Black Holes Light

Black Holes Light UpAstronomers Spot Black Holes Using NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory
September 1, 2006 — Not even light can escape a black hole's grip, but gas falling into a black hole can heat up and become an intense source of X-rays, at temperatures up to 1,000 times hotter than the sun. Astronomers use the Chandra X-Ray Observatory -- a NASA satellite -- to map these X-ray sources and study their properties

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- They are deep and dense, and not even light can escape their grip. We're talking about black holes, but they may not be as dark as you think.
"If you have binoculars, you might be able to make out a smudge, which would be the nearest galaxies," says Jon Miller, an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
But what you won't see -- even with a telescope -- black holes! In fact, Miller doesn't even use one to study black holes. He uses his computer.

"I think it's really for the best that NASA doesn't let people like me drive billion-dollar satellites. So instead, we get data distributed through the computer networks," Miller tells DBIS.
These data reveal just how complex black holes are. As gravity pulls matter into the hole, it is heated 1,000-times hotter than the sun and forms mega-heated gases. As the hole's magnetic field pulls these gases into its center, it creates a light show.

Miller says, "Just before matter falls into the black hole, it can glow very brightly in X-rays." The Chandra X-ray Observatory takes X-ray photographs of these holes all over the universe.
According to Miller, every galaxy probably harbors a super massive black hole at the center of that galaxy. "I mean something that's a million or even billions of times the mass of our sun," he says. He hopes his research will help to prove not only what happens after black holes are formed, but also how they grow.

BACKGROUND: A team of astronomers led by the University of Michigan may know how black holes are lighting up the universe. New data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory show for the first time that powerful magnetic fields are the key to these brilliant and startling light shows. By gaining deeper understanding of how black holes gather matter into themselves, astronomers also hope to learn more about other properties of black holes, including how they grow.

LIGHT FROM DARK: Black holes are the darkest objects in the universe. If a gas in a disk around a black hole loses energy, it will swirl toward the black hole, generating light along the way. In 1973, physicists suggested that magnetic fields could drive the generation of light by black holes. They would do this by generating friction in the gas and driving a wind from the disk that carries momentum outward. It is estimated that up to half of the total radiation in the universe since the Big Bang comes from material falling towards super-massive black holes.

WHAT CHANDRA FOUND: Chandra measures the amount of X-rays emitted at different energies, called X-ray spectroscopy. Spectroscopy is the study of light's "fingerprint," according to its color, which indicates its energy. Chemical elements each shine brightly at certain energies, so scientists can determine the chemical composition of an object. Chandra studied the X-ray spectra coming from a black hole system known as J1655 located in the Milky Way galaxy. The black hole was pulling material from a companion star into a disk, emitting the telltale radiation. The Michigan astronomers showed that the speed and density of the wind from the disk in J1655 corresponded to computer simulation predictions for winds driven by magnetic fields.
ABOUT BLACK HOLES: A black hole forms when a massive star has used up all its fuel. The reason the Sun and other stars emit light is because trillions of nuclear reactions are taking place at the cores. With core temperatures of millions of degrees, hydrogen atoms can convert into helium atoms, emitting radiation in the process. At some point, however, all the atoms are used up and no more nuclear fusion can take place. Without that outward counter-force to the pull of gravity, a star collapses inward, eventually reaching a point where the attractive gravitational force is so strong, not even light can escape. No one has ever observed the center of a black hole; until quite recently, such objects only existed in theory. But scientists surmise that a black hole has at its center an infinite density and an infinite gravitational field, as well as infinite entropy, which means no further change can take place. This is known as a "singularity." The event horizon of a black hole is not so much a physical surface as the theoretical point of no return for any object that gets caught in the black hole's powerful gravitational field.

The American Astronomical Society contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.

New Method Developed To Weigh, Resolve Distant Black Holes

ScienceDaily (June 5, 2008) — Research presented to the American Astronomical Society meeting in St. Louis June 2 offers astronomers a new, simple method to learn about black holes up to eight billion light years away – thousands of times farther away than black holes can be measured today.

Dr. Marc Seigar, assistant professor of physics and astronomy in the College of Science and Math at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and his research team have concluded that the larger the black hole at the center of a spiral galaxy, the tighter the galaxy’s arms wrap around itself. If correct, the simple relationship would give researchers an easy way to learn about black holes.

