James' World 2

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Petra is a historical and archaeological city in southern Jordan.

It is in a basin among the mountains that run from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba.

Petra is believed to have been settled as early as 9,000 BC. It became the capital city of the Nabataean Kingdom. The Nabataeans were nomadic Arabs who used Petra because it was near the spice trade routes.

The Nabataean Kingdom became a client state of the Roman Empire in the first century BC. In 106 AD they lost their independence. Petra’s importance declined as sea trade routes developed. Also, the 363 earthquakes destroyed many structures.

The Byzantine Era led to the construction of several Christian churches, but the city continued to decline. By the early Islamic era, only a handful of nomads lived in Petra. It stayed unknown to the world until it was rediscovered in 1812 by Johann Ludwig Burckhardt.

Petra has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985. UNESCO has described it as “one of the most precious cultural properties of man’s cultural heritage”.

Petra is Jordan’s most-visited tourist attraction. Tourist numbers peaked at half a million in the first quarter of 2019. Wikipedia

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An image from Petra Jordan

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Xàtiva is a town in eastern Spain, in the province of Valencia, on the right (western) bank of the river Albaida and at the junction of the Valencia–Murcia and Valencia Albacete railways. It is located 25 km west of the Mediterranean Sea. During the Al-Andalus Islamic era, Arabs brought the technology to manufacture paper to Xàtiva. In the 12th century, Xàtiva was known for its schools, education, and learning circles. Islamic scholar Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi’s last name refers to Xàtiva where he lived and died. After the Reconquista by Northern Christian Kingdoms and the following Christian repopulation, the city became the cradle of one of the most powerful and controversial families of the Renaissance, was the House of Borgia, which produced Popes like Callixtus III (Alfonso de Borgia) and Alexander VI (Rodrigo de Borgia).

Xàtiva (Saetabis in Latin) was famous in Roman times for its linen fabrics, mentioned by the Latin poets Ovid and Catullus. Xàtiva is also known as an early European center of paper manufacture. In the 12th century, Arabs brought the technology to manufacture paper to Xàtiva (Arabic: شاطبة‎ Shāṭiba).

It is the birthplace of two popes, Callixtus III and Alexander VI, and also the painter José Ribera (Lo Spagnoletto). It suffered a dark moment in its history at the hands of Philip V of Spain, who, after his victory at the Battle of Almansa during the War of the Spanish Succession, had the city besieged then ordered it to be burned and renamed San Felipe. In memory of the insult, the portrait of the monarch hangs upside down in the local museum of l’Almodí.

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An image from Xativa, Spain

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Peggy’s Cove is a small rural community located on the eastern shore of St. Margarets Bay in Nova Scotia’s Halifax Regional Municipality, which is the site of Peggys Point Lighthouse (established 1868)

Peggy’s Cove is 43 kilometers (26 miles) southwest of Downtown Halifax and comprises one of the numerous small fishing communities located around the perimeter of the Chebucto Peninsula.

The community is named after the cove of the same name, a name also shared with Peggy’s Point, immediately to the east of the cove. The village marks the eastern point of St. Margaret’s Bay.

The first recorded name of the cove was Eastern Point Harbour or Peggs Harbour in 1766. The village is likely named after Saint Margaret’s Bay (Peggy being a nickname for Margaret), which Samuel de Champlain named after his mother Marguerite Le Roy. There has been much folklore created to explain the name.  Wikipedia

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Images from Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia, Canada

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Xilitla is a municipality and town in the state of San Luis Potosí, in the Huasteca region of Mexico. The town is located at 21°23′08″N 98°59′25″W The municipality has an area of 415 square kilometers (160 sq mi) and had a population of 51,498 in 2010 of whom 6,576 lived in town of Xilitla.

Xilitla is known for its fertile mountains and springs which create panoramic landscapes throughout the municipality. Las Pozas gardens are a tourist attraction.

The rugged landscape has partly shielded Xilitla from industrialization, helping preserve its indigenous Huastec and Nahuatl cultures and traditional agrarian lifestyles. Most of Xilitla’s residents live in over 100 rural villages of several dozen up to several hundred people. About 30,000 people in Xilitla live in indigenous households and about 20,000 of them speak an indigenous language, principally Huastec. Most of the speakers of an indigenous language also speak Spanish. Wikipedia

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An image from Xilitla, San Luis Potosi, Mexico

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The national nature reserves (NNRs) of Scotland are areas of land or water designated under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 as containing habitats and species of national importance. National nature reserves can be owned by public, private, community, or voluntary organizations but must be managed to conserve their important habitats and species, as well as providing opportunities for the public to enjoy and engage with nature. There are currently 43 NNRs in Scotland, which cover 154,250 hectares (1,542.5 km²), or less than 1.5% of the land area of Scotland. They range in size from Corrieshalloch Gorge at 7 ha to Mar Lodge Estate, which covers 29,324 ha.

National nature reserve status is an accolade awarded to the best nature reserves in Scotland, and the selected sites provide examples of nationally or internationally important species and habitats. NNRs are intended to showcase Scotland’s nature, and as well as being well managed for wildlife they must be managed to provide opportunities for the public to visit and enjoy them. NNRs therefore generally have facilities such as visitor centers and trails to allow visitors to explore and understand the habitats or wildlife they contain.

Most NNRs in Scotland are also designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Many also form part of the Natura 2000 network, which covers Special Protection Areas and Special Areas of Conservation. Additionally, some of the NNRs are designated as Ramsar sites. Wikipedia

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An image from St Abb’s Head National Nature Reserve Scotland

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Xanten is a town in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the district of Wesel.

