1012, 1062, 1488 UNITED STATES (Texas) - Texas map and flag

1012 - The map and the flag of State of Texas 

Posted on 23.02.2014, 22.04.2014, and 15.03.2015
Located in the Gulf of Mexico, at the border with Mexico, between New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana, Texas is the second most populous (after California) and the second-largest of the 50 states (after Alaska) of the United States. In Pre-Columbian period, in the area were developed three major indigenous cultures, which reached their developmental peak before the first European contact: the Pueblo, the Mississippian culture, and the civilizations of Mesoamerica. In 1528, after the arrival of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, "half the natives died from a disease of the bowels". During the next 150 years Europeans have ignored the area, then occupied by French (1684-1689), Spanish (1690-1821), and Mexican (1821-1836). Becoming republic after the Declarationof Independence in 1836, it was admitted to the Union as the 28th state in 1845, and during the Civil War joined the ConfederateStates.

1488 - The flag of State of Texas

 

Although Texas is popularly associated with the Southwestern deserts, less than 10 percent of its land area is desert. Almost twice as large as Germany, Texas has four major physical regions: GulfCoastal Plains (covered by thick piney woods), Interior Lowlands, Great Plains (dominated by prairie and steppe), and Basin and Range Province. Most of the population centers are located in areas of former prairies, grasslands, forests, and the coastline. Three of its borders are defined by rivers: Rio Grande (with Mexico), Red River (with Oklahoma and Arkansas), and Sabine River (with Louisiana). Its large size and its location at the intersection of multiple climate zones gives it highly variable weather. Some of the most destructive hurricanes in U.S. history have impacted Texas.

1062 - The flag and the symbols of State of Texas

Texas's large population, abundance of natural resources, thriving cities and leading centers of higher education have contributed to a large and diverse economy, even if since the discovery of the oil, the state's economy has reflected the state of the petroleum industry. In 2010, there were 346,000 millionaires in Texas, which has the second highest gross state product (GSP) in the U.S., comparable to the GDP of India or Canada. Its largest city is Houston, the fourth-largest in the U.S., but the state capital is Austin. The origin of the state name is from the word tejas, which means 'friends' in the Caddo language. It is nicknamed the Lone Star State, to signify it as a former independent republic and as a reminder of the state's struggle for independence from Mexico.

1487 ABKHAZIA - Pitsunda, the kingdom of the sea and pines

Located in South Caucasus, on the north shore of the Black Sea, on the western end of Georgia, Abkhazia has a varied topography, from the ranges from the lowlands around the sea to the high peaks of the Caucasus Mountains in the north, but however the region is mainly mountainous and settlement is largely confined to the coast and a number of deep, well-watered valleys. One of the mountains range is Gagra Range, which runs between the valleys of the Bzyb and Psou rivers to the south of the Caucasus Major. It approaches to the Black Sea close to the city of Gagra and plays an important role in moderating the climate of that resort by blocking cold, continental winds from the north and east.

1479, 1486 UNITED STATES (Virginia) - Virginia map

Posted on 07.03.2015 and 14.03.2015
Bordered by Maryland and Washington, D.C. to the north and east; by the Atlantic Ocean to the east, by North Carolina and  Tennessee to the south, Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" due to its status as a former dominion of the English Crown, and "Mother of Presidents" due to the many U.S. presidents having been born there. Its geography and climate are shaped by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay, which provide habitat for much of its flora and fauna. Many of Virginia's rivers flow into the Chesapeake Bay, including the Potomac, Rappahannock, York, and James, which create three peninsulas in the bay. The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the Appalachian Mountains with the highest points in the state, the tallest being Mount Rogers at 1,746 m.

Forests cover 65% of the state, primarily with deciduous, broad leaf trees. The largest areas of wilderness are along the Atlantic coast and in the western mountains. The Atlantic coast regions are host to flora commonly associated with the South Atlantic pine forests and lower Southeast Coastal Plain maritime flora. The capital of the Commonwealth is Richmond; and Virginia Beach is the most populous city. Its economy has many sectors: agriculture in the Shenandoah Valley; federal agencies in Northern Virginia, including the headquarters of the Department of Defense and CIA; and military facilities in Hampton Roads. Virginia's economy changed from primarily agricultural to industrial during the 1960s and 1970s, and in 2002 computer chips became the state's leading export.

