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Carcosa is a fictional city in the Ambrose Bierce short story "An Inhabitant of Carcosa" (1891).

Its name may be derived from the medieval city of Carcassonne in southern France, whose Latin name was "Carcaso".

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Located in the Anatolia region of SE Turkey, this archaeological site is one of the earliest examples of human construction.

The site is a tell (or a mound created from years of human occupation to form a cone truncated with a flat top) that is 49 ft/15 m tall and 984 ft/300 m in diameter. The excavation revealed several rooms and more than 200 massive pillars in 20 different circles, many with ornate carvings.

What boggles the mind about Göbekli Tepe was that it was constructed before the development of agriculture- an estimated 10,000 years BCE. To put that in context, the Pyramids of Giza started construction in 2584 BC.

The neolithic people who constructed this site were hunter-gatherers that used flint-knapped tools to scrape and chisel the construction. As a National Geographic writer put it in an article called "The Birth of Religion":

Discovering that hunter-gatherers had constructed Göbekli Tepe was like finding that someone had built a 747 in a basement with an X-Acto knife.

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This location was featured in the Smithnsonian Channel show "The Real Story: Indiana Jones" as a possible location of the Holy Grail.

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The Cité de Carcassonne is a medieval citadel located in the French city of Carcassonne, on a hill on the overlooking the River Aude. The town has about 2,500 years of history and has seen the Romans, Visigoths, Saracens and Crusaders.

In the early years of the 13th century, a sect of Christians called the Cathars had risen to prominence in the area. The Cathars believed in a dualistic theism, where the good god (God) created all that was spiritual and a bad god (Satan) created all that was material.

The Cathars managed to upset the Roman Catholic establishment to the point where they fled to and were laid siege upon in this fortress. For a year, local Catholics and Cathars fought against the siege of Arnaud-Amaury.

When asked how to distinguish Cathars from Catholics at the besieged town of Béziers, Arnaud replied "Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius" or "Slay them. God knows his own." This statement is often remembered as "Kill them all and let God sort them out."

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Since 2002, the Academy Awards have been held annually at this venue. Constructed in 2001 as the Kodak Theatre, the facility briefly changed its name to the Hollywood and Highland Center Theatre after Kodak filed for bankruptcy. The theatre was renamed Dolby Theatre in 2012 with a 20-year deal with Dolby Laboratories. You can learn all about the other corporations that support Hollywood by watching the 2 hours of commercials during the award ceremony.

The theater has one of the largest stages in the world at 13 ft (34 m) wide and 60 ft (18 m) deep. It was designed by David Rockwell, a NY-based architect and stage designer. Notably, his group also did the interior work in the jetBlue terminal at JFK International Airport.

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