National Gallery

The National Gallery is a public gallery, located in London, United Kingdom. It is well recognized for its great collection of more than 2,300 paintings, dating back from the mid-13th century to 1900.

The Gallery was officially opened on 10 May 1824, based on the Angerstein’s former town house Pall Mall. The town house was too small in size and soon became uncomfortable which led to the decision to be built a new building. Its foundation was laid in 1832 by construction designer William Wilkins. The new building was situated in the area between the prestigious West End and the poor neighbourhoods of East, on the site of the King’s Mews in Charing Cross, later known as Trafalgar Square.

A significant period of time, the management of the gallery was under criticism. The gallery was not acquired by any new works of art and those which it already contained were mainly paintings by High Renaissance masters. This lack of development was considered as necessity for the current direction of the gallery to be changed. The new head of the gallery became Sir Charles Lock Eastlake.

During his leadership, the gallery was enriched by 194 new paintings and a private art collection.
After his dead, Eastlake was succeeded as gallery’s manager by his friend William Boxall.

The Gallery was provided with a collection of 18th-century art and a number of paintings from English private collections by his third director Sir Frederick William Burton.

In the early 20th century works in the gallery were supplemented by a large number of paintings from private collectors such as Dr Ludwig Mond, George Salting, Austen Hentry Layard and Sir Hugh Lane.

In the period of post-war years, two of the most famous works purchased by the gallery were the Leonardo da Vinci’s The Virgin and Child with St.Anne and St.John the Baptist as well as the Titian’s Death of Actaeon.

In 1985 a donation provided by the brothers Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover, Simon Sainsbury and Sir Timothy Sainsbury allowed the construction of the Sainsbury Wing.

Among the greatest works of art in the National Gallery are: The Battle of San Romano by Paolo Uccello; the Virgin of the Rocks and The Burlington House Cartoon by Leonardo da Vinci; The Entombment and The Manchester Madonna by Michelangelo; the Boy Bitten by a Lizard, the Supper at Emmaus and the Salome with the Head of John the Baptist by Caravaggio; The Judgment of Paris by Rubens; the Belshazzar’s Feast by Rembrandt; The Water-Lily Pond and The Thames Below Westminster by Claude Monet and the Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh.

Address:
National Gallery
Trafalgar Square
London
WC2N 5DN
United Kingdom

Tel: 44 20 7747 2885

Universal Studios

The Universal Studios also called Universal City Studios or simply Universal is a movie studio located in Los Angeles, California. It’s one of the six largest movie studios in United States.

Founder of Universal is considered the German Jewish immigrant Carl Laemmle. In 1909 Laemmle along with partners Abe and Julis Stern established the Yankee Film Company. The company was rapidly becoming an Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP). In 1912 the IMP was united with eight smaller companies so to become the Universal Film Manufacturing Company. It was under the management of Mark Dintenfass, Charles Bauman, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers and Laemmle himself as its president. Several years later the company was already known as Univesal Pictures Company, Inc.

In 1915 the Universal City Studios was opened to the public. Since its opening it became the greatest studio in Hollywood.

In 1928, on the occasion of 21st birthday of his son, Carl, Jr., Laemmle appointed him director of Universal Pictures. Some of the most famous productions released by Carl, Jr. were the 1929 part-talkie version of Edna Ferber’s novel Show Boat, the musical Broadway, the King of Jazz, the Imitation of Life, the My Man Godfrey as well as a number of long-running series of horror movies, including the Frankenstain, Dracula and The Mummy.

In 1936 control of the Universal Studio was taken over by Standard and the Laemmles were removed from the leadership of the company.

Under the new management the Universal focused on making mainly smaller-budget productions such as westerns, melodramas and serials. Hits among the company productions were the movies Three Smart Girls, Destry Rides Again, Arabian Nights as well as the series The Dead End Kids, Little Tough Guys, Sherlock Holmes and Inner Sanctum Mysterious.

In 1962 Universal Pictures became a part of the Music Corporation of America agency, mostly known as MCA. During its management, the Universal experienced a great development with blockbusters as E.T: The Extra Terrestrial, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, Airport, The Sting, American Graffiti and Earthquake.