1484 CAPE VERDE - The coast at sunset

Tourism in Cape Verde, started in the 1970s on the island Sal and increased slowly in the 1980s and 1990s. The number of tourists increased from approximately 45,000 in 1997 to more than 552,144 in 2013. The vast majority of tourists visit the comparatively flat and scarcely populated islands of Boa Vista, Sal, and Maio with their white sandy beaches. The islands of Cape Verde have a pleasant climate during most of the year with 350 days of sunshine, and some of them offer an impressive mountain scenery as well. Some ecotourism is developing on the island of Fogo around the volcano Pico do Fogo. It should be noted that Cape Verde has won a positive reputation in promoting what is considered the most stable democracy in Africa, a standard of living higher than most African nations, and one of the most politically liberal nations on the continent, and in the world.

1483 UNITED KINGDOM (Bermuda) - Heydon Trust Chapel

In western Sandys parish is a private park, a beautiful property administered by the Heydon Trust. This 43 acres of lush gardens is one of the largest parks in Bermuda and also has 10 old buildings in it. There is also a chapel called Heydon Chapel, the smallest church in Bermuda, built in the early 1600s. This property was donated by Mr. & Mrs. Bernard Matthews, members of the Church of England. The gardener is the only person who draws pay from the trustees, everyone else working or contributing to the maintenance of this park doing it by voluntary services. The name of the Park came from Jeremy Heydon, an investor in the Bermuda Company that used to run the governance of Bermuda in the early 17th century.

1244, 1478 BRUNEI - Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque

1244 - Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque

Posted on 24.09.2014 and 07.03.2015
Built on an artificial lagoon on the banks of the river Brunei, Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque dominates not only so-called village in the water, Kampong Ayer, but even the skyline of  Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of the sultanat. The mosque initially seems more attraction than place of worship. However, this could not be farthest from the truth, and the grandiose mosque was in fact designed solely for prayer to Allah. Completed in 1958 and named after Omar Ali Saifuddien III, the 28th Sultan of Brunei who also initiated its construction, the mosque serves as a symbol of the Islamic faith in Brunei, the official religion of the state. Formally, the freedom of religion is guaranteed, but more recently the Sultan has announced strict penalties for those who leave Islam.

1478 - Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque

The mosque, the largest in the Far East, is an example of modern Islamic architecture, uniting Mughal architecture and Italian styles. The design was done by A.O.Coltman of the firm Booty and Edwards Chartered Architects, who were based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at that time. It has marble minarets and domes covered in pure gold, a courtyard and is surrounded by a large number of trees and floral gardens. A bridge reaches across the lagoon to Kampong Ayer in the middle of the river. Another marble bridge leads to a structure in the lagoon meant as a replica of a 16th Century Sultan Bolkiah Mahligai Barge. The barge itself was completed in 1967 to commemorate the 1,400th anniversary of Nuzul Al-Quran (coming down of the Quran) and was used to stage the Quran reading competitions.

1477 CHAD (Ennedi) - Lakes of Ounianga - Lake Téli (UNESCO WHS)

Lakes of Ounianga are a series of 18 interconnected lakes in the Sahara Desert, in North-Eastern Chad, occupying a basin in the mountains of West Tibesti and Ennedi East. It constitutes an exceptional natural landscape of great beauty with striking colours and shapes. The saline, hyper saline and freshwater lakes are supplied by groundwater and are found in two groups 40km apart. Ounianga Kebir (The Great Ounianga) comprises 4 lakes, the largest being Yoan. Its highly saline waters only sustain algae and some microorganisms. The second group, Ounianga Serir (The Little Ounianga), comprises 14 lakes separated by sand dunes. With their high quality freshwater, some of these lakes are home to aquatic fauna, particularly fish. At 436 ha, Lake Téli has the largest surface area but is less than 10m deep.

0205, 1476 RUSSIA (Altai Republic) - Golden Mountains of Altai (UNESCO WHS)

0205 - The Argamdzi River in Ukok Quiet Zone

Posted on 13.05.2012, and 05.03.2015
In nowadays, the specially protected territories and natural complexes with an area of almost 22% of the whole Republic's territory are distinguished in the Altai Republic, which has an area of 92,600km2 and is situated in the very center of Asia, at the junction of Siberian taiga, steppes of Kazakhstan and semi-deserts of Mongolia. The site Golden Mountains of Altai consists in three separate areas: Altaisky Zapovednik and a buffer zone around Lake Teletskoye; Katunsky Zapovednik and a buffer zone around Mount Belukha; and the Ukok Quiet Zone on the Ukok plateau.

