2255 UNITED STATES (Florida) - Dames Point Bridge

The Dames Point Bridge (officially the Napoleon Bonaparte Broward Bridge) is a cable-stayed bridge over the St. Johns River in Jacksonville, built between 1985 and 1989. The main span is 396.2m, and is 53.3m high. The cables are arranged on multiple vertical planes in a slight modification to the harp stay arrangement. Until 2003 it was the only bridge in the United States to feature the harp stay arrangement. It remains one of the largest cable-stayed bridges in the US, having 34km of cable.

2254 ROMANIA (Olt) - Independency Monument in Corabia

In 1877, when Romania declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire, the town of Corabia had only 6 years since the foundation and was only a small port on the Danube. In order that the independence to not remain only a statement, Romania entered as a belligerent in Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878), which Romanian historians will name, rightly, the War of Independence.

2251-2253 FRANCE (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur) - Dauphiné Region

2251 - Dauphiné Region

The Dauphiné is a former province in southeastern France, whose area roughly corresponded to that of the present departments of Isère and Drôme, in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, and Hautes-Alpes, in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. In the 12th century, the Count Guigues IV of Albon (c.1095-1142) bore a dolphin on his coat of arms and was nicknamed "le Dauphin" (French for dolphin). His descendants changed their title from Count of Albon to Dauphin of Viennois, and the state took the name of Dauphiné

2252 - The Seven Wonders of Dauphiné (1)

 

Under the Ancien Régime, the province was bordered in the North by the River Rhône which separated the Dauphiné from the Bresse and Bugey. To the east it bordered the Savoy and Piedmont, and to the south the  Comtat Venaissin and Provence. The western border was marked by the Rhône to the south of Lyon. The Dauphiné extended up to what is now the centre of Lyon. It was divided into the High Dauphiné and Low Dauphiné. The historical capital is Grenoble.

2253 - The Seven Wonders of Dauphiné (2)

The Basilica of Our Lady of La Salette is a large, rather austere church, with a facade flanked by two strong towers, built between 1852 and 1865. Outside the basilica is a walking path leading to a site of reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary in 1846, a minor place of pilgrimage. Grande Chartreuse is the head monastery of the Carthusian order, which is supported by the sales of Chartreuse liqueur. Built in the 13th century, the Château du Touvet has a garden à la française classified among the notable gardens of France.

2250 UNITED STATES (Alabama) - The Muscogee (Creek)

2250 - Calvin W. McGhee (1903-1970), Chief
of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians

The Muscogee, also known as the Creek, are a Native American people traditionally from the southeastern woodlands, who live primarily in Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. They are descendants of the  Mississippian culture peoples, who built earthwork mounds at their regional chiefdoms located throughout the Mississippi River valley and its tributaries. It seems that the early Spanish explorers encountered ancestors of the Muscogee when they visited Mississippian-culture chiefdoms in the mid-16th century.

0355, 2249 RUSSIA - Nicholas II (1868-1918) and his family

2249 - Engagement portrait of Tsar Nicholas II
and Alexandra Feodorovna (1894)

Posted on 09.10.2012, 29.01.2016
Even though it's been almost a century since then, the dramatic fate of the last tsar of Russia and his family remained a hot subject, intense reactivated a few years ago when the veil of mystery which covered the destiny of Anastasia, the youngest daughter, and of her brother, Tsesarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, was scattered. Now no longer any doubt that the Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, and all their five children were shot in the basement of Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg by a Bolshevik firing squad on the night of July 16 to July 17, 1918.

0355 - Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna
with their childran on board the yacht Standart (1906)

Started with Khodynka Tragedy, the reign of Nicholas II, which never excelled in tact and compassion, was an unbroken string of bad decisions with catastrophic consequences, social movements, mass killings and wars. Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov (b. 18 May 1868) ruled from 1 November 1894 until his forced abdication on 15 March 1917, and his reign saw Russia go from being one of the great powers to economic and military collapse. "Most commonly, he is described as shallow, weak, stupid - a one-dimensional figure presiding feebly over the last days of a corrupt and crumbling system." (Robert K. Massie)

2248 FRANCE (Hauts-de-France) - Picardy Coast

The Picardy Coast stretches 60 km from the mouth of the Bresle in the south to where the Authie flows into the sea in the north, and set between them, the estuary of the Somme River or Bay of Somme. The sea air often casts a delicate veil across the sky, giving the light in this region a very special quality, much prized by artists. The high chalk cliffs give way to pebble beaches as Cayeux-sur-Mer, then dunes and finally marshland. Behind the coast, the rolling hills and laughing valleys preserve a rich heritage.

