Birthplace of Herbert Hoover, West Branch, Iowa  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Herbert_Hoover_birthplace.jpg

       Just for some history, the Battle of Edessa was a conflict between the ancient Romans and the Sassonids (a Persian Empire) that occurred in 260 CE. The war went down in Southern Turkey, and the Persian force was led by Sharpur, a monarch that was a constant thorn in Rome's side (i.e. he attacked Syria and Armenia). The Persians defeated the Romans and took Valerian, the Roman Emperor present at the Battle, captive. His body was flayed/stuffed and purportedly put on display in Sharpur's palace. Also around this time (during the Romans' Crisis of the Third Century), the Alemanni invaded Italy and there was a revolt by Engenius in Pannonia! Here is a poem that I wrote commemorating the Battle. 

Coin of Valerian http://educators.mfa.org/ancient/coin-nicaea-bust-valerian-i-109342 Battle of Edessa The opulent robe flourishes The hands come together in prayer The lamb is on the altar of which its blood nourishes The glint of the dagger does scare The priestess groans in ecstasy Valerian shuts tired eyes He does not know this battle will make him a legend But not of the heroic kind Cries of soldiers reverberate The standards of Rome are raised high Blood thirsty men looking for Persians to incarcerate The river of tears won’t run dry Valerian slowly rises Exits the velvet purple tent “I will win this battle without effort,” he surmises The Caesar’s mind is firmly set Sharpur blots out the horizon Cavalry gallop and take aim Romans, at the sight of SPQR, do rally and enliven The Persian’s lone goal is to maim BY: Mackenzie, 2013, Content is my own;please do not copy.

Metropolitan Museum, NYC http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art.jpg

This is the characteristic "desert" that many people think of in Giza, Egypt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giza_Necropolis

       By definition, Ecotourism is “the visitation of natural areas for tourism and recreation by usually more affluent people” (Jay Withgott, 2008). Although most people think of the beaches of Costa Rica, the rainforests of the Amazon region, or Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, desert ecotourism is an up and coming field. Deserts cover about 30% of Earth’s land surface, receive less than 25 cm of rain annually, have low humidity, high salt concentrations in the soil, and usually have fluctuating temperatures (scorching hot in the daytime and cold during the night). Vegetation and animal life is limited to a few selected organisms that can survive in the harsh, inhospitable climate (i.e. Cacti, rattlesnakes, kangaroos). The largest deserts are the Sahara in Africa, the Gobi in Mongolia, the Patagonian in Chile/Argentina, and Arabian in United Arab Emirates. According to my AP Environmental Textbook, nearly one billion people live in desert regions! Ecotourism helps the communities near these often-abandoned deserts because it helps generate jobs, stimulates the economy, and brings more money overall for citizens. Additionally, education about preserving deserts and their species can limit the environmental degradation that is being done to them today (i.e. biodiversity loss, salinization, sensitivity to human encroachment, the drying up of water holes, erosion, etc).

White Desert, Egypt

       This natural wonder, located to the West of the Nile near the city of Farafra, is a unique desert that is whitish in appearance. The area used to be a sea-bed and a savannah for roaming animals, but because of the plateau eroding/desertification, it is now a valley of white sand. The fierce wind in this area has shaped dozens of megaliths, or large boulders of rock looking like giant fingers. These unusual shapes jut out of the barren ground and also look like caps of snow. Bedouin tribes live around the area now and give tours to visitors. Overall, nearly 10% of all Egypt’s tourists go to deserts during their vacation (http://www.jonjensen.com/2010/03/18/desert-ecotourism-whats-in-it-for-egypt/). 

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Egypt_White_Desert_The_Mushroom.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farafra,_Egypt Kyzyl Kum, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan         This region in West Central Asia (beneath Russia and to the East of Turkey) features characteristic plains, triangular shaped sand dunes, and pastures for the desert animals that live here (i.e. Saiga Antelope, Wild Board, and Sheep). There are oasis towns built out of mud brick/sand from the area (judging by the pictures) and gold has been mined in the region before. Yurts (small, conical animal-skin tents that are used by the native nomads) are present sporadically, and in one picture I found, there was an electric wire going across one of them! It’s amazing how these remote areas can still receive electric and other modern amenities while they are in the middle of a barren, nearly lifeless area. The sand has many ridges in it and camels are used by the tribes living there to get around. Link to a Yurt with power lines! http://viaterra.net/photopages/trip2005/trip2005_uzbekistan.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sand-dune.JPG Thar Desert, India and Pakistan         Although this desert has the characteristic ridged sand formations and the golden dunes, it has many people living here as well. It is in the region of Rajasthan, the geographically largest state in the Northwest of India. Ecotourism has generated wealth and a better economy for the people here; it even has 39, 496 villages with electric! http://statistics.rajasthan.gov.in/Indicator_rajasthan.aspx. Plants such as Thuhar and phog grow here, and animals such as the Chinkara and Desert Fox roam the sandy fields as well. The biome covers about 77,000 square miles, although some of it has been degraded due to human intervention and the increasing amount of tourists. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thar_Desert http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Desert-landscape.JPG Monegros, Spain         This desert is most famous for housing the Monegros Desert Festival, a concert of continuous tunes for 22 hours—nearly 40,000 spectators attend! It is located in Aragon, an arid region in the Northeast of Spain (the city of Zaragoza is here.) The steppes here are home to a large number of desert birds and the regular shrubs, grasses, etc. Based on the pictures, the Desert reminded me of the landscape surrounding Segovia, Spain that I drove through this summer. The shrubs were a deep emerald, the clay-looking earth was a dark, coffee brown, and the land was flat (interspersed with mountains and hills) for miles on end. While driving through Spain, we literally saw no houses or development near the interstates---the landscape was deserted and so dry/eerily empty! According to the article on Wikipedia (which I don’t know how reliable it is, sorry), there are abandoned farmhouses throughout the Monegros region. However, this makes sense because it was probably too expensive to acquire water for irrigation and over-watering crops constantly in the hot environment accelerated the salinization. In this process, evaporation pulls water from the lower horizons of the soil to the surface, bringing with it the various salts and minerals throughout the different levels. Monegros Desert Festival, Monegros, Spain http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monegros_Desert_Festival http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monegros_Desert        To sum it up, I think deserts are fascinating regions that deserve just as much attention as a tropical rainforest or barrier reef should. Although they may look dead, bleak, and just plain boring, there is something majestic in a landscape that still manages to host some life even though the harsh weather, lack of precipitation, and salty soils are limiting factors. Ecotourism here boosts economies of some of the poorest nations in the world; however, tourists need to be careful to preserve the deserts and not leave trash or other harmful objects behind. Just for fun, I found this Desert Ecotourism Social and Environmental Guide online….it should be an interesting read! http://www.unep.fr/shared/publications/pdf/DTIx0794xPA-TourismDesertEN.pdf Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monegros_Desert http://www.etdip.com/vewArea.asp?PID=1&CID=67&AID=319 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/590028/Thar-Desert http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Kyzyl_Kum.html http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/326177/Kyzylkum http://egyptsites.wordpress.com/2011/03/11/the-white-desert/

