You are not mistaken by looking at this picture, those are adult people and those are the actual sizes of these enormous crystals. This beautiful cave is found in Naica, Chihuahua, Mexico. It was just discovered 15 years ago in 2000. Back in 1910, a group of Miners discovered another cave known as Cueva de las Espadas or the Cave of the Swords. That cave is 120 meters below which is about 390 feet. Those miners would have had to go almost another 600 ft down to the depths of 980 ft and they would have found the Caves of the Crystals.
The Cave of Crystals is in the shape of a horseshoe and it sits in limestone. Its floor is covered in crystalline Blocks. Miners are able to explore the cave because the mining company is pumping out all of the water. If the pumping were to stop, the cave would completely fill up with water! The Largest Crystal in the cave is 39ft in length and 13 ft in diameter and weighs a whopping 55 tons!
Another interesting fact is that the caves temperature is 136 degrees Fahrenheit! With a 90-99% Humidity. A person that is not wearing protective gear can only endure this environment for 10 minutes at a time.
It just amazes me that this world has so many wonders and extraordinary elements that we may not be aware some. When I see things like this, I tend to say to myself, there God goes again showing out. lol
WikiPedia Article >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_the_Crystals <<
Our next flight is taking us to Easter Island. Which is a polynesian (a group of over 1,000 islands scattered over central and southern Pacific Ocean) island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. A special territory of Chile that was annexed in 1888, Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapanui people. The name "Easter Island" was given by the island's first recorded European visitor, the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen, who encountered it on Easter Sunday 1722. Its total area is 631 square miles and has a population of 5,806 people. Easter Island is a volcanic high island, consisting mainly of three extinct coalesced volcanoes Terevaka, Poike and Rano Kau. The climate of Easter Island is subtropical maritime. The lowest temperatures are recorded in July and August (18 °C or 64 °F) and the highest in February (maximum temperature 28 °C or 82 °F) . A retired teacher from my high school, Mrs. Gage sent me a post card from here while she was visiting and spoke of how beautiful it was there. So I figured I'd share with you all. Enjoy! (all information can be found on the wiki pedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Island )
Neuschwanstein Castle is located in Schwangau, Germany. The palace was commissioned by Ludwig Otto Friedrich Wilhelm also referred to as Ludwig II as a retreat. The palace was intended as a personal refuge for the reclusive king, but it was opened to the paying public immediately after his death in 1886. Since then over 60 million people have visited Neuschwanstein Castle. More than 1.3 million people visit annually, with up to 6,000 per day in the summer.The palace has appeared prominently in several movies and was the inspiration for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle
