This blog is about the lesser known but beautiful, wonderful, huge, unique and sometimes bizarre places around the World. Started on January 1, 2009, it is an outcome of my association with Google Earth Community, which I joined in July 2006. Since then I have been regularly flying to almost all the corners of WWW (Whole Wide World) and have virtually adopted the age old motto - Perfect time to see the World is after retirement.
Google Earth Community Forum is full of information which ranges from, but not limited to; history, geography, nature, environment, architecture, military, transportation, beliefs, festivals, huge, unique, bizarre items, current happenings etc etc.
My favourite section in the Community is "Fun and Games" - in which members post riddles and puzzles on almost all subjects and generally give hints for searching and locating the relevant places and or events on Google Earth. I have made several hundred posts in this forum and must have solved about the same number, though several were beyond my grasp. Believe me it is not easy to solve these riddles - Finding the answer is 90% perspiration (research) and 10% inspiration but it is pure 100% joy and sense of exhilaration.
This forum provides a stimulus to my brain and keeps it active. I strongly recommend this for those who have time and penchant for solving puzzles, but a word of warning – it is highly addictive.
My travels around the World are not limited to Fun and Games only, however many of the places being covered in this travelogue were found as a result of my researches for making posts in Fun and Games or trying to solve the riddles given therein.
The Original Google Earth Community was frozen by Google in April 2015 and finally killed in April 2019. However the dedicated moderators of the defunct Original GEC created a new Board for the GEC enthusiasts and the new Community is known as "Google Earth Community Forums". This new community continues to function as the old GEC but is independent of google.com
Google Earth
To view the Google Earth links given in this travelogue, the "Google Earth" application should be installed in your system. If it is not, then click on following button to get it!
All other links can be directly accessed through your browser.
Update June 29, 2014: Subsequent to making this post I found that this house is not only the Oldest Wooden House in Europe, it is also the "The Oldest Still Inhabited Wooden House in the World". I have therefore made a fresh post about it by using text/images from this post and have also added more information/images in the new post. Please therefore view the Latest Post and ignore this post. Thanks.
While researching for my earlier post about the "Amazing
Turf Houses of Iceland", I came across an old turf-roofed house in the small
village of Kirkjubøur on the the island of Streymoy in Faroe Islands. As per several sources, it is one
of the oldest still inhabited wooden houses of the world and reportedly the
oldest inhabited wooden house in all of Europe. (Please see the note at the
end of this post)
The house dates back to 11th century and was originally the
residence of the bishop of the Diocese of the Faroe Islands. As per local legend
the house was initially constructed in Norway, then disassembled, its logs
numbered and then floated to the Kirkjubøur where these were reassembled.
The house and the big farm around it are called
Kirkjubøargarður (King's Farm) and are now owned by Faroese government. Its main portion, called Roykstovan,
houses a museum, however a part of the house is still occupied by a
local family whose past several generations are the traditional tenant since
16th century.
It is interesting to note that although this house and
several other houses on the Island have turf roof yet these are a bit
different from the turf houses of Iceland. The walls of these houses are made of
wood, unlike the houses in Iceland where the walls are also covered with layers
of earth and then turfed.
Note: Several websites especially those of Swiss
origin claim that a wooden house known as Bethlehem House (Bethlehem-Haus)
in the small village of Schwyz Switzerland is the oldest in Europe. As per
swissinfo.ch and other related websites the Bethlehem House was built in
1287, while the Kirkjubøargarður in the Kirkjubøur dates back to 11th
century. The claim that the house in Switzerland is the oldest in Europe,
therefore doesn't appear to be correct.
It may also be worthwhile to note that the World's Oldest Wooden Building is a five-story pagoda in Ikaruga, Nara Prefecture, Japan, which dates back to early seventh century.
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Screen captured images from Google Earth / Google Maps and Street Views / MSN Bing Aerial Views / Yandex Maps etc. are under the copyright of their respective owners. Similarly all other photos/images from various other sources are under the copyright of their respective owners, web portals/application etc from which these were obtained. Wherever possible due acknowledgement has been made about the source. Actual terms of copyright/reuse is available in the source link given below each image.
I solicit comments on my posts and also request information/ links to unusual places for inclusion in this travelogue. I will duly acknowledge my source of information.
If you are having any problem in opening Google Earth link then please let me know through comment box or e-mail me. I will send the desired kmz/kml file.
E-mail:
jaymasood-at-yahoo-dot-com
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