Search Term:

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Deosai National Park Skardu Wallpapers

Deosai National Park Skardu Wallpapers


The Deosai National Park is located in Skardu, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. The park is located on the Deosai Plains of the Karakoram-West Tibetan Plateau alpine steppe, among the highest plateaus in the world with an average height of 4,114 metres (13,497 ft) above the sea level, covering an area of about 3,000 square kilometres (1,200 sq mi). For just over half the year - between November and May - Deosai is snow-bound. In the summer months when the snow clears up, Deosai is accessible from Skardu in the north and the Astore Valley in the west. Deosai is well known for its spring season when it is covered by a carpet of millions of flowers and a wide variety of butterflies. 





Monday, September 27, 2010

Albania...History


Antiquity

The first recorded inhabitants in the territory of Albania were the Illyrians,[21] an Indo-European people that inhabited the area corresponding to northern and central Albania.[22] The Illyrian tribes that resided in the region of modern Albania were the Taulantii[23] the Parthini, the Abri, the Caviii, the Enchelei,[24] and several others. In the westernmost parts of the territory of Albania there lived the Bryges,[25] a Phrygian people, and in the south lived the Greek tribe of the Chaonians.
Butrint, a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Beginning in the 7th century BC, Greek colonies were established on the Illyrian coast. The most important were Apollonia, Avlona (modern-day Vlorë), Epidamnos (modern-day Durrës), and Lissus (modern-day Lezhë). The rediscovered Greek city of Buthrotum (modern-day Butrint), a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is probably more significant today than it was when Julius Caesar used it as a provisions depot for his troops during his campaigns in the 1st century BC. At that time, it was considered an unimportant outpost, overshadowed by Apollonia and Epidamnos.[26]
Route of the Via Egnatia
In the 4th century BC, the Illyrian king Bardyllis united several Illyrian tribes and engaged in conflict with Macedon to the southeast, but was defeated. Bardyllis was succeeded by Grabos,[27] then by Bardyllis II,[28] and then by Cleitus the Illyrian,[28] who was defeated by Alexander the Great. Later on, in 229 BC, Queen Teuta[29] of the Ardiaei clashed with the Romans and initiated the Illyrian Wars, which resulted in defeat and in the end of Illyrian independence by 168 B.C., when King Gentius was defeated by a Roman army.
The lands comprising modern-day Albania were incorporated into the Roman empire as part of the province of Illyricum above the river Drin, and Roman Macedonia (specifically as Epirus Nova) below it. The western part of the Via Egnatia ran inside modern Albania, ending at Dyrrachium. Illyricum was later divided into the provinces of Dalmatia and Pannonia.

Byzantine era
When the Roman Empire was divided into East and West in 395, the territories of modern Albania became part of the Byzantine Empire. Beginning in the first decades of Byzantine rule (until 461), the region suffered devastating raids by Visigoths, Huns, and Ostrogoths. In the 6th and 7th centuries, the region was overrun by the Slavs.
The new administrative system of the themes, or military provinces created by the Byzantine Empire, contributed to the eventual rise of feudalism in Albania, as peasant soldiers who served military lords became serfs on their landed estates. Among the leading families of the Albanian feudal nobility were the Balsha, Thopia, Shpata, Muzaka, Dukagjini and Kastrioti. The first three of these rose to become rulers of principalities were vassals of the Byzantine empire, maintaining a partial local autonomy from the Byzantine empire. Many Albanians converted to the Roman Catholic Church at that period.
The territory of Albania would remain under Byzantine and Bulgarian rule until the 14th century, when the Ottoman Turks began to make incursions into the Empire. The Ottomans captured Constantinople in 1453, and by 1460 most former Byzantine territories were in the hands of the Turks. Albania was fully occupied by the Ottomans in 1478.

Ottoman era
Durrës in 1573

Durrës in 1573
In the Middle Ages, the name Arberia (see Origin and history of the name Albania) began to be increasingly applied to the region now comprising the nation of Albania.
Beginning in the late-14th century, the Ottoman Turks expanded their empire from Anatolia to the Balkans (Rumelia). By the 15th century, the Ottomans ruled all of the Balkan Peninsula. Many Albanians had been recruited into the Janissary, including the feudal heir Gjergj Kastrioti who was renamed Skanderbeg (Iskandar Bey) by his Turkish trainers at Edrine. After some Ottoman defeats at the hands of the Serbs, Skanderbeg deserted and began a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire.[30]
Ottoman volley gun with 9 barrels, early 16th century.
After deserting, Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg re-converted to Roman Catholicism and declared a holy war against the Ottoman Empire,[30] which he led from 1443 to 1468. Under a red flag bearing Skanderbeg's heraldic emblem, an Albanian force of about 10,000-15.000 men at Krujë held off Ottoman campaigns against their lands for twenty-five years. Thrice the Albanians overcame sieges of Krujë (see Siege of Krujë) led by the sultans Murad II and Mohammad II.
Ottoman guns, 1750–1800
However, Skanderbeg was unable to receive any of the help which had been promised him by the popes. He died in 1468, leaving no worthy successor. After his death the rebellion continued, but without its former success. The loyalties and alliances created and nurtured by Skanderbeg faltered and fell apart, and the Ottomans reconquered the territory of Albania in 1478. Shortly after the fall of Kruje's castle, some Albanians fled to neighboring Italy, giving rise to the modern Arbëreshë communities.


