Iranian artists have created the world's largest sand carpet from the colorful sand found on the country's southern island of Hormuz.



Some 25 visual artists used 70 types of colorful sand to create the 'Persian Gulf' sand carpet, which is on display from Dec. 9 to 17, 2008.



The 12000-square-meter carpet which is unique in magnitude, pattern and color is named after the beautiful "Persian Gulf". The other World's large sand carpet was a 900-square-meter one created on the Canary Islands in the North Atlantic Ocean.









Beautiful.

Images courtesy of Fars News Agency and ISNA.
News source: Payvad
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At the 3DParse you can find some beautiful images and movie clips of 3D reconstructed Persepolis done by Mr. Meysam Keshavarz. He's really done a magnificent job and deserves a thumb up or two ;-)

These photos are published by IRNA and their original size is 800 x ~600

started the Beijing Summer Olympics. The opening ceremony was magnificent and beautiful (I watched it on a satellite channel as it was heavily censored on our Islamic TV >:-(

The following images are collected from different news sites or forums but their credits go to Getty Images and AP.

On 12 Tir 1367 (3 July 1988), Iran Air flight 655 (IR655) was shot down enroute to Dubai over the Strait of Hormuz, Persian Gulf by the USS-Vincennes simply (as they reasoned) mistaking that Airbus A300B2-203 aircraft (reg# EP-IBU) as a hostile fighter, killing all 290 people onboard. This happened towards the end of Iran-Iraq war and sure these innocent people paid the price of that stupid 8 year war as it was finally ended on 27 Tir 1367 (18 July 1988), just 15 days after the shooting down of IR655.

20 years later on the 15th Environmental Art Festival held at the Persian Gulf and as a remembrance of the above mentioned tragic event, the Iranian environmental artists decided to both pay their tribute to the killed people and seek peace in the Persian Gulf region the artistic way. SO they chose a place on the southern coastline almost next to the spot where IR655 was shot down and crashed,

draw the outline of an aircraft on the sand, placed pebbles and stones on the drawn plane and created the flight number IR 655 next to it as well, poured good amount of the powdered red sands of Hormuz on it and then waited for the high tide.


Soon as the high water occurred, the waves began to wash the cost and therefore vanish the drawn aircraft. So what was the artistic point or rather use of taking all the trouble of creating such huge aircraft on the sands to have it destroyed by the forcing waves? Well, the answer lies in the red sands poured on the the stones. Every time a wave crashed against the coast, not only was it returned to the gulf with the pebbles but also with the powdered red sands as well turning the blue water of Persian Gulf bloody red reminding one of the tragic death of the passengers of the shot down Iran Air aircraft.

At the end, the only thing remained was IR 655 to indicated that its memory lasts forever.

Then the artists put messages about the incident and a poem on peace written in both Persian and English in the bottles which were collected from around the beach and throw them into the Persian Gulf. The chance is somebody somewhere would collect it, read it and think about the peace and a world with out war.

Although this is an old Chupa Chups ad seen by everybody, I still like it ^_^

Bentō (弁当 or べんとう, Bentō) is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cookedvegetables as a side dish though it can be very elaborately arranged. Contests are often held where homemakers can compete for the most aesthetically pleasing arrangements. The food is often decorated to look like people, animals, or characters and items such as flowers and plants. This style of elaborate bento is called Kyaraben. [wikipedia].

I wonder how can one eat these masterpieces as they are not mere food, but real works of art :-o