3457 UNITED KINGDOM (Cayman Islands) - George Town

With a population of 40,200, George Town, situated on Grand Cayman, is not only the capital of the Cayman Islands, but also the largest city (by population) of all the British Overseas Territories, and a popular port for Caribbean cruise ships. This quaint town is host to a variety of activities – including luxurious glass-bottom boat tours, fascinating rum distillery tours, beautiful art galleries, top-notch shopping that includes duty free shops, delicious eateries and an historical museum.

3430 UNITED KINGDOM (Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha) - Island of Saint Helena (UNESCO WHS - Tentative List)

Saint Helena is a volcanic tropical island in the South Atlantic Ocean, part of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. It is one of the most remote islands in the world and was uninhabited when discovered by the Portuguese in 1502. From 1659 it has been a British possession, apart from a short Dutch interlude in 1673, and was an important stopover for ships sailing to Europe from Asia and South Africa for centuries.

2699, 3391 UNITED KINGDOM - Elizabeth II

2699 Queen Elizabeth II addresses politicians and
members of the House of Lords during the
State Opening of Parliament in Westminster.

Posted on 21.08.2016, 25.01.2020
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; born 21 April 1926) is, and has been since her accession in 1952, Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and Head of the Commonwealth. She is also Queen of 12 countries that have become independent since her accession: Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Kitts and Nevis.

3391 Queen Elizabeth II travelling in Queen Victoria's 1842 ivory-mounted
phaeton drawn by two Windsor Grey horses. The driver is dressed in full state
postillion livery.

Elizabeth was born in London to the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and was the elder of their two daughters. She was educated privately at home. Her father acceded to the throne on the abdication of his brother Edward VIII in 1936. She began to undertake public duties during the WWII, serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. In 1947, she married Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, with whom she has four children: Charles, Anne, Andrew, and Edward.

3385 UNITED KINGDOM (England) - Buckingham Palace

The London residence and administrative headquarters of the monarchy of the United Kingdom, but also the centre of state occasions and royal hospitality, Buckingham Palace is located in the City of Westminster and has 775 rooms and the largest private garden in London. The state rooms, used for official and state entertaining, are open to the public each year for most of August and September and on some days in winter and spring. When paying a state visit to Britain, foreign heads of state are usually entertained by the Queen at Buckingham Palace

3354 UNITED KINGDOM (Scotland) - Scott Monument - part of Old and New Towns of Edinburgh (UNESCO WHS)

Placed in Princes Street Gardens in New Town, opposite the Jenners department store on Princes Street, the Scott Monument is a Victorian Gothic monument to famous Scottish author Sir Walter Scott (1771 - 1832), designed by George Meikle Kemp and inaugurated in 1846. Sitting proudly at the base of the monument is Sir Walter himself, carved in Carrara marble by Sir John Steell. This monumental statue, fashioned from a single piece of marble weighing 30 tons, took the sculptor six years to complete. It features Scott and his beloved hound Maida.

3350 UNITED KINGDOM (Scotland) - Greyfriars Bobby Fountain

Greyfriars Bobby (1855 - 1872) was a Skye Terrier who became known in 19th-century Edinburgh for spending 14 years guarding the grave of his owner until he died himself. The story continues to be well known in Scotland, through several books and films. A prominent commemorative statue and nearby graves are a tourist attraction. A year later, the English philanthropist Lady Burdett-Coutts was charmed by the story and had a drinking fountain topped with Bobby's statue (commissioned from the sculptor William Brodie) erected at the junction of George IV Bridge and Candlemaker Row (opposite the entrance to the churchyard) to commemorate him.

3272 UNITED KINGDOM (England) - Lincoln Cathedral

 

Lincoln Cathedral, Lincoln Minster, or the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lincoln, in Lincoln (Lincolnshire in the East Midlands of England), is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Lincoln. It is one of the few English cathedrals built from the rock it is standing on, and has owned the existing quarry, on Riseholme Road, since 1876. This quarry is expected to run out of stone in 2021, because the stonemasons use more than 100 tonnes of stone per year for maintenance and repairs.

