Rising beside the Nile in southern Egypt, the Temple of Hathor at Dendera is one of the best-preserved and most beautiful temple complexes in the whole country. Dedicated to Hathor,

In the heart of Mali, on the flood plains of the Niger River, stands the largest building in the world made entirely of mud. The Great Mosque of Djenne, with

On a green island in the waters west of Stockholm stands the most beautiful royal palace in Sweden, a serene baroque masterpiece so graceful that it has earned the nickname

In the vast emptiness of the South Pacific, thousands of kilometres from any other inhabited land, lies one of the most extraordinary places on earth. Easter Island, known to its

Along a basalt cliff in western India stretches one of the most astonishing achievements of human labour and faith: the Ellora caves. Cut into the living rock over several centuries,

Some historic places are visited for their beauty, but Elmina Castle is visited for its truth. Rising white and serene above the surf on the coast of Ghana, it is

On the Aegean coast of Turkey lie the ruins of Ephesus, one of the greatest cities of the ancient world and the finest surviving classical city in the eastern Mediterranean.

In the green hills of the northeastern Peloponnese lies Epidaurus, home to the most perfect and best-preserved theatre of the ancient Greek world. Its acoustics are so extraordinary that a

Rising some thirty meters above the surrounding plain, a great oval mound crowned with a dense huddle of houses dominates the heart of the city of Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan.

In the highlands of Ethiopia, in the city of Gondar, rises a sight that astonishes almost everyone who sees it: a complex of stone castles and palaces that would not