23 May 2023 | Author/Destination: Gulf States / Golfstaaten | Rubric: General , UNESCO World Heritage
Reading Time: 7 minutes
© flickr.com – Ninara/cc-by-2.0
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Yazd, formerly also known as Yezd, is the capital of
Yazd province,
Iran . The city is 270 km (170 mi) southeast of
Isfahan . At the 2016 census, its population was 529,673. Since 2017, the historical city of Yazd is recognized as a
World Heritage Site by
UNESCO .
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26 March 2023 | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union | Rubric: General
Reading Time: 2 minutes
© Raimond Spekking/cc-by-sa-4.0
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The Cologne Central Mosque (
German : DITIB-Zentralmoschee Köln,
Turkish : Köln Merkez-Camii) is a building commissioned by
German Muslims of the Organization
DİTİB for a large, representative
Zentralmoschee (central mosque) in Cologne, Germany. This mosque was inaugurated by Turkish President
Erdogan . After controversy, the project won the approval of Cologne’s city council.
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9 September 2022 | Author/Destination: Gulf States / Golfstaaten | Rubric: General , UNESCO World Heritage
Reading Time: 7 minutes
© flickr.com – Sammy Six/cc-by-2.0
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Hegra (known to Muslims as
Al-Hijr , also known as
Mada’in Salih or “Cities of Salih”) is an
archaeological site located in the area of
Al-‘Ula within
Medina Province in the
Hejaz ,
Saudi Arabia . A majority of the remains date from the
Nabataean Kingdom (1st century AD). The site constitutes the kingdom’s southernmost settlement and its second largest city after
Petra (now in Jordan), its
capital city . Traces of
Lihyanite and
Roman occupation before and after the Nabatean rule, respectively, can also be found.
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20 July 2022 | Author/Destination: Asia / Asien | Rubric: General , UNESCO World Heritage
Reading Time: 11 minutes
Ziggurat of Ur © Kaufingdude/cc-by-sa-3.0
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Ur was an important
Sumerian city-state in ancient
Mesopotamia , located at the site of modern “Tell el-Muqayyar” in south
Iraq ‘s
Dhi Qar Governorate . Although Ur was once a coastal
city near the mouth of the
Euphrates on the
Persian Gulf , the coastline has shifted and the city is now well inland, on the south bank of the
Euphrates , 16 kilometres (9.9 miles) from
Nasiriyah in modern-day
Iraq . The city dates from the
Ubaid period circa 3800 BC, and is recorded in
written history as a city-state from the 26th century BC, its first recorded king being
Mesannepada .
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6 April 2022 | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union | Rubric: General , Architecture , UNESCO World Heritage
Reading Time: 10 minutes
© panoramio.com – Sergey Ashmarin/cc-by-sa-3.0
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The Alhambra (lit. ‘The Red One’) is a palace and fortress complex located in
Granada ,
Andalusia ,
Spain . It is one of the most famous monuments of
Islamic architecture and one of the best-preserved palaces of the historic
Islamic world , in addition to containing notable examples of Spanish
Renaissance architecture .
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11 March 2022 | Author/Destination: Asia / Asien | Rubric: General
Reading Time: 25 minutes
Xinjiang Internment Camps map © US National Geospatial Intelligence Agency and Australian Strategic Policy Institute
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Xinjiang, officially the
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (East Turkestan) and
formerly romanized as
Sinkiang , is a landlocked
autonomous region of the
People’s Republic of China (PRC), located in the
northwest of the country close to
Central Asia . Being the
largest province-level division of China and the
8th-largest country subdivision in the world, Xinjiang spans over 1.6 million square kilometres (620,000 sq mi) and has about 25 million inhabitants. Xinjiang borders the countries of
Mongolia ,
Russia ,
Kazakhstan ,
Kyrgyzstan ,
Tajikistan ,
Afghanistan ,
Pakistan and
India . The rugged
Karakoram ,
Kunlun and
Tian Shan mountain ranges occupy much of Xinjiang’s borders, as well as its western and southern regions. The
Aksai Chin and
Trans-Karakoram Tract regions, both administered by China, are claimed by India. Xinjiang also borders the
Tibet Autonomous Region and the provinces of
Gansu and
Qinghai . The most well-known route of the historic
Silk Road ran through the territory from the east to its northwestern border. It is home to a number of ethnic groups, including the
Turkic Uyghur ,
Kazakhs and
Kyrgyz , the
Han ,
Tibetans ,
Hui ,
Chinese Tajiks (
Pamiris ),
Mongols ,
Russians and
Sibe . There are more than a dozen autonomous prefectures and counties for minorities in Xinjiang. Older English-language reference works often refer to the area as Chinese Turkestan, East Turkestan and East Turkistan. Xinjiang is divided into the
Dzungarian Basin in the north and the
Tarim Basin in the south by a mountain range, and only about 9.7% of Xinjiang’s land area is fit for human habitation. Capital und largest city by far is
Ürümqi .
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29 December 2021 | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union | Rubric: General , Paris / Île-de-France
Reading Time: 12 minutes
Town hall © Chabe01/cc-by-sa-4.0
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Saint-Denis is a
commune in the northern suburbs of
Paris , France. It is located 9.4 km (5.8 mi) from the
centre of Paris . Saint-Denis, which has a population of 112,000, is a
subprefecture of the
department of
Seine-Saint-Denis , being the seat of the
arrondissement of Saint-Denis . It is home to France’s national football and rugby stadium, the
Stade de France , built for the
1998 FIFA World Cup . Saint-Denis is a formerly
industrial suburb currently changing its economic base. Inhabitants of Saint-Denis are called
Dionysiens .
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3 September 2021 | Author/Destination: Levant / Levante | Rubric: General , UNESCO World Heritage , Union for the Mediterranean
Reading Time: 10 minutes
© Andrew Shiva/cc-by-sa-4.0
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Known to
Muslims as the
Haram esh-Sharif (“the Noble Sanctuary”, or “the Noble Sanctuary of Jerusalem”) and the
Al Aqsa Compound , and to
Jews as
Temple Mount (“Mount of the House [of God, i.e. the
Temple in Jerusalem ]”), is a hill in the
UNESCO World Heritage Site Old City of Jerusalem that for thousands of years has been venerated as a
holy site in
Christianity ,
Islam and
Islam , and
Judaism alike.
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26 May 2021 | Author/Destination: Editorial / Redaktion | Rubric: Portrait
Reading Time: 14 minutes
Portrait of Saladin © The Trustees of the British Museum/cc-by-nc-sa-4.0
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Al-Nasir Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, better known simply as alah ad-Din or Saladin, was a
Sunni Muslim Kurd and the first
sultan of
Egypt and
Syria and founder of the
Ayyubid dynasty . Saladin led the Muslim military campaign against the
Crusader states in the
Levant . At the height of his power, his sultanate spanned Egypt, Syria, the
Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia), the
Hejaz (western Arabia),
Yemen , parts of western
North Africa , and
Nubia .
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