June/July Mystery Photo Contest

May Mystery Photo Contest: Chichén Itza Ruins - Mexico

Sharon Dunfee was the first person to identify the site and to name the two structures.
She says that she recognized the photos immediately because she has traveled to Chichén-Itza and the Yucatán Peninsula eight times and loves the Mayan and Mexican cultures. She correctly identified the photo on the left as El Templo de Kulkulcan (more popularly known as El Castillo) and the photo on the right as El Templo de los Guerreros or the Temple of the Warriors with its Toltec-inspired Chac Mool Statue.
Sherri has been teaching Spanish for 25 years. She currently teaches Spanish 3-5 Honors and AP levels at Athens High School in Ohio. She loves the Spanish language and love to travel. She has taken students to Europe five times and Mexico twelve times.
She chose AbeCedarios: Mexican Folk Art ABCs in English and Spanish by Cynthia Weill and K.B. Basseches as her prize. Many thanks to the Embassy of Mexico for this lovely book.

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January Mystery Photo Contest - ANSWER REVEALED!

CREDITS:
Photo #1 - Many thanks to Monique Barricelli, an Italian teacher for the Smithtown School District in Long Island, NY, for sending this photo.
Photo #2 - Many thanks to Patricia Teefy, a French and Spanish instructor at the St. Paul Academy and Summit School in St. Paul, MN who contributed this photo.
Photo #3 - Many thanks to Bert Vorchheimer for this beautiful photo.

WINNERS:

Photo #1
Jeffrey T. Reeder correctly identified Photo #1 as the bronze statue of a stambecco (a goat similar to the ibex) on top of Monte Rosa in the Italian Alps. Jeffrey is an Associate Professor of Spanish and Chair of the Dept. of Modern Languages and Literatures at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, CA Many thanks to Monique Barricelli, an Italian teacher for the Smithtown School District in Long Island, NY, for sending this photo. She writes that this statue is situated at 2880 meters (8,640 feet) above sea level (my son's lips turned a bit blue when we first got there!). We reached it by taking a cable car/funivia from Alagna, Italy. We were there on August 6, 2006--- as you can see, my kids Alexa, Adriana and Anthony were wearing coats--it was so cold. It was about 34 degrees F and snowing/hailing.

Photo #2
Melissa Burgess correctly identified the remaining mystery photo from the January 08 Where in the World? Mystery Photo contest. She recognized the Pont du Gard. She told us that she has been there twice, most recently in March while on spring break in the south of France. She admits, however, that she has never been to the top like the person in the photo! Melissa is a Latin teacher for Indian Hill Schools in suburban Cincinnati. She has taught grades 6-12 for the past ten years. She currently teaches Latin I and Latin II and is part of a four-person Latin department in her district. She has selected Immortal, a novel by Traci L. Slatton set in 14th century Florence as her prize. Thanks again to the Sons of Italy for donating this book to the Culture Club.

Photo #3 .
No one was able to correctly identify this building so we are going to provide the answer. The photo was sent to us by Umberto Vorchheimer who discovered this beautiful building by chance. Here is his story:

“This stunning building doesn't get much publicity. We happened across it by accident during a day trip out of Bassano, where we stayed for the better part of a week last September. Driving along a country road, I suddenly saw what could only have been a mirage: a brilliant, white Pantheon, perched all by itself on a mountain foothill. It took us two days to get there because a number of roads to Passagno had been washed out and my intuitive navigation served us poorly. When we finally arrived the following day, the sight was unimaginable.”

It is the Temple of Canova located in Possagno in the Veneto region of Italy. Antonio Canova, the greatest European sculptor of the 19th century, was born in this small town. He designed this temple in his twilight years, and it is the repository of his ashes.

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