Created for the imperial museum in 1863, this gallery was decorated in red and gold (the French imperial colors) by the painter Alexandre Dominique Denuelle for the imperial museum.
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Created for the imperial museum in 1863, this gallery was decorated in red and gold (the French imperial colors) by the painter Alexandre Dominique Denuelle for the imperial museum.
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The Daru Gallery (Galerie Daru), which formed part of Napoleon III‘s “New Louvre,” was originally intended as a sculpture gallery for the annual Paris Salon.
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It now receives and displays Greek and Roman antiquities from the Borghese collections, notably the celebrated Borghese Gladiator which exemplifies increased focus on the human form after the 4th century BC., and the Borghese Vase, bought by Napoleon I from his brother-in-law Camille Borghese.
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It also houses large nineteenth-century French works by the Romantics Antoine-Jean Gros, Theodore Géricault, and Eugene Delacroix.
Like the one opposite, the former Mollien Gallery (currently the Michelangelo Gallery), the Daru Gallery is on the ground floor of the buildings built on the south side of the new buildings built for Napoleon III between 1854 and 1857.
Built for the exhibition of the Salon’s sculptures, these two galleries take the form of the Salle des Cariatides, one of the oldest rooms in the Louvre Palace.
The gallery, decorated between 1861 and 1862, is located between the entrance to the Denon Pavilion and gives access to the Daru Staircase (completed in 1930), dominated by the Winged Victory of Samothrace.
Louvre Museum: 75001 Paris, France. Tel: +33 1 40 20 50 50. Open daily, except Tuesdays and holidays, 9 AM- 6 PM (until 10 PM on Wednesday and Friday evenings).
The Louvre has three entrances: the main entrance at the pyramid, an entrance from the Carrousel du Louvre underground shopping mall, and an entrance at the Porte des Lions (near the western end of the Denon wing).
Admission is free, from October to March, on the first Sunday of every month. Still and video photography is permitted for private, noncommercial use only in the galleries housing the permanent collection. The use of flash or other means of artificial lighting is prohibited. Photography and filming are not permitted in the temporary exhibition galleries.
How To Get There: the Louvre can be reached via Metro lines 1 and 7, station Palais Royal – Musée du Louvre Métro or the Louvre-Rivoli stations. By bus, take No. 21, 24, 27, 39, 48, 68, 69, 72, 81, 95 as well as the touristic Paris l’Open Tour. By car, there is an underground parking reachable by Avenue du Général Lemonier, every day from 7 AM – 11 PM.
Our first stop, upon the museum’s opening, was the Painting Collection which has more than 7,500 works, from the 13th century to 1848. Nearly two-thirds are by French artists while more than 1,200 are Northern European. The French and Northern European works are in the Richelieu Wing and Cour Carrée while the Spanish and Italian paintings are on the first floor of the Denon Wing.
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The Italian paintings compose most of the remnants of Francis I and Louis XIV’s collections, others are unreturned artwork from the Napoleonic Era, and some were bought. The collection began with Francis I, who acquired works from Italian masters such as Raphael, Michelangelo and several works of Giambattista Pittoni .
Exemplifying the French School are the early Avignon Pietà of Enguerr and Quarton; the anonymous painting of King Jean le Bon (c.1360), possibly the oldest independent portrait in Western painting to survive from the post Classical era; Hyacinthe Rigaud‘s Louis XIV; Jacques-Louis David‘s The Coronation of Napoleon; and Eugène Delacroix‘s Liberty Leading the People.
The notable Italian holdings, particularly the Renaissance collection, include works by Andrea Mantegna and Giovanni Bellini‘s Calvarys, which reflect realism and detail “meant to depict the significant events of a greater spiritual world.” The High Renaissance collection includes works of Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio and, from 16th century Venice, Titian‘s Le Concert Champetre, The Entombment and The Crowning with Thorns.
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Some of the best known paintings of the museum have been digitized by the French Center for Research and Restoration of the Museums of France.
Louvre Museum: 75001 Paris, France. Tel: +33 1 40 20 50 50. Open daily, except Tuesdays and holidays, 9 AM- 6 PM (until 10 PM on Wednesday and Friday evenings).
The Louvre has three entrances: the main entrance at the pyramid, an entrance from the Carrousel du Louvre underground shopping mall, and an entrance at the Porte des Lions (near the western end of the Denon wing).