In 1990, MAC founded the new organization MCA/ Universal Home Vide Inc. which was concentrated in the production of videotapes and DVDs.

On the distribution and financing of various films, the Universal has often cooperated with other smaller companies such as Imagine Entertainment, Morgan Greek Productions, Working Title Films, Amblin Entertainment, Shady Acres Entertainment, StudioCanal, Beacon Communications LLC and Marc Platt Productions.

Address:
Universal Studios
100 Universal City Plaza
Universal City
Los Angeles
CA 91608
United States

Tel: 818 622 3801

British Museum

The British Museum is an institution of human history and culture, located in the capital of England, London.

The Museum is under the management of the Department for Culture and Media and Sport.

The British Museum was first established as a “universal museum” thanks to the great support of the physician and naturalist Sir Hans Sloane. His collection was composed of around 40,000 printed books, 7,000 manuscripts, 337 species of dried plants, prints and drawings as well as many antiquities from Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Ancient Near, Far Fast and the Americas.

The Museum became officially a British Museum on 7 June 1753 and the Sloane’s collection was supplemented by two libraries, the Cottonian library and the Harleian library. The Museum was also expanded with the accession to it the 17th –century mansion, Montagu House.

In 1784 the museum acquired а great collection of Greek and Roman artefacts, sold to the museum by Sir William Hamilton.

In 1822 the museum was donated with the personal library of King George III which was so rich in items that the museum had to be considered for expansion. The new King’s Library Gallery was established in the place of already being destroyed Montagu House.

Due to highly increase in the number of museum collections, in 1895 69 houses were purchased with the idea to be collapsed as their place would be occupied by the construction of the new wings of the museum.

All the museum exhibits are divided into nine departments: Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan; Department of Greek and Roman antiquities; Department of the Middle East; Department of prints and drawings; Department of Asia; Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas; Department of Coins and Medals; Department of Prehistory and Europe; Department of Conservation, Documentation and Science.

The Ancient Egypt and Sudan department hosts one of the richest collections of Egyptian antiquities out of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the Museo Egizio in Turin. Among the most significant items are the works of the Rosetta Stone, the Wendorf Collection of Egyptian and Sudanese Prehistory as well as the collection of 140 mummies and coffins.

The Greek and Roman Antiquities department consists of more than 100,000 items, dating back from the Greek Bronze Age to the 4th century AD. Items are represented by the elements of Mausoleum at Halikarnassos, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesos, a sculpture from the Parthenon in Athens, the collections of Italic and Etruscan antiquities and also some collections of Greek vases, Roman glass, silver, ancient jewellery and bronzes.

The Middle East department holds one of the largest collections of Mesopotamian antiquities outside Iraq, numbering around 330,000 displays. Here are also the collections of Assyrian, Babylonian and Sumerian antiquities as well as collections representing civilizations of the ancient Near East.

The Prints and Drawings department is composed of about 50,000 drawings and more than 2 million prints. The most famous drawings are by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Claude, Rubens and Dürer. Some of the prints include works by William Blake and Thomas Bewick.

The Asia department is represented by more than 75,000 items from the East, South, Central and South-East Asia as well as from the Neolithic period to nowadays.

The Africa, Oceania and the Americas department covers over 350,000 displays among which are a brass head of aYoruba ruler from Nigeria, Asante goldwork from Ghana as well as the Torday collection of Central African sculpture, textiles and weaponry.

The Coins and Medals department includes one of the greatest numismatic collections, composed of nearly a million objects.

The Prehistory and Europe department comprises prehistoric collections from all over Europe, Africa and Asia.

The Conservation, Documentation and Science department was established in 1920. Conservation division is arranged in six areas: ceramics and glass; organic material; stone, wall paintings and mosaics; Eastern pictorial art and Western pictorial art. The science branch is focused on revealing all kind of techniques for identifying the origin of the artefacts.

Address:
British Museum
Great Russell Street
WC1B 3DG
London
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)20 7323 8181

Great Pyramid of Giza

The Great Pyramid of Giza is one of the three pyramids in the Giza Necropolis, located in Giza, Egypt. It’s one of the greatest landmarks in the country as well as one of the most visited tourist sites in the world.

