BAHRAIN ~Modern Mosque ~

...Bahrain card nr 3 (with beautiful relief border)...the elegant Bahrain Mosques are among the precious beauties of this country...a simple plain facade except for the lone turret whit it's detailed wooden balcony...Thanks again Edwin!!

With stamps showing
Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the King of Bahrain
and nice butterfly stamp.

This beautiful modern mosque marks the place where a very ancient "ayn" - or fresh water spring- emerges from the desert
 Bahrain was called the land of the living by the first civilization on earth. It is a place of culture, tradition, and a history that goes back to the mists of time. It was part of Dilmun, an ancient independent kingdom that flourished circa 2,000 BC, but now it’s Bahrain.

 The word “bahrain” is Arabic for two waters, and the waters surrounding the islands are unique. Fresh water bubbles up from underground springs straight into the sea, and this phenomenon fed ancient legends about a magical island that gave Bahrain its name, its sea-based culture, and tradition.

 Bahrain is known as the island of 1 million palm trees and was the first Arab country to discover oil in 1932.

UZBEKISTAN ~Bibi-Khanim mosque-Samarkand UNESCO ~

...Fantastic colorful  mosque view...a new "rare" place to add to my collection... and also a new UNESCO site!!Thanks Brigitte.


With nice stamps: Uzbek National Academic Drama Theatre and  two stamps to commemorate Berdaq, an Uzbek poet from the 19C

Uzbekistan, is the only doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of only two such countries worldwide.

Samarkand is the second largest city of the counry and one of the oldest inhabited cities (with a 2.500 years old history) in the world.. At the crossroads of the Great Silk road between the east and west it became a melting pot for all the cultures with which it came into contact.

The Bibi Khanum mosque was built between 1399 and 1404. It was once one of the Islamic world's largest mosques, but over the centuries it crumbled and it finally collapsed in an earthquake in 1897.  (In 1974 reconstruction started, unfortunately the inside has not jet been restored)The ensemble consists of two small side mosques and the large central mosque.