Historic sites
Kastelholm Castle, Åland
Sund
The only medieval castle in Åland, built in the 14th century beside a bay in Sund.
Historic sites
Historic sites
Mariehamn, Åland
Mariehamn
The small capital of Åland, a self-governing, Swedish-speaking group of islands belonging to Finland.
Historic sites
Berat
Berat
The 'town of a thousand windows', with white Ottoman houses stacked up a hillside above the Osum River, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Historic sites
Butrint
Bashkia Konispol, Vlorë
An ancient city inhabited for 2,500 years, by Greeks, Romans, Byzantines and Venetians, set among woods and water on a peninsula near the Greek border.
Historic sites
Gjirokastër
Gjirokastër
A UNESCO-listed hill town of grey stone tower houses with slate roofs, built by Ottoman-era merchants, below a huge castle that holds a museum of wea…
Historic sites
Casbah of Algiers
Algiers
The old Ottoman citadel of Algiers, a UNESCO site, a steep maze of whitewashed houses and stairways above the bay, with palaces such as Dar Mustapha …
Historic sites
Timgad
Batna
A Roman military colony founded by Trajan around 100 AD, with a perfect grid of streets, Trajan's Arch and a theatre, a UNESCO site.
Historic sites
Sant Joan de Caselles
Canillo
A small Romanesque church from the 11th and 12th centuries beside the road in the Canillo valley, with a three-storey bell tower, a painted Romanesqu…
Historic sites
Ross Sea and Scott's Hut
Expedition voyages from New Zealand and Australia to the Ross Sea visit the huts of Scott and Shackleton, preserved as they were left, and huge emper…
Historic sites
Nelson's Dockyard, Antigua
Falmouth, Saint Paul
A Georgian naval dockyard in English Harbour, the only working one in the world, a UNESCO site, restored with hotels, restaurants and a museum.
Historic sites
La Boca and San Telmo, Buenos Aires
La Boca, Autonomous City of Buenos Aires
La Boca's Caminito is a street of brightly painted tin houses, with tango dancers.
Historic sites
Recoleta Cemetery, Buenos Aires
Recoleta, Autonomous City of Buenos Aires
A city of elaborate marble tombs and mausoleums, the resting place of Argentina's elite, including Eva Perón.
Historic sites
Geghard Monastery
Garni, Kotayk
A medieval monastery partly carved into the cliffs of a gorge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with chambers hewn from the rock and remarkable acoustic…
Historic sites
Khor Virap and Mount Ararat
Ararat
A monastery near the Turkish border, where St Gregory the Illuminator was held in a pit for 13 years before converting Armenia to Christianity in 301…
Historic sites
Tatev Monastery and Wings of Tatev
Goris, Syunik
A 9th-century monastery on the edge of a deep gorge in southern Armenia, reached by the Wings of Tatev, one of the longest reversible cableways in th…
Historic sites
Haghpat and Sanahin Monasteries
Alaverdi, Lori
Two medieval monastic complexes in the Debed Canyon in northern Armenia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with churches, libraries, carved stone crosses…
Historic sites
Port Arthur Historic Site
Tasman Peninsula, Tasmania
The best-preserved convict settlement in Australia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Historic sites
Alice Springs Telegraph Station
Alice Springs, Northern Territory
The stone buildings of the 1872 telegraph station, built on the Overland Telegraph Line that linked Adelaide to Darwin and Australia to the world.
Historic sites
Australian War Memorial, Canberra
Campbell, Australian Capital Territory
A shrine, museum and archive commemorating Australians who died in war, with the Roll of Honour and the Hall of Memory.
Historic sites
Craig's Hut, Mount Stirling
Mansfield, Victoria
A rustic mountain cattlemen's hut on a high ridge of the Victorian Alps, built as a film set for the 1983 movie The Man from Snowy River and rebuilt …
Historic sites
Hallstatt
Upper Austria
A village of old houses squeezed between a lake and steep mountains in the Salzkammergut, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most photograph…
Historic sites
Hohensalzburg Fortress and Old Town, Salzburg
Salzburg
One of the largest medieval castles in Europe, standing above Salzburg's baroque old town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Historic sites
Schlossberg, Graz
Graz, Styria
A wooded hill in the middle of Graz, Austria's second city, crowned by the Clock Tower (Uhrturm), the symbol of the city.
Historic sites
Icherisheher, Baku
Baku
Baku's walled old city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with the 12th-century Maiden Tower, the Palace of the Shirvanshahs, caravanserais and carpet sh…
Historic sites
Gobustan Rock Art and Mud Volcanoes
Qobustan, Baku
More than 6,000 rock carvings of people, animals and boats dating back up to 40,000 years, in a rocky landscape south of Baku, a UNESCO World Heritag…
Historic sites
Khinalug
Quba
One of the highest and most remote villages in the Caucasus, at 2,350 m, whose people speak their own language, with stone houses stacked on a hillsi…
Historic sites
Sheki Khan's Palace
Sheki, Shaki
An 18th-century summer palace in the Caucasus foothills, famous for its walls of colourful frescoes and stained-glass windows (shebeke) made without …
Historic sites
Qal'at al-Bahrain
Jidd Ḩafş, Capital
A Portuguese fort built on an artificial mound that hides 4,000 years of history, including the capital of the ancient Dilmun civilisation, a UNESCO …
Historic sites
Old Dhaka and Lalbagh Fort
Dhaka
An unfinished 17th-century Mughal fort in the old city of Dhaka, with a mausoleum, mosque and gardens.
Historic sites
Brest Fortress
Brest
A 19th-century fortress on the Polish border, famous for its defence against the German invasion in June 1941.
Historic sites
Mir Castle and Nesvizh Palace
Mir, Grodno
Two UNESCO-listed castles of the Radziwiłł family, about 30 km apart in central Belarus.
Historic sites
Grand-Place, Brussels
Brussels, Brussels-Capital
One of the most beautiful squares in Europe, surrounded by the Gothic Town Hall and the gilded baroque guild houses of medieval Brussels.
Historic sites
Gravensteen and the Ghent Altarpiece, Ghent
Gent, East Flanders
Ghent is a lively university city with a medieval centre to rival Bruges.
Historic sites
Menin Gate and In Flanders Fields Museum, Ypres
Ieper, West Flanders
Ypres (Ieper) was at the heart of the First World War battles in Flanders.
Historic sites
Begijnhof and Minnewater, Bruges
Brugge, West Flanders
The Begijnhof is a peaceful walled courtyard of white houses around a lawn of tall trees, founded in 1245 for the beguines, lay religious women.
Historic sites
Dinant and the Citadel
Dinant, Namur
A pretty town on the River Meuse in the Ardennes, squeezed between cliffs, with a citadel high above, an onion-domed collegiate church, and colourful…
Historic sites
Xunantunich
Benque Viejo el Carmen, Cayo
A Maya site on a hill near the Guatemalan border, reached by a hand-cranked ferry across the Mopan River.
Historic sites
Ganvié stilt village, Benin
Ganvié, Atlantique
A village built entirely on stilts in Lake Nokoué, home to about 20,000 people, reached by pirogue from Abomey-Calavi.
Historic sites
Ouidah and the Route des Esclaves, Benin
Ouidah, Atlantique
The centre of the Vodun (voodoo) religion, with the Python Temple and the 4 km Route des Esclaves to the 'Door of No Return' on the beach.
Historic sites
Thimphu Tashichho Dzong and Buddha Dordenma
Thimphu
Bhutan's small capital has the Tashichho Dzong, seat of government and the central monk body, beside the river, and the giant Buddha Dordenma statue …
Historic sites
Trongsa Dzong and the Bumthang Valleys
Trongsa
The largest dzong (fortress-monastery) in Bhutan, spread along a ridge in the centre of the country, the ancestral home of the royal family.
Historic sites
Isla del Sol, Lake Titicaca
Provincia Manco Kapac, La Paz
An island in Lake Titicaca, the legendary birthplace of the Inca sun god, with Inca ruins, terraces and walking trails.
Historic sites
Potosí Cerro Rico mines
Potosí
Potosí, at 4,090 m, was one of the richest cities in the world in the 1600s thanks to the silver of the Cerro Rico mountain, a UNESCO site.
Historic sites
Sucre
Sucre, Chuquisaca
Bolivia's constitutional capital, a whitewashed colonial city, a UNESCO site, with a relaxed atmosphere and many Spanish schools.
