Sunday 22 December 2013

Fertö / Neusiedlersee Cultural Landscape, Austria (UNESCO)

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/772

The Fertö/Neusiedler Lake area has been the meeting place of different cultures for eight millennia. This is graphically demonstrated by its varied landscape, the result of an evolutionary symbiosis between human activity and the physical environment. The remarkable rural architecture of the villages surrounding the lake and several 18th- and 19th-century palaces adds to the area’s considerable cultural interest.

Sender: sarahamina, Sent on: 9 Dec, 2013, Received on: 19 Dec, 2013, Travel time: 10 days

Saturday 21 December 2013

Hallstatt-Dachstein / Salzkammergut Cultural Landscape, Austria (UNESCO)

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/806

Human activity in the magnificent natural landscape of the Salzkammergut began in prehistoric times, with the salt deposits being exploited as early as the 2nd millennium BC. This resource formed the basis of the area’s prosperity up to the middle of the 20th century, a prosperity that is reflected in the fine architecture of the town of Hallstatt.

Sender: sarahamina, Sent on: 9 Dec, 2013, Received on: 19 Dec, 2013, Travel time: 10 days

Hallstatt-Dachstein / Salzkammergut Cultural Landscape, Austria (UNESCO)

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/806

Human activity in the magnificent natural landscape of the Salzkammergut began in prehistoric times, with the salt deposits being exploited as early as the 2nd millennium BC. This resource formed the basis of the area’s prosperity up to the middle of the 20th century, a prosperity that is reflected in the fine architecture of the town of Hallstatt.

Sender: sarahamina, Sent on: 9 Dec, 2013, Received on: 19 Dec, 2013, Travel time: 10 days

Historic Centre of the City of Salzburg, Austria (UNESCO)

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/784

Salzburg has managed to preserve an extraordinarily rich urban fabric, developed over the period from the Middle Ages to the 19th century when it was a city-state ruled by a prince-archbishop. Its Flamboyant Gothic art attracted many craftsmen and artists before the city became even better known through the work of the Italian architects Vincenzo Scamozzi and Santini Solari, to whom the centre of Salzburg owes much of its Baroque appearance. This meeting-point of northern and southern Europe perhaps sparked the genius of Salzburg’s most famous son, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose name has been associated with the city ever since.

Postcard 1 : Old Town, Salzburg


Sender: sarahamina, Sent on: 9 Dec, 2013, Received on: 19 Dec, 2013, Travel time: 10 days


Postcard 2 : View to the Old Town from Mönchsberg, Salzburg


Sender: sarahamina, Sent on: 24 Feb, 2014, Received on: 27 Feb, 2014, Travel time: 3 days
 
Postcard 3 :
 
 
Sender: Maria, Sent on: 7 May, 2014, Received on: 14 May, 2014, Travel time: 7 days
Sent from Salzburg

Palace and Gardens of Schönbrunn, Austria (UNESCO)

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/786

From the 18th century to 1918, Schönbrunn was the residence of the Habsburg emperors. It was designed by the architects Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and Nicolaus Pacassi and is full of outstanding examples of decorative art. Together with its gardens, the site of the world’s first zoo in 1752, it is a remarkable Baroque ensemble and a perfect example of Gesamtkunstwerk.

Sender: sarahamina, Sent on: 9 Dec, 2013, Received on: 19 Dec, 2013, Travel time: 10 days

Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps, Austria (UNESCO)

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1363

This serial property of 111 small individual sites encompasses the remains of prehistoric pile-dwelling (or stilt house) settlements in and around the Alps built from around 5000 to 500 B.C. on the edges of lakes, rivers or wetlands. Excavations, only conducted in some of the sites, have yielded evidence that provides insight into life in prehistoric times during the Neolithic and Bronze Age in Alpine Europe and the way communities interacted with their environment. Fifty-six of the sites are located in Switzerland. The settlements are a unique group of exceptionally well-preserved and culturally rich archaeological sites, which constitute one of the most important sources for the study of early agrarian societies in the region.

Sender: sarahamina, Sent on: 9 Dec, 2013, Received on: 19 Dec, 2013, Travel time: 10 days

Beijing, China

Sender: HuaMingWang, Sent on: 17 Nov, 2013, Received on: 19 Dec, 2013, Travel time: 63 days

Flag of Alabama, USA


It is sometimes believed that the crimson saltire of the current flag of Alabama was designed to resemble the blue saltire of the Confederate Battle Flag. Many battle flags were square, and the flag of Alabama is sometimes also depicted as square. The legislation that created the state flag did not specify if the flag was to be square, however. The authors of a 1917 article in National Geographic expressed their opinion that because the Alabama flag was based on the Battle Flag, it should be square. In 1987, the office of Alabama Attorney General Don Siegelman issued an opinion in which the Battle Flag derivation is repeated, but concluded that the proper shape is rectangular, as it had been depicted numerous times in official publications and reproductions; despite this, the flag is still depicted as being square, even in official publications of the U.S. federal government.

