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Aoraki/Mount Cook, New Zealand

December 24th, 2006 / / Links: Google Earth, Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, Virtual Earth / Nearest places

Aoraki/Mount Cook is the highest mountain in New Zealand, a peak in the Southern Alps range that runs the length of the West Coast of the South Island. A popular tourist destination, it is also a favourite challenge for mountain climbers. The Tasman Glacier and Hooker Glacier flow down its slopes.

Following the settlement between Kāi Tahu and the Crown in 1998, the name of the mountain was officially changed from Mount Cook to Aoraki/Mount Cook to incorporate its original name, Aoraki. As part of the settlement, a number of South Island placenames were appended with their Māori name. Signifying the importance of Aoraki/Mount Cook, it is the only one of these names where the Māori name precedes the English. In the terms of the settlement, the Crown also agreed to return title to Aoraki/Mount Cook to Kāi Tahu, who would then formally gift it back to the nation.

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Mount Kosciuszko, Australia

December 24th, 2006 / / Links: Google Earth, Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, Virtual Earth / Nearest places

Mount Kosciuszko, located in the Snowy Mountains, in Kosciuszko National Park, is the highest mountain in mainland Australia. It was named by the Polish explorer Count Paul Strzelecki in 1840 in honour of the Polish-Lithuanian national hero General Tadeusz Kościuszko.

It was formerly spelled "Mount Kosciusko", an anglicisation; but the version "Mount Kosciuszko" was officially adopted in 1997 by the Geographical Names Board of NSW. It should also be noted that the common Australian pronunciation of Kosciuszko, "kozzy-osko" or ˈkɔziˌɔskoʊ (IPA), is quite different from the pronunciation in Polish, "kosh-CHOOSH-ko" or ˈkoɕˈtɕuʃko.

Various measurements of the peak originally called by that name showed it to be slightly lower than its neighbour, Mount Townsend, and the names were thereupon transposed by the New South Wales Lands Department, so that Mount Kosciusko still remains the highest peak of Australia, and Mount Townsend ranks as second . The picture by Eugene von Guerard hanging in the National Gallery of Australia titled "Northeast view from the northern top of Mount Kosciusko" is actually from Mt Townsend.

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Gran Hotel Bali, Benidom, Spain

December 24th, 2006 / / Links: Google Earth, Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, Virtual Earth / Nearest places

Gran Hotel Bali is a 4-star hotel located in Benidorm, province of Alicante, Spain. It is, with 186 meters high (210 meters taking into account the mast), the highest building in Spain, the highest hotel in Europe and one of the highest skyscrapers in Europe.

The hotel, which is actually a set of four buildings, was designed by the architect Antonio Escario and has 776 rooms (with capacity for 1,200 guests), 18 lifts, gardens and swimming pools. It is located very close to the Mediterranean Sea (400 meters), and, when the day is clear, the island of Ibiza can be seen from its highest terraces.

[Source: Wikipedia]

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30 St Mary Axe, London, England

December 24th, 2006 / / Links: Google Earth, Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, Virtual Earth / Nearest places

30 St Mary Axe is a building in London's main financial district, the City of London. It is informally known as "The Gherkin", and sometimes as The Swiss Re Tower, Swiss Re Building, Swiss Re Centre, or just Swiss Re, after its owner and principal occupier. It is 590 ft (180 m) tall, making it the 2nd tallest building in the City of London, after Tower 42, and the 6th tallest in London as a whole. The building is famous for its daring architecture by Pritzker Prize winner Sir Norman Foster and ex-partner Ken Shuttleworth. It was constructed by Skanska between 2001 and 2004.

The building sits on the former site of the Baltic Exchange building, the headquarters of a global marketplace for ship sales and shipping information. On 10 April 1992 the Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated a bomb close to the Exchange. It severely damaged the historic Exchange building and neighbouring structures.