Historic sites
Baščaršija, Sarajevo
Sarajevo, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Sarajevo's old Ottoman bazaar, a maze of cobbled lanes lined with copper workshops, cafés and ćevapi grills, centred on the Sebilj, a wooden fountain.
Historic sites
Sarajevo Tunnel Museum (Tunnel of Hope)
Ilidža, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
During the siege of Sarajevo from 1992 to 1995, a tunnel 800 m long was dug under the airport runway to connect the besieged city with free territory.
Historic sites
Stari Most (Old Bridge), Mostar
Mostar, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
A slender 16th-century Ottoman bridge arching high over the emerald Neretva River in Mostar, about halfway between Dubrovnik and Sarajevo.
Historic sites
Blagaj Tekke
Blagaj, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
A 16th-century Dervish monastery (tekke) built at the foot of a 200 m cliff, beside the spring of the Buna River, which gushes out of a cave as a ful…
Historic sites
Jajce Waterfall and Old Town
Jajce, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
A walled medieval town, once the seat of the Bosnian kings, where the Pliva River plunges 22 m in a waterfall right in the middle of town into the Vr…
Historic sites
Latin Bridge, Sarajevo
Sarajevo, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
An Ottoman stone bridge over the Miljacka River, and the place where the history of the 20th century changed course.
Historic sites
Ouro Preto
Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais
A gold-rush colonial town in the hills of Minas Gerais, a UNESCO site, with steep cobbled streets and baroque churches decorated by the sculptor Alei…
Historic sites
Paraty and Ilha Grande
Paraty, Rio de Janeiro
Paraty is a colonial town of whitewashed houses and cobbled streets that flood at high tide, a UNESCO site with the surrounding Atlantic Forest.
Historic sites
Pelourinho, Salvador
Salvador, Bahia
The colonial heart of Salvador, a UNESCO site, with pastel houses, cobbled streets and baroque churches such as São Francisco, covered in gold.
Historic sites
Old Town of Plovdiv
Plovdiv
One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Europe, built on seven hills.
Historic sites
Veliko Tarnovo and Tsarevets Fortress
Veliko Tŭrnovo, Veliko Tarnovo
The capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire, with houses stacked up the cliffs above the winding Yantra River.
Historic sites
Nesebar Old Town
Nesebar, Burgas
An ancient town on a small rocky peninsula on the Black Sea coast, linked to the mainland by a narrow causeway, with more than 3,000 years of history.
Historic sites
Angkor Wat
Siem Reap
The largest religious monument in the world, built in the 12th century as a Hindu temple, later Buddhist, with five lotus towers and kilometres of ca…
Historic sites
Bayon and Angkor Thom
Siem Reap
The walled royal city of Angkor Thom, entered by gates guarded by rows of gods and demons.
Historic sites
Tuol Sleng and the Killing Fields, Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh
Tuol Sleng (S-21), a school turned into a Khmer Rouge prison, where thousands were tortured, is now a genocide museum.
Historic sites
Banteay Srei
Siem Reap
A small 10th-century temple of pink sandstone with the finest carvings at Angkor, so delicate it's called the 'citadel of women'.
Historic sites
Old Quebec
Québec, Quebec
The only walled city north of Mexico, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with cobbled streets, stone houses and the Château Frontenac hotel towering over …
Historic sites
Old Montreal
Montréal, Quebec
The historic quarter of Montreal by the St Lawrence, with cobbled streets, the Notre-Dame Basilica with its deep blue starry ceiling and the 'Aura' l…
Historic sites
Dawson City and the Yukon
Dawson City, Yukon
The heart of the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898, with wooden boardwalks, saloons and a casino.
Historic sites
Easter Island (Rapa Nui)
Hanga Roa, Valparaíso
A remote Pacific island famous for its nearly 1,000 moai, giant stone figures carved by the Rapa Nui people.
Historic sites
Chiloé Island churches
Castro, Los Lagos
A misty island with colourful wooden churches built by Jesuits, 16 of them UNESCO-listed, and palafitos, houses on stilts over the water in Castro.
Historic sites
Valparaíso
Valparaíso
A colourful port city built on steep hills, a UNESCO site, with street art, old funicular lifts, and Pablo Neruda's house, La Sebastiana.
Historic sites
Leshan Giant Buddha
Wutongqiao, Sichuan
The world's largest stone Buddha, 71 m tall, carved into a red sandstone cliff where three rivers meet, in the 8th century.
Historic sites
Mogao Caves, Dunhuang
Dunhuang, Gansu
Nearly 500 Buddhist cave temples carved into a cliff in the desert near Dunhuang, an oasis on the Silk Road, with murals and statues painted over a t…
Historic sites
Mutianyu Great Wall
Huairou, Beijing
A restored section of the Great Wall about 70 km north of Beijing, with 23 watchtowers along a forested ridge, less crowded than Badaling.
Historic sites
Potala Palace, Lhasa
Lhasa, Tibet
The former winter palace of the Dalai Lamas, a huge red and white building rising up the Red Hill above Lhasa, at 3,700 m, a UNESCO World Heritage Si…
Historic sites
Temple of Heaven, Beijing
Beijing
A Ming dynasty complex where emperors prayed for good harvests, with the circular, triple-roofed Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, a masterpiece of C…
Historic sites
Terracotta Army, Xi'an
Lintong, Shaanxi
Thousands of life-sized clay soldiers, archers, horses and chariots, each with an individual face, buried to guard the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, China's…
Historic sites
Cartagena old town
Cartagena de Indias, Bolívar
A walled colonial port on the Caribbean, a UNESCO site, with colourful balconies, plazas and the San Felipe fortress.
Historic sites
Diocletian's Palace, Split
Split, Split-Dalmatia
The retirement palace of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, built around 300 AD, which has become the living heart of Split's old town.
Historic sites
Dubrovnik City Walls
Grad Dubrovnik, Dubrovnik-Neretva
The massive medieval walls surround the whole of Dubrovnik's old town, 'the pearl of the Adriatic', for nearly 2 km, with towers and forts.
Historic sites
Rovinj Old Town
Rovinj, Istria
A colourful fishing town on a small peninsula on Istria's west coast, with narrow cobbled lanes climbing to the hilltop church of St Euphemia, whose …
Historic sites
Stradun and Dubrovnik Old Town
Grad Dubrovnik, Dubrovnik-Neretva
The Stradun is the main street of Dubrovnik's walled old town, a gleaming limestone promenade running from the Pile Gate to the old harbour.
Historic sites
Hvar Town
Hvar, Split-Dalmatia
A stylish harbour town on the island of Hvar, with a Venetian main square, a cathedral and one of Europe's oldest public theatres, and a Spanish fort…
Historic sites
Pula Arena
Pula, Istria
One of the six largest Roman amphitheatres still standing, and the only one with all four side towers intact, built in the 1st century AD in Pula on …
Historic sites
Old Havana
La Habana Vieja, Havana
The colonial heart of Havana, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with four great plazas, baroque churches, crumbling and restored mansions, and 1950s Amer…
Historic sites
Trinidad, Cuba
Trinidad, Sancti Spíritus
A perfectly preserved colonial town of cobbled streets and pastel houses, built on sugar wealth, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with the nearby Valle d…
Historic sites
Cienfuegos
Cienfuegos
A French-founded colonial city on a bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with neoclassical buildings around Parque José Martí, the Tomás Terry Theatre,…
Historic sites
Santiago de Cuba
Santiago de Cuba
Cuba's second city and the home of son music and Afro-Cuban culture, with the Castillo del Morro fortress on a cliff at the mouth of the bay, a UNESC…
Historic sites
Willemstad, Curaçao
A colourful Dutch colonial harbour town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with pastel houses along the Handelskade, the floating Queen Emma pontoon brid…
Historic sites
Paphos Archaeological Park
Paphos, Paphos (Pafos)
A UNESCO-listed site by the harbour of Paphos, with some of the finest Roman mosaics in the Mediterranean, in the floors of four grand villas, showin…
Historic sites
Troodos Mountains and Painted Churches
Kakopetriá, Nicosia (Lefkoşa)
Cool pine-covered mountains in the middle of Cyprus, with ten UNESCO-listed Byzantine churches with beautiful frescoes hidden in simple barn-like bui…
Historic sites
Kourion
Erími, Limassol (Leymasun)
An ancient city on a cliff top above the sea west of Limassol, with a restored Greco-Roman theatre still used for performances, overlooking the beach…
Historic sites
Kyrenia Harbour and St Hilarion Castle
Kyrenia Municipality, Kyrenia (Keryneia)
In the north of Cyprus, under Turkish Cypriot administration, Kyrenia (Girne) has a lovely horseshoe harbour guarded by a Venetian castle, which hold…
Historic sites
Old Nicosia and the Green Line
Nicosia, Nicosia (Lefkoşa)
The last divided capital in Europe, split since 1974 by the UN buffer zone, the Green Line.
