The Sacred Rock, Machu Picchu, Peru

The meaning of such important piece for the Inca civilization lies in the own location of the Citadel of Machu Picchu. The location of this wonderful city is located to the East of the depression formed by the mountain Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu systems with the Central Andes in the South of the country, on the eastern slope of the cordillera de Vilcanota just 80 kilometers from the city of Cuzco. 

The urban area of Machu Picchu, known as Urin is home to the most important buildings for the Inca civilization as the Temple of the three Windows, the architectural group of the Sacred Rock and the grouping of gardens and courtyards known as Acllawasi.

Machu Picchu

Experts have considered several theories about the meaning of the Sacred Rock and one of them has based his hypothesis of the view which can be seen from Cerro Pumasillo, located on the posterior side of Valley, view which has some similarity to the way in which was carved the Sacred Rock; Therefore, this theory states that the Sacred Rock represents the Cerro Pumasillo and its usefulness might well have been oriented to the astrological study, which apparently played through the practice of sacred rituals. Hence also note the importance of the area where the Sacred Rock, area which represented one of the areas of the most significant city for civilization by its role as a Centre for hosting the most important sacred ceremonies for the Citadel and rituals.

The Sacred Rock seems to also possess a geographical purpose according to the studies made on the area well, the location of the Sacred Rock coincides exactly with the northern part of the city, location which is also located the portal which opens towards the interior of the mountain Huayna Picchu to become a narrow path that extends into the mountain. The road also offers a fork into the urban area where the main square of the Citadel. For both reasons, the experts have strongly supported the idea of the Sacred Rock represents a geographical landmark which marked the signaling of the portal of Machu Picchu to Huayna Picchu.

This monolith has amazing dimensions reaching a height of 3 metro and is located in an area formed by a rectangular perimeter with two adjoining houses called "huayranas" which have the peculiarity of having just three walls of Pirka architecture. The Sacred Rock sits on a base of 7 meters wide, adopting a form that comes to remind the profile of a feline animal on a podium of solid rock that was carved by the construction tools referred to as Ollantaytambo (rocky rolling stones). The expert community of anthropology has interpreted this basis with shape of feline animal as representation of the sacred puma of the Cerro Pumasillo of Machu Picchu, and hence his theory that, both the Sacred Rock and the other buildings of the main square, representing the geographic location of the various geophysical elements of the mountain systems of Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu.

The Sacred Rock, Machu Picchu, Peru

The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China is a series of fortifications made of stone, brick, tamped earth, wood, and other materials, generally built along an east-to-west line across the historical northern borders of China to protect the Chinese states and empires against the raids and invasions of the various nomadic groups of the Eurasian Steppe. 

Several walls were being built as early as the 7th century BC; these, later joined together and made bigger and stronger, are now collectively referred to as the Great Wall. Especially famous is the wall built 220–206 BC by Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. 

Little of that wall remains. Since then, the Great Wall has on and off been rebuilt, maintained, and enhanced; the majority of the existing wall is from the Ming Dynasty.

Other purposes of the Great Wall have included border controls, allowing the imposition of duties on goods transported along the Silk Road, regulation or encouragement of trade and the control of immigration and emigration. Furthermore, the defensive characteristics of the Great Wall were enhanced by the construction of watch towers, troop barracks, garrison stations, signaling capabilities through the means of smoke or fire, and the fact that the path of the Great Wall also served as a transportation corridor.

The Great Wall of the Qin

The Great Wall of the Han

The Great Wall stretches from Dandong in the east, to Lop Lake in the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia. A comprehensive archaeological survey, using advanced technologies, has concluded that the Ming walls measure 8,850 km (5,500 mi). This is made up of 6,259 km (3,889 mi) sections of actual wall, 359 km (223 mi) of trenches and 2,232 km (1,387 mi) of natural defensive barriers such as hills and rivers. Another archaeological survey found that the entire wall with all of its branches measure out to be 21,196 km (13,171 mi).

Histrory

The Chinese were already familiar with the techniques of wall-building by the time of the Spring and Autumn period between the 8th and 5th centuries BC.During this time and the subsequent Warring States period, the states of Qin, Wei, Zhao, Qi, Yan, and Zhongshan all constructed extensive fortifications to defend their own borders. Built to withstand the attack of small arms such as swords and spears, these walls were made mostly by stamping earth and gravel between board frames.

