UN NEW YORK

This cover from United Nations New York depicts 4 stamps of same type issued in 2002, celebrating the Kilimanjaro National Park. Kilimanjaro National Park is a Tanzanian national park, located 300 kilometres south of the equator and in Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania. The park is located near the region of Moshi. The park includes the whole of Mount Kilimanjaro above the tree line and the surrounding montane forest belt above 1,820 metres. It covers an area of 1,688 square kilometres. In the early twentieth century, Mount Kilimanjaro and the adjacent forests were declared a game reserve by the German colonial government. In 1921, it was designated a forest reserve. In 1973, the mountain above the tree line (about 2,700 metres) was reclassified as a national park. The park was declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 1987. In 2005, the park was expanded to include the entire montane forest, which had been part of the Kilimanjaro Forest Reserve.

UN NEW YORK

This cover came from United Nations New York, depicting 4 stamps issued in 2021 (2 of each type), celebrating 2 Waterways: The Rideau Canal in Canada and The Grand Canal in China. Both are World Heritage Sites. The Rideau Canal, also known unofficially as the Rideau Waterway, connects Canada's capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, to Lake Ontario and the Saint Lawrence River at Kingston. It is 202 kilometres long. The name Rideau, French for "curtain", is derived from the curtain-like appearance of the Rideau River's twin waterfalls where they join the Ottawa River. The canal system uses sections of two rivers, the Rideau and the Cataraqui, as well as several lakes. Parks Canada operates the Rideau Canal. The canal was opened in 1832 as a precaution in case of war with the United States. It remains in use today primarily for pleasure boating, with most of its original structures intact. The locks on the system open for navigation in mid-May and close in mid-October. It is the oldest continuously operated canal system in North America. In 2007 it was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Grand Canal, known to the Chinese as the Jing–Hang Grand Canal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2014, is the longest canal or artificial river in the world. Starting in Beijing, it passes through Tianjin and the provinces of Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang to the city of Hangzhou, linking the Yellow River and Yangtze River. The oldest parts of the canal date back to the 5th century BCE, but the various sections were first connected during the Sui dynasty (581–618 CE).

UN NEW YORK

This cover came from United Nations New York and depicts 5 stamps celebrating Palace of Schönbrunn in Vienna. Schönbrunn Palace park in Vienna, which has been open to the public since 1779, is home to the Desert House, the Orangery, the Privy Garden, and the Palm House built in 1882. It is featured on the commemorative stamp and used to be the world’s largest glass structure. Schönbrunn Palace was the residence of the Habsburg emperors from the 18th century to 1918. It was built in the Rococo style as a single, unified project. It was designed by the architects Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and Nicolaus Pacassi and is the site of the world's oldest continuously operating Zoo. The Palace and Gardens of Schönbrunn are inscribed as an UNESCO World Heritage site since 1996.

UN NEW YORK

This cover came from United Nations New York and depicts 3 stamps celebrating Palace of Schönbrunn in Vienna. Schönbrunn Palace park in Vienna, which has been open to the public since 1779, is home to the Desert House, the Orangery, the Privy Garden, and the Palm House built in 1882. It is featured on the commemorative stamp and used to be the world’s largest glass structure. Schönbrunn Palace was the residence of the Habsburg emperors from the 18th century to 1918. It was built in the Rococo style as a single, unified project. It was designed by the architects Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and Nicolaus Pacassi and is the site of the world's oldest continuously operating Zoo. The Palace and Gardens of Schönbrunn are inscribed as an UNESCO World Heritage site since 1996.

POLAND

This cover came from Poland and depicts 2 stamps, both of them related to Auschwitz Birkenau Concentration Camp. Auschwitz concentration camp was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschwitz I, the main camp (Stammlager) in Oświęcim; Auschwitz II-Birkenau, a concentration and extermination camp with gas chambers; Auschwitz III-Monowitz, a labor camp for the chemical conglomerate IG Farben; and dozens of subcamps. The camps became a major site of the Nazis' final solution to the Jewish question. In 1947, Poland founded the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum on the site of Auschwitz I and II, and in 1979 it was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

INDIA

This cover from India depict a minisheet issued in 2011 celebrating the Group of Monuments at Hampi. Hampi or Hampe, also referred to as the Group of Monuments at Hampi, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996, located in east-central Karnataka, India. Hampi was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire in the 14th century. It is a fortified city. Chronicles left by Persian and European travellers, particularly the Portuguese, say that Hampi was a prosperous, wealthy and grand city near the Tungabhadra River, with numerous temples, farms and trading markets. By 1500 CE, Hampi-Vijayanagara was the world's second-largest medieval-era city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at that time, attracting traders from Persia and Portugal.[4][5] The Vijayanagara Empire was defeated by a coalition of Muslim sultanates; its capital was conquered, pillaged and destroyed by sultanate armies in 1565, after which Hampi remained in ruins. Located in Karnataka near the modern-era city of Hosapete, Hampi's ruins are spread over 4,100 hectares and it has been described by UNESCO as an "austere, grandiose site" of more than 1,600 surviving remains of the last great Hindu kingdom in South India that includes "forts, riverside features, royal and sacred complexes, temples, shrines, pillared halls, mandapas, memorial structures, water structures and others".