Xanten is known for the Archaeological Park, one of the largest archaeological open-air museums in the world, built at the site of the Roman settlements Colonia Ulpia Traiana. Other attractions include the medieval town center with Xanten Cathedral, many museums, and large man-made lakes for various watersport activities. Xanten is visited by approximately one million tourists a year.

Xanten, the only German town whose name begins with X, is made up of three boroughs (Ortsteile): Hochbruch, Niederbruch, and the town centre. Other localities (Bezirke) belonging to the town of Xanten include Birten, Lüttingen, Marienbaum, Vynen, Obermörmter, Wardt, Mörmter, Willich, Beek and Ursel. Parts of a nature reserve called Bislicher Insel are located in the municipality as well.

The town borders the Lower Rhine and the town of Rees to the north, the town of Wesel to the east, the municipalities of Alpen and Sonsbeck to the south, and the towns of Uedem and Kalkar to the west.

The closest international airport is Weeze Airport (also called Niederrhein Airport; Ryanair hub) in Weeze (25 km); the closest intercontinental airport is Düsseldorf Airport (60 km). A railway station leads to Duisburg via Moers. Wikipedia

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An image from Xanten, Germany

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The pointe de Pen-Hir is a promontory of the Crozon peninsula in Brittany, to the southwest of Camaret-sur-Mer. On a clear day, there are views to the Pointe du Raz and the islands of Sein and Ouessant and to Pointe Saint-Mathieu. The cliffs are as tall as 70 meters (230 ft) high.

It is the site of the Monument to the Bretons of Free France, known as the Cross of Pen-Hir and inaugurated by General Charles de Gaulle in 1960. It is intended to bear witness to the group of Free French Bretons who founded Sao Breiz in Great Britain during the Second World War. It was created in 1949-1951 by architect Jean-Baptiste Mathon and sculptor Victor-François Bazin

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An image from Pointe de Pen-Hir

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Xalapa is the capital city of the Mexican state of Veracruz and the name of the surrounding municipality. In the 2005 census, the city reported a population of 387,879, and the municipality of which it serves as municipal seat reported a population of 413,136. The municipality has an area of 118.45 km². Xalapa lies near the geographic center of the state and is the second-largest city in the state after the city of Veracruz to the southeast.

The name Xalapa comes from the Classical Nahuatl roots xālli [ʃaːlːi] “sand” and āpan [aːpan] “place of water”, which means approximately “spring in the sand”. It’s classically pronounced [ʃalaːpan] in Nahuatl, although the final /n/ is often omitted. This was adopted into Spanish as Xalapa.

The complete name of the city is Xalapa-Enríquez, bestowed in honor of a governor from the 19th century, Juan de la Luz Enríquez. The city’s nickname, City of Flowers (Spanish: La ciudad de las flores), was given by Alexander von Humboldt, who visited the city 10 February 1804. The reference is also related to the city’s older colonial history. According to folklore, the Spanish believed that Jalapa was the birthplace and home of the world’s most beautiful woman, la Florecita, which literally means “little flower”. The residents of Xalapa are called Xalapeños or Jalapeños, which is the name given to the popular large peppers cultivated in this area. Wikipedia

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an image from Xalapa, Ver., Mexico

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A supernova (/ˌsuːpərˈnoʊvə/ plural: supernovae /ˌsuːpərˈnoʊviː/ or supernovas, abbreviations: SN and SNe) is a powerful and luminous stellar explosion. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when a white dwarf is triggered into runaway nuclear fusion. The original object, called the progenitor, either collapses to a neutron star or black hole or is completely destroyed. The peak optical luminosity of a supernova can be comparable to that of an entire galaxy before fading over several weeks or months.

Supernovae are more energetic than novae. In Latin, nova means “new”, referring astronomically to what appears to be a temporary new bright star. Adding the prefix “super-” distinguishes supernovae from ordinary novae, which are far less luminous. The word supernova was coined by Walter Baade and Fritz Zwicky in 1929.

The most recent directly observed supernova in the Milky Way was Kepler’s Supernova in 1604, but the remnants of more recent supernovae have been found. Observations of supernovae in other galaxies suggest they occur in the Milky Way on average about three times every century. These supernovae would almost certainly be observable with modern astronomical telescopes. The most recent naked-eye supernova was SN 1987A, the explosion of a blue supergiant star in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite of the Milky Way.

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An image of a Supernova

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Vienna is the national capital, largest city, and one of nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria’s most populous city, with about 2 million inhabitants (2.6 million within the metropolitan area, nearly one-third of the country’s population), and its cultural, economic, and political center. It is the 6th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union.

Until the beginning of the 20th century, Vienna was the largest German-speaking city in the world, and before the splitting of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I, the city had 2 million inhabitants. Today, it is the second-largest German-speaking city after Berlin. Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations, OPEC, and the OSCE. The city is located in the eastern part of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region. Along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city center was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In July 2017 it was moved to the list of World Heritage in Danger. Additionally, Vienna is known as the “City of Music” due to its musical legacy, as many famous classical musicians such as Beethoven and Mozart called Vienna home. Vienna is also said to be the “City of Dreams”, because of it being home to the world’s first psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Vienna’s ancestral roots lie in early Celtic and Roman settlements that transformed into a Medieval and Baroque city. It is well known for having played a pivotal role as a leading European music center, from the age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century. The historic center of Vienna is rich in architectural ensembles, including Baroque palaces and gardens, and the late-19th-century Ringstraße lined with grand buildings, monuments, and parks.

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An image from Austria

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