[travel] Mirage!

[mattbell]

Photographed on the way to Abu Simbel, about 200km from the border with Sudan.

It reminds me of Laputa - Castle in the sky.

Mirages and fiber optics both work based on slight differences in refractive index between two adjacent materials... in this case, hot air and hotter air..

Comments

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

Oh... I didn't know it wasn't originally created by Miyazaki.

[steuard.livejournal.com]

In fact, Laputa was I believe the third of the four strange nations described in Gulliver's Travels. Apart from the basic premise (a nation floating in the sky) I don't recall much similarity between the two portrayals. But I haven't read Swift's version in many years.