Admission is free, from October to March, on the first Sunday of every month. Still and video photography is permitted for private, noncommercial use only in the galleries housing the permanent collection.The use of flash or other means of artificial lighting is prohibited. Photography and filming are not permitted in the temporary exhibition galleries.
How To Get There: the Louvre can be reached via Metro lines 1 and 7, station Palais Royal – Musée du Louvre Métro or the Louvre-Rivoli stations. By bus, take No. 21, 24, 27, 39, 48, 68, 69, 72, 81, 95 as well as the touristic Paris l’Open Tour. By car, there is an underground parking reachable by Avenue du Général Lemonier, every day from 7 AM – 11 PM.
The Salon Carré (Square Salon), one of the most emblematic rooms in the Louvre Museum, was built by French Baroque architect Louis Le Vau at the east end of the Grand Gallery (Grande Galerie) after the fire of 1661. It links the Apollo Gallery with the Grand Gallery.
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Between 1667 and 1789, the French monarchy sponsored periodic exhibitions of works by members of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture (Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture) and, from 1725, the Salon Carré and nearby rooms in the Louvre were the setting for these exhibitions. The official French art exhibition in Paris took its name from the Salon Carré. In 1793, the Louvre’s first public museum opened here and, for many years, it housed exhibitions of contemporary art.
On April 2, 1810, Napoleon I and Marie-Louise of Austria were married before God in a ‘chapel’ created by architects Charles Percier and Pierre-Francois-Leonard Fontaine out of the Salon Carré. In order to reach this large space usually given over the exhibition of paintings, the wedding procession and cortege had to walk all the way from the Tuileries Palace and down a great part of the Grande Galerie.
An excerpt from Fontaine’s Journal stated that Vivant Denon, the director of the Louvre, had been opposed to removal of the very large paintings in that gallery in order to make way for the two-level tribunes which were to be built to accommodate the congregation. However, the emperor, on hearing of this intransigence, “with animosity, gave the order for the paintings to be removed, and as for any which could not be removed, they should be burned”!
The threat was effective and the Salon Carré was emptied of its masterpieces and the tribunes built. Furthermore, an altar was erected facing the entrance to the gallery, topped with a large cross and six chased vermeil candlesticks made by Odiot. The walls were draped with gold embroidered hangings.
From 1848 up until World War I, the Salon Carré was used to display the Louvre’s masterpieces. The gallery now displays Italian paintings from the 12th to 15th centuries and from various schools. This magnificent, Baroque skylit gallery has towering windows and a vaulted gilt ceiling engraved with the names of painters, by nation, from the Renaissance (Peter Paul Rubens, Raphael, etc.) and Bartolome Esteban Murillo to Nicolas Poussin.
Salon Carre: Room 708, First Floor, Denon Wing, Louvre, Paris 75001, France. Tel: +33 1 40 20 50 50. Open daily, except Tuesdays and holidays, 9 AM- 6 PM (until 10 PM on Wednesday and Friday evenings).
The Louvre has three entrances: the main entrance at the pyramid, an entrance from the Carrousel du Louvre underground shopping mall, and an entrance at the Porte des Lions (near the western end of the Denon wing).
Admission is free, from October to March, on the first Sunday of every month. Still and video photography is permitted for private, noncommercial use only in the galleries housing the permanent collection. The use of flash or other means of artificial lighting is prohibited. Photography and filming are not permitted in the temporary exhibition galleries.
How To Get There: the Louvre can be reached via Metro lines 1 and 7, station Palais Royal – Musée du Louvre Métro or the Louvre-Rivoli stations. By bus, take No. 21, 24, 27, 39, 48, 68, 69, 72, 81, 95 as well as the touristic Paris l’Open Tour. By car, there is an underground parking reachable by Avenue du Général Lemonier, every day from 7 AM – 11 PM.
The jaw-dropping Grand Gallery (Grande Galerie), built along the River Seine, is one of the most beautiful hallways and the most famous room of the Louvre.
This new piece of the palace was built from 1595 to 1610 by Henry IV, King of France (initially 460 m. long at the time, it was the longest edifice of its kind in the world), which was part of the Grand Dessein he saw completed.
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When he was a child, future King Louis XIII was playing and initiated to fox hunting there. It wasn’t completed until the reign of Louis XV, about 50 years later. During the 17th century, it was used for the “scrofula ceremony,” during which the Sun King, Louis XIV, laid his hand on the sick.
On November 8, 1793, in the midst of the Reign of Terror, the Musee Central des Artes was created and the Grande Galerie was officially opened.