The Great Pyramid of Giza also known as the Pyramid of King Khufu’ or the Pyramid of Cheops is recognized as the oldest and the largest one among the other two pyramids in the Giza Necropolis.

The Great Pyramid is a central feature of a complex of buildings, including the two mortuary temples in honor of Khufu, three smaller pyramids for Khufu’s wives, a “satellite” pyramid as well as mastaba tombs.

Some sources claim that the pyramid was established to serve as a tomb for Fourth dynasty Egyptian pharaoh Khufu.

The pyramid is with a total weight of 5.9 million tonnes and it is believed that its original height was 146.59 metres but due to erosion process, the pyramid is now 138.74 meters high.
For more than 3,800 years, the pyramid was considered as the tallest man-made structure in the whole world.

The Great Pyramid is constructed of over 2.3 million limestone blocks as one of the largest among them weight 25 to 80 tonnes.

The pyramid is consisted of three chambers, the Queen’s chamber, the King’s chamber and the third chamber which is situated on the lowest level and it is not entirely finished.

The Queen’s Chamber is 4.57 metres in height, being the smallest of the three chambers. There is no exact information on what the purpose of the chamber was. According to the Egyptologist Mark Lehner, it was built to serve as a serdab, a construction noticed in a few other Egyptian pyramids.

The King’s Chamber is the second largest chamber, all lined with red granite. It has two small shafts for which purpose there are a number of statements. Two of the statements claim that they were either used as ventilation shafts or for ceremonial events.

Above the King’s Chamber there are five more chambers called the Davidson chamber, the Wellington chamber, the Nelson chamber, the Lady Arbuthnot chamber and the Cambell’s chambers.

The unfinished chamber is the largest chamber of the three, situated 27.5 metres below ground level. Some Egyptologists believe that King Khufu originally wanted to build it as a burial chamber but later decided it to be higher up in the pyramid.

Address:
Great Pyramid of Giza
Giza Necropolis
Giza
Egypt

Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal is a mausoleum built by Mughal Emperor Shan Jahan as a memorial to one of his most beloved wives, Mumtaz Mahal. Located in Agra, India, the mausoleum is one of the greatest landmarks of the country as well as one of the most visited tourist attractions in the world.

Since 1983 the Taj Mahal has been listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

In 1631 the emperor Shan Jahan’s third wife died in childbirth. A year later, in 1632 the foundation of a mausoleum in her memory was laid. The building process was under the management of a board of architects, including Abd ul-Karim, Ma’mur Khan, Makramat Khan and Ustad Ahmad. The whole construction work took 16 years to be done and in 1648 it was finally completed. In 1653 the mausoleum garden along with the surrounding buildings were also built.

When Shan Jahan died, his son Aurangzeb buried him in the mausoleum right next to his wife.
Over the years some part of the mausoleum’s buildings were completely neglected. At the end of the 19th century, British viceroy Lord Curzon established a major reconstruction process which was done in 1908.

The materials used in the construction of the Taj Mahal were from all over India and Asia, including white marble from Rajasthan, jasper from Punjab, jade and crystal from China, turquoise from Tibet, lapis lazuli from Afghanistan as well as sapphire from Sri Lanka and carnelian from Arabia.

All the façade of the mausoleum was nicely decorated with calligraphy, abstract and vegetative motifs. A great part of the decorative elements are represented by passages from the Qur’an.
The calligraphy was a work of the Persian calligrapher Abd ul-Haq which mainly consisted of florid thuluth script, made of jasper or black marble.

Abstract motifs are dominated in the plinth, minarets, gateway as well as mosque and jawab.
Decoration of the Taj Mahal’s interior is not traditionally designed at all. The incrustation work is lapidary of precious and semiprecious gemstones.

A central place in the mausoleum complex is occupied by the tomb. It’s a huge white marble structure composed of a symmetrical building on the top of which stands a large dome and finial. The Dome is really impressive with its height of about 35 metres which height is also highlighted by decorated in a lotus design the top of the dome.

