The Shan Hills, also known as Shan Highland, are part of the range of hills that extends through Yunnan to Burma and Thailand, linking to the Himalayas, of which they may be considered foothills.

Etymology

The name of the range is derived from the Shan State and its peoples, said in its turn to be derived from the word "Siam", that occupies most of the Shan Highland area.

Geography

The area of the Shan Highland is a combination of hill ranges, high plateau and steep river valleys. The Shan Hills straddle central eastern Burma and northwestern Thailand.

They rise steeply from Burma's central plain and stretch for hundreds of kilometres eastwards into Thailand's northwest. The average elevation is around 1,000 m. Its surface is cut across by steep river gorges, part of the drainage basins of the Chao Phraya, the Irrawaddy and the Salween or Thanlwin River.

A series of mountain ranges rises in near-parallel fashion above the plateau, up to heights of 2,500 m. Doi Inthanon, the highest point in Thailand, reaching 2,565 m (8,415 ft), is part of a mountain range separating Burma from Thailand also known as Loi Lar Mountain Range or Daen Lao Range. This range, the westernmost of the Shan Highland system, separates the Salween watershed from the Mekong watershed. Other high peaks of the Loi Lar Mountain Range are Doi Luang Chiang Dao (2,175 m), Doi Pui (1,685 m), and Doi Suthep (1,676 m).

The Daen Lao Mountain Range begins at Chiang Saen in the east. Its western end is not clearly defined though. Some geographers include Doi Inthanon as part of the Thanon Thongchai subsystem, connecting the Daen Lao Range with the beginning of the Tenasserim Hills further south. The tallest point of the Thanon Thongchai range is Mae Ya Peak (2,005 m), located on the eastern side of these mountains in the Pai District of Mae Hong Son Province.

Features

Karstic ranges are common, for a large part of the Shan Hills are limestone. In the highlands of the Shan hills there are also lakes, like the Inle Lake near Yawnghwe.

The Shan Hills is the area of Burma which accounts for most of the national potato production.

In British colonial times, the main hill station in Burma, Pyin U Lwin, was built in the western region of the Shan Hills. Located at 1,000 m above sea level and about one-hour drive from Mandalay, it was one of the retreats for colonial officials escaping the heat of the Burmese summer. Pyin-U-Lwin is still famous for its botanical gardens and, like all British hill stations, has samples of colonial architecture.

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Pendle Hill is located in the north-east of Lancashire, England, near the towns of Burnley, Nelson, Colne, Clitheroe and Padiham. Its summit is 557 metres (1,827 ft) above mean sea level. It gives its name to the Borough of Pendle. It is an isolated hill, separated from the Pennines to the east and the Forest of Bowland to the northwest. It lies to the southwest of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. It is a detached part of the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

Geology

The sloping plateau summit of Pendle Hill is formed from the Pendle Grit, a coarse Carboniferous age sandstone assigned to the Millstone Grit Group. It overlies a thick sequence of Carboniferous Limestone beds.

Much of the lower slopes are mantled by thick deposits of glacial till or boulder clay dating from the last Ice Age. The historic decomposition of sphagnum moss on the hill has led to it being covered in peat.

The steep slopes of its eastern and southern flanks have given rise to a series of landslips.

History

The phrase Pendle Hill is unusual in that it combines the word for hill from three different languages. In the thirteenth century the hill was mentioned as Pennul or Penhul; apparently from Cumbric pen and Old English hyll, both meaning "hill". The modern English hill was appended later, after the original meaning of Pendle had become opaque.

Pendle Hill is famous for its links to three events which took place in the 17th century: the Pendle witch trials (1612), Richard Towneley's barometer experiment (1661), and the claimed visitation to George Fox (1652), which led to the foundation of the Quaker movement. A Bronze Age burial site has been also discovered at the summit of the hill.

The most popular route for ascending the hill begins in the village of Barley, which lies to the east. This route also provides the steepest ascent. Other nearby villages include Downham, Newchurch-in-Pendle, and Sabden.

