The most outstanding creations of man and nature (part 9)

This type of bamboo can be cut as early as 2 hours after the seeds sprout. At this age, the plant has very soft stems, which are considered delicacies and are used as food. Bamboo dishes are used in Chinese medicine: they are good for bones, teeth, eyes and other organs.

If bamboo is not cut and left to grow, it will reach its maximum height of 30 meters in a few months, while its diameter can exceed 0,5 meters. However, this plant is usually not allowed to grow to its maximum size during cultivation. If the bamboo is not cut immediately, then it is allowed to grow to such a state that the trunks can be used as building material.

Moso bamboo is naturally distributed in southern China and Taiwan. It is also naturalized in other places, including Japan.

Due to the rapid growth of this type of bamboo and its high frost resistance, it is now cultivated in many countries. Bamboo logs are considered inexpensive. Among the current trends are bamboo cases for gadgets.

Moso bamboo is used as a finishing and building material, in paper and textile production (viscose fiber is made from it), baskets and mats are woven from it, furniture and even boats are made.

This is one of the deepest lakes on the planet – the second place after Baikal, and just as ancient in origin. In terms of volume, Tanganyika ranks third after the Caspian Sea and Baikal. The shores of the lake belong to four countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Zambia and Burundi.

In length, the lake stretches for 676 kilometers and has an average of 50 kilometers in width. The area of ​​the lake is 32900 km², and the length of the coastline is 1828 kilometers. The average depth is 570 meters, and the maximum depth is 1470 meters. Volume – 18900 km³.

Tanganyika serves as a vital base for the countries around it. The lake is a source of drinking water, food, serves as a transport route. This area has great potential for ecotourism, as there are many clean beaches and beautiful rocky areas, islands and bays along the coast of the lake.

The Dubai Miracle Garden has over 50 million flowers and 250 million plants.

Through continuous innovation, the Dubai Miracle Garden has broken all flower records over the years. For example, he set 3 Guinness World Records.

1. In 2016, the Airbus A380 flower arrangement in the garden was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest flower arrangement in the world. This flower arrangement consists of 5 million flowers, and the color of the flowers exactly repeated the entire design and logo of the Emirates airline. This record-breaking floral theme is still present in the Dubai Miracle Garden and is expected to remain there due to its popularity in the coming years.
2. In 2018, another world record was set: the world's tallest topiary in the shape of Mickey Mouse, 18 meters high and weighing almost 35 tons, was exhibited in the garden.
3. In 2019, the Dubai Miracle Garden set another Guinness World Record by building the world's largest topiary. A Disney Avenue was created in the garden, made up of 9 Disney characters, and they were all made up of flowers and shrubs. Each of these characters was as huge as the previously created Mickey Mouse character, and some even bigger than the previous one. Disney characters included Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Goofy, Pluto and the triplets (i.e. Huey, Dewey and Louie). Goofy was the biggest of all. This entire avenue was recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the largest topiary.

Find more interesting facts about the Dubai Miracle Garden in our article ☛

These birds are considered to have the longest wings. The wings of these birds are long and narrow. The record belongs to an old male, caught in 1965 off the coast of Australia – his wingspan was 3 meters 63 centimeters.

The wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans) is also one of the largest flying birds. The body of the bird reaches a length of 120 cm, the weight of an adult male is 11 kg, and that of a female is 7–9 kg.

Wandering albatrosses breed on the subantarctic islands of South Georgia, Crozet, Kerguelen, Antipodes and Macquarie Islands.

This species is listed in the IUCN Red List as Vulnerable.

Wandering albatrosses also hold the record of their family for the length of their routes. On a day, an albatross can fly up to 1000 km, and it is able to fly against the wind.

For soaring flight, the bird uses the streams of the flow around the waves. Strong air currents arising from the interaction of sea waves and the atmosphere are used by albatrosses for soaring, so they stay on the borders of cyclones and prefer to avoid calm weather. On calm days or at low air temperatures, the bird does not rise high, but usually it flies at a height of no higher than 15 meters.

The length of the frog is only 2-5 cm, weight – 1 gram. However, frog skin contains the nerve poison batrachotoxin. This extremely deadly poison is very rare, its lethal dose for humans is only 2 micrograms (one frog can contain up to 1 mg of poison). A simple touch on the skin of a frog is enough to get fatal poisoning.

It is also interesting that the yellow leaf climber does not actually have poisonous glands, and it extracts this most dangerous toxin from food – various insects. What is useful, he digests, and any poison, having processed, allocates from the body through the skin.

