10 Facts You Never Knew About Antarctica

This post is about the remotest continent of the world – the highest, driest, windiest, emptiest, coldest place on earth. Here we present you 10 cool facts about Antarctica!

1 - You cannot work in Antarctica unless your wisdom teeth and appendix are removed.

Surgeries are not made at the stations in Antarctica, so you should have your wisdom teeth and appendix removed even if they’re absolutely healthy.

2 -  Antarctica is also the world’s driest place.

In fact the driest place on the planet is located in Antarctica and called the Dry Valleys.

3 - Like some countries (Australia, .au, Germany, .de) the continent of Antarctica has its own top-level domain = .aq

It would be unfair if it has not! Even Mc’Donald Islands do!

4 -  53 million years ago, Antarctica was so warm that palm trees lived along its shores.

The temperature on the continent soared above 20C.

5 - Metallica played a gig in Antarctica called Freeze ‘Em All, making them the first band to have played on every continent.

The band visited all seven continents in one year!

6 - There used to be a nuclear power station in Antarctica.

McMurdo station is the largest community in Antartica, it has been operated by the U.S. since 1962.

7 - Antarctica has a Fire Department.

It belongs to the Mc Murdo station we mentioned above and employs professional firefighters.

8 - Despite the extreme temperatures, there are 1150 different species of fungi identified to survive in Antarctica.

Fungi perfectly adaps to extreme low temperatures, continuous and repeated freeze and thawing cycles.

9 - Antarctica (technically) contains every timezone on the planet.

All longitude lines we use to define time zones meet at the two poles.

10 - No polar bears live in Antarctica.

You may see them in the Arctic or Canada, if you wish.

Source of information:

http://bestpictureblog.com/20-facts-you-never-knew-about-antarctica/10/

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Where is the Garden of Eden? Is it Still around Today?

The Garden is Picture Perfect

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Genesis 2:8-14 “And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.  And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there.  The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush.  And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.”

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God Himself planted this Garden and so it must have been perfect and a true paradise on earth.  The word for Eden means pleasure and since God names things for their attributes, the Garden must have been extremely pleasurable to experience and pleasing to the eye.  The Garden included the Tree of Life which closely resembles the Tree of Life in the New Jerusalem and in fact has the same name as the one in the Garden (Rev 22:2). There is no doubt that it extremely pleasurable was because every tree that was “pleasant to the sight and good for food” was there meaning that there was no lack for anything.

The river that flowed out of Eden was divided into four rivers, again just like what we find in the Kingdom that comes down from heaven (Rev 22:1-2).  The name of the first river was Pison which is Hebrew for “increase” and this river flowed through the land of Havilah which is from the word “circle” so this river must have ran through the land which was shaped like a gigantic circle and the rivers increased every plant that grew there.  It could have been hundreds, thousands, or even millions of square miles in circumference.

The name of the second river is called Gihon which in the Hebrew means “bursting forth” which is what the flora and fauna must have been doing within the luxurious confines of the Garden of Eden.

The third river was the Tigris, which still exists today in Iraq is a transliteration of the word “Chiddeqel” which essentially means “rapid” and so this river must have been a fast moving body of water.

Finally, the fourth river in the Garden was called the Euphrates which means “fruitfulness” and so these rivers gave increase to the vegetation and plant life in Eden with fruit and vegetables bursting forth, and these plants were supplied by a rapidly moving source of water and these all made the Garden fruitful.  Apparently the rivers flowed through the Garden in the land of Havilah watering the entire, circular Garden.  The Garden was planted for the man because “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it” (Gen 2:15).  In many ways the Garden of Eden strongly resembles the New Jerusalem that comes down from heaven.

Where Was the Garden of Eden?

