This pretty camel comes from Irfan. 🙂
Clifton Beach or Seaview is a beach in Karachi, Pakistan located on the Arabian Sea. It is one of the neighborhoods of Clifton, Saddar Town. It was the world’s most popular silver-sand beach and health resort during 20th century but in 2003 it was affected by an oil spill. The beach has attractions for families and tourists, including beachside horse and camel rides, amusement parks, restaurants, and swimming in the Arabian Sea.
My first card from Côte d’Ivoire comes from Natalia. 🙂 It pictures a Senoufo craft.
Ivory Coast or Côte d’Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, is a country in West Africa. It borders Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Ghana; its southern boundary is along the Gulf of Guinea. Ivory Coast is a republic with a strong executive power invested in the President of Ivory Coast. Its de jure capital is Yamoussoukro and the biggest city is the port city of Abidjan. The official language is French, although many indigenous local languages are widely used, including Baoulé, Dioula, Dan, Anyin and Cebaara Senufo. The main religions are Islam, Christianity (primarily Roman Catholic) and various indigenous religions.
My first card from Cambodia comes from Arnold. ❤
Angkor Wat was first a Hindu, then subsequently a Buddhist, temple complex in Cambodia and the largest religious monument in the world. The temple was built by the Khmer King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century in Yaśodharapura (present-day Angkor), the capital of the Khmer Empire, as his state temple and eventual mausoleum. Breaking from the Shaiva tradition of previous kings, Angkor Wat was instead dedicated to Vishnu. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious center since its foundation. The temple is at the top of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the country’s prime attraction for visitors. The modern name, Angkor Wat, means “Temple City” or “City of Temples” in Khmer.
My first card from Aruba comes from Denise. It was a great surprise to see this card in my mailbox – it was so, so, so sweet of Denise to think of me while on her trip to Aruba.❤
Aruba is an island 33 kilometres long; it is located about 1,600 kilometres west of the Lesser Antilles in the southern Caribbean Sea and 27 kilometres north of the coast of Venezuela. Together with Bonaire and Curaçao, it forms a group referred to as the ABC islands. Collectively, Aruba and the other Dutch islands in the Caribbean are often called the Netherlands Antilles or the Dutch Caribbean.
Aruba is one of the four constituent countries that form the Kingdom of the Netherlands, along with the Netherlands, Curaçao and Sint Maarten. The citizens of these countries all share a single nationality: Dutch. Aruba has no administrative subdivisions, but, for census purposes, is divided into eight regions. Its capital is Oranjestad.
Unlike much of the Caribbean region, Aruba has a dry climate and an arid, cactus-strewn landscape. This climate has helped tourism as visitors to the island can reliably expect warm, sunny weather. It has a land area of 179 km2 and is densely populated, with a total of 102,484 inhabitants at the 2010 Census. It lies outside the hurricane belt.
This is one of the many cards I received from Pglina. 🙂
Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque is an Islamic mosque located in Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of the Sultanate of Brunei. Considered as one of the most beautiful mosques in the Asia Pacific, it is a place of worship for the Muslim community, a major landmark and a tourist attraction of Brunei.
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 and dominates the skyline of Bandar Seri Begawan. The building was completed in 1958 and is an example of modern Islamic architecture.
This card comes from Kristijan. 🙂
Lake Bled is a lake in the Julian Alps in northwestern Slovenia, where it adjoins the town of Bled. The lake surrounds Bled Island. The island has several buildings, the main one being the pilgrimage church dedicated to the Assumption of Mary, built in its current form near the end of the 17th century, and decorated with remains of Gothic frescos from around 1470 in the presbyterium and rich Baroque equipment. The church has a 52 m tower and there is a Baroque stairway from 1655 with 98 stone steps leading up to the building. The church is frequently visited and weddings are held there regularly. Traditionally it is considered good luck for the groom to carry his bride up the steps on the day of their wedding before ringing the bell and making a wish inside the church.
My first card from Guyana comes from Jealisha. 🙂
Kaieteur Falls is a waterfall on the Potaro River in Kaieteur National Park, central Essequibo Territory, Guyana. It is 226 metres high when measured from its plunge over a sandstone and conglomerate cliff to the first break. It then flows over a series of steep cascades that, when included in the measurements, bring the total height to 251 metres. While many falls have greater height, few have the combination of height and water volume, and the falls are among the most powerful waterfalls in the world with an average flow rate of 663 cubic metres per second.
Kaieteur Falls is about four times higher than the Niagara Falls, on the border between Canada and the United States and about twice the height of the Victoria Falls on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe in Africa. It is a single drop waterfall and is the 123rd tallest (single and multi-drop waterfall) in the world, according to the World Waterfall Database. The same website lists it as 19th largest waterfall in terms of volume, and in their estimation, Kaieteur is the 26th most scenic waterfall in the world.
My first card from Nigeria comes from Ahmed. 🙂
The algaita (also spelled alghaita, algayta or algheita) is a double reed wind instrument from West Africa, especially among the Hausa and Kanuri peoples. Its construction is similar to the oboe-like rhaita and the zurna. The algaita is distinguished from these other instruments by its larger, trumpet-like bell. Instead of keys, it has open holes for fingering, similar to the zurna.
Nigeria is often referred to as the “Giant of Africa”, due to its large population and economy. With approximately 174 million inhabitants, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and the seventh most populous country in the world. The country is inhabited by over 500 ethnic groups, of which the three largest are the Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. Regarding religion, Nigeria is roughly divided in half between Christians, who live mostly in the southern and central parts of the country, and Muslims, concentrated mostly in the northern and southwestern regions. A minority of the population practice religions indigenous to Nigeria, such as those native to Igbo and Yoruba peoples.
How lucky I am to have a card from Cocos (Keeling) Islands! 🙂 It comes from Karen. You should check out her page on Facebook. If you liked that, you should probably check out the Cocos Dive page as well, it looks amazing there! 🙂
The Cocos (Keeling) Islands are located in the middle of the Indian Ocean some 2750km north-west of Perth, and 900km west south-west of Christmas Island, its closest neighbour. Cocos lies approximately 12° south and 96.5° east, locating the islands in the humid tropical zone.
There are 27 coral islands in the group. Captain William Keeling discovered the islands in 1609, but they remained uninhabited until the 19th century. Annexed by the UK in 1857, they were transferred to the Australian Government in 1955. The population on the two inhabited islands generally is split between the ethnic Europeans on West Island and the ethnic Malays on Home Island.
Grown throughout the islands, coconuts are the sole cash crop. Small local gardens and fishing contribute to the food supply, but additional food and most other necessities must be imported from Australia. There is a small tourist industry.
My first card from Mayotte comes from Rouwaida. 🙂
Mayotte is an overseas department and region of France consisting of a main island, Grande-Terre (or Maore), a smaller island, Petite-Terre (or Pamanzi), and several islets around these two. The archipelago is located in the northern Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Southeast Africa, namely between northwestern Madagascar and northeastern Mozambique. Mayotte’s area is 374 square kilometres and, with its 212,645 people, is very densely populated at 569 per km².
Its biggest city and prefecture is Mamoudzou. The territory is geographically part of the Comoro Islands, but the people of Mayotte chose to remain politically a part of France in the 1975 referendum. Mayotte became an overseas department of France in March 2011 in consequence of a 29 March 2009 referendum. The outcome was a 95.5 per cent vote in favour of changing the island’s status from a French “overseas community” to become France’s 101st département.
The world in my mailbox... 