Alcatraz

"The Rock" as others know! Alcatraz is an island situated near the bay of San Francisco, from the bay it can be seen like a big rock in the middle of the gulf in San Francisco, this is why they call it simply “The Rock”. The history starts in 1775 when a Spanish explorer found and named it “Isla de los Alcatraces” which means The Island of the Lost Pelicans. For years, the island wasn’t approached by anybody because of the bizarre place. After the Americans spread all around America, the military decided to make a military fortress to protect the San Francisco Bay by invaders, because of the lately discovered gold field which was one of the biggest which was discover in that time. Less than two years later, the Civil War broke out, and Alcatraz was considered an important Union defense place against the Confederate army. Although a military base remained in use on the island until 1933, Alcatraz was never actually attacked. For much of that time, the island served as a military prison more than as a defensive outpost. The year after the military left, the Bureau of Prisons began using the island as a maximum-security prison. One of its first inmates was Al Capone who was the biggest gangster head in the 1920s. So Alcatraz is in deed was the famous prison of North America, with a place where security was the sky and no one could escape from the place because of the big waves which made difficult to swim. But, there were some prisoners who managed to escape but some of them couldn’t got of the coast, others have probably drown in the water, some of them who were got swimmers and could get to the bay but they were captured in days. Another legendary prisoner, Robert Stroud, was known as the Birdman of Alcatraz. Stroud had studied canaries while he was in prison at Leavenworth before being transferred to Alcatraz and he had even published a book on canary physiology and disease. But during his 17 years at Alcatraz, he was never permitted to study birds getting the nickname Birdman. He wasn’t even permitted to see the 1963 film Birdman of Alcatraz, for which actor Burt Lancaster won an Oscar. In 1963 the prison was closed because of the place didn’t met the orders. From 1963 till 1669 it was closed, in 1669 100 Native Americans protesters used it for 19 moths for protested for the island, but the Government didn’t gave it to them. Today tourists come to see Alcatraz, the little island out in San Francisco Bay that was once a federal penitentiary.


Some links:
Alcatraz History
Alcatraz at Wikipedia

The Big Ben

The history of the Big Ben! The Big Ben is the famous clock of London, it can be seen from a big distance. The Clock is also known for his reliability, it was build with much precise by engineers around the United Kingdom. Big Ben is actually the nickname of a single bell, not the clock itself, the tower in which it is installed. The building is the Palace of Westminster, mainly known as the Houses of Parliament. The clock tower of the Palace of Westminster houses the clock, it is officially known as the Great Clock of Westminster. It has four faces, one very large bell, and four smaller bells. The largest bell, which chimes on the hour and which, is not visible from the outside of the tower, is the Great Bell of Westminster. It was cast in 1856 and is one of Britain’s largest bells, at 3m high. According to most people, Big Ben was named after Sir Benjamin Hall, who was the Commissioner of Works when the bell was constructed. Sir Benjamin was a big and large man, and so the nickname was appropriate to the size of the bell. Others say the clock was named after champion boxer Benjamin Caunt. The Great Clock of Westminster is one of the largest mechanical clocks in the world and also one of the most accurate. Its original specification stipulated that the first ring of the clock each hour should be within one second of the correct time. The leading clock designers of the day considered that an unreachable goal, because the hands and other exposed parts were subject to the action of wind, moisture, temperature changes, birds, and other variables that could easily throw off its accuracy by more than a second. However, after winning a design competition, Edmund Beckett Denison was hired to design the clock, which did in fact obtain the specified accuracy. When minor adjustments need to be made to regulate the clock’s speed, pennies are placed on the clock’s pendulum to alter its weight slightly.



Some links:
Big Ben at AboutBritain.com
Big Ben at Wikipedia

Machu Pichu

Around 1440, it is believed that the Pachacutec Yupanqui, the founder of the Inca Empire, built the city in the clouds known as Machu Picchu ("old mountain") in what is now Peru. This extraordinary settlement lies 2,350 m above the sea level, deep in the Amazon jungle above the Urubamba River. Forgotten for centuries by the outside world, Machu Picchu attracted international attention when it was discovered again by the American archeologist Hiram Bingham in 1911. There are several different theories, what Machu Picchu was. Some believe it was the luxurious site of Pachacutec, since there are remains of buildings that were covered with gold. Others think that it was a settlement built to both control the economy of the conquered regions and to protect the the top Incan aristocracy in the case of an attack. Another theory is seeing Machu Picchu as a country retreat for Inca nobility. It may also have been used as an observatory and for astrological ceremonies. A maximum of 750 people probably lived in the “Lost City of the Incas” at once. It is said that the image of the mountain behind Machu Picchu represents the face of the Inca looking upward towards the sky, with the largest peak, Huayna Picchu “young mountain” representing his nose. Machu Picchu had a large agricultural area with practical crops, such as corn and and orchids and other decorative plants, as well as what were probably living and religious sections. In the upper urban area, a stone column rising from a stone block the size of a grand piano. This solar clock exactly show the dates of the two equinoxes and other important celestial events. It is thought that, as the winter solstice neared, when the sun seemed to disappear more each day, priests would hold a ceremony to tie the sun to the stone to prevent the sun from disappearing completely. Everything shows that Machu Picchu was quickly abandoned when the Spanish, fighting the rebellious Incas of Vilcabamba, went into Cuzco lands. But deadly smallpox was faster than the conquistadors, and 50 percent of the population had probably been killed by the disease by 1527. The Inca government began to fail, part of the empire seceded and it fell into civil war. So, by the time Pizarro, the Inca’s conqueror, arrived in Cuzco in 1532, Machu Picchu was probably already a ghost town.



Some links:
Machu Picchu at Wikipedia