~*~Happy New Year~*~

H I T   I M A G E

~*~Merry Christmas~*~

 
I have a list of people I know, 
all in my email address book,
And now at Christmas time 
I have gone to take a look.

And that is when I realize 
these names... they are a part,
Not of the PC they're stored in, 
but taken from my heart.

For each name stands for someone
who has crossed my path sometime,
And in that meeting they've become
the rhythm in each rhyme.

And while it sounds fantastic
for me to make this claim,
I feel that I'm composed
of each remembered name.

And while you may not be aware
of any special link,
Just meeting you has changed my life,
a lot more than you think!

For once I have met somebody,
the years cannot erase,
The memory of a pleasant word
of an E-mail or a friendly face.

So never think my Christmas Wishes
are just a my routine,
Of names upon an address list,
forgotten in between.

For when I do a Christmas wishes
that is addressed to you,
It's because you're on the list
of people I'm indebted to.

And whether I have known you
for many years or few,
In some way you have been a part
of shaping things I do.

And now that Christmas has come,
I realize anew,
The best gift life can offer
is meeting people like you

~*~Christmas around the world~*~

Faith makes all things possible,
Hope makes all things work,
Love makes all things beautiful,
May you have all the three for this Christmas. 
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

It's Christmas time. The time when peace reigns. When smiles blossom on every face. The time for families to gather and deck up the Christmas tree. It is time for the gifts, for the parties. And here we take a look at how people celebrate Christmas across the globe.

Postmen dressed as Santa Claus in delivery bikes leave headquarters of the post office to deliver letters in Seoul, South Korea. The post service take their part of the season's contributions on the Christmas.

People walk past a Christmas tree near China's National Stadium, also known as the 'Bird's Nest', in Beijing, China.

A luminescent installation resembling a Christmas tree setup by the 'Light of Freedom' organization glows on the top of the Spanish Steps in Rome. The installation represents a light to all the victims of kidnapping in the world.

People looking at a Christmas tree , reflected in a dirty pond in Lisbon.

Christmas lights are seen in front of the Monte Carlo Casino,in Monaco.

A cat named Tom dressed as Santa Claus is held by its owner after giving it a bath at a pet shop in Lima.

Grace Udom carries a newly-purchased artificial Christmas tree as she leaves a store selling Christmas decorations, in Lagos, Nigeria.

Icicles, formed by freezing rain, are illuminated by Christmas lights in Marysville, Pa.

A soldier dressed as Santa Claus rings a bell before distributing gifts, at a military navy base in the town of Varna east of the Bulgarian capital Sofia.

A top of a New Year's tree is seen in the Moscow GUM State Department store Moscow, Russia. New Year's is the biggest holiday of the year in Russia, and is followed by the Orthodox Christmas on Jan. 7.

A top of a New Year's tree is seen in the Moscow GUM State Department store Moscow, Russia.

People are pictured as they visit Christmas market in downtown Hamburg, Germany.

People are pictured in Christmas-decorated shopping mall in downtown Hamburg, Germany.

People look on Christmas decoration on that Viennese Christmas Market infront of the Viennese city hall in Vienna, Austria.

 New Jersey Nets cheerleaders perform a Christmas routine during an NBA basketball game Saturday night, in East Rutherford, N.J.

Taiwanese people take pictures with a Christmas tree in front of the Taipei 101 building, in Taipei, Taiwan.

Santa Clauses perform with music instruments in a turtle aquarium at an ocean park in Fuzhou, south China's Fujian province. Chinese characters in the background reads 'Merry Christmas'.

Guests look at a Christmas tree kept in the lobby of the Taj Mahal Palace and Towers hotel, in Mumbai, India. The main areas of the Oberoi and Taj hotels, which were severely damaged by terrorist attack are expected to remain closed for months. But the hotels opened sections to guests, assuring them that security has been upgraded.

British soccer star David Beckham smiles prior to the start of a Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Udinese at the San Siro stadium in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2008. Soccer's super couple, David and Victoria Beckham, are trading LA glamour for Italy's fashion, finance and soccer capital of Milan, as he prepares to kick off a three-month stint for AC Milan on loan from the Los Angeles Galaxy. The work starts after the Christmas holidays, with training camp in Dubai on Dec. 29.

