Fort Jesus, Mombasa | Kenya

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Fort Jesus is a Portuguese fort built between 1593 and 1596 located on Mombasa Island to guard the Old Port of Mombasa. The fort is one of the most outstanding and well preserved examples of 16th-century Portuguese military fortifications. Fort Jesus is a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2011.

Mombasa is the second-largest city in Kenya, with a population of about 1.3 million. The city is built on an island and connected to the mainland by two causeways.

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African Fish Eagle. The stamp is part of a series of bird stamps issued in 2014. 

Lomé, capital city of Togo

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Lomé, with a population of 840,000 is the capital and largest city of Togo.

“Once known as the Paris of West Africa, Lomé is one of the continent's most charming cities. Attractive and safe, the capital of Togo is loved for its craft markets, broad boulevards, vibrant nightlife and palm-fringed beaches.”

 

The building in the middle is ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development headquarters. In front of that the West African Development Bank. 

Philipsburg, capital of Sint Maarten

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Philipsburg is the main town and capital of the country of Sint Maarten. The town has a population of about 1,400. Sint Maarten is a ‘constituent country’ of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Sint Maarten and its French counterpart Saint Martin are both sides of the same island.

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Allure of the Seas is the world's largest passenger cruise ship. With a capacity of about 6,000  passengers (16 passenger decks!) and 2,300 crew. 

Marigot, capital of Saint Martain

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Marigot is the main town and capital on the French side of the Caribbean island of Saint Martin. The town has a population of about 5,800.

 

Originally a fishing village on a swamp for which it was named, Marigot was made capital during the reign of King Louis XVI, who built Fort St. Louis on a hill near Marigot Bay. You can see the fort on top of the hill (bottom left picture on the postcard).

Stamp

Unfortunately no cancellation. 

Thank you Denise!

Bornholm Island | Denmark

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Bornholm is a Danish island in the Baltic Sea. The main industries on the island include fishing, arts and crafts like glass making and pottery using locally worked clay, and dairy farming. About 40,000 people live on this island.

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2015 Europa stamp. This year’s theme is Old Toys.

Lego has been around since 1949!    

Mesa Verde Cliff Palace | USA

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Mesa Verde National Park contains more than 4000 known archeological sites. Mesa Verde, meaning ‘green table’ is a remarkably well-preserved prehistoric settlement landscape of the Ancestral Puebloan culture, which lasted for almost nine hundred years from c. 450 to 1300. 

The Mesa Verde Cliff Palace is the largest and most famous cliff dwelling in Mesa Verde National Park. It has over 150 individual rooms and more than 20 rooms for religious rituals. All made of sandstone, wooden beams and mortar.

Prehistoric site at Newgrange | Ireland

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Within a few days I received two postcards depicting the 5,000 year old monuments in Newgrange, Ireland. One postcrossing official and one direct swap. (See also previous post). 

Archaeological Ensemble of the Bend of the Boyne | Ireland

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Newgrange is a Stone Age monument in the Boyne Valley, County Meath, Ireland. The large Passage Tomb was built about 3200 BC during the Neolithic period, which means it is older than Stonehenge and Great Pyramids of Giza.  

Stamps

The 68c stamp is part of a set of two Europa stamps 2015, Old Toys.

Struve Geodetic Arc | Belarus

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The Struve Geodetic Arc is a chain of survey triangulations stretching from Hammerfest in Norway to the Black Sea, through ten countries and over 2,820 km. This helped to calculate the exact size and shape of the planet and marked an important step in the development of earth sciences and topographic mapping. The Struve is on the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites since 2005.

The 19 topographic points of the Struve Geodetic Arc in Belarus are located in 5 places.

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Postcrossing stamp, issued 2014.

Jefferson's Little Mountain | USA

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Monticello was the primary plantation of Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826), the third President of the United States (from 1801–1809).

Monticello together with nearby University of Virginia is a UNESCO World Heritage site. 

Auschwitz-Birkenau | Poland

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Konzentrationslager Auschwitz was the largest of the German Nazi concentration camps and extermination centers. Over 1.1 million men, women and children lost their lives here.

Today the camp is a dominant symbol of the Holocaust. Over a million people visited the Auschwitz Memorial in the first seven months of 2015.

Villa Tugendhat | Czech Republic

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Villa Tugendhat is a historical building in Brno, Czech Republic. The villa was built between 1928 and 1930 for Fritz and Greta Tugendhat, and designed by the German architect Mies van der Rohe. 

He was one of the principal architects in the development of the Modern Movement in architecture, which characterized design and construction in the 1920s and 1930s in Europe and North America. 

Stamps

A matching stamp!

Tongariro National Park | New Zealand

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Tongariro National Park in New Zealand has active and extinct volcanoes, a diverse range of ecosystems and some spectacular landscapes.

Mt Ruapehu is one of New Zealand's most active volcanoes, and the highest mountain on the north island. It last erupted in 2007. The majestic slopes of Mt Ruapehu accommodate New Zealand’s largest and most developed ski areas. Skiing on an active volcano! Not for the faint of heart I guess.

Stamps

(left) Round Kiwi stamp, issued 2011.The kiwi is a national symbol of New Zealand.

(right) Maori Crafts, Taniko Embroidery. Part of a set of 6 stamps, issued in 1996. Aotearoa is the Maori name for New Zealand.

Tassili n'Ajjer | Algeria

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Tassili n'Ajjer is a mountain range in the Algerian part of the Sahara Desert. It is a vast plateau in south-east Algeria at the borders of Libya and Niger.

Located in a strange lunar landscape, this site has one of the most important groupings of prehistoric cave art in the world. More than 15,000 drawings and engravings record the climatic changes, the animal migrations and the evolution of human life on the edge of the Sahara from 6000 BC to the first centuries of the present era. 

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Mosques in Algeria, Al Atiq Mosque - Ghardaia