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The Drakensberg is the eastern portion of the Great Escarpment, which encloses the central Southern African plateau. The Great Escarpment reaches its greatest elevation – 2,000 to 3,482 meters (6,562 to 11,424 feet) within the border region of South Africa and Lesotho.

A map of South Africa shows the central plateau edged by the Great Escarpment and its relationship to the Cape Fold Mountains to the south. The portion of the Great Escarpment shown in red is known as the Drakensberg.

The Drakensberg escarpment stretches for more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from the Eastern Cape Province in the South, then successively forms, in order from south to north, the border between Lesotho and the Eastern Cape and the border between Lesotho and KwaZulu-Natal Province. Thereafter it forms the border between KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State, and next as the border between KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga Province. The escarpment winds north from there, through Mpumalanga, where it includes features such as the Blyde River Canyon, Three Rondavels, and God’s Window. It then extends farther north to Hoedspruit in southeastern Limpopo where it is known as ‘Klein Drankensberg’ by the Afrikaner. From Hoedspruit, it extends west to Tzaneen, also in Limpopo Province, where it is known as the Wolkberg Mountains and Iron Crown Mountain. At 2,200 m (7,200 ft) above sea level, the Wolkberg is the highest elevation in Limpopo. The escarpment extends west again and at Mokopane it is known as the Strydpoort Mountains.

The Afrikaans name Drakensberge comes from the name the earliest Dutch settlers gave to the escarpment, namely Drakensbergen, or Dragons’ Mountains. The highest portion of the Great Escarpment is known in Zulu as uKhahlamba and as Maluti in Sotho (“Barrier of up-pointed spears”). Wikipedia

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Brisbane sited on the Meanjin is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia. Brisbane’s metropolitan area has a population of around 2.6 million, and it lies at the center of the South East Queensland metropolitan region, which encompasses a population of around 3.8 million. The Brisbane central business district is situated within a peninsula of the Brisbane River about 15 km (9 mi) from its mouth at Moreton Bay, a bay of the Coral Sea. The metropolitan area extends in all directions along the hilly floodplain of the Brisbane River Valley between Moreton Bay and the Taylor and D’Aguilar mountain ranges. It sprawls across several of Australia’s most populous local government areas (LGAs) — most centrally the City of Brisbane, the most populous LGA in the nation.

The city is named for the Brisbane River on which it stands, which is in turn named for Sir Thomas Brisbane, the governor of New South Wales at the time of the city’s founding. The Moreton Bay penal settlement was founded in 1824 at Redcliffe as a place for secondary offenders from the Sydney colony and soon moved to North Quay in 1825. Christian missionaries established Zion Hill in 1838, and by 1842 the region opened to free settlement. Brisbane was chosen as the capital when Queensland separated from New South Wales in 1859, and by the late 19th century had grown into a major port city and center of immigration. During World War II, Brisbane played a central role in the Allied campaign and served as the southwest Pacific headquarters for United States Army General Douglas MacArthur.

Brisbane is classified as a global city (Beta +), and is an advanced center of research and innovation in the Asia-Pacific. The city is promoted as Australia’s capital of technology, with strengths in mining research and green energy, medicine and biotechnology, cryptocurrency and digital industries, and robotics. A transportation hub, Brisbane is served by a large suburban rail network and popular bus and ferry networks, as well as Australia’s largest and busiest airport, and the third-largest seaport. The financial district is centered on Eagle Street.

A diverse city with 32.2% of its metropolitan population being foreign-born, the city consistently ranks as one of the world’s most liveable cities. Noted for its rich culture and history, the city is home to numerous museums and galleries, events and festivals, theatre and music, city art and public monuments, and historic buildings. Brisbane is known for its distinct Queenslander architecture, its spring Jacaranda blossoms, and its outdoor dining and cuisine culture. Brisbane has hosted major events including the 1982 Commonwealth Games, World Expo 88, and the 2014 G20 summit, and will host the 2032 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. Wikipedia

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The magnificent Phraya Nakhon Cave is one of the most mystical and mysterious landmarks of Thailand but only a few travelers get a chance to take a picture of it. The reason is simple: this gold and green pavilion is hidden inside a hard-to-reach cave and only a handful of dedicated visitors will do the effort to visit it. Those who do are rewarded with a stunning vision that looks like it’s straight out of an Indiana Jones movie.