1476 - Belukha Mountain

"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. The site is also an important habitat for endangered animal species such as the snow leopard." The Ukok Quiet Zone is located in the south-east of the Altai Republic, near the borders with China, Kazakhstan and Mongolia, on a high mountain plateau dominated by hills and steppe landscapes with marsh, streams and lakes, which have particular cultural and religious values for local people.

1473 AERICAN EMPIRE - The flag of the micronation

The Aerican Empire (also known as Aerica) is a  micronation which has no sovereign territory of its own and has never been recognized by any other sovereign state as existing. The name is a pun on the term "American Empire". Its members claim sovereignty over a vast disconnected territory, including a square kilometer of land in Australia, a house-sized area in Montreal, Canada (containing the "Embassy to Everything Else"), several other areas of the Earth, a colony on Mars, the northern hemisphere of Pluto, and an imaginary planet. The number of "citizens" has fluctuated with time, in May 2009 being about 400 people. In 2000 The New York Times described its website as "one of the more imaginative" micronation sites.

1022, 1472 GUYANA - The map and the flag of the country

1472 - Guyana's map and national symbols

Posted on 04.03.2014 and 28.02.2015
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the name "Guyana" comes from an Amerindian word meaning "land of waters". Anyway, historically speaking, The Guianas (Las Guayanas in spanish) refers to a region in South America, north of the Amazon River and east of the Orinoco River, which includes French Guiana (an overseas department of France), Guyana (former British Guiana), Suriname (former Dutch Guiana), the Guayana Region in Venezuela (former Spanish Guyana), and Brazilian State of Amapá (former Portuguese Guiana). Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, was originally colonized by the Netherlands, but became a British colony and remained so for over 200 years until it achieved independence in 1966, to become a republic in 1970.

1022 - Guyana's flag

It is the third-smallest independent state on the mainland of South America (after Uruguay and Suriname), and has a population of approximately 770,000 inhabitants, of which 90% reside on the narrow coastal strip. Racially and ethnically heterogeneous, with ethnic groups originating from India, Africa, Europe, and China, as well as indigenous or aboriginal peoples, its present population shares two common languages: English and Creole.

1471 SPAIN (Canary Islands) - Playa de las Américas in Tenerife

Playa de las Américas is a purpose-built holiday resort in the southern and southern-west part of the Municipality of Arona, in the west of Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands. It was built in the 1960s beside the town of Los Cristianos and stretching west to the Costa Adeje. The resort area features bars, nightclubs, restaurants, attractions, and beaches, most of which are man-made with imported sand from Africa due to the darkness of the native volcanic sand. It is a centre of nightlife in Tenerife, and can be considered the party capital of the island. In other words, if you are looking for peace and quiet, then perhaps Playa de las Américas may not be for you.

1469 ROMANIA (Brașov) - A Transylvanian Saxon bride of Meșendorf

The Transylvanian Saxons is the oldest and the numerous group of German ethnicity who live in Transylvania. In the 12th century they followed the call of King Geza II, which promoted the colonization of Germans in terra ultrasilvana (The Land Beyond the Forests) to protect the border of the Kingdom of Hungary. The colonization continued until the end of the 13th century, the Germans being also sought for their ability to develop the region's economy. Although the colonists came mostly from the western Holy Roman Empire and generally spoke Franconian dialects, they were known as Saxons. In 1224 the Golden Charter of King Andrew II ensured them a large autonomy, lost only after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, which led to the final annexation of the region by Hungary.

1468 PHILIPPINES (Central Visayas) - Fort San Pedro in Cebu

Front entrance of Fuerte de San Pedro

Built in 1565 in the pier area of the Cebu City by Spanish and indigenous Cebuano labourers under the command of conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi, Fuerte de San Pedro served as the nucleus of the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines. The fort is triangular in shape, with two sides facing the sea and the third side fronting the land. The two sides facing the sea were defended with artillery and the front with a strong palisade made of wood. The three bastions were named La Concepción; Ignacio de Loyola, and San Miguel. The walls are 6.1m high by 2.4m thick, and the towers are 9.1m high from the ground level. Fourteen cannons were mounted in their emplacements most of which are still there today.

1467 JAPAN (Shikoku) - Koi in Ritsurin Garden

In Japanese culture, garden-making is a high art, equal to the arts of calligraphy and ink painting. Gardens are considered three-dimensional textbooks of Daoism and Zen Buddhism, and that's why they are very different in style from occidental gardens. They were developed under the influences of the Chinese gardens, but gradually Japanese garden designers began to develop their own aesthetics, based on Japanese materials and Japanese culture. The ability to capture the essence of nature makes the Japanese gardens distinctive and appealing to observers. They can be categorized into three types: tsukiyama (hill gardens), karesansui (dry gardens) and chaniwa gardens (tea gardens).

