Opus

Encyclopædia of the sublime

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Nemo 33

Nemo 33 is the deepest swimming pool in the world. Its maximum depth is 35 meters. It contains 2,500,000 liters of non-chlorinated, highly filtered spring water maintained at 30 °C and holds several simulated underwater caves at the 10 m depth level. There are numerous underwater windows that allow outside visitors to look into the pools at various depths. The complex was designed by Belgian diving expert John Beernaerts as a multi-purpose diving instruction, recreational, and film production facility.

Rubjerg Knude Lighthouse

The lighthouse tower is 23 metres high, and, when the lighthouse was built, it was 200 metres inland; and there were no large dunes around it.  With time the sea moved in closer, and, simultaneously, the wind blew large amounts of sand up from the cliff.  The sand piled up in front of and around the lighthouse.  It filled the well and ruined the kitchen gardens. To suppress the sand pine grates were set in and lyme grass and helmet was planted in the dune.  The only result was that the dune just grew larger.  The more that was planted, the more the dune grew.  At last the sand was so high that at times it was impossible to see the light from the sea.  On August 1. 1968 the struggle was given up and the lighthouse was lit for the last time.

Granite Mountain Records Vault

The Granite Mountain Records Vault is a large archive and vault owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints excavated 600 feet into the north side of Little Cottonwood Canyon. The Granite Mountain facilities feature a dry, environment-controlled facility used for long-term record storage, as well as administrative offices, shipping and receiving docks, a processing facility and restoration laboratory for microfilm. Records stored include genealogical information contained in over 2.4 million rolls of microfilm and 1 million microfiche. This equals about 3 billion pages of family history records. The vault's library of microfilm increases by up to 40,000 rolls per year. Since 1999, the church has been digitizing the genealogical microfilms stored in the vault. The church makes the records publicly available through its Family History Centers, as well as online at its FamilySearch website.

Charles Ribart

In 1758, Charles Ribart planned an addition to the Champs-Élysées in Paris, to be constructed where the Arc de Triomphe now stands. It consisted of three levels, to be built in the shape of an elephant, with entry via a spiral staircase in the underbelly. The building was to have a form of air conditioning, and furniture that folded into the walls. A drainage system was to be incorporated into the elephant's trunk. The French Government, however, was not amused and turned him down.

Axel Munthe

Axel Munthe was a true Renaissance man, a scientist, and doctor as well as a poet who was a friend of Henry James, Somerset Maugham, and others. Munthe first came to Capri in 1885. He built his villa on the ruins of an ancient Chapel dedicated to San Michele, following a series of sketches made on a wall. The result was a building articulated on various levels: the study is on the first floor, the loggia crosses pergolas and columns to reach a circular viewpoint which looks out across the Bay of Naples. In Villa San Michele a number of ancient artifacts are displayed - objects found by Munthe in Capri, Anacapri and elsewhere, some of which donated by friends. There are fragments of sarcophaguses, busts, Roman paving, marble and columns can be seen. In the garden there is a Greek tomb and a granite Sphinx which gazes out over the whole Island of Capri.