Kantojeeu Temple

A chariot-like ornamental temple, on a high plinth was constructed & completed by two Moharajas ie. Moharaja Pran Nath of Dinajpur first started construction work in 1722 AD. & later on after his death the very construction was completed in 1752 AD. By Moharaja Ram Nath, the adopted son of Moharaja Pran Nath in an island-like village Kantonogor, about 20km north of Dinajpur Town. The 52 feet squire magnificent & spectacular temple in the late mediaeval age is really the wonder in the architecture even in the modern age too. The characteristics of Kantojeeu Temple are as follows; the temple is through & through designed with exquisite Terracotta plaques. It is a squire shaped three storied building constructed on a high plinth. The receding terraces gave the temple a little bit pyramidal shape. The arched openings of the temple on all four sides were provided the visitors or devotees with viewing the deity that is placed inside from all directions. The temple is decorated top to bottom with terracotta plaques. Most of the plaques depict the history of the Mohabharot & the contemporary social scene & the favorite past time aristocracy of the land & only one horizontal panel shows us the social life of mediaeval aristocrats. The vertical panels portray the ten incarnations of Bishnu according to the Hindu mythology. The local people still perform religious & ritual in this temple. Beside these, religious festival like Snanjatra, Doljatra, Rashmela etc are held regularly by the temple authorities on the stipulated days mentioned in the calendar followed by the Hindus.

Egyptian pyramids

The Egyptian pyramids are ancient pyramid shaped masonry structures located in Egypt. There are over 100 pyramids in Egypt. Most were built as tombs for the country's Pharaohs and their consorts during the Old and Middle Kingdom periods. The earliest known Egyptian pyramid is the Pyramid of Dozer which was built during the third dynasty. This pyramid and its surrounding complex were designed by the architect Emote, and are generally considered to be the world's oldest monumental structures constructed of dressed masonry. The best known Egyptian pyramids are those found at Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo.The Pyramid of Khufu at Giza is the largest Egyptian pyramid. It is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still in existence. The shape of Egyptian pyramids is thought to represent the primordial mound from which the Egyptians believed the earth was created. The shape is also thought to be representative of the descending rays of the sun, and most pyramids were faced with polished, highly reflective white limestone, in order to give them a brilliant appearance when viewed from a distance. Pyramids were often also named in ways that referred to solar luminescence. The Egyptians believed the dark area of the night sky around which the stars appear to revolve was the physical gateway into the heavens. One of the narrow shafts that extends from the main burial chamber through the entire body of the Great Pyramid points directly towards the center of this part of the sky. This suggests the pyramid may have been designed to serve as a means to magically launch the deceased pharaoh's soul directly into the abode of the gods. The first historically documented Egyptian pyramid is attributed to the architect Imhotep, who planned what Egyptologists believe to be a tomb for the pharaoh Dozer. The Egyptian pyramids were build mostly for pharaoh's or kings tombs during middle kingdom periods. Pyramids were world's oldest monumental structures constructed of dressed masonry and were surrounding complex designed by the architect Emote. The famous pyramids build in Giza were most prolific due to greatest degree of absolutist paranoiac rules as a result of pyramid of khufu is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Slowly, authority became less centralized, less willingness which built faster and smaller, great numbers pyramids, known today Sudan.

Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin

Zainul Abedin (1914-1976) was an artist from Bangladesh. Zainul Abedin was born in Mymensingh, East Bengal, on December 29, 1914. Abedin's paintings on the Bengal famine of 1940s is probably his most characteristic work. In Bangladesh, he is often referred to as Shilpacharya. Much of his childhood was spent near the scenic banks of the Brahmaputra River. The Brahmaputra would later appear in many of his paintings and be a source of inspiration all throughout his career. In 1933, Abedin was admitted to Calcutta Government Art School in Kolkata. He joined the faculty of the school after his education there was completed. A series of watercolours that Zainul did as his tribute to the Brahmaputra River earned him the Governor's Gold Medal in an all-India exhibition in 1938. This award gave Abedin the confidence to create his own visual style. Zainul Abedin was involved in all stages of the movement that finally made the creation of Bangladesh possible. He was in the forefront of the cultural movement to re-establish the Bengali identity, marginalised by the Pakistan government. In 1969, Abedin painted a scroll using Chinese ink, watercolour and wax named Nobanno. This was to celebrate the ongoing non-cooperation movement.

