Year: 2012

The earliest known account of Lebanese fossils is attributed to Herodotus.[1][2] The existence of fossil fishes in the Lebanon is referred to by Jean de Joinville. In his Histoire de Saint Louis he wrote that during the sojourn of King Louis IX of France at...

The paleontological sites of Lebanon contain deposits of some of the best-preserved fossils in the world, and include some species found nowhere else. The most famous of these is the Lebanese lagerstätten of the Late Cretaceous age, which contain a well-preserved variety of different fossils....

The craft originated with the Seri people as a way to earn money from tourists. In the first half of the 20th century, the Seri were mostly confined to Tiburon Island coming into Kino Bay seasonally to sell firewood, which included ironwood. In the mid...

Ironwood is similar to ebony, as it is dark, dense and very hard; its grain is very straight. For this reason there are few air bubbles and unlike other woods, ironwood sinks in water.[3] Before the carving of ironwood figures, this wood was used for...

The ironwood tree is considered native to the Sonora Desert as it is found only the states of Sonora, Baja California Norte and Baja California Sur in Mexico and Arizona and California in the United States.[1] Olneya tesota is the slowest growing and the tallest...

Mexican ironwood carvings is a handcraft that began with the Seri indigenous people of the state of Sonora. The wood comes from a Sonora Desert tree called ironwood (palo fierro in Spanish) or Olneya tesota. It is a slow growing important shade tree found in...

On 11 February 2002, Pope John Paul II created the administration for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Moscow and named Apostolic Administrator Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz as archbishop and metropolitan. However, this decision was criticised by Patriarch Alexy II, who called it “unfriendly”, as he believed the...

The present pipe organ is one of the largest in Russia and the third since the church’s foundation. The first organ was taken by the state in 1938 and the second, an electronic organ with 60 stops, was installed as part of the renovations in...

On each side on the entry of the cathedral is a stone crucifix and a holy water font. High on the left side there is a brick from the Lateran Basilica, and on the right side a jubilee 2000 medal. The crypt is accessed through...

The cathedral, built in a neo-Gothic style, is a three-aisled cross-shaped pseudobasilica. It was constructed entirely from red brick, and was not rendered externally. The five-bay main aisle extends for 65 metres (213 ft), each with lateral arms 13 metres (43 ft) long. The octagonal...