BSW - CAA - Zenobia Travelogue

 Zenobia Travelogue

I know about this amazing place like you have never seen before! It stretches far through the valley also high above it and casts huge shadows upon the ground below. This place that I am talking about is the city of Zenobia! I have had the chance to have been there once myself and had never travelled anywhere like it. For one, seen from the ground you are almost fearful of its scale, towering above you standing on hundreds of great stilts crossing each other as they hold the weight of the buildings above. You notice the ladders that are tied into the chaos of the stilts and that is your way in. The whole view from the ground is quite enticing as you see the glow and aura of the lights and shadows. Then the noise that the city produces from its creaking stilts to twisting metal features.

You get a deep feeling of danger and adventure when climbing the never ending ladders that allow you into the city. Once your feet are back on solid ground you look around to see the shining lights and the bright colours of the banners swaying all over. Then feel the happiest aroma you have felt in any place you have been before. You are greeted by many narrow walkways connecting each other with stairs and suspended bridges that seem almost dangerous at this height! But that danger is over run by the excitement of exploring this unique city. 

Walking down the wooden paths and crossing the suspended bridges supported by rope, you are surrounded by decently sized spacious buildings that appear to be the homes of the city. These homes sit tall above the walkways and are all detached from each other, carrying there own walkway and stilts below them. They all have nothing short of an amazing view of the booming city ahead and rocky mountains underneath. The houses consist of two towering tiers made of bamboo and glass for windows that have a wire lattice pattern in them. Not including the large domed roofs, shining with the lights of the city reflecting off of its metallic zinc structure. Atop the roofs sit weather vanes that give the residents indication of the direction of the strong wind that attacks at the height of the city.

Sitting alongside these homes are the barrels storing water and fishing rods, overhanging the banisters that line the walkways, that reside out of place for the dry valley underneath as there is clearly no use for them! This makes me think about the history of this mysterious place and I wonder if that one day, in the past, the city was atop a life filled river that was once the lifeline of Zenobia. But what I know now is that it sits upon a lifeless dry valley that stretches as far as the eye can see. I wonder why the equipment of the past, still remains pointlessly on the paths and homes of the city not being used and only being looked at.

Continuing down the narrow paths you look over the banisters and ropes to see bellow the city. A vast drop that offers a view like you have never seen before. Fog rolls underneath the cities infrastructure and blankets the rocky terrain bellow consisting of large mountains and nothing else. However if you look up, you see the clear open sky broken up by the colourful lights and banners and ribbons swaying in the powerful wind. These ribbons are everywhere, connected to the houses, banisters and poles and trail throughout the city to show the festivity and happiness that the residents live by!

Walking forward through the street you see the main building of Zenobia, the centrepiece that draws your eye to it as soon as its in sight. It emits a light like none of the other buildings do, it welcomes you and draws you towards it. Beginning to approach the soaring hall you feel the presence of real scale in your journey through the city. You will cross the many choices of bridges to get the the steps that lead up the the building and walking over, you notice the amazing feat of architecture that was required to produce the heavy, broad stilts that hold the immense structure up.

Looking up from the first steps towards the building you see the warm light pouring from the three huge doors and the gigantic oval shaped window above them. In between the doors and at the corners of the structure you see pillars that stretch to the top of it supporting the infrastructures weight. The second tier of the building has hundreds of windows of which all are emitting the same welcoming light that draws you closer and closer. 

Approaching the doors they open with your arrival as if they were automatic but this is something else, something magical! Upon entering the room you are staggered with the sheer scale and space that it brings. The walls stand tall and the ceiling is high and in front of you, two colossal pillars that reach the height of the building. You walk further into the room, following the paths that lead to two staggering features that you would fear to approach as they are like noting at home. They are purpose made holes in the floor lined by banister for safety but as you look over past the mist that rolls up through them you see the many pillars of the city bellow it alongside the ground bellow the city itself. It shows another surprising perspective to view and adds another dimension to the city as if it did not have enough. Looking up from inside, you see the giant space where the windows reside and you wonder what it took to be able to construct such a structure. 

Returning from your journey through the city, you will come out a changed person. You will see your home town in a different way and you will be a more inspired person from seeing the unique sights you got to see.