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It appears that it was located in in the Middle East as the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers still run through Iraq but of course rivers can change course over time so whether it was in Iraq, as we know it today, we cannot be 100% certain.  Scientists have discovered that crude oil forms from dead and decaying vegetation and so it stands to reason that the oil reserves found in much of the Middle East could have come from the decay of millions and millions of plants over thousands of years in the area that may have been the location of the Garden of Eden.  But of course, the Flood or as it is sometimes called, the Deluge, must have destroyed the Garden of Eden and so there is likely not even a trace of it left.  We can only speculate that the Flood was the cause of the voluminous oil reserves found in the Middle East today but again, the circular Garden could have been millions of square miles in circumference and so this many millions of plants could have produced billions of gallons of crude oil.  The Bible doesn’t specifically say what size Eden was but just looking at the present day Tigris and Euphrates Rivers it is not hard to believe that the Garden may have been the size of a large nation.

What Happened to the Garden of Eden?

There is evidence of a great worldwide flood and so the Garden must have been completely destroyed thereby finding it would be impossible today.  It’s hard to imagine that a Garden like this would continue to exist and not be discovered after thousands of years and millions of nomadic people who have roamed that land for centuries.   The Flood waters of Noah’s day represent God’s judgment on a sinful world so the likelihood of it still existing is nearly zero.  Besides these facts, no one could enter the Garden if it did exist today because after the fall of mankind “God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life” (Ge 3:23-24).  If the Garden does still exist, and it seems impossible that it still would, we could not have access to it anyway because of the cherubim that guarded it and remember, man was kicked out of the Garden in case“he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever” (Gen 3:22b). Regardless, the Bible is silent on the whereabouts of the Garden and since the Bible is silent on this, so will I be.

Conclusion

There is something coming that is so much better than the Garden ever was and it is the New Jerusalem but only those who have repented of their sins and trusted in Christ may enter it for no sin can be in the coming Kingdom of Heaven.  Then how can sinful creatures like us enter heaven since we are all sinners (Rom 3:23; 6:23)?  It is only by having your sins forgiven (1 John 1:9) and confessing Him as Lord and Savior with your mouth in a public profession (Rom 10:9-13) because it was “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21).  If you are not born again, you too will be barred from entering but will have to go to another place where you will be separated from God for all time (Rev 20:11-15) and that is something that I wouldn’t want my own worst enemy to suffer.

Source of information: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/christiancrier/2014/06/16/where-is-the-garden-of-eden-is-it-still-around-today/#ixzz3YpzEtA2G
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_of_Eden

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Life on other planets?

Until a couple years ago, Mars has always been the top candidate for a planet other than Earth where life might be found. What if Mars disappoints us? Are there other candidates in the solar system? 

The answer is yes, and the next-best shot at finding extra-terrestrial life forms is on Europa, a moon of the planet Jupiter. Right now, there is no other body in the solar system that attracts as much scientific attention as this bright strange-looking moon, the smallest of Jupiter's four large satellites. Shown below, top to bottom (and as you would approach them moving outward from Jupiter) are Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.

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Europa seems like a good bet. Life might be a bit strange, but perhaps not a lot stranger than the life forms recently found around hot vents in the abyssal ocean. Liquid water and sources of energy are the essential prerequisites for Life. Europa might well have them. Strong tidal heat could keep the inside of Europa warm enough to have liquid water beneath a layer of ice. Therefore, any organic compounds would be mobile, in water. They could interact. 

Let's have a closer look at Europa as a possible host of Life. Europa is the fourth largest moon of Jupiter and the sixth largest moon in the solar system. Europa's surface is covered with ice. From the pictures taken by Galileo (the space craft, not the astronomer), its surface looks like broken glass that is repaired by icy glue oozing up from below. Low ridges, straight and curved, crisscross the surface. Flows and fractures, pits and frozen "puddles" - all hint at a unique geologic history. Due to its smooth surface, it is the brightest moon is the solar system. 

