 | Abu Simbel Temple
Location: Egypt
On the 34th anniversary of his reign, Pharaoh Ramses II ordered the
colossal Sun Temple of Abu Simbel to be carved into the side of a cliff,
with four 65foot high seated statues of himself as a young pharaoh; the
monument took an unknown number of men 36 years to complete. In the 1960s
the temple and statues were moved to higher ground when a dam was built at
Aswan. On February 22 and October 22 (thought to be the anniversaries of
Ramses birth and coronation), rays from the sun reach 180 feet deep into
the temple's sanctuary illuminating murals of the deified pharaoh and his
fellow gods.
|
| | Angkor Wat
Location: Cambodia
Khmer temple/urban complex that was one of the most capital capitals in Asia in the 9thC-14thC. Now 400 sq km. of stunningly carved, world beating wonders, including Angkor Wat.
|
| | The Aztec Temple
Location: Tenochtitlan (Mexico City), Mexico
|
| | The Banaue Rice Terraces
Location: Luzon, Philippines
Banaue's rice terraces were carved out of the Cordillera Central mountain
range more than 2,000 years ago and are still maintained as a way of
irrigating the area's steep slopes, which rise to more than 5,000 feet
above sea level.
|
| | Borobudur Temple
Location: Java, Indonesia
This is the world's largest Buddhist monument; more than 3 miles of
hand-carved reliefs representing the Buddhist universe of worldly,
spiritual and heavenly spheres wrap around its ten
terraces. Gradually decreasing in size, the higher levels are studded with
72 bell shaped stupas and more than 400 Buddhas, which give Borobudur its
prickly-porcupine silhouette.
|
| | The Coliseum
Location: Rome, Italy
Once able to seat 50,000 the Coliseum was begun in AD72 by Vespasian and inaugurated in AD80 by his
son Titus. Centuries of neglect and outright ransacking have left it a
shell largely without floor or seats, but what a shell it is, with three
tiers of columns - Doric, Ionian and Corinthian.
|
| | The Great Wall of China
The longest wonder of the world by far, the only man-made object visible from space. For convenience and crowds, climb the Great Wall at Badalang; for solitude climb it at Huanghua, 60km north of Beijing.
|
| | The Inca city of Machu Picchu
Location: Urubamba Valley, Peru
Abandoned by the Inca and reclaimed by the jungle, the 100-acre complex of temples, warehouses,
houses, irrigation terraces and stairs remained hidden from outsiders until American explorer Hiram
Bingham was led to it in 1911 by a ten year old local boy. Current thinking suggests it was a retreat
for Inca nobility most likely built in the 15th century.
|
| | The Leaning Tower of Pisa
Location: Italy
|
| | The Mayan Temples of Tikal
Location: El Peten, Guatemala
Tikal was the most resplendent of all Mayan cities with its towering
pyramids and acropoli the highest structures in the western hemisphere. At
its heyday in the 7th century an estimated 50,000 to 100,000 people lived
in the 6sq mile ceremonial city. Tikal's centerpiece is the
Great Plaza, flanked by tall, well-restored temples that were
once covered in stucco and painted bright colors.
|
| | The Moai Statues
Location: Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Chile
Rapa Nui is the distant Pacific island containing around 2,000 inhabitants and 300 mysterious stone statues. Although owned by Chile - 2,300 miles away - most of the Rapa Nui population are of Polynesian extraction. A bleak, wind blasted and bizarre experience, for sure.
|
| | Mont-Saint-Michel
Location: Normandy, France
The fortified island-village of Mont-Saint-Michel is France's
most-visited site, perched on a giant granite outcropping rising
from a flat seabed. Ramparts begun in the 13th century ring the
mountain and the Benedictine abbey and gardens that mark the
site where Michael the Archangel is said to have appeared in
708AD.
|
| | The Throne Hall of Persepolis
Location: Iran
Persepolis is a huge and well ruined palace, but still packed with stupendous tombs, palaces, sculptures and friezes - a pictorial inventory of the Persian Empire over 2,000 years ago, and all in an arid but picturesque location near Shiraz. Isfahan, about 300km [200m] north of Shiraz, is a relaxed and friendly city, contains a marvellous collection of grand and colourful architecture from the last 1,000 years, mostly mosques, but also gardens, a cathedral, a palace and much more.
|
| | The Parthenon
Location: Athens, Greece
The astonishingly sophisticated Doric temple known as the
Parthenon is the largest such structure built in Greece and it
has crowned the loftiest point of the city horizon. Today it
shimmers golden white in the sunlight, evidence of its subsequent
incarnations as a Byzantine church, Frankish cathedral, and
Ottoman mosque lost to history.
|
| | Petra
Location: Jordan
Petra, which means rock, was a fortress city and thriving
trade center whose inhabitants carved housed, temples and tombs out
of the natural canyon walls. The area, 2sq miles in size, is as
remarkable for the number and variety of the rock-cut monuments as
it is for the myriad hues of the rock and the ever-changing play of
light as the desert sun makes its way across the sky.
|
| | The Shwedagon Pagoda
Location: Yangon, Myanmar
Sheathed in gold worth some $90 million, the glowing bell-shaped stupa
stands at the centre of the 14-acre Shwedagon complex. Tradition dictates
that devotees and visitors walk clockwise as they pass a profusion of
mosaic-covered columns, spires, ornate prayer pavilions, images of Buddha,
and 78 smaller filigreed pagodas. The 32 story stupa rises
upward, topped by a golden orb that is studded with 4350
diamonds and precious stones, including a 76-carat diamond on
its tip.
|
| | Stonehenge
Location: England
A ring of enormous megaliths [shaped stones] dating from 2,500 BC, Stonehenge was a calendar and observatory, and preceded by a ring of wooden totems from 8,000BC. A couple of hours southwest of London by car, near Salisbury. This is NOT worth a special trip from abroad unless you have a specific interest in the archeology of the stones - the area is fenced, so the stones are visible only from about 10m away.
|
| | Taj Mahal
Location: Agra, India
The marble memorial to Shah Jahan's wife, finished in 1653, is justly famous for the exquisite general design but also for fine semiprecious stone inlay work. The Taj is on the banks of a river in a tranquil, pastoral setting. Close by, the Red Fort is also interesting, and if you are a dedicated ancient architecture freak then Fatehpur Sikri, a few hours drive from the Taj, is worth the trip.
|
| | The Temple of the Inscriptions
Location: Palenque, Mexico
|