King Zheng of Qin conquered the last of his opponents and unified China as the First Emperor of the Qin dynasty ("Qin Shi Huang") in 221 BC. Intending to impose centralized rule and prevent the resurgence of feudal lords, he ordered the destruction of the sections of the walls that divided his empire among the former states. To position the empire against the Xiongnu people from the north, however, he ordered the building of new walls to connect the remaining fortifications along the empire's northern frontier. Transporting the large quantity of materials required for construction was difficult, so builders always tried to use local resources. Stones from the mountains were used over mountain ranges, while rammed earth was used for construction in the plains. There are no surviving historical records indicating the exact length and course of the Qin walls. Most of the ancient walls have eroded away over the centuries, and very few sections remain today. The human cost of the construction is unknown, but it has been estimated by some authors that hundreds of thousands, if not up to a million, workers died building the Qin wall. Later, the Han,the Sui, and the Northern dynasties all repaired, rebuilt, or expanded sections of the Great Wall at great cost to defend themselves against northern invaders. The Tang and Song dynasties did not undertake any significant effort in the region. The Liao, Jin, and Yuan dynasties, who ruled Northern China throughout most of the 10th–13th centuries, constructed defensive walls in the 12th century but those were located much to the north of the Great Wall as we know it, within China's province of Inner Mongolia and in Mongolia itself.

The Great Wall concept was revived again under the Ming in the 14th century, and following the Ming army's defeat by the Oirats in the Battle of Tumu. The Ming had failed to gain a clear upper hand over the Mongolian tribes after successive battles, and the long-drawn conflict was taking a toll on the empire. The Ming adopted a new strategy to keep the nomadic tribes out by constructing walls along the northern border of China. Acknowledging the Mongol control established in the Ordos Desert, the wall followed the desert's southern edge instead of incorporating the bend of the Yellow River.

Unlike the earlier fortifications, the Ming construction was stronger and more elaborate due to the use of bricks and stone instead of rammed earth. Up to 25,000 watchtowers are estimated to have been constructed on the wall. As Mongol raids continued periodically over the years, the Ming devoted considerable resources to repair and reinforce the walls. Sections near the Ming capital of Beijing were especially strong. Qi Jiguang between 1567 and 1570 also repaired and reinforced the wall, faced sections of the ram-earth wall with bricks and constructed 1,200 watchtowers from Shanhaiguan Pass to Changping to warn of approaching Mongol raiders. During the 1440s–1460s, the Ming also built a so-called "Liaodong Wall". Similar in function to the Great Wall (whose extension, in a sense, it was), but more basic in construction, the Liaodong Wall enclosed the agricultural heartland of the Liaodong province, protecting it against potential incursions by Jurched-Mongol Oriyanghan from the northwest and the Jianzhou Jurchens from the north. While stones and tiles were used in some parts of the Liaodong Wall, most of it was in fact simply an earth dike with moats on both sides.

Towards the end of the Ming, the Great Wall helped defend the empire against the Manchu invasions that began around 1600. Even after the loss of all of Liaodong, the Ming army held the heavily fortified Shanhai Pass, preventing the Manchus from conquering the Chinese heartland. The Manchus were finally able to cross the Great Wall in 1644, after Beijing had already fallen to Li Zicheng's rebels. Before this time, the Manchus had crossed the Great Wall multiple times to raid, but this time it was for conquest. The gates at Shanhai Pass were opened on May 25 by the commanding Ming general, Wu Sangui, who formed an alliance with the Manchus, hoping to use the Manchus to expel the rebels from Beijing. The Manchus quickly seized Beijing, and eventually defeated both the rebel-founded Shun dynasty and the remaining Ming resistance, establishing the Qing dynasty rule over all of China.

Under Qing rule, China's borders extended beyond the walls and Mongolia was annexed into the empire, so constructions on the Great Wall were discontinued. On the other hand, the so-called Willow Palisade, following a line similar to that of the Ming Liaodong Wall, was constructed by the Qing rulers in Manchuria. Its purpose, however, was not defense but rather migration control.

None of the Europeans who visited Yuan China or Mongolia, such as Marco Polo, Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, William of Rubruck, Giovanni de' Marignolli and Odoric of Pordenone, mentioned the Great Wall.

The North African traveler Ibn Battuta, who also visited China during the Yuan dynasty ca. 1346, had heard about China's Great Wall, possibly before he had arrived in China. He wrote that the wall is "sixty days' travel" from Zeitun (modern Quanzhou) in his travelogue Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling. He associated it with the legend of the wall mentioned in the Qur'an, which Dhul-Qarnayn (commonly associated with Alexander the Great) was said to have erected to protect people near the land of the rising sun from the savages of Gog and Magog. However, Ibn Battuta could find no one who had either seen it or knew of anyone who had seen it, suggesting that although there were remnants of the wall at that time, they weren't significant.

