The Pre-Columbian era Pottery

The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during the Early Modern period. While the phrase "pre-Columbian era" literally refers only to the time preceding Christopher Columbus's voyages of 1492, in practice the phrase usually is used to denote the entire history of American indigenous cultures until those cultures were conquered or significantly influenced by Europeans, even if this happened decades or centuries after Columbus's first landing. For this reason the alternative terms of Precontact Americas, Pre-Colonial Americas or Prehistoric Americas are also in use. In areas of Hispanic America the term usually used is Pre-Hispanic.

Indigenous peoples of the Americas continue to evolve after the pre-Columbian era. Many of these peoples and their descendants continue traditional practices, while evolving and adapting new cultural practices and technologies into their lives.

The pottery shown on the card is that of a Jaguar Effigy bottle with Bridge Spout with Resist from Peru. Far North Coast Piura Valley. It is possibly of the Late Horizon/Early Intermediate period, Vicus 400-200 bc.

Resist is a coating that is put on pottery or ceramic to protect a certain area from paint or glaze. When the piece is fired, the resist will burn away and the area that it was put on will show with the paint or glaze surrounding it.

Thank you Billy for this interesting card.

Lake Teletskoye ("Golden Lake")

Lake Teletskoye ("Golden Lake") is the largest lake in the Altay Mountains and the Altai Republic, Russia, and has depth up to 325 meters.

Situated at a height of 434 m (1,424 ft) above the sea level, the lake is 78 km (48 mi) long and 5 km (3.1 mi) wide and lies between the mountain ridges Korbu and Altyntu, on the junction of the Sailughem Mountains and the Western Sayans. Its surface area is 233 km² (90 sq mi); however, due to its considerable depth (325 m, 1,066 ft), the lake contains no less than 40 km³ (9.6 cubic miles) of fresh water. Annual water level fluctuations are estimated at some 348 sm. The lake transparency is high, with the visibility of the lake water ranging from six to fourteen meters.

About 70 rivers and 150 temporary streams flow into the lake, the largest of them, Chulyshman River, supplying more than half of the lake's water. The lake is drained through a single outlet, the Biya River, which, after its confluence with the Katun River, forms one of Siberia's largest rivers, the Ob River.

The lake is surrounded by mountains of 600-1,300 m in the northern part and about 1,700-2,400 m (5,600 - 7,900 ft) in the southern part. Lake Teletskoe is included into Altaisky Nature Reserve. That reserve along with the Katun Natural Reserve and the Ukok Plateau Nature Refuge were listed as one of UNESCO World Natural Heritage Sites under the name "Golden Mountains of Altai".

The Altay people have a legend about the name of the lake in their language, which means Golden Lake. According to this story, once, a rich man had a ingot of gold, which he wanted to use to buy food. He travelled around Altai, but could not find anyone who would sell him any food. Eventually, he threw the gold into the lake. This legend is the origin of the name.

Thank you Daria for this lovely card.

The San Francisco cable car

The San Francisco cable car system is the world's last manually operated cable car system. An icon of San Francisco, California, the cable car system forms part of the intermodal urban transport network operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway, or "Muni" as it is better known. Of the twenty-three lines established between 1873 and 1890, three remain (one of which combines parts of two earlier lines): two routes from downtown near Union Square to Fisherman's Wharf, and a third route along California Street. While the cable cars are used to a certain extent by commuters, their small service area and premium fares for single rides make them more of a tourist attraction. They are among the most significant tourist sites in the city, along with Alcatraz Island, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Fisherman's Wharf. The cable cars are the only mobile National Monument in the world, and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The cable cars are not to be confused with San Francisco's heritage streetcars, which operate on Market Street and the Embarcadero.

Bev sent me this pretty card.

King Gustav III of Sweden

Merja sent me this card which portrays an Helmet from King Gustav III’s tournament armour in the 1770’s.

Gustav III was King of Sweden from 1771 until his death. He was the eldest son of King Adolph Frederick and Louisa Ulrika of Prussia who was a sister of Frederick the Great of Prussia.

A vocal opponent of, as he saw it, abuses by the nobility of a permissiveness established by parliamentarian reforms that had been worked out since the death ofCharles XII, he seized power from the government in a coup d'état in 1772, ending the Age of Liberty and venturing into a campaign to restore royal autocracy which was completed by the Union and Security Act in 1789, sweeping away most of the last pretences of Riksdag rule. As a bulwark of enlightened despotism, his expenditure of considerable public funds on cultural ventures contributed to his controversial majesty. Attempts to seize first Norway through Russian aid, then to recapture the Baltic provinces through a war against Russia were unsuccessful, although much of Sweden's former military might was restored. An admirer of Voltaire, Gustav legalized Catholic and Jewish presence in the realm and enacted wide-ranging reforms aimed at economic liberalism, social reform and the abolishment, in many cases, of torture and capital punishment, although the much-praised 1766 Freedom of Press Act was severely curtailed through amendments in 1774 and 1792, all independent media effectively extinguished.

Nesvizh, Belarus

Nesvizh is a city in Belarus. It is the administrative center of the Nesvizh District (rajon) of Minsk Province and location of the Nesvizh Castle World Heritage Site. Its 2009 population is 14,300.

The Corpus Christi Church in Nesvizh, Belarus (the one on the card) is an early Jesuit church and one of the oldest baroque structures outside Italy, influencing the later architecture of Belarus, Poland and Lithuania. Commissioned by Mikołaj Krzysztof "the Orphan" Radziwiłł and constructed in 1587-1593 by Gian Maria Bernardoni, it contains graves of members of the powerful house of Radziwiłł.

Thank you Alexander for this nice card.

Nice - Bay of Angels

The Promenade des Anglais is a celebrated promenade along the Mediterranean at Nice, France.

Nice, the capital of the Côte d’Azur is beautifully curved round the Bay of Angels, desirable and as lively as you like. Its reputation for glamour is enhanced by an equal reputation for top-end scandal.  The clearest-possible light spangles the Mediterranean to create a setting for sybarites, and shadows for well-dressed decadence. These days, France’s fifth city has recovered some of its stateliness without in any way renouncing the hot Latin blood courses through its veins. And it’s bewitching at pretty much anytime of the year.

The Bay of Angels (Baie des Anges) has surprisingly nothing to do with angels of heaven who made this paradise, but it were the angels from the deep, the angel sharks from the sea that used to live here until the 19th century that gave their name to the bay of Nice. These angel sharks -Squatina angelus- had 2 fins that looked like 2 angel wings for the Mediterranean fisherman. Nowadays they have been disappeared completely.

Thank you Sophy for this very pretty card.

Mozart

Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. At 17, he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and travelled in search of a better position, always composing abundantly. While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his death. The circumstances of his early death have been much mythologized. He was survived by his wife Constanze and two sons. 
Theresa sent me this card.