1845 UNITED STATES (Massachusetts) - Great Point Lighthouse in Nantucket

Located at 50km south of Cape Cod, the island Nantucket is a tourist destination and summer colony, which has home values among the highest in the US, even if is the least-populous county in Massachusetts. Great Point Lighthouse, officially Nantucket Light, is located on the northernmost point of the island. First built in 1784, the original wooden tower was destroyed by fire in 1816. The following year a stone tower was erected which stood until toppled in a storm in March 1984. Rebuilt again in 1986, the stone tower was built to replicate the old one, and still remains in operation today.

1844 CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC - The map of the country

The Central African Republic is a landlocked country, bordered by Chad, Sudan, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, and Cameroon. Much of the country consists of flat or rolling plateau savanna approximately 500m above sea level. In addition to the Fertit Hills in the northeast, there are scattered hills in the southwest regions. In the northwest is the Yade Massif, a granite plateau with an altitude of 348m. The country also includes a Sahelo-Sudanian zone in the north and an equatorial forest zone in the south. Two thirds of the country is within the Ubangi River basin (which flows into the Congo), while the remaining third lies in the basin of the Chari, which flows into Lake Chad.

1843 UNITED KINGDOM (Bermuda) - A Bermuda Moongate

A Moongate is a circular opening in a garden wall that acts as a pedestrian passageway, and a traditional architectural element in Chinese gardens. The purpose of these gates is to serve as a very inviting entrance into gardens of the rich upper class in China. Moongates were incorporated into the architecture of Bermuda in the late 19th century, around the same time that the British territory began importing Easter lily bulbs from Japan for cultivation. The Bermuda Moongate is slightly different from the original Chinese design, as it is often left free-standing or attached to low wall. In Bermuda, it is regarded as good luck for newlyweds to step through the gate.

1842 ETHIOPIA (Amhara) - Bete Ghiorgis (House of Saint George) - part of Rock-Hewn Churches, Lalibela (UNESCO WHS)

Located in the southwest of the village of Lalibela, on a sloping rock terrace, Bete Ghiorgis (House of St. George) is one of the best known churches of the UNESCO WHS named Rock-Hewn Churches. Isolated from the others 10 churches hewn from monolithic blocks, is connected with them by a system of trenches. In its deep pit with perpendicular walls it can only be reached through a tunnel which is entered from some distance away through a trench. Small round caves and chambers have been found in the walls of the courtyard graves for pious pilgrims and monks.

1841 UNITED KINGDOM (British Virgin Islands) - Cane Garden Bay in Tortola

Tortola is a mountainous island 19km long and 5km wide, the largest and most populated of the British Virgin Islands. Formed by volcanic activity, its highest peak is  Mount Sage at 530m. Located on the northern coast of the island, Cane Garden Bay is a popular ancorage for cruising sailboats, and offers a beautiful curving beach for swimming and sunning plus charming restaurants and enterainment..

1839 QATAR - Cooking pots in Souq Waqif in Doha

A souq is an open-air marketplace or commercial quarter in Middle Eastern and North African cities. Historically, they were held outside cities at locations where incoming caravans stopped and merchants displayed their goods for sale. Later, due to the importance of marketplaces and the growth of cities, the major locations of souqs shifted to urban centers. Souqs are traditionally divided into specialized sections dealing in specific types of product. The main souq was one of the central structures of a large city, selling durable goods.

1838 FRANCE (Wallis and Futuna) - The nature and the people

The Wallis and Futuna Islands are two groups of volcanic tropical islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, between Fiji and the Samoas. While flowers bloom in abundance on Wallis, deforestation has reduced the primary forests to no more than 15% of the total surface area on Wallis and 30% on Futuna. Only Alofi's primary forest has been preserved, since it is uninhabited (70% coverage). The lagoons off Wallis and Alofi abound in multi-colored fish, and one can even spot rays (related to the skate, shark and chimaera), tortoises and dolphins. It should be noted that sharks are rare, and that tortoises are a protected species.