Historic sites
Limassol Old Town and Marina
Kolossi, Limassol (Leymasun)
Cyprus's second city, with a medieval castle, where Richard the Lionheart is said to have married Berengaria in 1191, and a lively old town of shops …
Historic sites
Český Krumlov
Český Krumlov
A fairytale medieval town in a tight loop of the Vltava River in South Bohemia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, overlooked by a huge castle with a pain…
Historic sites
Charles Bridge and Old Town Square, Prague
Prague, Praha, Hlavní město
The 14th-century stone Charles Bridge crosses the Vltava between the Old Town and Malá Strana, lined with 30 baroque statues of saints, with Gothic t…
Historic sites
Lednice Castle
Lednice, Břeclav
A romantic neo-Gothic château surrounded by a huge English-style park, at the heart of the Lednice–Valtice Cultural Landscape, a UNESCO World Heritag…
Historic sites
Mikulov
Mikulov, Břeclav
A beautiful little town in the heart of the South Moravian wine country, under a hilltop château and the white limestone hills of the Pálava.
Historic sites
Prague Castle and St Vitus Cathedral
Prague, Praha, Hlavní město
The largest ancient castle complex in the world, seat of Bohemian kings and now of the Czech president, on a hill above the Vltava.
Historic sites
Karlovy Vary
Karlovy Vary
The grandest of the Bohemian spa towns, part of the 'Great Spa Towns of Europe' UNESCO World Heritage Site, with ornate pastel buildings along a stee…
Historic sites
Kronborg Castle, Helsingør
Helsingør, Capital Region of Denmark
A Renaissance castle on the narrowest point of the Øresund strait, where Danish kings collected tolls from passing ships.
Historic sites
Nyhavn, Copenhagen
Copenhagen, Capital Region of Denmark
A 17th-century canal harbour lined with brightly painted townhouses, old wooden ships and busy cafés, the postcard view of Copenhagen.
Historic sites
Rosenborg Castle, Copenhagen
Copenhagen, Capital Region of Denmark
A Renaissance castle built by King Christian IV in the early 1600s, in the King's Garden, Copenhagen's oldest park.
Historic sites
Zona Colonial, Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo, Distrito Nacional
The first European city in the Americas, founded in 1498, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with the first cathedral, the Alcázar de Colón palace of Colu…
Historic sites
Quito old town
Quito, Pichincha
One of the best-preserved colonial centres in Latin America, a UNESCO site, at 2,850 m, with the gold-covered La Compañía church and the Basílica del…
Historic sites
Cuenca, Ecuador
Cuenca, Azuay
A colonial city of blue-domed cathedrals and cobbled streets, a UNESCO site, famous for Panama hats, which are made in Ecuador.
Historic sites
Abu Simbel
Abu Simbel, Aswan
Two huge rock temples built by Ramesses II, with four 20 m statues of the pharaoh on the façade.
Historic sites
Karnak Temple, Luxor
Luxor
The largest ancient religious site in the world, built over 2,000 years, with the Great Hypostyle Hall's 134 giant columns, obelisks and an avenue of…
Historic sites
Pyramids of Giza
Al Ḩawāmidīyah, Giza
The last surviving Wonder of the Ancient World: the Great Pyramid of Khufu, built around 2560 BC, with the pyramids of Khafre and Menkaure and the Gr…
Historic sites
Valley of the Kings, Luxor
Luxor
The burial ground of the pharaohs of the New Kingdom, with tombs cut deep into the hills of Luxor's West Bank, their walls covered with brightly pain…
Historic sites
Islamic Cairo and Khan el-Khalili
Cairo
Medieval Cairo, a UNESCO site, with mosques and madrasas such as Al-Azhar and Sultan Hassan, the Citadel with the Mosque of Muhammad Ali, and the Kha…
Historic sites
Mount Sinai and St Catherine's Monastery
Saint Catherine, South Sinai
Climb Mount Sinai, 2,285 m, where Moses is said to have received the Ten Commandments, overnight to see the sunrise, then visit St Catherine's Monast…
Historic sites
Joya de Cerén
San Juan Opico, La Libertad
The 'Pompeii of the Americas': a Maya farming village buried under volcanic ash around 600 AD and preserved almost intact.
Historic sites
Tallinn Old Town
Tallinn
One of the best-preserved medieval towns in northern Europe, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with city walls and towers, cobbled streets, merchants' ho…
Historic sites
Saaremaa and Kuressaare Castle
Kuressaare, Saaremaa
Estonia's largest island, with juniper meadows, windmills, cliffs and quiet villages.
Historic sites
Tartu Old Town
Tartu
Estonia's university city and its intellectual heart, with a town hall square, the 'Kissing Students' fountain, a leaning house, and the ruins of the…
Historic sites
Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela
Lalibela, Amhara
Eleven medieval churches carved down into solid rock in the 12th and 13th centuries, a UNESCO site and a living pilgrimage centre.
Historic sites
Aksum
Tigray
The capital of the ancient Aksumite Empire, with giant stone stelae (obelisks), royal tombs, and the Church of St Mary of Zion, said to hold the Ark …
Historic sites
Gondar castles
Gondar, Amhara
A royal enclosure of 17th-century castles built by Ethiopian emperors, a UNESCO site, and the church of Debre Berhan Selassie with its ceiling of pai…
Historic sites
Stanley, Falkland Islands
The tiny capital with colourful roofs, Christ Church Cathedral with its whalebone arch, the Historic Dockyard Museum, and memorials of the 1982 war.
Historic sites
Saksun
Vestmanna, Streymoy
A tiny village of turf-roofed houses and a white church above a tidal lagoon surrounded by steep mountains on the island of Streymoy.
Historic sites
Tórshavn and Tinganes
Tórshavn, Streymoy
The Faroe Islands' small capital, with Tinganes, a rocky point where the Viking parliament met from around 900 AD, one of the oldest parliamentary si…
Historic sites
Suomenlinna Sea Fortress, Helsinki
Helsinki, Uusimaa
An 18th-century fortress built across six islands at the entrance to Helsinki's harbour, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Historic sites
Olavinlinna Castle, Savonlinna
Savonlinna, Southern Savonia
A medieval castle built in 1475 on a rocky island in the Saimaa lake district, the northernmost medieval stone fortress still standing.
Historic sites
Old Rauma
Rauma, Satakunta
The largest preserved wooden town in the Nordic countries, with around 600 colourful wooden houses on narrow streets, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Historic sites
Turku Castle and Cathedral
Turku, Finland Proper
Turku, Finland's oldest city and former capital, has a 13th-century castle at the mouth of the Aura River, one of the largest medieval buildings in F…
Historic sites
Aigues-Mortes ramparts
Aigues-Mortes, Gard
A walled town in the marshes of the Camargue, built by Saint Louis in the 13th century as his port for the Crusades, with ramparts over 1.6 km long s…
Historic sites
Annecy old town and lake
Annecy, Haute-Savoie
Annecy's old town has canals, flower-lined bridges and pastel houses, earning it the name 'Venice of the Alps'.
Historic sites
Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Élysées
Paris
Napoleon's triumphal arch stands at the top of the Champs-Élysées, in the middle of a huge roundabout of 12 avenues.
Historic sites
Arènes de Nîmes
Nîmes, Gard
One of the best-preserved Roman amphitheatres in the world, built around 70 AD and seating about 24,000 people.
Historic sites
Basilica of Saint-Denis
Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis
The birthplace of Gothic architecture, rebuilt by Abbot Suger in the 12th century, and the burial place of almost all the kings and queens of France …
Historic sites
Bonifacio, Corsica
Bonifacio, Corse-du-Sud
A citadel town perched on white limestone cliffs at the southern tip of Corsica, its houses overhanging the sea, with views across the strait to Sard…
Historic sites
Îles du Salut
Guyane
Three islands off Kourou that held a notorious penal colony, including Devil's Island, made famous by Papillon.
