The Altiplano of South America

The Altiplano is a high plateau in the Andes Mountains that stretches into Bolivia, Peru and Chile. Despite the apparent hostilities it presents to life, many species manage to survive and thrive, and there are more than a million people who live in the region today. It is known that some of the villages here have been occupied continuously for 10,000 years.

The Altiplano towers over the southern Andes, forming a high plateau between the eastern and western Andean chains. It covers an area of some 65,000 square miles (168,000 sq kms) and has a mean elevation of 12,000 feet (3,650 m).

It formed millions of years ago when an ancient sea was raised together with the peaks. The sea eventually retreated to leave many salt pans behind. There has also been considerable infilling by sediment eroded from the mountains. The lowest point of the plateau is occupied by Lake Titicaca, which is the world’s largest high-altitude lake.

Climate and Vegetation

The climate of the Altiplano is generally cold and dry, although two climatic regions can be distinguished. These are the “puna” to the south and the “jalca” to the north, with the jalca getting more rainfall than the puna.

The puna vegetation consists mainly of dwarf shrubs and grasses, while the jalca can support larger plants such as varieties of puya (bromeliads that are noted for their tall short-lived flower spikes).

More than 400 plant species are found in the Altiplano, many of which are endemic.

Wildlife

In some areas of the Altiplano freshwater swamps form from seasonal snowmelt, and these support large flocks of flamingos that feed on algae and shrimps.

Vicuna and guanaco are protected species of wild camel that are found in Lauca National Park near Arica in Chile, as are huemel (wild deer).

More than 140 species of bird are found in the Altiplano.

© John Welford

Märkisches Museum, Berlin

This is an extraordinary building that is well worth a visit if you are in Berlin. It lies on the south side of the River Spree, just opposite Fischer Island which adjoins the much more famous Museum Island. Whereas the five museums on the latter island are always well patronized, you should find yourself with a lot less company as you tour round the Märkisches Museum and take a leisurely stroll around its attractive grounds.

The museum looks at first as though it must be an accumulation of buildings that once housed a medieval monastery, but it actually dates from between 1901 and 1908, having been purpose-built as a museum to showcase exhibits from the local area of Berlin and Brandenburg.

The neo-Gothic architecture (by Ludwig Hoffmann) was inspired by buildings in the region that were built in true Gothic style, notably Wittstock Castle and St Catherine’s Church in the city of Brandenburg. In the entrance hall of the museum is a statue of the traditional hero Roland, this being a copy of a 15^th-century original.

The main hall features the original Gothic portal from the Berlin palace, demolished in 1931, of the Margraves of Brandenburg. Also to be seen is one of the original horse’s heads that was once part of the Quadriga on top of the Brandenburg Gate.

There is much more on show here that chronicles the history of Berlin from when the district was first settled up until the present day. Exhibits include the history of the theatre in Berlin and mechanical musical instruments that are played by musicians once a week – on Friday afternoons.

© John Welford

The Reichstag, Berlin

The Reichstag is the home of Germany’s Parliament, and it has also proved to be a highly symbolic site – for various reasons - throughout its existence.

It was originally built – construction began in 1884 and was completed in 1894 – to symbolize German reunification after the Franco-Prussian War and the declaration of the German Empire that began in 1871.

The design, in a neo-Renaissance style, was by Paul Wallot and was intended to capture the spirit of German optimism. The building was funded by reparation payments made by the defeated French Republic.

In 1916, at the height of World War I, the words “Dem Deutschen Volke” (meaning “to the German people”) were added to the façade and are still in place today. At the end of the war in 1918, German defeat led to the formation of the Weimar Republic, the declaration of which was made by Philip Scheidemann at the Reichstag.

The symbolic importance of the building became apparent in February 1933 when the main hall of the Reichstag was destroyed by fire. Many explanations have been offered down the years as to how the fire started, but at the time the blame was placed on a young Dutch Communist named Marinus van der Lubbe, who was later executed for the crime.

Adolf Hitler had become Chancellor of Germany only four weeks before the fire, and the Nazis used the event as potent ammunition in their fight against the Communists.

The Reichstag had not been rebuilt by the time that World War II broke out in 1939, and further damage was caused during the war by air raids and the 1945 Battle of Berlin. The Soviet troops that captured the city made a beeline for the Reichstag and flew the hammer and sickle flag from the top of the building to symbolize German defeat.