Soon after Europeans reached Ming China by ship in the early 16th century, accounts of the Great Wall started to circulate in Europe, even though no European was to see it for another century. Possibly one of the earliest European descriptions of the wall and of its significance for the defense of the country against the "Tartars" (i.e. Mongols), may be the one contained in João de Barros's 1563 Asia. Other early accounts in Western sources include those of Gaspar da Cruz, Bento de Goes, Matteo Ricci, and Bishop Juan González de Mendoza. In 1559, in his work "A Treatise of China and the Adjoyning Regions," Gaspar da Cruz offers an early discussion of the Great Wall. Perhaps the first recorded instance of a European actually entering China via the Great Wall came in 1605, when the Portuguese Jesuit brother Bento de Góis reached the northwestern Jiayu Pass from India.Early European accounts were mostly modest and empirical, closely mirroring contemporary Chinese understanding of the Wall, although later they slid into hyperbole, including the erroneous but ubiquitous claim that the Ming Walls were the same ones that were built by the First Emperor in the 3rd century BC.

When China opened its borders to foreign merchants and visitors after its defeat in the First and Second Opium Wars, the Great Wall became a main attraction for tourists. The travelogues of the later 19th century further enhanced the reputation and the mythology of the Great Wall, such that in the 20th century, a persistent misconception exists about the Great Wall of China being visible from the Moon or even Mars.

Source 

Edmonds, Richard Louis (1985). Northern Frontiers of Qing China and Tokugawa Japan: A Comparative Study of Frontier Policy. University of Chicago, Department of Geography; Research Paper No. 213. ISBN 0-89065-118-3.

http://www.chinahighlights.com

Elliott, Mark C. (2001). The Manchu Way: The Eight Banners and Ethnic Identity in Late Imperial China. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-4684-7.

Evans, Thammy (2006). Great Wall of China: Beijing & Northern China. Bradt Travel Guide. Bradt Travel Guides. p. 3. ISBN 1-84162-158-7.

Haw, Stephen G. (2006). Marco Polo's China: a Venetian in the realm of Khubilai Khan. Volume 3 of Routledge studies in the early history of Asia. Psychology Press. ISBN 0-415-34850-1.

Hessler, Peter (2007). "Letter from China: Walking the Wall". The New Yorker (May 21, 2007): 58–67.

Karnow, Mooney, Paul and Catherine (2008). National Geographic Traveler: Beijing. National Geographic Books. p. 192. ISBN 1-4262-0231-8.

https://world.new7wonders.com

Lindesay, William (2008). The Great Wall Revisited: From the Jade Gate to Old Dragon's Head. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-03149-4.

López-Gil, Norberto (2008). "Is it Really Possible to See the Great Wall of China from Space with a Naked Eye?" (PDF). Journal of Optometry. 1 (1): 3–4. doi:10.3921/joptom.2008.3.

Lovell, Julia (2006). The Great Wall : China against the world 1000 BC – AD 2000. Sydney: Picador Pan Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-330-42241-3.

Rojas, Carlos (2010). The Great Wall : a cultural history. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-04787-7.

https://en.wikipedia.org

Slavicek, Louise Chipley; Mitchell, George J.; Matray, James I. (2005). The Great Wall of China. Infobase Publishing. p. 35. ISBN 0-7910-8019-6.

Szabó, József; Dávid, Lóránt; Loczy, Denes, eds. (2010). Anthropogenic Geomorphology: A Guide to Man-made Landforms. Springer. ISBN 978-90-481-3057-3.

Turnbull, Stephen R (January 2007). The Great Wall of China 221 BC–AD 1644. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84603-004-8.

Arnold, H.J.P, "The Great Wall: Is It or Isn't It?" Astronomy Now, 1995.

Beckwith, Christopher I. (2009): Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-13589-2.

Luo, Zewen, et al. and Baker, David, ed. (1981). The Great Wall. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Book Company (UK). ISBN 0-07-070745-6

Man, John. (2008). The Great Wall. London: Bantam Press. 335 pages. ISBN 978-0-593-05574-8.

Michaud, Roland and Sabrina (photographers), & Michel Jan, The Great Wall of China. Abbeville Press, 2001. ISBN 0-7892-0736-2

Schafer, Edward H. (1985) The Golden Peaches of Samarkand. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-05462-2.

Yamashita, Michael; Lindesay, William (2007). The Great Wall – From Beginning to End. New York: Sterling. 160 pages. ISBN 978-1

Waldron, Arthur (1983). "The Problem of The Great Wall of China". Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. Harvard-Yenching Institute. 43 (2): 643–63. JSTOR 2719110.

Waldron, Arthur (1988). "The Great Wall Myth: Its Origins and Role in Modern China". The Yale Journal of Criticism. Johns Hopkins University Press. 2 (1): 67–104.

Waldron, Arthur (1990). The Great Wall of China : from history to myth. Cambridge England New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-42707-4.

