Dante's View
From Dante's View one can see the central part of Death Valley from a vantage point 5,500 feet (1,700 m) above sea level. From here Badwater Basin can be seen, which contains the lowest dry point in North America. Telescope Peak can also be seen from here which is 11,331 feet (3455 m) above sea level. This is the greatest topographic relief in the conterminous U.S.
The mountain that Dante's View is on is part of the Black Mountains which along with the parallel Panamint Range across the valley form what geologists call a horst and the valley that is called a graben. These structures are created when the surface of the earth is under extensional, or a pulling force. The crust responds to this force by sending a large and long roughly v-shaped block of crust down which forms the bedrock of the valley floor (see Basin and Range).
Read more about this topic: Places Of Interest In The Death Valley Area
Famous quotes containing the words dante and/or view:
“It appears to me that men are hired to run down men of genius under the mask of translators, but Dante gives too much of Caesar: he is not a republican.”
—William Blake (1757–1827)
“Beauty depends on size as well as symmetry. No very small animal can be beautiful, for looking at it takes so small a portion of time that the impression of it will be confused. Nor can any very large one, for a whole view of it cannot be had at once, and so there will be no unity and completeness.”
—Aristotle (384 B.C.–322 B.C.)