Address:
Taj Mahal
Purani Mandi
Agra
Uttar Pradesh
India

Hermitage Museum

The Hermitage Museum is an art and culture museum located in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is recognized as one of the oldest museums in the world and also one of the largest cultural institutions with nearly 3 million items on display.

The museum collections are covered in a complex of six historic buildings, including the Palace Embankment, the Winter Palace, the Menshikov Palace, the Museum of Porcelain, the Storage Facility at Staraya Derevna and the eastern wing of the General Staff Building.

The Hermitage Museum is well-known for hosting one of the greatest collections of paintings.
The current manager of the museum is Mikhail Piotrovsky.

The first art collection in the museum was established by Catherine the Great in 1764. It was presented by Rembrandt, Rubens, Jacob Jordaens, Antoon van Dyck, Paolo Verones, Frans Hals, Raphael, Holbein as well as Titan, Jan Steen, Hendrick Goltzius, Dirck van Baburen, Hendrick van Balen and Gerrit van Honthorst.

Catherine the Great provided the museum with a further 4,000 paintings, 38,000 books, 10,000 engraved gems, 16,000 coins, and medals, 10,000 drawings and also a natural history collection. Due to increase in the number of exhibits, it became necessary to be built an additional building. The construction work was entrusted to Yury Velten who completed the building in 1787, became known as the Large Hermitage or also Old Hermitage.

On demanding by Nicholas I, the German architect Leo von Klenze had to build a building for the public museum. The New Hermitage was officially opened in 1852.

In 1922 the Hermitage Museum acquired a very significant collection of 19th-century European paintings from the Academy of Arts.

In 1948 by the Moscow Museum of New Western Art, 316 displays of Impressionist, post-Impressionist and modern art were delivered to the Hermitage Museum, including collections of Sergei Shchukin, Ivan Morozov as well as some works of art by Matisse and Picasso.

In 2003 the Museum of Porcelain was established as a part of the Hermitage Museum.
The museum collections are consisted of Egyptian antiquities, Classical antiquities, Prehistoric Art, Jewellery and decorative Art, Italian Renaissance, Italian and Spanish fine Art, Knight’s Hall, Dutch Golden Age and Flemish Baroque, German and French fine art, Russian art as well as Neoclassical, Impressionist and post-Impressionist art.

Address:
Hermitage Museum
34 Dvortsovaya Naberezhnaya
St. Petersburg 190000
Russia

Tel: 812 110 9079

Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum is a very significant historical and scientific centre situated on Exhibition Road, South Kensington in the capital of England, London city.

The museum organisation is under the management of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

First collection was established in Montague House in Bloomsbury in 1756. It belonged to the Ulster doctor Sir Hans Sloane, mainly represented by dried plants, animal and human skeletons.
By the early decades of the nineteenth century a great part of the Sloane’s collection was sold to the Royal College of Surgeons by Sir George Shaw.

Over the years many of the exhibits of the museum failed to persist due to lack of proper maintenance and care.

Increasing number of museum displays led to the necessity of providing more space for their storage. Because of it a land in South Kensington was purchased. The construction of the new museum was entrusted to the Alfred Waterhouse. The building process started in 1873 and took three years to be done. In 1881 the museum was officially opened.

In 1986 the Geological Museum of the British Geological Survey became a part of the Natural History Museum. The Geological Museum was quite famous for its unique displays, including an active volcano model, an earthquake machine and also the world’s first computer-enhanced exhibition Treasures of the Earth.

One of the most valuable projects of the museum is the Darwin Centre. It hosts a collection of tens of millions of preserved specimens, numbers of workspaces for the museum’s scientific staff as well as an educational visitor experiences.

The Natural History Museum has about 70 million displays distributed mainly in five collections: Botany, Entomology, Mineralogy, Palaentology and Zoology.

All the museum specimens are held in three galleries, the Red Zone gallery, the Green Zone gallery and the Orange Zone gallery.

The Red Zone gallery includes Earth Lab, Earth’s Treasury, Lasting Impressions, Restless Surface as well as Earth Today and Tomorrow, From the Beginning, The Power Within and Visions of Earth.