Phraya Nakhon Cave is located in the Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park in Prachuap Khiri Khan province, a 45 minutes drive south of Hua Hin. First step to reach the cave is to drive to the small village of Bang Pu located by the beach, and from there decide if you’d rather rent a boat to take you around the cape to Laem Sala beach, or walk a 30 minutes trek above the hill leading to the same Laem Sala beach. Since the boat ride only costs 150 to 200 baht per person and considering that you still will have to climb 430 m of uneven and steep steps we recommend you save your energy and take this short ride to the cave.

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An image from Phraya Nakhon Cave Thailand

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Djamaa el Djazaïr, also known as the Great Mosque of Algiers, is a mosque in Algiers, Algeria. It houses the world’s tallest minaret and is the third-largest mosque in the world after the Great Mosque of Mecca and Al-Masjid an-Nabawi of Medina in Saudi Arabia.

The construction of the mosque began in August 2012 after the Algerian government’s contract, for 1 billion euros, was won by the China State Construction Engineering Corporation. The design was done by German architects KSP Juergen Engel Architekten and engineers Krebs und Kiefer International and was completed by April 2019. The mosque faced construction delays owing to budgetary concerns due to the falling prices of oil. Around 2,300 workers from China, Algeria, and other African countries were deployed to work on the project. The construction of the mosque was seen by many to serve as a symbol of the reign of long-serving president Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

The mosque sits on a site covering 400,000 m² (4,300,000 sq ft) and overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. The prayer hall has a capacity of 37,000 worshippers, while the structure including the compound can house up to 120,000 worshippers and has parking space for 7,000 cars. The complex also houses a Quran(قرآن) school, a park, a library, staff housing area, a fire station, a museum of Islamic art, and a research center on the history of Algeria.

The mosque also has a 265 m (869 ft) tall minaret, which makes it the tallest building in Africa. It also houses an observation deck atop the minaret, which has 37 floors. The mosque is designed to withstand an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 and the structure has been specially processed to resist corrosion. The main prayer hall has 618 octagonal columns serving as support pillars and 6 km (3.7 mi) of calligraphic writing engraved with a laser system. The dome of the prayer hall has a diameter of 50 m (160 ft) and rises to a height of 70 m (230 ft). Wikipedia

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The Cabo Blanco Absolute Natural Reserve is a Nature Reserve of Costa Rica, part of the Tempisque Conservation Area in the province of Puntarenas, covering an area of 3,140 acres (12.7 km²) terrestrial and 4,420 acres (17.9 km²) marine on the southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula near Montezuma-Cabuya and Mal Pais.

The site is home to the San Miguel Biological Station which was developed to promote and support teaching, research, and environmental education and has facilities that include classrooms, laboratories, and a reference library. The reserve was created in 1963 due to a campaign started by Olof Wessberg and was the first major conservation project in the country.

Up to the 1960s the lands that now constitute the Cabo Blanco Nature Reserve were being depleted of their natural forests for use as farm and pasture land. The emphasis in those days was to develop and increase agricultural production and cattle, and little concern was given to conservation of natural habitats.

Olof Wessberg (known as Nicolas) and Karen Mogensen arrived in Costa Rica in the 1960s in the pursuit of Karen’s dream of finding happiness in harmony with nature. They chose to establish themselves in the Nicoya Peninsula.

Soon after establishing themselves in a farm near the Montezuma area, they set up on an expedition to the Cabo Blanco area in search for native tree seeds to reforest their newly acquired farm. Upon arriving to the area, he was amazed at the abundant wildlife and the size of the trees in the area. This was like an oasis in the midst of a desert as all lands around had been devastated to give way to low-yield pasture and agricultural lands. Wikipedia

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An image from CaboBlanco Absolute Natural Reserve Costa Rica

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The Casbah (Arabic: قصبة‎, qaṣba, meaning citadel) is the citadel of Algiers in Algeria and the traditional quarter clustered around it. In 1992, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) proclaimed Kasbah of Algiers a World Cultural Heritage site, as “There are the remains of the citadel, old mosques, and Ottoman-style palaces as well as the remains of a traditional urban structure associated with a deep-rooted sense of community.”

More generally, a kasbah is the walled citadel of many North African cities and towns. The name made its way into English from French in the late 19th century (the Oxford English Dictionary states 1895), and can be spelled “kasbah” or “casbah.”