Courtsey : yahoo news

~*~LoSt CiTiEs~*~

The breathtaking city of Petra was a vibrant trading hub that vanished from most maps in the seventh century A.D. It lay beneath a thousand years of dust and debris when, in 1812, a Swiss scholar disguised as a Bedouin trader identified the ruins as the ancient Nabataean capital. 

Spread throughout a series of remote desert canyons in southern Jordan, Petra arose more than 2,000 years ago at the crossroads of key caravan trade routes between Arabia, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. The Nabataeans carved most of the sprawling city's buildings, including temples, tombs, and theaters, directly into the region's towering red sandstone cliffs. Here, a Bedouin walks his camel past Petra's most famous building, Al Khazneh, or the Treasury

The earliest Maya began to settle the dense rain forests of southwestern Mexico and Guatemala some 3,000 years ago. For nearly 1,400 years, settlements arose throughout the region, with some, like Tikal and Palenque (shown here), expanding into large, vibrant city-states. 

Although the archaeological discovery of Machu Picchu came nearly a hundred years ago, historians are still unsure of the function of this ancient Inca citadel. 

The Inca had no system of writing and left no written records, and archaeologists have been left to piece together bits of evidence as to why Machu Picchu was built, what purpose it served, and why it was so quickly vacated.

Myth, folklore, mystery, and intrigue surround the ancient city of Troy like no other ruin on Earth. Once thought to be purely imaginary, a prop in Homer's epic poem The Iliad, excavations in northwestern Turkey in 1871 eventually proved that the city indeed existed. 

In 1871, German adventurer Heinrich Schliemann began digging at Hisarlik, Turkey, (shown here) in search of the fabled city. His roughshod excavation wrought havoc on the site, but revealed nine ancient cities, each built on top of the next and dating back some 5,000 years. At the time, most archaeologists were skeptical that Troy was among the ruins, but evidence since the discovery suggests the Trojan capital indeed lies within the site.

The Indus Valley civilization was entirely unknown until 1921, when excavations in what would become Pakistan revealed the cities of Harappa and Mohenjo Daro (shown here). 

This mysterious culture emerged nearly 4,500 years ago and thrived for a thousand years, profiting from the highly fertile lands of the Indus River floodplain and trade with the civilizations of nearby Mesopotamia.

There is evidence that the ancient city of Palmyra, also known as Tadmor, was in existence as far back as the 19th century B.C. Its importance grew around 300 B.C. as trading caravans began using it as a way station between Mesopotamia and Persia. Palmyra's strategic location and prosperity attracted the interest of the Romans, who took control of the city in the first century A.D.

The city of Tanis is relatively unknown among Egypt's wealth of historical sites, though it yielded one of the greatest archeological troves ever found. Once the capital of all Egypt, Tanis's royal tombs have yielded artifacts on par with the treasures of Tutankhamun.

Once thought (erroneously) to be a city of the biblical Queen of Sheba, Great Zimbabwe stands as the most important archaeological site yet found in sub-Saharan Africa. Though historians are still seeking answers about the origin and purpose of the city, evidence suggests the Shona, ancestors of the modern Bantu, built it beginning around A.D. 1250 and that it served as a spiritual center.

Nimrud in northern Iraq was once the capital of the Assyrian empire. Feared as bloodthirsty and vicious, the Assyrians arose around the 14th century B.C. and dominated the Middle East for a thousand years. 
Nimrud and the Assyrian Empire declined rapidly around 612 B.C., after Nimrud's sister city, Nineveh, fell to the Babylonians.

The ancient city of Persepolis in modern-day Iran was one of four capitals of the sprawling Persian Empire. Built beginning around 520 B.C., the city was a showcase for the empire's staggering wealth, with grand architecture, extravagant works of silver and gold, and extensive relief sculptures such as this one portraying envoys with offerings for the king. 
The height of Persian rule lasted from about 550 B.C. until 330 B.C., when Alexander the Great overthrew the ruling Archaemenid dynasty and burned Persepolis to the ground.

Over centuries of study, archaeologists have discovered many truths about the famed Stonehenge monument in southern England. But despite these advances, the basic questions of who built this iconic structure and why have remained unanswered.

More than 600 cliff dwellings made by the ancestral Pueblo people, also known as the Anasazi, are scattered throughout Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado (shown here). 
The Anasazi arrived in the region as early as A.D. 550, building their homes and cultivating crops on the soaring mesa tops. Around 1150, though, they began to move their dwellings to the alcoves within the canyon walls. Most houses were quite small, but a few reached enormous proportions, housing up 250 people.