Spinnaker Tower — Portsmouth, England

Spinnaker Tower is a 170-metre (560 ft) landmark tower in Portsmouth, England, UK. It is the centrepiece of the redevelopment of Portsmouth Harbour, which was supported by a National Lottery grant. Its shape was chosen by Portsmouth residents from a selection. The tower, designed by local firm HGP Architects and the engineering consultants Scott Wilson and built by Mowlem, reflects Portsmouth's maritime history by its being modelled after a sail. The tower was opened on 18 October 2005.

The tower is owned by Portsmouth City Council, but operationally managed by Continuum Leading Attractions, a cultural attractions group based in York. Continuum also run five other visitor attractions across the country.

 Structure — The tower, at a height of 170 m above sea level, is 2 1/2 times as high as Nelson's Column, making it the tallest accessible structure in the United Kingdom outside London. The tower is visible for miles around Portsmouth, changing the horizon of the area. It can be seen from the Isle of Wight and the Manhood Peninsula.

 The tower represents sails billowing in the wind, a design accomplished using two large, white, sweeping metal arcs, which give the tower its spinnaker sail design. The steelwork was fabricated by Butterley Engineering. At the top is a triple observation deck, providing a 350° view of the city of Portsmouth, the Langstone and Portsmouth harbours, and a viewing distance of 37 kilometres (23 mi). The highest of the three observation platforms, the crow's nest, has a wire mesh roof, allowing visitors to be in the elements. Windows extend to above head height, so it is not possible to get a view unobstructed by glass. The glass floor is the largest in Europe. The tower has a design lifetime of 80 years. The design is similar to the Burj Al Arab in Dubai, whose structure is a little less than twice as tall at 323 metres (1,060 ft).

The Most Sensational 20 Satellite Images Taken In 2013

DigitalGlobe company has compiled the most interesting 20 images captured in May 2013 by the company’s satellites. DigitalGlobe company representatives asks fans to vote for the best images on their Facebook page. Top rated 5 images are in the final and the winning picture will be announced in January 2014. Currently, the image with the most votes is the one depicting medieval fortress in Aleppo, Syria. Here are the most amazing 20 satellite images, according to DigitalGlobe.

Cambambe dam on the river Cuanza in Angola (April 28, 2013)

False color image with natural fires in the state of Tasmania in Australia. Healthy vegetation is colored red (January 6, 2013)

 Aleppo Citadel, a medieval fortified palace in Syria. If you rotate the image 180 degrees, the "hole" becomes a "hill" being an interesting optical illusion (26 May 2013)

                                                      Colorado River (22 April 2013)

 Versailles, France, August 20, 2013

                                       Great Barrier Reef, Australia, April 22, 2013

                      A huge "green wave" caught near Sur, Oman, on February 13, 2013

                   Galesnjak, also called the "Island of Love" Croatia, February 16, 2013 (Gaint Heart On Earth)

                              A giant rubber duck, Hong Kong, China, May 9, 2013

                             Manama Volcano, Madang Province, Papua New Guinea, March 22, 2013

                                             Mount Vesuvius, Naples, Italy, February 19, 2013

                                   Namib Desert, Sossusvlei area, Namibia, May 13, 2013

                                           Arlit uranium mine, Niger, February 13, 2013

               A new island created by the earthquake near the coast of Gwadar, Pakistan, September 29, 2013

                      Artificial island spanning over 4 million square feet, Doha, Qatar, March 4, 2013

                                                       Sochi, Russia, March 17, 2013

                                         Schooner Cays, Bahamas, May 26, 2013

                             Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, Valencia, Spain, July 19, 2013

                                                     "Wish", a work of art in Belfast, Northern Ireland, November 3, 2013

                                                                          Shiyuan Park, Xian, China, September 24, 2013

The Wild Wadi Water Park — Dubai

The Wild Wadi Water Park is an outdoor water park in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Situated in the area of Jumeirah, next to the Burj Al Arab and the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, the water park is operated by Jumeirah International, a Dubai-based hotelier. Wild Wadi has a heated/cooled wave pool, multiple water slides and two artificial surfing machines. In addition, the park had the largest water slide outside of North America, but recently it was removed to make space for two other rides . Another feature of the park is an 18 m (59 ft) waterfall that goes off every ten minutes. The water park also has two gift shops, three restaurants and two snack stands. It was featured in The Amazing Race 5 and The Amazing Race Asia 1, in which teams had to slide down a 21 m (69 ft) drop. It was later featured in The Amazing Race Australia 2, but instead, the teams had to ride the Surf Machine and use boogie boards to surf their way to the end where they will get their next clue.

Underwater Hotel Room in Africa

At The Manta Resort in Zanzibar, tourists can sleep in a unique self-contained hotel room that drifts on the sea, three meters down into the Indian Ocean. The giant windows of the underwater hotel room let guests peer outside into the wondrous world of the sea. For those who like to sunbath there is a top deck on the roof of the floating hotel room.

 Underwater accommodations seem to have become a trend among hotels in recent years. The Manta Resort is now putting a unique spin on this concept. The underwater room has been revealed recently, a three-floor suite that floats beside a thriving coral reef and boasts a submerged master bedroom surrounded by windows to view the local sea life.

 Located on the tropical Pemba Island in Zanzibar, the resort’s most standout feature is the natural coral reef lying just a few meters off its private beach, which attracts numerous divers and snorkelers to its villas. To construct an enticing off-shore suite though, the owners enlisted the help of Genberg Underwater Hotels, a Swedish company that previously erected a similar structure on a lake in Sweden. The unusual new underwater room floats almost 250 m (820 ft) away from the coastline and is held in place by several anchoring lines leading to the ocean floor.

 The guests can dine on a lounge deck at water level and sunbath on the upper deck. By night, they’ll then dive into the sea to access their hotel room, where they nod off among-st the fishes and their marine surroundings. For an ethereal effect, the under water suite, which is built four meters below the surface, is lit by underwater spotlights to provide an amazing back lit projection of the Indian Ocean’s tropical sanctuary.

 The large windows are giving an almost total 360-degree view of the water around it. Unfortunately the price per night is very high due to the exclusiveness and unique characteristics and not reachable for many people.