9 October marks the World Post Day. It was established by the Universal Postal Union at a congress in Tokyo in 1969 to highlight the importance of the postal services.
If you think that in the era of the Internet postmen are no longer needed, have a look at our photo gallery to realise how mistaken you have been.
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A female skin-diver puts a plastic letter into a post box set up at a depth of 10 meters on bottom of the sea off the coast of Susami, Wakayama Prefecture 07 July 1999.
© AFP 2023 / Jiji Press
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A postman stops and looks at a flooded street in Lowestoft, in the east of England, on December 6, 2013 after a tidal surge hit locations along the east coast of Britain.
© AFP 2023 / Justin Tallis
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Germany's most northerly post skipper Fiede Nissen, left, and his colleague Andreas Oberauer who is said to be Germany's most northerly postman bring packages and letters to the residents of the tiny island of Groede in the North Sea on Tuesday, Dec.5, 2006.
© AP Photo / Heribert Proepper
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A postman steers his motorcycle through fresh snow in Aigle, Canton of Vaud, western Switzerland, on Monday, Nov. 24, 2008.
© AP Photo / Keystone / Sebastian Annex
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In this photograph taken on June 11, 2013, Afghan postman Mohammad Rahim delivers letters to a resident in the Kart-e-Sakhi neighbourhood of Kabul.
© AFP 2023 / Shah Marai
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Postman Alexei Tryapitsin brings packages and letters to villagers in the Kenozersky national part in Russia's Arkhangelsk region.
© Sputnik / Alexey Kudenko
/ 7 / 21
A Thai postman (R) walks through floodwaters at a market in Bangkok on October 27, 2010.
© AFP 2023 / Pornchai Kittiwongsakul
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Australia postman George Johnstone pauses for a quiet moment with his two-year-old pet Cockatoo Bob as he delivers the mail in the Hunter Valley town of Aberdeen, in New South Wales, 03 January 2008.
© AFP 2023 / David Hancock
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A postman crosses the flooded Saint-Mark's Square in Venice on November 3, 2009.
© AFP 2023 / Alberto Pizzoli
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A Chinese postal worker leaves with his bike after delivering mail to a fashion salon decorated with a porcelain dog drinking a US soda out of a straw 16 February 2000 in Beijing.
© AFP 2023 / Stephen Shaver
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A Pakistani postal worker carries posts at a railway station in Lahore on October 8, 2017, ahead of the World Post Day.
© AFP 2023 / Arif Ali
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Paqui (L), a Spanish postal service's employee, speaks with a local resident as she delivers mail in Arriate, near Malaga, on October 2, 2013.
© AFP 2023 / Jorge Guerrero
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The postman goes on with his round despite floods in the village of Chanxhe, near Liege, 28 January 2002, after heavy rains caused floods in many areas of Belgium.
© AFP 2023 / Guy Mossay
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A helmeted postman on a motorcycle rumbles past flattened buildings at Wajima, one of the areas hit hardest in Ishikawa prefecture (state), northern Japan, on Monday March 26, 2007.
© AP Photo / Koji Sasahara
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A Brazilian postman delivers letters in Rocinha slum in Rio de Janeiro on October 4, 2013.
© AFP 2023 / Christophe Simon
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A postwoman drags her mail cart on a snow-covered street during a winter storm in New York on February 9, 2017.
© AFP 2023 / Jewel Samad
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An official of the 'Magyar Posta' (Hungarian Post Company) Bernadett Kasza delivers a letter to a man in her district in Budapest on October 18, 2013.
© AFP 2023 / Attila Kibenedek
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Postman Filip Filipovic brings groceries on October 7, 2013, to a family near Kursumlijska Banja, some 300 km south of the capital Belgrade.
© AFP 2023 / Andrej Isakovich
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A postman brings mail to residents of Le Markstein in the Vosges mountains in France
© AFP 2023 / Olivier Morin
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A postwoman brings mail to residents of Borovoye village in Russia's Novosibirsk region.
© Sputnik / Alexandr Kryazhev
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