Saint Isaac's Square or Isaakiyevskaya Ploshchad in Saint Petersburg, Russia is a major city square sprawling between the Mariinsky Palace and Saint Isaac's Cathedral, which separates it from Decembrists Square. The square is graced by the equestrian Monument to Nicholas I.
Read more...The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood is one of the main sights of St. Petersburg, Russia. It is also variously called the Church on Spilt Blood and the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ , its official name. The name refers to the blood of the assassinated Alexander II of Russia, who was mortally wounded on that site on March 13, 1881.
Read more...Kazan Cathedral or Kazanskiy Kafedralniy Sobor is a cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church on the Nevsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg. It is dedicated to Our Lady of Kazan, probably the most venerated icon in Russia.
Read more...Casas Grandes (Spanish for Great Houses; also known as Paquimé) is the contemporary name given to a pre-Columbian archaeological zone and its central site, located in northwestern Mexico in the modern-day Mexican state of Chihuahua. Regarded as one of the most significant archaeological zones in the northwestern region, Casas Grandes is centered in a wide, fertile valley on the Casas Grandes or San Miguel river, some 35 miles (56 km) south of Janos and 150 miles (240 km) northwest of the state capital, the city of Chihuahua. The archaeological zone is contained within the eponymous modern municipio (municipality) of Casas Grandes. The valley and region has long been inhabited by indigenous groups.
Read more...Teotihuacan is an enormous archaeological site in the Basin of Mexico, containing some of the largest pyramidal structures built in the pre-Columbian Americas. Apart from the pyramidal structures, the archaeological site of Teotihuacan is also known for its large residential complexes, the so-called "street of the dead", and its colorful well-preserved murals.
Teotihuacan was, at its apogee in the first half of the 1st millennium CE, the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas. During its zenith it may have had more than 100,000 inhabitants placing it among the largest cities of the world in this period. The civilization and cultural complex associated with the site is also referred to as Teotihuacan or Teotihuacano. Although it is a subject of debate whether Teotihuacan was the center of an empire, its influence throughout Mesoamerica is well documented; evidence of Teotihuacano presence, if not outright political and economic control, can be seen at numerous sites in Veracruz and the Maya region. The ethnicity of the inhabitants of Teotihuacan is also a subject of debate and possible candidates are the Nahua, Otomi or Totonac ethnic groups. Often it has been suggested that Teotihuacan was in fact a multiethnic state.
The Hospicio Cabañas in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, a World Heritage Site, is one of the oldest and largest hospital complexes in Spanish America.
The complex was founded in 1791 by the Bishop of Guadalajara in order to combine the functions of a workhouse, hospital, orphanage, and almshouse. It owes its name to Juan Ruiz de Cabañas who was appointed to the see of Guadalajara in 1796 and engaged Manuel Tolsá, a renowned architect from Mexico City, to design the structure.
Chichen Itza ("At the mouth of the well of the Itza") is a large pre-Columbian archaeological site built by the Maya civilization located in the northern center of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the Yucatán state, present-day Mexico.
Read more...Bad Feilnbach is a municipality in the district of Rosenheim in Bavaria in Germany.
Read more...The Boyana Church is a medieval Bulgarian Orthodox church situated on the outskirts of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, in the Boyana quarter. The east wing of the two-storey church was originally constructed in the late 10th or early 11th century, then the central wing was added in the 13th century under the Second Bulgarian Empire, the whole building being finished with a further expansion to the west in the middle of the 19th century. The church owes its world fame mainly to its frescoes from 1259. They form a second layer over the paintings from earlier centuries and represent one of the most complete and well-preserved monuments of Eastern European mediaeval art. A total of 89 scenes with 240 human images are depicted on the walls of the church. The name of the painter is recently discovered during restoration. The inscription reads: "zograph Vassilii from the village Subonosha, Sersko and his apprentice Dimitar".
Read more...The Great Barrier Reef is the largest reef system in the world, composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for 2,600 kilometres over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres. The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland in northeast Australia.
The Great Barrier Reef can be seen from outer space and is the world's biggest single structure made by living organisms. This reef structure is composed of and built by billions of tiny organisms, known as coral polyps. The Great Barrier Reef supports a wide diversity of life, and was selected as a World Heritage Site in 1981. CNN has labelled it one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. The Queensland National Trust has named it a state icon of Queensland.
Chilean Naval Base Arturo Prat on Greenwich Island
Greenwich Island (variant historical names Sartorius Island, Berezina Island) is an island 15 miles (24 km) long and from 0.5 to 6 miles (0.8 to 10 km) wide, lying between Robert Island and Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands. The name Greenwich Island dates back to at least 1821 and is now established in international usage.
The Chilean base Arturo Prat and the Ecuadorian base Pedro Vicente Maldonado are situated on the northeast coast of the island.
Wreak of old whaler ship , in background the Chilean icebreaker Oscar Viel.
Deception Island is an island in the South Shetland Islands off the Antarctic Peninsula which has one of the safest harbours in Antarctica. A recently active volcano, its eruptions in 1967 and 1969 caused serious damage to the scientific stations there. The only current research bases are run by the Argentine Army and Spain.