The Green Zone gallery is represented by Birds, Creepy Crawlies, Ecology, Fossil Marine Reptiles, Giant Sequoia and Central Hall, Minerals, the Vault, Our Place in Evolution, Plant Power, Primates, Investigate also Dinosaurs, Fishes, Amphibians and Reptiles, Human Biology, Jerwood, Marine Invertebrates, Mammals and Nature Live.

The Orange Zone gallery consists of Wildlife Garden and Darwin Centre.

Address:
Natural History Museum
Cromwell Rd
London
SW7
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 20 7942 5000

The London Eye

The London Eye or also known as the Merlin Entertainments London Eye as well as the Millennium Wheel situated at the western end of Jubilee Gardens, on the South Bank of the River Thames in London, England. It’s one of the most visited tourist sites in the country. Standing at a height of 135 metres, the London Eye is also recognized as the largest Ferris wheel in Europe.

Participation in the construction process of the wheel took architects David Marks, Julia Barfield, Malcolm Cook, Mark Sparrowhawk, Steven Chilton and Nic Bailey. Foundation works were entrusted to consulting engineers Tony Gee & Partners while the Beckett Rankine was engaged to design the marine works.

On 31 December 1999 the Eye was officially opened by Tony Blair, who was then the Prime Minister of England. Some technical problems prevented the Eye to be open to the public until March 2000.

Since its establishment the Eye is under the direction of Merlin Entertainments.
On 1 January 2005 the Eye became a leading place for London’s New Year celebrations, including a 10-minute show with fireworks, fired from the wheel itself. The New Year’s celebration are still continue to be held there.

The London Eye hosts a pre-flight 4D Experience which was innovated by Merlin Entertainments. The Merlin Studios appointed Craig Sciba as designer of the project along with Kay Elliott as the principal architects and Simex-Iwerks as the 4D theatre hardware specialists. Script-writer and director of the film were respectively Julian Napier and Phil Streather.

Launching of the film to the audience was also accompanied by another event. On 12 August 2009 the London Eye got a new logo called “The Merlin Entertainments London Eye” which is intended to demonstrate the Merlin Entertainments’ ownership. The logo represents the real shape of an eye made out of one of the most significant London landmarks.

The London Eye wheel has 32 sealed and air-conditioned egg-shaped passenger capsules, each of which accommodates 25 people. Each capsule is provided with seats but also allows people to walk freely in it.

Address:
The London Eye
Riverside Building
County Hall
Westminster Bridge Rd SE1 7PB

Tel: +44 (0) 870 990 8883

Sydney Opera House

The Sydney Opera House is located on Bennelong Point in Sydney Harbour, next to the Sydney Harbour Bridge, New South Wales, Australia.

The Opera is quite a remarkable building, recognized as one of the most well-known performing arts centres in the world.

It is a very significant place where the Opera Australia, The Australian Ballet, the Sydney Theatre Company, the Sydney Symphony as well as a great number of various touring productions are held.

The Sydney Opera House is under the management of the Sydney Opera House Trust and since 2007 was listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

The idea of creating the opera was formed by the Director of the NSW State Conservatorium of Music, Eugene Goossens. He demanded for such a venue which would allow the presentation of larger theatrical productions.

Foundation of the opera building was laid in 1959 as its designer was appointed the Danish architect Jørn Utzon.

There were three stages in the establishment of the Sydney Opera House. The Stage I was focused on the construction of the upper podium, the Stage II was focused on building the outer shells and the Stage III was focused on the interior design.

The Opera House was built in 1973 and it was officially opened by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia. The opening was quite spectacular, including fireworks and a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No.9.

The amount spent for the creation of the opera was estimated at 102 million dollars.

The Sydney Opera House has a length of 183 metres and a width of 120 metres, extending to 4.5 acres of land.

The building is not simply a single opera theatre, it also hosts a few other venues. The two of the main venues, the Opera Theatre and the Concert Hall are located respectively in the eastern and the western group of shells. Beneath the Concert Hall is set the minor venues represented by the Drama Theatre, the Playhouse and the Studio. On one side of the Monumental Steps can be seen a small group of shells where the Bennelong Restaurant is situated.