Ottoman volley gun with 9 barrels, early 16th century.
The Ottomans had urbanized the landscape creating new cities, Bazaars, garrisons and Mosques throughout the Albanian regions. The majority of the remaining Albanian population converted to Islam, with many joining the Sufi Order of the Bektashi. Converting from Christianity to Islam brought considerable advantages, including access to Ottoman trade networks, bureaucratic positions and the army. As a result many Albanians came to serve in the elite Janissary and the administrative Devşirme system. Among these were important historical figures, including Iljaz Hoxha, Hamza Kastrioti, Köprülü Mehmed Pasha (head of the Köprülü family of Grand Viziers), the Bushati family, Sulejman Pasha, Ethem Pasha, Nezim Frakulla, Ali Pasha of Tepelena, Hasan Zyko Kamberi, Ali Pasha of Gucia, and Mehmet Ali ruler of Egypt.[31] and Emin Pasha.


Ottoman guns, 1750–1800
Many Albanians gained prominent positions in the Ottoman government, Albanians highly active during the Ottoman Era and leaders such as Ali Pasha of Tepelena is known to have aided the Bosnian Hero Husein Gradaščević on various occasions, no fewer than 42 Grand Viziers of the Empire were of Albanian descent, including Mehmet Akif Ersoy (1873–1936) an Albanian from Peja/Ipek who composed the Turkish National Anthem in 1921, "İstiklâl Marşı" (The Independence March). As Hupchik states, "Albanians had little cause of unrest" and "if anything, grew important in Ottoman internal affairs", and sometimes persecuted Christians harshly on behalf of their Turkish allies.
Albania became pivotal for the Ottomans in the Balkans, although Albanians were always committed to gain their independence and some were thus nicknamed "Arnauts" by the Ottomans, which meant "stubborn". The Ottoman period also saw the rising of semi-autonomous Albanian ruled Pashaliks, and Albanians were also an important part of the Ottoman army and Ottoman administration like the case of Köprülü family. Albania would remain a part of the Ottoman Empire as the provinces of Shkodra, Manastir and Yanya until 1912.

20th century

1913 to 1928
After five hundred years of Ottoman domination, an independent Albania was proclaimed on November 28, 1912.
The initial sparks of the first Balkan War in 1912 were ignited by the Albanian uprising between 1908 and 1910[32] which were directed at opposing the Young Turk policies of consolidation of the Ottoman Empire. Following the eventual weakening of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans, Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria declared war and sought to aggrandize their respective boundaries on the remaining territories of the Empire. Albania was thus invaded by Serbia in the north and Greece in the south, restricting the country to only a patch of land around the southern coastal city of Vlora. In 1912 Albania, still under foreign occupation declared its independence and with the aid of Austria-Hungary, the Great Powers drew its present borders leaving more than half of the Albanian population outside the new country.
The border between Albania and its neighbors was delineated in 1913 following the dissolution of most of the Ottoman Empire's territories in the Balkans. The delineation of the new state's borders left a significant number of Albanian communities outside Albania. This population was largely divided between Montenegro and Serbia (which then included what is now the Republic of Macedonia). A substantial number of Albanians thus found themselves under Serbian rule. At the same time, an uprising in the country's south by local Greeks, led to the formation of an autonomous region inside its borders (1914). After a period of political instability caused during World War I, the country adopted a republican form of government in 1920.[33] The territorial security of Albania was guaranteed by a League of Nations declaration of November 9, 1921, which entrusted the defense of that state to Italy.[34]

