Place of the Year 2013: Then and Now

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Place of the Year 2013: Then and Now

Thanksgiving is a time for reflection on the past, present, and future. In our final week of voting for Place of the Year, here’s a look at some of the many changes undergone by the nominees. Which of these will steal the crown from Mars, the 2012 Place of the Year?

Syria
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A view of Damascus taken around 1910, from the Oregon State University Special Collections & Archives via Flickr Commons.

Syria
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Buildings destroyed by aerial bombings in Azaz, Syria in August 2012. The Syrian Civil War began in Spring 2011 and continues today. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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Copacabana Beach, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, between 1930 and 1947. Image via Library of Congress.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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Brazil has undergone profound growth since then, as Copacabana Beach in 2009 demonstrates! Photograph by Rodrigo Soldon. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License via Wikimedia Commons.

Tahrir Square, Egypt
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Tahrir Square with the Egyptian Museum on the left, circa 1940s. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Tahrir Square, Egypt
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Once merely a traffic intersection, Tahrir Square has been the seat of revolutionary activity since 2011. Here, thousands of Egyptians protest, demanding President Hosni Mubarak’s resignation, on February 9, 2011. Photo by Jonathan Rashad, Creative Commons License via Wikimedia Commons.

Greenland
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View over the Tasiusaq Bay, Greenland in the late 19th-early 20th century. Photograph by Th. N. Krabbe, National Museum of Denmark via Flickr Commons.

Greenland
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Think this canyon along Greenland’s northwest coast is huge? Scientists discovered the longest canyon in the world under Greenland’s ice sheet earlier this year. Image courtesy of NASA/Michael Studinger.

utah
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The NSA Data Center in Bluffdale, Utah lies at the foot of the Wasatch Mountain Range, seen in this photochrom print from 1900. Image courtesy of The Library of Congress.

Utah
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The NSA Data Center resides on approximately 1 million square feet of land in Bluffdale , Utah, just south of Salt Lake City. Image by Swilsonmc, used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, v1.2 via Wikimedia Commons.

Make sure to vote for your pick below!

What should be Place of the Year 2013?

SyriaTahrir Square, EgyptRio de Janeiro, BrazilThe NSA Data Center, United States of AmericaGrand Canyon, Greenland

View Result

Total votes: 189Syria (52 votes, 28%)Tahrir Square, Egypt (20 votes, 11%)Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (43 votes, 23%)The NSA Data Center, United States of America (33 votes, 17%)Grand Canyon, Greenland (41 votes, 21%)

Vote

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Image credits:

(1) Syria, then: The Oregon State University Special Collections & Archives via Flickr Commons

(2) Syria, now: Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

(3) Rio de Janeiro, then: General [view], Brazil, D.F. [Distrito Federal], Rio De Janeiro, Copacabana Beach Image via Library of Congress.

(4) Rio de Janeiro, now: Photograph by Rodrigo Soldon. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License via Wikimedia Commons.

(5) Tahrir Square, then: Tahrir Square with the Egyptian Museum on the left, circa 1940s. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

(6) Tahrir Square, now: Photograph by Jonathan Rashad, Creative Commons License via Wikimedia Commons.

(7) Greenland, then: Photograph by Th. N. Krabbe, National Museum of Denmark via Flickr Commons.

(8) Greenland, now: Image courtesy of NASA/Michael Studinger.

(9) Utah, then: Image courtesy of The Library of Congress.

(10) Utah, now: Image by Swilsonmc, used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, v1.2 via Wikimedia Commons.