A local saying suggests the area around Pendle Hill experiences frequent rainfall: "If you can see Pendle then it's about to rain, if you can't then it's already started." When it's not raining, and there's a usable northwesterly wind, Pendle is a popular hill-launch for paragliders and hang gliders.

Pendle witches

The story of the Pendle witches is the best known example of alleged witchcraft in English history. The hill continues to be associated with witchcraft and large numbers of visitors climb it every Hallowe'en.

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One Tree Hill (or Maungakiekie in Māori) is a 182 metre volcanic peak located in Auckland, New Zealand. It is an important memorial place for both Māori and other New Zealanders. The suburb around the base of the hill is also called One Tree Hill; it is surrounded by the suburbs of Royal Oak to the west, and clockwise, Epsom, Greenlane, Oranga, and Onehunga.

The hill's scoria cones erupted 20,000 - 30,000 years ago, creating lava flows that covered an area of 20 square kilometres, mostly towards Onehunga, making it the largest (in terms of area covered) of the Auckland volcanic field. The summit provides views across the Auckland area, and allows visitors to see both of Auckland's harbours.

Due to the use of the hilltop as a nightly party stop for boy racers and other (often drunk) groups of youths, it was decided in 2008 to close off the road access to the summit at night. While walking up to the hilltop will still be possible at night, it is hoped that this move will reduce vandalism. The police intend to continue monitoring the locality after hours.

Māori pā (fort)

The Māori name Maungakiekie translates to 'mountain of the kiekie vine', though other translations give the meaning as 'totara that stands alone'. The mountain and its surrounds were home to the Wai o Hua tribe, since the early 1700s and probably before that time. Other Māori tribes in the Auckland area can also trace their ancestry to the mountain.

Maungakiekie was the largest and most important Māori Pā in pre-European times. The cone and its surroundings are estimated to have been home to a population of up to 5,000. At this time, the Nga Marama chief Kiwi Tamaki held the pa and used its strategic placement to exact tribute from travellers passing from Northland to the rest of the North Island through the rich isthmus. Its position between the Waitemata Harbour to the East (opening upon the Pacific Ocean) and the Manukau Harbour to the West (opening onto the Tasman Sea) afforded a wide variety of seafood from the two harbours. The volcanic soil of the slopes of the mountain proved highly fertile and easy to defend from raiding parties from other tribes due to its steep sides and imposing palisades. The inhabitants terraced the hill extensively, and it is considered to be the largest prehistoric earthwork fortifications worldwide. It is also the largest and most complex volcanic cone / earth fortress known in the Southern Hemisphere.

Trees on the hill

When Auckland was founded as a colonial town a tree stood near the summit which gave the hill its English name. Two accounts identify it as a pohutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa). This tree was cut down by a white settler in 1852, in an act of vandalism in one account, or for firewood in another. It seems likely this was a different tree from the totara (Podocarpus totara) which, as a sacred tree, had given the hill one of its Maori names. A radiata pine was planted in the 1870s to replace the previous totara. John Logan Campbell repeatedly tried to grow native trees on the hill's summit, but the trees failed to survive - with only two pines, originally part of a shelter belt for the native trees, surviving for long. However, in 1960, one of the two was felled in another attack, possibly for firewood.

The remaining tree was later attacked twice with chainsaws by Māori activists to draw attention to injustices they believed the New Zealand government had inflicted upon Maori (as the tree was not a native New Zealand species, they considered it an appropriate target). The first attack happened on 28 October 1994, the anniversary of the 1835 Declaration of Independence. A second attack on 5 October 2000 left the tree unable to recover even though substantial efforts were made, and so it was removed on 26 October due to the risk of it collapsing. The chainsaw used in the first attack was later placed on sale on popular New Zealand auction site, TradeMe in 2007, but later withdrawn by the website after complaints and a poll of users. It was later listed on eBay.

