The History and Mystery of Yemen’s ‘Well of Hell’ - The first-ever expedition to the bottom of a startling desert sinkhole found wonders—but only natural ones, by Sarah Durn October 20, 2021
"...Actually, there was a concern more sinister than reptiles and spirits when Al-Kindi finally reached the bottom: unexploded ordnance. Since 2014, Yemen has been in the midst of a bloody civil war and, Al-Kindi explains, pilots sometimes drop bombs into caves, since people seek shelter inside. “So that got me worried a bit,” he says. “Apart from that, it was a very enjoyable moment.” ...Al-Kindi estimates the sinkhole could be several million years old, but its origin, too, is the subject of local legend. One legend says an ancient king forced jinn to carve the “well” as a place to hide his treasure. In others, the well has always served to contain evil, uncontrollable jinn..."
My neighbour is very elderly. Her son comes three times a week to kill everything that dares to try and live in her garden. This year so far he has sprayed weedkiller twice and today he arrived with a flame gun. He absolutely hates my side of the fence and constantly complains about "weeds". I think he is the weed. #flowers#wildlife#birds#bees#desert
Spotted in Joshua tree woodland north of Mojave, California: "Desert Christmas tree", Pholisma arenarium, a member of the Boraginaceae that makes a living as a parasite of nearby shrubs, in this case probably rabbitbrush
The motivation was simple. "Why am I paying star market $6 for two frozen bananas dipped in ok #chocolate"
In the words of goodness gracious me: "I can make chocolate #banana at home!"
So I did. Buying a 👩🍳 block of decent semi sweet 🍫 and using up some ripe 🍌, I halved, sticked and 🥶 on a 🌭 bun pan. After dipped in melted 🍫 once cold.
The problem... They're really f-nom-nom-inally good. Way, way better than the store ones. And I have doomed myself to always know what is possible. 🥺🤯 #desert
Photographer Yuri Beletsky: ‘I captured this view at one of the remote sites of the Atacama Desert in Chile. The Galactic centre was already shining high in the sky, with the zodiacal light beautifully complementing it on the right. The blue colour was as real as the stars in the sky, adding a touch of magic to the scene’
Photographer Lorenzo Ranieri: ‘The plateau of the Atacama desert, a potentially dangerous area due to its designation as a mountain lion reserve. The area around this remarkable mass of rocks adorned with tufts of burnt grass was littered with the bones of small animals and footprints of a significant size, indicating the presence of lions’
Here's a pair of charcoal kilns not often seen as they are a bit out of the way high in the Cedar Range of southeastern Nevada. The Panaca Kilns were built c. 1875 and used until the 1890s to make charcoal for mining smelters in the region. They were operated by Swiss and Italian woodcutters, known as "Carbonari," who had perfected the charcoal-making process in Europe.
OC Desert Tours from Marrakech (www.saharadesertkingdom.com)
Offering Private Desert Tours from Marrakech. The Atlas Mountains and the mysteries of Imperial cities.