Yule, Sir Henry, ed. (1866). Cathay and the way thither: being a collection of medieval notices of China. Issues 36–37 of Works issued by the Hakluyt Society. Printed for the Hakluyt society.

The Great Wall of China

Machu Picchu, Peru

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Machu Picchu, Peru

Kiev, Ukraine

Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population in July 2015 was 2,887,974(though higher estimated numbers have been cited in the press),making Kiev the 7th most populous city in Europe.

There are cities that symbolise a nation and Kyiv is one of them. Kyiv is the soul of Ukraine, playing a key part in the past, present and future of this country.

One of the most beautiful cities in the world, Kyiv is covered in a sea of greenery, which can be seen everywhere - in its many parks, boulevards and gardens. At every corner of every street you will find beautiful historic sites. 

For almost 300 years Kyiv was the centre of Kyivan Rus, a mighty Eastern Slavic state whose territory spread from the Western Buh to the Volga, from the Black Sea to the Baltic. It was a shield that protected Europe from the invasions of savage nomads. Hordes of invaders poured into our nation for centuries, but every time they were turned back by the Slavic stronghold. The Kyivan Rus’ state disintegrated during the 12th and 13th centuries, and some of its territory came under the rule of Moscow and Poland.

One can only imagine what Kyiv would have become if not for the continuing invasions that began in 1240 by roaming Mongol Tatars and continued for 700 years, including the Nazi occupation in World War II. The Germans destroyed 40 per cent of the city, and the retreating Soviets destroyed much of Khreschatyk Street, the main street of Kyiv. Even in what was technically peacetime, hundreds of churches and cathedrals, architectural and historical masterpieces, were blown up during the 1920s and 1930s.

Kyiv, once the holy centre of the Rus, sprawls out along the high hills of the Dnipro, rivalling the oldest and most charming cities of Europe. Every epoch left its mark here. Even the great Tatar invasion that shook the civilised world in the 13th Century was unable to wipe it off the face of the earth. Then, at the beginning in the 17th century, Kyiv once again turned into a leading spiritual and cultural centre. 

History

Currently, Kiev is the traditional and most commonly used English name for the city, but in 1995 the Ukrainian government adopted Kyiv as the mandatory romanization for use in legislative and official acts.

Kiev is one of the oldest cities of Eastern Europe and has played a pivotal role in the development of the medieval East Slavic civilization as well as in the modern Ukrainian nation.

Read about Kiev Culture

It is believed that Kiev was founded in the late 9th century (some historians have wrongly referred to as 482 AD). The origin of the city is obscured by legends, one of which tells about a founding-family consisting of a Slavic tribe leader Kyi, the eldest, his brothers Shchek and Khoryv, and also their sister Lybid, who founded the city (The Primary Chronicle). According to it the name Kyiv/Kiev means to "belong to Kyi". Some claim to find reference to the city in Ptolemy’s work as the Metropolity (the 2nd century). Another legend states that Saint Andrew passed through the area and where he erected a cross, a church was built. Also since the Middle Ages an image of the Saint Michael represented the city as well as the duchy.

There is little historical evidence pertaining to the period when the city was founded. Scattered Slavic settlements existed in the area from the 6th century, but it is unclear whether any of them later developed into the city. 8th-century fortifications were built upon a Slavic settlement apparently abandoned some decades before. It is still unclear whether these fortifications were built by the Slavs or the Khazars. If it was the Slavic peoples then it is also uncertain when Kiev fell under the rule of the Khazar empire or whether the city was, in fact, founded by the Khazars. The Primary Chronicle (a main source of information about the early history of the area) mentions Slavic Kievans telling Askold and Dir that they live without a local ruler and pay a tribute to the Khazars in an event attributed to the 9th century. At least during the 8th and 9th centuries Kiev functioned as an outpost of the Khazar empire. A hill-fortress, called Sambat (Old Turkic for "High Place") was built to defend the area. At some point during the late 9th or early 10th century Kiev fell under the rule of Varangians (see Askold and Dir, and Oleg of Novgorod) and became the nucleus of the Rus' polity. The date given for Oleg's conquest of the town in the Primary Chronicle is 882, but some historians, such as Omeljan Pritsak and Constantine Zuckerman, dispute this and maintain that Khazar rule continued as late as the 920s (documentary evidence exists to support this assertion – see the Kievian Letter and Schechter Letter.) Other historians suggest that the Magyar tribes ruled the city between 840 and 878, before migrating with some Khazar tribes to Hungary. According to these the building of the fortress of Kiev was finished in 840 by the lead of Keő (Keve), Csák and Geréb, the three brothers, possibly members of the Tarján tribe (the three names are mentioned in the Kiev Chronicle as Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv, none of them are Slavic names and it has been always a hard problem to solve their meaning/origin by Russian historians. Their names were put into the Kiev Chronicle in the 12th century and they were identified as old-Russian mythological heroes).