“This is a really easy way to determine the masses of these super-massive black holes at the centers of galaxies that are very far away,” Seigar said. “This gives us a way to measure the size of these far away black holes.”

Since super-massive black holes were discovered in nearby galaxies, researchers have been determining their masses by looking at how fast the stars were moving in the very central regions of those galaxies. But that method only works for relatively nearby galaxies, Seigar said.
“For more distant galaxies out to the distances we’re talking about, you have to develop alternative methods,” Seigar said. “And we have developed such a method.”

The method he described to the Astronomical Society involves taking a snapshot of a distant galaxy and measuring how tightly the spiral arms wrap around the galaxy, or the wrapping angle. He determined that the more massive the black hole, the tighter the spiral arms wrap around the galaxy, which indicates a small wrapping angle.

Seigar’s team studied photographs of 27 spiral galaxies, including our galaxy, the Milky Way, and its nearest neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy. Galaxies with the smallest black holes had spiral arms with wrapping angles of up to 43 degrees. Those with biggest black holes had spiral arms at angles of only seven degrees between their central bulges.

“One of the important reasons to learn about the every distant black holes is, when you are looking at galaxies very far away, you are looking at them as they were in the past, so you can learn about how masses of black holes grow over time, ” Seigar said.

The black holes he is studying are super-massive black holes that are millions or billions times more massive than our sun. Since they seem to be found at the centers of all galaxies, they could be a key element of how galaxies form in the first place.

His studies also indicate that the mass of a black hole may depend on how centrally concentrated the dark matter is in a galaxy. “But that is a hypothesis that has yet to be proven,” he said. “We’re going to work on that.”

Seigar joined UALR’s faculty in 2007 following a stint as an assistant project scientist and McCue Fellow at the University of California-Irvine. His other experience includes postdoctoral research associate at the University of California-Irvine, adjunct professor at the University of Hawaii-Hilo, postdoctoral research associate at the University of London’s Imperial College and at Ghent University in Belgium. He also was a visiting astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute.

Seigar, who earned a Ph.D. in astrophysics at John Moores University in Liverpool, teaches Introduction to Astronomy at UALR as well as performing research in the structure, dynamics and star formation in spiral galaxies, and the nature of intracluster light in clusters of galaxies.
“Since my thesis I have been interested in the overall structure, morphology and dynamics of nearby galaxies, especially disk galaxies,” Seigar said.

He is involved in the Carnegie-Irvine Nearby Galaxies Survey (CINGS), a comprehensive optical and infrared imaging survey of the 600 brightest galaxies in the southern-hemisphere sky, being carried out at the 2.5-meter Du Pont telescope at Las Campanas Observatory. He is also involved in the Arkansas Galaxy Evolution Survey (AGES), part of which is to conduct a census of super-massive black holes in the universe.

ScienceDaily (Dec. 28, 2006) — Research by UK astronomers, published in Nature (7th December 2006) reveals that the processes at work in black holes of all sizes are the same and that supermassive black holes are simply scaled up versions of small Galactic black holes

For many years astronomers have been trying to understand the similarities between stellar-mass sized Galactic black hole systems and the supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei (AGN).In particular, do they vary fundamentally in the same way, but perhaps with any characteristic timescales being scaled up in proportion to the mass of the black hole. If so, the researchers proposed, we could determine how AGN should behave on cosmological timescales by studying the brighter and much faster galactic systems.

Professor Ian McHardy, from the University of Southampton, heads up the research team whose findings are published today (along with colleagues Drs Elmar Koerding and Christian Knigge and Professor Rob Fender, and Dr Phil Uttley, currently working at the University of Amsterdam). Their observations were made using data from NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer and XMM Newton's X-ray Observatory.

Professor McHardy comments, "By studying the way in which the X-ray emission from black hole systems varies, we found that the accretion or 'feeding' process - where the black hole is pulling in material from its surroundings - is the same in black holes of all sizes and that AGN are just scaled-up Galactic black holes. We also found that the way in which the X-ray emission varies is strongly correlated with the width of optical emission lines from black hole systems."
He adds, "These observations have important implications for our understanding of the different types of AGN, as classified by the width of their emission lines. Thus narrow line Seyfert galaxies, which are often discussed as being unusual, are no different to other AGN; they just have a smaller ratio of mass to accretion rate."

The research shows that the characteristic timescale changes linearly with black hole mass, but inversely with the accretion rate (when measured relative to the maximum possible accretion rate). This result means that the accretion process is the same in black holes of all sizes. By measuring the characteristic timescale and the accretion rate, the team argues this simple relationship can help determine black hole masses where other methods are very difficult, for example in obscured AGN or in the much sought after intermediate mass black holes.
Professor McHardy continues: "Accretion of matter into a black hole produces strong X-ray emission from very close to the black hole itself. So, studying the way in which the X-ray emission varies with time, known as the X-ray lightcurves, provides one of the best ways of understanding the behaviour of black holes.

It has been known for over two decades that characteristic timescales can be seen in the X-ray lightcurves of Galactic black hole systems. The timescales are short (second) and so can be found in short observations. However to find the equivalent timescales in AGN is much harder as we must observe for months or years."

Statue of Zeus at Olympia

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia was one of the classic Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was made by the famed Greek sculptor of the Classical period, Phidias, circa 432 BC on the site where it was erected in the temple of Zeus, Olympia, Greece

The seated statue, some 12 metres (39 feet) tall, occupied the whole width of the aisle of the temple built to house it. "It seems that if Zeus were to stand up," the geographer Strabo noted early in the 1st century BC, "he would unroof the temple."[2] Zeus was a chryselephantine sculpture, made of ivory and accented with gold plating. No copy, in marble or bronze, has survived, though there are recognizable but approximate versions on coins of Elis and Roman coins and engraved gems[3] but a very detailed description of the sculpture and the throne was recorded by the traveller Pausanias, in the second century AD.

In the sculpture, he was wreathed with shoots of the olive and seated on a magnificent throne of cedarwood, inlaid with ivory, gold, ebony, and precious stones. In Zeus' right hand there was a small statue of crowned Nike, goddess of victory, also chryselephantine, who was, and in his left hand, a sceptre inlaid with metals, on which an eagle perched.[4] Plutarch, in his Life of the Roman general Aemilius Paulus, records that the victor over Macedon “was moved to his soul, as if he had beheld the god in person,” while the Greek orator Dio Chrysostom declared that a single glimpse of the statue would make a man forget his earthly troubles.[5]
The date of the statue, in the third quarter of the fifth century BC, long a subject of debate, was confirmed archaeologically.

According to a legend, when Phidias was asked what inspired him -- whether he climbed Olympos to see Zeus, or whether Zeus came down from Olympos so that Phidias could see him -- the artist answered that he portrayed Zeus according to Book One, verses 528 - 530 of Homer´s Iliad [6]:
ἦ καὶ κυανέῃσιν ἐπ' ὀφρύσι νεῦσε Κρονίων
ἀμβρόσιαι δ' ἄρα χαῖται ἐπερρώσαντο ἄνακτος
κρατὸς ἀπ' ἀθανάτοιο μέγαν δ' ἐλέλιξεν Ὄλυμπον.
He spoke, the son of Kronos, and nodded his head with the dark brows,
and the immortally anointed hair of the great god
swept from his divine head, and all Olympos was shaken

Loss and destruction

The circumstances of its eventual destruction are a source of debate: the eleventh-century Byzantine historian Georgios Kedrenos[8] recorded the tradition that it was carried off to Constantinople, where it was destroyed in the great fire of the Lauseion, in 475.[9] Others argue that it perished with the temple when it burned in 425 AD. According to Lucian of Samosata in the later second century, "they have laid hands on your person at Olympia, my lord High-Thunderer, and you had not the energy to wake the dogs or call in the neighbours; surely they might have come to the rescue and caught the fellows before they had finished packing up the swag."[10]

Phidias' workshop rediscovered

Perhaps the greatest discovery in terms of finding out about this wonder came in 1954-1958 with the excavation of the workshop at Olympia where Phidias created the statue. Tools, terracotta molds and a cup inscribed "I belong to Pheidias" were found here, where the traveller Pausanius said the Zeus was constructed. This has enabled archaeologists to re-create the techniques used to make the great work and confirmed its date.

