Scientific evidence confirm that the origins of Mankind lie only in Africa. From Africa they moved to each area of the globe, and by two thousand years ago most of the planet, among them the Pacific Islands were occupied. Even so, the islands around Africa, the continent where it all begun were among the final places on the globe to be found. The following islands were all discovered late in history, although today they are among the most popular destinations in the world.
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands were most probably one of the initial islands in Africa to be inhabited. The highest point of Teide on Tenerife can be seen on cloudless days from the continent and the islands were seen by the Phoenicians, the Greeks and the Carthaginians in ancient times. As stated by to Pliny the Elder, an expedition sent by the king of Numidia to the isles, found them to be unpopulated, but that there were remains of fantastic structures.
Archaeological findings imply that the initial people of the Canaries entered by the sea around 1000 BC or before and shared general source with African Berber tribes from the Atlas Mountains. When the Europeans started to investigate the Canary Islands, they met Guanche people, still living a prehistoric lifestyle. The islands were ultimately annexed by the Kingdom of Castille in the 15th century.
Mauritius
Mauritius was known to Austronesian, Swahili and Arab seafarers as early as the 10th century. The Portuguese sailors first visited the island in 1507. Five ships from the Netherlands, turned off course during a storm while on their voyage to the Asia, visited Mauritius in 1598, and named it in tribute to Prince Maurice of Nassau, the head of state of the Netherlands.
Cape Verde
The earliest written record of Cape Verde can be found in historic Greek writings where they are named as the islands Gorgades. The Cape Verde islands were relocated by European wayfarers around 1456. Some evidence indicates that the islands may have been navigated by Arabs, generations before the appearance of the Portuguese.
The Seychelles
The earliest detailed sighting of the Seychelles by Europeans happened in 1502 by the Portuguese Admiral Vasco da Gama but these African Islands were certainly travelled to by other people. Austronesian sailors were most likely the first to explore the unpopulated Seychelles hundreds of years. And an Arab document dated to the year 851 speak of higher islands below the Maldives.
The Comoros Islands
The initial people of the Comoros Islands are considered to have been Austronesian and African settlers. The very first known archaeological site, found on Nzwani, dates to 600 AD. The Comoros became inhabited by a sequence of various groups from the shoreline of Africa, Arabia, the Indonesia, and Madagascar. Portuguese explorers discovered the Comoros in beginning of the 16h century.
Madagascar
The Portuguese mariner Diego Dias was the first Western to visit Madagascar in 1500 when his boat, bound for India, blew off course. The Portuguese found Madagascar to be inhabited by Asian men and women instead of African. Madagascar folktale talks about a pygmy-like people named the Vazimba as the earliest inhabitants of the island. Historians today generally place the settling of Madagascar in the years between 300 BC and 500 AD, when men and women from Borneo appeared in their canoes. These were the initial Malagasy, who emerged to the island as part of the considerable Austronesian colonization, the movement of humans that came to control Indonesia and the Pacific islands.
Author Jared Diamond observed many similarities between Malagasy and Indonesians like cultivating rice in a related fashion and making use of outrigger canoes. Bantu refugees from the African continent certainly crossed the ocean either due to the interaction with Austronesians or because of the Arab traders, decades later.
woensdag 4 mei 2011
Temples of the Maya
Located in Central American, The Maya society is one of the well-known civilizations of the Western Hemisphere. The first traces of the Mayan civilization date back to what is called the Preclassic period around 1800 BC. City states were formed by around 400 BC - to 100 AD. Mayan states gained their highest population numbers and large-scale construction during 250 to 900 AD. The most remarkable Mayan ruins from this phase are the temples that were completed in every Maya state of great importance.
Almost all of the Maya cities went into a downswing between 900-1000 AD and were subsequently abandoned. There are numerous possible causes for their failure including environmental problems such as soil depletion, erosion and water shortages. Catastrophes such as earthquakes, sicknesses and conquests by other neighboring civilizations could also be the reason of the decline.
Today the Mayan ruins are located in the countries of Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico. A couple of of the most exciting Mayan ruins are:
Caracol Belize
Caracol is most important Maya site in Belize. It was once one of the greatest Maya cities, covering an enormous area. During its zenith around 650 AD it had a population of about 150,000 inhabitants, which is greater than the population of the capital of Belize at present. 43 ft, Canaa ,meaning Sky Palace, is the highest building at the site and is also still the highest building in the country even though it is more than a thousand years old.