It is quite unlike its fellow moons Callisto and Ganymede with their heavily cratered crusts. Europa has almost a complete absence of craters as well as almost no vertical relief. This interesting feature makes it difficult to find out the age of this moon. Geologists determine the relative age of a surface by counting the number of impact craters. We all know our Moon has many craters. It suggests that our moon has been geologically inactive for about 4000 million years. In contrast, there is very little evidence of impacts on the surface of Europa. Unless Europa is fortunate enough to somehow avoid the impacts suffered throughout the rest of the solar system, it must have gone through some kind of geological process that erased the evidence of almost all of those impacts. 

Europa has an icy crust that has been severely fractured, as indicated by the dark linear, curved, and wedged-shaped bands seen in images of the surface. These fractures have broken the crust into plates as large as 30 kilometers (18.5 miles) across. Areas between the plates are filled with material that was probably icy slush contaminated with rocky debris. Some individual plates were separated and rotated into new positions. 

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By studying Europa's density we can tell that it has a shell of water ice, parts of which could be liquid. Models of Europa's interior show that beneath a thin 5 km (3 miles) crust of water ice, Europa may have oceans as deep as 50 km (30 miles) or more. There is some evidence indicating that Europa may be slushy just beneath the icy crust and possibly even warmer at greater depths. The evidence includes a strangely shallow impact crater, chunky textured surfaces like icebergs, and gaps where new icy crust seems to have formed between continent-sized plates of ice. 

Thus, much of the evidence points to a mobile surface provided by liquid water. Liquid water, scientists believe, could exist below the surface because of internal tidal   heating from gravitational interactions with Jupiter and the other Galilean moons. (The Galilean moons are the four shown above, so named because they were first observed by Galileo.) 

Another planetoid mentioned in connection with Life in the solar system is Titan, the largest of the moons of Saturn. Titan has an atmosphere largely made up of nitrogen, with less than one percent of methane. The surface pressure of Titan's atmosphere is higher than that of Earth, but the temperature is extremely cold. A rich assortment of organic molecules is found in Titan's atmosphere, as products of the ammonia/methane chemistry. The mixture includes hydrogen cyanide, a compound in the path to the synthesis of amino acids. This finding has led to speculations that primitive life forms might be present. The low temperatures on this satellite make it unlikely.

source of information:  http://earthguide.ucsd.edu/virtualmuseum/litu/10_3.shtml

https://www.google.com.br/search?q=marte&hl=en&biw=1440&bih=701&site=webhp&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=3bM_VaamBMa0sAS0rYHgBQ&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ#hl=en&tbm=isch&q=Tit%C3%A3+moon&imgrc=3nDwDg2CXAx-8M%253A%3BXQF5NAM_SqRsrM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.windows2universe.org%252Fsaturn%252Fmoons%252Fimages%252Ftitan_globe_surface_color_pia02145_sm.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.windows2universe.org%252Fsaturn%252Fmoons%252Ftitan_surface_overview.html%3B240%3B240

http://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/518510/Aliens-do-exist-scientists-find-proof-of-life-in-space

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The HAARP in operation

The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) is an ionospheric research program jointly funded by the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy, the University of Alaska, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Designed and built by BAE Advanced Technologies (BAEAT), its purpose is to analyze the ionosphere and investigate the potential for developing ionospheric enhancement technology for radio communications and surveillance. The HAARP program operates a major sub-arctic facility, named the HAARP Research Station, on an Air Force-owned site near Gakona, Alaska.

The most prominent instrument at the HAARP Station is the Ionospheric Research Instrument (IRI), a high-power radio frequency transmitterfacility operating in the high frequency (HF) band. The IRI is used to temporarily excite a limited area of the Ionosphere. Other instruments, such as a VHF and a UHF radar, a fluxgate magnetometer, a digisonde (an ionospheric sounding device), and an induction magnetometer, are used to study the physical processes that occur in the excited region.

Work on the HAARP Station began in 1993. The current working IRI was completed in 2007, and its prime contractor was BAE Systems Advanced Technologies. As of 2008, HAARP had incurred around $250 million in tax-funded construction and operating costs. It was reported to be temporarily shut down in May 2013, awaiting a change of contractors. In May 2014, it was announced that the HAARP program would be permanently shut down later in the year.

