Europe

High up in the Italian Dolomite mountains, 90km north of Venice, the Vajont Dam was the scene of one of the 20th century's worst engineering disasters. The tallest dam in the world when it was completed in 1959, at 262m,…

8 years ago today, on 21 September 2001, a huge explosion occurred in the AZF (AZote Fertilisant – nitrogen fertiliser) factory in Toulouse, France. Three hundred tonnes of ammonium nitrates blew up, creating a 200 m wide crater up to…

There seems to be a phenomenon occurring all around the world: Giant ships have been sneaking quietly out of the shipyard, going just out the sight of their owners, turning onto their sides and taking a little siesta. The Mediterranean…

Sayano–Shushenskaya was - until a recent accident - the largest power plant in Russia, and the sixth largest hydroelectric plant in the world. The main feature of the power station is a dam 245 m high and over a kilometre…

Bullfighting traces its history way back to when the Romans held public spectacles of "Man vs Beast", and although France and Portugal both have long bullfight histories, it is considered a very Spanish tradition. So it's in Spain where we…

A tripoint is a geographical location where three borders meet - most notably those of different countries, but also (to a lesser extent) counties, states, provinces, etc. While many of the world's 157 national tripoints are located in the middle…