Sender: carastallman, Sent on: 6 Dec, 2013, Received on: 19 Dec, 2013, Travel time: 13 days

Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at Brühl, Germany (UNESCO)

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/288

Set in an idyllic garden landscape, Augustusburg Castle (the sumptuous residence of the prince-archbishops of Cologne) and the Falkenlust hunting lodge (a small rural folly) are among the earliest examples of Rococo architecture in 18th-century Germany.

Sender: nordseekrabbe, Sent on: 2 Dec, 2013, Received on: 19 Dec, 2013, Travel time: 17 days

The Wadden Sea, Germany (UNESCO)

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1314

Sender: Lifeha, Sent on: 4 Dec, 2013, Received on: 19 Dec, 2013, Travel time: 15 days

Group of Monuments at Hampi, India (UNESCO)

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/241

The austere, grandiose site of Hampi was the last capital of the last great Hindu Kingdom of Vijayanagar. Its fabulously rich princes built Dravidian temples and palaces which won the admiration of travellers between the 14th and 16th centuries. Conquered by the Deccan Muslim confederacy in 1565, the city was pillaged over a period of six months before being abandoned.

Sender: nagi7, Sent on: 30 Nov, 2013, Received on: 19 Dec, 2013, Travel time: 20 days

Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka, India (UNESCO)

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/925

The Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka are in the foothills of the Vindhyan Mountains on the southern edge of the central Indian plateau. Within massive sandstone outcrops, above comparatively dense forest, are five clusters of natural rock shelters, displaying paintings that appear to date from the Mesolithic Period right through to the historical period. The cultural traditions of the inhabitants of the twenty-one villages adjacent to the site bear a strong resemblance to those represented in the rock paintings.

Sender: nagi7, Sent on: 30 Nov, 2013, Received on: 19 Dec, 2013, Travel time: 20 days

Season's Greetings, Japan

Sender: Naomi, Sent on: 13 Dec, 2013, Received on: 19 Dec, 2013, Travel time: 6 days

Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of Kotor, Montenegro (UNESCO)

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/125

In the Middle Ages, this natural harbour on the Adriatic coast in Montenegro was an important artistic and commercial centre with its own famous schools of masonry and iconography. A large number of the monuments (including four Romanesque churches and the town walls) were seriously damaged by the 1979 earthquake but the town has been restored, largely with UNESCO’s help.

Sender: ValentinaG, Sent on: 5 Dec, 2013, Received on: 19 Dec, 2013, Travel time: 14 days

Kizhi Pogost, Russia (UNESCO)

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/544

The pogost of Kizhi (i.e. the Kizhi enclosure) is located on one of the many islands in Lake Onega, in Karelia. Two 18th-century wooden churches, and an octagonal clock tower, also in wood and built in 1862, can be seen there. These unusual constructions, in which carpenters created a bold visionary architecture, perpetuate an ancient model of parish space and are in harmony with the surrounding landscape.

Sender: zasranka, Sent on: 5 Dec, 2013, Received on: 19 Dec, 2013, Travel time: 14 days

Tuesday 17 December 2013

Le Morne Cultural Landscape, Mauritius (UNESCO)

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1259

Le Morne Cultural Landscape, a rugged mountain that juts into the Indian Ocean in the southwest of Mauritius was used as a shelter by runaway slaves, maroons, through the 18th and early years of the 19th centuries. Protected by the mountain’s isolated, wooded and almost inaccessible cliffs, the escaped slaves formed small settlements in the caves and on the summit of Le Morne. The oral traditions associated with the maroons, have made Le Morne a symbol of the slaves’ fight for freedom, their suffering, and their sacrifice, all of which have relevance to the countries from which the slaves came - the African mainland, Madagascar, India, and South-east Asia. Indeed, Mauritius, an important stopover in the eastern slave trade, also came to be known as the “Maroon republic” because of the large number of escaped slaves who lived on Le Morne Mountain.