Hanging Gardens of Babylon

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon (also known as the Hanging Gardens of Semiramis) (near present-day Al Hillah in Iraq, formerly Babylon) are considered one of the original Seven Wonders of the World. They were built by Nebuchadnezzar II around 600 BCE. He is reported to have constructed the gardens to please his wife, Amytis of Media, who longed for the trees and fragrant plants of her homeland.[1] The gardens were destroyed by several earthquakes after the 2nd century BCE.

The lush Hanging Gardens are extensively documented by Greek historians such as Strabo and Diodorus Siculus. Through the ages, the location may have been confused with gardens that existed at Nineveh, since tablets from there clearly show gardens. Writings on these tablets describe the possible use of something similar to an Archimedes' screw as a process of raising the water to the required height.

The Greek Historian Strabo:

"Babylon, too, lies in a plain; and the circuit of its wall is three hundred and eighty-five stadia. The thickness of its wall is thirty-two feet; the height thereof between the towers is fifty cubits; that of the towers is sixty cubits; and the passage on top of the wall is such that four-horse chariots can easily pass one another; and it is on this account that this and the hanging garden are called one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The garden is quadrangular in shape, and each side is four plethra in length. It consists of arched vaults, which are situated, one after another, on checkered, cube-like foundations.

The checkered foundations, which are hollowed out, are covered so deep with earth that they admit of the largest of trees, having been constructed of baked brick and asphalt — the foundations themselves and the vaults and the arches. The ascent to the uppermost terrace-roofs is made by a stairway; and alongside these stairs there were screws, through which the water was continually conducted up into the garden from the Euphrates by those appointed for this purpose. For the river, a stadium in width, flows through the middle of the city; and the garden is on the bank of the river."[2]

The Greek Historian Diodorus:

"The Garden was 100 feet (30 m) long by 100 feet (30 m) feet wide and built up in tiers so that it resembled a theatre. Vaults had been constructed under the ascending terraces which carried the entire weight of the planted garden; the uppermost vault, which was seventy-five feet high, was the highest part of the garden, which, at this point, was on the same level as the city walls.

The roofs of the vaults which supported the garden were constructed of stone beams some sixteen feet long, and over these were laid first a layer of reeds set in thick tar, then two courses of baked brick bonded by cement, and finally a covering of lead to prevent the moisture in the soil penetrating the roof. On top of this roof enough topsoil was heaped to allow the biggest trees to take root. The earth was leveled off and thickly planted with every kind of tree. And since the galleries projected one beyond the other, where they were sunlit, they contained conduits for the water which was raised by pumps in great abundance from the river, though no one outside could see it being done.

Hanging Gardens. Paracleisos going up to the top is like climbing a mountain. Each terrace rises up from the last like the syrinx, the pipes of pan, which are made of several tubes of unequal length. This gives the appearance of a theater. It was flanked by perfectly constructed walls twenty-six feet thick. The galleries were roofed with stone balconies. Above these there was the first of a bed of reeds with a great quantity of bitumen, then a double layer of baked bricks set in gypsum, then over that a covering of lead so that moisture from the soil heaped above it would not seep through. The earth was deep enough to contain the roots of the many varieties of trees which fascinated the beholder with their great size and their beauty. There was also a passage which had pipes leading up to the highest level and machinery for raising water through which great quantities of water were drawn from the river, with none of the process being visible from the outside."

Controversy over validity of existence
There is some controversy as to whether the Hanging Gardens were an actual creation or a poetic creation due to the lack of documentation of them in the chronicles of Babylonian history. In ancient writings the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were first described by Berossus, a Chaldean priest who lived in the late 4th century BCE. These accounts were later elaborated on by Greek historians.

Recent archaeological excavations of the palace in Iraq have uncovered evidence of a building with vaults and a well nearby. However, the location of the palace complex contradicts where Greek historians placed the Hanging Gardens, which was on the banks of the Euphrates River.
Recently there have been excavations on the banks of the Euphrates River of some substantial 25 meter-thick walls.[5] Also, excavations have shown that there may be some seeds scattered around this area which may suggest that the Gardens did exist after all.[citation needed]
A newer theory proposes that the garden was actually constructed under the orders of Sennacherib, who took the throne of Assyria in 705 BCE–681 BCE. During new studies of the location of Nineveh (Located on the eastern bank of the Tigris in ancient Assyria) his gardens were placed close to the entrance of his palace, on the bank of the river Tigris. It is possible that in the intervening centuries the two sites became confused, and the hanging gardens were attributed to Babylon

