Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid (Spanish for “Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid”) is an 8 hectares (20 acres) botanical garden in Madrid (Spain). The public entrance is located at Plaza de Murillo, next to the Prado Museum. read more…
Pantelleria (Sicilian: Pantiḍḍirìa), known in ancient times as Cossyra or Cossura, is an Italian island and comune in the Strait of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea, 106 kilometres (55 nautical miles) southwest of Sicily and 68 km (35 nmi) east of the Tunisian coast. On clear days Tunisia is visible from the island. Administratively Pantelleria’s comune belongs to the Sicilian province of Trapani. According to the Italian National Institute of Statistics, the population of Pantelleria was 7,335 in 2022. The original Arab name for the island was Bint al-Riyāḥ, meaning “Daughter of the Winds” after the strong gales that can arise off the north coast of Africa. read more…
The Kyiv Pechersk Lavra or Kyievo-Pecherska Lavra, also known as the Kyiv Monastery of the Caves, is a historic lavra or large monastery of Eastern Christianity that gave its name to the Pecherskyi District where it is located in Kyiv. Since its foundation as the cave monastery in 1051, the Lavra has been a preeminent center of Eastern Christianity in Eastern Europe. read more…
The Karnak Temple Complex, commonly known as Karnak, comprises a vast mix of temples, pylons, chapels, and other buildings near Luxor, Egypt. Construction at the complex began during the reign of Senusret I (reigned 1971–1926 BC) in the Middle Kingdom (c. 2000–1700 BC) and continued into the Ptolemaic Kingdom (305–30 BC), although most of the extant buildings date from the New Kingdom. The area around Karnak was the ancient Egyptian Ipet-isut (“The Most Selected of Places”) and the main place of worship of the 18th DynasticTheban Triad, with the god Amun as its head. read more…
Elvas, officially the City of Elvas (Portuguese: Cidade de Elvas), is a Portuguese municipality, former episcopal city and frontier fortress of easternmost central Portugal, located in the district of Portalegre in Alentejo. It is situated about 200 kilometres (120 mi) east of Lisbon, and about 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) west of the Spanish fortress of Badajoz, by the Madrid–Badajoz–Lisbon railway. The municipality population as of 2011 was 23,078, in an area of 631.29 square kilometres (243.74 sq mi). The city itself had a population of 16,640 as of 2011. read more…
