The Brazilian Women-Only-Town Noiva do Cordeiro Asks For Marriage

The approximately 600 women in the Brazilian town of Noiva do Cordeiro - mostly aged between 20 and 25 - are saying no to marriage, baptism and any rules made by men. The beautiful women of the town are making headlines with their appeal for single men.

"Here, the only men we single girls meet are either married or related to us; everyone is a cousin. I haven't kissed a man for a long time. We all dream of falling in love and getting married," Nelma Fernandes, 23, said. 

However, for men to win their hearts, they need to accept their strong conviction that is rooted in the town's history.

Noiva de Cordeiro means Bride of the Lamb. A woman, Maria Senhorinha de Lima, fled to the then nameless town as she was being ostracised for being an adulteress. Delina Fernandes Pereira, one of her grandchildren, is presently living in the town and had became controversial for being married to a pastor at the very young age of 16.
 

Inasmuch as the women in the town were very vocal and passionate in their search for men, they will not allow men to get in the way how they are running the town.

"We have God in our hearts. But we don't think we need to go to church, get married in front of a priest or baptise our children. These are rules made up by men," Rosalee Fernandes told The Telegraph UK.

Fernandes underlined that the town has proven that women do better than men. Noiva do Cordeiro is more peaceful compared if men were in charge. When there are arguments, the women resolve it through finding a compromise rather than creating a conflict like how men do.

The women love their way of life and have no plan of leaving the town to find a husband. Hence, they are looking for husbands who would be strong enough to leave their own lives and surrender to their conviction.

They sounded tough but these women will always be girls in their hearts. They act as each other's sisters, sharing everything - all for one, and one for all.

They live humbly and are the happiest even with the simplest things. Just recently, they work together to come up with funds to buy a big widescreen TV - "so we can all watch soap operas together." They always have time for chit-chats, shares each other's clothes and do each other's hair and nails.

 

 

Papakolea, The Green Sand Beach in Hawaii

Papakolea Beach, also known as Green Sand Beach or Mahana Beach, is a green sand beach located near South Point, in the Kaʻu district of the island of Hawaii. It is one of the only four green sand beaches in the world, the others being in Galapagos Islands and one in Norway.

 

The olive-like color of the sand comes from the presence of a greenish, semi-precious stone named olivine that comes from the cinder cone of Pu’u Mahana, a 49,000 year-old volcano on Mauna Loa’s southwest rift, against which the beach is located.

 

ISIS Issues a New Passport for Its Residents

The Turkish site,"Yeni Safak" , said that the organization "Islamic state" in Iraq, Syria, or What so-called ISIS, issued an official passport in Mosul, on Friday (July 4, 2014) and gave it to the 11 thousand people in the cities and border points between Iraq and Syria, which tightened its control; That was after announcing the "Islamic Caliphate" last weekend.

At the top of the passport, the phrase "Islamic Caliphate State", and beside it the Flag of "Daash" in English Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). This was done in the center of identities and passport that was opened by the Iraqi government in 2011, on the base that the process of extracting identity cards beginning next week.

And in the bottom f this passport wrote "We will send armies to the bearer of this passport if he touched harm".

A Lost World: Al-Hijr / Madain Saleh From More than 2,000 Years Ago -1

A lost world: From 2,000-year-old towering tombs carved in rock incredible images of Saudi Arabia.

At the base of a huge rocky outcrop on the plains of Madain Saleh in Saudi Arabia, a man marvels at the sight that towers above him. He is standing at the entrance of a palatial tomb, created more than 2,000 years ago by the Nabataean people. Hewn from the sandstone, the place of rest - at least 50ft high - is decorated with four columns and other intricate designs.

It is just one of a set of incredible photos taken in the region by John Stanmeyer for National Geographic Magazine.

 

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 Fully draped in a black veil, Irish blonde Angela Miskelly stares out in awe as she strolls through Al-Hijr, the ancient Saudi city of tombs carved into rose-coloured sandstone mountains.

"Spectacular... wonderful... breathtaking," she says. "But where are the tourists? If we had a site like this in my country, we would have millions of tourists!"

A Lost World: Al-Hijr / Madain Saleh From More than 2,000 Years Ago -2

Dating back to the second century BC, the Nabataean archaeological site, also known as Madain Saleh, has long been hidden from foreign visitors in this ultra-conservative kingdom that rarely opens up to tourists.

Saudi Arabia is thought to have been wary of archaeologists and scientists seeking to study its ancient ruins for fear their findings could shine the spotlight on pre-Islamic civilisations that once thrived there. In recent years, however, Saudis have increasingly ventured to these sites and the authorities are more tolerant of their curiosity.

Described as the largest and best preserved site of the Nabataean civilisation south of Petra in Jordan, Madain Saleh is the first Saudi archaeological site to be inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List.

 

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A Lost World: Al-Hijr / Madain Saleh From More than 2,000 Years Ago -3

It lies 320 kilometres (200 miles) north of Medina, the Islamic holy city of western Saudi Arabia, and extends for some 15 square kilometres (six sq miles). According to UNESCO, it includes 111 tombs, most of which boast a decorated facade, cave drawings and even some pre-Nabataean inscriptions.