Great Pyramid of Giza (Anciant Wonders)

The Great Pyramid of Giza , also called Khufu's Pyramid or the Pyramid of Khufu, and Pyramid of Cheops, is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza Necropolis bordering what is now Cairo, Egypt in Africa, and is the only remaining member of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It is believed the pyramid was built as a tomb for Fourth dynasty Egyptian pharaoh Khufu (Cheops in Greek) and constructed over a 20 year period concluding around 2560 BC. The Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years. Visibly all that remains is the underlying step-pyramid core structure seen today. Many of the casing stones that once covered the structure can still be seen around the base of the Great Pyramid. There have been varying scientific and alternative theories regarding the Great Pyramid's construction techniques. Most accepted construction theories are based on the idea that it was built by moving huge stones from a quarry and dragging and lifting them into place.

There are three known chambers inside the Great Pyramid. The lowest chamber is cut into the bedrock upon which the pyramid was built and was unfinished. The Queen's Chamber and King's Chamber are higher up within the pyramid structure. Despite precautions such as covering the entrance hole with casing and the portcullises, thieves had bypassed all the barriers even before the Old Kingdom had ended, digging through the soft limestone and breaking a corner of Khufu's sarcophagus while removing the lid.[citation needed] Other sources suggest that the sarcophagus never had a lid. The Great Pyramid is the only pyramid known to contain both ascending and descending passages.

The Great Pyramid of Giza is the main part of a complex setting of buildings that included two mortuary temples in honor of Khufu (one close to the pyramid and one near the Nile), three smaller pyramids for Khufu's wives, an even smaller "satellite" pyramid, a raised causeway connecting the two temples, and small mastaba tombs surrounding the pyramid for nobles.

Wonder of the Ancient World

It is believed the pyramid was built as a tomb for Fourth dynasty Egyptian pharaoh Khufu and constructed over a 20 year period concluding around 2560 BC.[2] Khufu's vizier, Hemon, or Hemiunu, is believed by some to be the architect of the Great Pyramid.[3] It is thought that, at construction, the Great Pyramid was 280 Egyptian royal cubits tall, 146.6 meters, but with erosion and the loss of its pyramidion, its current height is 138.8 m. Each base side was 440 royal cubits, with each royal cubit measuring 0.524 meters.[4] The total mass of the pyramid is estimated at 5.9 million tonnes. The volume, including an internal hillock, is believed to be roughly 2,500,000 cubic metres.[5] The first precision measurements of the pyramid were done by Egyptologist Sir Flinders Petrie in 1880–82 and published as The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh. Almost all reports are based on his measurements. Petrie found the pyramid is oriented 4' west of North and the second pyramid is similarly oriented

The Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years,[7] unsurpassed until the 160 metre tall spire of Lincoln Cathedral was completed c. 1300. The accuracy of the pyramid's workmanship is such that the four sides of the base have a mean error of only 58 mm in length, and 1 minute in angle from a perfect square. The base is horizontal and flat to within 15 mm. The sides of the square are closely aligned to the four cardinal compass points to within 3 minutes of arc and is based not on magnetic north, but true north. The design dimensions, as confirmed by Petrie's survey and all those following this, are assumed to have been 280 cubits in height by 4x440 cubits around originally, and as these proportions equate to 2π to an accuracy of better than 0.05%, this was and is considered to have been the deliberate design proportion by Petrie, I. E. S. Edwards, and Miroslav Verner. Verner wrote "We can conclude that although the ancient Egyptians could not precisely define the value of π, in practise they used it".

