Theme Week Lebanon – Tyre

17 July 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  8 minutes

Remains of ancient columns at Al Mina excavation site © Heretiq/cc-by-sa-2.5

Remains of ancient columns at Al Mina excavation site © Heretiq/cc-by-sa-2.5

Tyre, sometimes romanized as Sour, is a city in the South Governorate of Lebanon. There were approximately 117,000 inhabitants in 2003. However, the government of Lebanon has released only rough estimates of population numbers since 1932, so an accurate statistical accounting is not possible. Tyre juts out from the coast of the Mediterranean and is located about 80 km (50 mi) south of Beirut. The name of the city means “rock” after the rocky formation on which the town was originally built. The adjective for Tyre is Tyrian, and the inhabitants are Tyrians. Tyre is an ancient Phoenician city and the legendary birthplace of Europa and Elissa (Dido). Today it is the fourth largest city in Lebanon and houses one of the nation’s major ports. Tourism is a major industry. The city has a number of ancient sites, including its Roman Hippodrome which was added to UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites in 1979.   read more…

Llangollen in Wales

16 July 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

Plas Newydd © Wolfgang Sauber/cc-by-sa-3.0

Plas Newydd © Wolfgang Sauber/cc-by-sa-3.0

Llangollen is a small town and community in Denbighshire, north-east Wales, situated on the River Dee and on the edge of the Berwyn mountains. Today Llangollen relies heavily on the tourist industry, but still gains substantial income from farming. Most of the farms in the hills around the town were sheep farms, and weaving was an important cottage industry in the area for centuries. Several factories were later built along the banks of the River Dee, where both wool and cotton were processed. The water mill opposite Llangollen railway station is over 600 years old, and was originally used to grind flour for local farmers.   read more…

Theme Week Mexico – Riviera Maya on the Caribbean coast

16 July 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  8 minutes

Xcaret Eco Park © Karla Quiñonez/cc-by-sa-3.0

Xcaret Eco Park © Karla Quiñonez/cc-by-sa-3.0

Riviera Maya, also known as the Mayan Riviera, is a tourism district following the coastal Highway 307 which parallels the Caribbean coastline of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, located on the eastern portion of the Yucatán Peninsula. This district historically started at the city of Playa del Carmen and ended at the village of Tulum, although the towns of Puerto Morelos situated to the north and between Playa del Carmen and Cancun as well as the town of Felipe Carrillo Puerto situated 40 kilometres (25 mi) to the south of Tulum are both currently being promoted as part of the Riviera Maya tourist corridor.   read more…

The Northwest Territories in Canada

15 July 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  10 minutes

Northern Lights - Aurora Village © flickr.com - Hideyuki KAMON/cc-by-sa-2.0

Northern Lights – Aurora Village © flickr.com – Hideyuki KAMON/cc-by-sa-2.0

The Northwest Territories (NWT; French: les Territoires du Nord-Ouest, TNO) is a territory of Canada. With a population of 43,500, the Northwest Territories is the most populous territory in Northern Canada. Yellowknife became the territorial capital in 1967, following recommendations by the Carrothers Commission. The Northwest Territories, a portion of the old North-West Territory, entered the Canadian Confederation July 15, 1870, but the current borders were formed April 1, 1999, when the territory was subdivided to create Nunavut to the east, via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act. While Nunavut is mostly Arctic tundra, the Northwest Territories has a slightly warmer climate and is mostly boreal forest (taiga), although portions of the territory lie north of the tree line, and its most northern regions form part of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The Northwest Territories are bordered by Canada’s two other territories, Nunavut to the east and Yukon to the west, and by the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan to the south.   read more…

Eschwege in the Werra Valley

15 July 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Eschwege © Varus111

Eschwege © Varus111

Eschwege, the district seat of the Werra-Meißner-Kreis, is a town in northeastern Hesse. At the time of founding, Eschwege was known as Eskiniwach, meaning “Settlement near the ash trees at the water”. Older people living in town and nearby also say Eschewei or Ischewei. These names may stem from High German and come from Eschwege’s original Germanic name.   read more…

Freital in Saxony

14 July 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  13 minutes

© Kolossos/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Kolossos/cc-by-sa-3.0

Freital is a town in the district of Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge in Saxony, Germany. The town is situated on a small river, the Weißeritz, and is 8 kilometres southwest of Dresden. Freital is located southwest of Dresden in the Döhlen Basin, through which the Weißeritz flows from south-west to north-east. The Windberg hill, is the town’s local mountain and well-known landmark, rising about 100 metres above the valley floor. The lowest part of the town is the point where the Weißeritz enters the territory of the city of Dresden.   read more…

Diani Beach on the Indian Ocean

14 July 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  4 minutes

Outrigger canoe © flickr.com - Giorgio Montersino/cc-by-sa-2.0

Outrigger canoe © flickr.com – Giorgio Montersino/cc-by-sa-2.0

Diani Beach is a major beach resort on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya (in eastern Africa). It is located 30 kilometres (19 mi) south of Mombasa, in the nearby Kwale County.   read more…

The Florida Keys

13 July 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon voyage, Miami / South Florida, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks, Environment Reading Time:  15 minutes

Fort Jefferson - Dry Tortugas © U.S. National Park Service

Fort Jefferson – Dry Tortugas © U.S. National Park Service

The Florida Keys are an archipelago of 4500 islands in the southeast United States. They begin at the southeastern tip of the Florida peninsula, about 15 miles (24 km) south of Miami, and extend in a gentle arc south-southwest and then westward to Key West, the westernmost of the inhabited islands, and on to the uninhabited Dry Tortugas. The islands lie along the Florida Straits, dividing the Atlantic Ocean to the east from the Gulf of Mexico to the west, and defining one edge of Florida Bay. At the nearest point, the southern tip of Key West is just 90 miles (140 km) from Cuba. The Florida Keys are between about 23.5 and 25.5 degrees North latitude, in the subtropics. The climate of the Keys however, is defined as tropical according to Köppen climate classification. More than 95 percent of the land area lies in Monroe County, but a small portion extends northeast into Miami-Dade County, primarily in the city of Islandia, Florida. The total land area is 137.3 square miles (356 km2). As of the 2000 census the population was 79,535, with an average density of 579.27 per square mile (223.66 /km2), although much of the population is concentrated in a few areas of much higher density, such as the city of Key West, which has 32% of the entire population of the Keys. The city of Key West is the county seat of Monroe County. The county consists of a section on the mainland which is almost entirely in Everglades National Park, and the Keys islands from Key Largo to the Dry Tortugas.   read more…

Port Vila on the island of Efate in the Pacific

13 July 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

© flickr.com - Phillip Capper/cc-by-2.0

© flickr.com – Phillip Capper/cc-by-2.0

Port Vila is the capital and largest city of Vanuatu and is located on the island of Efate. Its population is at 44,000. In 2009, the population of Port Vila formed 18.8% of the country’s population, and 66.9% of the population of Efate. Situated on the south coast of the island of Efate, in Shefa Province, Port Vila is the economic and commercial centre of Vanuatu.   read more…

Return to TopReturn to Top