PD Photo: A dhow in the Nile River, Zamalek, a district of Cairo encompassing an island on the Nile River.
PD Photo: A dhow (boat) traverses the Nile River near Aswan (or Aswanl, formerly spelled Assuan), the capital of the Aswan Governorate, in the south of Egypt.
PD Photo: Mary Magdalene Raised by Angels (1616), oil on canvas painting by Italian Baroque period painter Giovanni Lanfranco (1582-1647), dimensions 109 cm x 78 cm, located at Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples, Italy.
PD Photo: Sculpture of Lord Shiva as Nataraja, the Cosmic Dancer, in the Botanical Garden managed by the Polish Academy of Sciences at Powsin, a neighborhood of the Wilanów district of Warsaw, Poland, photo by Albert Stanisław Jankowski, Poland.
PD Photo: Seated Ganesha, 1200-1300, originally from Karnataka State of India, sculpted from schist (a medium-grade metamorphic rock) currently located in Asian Art Museum of San Francisco in San Francisco, California, United States.
PD Image: The Bathers #4 by Paul Cézanne, oil on canvas painting
French artist and Post-Impressionist painter Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) is credited for laying the foundations of the transition from the 19th century style of art to a radically different form. He experimented with different optical images an object can present to the viewer. Also he tried to view every object in geometrical shapes such as cylinders, spears, etc. His direct observations from nature were transferred to the canvas as bold, but small brush strokes using different lighting conditions and vibrant colors, often giving the impression of coarse, immature paintings. And, possibly as experimenting with such themes, he painted some themes repeatedly, but giving a fresh and energizing impression each time. For instance, his ‘bathers’ series of paintings are numerous, but they are never monotonous or boring, and each one of them gave a new meaning to his art.
Also Cezanne is credited as being a bridge between Impressionism and the early 20th century's Cubism, as Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso would vouch for. Also, Cézanne's work and themes of geometric simplification and optical phenomena inspired emerging artists of the times such as Picasso, Juan Gris, Georges Braque and others making them experimenting with more complex and multiple views of the same subject, and even fracturing of form. And this artistic enquiry and experimentation contributed greatly to the evolution of modern art.
PD Photo: Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai, photo by Ivan Dubya, taken on December 20, 2007.
PD Photo: Burj Al Arab seen at a distance from a tower room of Le Royal Méridien Beach Resort and Spa, Dubai Marina, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, photo by Christopher T Cooper taken on 21 September 2009.
Burj Al Arab, a super-luxury hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is an unusual and unique hotel as it is constructed on an artificial island at a distance of 280 meters (920 feet) from the Jumeirah beach, and it is structured in the shape of the sail of a dhow, a type of Arabian vessel. The manmade island is connected to the mainland by a private bridge.
One of the most photographed buildings in the world, and soaring to a height of 321 meters, the Burj Al Arab is currently the world's second tallest hotel (the building is exclusively used as a hotel), the tallest such hotel being Dubai’s Rose Tower (333 m/ 1,092 feet). It will be the fourth tallest hotel in the world, when Emirates Park Tower 1 (376 m/ 1,234 ft) and Emirates Park Tower 2 (376 m/ 1,234 ft), both in Dubai, are opened (scheduled for 2010 opening).
PD Photo: A terracotta sculpture of the Hindu God Hanuman in India; the reddish color is due to iron oxide in the source clay of the ceramic, and clays with low iron content can result in paler colors on firing and processing terra cotta, ranging from white to yellow.
PD Photo: The Temptation of Eve, 18th century oil on canvas painting by French painter Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre (1714-1789), dimensions 48.8 cm x 57.8 cm (19.21 in x 22.76 in) held in private collection.
PD Photos: The Taj Lake Palace, a luxury hotel located on Jag Niwas Island in the middle of Lake Pichola in Udaipur.
The Taj Lake Palace, formerly known as Jag Niwas Palace, is an unusual, unique luxury hotel of 83 rooms and suites, located on the Jag Niwas Island in the middle of Lake Pichola in Udaipur, India. It looks like a floating, huge palace in the middle of the lake.
The palace was built in the period 1743-46 by Maharana Jagat Singh II, the 62nd successor to the royal dynasty of Mewar, for use as his royal summer palace. The successive rulers also used the Lake Palace as their summer resort, holding their regal Durbars in its courtyards lined with columns, pillared terraces, fountains and gardens.
The palace is set against the backdrop of the majestic Aravalli Mountains on one side of the lake and lofty palaces on the other side. Built in marble, the walls are ornamented with arabesques of different colored stones as in the Taj Mahal at Agra.
During the reign of Bhopal Singh (1930-55) another pavilion, Chandra Prakash, was added. His successor Bhagwat Singh decided to convert the palace into Udaipur’s first luxury hotel.
In 1971, Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces (collective name for The Indian Hotels Company Limited and its subsidiaries owned by the Tata Group) took over management of the hotel. The Royal Butlers, the descendants of the original palace butlers, look after the comforts of the hotel guests.
The Lake Palace was featured in the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy, as the floating palace of the fabulously wealthy woman Octopussy, played by Bond girl Maud Adams.
YouTube Video: Poseidon undersea resort. NOT PUBLIC DOMAIN, but to grab a link of this video for your site or blog, click on the video and go to its YouTube page, or CLICK HERE.
The Poseidon Undersea Resorts, a proposed chain of underwater five-star resorts, will have first of the resorts on a private island in Fiji. It will be the first underwater hotel/ resort in the world once construction is completed. Poseidon was conceived and developed by L. Bruce Jones, president of U.S. Submarines, Inc. and financed by TOPA equities Corp.
The Poseidon underwater resort will be linked to land through two tunnels. The resort will feature an underwater restaurant, a lounge, 20 luxury suites, one themed suite, a grand suite, and an undersea bungalow accessible by submarine. It will also have an onshore facility with five-star hotel amenities.
Each of the rooms will have 270 degree view of the ocean. Each end of the resort will be composed of a 3,000-square-foot (280 sq meters), Frisbee shaped underwater pod. One of these pods will have an underwater restaurant and bar and the other will have a library, conference room, wedding chapel, spa and a 1,200-square-foot (110 sq meters) luxury suite. The resort will be accessed through elevators.
Reservations at the resort is expected to cost $30,000 per couple per week, and will include four nights in a luxury beach or over-water villa and two nights in the luxury underwater suite. The resort also offers a variety of land and sea activities such as golf and diving onboard a luxury expedition submarine.
