The Great Cathedrals: Prague

St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic.  Construction began in 1344 and continued sporadically until it was finally completed in 1929.

St. Vitus Cathedral is within the grounds of the famous Prague Castle:

Guide to Prague provides a good introduction to the cathedral:

The Creative Adventurer provides...

A Guided Tour of St. Vitus Cathedral's Incredible Stained Glass

 One of the cathedral's stained glass windows was designed by the famous Czech Art Nouveau artist Alphonse Mucha (1860 - 1939).  There is a wonderful museum in Prague devoted to his work:

MUCHA MUSEUM PRAGUE

As you walk around the cathedral, you reach a golden gate and are suddenly confronted by 

The Last Judgment Mosaic (1371)

Gigapan provides an excellent viewing of the mosaic, allowing you to pan right in at any point until you can see the individual squares that make up the work:

The Golden Gate Mosaic

The St. Vitus Cathedral website provides a spectacular and very detailed interactive virtual tour:

St. Vitus Cathedral Virtual Tour

Explore the cathedral with Google Street View

 

The Great Cathedrals: Cologne, Germany

Cologne Cathedral is the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe and took a mere 600 years to complete.  A history of the cathedral, including its first master mason Meister Gerhard and the construction principles that were used:

 The construction phases of Cologne Cathedral:

A stunning drone view of the cathedral's exterior:

  One of the best full length documentaries on Cologne Cathedral:

A marvelously meticulous model in LEGO of the Cologne Cathedral that required only 5,000,000 bricks to build:

Now it is time to...

Explore Cologne Cathedral using Street View

The Great Cathedrals: Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey

The immense and awe-inspiring Hagia Sophia (537 AD) was a Greek Orthodox Christian Patriarchal Cathedral (537-1453 AD), then an Ottoman Imperial Mosque and is currently a secular (no religious affiliation) museum (1931). 

An excellent brief video introduction to Hagia Sophia:

Beneath the dome is an interior that was the largest enclosed building for over a thousand years:

 
Hagia Sophia is considered the greatest achievement of Byzantine architecture.  

Abhijeet Shinde, Architect at Poorna architects presents an excellent slide presentation to introduce Byzantine architecture:

Introduction to Byzantine Architecture and Hagia Sophia

The Mosaics of Hagia Sophia are amazing in their own right.  The official Hagia Sophia Website has a good page on these:

Mosaics of Hagia Sophia

Probably the best, most comprehensive video documentary on Hagia Sophia is the Nova one:

Hagia Sophia:  Istanbul's Ancient Mystery

  In an area with a long history of devastating earthquakes, the survival of Hagia Sophia for all these centuries is a miracle in itself!  Discovery Magazine explores this miracle in their video: 

Engineering Secrets of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey

Gezen Adam provides a very comprehensive Virtual Tour of Hagia Sophia:

Now use Google Street View to explore Hagia Sophia:

Inside Hagia Sophia with Google Street View

The Great Cathedrals: Salisbury

Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Grounds (1823) by John Constable

Our next great cathedral is found in England, about eight miles south of Stonehenge:  Salisbury Cathedral which was built in 38 years, from 1220 to 1258.

Ash Mills provides a brief video tour:

Luxury Fred takes an informative tour with some amazing views from high on the triforium level:

And get even higher by climbing up the spire 

with Gary Price:

C. Meyer presents an informative slide presentation (best viewed in full screen mode)

Gothic Architecture in England

Salisbury Cathedral

Here is a floor plan of the cathedral:

Explore Salisbury Cathedral with Google Street View:

Explore the inside of the cathedral

Check out the views from the roof

Salisbury Cathedral is also famous for its Peregrine Falcons which can be viewed nesting on live cam:

Peregrine Falcons of Salisbury Cathedral

Peregrines 2018: a Tale of Romance and Intrigue

The Great Cathedrals: Amiens

Many of the world's great cathedrals can be explored inside and out using Google Street View.

The first we will look at is Amiens Cathedral  (built between c.1220 and c.1270) in Amiens, France.  We explore this cathedral first because the Art Department of Columbia University uses Amiens to provide an online exploration of all aspects of the medieval gothic cathedral.

 Myles Zhang of Columbia University describes this cathedral as " the apotheosis of Gothic architecture built during the 13th century".  He provides an animated fly over of the cathedral:

 

Myles did the amazing digital modelling for the following interactive exploration:

Life of a Cathedral: Notre-Dame of Amiens

 

Myles Zhang`s video of the Amiens Cathedral construction sequence is particularly fascinating:

Amiens Cathedral Construction 

Columbia University Art History Department used Google Street View to create their...

Interactive Panoranic Tour of the Cathedral

The Civil Engineering Department of Waterloo University provides a fun and fascinating video on the construction of Medieval Gothic Cathedrals:

Now use Google Street View to...

Explore Amiens Cathedral Inside and Out

Castles of Loire

The castles of the Loire River Valley in France are fascinating places to visit and explore, and now you can do so using Google Streetview.

Explore the castles using Google Streetview
 

The ExperienceLoire website has a clickable map that gives extensive histories and other information on each chateau:

One of our favorites is Chenonceau:

Everest Base Camp Mountain Trek

End of the trek in Gorak Shep near the Everest Base Camp

This is a rugged and majestic mountain trek in Nepal from Lukla to Gorak Shep near the Everest Base Camp:

 

The following chart provided by Icicles Adventure Treks and Tours shows the altitude changes on this trek.  Mountaineers use this trek to acclimatize themselves to the altitude prior to actual mountain climbing.  That is why it takes eight days to get to Gorakshep and only a few days to get back!

National Geographic provides a detailed topographical map of the entire route:

Here is the Google Map Overview of the trek.  

Click on the little yellow figure who will appear 
in the lower right to see the route:

We begin the trek at the famous 

Pasang Lhamu Memorial Gate in Lukla:

Pasang Lhamu Sherpa was the first Nepalese woman to climb to the summit of Mount Everest.

Head over an awesome suspension bridge on the way to Namche Bazaar:

On beyond Namche Bazaar we meet some yaks on their way to Everest:

On beyond the yaks, we continue along the trail high above the river valley, and glimpse a Chhorten (a Buddhist Stupa or Shrine) in the distance...

 On the way you will pass the famous Tengboche Monastery.
The banners you see flying are Prayer Flags.

Tour the Monastery for some amazing sights!

Everest Base Camp, Gorak Shep, and Kala Patthar Aerial Camera Video October 2015 by Rob Dunbar:

The following expedition takes place in the Himalaya Everest mountains, which is recorded from a remote controlled drone quadcopter. These travelers travel to the Everest Base Camp, Khumbu Ice Fall, Cho La Pass, Renjo La Pass, Gokyo, and even capture footage of Kathmandu, Nepal.

DJI Spark drone flying at one of the highest accessible altitudes on Earth - the mighty Himalayas. And more exactly - Sagarmatha National Park, a.k.a. Solu Khumbu, a.k.a. Everest Region.