TRAVELER'S ADVISORY	JANUARY 19, 1998 NO. 3
	Traveler's Advisory By SIMON ROBINSON NORTH AMERICA MT. TREMPER If you feel the need to shake up your outlook, Kaleidoworld, in the Catskill Mountains 145 km north of New York City, may be a good place to start. Its centerpiece is the world's biggest kaleidoscope, built inside an 18-m-tall disused silo. Sitting at the silo's base, visitors view a constantly shifting collage made up of thousands of images from American history. Among the many other examples of mirror magic on show are the Kaleidocam, which creates kaleidoscopic photographs, and The Amazing Starworks, a variation on the kaleidoscope in which images of stars and galaxies from the Hubble Telescope are projected through and onto a 60-pointed polyhedron. EUROPE ROME Like many buildings in the Eternal City, the Palazzo Altemps has had a checkered career. Built in the 15th century, it was later used by Cardinal Marcus Altemps as a private museum for his collection of ancient sculpture. When his family fell on hard times, the building was sold, along with most of its art. It has since housed, at different times, a seminary and an English-style pub. Now, after 14 years of renovations, the palace has reopened as part of the National Museum of Rome. Many of the works in its extensive collection of Greek, Roman and Egyptian sculptures have not been exhibited since World War II. Among the highlights: a copy of Praxiteles' famed statue of Aphrodite; a huge sarcophagus showing a battle between Romans and Goths; and a statue of a Gaul committing suicide that is thought to have stood in the garden of Julius Caesar. With luck, more works may soon be added: the palace basement is the site of an archaeological dig. GLOBE EXPLORATION The sunken continent of Atlantis was first referred to by the Greek philosopher Plato, who said it lay somewhere beyond the Strait of Gibraltar. Intrigued by the idea of a lost civilization and undaunted by Plato's vague directions, explorers have hunted for the ruins in Sweden, Spain, Palestine, Tunisia, Nigeria, Central Asia and Mexico. Now two more expeditions are preparing to take up the search. While Russian scientists probe an underwater hill near Land's End, England (an area identified in local myth as the site of the sunken City of Lions), a British party will scour Bolivia's Lake Poopo, where satellites have photographed an 8-km-long structure that looks like a canal. If either group solves the puzzle, dozens of Atlantis theories will become extinct overnight. AUSTRALIA SYDNEY French artist Yves Klein (1928-62) was best known for his blue, an intense cobalt-ultramarine that he used as the only color in many works and which he patented as IKB, or International Klein Blue. A major exhibition of Klein's work, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, includes blue paintings and sculptures, later monochromes in gold and pink, and photomontages. It also explores Klein's obsession with painting empty space. Through March 29.
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