Monday, December 17, 2007

Velvet Cave, Valkenburg


Love in Sandstone, Valkenburg, originally uploaded by - di.

This particular photograph was taken outside the caves, up by the castle on top of the hill.

About the caves ... Gert mentioned them yesterday and I asked if they were manmade.
He said they were.

I looked at a few photographs online and thought they were concrete, imagining them ugly however ... it turns out 'manmade' meant Roman and the caves began being 'manmade' back in 1050, when the sandstone or marl was being excavated. Mining went on between 1050 and 1886 and the result is at least 3 miles of passageway under the ruined castle.

Walking through the different market stalls was kind of like being back in Istanbul's Grand Bazaar - the same but oh so different.

Volkenburg is about 12-15kms east of Maastricht, if you were wondering.

3 comments:

furiousBall said...

that guy had a really good pen to draw that heart

Anonymous said...

That're lovely caves down in the Netherlands.

Di Mackey said...

Indeed, furiousball and yes, they were Manic. I love the stone found in both Wallonia's. I told Gert we should move there ... hehehe, you can imagine how a Flemish guy might like that.