Historic sites
Papeete and Tahiti
Windward Islands
Tahiti's capital has a covered market selling fruit, flowers and black pearls, and roulottes (food trucks) in the evening.
Historic sites
Gergeti Trinity Church, Kazbegi
Step’antsminda, Mtskheta-Mtianeti
A 14th-century church on a hilltop at 2,170 m below Mount Kazbek, 5,047 m, one of Georgia's iconic views.
Historic sites
Tbilisi Old Town
Tbilisi
Georgia's capital, with an old town of carved wooden balconies, churches, and the sulphur baths of Abanotubani, beneath the Narikala Fortress, reache…
Historic sites
Mtskheta
Mtskheta, Mtskheta-Mtianeti
Georgia's ancient capital and spiritual centre, where Christianity became the state religion in the 4th century, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Historic sites
Vardzia Cave Monastery
Asp’indzis Munitsip’alit’et’i, Samtskhe-Javakheti
A cave city carved into a cliff above the Mtkvari River in the 12th century under Queen Tamar, with hundreds of rooms, a church with frescoes, and tu…
Historic sites
Uplistsikhe Cave Town
Gori, Shida Kartli
An ancient rock-hewn town on the bank of the Mtkvari River, inhabited from the early Iron Age, with pagan temples, halls and a theatre carved from th…
Historic sites
Berlin Wall Memorial and East Side Gallery
Gesundbrunnen, Berlin
Two places to understand the Berlin Wall, which divided the city from 1961 to 1989.
Historic sites
Brandenburg Gate, Berlin
Mitte, Berlin
Berlin's most famous landmark: a neoclassical gate of 1791, topped by the Quadriga, a chariot drawn by four horses.
Historic sites
Burg Eltz
Treis-Karden, Rhineland-Palatinate
A storybook castle hidden in a wooded valley above the Moselle, owned by the same family for more than 850 years and never destroyed.
Historic sites
Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site
Dachau, Bavaria
The first Nazi concentration camp, opened in 1933 and the model for those that followed.
Historic sites
Heidelberg Castle and Old Bridge
Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg
The romantic red sandstone ruins of Heidelberg Castle rise above the old town and the River Neckar.
Historic sites
Marienplatz and Munich Old Town
Munich, Bavaria
The heart of Munich since the 12th century, overlooked by the neo-Gothic New Town Hall, whose Glockenspiel plays at 11 am and 12 noon (also at 5 pm f…
Historic sites
Cape Coast Castle
Cape Coast, Central
A whitewashed castle on the Ghanaian coast that was a major hub of the transatlantic slave trade, a UNESCO site.
Historic sites
Accra: Jamestown and Kwame Nkrumah Memorial
Accra, Greater Accra
Ghana's capital, with the memorial park and mausoleum of Kwame Nkrumah, the independence leader, and the old fishing district of Jamestown with its l…
Historic sites
Great Siege Tunnels, Gibraltar
Tunnels dug by hand into the Rock of Gibraltar by British soldiers during the Great Siege of 1779 to 1783, with gun positions overlooking the bay and…
Historic sites
Acropolis of Athens
Athens, Attica
The rocky citadel above Athens crowned by the Parthenon, the great marble temple to Athena completed in 438 BC, a symbol of classical Greece and the …
Historic sites
Delphi
Delphi, Central Greece
The sanctuary of Apollo, home of the ancient Oracle, set on the steep slopes of Mount Parnassus above a valley of olive trees, considered by the anci…
Historic sites
Meteora Monasteries
Kastráki, Thessaly
Orthodox monasteries built from the 14th century on top of huge sandstone pillars rising from the plain of Thessaly.
Historic sites
Naoussa, Paros
Náousa, South Aegean
A fishing village on the north coast of Paros, one of the most picturesque in the Cyclades: whitewashed lanes, blue doors and bougainvillea, and a li…
Historic sites
Old Town of Rhodes
Rhodes, South Aegean
The walled medieval city of the Knights of St John, who ruled Rhodes from 1309 to 1522.
Historic sites
Palace of Knossos, Crete
Irákleion, Crete
The great Bronze Age palace of the Minoan civilisation, Europe's oldest city, linked to the legend of King Minos and the Minotaur's labyrinth.
Historic sites
Nuuk
Nuuk, Sermersooq
Greenland's small capital, with colourful houses, the National Museum with the Qilakitsoq mummies, and the Katuaq cultural centre.
Historic sites
Antigua Guatemala
Antigua Guatemala, Sacatepéquez
A colonial city of cobbled streets, pastel houses and ruined churches, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, ringed by volcanoes.
Historic sites
Tikal
Petén
One of the greatest Maya cities, deep in the rainforest of Petén, with temple pyramids rising above the canopy, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Historic sites
Castle Cornet, Guernsey
Saint Peter Port, St Peter Port
A castle guarding St Peter Port harbour for 800 years, on a former island now joined to the mainland by a breakwater, with museums of maritime and mi…
Historic sites
Hauteville House, Guernsey
Saint Peter Port, St Peter Port
The house where Victor Hugo lived in exile from 1856 to 1870, and where he wrote Les Misérables.
Historic sites
Copán Ruins
Copán
One of the great cities of the ancient Maya, famous for having the finest sculpture in the Maya world.
Historic sites
Man Mo Temple, Hong Kong
Central and Western
One of Hong Kong's oldest temples, built in 1847, dedicated to the gods of literature and war.
Historic sites
Buda Castle and Fisherman's Bastion, Budapest
Budapest
The Castle Hill on the Buda side of the Danube is crowned by the Royal Palace, home of the Hungarian National Gallery and the Budapest History Museum.
Historic sites
Eger Castle
Eger
A castle famous for its heroic defence in 1552, when a small garrison, with the help of the women of the town, held off a huge Ottoman army.
Historic sites
Ajanta and Ellora Caves
Khuldabad, Maharashtra
Two UNESCO-listed groups of rock-cut caves near Aurangabad.
Historic sites
Amber Fort, Jaipur
Jaipur, Rajasthan
A hilltop palace fortress overlooking Lake Maota, built of pale yellow and pink sandstone from 1592, with courtyards, gardens and the dazzling Sheesh…
Historic sites
Golden Temple, Amritsar
Amritsar, Punjab
The holiest shrine of Sikhism, a gold-covered temple in the middle of a sacred pool, open to all.
Historic sites
Hampi
Hampi, Karnataka
The ruins of Vijayanagara, once one of the world's richest cities, scattered among giant boulders, banana plantations and the Tungabhadra River, a UN…
Historic sites
Humayun's Tomb, Delhi
Delhi
The tomb of the Mughal emperor Humayun, built in the 1560s, the first garden tomb in India and an inspiration for the Taj Mahal, a UNESCO World Herit…
Historic sites
Jaisalmer Fort and Thar Desert
Jaisalmer, Rajasthan
A golden sandstone fort rising out of the Thar Desert, one of the few 'living forts' in the world, with about a quarter of the town's people living i…
Historic sites
Borobudur
Magelang, Jawa Tengah
The world's largest Buddhist temple, built in the 9th century in central Java, a giant stepped pyramid with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statue…
Historic sites
Prambanan
Yogyakarta, DI Yogyakarta
The largest Hindu temple site in Indonesia, built in the 9th century, with tall pointed towers dedicated to Shiva, Brahma and Vishnu, a UNESCO World …
Historic sites
Tana Toraja
Rantepao, Sulawesi Selatan
A highland region of Sulawesi where the Toraja people build tongkonan houses with boat-shaped roofs, and hold elaborate funeral ceremonies, especiall…
Historic sites
Uluwatu Temple, Bali
Jimbaran, Bali
A Hindu sea temple perched on a cliff 70 m above the Indian Ocean on Bali's southern tip.
Historic sites
Kota Tua, Jakarta
DKI Jakarta
Jakarta's old town, the Dutch colonial Batavia, centred on Fatahillah Square with the old City Hall, now the Jakarta History Museum, and the Wayang p…
Historic sites
Golestan Palace, Tehran
Tehran
The oldest monument in Tehran and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the former royal palace of the Qajar dynasty, set around a garden of pools and trees.
