Altai Mountains, Russia

This gorgeous card is from Siguanea for the favorites tag. It's one of the giant cards - 21cm by 15cm! And sooooooo pretty. The back of the card says "View of the North-Chuysky Ridge from Sagandu." The Altai are located in central Asia, with parts of the range in Russia, China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan. The name comes from the Mongolian words for "gold" and "mountain," and the area is listed as a UNESCO world heritage site under the name "Golden Mountains of Altai." It is critical habitat for the endangered snow leopard and Altai argali, a wild sheep; however, in a 2009 incident, several Russian VIPs were killed in a helicopter crash here during an alleged poaching expedition.

The large stamp on the right is a 2009 commemorative from a set of 4 on the subject of "National Head dress." This one comes from middle of XIX century (honestly, I'm not clear on what century that would be), Moscow district. On the left are two definitives from 2009, Zaraisk Kremlin on the bottom and Moscow Kremlin on the top.