During the reign of Louis XVI of France (1754-1793), this gallery was planned to be the location of the future royal “Museum.” Charles-Claude Flahaut de la Billaderie, comte d’Angiviller, helped build and plan the Grande Galerie and continued to acquire major works of art.
For many years, the area beneath the Grande Galerie served as artists’ studios and workshops. The engaged columns along the sides were added during the Empire by Charles Percier and Pierre-Francois-Leonard Fontaine, Napoleon I’s favorite architects.
Shortened by a third during the Second Empire to build the Flore Wing, it now houses collections of Italian painting dating back to around the 13th century (1250-1800).
The Great Gallery now houses one of the world most prestigious Italian Renaissance painting collection, from the Quattrocento (early Italian Renaissance) to High Renaissance and Mannerism with masterpieces of the most famous artists such as:
This was a gallery that we “saw” quickly in a rush on our way to the State Room (Salle des Etats) to see the Mona Lisa on her stand alone wall. Later, Jandy and I would explore the Grand Gallery in detail.
Divided into two by a central tribune, this immense hall originally connecting the Louvre to the Tuileries Palace and is more than a quarter of a mile long and one hundred feet wide.
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Louvre Museum: 75001 Paris, France. Tel: +33 1 40 20 50 50. Open daily, except Tuesdays and holidays, 9 AM- 6 PM (until 10 PM on Wednesday and Friday evenings).
The Louvre has three entrances: the main entrance at the pyramid, an entrance from the Carrousel du Louvre underground shopping mall, and an entrance at the Porte des Lions (near the western end of the Denon wing).
Admission is free, from October to March, on the first Sunday of every month. Still and video photography is permitted for private, noncommercial use only in the galleries housing the permanent collection. The use of flash or other means of artificial lighting is prohibited. Photography and filming are not permitted in the temporary exhibition galleries.
How To Get There: the Louvre can be reached via Metro lines 1 and 7, station Palais Royal – Musée du Louvre Métro or the Louvre-Rivoli stations. By bus, take No. 21, 24, 27, 39, 48, 68, 69, 72, 81, 95 as well as the touristic Paris l’Open Tour. By car, there is an underground parking reachable by Avenue du Général Lemonier, every day from 7 AM – 11 PM.
The State Room (Salle des États), the Louvre Museum‘s most visited room, is the customary home of Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci’s (the Louvre holds the largest collection of his work) Mona Lisa (also known as the Gioconda, it was painted between 1503 and 1506), the most famous portrait painting of the world which anybody that visits the Louvre Museum for the first time would want to see as if this is the only work that has to be seen.
Actually, some visitors only buy a Louvre ticket just to have a quick glance at the Mona Lisa and to take a selfie. If you enter Le Louvre by the Pyramide you will have to follow a long and slow way to reach the Mona Lisa in the 1st floor,Denon Wing because the stairs passing by the Samothrace Victory statue is usually crowded with visitors. The painting is kind of small, being only 77 cm. × 53 cm. (30 in. × 21 in.).
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Francesco del Giocondo, a nobleman, cloth merchant and politician, ordered the painting to thank his wife Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo for giving him two children. Leonardo used the sfumato painting technique, a slow process where the paint is applied in thin layers. After painting one layer on a thin white Lombardy poplar panel, Leonardo da Vinci waited for it to dry, repeating this procedure several times until the painting was completed.
That is the main reason why it took him three years to finish it. The painting, characterized by an unprecedented formal audacity, retains an aura of mystery that, generation after generation, still continues to fascinate the crowds of visitors that come to admire Mona Lisa’s famously enigmatic smile.
The painting only became widely famous in 1911 when, while working at the Louvre, Italian carpenter Vincenzo Peruggia stole the canvas, smuggling it out under his overalls. Mistakenly thinking that she had been looted by Napoleon (Leonardo actually had taken the painting with him to France, finishing it there in 1516, three years before his death, before it passed into the collections of King Francis I of France and his successors), like so many other Italian masterworks in the Louvre’s vast collection, he wanted to bring her back to her homeland.
Two years later, the painting resurfaced after Perugia tried to sell it to Giovanni Poggi, director of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence where he believed the painting belonged in. Giovanni warned the authorities about the situation. On January 4, 1914, it was returned to the museum.
The fragile, very rarely handled painting last traveled in 1974 to Russia and Japan, having crossed the Atlantic in 1964 to be shown in the United States despite the fierce protests of the Louvre’s curators. It was moved between 1992 and 1995 and again from 2001 to 2005 during another round of renovations. Daily, about 15,000 to 20,000 visitors seek out the painting.
