There are some impressive and extremely difficult rock towers around the world, competing in being the hardest to climb.

One of the more famous and possibly the group of peaks that would get the most votes for being the toughest is the Trango Tower Peaks.

The Towers are situated in Gilgit-Baltistan, an autonomous territory in the North of Pakistan and offer some of the largest cliffs and most challenging rock climbing in the world.

Every year a number of expeditions from all corners of the globe visit Karakoram to climb the challenging granite.

They are located north of Baltoro Glacier, and are part of the Baltoro Muztagh, a sub-range of the Karakoram range.

The group is reasonable easy to access as it is located much closer to civilization than many other popular peaks in Pakistan.

The peaks have some of the highest vertical faces on the planet and were for a long time some of the most coveted mountaineering challenges.

It was not until 1975 the area opened for climbing and the race for the hard-to-reach summits began.

All of the Trango Towers lie on a ridge, trending northwest-southeast, between the Trango Glacier on the west and the Dunge Glacier on the east.

Great Trango itself is a large massif, with four identifiable summits: Main (6,286 meters), South or Southwest (circa 6,250 meters), East (6,231 meters), and West (6,223 meters).

It is a complex combination of steep snow/ice gullies, steeper rock faces, and vertical to overhanging head walls, topped by a snowy ridge system.

Just northwest of Great Trango is the Trango Tower (6,239 meters), often called “Nameless Tower”. This is a very large, pointed, rather symmetrical spire which juts 1000 meters out of the ridge line. North of Trango Tower is a smaller rock spire known as “Trango Monk.”

To the north of this feature, the ridge becomes less rocky and loses the large granite walls that distinguish the Trango Towers group and make them so attractive to climbers; however the summits do get higher.

These summits are not usually considered part of the Trango Towers group, though they share the Trango name. Trango II (6,327 meters) lies northwest of the Monk, and the highest summit on the ridge, Trango Ri (6,363 m), lies northwest of Trango II.

Just southeast of Great Trango (really a part of its southeast ridge) is the Trango Pulpit (6,050 meters), whose walls present similar climbing challenges to those of Great Trango itself.

Further, to the south is Trango Castle (5,753 meters), the last large peak along the ridge before the Baltoro Glacier. Overall, the Trango Towers group has seen some of the most difficult and significant climbs ever accomplished, due to the combination of altitude, total height of the routes, and the steepness of the rock. All of the routes are highly technical climbs.

Trango towers have only been climbed once by Pakistani rock climbers in history. Imran Junaidi and Usman Tariq successfully reached to the summit of Trango Tower in July 2014 and opened a new route with difficulty 5.10d, A0.

They are also the first locals to attempt Trango Tower, in September 2013, but were forced by heavy snowfall to descend from camp 2. Two days later, however, the team climbed a virgin line at Trango Braak, reporting difficulty of 5.10, A1.

Christmas is a very important celebration in Honduras. The Christmas period starts with Advent, when some people will fast leading up to Christmas.

During Advent there are also Christmas plays called Pastorelas (The Shepherds) which tell the story of the Shepherds going to visit Jesus as a baby.

Posadas are popular in Honduras, as in many other latin American countries – especially Mexico.

From December 16th to Christmas Eve, in La Posadas, children will lead processions around their neighborhoods.

They remember the part of the Christmas story where Mary and Joseph travelled to Bethlehem and looked for somewhere to stay.

Christmas Eve is called ‘Noche Buena’ (the good night) and is when the main Christmas celebrations and meal take place.

The main meal will often consist of roast pork, turkey or chicken; and there will be ‘Nacatamales’ – these are like tamales but are moister.

They can contain chicken or pork, rice, potatoes, olives, vegetables and raisins. Often apples and red grapes are on the Christmas table and can also be given as small gifts.

For dessert you might have ‘Rosquillas en Miel’ which are donuts soaked in honey. A popular drink is Rompopo, which is like eggnog.

On Noche Buena, people often wear some new clothes and/or shoes – which are known as ‘estreno’.

Either before or after the meal, many people will go to a church service on Christmas Eve. At midnight there are lots of fireworks, sometimes lasting all night long!

Christmas Tress are becoming more popular; but having a nativity scene ‘nacimiento’ is also very important and most houses will have one.

Some people will exchange presents on December 24th/25th but many children also hope that The Three Kings will bring them presents at Epiphany and Epiphany Eve (5th/6th of January).