Historic sites
Naqsh-e Jahan Square, Isfahan
Isfahan
One of the largest city squares in the world, built by Shah Abbas around 1600, surrounded by the blue-tiled Shah Mosque, the exquisite Sheikh Lotfoll…
Historic sites
Persepolis
Marvdasht, Fars
The ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, begun by Darius the Great in 518 BC, with grand staircases carved with processions of tribut…
Historic sites
Sa'dabad Palace Complex, Tehran
Tehran
A large estate of palaces and gardens in the cool northern foothills of Tehran, once the summer residence of the Qajar shahs and later the Pahlavi ro…
Historic sites
Yazd Old City
Yazd
A desert city of mud-brick lanes and wind catchers (badgirs) that cool the houses, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Historic sites
Ancient Babylon
Al Ḩillah, Babylon
The ruins of the great city of Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar on the Euphrates, with the reconstructed walls and processional way, the foundations of t…
Historic sites
Citadel of Erbil
Erbil
A fortified mound rising above the centre of Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, claimed to be one of the oldest continuously inhabit…
Historic sites
Ziggurat of Ur
Nasiriyah, Dhi Qar
A massive stepped temple built around 2100 BC in the Sumerian city of Ur, traditionally the birthplace of Abraham, partly restored.
Historic sites
Glendalough
Wicklow
A glacial valley in the Wicklow Mountains with two lakes and the remains of a monastic settlement founded by St Kevin in the 6th century, including a…
Historic sites
Newgrange (Brú na Bóinne)
Duleek, Meath
A Neolithic passage tomb built around 3200 BC, older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids, a great mound with a ring of carved kerbstones.
Historic sites
Rock of Cashel
Cashel, Tipperary
A dramatic group of medieval buildings on a limestone outcrop above the plains of Tipperary, once the seat of the kings of Munster, where St Patrick …
Historic sites
Baltimore and Sherkin Island
Skibbereen, Cork
A fishing and sailing village at the end of the road in West Cork, with pubs and seafood restaurants around its harbour and the ruins of a castle abo…
Historic sites
Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin
Dublin
A former prison where many leaders of Ireland's struggle for independence were held, and where the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising were executed in…
Historic sites
Castle Rushen, Castletown
Rushen
One of the best-preserved medieval castles in the British Isles, built by Norse kings and later lords of Mann, in the Isle of Man's old capital, Cast…
Historic sites
Laxey Wheel, Isle of Man
Lonan, Garff
The largest working waterwheel in the world, 22 m across, built in 1854 to pump water from the lead mines.
Historic sites
Peel Castle
German, Glenfaba
The ruins of a castle and cathedral on St Patrick's Isle, joined to the fishing town of Peel by a causeway, a site of Christian worship since the 6th…
Historic sites
Masada
‘En Boqeq, Southern
A fortress built by King Herod on a rock plateau above the Dead Sea, where Jewish rebels held out against the Romans until 73 AD, a UNESCO World Heri…
Historic sites
Old City of Jerusalem
Jerusalem
A walled city sacred to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, divided into four quarters.
Historic sites
Old Acre (Akko)
Acre, Northern
A walled port town with Crusader halls preserved underground beneath the Ottoman town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Historic sites
Colosseum, Rome
Rome
The great amphitheatre of ancient Rome, opened in 80 AD, where up to 50,000 spectators watched gladiator fights and animal hunts.
Historic sites
Doge's Palace, Venice
Venice
The Gothic palace of the Doges, the rulers of the Venetian Republic for nearly a thousand years, beside St Mark's Basilica.
Historic sites
Greek Theatre of Taormina
Taormina, Messina
An ancient theatre built by the Greeks in the 3rd century BC and rebuilt by the Romans, set high on a cliff above the sea, with Mount Etna as its bac…
Historic sites
Manarola, Cinque Terre
Riomaggiore, La Spezia
A tiny village of pastel houses tumbling down a rocky spur into the sea, and the most photographed view in the Cinque Terre, especially at sunset fro…
Historic sites
Pantheon, Rome
Rome
The best-preserved building of ancient Rome, a temple completed around 125 AD and a church since the 7th century.
Historic sites
Piazza del Campo, Siena
Siena
One of Europe's most beautiful squares, a sloping shell-shaped piazza of red brick in the heart of medieval Siena, surrounded by palaces and overlook…
Historic sites
Himeji Castle
Himeji, Hyōgo
The finest surviving feudal castle in Japan, called the 'White Heron' for its brilliant white walls and roofs, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Historic sites
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park
Hiroshima
A park built near the hypocentre of the atomic bomb dropped on 6 August 1945.
Historic sites
Itsukushima Shrine, Miyajima
Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima
A Shinto shrine on the island of Miyajima, built over the water, with a huge vermilion torii gate that seems to float at high tide.
Historic sites
Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
Kyoto, Kyōto
A Buddhist temple on a wooded hillside in eastern Kyoto, famous for its wooden stage, built without nails, jutting out over the valley, with views ov…
Historic sites
Nara Park and Tōdai-ji
Nara-shi, Nara
Japan's first permanent capital, where more than 1,000 tame sika deer roam the park; buy deer crackers and they will bow to you.
Historic sites
Nijō Castle, Kyoto
Kyoto, Kyōto
The Kyoto residence of the Tokugawa shoguns, who ruled Japan from 1603 to 1867.
Historic sites
Jersey War Tunnels
Vingtaine du Coin Tourgis Sud, St Lawrence
A network of tunnels dug by forced labourers during the German occupation of the Channel Islands from 1940 to 1945, intended as a hospital.
Historic sites
Mont Orgueil Castle, Jersey
Vingtaine du Fief de la Reine, St Martin
A medieval castle that has guarded Jersey's east coast for 800 years, rising above the fishing village of Gorey and its harbour.
Historic sites
Petra
Petra, Ma'an
The Nabataean city carved into rose-red sandstone cliffs over 2,000 years ago, one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.
Historic sites
Jerash
Jarash, Jerash
One of the best-preserved Roman provincial cities in the world, with a colonnaded street, the oval forum, temples, theatres and Hadrian's Arch.
Historic sites
Amman Citadel
Amman
A hill in the centre of Amman with the Temple of Hercules, an Umayyad palace and a museum, with views over the city and the Roman Theatre below.
Historic sites
Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, Turkistan
Turkistan
A huge unfinished mausoleum built by Tamerlane in the late 14th century for a Sufi poet, with one of the largest brick domes in Central Asia and blue…
Historic sites
Baikonur Cosmodrome
Kyzylorda
The world's first and largest space launch site, from which Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin were launched.
Historic sites
Lamu Old Town
Lamu
The oldest continuously inhabited Swahili town in East Africa, a UNESCO site, with narrow streets, carved wooden doors, donkeys instead of cars, and …
Historic sites
Prizren Old Town
Prizren
Kosovo's most beautiful town, with an Ottoman stone bridge over the Bistrica River, the Sinan Pasha Mosque, Orthodox churches, and a fortress on the …
Historic sites
Visoki Dečani Monastery
Deçan, Gjakove
A Serbian Orthodox monastery built in the 14th century, with a church of pale marble and one of the largest and best-preserved collections of Byzanti…
Historic sites
Gračanica Monastery
Gračanica, Pristina
A Serbian Orthodox monastery built in 1321 by King Milutin, one of the masterpieces of late Byzantine architecture, with a cascade of domes and arche…
Historic sites
Tash Rabat Caravanserai
Naryn
A remarkably well-preserved 15th-century stone caravanserai in a remote valley at 3,500 m, on a Silk Road route to China.
Historic sites
Burana Tower
Chuyskiy Rayon, Chuy
An 11th-century minaret, all that remains of the city of Balasagun, with a field of balbals, stone figures carved by early Turkic peoples, and a smal…
Historic sites
Luang Prabang
Luang Prabang
The old royal capital of Laos, on a peninsula where the Nam Khan meets the Mekong, a UNESCO World Heritage Site of golden temples, French colonial ho…
Historic sites
Plain of Jars
Muang Phônsavan, Xiangkhouang
Thousands of huge stone jars, up to 3 m tall, scattered across the hills around Phonsavan, made about 2,000 years ago, probably for burials, a UNESCO…
Historic sites
Vat Phou
Champasak
A ruined Khmer Hindu temple complex on the slopes of a mountain near Champasak, older than Angkor Wat, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Historic sites
Pha That Luang, Vientiane
Vientiane, Vientiane Capital
A golden stupa, the national symbol of Laos, said to hold a relic of the Buddha.