Between 1957 and 1972 much of the damaged stonework, including the dome, was removed. The building had no official function at this time, given that Germany was again divided, with the Parliament of West Germany located in Bonn.

When the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961 it passed close to the Reichstag, but on the eastern side. It could therefore form a highly symbolic backdrop for demonstrations and events, such as rock concerts, held on the western side that could be heard on the other side of the Wall, much to the annoyance of the East German authorities.

Following the reunification of Germany in 1990, reconstruction of the Reichstag began in 1995 and was completed in 1999. The result was a modern meeting hall built within the original shell, and with a highly original design for the dome that was the work of the British Architect Sir Norman Foster. This takes the form of a glass structure that visitors can walk around on the inside, looking down into the main hall and out across Berlin.

The Reichstag is an iconic building that has packed a huge amount of history into its relatively short existence.

© John Welford

Tiergarten, Berlin

Tiergarten is the largest park in Berlin, occupying an area of 495 acres (200 hectares) at the heart of the city.

It was originally a forest used as the hunting reserve of the Electors of Prussia, but during the 1830s it was transformed into a landscaped park by Peter Joseph Lenné. Towards the end of the 19^th century a Triumphal Avenue, lined with statues of German statesmen and rulers, was laid out at the eastern end, but this was destroyed during World War II.

Postwar reconstruction included a great deal of replanting and the erection of many statues and memorials to famous Germans.

The park contains many delightful vistas, especially over the many lakes and ponds it contains, and it is a popular place for Berliners to walk, jog or cycle.

At the centre of Tiergarten is Grosser Stern (Great Star) which is a large five-way roundabout with a triumphal column (Siegessäule) in the middle. This column, which has a viewing platform at the top, was built to commemorate victory in the Prusso-Danish War of 1864. After further military successes, against Austria in 1866 and France in 1871, the figure of “Goldelse”, representing Victory, was added at the top.

It was moved to its present position in 1938 and can now be seen if one looks straight through the Brandenburg Gate down the Strasse des 17 Juni.

© John Welford

The Five Old Ladies of Museum Island, Berlin

Five elderly ladies live on Museum Island. Or, to be more accurate, they don’t actually live in the generally accepted meaning of that word, because they are the spirits who hover over five iconic buildings and who invite anyone who passes by to visit their homes.

The ladies may not be real, but the buildings they haunt most certainly are. Museum Island is a real place, being in the heart of Berlin and surrounded by the narrow waterways of the River Spree and the Spree Canal. This is where you will find Berlin’s four oldest museums and its original art gallery, plus the magnificent cathedral known as the Berliner Dom. There are no other buildings at the northern end of the Island.

The ladies issue their invitations with a few conditions. One is that you pay a few euros for the privilege and that you leave your backpack in the cloakroom before you start looking around. However, a free audioguide – in your own language if not too obscure - is offered and is well worth accepting.

The most senior of the ladies is the spirit of the Altes Museum. This was opened in 1830 in a magnificent neo-classical building that was originally built to house the Prussian monarch’s collection of paintings and antiquities. It now stages permanent exhibitions of the art and culture of Ancient Greece downstairs and Etruscan and Roman art upstairs.

Next in line is the lady who looks after the Neues Museum, whose home first opened in 1855 as a means of relieving pressure on the Altes Museum, the collections of which were growing too fast for the available space. Bomb damage during World War Two meant that it had to undergo considerable rebuilding and it did not reopen until 2009, but it now houses a major collection of Egyptian art with the world-famous bust of Queen Nefertiti as its star exhibit.

Another major collection at the Neues Museum features the Stone Age and other prehistoric eras.

The third old lady presides over the Alte Nationalgalerie, which opened in 1876. The building is a copy of a Greek temple, reached by a double staircase. This lady has a name, which is Germania, the patroness of German art, and her image forms part of the tympanum above the entrance to the gallery.

The national art collection has now vastly exceeded the capacity of the Alte Nationalgalarie and it is now also housed in five other buildings around Berlin. The original building displays works by German masters such as Caspar David Friedrich, but there are also paintings by French Impressionists and even a few pieces by John Constable, although these are not easy to find.

