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Carrion Luggage  Native to the Americas, the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) travels widely in search of sustenance. While usually foraging alone, it relies on other individuals of its species for companionship and mutual protection. Sometimes misunderstood, sometimes feared, sometimes shunned, it nevertheless performs an important role in the ecosystem. This scavenger bird is a marvel of efficiency. Rather than expend energy flapping its wings, it instead locates uplifting columns of air, and spirals within them in order to glide to greater heights. This behavior has been mistaken for opportunism, interpreted as if it is circling doomed terrestrial animals destined to be its next meal. In truth, the vulture takes advantage of these thermals to gain the altitude needed glide longer distances, flying not out of necessity, but for the joy of it. It also avoids the exertion necessary to capture live prey, preferring instead to feast upon that which is already dead. In this behavior, it resembles many humans. It is not what most of us would consider to be a pretty bird. While its habits are often off-putting, or even disgusting, to members of more fastidious species, the turkey vulture helps to keep the environment from being clogged with detritus. Hence its Latin binomial, which translates to English as "golden purifier." I rarely know where the winds will take me next, or what I might find there. The journey is the destination. |
| Old Christmas joke: Why were the Three Wise Men covered in ashes? Because they came from afar. This article also comes from Afar: 11 Lost Cities You Can Actually Visit  Rediscover these abandoned cities by traveling to see their ruins, where you can readily imagine their lost-to-time structures and civilizations. But if you can visit them, they're not lost. Calling them "lost" is like you're wandering the market with your kid, and the kid wanders off, and later you find them at the popsicle stand, and you keep calling them "lost." When the lost city of Kweneng, South Africa, was discovered last year, it wasn’t because someone found a fossil there or excavated it with a shovel. So, Kweneng was lost until 2018, and now it's found. (The article is dated 2019.) Instead, archaeologist Karim Sadr relied on LiDAR technology, which uses lasers to measure distance, to create detailed images of the surrounding Suikerbosrand hills, where Tswana-speaking people first built stone settlements in the 15th century. Okay, jokes aside, that's a damn cool use of technology. While Kweneng’s visitor infrastructure isn’t quite as developed yet, there are plenty of other rediscovered cities to visit. I didn't bother to look it up, but maybe it's been more developed by now. In any case, the rest of the article focuses on other cities in the world that once were lost but now are found, were blind but now can see. Persepolis, Iran Achaemenid Empire kings fortified a natural stone terrace into an imposing platform when they founded Persepolis in the 6th century B.C.E., leveraging the landscape to awe-inspiring effect and military advantage. Which is cool and all, but I'm not sure I want to visit Iran right now. In theory, yes, certainly; lots of history there, and great food (though I'm guessing there's a severe lack of beer). In practice, maybe not. Petra, Jordan The entrance to Petra is designed for maximum impact, leading visitors from a shadowy gorge to views of soaring, tangerine-colored rock. By contrast, I actually visited this one, but it was so long ago I think it had just been built. Ciudad Perdida, Colombia Founded in the 9th century, this forest city developed a unique architectural plan of stone pathways, plazas, and houses over centuries, but dense jungle swallowed them shortly after the arrival of Europeans. One of my sources claims that "perdida" is Spanish slang for "loose woman," so it might be worth the visit. Pompeii and Herculaneum, Italy Billowing ash from Mount Vesuvius dimmed the sky above Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79 C.E., then buried the cities for nearly 17 centuries. Really? Wow! I've never heard of that! Kidding. It's probably the first ancient disaster I ever heard about. Caracol, Belize Trees curl around Caracol’s stone pyramids, which the Belize jungle overtook after residents abandoned the site in the 11th century. While I didn't visit Caracol while I was in Belize lo these many years ago, there were plenty of other Mayan ruins in the jungle that I did visit, including some of the famed calendar sites. Troy, Turkey A dramatic setting for the ancient world’s most consequential love triangle, Troy has a 4,000-year history that merges with myth near Turkey’s Aegean coast. This one's especially cool not just because of its significance to ancient literature, but also because of its significance to modern archaeology. One of the first "adult" nonfiction books I remember reading detailed Schliemann's groundbreaking (you're goddamn right that pun was intended) work in finding and excavating the ancient city. But, no, I haven't been there. Xanadu, China Kublai Khan ruled his empire from the city of Xanadu, surrounded by a grassland steppe that stretched to the horizon in every direction. Also the purported subject of Coleridge's arguably second-most-famous poem. There are a few more at the link, but those are the ones which I felt like commenting on. While none of them (to the best of my knowledge) have a McDonald's or a five-star hotel, they might be worth a brief visit. |
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