A short boat ride from the city of Dakar, off the coast of Senegal, lies a small and beautiful island whose name has become synonymous with one of the greatest

Some places hold a few centuries of history; the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long holds a thousand years. In the heart of Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, this great walled

Some places hold both the glory and the tragedy of a nation within their walls, and the Imperial City of Hue is one of them. Spread along the banks of

Walk across the wide stone bridge toward the Meridian Gate of Hue, and you feel the temperature of history drop a little. The moat is still, the citadel walls stretch

In a great park in the city of Rio de Janeiro stands a palace with a history unlike any other in the Americas. The Imperial Palace of Sao Cristovao, set

For almost the whole of human history, the vast majority of people lived much as their great-grandparents had. They worked the land or worked with their hands, they travelled no

In the Javanese city of Solo, formally known as Surakarta, behind high walls washed a distinctive pale blue, lies one of the two great royal courts of central Java. The

In the heart of the Javanese city of Yogyakarta, behind walls that enclose a whole royal quarter, lies one of the last living palaces of a reigning monarch in the

In the heart of the old capital of Japan, surrounded by a vast walled park, stands a palace of quiet and profound dignity. The Kyoto Imperial Palace, known in Japanese

On a lake in northern Greece, waterlogged mud preserved a Neolithic village, and a wooden tablet that may bear some of the world’s oldest signs.