CA-347758 & CA-359890

Still in North America, now i've 2 officials from Canada. The 1st was my 700th received official card, a perfect card to celebrate such a great number.  

 © Designed & printed by the Postcard Factory * Photo by D. Whitely

CA-347758, sent by Julie.

Guelph is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. 

Church of Our Lady Immaculate (known locally as the Church of Our Lady) is a Roman Catholic church located in Guelph, designed by Joseph Connolly. It is considered Connolly's best work. To serve a Roman Catholic parish of predominantly German settlers, this Gothic style-church was built between 1875 and 1883. The monumental church contains decorative carving and stained glass executed by skilled craftsmen.

The church was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1990. - in: wikipedia

CA-359890, sent by Tracey.

Tracey sent me this card from Port Dover, where she and her husband had their 1st date!!

Port Dover is also located in Ontario, on the north shore of Lake Erie.

The Port Dover Lighthouse is prominently located at the end of the west pier (breakwall), at the entrance to Port Dover Harbour.

The Port Dover Lighthouse is a good example of a building associated with the establishment of navigational aids on the Great Lakes.

Valued for its good aesthetics, the Port Dover Lighthouse is one of a number of square wooden towers built on the Great Lakes in the nineteenth century and is one of the oldest examples in Ontario of the small wooden lighthouses built in pre-Confederation years. - in: http://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=4739

American officials & RU-1882380

Three american officials and a russian official showing Chigago's Botanic Garden. 

Photographers: William Henry Jackson & John Fielder

 US-2239992, sent by Amanda.

This card is showing the Tenmile Range, a mountain range in U.S. state of Colorado, circa 1885 and the

 Breckenridge Ski Resort, one of North America's top two most visited ski resorts, in 1998.

Photo © Alois Mayer

US-2333179, sent by Leah.

Burlington is the largest city in the U.S. state of Vermont. 

On the card there's the Lake Champlain, the gardens at the entrance to the Waterfront Park and the Unitarian Church built in 1816. 

 © Phoot by Phill Valdez

 

US-2224740, sent by Frank.

The Old State Capitol State Historic Site, in Springfield, Illinois, is the fifth capitol building built for the U.S. state of Illinois. It was built in the Greek Revival style in 1837–40, and served as the state house in 1840–1876. It is the site of candidacy announcements by Abraham Lincoln in 1858 and Barack Obama in 2007. - in: wikipedia

Photo by Sandeep Pawar

RU-1882380, sent by Alex.

When i got this card i thought it was a russian official showing a beautiful garden somewhere in Russia. There was no identification of the place but googling the photographer's name, i found out that this garden is Chicago's Botanic Garden.

 Chicago Botanic Garden is a 385-acre (156 ha) living plant museum situated on nine islands featuring 26 display gardens and surrounded by four natural habitats.

The Chicago Botanic Garden is one of the United States' most visited public gardens and a center for learning and scientific research. Nearly one million people visit the Garden annually. It has a membership of 50,000, the largest of any U.S. public garden, and is Chicago's 7th largest cultural institution and 12th largest tourist attraction. More than 2,000 volunteers assist with all aspects of the Garden’s mission, from planting and propagating natural areas, to teaching educational programs and staffing public programs and exhibitions. The Chicago Botanic Garden is only one of 17 public gardens accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, recognizing its living collection of 2.5 million plants. - in: wikipedia

Quiriguá - Guatemala

Another great UNESCO card, this one from Guatemala, my 2nd card from this country, sent by David. The Archaeological Park and Ruins of Quirigua were added to the WHS list in 1981. 

Quiriguá is an ancient Maya archaeological site in the department of Izabal in south-eastern Guatemala.

Quiriguá is one of the smaller Mayan sites, but also one of the most notable due to the artistry of its stelae, which Mayan rulers during the Classic Period commissioned to commemorate important political and dynastic events. Nowadays, the temples and palaces lie in ruins around the pleasant green park that once was the great plaza of Quirigua and archaeologists are only now piecing them back together.

© Photo by Marino Cattelan 

Quirigua features a total of 22 carved stelae and zoomorphs (large boulders carved to represent animals and covered with figures and glyphs), which are among the finest examples of classic Mayan stone carvings. Unlike other Mayan cities, which for the most part used limestone, monuments in Quirigua are made of sandstone, which has survived the millennium since the end of the Classic Period surprisingly well. Even though the Maya did not have any metal tools and only used stone chisels driven by other stones or wooden mallets, they still achieved a remarkable degree of naturalism and refined detail. - in: http://www.sailing-diving-guatemala.com/guatemala/quirigua.php

Rio Abiseo National Park - Peru

I've only received mail twice this week but i still have lots of cards to upload and show here. 

