Latvia is in NW Europe on the Baltic coast next to Russia. There are a lot of interesting things to see from the Middle Ages.

Minsk the capital of Belarus, culture, tourist attractions as well as showcase of industries and economy.

Belarus transliterated to English = White Russia
Russian belo = white, Rus = ancient name for Russia

The Sydney Opera House is one of the world's most spectacular buildings, yet few people know the remarkable story of its creation. Designed nearly 50 years ago, the shape of the building was so complex that entirely new engineering and construction techniques would be needed to build it, revolutionising an entire industry, and nearly breaking Jorn Utzon, the genius architect who designed it.

A short drive through a residential area of Samarkand Uzbekistan.
August 05, 2010..

Tashkent, Turkish for city of Stone is the capital of Uzbekistan and of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was about 2.2 million. Unofficial sources estimate the actual population may be as much as 4.45 million.

The city was destroyed by Genghis Khan in 1219, Under the Timurids and subsequent Shaybanid dynasties the city revived, despite occasional attacks by the Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Persians, Mongols, Oirats and Kalmyks.

In 1809, Tashkent was annexed to the Khanate of Kokand. At the time, Tashkent had a population of around 100,000 and was considered the richest city in Central Asia. It prospered greatly through trade to Russia, but heavily burdened under Kokand’s high taxes. The Tashkent clergy also favored the clergy of Bukhara over that of Kokand. However, before the Emir of Bukhara could capitalize on this discontent, the Russian army arrived.

In May, 1865, Mikhail Grigorevich Chernyayev, acting against the direct orders of the tsar, and outnumbered at least 15-1 staged a daring night attack against the city which had walls 16 miles around with 11 gates and 30,000 defenders. While a small contingent staged a diversionary attack, the main force penetrated the walls, led by a Russian Orthodox priest armed only with a crucifix. Although defense was stiff, the Russians captured the city after two days of heavy fighting and the loss of only 25 dead as opposed to several thousand of the defenders including Khan Alimqul, the ruler of the Kokand Khanate.
Mikhail Chernyayev was later dubbed the "Lion of Tashkent" by city elders after he staged a "hearts-and-minds" campaign to win the population over. He abolished taxes for a year, rode unarmed through the streets and bazaars meeting common people and recommended to Tsar Alexander II that the city be made an independent khanate under Russian protection.

Astana, the capital of the Republic of  Kazakhstan is ten years old this year. The city's designation as capital initiated one of the most ambitious urban development projects of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. This film -- THIS IS ASTANA - shows captures the unique atmosphere of a capital that rivals all the dynamism of longer-established cities like New York.

Kazakhstan is the 9th largest country in the World. Archaeologists believe that humans first domesticated the horse on Kazakhstan's vast prairies. The chariot was invented here about 4,500 years ago. The apple was first cultivated in Kazakhstan, Alexander the Great found dwarfed apples in Kazakhstan in 328 B.C., he sent root stocks back to Macedonia.

The people of Kazakhstan are mostly Turkic now but it was originally inhabited by Iranians. The best known of those groups was the nomadic Scythians.

The world's first and largest operational space launch facility, Baikonur Cosmodrom, is located in Kazakhstan. The first manned spacecraft in human history, was launched from one of Baikonur's launch pads

A great building boom in Ashgabat, capital of Turkmenistan.

The city of culture, the city where continents meet. Official video of Istanbul 2010; European Capital of Culture.

Istanbul (Turkish: ?stanbul, historically also known as Byzantium and Constantinople) is the largest city in Turkey and fifth largest city proper in the world with a population of 12.6 million. Istanbul is also a megacity, as well as the cultural and financial centre of Turkey. It is located on the Bosphorus Strait and encompasses the natural harbour known as the Golden Horn, in the northwest of the country. It extends both on the European (Thrace) and on the Asian (Anatolia) sides of the Bosphorus, and is thereby the only metropolis in the world that is situated on two continents.

In its long history, Istanbul has served as the capital city of the Roman Empire (330 - 395), the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire (395 - 1204 and 1261 - 1453), the Latin Empire (1204 - 1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453 - 1922). The city was chosen as joint European Capital of Culture for 2010.

Istanbul welcomes you...

A lovely day for a drive around the city of Baku, Azerbaijan.

This is the official tourism video about Azerbaijan and it's regions with local music.

Lake baikal, set in a gigantic stone bowl nearly 636 km long and almost 80 km wide, here lies 20% of all the unfrozen freshwater on the earth in Lake Baikal.
Lake Baikal is the oldest and deepest lake in the World, with an average depth of  2,441 ft, maximum depth 5,387 feet. surface area 12,248 square miles, water volume 5,700 cubic miles.
Lake Baikal is home to more than 1,700 species of plants and animals, two thirds of which can be found nowhere else in the world.
There is a colony of 400,000 fresh water seals that live in Lake Baikal.
Lake Baikal also known as "The Pearl of Siberia" .