Casing stones

At completion, the Great Pyramid was surfaced by white 'casing stones' – slant-faced, but flat-topped, blocks of highly polished white limestone. Visibly all that remains is the underlying step-pyramid core structure seen today. In AD 1301, a massive earthquake loosened many of the outer casing stones, which were then carted away by Bahri Sultan An-Nasir Nasir-ad-Din al-Hasan in 1356 in order to build mosques and fortresses in nearby Cairo. The stones can still be seen as parts of these structures to this day. Later explorers reported massive piles of rubble at the base of the pyramids left over from the continuing collapse of the casing stones which were subsequently cleared away during continuing excavations of the site. Nevertheless, many of the casing stones around the base of the Great Pyramid can be seen to this day in situ displaying the same workmanship and precision as has been reported for centuries. Petrie also found a different orientation in the core and in the casing measuring 193 cm ± 25 cm. He suggested a redetermination of north was made after the construction of the core, but a mistake was made, and the casing was built with a different orientation.[6]

Construction theories

Main article: Egyptian pyramid construction techniques
There have been varying scientific and alternative theories regarding the Great Pyramid's construction techniques. Most accepted construction theories are based on the idea that it was built by moving huge stones from a quarry and dragging and lifting them into place. The disagreements center on the method by which the stones were conveyed and placed. A recent theory proposes that the building blocks were manufactured in-place from a kind of "limestone concrete". In addition to the many theories as to the techniques involved, there are also disagreements as to the kind of workforce that was used. One theory, suggested by the Greeks, posits that slaves were forced to work until the pyramid was done. This theory is no longer accepted in the modern era, however. Archaeologists believe that the Great Pyramid was built by tens of thousands of skilled workers who camped near the pyramids and worked for a salary or as a form of paying taxes until the construction was completed. The worker's cemeteries were discovered in 1990 by archaeologists Zahi Hawass and Mark Lehner. Verner posited that the labor was organized into a hierarchy, consisting of two gangs of 100,000 men, divided into five zaa or phyle of 20,000 men each, which may have been further divided according to the skills of the workers.[9]

Inside the Great Pyramid

There are three known chambers inside the Great Pyramid. These are arranged centrally, on the vertical axis of the pyramid. From the entrance, an 18 meter corridor leads down and splits in two directions. One way leads to the lowest and unfinished chamber. This chamber is cut into the bedrock upon which the pyramid was built. It is the largest of the three, but totally unfinished, only rough-cut into the rock. The other passage leads to the Grand Gallery (49 m x 3 m x 11 m) where it splits again. One tunnel leads to the Queen's Chamber, a misnomer, while the other winds to intersect with the descending corridor. The Grand Gallery itself features an ingenious corbel halloed design and several cut "sockets" spaced at regular intervals along the length of each side of its raised base with a "trench" running along its center length at floor level. What purpose these sockets served is unknown. An antechamber leads from the Grand Gallery to the King's Chamber.[2]

King's Chamber

At the end of the lengthy series of entrance ways leading into the pyramid interior is the structure's main chamber, the King's Chamber. This chamber was originally 10 x 20 x 11.2 cubits, or about 5.25 m x 10.5 m x 6 m, comprising a double 10x10 cubit square, and a height equal to half the double square's diagonal. Some believe that this is consistent with the geometric methods for determining the Golden Ratio φ (phi), which can be derived from other dimensions of the pyramid, such that if φ had been the design objective, then π automatically follows to 'square the circle'.[10]

The sarcophagus of the King's Chamber was hollowed out of a single piece of Red Aswan granite and has been found to be too large to fit through the passageway leading to the chamber. Whether the sarcophagus was ever intended to house a body is unknown. It is too short to accommodate a medium height individual without the bending of the knees, a technique not practiced in Egyptian burial, and no lid was ever found. The King's Chamber contains two small shafts that ascend out of the pyramid. These shafts were once thought to have been used for ventilation, but this idea was eventually abandoned leaving Egyptologists to now conclude they were instead used for ceremonial purposes. It is now thought that they were to allow the Pharaoh's spirit to rise up and out to heaven.[11]

Queen's Chamber

The Queen's Chamber is the middle and the smallest, measuring approximately 5.74 by 5.23 metres, and 4.57 metres in height. Its eastern wall has a large angular doorway or niche, Egyptologist Mark Lehner believes that the Queen's chamber was intended as a serdab, a structure found in several other Egyptian pyramids, and that the niche would have contained a statue of the interred. The Ancient Egyptians believed that the statue would serve as a "back up" vessel for the Ka of the Pharaoh, should the original mummified body be destroyed. The true purpose of the chamber, however, remains uncertain.[11] The Queens Chamber has a pair of shafts similar to those in the King's Chamber, which were explored using a robot, Upuaut 2, created by the German engineer Rudolf Gantenbrink. In 1992, Upuaut 2 discovered that these shafts were blocked by limestone "doors" with two eroded copper handles. The National Geographic Society filmed the drilling of a small hole in the southern door only to find another larger door behind it.[12] The northern passage, which was harder to navigate due to twists and turns, was also found to be blocked by a door.[13]