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

This cover came from USA and depicts 4 stamps, including an old 8c stamp (on the right corner) celebrating the 400th. anniversary of Fortress of San Juan in Puerto Rico. La Fortaleza and San Juan National Historic Site in Puerto Rico is a World Heritage Site since 1993, located in and near San Juan, Puerto Rico. It comprises a series of fortifications across two properties: La Fortaleza, San Juan National Historic Site, Castillo de San Felipe del Morro, Castillo de San Cristóbal, El Cañuelo and San Juan City Walls. These structures were built between the 15th and 19th centuries to defend the city and harbor of San Juan and are examples of European military architecture adapted to port cities on the American continent. La Fortaleza was the first defensive fortification built for the city. The historic site also includes Castillo de San Felipe del Morro, Castillo de San Cristóbal, El Cañuelo, and three-fourths of the old city wall.

NETHERLANDS

This cover from Netherlands depicts 2 small stamps of same type, issued in 2015, celebrating the UNESCO World Heritage Site Dutch Water Defence Lines. The defence line of Amsterdam was built between 1883 and 1920. The fortification is based on the principle of controlling the waters around a city. It contains a network of 45 armed forts and can temporarily flood polders extending 135 kilometres around Amsterdam. The site was originally listed as the Defence Line of Amsterdam in 1996. In 2021, it was expanded to include defence structures at a total of 9 locations and renamed as the Dutch Water Defence Lines.

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

This amazing cover from Bosnia and Herzegovina depict a miniature sheet issued in 2004 celebrating the Old >Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar. One of the more iconic sites in all of Bosnia and Herzegovina—the old bridge in Mostar—is actually not that old. At least, the current incarnation of Stari Most is a lot newer than one might think given the bridge’s long history. Originally built in 1557 under the administration of the Ottoman Empire, it was destroyed by Bosnian Croat forces in November 1993 during the shelling of the town. In 1998, UNESCO helped in the recreation of the bridge, which was completed in 2004, and the bridge being listed as a World Heritage Site in 2005.

SPAIN

This cover came from Spain, with a stamp celebrating the Cave of Altamira. The Cave of Altamira (Spanish: Cueva de Altamira) is a cave complex, located near the historic town of Santillana del Mar in Cantabria, Spain. It is renowned for prehistoric parietal cave art featuring charcoal drawings and polychrome paintings of contemporary local fauna and human hands. The earliest paintings were applied during the Upper Paleolithic, around 36,000 years ago. Altamira was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985 as a key location of the Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain. The cave can no longer be visited, for conservation reasons, but there are replicas of a section at the site and elsewhere.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

This cover from USA depicts 3 stamps, including the stamp on the right corner celebrating the Glacier Bay National Park, a part of the World Heritage Site Kluane / Wrangell–St. Elias / Glacier Bay / Tatshenshini-Alsek This is an international park system located in Canada and the United States, at the border of Yukon, Alaska and British Columbia. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994 for the spectacular glacier and icefield landscapes as well as for the importance of grizzly bears, caribou and Dall sheep habitat. The total area of the site is 98391.21 square kilometres. It is home to the world's largest non-polar icefield.

INDIA

This cover came from India and depicts 3 stamps, including a FAUNA stamp celebrating the Western Ghats. The Western Ghats or the Sahyadri Mountain range is a mountain range that covers an area of 160,000 km2 in a stretch of 1,600 km parallel to the western coast of the Indian peninsula, traversing the states of Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is one of the eight biodiversity hotspots in the world. It is sometimes called the Great Escarpment of India. It contains a very large proportion of the country's flora and fauna, many of which are endemic to these region. According to UNESCO, the Western Ghats are older than the Himalayas. They influence Indian monsoon weather patterns by intercepting the rain-laden monsoon winds that sweep in from the south-west during late summer.The range runs north to south along the western edge of the Deccan Plateau and separates the plateau from a narrow coastal plain called Konkan along the Arabian Sea. A total of 39 areas in the Western Ghats, including national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and reserve forests, were designated as world heritage sites in 2012 – twenty in Kerala, ten in Karnataka, six in Tamil Nadu and four in Maharashtra.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