The Bode Museum is the preserve of the fourth lady, her home having been opened in 1904. This museum had to be built to fit the space available at the top end of the island, which is a rough triangle cut off from the rest by a railway line that runs across the island.

The museum is named after Wilhelm von Bode, who was Director of the Berlin state museums at the time the museum opened, but before 1956 it was known as the Kaiser Friedrich Museum. The collection is somewhat mixed, including sculptures, Byzantine art, and an outstanding coin collection that includes items from ancient Athens and Rome.

The new kid on the block, as far as our old ladies is concerned, is the patroness of what is arguably the most remarkable museum of the lot. The Pergamon Museum, which opened in 1930, is unlike anything one is likely to see anywhere else in the world, and it owes its existence to the activities of German archaeologists who worked in the Middle East during the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries and sometimes acted in ways that many people today would question. That said, the results of their efforts are well worth seeing.

The Pergamon Museum is currently undergoing a major redevelopment, which means that the main reason for its naming is not available to view. This is the Pergamon Altar, which was discovered in the ancient city of Pergamon in western Turkey and reconstructed in Berlin at around the turn of the 20^th century. The Pergamon Museum was built specifically to display the Altar and associated friezes and other objects from the site.

The Museum was expanded to allow for the display of other huge monuments, and these are what can be seen at present in the South Wing of the Museum while the other parts remain closed.

You can therefore walk down the Processional Way of the city of Babylon and then, like King Nebuchadnezzar, walk through the Ishtar Gate. Both of these are adorned with thousands of brick-shaped glazed blue tiles that are decorated with images of real and mythical animals. These were discovered in fragments and shipped to Berlin in more than 500 huge crates, to be re-assembled according to documentary evidence from the time of Nebuchadnezzar.

When you go through the Ashtar Gate you find that you have also walked through the Market Gate from the ancient Greek colonial city of Miletus. This is a massive two-storey structure that stands nearly 95 feet across and 55 feet high. It dates from the 2^nd century AD and stood as a link between two public areas in the town until it was felled by an earthquake in the 10^th century.

The reconstruction in Berlin contains around 60% of the original marble blocks, despite further damage having been caused during World War Two.

The Miletus Hall also contains a superb mosaic floor from a house in Miletus, a round tomb from north of Rome, and a partial reconstruction of a porticoed hall from Pergamon, this being one of the few items currently on display in the Pergamon Museum that actually came from that city.

Go upstairs and you will find exhibits relating to Islamic Art. These include the remarkable Aleppo Room, consisting of painted wall panels from around 1600 that once adorned a merchant’s house in the Syrian city of Aleppo. It is probably just as well that the panels are now in Berlin, seeing that the building, which had survived for hundreds of years, fell victim to bombing in the recent conflict in that region.

The five old ladies are doing a grand job in looking after a huge quantity and variety of treasures in Berlin. Long may they continue so to do.

© John Welford

The Blue Grotto, Capri

The Blue Grotto is an oval-shaped sea cave on the coast of the island of Capri, on the south side of Italy’s Bay of Naples. It takes its name from the fact that daylight enters the cave in such a way that the water absorbs all wavelengths except for blue. It has been described as entering a giant sapphire.

It can only be entered by boat through a tiny entrance, and only when conditions permit. Visitors must lie on the floor of a small boat which is taken into the grotto by the boatman pulling on a rope attached to the wall.

The grotto has been known about for thousands of years and was known to be a favourite place of the Roman Emperor Tiberius. The walls of the cave were adorned with statues of gods, some of which have been recovered from the seabed within the cave.

Needless to say, this is a popular tourist destination and long queues of boats form on fine days, which is the only time when access is possible.

© John Welford

Milan Cathedral

Milan Cathedral has always divided opinion. Some people think it is magnificent, while others see it as a monstrous lump of stone that has very little to recommend it architecturally or artistically.

It is certainly big. It is the fourth largest church in the world and the largest in Italy (if one allows that St Peter’s in Rome is not technically in Italy.

Planning for the cathedral began in 1386 and construction of one sort or another continued into the 20^th century. When one learns about the wrangling that took place in its early years it is no surprise that controversy has dogged it ever since.