Unfinished chamber

The "unfinished chamber" lies 90 ft below ground level and is rough-hewn, lacking the precision of the other chambers. This chamber is dismissed by Egyptologists as being nothing more than a simple change in plans in which they believe it was intended to be the original burial chamber but later King Khufu changed his mind wanting it to be higher up in the pyramid.[14]

Pyramid complex

Map of Giza pyramid complex.
Main article: Giza pyramid complex
The Great Pyramid of Giza is the main part of a complex setting of buildings that included two mortuary temples in honor of Khufu (one close to the pyramid and one near the Nile), three smaller pyramids for Khufu's wives, an even smaller "satellite" pyramid, a raised causeway connecting the two temples, and small mastaba tombs surrounding the pyramid for nobles. One of the small pyramids contains the tomb of queen Hetepheres (discovered in 1925), sister and wife of Sneferu and the mother of Khufu. There was a town for the workers of Giza, including a cemetery, bakeries, a beer factory and a copper smelting complex. A few hundred metres south-west of the Great Pyramid lies the slightly smaller Pyramid of Khafre, one of Khufu's successors who is also commonly considered the builder of the Great Sphinx, and a few hundred metres further south-west is the Pyramid of Menkaure, Khafre's successor, which is about half as tall. In May 1954, 41 blocking stones were uncovered close to the south side of the Great Pyramid. They covered a 30.8 meter long rock-cut pit that contained the remains of a 43 meter long ship of cedar wood. In antiquity, it had been dismantled into 650 parts comprising 1224 pieces. This funeral boat of Khufu has been reconstructed and is now housed in a museum on the site of its discovery. A second boat pit was later discovered nearby.

INDIA GATE

The 42 metre high, free standing arch, popularly known as India Gate, It was originally called All India War Memorial in memory of the 90,000 Soldiers of the Indian Army who died in World War I. The names of the soldiers are inscribed all along the walls of the arch. In 1971, an eternal flame was lit here to honour the Amar Jawan (immortal soldiers). India Gate was designed and constructed by Lutyens. He was the who is considered the chief proclaimer in designing the New Delhi plans.

Quick bytes

Location :New Delhi
Famous As :All India War Memorial
Designed By :Edwin Lutyens In 1921
Height : 42m

The Breathtaking

View of India Gate Nowadays, if you drive down the smooth wide expanse of Rajpath on a midsummer night, you might be excused for assuming that a huge glittering carnival is in progress at India Gate. The entire boulevard up to the monument is lined with cars, scooters, motorcycles and what-have-you. In fact all of Delhi seems to have converged to the emerald lawns of India Gate. The air is thick with chatter, laughter and the cries of assorted vendors peddling their wares. You can snack on anything from fruit chaat (fruit salad with hot, spicy dressing), through bhelpuri (a snack of puffed rice, spices and hot, sweet and sour chutney), chana jor garam (spicy chickpeas), dal ka pakodas (fried lentil-flour dumplings), potato chips to ice cream, candy floss and aerated drinks.

The Architectural Marvel.

A tour of Lutyens’ Delhi just has to kick off with the stately India Gate at the east end of the broad Janpath (earlier Kingsway) that leads to the Rashtrapati Bhawan. Another additional 13,516 names engraved on the arch and foundations form a separate memorial to the British and Indian soldiers killed on the North-West Frontier in the Afghan War of 1919. The foundation stone was laid by HRH the Duke of Connaught in 1921 and the monument was dedicated to the nation 10 years later by the then Viceroy, Lord Irwin. Another memorial, Amar Jawan Jyoti was added much later after India had said goodbye to its imperial rulers. It is in the form of a flame that burns day and night under the arch to remind the nation of soldiers who perished in the Indo-Pakistan War of December 1971.The entire arch stands on a low base of red Bharatpur stone and rises in stages to a huge cornice, beneath which are inscribed Imperial suns. Above on both sides is inscribed INDIA, flanked by MCM and to the right, XIX. The shallow domed bowl at the top was intended to be filled with burning oil on anniversaries but this is rarely done.