HAARP was a target of conspiracy theorists, who claimed that it was capable of modifying weather, disabling satellites and exerting mind control over people, and that it was being used as a weapon against terrorists. Such theorists blamed the program for causing earthquakes, droughts, storms and floods, diseases such as Gulf War Syndrome and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800, and the 2003 destruction of the space shuttle Columbia. Commentators and scientists say that proponents of these theories are "uninformed", because most theories put forward fall well outside the abilities of the facility and often outside the scope of natural science.

History

The HAARP program began in 1990. A powerful U.S. senator from Alaska, Republican Ted Stevens, helped win approval for the facility, whose construction began in 1993.

In early May 2013, HAARP was temporarily shut down, awaiting a change between contractors who operated the facility. In July 2013, HAARP program manager James Keeney said, "Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is expected on site as a client to finish up some research in fall 2013 and winter 2014." The temporary shutdown was described as being due to "a contractor regime change." Ahtna, Incorporated, the Alaska Native corporation serving the region of Alaska where the HAARP site is located, was reportedly in talks to take over the facility administration contract from Marsh Creek, LLC.

In May 2014, the Air Force announced that the HAARP program would be shut down later in 2014.

 Instrumentation and operation

The main instrument at HAARP Station is the Ionospheric Research Instrument (IRI). This is a high power, high-frequency phased array radio transmitter with a set of 180 antennas, disposed in an array of 12x15 units that occupy a rectangle of about 33 acres (13 hectares). The IRI is used to temporarily energize a small portion of the ionosphere. The study of these disturbed volumes yields important information for understanding natural ionospheric processes.

During active ionospheric research, the signal generated by the transmitter system is delivered to the antenna array and transmitted in an upward direction. At an altitude between 70 to 350 km (43 to 217 mi) (depending on operating frequency), the signal is partially absorbed in a small volume several tens of kilometers in diameter and a few meters thick over the IRI. The intensity of the HFsignal in the ionosphere is less than 3 µW/cm², tens of thousands of times less than the Sun's natural electromagnetic radiation reaching the earth and hundreds of times less than even the normal random variations in intensity of the Sun's natural ultraviolet (UV) energy which creates the ionosphere. The small effects that are produced, however, can be observed with the sensitive scientific instruments installed at the HAARP Station, and these observations can provide information about the dynamics of plasmas and insight into the processes of solar-terrestrial interactions.

Each antenna element consists of a crossed dipole that can be polarized for linear, ordinary mode (O-mode), or extraordinary mode (X-mode) transmission and reception. Each part of the two section crossed dipoles are individually fed from a specially designed, custom built transmitter, that operates at very low distortion levels. The Effective Radiated Power (ERP) of the IRI is limited by more than a factor of 10 at its lower operating frequencies. Much of this is due to higher antenna losses and a less efficient antenna pattern.

The IRI can transmit between 2.7 and 10 MHz, a frequency range that lies above the AM radio broadcast band and well below Citizens' Band frequency allocations. The HAARP Station is licensed to transmit only in certain segments of this frequency range, however. When the IRI is transmitting, the bandwidth of the transmitted signal is 100 kHz or less. The IRI can transmit in continuous waves (CW) or in pulses as short as 10 microseconds (µs). CW transmission is generally used for ionospheric modification, while transmission in short pulses frequently repeated is used as a radar system. Researchers can run experiments that use both modes of transmission, first modifying the ionosphere for a predetermined amount of time, then measuring the decay of modification effects with pulsed transmissions.

There are other geophysical instruments for research at the Station. Some of them are:

• A fluxgate magnetometer built by the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, available to chart variations in the Earth's magnetic field. Rapid and sharp changes of it may indicate a geomagnetic storm.
• A digisonde that provides ionospheric profiles, allowing scientists to choose appropriate frequencies for IRI operation. The HAARP makes current and historic digisonde information available online.
• An induction magnetometer, provided by the University of Tokyo, that measures the changing geomagnetic field in the Ultra Low Frequency (ULF) range of 0–5 Hz.

