Cathedral of Our Lady of Strasbourg | France

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The Grande Île, meaning the Large Island, is located at the historic centre of the city of Strasbourg in France. The details on the card are from the Cathedral of Our Lady of Strasbourg (Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg).

Strasbourg – Grande île is a Unesco World Heritage site. 

Struve Geodetic Arc | Estonia

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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 Great Wall | China

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The Great Wall of China is a series of fortifications built along an east-to-west line across the historical northern borders of China. To protect the empire against raids and invasions.

The Badaling section is the most visited section of the Great Wall and is located approximately 80 kilometres from Beijing city. This part of the wall was built in 1504 during the Ming Dynasty. 

Historic Centre of Urbino | Italy

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Urbino is a walled city in the midwest of Italy. The town, located on a high sloping hillside, preserved much of its picturesque medieval appearance.

Historic Centre of Urbino is a UNESCO World Heritage site.  

Shushi Liberation Day parade | Nagorno-Karabakh

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The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is located in the South Caucasus, between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Stepanakert is the capital and the largest city with a population of about 55,000. Nagorno-Karabakh declared its independence in 1991 but is recognized only by three UN non-members: Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria.

Towards the end of Soviet rule, Azerbaijani troops and Armenian secessionists started a bloody war which left the de facto independent state in the hands of ethnic Armenians when a truce was signed in 1994. Negotiations have so far failed to produce a permanent peace agreement.

Van Nellefabriek Rotterdam | Netherlands

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Van Nellefabriek was designed and built in the 1920s on the banks of a canal in an industrial zone in Rotterdam.

The site is one of the icons of 20th-century industrial architecture, comprising a complex of factories, with façades consisting essentially of steel and glass. It was conceived as an ‘ideal factory’, open to the outside world, whose interior working spaces evolved according to need, and in which daylight was used to provide pleasant working conditions.

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The stamp is part of a set of 10 stamps about UNESCO sites from Netherlands. This one show’s Fort Spijkerboor, inscribed as “Defence Line of Amsterdam”.

Historic City of Vigan | Philippines

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According to UNESCO, Vigan is the best-preserved example of a planned Spanish colonial town in Asia. Dating back to the 16th century, Its architecture reflects the coming together of cultural elements from elsewhere in the Philippines, from China and from Europe, resulting in a culture and townscape that have no parallel anywhere in East and South-East Asia.

 

Stamps

‘Fight of the Century’ Manny Pacquiao stamp, issued ahead of his long-awaited fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr in Las Vegas on May 2 2016.

Cape Floral Region Protected Areas | South Africa

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Located at the south-western extremity of South Africa, the Cape Floristic Region is unmatched for flower power. This region has one of the highest densities of plant species. It contains an estimated 9 500 species, of which 70% do not grow anywhere else in the world. 

Ancient City of Polonnaruwa | Sri Lanka

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Polonnaruwa was the second capital of Sri Lanka after the destruction of Anuradhapura in 993. The Polonnaruwa Vatadage is an ancient structure dating back to the Polonnaruwa Period of Sri Lanka.

The vatadage is an ancient type of Buddhist structure. Vatadages were built around small stupas for their protection, which often enshrined a relic or were built on hallowed ground. Only ten vatadages now remain in Sri Lanka. 

 

The Ancient City of Polonnaruwa is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat | Australia

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Most of Australia’s wildlife is found nowhere else in the world . 87% of mammal species, 93% of reptiles, 94% of frogs and 45% of the bird species are found only in Australia. The Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat is no exception.

This large, pudgy mammal is a marsupial, or pouched animal, found in Australia and on scattered islands nearby. It is solitary and nocturnal, which makes the wombat a rare sight for people in the wild. Adapted to digging, the Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat is a stout and robust animal with strong claws.

Tasmanian Devil | Australia

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Most of Australia’s wildlife is found nowhere else in the world. 87% of mammal species, 93% of reptiles, 94% of frogs and 45% of the bird species are found only in Australia. Tasmanian devils can only be found in the wild in Australia. 

 

Tasmanian Devils are solitary and nocturnal, spending their days alone in hollow logs, caves, or burrows, and emerging at night to feed. Did you know Tasmanian Devils eat entire carcasses, including fur and bones?

Once found all over Australia, Tasmanian devils now live only on the island state of Tasmania. Efforts to eradicate the Devils in the late 1800s almost succeeded. But sadly they are now threatened by an illness that has already killed tens of thousands of Tasmanian devils. 

Thx Steve!

Let's meet Hao Hao and Xing Hui | Belgium

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Hao Hao and Xing Hue are two Giant Pandas, living in Pairi Daiza Wildlife Park in Belgium. Both pandas are on loan from China. On 22nd of June 2016, the 7-year-old Hao Hao gave birth to a 171-gram male cub.

The idea of pandas as gifts is known as 'panda diplomacy' and it has a long tradition in China. Panda diplomacy describes how the Chinese authorities let chosen governments keep pandas as a mark of respect between their countries. In the 1980s China moved away from 'gifting pandas' to countries, and instead started to loan them out.

Giant panda Liang Liang | Malaysia

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Liang Liang is a female ‘expat-panda’ from China. Now living in the National Zoo in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 

Two giant pandas have been on loan to Malaysia from China for 10 years since May 21, 2014 to mark the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

Independence Arch in Accra | Ghana

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The Independence Square of Accra, Ghana, inscribed with the words "Freedom and Justice, AD 1957", commemorates the independence of Ghana, a first for Sub Saharan Africa.

On the left Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972), the first president of the Republic of Ghana.