The Salle des Etats, designed by Lefuel, was built to accommodate the major legislative sessions presided over by Napoleon III from 1859. In 1878, the hall became part of the museum. The original decorations have disappeared, but the recent refurbishment by Lorenzo Piqueras has provided a new setting for the Mona Lisa.
Opposite the Mona Lisa, we also saw The Wedding Feast at Cana. Painted by Paolo Veronese, this huge (6.77 x 9.94 m) painting depicts Jesus Christ’s first miracle, where he, surrounded by 130 feast-goers, turns water to wine. These 2 paintings steal the most of the attention, but they are not the only masterpiece in the room as the room is also home to a number of wonderful Venetian Renaissance paintings.
NOTE:
On July 17, 2019, the Mona Lisa was transferred to the adjoining Galerie Médicis (Room 801, Level 2, Richelieu wing) so that renovation work in the Salle des États can start.
A new secure and air-conditioned showcase has been installed (the Mona Lisa is kept at a constant temperature of 68 degrees Fahrenheit and a hydrometry of 50%).
The 500-year-old painting remained there, protected by bulletproof glass in its temporary home, until the work was completed in the beginning of October just before a blockbuster Leonardo da Vinci exhibition (marking the 500th anniversary of the artist’s death in Amboise) opened on October 24.
The exhibition features a grouping 162 works including loans by Queen Elizabeth II of Britain from the Royal Collection, the British Museum, the Hermitage of Saint Petersburg and the Vatican. However, the painting will remain in its spot and will not be part of the special exhibition.
The State Room: Room 711, First Floor, Denon Wing, Louvre, 75001 Paris, France. Tel: +33 1 40 20 50 50. Open daily, except Tuesdays and holidays, 9 AM- 6 PM (until 10 PM on Wednesday and Friday evenings).
The Louvre has three entrances: the main entrance at the pyramid, an entrance from the Carrousel du Louvre underground shopping mall, and an entrance at the Porte des Lions (near the western end of the Denon wing).
Admission is free, from October to March, on the first Sunday of every month. Still and video photography is permitted for private, noncommercial use only in the galleries housing the permanent collection. The use of flash or other means of artificial lighting is prohibited. Photography and filming are not permitted in the temporary exhibition galleries.
How To Get There: the Louvre can be reached via Metro lines 1 and 7, station Palais Royal – Musée du Louvre Métro or the Louvre-Rivoli stations. By bus, take No. 21, 24, 27, 39, 48, 68, 69, 72, 81, 95 as well as the touristic Paris l’Open Tour. By car, there is an underground parking reachable by Avenue du Général Lemonier, every day from 7 AM – 11 PM.
Come morning of our second day in Paris, after breakfast at our hotel, we walked towards the Gare de l’Est Metro entrance where we took the Metro to the Louvre Museum (or simply the Louvre), one of the world’s largest museums and a central landmark and historic monument of the city. It was already raining when we arrived at the Louvre. Located on the Right Bank of the Seine River, in the 1st arrondissement (ward), we arrived early in the main courtyard (Cour Napoléon).
However, lines were already starting to form near the 21.6 m. (71-ft.) high Louvre Pyramid (Pyramide du Louvre), a large pyramid of glass and metal designed by the late Chinese architect Ieoh .Ming (I.M.) Pei. Its square base has sides of 35 m. (115 ft) and consists of 603 rhombus-shaped and 70 triangular glass segments. Completed in 1989, it is surrounded by three smaller pyramids. The large pyramid serves as the main entrance.
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The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, originally built as a fortress in the late 12th century under Philip II. Remnants of the fortress are still visible in the crypt in the basement of the museum. Whether that spot was the first building is not known. It is possible that Philip modified an existing tower. The remains of the medieval fortress and moat have been excavated and preserved, and can be seen today on the underground level of the Sully Wing, on the way to the department of Egyptian antiquities.
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The building was altered frequently throughout the Middle Ages and was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace. In the 14th century, Charles V converted the building into a residence and, in 1546, Francis I renovated the site in French Renaissance style and acquired what would become the nucleus of the Louvre’s holdings (his acquisitions including Leonardo da Vinci‘s Mona Lisa).
In 1682, Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles as his residence and constructions slowed. However, the move permitted the Louvre to be used primarily as a place to display the royal collection, including, from 1692, a collection of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture. It was also used as a residence for artists.