House of Edward James, Las Pozas, Mexico, 1947 http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_James

United Nations Headquarters, New York http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Headquarters

The Original Settlement

       The past couple of days, I have been interested in the large amount of places in this world named “Plymouth.” Most of the cities named are in the United States, but there are also “New Plymouths” in New Zealand and Canada as well. The original Plymouth was (and still is) located in the country of Devon, England. Although it was a small trading port in the Southwest of the island during the iron age (1000 BCE), it became more prominent during the 1200s. The city has a view of the Sutton Harbor, an important trading outpost that was especially vital during the 100 Years War (1337 to 1453) with France. Interestingly enough, this small town was even mentioned in the Norman Domesday Book, a record of property/taxes created under the regime of William the Conqueror. The town was granted representation to the newly formed English Parliament in 1439 and had an impressive dockyard built. However, the city is most famous for the voyage of the Pilgrims (Puritans that were being persecuted) who left the cold, Saxon shores in 1620 on the notorious Mayflower Ship. They later founded Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts and penned the Mayflower Compact to govern themselves.

Plymouth, England http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth

Lighthouse in Plymouth, England http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smeaton's_Tower

New Plymouth, New Zealand

       I was surprised upon researching this city because it has a rich history, although it is 11,663 miles from the original Plymouth, England. Maori (the indigenous tribe in New Zealand) had formerly lived in the area now known as New Plymouth (on the west shore of the North Island), but they came into conflict with the invading British traders in 1860. Prior to this, the New Plymouth Company brought English immigrants to the location in order to open a door for imperialist Britain and claim new markets. However, there were disputes within a specific Maori clan about the tribal land of Waitara. The main chief of the area, Teira wanted to sell his portion of the land to the government, but the other dissenting members of the clan refused to have their land taken from them without the consent of every single member of the tribe. Eventually, the leader of the protesters, Wiremu Kingi, became embroiled with the uppity Europeans because they wanted to buy, settle, and exploit the land that Teira was offering. Fighting ensued, the town of New Plymouth became a fortified garrison for the European immigrants, and much of the Maori land was disrupted. The war (called First Taranaki War) ended in the 1870s; the Maori simply became another victim of British interests and imperialism/colonialism. In 1881, most of the tribes were suppressed and admitted Government rule.

Taranaki Volcano, New Plymouth, New Zealand http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Taranaki

Maori house, New Plymouth, New Zealand http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marae

The Fleeing of the Loyalists

       Loyalists, those who supported the interests of Britain during the American Revolution, fled the United States when the country became independent and democratic in 1776. Wherever they escaped to, they were sure to name a few new cities (in Canada and in Bahamas) “Plymouth” after the beloved country they still regarded as their sovereign. For example, in Yarmouth County, Nova Soctia, Canada, Loyalists from Shelburne (South in Nova Scotia, Canada) immigrated to this city and named it after the original place in England in 1758. In the Abaco Islands (in the Bahamas, Caribbean), Loyalists also moved here in 1783 from New York. They established cotton farms with African slaves and a small fishing industry; today, tourism booms in the ideal, warm Caribbean resort. There is a city called Plymouth on the island of Montserrat (a British interest in the West Indies), but it was smothered by lava from an active volcano in 1990.

Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IMG_8531_Yarnouth_morning.jpg

Plymouth, Montserrat, West Indies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Plymouth_Montserrat_Heli.jpg

‘Merica

       According to Planet Plymouth (http://www.inplymouth.com), there are 39 towns in the United States named (or including in the name) “Plymouth.” This is undoubtedly an homage to the original American colony in New England, although the states range from Idaho to Florida. Overall, I think it is interesting how one name, from one little city in the rural seaside of England has gained worldwide fame throughout the ages and has been imitated innumerable times.

Plymouth, Massachusetts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth,_Massachusetts Sources for my information:  http://www.plymouth.gov.uk/homepage/creativityandculture/heritageandhistory/plymouthhistory.htm http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Cow01NewZ-c40.html http://www.tourism.net.nz/new-zealand/about-new-zealand/regions/taranaki/new-plymouth/history.html  http://www.abacobahamasguide.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth,_Yarmouth_County,_Nova_Scotia

Monegros, Spain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monegros_Desert