The original intention was to build a cathedral that rivalled the best and biggest to be found in France. A building council was therefore set up to manage such a project, despite local custom being for simple, unadventurous structures. It was hardly surprising that problems arose at the outset.

With the foundations already laid, a foreign advisor was called in, he being the first of a string of architects from abroad who were consulted and then fired.

Three conferences were held, in 1392, 1400 and 1401 to determine which system of proportions should be used in the design of the walls. The 1392 decision was eventually revisited and adopted.

It had therefore been 15 years from the start of the project to when the final decision was made.

There would be plenty more arguments down the centuries as first one architectural convention, then another, was decided upon, with the construction already well underway.

And the end result? It is certainly impressive, whether one likes it or not!

© John Welford

Final of the 2019 Cricket World Cup

The final of the 50-over cricket World Cup, held on Sunday 14^th July 2019, was an amazing match, regarded by most people who take an interest in these things as the most remarkable ever to have taken place.

The final was played between England and New Zealand, neither of whom had won the trophy at previous World Cup tournaments. England were regarded by most observers as the favourites to win, especially given their comprehensive win (by 119 runs) over New Zealand in the group stages only 11 days previously. A repeated easy victory was what many people expected.

However, that was not how things turned out. On a difficult pitch for quick run scoring, New Zealand batted first and battled hard. The first wicket (of Guptill) went down at 29 but the second (Williamson) only went down at 103 in the 23^rd over.

The England bowlers all bowled well, with the possible exception of Stokes who was taken off after his three overs yielded 20 runs. Probably the pick of the bowlers was Plunkett, who has a habit of taking key wickets during the middle part of an innings. His three victims – Williamson, Nicholls and Neesham – are all dangerous batsmen who can turn a game. Thanks to Plunkett’s bowling, none of them was able to dominate.

It was thought that a total of 250 would be enough to pose real problems for England, so when the innings closed at 241 for 8 wickets, many people were quietly confident that this should not be too difficult for England to pass.

However, the batsmen who had been the mainstay of England’s previous victories in the group stages did not last long. The top four (Roy, Bairstow, Root and Morgan) were all back in the pavilion with the score on 94.

Hopes now rested on wicketkeeper Buttler and all-rounder Stokes. As long as these two stayed at the crease, reaching the target of 242 always seemed likely, despite the required run-rate growing to beyond eight an over.

Buttler’s dismissal for 59 in the 45^th over, with another 46 runs still needed, caused English hearts to sink. It was now going to be up to Stokes to do most of the scoring, with support from the “tail” whose job was to stay put and ensure that Stokes farmed most of the bowling.

However, wickets continued to fall, including a first-ball dismissal for Archer, and it began to look like a hopeless cause.

At least, it would have hopeless but for two remarkable balls in the closing overs, both sixes hit by Stokes. In the 49^th over it looked as though Stokes had been caught on the boundary by Boult, but the fielder stepped backwards over the boundary marker, so that counted as six runs.

In the final over England still needed 15 runs to win. The first two balls produced nothing, but Stokes walloped the third ball into the crowd. The fourth ball was only going to allow two runs to be taken, but the second run was very tight. Stokes threw himself full-length to make his ground, but as the fielder threw in the ball it hit Stokes’s bat and rebounded to the boundary, thus adding four to the two already run.

The fifth ball resulted in a single and the running out of Stokes’s partner Rashid when going for the second, so for the final ball two runs were still needed. Once again there was a single and a run-out, meaning that both sides had scored 241!

The cricket equivalent of a penalty shoot-out is the “super over”. Each side must nominate three batsmen and one bowler, the result being decided on who scores more runs in six balls. Should a batsman be dismissed, the third batsman can take his place.

England batted first, with Stokes and Buttler at the crease and Boult bowling for New Zealand. They scored off every ball, including two boundaries, the total being 15.

If the New Zealand batsmen – Guptill and Neesham – could score 16 or more off Archer’s bowling, they would win the World Cup. The over started badly for England with Archer bowling a wide, which meant that one run was scored and an extra ball had to be bowled. The third ball was hit for six.

Seven runs were needed with four balls left. Two twos were completed – three runs needed from two balls! A single came off the last-but-one ball. Could Archer hold his nerve and prevent two runs coming off the final ball? The batsmen set off for the second run but a perfect throw from the deep and a clean take from the wicketkeeper meant that Guptill was run out and only one run was scored.

