8 Natural Wonders Added to UN Heritage List

The island of Surtsey, found 20 miles (32 kilometers) off the southern coast of Iceland, was formed by volcanic eruptions during the 1960s.

Named this week as a new World Heritage site, the island provides scientists with a unique laboratory to study the process of colonization by plant and animal life. Borne by ocean currents, the first seeds arrived in 1964. Molds, bacteria, and fungi arrived the following year. Plants and invertebrates are now relatively abundant, as are bird species—89 and counting.

Chosen by a committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), World Heritage Sites describe natural and cultural areas recognized for their universal value to humanity.

This week officials added 27 new sites to the UNESCO list of 878 areas (679 cultural, 174 natural) worthy of preservation and protection.

Socotra Archipelago, Yemen

Dragon's blood trees grow in the archipelago, which consists of four islands and islets two rocky path for the 150 miles (250 km) from the Horn of Africa.

"The site is of universal importance because of its biodiversity with rich and distinct flora and fauna: 37 percent of Socotra's 825 plant species, 90 percent of its reptile species, and 95 percent of its land snail species do not occur anywhere else in the world," the UNESCO World Heritage Committee said in a press statement on July 8, 2008.

Joggins Fossil Cliffs, Canada

Full old fossils dating as far back as 354 million years ago, this 9 miles (14.7 km) tract of coastal states cliffs in Nova Scotia is to add eight new natural wonders in July 2008 at the United Nations list of World Heritage sites .

Once a rain forest teeming with life, the cliffs hold fossils from 148 ancient species and 20 groups of fossil footprints.


Lagoons of New Caledonia (France), Pacific Ocean

Part of a French-controlled island cluster located about 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) east of Australia, the lagoons of New Caledonia, including those around the small island in the picture above form the third largest coral reef structure in the world.

The healthy, intact marine ecosystems are home to threatened fish species, turtles, and the world's third largest population of dugongs, large vegetarian mammals related to manatees.

The lagoons were named a UNESCO World Heritage site in July 2008.

Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, Mexico

Every year, millions if not billions, of Monarch butterflies as the above-winter in densely forested mountains 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Mexico City.

"In the spring these butterflies begin an eight-month migration that takes them all the way to Eastern Canada and back, during which time four successive generations are born and die," the World Heritage Committee said in a written statement upon announcing new sites in July 2008.

Mount Sanqingshan National Park, China

Ribboned with forests, waterfalls, white rainbow and fantastically shaped rocks granite peaks and pillars resemble that animal and human silhouettes, this 56,710-hectare (22950 acres) National Park Huaiyu over the mountain chain in the Chinese province of Jiangxi.

The park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in July 2008.


Saryarka Steppe and Lakes of Northern Kazakhstan

Split between the Naurzum and Korgalzhyn State Nature Reserves, the wetlands that grace this 1.1 million acre (450,344 hectare) region provide a key stopover on the Central Asia flyway for migratory water birds from Africa, Europe, and South Asia.

The steppe and lakes in this region were mostly dry on the UN list of World Natural Heritage sites in July 2008.

Swiss Tectonic Arena Sardona, Switzerland

A textbook example of mountain building through continental collision, this mountainous area in northeast Switzerland has been studied by geologists since the 1700s.

The area was a UNESCO World Heritage on 8 July 2008.

Mysterious Pyramid Complex Discovered in Peru

The remnants of at least ten pyramids have been discovered on the coast of Peru, marking what could be a vast ceremonial site of an ancient, little-known culture, archaeologists say.

In January construction crews working in the province of Piura discovered several truncated pyramids and a large adobe platform.

Officials from Peru's National Institute of Culture (INC) were inspected after the discovery.

Last week announced that the complex, 2 miles (3.2 km) long and 1 miles (1.6 km) wide, belonged to the old Vicús culture, and was likely to be either a religious center and a cemetery for nobility.

The Vicús was a pre-Hispanic culture flourished in Peru, the northern coastal desert from 200 BC to 300 AD, and is known for its ceramics decorated.

Experts say little is known about the culture, because their sites were heavily looted over the years.

"We have found several partially pyramids, at least ten," said César Sánchez Santos, chief archaeologist for the INC's Piura Division.

"We also have a large adobe platform, which we speculate, had for the burial rituals. But we can not know, without further examination."

Skull Fragments

The platform, measuring 82 feet (25 meters) by 98 feet (30 meters), was found alongside one of the larger pyramids in the complex.

