Wednesday 28 September 2016

Life in the Galician mountains: Ancares, Biosphere Reserve.

Ancares, in the north-west of Spain, is an amazing mountainous area located on the Galician border. It shares its territory with with three different autonomous regions: Galicia, Asturias and Castilla-León. It was declared a Biosphere Reserve on 27th Ocotber 2006 by UNESCO under the name: Os Ancares Lucenses y Montes de Cervantes, Navia y Becerreá.


Because of its isolation and location, in a complex orographic zone which mingles characteristics of both the Euro-Siberian and Mediterranean biogeographic regions, it displays an extraordinary and complex biodiversity. Its environment is well-preserved and contains some species in danger of extinction, such as bears or capercaillies.

Friday 23 September 2016

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE WORLD HERITAGE SITES.


By a group of participants from IES de Catabois in the project.

World Heritage Sites are patrimony of humanity. And what does that mean? It means precisely that: patrimony of all human kind, something that is important or relevant to any human being on planet Earth, something that has been inherited from our ancestors and that we must preserve. Why are there places which are catalogued like that? Its just because of their importance or relevance through history. They are usually beautiful outstanding monuments or traditions which our ancestors from different cultures have built with big effort, which have survived in good conditions to the passing of time and which deserve being preserved for future generations so that our descendants get to know what the world was like in previous times.
 

UNESCO is the international organization which is in charge of the World Heritage Sites. It belongs to the United Nations organism and its acronym means United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 195 countries form it and other 9 are associates.

SYRACUSE: MEETING POINT OF MEDITERRANEAN CULTURES.


 By the students and teachers who travelled to Sicily.

The city is a modern one today with a population of about 125,000 inhabitants, located in the south-east of Sicily and home to many different cultures since its birth about 2,700 years ago. Travelling to Syracuse from Catania is easy but the traveller will need at least two days or three days if he wants to explore the area a bit in depth. Buses depart from Catania but they are not very frequent. A return ticket costs about 10 euro and the trip takes about an hour and a half.



Home town of Archimedes, the famous Greek mathematician and philosopher, it was described as 'the most beautiful Greek city' by Cicero. It includes two parts, the one on the main island, where Neapolis and the Rocky Necropolis of Pantalica (about 40 kms away), are located and the island of Ortygia, inhabited for around 3,000 years. They were included in the World Heritage Sites list by UNESCO in 2005.