During the 8th and 9th centuries, Kiev was an outpost of the Khazar empire. However, being located on the historical trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks and starting in the late 9th century or early 10th century, Kiev was ruled by the Varangian nobility and became the nucleus of the Rus' polity, whose 'Golden Age' (11th to early 12th centuries) has from the 19th century become referred to as Kievan Rus'. In 968, the nomadic Pechenegs attacked and then besieged the city. In 1000 AD the city had a population of 45,000. During 1169, Grand Prince Andrey Bogolyubsky sacked Kiev taking many pieces of religious artwork including the Mother of God icon. In 1203 Kiev was captured and burned by Prince Rurik Rostislavich and his Kipchak allies. In the 1230s the city was besieged and ravaged by different Rus' princes several times. In 1240 the Mongol invasion of Rus' led by Batu Khan completely destroyed Kiev, an event that had a profound effect on the future of the city and the East Slavic civilization. At the time of the Mongol destruction, Kiev was reputed as one of the largest cities in the world, with a population exceeding 100,000 in the beginning of the early 12th century.

In the early 1320s, a Lithuanian army led by Gediminas defeated a Slavic army led by Stanislav of Kiev at the Battle on the Irpen' River, and conquered the city. The Tatars, who also claimed Kiev, retaliated in 1324–1325, so while Kiev was ruled by a Lithuanian prince, it had to pay a tribute to the Golden Horde. Finally, as a result of the Battle of Blue Waters in 1362, Kiev and surrounding areas were incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by Algirdas, Grand Duke of Lithuania. In 1482, the Crimean Tatars sacked and burned much of Kiev. In 1569 (Union of Lublin), when the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was established, the Lithuanian-controlled lands of the Kiev region, Podolia, Volhynia, and Podlachia, were transferred from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, and Kiev became the capital of Kiev Voivodeship.[40] In 1658 (Treaty of Hadiach), Kiev was supposed to become the capital of the Duchy of Rus' within the Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth, but the treaty was never ratified to this extent. Kept by the Russian troops since 1654 (Treaty of Pereyaslav), it became a part of the Tsardom of Russia from 1667 on (Truce of Andrusovo) and enjoyed a degree of autonomy. None of the Polish-Russian treaties concerning Kiev have ever been ratified. In the Russian Empire Kiev was a primary Christian centre, attracting pilgrims, and the cradle of many of the empire's most important religious figures, but until the 19th century the city's commercial importance remained marginal.

In 1834, the Saint Vladimir University was established; it is now called the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kiev after the Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko. Shevchenko was a field researcher and editor for the geography department.The medical faculty of the Saint Vladimir University has been separated into an independent institution during the Soviet period and is called now Bogomolets National Medical University.

During the 18th and 19th centuries city life was dominated by the Russian military and ecclesiastical authorities; the Russian Orthodox Church formed a significant part of Kiev's infrastructure and business activity. In the late 1840s, the historian, Mykola Kostomarov (Russian: Nikolay Kostomarov), founded a secret political society, the Brotherhood of Saint Cyril and Methodius, whose members put forward the idea of a federation of free Slavic people with Ukrainians as a distinct and separate group rather than a subordinate part of the Russian nation; the society was quickly suppressed by the authorities.

Following the gradual loss of Ukraine's autonomy, Kiev experienced growing Russification in the 19th century by means of Russian migration, administrative actions and social modernization. At the beginning of the 20th century, the city centre was dominated by the Russian-speaking part of the population, while the lower classes living on the outskirts retained Ukrainian folk culture to a significant extent.[citation needed] However, enthusiasts among ethnic Ukrainian nobles, military and merchants made recurrent attempts to preserve native culture in Kiev (by clandestine book-printing, amateur theatre, folk studies etc.)

During the Russian industrial revolution in the late 19th century, Kiev became an important trade and transportation centre of the Russian Empire, specialising in sugar and grain export by railway and on the Dnieper river. By 1900, the city had also become a significant industrial centre, having a population of 250,000. Landmarks of that period include the railway infrastructure, the foundation of numerous educational and cultural facilities as well as notable architectural monuments (mostly merchant-oriented). The first electric tram line of the Russian Empire was established in Kiev (arguably, the first in the world).

Kiev prospered during the late 19th century Industrial Revolution in the Russian Empire, when it became the third most important city of the Empire and the major centre of commerce of its southwest. In the turbulent period following the 1917 Russian Revolution, Kiev became the capital of several short-lived Ukrainian states and was caught in the middle of several conflicts: World War I, during which it was occupied by German soldiers from 2 March 1918 to November 1918, the Russian Civil War, and the Polish–Soviet War. Kiev changed hands sixteen times from the end of 1918 to August 1920.

