NAME THAT CAPITAL

Plaza San Francisco de Assis (St. Francis of Assisi Square) is one of  several colonial era city squares in the old city heart of our mystery capital. The square is cooled by sea breezes sweeping in from the harbor, just behind the pictured port terminal. This port is just one of three in the city’s large natural harbor, which opens onto the Gulf of Mexico. The square was named by the Franciscan community, whose 16th-century church and monastery still stands on the south side of the square.

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NAME THAT COUNTRY Episode 131

The Street of Facades is a main thoroughfare in the most famous tourist destination of our mystery country. Rock-cut tombs of some of the rich and powerful of this ancient Nabatean city line the section of the street pictured, with more modest tombs further down the way. In this sprawling site, beyond the Street of Facades, are temples, theaters and more tombs, some even more grandiose than those pictured.

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NAME THAT COUNTRY Episode 130

The former Imperial City of Meknes is in the north of our mystery country. Meknes was the seat of the ruling Alaouite Dynasty from the late 17th century to the early 19th century. The dynasty’s founder Sultan Moulay Ismail vowed to make his city rival Versailles and by most accounts succeeded. Some of that grandeur remains, including the glorious Bab el-Mansour gate pictured above. One of the country’s top tourist attractions, the Roman site of Volubilis, is about 30 minutes away from Meknes.

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NAME THAT COUNTRY Episode 129

Biblical wisdom is timeless, but it is often expressed in the activities and settings of very particular times and places. In the northern Galilee region of our mystery country, Nazareth Village provides visitors with living context for some familiar ancient stories.
Visitors observe and participate in daily chores performed in the manner of 1st-century Galilean villagers. Tending animals and crops, pressing olive oil, baking bread… The village buildings and methods of farming and household tasks are based on scholarly research and archaeological evidence.

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NAME THAT COUNTRY Episode 128

A remote valley on the west of the Nile river shelters the burial grounds of ancient kings and courtiers. To elude robbers, tombs were hidden deep in the folds of the desert mountains. Most were looted anyway, leaving only the exquisite wall paintings for posterity. To date, 63 tombs have been discovered in the Valley of the Kings, ranging in size from a single chamber to sprawling networks of passageways with over 100 chambers.

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NAME THAT COUNTRY Episode 127

In the central north of or mystery country, a collection of  monasteries perch 1,000 feet above the Plain of Thessaly at the top of titanic natural pillars. This is Meteora, first inhabited by Christian hermits seeking solitude and security in the 11th century.
These first settlers scaled the towers and lived in caves and cracks in the stone.
In the 13th century, groups of monks came to the area and began to build. Over the next several hundred years over 20 monasteries were built. Today, six of the surviving monasteries are open to visitors.

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NAME THAT COUNTRY Episode 126

The so-called Green Mausoleum is located in the city of Bursa, in the northwest of our mystery country, across the Sea of Marmara from the country’s largest and most famous city. Bursa was the first capital of the Ottoman Empire and the Green Mausoleum is the tomb of the fifth Ottoman sultan Mehmed I. The city is known for its Ottoman architecture, including a number of beautiful mosques.

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NAME THAT COUNTRY Episode 125

In Dhofar, the southern region of our mystery country, near the city of Salalah, we find the remains of ancient Sumhuram, aka Khor Rori, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Two thousand years ago, Sumhuram was a major port and the world center for the trade of frankincense. It’s also rumored that the Queen of Sheba had a palace here.

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NAME THAT COUNTRY Episode 124

Just outside the world’s biggest mall and near the foot of the world’s tallest building, the world’s largest dancing water fountain dips and sways and shoots 500 feet into the air (every half hour from 6-11pm). That is one happy fountain! The fountain’s mystery home city is known for breaking records in architecture, engineering and development.

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NAME THAT COUNTRY Episode 123

Over 20 layers of habitation, one atop the other, make up Tel Megiddo in the north of our mystery country. An important Egypt-Mesopotamia trade route crossed the Carmel Mountain ridge at a pass near the settlement. This is Armageddon (Greek for Megiddo) of the Book of Revelation, where the final battle between the forces of good and evil is prophesied to take place.

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