1837 UNITED STATES (Connecticut) - Branford College (Yale University)

1837 Branford Court of Branford College towards Wrexham Tower

Branford College is one of the 12 residential colleges at Yale University, the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1701 as the Collegiate School, and moved in 1716 to New Haven, where it is even today. Inaugurated in 1933, these colleges are considered the defining feature of undergraduate life in Yale College. Eight of them were funded by educational philanthropist Edward S. Harkness, who admired the collegiate universities of England and funded a similar system of residential "houses" at Harvard College in 1928.

1836 NETHERLANDS (Aruba) - Paseo Herencia Mall

1836 Paseo Herencia Mall

Located in the area of Palm Beach, just walking distance from the high rise hotels, Paseo Herencia Mall is an old village style plaza surrounded by great shopping, dining and a state of the art cinema featuring nightly liquid fireworks shows and musical performances against a backdrop of a unique blend of Aruban architectural designs and an expose of Aruban Heritage. The central stage hosts regularly scheduled special presentations and community events throughout the year as well as the thrice-nightly “Waltzing Waters” presentation next to the pool that serves as home ground for Aruba’s synchronized swimming team.

1835 ROMANIA (Braşov) - Viscri fortified church - part of Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania (UNESCO WHS)

Located on a side road away from the national road that links Braşov and Sighişoara, the village of Viscri (Deutschweisskirch) is home to the Viscri fortified church, initially Roman Catholic, and following the Reformation Lutheran.  The weisskirch (white church) in the village refers to a chapel built by the Székely inhabitants who lived there prior to the Saxons' arrival between 1141 and 1162. In the 13th century, the Saxons built a Romanesque hall church that integrated the chapel but also introduced changes.

1834 CHILE (Antofagasta) - Paso de Jama in Altiplano

The Altiplano (the high plain), located in west-central South America, where the Andes are at their widest, is the most extensive area of high plateau on Earth outside of Tibet. Its bulk lies within  Bolivian and Peruvian territory while its southern parts lie in Chile and Argentina. Dominated by massive active volcanoes of the Central Volcanic Zone to the west, and the Cordillera Real in the north east, it has a height averages about 3,750m. The part which belongs to Chile and Argentina, arid and bleak, is known as the Puna de Atacama. The Central Andean dry puna, part of the Puna grassland, has a cold desert climate, its flora being dominated by species of the genera Stipa and Festuca.

1833 ROMANIA (Sibiu) - Hosman fortified church

Located between the cities of Sibiu and Agnita, on the Hârtibaciu Valley, Hosman (German: Holzmengen) is a typical Transylvanian Saxon village, which hiding, as also the neighboring villages, one of the last authentic medieval landscapes in Europe: flowering meadows, forests and pastures spread across the gentle hills, traditional old Transylvanian Saxon houses, an old mill with a bakery and a blacksmithing, and the fortified church which dominates panorama projected on a always exchanger background offered by the Făgăraş Mountains.

1832 BELIZE - Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System (UNESCO WHS)

The coastal area of Belize is an outstanding natural system consisting of the largest barrier reef in the northern hemisphere, offshore atolls, several hundred sand cays, mangrove forests, coastal lagoons and estuaries. The system’s seven sites (Bacalar Chico National Park and Marine Reserve, Blue Hole Natural Monument, Half Moon Caye Natural Monument, South Water Caye Marine Reserve, Glover’s Reef Marine Reserve, Laughing Bird Caye National Park and Sapodilla Cayes Marine Reserve) illustrate the evolutionary history of reef development and are a significant habitat for threatened species, including marine turtles, manatees and the American marine crocodile, and in 1996 was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, under the name Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System.

1831 UNITED STATES (Oregon) - Oregon map

Bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean, on the north by Washington, on the south by California, on the east by Idaho, and on the southeast by Nevada, Oregon, nicknamed Beaver State, has as capital city  Salem, founded alongside the Willamette River in 1842. Its largest city is Portland, located near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers. Oregon's landscape is diverse, with a windswept Pacific coastline; a volcano-studded Cascade Range; abundant bodies of water in and west of the Cascades; dense evergreen, mixed, and deciduous forests at lower elevations; and a high desert sprawling across much of its east all the way to the Great Basin.