Prijedor is a town and municipality in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in northern parts of the Republika Srpska entity and the Bosanska Krajina region. Prijedor is the third largest municipality in the Republika Srpska entity.
Read more...Part of Altai Mountains.
Golden Mountains of Altai is the name of an UNESCO World Heritage Site consisting of the Altai and Katun Natural Reserves, Lake Teletskoye, Belukha Mountain, and the Ukok Plateau. As stated in the UNESCO description of the site, "the region represents the most complete sequence of altitudinal vegetation zones in central Siberia, from steppe, forest-steppe, mixed forest, subalpine vegetation to alpine vegetation". While making its decision, UNESCO also cited Russian Altai's importance for preservation of the globally endangered mammals, such as snow leopard and the Altai argali. The site covers a vast area of 16,175 km².
Altai Mountains Pics
Kilauea is an active volcano in the Hawaiian Islands, one of five shield volcanoes that together form the Island of Hawai'i. In Hawaiian, the word kilauea means "spewing" or "much spreading", in reference to the mountain's frequent outpouring of lava.
Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, established in 1916, is a United States National Park located in the U.S. State of Hawai'i on the island of Hawai'i. It displays the results of hundreds of thousands of years of volcanism, migration, and evolution—processes that thrust a bare land from the sea and clothed it with complex and unique ecosystems and a distinct human culture. The park encompasses diverse environments that range from sea level to the summit of the earth's most massive volcano, Mauna Loa at 13,677 feet (4,169 m). Kilauea, one of the world's most active volcanoes, offers scientists insights on the birth of the Hawaiian Islands and visitors' views of dramatic volcanic landscapes. The park includes 1,348 square kilometres (520 sq mi) of land.
Chaco Culture National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park and it is a portion of a UNESCO World Heritage Site hosting the densest and most exceptional concentration of pueblos in the American Southwest. The park is located in northwestern New Mexico, between Albuquerque and Farmington, in a relatively inaccessible canyon cut by the Chaco Wash. Containing the most sweeping collection of ancient ruins north of Mexico, the park preserves one of America's most fascinating cultural and historic areas.
Read more...Regensburg, is a city in Bavaria, Germany, located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, at the northernmost bend in the Danube. To the east lies the Bavarian Forest. Regensburg is the capital of the Bavarian administrative region Upper Palatinate. The large medieval center of the city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Read more...Museum Island in Berlin, Germany is the name of the northern half of the Spreeinsel, an island in the Spree river in the centre of the city.
The Bode Museum belongs to the group of museums on Museum Island in Berlin and is a historically preserved building. The museum was designed by architect Ernst von Ihne and completed in 1904. Originally called the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum after Emperor Frederick III, the museum was renamed in honor of its first curator, Wilhelm von Bode, in 1956.
The Pergamon Museum is among the museums on Museum Island in Berlin. The site was designed by Alfred Messel and Ludwig Hoffmann and was built from 1910 to 1930. The Pergamon houses oariginal-sized, reconstructed monumental buildings such as the Pergamon Altar, the Market Gate of Miletus, and the Ishtar Gate, all consisting of parts transported from the original excavation sites.
Dam Square is a town square in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands. Its notable buildings and frequent events make it one of the most well-known and important locations in the city.
On the west end of the square is the neoclassical Royal Palace, which served as the city hall from 1655 until its conversion to a royal residence in 1808.
The Royal Palace in Amsterdam is one of four palaces in the Netherlands which is at the disposal of Queen Beatrix by Act of Parliament. The palace was built as city hall during the Dutch Golden Age in the seventeenth century. The building became the Royal Palace of King Louis Napoleon and later of the Dutch Royal House. It is situated in the west side of Dam Square in the centre of Amsterdam, opposite the War Memorial and next to the Nieuwe Kerk.
Lublin is the largest city in Poland east of the Vistula, and the capital of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 355,954 (2004). It is Poland's ninth largest city.
Read more...Iguazu Falls are waterfalls of the Iguazu River located on the border of the Brazilian state of Paraná and the Argentine province of Misiones.
Read more...Kolomenskoye is a former royal estate situated several miles to the south-east of Moscow downtown, on the ancient road leading to the town of Kolomna. The scenic area which overlooks the steep banks of the Moskva River became a part of Moscow in the 1960s.
Kolomenskoye village was first mentioned in the testament of Ivan Kalita (1339). As the time went by, the village was developed as a favourite country estate of grand princes of Muscovy. The earliest extant structure is the exceptional Ascension church (1532), built in white stone to commemorate the long-awaited birth of an heir to the throne, the future Ivan the Terrible. Being the first stone church of tent-like variety, the uncanonical "White Column" (as it is sometimes referred to) marked a stunning rupture with the Byzantine tradition.
Dieburg is a town in Hessen, Germany. It was formerly the seat of the district of Dieburg, but is now part of the district of Darmstadt-Dieburg.The town of Dieburg was first named in 1492 in the tax books of the archbishopric of Hessen-Nassau. The city"s name is derived from the Middle High German words "diot", meaning "people," and "burg", meaning "castle." Dieburg therefore refers to the castle of the people, located in the city center.
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