0059, 3225 UNITED KINGDOM (Scotland) - Edinburgh Castle - part of Old and New Towns of Edinburgh (UNESCO WHS)

0059 Edinburgh Castle during the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo

Posted on 03.12.2017, 24.12.2017

Edinburgh Castle, which dominates the skyline of the city from its position atop the volcanic Castle Rock, is a recognisable symbol of Edinburgh and of Scotland. There has been a royal castle here since at least the reign of David I in the 12th century, and the site continued to be a royal residence until the Union of the Crowns in 1603. It was involved in many historical conflicts, from the Wars of Scottish Independence in the 14th century, up to the Jacobite Rising of 1745.

3225 View of the Edinburgh Castle
from West Princes Street,
with Princes Street Gardens and
Ross Fountain in foreground

During the Lang Siege (1571–1573) the medieval fortifications were largely destroyed by artillery bombardment. The last monarch who sleeping in the castle was Charles I, on the night before his coronation as King of Scotland (1633). In nowaday the castle houses the Scottish National War Memorial and the National War Museum of Scotland and it's the backdrop to the annual Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, performed by British Armed Forces, Commonwealth and International military bands.

3192 UNITED KINGDOM (England) - Mary Rose

Launched in 1511, during the reign of King Henry VIII, the Mary Rose was named after the King's younger sister, Mary Tudor (1496-1533), who was later briefly Queen of France. The rose was the emblem of the Tudors. She was a carrack-type warship, with high "castles" in the bow and stern with a low waist of open decking in the middle. The shape of the hull has a so-called tumblehome form and reflected the use of the ship as a platform for heavy guns.

3161 UNITED KINGDOM (England) - HMS Victory

3161 Starboard side of H.M.S. Victory

HMS Victory is a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, and one of the most famous warships ever launched. Ordered in 1758, laid down in 1759 and launched in 1765, she was placed in active service after France joined the American War of Independence in 1778. Over time she served as Keppel's flagship at Ushant, Howe's flagship at Cape Spartel, and Jervis's flagship at Cape St Vincent, but she is best known for her role as Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

3101 UNITED KINGDOM - Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, (30 November 1874 - 24 January 1965) was a British politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. He led Britain to victory over Nazi Germany during WWII. Churchill was also a non-academic historian and a writer, winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953. Named the Greatest Briton of all time in a 2002 poll, Churchill is among the most influential people in British history.

3080 UNITED KINGDOM (England) - Osmington White Horse

The Osmington White Horse is a hill figure cut into the limestone of Osmington Hill just north of Weymouth in 1808. The figure is of King George III riding his horse and can be seen for miles around. The king was a regular visitor to Weymouth and made it 'the first resort'. The figure is 85m long and 98m high and was restored in 1989 for a broadcast of the TV show Challenge Anneka, although the work was subsequently criticised by historians for doing more harm than good. Anneka Rice.

1607, 3027 UNITED KINGDOM / AUSTRALIA - The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and their son, Prince George

1607 The Duke and Duchess Of Cambridge
with their newborn son
a day after his birth on 22 July 2013

Duke of Cambridge is a title which has been conferred upon members of the British royal family several times. It was first used as a designation for Charles Stuart (1660-1661), the eldest son of James, Duke of York (later James II), though he was never formally created Duke of Cambridge, because he had died at the age of six months. The title became extinct several times, before being revived after a hiatus of over a hundred years in 2011, when it was bestowed upon Prince William on 29 April 2011 upon his marriage on the same day to Catherine (née Middleton; born 9 January 1982), who become Duchess of Cambridge.

3027 The Duke and Duchess Of Cambridge
with Prince George at his Christening,
on 23rd of October 2013

Prince William (William Arthur Philip Louis; born 21 June 1982), is the elder son of Charles, Prince of Wales, and  Diana, Princess of Wales. Following his father, William is second in line to succeed his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, as monarch of the United Kingdom and 15 other Commonwealth realms (including Australia). He was educated at four schools in the United Kingdom and obtained a degree from the University of St Andrews. He spent parts of a gap year in Chile, Belize, and some parts of Africa.