Starting in 1921, the city was a part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, a founding republic of the Soviet Union. Kiev was greatly affected by all the major processes that took place in Soviet Ukraine during the interwar period: the 1920s Ukrainization as well as the migration of the rural Ukrainophone population made the Russophone city Ukrainian-speaking and propped up the development of the Ukrainian cultural life in the city; the Soviet Industrialization that started in the late 1920s turned the city, a former centre of commerce and religion, into a major industrial, technological and scientific centre, the 1932–1933 Great Famine devastated the part of the migrant population not registered for the ration cards, and Joseph Stalin's Great Purge of 1937–1938 almost eliminated the city's intelligentsia.

In 1934 Kiev became the capital of Soviet Ukraine. The city boomed again during the years of the Soviet industrialization as its population grew rapidly and many industrial giants were created, some of which exist to this day.

In World War II, the city again suffered significant damage, and was occupied by Nazi Germany from 19 September 1941 to 6 November 1943. More than 600,000 Soviet soldiers were killed or captured in the great encirclement Battle of Kiev in 1941. Most of them never returned alive. Shortly after the city was occupied, a team of NKVD officers that had remained hidden dynamited most of the buildings on the Khreshchatyk, the main street of the city, most of whose buildings were being used by German military and civil authorities; the buildings burned for days and 25,000 people were left homeless.

Allegedly in response to the actions of the NKVD, the Germans rounded up all the local Jews they could find, nearly 34,000, and massacred them at Babi Yar over the course of 29–30 September 1941. In the months that followed, thousands more were taken to Babi Yar where they were shot. It is estimated that more than 100,000 people of various ethnic groups, mostly civilians, were murdered by the Germans there during World War II.

Kiev recovered economically in the post-war years, becoming once again the third most important city of the Soviet Union. The catastrophic accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986 occurred only 100 km (62 mi) north of the city. However, the prevailing northward winds blew most of the radioactive debris away from the city.

In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine was proclaimed in the city by the Ukrainian parliament on 24 August 1991. In 2004–2005, the city played host to until then the largest post-Soviet public demonstrations, in support of the Orange Revolution. From November 2013 until February 2014, central Kiev was the primary location of Euromaidan.

Source

"Чисельність населення м.Києва" (in Ukrainian). UkrStat.gov.ua. 1 November 2015. Retrieved 9 January 2016.

"Kyiv's 1,530th birthday marked with fun, protest".

Vitali Klitschko sworn in as Kyiv mayor, Interfax-Ukraine (5 June 2014)

Poroshenko appoints Klitschko head of Kyiv city administration – decree, Interfax-Ukraine (25 June 2014)

Poroshenko orders Klitschko to bring title of best European capital back to Kyiv, Interfax-Ukraine (25 June 2014)

"Major Agglomerations of the World". Citypopulation.de. 1 April 2013. Retrieved 1 September 2013.

 kievan. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged, retrieved 29 May 2013 from Dictionary.com

"Kiev". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.

The most recent Ukrainian census, conducted on 5 December 2001, gave the population of Kiev as 2 611 300 (Ukrcensus.gov.ua – Kyiv city Web address accessed on 4 August 2007). Estimates based on the amount of bakery products sold in the city (thus including temporary visitors and commuters) suggest a minimum of 3.5 million. "There are up to 1.5 mln undercounted residents in Kiev", Korrespondent, 15 June 2005(Russian)

"Kiev". TheFreeDictionary.com. Retrieved 4 July 2015.

"Kiev (Ukraine) – Britannica Online Encyclopedia". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2 June 2011.

Magocsi, Door Paul Robert. History of Ukraine – 2nd, Revised Edition: The Land and Its Peoples. University of Toronto Press.

(Ukrainian) Виборчі комісії фіксують перемогу опозиційних кандидатів у Києві

Битва за Київ: чому посада мера вже не потрібна Кличку і чи будуть вибори взагалі (in Ukrainian). Kontrakty. 19 March 2013. Retrieved 19 August 2013.

кожного киянина в голові – досвід Майдану (in Ukrainian). 20 April 2013. Retrieved 19 August 2013.

