Um Er-Rasas - Jordan

Um Er-Rasas is my fourth and last Unesco site from Jordan!! This card, showing the Bell Tower of this archeological site, was sent by Lucca.

The site contains ruins from the Roman, Byzantine, and early Muslim civilizations. It was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004.

 

Photo by Mohsen Ulama

Most of this archaeological site, which started as a Roman military camp and grew to become a town from the 5th century, has not been excavated. It contains remains from the Roman, Byzantine and Early Muslim periods (end of 3rd to 9th centuries AD) and a fortified Roman military camp. The site also has 16 churches, some with well-preserved mosaic floors. Particularly noteworthy is the mosaic floor of the Church of Saint Stephen with its representation of towns in the region. Two square towers are probably the only remains of the practice, well known in this part of the world, of the stylites (ascetic monks who spent time in isolation atop a column or tower). Um er-Rasas is surrounded by, and dotted with, remains of ancient agricultural cultivation in an arid area. - in: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1093

Wadi Rum - Jordan

Wadi Rum is the newest Jordan's Unesco site. It was added to the World Heritage List last June. Thanks to Rachel, I'm only missing one site from Jordan now.

© Al - Hawari Ghassan

The 74,000-hectare property, inscribed as a mixed natural and cultural site, is situated in southern Jordan, near the border with Saudi Arabia. It features a varied desert landscape consisting of a range of narrow gorges, natural arches, towering cliffs, ramps, massive landslides and caverns. Petroglyphs, inscriptions and archaeological remains in the site testify to 12,000 years of human occupation and interaction with the natural environment. The combination of 25,000 rock carvings with 20,000 inscriptions trace the evolution of human thought and the early development of the alphabet. The site illustrates the evolution of pastoral, agricultural and urban activity in the region. - in: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1377

Qasr Amra - Jordan

With this card from Jordan, i've now 545 unesco sites. That's not bad!! Next week i supposed to receive 2 from Austria and 2 from China.

Lilia "childish" tagged me 2 or 3 months ago with this card but it never reached me. She tagged me again a few weeks ago and she sent me the card related to that card and resent this unesco card. I really appreciate when people resend cards, especially unesco cards.

And this card is an hunting scene fresco, inside the Qasr Amra castle.

"Qasr Amra is the best-known of the desert castles located in present-day eastern Jordan. It was built early in the 8th century (probably between 711 and 715) by the Umayyad caliph Walid I whose dominance of the region was rising at the time. It is considered one of the most important examples of early Islamic art and architecture.
It is most notable for the frescoes that remain on the ceilings inside, which depict hunting, naked women and, above one bath chamber, an accurate representation of the zodic. These have led to its designation as a Unesco World Heritage Site, one of three in the country." - in: wikipedia

3 countries, 1 envelope

Today was a nice day. I've got 6 cards, 3 in 1 envelope sent from Israel with 1 cards from Israel, 1 from Egypt and 1 from Jordan, a new country in my collection. All this cards were sent by Yohai "euclid".

"Acre is a historic walled port-city with continuous settlement from the Phoenician period. The present city is characteristic of a fortified town dating from the Ottoman 18th and 19th centuries, with typical urban components such as the citadel, mosques, khans and baths. The remains of the Crusader town, dating from 1104 to 1291, lie almost intact, both above and below today's street level, providing an exceptional picture of the layout and structures of the capital of the medieval Crusader kingdom of Jerusalem." - in: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1042

"The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai is a triangle-shaped peninsula in Egypt. It lies between the Mediterranean Sea (to the north) and Red Sea (to the south), forming a land bridge to Southwest Asia." - in: wikipedia.

"Petra is an archaeological site in southwestern Jordan, lying on the slope of Mount Hor in a basin among the mountains which form the eastern flank of Arabah (Wadi Araba), the large valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba. It is renowned for its rock-cut architecture. The site remained unknown to the Western world until 1812, when it was discovered by Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. It was famously described as "a rose-red city half as old as time" in a Newdigate prize-winning sonnet by John William Burgon. UNESCO has described it as "one of the most precious cultural properties of man's cultural heritage."In 1985, Petra was designated a World Heritage Site. It is one of the "New Seven Wonders of the World"." . in: wikipedia.