Lilia sent me another one of my UNESCO missing sites. Rio Abiseo National Park was created in 1983 to protect the fauna and flora of the rainforests that are characteristic to that region of the Andes, and was added to the WHS list in 1990.

The park is also home to over 30 pre-Columbian archaeological sites, being Gran Pajatén the most famous of them. 

Photo by Juan Antonio Ahón Jiraldo 

Gran Pajatén sits on a hilltop, and consists of a series of at least 26 circular stone structures atop numerous terraces and stairways. The ruins occupy an area of about 20,000 m². The principal buildings are decorated with slate mosaics displaying human, bird and geometric motifs. Analysis of ceramic samples and radiocarbon dates show that the area was occupied as early as 200 BCE, but the visible building ruins on the present site were constructed during Inca times. Based primarily on architectural evidence, the settlement is attributed to the Chachapoyas culture. - in: wikipedia

São João del Rei - Brazil

Denis (Selos & Postais) read that i like roman bridges, so he sent me this card from São João del Rei, with this roman like bridge. 

São João del Rei is an historical city in the state of Minas Gerais. The city was founded in the 18th century and has a great number of buildings from that era, including more than 70 churches.

Foto: Sérgio Ricardo de Freitas

There are two stone bridges in the historical center of São João del Rei, one of them is the Jail Bridge. It was built in 1797 to replace a wooden bridge that existed in the same location and that collapsed when it was crossed by a procession.

Ichkeul Lake - Tunisia

A new UNESCO site from Tunisia and with this card, i've all the sites from this country :) 

Ichkeul Lake is a lake in northern Tunisia near the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The lake and wetlands of Ichkeul National Park are an important stopping-over point for hundreds of thousands of migrating birds each year. Among the lake's visitors are ducks, geese, storks, and pink flamingoes. The park has been on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites since 1980. - in: wikipedia

Lake Ichkeul is the last great freshwater lake of a chain that once stretched the length of North Africa.  Characterised by a very specific hydrological functioning based on a double seasonal alternance of water levels and salinity, the lake and the surrounding marshes constitute an indispensible stop-over for the hundreds of thousands of migratory birds that winter at Ichkeul.

 Ichkeul National Park contains important natural habitats as an essential wintering site for western Palaearctic birds. Each winter, the property provides shelter to an exceptional density of water fowl with, in certain years, numbers reaching more than 300,000 ducks, geese and coots at the same time. Among these birds, the presence of three species of worldwide interest for their protection: the white-headed duck (Oxyura leucocephala), the ferruginous duck (Aythya nyroca) and the marbled duck (Marmaronetta angustirostris). With such a diversity of habitats, the property possesses a very rich and diversified fauna and flora with more than 200 animal species and more than 500 plant species. - in: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/8

RO-66141

This is an official from Romania but the card shows the Gotta Abu Ramada Reef in Egypt.

This is my 1st official card, as far as i can remember, sent from a Postcrossing Meeting, in this particular case, a meeting in Bucarest. 

© Marco Care / Greenpeace

RO-66141, sent by Ana Maria.

Abu Gota Ramada is also known as the Aquarium. It is a small reef, about 100 by 100 metres with a large submerged mount. 

The maximum depth in 20 metres before it drops down to 50 metres.  The reef lies in the middle of the strait and brings in significant amount of zoo plankton allowing the reef to flourish. The area is covered in picturesque soft coral and an abundance of fish.

The reef, due to its shallow depth, is well covered in sun light, allowing for some fantastic photography, especially in the smaller little crevasses found around the various pinnacles. The trick with this reef is to take your time, choose a spot and just wait, the amount of fishes you are able to spot is absolute fantastic. - in:  http://www.scuba-diving-adviser.co.uk/DiveSites/EgyptDiveSites/HurghadaandSafaga/GotaAbuRamada.aspx

All over the reef, but especially at the west end, there are yellowfish, bannerfish, bluecheck butterflies, masked butterflies, yellow snapper, goatfish and sweetlips. Big morays, jacks, turtles, crocodilefish and more infrequently, eagle rays and leopard sharks visit the reef. Titan triggerfish are guarding their nests in September.