(Ukrainian) Interactive parliamentary election 2012 result maps by Ukrayinska Pravda

(Ukrainian) Election results in Ukraine since 1998, Central Election Commission of Ukraine

Nations and Nationalism: A Global Historical Overview, ABC-CLIO, 2008, ISBN 1851099077 

https://www.inyourpocket.com

Ukraine on its Meandering Path Between East and West by Andrej Lushnycky and Mykola Riabchuk, Peter Lang, 2009, ISBN 303911607X (page 122)

After the parliamentary elections in Ukraine: a tough victory for the Party of Regions, Centre for Eastern Studies (7 November 2012)

Communist and Post-Communist Parties in Europe by Uwe Backes and Patrick Moreau, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2008, ISBN 978-3-525-36912-8 (page 396)

Party of Regions gets 185 seats in Ukrainian parliament, Batkivschyna 101 – CEC, Interfax-Ukraine (12 November 2012)

UDAR submits to Rada resolution on Ukraine’s integration with EU[dead link], Interfax-Ukraine (8 January 2013)

(Ukrainian) Electronic Bulletin "Your Choice – 2012". Issue 4: Batkivshchyna, Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research (24 October 2012)

Ukraine's Party System in Transition? The Rise of the Radically Right-Wing All-Ukrainian Association "Svoboda" by Andreas Umland, Centre for Geopolitical Studies (1 May 2011)"Archived copy". Archived from the original on 25 August 2013. Retrieved 2013-08-18.

In 2008, the Oxford English Dictionary included 19 quotations with 'Kiev' and none with any other spelling. This spelling is also given by Britannica and Columbia Encyclopedia.

"Resolution of the ukrainian commission for legal terminology No. 5". Ukrainian Commission for Legal Terminology. Retrieved 15 March 2011.

The form "Къıєвъ" (Kyiev) is used in old Rus chronicles like Lavretian Chronicle (Мстиславъ Къıєвьскъıи, Mstislav Kyievski; Къıӕне, Kyiene (Kievans)), Novgorod Chronicles and others.

https://en.wikipedia.org

Marshall, Joseph, fl.1770 (1971) [1772]. Travels through Germany, Russia, and Poland in the years 1769 and 1770. New York: Arno Press. ISBN 0-405-02763-X. LCCN 77135821. Originally published: London, J. Almon, 1773, LCCN 03-5435.

Holderness, Mary (1823). Journey from Riga to the Crimea, with some account of the manners and customs of the colonists of new Russia. London: Sherwood, Jones and co. p. 316. LCCN 04024846. OCLC 5073195.

Embassies of Australia Archived 8 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine., Great Britain, Canada, United States Archived 8 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine.

The list includes NATO, OSCE, World Bank

Kyiv Post, the leading English language publication in Ukraine.

U.S. Begins to Spell Kiev as Kyiv About.com Geography, Friday 20 October 2006

GenocideUKraine – epetition response[permanent dead link] The National Archives, The official site of the Prime Minister's Office, Friday 31 July 2009

"K" – via www.bbc.co.uk.

"Ukrainian names". economist.com.

"NYTimes.com Search". nytimes.com.

 Rabinovich GA From the history of urban settlements in the eastern Slavs. In the book.: History, culture, folklore and ethnography of the Slavic peoples. M. 1968. 134.

Wilson, Andrew (2000). The Ukrainians. Unexpected Nation. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-08355-6

dr. Viktor Padányi – Dentu-Magyaria p. 325, footnote 15

"The Pechenegs". Archived from the original on 27 October 2009. Retrieved 2009-10-27., Steven Lowe and Dmitriy V. Ryaboy

The Making of Urban Europe, 1000–1994 – Paul M. HOHENBERG, Lynn Hollen Lees, Paul M Hohenberg – Google Břger. Books.google.dk. 2009-06-30. Retrieved 2014-06-28.

Janet Martin, Medieval Russia:980–1584, (Cambridge University Press, 1996), 100.

The Destruction of Kiev[permanent dead link], University of Toronto Research Repository

The Ukraine – W. E. D. Allen – Google Břger. Books.google.dk. Retrieved 2014-06-28.

Ukraine: A History – Orest Subtelny – Google Břger. Books.google.dk. Retrieved 2014-06-28.

Jones, Michael (2000). The New Cambridge Medieval History, Volume 6, c.1300–c.1415. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-36290-0

Jerzy Lukowski, W. H. Zawadzki (2006). A concise history of Poland. Cambridge University Press. p.53. ISBN 0-521-61857-6

Jump up ^ Davies, Norman (1982). God's Playground: A History of Poland, Vol. 1: The Origins to 1795. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-05351-8

Magocsi, Paul Robert (1996). A History of Ukraine, University of Washington Press. ISBN 0-295-97580-6

Т.Г. Таирова-Яковлева, Иван Выговский // Единорогъ. Материалы по военной истории Восточной Европы эпохи Средних веков и Раннего Нового времени, вып.1, М., 2009: Под влиянием польской общественности и сильного диктата Ватикана сейм в мае 1659 г. принял Гадячский договор в более чем урезанном виде. Идея Княжества Руського вообще была уничтожена, равно как и положение о сохранении союза с Москвой. Отменялась и ликвидация унии, равно как и целый ряд других позитивных статей.