In 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture which, in 1699, held the first of a series of salons. The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years. During the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a public museum to display the nation’s masterpieces and, on August 10, 1793 (the first anniversary of the monarchy’s demise), opened with an exhibition of 537 paintings and 184 objects of art, three quarters of which were derived from the royal collections, and the remainder from confiscated émigrés and Church property (biens nationaux).
On May 1796, the museum was closed due to structural deficiencies but was reopened on July 14, 1801, arranged chronologically and with new lighting and columns. Under Napoleon I, the collection was increased with many Spanish, Austrian, Dutch, Vatican (including Laocoön and His Sons and the Apollo Belvedere)and Italian (including the Horses of Saint Mark) works seized by his armies (returned to their original owners after Napoleon’s abdication) and the museum was renamed the Musée Napoléon in 1803. During the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X, the collection was further increased and, during the Second French Empire, the museum gained 20,000 pieces.
With an area of over 60,600 sq. m. (652,300 sq. ft.), the Louvre exhibits a collection of nearly 35,000 objects, from prehistory to the 21st century, divided among 8 curatorial departments – Egyptian Antiquities; Near Eastern Antiquities; Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities; Islamic Art; Sculpture; Decorative Arts; Paintings; Prints and Drawings. You can’t possibly see them all, so you have to navigate to see what you want to see in the world’s most visited museum (the Louvre received over 9.7 million visitors in 2012). Since the Third Republic, its holdings have grown steadily through donations and bequests.
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Louvre Museum: 75001 Paris, France. Tel: +33 1 40 20 50 50. Open daily, except Tuesdays and holidays, 9 AM- 6 PM (until 10 PM on Wednesday and Friday evenings).
The Louvre has three entrances: the main entrance at the pyramid, an entrance from the Carrousel du Louvre underground shopping mall, and an entrance at the Porte des Lions (near the western end of the Denon wing).
Admission is free, from October to March, on the first Sunday of every month. Still and video photography is permitted for private, noncommercial use only in the galleries housing the permanent collection.The use of flash or other means of artificial lighting is prohibited. Photography and filming are not permitted in the temporary exhibition galleries.
How To Get There: the Louvre can be reached via Metro lines 1 and 7, station Palais Royal – Musée du Louvre Métro or the Louvre-Rivoli stations. By bus, take No. 21, 24, 27, 39, 48, 68, 69, 72, 81, 95 as well as the touristic Paris l’Open Tour. By car, there is an underground parking reachable by Avenue du Général Lemonier, every day from 7 AM – 11 PM.
Sheridan Beach Resort & Spa Media Tour
Upon checking in and having lunch at the Sheridan Beach Resort & Spa, Lester, Charmie, Joy and I walked along Sabang Beach towards the wharf for the first of our resort-sponsored activities – a visit to the world-renowned Puerto Princesa Underground River (PPUR).
This beautiful 5,753-hectare national park and terrestrial reserve, considered as one of the most important biodiversity conservation areas in the country, is also is one of the few places where a full mountain to sea ecosystem still exists. Around the park are the ancestral land domains of at least two indigenous cultural communities (Tagbanuas and Bataks).
A major tourist destination in the country, this national park is ideal is a spelunker’s paradise. This underground section of the Cabayugan River, at 8.2 kms. (5.1 mi.), is reputedly the world’s longest navigable underground river. It is also ideal for trekking, swimming, birdwatching and hiking deep in the forest.
The area was declared as a national park on March 26, 1971 by virtue of Presidential Proclamation No. 835 to protect the unique environmental and cultural features of the area. In the late 1980s, the late Jacques Cousteau penetrated up to 3 kms. into the cave system. In 1983-86, its area was increased from 3,901 hectares to its present 5,753 hectares (includes an adjacent area of good forest around Cleopatra’s Needle).
In 1986, its jurisdiction was returned to the DENR Southern Luzon Regional Office. In 1991, its area was expanded to 22,202 hectares. That same year, it won the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Gold Award for Environment. In 1994, management of the park was turned over to the Puerto Princesa city government. It is also partially supported by the World Wide Fund for Nature.
This national park was declared a natural World Heritage Site by UNESCO on December 4, 1999 due to its outstanding universal value and, on January 28, 2012, was voted by the global community as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, for being the longest navigable subterranean river.
The park, managed by the Puerto Princesa City government through a Protected Area Management Board, is the first such national park devolved and successfully managed by a local government unit. Its mission is to “protect the underground river in its natural state.”