The Station is powered by a set of five (5) 2500 kilowatt generators being driven by EMD 20-645-E4 diesel locomotive engines.

Source of information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Frequency_Active_Auroral_Research_Program

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Mystery behind the moo

Nasa Ladee mission: Solving a Moon mystery

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Nasa's Ladee mission is part of a resurgence of interest in the Moon and it is all down to the fact that we barely understand our cosmic neighbour.

You would be forgiven for thinking that America lost interest in the Moon forty years ago, in December 1972, when Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan left the final footprint on its dusty surface. It’s certainly true that in the 1970s and 80s there was little desire to return to our grey, cratered cosmic neighbour. In fact during the 1980s no-one sent a single spacecraft, robot or orbiter. Thanks to Apollo, American scientists had an enormous pile of lunar rocks to study, Nasa’s attention had switched to the Space Shuttle and the Soviets had run out of money.

But in recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in studying the Moon in order to tackle some of the many unanswered scientific questions. In the last decade, Europe, Japan, China and India have all sent unmanned orbiters to probe the Moon’s chemical composition, gravitational field and topography. Among other things, they’ve proved the presence of water, discovered potentially useful minerals and uncovered evidence that the Moon may still be geologically active. Now, later this year, the US will be launching its fourth mission since 2009: 

Ladee (pronounced Lad-ee, rather than Lay-dee) stands for Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer and is designed to build on Apollo science. Looking disconcertingly like an Apollo Command Module smothered in shiny solar panels, this robotic spacecraft will study lunar dust in the Moon’s tenuous atmosphere. “Yes the Moon has an atmosphere,” exclaims Brian Day from Nasa’s Lunar Science Institute. “People are astonished to find that out.

“We uncovered the very beginnings of our understanding of the lunar atmosphere when we visited with Apollo,” Day says, “but we haven’t really revisited the question of how much there is, what it’s made of and how it changes from month to month.”

‘Dead world’

The mission will also aim to solve another related question that’s unresolved from Apollo: a weird glow that the astronauts saw from lunar orbit. “There were these interesting ‘streamers’ that were seen out the window of the Command Module when it was round the Moon,” says Ladee project scientist Richard Elphic. “Some of the supposition is that these may be pillars of levitated dust, high into the lunar sky. But we don’t know for sure, so we’re trying to understand what role dust might play in the lunar atmosphere.”

Observations made through telescopes on Earth have already given the Ladee science team some idea of what they might find. They know, for instance, that the lunar atmosphere contains argon and helium and they were surprised to also find two metals: sodium and potassium. “Those are just the tip of the iceberg,” says Elphic, “there are probably many other species of chemicals and just as exotic.

The Moon’s thin and fragile atmosphere is technically known as a surface boundary exosphere and what makes this investigation even more interesting is that these types of atmospheres are found around bodies elsewhere in the Solar System. Mercury has one, so do larger asteroids, many of the moons of the gas giants, even the minor planets beyond Neptune. “This may be the most common type of atmosphere in our solar system and we know very little about it,” says Day. “But we happen to have one right next door – how lucky is that? We’re going to take advantage of that and go and explore it.”

The 2m (7ft) long Ladee is equipped with three instruments to sample lunar dust as well as a neat new laser communications system. This will be used to send data back to Earth encoded in beams of light rather than radio waves, massively increasingly bandwidth. If successful, this technology could revolutionise space communications.

The Ladee mission is also significant because it is part of a wider trend of renewed interest in lunar science. Over the last few years there have been a record number of spacecraft in orbit around the Moon at the same time. And unlike the last big push to reach our nearest neighbour, this is not primarily about planting a flag but investigating some fundamental science.

