Amazing Panorama

A panorama of Melbourne's Yarra River at twilight, showing the Central Business District on the left and the Southbank entertainment district on the right


Los Angeles and Griffith Observatory, as viewed from the Hollywood Hills. Taken as a 20 segment 2x10 panorama with a Canon 5D and 70-200mm f/2.8L lens.


Cows in a beautiful green field


A panorama of the city, taken from the Chalet du Mont Royal at the top of Mount Royal in Montreal. It is a 3x5 segment panorama taken with a Canon 5D and 24-105mm f/4L IS at 105mm and f/8. Each exposure was around three seconds.


This image shows a panorama photo of the castle Blankenhain and its pond (near Crimmitschau, Germany).


View from Connors Hill in East Gippsland Shire, Victoria, Australia.


Panoramic image looking south from the upper deck of the 'Top of the Rock' observation deck on Rockefeller Center.


Dinner plain summer


Loch Ard Gorge Panorama


Summer scenery from Mt Hotham, Victoria, Australia


Panoramic Image of Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley


Alpine Range scenery as viewed just past Mt Hotham. East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia


A panorama of the Melbourne skyline from Yarra's Edge, Docklands at twilight. Taken with a Canon 5D with a 24-105mm f/4L IS


 A panorama of 4 images stiched together, showing the city of Salzburg from the top of the fortress.

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Amazing Petroglyph--image drawn or painted on a rock face

Petroglyphs are images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, pecking, carving, and abrading. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions of the technique to refer to such images. Petroglyphs are found world-wide, and are often (but not always) associated with prehistoric peoples. The word comes from the Greek words petros meaning "stone" and glyphein meaning "to carve" (it was originally coined in French as pétroglyphe).

The term petroglyph should not be confused with pictograph, which is an image drawn or painted on a rock face. Both types of image belong to the wider and more general category of rock art. Petroforms, or patterns and shapes made by many large rocks and boulders over the ground, are also quite different. Inukshuks are also unique, and found only in the Arctic (except for reproductions and imitations built in more southerly latitudes).

Petroglyphs on Newspaper Rock near Canyonlands National Park, south of Moab, south eastern Utah, USA

Rock carving known as "Meerkatze" (named by archaeologist Leo Frobenius), rampant lionesses in Wadi Methkandoush, Mesak Settafet region of Libya.

History
 
 
A petroglyph of a caravan of bighorn sheep near Moab, Utah, USA; a common theme in glyphs from the desert southwest

The oldest petroglyphs are dated to approximately the Neolithic and late Upper Paleolithic boundary, about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, if not earlier (Kamyana Mohyla). Around 7,000 to 9,000 years ago, other precursors of writing systems, such as pictographs and ideograms, began to appear. Petroglyphs were still common though, and some cultures continued using them much longer, even until contact with Western culture was made in the 20th century. Petroglyphs have been found in all parts of the globe except Antarctica with highest concentrations in parts of Africa, Scandinavia, Siberia, southwestern North America and Australia.


Composite image of petroglyphs from Scandinavia (Häljesta, Västmanland in Sweden). Nordic Bronze Age. The glyphs have been painted to make them more visible.


Interpretation

There are many theories to explain their purpose, depending on their location, age, and the type of image. Some petroglyphs are thought to be astronomical markers, maps, and other forms of symbolic communication, including a form of "pre-writing". They might also have been a by-product of other rituals: sites in India, for example, have been identified as musical instruments or "rock gongs". [1]

Some petroglyph images probably had deep cultural and religious significance for the societies that created them; in many cases this significance remains for their descendants. Many petroglyphs are thought to represent some kind of not-yet-fully understood symbolic or ritual language. Later glyphs from the Nordic Bronze Age in Scandinavia seem to refer to some form of territorial boundary between tribes, in addition to possible religious meanings. It also appears that local or regional dialects from similar or neighboring peoples exist. The Siberian inscriptions almost look like some early form of runes, although there is not thought to be any relationship between them. They are not yet well understood.

Some researchers have noticed the resemblance of different styles of petroglyphs across different continents; while it is expected that all people would be inspired by their surroundings, it is harder to explain the common styles. This could be mere coincidence, an indication that certain groups of people migrated widely from some initial common area, or indication of a common origin. In 1853 George Tate read a paper to the Berwick Naturalists' Club at which a Mr John Collingwood Bruce agreed that the carvings had "... a common origin, and indicate a symbolic meaning, representing some popular thought." [2] In his cataloguing of Scottish rock art, Ronald Morris summarised 104 different theories on their interpretation. [3].

Other, more controversial, explanations are grounded in Jungian psychology and the views of Mircea Eliade. According to these theories it is possible that the similarity of petroglyphs (and other atavistic or archetypal symbols) from different cultures and continents is a result of the genetically inherited structure of the human brain.

Other theories suggest that petroglyphs were made by shamans in an altered state of consciousness[4], perhaps induced by the use of natural hallucinogens. Many of the geometric patterns (known as form constants) which recur in petroglyphs and cave paintings have been shown to be "hard-wired" into the human brain; they frequently occur in visual disturbances and hallucinations brought on by drugs, migraine and other stimuli.

