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Jasper National Park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984. It is the largest park in the Canadian Rockies spanning 10878 square kilometres (4200 square miles) and is located north of Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada.

The park offers spectacular views of glaciers, crystal clear lakes, breathtaking rugged mountain ranges, broad valleys, deep canyons, evergreen forest and of course, abundant wildlife. It has over 1000 kilometres of hiking trails in this vast wilderness and the largest Dark Sky Preserve on the planet.

The ​scenic Icefields Parkway that connects Banff National Park to the south takes you alongside a chain of massive icefields that straddle the Continental Divide. The famous Columbia Icefield is at the southern end of the park and it is only a short walking distance from the parkway.

​Jasper National Park is also one of the few remaining areas in southern Canada that carnivores like grizzly bears, mountain lions, wolves, wolverines and coyotes call home. This park remains one of the protected ecosystems remaining in the Rockies.

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The Anglican St. James Cemetery is the oldest cemetery in Toronto still in operation. The cemetery was opened in July 1844 for the burial of people professing the Anglican faith. 

At that time most of the city’s population of 18,000 lived south of Queen Street West and the cemetery’s present location during that era must have been regarded as being outside city limits. The cemetery was necessary as the burial ground around the cathedral itself, in use since 1797, was out of room.

Recognizing the growing trend towards cremation throughout the world, a crematorium was added in 1948. To date over 89,000 interments and 75,000 cremations have taken place at the cemetery.

The entrance to the cemetery is located at the intersection of Bloor and Parliament Streets, overlooking the Don River ravine. Just to the west is the St. James Town neighbourhood, which is named after the cemetery.

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A Slice of America.

Santa María Magdalena Cuitzeo is one of the most magnificent 16th century monastery built by the Augustinian missionaries in the western province of Michoacán. 

This ex-convent are filled with imagery of Christian faith. In the room above, you are able to see a fresco depicting Mary Magdalene holding a jar filled with oil and washing the feet of Jesus. In the cloisters, the Capitulary Hall also houses the convent’s nearly 1,100-volume bibliographic and documentary archives, most dating from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Located 7 kilometres north of Dunhuang city, Mingsha Shan (Echoing-Sand Mountain) is part of the Gobi Desert region with an area spanning 200 square kilometres. The highest peak is 1715 metres above sea level. Mingsha Shan gets its name from the singing sound of people treading or slide on the surface of the sand. The sand mountains are formed by drifting dunes and the sands have five different colors of red, yellow, green, white and black.

There are various theories about the singing sand mechanism. It has been proposed that the sound frequency is controlled by the shear rate. Others have suggested that the frequency of vibration is related to the thickness of the dry surface layer of sand. The sound waves bounce back and forth between the surface of the dune and the surface of the moist layer, creating a resonance that increases the sound’s volume. The noise may be generated by friction between the grains or by the compression of air between them. (Wiki)

Anshei Minsk Synagogue is located in the old Kensington Market in Toronto, Canada. It was founded by poor Jewish immigrants from Russia (mostly Minsk) in 1912. The current Byzantine Revival building was completed in 1930.

The congregation has had only three full-time rabbis: Meyer Levy (1916–1921), Meyer Zimmerman (1940–1954), and Shmuel Spero, who has served from 1988 to the present. It is the only Orthodox synagogue in downtown Toronto with a full-time rabbi, and the only one that holds daily services.

Most of the Mink’s founders were poor Jews from Minsk (in Russia), who had settled in Kensington Market at the turn of the century. At its founding, it was a shtibel or small storefront synagogue typical of poorer Jewish immigrant communities of the time.

~ Wikipedia~

At 32,000 square feet, BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir complex in northwest of Toronto is the largest Mandir in Canada and second largest Hindu temple outside of India.

The Mandir was constructed by 2000 builders in a record 18 months with a price tag of $40 millions. This hand crafted Mandir displays the fine tradition of ancient Indian arts & philosophy and was built using Turkish limestone and Italian marble.. Visitors are awestruck by the unique architecture and detailed intricacy of the carvings.

The BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir was dedicated to the people of Canada on July 22nd, 2007 by the spiritual leader of  BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha and the inspirer, His Divine Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj. Our Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and the then Toronto Mayor David Miller were present at the ceremony.

Aldeias Guarani M’byá na Cidade de São Paulo

The Guarani were one of the first indigenous peoples that the Europeans came into contact after arriving in South America over 500 years ago. In present day Brasil, there are roughly 46,000 Guarani spread out in seven states. The M’byá is one of the three main group of native Guarani Indians numbering around 6,000. This series of photographs documents the small population of M’byá indians living in the outer limits of São Paulo.

The reflection shows the 14-foot, 2000 pounds steel Koilos (sculpture) appears to be trapped inside this tiny space. The chaotic elements within the frame adds to the eerie feeling that the monster creature is about to leap out of the ground.

Our Lady of Guadalupe  is a Roman Catholic icon of the Virgin Mary. The original Aztec word was Coatlaxopeuh, which means “The one (female) that defeat the snake”. The icon of the Virgin of Guadalupe is Mexico’s most popular religious and cultural image.

The Don Valley Brick Works is a former quarry and industrial site located in the Don River valley in Toronto, Canada. The Don Valley Brick Works operated for nearly 100 years and provided bricks used to construct many well-known Toronto landmarks, such as Casa Loma, Osgoode Hall, Massey Hall, and the Ontario Legislature. Since the closure of the original factory, the quarry has been converted into a city park which includes a series of naturalized ponds, while the buildings have been restored and opened as an environmentally-focused community and cultural centre by Evergreen, a national charity dedicated to restoring nature in urban environments.

~Wikipedia~

Morelia in Michoacan, Mexico is named an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991 for its well preserved colonial buildings and layout of the historic center.

The Church and Convent of San Francisco in Morelia is one of the two oldest religious buildings in the historic centre. The architectural style of this building is known as plateresqueis from the Spanish Renaissance. The exterior of the convent spots Moorish windows on the second floor while the interior courtyard is reminiscient of the medieval period.

‘Gargoyle’ is a Latin word that means gullet or drain. These grotesque looking half-man, half-beast statues actually served as drainpipes in the old days. The lovely Gothic looking gargoyles that sit on top of the Cathedral Notre-Dame in Paris had carried rain from the roof for over 600 hundred years. They were designed, sculpted by the little-known Victor Pyanet in the 19th century.

Apparently, there are a total of 5000 gargoyles in the Cathédral Notre-Dame de Paris. That’s a lot of scary faces.

The Prince Edward Viaduct System, commonly referred to as the Bloor Viaduct or the viaduct, is the name of a truss arch bridge system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada that connects Bloor Street East, on the west side of the system, with Danforth Avenue on the east.

Designed by Edmund W. Burke, the Prince Edward Viaduct is a three hinged concrete-steel arch bridge, with a total span of 494 metres at 40 metres above the Don Valley. The bridge consists of a deck, made up of transverse beams and I-girders, which transfer load to column supports.

The bridge was opened on October 18th, 1918. In addition, two railway lines, an electrical transmission line, and a bicycle trail all pass under the bridge spans.