Historic sites
Riga Old Town and Art Nouveau District
Riga
The largest city in the Baltics, with a UNESCO-listed medieval old town, including the House of the Blackheads, St Peter's Church, whose tower you ca…
Historic sites
Baalbek
Baalbek, Baalbek-Hermel
One of the greatest Roman temple complexes, with the Temple of Bacchus, one of the best-preserved Roman temples anywhere, and six giant columns of th…
Historic sites
Byblos
Byblos, Mount Lebanon
One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, a fishing harbour with a Crusader castle, Phoenician temples and Roman ruins, a UNESCO …
Historic sites
Vaduz Castle and the Kunstmuseum
Vaduz
The home of the Prince of Liechtenstein, a medieval castle above Vaduz, the tiny capital.
Historic sites
Gutenberg Castle, Balzers
Balzers
A medieval castle on a rocky hill above the village of Balzers in southern Liechtenstein, restored in the early 20th century.
Historic sites
Hill of Crosses
Kuršėnai, Šiauliai District
A small hill covered in more than 100,000 crosses, crucifixes, rosaries and statues of every size, from tiny pendants to crosses taller than a person.
Historic sites
Trakai Island Castle
Trakai
A red-brick Gothic castle on an island in Lake Galvė, reached by wooden footbridges, once a seat of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania.
Historic sites
Vilnius Old Town
Vilnius
One of the largest baroque old towns in Europe, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with churches, courtyards and the university, founded in 1579.
Historic sites
Kaunas Old Town and Ninth Fort
Kaunas
Lithuania's second city, its capital between the wars, has a medieval old town with a castle and the Town Hall, called the 'White Swan', and a modern…
Historic sites
Luxembourg City Old Town and Casemates
Luxembourg
The capital of the Grand Duchy stands on a sandstone plateau above deep river gorges, its old quarters and fortifications a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Historic sites
Vianden Castle
Vianden
One of the largest fortified castles west of the Rhine, built between the 11th and 14th centuries on a rocky hill above the town of Vianden and the O…
Historic sites
Bourscheid Castle
Bourscheid, Diekirch
The largest castle ruin in Luxembourg, on a high rocky spur above a bend of the Sûre River, with medieval walls, towers and a residence that has been…
Historic sites
Ruins of St Paul's and Senado Square, Macau
The stone façade of a 17th-century Jesuit church, all that's left after a fire in 1835, standing at the top of a grand staircase, the symbol of Macau.
Historic sites
A-Ma Temple, Macau
The oldest temple in Macau, built in 1488, dedicated to Mazu, the goddess of seafarers, on a hillside by the sea.
Historic sites
George Town, Penang
George Town, Penang
A UNESCO-listed colonial port town with shophouses, clan houses such as the ornate Khoo Kongsi, temples, mosques and churches side by side, and stree…
Historic sites
Batu Caves
Batu Caves, Selangor
A limestone hill with a Hindu temple inside a huge cave, reached by 272 rainbow-painted steps, guarded by a 43 m golden statue of Lord Murugan.
Historic sites
Melaka Old Town
Malacca
A historic trading port ruled by the Portuguese, Dutch and British, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Historic sites
Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum
Paola
An underground Neolithic burial complex carved into the rock around 4000 BC, with chambers on three levels, some painted with red ochre spirals.
Historic sites
Mdina
Imdina, Mdina
Malta's old capital, a walled medieval city on a hill, called the 'Silent City', with narrow, quiet streets of noble palaces and the baroque St Paul'…
Historic sites
Valletta
Valletta
Malta's tiny fortified capital, built by the Knights of St John in the 16th century, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Historic sites
Gozo and the Citadel of Victoria
Victoria
Malta's sister island is greener and quieter, with a fortified Citadel crowning its capital, Victoria (Rabat), with views across the island.
Historic sites
Marsaxlokk fishing village
Marsaxlokk
A fishing village in south-east Malta with a harbour full of colourful traditional boats (luzzu), painted with the protective 'Eye of Osiris' on the …
Historic sites
Three Cities and the Grand Harbour
Birgu (Vittoriosa), Birgu
Birgu (Vittoriosa), Senglea and Cospicua, the three fortified towns across the Grand Harbour from Valletta, where the Knights of St John first settled.
Historic sites
Mount Pelée and Saint-Pierre, Martinique
Saint-Pierre
Saint-Pierre was the 'Paris of the Caribbean' until Mount Pelée erupted in 1902 and destroyed it, killing nearly all its 28,000 inhabitants.
Historic sites
Centro Histórico and Zócalo, Mexico City
Mexico City, Ciudad de México
The historic heart of Mexico City, built over the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, with the vast Zócalo square, the Metropolitan Cathedral, the Templo May…
Historic sites
Chichén Itzá
Chichén-Itzá, Yucatán
A great Maya city in Yucatán, one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, with the stepped pyramid of El Castillo, where at the equinoxes the shadow o…
Historic sites
Oaxaca City and Monte Albán
Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán, Oaxaca
Oaxaca is a colonial city famous for its food, including seven moles, mezcal and markets.
Historic sites
Palenque
Palenque, Chiapas
A Maya city set in rainforest in Chiapas, with the Temple of the Inscriptions, where King Pakal's tomb was found, and the Palace with its tower.
Historic sites
Teotihuacán
Teotihuacán, Estado de México
A huge ancient city near Mexico City, once one of the largest in the world, with the Avenue of the Dead, the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of th…
Historic sites
Guanajuato
Guanajuato
A colourful colonial silver-mining town in a ravine, with streets running through tunnels, plazas and the Callejón del Beso.
Historic sites
Nan Madol, Pohnpei
Madolenihm, Pohnpei
Ruins of a city built on nearly 100 artificial islets of basalt columns in a lagoon off Pohnpei, from around 1200 AD, a UNESCO site.
Historic sites
Orheiul Vechi
Orhei
An archaeological and monastic complex in a dramatic loop of the Răut River gorge, with a cave monastery dug into the limestone cliff by Orthodox mon…
Historic sites
Căpriana Monastery
Strășeni
One of the oldest monasteries in Moldova, first mentioned in 1429, in the forested Codri hills, with the restored Church of the Dormition.
Historic sites
Soroca Fortress
Soroca
A round stone fortress with five towers on the bank of the Dniester River, built in the 15th and 16th centuries by Stephen the Great to guard the bor…
Historic sites
Prince's Palace and Monaco-Ville
Monaco-Ville
The palace of the Grimaldi family, who have ruled Monaco since 1297, on 'the Rock', the old town above the harbour.
Historic sites
Erdene Zuu Monastery, Kharkhorin
Kharkhorin, Övörkhangai
Mongolia's oldest surviving Buddhist monastery, founded in 1585 near the ruins of Karakorum, Genghis Khan's capital, surrounded by a wall topped with…
Historic sites
Gandan Monastery, Ulaanbaatar
Ulaanbaatar
Mongolia's most important Buddhist monastery, one of the few that survived communist purges in the 1930s, with hundreds of monks.
Historic sites
Lovćen and Njegoš Mausoleum
Cetinje, Old Royal Capital Cetinje
The mausoleum of Petar II Petrović-Njegoš, the poet and prince-bishop of Montenegro, on the summit of Jezerski Vrh in the Lovćen National Park, reach…
Historic sites
Ostrog Monastery
Danilovgrad
A Serbian Orthodox monastery built into a vertical cliff face, 900 m above the Bjelopavlići plain, one of the most visited pilgrimage sites in the Ba…
Historic sites
Aït Benhaddou
Ouarzazate, Drâa-Tafilalet
A fortified village (ksar) of earthen kasbahs climbing a hill above a river on the old caravan route, a UNESCO site, used in films such as Gladiator …
Historic sites
Chefchaouen
Chefchaouen
A mountain town in the Rif whose medina is painted in every shade of blue.
Historic sites
Fès el-Bali medina
Fès al Bali, Fès-Meknès
One of the largest car-free urban areas in the world, a UNESCO site, with about 9,000 lanes, souks, the Al-Qarawiyyin university (founded in 859) and…
Historic sites
Jemaa el-Fnaa, Marrakech
Marrakesh, Marrakech
The great square at the heart of Marrakech's medina, one of the most exciting places on Earth.
Historic sites
Bahia Palace, Marrakech
Marrakesh, Marrakech
A 19th-century palace built for a grand vizier, with courtyards, gardens of orange trees and rooms decorated with the finest Moroccan craftsmanship: …
Historic sites
Essaouira
Essaouira
A relaxed walled port on the Atlantic, with a UNESCO-listed medina, ramparts with cannons, a busy fishing harbour, and grilled fish at stalls.
