Facts About Mount Roraima - strangefacts

• Mount Roraima (mountain, South America) giant flat-topped mountain, or mesa, in the Pakaraima Mountains of the Guiana Highlands , at the point where the boundaries of Brazil, Venezuela, and Guyana meet

• About 9 miles (14 km) long and 9,094 feet (2,772 metres) high, it is the source of many rivers of Guyana, and of the Amazon and Orinoco

• Mount Roraima is a pretty remarkable place. It is a tabletop mountain with sheer 400-metre high cliffs on all sides

• There is only one ‘easy’ way up, on a natural staircase-like ramp on the Venezuelan side – to get up any other way takes and experienced rock climber

• On the top of the mountain it rains almost every day, washing away most of the nutrients for plants to grow and creating a unique landscape on the bare sandstone surface

• This also creates some of the highest waterfalls in the world over the sides (Angel falls is located on a similar tabletop mountain some 130 miles away)

• Though there are only a few marshes on the mountain where vegetation can grow properly, these contain many species unique to the mountain, including a species of carnivorous pitcher plant

• The mountain marks the border between Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana, although more than three quarters of the mountain is in Venezuelan territory 

• It is the highest mountain in Guyana, but Venezuela and Brazil have higher mountains. The triple border point on the summit is at 5°12'08N, 60°44'07W

• Roraima lies on the Guiana Shield in the southeastern corner of Venezuela's 30,000 km² Canaima National Park, which is roughly located in the Gran Sabana region 

Facts About Goseck Circle - strangefacts

• One of the most mysterious landmarks in the Germany is the Goseck Circle

• The Goseck circle is a Neolithic structure in Goseck in the Burgenlandkreis district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It consists of a set of Concentric ditches 75 meters across and two Palisade rings containing gates in defined places

• It is considered the earliest Sun Observatory currently known in the world. Interpretations of the ring suggest that European Neolithic and Bronze Age people measured the heavens far earlier and more accurately than historians have thought

• It is monument made out of earth, gravel, and wooden palisades that is regarded as the earliest example of a primitive “solar observatory” 

• The circle at Goseck is one of more than 250 ring-ditches in Germany, Austria and Croatia identified by aerial surveys, though archaeologists have investigated barely 10 of them

• The circle consists of a series of circular ditches surrounded by palisade walls (which have since been reconstructed) that house a raised mound of dirt in the center

• The palisades have three openings, or gates, that point southeast, southwest, and north

• It is believed that the monument was built around 4900 BC by Neolithic peoples, and that the three openings correspond to the direction from which the sun rises on the winter solstice

• The monument’s careful construction has led many scientists to believe that the Goseck Circle was built to serve as some kind of primitive solar or lunar calendar, but its exact use is still a source of debate

• Evidence has shown that a so-called “solar cult” was widespread in ancient Europe

• This has led to speculation that the Circle was used in some kind of ritual, perhaps even in conjunction with human sacrifice

• This hypothesis has yet to be proven, but archeologists have uncovered several human bones, including a headless skeleton, just outside the palisade walls

Facts About Cahokia Mounds - strangefacts

• Cahokia is the name given to an Indian settlement that exists outside of Collinsville, Illinois

• Archeologists estimate that the city was founded sometime around 650 AD, and its complex network of burial grounds and sophisticated landscaping prove that it was once a thriving community

•  It has been estimated that at its peak the city was home to as many as 40,000 people, which would have made it the most populous settlement in America prior to the arrival of the Europeans

Cahokia Mounds View

• The most notable aspect of Cahokia today are the 80 mounds of earth, some as high as 100 feet, which dot the 2,200-acre site. These helped create a network of plazas throughout the city, and it is believed that important buildings, like the home of the settlement’s chief, were built on top of them

• The site also features a series of wooden posts that archeologists have dubbed “woodhenge.”

• The posts are said to mark the solstices and equinoxes, and supposedly figured prominently in the community’s astronomical mythology

• Although scientists are constantly discovering new information about the Cohokia community, the biggest mystery that remains is which modern Indian tribe is descended from the residents of the ancient city, as well as just what it was that caused them to abandon their settlement

Facts About Grasslands - strangefacts

• The animals that live in temperate grasslands have adapted to the dry, windy conditions

• The majority of grasslands are found around the tropics and the Grasslands cover one-fifth of the land on Earth

• Grassland areas have two seasons: a growing season and a dormant season. During the dormant season, no grass can grow because it is too cold

• Natural grasslands are; the savannahs of Africa, the North American prairies, and in southern USSR-the dry steppes

• Semi-natural grasslands are where the forest has been cleared and grazing, cutting or burning maintains the grass cover. Tending to be more productive most South and South-East Asian grasslands are semi-natural grasslands.

• The temperate grassland soil contains a lot of organic material (more than the tropical).

• Grasses in tropical grasslands tend to grow taller and faster than grasses in cooler regions

• Tropical grasslands are regions in the tropics where there is not enough rain half the year for trees to grow

• When rainy season arrives, many grasslands become coated with flowers, some of which can survive well into winter with the help of underground storage organs and thick stem bases

• Most tropical grasslands are scattered with bushes, shrubs and trees. In Africa, hardy broad-leaved trees such as curatella and byrsonima are typical

• Temperate grasslands, which average between 10 and 30 inches (25 and 75 centimeters) of rain per year, have shorter grasses, sometimes just a few millimeters

• No other habitat is as agriculturally useful to humans as grasslands. Soils tend to be deep and fertile, perfect for cropland or pastures