Hadrian’s Wall, a Roman-era fortification spanning the width of northern England, was lit up from end to end by volunteers carrying flaming torches Saturday.
As night fell, 500 gas flames were lit at 250m intervals for 135km from Wallsend in northeast England to Bowness-on-Solway in the northwest.
This created a coast-to-coast line of light along the route of a path which runs next to the wall.
Hadrian’s Wall was built in 122 AD on the orders of the Roman emperor Hadrian to mark his empire’s northern frontier. It is the largest monument from the ancient era in northern Europe and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
While some sections of the wall have seen better days, there are many places where the original brickwork is still fully intact.
The torch-lighting event marked British Tourism Week and the 1,600th anniversary of the Roman departure from Britain in 410 AD.
“When you see you the lights here, it’s easy to imagine what it must have been like to be stationed here up on the wall,” said Linda Tuttiett, chief executive of Hadrian’s Wall Heritage, which looks after the wall and organized the event.
(AFP WITH STAFF WRITER)
志工們上週六帶著火炬,從起點到終點照亮橫跨英國北部、於羅馬時代建造的防禦工事「哈德良城牆」。
當夜晚降臨,志工們點燃了五百支火炬,每支火炬各間隔兩百五十公尺,在全長一百三十五公里的哈德良城牆上一字排開,從英國東北部的沃爾森延伸到西北部的博尼斯。
這項創舉以燈火沿著城牆,打造出了連貫英國東西兩岸的閃亮大道。
羅馬皇帝哈德良西元一二二年時下令建造該城牆,作為其帝國北部的邊界。它是歐洲北部最大的古代歷史遺跡,也被聯合國教科文組織評定為世界文化遺產。
該城牆某些區段的風貌已不復以往,但大部分的區段,原始磚造建築體至今仍完整無缺。
點燃火炬的活動是為了宣傳英國觀光週,並紀念羅馬人在西元四一0年撤離英國的一千六百週年紀念日。
「哈德良城牆公司」執行長琳達•塔堤耶說︰「當你在這裡目睹這些火炬,便很容易想像當年軍隊駐紮的情景。」她的公司負責維護該城牆並籌辦此活動。(法新社╱翻譯:張愛弟)
Chinese startup DeepSeek’s launch of its latest AI models, which it says are on a par or better than industry-leading models in the US at a fraction of the cost, is threatening to upset the technology world order. The company has attracted attention in global AI circles after writing in a paper last month that the training of DeepSeek-V3 required less than US$6 million worth of computing power from Nvidia H800 chips. DeepSeek’s AI Assistant, powered by DeepSeek-V3, has overtaken rival ChatGPT to become the top-rated free application available on Apple’s App Store in the US. This has raised doubts about the reasoning
Recently, the Iraq parliament’s preliminary approval of a controversial proposal to drastically lower the legal marriage age for girls from 18 to nine has sparked widespread concern. This move has drawn strong reactions both domestically and internationally, as many worry it will exacerbate child marriage issues and severely infringe upon women’s rights. At the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1994, Iraq explicitly prohibited the legalization of child marriage. Currently, the legal marriage age for both men and women is 18, although women can marry at 15 with a guardian’s consent. The newly proposed amendment to the Personal
A: Any plans for Valentine’s Day tomorrow? B: I’ll go to karaoke with a group of fans to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the late pop diva Whitney Houston’s debut. A: Sounds like fun. B: She released her eponymous album “Whitney Houston” on Feb. 14, 1985, launching a glorious career that spanned over four decades. A: Can I join you for karaoke? A: 明天情人節你要幹嘛? B: 我要和一群歌迷去KTV,慶祝流行天后惠妮休斯頓出道40週年! A: 哇好像很好玩。 B: 她在1985年2月14日發行同名專輯《惠妮休斯頓》,並開啟了輝煌的40年演藝生涯。 A: 我能跟你一起去KTV嗎? (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
野薑花是古巴國花,在古巴叫mariposa,意思是蝴蝶花。野薑花並非古巴原產,古巴卻對它情有獨鍾,獨立後選為國花,是有原因的。19世紀古巴對抗西班牙殖民的獨立戰爭中,往往透過女性身上或髮髻上插著野薑花,在花序的交錯的苞片縫隙裡夾藏字條,幫助革命分子傳遞作戰情報。 The white ginger lily (Hedychium coronarium) is the national flower of Cuba, where it is known as mariposa (literally “butterfly”) due to its shape. Women used to adorn themselves with these fragrant flowers in Spanish colonial times. Because of the intricate structure of the inflorescence (繁複的花序構造), women hid and carried secret messages important to the independence cause underneath it. 以下為古巴外交部對國花的說明: The white mariposa (Hedychium Coronarium) … became a symbol of Cuban flora because Cuban women used it to smuggle messages to the battlefield during the liberation wars of the 19th century. (“National Flower” Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba) 夏天是野薑花的季節,野薑的地下根莖(rhizomes)可作薑的替代品,像白色蝴蝶的花有股特殊的清香(Its scent