The world's lesser known beauty in Turkey.

First, click on the image for a larger view to appreciate the sheer beauty of one of the UNESCO world heritage paces in the world.

This place is in Turkey. Name of the place is Pamukkale.

It has been in existence since 2000 years. This place came to be after a series of earthquakes in Turkey that made the hidden hot springs to surface and along with it calcium carbonate.

When the water dried up, the chalky calcium carbonate condensed and formed layer-upon-layer of Travertine over all these years.

The demon to fall from the sky.

This had happened in 1702 AD. A very fortunate innkeeper in a remote village called Prahova located in Romania saw something like a slab of ice to fall from a dark sky. The innkeeper saw it as very odd as the ice seemed to have something embedded in it.

He let the ice melt only to see a monkey like figure that was devoid of hair. Very strange he thought because the figure was in blue color. There were indications that the monkey had wings and tail that looked like a whip!

The inquisitive innkeeper had the creature skinned and mounted over the bar trestle. This drew visitors for three years until a monk advised that it be burnt as he suspected to have been demon.

(Source: Egorov Raczaw: 1728 – Prahova Travel Journals through aquiziam.com)

Forgive me, no pictures.

Are you afraid of ventriloquist’s dummies?

Ventriloquists' dolls or dummies as they are called won't scare anyone. But can you stand the sight of thousands of ventriloquists' dummies?

Obviously not! Those bizarre looking figures with bulging eyes, unshapely face and all that will scare anyone.

There is a special museum in New Haven, Connecticut. It holds only thousands of old ventriloquist’s dummies. People who fear artificial human figures are supposed to be affected by Autonomatonophobia.They will surely stay away from this eerie museum.

But if you think you don't have such strange phobia, you may get one after visiting the museum.

Image from magicmagicmagic.com/images/dummies7.jpg

How to preserve the shine on gold coins?

I had absolutely no intention to buy gold coins yesterday but still I ended up buying five American Buffalo gold coins from the United States Gold Bureau. Call it an impulsive buying!

Only after I bought the treasure, I leant that I bought from the most respected gold coins dealer in the world. United States Gold Bureau comprises of hard asset professionals committed to serving your precious metals investment needs.

This is the first time I bought gold coins online. I intend to keep it for a long time and pass it on to the next generation. Therefore, I went about searching for ways to keep the gold coins as new and shining.

I gathered plenty of tips to preserve gold coins intact. During that process, I came across a coin cleaner. Until that time, I did not know about coin cleaners at all. It is supposed to remove tarnish and finger marks. What a useful product!

The Night before Christmas.

Image via Wikipedia

The jolly elf image of Santa Claus had received a big boost with the poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas," now better known as "The Night Before Christmas." was written in 1823.

Sure, Santa Claus, and Christmas Gifts are synonymous.

When St.Nicholas was brought by the first Europeans who arrived in the New World, he was regarded as a kindly Christian saint, good Bishop.

So when, St. Nicholas became a red-suited American symbol for merry holiday festivity?Before you know that please be aware of his difficult time during the 16th century Protestant Reformation which took a dim view of saints.

Even though both reformers and counter-reformers tried to stamp out St. Nicholas-related customs, they had very little long-term success, because the common people so loved St. Nicholas.

He survived on the European continent as people continued to place nuts, apples, and sweets in shoes left beside beds, on windowsills, or before the hearth.

Deriving from some of the legendary snippets such as St. Nicholas comes down chimneys to bring gifts, Washington Irving, first gave the modern day image of Santa Claus in his satirical fiction, Knickerbocker's History of New York, published in 1809.

When Nicholas was shown in a gift-giving role with children's treats in stockings hanging at a fireplace by artist Alexander Anderson, people loved it instantly and the rest is history.

Enough of history? Ready to envision the next Christmas’s custom made gift baskets?

Order online with gourmetgiftbaskets.com for unique, high-quality gourmet Christmas gift baskets that are fantastic gifts for both personal and corporate gift giving.

Men with a body of a fish.

For Indians, women with a body of a fish (machha kanni)is nothing new. But, even for them, men with a body of a fish is news.

In the Mesopotamian mythology, civilization was given to mankind by seven men, whose lower body (torso) resembled a fish. These seven men were known as "Abgal" or "Apkallu". They rose from Absu, a fresh water body.

There were mentions in the history of Mesopotamia that these seven Apkallu were said to have wings.

Mesopotamian civilization gave much to the modern world. Mesopotamia was a region between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates in western Asia. Modern Iraq might have been the early Mesopotamia.

Abarimons' had backward feet.

The myriad range of popular and unpopular beliefs and customs in India are all derived from the four Vedas. But the western cultures view the India or other Asian cultures as false beliefs.

These will be very interesting. I am generally interested in Anthropology and the mythologies of all the six continents.

I will do periodical research in the Internet and blog about wonderful beliefs, cultures of the whole world. My blog posts will make you to come and again to my blog.

The facts that will you will find here won't be easily available for you anywhere in the Internet. I have done extensive research in the Internet and compiled voluminous content. More research is being done.

Here is a sample on Hindu mythology:
Abarimon:
Do you that Abarimon was a human race and their feet had turned backwards? They ran faster than animals in spite of their physical oddity.

They were said to have inhabited the Himalayas. Pliny the Elder was the first to have spotted them and wrote in his book.