This cover from USA depicts 3 stamps, including the stamp on the right corner celebrating the Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Carlsbad Caverns was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1995, stating that the site is of Outstanding Universal Value based on its exceptional and geological features, unique reef and rock formations, and containment of major cave formations. The reef formation is rich in sea fossils over millions of years, created a massive limestone formation. Several deep canyons in the Capitan Reef formation reveal cross-sections of other formations that have been exposed within the Carlsbad Cave system, including one of the most notable caves in the park, Lechuguilla Cave, which had only been discovered as of 1986 according to the NPS and is currently the deepest and the third longest limestone cave in the site and is home to the largest collection of natural hydromagnesite, helictite, and calcite formations (UNESCO). Carlsbad Caverns continues to form new structures and serves as a highly valued space for scientific research on the geological and biological systems of the park.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

This cover came from USA and depict a single stamps celebrating the Redwood National and State Parks. The Redwood National and State Parks (RNSP)are a complex of one national park and three state parks, cooperatively managed, located in the United States along the coast of northern California. Comprising Redwood National Park (established 1968) and California's State Parks: Del Norte Coast, Jedediah Smith, and Prairie Creek (dating from the 1920s), the combined RNSP contain 139,000 acres (560 km2), and feature old-growth temperate rainforests. Located within Del Norte and Humboldt Counties, the four parks, together, protect 45 percent of all remaining coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) old-growth forests, totaling at least 38,982 acres (157.75 km2). These trees are the tallest, among the oldest, and one of the most massive tree species on Earth. In addition to the redwood forests, the parks preserve other indigenous flora, fauna, grassland prairie, cultural resources, portions of rivers and other streams, and 37 miles (60 km) of pristine coastline. The ecosystem of the RNSP preserves a number of threatened animal species such as the tidewater goby, Chinook salmon, northern spotted owl, and Steller's sea lion, though it is believed that the tidewater goby is likely to have been extirpated from the park. In recognition of the rare ecosystem and cultural history found in the parks, the United Nations designated them a World Heritage Site on September 5, 1980 and part of the California Coast Ranges International Biosphere Reserve on June 30, 1983.

MONACO

GERMANY

This cover comes from German and depict a miniature sheet issued in 2007 celebrating the Roman Limes. The Roman Limes represents the border line of the Roman Empire at its greatest extent in the 2nd century AD. It stretched over 5,000 km from the Atlantic coast of northern Britain, through Europe to the Black Sea, and from there to the Red Sea and across North Africa to the Atlantic coast. The remains of the Limes today consist of vestiges of built walls, ditches, forts, fortresses, watchtowers and civilian settlements. Certain elements of the line have been excavated, some reconstructed and a few destroyed. The two sections of the Limes in Germany cover a length of 550 km from the north-west of the country to the Danube in the south-east. The 118-km-long Hadrian’s Wall (UK) was built on the orders of the Emperor Hadrian c. AD 122 at the northernmost limits of the Roman province of Britannia. It is a striking example of the organization of a military zone and illustrates the defensive techniques and geopolitical strategies of ancient Rome. The Antonine Wall, a 60-km long fortification in Scotland was started by Emperor Antonius Pius in 142 AD as a defense against the “barbarians” of the north. It constitutes the northwestern-most portion of the Roman Limes. It was added to the World Heritage List of UNESCO in 1987.

BRAZIL

This cover cames from Brazil and depicts 3 stamps issued in 2021, celebrating the statue of Christ the Redemeer, an Art Deco statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is located at the peak of the 700-metre Corcovado mountain in the Tijuca Forest National Park overlooking the city. A symbol of Brazilian Christianity, the statue has become an icon for Rio de Janeiro and Brazil. It is made of reinforced concrete and soapstone, and was constructed between 1922 and 1931. It's also part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Rio de Janeiro: Carioca Landscapes between the Mountain and teh Sea.

MALTA

This wonderful cover comes from Malta and was made on the occasion of the 100. Birthday of Pope John Paul II. The block contains a postage stamp for 3.00 euros, which is transferred to the edge of the block. The stamp shows a portrait of Saint John Paul II and a view of a church in Valetta. Valetta is the European Union's smallest capital city. Valletta's 16th-century buildings were constructed by the Knights Hospitaller. The city was named after Jean Parisot de Valette, who succeeded in defending the island from an Ottoman invasion during the Great Siege of Malta. The city is Baroque in character, with elements of Mannerist, Neo-Classical and Modern architecture, though the Second World War left major scars on the city, particularly the destruction of the Royal Opera House. The city was officially recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1980. The city is noted for its fortifications, consisting of bastions, curtains and cavaliers, along with the beauty of its Baroque palaces, gardens and churches.

SPAIN

This cover from Spain depicts 1 stamps and 1 minisheet celebrating the Old City of Salamanca. Salamanca is important as a university city, as the University of Salamanca, founded in 1218, is the oldest in Spain and among the oldest in Europe. The city was first conquered by the Carthaginians in the 3rd century, and later ruled by the Romans and Moors. The city centre represents Romanesque, Gothic, Moorish, Renaissance, and Baroque architecture. The Old City of Salamanca was inscribed at UNESCO World Heritage List in 1988.