h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Original 1978 UNESCO World Heritage Site List - A29142641
Author: Giford - U187177

I thought this was quite interesting, and a little more off-beat and guide-esque than my last couple of entries.

Gif

It looks so much more ...... finished now.





Well done.

Good entry Gif, but...
26: Island of Goree, Senegal

<>

seems a bit harsh. They can't all be thick surely?

Joking apart, perhaps better worded as: <>

Love the idea of the Ethiopian churches being there all the time

How incredibly arbritary. Why do we make lists ?

Good entry.

Do you want more details on any of these, or are you happy with the level of description?

Hi Gnomon,

I don't want too much detail - this is supposed to be a quick whizz-through, not a uni project!

That said, if you do have any interesting factoids - particularly on some of the more obscure sites - I'd love to include them.

It's pretty hard to write something different about 3 national parks you've never been to!

Gif

Aachen Cathedral has a peculiar stone seat which is said to be the throne of Charlemagne. Scratched into the side of the seat is the grid of a Roman Tabula board - this was a game that Roman soldiers often used to play with counters and a board; it's the ancestor of Backgammon. But you can't play it when the board is vertical, as it is in the Aachen throne. This shows that the stone slab was once horizontal, and is in fact a Roman paving slab which was re-used to make the seat - an unlikely piece of recycling for the throne of an emperor!

Quito - at an altitude of 2,800m, it is one of the highest capital cities in the world.

Galapagos

Trapped between a volcanic hotspot and a tectonic plate subduction zone, the archipelago is slowly and continuously changing. The islands are formed in the west by volcanic activity, and are initially bare and rocky. The tectonic plate they are on is travelling east, taking the islands away from the hotspot. As they age, life takes root on them and the more easterly ones have more abundant vegetation and animal species. At the east end of the archipelago, the collision of the plate with the Nazca plate drags them downwards and they slowly sink into the sea, never to return.

Yellowstone is sitting on top of a dormant supervolcano, one of the world's largest volcano systems. When this erupted 2.1 million years ago, it covered approximately one third of what is now the United States in ash. If such an eruption were to happen again, it would certainly mean the end of all life in the United States, and the global effects would probably destroy all civilisation on Earth. Fortunately, the probability of a large caldera-forming eruption within the next few thousand years is exceedingly low.

I've added in Gnomon's bits (plus a quick one-liner about Yellowstone).

I'm off for a week now, but please keep the comments coming! I'll return to this when I get back.

Gif

I'm back, by the way.

Gif

I've raided Wikipedia to add some more bits to try to even up the lengths of each section a little (curse you, Gnomon, why'd you have to be so *interesting*? )

Krakow still looks a little sparse, if anyone has any tidbits.

Gif

No titbits on Krakow, sorry.

Just really enjoyed the succintness, whetted my appetite just enough for more, any chance of submitting an updated 'list' for the EG Gif?

Featuring all 800 current sites?

I might stick with this list for the moment!

Gif

I've found some trivia on Krakow, so this is now complete as far as I am concerned.

Gif

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've therefore moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

Nicely done ... just enough to whet the appetite.

Ta!

Gif