1830 BENIN - A young man from Northern Benin

The majority of Benin's population lives in the south. The population is young, with a life expectancy of 59 years. About 42 African ethnic groups live in this country; these various groups settled in Benin at different times and also migrated within the country. Ethnic groups include the Yoruba in the southeast; the Dendi in the north-central area, the Bariba and the Fula in the northeast; the Betammaribe and the Somba in the Atacora Range; the Fon in the area around Abomey in the South Central and the Mina, Xueda, and Aja on the coast. Recent migrations have brought other African nationals to Benin that include Nigerians, Togolese, and Malians.

1829 DJIBOUTI - Beaches, mountains, forests, deserts

Situated in the Horn of Africa on the Gulf of Aden and the Bab-el-Mandeb, at the southern entrance to the Red Sea, Djibouti is a small country with a variate geography. Located at 50km from the city of Djibouti, the Arta Beach is surrounded by mountains formed from volcanic eruptions. A remarkable feature of it is that the tourists get to see wide variety of marine life and also shark-whales at times. The vast extension of the Arta Beach and the beauty of the endless horizon are also highly appealing to the visitors.

1828 NETHERLANDS (Aruba) - The Old Dutch Windmill

1828 The Old Dutch Windmill

Located near the Palm Beach, right where J.E. Irausquin Blvd makes a jug handle turn near the Aruba Butterfly Farm, this windmill is now a restaurant. It is an authentic Dutch windmill, built in 1804 in Friesland, Netherlands, originally used to drain water from low lying land, and later used as a grain mill. By 1929, two storms had damaged it to the point where it was useless and abandoned. In 1960 it was purchased by a private merchant, who had it carefully disassembled, shipped to Aruba, where was.reassembled.

1827 UNITED KINGDOM (Turks and Caicos Islands) - Dean and Jojo the Dolphin

JoJo is a male Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin. Dean and JoJo first met in 1981 during Dean's first visit to the Turks and Caicos Islands. There are only eight dolphins in the world that are known to seek out the company of humans and JoJo is the most famous of them. Dean and JoJo's relationship is the longest lived human-dolphin relationship in recorded history. Dolphins like JoJo grow to 2.5m long, weigh about 110kg, and are thought to live to 40 to 50 years or so. JoJo has a female mate that Dean named Chenoa and together they have a year old calf that Dean named JoJo Jr. but he is more affectionately known as MoJo.

1826 ITALY (Veneto) - Jesolo Sand Nativity Festival

Jesolo lies north of Venice, between Eraclea and Cavallino-Treporti, being located on an island of sorts, delimited by the rivers Piave and Sile, and an artificial canal called Cavetta. It is a famous seaside resort thanks to its abundant holiday facilities and its 15km beach called Lido di Jesolo. In this seaside resort occur every year two sand sculpture festivals: the largest one in summer (International Sand Sculpture Festival), which in 2015 has reached its 18th edition, and its smaller sister (Sand Nativy Festival) in winter, which in 2014 has reached its 13th edition. The sculpture depicted on the postcard is one realised in 2004 for Sand Nativy Festival by an european team.

1047-1051, 1825 UNITED STATES (Hawaii) - Kauai

1047 Kauai - Nā Pali Coast State Park

Posted on 06.04.2014, 15.08.2015
Kauai, the oldest and northernmost island in the Hawaiian chain, the fourth largest of the archipelago, was formed by the passage of the Pacific plate over the Hawaii hotspot. Discovered by Captain James Cook in 1778, it was one of the last islands which joined the Kingdom of Hawai'i, during the reign of King Kamehameha. Draped in emerald valleys, sharp mountain spires and jagged cliffs, it is surnamed The Garden Isle. Kauai's most striking geographic feature is the Nā Pali Coast State Park, located in the center of the rugged 26km along the northwest side of the island. Result of millions of years of wind and water erosion, it stretch southwest starting at Ke'e Beach until the Polihale State Park, and is formed of high cliffs (na pali), which rise until 1.200m hight along the shoreline, but also of green valleys, towering waterfalls and hidden sea caves. These cliffs can only be seen from the sea, by air or by hiking the Kalalau Trail, which runs 18km and crossing five major valleys before reaching Kalalau Beach at the base of Kalalau Valley.