Another of the larger pyramids contained some artifacts as well as bone fragments from a human skull.

The fact that the skull fragments were found several meters below the surface, indicating a deep grave that took much time to dig, prompted researchers to theorize that the individual buried there had high social status.

Santos added that the complex is surrounded by four large hills: Pilán, Vicús, Chanchape, and Tongo.

"We think that because of its geographic location the complex could have been a place of strategic value," Santos said.

The area containing the pyramids is surrounded by a cemetery that has been looted by grave robbers.

"But the complex itself is intact," Santos said...

Who Were the Vicús?

"The Vicús are very interesting, but so poorly understood, given the fact that most of what we know about them is through looted ceramic art," said Steve Bourget, an archaeologist at the University of Texas at Austin.

"This could be an important find because it is one of the few with monumental architecture. But it is still too early to say."

Experts say that the ceramic Vicús style resembles in some respects to those of the Moche, a fact that led the research on the relationship between the two cultures.

The Moche civilization flourished in the areas south of the Vicús from around 100 to 750 AD, the production elaborately painted pottery and gold ornaments, irrigation systems, and monuments.

The two cultures thrived within a relatively short distance of each other-less than the between Los Angeles and San Francisco experts point out.

"It is possible that the Vicús for a part of its history was closely associated with the Moche culture," said Joanne Pillsbury, an archaeologist at Washington, DC-based Dumbarton Oaks, a research institute associated with Harvard University.

The discovery of the pyramids Vicús comes as perceptions about the Moche have shifted, she added.

"It was once believed that it is a single monolithic Moche state, but the people do not believe that it is more true," said Pillsbury.

"It was probably a number of regional or multi-valley kingdoms divided that a wider culture. Vicús And was probably part of this sphere of interaction."

Surprise Egypt Tombs Yield Ornate Coffins, Dog Mummies

Four ancient tombs containing well-preserved mummies, ornate painted coffins, and mummified dogs have been unearthed in El Faiyum, an oasis about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Cairo.

A female mummy was found wearing a gold mask, a rare treasure on the site known as the necropolis of Deir el-Banat. The funeral complex is a frequent target for the current grave robbers and had been thought plundered its riches.

"An important point is that these mummies are almost unaffected," said Galina A. Belova, a Russian Egyptologist, led the excavation.

"There are not so many [good condition] mummies in El Faiyum at this moment. They are very rare."

In a separate grave, discovered the first excavator completely intact mummy ever found in the necropolis.

The team of American and Russian archaeologists stumbled upon the burials as part of the routine work in a section of the cemetery, which was used from the early fourth century BC In the seventh century AD

Some 150 other tombs from different eras and dozens of poorly-preserved mummies have been excavated, although most of the tombs were plundered during a rash of robberies in the 20th Century.

Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, that some of the newly discovered ruins are still the best, from the Ptolemaic period, the range of Greek domination began shortly after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 332 BC

"A mummy was beautiful gold, and another is in very good condition," said Hawass, which is also a National Geographic Explorer-in-residence. "They show some of the best examples of mummies from that time." (The National Geographic Society has National Geographic News.)

Archaeologists also found a strange funeral at the edge of the area with the nonmummified remains of a child and a group of mummified dogs, a grave unlike any other so far in Egypt.

The four best preserved and largest of the newfound tombs contained human-shaped coffins that were mostly intact.

Some showed slight damage near the feet, probably the result of ancient robbers rummaging for riches, experts said.

The coffins' exteriors were inscribed with verses and pictures from the old Egytpian Book of the Dead, the Salima Ikram, an Egyptologist at the American University in Cairo (AUC), said that was standard decoration "to help you get out of this world in the next. "

Three of the coffins were made of wood and were parallel. A smaller fourth coffin probability of a child-was made of papyrus or a similar material, and was at a slightly different angle.

The joint funeral have belonged to a single family, experts said, adding that it is rare to find coffins at different orientations in the region.

Inside two of the coffins, mummies were in the head and legs with colorful papier-cardboard material as often plastered mummified body and decorated.

One of the mummies bore a painted cartonnage mask in gold, as a symbol of eternity.

"It was a very sweet little mask," said Ikram, the X-ray mummies after the discovery.

In a grave nearby, archaeologists found a completely intact mummified woman-the first ever major generations of treasure hunters here.

The archaeologists that they plan to do more research, including facial reconstructions of the mummies to determine their origin.

