GEOGRAPHY PHOTO GALLERY
These photos are from various places that I visited and I am collecting photos from places geography students visited. They are presented in the same order as the topics in the geography textbook.
FRANCE
PARIS AND THE NORTH COUNTRYSIDE
Like many other older cities, Paris was built along a river. Here are two views of the Seine River in the heart of Paris. The photo on the left is from the first level of the Eiffel Tower and the photo below is near Notre Dame Cathedral.
Rush hour in Paris. This street is the most famous in Paris, the Champs-Elysees. At the top of the hill is the monument Arc de Triomphe. Envisioned by Napoleon, the monument could not be completed until long after his rule. There is a flame for the Unknown Soldier and commerations for several of the wars the French participated in since the time of Napoleon. Behind the trees along the Champs-Elysees on both sides are wide pedestrian sidewalks and an assortment of expensive shops and restaurants. See p. 73 in the book for more information on Paris.
No trip to Paris would be complete without a picture of the Eiffel Tower which dominates the landscape of the heart of Paris. I took this photo in June of 1999 and the J-206 in lights was a countdown to January 1, 2000.
My father took these two photos of the French countryside from the high-speed train which travels from Paris to London in about three hours. The train goes underneath the English Channel in the newly built Channel Tunnel or "Chunnel." The French have some of the world's best technology for their high-speed trains and the Chunnel train actually has to slow down when it reaches the English side. Because of the Channel Tunnel, there are also trains that run between London and Brussels, Belgium. See p. 58 in the textbook for a picture of the Waterloo, London station and the Eurostar trains which look much different from American trains.
LONDON, ENGLAND
This famous clock tower, Big Ben, is right next door to the Houses of Parliament in London. These buildings are all along the Thames River, see the map on p. 80. London functions as the capital of the United Kingdom, not just for England. The bridge below is Tower Bridge and is the last of the ornate bridges which span the Thames. Although not evident from the picture, Tower Bridge is fully functional for cars, busses, and trucks and also serves as a drawbridge to allow ships taller than barges to sail through.
The United Kingdon is infamous for driving on the left side of the road and traffic patterns are much different in London. Here is what driving on the left looks like--my father took this picture from the back of the taxi on the way to Heathrow to finish off a roll of film!
SWEDEN
Sweden in Scandinavia near the Arctic Circle is sometimes called the Land of the Midnight Sun. The days during the summers tend to be extremely long, but that means that daylight lasts only a couple of hours during the winters. These extremes in daylight hours are the highest closer to the Arctic Circle. I took this picture of a lake near Taby, a town near Stockholm, at about 10:30 p.m. during June. I took all these photos of Sweden with a disk camera years before I bought a 35mm. The quality of these photos are not that good because of the disk camera and I do not think disk cameras are manufactured anymore.
Sweden has a constitutional monarchy which means the head of state is a king, although the main political power really belongs to a prime minister. This grand estate, Drottningholm, is considered the summer residence of the royal family. There is a second winter residence in Stockholm.
This lake is next to Drottningholm. "Drottning" means "queen" while "holm" is "island" in Swedish. Although not quite on a true island completely surrounded by water, the royal palace does have water on two sides.
The capital city of Stockholm is built along a series of islands, or an archipelago. Stockholm is often called the Nordic Venice because of all the waterways and canals. Here is a veiw of the downtown business district of Stockholm taken from the top of the City Hall building, the center of the mayor and local government of Stockholm. At the bottom of the picture is a train going across a bridge, actually it is part of the subway system. Some of the subway trains stay underground and go under the canals, while this one goes over the waterway.
RUSSIA
CAUCASUS MOUNTAINS REGION
A view of the Caucasus Mountains from the northern side in the Karachaevo-Cherkesiia (Karachaeyevo-Cherkesiya) Autonomous Region. See the map on p. 126.
A cliff used for defense as an Alanian fortress over 1000 years ago. I climbed this in 1992 and I must have been crazy. Karachaevo-Cherkesiia Autonomous Region.
A view of the Zelenchuk River from the top of the Alanian cliff.
The Caucasus Mountains are in the background of this picture of an area of where the tree line meets the steppe. Steppe is a cold grassland with scrubby bushes and not many trees, usually higher in elevation. The dry grassy section in the foreground is where the steppe area begins.
Capitalism in the new Russia, 1992. I went to Russia in 1992 with a group of American archaeologists and anthropologists to meet with our Russian counterparts to share information and research. In this picture, ladies from the local village spotted our group and brought out handmade articles of clothing to sell. Guess which person is the American archaeologist from Southern Illinois University! By the way, the background of this photo is a great example of steppe.
Karbardino-Balkaria Autonomous Region, Russia.
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© Kay Shelton, 1 January 2007. Images may not be used without permission.