National Botanic Garden of Wales
Near Llanarthney, Wales we find a serene scene of rolling green hills, well pruned gardens and a few grazing sheep. Then, sticking out like a sore thumb is the massive Great Glasshouse of the National Botanic Garden of Wales.
Designed by renowned British architect Sir Norman Foster, this is the largest single-span greenhouse in the world. 95m long and 55m wide, the roof contains 785 panes of glass and is partially built below ground level, so that it seems to “swell from the ground like a grassy hillock”…
The Great Glasshouse contains more than a thousand plant species – many endangered – and conserves specimens from warm climates around the globe including Chile, Western Australia, South Africa, California, the Canary Islands and the Mediterranean. If you zoom in close enough you can actually see some of the plant-life that is able to survive here thanks to this massive glass roof.
Interesting factoid: In Wales, they call the dome “God’s thumbprint” or “Dduw bodia” as it is in Welsh.
Actually, I just made that up.
You know I totally believed you Rob…
And now this site is the top hit on Google for Dduw bodia!
The photos accompanying the Wikipedia article show a red sea-serpent sculpture off to what looks to be the southwest, between the dome and the pond. It doesn’t show up on these overhead shots - a recent addition?
@Timhogs
It could be obscured by the large tree and shadows from the tree.
to the northeast - a small castle?
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Ah! Thanks nova, that’s Paxton’s Tower. I was looking for it before I posted this, but somehow missed it!
ah, Norman Foster - no wonder it looks like Canary Wharf tube station:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_Wharf_tube_station
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
@ Alex - awesome, thanks for that wiki page.
Here are some flickr shots - http://www.flickr.com/photos/net-adept/sets/1558164/
Addtional info - http://www.follytowers.com/paxtons.html
Botanic Gardens website - http://www.gardenofwales.org.uk/
Flickr shots of the gardens - http://www.flickr.com/groups/nbgw/pool/
Additional info about Paxton’s Tower:
http://www.follytowers.com/paxtons.html
Flickr shots of the Tower:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/net-adept/sets/1558164
Botanic Gardens website:
http://www.gardenofwales.org.uk/
Flickr shots of the Gardens:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/nbgw/pool
oops sorry about that guys, feel free to delete one of those and this comment.
my comment was showing up so I tried it again. any idea why it would take longer than normal to show up?
That kind of reminds me of Bio-Dome