One Of The Most Beautiful Churches/Cathedrals, We Had Visited Last Year - Notre Dame De Paris (Our Lady Of Paris)

Coming back to write after a long break.  But the news about the spiral tower of Notre Dame burning, is compelling me to write...last year's Europe tour changed my views about many things.

We had the opportunity to visit many cathedrals in Rome, Venice, Paris etc. this time.

This cathedral, Notre Dame, was built around 1260 AD by Bishop Maurice de Sully.  Read more about this place here.

Very interesting information was that the great Napoleon Bonaparte's coronation took place here on 2nd Dec. 1804.  You can see a painting of the coronation here.

Now, to some photographs I had taken there, at the Notre Dame cathedral.

I took this snap as soon as we reached this place.  Huge building!

Photographed from a different angle. The two towers are sixty-nine meters high and were the tallest structures in Paris until the completion of the Eiffel Tower in 1889.

The interior...the chapel was stunning!

Many beautiful sculptures were there on the left and right sides, depicting the stories from Christianity

The feeling inside the cathedral was overwhelming. Though we are used to praying in our Hindu temples, which are full of good architecture, mostly in stone, this place gave this feeling, well, maybe because it was an ancient building.  Peacefulness was there. The whole area was beautiful with lot of woodwork.  This is the reason I felt sad when I read about the major fire which happened just a few days back. Thank god, since it was under restoration now, many good sculptures and other artifacts were already shifted to other places.  I remember gaping at the spire but thought I won't be able to take a good picture of that, so, I don't have my photograph of the 90 meter tall spire which collapsed in the fire.  They say the renovation work is also a reason for the fire.  Might be electrical short circuit in some lift/elevator.

Anyway, read that the spire built by a 30 year old architect (The spire and the statues trace their roots to the mid-19th century work of a bold visionary who, at the age of 30, was commissioned to restore the cathedral and replace an old spire after years of neglect.) Got this information from the Washington post which also has got some videos of the fire (link). Feel very sad. 

This picture shows the real beauty, elegance of the spire before the fire: 

Picture courtesy: Shine.cn

The famous instrument, pipe organ is also saved, it seems.  I could not go up and see it closely since they played the instrument at a particular time.

This link has got some good videos played with this organ.

About this organ: 

One of the earliest organs at Notre-Dame, built in 1403 by Friedrich Schambantz, was replaced between 1730 and 1738 by Francois Thierry. During the restoration of the cathedral by Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, Aristide Cavaille-Coll built a new organ, using pipe work from the former instruments. The organ was dedicated in 1868.

Many artifacts were saved before the fire spread to other parts of the cathedral. Because of the ongoing renovation, the copper statues that were normally on the now collapsed spire had been removed from the building a week prior.

Well, funds are pouring from all over the world to renovate the monument to its earlier glory.  Hope for the best!

Janjira/Jaldurg, A Unique Fort In Maharashtra In The Middle Of The Arabian Sea!

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Fort Janjira/Jaldurg In The Middle Of The Arabian Sea. (Picture courtesy:

Shomdev Pal (Wikipedia))

We had been to Maharashtra, a few months back and visited many forts over there.  The best and unique fort was the Janjira Fort which is also called Jaldurg. 'Janjira' is an Arabic word for island, it seems. It is situated in the port town of Murud, a small sleepy town, facing the Arabian sea.  The boat ride to the fort was OK but getting down at the small entrance to the fort was difficult.  They charge Rs.600 for the boat ride without any receipt.   My son insisted for the receipt and then they gave.  Parking fee was Rs.40 at a dirty area. Again no receipt.  We need lot of patience to cross the narrow village roads to the jetty.  But the boatmen were good. We gave them Rs.200 extra since the next day was Ramzan! This is  mainly a Muslim area. We saw goats tied to the gates in each and every house. The people were busy feeding them some greens.  The guide charged Rs.400. He was OK.  

Wiki says: Janjira is considered one of the strongest marine forts in India. The fort is approached by sail boats from Rajapuri jetty.  (Murud is 165 Kms. south of Mumbai).

The main gate of the fort faces Rajapuri on the shore and can be seen only when one is about 40 feet (12 m) away from it. It has a small postern gate towards the open sea for escape.

The fort has 26 rounded bastions, still intact. There are many cannons of native and European make rusting on the bastions. Now in ruins, the fort in its heyday was a full-fledged living fort with all the necessary facilities, e.g., palaces, quarters for officers, mosque, temple, two small 60-foot-deep (18 m) natural fresh water lakes.

A special attraction of this fort is, 3 gigantic cannons named Kalalbangdi, Chavri and Landa Kasam. These cannons were said to be feared for their shooting range.