“The Moon is a far more fascinating place than we had previously thought,” says Day. “There’s a lot more going on there than we previously realised. This is not a geologically dead, airless, totally dry world.”

‘Living and breathing’

Lunar scientists are even revisiting theories about the Moon’s formation. Until last year, it was widely accepted that it was formed 4.5 billion years ago from the debris of a collision between a theoretical planet-sized object and the infant Earth. A new theory, from Nasa’s Lunar Science Institute, suggests the Earth and Moon might have resulted from a collision between two massive planets, each five times the size of Mars.

“The Moon was born interesting and it has continued to be interesting over the past four billion years,” says Elphic. “The Moon is still living and breathing.”

Ladee is currently scheduled for launch in August and I wonder whether this ratcheting up of lunar exploration is a step towards returning humans to the Moon. China has certainly made clear its ambitions to land on the Moon and possibly establish a manned settlement but what about the United States?

I always expect diplomatic answers from Nasa employees with this question, particularly as a human mission to the Moon is not currently on the agency’s agenda. But Day says the Moon would be a logical choice for a next small step for mankind. “As we start looking at the further destinations [such as Mars], these are hard places to go to but we can refine our techniques and technologies by going to the Moon.”

Elphic agrees, “Building a base, dealing with the possibilities of in-situ resources that you could use to make fuel or oxygen to breathe, doing this at the Moon makes sense even if your destination is Mars and beyond. Solve all the difficult problems in a place that’s relatively easy to get to and then move on from there.”

As the discoveries from this recent flurry of missions are proving, the Moon would certainly be worth a visit.

Source of information: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130411-solving-a-moon-mystery

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The truths behind 10 of the world's great wonders

 Here we reveal the ingenious engineering behind 10 of the world's most epic structures – and the little-known facts that lie hidden in their depths.

1. Taj Mahal, Agra, India

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The Taj Mahal is widely considered one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. Image by Tetra Images - Bryan Mullennix / Brand X Pictures / Getty Images.

Legend has it that Mughal ruler Shah Jahan ordered the hands of the Taj Mahal builders to be chopped off after it was completed, to prevent them from ever building anything so beautiful again - although no written evidence supports this story. The elegance of the mausoleum can be attributed to clever engineering. To make the Taj Mahal appear perfectly straight from ground level, the architect designed the minarets to slant slightly outward, which also ensured that in the event of an earthquake they would fall away from the mausoleum's precious dome.

2. Burj Khalifa, Dubai, UAE

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This ethereal tower in the Arabian Desert cost US$1.5 billion to construct. At 828m, 2.5 times higher than the Eiffel Tower, the Burj Khalifa is the world's tallest building. To withstand high winds and earthquakes, this superscraper is designed with a 'buttressed core' – three wings set at 120 degrees to each other, anchored around a central hub. Each wing supports the others, so when the wind blows on two of the wings, the third resists the force.

3. Moai, Easter Island (Rapa Nui), Polynesia

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The moai are one of Rapa Nui's most enduring images. Image by Volanthevist / Flickr  / Getty Images.

These ancient statues (among other theories) have been blamed for the demise of the Easter islanders. Transporting them on logs would have devastated forests, and without trees the soil would have washed away, causing failed harvests, famine, war and cannibalism. But satellite images of Easter Island, taken in 2005, show dirt tracks radiating from the quarry where these mysterious 10m-tall statues were carved. After attaching ropes to the head of the moai, small teams could have moved the statues by 'walking' them along.

4. Stonehenge, England

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Stonehenge is still one of Britain's great archaeological mysteries. Image by Shanna Baker / Flickr RF / Getty Images.

Aliens, druids and everyone in between have been proposed as the builders of Stonehenge. But why was it built? Recent evidence suggests it was constructed to celebrate midwinter, not midsummer as previously thought. Most of the monuments in the area are aligned on sunrise and sunset at midwinter and, by dating pig teeth found at nearby settlements, it's now known that more pork was eaten then to celebrate days getting longer.

