Author: Ms. R.

Starting from the from the highlands of Guinea, the Moa River flows southwest toward the Atlantic Ocean. Along its path, the wide river hosts a cluster of islands. One of those is Tiwai Island, a 12-square kilometer piece of land in the southwestern region of Sierra Leone (about 30 kilometers from the Liberian border). In the Mende language, Tiwai means “big island”—appropriately, as it is one of the largest inland islands in Sierra Leone. In the late 1970s, Tiwai……

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In St. Thomas’s churchyard, Stanhope, stands an unusual piece of history. What appears to be an old, dead tree trunk standing in front of a missing section of church wall just along from the war memorial is actually a large fossil. The tree would have grown some 320 million years ago during the Carboniferous Period, long before England—let alone Stanhope—existed. At that time, the landmass that would become Britain was nearly straddling the equator and would have looked and felt……

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In 2017, Anoop Babani, Goa-based former journalist, was recuperating from a cycling accident when he encountered a book from 1931, With Cyclists Around the World, written by three Indians who, in the days before widespread paved roads and satellite communications, had biked around the world. “A new China has been born in the world,” they wrote prophetically of one of their destinations. “Few see her; but those who do see, realize how she will affect world’s course and shape……

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Going along Memorial Drive into Montpelier, the capital of Vermont, it may easy to overlook a small black-and-grey stone sitting next to an intersection. But a closer look yields something unexpected: an image of the space shuttle Challenger, located in a state with few connections to NASA or the space industry.  The monument is part of a small, forgotten park built to honor the astronauts lost when the space shuttle crashed in 1986. The park’s central feature, a small, stone……

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In the early 12th-century, Norse settlers of Greenland established the first bishop seat on the island in the southern village of Garðar. There, a cathedral dedicated to Saint Nicholas, patron saint of sailors, was founded by Greenland’s first bishop Arnaldur in 1126. The church was composed of red sandstone and is the only known cruciform religious building in Greenland. The original structure was expanded in the following decades to include a bell tower and two chapels. During the 13th and……

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Altogether, Joseph Stalin maintained about 20 different summer cottages or dachas, mostly around the Black Sea coast. He had health issues that included poor joints and lungs, so the weather of this warmer region was often comforting. He used this large building complex in Sochi rarely. However, it was always staffed and running just in case Stalin made a surprise visit.  The building has retained its original appearance and interior with only a few later additions. The rooms and……

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Altogether, Joseph Stalin maintained about 20 different summer cottages or dachas, mostly around the Black Sea coast. He had health issues that included poor joints and lungs, so the weather of this warmer region was often comforting. He used this large building complex in Sochi rarely. However, it was always staffed and running just in case Stalin made a surprise visit.  The building has retained its original appearance and interior with only a few later additions. The rooms and……

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Located in the famous Gangnam District of Seoul, Seonjeongneung is a large park that stands out in the middle of the bustling and crowded capital of South Korea. This site is the burial ground of two kings and a queen of the Joseon Dynasty. The westernmost area of the park is occupied by Seolleung, the tomb of King Seongjong who died in 1494. On this tomb are engravings of the twelve zodiac signs and the mound is surrounded by……

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