LHASA, China - The Olympic torch made its way Saturday through Tibet's sealed-off capital, site of a March crackdown on rioting that helped fuel demonstrations at some of the flame's international stops.
Torch bearers started their run through Lhasa's streets at 9 a.m., a day after officials announced additional sentences handed down over the anti-government riots.

The 6.8-mile run began at Norbulingka, the Dalai Lama's former summer palace from where Tibet's traditional Buddhist leader fled into exile in 1959. The relay will end at the hilltop Potala Palace, the traditional seat of Tibetan rulers.

Police and soldiers lined the route, keeping a close eye on flag-waving onlookers arrayed on either side.

On Friday, Palma Trily, the vice-governor of Tibet's Chinese-appointed administration, said he was confident that Saturday's relay would pass through the city without incident.
Palma Trily also used the briefing to announce that 12 more people had been sentenced for taking part in a March 14 riot in the city that spawned further protests throughout Tibetan-inhabited regions of western China. He gave no details about their offenses or the punishments meted out.

Palma Trily said another 1,157 people had been released from detention over minor offenses related to the violent anti-government protests, in which Beijing says 22 people died.
Foreign Tibet supporters say many times that number were killed in the protests and a subsequent crackdown.

Chinese officials say the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled Buddhist leader, was behind the March unrest. They also accuse the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize laureate of trying to sabotage the Beijing Olympics and preparing "suicide squads" to carry out attacks. The Dalai Lama has denied the charges.

Tibet has been under a security clampdown since March and is still closed to foreign tourists. Foreign journalists have been allowed to visit only as part of closely monitored government tours.

Activist groups say the torch relay leg in Tibet and a separate relay to the peak of Mount Everest are an attempt by Chinese leaders to symbolize their control over the Himalayan region.
China says it has ruled Tibet for centuries, although many Tibetans say their homeland was essentially independent for much of that time.
During the Lhasa leg, the Olympic flame will be reunited with the one that was carried to the summit of Everest last month.

The torch was originally supposed to go through Tibet earlier this week. It was unclear why organizers changed the date.
Organizers also said last month that the Tibetan leg, originally set for three days, would be cut to one day to make way for a switch in the visit to Sichuan province, the center of a May 12 earthquake that killed nearly 70,000 people.

The torch has thus far had a smooth run in China, undisturbed by the protests over Tibet and human rights that hounded its appearance in London, Paris, San Francisco and elsewhere.
New York-based Human Rights in China called the Lhasa relay a "provocative decision" that harmed efforts to "find a peaceful long-term solution for Tibet and the region."
"The government's insistence on parading the torch through Lhasa can only undermine the respect and trust required for a genuine dialogue process with the Dalai Lama," the group's Executive Director Sharon Hom was quoted as saying in a news release.
Amnesty International, which earlier this year expressed concern over the fate of those detained after the spring protests, said it was heartened by word of the released detainees.

"We are encouraged by the news of the release of 1,157 people and we look forward to receiving information about the trials of the 116 people in custody announced by the Tibetan authorities," the group said.
In his comments to reporters Friday, Palma Trily repeated China's routine criticism of the Tibetan exile community, but said stability had been restored following renewed political indoctrination campaigns in Buddhist monasteries that are a hotbed of anti-Beijing sentiment.
"Their ultimate goal is to damage the happy life of the people in Tibet," he said.
"After this period of re-education, the vast majority of temples and monasteries have returned to normal religious activities. Stability has been returned and public order has been restored," Palma Trily said.

Create Your Own Purse

Instructions:

1. Check out a fabric or craft shop for two pieces of felt.

2. Use the same color for both pieces, or mix and match.

3. Cut each piece into 7 ? ?x9 ? ?rectangle.

4. Place one piece on top of the other and sew three sides together; two short ones and one long one about ?? from edge. If using two colors, match thread to darker felt. Trim excess felt beyond the thread. Purse is now ?inside out?.

5. To make the straps, use ?? wide ribbons and cut two pieces, about 15? each. You can make them longer or shorter if you want. Sew the ends of one ribbon to the corners of one rectangle, about ??from the top. Repeat on the other rectangle with the second piece of ribbon so that you have a double strap.

6. Turn the purse right side out and make it totally unique by decorating the outside with rhinestones, metal studs, or even pieces of cut-out felt.

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