Robbers

Thievery has damaged almost all the tombs in Deir el-Banat, making it hard for experts to know what the graves looked like in antiquity.

"The robbers come in regularly, so it is quite unusual to get intact burials," said Ikram of AUC.

As a measure of how widespread the crime is, the excavations even turned up some contemporary digging tools, which were probably stashed away by frightened thieves who left hastily.

The shallowness of the tombs—some of which are no more than a meter below the surface—makes them particularly attractive for looters.

"Robbers have always investigated cemeteries since the ancient times," Belova, the Russian archaeologist, said. "We have a lot of robbers who want to have a lot of gold."

The newly unearthed tombs may have been spared because of their relatively simple exteriors. Belova said her team had to rapidly document and remove the items because of security concerns.

She also said she hoped the discovery would change Deir el-Banat's reputation as a site that has been looted clean.

"It looks like a robbed area, but robbers cannot do a systematic study of a cemetery," she said. "That's why we still have a lot of chances to find something new here."

Mummified Dogs

One of the strangest discoveries made at the site was the nonmummified body of a child buried with several mummified dogs.

The human remains, which were naturally mummified by the arid climate, were partially covered in a sack, its lower half surrounded by crudely mummified canines ranging from puppies to fully mature animals.

"They are put in any which way, with no real sense of orientation," said AUC's Ikram, an animal mummy expert.

Ancient Egyptians were known to keep domesticated pets and sometimes were buried with them.

Other animals were included in burials as part of a religious ritual, but this find is unlike any that has been documented, he said.

"The kind of deposit [of animals] you have here is neither like a sacred deposit [nor] like a pet deposit," Ikram said.

"It really is a very interesting new page in the archaeology of humans and animals in Egypt."

Evidence of Huge Planetary Collision Found

Astronomers may have discovered the aftermath of a collision between a Saturn-size planet and a smaller world, perhaps the size of Uranus, some 170 light-years away.

Scientists made the find while studying the larger planet, which orbits a small, dim star in the constellation Centaurus.

The planets were puzzled experts because the brightness and temperature not match what is known as the objects to be developed.

"It is either too dark or it is too hot," said Eric Mamajek of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

The planet-star system is only eight million years old, an age at which planets are still in the form, he said.

The world can with the remaining glowing heat of a mammoth collision with another protoplanet, Mamajek.

Such a collision would leave the planet unusually hot for many years, he said.

"We do not see the actual collision right now," said Mamajek.

"We see this long drawn-out period after the collision, about a hundred thousand years in which this thing would be very hot."

Mamajek discussed his findings yesterday at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas.

The discovery is exciting, because when our own solar system was young, at least three planets Uranus, Venus, Earth and are believed to have been smacked by large protoplanets.

"This could be the first evidence that this happens to another object in another solar system," said Mamajek.

The theory can not be confirmed, but astronomers can detailed observations of the distant planet atmosphere.

"It's very weak," said Mamajek. "And even the largest telescopes we have now really struggle to collect enough light."

Large Ancient Settlement Unearthed in Puerto Rico

Bodies, structures, and rock art thought to belong to an indigenous pre-Columbian culture have been unearthed at an ancient settlement in Puerto Rico, officials recently announced.

Archaeologists say the complex—which dates from A.D. 600 to 1500—could be the most significant of its kind in the Caribbean.

"This is a very well-preserved," said Aida Belén Ruiz-Rivera, director of Puerto Rico's State Office of Historic Preservation.

"The site appears to show two professions: a pre-Taino and a Taino settlement."

The Taino are intended as a subgroup of the Arawak Indians, emigrated to the Caribbean from Mexico or South America hundreds of years, say experts.

They were among the first tribes to meet Europeans.

Huge Plaza

The ancient settlement was discovered Taino Puerto Rico in the south (see map).
Archaeologists have known since 1985 that the area contained Indian artifacts.

But the extent of the site became clear only recently, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with the construction of a new dam, to protect the region from flooding.

Perhaps the most significant find is a large space with an area of approximately 130 by 160 feet (40 to 50 meters).

Rivera-Ruiz said the plaza appears to be a batey, a rectangular area around which the Taino built their settlements.

The plaza, which contains stones etched with ancient petroglyphs, might have been a court used for ceremonial rituals or ball games.

"If this information is confirmed, it would be the largest known local batey in the Caribbean," said Ruiz-Rivera.