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Tower 42, London, England

December 24th, 2006 / / Links: Google Earth, Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, Virtual Earth / Nearest places

Tower 42 is the tallest skyscraper in the City of London and the fifth tallest in London as a whole. It was originally built for the National Westminster Bank, hence its older name, the NatWest Tower. Seen from above,the Tower closely resembles the NatWest logo (three chevrons in a hexagonal arrangement). The tower, designed by Richard Seifert, is located at 25 Old Broad Street. It was built between 1971 and 1979, and opened in 1980, costing a total of £72 million.

It is 600 ft (183 m) high, which made it the tallest building in the UK until the topping-out of One Canada Square in the Docklands in 1990.

Its status as the first skyscraper in the City was a coup for the NatWest, but was extremely controversial at the time, as it was a major departure from the previous restrictions on tall buildings in London. The building is constructed around a huge concrete core from which the floors are cantilevered, giving it great strength but significantly limiting the amount of office space available. On opening, this was not a consideration — but following the Big Bang in the City, trading in banks changed and the tower became obsolete thanks to the lack of large trading floors. The cantilever is constructed to take advantage of the air rights granted to it and the neighbouring site whilst respecting the banking hall on that adjacent site, as only one building was allowed to be developed. For a time it was the tallest cantilever in the world.

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Tour Total (Tour TotalFinaElf), Paris, France

December 24th, 2006 / / Links: Google Earth, Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, Virtual Earth / Nearest places

Tour Total (previously known as Tour Elf from 1985 to 1999, and Tour TotalFinaElf from 1999 to 2003) is an office skyscraper located in La Défense, Courbevoie the high-rise business district west of and adjacent to the city of Paris, France.

Completed and opened in 1985, it is the tallest skyscraper in La Défense and the second-tallest skyscraper in Paris after the Tour Montparnasse. Tour Total is 190 m (623 ft) tall; a 3 meters (9 ft) long antenna is located on its roof which is 187 m (614 ft) above the ground. The site on which the Tour Total was built was initially reserved for a skyscraper that would have been the twin tower of Tour Areva, but the oil shock of 1974 forced the investors to cancel their project.

Tour Total is one of La Défense's third generation of skyscrapers. Architects took into account the flaws in towers of previous generations (such as Tour Areva, Tour Gan, Tour AXA). For instance, the Tour Total is a lot more efficient in terms of energy consumption than previous La Défense skyscrapers.

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The Warsaw Trade Tower, Warsaw, Poland

December 24th, 2006 / / Links: Google Earth, Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, Virtual Earth / Nearest places

The Warsaw Trade Tower is the second tallest building in Poland and is Europe's 8th tallest building. It has a total of 43 office floors and stands at a height of 208 meters (682 feet).

Construction was completed in 1999. The building has one of Europe's fastest elevators travelling at a speed of 7 meters per second. The Warsaw Trade Tower holds the record for the highest occupied floor in Poland; even though Warsaw's Palace of Culture and Science is taller than the Warsaw Trade Tower it has fewer occupied floors.

[Source: Wikipedia]

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One Canada Square, London, England

December 21st, 2006 / / Links: Google Earth, Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, Virtual Earth / Nearest places

One Canada Square, a skyscraper in London, England is the tallest habitable building in the United Kingdom, at 235 metres (771 ft) and 50 stories (reduced from original plans for 60). Designed by the Argentine architect César Pelli, construction was completed in 1991. Identifiable from a great distance as an obelisk-shaped tower with a flashing light on top, this building is a monument to 1980s-style capitalism. In 1990, during construction, it surpassed the United Kingdom's previous tallest building, Tower 42 (183 m; 600 ft).

The building now has two siblings that have sprung up alongside, which are not quite as tall (at 200 metres each; the pyramid provides the height advantage): HSBC Tower (8-16 Canada Square) and Citigroup Centre (25 Canada Square).

The building is remarkably similar in design to Three World Financial Center, a sister tower constructed in New York by the same developers and architects shortly before work started at Canary Wharf. The New York building is faced with stone while One Canada Square is faced with stainless steel panels.

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