Today's Featured Picture..

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Montreal Twilight Panorama




Montreal is the second-largest city in Canada. It sits in the southwestern corner of Quebec at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers. As in most parts of Quebec, French is the most commonly spoken language in the city, but there is a substantial anglophone population and many of the residents are bilingual. In 2005, it won the distinction of being chosen UNESCO's "World Book Capital City 2005–2006" due to its vibrant literary scene.

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Maiden Tower and Historical peninsula of Istanbul



Istanbul is Turkey's largest city, and its cultural and economic center. It is located on the Bosphorus strait, and encompasses the natural harbor known as the Golden Horn (Turkish: Haliç), in the northwest of the country. Istanbul extends both on the European (Rumelia) and on the Asian (Anatolia) side of the Bosphorus, and is thereby the only metropolis in the world which is on two continents. Its 2000 Census population is 8,803,468 (city proper) and 10,018,735 (province), making it, by some counts, one of the largest cities in Europe.

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Umit Pier in Izmir

İzmir, the third most populous city of Turkey and the country's largest port after İstanbul, is located on the Aegean Sea near the Gulf of İzmir. It is the capital of İzmir Province. The city of İzmir is composed of 9 metropolitan districts (Balçova, Bornova, Buca, ÇiÇli, Gaziemir, Güzelbahçe, Karşıyaka, Konak and Narlıdere) and the 2000 population of this urban zone was 2,409,000. (2005 est. 3,500,000).

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TAJ MAHAL







The Taj Mahal (Hindi: ताज महल, Persian & Urdu: تاج محل) is a monument located in Agra in India, constructed between 1631 and 1654 by a workforce of more than twenty thousand. The Muslim Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan commissioned its construction as a mausoleum for his favorite wife, Arjumand Bano Begum, who is better known as Mumtaz Mahal.

The Taj Mahal (sometimes called "the Taj") is generally considered the finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements of Indian and Persian architectures. The Taj Mahal has achieved special note because of the romance of its inspiration. While the white domed marblemausoleum is the most familiar part of the monument, the Taj Mahal is actually a complex of elements.

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VADUZ

Vaduz is the capital of the Principality of Liechtenstein. It is the seat of the national parliament. The town has about 5,000 inhabitants, most of whom are Roman Catholic, and is located along the Rhine. It is thought to have been founded in the 13th century by the Counts of Werdenberg. There is mention of the castle in 1322; the castle was later sacked by the Swiss in 1499.

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Malé

Malé, population 81,647 (2004), is the capital of the Republic of Maldives. The city is located on Malé Island in the Kaafu Atoll. Although Malé is geographically located in Kaafu Atoll, administratively it is not considered part of it. A commercial harbour is located in the Island. It is the heart of all commercial activities in the country. Many government buildings and agencies are located on the waterfront. Malé International Airport is on adjacent Hulhule Island which includes a seaplane base for internal transporation. Several land reclamation projects have expanded the harbour

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Hopetoun Falls, Beech Forest, near Otway National Park, Victoria.

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View west over the city of Paris from the Galerie des Chimères of Notre-Dame de Paris. One of the famous gargoyles (chimères) of the cathedral can be seen at the left of the photograph. The River Seine is visible at the bottom of the photograph. The nearer bridge is the Petit Pont, and the further is the Pont St Michel. In the distance can be seen the distinctive shape of the Eiffel Tower, to the left of which can be seen the golden dome of the Dôme church, within the Hôtel des Invalides.

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Prayer flag above the monastery (Gompa) of Tanze, in the Kurgiakh valley. The wind is believed to propagate the prayers printed on tissue.

Tibetan prayer flags are colorful panels or rectangles of colourful cloth strung along mountain ridges and peaks in the Himalayas to bless the surrounding countryside. Unknown in other branches of Buddhism, prayer flags are believed to have originated with the original Bön religion which pre-dated Buddhism in Tibet.

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This is a panoramic view of the Pantheon in Paris. (c) Jean-Pierre Lavoie, 2005.

The Panthéon on the top of is a building in the Latin Quarter in Paris, France. It was originally built as a church dedicated to St. Genevieve, but after many vicissitudes now combines liturgical functions with its role as a famous burial place. It is an early example of Neoclassicism, with a façade modelled on the Pantheon in Rome, surmounted by a small dome that owes some of its character to Bramante's "Tempietto". Located in the Ve arrondissementMontagne Sainte-Geneviève, the Panthéon looks out over all of Paris.