1048 Kauai - Kalalau Valley

Actually the Nā Pali Coast State Park was formed to protect the Kalalau Valley, surrounded by lush cliffs more than 610m high. The valley bottom is broad and relatively flat, with an accessible region about 3km long and almost 1km wide. The abundant sun and rain provides an ideal environment for flora and fauna. Many native Hawaiians lived in the valley into the 20th century, farming taro from a vast complex of terraced fields. Unfortunately these terraced gardens are being threatened and destroyed by the introduced and invasive trees, which created an extensive underground root network which invaded the rock walls of the terraces. The valley is home to many rare species, including the endangered plant Dubautia kalalauensis which was named for the valley and is found nowhere else in the world. Other endemics include the endangered Schiedea attenuata.

1049 Kauai - Waimea Canyon

 

To the east of the Nā Pali Coast State Park is the Hono O Nā Pali State Natural Reserve. Hiking trails and hunters roads have access to the sharp ridges from Koke Road in Waimea Canyon (16km long and up to 900m deep), also known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. Waimea is Hawaiian for "reddish water", a reference to the erosion of the canyon's red soil. It has a unique geologic history, because it was formed not only by the steady process of erosion, but also by a catastrophic collapse of the volcano that created Kauai. Roughly 4 million years ago, while Kauai was still erupting, a portion of the island collapsed, forming a depression, which then filled with lava flows. In the time since, rainwater from the slopes of the island's central peak (Mount Waiʻaleʻale, which is among the wettest places on earth) have eroded Waimea Canyon along one edge of the collapse.

1050 Kauai - Polihale Beach

 

Polihale State Park is a remote wild beach on the western side of the island, on the south of the Na Pali Coast mountain ridges, and even if is several kilometers long, offers safe swimming only in the area known as Queen's Pond, a shallow pond with a sandy bottom surrounded by a protecting reef, located at the southern end. It is kilometers away from the town of Kekaha and can only be reached via a dirt sugarcane road. Sand dunes along the beach can reach heights nearing 30m. South of Queen's Pond is Barking Sands Beach, also known as Keonekani o Nohili (The Sounding Sands of Nohili). If one walks over the sand here or takes two handfuls of sand in each hand and slaps it together, a sound is produced. This phenomenon occurs due to the formation of the individual sand grains, each of them having small holes in it, and the sound is produced within these small cavities through the vibrations that occur when the sand is pushed together.

1051 Kauai - Kīlauea Point National Wildlife Refuge

Kīlauea Point National Wildlife Refuge is located on the northwest coast of the island, established in 1985 to preserve and enhance seabird nesting colonies. On Kīlauea Point, a narrow, lava peninsula, is located Kīlauea Lighthouse, dedicated in 1913, and built in a Classical Revival architecture style out of reinforced concrete. The tower is a slightly tapering cylinder about 16m high. The lens one of only seven second-order Fresnel lenses remaining in a lighthouse in the US. Barbier, Bernard, and Turenne manufactured the lens in Paris, France. The 4,100kg lens floated on mercury and compressed air, and was rotated by a system of pulleys powered by weights that needed to be reset by an operator every 3.5 hours. The station was manned until 1974 when it was automated. In February 1976 the light was moved to a nearby smaller tower and the tower was sealed.

1825 Kauai - Hanalei River

 

The Hanalei River flows north from the eastern slopes of Mount Waiʻaleʻale for 25km, until it reaches the Pacific Ocean at Hanalei Bay as an estuary. It encompasses areas of the highest recorded rainfall on the planet and plunges precipitously from its headwaters at 1,100m above sea level. The lower, flatter portion of the river flows by Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge and many taro farms. The Hanalei River provides habitat for a number of amphidromous species, including gobies (5 native varieties), two native species of crustacean, the hīhīwai (Neritina granosa, an edible snail), and in its upper reaches, a threatened species of highly adapted snail (Newcomb's snail, Erinna newcombi)..