1928 to 1946
Zog of Albania
Zog of Albania
Starting in 1928, but especially during the Great Depression, the government of King Zog, which brought law and order to the country, began to cede Albania's sovereignty to Italy. Despite some insignificant resistance, especially at Durrës, Italy invaded Albania on 7 April 1939 and took control of the country, with the Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini proclaiming Italy's figurehead King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy as King of Albania. The nation thus became one of the first to be occupied by the Axis Powers in World War II.[35]
As Hitler began his aggressions, Mussolini decided to occupy Albania as a means to compete with Hitler's territorial gains. Mussolini and the Italian Fascists saw Albania as a historical part of the Roman Empire, and the occupation was intended to fulfill Mussolini's dream of creating an Italian Empire. During the Italian occupation, Albania's population was subject to a policy of forced Italianization by the kingdom's Italian governors, in which the use of the Albanian language was discouraged in schools while the Italian language was promoted. At the same time, the colonization of Albania by Italians was encouraged.
Mussolini, in October 1940, used his Albanian base to launch an attack on Greece, which led to the defeat of the Italian forces and the Greek occupation of Southern Albania in what was seen by the Greeks as the liberation of Northern Epirus. While preparing for the Invasion of Russia, Hitler decided to attack Greece in December 1940 to prevent a British attack on his southern flank.[36]
During World War II, the Albanian Communist Party was created on 8 November 1941. With the intention of organizing a partisan resistance, they called a general conference in Pezë on 16 September 1942 where the Albanian National Liberation Front was set up. The Front included nationalist groups, but it was dominated by communist partisans.
In December 1942, more Albanian nationalist groups were organized under Visor Kola. Albanians fought against the Italians while, during Nazi German occupation, Balli Kombëtar allied itself with the Germans and clashed with Albanian communists, which continued their fight against Germans and Balli Kombëtar at the same time.
With the collapse of the Mussolini government in line with the Allied invasion of Italy, Germany occupied Albania in September 1943, dropping paratroopers into Tirana before the Albanian guerrillas could take the capital. The German Army soon drove the guerrillas into the hills and to the south. The Nazi German government subsequently announced it would recognize the independence of a neutral Albania and set about organizing a new government, police and armed forces. Many Balli Kombëtar units cooperated with the Germans against the communists and several Balli Kombëtar leaders held positions in the German-sponsored regime.
The partisans entirely liberated Albania from German occupation on 29 November 1944. The Albanian partisans also liberated Kosovo, part of Montenegro, and southern Bosnia and Herzegovina. By November 1944, they had thrown out the Germans, one of the few East European nations to do so without any assistance from Soviet troops. Enver Hoxha became the leader of the country by virtue of his position as Secretary General of the Albanian Communist Party.
Albania was one of the European countries occupied by the Axis powers that ended World War II with a larger Jewish population than before the war.[37][38][39][40] Some 1,200 Jewish residents and refugees from other Balkan countries were hidden by Albanian families during World War II, according to official records.[41]

Communist state

The former Enver Hoxha Museum in Tirana
The former Enver Hoxha Museum in Tirana


Tirana's Skanderbeg Square in 1988
Albania became an ally of the Soviet Union, but this came to an end in 1960 over the advent of de-Stalinization. A strong political alliance with China followed, leading to several billion dollars in aid, which was curtailed after 1974. China cut off aid in 1978 when Albania attacked its policies after the death of the Chinese ruler Mao Zedong. Large-scale purges of officials occurred during the 1970s.
Enver Hoxha, a dictator who ruled Albania for four decades with an iron fist, died on 11 April 1985. Eventually the new regime introduced some liberalization, and granting the freedom to travel abroad in 1990. The new government made efforts to improve ties with the outside world. The elections of March 1991 left the former Communists in power, but a general strike and urban opposition led to the formation of a coalition cabinet that included non-Communists.[42]

Recent history – 1992 to present
Tirana's Skanderbeg Square in 1988
Further information: Timeline of Albanian history from 1994
Albania's former Communists were routed in elections March 1992, causing economic collapse and social unrest. Sali Berisha was elected as the first non-Communist president since World War II. The next crisis occurred in 1997, during his presidency, as riots ravaged the country because of collapse of financial pyramidal schemes. The state institutions collapsed and an EU military mission led by Italy was sent to stabilize the country. In summer 1997, Berisha was defeated in elections, winning just 25 seats out of a total of 156. His return to power in the elections of 3 July 2005 ended eight years of Socialist Party rule. In 2009, Albania – along with Croatia – joined NATO.

Albania...Etymology

Albania is the Medieval Latin name of the country which is called Shqipëri by its inhabitants. In Medieval Greek, the country's name is Albania (Greek: Αλβανία) besides variants Albanitia, Arbanitia.[10]
The name may be derived from the Illyrian tribe of the Albani recorded by Ptolemy, the geographer and astronomer from Alexandria who drafted a map in 150 AD[11] that shows the city of Albanopolis[12] (located northeast of Durrës).
The name may have a continuation in the name of a medieval settlement called Albanon and Arbanon, although it is not certain this was the same place.[13] In his History written in 1079–1080, Byzantine historian Michael Attaliates was the first to refer to Albanoi as having taken part in a revolt against Constantinople in 1043 and to the Arbanitai as subjects of the Duke of Dyrrachium.[14] During the Middle Ages, the Albanians called their country Arbër or Arbën and referred to themselves as Arbëresh or Arbnesh.[15][16]
As early as the 16th century, a new name for their home evolved among Albanian people: Shqipëria, popularly interpreted as "Land of the Eagles" or "Land of the Mountain Eagle" hence the two-headed bird on the national flag,[17] though most likely the origin lies in Skanderbeg's use of the Byzantine double-headed eagle on his seals.[18][19]
Under the Ottoman Empire Albania was referred to officially as Arnavutluk and its inhabitants as Arnauts.[20]