Sender: tasneem, Sent on: 30 Nov, 2013, Received on: 16 Dec, 2013, Travel time: 17 days

Yakushima, Japan (UNESCO)

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/662

High moors are found above 1600 m, such as Hananoego, Kohananoego and Shikanosawa. These high moors have been produced as a result of sphagnum moss piling up. Such high moors more often found in colder regions. Those on Yakushima Island are the southernmost occurrences of such moors in Japan.

These are high moors situated at an elevation of roughly 1,600 m in the center of Yakushima and it is an area of the southernmost high moors in Japan. Sphagnum moss grows over its entire surface, and the alpine plants and rows of white Yakusugi trees around its periphery present a beautiful spectacle.

Photo taken by Tsuyoshi Nishiinoue

Sender: minami23, Sent on: 2 Dec, 2013, Received on: 16 Dec, 2013, Travel time: 14 days

Yakushima, Japan (UNESCO)

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/662

Located in the interior of Yaku Island, at the meeting-point of the palaearctic and oriental biotic regions, Yakushima exhibits a rich flora, with some 1,900 species and subspecies, including ancient specimens of the sugi (Japanese cedar). It also contains a remnant of a warm-temperate ancient forest that is unique in this region.

Of great significance to the area is the presence of indigenous Japanese cedar, known colloquially as 'sugi'. Sugi can reach more than 1,000 years of age on stable sites under the climate of the island: specimens younger than 1,000 years are known as 'Kosugi'; older specimens, which may reach 3,000 years, are known as 'Yakusugi' and are found between 600 m and 1,800 m.

Traditionally, the Island Mountains have been considered to have a spiritual value and the 'Yakusugi' were revered as sacred trees.

Yakushima occupies a strategic situation on the boundary between the Holoarctic and Palaeotropic biogeographic regions, and much of its conservation value is reflected in the 200 plant species which have the southern limit of their natural distribution on the island. The altitudinal continuum of the forests across some 2,000 m is considered to be not only the best in the Japanese archipelago, but the best remaining in East Asia. Ancient yakusugi trees are of prime conservation value to the island.

Sender: minami23, Sent on: 2 Dec, 2013, Received on: 16 Dec, 2013, Travel time: 14 days

Hanseatic City of Lübeck, Germany (UNESCO)

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/272

Lübeck – the former capital and Queen City of the Hanseatic League – was founded in the 12th century and prospered until the 16th century as the major trading centre for northern Europe. It has remained a centre for maritime commerce to this day, particularly with the Nordic countries. Despite the damage it suffered during the Second World War, the basic structure of the old city, consisting mainly of 15th- and 16th-century patrician residences, public monuments (the famous Holstentor brick gate), churches and salt storehouses, remains unaltered.

Sender: Eule, Sent on: 9 Dec, 2013, Received on: 17 Dec, 2013, Travel time: 8 days

Srebarna Nature Reserve, Bulgaria (UNESCO)

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/219

The Srebarna Nature Reserve is a freshwater lake adjacent to the Danube and extending over 600 ha. It is the breeding ground of almost 100 species of birds, many of which are rare or endangered. Some 80 other bird species migrate and seek refuge there every winter. Among the most interesting bird species are the Dalmatian pelican, great egret, night heron, purple heron, glossy ibis and white spoonbill.

Postcard 1 : Aerial View of Srebarna


Sender: fidelius, Sent on: 26 Nov, 2013, Received on: 17 Dec, 2013, Travel time: 22 days


Postcard 2 : Multiview of Srebarna


Sender: elxi4ka, Sent on: 9 Feb, 2014, Received on: 18 Feb, 2014, Travel time: 9 days

Pirin National Park, Bulgaria (UNESCO)

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/225

Spread over an area of over 27,000 ha, at an altitude between 1008 and 2914 m in the Pirin Mountains, southwest Bulgaria, the site comprises diverse limestone mountain landscapes with glacial lakes, waterfalls, caves and predominantly coniferous forests. It was added to the World Heritage List in 1983. The extension now covers an area of around 40,000 ha in the Pirin Mountains, and overlaps with the Pirin National Park, except for two areas developed for tourism (skiing). The dominant part of the extension is high mountain territory over 2000m in altitude, and covered mostly by alpine meadows, rocky screes and summits.

Sender: fidelius, Sent on: 26 Nov, 2013, Received on: 17 Dec, 2013, Travel time: 22 days

Multiview (self printed), Cambodia

Sender: Kat, Sent on: 8 Dec, 2013, Received on: 17 Dec, 2013, Travel time: 9 days
Sent from Taiwan

German States Flag, Germany

Sender: alexina, Sent on: 8 Dec, 2013, Received on: 17 Dec, 2013, Travel time: 9 days