AU-110188

A big australian card.

AU-110188, sent by Barbara.

On the back of the card: Australia is a land of wild contrasts and natural enigmas.

Clockwise from top left: Flinders Ranges, South Australia; Koala; Heron Island, Queensland.

DE-771817

After the RAS and Unesco card, now is time for the officials.
This is a card from the Ammergauer Alps in Bavaria, Germany.

DE-771817, sent by Ariene.

"The Ammergauer Alps are located between Germany's highest mountain, the Zugspitze and the famous castle Neuschwanstein, in the heart of the Bavarian Alps. They stand for an unspoiled mountainous region with a rich cultural heritage and an environmentally development of tourism. The most beautiful time is the autumn season, when the color of the leaves turn red and golden(...).

The Ammergauer Alps, also called Ammergebirge is a mountain range that partly belongs to Germany, Free State of Bavaria and to Austria, federal state Tirol." - in: http://www.live-like-a-german.com/germany_related_articles/show/Holidays-in-the-Ammergauer-Alps-magical-variety

More Unesco cards

The unesco cards keep filling my mailbox and that makes me really happy. I'm not far from the 500 sites but i don't think the 500 will arrive still in 2010, i still need 29 cards to reach that milestone.

Tine helped with 3 sites, Þingvellir National Park in Iceland; Kakadu National Park in Australia and the Ksar of Ait-Ben-Haddou in Morocco. The card from Uzbekistan is also from an Unesco site but i already had that one.

With this card from Iceland i've now both unesco sites from this country.

"Þingvellir (Thingvellir) is the National Park where the Althing – an open-air assembly, which represented the whole of Iceland – was established in 930 and continued to meet until 1798. Over two weeks a year, the assembly set laws – seen as a covenant between free men – and settled disputes. The Althing has deep historical and symbolic associations for the people of Iceland. The property includes the Þingvellir National Park and the remains of the Althing itself: fragments of around 50 booths built from turf and stone. Remains from the 10th century are thought to be buried underground. The site also includes remains of agricultural use from the 18th and 19th centuries. The park shows evidence of the way the landscape was husbanded over 1,000 years." - in: www.whc.unesco.org/en/list/1152

The Kakadu National Park is in the Northern Territory of Australia, 171 km southeast of Darwin. It is the size of Slovenia, about one-third the size of Tasmania, or nearly half the size of Switzerland.

"This unique archaeological and ethnological reserve, located in the Northern Territory, has been inhabited continuously for more than 40,000 years. The cave paintings, rock carvings and archaeological sites record the skills and way of life of the region’s inhabitants, from the hunter-gatherers of prehistoric times to the Aboriginal people still living there. It is a unique example of a complex of ecosystems, including tidal flats, floodplains, lowlands and plateaux, and provides a habitat for a wide range of rare or endemic species of plants and animals." - in: www.whc.unesco.org/en/list/147
The card shows the Twin Falls.

"Ksar of Ait-Ben-Haddou is a 'fortified city' along the former catavan route between the Sahara and Marrakech in present-day Morocco. It is situated in Souss-Massa-Draã on a hill along the Ounila River and has some beautiful examples of kasbahs, which unfortunately sustain damage during each rainstorm. Most of the town's inhabitants now live in a more modern village at the other side of the river; however, ten families still live within the ksar.

Aït-Ben-Haddou has been a Unesco World Heritage Site since 1987." - in: wikipedia

I chose this card because it was marked as being from Bukhara but after all the card is from Samarkand and i already had a card from this site. However, that's not a big issue.

This Madrasa on the card, Tilla-Kori Madrasa, is one of the three madrasas of the Registan, a square in Samarkand.

The construction of this madrasa started in 1646. The works continued 14 years and were completed in 1660. The name Tilla-Kori Madrasa means “finished with gold.” Besides its main function of teaching students, the Tilla-Kori Madrasa was used as a synodic mosque.

Vienna - Austria

Not so long ago Heidi sent me an Andorra card and this week i've received 2 cards from her. What a surprise, a double surprise. This card is from Vienna, where she spent 4 days there and had time for a postcrossing meeting. 