Partly due to uncertainty as to what species of tree should be replanted (a new pine or a tree native to New Zealand), the summit stands empty at the moment, except for the obelisk. A new nickname, "N(one) Tree Hill", soon became popular. Plans are ongoing to plant a grove of pohutukawa and totara trees at the summit, but concerns by local iwi over Treaty of Waitangi claims have so far prevented any actual planting. The Council also had to remove repeated illegal plantings, usually of pohutukawa, over the last years.

credited to wikipedia

Moon Hill (Yuèliàng Shān) or Moon Mountain is a hill with a natural arch through it a few kilometers outside Yangshuo in southern China's Guangxi autonomous region. It is so named for a wide, semicircular hole through the hill, all that remains of what was once a limestone cave formed in the phreatic zone. Like most formations in the region, it is karst. It is also a popular tourist attraction.

It takes about 20 minutes to climb to the arch, or considerably longer for those who mean to reach the hill's summit. Access is not free and visitors must pay an entrance fee to be allowed to climb the hill. Souvenirs and refreshment vendors often follow climbers up and down the path.

In addition to a concrete tourist path which passes through the arch, and a somewhat rougher, steeper path leading to the summit above the arch, Moon Hill has several rock climbing routes, the first of which was climbed by Todd Skinner in the 1990s. It has also been used for abseils in several adventure races.

Moon hill offers some broad, panoramic views of the surrounding countryside, which is characterized by the knobby karst hills found throughout the region.

credited to wikipedia

Taumata whakatangihanga koauau o tamatea turi pukakapiki maunga horo nuku pokai whenua kitanatahu is the Māori name for a hill, 305 metres (1,001 ft) high, close to Porangahau, south of Waipukurau in southern Hawke's Bay, New Zealand.

The name is often shortened to Taumata by the locals for ease of conversation. The New Zealand Geographic Placenames Database, maintained by Land Information New Zealand (LINZ), records the name as "Taumata whakatangihanga koauau o tamatea pokai whenua ki tana tahu". It has gained a measure of fame as it is the longest place-name found in any English-speaking country.

Meaning

The name on the sign that marks the hill is "Taumata whakatangihanga koauau o tamatea turi pukakapiki maunga horo nuku pokai whenua kitanatahu", which translates roughly as The summit where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, the climber of mountains, the land-swallower who travelled about, played his nose flute to his loved one. At 85 letters, it has been listed in the Guinness World Records as one of the longest place names in the world.

Tamatea, explorer of the land

Tamatea-pōkai-whenua (Tamatea the explorer of the land) was the father of Kahungunu, ancestor of the Ngāti Kahungunu iwi. Mention of Tamatea's explorations of the land occur not only in Ngāti Kahungunu legends, but also in the traditions of iwi from Northland, where he is said to have explored the Hokianga and Kaipara harbours. In traditions from the Bay of Plenty region, he left a son, Ranginui, who is the ancestor of Ngāti Ranginui of Tauranga. Legends from the East Coast of the North Island tell of his explorations in Tūranga-nui (Gisborne), Māhia, Wairoa, Ahuriri (Napier), Heretaunga (near Hastings) and Pōrangahau. He travelled via the Mangakopikopiko River, over the Tītī-o-kura saddle via Pohokura to Lake Taupo. The Ōtamatea River and swamp is named after him. Tamatea is also the name of a place in Napier. Early South Island legends say that Tamatea sailed down the east coast. His canoe was wrecked in the far south, and transformed into Tākitimu mountain range. Tamatea then returned to the North Island, and travelled via the Whanganui River.

credited to wikipedia and flickr: JuergenSchulte

Cappadocia is a region in central Turkey, largely in Nevşehir Province.

The name was traditionally used in Christian sources throughout history and is still widely used as an international tourism concept to define a region of exceptional natural wonders, in particular characterized by fairy chimneys and a unique historical and cultural heritage. The term, as used in tourism, roughly corresponds to present-day Nevşehir Province.