The Casbah of Algiers is founded on the ruins of old Icosium in the 10th century. It was a city built on a hill, stretching towards the sea, divided into the “High city” and the “Low city”. One finds there masonry and mosques dating from the 17th century: Ketchaoua Mosque (built-in 1794 by the Dey Baba Hassan) flanked by two minarets; Djama’a al-Djedid (1660, at the time of the Ottomans) with its large finished ovoid cupola points some and its four cupolas; Djamaâ el Kebir (the oldest of the mosques), built by Almoravid ruler Yusuf ibn Tashfin; and Ali Bitchin Mosque (Raïs, 1623). The Casbah also contained several palaces, including Dar Aziza, Dar Mustapha Pacha, Palace of the Dey, and Dar Hassan Pacha which was built in 1791 to house the Pasha, who lived there for eight years. Wikipedia

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Dugi Otok is the seventh-largest island in the Adriatic Sea, part of Croatia. It is located off the Dalmatian coast, west of Zadar. It is the largest and westernmost of the Zadarian Islands and derives its name from its distinctive shape: it is 44.5 km (27.7 miles) long by 4.8 km (3.0 miles) wide, with an area of 114 square kilometers (44 sq mi). Its elevation reaches 300 m; and many of its higher portions contain stands of Maritime Pine.

The western coast is tall and rugged, and many of the towns are clustered on the eastern side, including Sali, the largest, Zaglav, Žman, Luka, Savar, Brbinj, Dragove, Božava, Soline, Verunić (Verona), and Veli Rat. A nature park, Telašćica, covers the southern part of the island and is adjacent to Kornati Islands National Park. There are six islets and rocks in the Telašćica Bay: Korotan, Galijola, Gozdenjak, Farfarikulac, Gornji Školj and Donji Školj.

The island has been inhabited since prehistoric times, as evidenced by many archeological sites that have still not been fully investigated. The earliest findings date back to Paleolithic, and numerous hillforts and gravesites are evidence of continuous settlement throughout Eneolithic, Bronze Age, and Iron Age.

The Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII in the 10th century mentioned it under the name of Pizuh, and later it was called Insula Tilagus in documents (“pelagos” in Greek means sea), and its Latin name was Insula maior. In the 15th century, it was registered as Veli otok.

The old and main settlement on the island was located in the southern area. It has only been inhabited significantly since the Turkish invasions (15th-16th centuries). Until then the island belonged to Zadar monasteries and citizens. Nowadays there is a total of 11 settlements on the island, and they are all on the north-eastern side of the island concerned primarily with fishing, although salt was once produced here.

The village of Veli Rat is also home to the Veli Rat lighthouse, another spectacular sight. The beautiful island of Dugi Otok, with a Mediterranean climate and ancient Croatian culture, receives very few visitors. Olive oil, figs, cheese, and wine accompany the seafood in the natives’ diet. A definite step back in time, the island boasts an ancient church and some Roman ruins. It is in close proximity to Kornati. Wikipedia

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The Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine is a historic cathedral in St. Augustine, Florida, and the seat of the Catholic Bishop of St. Augustine. It is located at 38 Cathedral Place between Charlotte and St. George Streets. Constructed over five years (1793–1797), it was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark on April 15, 1970. Its congregation, established in 1565, is the oldest Christian congregation in the contiguous United States.

In the mid-1560s, as the Spanish Empire expanded northward from the Caribbean to unexplored Florida, it founded the colony of St. Augustine, which has become the oldest continuously occupied European settlement on the United States mainland. Spanish settlers immediately established a shrine of the Catholic Church, the religion essential to the Spanish monarchy throughout its history. From the mid-1500s to the mid-1600s, the kingdom was undergoing a Catholic Revival in opposition to the Protestant Reformation.

As the early colonists were mostly sailors or soldiers with little expertise in architecture, the first church of St. Augustine was simply designed and rapidly built of disparate materials. The original parish was short-lived, burning to the ground in a 1586 attack on the town by the Englishman Sir Francis Drake. As two decades previously, the colonists hastily built a new church of straw and palmetto, which deteriorated quickly in the humid climate and burned down in 1599.

A tithe was raised in Spain, and in 1605 a third church was built, this time more permanently of timber by experienced architects and builders who had begun to make their way to the New World. For 95 years it stayed intact, though in disrepair, before again burning down in 1702 during a failed English attempt on the city by South Carolina colonist James Moore. Wikipedia

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Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe on the Adriatic Sea. Croatia borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro to the southeast, and shares a maritime border with Italy to the west and southwest. Its capital and largest city, Zagreb, forms one of the country’s primary subdivisions, with twenty counties. Croatia has an area of 56,594 square kilometers (21,851 square miles) and a population of 4.07 million.

