Abhishek's PostCrossing Journey

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Ujung Kulon National Park, Indonesia

Indonesia-5, originally uploaded by Abhishek's Received Postcards.

Ujung Kulon National Park is located at the western-most tip of Java, Indonesia. It includes the volcanic island group of Krakatoa and other islands including Panaitan, Handeuleum and Peucang. The park encompasses an area of 1,206 km² (443 km² marine), most of which lies on a peninsula reaching into the Indian Ocean. The explosion of nearby Krakatau in 1883 produced a tidal wave that eliminated the villages and crops of the coastal areas on the western peninsula, and covered the entire area in a layer of ash about 30 cm thick. This caused the total evacuation of the peninsula by humans, thereby allowing it to become a repository for much of Java’s flora and fauna, and most of the remaining lowland forest on the island.
It is Indonesia's first national park and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992 for containing the largest remaining lowland rainforest in Java. It is also one of only two homes of the critically endangered Javan Rhinoceros.

Lorentz National Park, Indonesia

Indonesia-6, originally uploaded by Abhishek's Received Postcards.

Lorentz National Park is located in the Indonesian province of Papua, formerly known as Irian Jaya (western New Guinea). With an area of 25,056 km² (9,674 mi²), it is the largest national park in South-East Asia. In 1999 Lorentz was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
An outstanding example of the biodiversity of New Guinea, Lorentz is one of the most ecologically diverse national parks in the world. It is the only nature reserve in the Asia-Pacific region to contain a full altitudial array of ecosystems spanning from marine areas, mangrove, tidal and freshwater swamp forest, lowland and montane rainforest, alpine areas, and equatorial glaciers. At 4884 meters, Puncak Jaya (formerly Carstensz Pyramid) is the tallest mountain between the Himalayas and the Andes.

National Maritime Museum, United Kingdom

United_Kingdom-13, originally uploaded by Abhishek's Received Postcards.

The National Maritime Museum (NMM) in Greenwich, England is the leading maritime museum of the United Kingdom and may be the largest museum of its kind in the world. The historic buildings forming part of the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site, it also incorporates the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and 17th-century Queen's House. The museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
The museum was officially established in 1934 within the 200 acres (0.81 km2) of Greenwich Royal Park in the buildings of what was the former Royal Hospital School (or Royal Naval School). It includes the Queen's House (part of the historic park-and-palace landscape of "Maritime Greenwich", which was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997) and the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, until 1948 the home of the Royal Greenwich Observatory.

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom

United_Kingdom-12, originally uploaded by Abhishek's Received Postcards.

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, usually referred to simply as Kew Gardens, are 121 hectares of gardens and botanical glasshouses between Richmond and Kew in southwest London, England. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is also the name of the organisation that runs Kew Gardens and Wakehurst Place gardens in Sussex. It is an internationally important botanical research and education institution. The gardens are a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Created in 1759, the gardens celebrated their 250th anniversary in 2009.
In July 2003, the gardens were put on the list of World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.

Seine, France

France-13, originally uploaded by Abhishek's Received Postcards.

The Seine is a slow-flowing major river and commercial waterway within the regions of Île-de-France and Haute-Normandie in France and famous as a romantic backdrop in photographs of Paris, France. It is also a tourist attraction, with excursion boats offering sightseeing tours of the Rive Droite and Rive Gauche within the city of Paris. It terminates in the Bay of the Seine region of the English Channel and is navigable by ocean-going vessels for about ten percent of its length, as far as Rouen, 120 km (75 miles) from the sea, while over sixty percent of its length, as far as Burgundy near the Swiss Alps, is negotiable by commercial riverboats and nearly its whole length is available for recreational boating.

In 1991, the banks of the Seine in Paris—the Rive Gauche and Rive Droite—were added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in Europe.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Saalburg, Upper Germanic Limes/Frontiers of the Roman Empire, Germany

Germany-44, originally uploaded by Abhishek's Received Postcards.

The Limes Germanicus (Latin for Germanic frontier) was a remarkable line of frontier (limes) forts that bounded the ancient Roman provinces of Germania Inferior, Germania Superior and Raetia, and divided the Roman Empire and the unsubdued Germanic tribes, from the years 83 to 260. At its height, the limes stretched from the North Sea outlet of the Rhine to near Regensburg on the Danube.
The Limes Germanicus was divided into:
The Lower Germanic Limes, which extended from the North Sea at Katwijk in the Netherlands along the then main Lower Rhine branches (modern Oude Rijn, Leidse Rijn, Kromme Rijn, Nederrijn)
The Upper Germanic Limes started from the Rhine at Rheinbrohl (Neuwied (district)) across the Taunus mountains to the river Main (East of Hanau), then along the Main to Miltenberg, and from Osterburken (Neckar-Odenwald-Kreis) south to Lorch (Ostalbkreis) in a nearly perfect straight line of more than 70 km;
The proper Rhaetian Limes extended east from Lorch to Eining (close to Kelheim) on the Danube.
Roman border defences have become much better known through systematic excavations financed by Germany and through other research connected to them. In 2005, the remnants of the Upper Germanic & Rhaetian Limes were inscribed on the List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites as Frontiers of the Roman Empire. The Saalburg is a reconstructed fortification and museum of the Limes near Frankfurt.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Lake Geneva,Switzerland

Switzerland-9, originally uploaded by Abhishek's Received Postcards.

Vineyards between Lausanne and Vevey.
The Lavaux is a region in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, in the district of Lavaux. It was built mostly by monks about 800 years ago and consists of 830 hectares of terraced wineyards. It benefits from a temperate climate, but the southern aspect of the terraces with the reflection of the sun in the lake and the stone walls gives a mediterranean character to the region. The main wine grape variety grown here is the Chasselas.
Under cantonal law, the vineyards of the Lavaux are protected from development. Since July 2007, the Lavaux is one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Wet Tropics of Queensland, Australia

Australia-18, originally uploaded by Abhishek's Received Postcards.

The Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Site consists of approximately 8,940 km² of Australian wet tropical forests growing along the north-east Queensland portion of the Great Dividing Range, stretching from Townsville to Cooktown, running in close parallel to the Great Barrier Reef (another world heritage site)

Fontainebleau, France

France-12, originally uploaded by Abhishek's Received Postcards.

Fontainebleau is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located 55.5 kilometres (34.5 mi) south-southeast of the centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a sub-prefecture of the Seine-et-Marne department, and it is the seat of the arrondissement of Fontainebleau. The commune has the largest land area in the Île-de-France region; it is the only one to cover a larger area than Paris itself.

Sojourner Truth, Underground Railroad Sculpture, USA

USA-39, originally uploaded by Abhishek's Received Postcards.

Sojourner Truth (1797 – November 26, 1883) was the self-given name, from 1843, of Isabella Baumfree, an African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist. Truth was born into slavery in Swartekill, New York. Her best-known speech, Ain't I a Woman?, was delivered in 1851 at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.

Battle Creek, Michigan is home for the world's largest sculpture honouring the thousands of southern slaves and fugitives who fled north during the 1840's and 1850's. Travelling by night, hiding in barns and basements hide-a-ways by day, the movement was known as the Underground Railroad.