wwp@yahoogroups.com:
Re: WWPano: another world wide panorama, anyone?
Andy Alpern 2004-May-29 07:12:00
hi all,
First of all, congratulations and many thanks to Don and Landis for
producing a great equinox WWP and for the generous effort of producing
a Solstice WWP. I believe this is a great way to promote not only QTVR
and virtual tours, but as yet another way to bring people all over the
world together in a joint effort for positive union. We don't even yet
realize the potential of our little group of panographers for
international dialogue among people of different locations, and
cultures.
I am in Israel and plan to shoot, probably, two sites. First, there
is a not very well known site in the Golan Heights called Rujum El Hiri
(Arabic for "cat's foot") or Galgal Refaim in Hebrew ("Giant's
Circles"). It is similar to Stonehenge in the fact that is was a
gathering site for tribes on the solstices in ancient history, perhaps
5-6000 years ago. The site is a solar calendar with the gates in the
ancient walls corresponding to the position of the sun at the winter
and summer solstices.
From "Guide to the Golan Heights" by Yisrael Shalem (my cousin): The
largest and outer circle of Rujum is 156 meters in diameter. Beyond it
and surrounding this circle is a wide arc of over 100 dolmens made up
of an immense capstone supported by several upright stones. Crossing
Rujum's five concentric circles are radial walls which apparently were
astronomically allgined. As they approach the northern axis of
allignment the number of radial walls decreases. It is estimated that
it would have taken 100 workmen toiling 8 hours a day and six days a
week at least 6 years to build this phenomenal site."
The significance of this site to WWP is obvious and for me it's great
because I was planning to be there anyway as there is a gathering there
every year on the solstice. I was there a few months ago, I shot a few
handheld panos which i will post as soon as I can. BTW, most Israelis
don't even know this place exists! It is only accessible on foot and is
not marked on most maps nor mentioned in guide books.
I may also shoot in Acco, which is one of the UN heritage sites,
http://whc.unesco.org/sites/1042.htm . I would like to hear from Don
and Landis why you chose the UN heritage sites as a focus of this
project. On one hand it could be great publicity for the WWP and
individual panographers, especially if the UN gives us a link from
their site. As I said earlier, what a great way to promote global
unity. However, I know nothing about how the UN chooses these sites
(i.e. what makes a site 'important' enough to be considered world
heritage) and I have issues with how they divide up the the world
geographically (the Middle East is listed as "Arab States" while Israel
is listed as part of Europe).
Some more questions: Does anyone know a good site where i can zoom in
on a spot on the world map and get GPS coordinates (I don't have a GPS
unit).
Don: I think that the gathering at the Rujum Site for the solstice
will be on June 21-22, which means the main gathering will be sunrise
on June 22. Is this the actual solstice or is it the morning of the
21st? If it is the morn of the 22nd, can i get an extension to shoot
then?
Once again, thanks for all of the good work, to all of you!
Much Peace,
Andy Alpern
Golem Productions
http://golemproductions.com ?
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