The Croats arrived in the 6th century and organized the territory into two duchies by the 9th century. Croatia was first internationally recognized as independent on 7 June 879 during the reign of Duke Branimir. Tomislav became the first king by 925, elevating Croatia to the status of a kingdom. During the succession crisis after the Trpimirović dynasty ended, Croatia entered a personal union with Hungary in 1102. In 1527, faced with Ottoman conquest, the Croatian Parliament elected Ferdinand I of Austria to the Croatian throne. In October 1918, the State of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs, independent from Austria-Hungary, was proclaimed in Zagreb, and in December 1918, merged into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Following the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, most of Croatia was incorporated into a Nazi-installed puppet state, the Independent State of Croatia. A resistance movement led to the creation of the Socialist Republic of Croatia, which after the war became a founding member and constituent of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. On 25 June 1991, Croatia declared independence, and the War of Independence was fought for four years following the declaration.

A sovereign state, Croatia is a republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a member of the European Union, the United Nations, the Council of Europe, NATO, the World Trade Organization, and a founding member of the Union for the Mediterranean. An active participant in United Nations peacekeeping, Croatia has contributed troops to the International Security Assistance Force and took a nonpermanent seat on the United Nations Security Council for the 2008–2009 term. Since 2000, the Croatian government has invested in infrastructure, especially transport routes and facilities along the Pan-European corridors.

Croatia is classified by the World Bank as a high-income economy and ranks very high on the Human Development Index. Service, industrial sectors, and agriculture dominate the economy, respectively. Tourism is a significant source of revenue, with Croatia ranked among the 20 most popular tourist destinations. The state controls a part of the economy, with substantial government expenditure. The European Union is Croatia’s most important trading partner. Croatia provides social security, universal health care, and tuition-free primary and secondary education while supporting culture through public institutions and corporate investments in media and publishing. Wikipedia

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Central Kalahari Game Reserve is an extensive national park in the Kalahari Desert of Botswana. Established in 1961 it covers an area of 52,800 square kilometers (20,400 sq mi) (larger than the Netherlands, and almost 10% of Botswana’s total land area), making it the second-largest game reserve in the world.

The Bushmen, or San, have inhabited the lands for thousands of years since they roamed the area as nomadic hunters. However, since the mid-1990s the Botswana government has tried to relocate the Bushmen from the reserve, claiming they were a drain on financial resources despite revenues from tourism. In 1997, three-quarters of the entire San population were relocated from the reserve, and in October 2005 the government had resumed the forced relocation into resettlement camps outside of the park leaving only about 250 permanent occupiers. In 2006 a Botswana court proclaimed the eviction illegal and affirmed the Bushmen’s right to return to living in the reserve. However, as of 2015 most Bushmen are blocked from access to their traditional lands in the reserve. A nationwide ban on hunting made it illegal for the Bushmen to practice their traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle, despite allowing private game ranches to provide hunting opportunities for tourists.

In 2014 a diamond mine called Ghaghoo operated by Gem Diamonds opened in the southeast portion of the reserve. The company estimated that the mine could yield $4.9 billion worth of diamonds. The Rapaport Diamond Report, a diamond-industry pricing guide, stated, “Ghaghoo’s launch was not without controversy […] given its location on the ancestral land of the Bushmen”.

A huge bush fire in and around the park in the middle of September 2008 burnt around 80 percent of the reserve. The origin of the fire remains unknown.

This park contains wildlife such as giraffe, elephant, white rhinoceros, Cape buffalo, spotted hyena, brown hyena, honey badger, meerkat, yellow mongoose, warthog, cheetah, caracal, Cape wild dog, black-backed jackal, bat-eared fox, cape fox, leopard, lion, wildebeest, zebra, eland, sable antelope, gemsbok, springbok, steenbok, impala, greater kudu, aardvark, cape ground squirrel, cape hare, cape porcupine, chacma baboon, red hartebeest, and ostrich. The land is mostly flat, and gently undulating covered with bush and grasses covering the sand dunes, and areas of larger trees. Many of the river valleys are fossilized with salt pans. Four fossilized rivers meander through the reserve including Deception Valley which began to form around 16,000 years ago. Wikipedia

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An image from Central Kalahari Game Reserve

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