Sunday 18 December 2011

Barcelona Zoo - Barcelona, Spain


Barcelona Zoo was found in 1892 and it is located in City Park. This is said to be one of the oldest and most modern zoo in the world. This has a great wide collection of birds and animals, special kinds of reptiles such as iguanas and chameleons are also displayed. Visitors can look at the dolphins performance through the glass windows of the pool. They are also kept for regular display in indoor aquarium, where visitors can interact with them !
There is an Infant Zoo where the kids can be introduced to several animals !!

A train runs around the park, in which you can have a crisp look at the whole park, or you can hire an electric buggy for your comfort.

Barcelona Zoo is World famous as it the home of Snowflake. Snowflake is a only known Albino Gorilla in the whole world, that died on 2003 due to skin cancer.

Terrario
In Terrario ( Terrarium ) the visitors can find different kinds of crocodiles, tortoise and many creatures which exists in different parts of the world.

Plaza de los loros
A separate division for parrot is for display and that is called as Plaza de los loros. Here visitors can see birds like Red & Green Macaw and other different kinds of parrots.

Aviario
This is a place where the visitors can see variety of birds like  Gallicolumba, southern crowned pigeon, Victoria crowned pigeon, black-cheeked lovebird, speckled mousebird, toco toucan, red-billed leiothrix, superb starling, boat-billed heron and sunbittern.



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The Giralda - Seville, Spain

The Giralda was built in the period of  1186-1194 which is said to be the culmination of Almohad Architecture.
This was the Minaret of the Mosque and later that was occupied by Seville Cathedral. The Giralda is one of the three great Almohad Minarets which remains in the World and this is considered as the finest of all the three, other two Minarets are in the Moroccan cities of Rabat and Marrakesh.
The tower was topped with four copper spheres that could be seen for miles around, the Moorish Tower was used both to call the faithful to prayer and as an observatory over the city.
In year 1248, Moors wanted to destroy La Giralda before the Christians conquest the city since it was so venerated by Moors. But this was prevented by King Alfonso X and La Giralda was preserved. In the year 1402 it was changed to be the bell tower of  the Christian Cathedral.
In the year 1325, the original Copper Squares were got damaged in an earthquake. So several renovation were done. In the period of 1560-1568, four more levels were added to the top of belfry and this was topped with an Italian Bronze sculpture of Faith. Some Balconies were also added along with this.