Roberto Mucaro Borrero, a representative of the United Confederation of Taino People, agreed.

The site "could be the largest area of ancient Taino culture not only in Puerto Rico but throughout the Caribbean," said Borrero.

And petroglyphs male figure with a frog leg could prove particularly important for the understanding of cultural roots, he added.

"They were able to show evidence of a direct link between the Taino and the Mayan peoples," he said, although other experts strongly refute that the two cultures are related.

Storm of controversy

Confusion and criticism are already in the middle of swirling excitement over the results.

Initial reports on the number of bodies in graves at the site indicate that the people were buried in a unique position.

The corpses were "buried with the legs bent at the knees-a style never before in the region," the Associated Press reported.

But Miguel Rodriguez, a member of the Puerto Rican government archaeological council, said the burial position is not unknown in the region.

Kit Wesler, a Taino expert at Murray State University in Kentucky, also said that the "position is unusual, but probably not unprecedented."

Rivera-Ruiz of the state preservation office said that any claims about the uniqueness of the burial arrangements must await a full excavation and study of all objects funerary art.

Meanwhile, the US-New South Associates, a private archaeology firm commissioned by the Corps of Engineers to save, the site at the centre of controversy over their excavation methods.

According to AP, the company had originally with a bulldozer, which cause damage to centuries-old bones.

The members of the Taino, on Saturday visited the dig "Witness damage to the site, especially on some human remains and stones", was apparently by a backhoe, Taino representative said Borrero.

Rodriguez was convinced that the company should be drawn from the project.

"This is a perfect example of what they should not do," he said. "They are usually associated with graves and bulldozers, and they must stop."

Rodriguez also accused the company of Puerto Rican law by failing to register artefacts, which he proposed on the island.

"They have not said what about the materials, so that they do not follow the rules," he said.

An official from New South Associates, said the Corps does not allow the press to answer questions.

But Rivera-Ruiz, Puerto Rico's historic preservation office, defended the Corps and its contractors.

"The contractor was originally developed by the Corps of Engineers, a salvage data recovery on a site that primarily to fail," she said by e-mail.

"Once the conservation was an option, the amount and type of invasive project has been postponed in favour of the more low-key, less intrusive hand excavation already suspended functions."

About 80 percent of the site will remain intact, Rivera-Ruiz added, so that, for the long-term preservation of most of the site.

It added that Puerto Rico's State Historic Preservation Office, the company has overlooked the operation, and the parties are complying with the law.

And Corps spokesman said David McCullough National Geographic News by e-mail that his agency stands behind New South Associates and revising their plans based on the new findings.

"If the Corps recognized the extreme importance of this location," he said, "we redesigned the parts of the dam project, the largest negative impact on the site."

"Giant Human Skeleton" Photo Inspires Hoax

From~National Geographic The National Geographic Society has not discovered ancient giant humans, despite rampant reports and pictures.

The hoax began with a doctored photo and later found a receptive online audience—thanks perhaps to the image's unintended religious connotations.

A digitally altered photograph created in 2002 shows a reclining giant surrounded by a wooden platform—with a shovel-wielding archaeologist thrown in for scale.

By 2004 the "discovery" was being blogged and emailed all over the world—"Giant Skeleton Unearthed!"—and it's been enjoying a revival in 2007.

The photo fakery might be obvious to most people. But the tall tale refuses to lie down even five years later, if a continuing flow of emails to National Geographic News are any indication. (The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News.)

The messages come from around the globe—Portugal, India, El Salvador, Malaysia, Africa, the Dominican Republic, Greece, Egypt, South Africa, Kenya. But they all ask the same question: Is it true?

Perpetuating the Myth

Helping to fuel the story's recent resurgence are a smattering of media outlets that have reported the find as fact.

An often cited March 2007 article in India's Hindu Voice monthly, for example, claimed that a National Geographic Society team, in collaboration with the Indian Army, had dug up a giant human skeleton in India.

"Recent exploration activity in the northern region of India uncovered a skeletal remains of a human of phenomenal size," the report read.

The story went on to say the discovery was made by a "National Geographic Team (India Division) with support from the Indian Army since the area comes under jurisdiction of the Army." The account added that the team also found tablets with inscriptions that suggest the giant belonged to a race of superhumans that are mentioned in the Mahabharata, a Hindu epic poem from about 200 B.C.

