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Ozymandias Virtual Cache

Hidden : 8/29/2017
Difficulty:
1 out of 5
Terrain:
1 out of 5

Size: Size:   virtual (virtual)

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Geocache Description:

The Sydney Harbour Control Tower, once a dominant feature of the approaches to Darling Harbour, was demolished after the reconstruction of Barangaroo headland in 2016. This iconic remnant of Sydney's maritime history was deemed to be out of keeping with the "natural" state of the headland which had been restored to it's pre 1788 condition, complete with security cameras and no-skateboarding signs.


To log this cache, message me the name on the wall, and post a picture of the view, from any location, that would have included the Harbour Control Tower. (Google Earth images are not acceptable!)


This virtual cache marks the site of this fallen concrete pillar, recalling two versions of the poem Ozymandias, which spoke of the transient nature of civilisations. All that remains is the name, on a stump of concrete wall.


Percy Shelley's "Ozymandias"

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert... near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Horace Smith's "Ozymandias"

In Egypt's sandy silence, all alone,
Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws
The only shadow that the Desert knows:—
"I am great OZYMANDIAS," saith the stone,
"The King of Kings; this mighty City shows
"The wonders of my hand."— The City's gone,—
Nought but the Leg remaining to disclose
The site of this forgotten Babylon.
We wonder,—and some Hunter may express
Wonder like ours, when thro' the wilderness
Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace,
He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guess
What powerful but unrecorded race
Once dwelt in that annihilated place.

For more images, see my Instagram feed Walsh_Bay_Weather which accidentally became a time lapse of the Harbour Control Tower demolition, or the Barangaroo Development Authority.

Virtual Reward - 2017/2018

This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between August 24, 2017 and August 24, 2018. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards on the Geocaching Blog.

Additional Hints (No hints available.)