Historic sites
Ilha de Moçambique
Nampula
A small coral island that was the capital of Portuguese East Africa for centuries, a UNESCO site, with the Fortress of São Sebastião and colonial 'St…
Historic sites
Maputo
Maputo, Maputo City
Mozambique's capital, with jacaranda-lined avenues, the grand railway station, a fortress, and excellent seafood, especially prawns.
Historic sites
Bagan Temples
Nyaung-U, Mandalay
More than 2,000 Buddhist temples and pagodas built between the 11th and 13th centuries, scattered across a plain by the Irrawaddy River, a UNESCO Wor…
Historic sites
Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangon
Yangon
A gilded stupa 99 m high, the most sacred Buddhist site in Myanmar, said to contain relics of four Buddhas, its top studded with thousands of diamond…
Historic sites
Damaraland and Twyfelfontein
Kunene
A rugged region with desert-adapted elephants and rhinos, and Twyfelfontein, with over 2,000 rock engravings, a UNESCO site.
Historic sites
Kolmanskop ghost town
Lüderitz, Karas
A diamond-mining town abandoned in the 1950s, now being swallowed by sand, with dunes filling grand houses.
Historic sites
Bhaktapur
Bhaktapur, Bagmati
A medieval Newari city in the Kathmandu Valley with brick-paved squares, carved wooden windows, pottery workshops, and the five-tiered Nyatapola temp…
Historic sites
Boudhanath Stupa
Kathmandu, Bagmati
One of the largest stupas in the world, a great white dome with the all-seeing eyes of the Buddha painted on its tower, the centre of Tibetan Buddhis…
Historic sites
Kathmandu Durbar Square
Kathmandu, Bagmati
The old royal palace square of Kathmandu, with pagoda temples, the Hanuman Dhoka palace and the Kumari Ghar, home of the living goddess Kumari, who s…
Historic sites
Lumbini, Birthplace of the Buddha
Rupandehi, Lumbini
The place where Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, was born in 623 BC, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Historic sites
Anne Frank House, Amsterdam
Amsterdam, North Holland
The canal house where Anne Frank and her family hid from the Nazis for two years in a secret annex behind a moving bookcase, until they were betrayed…
Historic sites
Windmills of Kinderdijk
Slikkerveer, South Holland
Nineteen 18th-century windmills standing in rows along the canals of a polder near Rotterdam, built to pump water out of the low-lying land.
Historic sites
Giethoorn
Giethoorn, Overijssel
A village with no roads in its old centre, where thatched farmhouses sit on little islands linked by more than 170 wooden footbridges over canals.
Historic sites
Zaanse Schans
Zaanstad, North Holland
A village of green wooden houses and working windmills on the Zaan river, just north of Amsterdam, gathered here from around the region.
Historic sites
Bay of Islands and Waitangi Treaty Grounds
Paihia, Northland
The Waitangi Treaty Grounds, where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840 between the British Crown and Māori chiefs, with museums, a carved meeti…
Historic sites
Granada, Nicaragua
Granada
A colourful colonial city on Lake Nicaragua, with a yellow cathedral, colonial houses and horse-drawn carriages.
Historic sites
Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove, Nigeria
Osogbo, Osun
A sacred forest along the Osun River, dedicated to the Yoruba goddess Osun, with shrines and sculptures, a UNESCO site.
Historic sites
Kingston, Norfolk Island
A Georgian convict settlement on the shore, a UNESCO site, with prison ruins and museums.
Historic sites
Lake Ohrid and Ohrid Old Town
Ohrid
One of Europe's oldest and deepest lakes, shared with Albania, with Ohrid town on its shore, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Historic sites
Bigorski Monastery and Mavrovo
Rostusa, Mavrovo and Rostuša
A monastery in the mountains of western North Macedonia, famous for its spectacular carved wooden iconostasis, with hundreds of human and animal figu…
Historic sites
Heraclea Lyncestis, Bitola
Bitola
An ancient city founded by Philip II of Macedon in the 4th century BC, on the edge of Bitola.
Historic sites
Old Bazaar, Skopje
Skopje, Karpoš
One of the largest old bazaars in the Balkans, a lively Ottoman quarter with mosques, caravanserais and hammams, now galleries, and narrow lanes of c…
Historic sites
Kokino Observatory
Staro Nagoričane
A Bronze Age megalithic observatory about 3,800 years old, on a volcanic hill near Kumanovo, where marks carved in the rocks line up with the sunrise…
Historic sites
Bryggen, Bergen
Bergen, Vestland
A row of colourful wooden merchants' houses on Bergen's harbour, the old Hanseatic wharf, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Historic sites
Nizwa Fort and Souq
Nizwá, Ad Dakhiliyah
A 17th-century fort with a huge round tower in the historic capital of interior Oman.
Historic sites
Badshahi Mosque and Lahore Fort
Lahore, Punjab
One of the largest mosques in the world, built in red sandstone by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in 1673, facing the Lahore Fort across a square.
Historic sites
Mohenjo-daro
Dokri, Sindh
The ruins of one of the world's earliest cities, built around 2500 BC by the Indus Valley Civilisation, with a grid of brick streets, drains, houses …
Historic sites
Kalash Valleys, Chitral
Chitral, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
The Kalash valleys near Chitral are home to the Kalash people, a small community with their own ancient religion, colourful dress and spring and autu…
Historic sites
Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem
Beit Sahour, Bethlehem
One of the oldest working churches in the world, built over the cave where Christians believe Jesus was born, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Historic sites
Jericho and Hisham's Palace
Jericho
Jericho is one of the oldest cities in the world.
Historic sites
Old City of Hebron
Hebron
The Cave of the Patriarchs, the burial place of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, revered by Jews and Muslims, is divided into a mosque and a synagogue.
Historic sites
Panama Canal and Miraflores Locks
Panama City, Panamá
The canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific, opened in 1914.
Historic sites
Casco Viejo, Panama City
San Felipe, Panamá
The colonial old town of Panama City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with restored buildings, churches, plazas and rooftop bars looking across the bay…
Historic sites
Jesuit Missions of Trinidad and Jesús
Itapúa
The ruins of 18th-century Jesuit missions (reducciones) where Guaraní people lived, with carved red stone churches, a UNESCO site.
Historic sites
Asunción old town
Asuncion
Paraguay's capital on the Paraguay River, with the Pantheon of Heroes, the Palacio de López and the Manzana de la Rivera cultural centre.
Historic sites
Cusco
Cusco
The old Inca capital, at 3,400 m, with Spanish churches built on Inca walls, a UNESCO site.
Historic sites
Machu Picchu
Cusco
The 15th-century Inca citadel on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba valley, one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.
Historic sites
Sacred Valley of the Incas
Ollantaytambo, Cusco
The fertile Urubamba valley between Cusco and Machu Picchu, with Inca terraces and towns: the fortress of Ollantaytambo, the Pisac market and ruins, …
Historic sites
Kuélap
Provincia de Luya, Amazonas
A massive walled citadel of the Chachapoya 'cloud people' on a ridge in northern Peru, with hundreds of round stone houses, older than Machu Picchu a…
Historic sites
Nazca Lines
Nazca, Ica
Giant geoglyphs of animals, plants and lines drawn in the desert between 500 BC and 500 AD, a UNESCO site, best seen from small planes on 30-minute f…
Historic sites
Banaue Rice Terraces
Banaue, Ifugao
Rice terraces carved into the mountains of northern Luzon by the Ifugao people around 2,000 years ago, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Historic sites
Intramuros, Manila
Manila, National Capital Region (Metro Manila)
The walled Spanish colonial city at the heart of Manila, with Fort Santiago, where national hero José Rizal was imprisoned, the Manila Cathedral, and…
Historic sites
Sunken Cemetery, Camiguin
Catarman, Camiguin
A large white cross in the sea off the coast of Camiguin marks a cemetery that sank beneath the waves after the eruption of Mount Vulcan in 1871.
Historic sites
Vigan
Vigan, Ilocos Sur
The best-preserved Spanish colonial town in Asia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with cobbled Calle Crisologo lined with ancestral houses, horse-drawn…
Historic sites
Adamstown, Pitcairn Island
Home of the descendants of the Bounty mutineers, with the Bounty's anchor, the mutineers' graves and about 40 residents.
Historic sites
Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial
Oświęcim, Lesser Poland
The largest Nazi German concentration and extermination camp, where more than 1.1 million people, most of them Jews, were murdered.