It also boasts intricately designed water wells that serve as a prime example of the Nabataeans' architectural and hydraulic genius. The Nabataeans first inhabited the area in the second century BC, but their ancient civilisation existed as far back as the eighth or seventh century BC in the countries of the Levant, including Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, and at times even extending into the Sinai peninsula in Egypt.

Originally nomads from the Arabian peninsula, the Nabataeans were masters of trade, dominating the incense and spice routes in the pre-Islamic period. Their civilisation collapsed in 106 AD at the hands of the Roman empire.

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A Lost World: Al-Hijr / Madain Saleh From More than 2,000 Years Ago -4

Officials at Madain Saleh say that the number of visitors to the site reached 40,000 last year, most of them Saudis and foreign residents of the kingdom. They hold hopes that figure will double in 2012 with the government relaxing entry restrictions.

Though prior consent is required for access to Madain Saleh, it can now be obtained more easily from the nearby town of Al-Ola, or from Riyadh. The highest volume of visitors is between December and March, given the lower temperatures in the otherwise scorching desert heat.

Two museums also exist on site, including one devoted to the famous Hejaz railway built by the Ottomans in the early 20th century that ran from Damascus to Medina and passed through Al-Hijr. The second museum, which opened its doors to visitors just two months ago, traces the pilgrimage route to Islam's holiest city of Mecca.

On his first visit to the ancient site, Saudi national Tareq al-Adawi from the northwestern city of Tabuk says he was "overwhelmed."

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First color postcards of life in the U.S. more than 120 years ago

Once upon a time in America: First color postcards of the 'New World' showcase life in the U.S. more than 120 years ago. These postcards are the first color photographs taken of the New World, capturing the majesty of the American landscape, from buzzing city scenes to the dramatic vista of the Grand Canyon.

Dating back to the late 19th century and early 20th century – and now compiled in a book entitled An American Odyssey – they show the people and places of the New World, documenting Native Americans, African Americans, immigrants, cowboys and gold rushers. The photographs were taken between 1888 and 1924 and were made into postcards celebrating cities, landscapes and everyday life across the country.

Czech Easter tradition of beating women with sticks

According to the pre-Christian tradition, good health, beauty and fertility are assured in the upcoming year to those women who are whipped. More modern tradition holds that the bearer of the “beating” comes equipped with an Easter chant, which includes the following lines, “Give us dyed eggs. If you don’t give dyed, give at least white. The hen will lay a new one for you.” Usually the whippings are a lighthearted token of the tradition. From noon on, originally, the women anointed the men with perfumed oil, but in modern times the oil treatment has more often than not been replaced with buckets of ice cold water.

Incredible Rua Goncalo de Carvalho Street

Rua Goncalo de Carvalho is a street located in Porto Alegre, the capital and largest city in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Flanked by trees on either side, the street became internationally known after a campaign for its preservation spread on the Internet leading it to be dubbed "the most beautiful street in the world".

 

Over a span of 500 meters the sidewalks are lined with more than one hundred Rosewood trees, going up to the seventh floor of the buildings in some cases. According to some elderly residents, the trees were planted in the 1930s by employees of German origin who worked in a brewery in the neighborhood.

Photographs of the street circulated among environmental groups, and the "tunnel of trees" become increasingly popular. In 2008, a Portuguese biologist saw the pictures and wrote in his blog that it was the most beautiful street in the world. The nickname caught and the street has thus been called by several publications ever since.

 

 

 

Mada'in Saleh : a pre-Islamic civilization in Saudi Arabia

Madain Saleh or so-called the old city of stone,Al-Hijr, el Hijr, and Hegra. An archaeological site and pre-Islamic civilization in Saudi Arabia 

Mada'in Saleh is one of the most important archaeological sites in the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East ,located in the province of Ela belonging to the Medina and was the capital of the Kingdom of the southren Nabataeans in the north of the Arabian Peninsula. Al-Hijr is the name of Diar Thamood Valley villages between the city Medina and Tabuk, a place existed before the era of Islam in the region of Ela , within the area of Medina in Saudi Arabia.

Remnants has been found told us about the Nabataean and Roman occupation while mentioned in the Quran that there is a settlement in ancient times which is the folk of Thamood in the third millennium BC.

Al Waba Crater in Saudi Arabia

The Al Wahaba crater is located in the Saudi Arabian desert, 254 km from Taif on the western edge of the Hafer Kishb basalt plateau, which contains many volcanic cones. This photogenic crater is the largest of its kind in the Middle East - 2 km in diameter with cliffs dropping 250 meters to a flat base, in the center of which is a thick crust of dazzling white sodium phosphate crystals.

For some time it was thought that the crater was formed by a meteorite, as its appearance resembles that of the Barringer Crater, with its circular form and high sides. It is now commonly accepted by geologists that the crater was formed by volcanic activity in the form of an underground explosion of steam generated when molten magma came into contact with groundwater. On one side of the crater lies an ash cone which is all that is left of the volcano.