Steven Dutch, Professor Emeritus, Natural and Applied Sciences,
Universityof Wisconsin - Green Bay
Left and below: looking down the valley from the highway from Avila. In the picture at right, below, the Escorial peeps over base of the the hill on the right. | |
Philip II, who decreed the building of the Escorial, had an overlook constructed so he could observe the progress of construction. | |
Puzzling boulder, since this area was never glaciated. Probably weathered in place from an exfoliation sheet. | |
Left and below: Steps to the observation platform. | |
Left: Stone seats. | |
Left: Celestial globe Below: terrestrial globe from the 1600's. |
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Left and below, a giant armillary sphere. The serrated circles make
it look like a formidable weapon, but they're actually degree markings.
An armillary sphere was used for solving navigation and astronomical
problems as well as illustrating the motions of the heavens. Still, I bet some fingers got cut using this thing. |
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Monument to the Eternal Tourist. | |
The basilica from the town of San Lorenzo |
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Created 22 June 2007, Last Update 04 June 2020