The oldest optical illusion in the world is in Tamil Nadu’s Airavatesvara Temple. The rishabha-kunjara (bull and elephant in Sanskrit) carving from Chola architecture is said to be 900 years old. In the carving, a bull and an elephant share the same head. The bull is Nandi, the sacred vehicle of Lord Shiva, while the elephant, Airavat, symbolizes the divine mount of Lord Indra, the king of heaven. The temple, located in Kumbakonam, was built by Rajaraja Chola II and is on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list of Great Living Chola Temples.

The post The oldest optical illusion in the world is in Airavatesvara Temple appeared first on The Teenager Today.

A plant that had no petals and lived underwater approximately 130 million years ago could be the oldest known ‘flower’, according to scientists. Montsechia vidalii once grew abundantly in freshwater lakes in what are now mountainous regions in Spain. Montsechia was classified as a flowering plant because it produced seeds enclosed within a carpel (the female reproductive organ of a flower). The modern descendant of this ancient plant is Caratophyllum, a dark green aquatic plant popularly used in aquariums.

The post Oldest known flower found appeared first on The Teenager Today.

Mount Wingen in New South Wales, Australia, has been smoldering for 6000 years without stop. At around 100 feet below the surface of the mountain, a coal seam has been burning and slowly moving south at a rate of 1 metre per year. In its history, the seam has covered a total area of 6.5 km, making it the oldest continuous coal fire in the world. The coal was ignited by a lightning strike or brushfire thousands of years earlier. Although a popular tourist attraction, Mount Wingen or Burning Mountain has also caused massive ecological damage to the area’s vegetation.

The post The oldest continuous coal fire in the world appeared first on The Teenager Today.

The Rose of Hildesheim, known as the Thousand-Year Rose, is said to be the oldest living rose on earth. Growing up the side of a columnar portion of Germany’s Hildesheim Cathedral, the Rosa Canina (dog rose) bush is thought to have been planted in the early 800s when the church itself was founded. The plant, reaching to a height of 33 feet, still produces pale pink flowers once a year (in May). It was nearly completely razed during World War II when Allied bombs annihilated the cathedral. Every bit of the plant above ground was destroyed, but from the rubble, new branches grew from the root that survived.

The post The Thousand-Year Rose appeared first on The Teenager Today.

The world’s oldest existing lighthouse is the Tower of Hercules in Spain, erected in the first century and still operational. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, it now marks the entrance of Spain’s La Coruña Harbour. This ancient Roman lighthouse is 180 feet tall and overlooks the North Atlantic coast of Spain. At its base is preserved the cornerstone with an inscription crediting it to the architect Gaius Sevius Lupus from Aeminium (present-day Coimbra, Portugal).

The post World’s oldest existing lighthouse appeared first on The Teenager Today.

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena is the world’s oldest surviving bank and Italy’s third largest bank. Founded in 1472, it was originally formed as The Monte di Pietà or Monte Pio to give loans to the poor. Monte, meaning ‘heap’ or ‘pile’, referred to the collection of money used for charitable distribution.

The post World’s oldest surviving bank appeared first on The Teenager Today.