Eight ancient glass vessels shattered in the 2020 Beirut explosion go on display at the British Museum from Thursday, walking visitors through the painstaking international project to piece them back together.

The vessels, from the Roman, Byzantine and Islamic periods, were reconstructed at the world-famous museum’s conservation laboratories, and will be shown as part of its “Shattered Glass of Beirut” showcase, before returning to Lebanon later this year.

“(It) tells a story of near destruction and recovery, of resilience and collaboration,” said Hartwig Fischer, Director of the British Museum.

The vessels were among 74 contained within a case at the American University in Beirut (AUB).

The case fell over when the shockwave of the port blast, which occurred three kilometres (two miles) away on August 4, 2020, hit the building, smashing the glass objects inside.

A team of experts had the daunting task of sorting every shard of glass, deciding if it was part of an ancient vessel, rather than display case, and which vessel it belonged to, Duygu Camurcuoglu, a senior conservator at the British Museum said.

“It’s all pretty much done by hand or by eye—brainwork basically. You have to know certain techniques to be able to carry out this work,” she added.

Once the pieces had been sorted, the conservators began the mammoth jigsaw-puzzle exercise of reassembling the vessels.

“It’s a case of using an adhesive to reconstruct the vessels,” said Camurcuoglu. But they could not just use anything.

“We don’t use superglue, we don’t use UHU,” she joked.

The most challenging vessels were the “large dish and the Byzantine pitcher,” Camurcuoglu recalled.

Eighteen of the vessels have so far been conserved as part of an emergency recovery campaign in Beirut, along with the eight vessels at the British Museum and two that emerged unscathed from the fall.

Experts hope that at least half of the remaining 46 objects in Beirut can be conserved soon too.

The collaborative project between the British Museum and the AUB’s Archaeological Museum began in 2021, following an offer of help from the London institution.

Two illegally built residential high-rises are slated for demolition near India’s capital this weekend in a rare crackdown on developers who cut corners and swindle unsuspecting home-buyers.

A controlled implosion will bring down the 100-meter-high “Twin Towers” on New Delhi’s outskirts after a Supreme Court ruling last year found the structures were built unlawfully in collusion with local authorities.

Thousands of anxious residents — along with dozens of stray dogs — are being evacuated from the vicinity, but the crew in charge of the knock-down said safety was assured.

“It’s a beautiful feat of engineering,” said demolition team leader Joe Brinkmann, according to the Times of India newspaper.

“Just pack your bags and enjoy the day.”

The towers will be fitted with around 3,500 kilos (7,700 pounds) of explosives and are expected to come down in a matter of seconds.

The world’s fastest-growing major economy has seen a construction boom in recent years but developers often cut corners with impunity.

Eyeing fat profits and capitalizing on weak regulation, companies often build extra floors or towers and use sub-standard materials, while officials are bribed to keep quiet.

Middle-class home-buyers fall into the trap of investing their life savings in projects that often never see the light of day, and get drawn into protracted legal battles against powerful builders.

In Delhi’s suburbs of Noida and Greater Noida, it is estimated that more than 100 residential high-rise towers have been abandoned by the builders, making these areas look like ghost cities.

Demolitions of residential buildings are rare in India, with builders often escaping with penalties or abandoning projects midway if they fall foul of the law.

Archaeologists have unearthed a long-forgotten trading hub that researchers say would have enjoyed comparable status to London in the Middle Ages.

The find on the banks of the Thames in Cookham, Berkshire, has been hailed as “a once in a generation discovery” by the University of Reading.

It includes infrastructure that suggested the area was used extensively for importing and exporting goods.

The university said the site was abandoned in the late 9th Century.

University students and staff spent four weeks excavating the site

Archaeologists began work on the land next to the Holy Trinity Church after evidence pointed to it being the site of a “lost” 8th Century monastery.

The excavation team said what it went on to find “ranks alongside the most extensively preserved early medieval monastic sites ever investigated in Britain”.

They found evidence of a waterside loading area, workshops for industrial activities like metalworking, and bread ovens to feed the local population.

