Aswan, formerly spelled Assuan, is a city in the south of Egypt, the capital of the Aswan Governorate. Aswan is a busy market and tourist centre located just north of the Aswan Dams on the east bank of the Nile at the first cataract. The modern city has expanded and includes the formerly separate community on the island of Elephantine.
Aswan is the ancient city of Swenett, which in antiquity was the frontier town of Ancient Egypt facing the south. Swenett is supposed to have derived its name from an Egyptian goddess with the same name. This goddess later was identified as Eileithyia by the Greeks and Lucina by the Romans during their occupation of Ancient Egypt because of the similar association of their goddesses with childbirth, and of which the import is "the opener". The ancient name of the city also is said to be derived from the Egyptian symbol for trade, or market.
Because the Ancient Egyptians oriented toward the origin of the life-giving waters of the Nile in the south, Swenett was the first town in the country, and Egypt always was conceived to "open" or begin at Swenett. The city stood upon a peninsula on the right (east) bank of the Nile, immediately below (and north of) the first cataract of the flowing waters, which extend to it from Philae. Navigation to the delta was possible from this location without encountering a barrier.
This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Trees & Bushes meme,
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This is an image I created in a program called Mojoworld, where one may synthesise different planets and then zoom in and capture views of the surface.
This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
and also part of the Blue Monday meme.
The rainbow lorikeet (Trichoglossus haematodus) is a species of Australasian parrot found in Australia, eastern Indonesia (Maluku and Western New Guinea), Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. It is widespread in the Melbourne area. It is feeding on a native gum tree, Eucalyptus leucoxylon 'Rosea'.
This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme,
and also part of the Camera Critters meme,
and also part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.
and also part of the Friday Greens meme.
Welcome to the Saturday Silhouettes meme! This is a weekly meme that looks at SILHOUETTES in photography.
SILHOUETTE |ˌsɪlʊˈɛt| noun: The dark shape and outline of someone or something visible in restricted light against a brighter background.
ORIGIN - late 18th century: Named (although the reason remains uncertain) after Étienne de Silhouette (1709–67), French author and politician.
This is Melbourne's Southbank, home to the Casino, numerous restaurants, cafés and entertainment venues as well as a variety of retail shops.
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Cuphea is a genus containing about 260 species of annual and perennial flowering plants in the Lythraceae family, native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the Americas. The species range from low-growing herbaceous plants to semi-woody shrubs up to 2 m tall. Commonly they are known as cupheas, or, in the case of some species, as cigar plants. The generic name is derived from the Greek word κυφος (kyphos), meaning "bent," "curved," or "humped."
This here is Cuphea llavea 'Tiny Mice' (or sometimes called 'Bat Face'). A succession of red tubular blooms that end in a purple bat-like 'face' are topped by a pair of glowing red 'ears' creating the interesting 'bat face' look. This is a tough and reliable low mounding perennial which blooms from late spring to frost. Great for Hummingbirds, mixed containers, and in mass plantings. Provide ample sunlight and good drainage for the best results.
This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.
There is something very special about a rose that can consistently produce 7–10cm long rich pink flowers on strong, straight stems of 0.5m – 0.75m. This rose was aptly named Eiffel Tower and was bred and released by David Armstrong and Herbert Swim, in the USA, almost 50 years ago.
As a bush, Eiffel Tower will generally reach a height of 2 metres or more and 1.1m in width. It has a delightful rose fragrance. Unusually, Eiffel Tower is most renowned and admired for its long, elegant pink buds with 2 to 4 petals unfurling, rather than as a medium to fully open flower. It is often used to great advantage to form the outline of a large floral arrangement. In the garden, it makes a ideal backdrop as a tall rose planted near a fence or shed. Eiffel Tower enjoys hot, dry Mediterranean climate and flowers throughout the entire growing season. It is relatively disease resistant.
This post is part of the Wednesday Waters meme,
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Quebec City is the capital of the province of Quebec in Canada. In 2015 the city had a population of 540,994, and the metropolitan area had a population of 806,400, making it the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about 233 km to the southwest. The narrowing of the Saint Lawrence River proximate to the city's promontory, Cap-Diamant (Cape Diamond), and Lévis, on the opposite bank, provided the name given to the city, Kébec, an Algonquin word meaning "where the river narrows".
Founded in 1608 by Samuel de Champlain, Quebec City is one of the oldest cities in North America. The ramparts surrounding Old Quebec (Vieux-Québec) are the only fortified city walls remaining in the Americas north of Mexico, and were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985 as the 'Historic District of Old Québec'.
According to the federal and provincial governments, Québec is the city's official name in both French and English, although Quebec City (or its French equivalent, Ville de Québec) is commonly used, particularly to distinguish the city from the province. In French, the names of the province and the city are distinguished grammatically in that the province takes the definite article (le Québec, du Québec, au Québec, respectively 'the Quebec', 'from the Quebec', 'in the Quebec') and the city does not (Québec, de Québec, à Québec, respectively 'Quebec-city, 'from Quebec-city', 'in Quebec-city').
The city's famous landmarks include the Château Frontenac, a hotel which dominates the skyline, and La Citadelle, an intact fortress that forms the centre-piece of the ramparts surrounding the old city. The National Assembly of Quebec (provincial legislature), the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec), and the Musée de la civilisation (Museum of Civilization) are found within or near Vieux-Québec.
We visited the city in 1999, hence the relatively low quality of the photos, which were taken with an early model Olympus digital camera.
This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Trees & Bushes meme,
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and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme.
The noisy miner (Manorina melanocephala) is a bird in the honeyeater family, Meliphagidae, and is endemic to eastern and south-eastern Australia. This miner is a grey bird, with a black head, orange-yellow beak and feet, a distinctive yellow patch behind the eye and white tips on the tail feathers. Males, females and juveniles are similar in appearance, though young birds are a brownish-grey. As the common name suggests, the noisy miner is a vocal species with a large range of songs, calls, scoldings and alarms, and almost constant vocalisations particularly from young birds.
Noisy miners are gregarious and territorial; they forage, bathe, roost, breed and defend territory communally, forming colonies that can contain several hundred birds. Each bird has an 'activity space' and birds with overlapping activity spaces form associations called 'coteries', the most stable units within the colony. The birds also form temporary flocks called 'coalitions' for specific activities such as mobbing a predator.
This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme,
and also part of the Camera Critters meme.
