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Petra is an archaeological site in Jordan, lying on the slope of Mount Harun in a basin among the mountains which form the eastern flank of Arabah (Wadi Araba), the large valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba. It is renowned for its rock-cut architecture. Petra is also one of the new wonders of the world.
The palace of Beit-eddine in the Chouf mountains of Lebanon was built by Prince Bashir Shihab II in the period between 1788 and 1818. It was to be his residence until 1840. Afterwards the building was used by the Ottoman authorities as the government residence. Later, under the French Mandate following World War I, it was used for local administrative purposes.
The General Directorate of Antiquities restored the palace after it was declared a historic monument in 1934. When Lebanon obtained its independence in 1943, the palace became the summer residence of the president of the Lebanese republic.
Ahmed bin Majid, was an Arab navigator and cartographer born in 1421 in Julphar, which is now known as Ras Al Khaimah. This city makes up one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates. He was raised with a family famous for seafaring; at the age of 17 he was able to navigate ships. He was so famous that he was known as the first Arab seaman. The exact date is not known, but bin Majid probably died in 1500. He became famous in the West as the navigator who has been associated with helping Vasco da Gama find his way from Africa to India. He was the author of nearly forty works of poetry and prose.
Is best known as a traveler and explorer, whose account documents his travels and excursions over a period of almost thirty years, covering some 73,000 miles (117,000 km). These journeys covered almost the entirety of the known Islamic world and beyond, extending from North Africa, West Africa, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe in the West, to the Middle East, Indian subcontinent, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China in the East, a distance readily surpassing that of his predecessors and his near-contemporary Marco Polo.
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