2247 CANADA (British Columbia) - Canadian National's eastbound freight departs Red Pass Jct. with Nos. 9104 and 5002

The Canadian National (CN) is a Class I railway company headquartered in Montreal, that serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States, and has 24,000 employees. It is the largest railway in Canada, in terms of both revenue and the physical size of its rail network, and is currently country's only transcontinental railway company. CN was government-owned from its founding to its privatization in 1995.  Bill Gates was, in 2011, the largest single shareholder of CN stock.

2246 ROMANIA (Maramureș) - Sighet Prison

Sighetu Marmaţiei (Hungarian: Máramarossziget), until 1964 just Sighet, is a city located in north-western Romania, along the Tisa river, on the border with Ukraine. In 1897 the Austro-Hungarian authorities (at that time the region was part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy) built here a prison, on the occasion of the "First Magyar Millennium". It was a prison for common criminals, but during the WWI was used also for the incarceration of political prisoners.

2245 UNITED STATES (Utah) - Dead Horse Point State Park

Dead Horse Point State Park covers 2,170ha of high desert at an altitude of 1,800m, featuring a dramatic overlook of the  Colorado River and Canyonlands National Park. Immense vertical cliffs meet with canyons carved by ice, water and wind creating a visual masterpiece. Deposition of sediments by ancient oceans, freshwater lakes, streams and wind blown sand dunes created the rock layers. Igneous activity formed the high mountains that rise like cool blue islands out of the hot, dry desert.

2244 NORWAY (Vestland) - Bryggen (UNESCO WHS)

Founded, according to tradition, in 1070 by King Olav Kyrre as Bjørgvin (the green meadow among the mountains), Bergen served as Norway's capital in the 13th century, and from the end of the 13th century became a bureau city of the Hanseatic League. Until 1789, Bergen enjoyed exclusive rights to mediate trade between Northern Norway and abroad and it was the largest city in Norway until surpassed by the capital city, Oslo, in the 1830s.

2243 UNITED STATES (North Dakota) - North Dakota map

Located in the Upper Midwestern region of the U.S., and bordered by the  Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Montana, North Dakota is the 19th most extensive but the 4th least populous and the 4th least densely populated of the 50 United States. Conclusive in this respect is the fact that the state largest city is Fargo, with about 115,863 inhabitants. The state capital is Bismarck , founded in 1872 and capital city since the State was created from Dakota Territory.

2242 POLAND (Silesia) - Tarnowskie Góry Lead-Silver Mine and its Underground Water Management System (UNESCO WHS - Tentative List)

Tarnowskie Góry (German: Tarnowitz, established in 1526) is an old, picturesque town in the Silesian Highlands, near Katowice, known for historic lead-ore mining. According to legend, the source of silver ore (solely responsible for the town's existence,) was first discovered in 1490, when local peasant-farmer named Rybka found a strange, heavy, metallic stone. He presented his find to a local priest and within less than three decades this place became the largest silver mining center in the area.

2241 MYANMAR (Yangon Region) - View of Yangon

2241 Yangon: on left - City Hall; on background - High Court;
on right - Sule Pagoda.

Yangon (also known as Rangoon, literally: "End of Strife"), the former capital of Myanmar (Burma), is the country's largest city and has the largest number of colonial buildings in Southeast Asia. Colonial Yangon, with its spacious parks and lakes and mix of modern buildings and traditional wooden architecture, was known as "the garden city of the East." Downtown Yangon is still mainly made up of decaying colonial buildings.

1312, 2240 MONGOLIA - Women in traditional clothes

1312 Two young mongolian women in traditional clothes

 

Posted on 23.10.2014, 24.01.2016
Mongolian dress has changed little since the days of the empire, because it is supremely well-adapted to the conditions of life on the steppe. The deel, or kaftan, is the Mongolian traditional garment worn both on workdays as well on special days. Each ethnic group has its own deel design distinguished by cut, color, and trimming. Before the revolution, all social strata had their own manner of dressing. The deel is a long, loose gown cut in one piece with the sleeves; it has a high collar and widely overlaps at the front. It is girdled with a sash, which isn't simply adornment, but serves as a soft corset facilitating long riders on horse back.