So – both sides had scored 15 in their super-over. However, the rules stated that the side that hit more boundaries – fours and sixes – over the whole match would be the winner if the scores were tied. England had hit 26 boundaries to the 17 of New Zealand. So England therefore won the World Cup by the narrowest of margins!

© John Welford

Football violence at the Battle of Berne, 1954

Switzerland is usually regarded as a fairly peaceful place, at least in the modern era, and a reference to a battle having taken place in its capital city as recently as 1954 might come as a surprise.

However, the “battle” was not an armed conflict between soldiers but a massive football riot that is generally regarded as one of the worst such incidents in the history of the sport.

The occasion was a World Cup quarter-final between Brazil and Hungary that took place on 27^th June 1954. Hungary won the match by four goals to two, but that was not the most memorable aspect of the game.

When a penalty was awarded to Hungary during the second half, there was a pitch invasion by Brazilian coaching staff, officials and journalists. The fight on the pitch lasted for half an hour, resulting in three players - two Brazilians and one Hungarian - being sent off.

The battle resumed at the final whistle and continued off the pitch, with the manager of Hungary needing four stitches in a face wound that he suffered in the changing room.

There have been suggestions that the battle was not just a dispute over a penalty. With Brazil being staunchly Catholic and Hungary being part of the Communist bloc, the hatred betrayed by so many of those present might have had religious and political undertones.

© John Welford

The bystander effect

In 1964 a 28-year-old woman named Kitty Genovese was raped and murdered in the street in Queens, New York. There were reputed to be 38 people who witnessed the attack, which lasted for more than half an hour, but nobody came to her aid.

The event entered the literature of psychology as the “bystander effect”, the theory being that people feel less responsibility to help strangers in trouble if there are plenty of other people in the area. There may also be the feeling that if nobody else is doing anything, the situation cannot be all that serious.

However, this theory has been questioned after research that has been done in the UK, The Netherlands and South Africa. This has shown that, in similar situations, people do intervene in 90% of cases. Sometimes only one person does so, but quite often more than one person tries to help.

The researchers also found that people are more likely to intervene the higher the number of other bystanders, which goes dead against the earlier theory. There was little difference as between occurrences in the three countries.

It would appear that people have a natural inclination to help others in trouble, which is reassuring!

© John Welford

A very short introduction to quantum physics

The foundations of quantum physics were laid in the 1890s when the German physicist Max Planck (1858-1947) proposed that radiation from a hot object did not take the form of waves but was produced as chunks of energy which he termed quanta, which behaved like waves when in combination. Max Planck could only propose the notion of quanta as a mathematical concept, having no way of proving their existence.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was interested in the photoelectric effect that occurs when light strikes certain atoms and electricity is generated. Einstein realized that this could best be explained if light travelled as quanta, not waves, and gave the name photon to a light quanta, this being a real entity and not just a mathematical idea.

In 1913 the Danish physicist Niels Bohr (1885-1962) used quantum theory to explain the different energy levels of electrons in an atom. 

Further work during the 1920s by Erwin Schrodinger (1887-1961) and Werner Heisenberg (1901-76) developed the idea of quantum energy levels in atoms, thus creating a new branch of physics called quantum physics. 

Quantum physics explains how electrons emit radiation and shows that an electron can be regarded as both a wave and a particle.

Quantum physics has had many practical applications, such as in the development of lasers and transistors.

© John Welford

Iran's Zagros Mountains

The Zagros Mountains are a snow-covered range of mountains, mainly in south-west Iran, which is normally hot, dry and barren. The range is 550 miles (900 kms) long and 150 miles (240 kms) wide. The highest point is 12,000 feet (3,600 metres) above sea level.

The Zagros Mountains owe their origin to the collision of two tectonic plates, namely the Arabian and Asian plates. This collision began during the middle Miocene period, some 13 million years ago, and continues to this day at a rate of 1.6 inches (4 centimeters) each year. This means that the Zagros range is being pushed steadily higher – like the Himalayan and associated ranges further to the east – and this is a region that is regularly hit by earthquakes.