On Epiphany, also called Three Kings Day, there are street parades of people dressed as the Kings.

For many people in Honduras the new year officially starts with the striking of the bells on the clock at Comayagua Cathedral.

The clock dates back to the 12th century and is the oldest clock in the Americas. The ringing of the clock is broadcast on TV and radio.

In Honduras most people speak Spanish (Español), so Happy/Merry Christmas is ‘Feliz Navidad’.

In Pakistan, December 25th is a public holiday, but it is in memory of Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. Like in India, Christians make up a very small part of the population.

But as Pakistan has a population over 162 million people, there are more than 5 millions Christians!

At Christian festivals, like Christmas and Easter, a big procession takes place, in Lahore, from St. Anthony’s Church to the Cathedral. It takes hours to reach the Cathedral for the services.

These are then celebrated with lots of enthusiasm! Before and during Advent, spiritual seminars take place to help people to prepare for Christmas or ‘Bara Din’ (which in Urdu and Punjabi means the ‘Big Day’). This expression is very popular, even among Muslims in Pakistan.

During the last week of Advent, in many Christian areas, carol singing is performed by various groups. They go from house to house singing carols and in return the family offers something to the choir. Mostly the money collected from such carols is used for charity works or is given to the church.

In the big Christian areas, each house is decorated and has a star on the roof. The streets are also decorated and lit. The crib and Christmas tree are also important decorations. Sometimes there are crib competitions! Christians also sometimes exchange Christmas cakes.

On Christmas Eve, Churches are packed for the midnight or vigil-mass services. The choirs sing very special hymns. After the vigil-mass, in some places, there are fireworks which help celebrate the start of Bara Din. People dance, exchange presents and enjoy the special night.

On Bara Din or Christmas Day, Christians go to Church again for the Bara Din celebrations. People wear their best, colorful clothes.

They can stay in the Church courtyard for hours, enjoying various food from the different stalls. The evening is usually celebrated with immediate family or relatives where special food is enjoyed. Adults often visit their parents.

Fjaðrárgljúfur is a very massive and magnificent canyon which is located in the southeastern part of the Nordic island country in the North Atlantic, Iceland.

You can try to pronounce is as Fiath – raor – gliu – vur.

Having a quite unique serpent-like shape, the canyon got its name from the river that flows through it, Fjaðrá,  which is a small but very cold one, nonetheless, the canyon being all spectacular and impressive, it is not well known among the many visitors coming to see this distinguish country.

With its steep walls where some of them are up to 100 meters (330 feet) high, Fjaðrárgljúfur is 2 km (1 mi) long and it is considered to have been formed during the Ice Age, some 2 million years ago.

According to some geologists, the canyon was formed by progressive erosion from the glacial flowing rivers that were going through the rocks and palagonite which in turn formed this mesmerizing canyon.

Unfortunately, due to the increased popularity in several years, and the enormously increased number of traffic, the canyon was closed for everyone, in order for the nature to come back once again to its former state.

Even though there are signs which prohibit the entrance to this fairytale-like place, most of the time people are continuing to go further, however, it is of utmost importance to respect these signs and make sure to let the nature heal itself.

All in all, as Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon is respectively one of the most amazing places someone can see in person, and there is always the hope that the threat from damage will be reduced, as visitors are more cautious where they are walking and if they are doing something to damage the fragile environment.

Archaeologists who uncovered traces of a city’s Roman and medieval past under what is now a city shopping centre are up for a national award.

A team of University of Leicester experts excavated the area of the Highcross shopping centre.

Their discoveries cast light on the how the city’s inhabitants used to live. The team has been nominated in the 2023 Current Archaeology Awards for Research Project of the Year.

Teams from the University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS) dug the area before the original Shires shopping centre was constructed in 1991 and then again when it was extended and renamed from 2003 to 2006.

The nomination follows ULAS research being published in a book tracing the development of the Roman and medieval town, beginning some 2,000 years ago.

The university said the research demonstrates there was a vibrant and diverse community living within opulent town houses decorated with mosaics and wall paintings.

It also revealed links between Leicester and the wider Roman Empire and starts to tell the story of the city’s early migrant population.

The research also covers the “lost” medieval parish churches of St Peter and St Michael, demolished 500 years ago, and the 1,600 burials that surrounded them.

Votes can be cast on the Current Archaeology Awards website until 1 February 2023.