 This link says:  

Janjira came into prominence in the late 15th or early 16th century when the Siddis became its virtual masters. After it had been ruled over by such historical greats as the Mauryas, Silharas, Chalukyas, and Yadavas, it fell into the hands of the Abyssinians or Siddis in 1490 A.D, by way of trickery against a Koli king. Malik Ambar, a powerful Abyssinian, subsequently constructed a strong stone fort there in 1567 A.D. Numerous wars were waged against the Siddis by the Marathas, Mughals, and Portuguese to wrest Janjira from them, but in vain. The Siddis proved fiercer soldiers and greater seafarers than them all. The Janjira state came to an end after 1947 with the merging of princely Indian states with the union.

Shivaji also waged a war against the Siddis but couldn't penetrate the fort.  His son Sambhaji also tried.  Built Padmadurg fort nearby and tried to come inside this fort via a tunnel under the sea, but in vain.  Now also they say that there is a tunnel from the fort to the Rajapuri town.

They had an active market area inside the fort. They had a full-fledged town.  The descendants have fled to Indore and Mumbai later, it seems. Some dark skinned people were seen in the town of Rajapuri here... the result of mixed marriages!

Our guide said that the Fort took 22 years to build and is spread over 22 acres of land. At the entrance is an inscription in Persian language and a stone carving depicting a tiger engulfed by six elephants which, is the emblem of the might of the Siddis, it seems.

He said that the queen had a 2 storied glass palace and bath with water channelled from streams.  We saw the dry toilets for the queen.

About Siddis: 

The Siddis are the descendants of slaves, sailors, and maritime workers, forced and voluntary migrants from the East African countries of Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, and later Zanzibar.  The forced migration of Africans for purposes of slavery is incontestably the major reason for the presence of Africans in India.

 

The sleepy town of Murud from where we can reach the Fort.

The narrow entrance to the fort. Slippery, broken steps.  We have to be very careful while getting down from the boat and climb the steps (nothing is there there to hold the boat or us, boatmen have to help us and hold the boat too!). This is the only entrance for people to enter the fort which is not easy to locate unless you know the place. We can reach here only by boats.

This picture was taken by my son from the topmost point at the Janjira fort. Click on the picture to have a good view.  You can see the sweet water pond on the left.

Sweet water pond inside the fort.  The whole Janjira town people were using this water for drinking and cooking purposes.  One more lake was on the other end of the Fort. Water was available throughout the year, it seems.

The inside of the fort..The weeds are removed during the peak tourist season, it seems.  The ruined building had seven stories which was Siddi leaders' offices!

A special attraction of this fort is, the 3 gigantic cannons named Kalalbangdi, Chavri and Landa Kasam. These cannons were said to be feared for their shooting range. They are in the picture shown above.

The 40' high walls of the fort. The fort was made of stones bonded together by a mixture of lead, sand and gul. Wiki says so.  What is gul? Or is it gud, jaggery? Anybody knows? It cannot be rose flower!

This picture was taken from the top of the fort.  Stones can be seen near the wall.  No other entrance anywhere else, except a small hole on the other side of the fort which was crude.

The small escape route on the opposite side of the main gate. Imagine Siddis going out via this tiny opening! Posted this picture on 5th April, '16

Shivaji's son, Sambhaji built another sea fort in 1676, known as Padmadurg or Kasa fort, to challenge Janjira and failed. This picture of the fort was taken from the Janjira fort.

  

Another picture of the oval shaped Janjira Fort

The Maharashtrian tourism Department has got a treasure in their hands.  If this unique fort was somewhere in Europe, they would have maintained it very well which would have attracted more tourism to the area.  I might forget our visits to the other forts but not this one!

We reached the fort by sail boat and while returning, a motor boat came and pulled our boat against the wind direction to the shore!

If anyone know more details of the place, please write in the comment section, please. Thank you!

P.S.: I came across this You tube link now, and you can see the fort without the weeds!

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Edited on 29th May, '16: Came across this article on 'African rulers of India'. Very interesting!

Post updated on 14/6/20: African rulers of India

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Vaalpaarai Trip - Lion-tailed Macaque Monkey Darshan!

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This is the third post on our 'Vaalpaarai Trip'.  Have a look at the First part here and the Second part here!

As I told in the earlier post, we started very early with Sachin, to have a look at the rare birds and animals at the Briar Tea Estate.  It is still green green (!) literally, in my memory! The misty air, the sounds of different types of birds...heard Elephant's sound (trumpet) also from far away! Heavenly feeling! Saw a few grey horn bill birds which live mostly in this region, we were told. We saw some Elephant stool also on the walking path in between the tea plants.  It was still wet and Sachin said that they must have walked on this path just a couple of hours back.  He had seen tiger also once, it seems! No, we didn't see...I should be an athlete to run away if I see one! He showed where he saw...it was very close! And now, to the 'Lion-tailed Macaque' monkeys! They are one of the endangered species.  They are seen mainly in the Western ghat forest area.  Since the forest area is becoming less and less, the animals which live here also are diminishing day by day.  Human greediness. They don't fancy humans, it seems...naturally! But here, in India, the population is not alarmingly diminishing because of the positive steps taken by the State Governments, Wiki says.

