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 Année Lumière 2015 Year of Light Algeria



Poland Algeria Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
 On Copernicus' Footsteps
from Warsaw, to Torun,
to Krakow...


18-25 July 2018

Details on the "Cirta Science 10 " Contest
July 18-25, 2018

Poland Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy Krakow science


Day 5: The Warsaw Rising Museum:
A Tribute to the Polish People's Valiant Resistance to Occupation.
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The Museum is dedicated to the Warsaw Uprising initiated on August 1st of 1944 and its dire consequences. The Polish Home Army which was unable to secure enough of the city to effectively occupy Warsaw, was ultimately destroyed by the German's counter offensive and whatever remained of it ultimately surrendered on the 2nd of October 1944. It resulted in some 200.000 deaths and a city fully destroyed.
Poland Algeria Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
Massive destruction of the city in retaliation to the resistance as witnessed by allies flights over the city before its liberation.
Poland Algeria Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
Poland Algeria Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
In front of the Museum dedicated to this traumatic period of contemporary Polish history.
Poland Algeria Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
Explaining the historical context of the uprising and its larger implications for contemporary history.
Poland Algeria Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
Poland Algeria Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
A captured Nazi motorcycle with a machine gun mount in front.
Poland Algeria Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
Poland Algeria Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
Underground postal service.
Poland Algeria Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
Underground press of the insurgents.
Poland Algeria Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
The oath of the Polish Home Army. Notice the heavily Christian formulae of faith inlayed in the oath (Click on the picture).
Poland Algeria Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
Warsaw's utter destruction from the "City of Ruins" movie. At right is the Vistule river with its destroyed bridges.
Poland Algeria Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
Viewing the "City of Ruins" movie.
Poland Algeria Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
Before the uprising took place a dramatic event: the Warsaw ghetto uprising in 1943 with its ruthless suppression and ultimately sending most of the remaining inhabitants to the Treblinka concentration camp where they were exterminated.
An Estimates vary from 300.000 to 400.000 the number of Jewish victims of this large- scale horrific slaughtering.
Poland Algeria Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
Poland Algeria Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
The Museum is spread over several floors documenting everything from the life under occupation to the uprising and its aftermath. See also George Orwell's ominous words (Sept 1944).
Poland Algeria Sirius Cirta Science astronomy scienceReplica of a Liberator B-24J bomber used to drop supplies to the insurgents. Many historians saw it in retrospective as a PR operation from Churchill, who inspired the uprising through the Polish government in exile in London.
Poland Algeria Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
Whatever the judgment of some on the wisdom of the uprising in view of the military and political situation then (caught between two powerful and implacable enemies), it remains a defining even if traumatic moment in Polish history.

Auschwitz (Oświęcim) and Birkenau Camps Visit
Europeans massacring Europeans. And no lesson learned for them...

Poland Algeria Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
A visit to the Auschwitz and Birkenau Camps was a must, especially since we found ourselves in the Krakow region. It is about pondering upon the barbarous nature of man; how a country like Germany, considered to be the heartland of Western civilization, could plan and methodically carry out such a large scale criminal enterprise of mass killing; it is also to reflect on how many of the descendants of the victims could unleash their savagery on the vulnerable, defenseless Palestinian people today, denying it basic human rights, and before all the right to exist, even if the scale is different. Millions of poor wretches were cremated, gazed, drowned for the sole reason of their ethnic background, the vast majority being Jews. Seeing the endless flow of visitors from Israel to Birkenau (Many West Bank settlers, quite few quite few with their hands stained with Palestinian blood) is indeed a sobering lesson on the hypocrisy of man. Nevertheless a visit to those camps should be a "passage obligé" for any Poland visitor to take a lesson in humanity.

Poland Algeria Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
The next step after Auschwitz 1 was the ominous Birkenau camp (Auschwitz 2) seen here from the roadside.
Pologne Auschwitz Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
At the main entrance: the Gate of Death.
Pologne Auschwitz Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
Passing by the remnants of a cremation building.
Pologne Auschwitz Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
Pologne Auschwitz Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
Remnants of crematory units in compound B1a.
Pologne Auschwitz Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
The last demeure for those wretched prisoners... before the cremation: neatly arranged barracks.
Pologne Auschwitz Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
Pologne Auschwitz Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
Steles and stony monuments
Pologne Auschwitz Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
Pologne Auschwitz Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
At one of the entrances.
Pologne Auschwitz Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
The barrack where mothers and their babies born in the camp were "eliminated" by phenol injection in the heart.
Pologne Auschwitz Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
The railway from Auschwitz to Birkenau bringing its loads of humans to be eliminated. Leaving the death camp with heavy hearts...
Pologne Auschwitz Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
That humans from the heart of civilized Europe could inflict upon their fellows Europeans such an outageous treatment is incredible. Yet, was the lesson learned ? The ignominious colonial war by France in Algeria in the fifties for which it still doesn't want to apologize nor even recognize its reality, the Vietnam war in the sixties with its large scale indiscriminate killing by air and by land, the Rwanda genocide with the French complicity and the Srebrenica ethnic cleansing in former Yugoslavia in the nineties, the continuing Burma's government genocide of the Rohinga people ... The (un)human nature of Man!
Day 6: At the Wieliczka's Salt Mine, Krakow
A Natural and Human Wonder : A City of salt underground

The Wieliczka's Salt Mine few km from Krakow. Everything in that mine has been carved in salt of which the rock is made of.
Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy scienceTaking a group picture. And here a picture with our guide.

Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
One of the largest gallery of the "City of Salt" under hundreds of meters under ground.

Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science

Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
Going further underground.

Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
The old galleries where the salt was extracted since Antiquity.
Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
The blocs of salt brought to the surface.
Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
The  rock salt is different from the sea salt  or that from Sebkhas made by drying out  water. It is grey since it contains up to 2% of minerals, mainly potassium, magnesium, and calcium, and so it has to be purified to become table salt. Here's an almost pure vein of salt.
Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
Józef Piłsudski the father of the Second Polish Republic re-established in 1918. 
Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
The supporting wood pillars so that the whole thing doesn't cave in.
Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy scienceConstantly checking the ex-gazing of methane and burning it before it reaches a too high concentration.
Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
Churches and chapels are everywhere, a tribute to a deeply religious people. Here is a Chapel of salt!
Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
Sofiane withstanding the wall, while Ilyes and Yasmine are walking ahead of him.
Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy scienceCopernicus in salt !

Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science

Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
Chapels and religious corners were legion.

Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
Jean Paul-II, the Polish Pope in salt in a niche bearing his name.
Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science

Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
Fantastic figures carved in salt along the various aisles.
Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
Going down and down...
.Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
The Upper Lill Chamber at the last level
Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
On our way back to the surface, waiting the lift, an encounter with two retired teachers from Syria at right.

Day 7: Krakow's deambulation: Wawel Royal Palace, Jagellonian University & more

Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science
Visiting Krakow and its various architectural treasures. Here the group standing at the beautiful main medieval Market Place (Rynek Główny), and the Cloth Hall (Sukiennice) in the back. At left is the Town Hall Tower.

Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy science


Entering the city through St. Florian’s Gate
Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy Cracovie science
The Krakow fortification walls next to the St. Florian’s Gate. The Barbican tower guarding the city is outside..

Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy Cracovie science

Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy Cracovie science
The Main Market Place.
Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy Cracovie science
Strolling Sukiennice. A bit like the Al-Hamidiya Souk of Damascus...
Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy Cracovie science
Amber jewelry shop
Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy Cracovie science
Selling religious artifacts
Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy Cracovie science
Le Palais de Évêques. There the Pope Jean-Paul II addressed the huge crowd in his epoch making speech in 1973 which led ultimately to the fall of communism in Poland. The window from where he spoke can be seen above the porch.
Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy Cracovie science
In front of the Wavel cathedral

Some heavy religious ornamentation inside St. Mary's Basilica.

Poland Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy Krakow science
Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy Cracovie science
St. Mary's Basilica in Krakow (Bazylika Mariacka), a brick Gothic church adjacent to the Main Market with its emblematic double bell tower of unequal height...
Poland Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy Krakow science
On the bank of the Vistula river, enjoying the sight below.
Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy Cracovie science
Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy Cracovie science Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy Cracovie science
Churches were everywhere with their heavy iconography mixing the Christ, the Virgin Mary, Saints, Kings, folk heroes... The statues of Jean Paul II, who officiated at Krakow before becoming Pope, were also at every corner, like in the picture at right.
Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy Cracovie science
Another St Paul 2 statue
Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy Cracovie science
Inside the Wavel Royal Palace

Poland Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy Krakow science
Standing in front of the stele, next to the Wavel Royal Palace, in memory of the Katyn massacre in 1940 near Smolensk where some 22,000 Polish officers prisoners and intellectuals were executed by the Soviet NKVD on the direct order of the Politbureau. Each city in Poland has a memorial for this horrendous crime.

The Katyn massacre was disguised by the Soviets for fifty years as a Nazi war crime, until its official acknowledgement by President Gorbachev in 1990. Though the killings took place at several different locations, the massacre is named after the Katyn Forest, where some of the mass graves were first found.

Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy Cracovie science
Here at the main court of the old building of Jagiellonian University (Akademia Krakowska in the Middle Age). Copernicus studied at that University while Marie Curie was denied registration for being a woman. It was founded in 1364 by King Kazimierz the Great, and became one of Europe's great early universities.

Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy Cracovie science
The outer walls of the University


When Krakow falls under Nazi rule in 1939, some 184 professors from the Jagiellonian University were deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and killed along with tens of thousands of other deported. In response, an extensive underground teaching movement developed under the leadership of the Polish Teachers' Association.

Pologne Algerie Sirius Cirta Science astronomy Cracovie science
Back to Warsaw, a 300 km and four- hour drive.
Day 8: Departure from Warsaw to Algiers ... via Roma

A non planned extra stopover at Rome for one extra day ...

Flying back home/


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