Lying on the foot of the 1,028-m. high Mt. St. Paul (Sabang’s highest point), the park is located in Sitio. Sabang, Brgy. Cabayugan, 81 kms. west of Puerto Princesa City and is bounded on the north by St. Paul’s Bay and on the south by the Babuyan River. The dome-shaped Mt. St. Paul was named as such after London’s St. Paul Cathedral in 1850 by British sailors of the HMS Royalist.
The park’s topography ranges from flat terrain to rolling hinterlands, from hills to rocky mountains of marble and limestone, and from rocky shores to white sand beaches. It is also composed of lush tropical old growth forest, thinly vegetated karst limestone cliffs (one-third of the park’s area) and thick jungle cover. The park also has 290 hectares of marine area encompassing shoreline and offshore corals reefs.
The park protects a dense, primary or old growth tropical rainforest which covers two-thirds of the park. Its forest, representing 8 types of forest formations, consists of at least 285 tree species and is dominated by dipterocarps. Vegetation types include lowland forest (often with a 35-m. canopy), coastal and karst forest. Aside from these, there are also 800 identified plant species. The underground river supports plant species such as Dracontemelon dao, Pometia primata and Diospyrus sp.
The forest is home to at least 30 species of mammals, 265 bird species, 19 species of reptiles including 2-m. long monitor lizards or bayawak (Varanus salvator) plus 10 species of amphibians. The underground river is inhabited by countless cave-roosting bats plus the endemic and threatened Palawan flying fox (Acerodon leucotis) and the restricted-range Palawan swiftlet (Collocalia palawensis).
Ever since being identified as one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature, the PPUR management has organized booking to ensure that there would be no overcrowding. Transport from mainland to the entrance to the PPUR is well-organized and they now have environmental charges for the upkeep of the place.
A “No Permit, no entry” policy is also strictly implemented in the park and, before our going to the park, permits were formally secured from the St. Paul Subterranean River and National Park Office. Once at the port of Sabang, we all waited some time for our turn to board our assigned motorized outrigger boats.
The 20-min. boat ride from the port to a beach on the northwest coast of the city, on the far side of the bay, was uneventful and smooth all the way. During the trip, we passed many beautiful limestone cliffs along the way.
Upon arrival at the beach, we all registered our names at the PPUR office and then made a short hike, under huge shady indigenous trees, to the edge of a picturesque clear, turquoise blue lagoon framed by ancient trees growing right to the water’s edge. On the other side of the lagoon was Pining Cave, the entrance to the underground river. We again waited our turn to board small 8-seater outriggers boats that would transport us into the cave.
Soon our turn arrived and we were assigned an English-speaking guide plus an oarsman. Life vests and helmets were provided. Lester and I were seated at the prow of the boat and I was assigned a spotlight on our bow to somehow light up an incredible world carved out of rock.
Throughout the tour, I was directed by the guide on where to point it. With only this spotlight as light source, my digital camera had a hard time focusing in the dark cave. We were paddled slowly into the deeply fissured, yawning opening of the huge cave below the vertical limestone cliff. As we entered, vertical slabs of limestone hung over us like giant teeth and edible-nest swiftlets would swoop in over our heads.
The river is navigable up to about 4.3 kms. (a little over half its length) , with brackish waters underneath going as deep as 30 ft., but a typical 45-min. river cruise covers only 1.5 kms. of the navigable stretch. We were to pass through a series of caves with cathedral chambers, wide hallways studded with stalactites, stalagmites and other interesting geologic formations.
As we paddled deeper into the darkness, we reached, at the 0.6-km. mark, the high, vaulted 60 ft. high “Cathedral,” the underground river’s first main attraction. Everywhere I swung the spotlight, there were bats hanging like fruit from the cave roof. Their droppings around the walls of the cave gave out a distinct odor.
Here, our very knowledgeable park guide showed us spectacular limestone formations with a kind of orange toffee color. The stalactites and stalagmites inside are associated with so many things and a number were aptly named the “Holy Family” (a group of figures like a Nativity scene), the “Angel,” the “Virgin Mary” and the “Candle” (a giant bulbous stalagmite like a melting candle). The guide would occasionally inject his lecture describing the elements of this natural wonder with some really funny anecdotes and jokes, their creative flair making the experience even more entertaining.
Further on, we passed the “fruit and vegetable” section, with stalagmites on the walls that look like giant mushrooms, garlic, an upside-down corn, a clump of cacao beans, carrots and pumpkins, all as big as the average human being. Our guide also pointed to us what was supposed to be strip of bacon, half the face of Jesus Christ and a woman with shapely legs that he aptly called Sharon Stone.
Further ahead, at the 1-km. mark, is a marvelous, 400-m. long and straight gallery called “God’s Highway.” Upon reaching a breathtakingly high dome with a 65 m. (213 ft.) vertical clearance (the cave’s highest point) above river level, our boat turned around. Not covered by our route was the “Glittering Stone,” at the 3.8-km. mark, and the “Rockpile,” at the 4.3-km. mark.
The grandeur of the unique formations, small and large chambers, stalactites and stalagmites of the underground river that we saw during our interesting and very enjoyable river boat ride, all uniquely designed by nature, makes it truly deserving as one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature. A truly awesome natural spectacle.
Puerto Princesa Underground River (PPUR) Office: Badjao Inn, 350 Rizal Ave., Brgy. Bancao-Bancao, Puerto Princesa City 5300, Palawan. Tel: +63(48)723-0904 (Sabang). Fax: +63(48)434-2509. E-mail: info@puerto-undergroundriver.com and undergroundriver_ppsrnp@yahoo.com. Website: www.puerto-undergroundriver.com.
Puerto Princesa Underground River (PPUR) Booking Office: City Coliseum, Peneyra Rd., Puerto Princesa City 5300, Palawan. Open Mondays to Fridays, 8AM to 4PM with no lunch break, and Saturdays and Sundays, 8AM-12 noon and 1-5PM.
Steps in applying for a permit:
General Entrance Fees to the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park
Cave Entrance fees -includes payment for the paddle boat and use of protective gear (helmets, life vests):
Sheridan Beach Resort & Spa: Sabang Beach, Sitio Sabang, Brgy. Cabayugan. Puerto Princesa City, Palawan. Palawan Sales Office: Jeco Bldg., Rizal Ave. Extn., Puerto Princesa City. Tel (+63 48) 434 1448 to 49 and 723 7278. Mobile Numbers (+63 917) 308-3245 and (+ 63 917) 308-3245. Cebu Sales Office: Sheridan Bldg., Ouano Ave., NRA, Mandaue City. Tel: (+63 32) 236-1001. Fax: (+63 32) 345-1000. Mobile number: (+63 917) 306-6984. Manila Sales Office: tel: (+63 2) 939-8888. Mobile number: (+63 917) 726-5224. E-mail: reservations@sheridanbeachresort.com. Website:www.sheridanbeachresort.com.
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Ta Prohm (pronunciation: prasat taprohm), an atmospheric temple ruin of towers, closed courtyards and narrow corridors built in the Bayon style, is located approximately 1 km. east of Angkor Thom, on the southern edge of the East Baray.
One of the most visited complexes in Cambodia’s Angkor region, Ta Prohm, nicknamed the “Jungle Temple,” was high on our hit list of temples to visit.
Check out “Bayon Temple”
Here’s a timeline of the temple’s history:
Here are some interesting trivia regarding the temple:
Our access around the temple was complicated and circuitous, necessitated by the temple’s partially collapsed state as well as the large number of other buildings dotting the site (some of which represent later additions).
To protect the monument from further damages due to the large tourist inflow, wooden walkways, platforms and roped railings have been put in place around the site.
Seemingly looking very much the way most of the monuments of Angkor appeared when European explorers first stumbled upon them, it is actually manicured, with the jungle pegged back and only the largest trees left in place.
Many of the corridors were impassable, clogged with jumbled piles of delicately carved stone blocks dislodged by the vast roots of huge trees.
The central sanctuary is surrounded by 5 rectangular enclosing walls and the temple proper is set back to the west along an elongated east-west axis.
The 1,000 by 650 m. outer wall, the largest of a series of gradually smaller enclosures, encloses an area of 650,000 sq. m. that, at one time, would have been the site of a substantial but now largely forested town.
Each of the temple’s cardinal points had entrance gopuras but, today, access is only possible from the east and west. Some of its 13th century face towers have now collapsed.
At one time, the temple had 2 moats, one found inside and another outside the fourth enclosure.
The three inner enclosures of the temple proper are galleried and the first enclosure’s corner towers form a quincunx with the tower of the central sanctuary.
