buono' - The Good Volcano.

Designed by Renzo Piano, the commercial complex resembles Mt. Vesuvius, the infamous (or bad) volcano, which had destroyed Pompeii in AD 79 and is active even now. It is regarded as one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world because of the threat to a large population living nearby and its continued tendency of explosive eruptions. Here is its view from the air;

Image from Flickr is by Kiriku

In comparison here is a view of the so called artificial 'Good Volcano'.

Image from: 3-D view in Google Earth      3-D source created by AntoWthe3D

(Note: The '3D Buildings-Photorealistic' and 'Terrain' layers of Google Earth should be enabled to view this 3-D view. Needs some patience for full 3-D rendering.)

This green looking artificial cone of the volcano is 320 metres wide with height varying from 25 to 41 metres. The crater mouth has an opening of 160 metres. Its grassy slope is covered with more than 2500 plants which provides a natural insulation to the interior space. The entire complex occupies an area of 450,000 Sq. metres, floor area of 150,000 sq. metres and has a parking space for whopping 7000 cars.

The complex contains a hotel, a hypermarket, a multiplex cinema, a gallery of double-height 155 shops and several restaurants and bars. The open circular space in the centre is used for concerts and events.

Image from Flickr is by 一元搥搥 / oneone

Image from Flickr is by ginozar

Image from Flickr is by hillman54

Some very good images at inhabitat.com

View location in Google Earth  Google Maps and Street View

Source of info and more info: Wikipedia and thenetnola.it (In Italian) (English Translation)

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