Cartagena,Colombia

Cartagena

Cartagena is one of the most beautiful cities of South America. The city was formally know as Cartagena De Indias (Cartagena of Indies) or Cartagena La Heroica (The Heroic) and is nicknamed The Walled City.

It founded in 1533 by don Pedro de Heredia, and named after the port of Cartagena in Spain's Murcia region, it was a major center of early Spanish settlement in the Americas, and continues to be an economic hub as well as a popular tourist destination.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, Cartagena was part of the Spanish Main*, one of the chief ports of the Spanish treasure fleet and so a prime target by English pirates and French buccaneers (such as Sir Francis Drake, who sacked the city in 1586).

Many of Cartagena's fortifications still stand: the Castle of San Felipe de Barajas, built between 1536 and 1657; the walls around the Old City (Las Murallas); the undersea wall across Bocagrande built between 1771 and 1778; and the forts of San Jose and San Fernando, built between 1751 and 1759 at Bocachica.

Las Murallas


Forts of San Fernando



Forts of San Jose


With the expected influx of tourists after the release of the movie Love in the Time of Cholera , which was largely filmed there.


It's also interesting to visit museums such as the Palace of Inquisition, and to stop in to some of the beautiful churches like the Iglesia de San Pedro Claver and the Iglesia de Santo Domingo.

Iglesia de Santo Domingo



Iglesia de San Pedro Claver



Palace of Inquisition



Here some beautiful views of Cartagena:

Liberty Bridge Budapest, Hungary

Liberty Bridge

The Szabadság híd or Liberty Bridge (sometimes Freedom Bridge) connects Buda and Pest across the River Danube.

The bridge was built between 1894 and 1896 to the plans of János Feketeházy. Although radically different in structure, the bridge imitates the general outline of a chain-type bridge, which was considered an aesthetically preferable form at the time of construction.

It is 333.6 m in length and 20.1 m in width. The top of the four masts are decorated with large bronze statues of the Turul, a falcon-like bird, prominent in ancient Hungarian mythology.


History:
The bridge was opened in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph; the last silver rivet on the Pest abutment was inserted into the iron structure by the Emperor himself, and the bridge was originally named after him.Two years later, in 1898 tramway traffic was started on the bridge.

During World War II, on 16 January 1945, Francis Joseph Bridge, as every other bridge in Budapest, was blown up by retreating German troops. After the end of the war, it would be the first bridge to be reconstructed. Its state was not irreparable, only its central parts had to be rebuilt. It was reopened for traffic on 20 August 1946, its new name being Liberty Bridge. It meant also the first time after the liberation of Hungary that a tram connecting Buda and Pest crossed the bridge.

Here so nice views of Liberty Bridge:

Las Lajas Cathedral, Columbia

Las Lajas Cathedral

Las Lajas Cathedral or Las Lajas Sancuary (El Santuario de Las Lajas or Cathedral de Las Lajas in Spanish) is a remarkable and an impressive cathedral built over a river gorge inside the canyon of the Guaitara River from January 1, 1916 to August 20, 1944. This cathedral is a neo-gothic sanctuary which is located in the southern Columbian Department of Nariño near Ipiales (close to Columbia’s border with Ecuador) and it is named after a type of flat sedimentary rock called Laja which is similar to the floor tiles found in the Andes Mountains.

Legend:
According to the local legend, in 1754 a woman who called herself Maria Mueces was carrying her deaf-mute daughter, Rosa on her back while walking near Las Lajas or The Rocks. They were caught in a very big storm. Maria then found a shelter in a cave above the Guaitara River, where she began to pray. To her surprise, Rosa spoke “the mestiza is calling me….” while pointing to the lightning illuminated painting over the Laja. An image of Virgin Mary was seen on an enormous vertical rock on one side of the gorge, 45m above the river. Over time this cave and the image became the site of numerous miraculous healings. Thereafter, every holy day of September 16, pilgrims particularly from Columbia and Ecuador come to visit this place.



Here some views of Las Lajas:

Iguazu Falls, Brazil & Argentina

Iguazu Falls


The Iguazu waterfalls are waterfalls of the Iguazu River located on the border of the Brazilian state of Paraná and the Argentine province of Misiones. The falls divide the river into the upper and lower Iguazu. The waterfall system consists of 275 falls along 2.7 kilometers (1.67 miles) of the Iguazu River.

Their name comes from the Guarani or Tupi words y (water) and ûasú.Legend has it that a god planned to marry a beautiful aborigine named Naipí, who fled with her mortal lover Tarobá in a canoe. In rage, the god sliced the river creating the waterfalls, condemning the lovers to an eternal fall.

The first European to find the falls was the Spanish Conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1541, after whom one of the falls in the Argentine side is named.The falls were rediscovered by Boselli at the end of the nineteenth century, and one of the Argentine falls is named after him.

On the Argentinean side of the waterfall visitors can walk right around the falling water, take a boat tour to the mouth of the waterfall, and explore the National Park next to the waterfall. On the other hand, the Brazilian side offers beautiful panoramic views and displays the full splendor of the wonder of the world.

The Devil's Throat :

The Devil’s Throat is the site of the biggest waterfall and the greatest sight Iguazu Falls has to offer. It's a great amount of water gushing over 230 feet from above the waterfall or from many different angles in the surrounding area.

Here some nice views of Iguazu Falls:

Petra, Jordan

Petra

Petra is an archaeological site in the Arabah, Ma’an Governorate, Jordan, lying on the slope of Mount Hor in a basin among the mountains which form the eastern flank of Arabah (Wadi Araba), the large valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba.

More than 2,000 years ago Petra was used as a temporary refuge by nomadic Nabatean Arabs, Bedouins who came north out of Arabia. From a few caves in a rocky outcrop, easy to defend, the nabateans created Petra as a fortress city.

Many of these temples or tombs go back to about 600 B.C., but the particular one they used was built around the time of Christ. Nobody knows for sure what it was used for. Behind the temple face are a few small, square rooms, which are completely empty. Whatever they held was stolen long ago. It’s quite an incredible place - like a tenth wonder of the world.



Before reach the Petra, visitors have to cross through the "Siq" which an amazing and narrow gloom chasm. It's about a kilometer long.



Famous of Petra:
It is renowned for its rock-cut architecture. Petra is also one of the new wonders of the world. The Nabateans constructed it as their capital city around 100 BCE .The site remained unknown to the Western world until 1812, when it was introduced to the West by Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. It was famously described as “a rose-red city half as old as time” in a Newdigate prize-winning sonnet by John William Burgon. UNESCO has described it as “one of the most precious cultural properties of man’s cultural heritage.”

On December 6, 1985, Petra was designated a World Heritage Site.On July 7, 2007, Petra was named one of New Open World Corporation’s New Seven Wonders of the World.The picturesque site is featured in various films such as: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, “Arabian Nights”, Passion in the Desert, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, the Sisters of Mercy music video “Dominion”, and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

Here some nice views of Petra:











Petra Sandstone Layer: