Wikipedia Trails: Sinbad to Obelisk

I started on the page, Sinbad the Sailor because it was the focus of one of the stories I read and commented on this week. I really only remember the Disney version of the story and was wondering when the original took place. Sinbad is an Arabic story and his hometown is in present day Baghdad. The story is part of the 1001 Nights but doesn't appear in the original manuscripts, only showing up a couple hundred years later in the 17th and 18th Centuries.

(Sinbad the Sailor, Milo Winter, 1914)

From here I went to the page Indian Ocean, as this was where the sailors whose stories influence the tale of Sinbad sailed. It is the 3rd largest ocean on earth and is surrounded by Asia, Africa, and Australia. This ocean also has one of the largest phytoplankton blooms in the summer because of its monsoon winds. It also harbors the Indian Ocean garbage patch which is 1.9 million square miles, made of mostly plastic, and circulates between Australia and Africa.

(Topographic Map of Indian Ocean)

From here I moved to Ancient Egypt as they were one of the first people to explore the Indian Ocean. This was an ancient civilization in Northeastern Africa that formed around 3150 BC. In the latest stages of the civilization, they were subjugated by one of Alexander the Great's generals, Ptolemy. Later, under Cleopatra, it feel to Roman rule. 

(The sphinx and pyramid of Giza)

Lastly, I moved to Obelisks. These are tall, four-sided obelisks that were commonly built in Egypt for religious reasons but have been found in cultures all over the world. They were common throughout Egypt, Assyria, the Axumite kingdom, Rome, the Byzantium Empire, and occasionally in pre-columbus America. The obelisk is still a common form of monument today although they are not always religious.

(The Obelisk from Luxor in Paris)

Wikipedia Trail: From Oriole to Gondwana

I'm starting my trail at Old World Oriole because I read someone's story about an Oriole and they listed a whole bunch of different things that they could eat and to be honest I wasn't really sure if they ate fruit, nectar and bugs. I thought it was only one or the other. Turns out they do eat both, the article says their diet consists of fruit, berries, arthropods, and nectar.

(Oriole, Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, Singapore)

This led me to the page Drongo cause I've really never heard of a Drongo but turns out it's just another kind of bird. They're small and black. They eat bugs and they are very good at mimicking. They can even, apparently sound false alarms but how exactly this benefits them is vague in the article.

(Spangled Drongo, Austrailia)

From Drongo I linked to Madagascar, where the Drongo's name originates from. It's the 4th largest island in the world and 90% of its species are unique to it. Human settlement of the continent between 350 BC and AD 550. It's official languages are French and Malagasy, and it achieved independence from France in 1960.

(Madagascar Flag)

Lastly I moved on to Gondwana. Madagascar used to be a part of the Supercontinent Gondwana before it split from the Indian Peninsula about 88 million years ago. The landmass formed prior to Pangaea and later joined with Laurasia to become part of it. It began to break up in about the early Jurassic period or 183 million years ago.

(Gondwana and Laurasia)