Mongolia's Dinosaur Fairyland

Jurassic Park might not quite be a reality yet (though mammoths might be on the way); but if you fancy encountering some wild dinosaurs, it looks like Erlian, near the Chinese border with Mongolia, is the place to go. Something of a dinosaur hotspot, the little town has tried to encourage tourism by building a dinosaur museum, and doting the place the dinosaur statues, the most impressive being a pair of sauropods which reach out to each other over a road:

The same pair are pictured in a huge sign carved into a nearby valley wall, which identifies the attraction as Dinosaur Fairyland:

On the other side of the valley are similar massive drawings of dinosaur skeletons, which can be seen from space, if you zoom in enough on Google maps:

Dotted about the town and along the roads are many smaller dinosaur sculptures, here are a few of my favourites from the photos I've found:

 

 

 

 

 

According to Atlas Obscura, you pretty much have the place to yourself if you visit too:

The park features dozens of full scale dinosaur models as well as bones, both real and fake. There are also lots of photo opportunities with dinosaurs smashing down walls and hatching from eggs. However, Dinosaur Fairyland is never crowded, probably due to its remote location, about 20km outside the town of Erlian in Outer Mongolia. However, this means you will have the park all to yourself, except for the occasional men in military uniform that use the park as a thoroughfare to the bus station.

More pictures after the jump:

Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology

Indiana Jones is on his way to a city near you, in a world touring exhibition that recently began in Montreal and is soon its way to Europe. The exhibition is a mixture of artefacts from the films, and from real life, including:

• A vast and exclusive collection of Indiana Jones film props, models, concept art, and set designs from the Lucasfilm Archives

• An interactive tour of legendary sites that sheds light on historical myths such as the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail

• A rare chance to see some of the world’s most impressive material remains and real-world artefacts from ancient societies from the collections of the world-renowned Penn Museum and the National Geographic Society archives

It also has an awesome poster:

And a trailer for good measure:



You can find out more on the exhibition's website, or Facebook page (the latter seems more useful as it's actually indicating where its going next).

Harry Potter Studio Tour opening next year

Warner Brother have announced plans for the Warner Brothers Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter, to open in the spring of 2012. The tour will be about three hours long and include the major sets of the Harry Potter films, plus exhibitions of costumes, props, and special effects. They also plan to expand the attraction to include other Warner Brothers films made in the UK, such as the recent Sherlock Holmes and Batman movies. Here's what it will look like:

You can see more, and in a few months time book tickets, on the Studio Tour website.

UPDATE: Here's a video advert for it too: