Wanggoolba Creek, Fraser Island!

Today I received a postcard from the Official Postcrossing.com site. AU-391005, my 961st official Postcrossing postcard. It was sent by Sharkz on 20 November 2014 and travelled 10867 miles in 6 days. It is a view of Wanggoolba Creek, Fraser Island in Australia, a UNESCO WHS. It was inscribed onto the list in 1992, reference #630.

Wanggoolba Creek, Fraser Island 

Fraser Island lies just off the east coast of Australia. At 122 kilometres long, it is the largest sand island in the world. Majestic remnants of tall rainforest growing on sand and half the world’s perched freshwater dune lakes are found inland from the beach. The combination of shifting sand-dunes, tropical rainforests and lakes makes it an exceptional site.

Yosemite National Park!

I am part of a Facebook postcard swapping page and have swapped postcards with Stephen Chan in the United States of America. I sent him a PHQ Doctor Who card of Peter Davidson and he sent me a view card of the Yosemite National Park in California. It was inscribed on the UNESCO WHS in 1984, #308.

Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park is a United States National Park spanning eastern portions of Tuolumne,Mariposa and Madera counties in the central eastern portion of the U.S. state of California. The park, which is managed by the National Park Service, covers an area of 747,956 acres (3,026.87 km²⁾ and reaches across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain chain. Over 3.7 million people visit Yosemite each year: most spend their time in the seven square miles (18 km²) of Yosemite Valley. Yosemite is internationally recognized for its spectacular granite cliffs, waterfalls, clear streams, giant sequoia groves, and biological diversity. Almost 95% of the park is designated wilderness. Yosemite was central to the development of the national park idea. First, Galen Clark and others lobbied to protect Yosemite Valley from development, ultimately leading to President Abraham Lincoln's signing the Yosemite Grant in 1864. Later, John Muir led a successful movement to establish a larger national park encompassing not just the valley, but surrounding mountains and forests as well—paving the way for the United States national park system.

Lowenburg at Bergpark Wilhelmshohe!

Today I have received another postcard from the UK & Ireland to the Rest of the World Tag on the Postcrossing.com Forum. This time, I received a wonderful view card of Lowenburg, or Lion's Castle in English, in the Bergpark Wilhelmshohe, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, from Staubfinger in Germany. It was inscribed onto the list in 2013, reference #1413.

Lowenburg (Lion's Castle)

Descending a long hill dominated by a giant statue of Hercules, the monumental water displays of Wilhelmshöhe were begun by Landgrave Carl of Hesse-Kassel in 1689 around an east-west axis and were developed further into the 19th century. Reservoirs and channels behind the Hercules Monument supply water to a complex system of hydro-pneumatic devices that supply the site’s large Baroque water theatre, grotto, fountains and 350-metre long Grand Cascade. Beyond this, channels and waterways wind across the axis, feeding a series of dramatic waterfalls and wild rapids, the geyser-like Grand Fountain which leaps 50m high, the lake and secluded ponds that enliven the Romantic garden created in the 18th century by Carl’s great-grandson, Elector Wilhelm I. The great size of the park and its waterworks along with the towering Hercules statue constitute an expression of the ideals of absolutist Monarchy while the ensemble is a remarkable testimony to the aesthetics of the Baroque and Romantic periods.

Dundurn Castle!

The Postcrossing.com Forum is a great place to swap cards on themes that you like to collect. One of the themes that I enjoy is castles and palaces. I received this card today from cche in Canada via the UK & Ireland to the Rest of the World tag of a view of Dundurn Castle.

Dundurn Castle

Dundurn Castle is a historic neoclassical mansion on York Boulevard in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The 18,000-square-foot (1,700 m) house took three years and $175,000.00 to build, and was completed in 1835.The seventy-two room castle featured the latest conveniences of gas lighting and running water. It is currently owned by the City of Hamilton, which purchased it in 1900 for $50,000. The City has spent nearly $3 million renovating the site to make 42 of the original 72 rooms open to the public. The rooms have been restored to the year 1855 when its owner Sir Allan Napier MacNab, 1st Baronet, was at the height of his career. Costumed interpreters guide visitors through the home, illustrating daily life from the 1850s. Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, and wife to Charles, Prince of Wales, a descendant of Sir Allan MacNab, is the Royal Patron of Dundurn Castle. It was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1984.

The Madara Rider!

Today I received a second UNESCO postcard, again a facebook swap, but this time from Veselin Nikolov in Bulgaia of the Madara Horserider. This site was inscribed onto the UNESCO World Heritage Site list at #43 in 1979. 

Madara Horserider (UNESCO WHS #43)

The Madara Rider, representing the figure of a knight triumphing over a lion, is carved into a 100-m-high cliff near the village of Madara in north-east Bulgaria. Madara was the principal sacred place of the First Bulgarian Empire before Bulgaria’s conversion to Christianity in the 9th century. The inscriptions beside the sculpture tell of events that occurred between AD 705 and 801.

Golden Mountains of Altai!

View cards of UNESCO sites always make me happy! Today I received of a view of Mt Belukha which is in the Golden Mountains of Altai in Russia from Oleg Tam via a Facebook swap. It was inscribed onto the UNESCO World Heritage Site list in 1998, reference #768.

Golden Mountains of Altai (UNESCO WHS #768) 

The Altai mountains in southern Siberia form the major mountain range in the western Siberia biogeographic region and provide the source of its greatest rivers – the Ob and the Irtysh. Three separate areas are inscribed: Altaisky Zapovednik and a buffer zone around Lake Teletskoye; Katunsky Zapovednik and a buffer zone around Mount Belukha; and the Ukok Quiet Zone on the Ukok plateau. The total area covers 1,611,457 ha. The region represents the most complete sequence of altitudinal vegetation zones in central Siberia, from steppe, forest-steppe, mixed forest, subalpine vegetation to alpine vegetation. The site is also an important habitat for endangered animal species such as the snow leopard.