The story went on to say that the discovery was made possible by a National Geographic team (India Division) with the support of the Indian army since the area falls under the jurisdiction of the army. "

The account added that the team also tablets with inscriptions indicate that the giant belonged to a race of superhumans that in the Mahabharata, a Hindu epic of around 200 BC

"They were very large, very large and powerful, so that they have their arms around a tree trunk and uproot", the report says, repeatedly claimed that first appeared in 2004.

Voice editor P. Deivamuthu admitted National Geographic News that his publication was of the fake reports.

The monthly, which is based in Mumbai (Bombay), published a withdrawal after Deivamuthu readers aware of the false report, he said.

"We are against the proliferation of lies and ducks," Deivamuthu added. "In addition, our readers a very intellectual class, and will not brook any nonsense."

Other blog entries such as a posting in May 2007 at a site called Srini's weblog allegedly quoting a report published in the Times of India on 22 April 2004. But a search of this newspaper archives revealed no such items.

Arabian Giant

Variations of the giant photo hoax also alleged discovery of a 60 - to 80-foot long (18 - to 24-meter) human skeleton in Saudi Arabia. In a popular, which also first appeared in 2004, an oil exploration team to have said.

Here is the skeleton has proved to be evidence of giants, which in Islamic, but as a Hindu, writings.

The Debunkers

Sites to debunking urban legends and "netlore" picked up on the various hoaxes giant soon after they first appeared.

California-based Snopes.com, for example, found that the skeleton image was lifted from Worth1000, the hosts photo-manipulation competitions.

Entitled "Giants", the skeleton and shoveler image had occupied the third place in a competition in 2002 as "archaeological 2 anomalies."

The picture is a creator-signatories from Canada, with the screen name IronKite told National Geographic News by e-mail that he had nothing to do with the subsequent hoax.

He added that he wants to remain anonymous because some forums debating whether the giant was real or not, their whole argument in a religious one. " It has been argued, for example, that the Saudi Arabian find was fully in line with the teachings of the Koran.

"That was about the same time that death threats and cash bonuses were against cartoonists and other professionals for the industry, things to do, such as the depiction of the Prophet Mohammed," Iron Kite wrote.

As the picture was made

Iron Kite began with an aerial photograph of a mastodon excavation in Hyde Park, New York, 2000. He then digitally superimposed on a human skeleton on the animal's remains.

The subsequent addition of a man digging, the biggest technical challenge.

"If you see, he is in possession of a yellow-handled shovel, but it is nothing to end," said IronKite.

"Originally it was the end of spades. But [it] looked like it was the exact same room as occupation of the skeleton of the temple, making the whole thing look fake.

"Now it looks like he is only with a stick, and that the people do not notice. It's funny."

IronKite also changed the color of the clothes of the man for the creation of a "single tie-in with the white-shirted peering observers from the wooden platform.

The two figures to exaggerate the extent of the skeleton, he added.

Iron Kite said he tickled that the image, lasted only about an hour and a half to create, has so much attention Internet.

"I laugh myself if some stupid guy claimed to know someone who was there, or even goes so far as to say that he or she was there when they found the skeleton was in the picture," said IronKite.

"Sometimes people seem so desperate to believe in something that they themselves lie or exaggerate their own arguments stronger."

Wanting to Believe

David Mikkelson of Snopes.com said such hoaxes succeed if they seem to confirm what people already inclined to believe, as a prejudice, political views or religious beliefs.

A Hoax must also be presented "in a framework that has the appearance of credibility," he said in an e-mail.

The "old giant" has the two elements, according to Mikkelson.

"He appeals to both a religious and secular vision of the world than others and more than mere fantasy science would lead us to believe," he said.

"Proof," Mikkelson added, "comes in the form of a fairly convincing pictures."

For those who may knowingly propagated the myth that Mikkelson added, the motivation was probably no different than the motivation for participation in a game of someone ringing doorbell and running away, it's an easy way to have a laugh at someone's cost. "

Alex Boese, "curator" of the virtual Museum of Hoaxes, said fake giants have a long history dating back to at least 1700.

The recent hoax reminiscent of the once famous Cardiff Giant myth, with a ten-foot-tall (three-meter) stone image dug in 1869 in Cardiff, New York, said Boese.

Many people believed that the number was a petrified man, claiming he was one of the giants in the Bible's Book of Genesis: "There were giants in the Earth in those days."

Similarly, Boese said, the last Giant Hoax "taps into the human desire for secrecy and their desire to see concrete confirmation of the religious legends."