Present-day links between shamanism and rock-art amongst the San people of the Kalahari desert have been studied by the Rock Art Research Institute (RARI) of the University of the Witwatersrand [1]. Though the San people's artworks are predominantly paintings, the beliefs behind them can perhaps be used as a basis for understanding other types of rock art, including petroglyphs

A petroglyph of a caravan of bighorn sheep near Moab, Utah, USA; a common theme in glyphs from the desert southwest

Asia

 Photo of Cheung Chau Rock Carving

KyrgyzPetroglyphs


Tanbaly


 Buddhist stone carvings at Ili River, Kazakhstan


India

 Petroglyphs at Edakkal Caves in Wayanad, Kerala. They date back to about 4000 BC.

Philippines


Petroglyphs on a rock wall found in the Sierra Madre mountain range, Rizal, Philippines

Pacific

 Petroglyph on western coast of Hawaii

 Petroglyphs at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park


Petroglyphs at Orongo, Rapa Nui (Easter Island). A Makemake at the base and two birdmen higher up

North America

  Petroglyphs on a Bishop Tuff tableland, eastern California, USA

Southern Utah, USA
Southern Utah, USA


Arches National Park


Peterborough, Ontario, Canada


Arizona, USA


Columbia River Gorge, Washington, USA


Upside-down man in Western Colorado, USA


Rochester Rock Art Panel in the San Rafael Swell in Utah, USA


 Outside Parras, Coahuila, Mexico


Europe

Petroglyph from Foppe of Nadro, Val Camonica, Italy
Duel in Foppe of Nadro, Val Camonica, Italy


Running Priest in Capo di Ponte, Val Camonica, Italy


 Engravers from Val Camonica, Italy


Rock Carving in Tanum, Sweden


Carving "The Shoemaker", Brastad, Sweden


Petroglyph in Roque Bentayga, Gran Canaria (Canary Islands).


Petroglyph at Dalgarven Mill, Ayrshire, Scotland.

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Amazing Peru Rocks

Huayna Picchu (mountain at center) towers above this view of the ruins of Machu Picchu, in the Peruvian Andes, seen on October 13, 2008 (© Gary Noel)


Cobblestone Streets of Cuzco, where the Peru Rocks team gathered and acclimatized before their climb to Machu Picchu, seen on October 7, 2008. (© Gary Noel) #


Local Peruvian boys taking part in a parade in Cuzco on October 8, 2008. (© Gary Noel) #


Trekkers write last minute dedications on the prayer flags that were carried to Machu Picchu, October 8, 2008. (© Gary Noel) #


Narrow cobblestone Streets in Cuzco, Peru October 7, 2008. (© Gary Noel) #


First sight of the Llactapata Ruins along the Inca Trail, still four kilometers west of Machu Picchu, seen on October 10, 2008. (© Gary Noel) #


Llactapata steps, part of a complex of ruins related to Machu Picchu along the Inca Trail. Photo taken October 10, 2008. (© Gary Noel) #


View of snowcapped mountains along the Inca trail, October 10, 2008. (© Gary Noel) #


A night scene from the first campsite at the village of Wayllabamba, Peru on October 11, 2008. (© Gary Noel) #


Team member Shannon Foley, seen uploading the daily podcast journals which let the world watch as the team progressed on their trek, October 11, 2008. (© Gary Noel) #


An Alpaca encountered along the Inca Trail, October 11, 2008. (© Gary Noel) #


Team members and musicians Tony Scalzo, Joey Shuffield, and Miles Zuniga from Fastball join Mike Peters of the Alarm, Cy Curnin of The Fixx, Nick Harper and Brien McVernon for a jam session with the porters on the mountain, October 11, 2008. (© Gary Noel) #


Mike Peters from the Alarm with his wife Jules, happy to have arrived at Machu Picchu on October 13, 2008. (© Gary Noel) #


First sight of the ruins of Machu Picchu from the Sun Gate, October 13, 2008. (© Gary Noel) #


Sixteen of a group of travelers from Colorado that all made the trek together, October 13, 2008. (© Gary Noel) #


Closer view of more ruins along the trail to Machu Picchu, October 12, 2008. (© Gary Noel) #


The entire Peru Rocks crew dedicating the prayer flags at their final destination, Machu Picchu, October 13, 2008. (© Gary Noel) #


The ruins of Machu Picchu, October 14, 2008. Constructed around 1460, overlooked by Spanish conquerors, and rediscovered by the West in 1911, the treasured site is visited by over 400,000 travelers every year. (© Gary Noel) #


A vessel containing the Ashes of Otto Schutt, a San Francisco man who passed away in May, a victim of colon cancer. Otto's ashes were brought on the trek by his two friends Lee Williams and David Dexter and his nephew Derrick Tabish on October 14, 2008. (© Gary Noel) #


Derrick Tabish, David Dexter and Lee Williams celebrate the life of Otto Schutt by spreading his ashes along the Inca Trail, October 14, 2008. Otto and Lee had planned to make the trek together, in part as a way to have a goal to look forward to as Otto endured his cancer treatment. Unfortunately, Otto lost his battle with cancer in May of 2008. (© Gary Noel) #


Peru Rocks concert performed in the Plaza de Armas in Aguas Calientes, October 14, 2008. (© Gary Noel) #


Musician Nick Harper performing in Lima, Peru at the finale concert, wrapping up the trek on October 15, 2008. (© Gary Noel) #


Visit to the children's ward at the main cancer center INEN in Peru, where the children received gifts and cards the trekkers had brought on October 16, 2008. (© Gary Noel) #


A visit to the chemotherapy room at INEN, the main cancer center in Lima, Peru October 16, 2008. (© Gary Noel) #



Young Peruvian patients smile, excited to receive so many visitors at their local cancer center INEN, October 16, 2008. (© Gary Noel) #

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