Albania


Albania (en-us-Albania.ogg /ælˈbeɪniə/ (help·info) al-BAY-nee-ə, Albanian: Shqipëri/Shqipëria, Gheg Albanian: Shqipnia/Shqypnia), officially known as the Republic of Albania (Albanian: Republika e Shqipërisë, pronounced [ɾɛpuˈblika ɛ ʃcipəˈɾiːs]), is a country in South Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo[a] to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the west, and on the Ionian Sea to the southwest. It is less than 72 km (45 mi) from Italy, across the Strait of Otranto which links the Adriatic Sea to the Ionian Sea.

Albania is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Council of Europe, World Trade Organisation, Organisation of the Islamic Conference and one of the founding members of the Union for the Mediterranean. Albania has been a potential candidate for accession to the European Union since January 2003, and it formally applied for EU membership on 28 April 2009.[4]

Albania is a parliamentary democracy and a transition economy. The Albanian capital, Tirana, is home to approximately 607,467 of the country's 3.6 million people, and it is also the financial capital of the country.[5] Free-market reforms have opened the country to foreign investment, especially in the development of energy and transportation infrastructure.[6][7][8] Newsweek ranked Albania 57 out of 100 Best Countries in the World in 2010.[9]

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/4521/52267201.jpg  http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/3498/17107770.jpg



Gramercy Park Hotel - New York

Gramercy Park Hotel is luxury boutique hotel in New York, located on the private Gramercy Park, steps from Union Square, within walking distance of the SoHo neighbourhood and the unique art galleries, an exciting nightlife. The Hotel has a uniqueness and individuality that make it stand out from the crowd of New York hotels




Tobu World Square Nikko - Theme Park of Japan

Tobu World Square Nikko - Theme Park of Japan


Tobu World Square is a theme park in Kinugawa Onsen, Nikko, Tochigi, Japan. The theme park contains over a hundred 1:25 scale models of famous buildings, including UNESCO-designated World Cultural and Heritage Sites, complete with 140,000 1:25 miniature people.

Nikko is a city located in the mountains of Tochigi Prefecture, Japan, it is a popular destination for Japanese and international tourists. There are also many famous hot springs in the area. Elevations range from 200 to 2,000 m. The mountains west of the main city are part of Nikko National Park and contain some of the country’s most spectacular waterfalls and scenic trails. 











Sunday, September 26, 2010

Sinbad Aquapark hotel - Egypt

Description Sinbad Aquapark is a beach front hotel, situated in Hurghada, Egypt. Just 15 minutes from Hurghada Airport, this well-featured resort hotel includes a water park and extensive sporting facilities. Sindbad Club Aqua Park and Resort has 685 guestrooms.



Russian Aircraft Museum by Night

Russian Aircraft Museum by Night







The Angel Fall — Video

Saturday, September 25, 2010

The Gherkin - Beautiful Building Of London

The Gherkin - Beautiful Building Of London


The Architects' Journal was awarded on Saturday 16th October 2004 at a ceremony televised live on Channel 4. In an unusually unanimous decision, the judges awarded it to Foster & Partners, led by Sir Norman Foster, for the revolutionary 30 St Mary Axe, London's first envionmental skyscraper.30 St Mary Axe in the City of London, affectionately known by Londoners as the Gherkin or the Erotic Gherkin, is located on the site of the former Baltic Exchange which was badly damaged by an IRA bomb in 1992. Controversially, the decision was taken to demolish the Exchange, a Grade 2 listed building.







Shanghai Pudong Airport Chaina

Shanghai Pudong Airport Chaina


The airport is the main hub for China Eastern Airlines and Shanghai Airlines, and a major international hub for Air China. Pudong airport is organised around two main passenger terminals, flanked on both sides by three parallel runways. Current airport masterplans call for the building of a third passenger terminal, a satellite terminal and two additional runways by 2015, raising its capacity from the current 60 million passengers annually to 80 million, along with the ability to handle six million tonnes of air freight. A station for the Shanghai Maglev Train is sited between the passenger terminals, providing the world's first commercial high-speed maglev service to downtown Pudong in 7 minutes and 20 seconds. The airport is open 24 hours, one of only a few Chinese airports to be so.







Share it with your freinds....

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails

***Visit Our Home Page for More Fun***


Subscribe US

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Blog Archive

Followers


free counter