Thursday, 31 August 2017

Rock Art of Alta

This site contains thousands of rock carvings and paintings located at 45 sites in five different areas at the head of the Alta Fjord

Hjemmeluft, Alta
This postcard was sent by Jo

The Rock art of Alta (Helleristningene i Alta) are located in and around the municipality of Alta in the county of Finnmark in northern Norway. Since the first carvings were discovered in 1973, more than 6000 carvings have been found on several sites around Alta.
The carvings were divided into five separate groups by Professor Knut Helskog, of the Department of Cultural Sciences at the University of Tromsø. Using shoreline dating, the earliest carvings were dated to around 4200 BC; the most recent carvings were dated to around 500 BC. In 2010 researcher Jan Magne Gjerde pushed the dates for the oldest phases back by 1000 years. The wide variety of imagery shows a culture of hunter-gatherers that was able to control herds of reindeer, was adept at boat building and fishing and practiced shamanistic rituals involving bear worship and other venerated animals. - in: wikipedia

Thursday, 24 August 2017

Bryggen

I really love this postcard. It has the wonderful colors of autumn. Bryggen seems to be a great place to eat fish and shrimp 

Bryggen
This postcard was sent by Cathrine

Bryggen is a historic harbour district in Bergen, one of North Europe’s oldest port cities on the west coast of Norway which was established as a centre for trade by the 12th century. In 1350 the Hanseatic League established a “Hanseatic Office” in Bergen. They gradually acquired ownership of Bryggen and controlled the trade in stockfish from Northern Norway through privileges granted by the Crown. The Hanseatic League established a total of four overseas Hanseatic Offices, Bryggen being the only one preserved today. - in: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/59

Wednesday, 23 August 2017

Auschwitz Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940-1945)

This is one of the very few UNESCO sites that I don't want to visit. Makes me sick just to think of the atrocities made in this camp against human beings

Auschwitz II - Birkenau

Auschwitz Birkenau was the principal and most notorious of the six concentration and extermination camps established by Nazi Germany to implement its Final Solution policy which had as its aim the mass murder of the Jewish people in Europe. Built in Poland under Nazi German occupation initially as a concentration camp for Poles and later for Soviet prisoners of war, it soon became a prison for a number of other nationalities. Between the years 1942-1944 it became the main mass extermination camp where Jews were tortured and killed for their so-called racial origins.
The fortified walls, barbed wire, railway sidings, platforms, barracks, gallows, gas chambers and crematoria at Auschwitz Birkenau show clearly how the Holocaust, as well as the Nazi German policy of mass murder and forced labour took place. - in: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/31

Centennial Hall in Wrocław

It's a building like this that misses here where I live, for concerts, theater and sports that not ski or golf...

Centennial Hall
This postcard was sent by Ana

The Centennial Hall, a landmark in the history of reinforced concrete architecture, was erected in 1911-1913 by the architect Max Berg as a multi-purpose recreational building, situated in the Exhibition Grounds. In form it is a symmetrical quatrefoil with a vast circular central space that can seat some 6,000 persons. The 23m-high dome is topped with a lantern in steel and glass. The Centennial Hall is a pioneering work of modern engineering and architecture, which exhibits an important interchange of influences in the early 20th century, becoming a key reference in the later development of reinforced concrete structures. - in: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1165

Tuesday, 22 August 2017

Nemrut Dağ

This site looks like a garden of statues. Even with the heads removed from the bodies the statues are still quite imposing

Heads of Statues in Nemrut
This postcard was sent by Onder

Nemrut or Nemrud (TurkishNemrut Dağı) is a 2,134-metre-high (7,001 ft) mountain in southeastern Turkey, notable for the summit where a number of large statues are erected around what is assumed to be a royal tomb from the 1st century BC.
In 62 BC, King Antiochus I Theos of Commagene built on the mountain top a tomb-sanctuary flanked by huge statues 8–9-metre-high (26–30 ft) of himself, two lions, two eagles and various GreekArmenian, and Medes gods, such as Zeus-Aramazd or Oromasdes (associated with Zoroastrian god Ahura Mazda), Hercules-VahagnTyche-Bakht, and Apollo-Mihr-Mithras. These statues were once seated, with names of each god inscribed on them. The heads of the statues have at some stage been removed from their bodies, and they are now scattered throughout the site. - in: wikipedia

Monday, 21 August 2017

Medieval City of Rhodes

Rhodes has been famous since antiquity because of the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

Rhodes
This postcard was sent from Poland by Boguslaw

The Order of St John of Jerusalem occupied Rhodes from 1309 to 1523 and set about transforming the city into a stronghold. It subsequently came under Turkish and Italian rule. With the Palace of the Grand Masters, the Great Hospital and the Street of the Knights, the Upper Town is one of the most beautiful urban ensembles of the Gothic period. In the Lower Town, Gothic architecture coexists with mosques, public baths and other buildings dating from the Ottoman period. - in: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/493/

Old Town of Corfu

Corfu is the only part of Greece that never fell in the hands of the Ottomans, thanks to the Venetian fortresses 

Corfu
This postcard was sent by Sini

The Old Town of Corfu, on the Island of Corfu off the western coasts of Albania and Greece, is located in a strategic position at the entrance of the Adriatic Sea, and has its roots in the 8th century BC. The three forts of the town, designed by renowned Venetian engineers, were used for four centuries to defend the maritime trading interests of the Republic of Venice against the Ottoman Empire. In the course of time, the forts were repaired and partly rebuilt several times, more recently under British rule in the 19th century. The mainly neoclassical housing stock of the Old Town is partly from the Venetian period, partly of later construction, notably the 19th century. As a fortified Mediterranean port, Corfu’s urban and port ensemble is notable for its high level of integrity and authenticity. - in: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/978