On November 26 she met with Elenna, oldieoma, robin67, amaterasu98 and erlkoenigstochter.

This palace on the card, the Hofburg, was one of the monuments they visited.

"Hofburg Palace is a palace located in Vienna, Austria, which has housed some of the most powerful people in Austrian history, including the Habsburg dynasty, rulers of the Austro-Hungarian empire. It currently serves as the official residence of the President of Austria. It was the Habsburgs' principal winter residence." - in: wikipedia

Belgrade - Serbia

This was a RAS week. If i'm not mistaken, i've received 4 RAS cards in the last few days. They definitely made me smile :). This one from Serbia was sent by Ana.

Once again, thanks dear Ana!!

On this Belgrade card there's the New Belgrade, the left bank of Sava River; the Avala, Monument to the Unknown Soldier; Topcider, Knez Milos Mansion; sculpture "Woman Harvester" and the lake.

More Russian cards

I'm getting a lot of russian cards and i really don't mind because, as you can see, the last cards are great. These ones were sent by Natalia "sixthsense".

A Moscow view with the river Moscow and the Kremlin.

This is the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl in Bogolyubovo.

Bogolyubovo is one of the Golden Ring cities. "These ancient towns, which also played a significant role in the formation of the Russian Orthodox Church, preserve the memory of the most important and significant events in Russian history. The towns have been called "open air museums" and feature unique monuments of Russian architecture of the 12th–18th centuries, including kremlins, monasteries, cathedrals and churches.
The church is an Orthodox church and a symbol of mediaeval Russia.

The church was commissioned by Andrei Bogolyubsky.

In 1992, the church was added to the World Heritage List as part of the site White Monuments of Vladimir and Suzdal." - in: wikipedia

New Russian Unesco whs

I really like these unesco cards from Russia. I wasn't expecting them to be so great. Thanks Olya "reddew".

The sites are: Cultural and Historic Ensemble of the Solovetsky Islands, Historic Monuments of Novgorod and Surroundings and Historic and Architectural Complex of the Kazan Kremlin.

"The Solovetsky Islands are located in the Onega Bay of the White Sea, Russia.

Historically the islands have been the setting of the famous Russian Orthodox Solovetsky Monastery complex. It was founded in the second quarter of the 15th century by two monks from the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. By the end of the 16th century, the abbey had emerged as one of the wealthiest landowners and most influential religious centres in Russia.

The existing stronghold and its major churches were erected in stone during the early reign of Ivan the Terrible at the behest of St. Philip of Moscow.

After the October Revolution, the islands attained notoriety as the site of the first Soviet prison camp (gulag). The camp was inaugurated in 1921, while Lenin was still at the helm of Soviet Russia. It was closed in 1939, on the eve of the World War II. By the beginning of the war, there was a naval cadet training camp for the Soviet Northern Fleet.

In 1992, they were inscribed on the World Heritage List "as an outstanding example of a monastic settlement in the inhospitable environment of northern Europe which admirably illustrates the faith, tenacity, and enterprise of later medieval religious communities"." - in: wikipedia

"Situated on the ancient trade route between Central Asia and northern Europe, Novgorod was Russia's first capital in the 9th century. Surrounded by churches and monasteries, it was a centre for Orthodox spirituality as well as Russian architecture. Its medieval monuments and the 14th-century frescoes of Theophanes the Greek (Andrei Rublev's teacher) illustrate the development of its remarkable architecture and cultural creativity." - in: www.whc.unesco.org/en/list/604

"Built on an ancient site, the Kazan Kremlin dates from the Muslim period of the Golden Horde and the Kazan Khanate. It was conquered by Ivan the Terrible in 1552 and became the Christian See of the Volga Land. The only surviving Tatar fortress in Russia and an important place of pilgrimage, the Kazan Kremlin consists of an outstanding group of historic buildings dating from the 16th to 19th centuries, integrating remains of earlier structures of the 10th to 16th centuries." - in: www.whc.unesco.org/en/list/980