In the time of Herodotus, the Cappadocians were reported as occupying the whole region from Mount Taurus to the vicinity of the Euxine (Black Sea). Cappadocia, in this sense, was bounded in the south by the chain of the Taurus Mountains that separate it from Cilicia, to the east by the upper Euphrates and the Armenian Highland, to the north by Pontus, and to the west by Lycaonia and eastern Galatia.

Etymology

The earliest record of the name of Cappadocia dates from the late 6th century BC, when it appears in the trilingual inscriptions of two early Achaemenid kings, Darius I and Xerxes, as one of the countries (Old Persian dahyu-) of the Persian Empire. In these lists of countries, the Old Persian name is Katpatuka, clearly not a native Persian name. The Elamite and Akkadian language versions of the inscriptions contain a similar name from Akkadian katpa "side" (cf. Heb katef) and a chief or ancestor's name, Tuka.

Herodotus tells us that the name of the Cappadocians was applied to them by the Persians, while they were termed by the Greeks as "Syrians" or "White Syrians" (Leucosyri). One of the Cappadocian tribes he mentions is the Moschoi, associated by Flavius Josephus with the biblical figure Meshech, son of Japheth: "and the Mosocheni were founded by Mosoch; now they are Cappadocians". AotJ I:6. Also see Ketubot 13:11 in the Mishna.

Cappadocia is also mentioned in the Biblical account given in the book of Acts 2:9. The Cappadocians were named as one group hearing the Gospel account from Galileans in their own language on the day of Pentecost shortly after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Acts 2:5 seems to suggest that the Cappadocians in this account were "God-fearing Jews". See Acts of the Apostles.

Under the later kings of the Persian Empire, the Cappadocians were divided into two satrapies, or governments, with one comprising the central and inland portion, to which the name of Cappadocia continued to be applied by Greek geographers, while the other was called Pontus. This division had already come about before the time of Xenophon. As after the fall of the Persian government the two provinces continued to be separate, the distinction was perpetuated, and the name Cappadocia came to be restricted to the inland province (sometimes called Great Cappadocia), which alone will be the focus of this article.

The kingdom of Cappadocia was still in existence in the time of Strabo as a nominally independent state. Cilicia was the name given to the district in which Caesarea, the capital of the whole country, was situated. The only two cities of Cappadocia considered by Strabo to deserve that appellation were Caesarea (originally known as Mazaca) and Tyana, not far from the foot of the Taurus.

Geography and climate

Cappadocia lies in eastern Anatolia, in the center of what is now Turkey. The relief consists of a high plateau over 1000m in altitude that is pierced by volcanic peaks, with Mount Erciyes (ancient Argaeus) near Kayseri (ancient Caesarea) being the tallest at 3916m. The boundaries of historical Cappadocia are vague, particularly towards the west. To the south, the Taurus Mountains form the boundary with Cilicia and separate Cappadocia from the Mediterranean Sea. To the west, Cappadocia is bounded by the historical regions of Lycaonia to the southwest, and Galatia to the northwest. The Black Sea coastal ranges separate Cappadocia from Pontus and the Black Sea, while to the east Cappadocia is bounded by the upper Euphrates, before that river bends to the southeast to flow into Mesopotamia, and the Armenian Highland. This results in an area approximately 400 km (250 mi) east-west and 250 km (160 mi) north-south. Due to its inland location and high altitude, Cappadocia has a markedly continental climate, with hot dry summers and cold snowy winters. Rainfall is sparse and the region is largely semi-arid to arid.

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The Storr is a rocky hill on the Trotternish peninsula of the Isle of Skye. The hill presents a steep rocky eastern face overlooking the Sound of Raasay, contrasting with gentler grassy slopes to the west.

Geology

The Storr is prime example of the Trotternish landslip, the longest such feature in Great Britain.

The area in front of the cliffs of the Storr is known as the Sanctuary. This has a number of weirdly shaped rock pinnacles, the remnants of ancient landslips. One of the most famous of these is known as the Old Man of Storr.

