Deepan Vanitha

I n 1994, the Guinness Book of Records set aside a separate column for the world’s largest cashew tree called Maior Cajueiro do Mondo located in Natal, Brazil. The gigantic tree has grown from an amalgamation of two genetic tissues. Such tissues allow the branches of the tree to grow outwards rather than upwards. Gradually, hence, the branches tend to stoop towards the ground and eventually make for a root. This new root further grows into a new tree. Image Source The massive tree occupies 80,000 square feet of land or roughly five acres. It is guessed to be around thousand years old. One can easily climb a tower to view this tree from a vantage point or for that matter, even climb up through the roots. Image source You can heartily go and pay a visit to this enormous work of nature. However, beware of the orange caterpillars. These gorgeous looking insects are poisonous. They swamp over the tree seasonally and are a size of a finger. Image source The bea...

Heracleion, a much prosperous and a known city had been engulfed underwater 1500 years ago. This grand city had also been mentioned by the Greek writer Herodotus, the 5th-century BC historian. He had told a wonderful tale of Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in the world, who had launched a thousand ships, travelled to Heracleion, then a port of ‘great wealth’, with her glamorous Trojan lover, Paris.  Image Courtesy: Franck Goddio   But until 2001, there had been no evidence of the city from this classical tale. But when a group led by French marine archaeologist Franck Goddio stumbled upon some relics, it led them to one of the greatest finds of the 21st century, a city underwater. The discovery took place when Goddio had been in search of Napoleon’s warships from the 1798 Battle of the Nile, when he had been defeated by Nelson in these very waters, but to his surprise, he stumbled upon this magnificent discovery.  Goddio’s team has since...

The lake Natron in Northern Tanzania has been welcoming a lot of attention ever since the photographer Nick Brandt happened to grab hold of a few images of dead birds and such creatures off the coast. Of course there is nothing fascinating about the pictures of dead creatures, but what makes you gasp in a deep breath would be the way they were found on the shoreline – they were petrified. Image courtesy: Nick Brandt( taken from ) Image courtesy: Nick Brandt( taken from ) The ultimate deception comes into play when any bird or an animal comes across this mysterious  and deathly pool of water, they get confused by the hyper reflective surface, hit onto it right about just to be turned out to an insensible hard matter. Is this starting to look like another ‘Bermuda Triangle’? Though the word petrified might be a misnomer, Nick Brandt recollects that the birds he found on its coasts were literally calcified and looked like a stone carved figure of a bird per...

Mount Everest is the most popular and most recognized mountain in the world. It is located in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas with its highest point reaching 8848 meters above sea level. Mount Everest has been a climbing challenge that many climbers have dreamed of completing, reaching the top being the ultimate prize. You always hear of those who do reach the peak but no so much of those who tried and failed.  Image courtesy: Edmund Hillary (source : www.news.nationalgeographic.com ) Image courtesy: Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay (source:  www.images.nationalgeographic.com ) The first successful ascent took place on May 29th, 1953 by two men names Tenzing Norgay, Edmund Hillary. Since then many have attempted the climb and have not come down. One man that still remains near the top is David Sharp. David attempted the climb in 2005. He got very close to the top then decided to step into a cave to rest. The cave is known as Green Boots Cave. ...

W ell initially this might look to you like any normal girl being treated by a doctor,the girl in the photo is not any normal living girl but the mummy of a 15 year old child who has been dead for about 500 years.  She was found in 1999 near Llullaillaco's 6739 meter summit . An Argentine-Peruvian expedition found the perfectly preserved body and she was nicknamed " La doncella " which means “ The maiden ” . According to the Inca she was chosen to go and live with the gods. But in reality she was a sacrifice to the Inca Gods and had been brutally killed in the name of religion.  Scientists say that her organs are intact and its as if she had died just a few weeks ago. From testing the samples of her hair they could determine the type of diet she was on before her death. This lead to the discovery that the Incan fattened their children before killing them. Months or even years before the sacrifice pilgrimage these children were given diets which were th...