Address:
Sydney Opera House
Royal Exchange
Sydney 1225
Australia

Tel: 61 2 9250 7111

Statue of Liberty - New York

The Statue of Liberty is one of the most significant and well-known landmarks of the United States. Officially named Liberty Enlightening the World, the statue represents the centennial of the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence.

It’s a statue of a woman wearing a stola, a radiant crown and sandals, trampling a broken chain. Her right hand, holding a torch is raised high while her left hand carrying a tabula ansata table written on it the date of the Declaation of Independence.

The statue is a central figure in the Statue of Liberty National Monument, managing by the National Park Service.

The idea of the statue to be given as a gift to the United States to celebrate the Centennial of the American Declaration of Independence belonged to the politician and sympathetic writer of the history of the United States, Édouard René de Laboulave.

Participation in fundraising for the establishment of the statue took both French and American people. With this purpose, in France were organized public donations, a number of entertainments, among which the great performances of La liberté éclairant le monde (Liberty enlightening the world) by composer Charles Gounod at Paris Opera as well as 2,250,000 francs (250,000$) were collected by a charitable lottery. In the United States, the required funds were provided through art exhibitions, benefit theatrical events, auctions and prize fights.

The construction of the Statue of Liberty was entrusted to the French sculptor Frédéric Bartholdi. The creation of the iron pylon and the secondary skeletal framework on the statue were assigned to the designer Gustave Eiffel who also used the help of structural engineer Maurice Koechlin in implementation of the detailed work.

The statue building process was finished in France in July 1884. Because of lack of money the pedestal of the tower was not completed at that time. The following year, aboard the French frigate Isère , the statue was transported to the United States. On April 22, 1886 the pedestal was finally constructed and on October 28 the Statue of Liberty was officially unveiled by President Grover Cleveland in front of thousands of spectators.

The whole statue is made of pure copper, standing at a height of 93 metres.

Address:
Statue of Liberty
Liberty Island
New York City
NY 10004
United States

Tel: +1 212 363 3200

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, also known as The Met, is located on the eastern edge of Central Park in New York City, USA. The wide range of displays recognised the museum as one of the largest in the world.

It was established in 1870 with the support of the American citizens including businessmen, financiers, famous artists and thinkers of the day. Their main purpose in creating the museum was to serve as an educational centre for all the American people.

On February 20, 1872, the museum was officially opened at 681 Fifth Avenue in New York City. For its first president was appointed John Taylor Johnston. Luigi Palma di Cesnola became the museum’s first director. The publisher George Palmer Putnam served as museum’s founding Superintendent and the artist Eastman Johnson was considered as Co-Founder of the museum.

In 2007 the size of the museum was already 20 times bigger than it was in 1880, occupying over two million square feet and a length of nearly quarter mile.

The Metropolitan Museum holds art collection from classical antiquity, Ancient Egypt, American and modern art, African, Asian, Oceanic, Byzantine and Islamic art, collections of musical instruments, costumes, accessories, antique weapons and armor as well as a number of paintings and sculptures from almost all the European masters.

Egyptian art is represented by more than 36,000 displays from the Paleolithic era through the Roman era. Among the most significant of them is a set of 24 wooden models of boats, gardens and scenes depict the Egyptian daily life in the early Middle Kingdom. Here is also the Temple of Dendur as well as one of the oldest item a set of Archeulian flints from Deir-el-Bahri.

The American decorative arts department is consisted of about 12,000 displays from the late 17th to the early 20th century. Here is the amazing collection of American stained glass including pieces by Louis Comfort Tiffany, the silver collection represents by a great number of pieces by Paul Revere and also many works by Tiffany & Co.

The Modern art galleries host a collection of Picasso’s portrait of Gertrude Stein, Jasper John’s White Flag, Max Beckmann’s triptych Beginning, Jackson Pollock’s Autumn Rhythm as well as forty paintings by Paul Klee.

The Asian Art collection contains over 60,000 items among which are displays of Chinese calligraphy and paintings, Nepalese and Tibetan works as well as a Ming Dynasty-style garden court.

The Islamic art department includes a collection of miniature paintings from Iran and Mughal India, ceramics and textiles items, different styles of calligraphy and a number of interior pieces representing the renovated Nur Al-Din Room from an early 18th century house in Damascus.