This buildings around the site include libraries in the southeast corners of the first and third enclosures; satellite temples on the north and south sides of the third enclosure; the Hall of Dancers (its 48 pillars, supporting its corbelled roof, has exquisite carvings of dancing apsaras, elephants, men astride horses, floral motifs, etc.) between the third and fourth eastern gopuras; and a House of Fire (or Dharmasala), a resthouse for pilgrims located east of the fourth eastern gopura.
Compared to Angkor Wat or Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm does not have many narrative bas-reliefs, probably because much of the temple’s original Buddhist narrative artwork has been destroyed, following the death of Jayavarman VII, by Hindu iconoclasts.
However, there are still stone reliefs of devatas (minor female deities), meditating monks or ascetics, and dvarapalas (temple guardians) plus some depictions of scenes from Buddhist mythology including one badly eroded bas-relief illustrating the “Great Departure” of Siddhartha, the future Buddha, from his father’s palace.
The Crocodile Tree, the nickname of the most popular of the many strangulating root formations, is located on the inside of the easternmost gopura (entrance pavilion) of the central enclosure.
The so-called “Tomb Raider Tree,” another of the most famous spots in Ta Prohm, was where Angelina Jolie’s Lara Croft picked up a sprig of jasmine flower and then the sands remarkably parted as she fell through the earth into the hidden vault of the temple (or Pinewood Studios).
Our visit to the venerable Ta Prohm temple ruins, with its bulging walls carpeted with lichen, moss and creeping plants; shrubs sprouting from the roofs of monumental porches; and ancient towering trees with leaves filtering the sunlight and casting a greenish pall over the whole scene, was a unique, other-worldly experience.
Ta Prohm: Angkor, Siem Reap Province, Cambodia. Visit the temple early in the day when it is at its most impressive. If you want to explore the maze-like corridors and iconic tree roots, allow as much as two hours to visit. To protect both temple and visitor, it is now prohibited to climb onto the damaged galleries as these precariously balanced stones, which may weigh a ton or more, could do some serious damage if they came down.
The small and elegant, single-towered Thommanon Temple, one of a pair of Hindu temples built during the reign of Suryavarman II (1113–1150), is located east of the Gate of Victory of Angkor Thom, north and direct opposite of Chau Say Tevoda, around 100m away from the ancient bridge called Spean Thma and 500 m. east of the Victory Gate (just a few minutes off Victory Way just before you reach the Siem Reap River) on the way to Ta Keo. The temple, dedicated to Shiva and Vishnu, is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site (inscribed by UNESCO in 1992 titled Angkor).
Check out “Chau Say Tevoda“
Like the other temples in the region, it’s believed that Thommanon was deserted at some point in the 16th century. In the 1960s, a full and extensive restoration, funded by the École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO), was undertaken by French archaeologists who restored the temple and added concrete ceilings.
Thommanon has an east-facing central sanctuary, crowned by a tower (prasat), which can be accessed, from the east, via an entrance building (gopura), and a smaller antechamber (mandapa). The tower’s architectural style is similar to that of the Angkor Wat temple and the nearby Chau Say Tevoda. However, though similar in design, Thommanon is better preserved than Chau Say Tevoda, attributed to the fact that its superstructure does not have stone-enclosed wood beams.
The temple’s adoption of sandstone (which provides a distinct contrast to the surrounding jungle) as the medium for its very well preserved carvings has made it more advanced, in its architectural design, vis-à-vis other mostly wood-based temples in its vicinity. All of its doorways include carved pediments.
However, only the entry gates on the east and the west and the central tower of the main temple are all that remains. The compound walls around the temple have all but disappeared.
Thommanon and Chau Say Thavoda were inferred to have been interlinked to the central tower under one large compound with large gates. The independent library building was separated from the main temple.
As in other Khmer temples, images of devatas, the distinctive carvings of divine female figures which include flower crowns, Cambodian skirts (sampots), necklaces, armbands, belts and ankle bands, are the centre of attraction in Thommanon and are seen in profusion here. The mudras displayed are complex.
The devatas very distinctively grip the flower in a position called by one Angkor researcher as the devata mudra, holding the ring and middle fingers against the thumb, while the index and small finger are extended. This position is also prominent at Angkor Wat. Some believe that the devatas, indicate that they were built during the reign of Jayavarman VI (1080–1113 AD), some time at the end of the 11th century. However, after studying the devatas in Thommanon, there is greater agreement among scholars that it was built by Suryavarman II around the time of Angkor Wat and Beng Mealea from 1113 to 1150 AD.
Check out “Angkor Wat“