Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai

PD Photo: Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai, photo by Ivan Dubya, taken on December 20, 2007.

PD Photo: Burj Al Arab seen at a distance from a tower room of Le Royal Méridien Beach Resort and Spa, Dubai Marina, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, photo by Christopher T Cooper taken on 21 September 2009.

Burj Al Arab, a super-luxury hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is an unusual and unique hotel as it is constructed on an artificial island at a distance of 280 meters (920 feet) from the Jumeirah beach, and it is structured in the shape of the sail of a dhow, a type of Arabian vessel. The manmade island is connected to the mainland by a private bridge.

One of the most photographed buildings in the world, and soaring to a height of 321 meters, the Burj Al Arab is currently the world's second tallest hotel (the building is exclusively used as a hotel), the tallest such hotel being Dubai’s Rose Tower (333 m/ 1,092 feet). It will be the fourth tallest hotel in the world, when Emirates Park Tower 1 (376 m/ 1,234 ft) and Emirates Park Tower 2 (376 m/ 1,234 ft), both in Dubai, are opened (scheduled for 2010 opening).

Ko Tapu, James Bond Island, Thailand

PD Photos: Ko Tapu islet, 40 meters west of Khao Phing Kan (James Bond Island), a part of the Ao Phang Nga National Park, on the west coast of Thailand, in the Phang Nga Bay, Andaman Sea.

Ko Tapu is a limestone rock formation (an islet), which is about 20 meters (66 feet) tall with the diameter increasing from about 4 meters (13 feet) at water level to about 8 meters (26 feet) at the top. It lies about 40 meters (130 feet) to the west from the northern part of Khao Phing Kan, popularly known as James Bond Island, which is actually a two-island pair located on the west coast of Thailand, in the Phang Nga Bay, Andaman Sea. The island is a part of the Ao Phang Nga National Park.

In the Permian period, the entire area was a barrier reef, which ruptured due to tectonic plate movements, dispersing the broken reefs over the area flooded by the rising sea. Strong winds, waves, water currents and tides gradually eroded them partially, and the remaining portions formed islands, sometimes forming peculiar shapes, such as Ko Tapu. Erosion by tides is clearly visible at the bottom of Ko Tapu.

In Thai language Ko Tapu means ‘nail’ or ‘spike’ island (named after its shape). The island was selected as a location for the 1974 James Bond movie ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’, starring Roger Moore, Christopher Lee and Britt Ekland in key roles. The island was filmed as the hideout for Bond's antagonist, Francisco Scaramanga (the titular ‘Man with the Golden Gun’, played by Christopher Lee).

After the movie was released, Khao Phing Kan Island, and sometimes Ko Tapu, became popularly known as James Bond Island, and it rapidly became a very popular international tourist destination in Thailand. Now the original name of the island is rarely used even by local Thai people.

Since 1998, it is forbidden for tourist boats to approach Ko Tapu, to stop further erosion of the limestone due to waves on and near the islet that might eventually result in its collapse.

Moai at the hillside in Rano Raraku, Easter Island

Moai are huge monolithic human figures carved from rock on the Polynesian island of Easter Island, Chile. These sculptures are believed to be carved between 1250 AD and 1500 AD. Nearly moai half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but hundreds of such rock sculptures were transported and set on stone platforms around the island's perimeter. Moai have very large heads measuring three-fifths of their bodies. The moai are the faces of deified ancestors. The statues still gazed inland across their clan lands when Europeans first reached the island, but most moai were cast down during later conflicts between clans.

The statues' production and transportation is considered a remarkable creative, intellectual and physical feat. The tallest moai Paro was about 10 meters high and weighed 75 tons, and the heaviest erected moai was a shorter, squatter moai at Ahu Tongariki weighing 86 tons.

Rano Raraku, located on the lower slopes of Terevaka in the Rapa Nui National Park on Easter Island, is a volcanic crater. It was a quarry for about 500 years until the early eighteenth century, and supplied the stone from which about 95 per cent of the island's rock sculptures (moai) were carved. Rano Raraku, where 397 moai still remain, is a visual record of moai design vocabulary and technological innovation. Rano Raraku is in the World Heritage Site of Rapa Nui National Park and gives its name to one of the seven sections of the park.

Lagoa das Furnas lagoon in São Miguel, Azores, Portugal

Photo: Lagoa das Furnas, a lagoon in the island of São Miguel, Azores, Portugal