Cliff ‘lays’ egg-shaped stones!

Chan Dan Ya, Mandarin for ‘egg-producing cliff’, is a 19ft high and 65ft long cliff. It has an uneven surface but every three decades, it emits these odd-shaped rocks.

Residents in the nearby village, Gulu, have been scratching their heads for years as they keep finding perfectly smooth rocks. Natives of the village in China’s south-western Guizhou Province have observed for years how the eggs ‘incubate’ in hollow overhangs on the cliff and eventually fall to the ground.

Each hollow produces one egg every 30 years and the villagers believe the oval rocks bring luck and fortune. It is perhaps part of the reason why only around 70 of them have been preserved to date — the others may have been sold or stolen.

Geological tests done on the region showed that it formed during the Cambrian period, about 500 million years ago.

However, the specific section of cliff, which is part of Mount Gandeng, is made of calcareous rock that is common in many regions on Earth.

The difference in time it takes for each type of rock to erode has, therefore, been attributed to the appearance of the eggs, which comprise heavy sediment deposits, experts say.

This still does not explain how the rocks appear in smooth round shapes, or how a half-a-billion-year-old geological region managed to contain a calcareous rock formation.

Rare white giraffes seen in Kenya

A conservation group in Kenya shared a video of two ultra-rare giraffes with white colouration caused by a genetic abnormality.

The Hirola Conservation Programme posted a video to YouTube showing the two white giraffes, a mother and a baby, walking among some trees.

The group said the video was filmed by rangers in north-eastern Kenya. The giraffes’ colouration is believed to be the result of a genetic condition called leucism, which differs from albinism in that it results in only a partial loss of pigmentation. White giraffes were first reported in January 2016, in Tanzania’s Tarangire National Park. The only confirmed sightings thus far have been in Tanzania and Kenya.

World’s tallest sandcastle built in Germany

Travel agency Schauinsland-Reisen constructed the massive structure measuring 54 feet and 9-inches tall to claim the Guinness World Record for the tallest sandcastle in the world.

“We wanted to organise another exciting event that brings together summer, sun, sand and our slogan — ‘Holidays in great hands’ — in perfect harmony,” Head of Tourism at Schauinsland-Reisen Andreas Ruttgers said. “The sandcastle world record had all of the above.”

Crews spent a week collecting about 3,500 tonnes of sand in 168 trucks to construct the record-breaking sandcastle.

The massive heaps of sand were then sculpted into the shape of a castle, with detailed images of a couple dancing and a man rowing a boat carved into the front alongside the agency’s name.

Schauinsland-Reisen’s sandcastle is more than six feet taller than the previous tallest castle, which measured 48 feet and 8-inches tall and was constructed in India this February.

Published in Dawn, Young World September 30th, 2017