Among the most interesting musical displays at the Met museum are the collections of Stradivari violins and Asian instruments made from precious metals as well as the oldest piano, a 1720 model by Bartolomeo Cristofori.

The department of Arms and Armor is one of the museum’s largest collections. It consist weapons and armor from dynastic Egypt, the Roman Empire, the ancient Greece, Near East, Africa, Oceania as well as variety of items belonged to kings and princes such as Henry VIII of England, Henry II of France and Ferdinand I of Germany.

The museum has paintings by Monet, Cézanne, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Van Gogh, Georges de La Tour, El Greco, Botticelli and many more.

The European Sculpture and Decorative Arts collection is house to more than 50,000 displays, mainly focused on Renaissance sculpture and decoration.

Address:
Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue
Fifth Ave at 82nd Street
New York
10028-0198
United States

Tel: 212 535 7710

Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China is a unique archaeological site stretches from the Shanhaiguan in the east to Lop Nur in the west. It’s one of the most notable landmark in China and also one of the most recognizable tourist attractions in the world.

The wall is an earthen fortification which was built of a great number of stones to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire from Xiongnu attacks during the reign of the Qin Dynasty.

There is no precise information about exactly how long and in what direction were the Qin Dynasty walls although the one, built between 220-206 BC was the most famous among them.

The Han, Sui, Northern and Jin dynasties made numbers of reconstructions and extensions of certain parts of the Great Wall thereby to provide protection from the northern invasions.
During the Ming Dynasty, the fortifications were rebuilt by bricks and stones instead of rammed earth, as was the time of the Qin Dynasty.

In order to defend himself from constant Mongol invades, the Ming gave а lot of money to repair the walls and make them stronger. He also established a new construction called “Liaodong Wall” which embraced the agricultural heartland of the Liaodong region and like the Great Wall, it also served as a protective device against possible invades by Jurched-Mongol Orivanghan from the northwest and the Jianzhou Jurchens from the north.

In 2009, additional parts of the Great Wall were excavated under the sands. Built during the Ming Dynasty, they extend to 290 kilometres from the Hushan mountains in the northern Liaoning province to Jiayuguan in western Gansu province.

The actual length of the wall is 8,851.8 km by 359.7 km of it are trenches and another 2,232.5 km are hills and rivers.

Today, some of the wall sections are fully recovered and are of great interest to tourist from around the world. Most of the notable areas are located in Beijing municipality such as “North Pass” of Juyongguan, “West Pass” of Jiayuguan, “Pass” of Shanhaiguan, the Mutianyu Great Wall, as well as the “Number One Pass Under Heavan”, the Jia Shan and the Jiumenkou.

Disneyland Paris

Disneyland Paris is a lovely holiday destination, located in Marne-la-Vallée, Paris,France. It’s the first resort owned by Disney and the second such park which was opened outside the United Sates.

Disneyland Park is visited annually by 15.3 million people, making it one of the most attractive European sites.

Foundation of the park was raised in 1988 under the direction of the construction manager Bovis. The whole process took four years to be done and in 1992 the Disneyland Paris officially opened its gates.

The idea of building the park in the town of Marne-la-Vallée was result from its proximity to Paris and also being central located in Western Europe.

Disneyland Paris is managed by French company Euro Disney S.C.A. which senior leader is the chairman and CEO Philippe Gas.

Within the Disney resort are situated two theme parks, a retail, dining and entertainment district and also seven Disney-owned hotels.

The entertainment, shopping and dining complex was created by Fank Gehry who designed it, basing on the Walt Disney World’s Downtown Disney. On June 20th 2009, the district got its first Starbucks Coffee which is actually the first Starbucks in any Disney sites all over the world.
There are 29 working restaurants within the park area and about 2,100 patio seats, providing visitors with the opportunity to enjoy their food outdoors. The food is quite diverse and mainly cooked as to meet the European tastes although it contains a lot of American cuisine.

The American influence is also felt in the construction of Disneyland Paris hotels. In 1988, Disney along with a council of architects, including Frank Gehry, Michael Graves, Robert A.M.Stern, Stanley Tigerman and Robert Venturi, decided every hotel to depict a region of the United States. In 1992 seven hotels were built with a total of 5,800 rooms. Euro Disney has the idea to demand for permission from the French government, until 2017 to be built an additional 18,200 hotel rooms.