And how was it built? Around 2600BC, bluestones were (most likely) floated on river rafts from the Preseli Hills in west Wales. Radioactive dating proves glaciers couldn’t have swept them to Salisbury Plain 40,000 years ago, as once thought. On site, the foot of each stone was levered into a pit, and lintels lifted into place using scaffolding.

5. Eiffel Tower, Paris, France

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You can't imagine Paris without its signature spire. Image by Rilind Hoxha Photography / Flickr RF / Getty Images.

Built for the 1889 World's Fair, Monsieur Eiffel himself was the first to climb the tower’s 1710 steps to the summit. (Having funded most of the construction, he raked in US$1 million in ticket sales in the first year alone.) At 324m, the Eiffel Tower was a useful radio antenna from which the Germans sent coded signals to their forces during WWII. Today, 50 tons of paint are used to resurface the tower every seven years.

6. Great Wall of China, China

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No matter what your expectations, a visit to the Great Wall of China will blow you away. Image by Digital Vision / Photodisc / Getty Images.

Initially built out of rocks and mud, 16th-century Emperor Jiajing developed the Great Wall into a formidable stone dragon. Millions of workers were recruited from the army or press-ganged into signing up, and worked around the clock, extending the wall and constructing the forts. Records claim that a 3km section was completed in 600 days by just 3000 men. And despite frequent billing as the only man-made object visible from space, the Great Wall can actually be seen only with a hefty camera lens from low Earth orbit.

7. Angkor Wat, Cambodia

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A traveller’s first glimpse of Angkor Wat, the ultimate expression of Khmer genius, is sure to astonish. Image by Artie Photography (Artie Ng) / Flickr / Getty Images.

This empire of temples for a city of 1 million people took more than 300,000 workers just 35 years to build (with the help of 6000 elephants). Most temples take centuries to build, let alone one this size: Angkor Wat is believed to be the largest religious complex in the world. Indeed, Angkor Wat's moat is so vast that it can be seen from space. Each one of more than 3000 seductive nymphs (apsaras) carved on the temple walls is unique and has one of 37 different hairstyles.

8. Machu Picchu, Peru

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In a spectacular location, Machu Picchu is the best-known archaeological site on the continent of South America. Image by Image source / Getty Images.

Clinging to a remote ridge high in the Andes, the ancient city of Machu Picchu was built, lived in and deserted in fewer than 100 years – then lost to civilization for centuries. During construction, the Inca didn't use wheels to transport the blocks. Instead it's thought they hauled them up the slopes by hand, as protrusions have been found on a few stones (suggesting grips for workers' hands). Ingenious engineering solutions were used to counteract earthquakes: L-shaped blocks anchored corners together, doors and windows tilted inward, and no mortar was used between stones so that, if shaken, they could move and resettle without collapsing.

9. Khazneh, Petra, Jordan

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The treasury (Khazneh) is one of Petra's most impressive sights. Image by Danita Delimont / Gallo Images  / Getty Images.

Immortalized in films like Indiana Jones, the 2000-year-old Khazneh was the jewel of the ancient city of Petra. A nearby unfinished tomb suggests the Khazneh was probably carved from top down. So the holes running up either side of the façade are misleading – they were probably created later by vandals to use as footholes to deface sculptures.

10. Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt

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The Great Pyramid of Giza remained the world's tallest building for 4000 years. Image by Daryl Benson / Stone / Getty Images.

The goliath Great Pyramid of Giza, the sole survivor of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was the tallest construction in the world until the Eiffel Tower was built in 1889. It was built to hold just three burial chambers, but required a workforce of around 30,000. Intriguingly, analyses of the living arrangements, bread-making technology, animal remains and ancient graffiti suggest the workers were not slaves as previously thought, but skilled laborers.

Information sources: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/travel-tips-and-articles/top-secrets-the-truths-behind-10-of-the-worlds-great-wonders#ixzz3U0TqIWI9

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