Sputnik International Presents… Seven Unknown Wonders of the World

The Great Mosque of Djenné in Mali (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) is one of Africa’s most famous landmarks

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Great Mosque of Djenné

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Chand Baori is a stepwell in the village of Abhaneri in Rajasthan (India)

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As others look on, an Indian youth jumps into the historic Chand Baori stepwell

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Probably, the Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest (Romania) is the largest civil administration building in the world

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The Alexandru Ioan Cuza Hall dwarfs foreign tourists… another name for this building is the “House of the People”

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The Stari Most (Old Bridge) is a 22-metre-high (72-foot-high) reconstruction of a 16th-century Ottoman bridge over the Neretva River in Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina… in 1993, Croatian forces destroyed the original bridge during the Croat-Bosniak War

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A diver leaps from the Stari Most in a traditional bridge diving competition

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Kumbhalgarh Fort, in the former princely state of Udaipur/Mewar (Rajahsthan (India))… its walls extend over 38 kilometres (23.7 miles), making them the second-longest continuous wall after the Great Wall of China

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Kumbhalgarh Fort

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Built in the early 17th-century, Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque in Isfahan (Iran) is one of the greatest architectural masterpieces of Safavid Iranian architecture

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Interior of the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque

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Derawar Fort, a massive square fortress in Bahawalpur in Pakistan… the fortress has 40 towering bastions; the circumference of its 30-metre-high (99-foot-high) walls is about 1.5 kilometres (0.94 mile)

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Derawar Fort

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Some man-made “wonders of the world”, such as the Colosseum or Taj Mahal, have much fame, but there are many more architectural masterpieces scattered across the globe that aren’t quite so famous.

27 February 2016

Sputnik International

https://sputniknews.com/photo/20160227/1035439233/hidden-world-wonders-photo.html

Council of Europe Report Includes Data on Destruction of Heritage in Kosovo

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In Strasbourg, Marija Obradović, member of National Assembly delegation and of the Culture Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (CoE) (PACE), said that Serbia couldn’t allow the adoption of a CoE resolution that doesn’t include data on a decade that saw more than 150 Serbian Orthodox churches destroyed in Kosovo. She noted, according to a release from the Serbian National Assembly, “We insisted that the draft report include facts about the destruction of Serbian cultural heritage, especially of those buildings not damaged in the pogrom in Kosovo from March 2004. I informed the members of the committee that 34 Orthodox churches and other cultural and religious buildings were damaged in that event alone”. Obradović remarked that Serbia’s opinion was received well by the other members of the committee, and by the rapporteur, especially considering that more than a few of those buildings had UNESCO protection, and that many were constructed in the Middle Ages, concluding, “The adoption of a resolution on this is expected early next year, and we’ll monitor closely its creation until then”. On Friday, the Committee on Culture, Science, Education, and Media of the PACE discussed a preliminary report on cultural heritage in crisis and post-conflict situations, included in the fourth part of the plenary session.

3 October 2014

B92

http://www.b92.net/eng/news/society.php?yyyy=2014&mm=10&dd=03&nav_id=91790

23 December 2013. A Photo Essay. Our Great Russian Motherland… At the Top of the World… Vrangel Island

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Vrangel Island is in the Far North, in the Chukchi Sea, near the Bering Strait, administratively part of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug… that is, it’s near Alaska (but Sarah Palin can’t see it from her house… silly wabbit). It’s a large island, being some 7,600 square kilometres (2,930 square miles) in extent. To give you some perspective on its size, Long Island (including Brooklyn and Queens) is 1,401 square miles (3,630 square kilometres), roughly half its area. However, Long Island has 7.7 million inhabitants (5400/sq mi, 2,100/sq km), whilst Vrangel is almost uninhabited, having only two small settlements due to the severe polar climate. The Vrangel Island Federal Strict Nature Reserve takes up the entire territory of the island, in addition to nearby Gerald Island, and includes 40 kilometres (25 miles) of the waters immediately offshore the islands. The island is the northernmost UNESCO World Heritage Site.

BMD

Syrian Army Defeats Rebels in Aleppo

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Syrian troops repelled rebel attacks in Aleppo, the second most important city in the country. After three days of street fighting, the armed gangs retreated, failing to break government force defence lines. The army surrounded and crushed an al-Qaeda-linked rebel band that took part in the offensive. According to the SANA news agency, they killed over 100 mercenaries and terrorists. Syrian Air Force helicopters attacked a convoy of trucks moving to Aleppo from the Turkish border. The BBC reported that the fighting between government forces and rebels led to the destruction of a medieval market on the UNESCO World Heritage List. A fire started in the market situated in the Old City on Friday, 28 September, and it’s still raging now. The fire began because of a battle during which both sides used grenade-launchers and assault rifles.

30 September 2012

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_09_30/Syrian-army-defeats-rebels-in-Aleppo/

Editor’s Note:

There’s no news on the Syrian victory in the Western media. If that isn’t proof that it’s unreliable propaganda, well, what is? Bashar al-Assad’s no prize package, but he’s not a bloodthirsty Islamist killer, either. Most Muslims are decent sorts who don’t want the kind of world that the Islamists want. Don’t fall for the hate from Fox News and from Willy’s camp.

Isn’t it funny… the people who peddle hate claim to love Jesus (trust me, He’ll tell them, “I know thee not!”)… it does make one think, doesn’t it?

BMD