These tree frogs are distributed in tropical forests in a small area of ​​southwestern Colombia. They inhabit mainly the lower tiers of rainforests.

The tree of life at first glance seems to be an unremarkable tree. However, this tree is a local tourist attraction with about 65000 visitors each year.

It is unknown how the tree survives. Bahrain has virtually no rain throughout the year. However, the loneliest tree is profusely covered in green leaves.

It is believed that the roots go to a depth of 50 meters, which may be enough to reach the water. It is also said that the tree has learned to extract moisture from grains of sand. And some people claim that the tree stands in what was once the Garden of Eden and therefore has a more mystical source of water.

This 10-meter tree is called Prosopis cineraria, also known as ghaf. These trees are distributed from India to Saudi Arabia, and are also found in Yemen and Indonesia.

The maximum length of this fish is 25 cm. The color is black or black-brownish. There are no scales. The mouth is very large, armed with numerous wedge-shaped teeth.

The black livethroat can swallow prey larger than itself, while its stomach is greatly stretched, and the heart is shifted to the side. The jaws, body walls and stomach of this fish are highly stretchable. Crookshanks swallows prey whole. Thanks to its features described above, the fish is able to swallow prey twice its length and 10 times its mass.

Thanks to the articulation of the jaws with the skull, these fish can grasp objects larger than their own head. There is an assumption that the live-eater grabs prey from behind and swallows it, starting from the tail. It swallows its disproportionate prey with the help of movable pharyngeal teeth.

In 2007, a 19 cm long black livethroat was found in Grand Cayman with an 86 cm long snake mackerel Gempylus serpens swallowed in the stomach, which is 4,5 times its own length. The fish ended up on the surface because the size of the prey prevented the livemouth from digesting it before decomposition began. At some point, this fish was unable to withstand the force of Archimedes due to the gases released. It was in this way that most of the samples fell into the hands of ichthyologists.

Black livethroats are distributed throughout the world in tropical and subtropical waters, at a depth of 150–3900 meters.

The beach got its name because of the underground hot springs that penetrate the sand between the tidal and ebb currents. For two hours on either side of low tide, one can dig into the sand, allowing hot water to rise to the surface, forming a pool of hot water. The water temperature here reaches +64º С.

These natural springs can be found on the beach opposite the coastal cliffs. Visitors often dig large holes, relax and bathe in the thermal water. Many visitors bring a shovel and bucket with them.

The beach is a popular destination for both locals and tourists visiting New Zealand. Hot Water Beach receives an estimated 700,000 visitors annually, making it one of the most popular geothermal attractions in the Waikato region.

An-225 "Mriya" (Antonov An-225 Mriya) is an ultra-heavy-lift transport jet aircraft developed by the Antonov State Enterprise. The aircraft is capable of transporting unique cargo on the fuselage, the dimensions of which do not allow them to be placed on other ground and air vehicles.

The aircraft was designed and built in the USSR in a single copy at the Kiev Mechanical Plant in 1984-1988. The first flight was made on December 21, 1988. It was originally planned to build 2 of these aircraft. However, only one copy was in flight condition and was operated by the Ukrainian company Antonov Airlines. The second copy was not completed.

An-225 is the heaviest cargo aircraft ever to take to the air. The Mriya aircraft set a number of world records for takeoff weight and payload. In total, this aircraft is the owner of about 250 world records. Let's cite just a few of them.

• March 22, 1989 An-225 flew with a load of 156,3 tons.
• In August 2004, a new record was set – Mriya transported 250 tons of special equipment commissioned by Zeromax GmbH from Prague to Tashkent.
• In August 2009, the aircraft was listed in the Guinness Book of Records for transporting the largest monocargo in the history of aviation with a total weight of 187,6 tons. It was a generator weighing 174 tons, which was transported with a special frame from German Frankfurt to Yerevan for a new Armenian power plant.
• On June 10, 2010, the longest cargo in the history of air transportation was transported – 2 wind turbine blades 42,1 meters long each.
• In November 2016, a record weight for South America was transported – a turbogenerator in a special design with a total weight of 182 tons.
• An-225 holds the absolute load capacity record – 253,8 tons.

In February 2022, an An-225 was destroyed in a hangar during the fighting for Antonov Airport during the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. It is reported that Ukraine intends to complete the construction of the second An-225 to replace the destroyed aircraft.