Ascent routes

A well constructed path, used by many sightseers, leaves the A855 just north of Loch Leathan. It heads up through an area of forestry, with glimpses of the scenery beyond. After about 1 mile (1.6 km) the walker emerges from the trees, into a spectacular, almost lunar, landscape.

Most day-trippers are content simply to wander around the Sanctuary, admiring the pinnacles and gazing up at cliffs of The Storr. Walkers can easily ascend to the summit however by skirting below the cliffs whilst heading north. After passing over a fence and climbing a brief steep section of loose rock, the recommended route heads north west as far as Coire Scamadal, 1 km north of the summit, then doubling back and heading southwards, climbing towards the summit. From this route, visible breaks in the cliffs offer tempting short cuts, but these are steep, may not save time and may not be safe.

An alternative route to or from the summit starts 500 metres south west of the car park and heads north west to Bealach Beag, about 1 km south west of the summit, following the course of a stream which breaches the cliffs. A steep section of this course is slippery and requires care.

The Storr is often climbed as part of a much longer expedition, following the full length of the Trotternish landslip.

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Gosse Bluff, an astonishing natural wonder, is a massive, rock-rimmed crater gouged out by the impact of a comet one hundred and thirty million years ago. The comet, a ball of frozen carbon dioxide, ice and dust measuring six hundred meters across became a flaming furnace as it hurtled to Earth.

Although entering only about eight hundred meters into the ground, it blew up almost four hundred square kilometers of nearby land. This astonishing site was created by a meteorite impact close to eight million years ago whereby its size was reduced to the erosion. Located on the vast Tnorala Conservation Reserve, this impact crater is called Tnorala by the Aborigines.

Gosse Bluff, discovered by Edmund Gosse in 1873, is the core of a crater that has worn away over one hundred and thirty millions years. From the original twenty kilometers in diameter, it measures only four kilometers presently. Erosion has worn away tons of debris that once covered it. The bluff, the crater's double-walled rim of hard sandstone crags, now rises to one hundred and eighty meters above the plain. This sandstone was pushed up by the explosion as layers of similar rock have been discovered over two kilometers beneath the surface.

One of the most extraordinary photos seen is pictured by space satellite whereby it looks like a massive thumbprint on the otherwise flat and featureless Missionary Plain one hundred and sixty kilometers west of Alice Springs. The main crowd puller here is that the sandstone ring stands out as one of the most impressive impact scars in a landscape littered with meteor craters. Located nearby Gosse Bluff are the Henbury Craters, made by twelve fragments of a meteorite that split as it hurtled in from space less than five thousand years ago.

credited to aguidetoasia and flickr: ccbg

The Chocolate Hills is an unusual geological formation in Bohol, Philippines. It is composed of around 1,268 perfectly cone-shaped hills of about the same size, spread over an area of more than 50 square kilometres (20 sq mi). They are covered in green grass that turns brown during the dry season, hence the name.

The Chocolate Hills is a famous tourist attraction of Bohol. It is featured in the provincial flag and seal to symbolize the abundance of natural attraction in the province. It is in the Philippine Tourism Authority's list of tourist destinations in the Philippines; it has been declared the country's 3rd National Geological Monument and proposed for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Description

The Chocolate Hills are Bohol's famous attraction. Photographer Salvador Andre notes:

Most people who first see pictures of this landscape can hardly believe that these hills are not a man-made artifact. However, this idea is quickly abandoned, as the effort would surely surpass the construction of the pyramids in Egypt.

Further:

There is no natural formation like them in the world. From a distance, they look like half a ball grown out of the ground. The molehill-shaped and almost uniformly sized hills dot the landscape with green and brown.

The Chocolate Hills is a rolling terrain of haycock hills – mounds of general shape which are conical and almost symmetrical. Estimated to be at least 1,268 individual mounds to about 1,776, these cone-shaped or dome-shaped hills are actually made of grass-covered limestone. The domes vary in sizes from 30 to 50 metres (98 to 160 ft) high with the largest being 120 metres (390 ft) in height. They are scattered throughout the towns of Carmen, Batuan and Sagbayan in Bohol. Bohol's "main attraction", these unique mound-shaped hills are scattered by the thousands on the island's central plain, concentrated near the town of Carmen.

