Rani-ki-Vav (the Queen’s Stepwell) - Top View Patan in Gujarat, India Photographer: Dushyant Patel (via 500px.com)

Rani-ki-Vav, on the banks of the Saraswati River, was initially built as a memorial to a king in the 11th century AD. Stepwells are a distinctive form of subterranean water resource and storage systems on the Indian subcontinent, and have been constructed since the 3rd millennium BC. It was added to the list of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites on 22 June 2014. unesco.org

Life in a sinkhole

The karst landscapes of China have been an essential part of their figurative art and painting since time immemorial, capturing the imagination and providing a sense of wonder at nature. The sinkholes here form when underground rivers carve out underground channels by chemical erosion whose roofs later collapse when they weaken. These windows allow sunlight to pour within, and extensive and unique ecosystems to develop underground.

Loz

Image credit: Song Wen/Barcroft Media

http://on.wsj.com/1SdIVxD

Initiation Path (Quinta da Regaleira, Sintra, Portugal) (by Jason Lee Hong Jet)

alone

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The 40 Most Breathtaking Abandoned Places In The World

Ok. It the jet star was not abandoned it literally fell into the ocean

A ‘Ring of Fire’ solar eclipse is a rare phenomenon that occurs when the moon’s orbit is at its apogee: the part of its orbit farthest away from the Earth. Because the moon is so far away, it seems smaller than normal to the human eye. The result is that the moon doesn’t entirely block out our view of the sun, but leaves an “annulus,” or ring of sunlight glowing around it. Hence the term  “annular” eclipse rather than a “total” eclipse.

honestly this is too pretty to be in america

Anie330

abandoned greenhouse | Belgium

photography by Martino Zegwaard

Völklingen Ironworks by ni.c on Flickr.

Israel: “Color and texture in the Dead Sea,” writes photographer Doron Nissim.

Scott Outdoor Amphitheatre, Swarthmore College, PA. Designed by Thomas Sears and completed in 1942. 

2ft high retaining walls are made from layers of local schist slabs and the randomly spaced trees are Liriodendron tulipifera (Tulip Tree) and Quercus alba (White Oak).

I love the idea of a ‘turf proscenium floor’ and it looks like a great place to learn. I can imagine this kind of space would conform to the theories of design laid out in ‘A Pattern Language’ by Christopher Alexander…

http://tclf.org/landscapes/scott-outdoor-amphitheater

Linum7

Ben Andrews

Artist Henrique Oliveira Constructs a Cavernous Network of Repurposed Wood Tunnels at MAC USP

Brazilian artist Henrique Oliveira (previously) recently completed work on his largest installation to date titled Transarquitetônica at Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade in São Paulo. As with much of his earlier sculptural and installation work the enormous piece is built from tapumes, a kind of temporary siding made from inexpensive wood that is commonly used to obscure construction sites. Oliveira uses the repurposed wood pieces as a skin nailed to an organic framework that looks intentionally like a large root system. Because the space provided by the museum was so immense, the artist expanded the installation into a fully immersive environment where viewers are welcome to enter the artwork and explore the cavernous interior. Transarquitetônica will be on view through the end of November this year, and you can watch the video above by Crane TV to hear Oliveira discuss its creation.

Via Colossal