0093, 0223, 0774, 1330, 2892 UNITED KINGDOM (England) - Stonehenge - part of Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites (UNESCO WHS)

2892 Stonehenge during a storm

Posted on 08.01.2012, 26.05.2012, 30.07.2013, 09.11.2014, 05.12.2016
I don't know if Stonehenge is the most important megalithic construction which survived the history, but certainly is the best known and most intensively researched. Located in the county of Wiltshire, at about 13km north of Salisbury, in the middle of the most dense complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred burial mounds, Stonehenge assembly consists of four concentric circles made of standing stones set within earthworks.

2892 Stonehenge during a storm (left)

 

The outer circle (Sarsen Circle), about 33m in diameter, was originally comprised of 30 neatly trimmed upright sandstone blocks (of which only 17 are now standing), above which were placed as lintels some other blocks, circular arc-shaped. Inside is another circle of eggplant stone blocks. They surround a horseshoe-shaped arrangement, built also of eggplant stone, within which is a sandstone slab mecacee called the Altar Stone.

2892 Stonehenge during a storm (center)

The whole construction is surrounded by a circular ditch measuring 104m in diameter. Inside stands a sandbank which contains 56 tombs, known as the Aubrey holes (named after the discoverer). The embankment and the ditch are intersected by a processional path 23m wide and almost 3km long, Stonehenge Avenue, which connects Stonehenge with the River Avon, and the small henge on its bank, discovered in 2008, at West Amesbury. 

2892 Stonehenge during a storm (right)

Near the entrance to the Avenue is Slaughter Stone (a fallen sarsen that once stood upright with one or two other stones across the entrance causeway), and on the other side is the Heelstone, a single huge unshaped sarsen boulder. The main axis of the stones is aligned upon the solstitial axis. At midsummer, the sun rises over the horizon to the north-east, close to the Heel Stone. At midwinter, the sun sets in the south-west, in the gap between the two tallest trilithons, one of which has now fallen.

0223 Stonehenge at sunset

With regard to construction's purpose, opinions are divided, the most important theories circulated claiming that Stonehenge have served as a burial ground, as a place of healing, as part of a ritual landscape or have a celestial observatory function. Even I'm not historian, may have my own opinion, isn't it? Personally I believe that the people who have built it (between 3100 and 1600 BC) just don't thinking like us, ie they not separate the sides of existence as we do, but they viewed things globally.

0774 Stonehenge in summertime

Surrounding universe didn't have for them a sacred dimension and a profran one, but life, death, nature, cosmos, divinity was closely entwined, forming a inseparable whole. As a result I don't think there was a space where they worshiped gods, another in which they buried the dead, another in which they made astronomical observations and so on, but there was only one site (like Stonehenge) which served all these types of activities. Anyway, many aspects of Stonehenge remain subject to debate.

1330 Stonehenge in springtime

 

Throughout the 20th century, Stonehenge began to be revived as a place of religious significance, this time by adherents of Neopagan and New Age beliefs, particularly the Neo-druids. The historian Ronald Hutton would later remark that "it was a great, and potentially uncomfortable, irony that modern Druids had arrived at Stonehenge just as archaeologists were evicting the ancient Druids from it." The first such Neo-druidic group to make use of the megalithic monument was the Ancient Order of Druids, who performed a mass initiation ceremony there in August 1905.

0093 Stonehenge in wintertime

Between 1972 and 1984, Stonehenge was the site of the Stonehenge Free Festival, culminating with the summer solstice on or near June 21. It emerged as the major free festival in the calendar after the violent suppression of the Windsor Free Festival in August 1974. After the Battle of the Beanfield in 1985, this use of the site was stopped for several years and ritual use of Stonehenge is now heavily restricted. Some Druids have arranged an assembling of monuments styled on Stonehenge in other parts of the world as a form of Druidist worship.

2836 UNITED KINGDOM (England) - China Miéville

China Tom Miéville is an English fantasy fiction author, comic writer, political activist and academic. He often describes his work as weird fiction and specifically to the loosely associated movement of writers sometimes called New Weird. Born in Norwich, Miéville was brought up in Willesden, northwest London, and has lived in the city since early childhood. He grew up with his sister Jemima and mother Claudia, a translator, writer and teacher. By virtue of his mother's birth in New York City, Miéville holds dual American and British citizenship.