Chichen Itza Mexico
Chichen Itza is the most well known of the Mayan sites in the Yucatan Peninsula and one of Mexico’s most visited tourist spots. The most renowned structure of the Mayan city is the pyramid of El Castillo. The style and design of the pyramid has a specific astronomical meaning. Every side of the pyramid has 91 steps, which combined with the mutual step at the peak, add up to 365, the amount of days in a year. Other interesting structures of the Mayan ruins include the Great Ballcourt and El Caracol, a disk-shaped building which served as an astronomical observatory.
Coba, Mexico
Coba in Mexico was a vast historic Maya city that was the habitat to around 60,000 Mayans at its zenith. Many of its monuments were made between 500 and 900 AD. The Mayan site features a few large pyramids, the highest, the Nohoch Mul pyramid is about 138 ft tall. Today only a small portion of Coba has been cleared from the forest and recovered by archaeologists.
Calakmul Mexico
Calakmul is a Archaeological site covered inside the rain forests of the Mexican state of Campeche. It is one of the largest Mayan cities ever discovered with over 6,500 structures discovered. Calakmul’s 180 foot tall pyramid is certainly the biggest temple at the location. Like many other Mayan pyramids the size of the temple was boosted by building upon an older existing building to reach its existing size.
Tikal Guatemala
Set in the forest of north Guatemala, Tikal is one of the most breathtaking of the Mayan sites. Renovated structures are sprinkled around the city while several more Mayan ruins continue to be hidden by the jungle. Tikal was the largest Mayan city during the Classic Period with over 100,000 people. Tikal includes six gigantic temple pyramids. At 72 meters or 230 feet, Temple IV is the tallest monument in Tikal. The top of the building features a wonderful panorama from above the jungle.
Almost all of the Maya cities went into a downswing between 900-1000 AD and were subsequently abandoned. There are numerous possible causes for their failure including environmental problems such as soil depletion, erosion and water shortages. Catastrophes such as earthquakes, sicknesses and conquests by other neighboring civilizations could also be the reason of the decline.
Today the Mayan ruins are located in the countries of Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico. A couple of of the most exciting Mayan ruins are:
Caracol Belize
Caracol is most important Maya site in Belize. It was once one of the greatest Maya cities, covering an enormous area. During its zenith around 650 AD it had a population of about 150,000 inhabitants, which is greater than the population of the capital of Belize at present. 43 ft, Canaa ,meaning Sky Palace, is the highest building at the site and is also still the highest building in the country even though it is more than a thousand years old.
Chichen Itza Mexico
Chichen Itza is the most well known of the Mayan sites in the Yucatan Peninsula and one of Mexico’s most visited tourist spots. The most renowned structure of the Mayan city is the pyramid of El Castillo. The style and design of the pyramid has a specific astronomical meaning. Every side of the pyramid has 91 steps, which combined with the mutual step at the peak, add up to 365, the amount of days in a year. Other interesting structures of the Mayan ruins include the Great Ballcourt and El Caracol, a disk-shaped building which served as an astronomical observatory.
Coba, Mexico
Coba in Mexico was a vast historic Maya city that was the habitat to around 60,000 Mayans at its zenith. Many of its monuments were made between 500 and 900 AD. The Mayan site features a few large pyramids, the highest, the Nohoch Mul pyramid is about 138 ft tall. Today only a small portion of Coba has been cleared from the forest and recovered by archaeologists.
Calakmul Mexico
Calakmul is a Archaeological site covered inside the rain forests of the Mexican state of Campeche. It is one of the largest Mayan cities ever discovered with over 6,500 structures discovered. Calakmul’s 180 foot tall pyramid is certainly the biggest temple at the location. Like many other Mayan pyramids the size of the temple was boosted by building upon an older existing building to reach its existing size.
Tikal Guatemala
Set in the forest of north Guatemala, Tikal is one of the most breathtaking of the Mayan sites. Renovated structures are sprinkled around the city while several more Mayan ruins continue to be hidden by the jungle. Tikal was the largest Mayan city during the Classic Period with over 100,000 people. Tikal includes six gigantic temple pyramids. At 72 meters or 230 feet, Temple IV is the tallest monument in Tikal. The top of the building features a wonderful panorama from above the jungle.
Notes From Planet Earth
Planet Earth, home to millions of species including humans, is the only known planet where life is known to exist. Its unique atmosphere, combined with other abiotic conditions as well as the formation of the ozone layer have created the environment that has given rise to the evolution of life. This blog is about the things that make earth so unqiue: the amazing wildlife in Africa, the the lost ruins left behind by ancient civilizations, the dense rainforest of the Amazon, the corals of the Great Barrier reef and the remote tropical islands in the ocean.
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