Wiki also says: It primarily eats indigenous fruits, leaves, buds, insects and small vertebrates in virgin forest.

Notice the long snout and the fluffy mane! Click on the pictures pl.

I like the gait with which he is walking on the tree...they live mostly on trees, it seems!

Notice the fluffy tip of the tail! Lion-tailed macaque monkey, this is!

Relaxing!

Itchy?!

Singing?!

Posing!

Playing!

Naughty children! We saw many young ones playing there! They were moving very fast and so it was very difficult to click!

Sachin, the Naturalist, who took us here said that most of the days, they are not visible to tourists.  We were lucky on that day! We had a good darshan of Hanuman, the Hindu God(s)!



P.S.: I would like to add my friend, Jeevan's comment here: 'there’s this place before entering valparai town, you could notice foresters have made hanging bridges for them to cross the road or prevent hitting from vehicle. It’s really good to see the forest department taking action to preserve these monkeys'.

Vaalpaarai Trip - Athirappally/Athirappilly Water Falls

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Athirappally falls.  It is called the Niagara of South India!

We had been to this Athirappally falls two weeks back.  They call it as Athirappilly Falls also.

We had a wedding in the family and we planned to visit Vaalpaarai with some relatives to just relax after the wedding.  We did just that!

9 of us travelled to Coimbatore from Chennai by train.  We had booked the Briar Tea Estate bungalow (Monica Bungalow) a couple of months earlier.  The Hotel people had sent a van to the station and we were driven through 40 hairpin bends (via scenic Pollaachchi) to the Bungalow at Vaalpaarai.   

We crossed 40 narrow hairpin bends like this to reach our Bungalow. (Wiki picture)

We were the only occupants in the bungalow which is situated among ancient trees at the Briar Tea Estate.   We had very good vegetarian food...the chef was too good!
 

View from the veranda of our Bungalow!

Another view!

We roamed about in the Tea Estate one evening and saw tea and coffee plants on the slopes of the hills.  We had been to Munnar, a few years back and had stayed in a Tea Estate bungalow over there too.  But this Bungalow is too good.  Huge clean rooms, good food, courteous staff.  Then, we were taken to this Athirappally falls, which was 80 Kms. away.  The hotel staff packed lunch for us! We started early in the morning after breakfast.  Located on the west-flowing Chalakkudy river near the Vazhachal Forest Division and the Sholayar ranges, this 24-metre (80 ft) waterfall is situated in Athirappilly/Athirappally Panchayath, Chalakkudy Taluk in Trissur Dist., Kerala.

We reached Vazhachchal and entered the forest-like area to reach the falls.  We had to walk for around 15 to 20 mts. on uneven pathway.  It was quite tough for us.  Some of our people stayed back at the entrance.  Esp. the path near the falls was really really tough...climbing the rocks and hopping...but it was worth the effort! When we reached the open area, what a scene! Out of this world! And it was not monsoon season! Still, the water flow was quite good! We didn't go very near to the fall but could experience the water spray on us! It was difficult for us to return from the view.  But it was getting late.  We had to turn back reluctantly!

Now, to a few more pictures of the beautiful waterfall!

Click on the picture to view properly!

80 ft. high waterfall!

 

We had to hop through rocks like this to go near the falls, even to view it!

Wiki says that many film makers used this place for filming their songs.  A few of Mani Rathnam's film songs were picturised here like this one and the next one!


We are planning to visit this place once again during monsoon to experience the full feel of this beautiful waterfall!


P.S.: The second part of our Vaalpaarai trip is here!

The Third part is here!
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The Beetle at Pratapgad Fort!

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An insect is sitting on my son's thumb! It sat for a long time and looked comfortable! It was cleaning itself...its back, front ....Interesting to watch!

Profile picture of the insect!

Try to watch the video in full screen.  You can see the Fort also in the background.



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Roots!

We had been on a tour to Srilanka, a couple of months back.  I had written some posts about the place here (link).  We had visited the famous Royal Botanical garden at Peradeniya, near Kandy.  It is quite huge and has got some rare trees, flowers and plants.  I was fascinated by the huge roots of some trees and thought my friends might be interested to see them too!

Wiki says this about the garden:

The origins of the Botanic Gardens date as far back as 1371 when King Wickramabahu III ascended the throne and kept court at Peradeniya near Mahaweli river. This was followed by King Kirti Sri and King Rajadhi Rajasinghe.

The name of the tree is written as Mora!

One more close up of the roots! I have never seen roots like these anywhere else.

We saw many trees like these at the Botanical garden, Srilanka

Canarium Indicum is the name of these trees!

Don't know the name of this tree but the roots look beautiful!

Monkey Business!

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This would have been a normal photo of three monkeys, but they posed like this in the end!

A close up of the fellow!