2240 A mongolian women in traditional clothes

 

The deels always close on the wearer's right and traditionally have five fastenings. Modern deels often have decoratively cut overflaps, small round necklines, and sometimes contain a Mandarin collar, which starts at the neckline and rise vertically few centimeters. The deel has wide, cup-shaped sleeves nicknamed "hooves", which protect the hands from the cold and from injures while doing hard work. There are basically three types of deels, each worn during a particular season. The Dan Deel is made of light, thinks bright materials and is worn by women during the late spring and summer. The Terleg is a slightly more padded version worn by both men and women. The winter deel is serious, padded tunic lined with sheep skin, or layers of row cotton.

2239 GUINEA (Faranah) - Tinkisso dam and waterfall

Dabola, the gateway to Upper Guinea, is a peaceful town, lined with mango trees and framed by hills. At 8km west of town is Tinkisso dam, which supplies electricity to the region. There’s a popular picnic area at the bottom of the dam and, across the stream, there’s a beach and a small waterfall. Tinkisso River is sourced near Dabola in the Fouta Djallon mountain range, and snakes 400km until it runs into the River Niger at Siguiri.

2238 NETHERLANDS (Aruba) - Aruba Beach Club

2238 Aruba Beach Club

The Aruba Beach Club Resort is located directly on Punta Brabo Beach, also know as Manchebo Beach, one of the finest beaches in Aruba, located on the most western point of the island. The beach offers a combination of exciting waves, due to converging currents, and calm waters. Because the sand here stretches 110m from the shore to the hotels, congestion is never a problem. The white-powder sand is spectacular, but the surf is steady and brisk.

2237 FRANCE (Pays de la Loire) - Forest of Chandelais

The forest of Chandelais is the most remarkable forest of Anjou, in the lower Loire Valley, near Le Guédeniau. The 1000 hectares of forest of tall trees (mainly oak and beech) and kilometres of paths was the hunting grounds with hounds of Good King René (1409-1480). It is ideal for walking, horse riding or cycling, and also for picnics. The forest also has a wide variety of edible mushrooms that are the delight of connoisseurs.

2236 CANADA (British Columbia) - S'G̱ang Gwaay (UNESCO WHS)

S'G̱ang Gwaay Llanagaay (Red Cod Island), named Ninstints in English, is a village site of the Haida people located on a small island off the west coast of the Haida Gwaii, formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, an archipelago on the North Coast of British Columbia. Remains of houses, together with carved mortuary and memorial poles, illustrate the Haida people's art and way of life. The site commemorates the living culture of these people and their relationship to the land and sea, and offers a visual key to their oral traditions.

2235 POLAND (Pomerania) - The Pomeranian Dukes Castle in Słupsk

In 1316, the town of Słupsk (developed from a few medieval settlements located on the banks of the Słupia River, which existed since the 8th and 9th centuries), was taken over by the Pomeranian dukes from the House of Griffins, which owned it, with a brief pause, until the end of the dynasty, in 1637. More then that, in 1368 the Duchy of Słupsk was separated from Pomerania-Wolgast, and the town of Słupsk become its capital and the seat of dukes until 1478, when Pomerania was reunited again, under Bogislaw X.

2234 GERMANY (Saxony-Anhalt) - Roter Turm in Halle

Roter Turm (The Red Tower) is, together with the four towers of the Marktkirche Unser Lieben Frauen (Market Church of Our Dear Lady), the landmark of Halle, a city located along the river Saale, at 35km of  Leipzig. Moreover, Halle is also often referred to as Stadt der fünf Türme (The City of the Five Towers), because of the distinctive silhouette of both buildings. The tower burned on April 16, 1945, by shelling and lost its distinctive spire. Except for the Turmumbauung he was restored.

2233 ROMANIA (Harghita) - The Franciscan Church in Şumuleu Ciuc

Since 1959 a neighborhood of Miercurea Ciuc (the county seat of Harghita County, located on the Olt River valley), Şumuleu Ciuc (Hungarian: Csíksomlyó) was first recorded in 1333, as Sumbov. According to historian Losteiner, the village had its own church and monastery as early as 1208. Settled there around 1440, as certifies the bull of Pope Eugene IV, the Observants, the stricter-to-rule branch of the Franciscan order, built a Gothic church with Virgin Mary as patron, completed in 1448.