1466 POLAND (Silesia) - Rozbarsko-Bytomski folk costume

Silesians are the inhabitants of Silesia, a region of Central Europe, along the Odra river, now located mostly in Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. They are of Slavic descent, but because Germany ruled Silesia for a long time, Silesians have been deeply influenced by German culture. They are generally considered to belong to a Polish ethnographic group, but there is also the opinion that they constitute a distinct nation. 847,000 people declared themselves to be of Silesian nationality in the 2011 Polish national census (including 376,000 who declared it to be their only nationality). The region is rich in mineral and natural resources and includes several important industrial areas (its largest city being Wrocław).

1465 LESOTHO - Thaba Putsoa Range Malealea

It can be said that this kind of mountainous landscape shown in the postcard is specific for Lesotho, the only independent state in the world that lies entirely above 1,000m in elevation (over 80% of the country lies above 1,800m). Thaba Putsoa (Blue Mountain) lies along the road to the Mohale Dam, in south-western Lesotho, and attains a height of 2,902m. Malealea is a remote valley, set in the foothills of the Thaba Putsoa range. Malealea Lodge dates back to 1905 when it was a trading post founded by Mervyn Bosworth-Smith, a charismatic colonial character educated at Oxford, who served in both the Anglo-Boer and First World wars, then fell in love with Basutoland and lived there for over 40 years. A small village subsequently developed round the trading store, which has changed hands several times since Mervyn’s death in 1950.

1464 FRANCE (Bourgogne-Franche-Comté) - House of Châteauneuf

The Château de Châteauneuf-en-Auxois is a 15th-century fortress located at 43km from Dijon, a vast stone building, 75m in length and 35m broad, situated on a rocky outcrop 475m above the surrounding plains which dominates the valley of Canal de Bourgogne. The castle was built in 1132 by Jean de Chaudenay for his son Jehan, who took possession of it in 1175 and became Jean I de Châteauneuf. After nine generations in the castle, the reign of the Châteauneufs ended in tragedy when in 1456 the last heiress, Catherine de Châteauneuf, was burnt alive for poisoning her second husband, Jacques d'Haussonville. In 1457, Philippe le Bon, duke of Burgundy, offered the fortress to his advisor Philippe Pot, who modified the castle to make it more comfortable as a residence.

1463 ROMANIA (Braşov) - The city of Braşov presented in the 1960s style

Euphemistically speaking, my knowledge regarding visual arts are very sketchy, but however I have, like any man, a certain visual memory, especially in terms of things I like. As a result, it wasn't hard to me to recognize in the illustration of this postcard the style used in the 1960s in many areas, from cartoons to advertising and book illustration. I don't know if it has a name, if it is a school or something like that, but I know that I always liked, maybe because of my technical formation. The principles which underpin them are very eclectic, because here we find the lack of perspective of the naive painting, the accuracy of the technical drawing, and the wish of representativeness and of functionality of the communication design.

1462 NETHERLANDS (Curaçao) - Historic Area of Willemstad, Inner City and Harbour, Netherlands Antilles (UNESCO WHS)

Formerly the capital of the Netherlands Antilles, Willemstad is the capital city of Curaçao, a country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and part of the Dutch Caribbean. It is a typical port town, but one without a hinterland, which focused on the neighbouring Spanish, English, and French colonies on the mainland of South America. The historic centre of the city consists of four quarters: the Punda and Otrobanda, separated by the Sint Anna Bay (an inlet that leads into the large harbour called the Schottegat), as well as the Scharloo and Pietermaai Smal quarters.

1461 UNITED STATES (Hawaii) - Sweetheart Rock in Lānaʻi

Lānaʻi, also known as Pineapple Island because of its past as an pineapple plantation, is the smallest publicly accessible inhabited island in the chain. Since 2012, it is 98% owned by Larry Ellison (Founder and Chairman of Oracle), the remaining 2% being owned by the state of Hawaii. On the southern coast of the island is picturesque Hulopoe Bay and its main boat harbor, Manele Bay. Rising from the sea just between these two bays is the iconic Pu'u Pehe, or Sweetheart Rock. Besides being a picturesque natural landmark, Puu Pehe is also steeped in Hawaiian legend.