During the dry season, the precipitation is inadequate such that the grass-covered hills dry up and turn chocolate brown. This transforms the area into seemingly endless rows of "chocolate kisses". The branded confection is the inspiration behind the name, Chocolate Hills.

Topography

The Chocolate Hills and the area around it have relatively flat to rolling topography with elevation ranges from 100 to 500 metres (330 to 1,600 ft) above sea level. Higher karstic hills dominate the landscape inland then turning almost uniformly and naturally molded in Carmen.

Vegetation

The vegetation of the Chocolate Hills is dominated by hardy grass species such as Imperata cylindrica and Saccharum spontaneum. Several Compositae and ferns also grow on them. In between the hills, the flat lands are cultivated to rice and other cash crops. However, the natural vegetation on the Chocolate Hills is now highly threatened by quarrying activities.

Origin

There are a number of hypotheses regarding the formation of the hills. These include simple limestone weathering, sub-oceanic volcanism, the uplift of the seafloor and a more recent theory which maintains that as an ancient active volcano self-destructed, it spewed huge blocks of stone which were then covered with limestone and later thrust forth from the ocean bed.

Geologists have long debated about the formation of the hills, resulting in various ways the origin of the Chocolate Hills are stated or explained. The one written on the bronze plaque at the viewing deck in Carmen, Bohol states that they are eroded formations of a type of marine limestone that sits on top of hardened clay. The plaque reads:

The unique land form known as the Chocolate Hills of Bohol was formed ages ago by the uplift of coral deposits and the action of rain water and erosion.

Another statement says:

the grassy hills were once coral reefs that erupted from the sea in a massive geologic shift. Wind and water put on the finishing touches over hundreds of thousands of years.

Still another way the origin is stated is that they were formed centuries ago by tidal movement and by the uplift of coral deposits and the action of rain water and erosion. Another theory is that they were ancient coral limestone reefs shaped by many thousands of years erosion by both water and wind. Geologists think that the specific shape of the hills is caused by the influence of the weather over millions of years. The break down of the upper layers of the limestone formations, followed by the erosion processes, resulted in these cone-shaped remnants. It is likely that they were once limestone deposits beneath the sea, uplifted by the movement of plates and then smoothed by wind and rainwater erosion.

The Chocolate Hills are conical karst hills similar to those seen in the limestone regions of Slovenia and Croatia, except that the Chocolate Hills have no caves. According to the karst theory, "sea level changes and uplift combined with terrestrial erosion and air exposure of biogenic reef regions have given rise to hummocky landscapes that are often impregnated with sinkholes and caves." The Chocolate Hills are considered among the striking examples of this karst topography. The Bungle Bungles in the Purnululu National Park in Western Australia feature similar sedimentary formations.

Legend

Three legends explain the formation of the Chocolate Hills. The first tells the story of two feuding giants who hurled rocks, boulders and sand at each other. The fighting lasted for days, and exhausted the two giants. In their exhaustion, they forgot about their feud and became friends, but when they left they forgot to clean up the mess they had made during their battle, hence the Chocolate Hills.

A more romantic legend tells of a giant named Arogo who was extremely powerful and youthful. Arogo fell in love with Aloya who was a simple mortal. Aloya's death caused Arogo much pain and misery, and in his sorrow he could not stop crying. When his tears dried the Chocolate Hills were formed.

The third legend tells of a town being plagued by a giant carabao, who ate all of their crops. Finally having had enough, the townsfolk took all of their spoiled food and placed it in such a way that the carabao would not miss it. Sure enough, the carabao ate it, but his stomach couldn't handle the spoiled food, so he defecated, leaving behind him a mound of feces, until he had emptied his stomach of the food. The feces then dried, forming the Chocolate Hills.

credited to wikipedia and flickr:juan paulo;roomman