Since 1995 Disneyland Paris resort hosted the Space Mountain-De la Terre à la Lune attraction. It contains a “cannon launch” system and an on-ride soundtrack. The amount required for its construction was estimate at 100 million dollars.

Address:
Disneyland Paris
77777 Marne-la-Vallée
Paris
France

Tel: 011 331 6030 6053

Eiffel Tower - Paris

The Eiffel Tower is located on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. Made of iron, the tower is one of the tallest building in Paris and also one of the most significant landmark of France.

Every year the tower is visited by millions of people, making it one of the most famous structures in the whole world.

The Eiffel Tower was originally established by the engineer Gustave Eiffel in the period 1887-1889. Тhe idea of its creation was to serve as an entrance arch for the 1889 World’s Fair which marked the centennial of the French Revolution.

Along with Gustave Eiffel, participation in the construction process also took the co-architects Emile Nouguier, Maurice Koechlin, Stephen Sauestre as well as about three hundred workers.

The Eiffel Tower was officially opened on 6 May 1889.

It stands at a height of 324 m with a total weight of 10,000 tonnes, 7,000 tonnes of which are only metal components. Because of its height and shape, the tower building has undergone a number of mathematical calculation involving wind resistance. One of those calculation is a nonlimear integral differential equation which is based on the measurement of wind pressure on each side of the tower.

There are three primary colours used in the facade of the building, with the darkest on the bottom and the lightest on the top. In ordet to protect from rust, every seven years the tower is covered with 50 to 60 tonnes of paint.

The Eiffel tower provides three levels for visitors. The first and the secong level can be reached by 300 steps while the third level, which is also the highest one, can be reached by lift.

The tower hosts two restaurants, respectively on the first and the secong floor. On the first floor, 95 m above sea level,standing the Altitude 95 restaurant and on the second floor is situated the Jules Verne restaurant. The Jules Verne is an expensive gastronomical restaurant with a private lift and a Michelin star.

Address:
Eiffel Tower
Champ de Mars
75007
Paris
France
Tel: +33 1 44 11 23 23

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is one of the most visited attractions in the United States as well as one of the largest protected sites in the eastern part of the country.

The park is an International Biosphere Reserve and since 1988 has also been included in the Southern Appalachian Biosphere Reserve. In 1983 was listed as World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

The first settlers in the park area were the Cherokee Indians. They inhabited the region in the 18th and early 19th century. In 1830 the Indian Removal Act was signed which forced many of the Indians to leave the region although there were few who stayed. Some of their descendants still live in the Qualla Reservation south of the park.

The establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park became possible thanks to the financial support of John D.Rockefeller, Jr., the U.S. government and also some private citizens from Tennessee and North Carolina who were organized in assembling the park land, piece by piece. In 1934 the park was officially opened.

Total area of the park reaches 2,108 km², including sixteen mountains and over 10,000 species of plants and animals.

The height of the mountains varies from 26 m at the mouth of Abrams Creek to 2,025 m at the summit of Clingmans Dome.

Flora in the park is represented by more than 1,400 flowering plant species and over 4,000 species of non-flowering plants as well as above 100 species of trees, among which are the deciduous leafy trees and the coniferous trees.

The park is home to over 200 species of birds, 66 species of mammals, 50 species of fish, 39 species of reptiles and also 43 species of amphibians.

A great part of the park has a humid continental climate with a very high level of humidity and precipitation.

There are two main centers within the park area, the Sugarlands Visitors’ Center and the Oconaluftee Visitors’ Centre. Both centres offer visitors a wide variety of books, maps, souvenirs as well as many displays related to the wildlife, geology and the history of the park.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park host a significant number of historical monuments such as Cades Cove, Roaring Fork, Cataloochee, Elkmont also the Mountain Farm Museum and Mingus Mill at Oconalufte.

Address:
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
107 Park Headquarters Rd.
Gatlinburg
TN 37738
United States

Tel: 865 436 1200