The range, which extends from the Diyala River (a tributary of the Tigris) in the northwest to beyond the ancient city of Shiraz to the southeast, is formed mostly from limestone and shale and consists of numerous parallel ridges with intervening valleys. The ridges increase in height to the east until they merge with a high plateau that lies at about 5,000 feet (1,500 metres).

The western side of the Zagros range, which includes much of the Kurdish areas of Iraq and Turkey, is drained by strongly flowing rivers that are fed by snowmelt and rainfall of some 40 inches (100 cms) a year.

Tree cover

The higher slopes of the Zagros are covered in oak, sycamore, maple and beech. Willow, plane and poplar trees grow in the higher mountain ravines, while lower down are found walnut, fig and almond plantations that take advantage of the naturally fertile soils in the valleys.

© John Welford

The classification of sedimentary rocks

There are basically two ways of classifying sedimentary rocks, either by how they originated or their composition. The latter takes into account such matters as whether they contain primarily coarse-textured sands or fine clays, or whether they have a high carbon content due to being composed largely or entirely of plant or animal matter. However, it is generally more convenient to combine the two methods into a single classification, as below:

Mechanical Formation

This group comprises rocks that have been formed after material has been moved in fragments from one or several places to another (by the action of wind, water, ice or gravity), where it has become consolidated either by pressure from later deposits, or by cementation, or both. The original material may have been very fine in nature, such as river-borne silt, or much coarser, such as rounded or angular pebbles or rock fragments.

The material that enables fragments to cement together may be a solution containing minerals of various kinds, such that sandstones may contain quartz, calcium carbonate or iron, the proportions of these determining its colour.

Very fine material will form clays or mudstones, less fine deposits lead to grits forming, and much coarser material results in a conglomerate or brecchia (in the former the pebbles are rounded, whereas they are angular in the latter).

Terms used to distinguish rocks by the size of their particles are Argillaceous (e.g. clay, mudstone, shale); Arenaceous (e.g. sandstone, grit); and Rudaceous (e.g. brecchia, conglomerate, boulder clay).

Organic Formation

These rocks were created from the remains of once living organisms which built up over very long periods of time. These can be further classified according to the nature of the plants or animals that comprised the deposits.

Calcareous rocks (chalks and limestones) consist mainly of calcium carbonate, formed from the skeletons of marine organisms, and are distinguished by the size and nature of the particles that comprise them. The finest particles are seen in pure white chalk. Limestone is more varied, including crinoidal, coral, oolitic and shelly, the terms denoting the type of primitive organism that is mainly represented in its formation. Fossils of much larger organisms are often found embedded in limestone.

Ferruginous is a term that denotes the presence of iron, usually from the precipitation of hydrated iron oxide in the water of ancient lakes and marshes. Decomposing vegetable matter formed the basis of ironstone and “bog iron-ore”.

Siliceous rocks can be formed from the remains of sponges and minute organisms such as diatoms (single-celled plants rich in silica). These include nodules of chert and flint found in other rocks, and beds of diatomite.

Carbonaceous rocks are formed from plant accumulations and are high in carbon content. Depending on the age of the deposits and the pressure they have been put under, they can take the form of peat, lignite or coal.

Chemically Formed

These come about from the precipitation or evaporation of solutions of salts. All water that falls as rain will acquire salt in some form as it runs across the surface or finds its way underground, and these salts are often partially or totally released before the water cycle is completed. Rock formation can occur when sufficient salts accumulate in the same place. Five types of chemical formation of rock types can be distinguished.

Carbonates.  Stalactites and stalagmites in limestone caves, or travertine around hot springs, are examples of carbonate deposition. Dolomite is a chemically formed compound of calcium and magnesium carbonate.

Sulphates. Hydrated calcium sulphate, in the form of gypsum or alabaster, is formed by evaporation in inland drainage basins.

Chlorides. These produce rock-salt, either on the surface or at depth.

Silicates. As well as flint and chert (mentioned above), sinter is a silicate rock, formed around the vents of hot springs.

Ironstones. Most iron ores have accumulated from chemical precipitation within sediments, although some are the result of igneous activity.

Sedimentary rocks are typically laid down in strata of varying thicknesses, and the process can continue at the same place for extremely long periods of time (millions of years in some cases). It is sometimes possible, for example, to detect annual depositions made by ancient rivers, and use these to determine the age of a particular formation.

© John Welford