Australia

Location: Indian Pacific Oceans
Population: 21,215,250
Capital: Canberra
Language Spoken: Original language is English. Many other languages are retained by minorities, including Italian, German, Greek, Vietnamese, Chinese dialects and Aboriginal languages.
Country Dialling Code: +61
Currency & Money: Australian Dollar (AUD; symbol A$)
Exchange facilities are available for all incoming and outgoing flights at all international airports in Australia. International-class hotels will exchange major currencies for guests. It is recommended that visitors change money at the airport or at city banks.
Major credit cards are accepted. Use may be restricted in small towns and outback areas, as is ATM availability. Traveller cheques are widely accepted in major currencies at banks or large hotels. However, some banks may charge a fee for cashing traveller's cheques. To avoid additional exchange rate charges, travellers are advised to take traveller's cheques in a major currency.
Weather: Australia is in the southern hemisphere and the seasons are opposite to those in Europe and North America. There are two climatic zones: the tropical zone (in the north above the Tropic of Capricorn) and the temperate zone. The tropical zone (consisting of 40% of Australia) has two seasons, summer (‘wet') and winter (‘dry'), while the temperate zone has all four seasons.Spring to summer: Warm or hot everywhere, tropical in the north, and warm to hot with mild nights in the south.Autumn to winter: Northern and central Australia have clear warm days, cool nights; the south has cool days with occasional rain but still plenty of sun. Snow is totally confined to mountainous regions of the southeast.Drought is becoming more widespread with southeast Queensland, Victoria and South Australia all badly affected.

Sydney Opera House

The Sydney Opera House is an expressionist modern design, with a series of large precuts concrete 'shells', each taken from a hemisphere of the same radius, forming the roofs of the structure, set on a monumental podium. Planning for the Sydney Opera House began in the late 1940s when Eugene Goossens, the Director of the NSW State Conservatorium of Music, lobbied for a suitable venue for large theatrical productions. The normal venue for such productions, the Sydney Town Hall, was not considered large enough. By 1954, Goossens succeeded in gaining the support of NSW Premier Joseph Cahill, who called for designs for a dedicated opera house. It was also Goossens who insisted that Bennelong Point be the site for the Opera House. Cahill had wanted it to be on or near Wynyard Railway Station in the north-west of the CBD. The building covers 1.8 hectares (4.5 acres) of land, and is 183 meters (605 ft) long and 120 meters (388 ft) wide at its widest point. It is supported on 588 concrete piers sunk up to 25 meters below sea level. Its power supply is equivalent to that of a town of 25,000 people, and is distributed by 645 kilometers of electrical cable. The roofs of the House are covered in a subtle chevron pattern with 1,056,006 glossy white and matte cream Swedish-made tiles, though from a distance the shells appear a brilliant white. Despite their self-cleaning nature, the tiles are still subject to periodic maintenance and replacement. The Concert Hall is contained within the western group of shells, the Opera Theatre within the eastern group. The scale of the shells was chosen to reflect the internal height requirements, rising from the low entrance spaces, over the seating areas and up to the high stage towers. The minor venues (Drama Theatre, Playhouse, and The Studio) are located beneath the Concert Hall, as part of the western shell group. A much smaller group of shells set to one side of the Monumental Steps houses the Benn long Restaurant. Although the roof structures of the Sydney Opera House are commonly referred to as shells (as they are in this article), they are in fact not shells in a strictly structural sense, but are instead precuts concrete panels supported by precuts concrete ribs. Apart from the tile of the shells, and the glass curtain walls of the foyer spaces, the building's exterior is largely clad with aggregate panels composed of pink granite quarried in Tarana. Significant interior surface treatments also include off-form concrete, Australian white birch plywood supplied from Watcheye in northern New South Wales, and brush box glulam. The competition was launched by Cahill on 13 September 1955 and received a total of 233 entries from 32 countries. The criteria specified a large hall seating 3000 and a small hall for 1200 people, each to be designed for different uses including full-scale operas, orchestral and choral concerts, mass meetings, lectures, ballet performances and other presentations. The winner, announced in 1957, was Jørn Utzon, a Danish architect. The prize was £5,000. Utzon visited in Sydney in 1957 to help supervise the project. His office moved to Sydney in February 1963. The Fort Macquarie Tram Depot, occupying the site at the time of these plans, was demolished in 1958, and formal construction of the Opera House began in March, 1959. The project was built in three stages. Stage I (1959–1963) consisted of building the upper podium. Stage II (1963–1967) saw the construction of the outer shells. Stage III consisted of the interior design and construction (1967–73).