The university said the area “could have enjoyed similarly important status as a trade and production centre to larger towns like London and Southampton”.

Gabor Thomas, the excavation’s lead archaeologist, said: “This is a once in a generation archaeological discovery.

“We have not just rediscovered the location of this monastery but shown that it’s in a remarkable state of preservation.

“We have uncovered a densely occupied riverside trading and production zone, complete with streets and loading areas.

“This level of infrastructure and planning is surprising and compares with larger trading and production sites known as ‘wics’ that were the only towns of the period.”

He said Cookham’s population would have been considerably smaller than London but similarities in the way the monastery was organised reflected “its importance as a place of trade and production on the River Thames”.

“The discoveries at Cookham will enable us to build a detailed picture of daily life within a monastery of this period, including Cookham’s role as an economic hub for the Middle Thames region,” he added.

The monastery is believed to have thrived in the 8th and early 9th centuries, reaching its peak under the control of powerful Anglo-Saxon queen Cynethryth.

Cynethryth was the only Anglo-Saxon queen known to have been depicted on a coin and had been married to King Offa, who ruled one of the era’s main kingdoms, Mercia, until his death in 796 AD.

A network of dams built by beavers in Devon has helped to maintain an area of wetland despite a drought in the South West.

There are a number of beaver families living on land owned and farmed by Clinton Devon Estates.

They were the subject of a five-year study ending in 2020 which explored the impact of beavers on the countryside.

The trial found a number of benefits and the beavers have been allowed to continue living in the area.

The mammals used sticks and mud to create several dams on the estate in less than a year, and a hectare of grazing land is now permanently underwater as a result.

It’s quite impossible to talk about nature’s gift to SOUTH-EAST Enugu without mentioning The Awhum Waterfall.

Although it’s quite on the city’s outskirt, some 24km away, in Amaugwe village, this 30 meters high waterfall and the cave are something for the adventurous tourist. Though a Catholic Monastery manages the site, there is no religious restriction into the place.

The site’s attraction is not merely its waterfall; there is a mind-blowing stretch of 300m long limestone wall.

The towering limestone walls engulf the footpath that terminated beneath a wall, narrowing into different parts of the cave in which laid the twin cascades of Awhum Waterfalls.

The First Waterfall Intrudes The Cave At About 100m From The Entrance, While The Second And Biggest Cascade Stands At The Far End Of The Cave.

Thick forest canopies that cast a mild blanket of green tincture on the limestone walls cover a good part of the site, giving the enchanting milieu of an ambiance of awe and wonder.

Caldea Resort is Europe’s largest health spa located in Escaldes-Engordany, which is one of the seven parishes in Andorra.

It offers you 6,000 square meters (64,583 square foot) of inside and outside lagoons, saunas, jacuzzis, a grapefruit pool, an Aztecian pool, Indo-Roman baths, cascades, bubble beds, warm marble slates, and much much more.

The tower of the resort has been finished in 1994, and until this moment it is the tallest building in Andorra. It has 18 floors, and measure 80 meters (262 feet) in height.

The whole resort is a unique concept which means discovering the pleasures and benefits of natural spa water through fun, enjoyment and relaxation.

Caldea uses the water which emerges from the thermal source in Escaldes-Engordany at 68 degrees Celsius to create a harmonious interrelation between the body and water in futuristic surroundings.

In ancient Catalan, the word ‘caldea’ means tonifying and warm. In Roman times, the word ‘calidae’, from which the name of the town of Escaldes in Andorra originates, designated a warm water source.

Also, the thermal waters are rich in sulfur, sodium and minerals, they are too greasy as thermal plankton.

Nevertheless, after the Roman times, after all the history, two thousand years later, Caldea offers you a new form of well-being and enjoyment, an encounter with water in all its possible forms, from steam to ice, from Japan to Finland.

The whole architecture is cutting edge, the building looking like crystals that have been cut unevenly, certainly will make you wonder how is it possible for a small country like Andorra to have such a paradise!