Jump up ^ Eugeniusz Romer, O wschodniej granicy Polski z przed 1772 r., w: Księga Pamiątkowa ku czci Oswalda Balzera, t. II, Lwów 1925, s. [358].

 Eksteins, Modris (1999). Walking Since Daybreak. Houghton Mifflin. p. 87. ISBN 0-618-08231-X.

"The Great Purge under Stalin 1937–38". brama.com. Retrieved 14 January 2010.

 Orlando Figes The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia, 2007, ISBN 0805074619 , pages 227–315.

Jump up ^ Robert Gellately, Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe (Knopf, 2007: ISBN 1-4000-4005-1), 720 pages.

Daniel Goldhagen, Hitler's Willing Executioners (p. 290) – "2.8 million young, healthy Soviet POWs" killed by the Germans, "mainly by starvation... in less than eight months" of 1941–42, before "the decimation of Soviet POWs... was stopped" and the Germans "began to use them as laborers".

Andy Dougan, Dynamo: Triumph and Tragedy in Nazi-Occupied Kiev (Globe Pequot, 2004: ISBN 1-59228-467-1), p. 83.

Samuel W. Mitcham, The Rise of the Wehrmacht: The German Armed Forces and World War II, Vol. 1 (ABC-CLIO, 2008: ISBN 0-275-99659-X), p. 539.

Kiev, Ukraine

Tomb of Ramses III (KV11)

King Ramses III was the second ruler of the Twentieth Dynasty, and the last of great pharaohs on the throne. Ramses III, son of Setnakht, ruled Egypt for 31 years. Shortly before his death, there was a conspiracy to kill him by several members of his household including one of his minor wives, Queen Tiy. 

It was essentially an attempt to ensure her son's ascending to the throne. The trial of this conspiracy is shown upon the walls of his mortuary temple at Madint Habu.

The tomb was begun by Setnakht, who then abandoned it and turned to KV14 where he was buried. Setnakht's son, Ramses III, then resumed work on KV11.

James Bruce was the first European traveler to enter this tomb in 1768. He was struck by the painted figures of the two blind harpists that he called it the Tomb of the Harpists.

Nowadays, the Tomb of Ramses III is considered one of the most visited tombs in the Valley of the Kings as there are many impressive reliefs and paintings to be seen on this tomb.

Tomb of Ramses III (KV11)

Lake Tekapo, New Zealand

Lake Tekapo is a small town located at the southern end of the lake of the same name in the inland South Island of New Zealand. It had 369 residents according to the 2013 Census, being one of five settlements in the sparsely populated Mackenzie Basin.

SH 8 runs directly through the township of Lake Tekapo - 227 km from Christchurch and 256 km from Queenstown. Daily shuttle services link Lake Tekapo to Christchurch and Queenstown. The lake is a popular tourist destination, and several resort hotels are located at the township. Lake Tekapo Airport is located 5 km west of the town. Chartered flights are available at locally based Air Safaris.

History

The Maori were the first people to discover the Mackenzie Basin. The name Tekapo derives from the Maori words taka (sleeping mat) and po (night). The Mackenzie Basin became known to Europeans in 1855 when, in order to find a less conspicuous route, James Mackenzie, a Scottish sheep thief, ventured inland and discovered the high country that now bears his name. In 1857, John and Barbara Hay established the first sheep farm in Mackenzie on the shore of Lake Tekapo.

Lake Tekapo township started to grow after the construction of hydropower stations in the 1930s. The project was delayed due to World War II, but it was eventually completed and commissioned in 1951. The Church of the Good Shepherd was built in 1935. Now, it opens to the public from 9am to 5pm during summer (Oct to Apr) and 10am to 4pm in winter (May to Sept). Dog Statue, which is dedicated to the working collies of Mackenzie, was commissioned on 7 March 1968.

Mount John University Observatory

Selected for its very clear atmosphere, large number of clear sky nights, and relative freedom from light pollution, Mount John University Observatory is located on a small hill to the north of the town, and south of the small Lake Alexandrina. Originally set up by the University of Pennsylvania (looking for a southern hemisphere location), it is now operated by the University of Canterbury. From 1969 to 1982, the United States Air Force had a satellite tracking station adjacent to the observatory. In June 2012, an area of 430,000 hectares (1,100,000 acres) around Tekapo was declared the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve by the International Dark-Sky Association, one of only four such reserves around the world.

Lake Tekapo, New Zealand