Historic sites
Long Market and Old Town, Gdańsk
Gdańsk, Pomerania
Gdańsk's main street and square, the Long Market, is lined with tall, richly decorated merchants' houses from the city's days as a wealthy Hanseatic …
Historic sites
Main Market Square, Kraków
Kraków, Lesser Poland
One of the largest medieval squares in Europe, at the heart of Kraków's old town, with the Renaissance Cloth Hall (Sukiennice) in the middle, full of…
Historic sites
Malbork Castle
Malbork, Pomerania
The largest castle in the world by land area, a huge red-brick Gothic fortress built by the Teutonic Knights from the 13th century beside the Nogat R…
Historic sites
Wawel Castle and Cathedral, Kraków
Kraków, Lesser Poland
The hill above the Vistula where Polish kings were crowned and buried.
Historic sites
Wieliczka Salt Mine
Wieliczka, Lesser Poland
A salt mine worked for 700 years, with an underground world of chambers, lakes and chapels carved from rock salt, including the vast Chapel of St Kin…
Historic sites
Belém Tower and Jerónimos Monastery, Lisbon
Lisbon
Two masterpieces of the ornate Manueline style, built when Portugal's explorers sailed the world, and together a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Historic sites
Óbidos town walls
Óbidos, Leiria
Óbidos is a perfectly preserved medieval village, entirely enclosed by its walls, with whitewashed houses trimmed in blue and yellow, bougainvillea a…
Historic sites
Ribeira and the Luís I Bridge, Porto
Porto
Porto's riverside district of colourful tall houses along the Douro, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, below the double-decker iron Luís I bridge.
Historic sites
Alfama and Tram 28, Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon's oldest district, a maze of steep, winding streets and stairways below the São Jorge Castle, which survived the great earthquake of 1755.
Historic sites
Évora Roman Temple and Chapel of Bones
Évora
Évora, the capital of the Alentejo, is a walled town and UNESCO World Heritage Site with whitewashed streets.
Historic sites
O Sítio and the Nazaré funicular
Nazaré, Leiria
Nazaré is an old fishing town where, before the harbour was built, the boats were hauled up on the beach by oxen.
Historic sites
Old San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan
A colourful colonial town of blue cobblestones on an islet, guarded by the massive Spanish forts of El Morro and San Cristóbal, a UNESCO World Herita…
Historic sites
Painted Monasteries of Bucovina
Gura Humorului, Suceava
A group of 15th and 16th-century monasteries in northern Romania whose outer walls are covered with vivid frescoes of Bible stories, painted to teach…
Historic sites
Sighișoara Citadel
Sighișoara, Mureș
One of the best-preserved inhabited medieval citadels in Europe, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with colourful houses, cobbled lanes, and nine survivi…
Historic sites
Bran Castle
Bran, Brașov
A medieval castle perched on a rock at the Bran Pass in Transylvania, marketed as 'Dracula's Castle' because it looks like the castle in Bram Stoker'…
Historic sites
Brașov Old Town
Braşov, Brașov
A Saxon town in Transylvania below the forested Tâmpa mountain, with a colourful main square (Piața Sfatului) and the Black Church, the largest Gothi…
Historic sites
Corvin Castle, Hunedoara
Hunedoara
One of the largest castles in Europe, a Gothic fortress with towers, battlements and a drawbridge over a ravine, built in the 15th century by John Hu…
Historic sites
Sibiu Old Town
Sibiu
A Saxon town of colourful squares, where houses seem to watch you through 'eyes', small dormer windows in their roofs.
Historic sites
Golden Ring: Suzdal
Vladimir
A small town north-east of Moscow, the jewel of the Golden Ring of medieval towns, with white churches, monasteries and wooden houses among meadows.
Historic sites
Kazan Kremlin
Kazan, Tatarstan
A white-walled fortress in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, where an Orthodox cathedral stands beside the blue-domed Kul Sharif Mosque, a symbol of t…
Historic sites
Kizhi Pogost
Karelia
An island in Lake Onega with two remarkable wooden churches, the 22-domed Church of the Transfiguration, built in 1714 without a single nail, and a b…
Historic sites
Red Square and the Kremlin, Moscow
Moscow
Moscow's great square, with the colourful onion domes of St Basil's Cathedral at one end, the red walls and towers of the Kremlin along one side, Len…
Historic sites
Kigali Genocide Memorial
Kigali
The memorial to the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, in which over a million people were killed, with mass graves of more than 250,000 victims and a …
Historic sites
Jacob's Ladder, Saint Helena
Saint Helena
A staircase of 699 steps climbing from Jamestown to Ladder Hill fort on this remote South Atlantic island.
Historic sites
Brimstone Hill Fortress, St Kitts
Middle Island, Saint Thomas Middle Island
A massive 18th-century British fortress on a volcanic hill, called the 'Gibraltar of the West Indies', a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with views to ne…
Historic sites
Robert Louis Stevenson Museum, Samoa
Vailima, Tuamasaga
The colonial mansion Villa Vailima, where the author of Treasure Island spent his last years, above Apia.
Historic sites
Three Towers of San Marino
San Marino
San Marino, one of the world's oldest republics and smallest countries, sits on Monte Titano, crowned by three medieval towers: Guaita, Cesta and Mon…
Historic sites
AlUla and Hegra
Al-Ula, Al Madinah
Hegra (Mada'in Salih) was the second city of the Nabataeans after Petra, with more than 100 monumental tombs carved into sandstone outcrops, Saudi Ar…
Historic sites
Al-Balad, Jeddah
Al Balad, Makkah
The historic centre of Jeddah, a UNESCO site, with coral-stone tower houses with wooden latticed balconies (rawasheen), souqs and mosques, once the g…
Historic sites
Diriyah, Riyadh
Riyadh
The mud-brick birthplace of the first Saudi state, on the edge of Riyadh, with the At-Turaif district, a UNESCO site, restored with museums.
Historic sites
Gorée Island
Dakar
A small car-free island off Dakar with pastel colonial houses and the House of Slaves with its 'Door of No Return', a memorial to the Atlantic slave …
Historic sites
Saint-Louis, Senegal
Saint-Louis
The old colonial capital on an island in the Senegal River, a UNESCO site, with French colonial buildings, the Faidherbe Bridge and a jazz festival i…
Historic sites
Belgrade Fortress (Kalemegdan)
Belgrade
A fortress on a ridge above the meeting of the Sava and Danube rivers, fought over by Romans, Byzantines, Ottomans and Austrians, now surrounded by t…
Historic sites
Golubac Fortress and the Iron Gates
Golubac, Braničevo
A medieval fortress with nine towers climbing the cliffs at the entrance to the Iron Gates, the dramatic gorge where the Danube cuts through the Carp…
Historic sites
Petrovaradin Fortress, Novi Sad
Petrovaradin, South Bačka
A huge 18th-century fortress on the Danube, called the 'Gibraltar of the Danube', with a clock tower whose hands are reversed, so that boatmen could …
Historic sites
Studenica Monastery
Raška
One of the most important Serbian Orthodox monasteries, founded in the 12th century by Stefan Nemanja, founder of the medieval Serbian state.
Historic sites
Chinatown, Little India and Kampong Glam, Singapore
Outram, Central Singapore
Singapore's historic ethnic quarters. In Chinatown, see the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and the Sri Mariamman Hindu temple.
Historic sites
Spiš Castle
Spišské Podhradie, Prešov
One of the largest castle complexes in Central Europe, a ruined fortress spread over a limestone hill in eastern Slovakia, a UNESCO World Heritage Si…
Historic sites
Banská Štiavnica
Banská Štiavnica, Banská Bystrica
A historic silver-mining town of steep streets and colourful houses in a volcanic caldera, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Historic sites
Bojnice Castle
Bojnice, Trenčín
A romantic castle with towers and spires that looks straight out of a fairytale, rebuilt in the style of French Loire chateaux in the early 1900s by …
Historic sites
Bratislava Castle and Old Town
Bratislava
A square castle with four corner towers on a hill above the Danube, the landmark of Slovakia's capital, with a history museum and baroque gardens.
Historic sites
Ljubljana Old Town and Castle
Ljubljana
Slovenia's small, green capital, with a car-free old town along the Ljubljanica River, cafés along the banks, and the Triple Bridge and Dragon Bridge.
Historic sites
Piran
Piran
A Venetian-style town on a narrow peninsula on Slovenia's short Adriatic coast, with a marble main square named after the violinist Giuseppe Tartini,…
Historic sites
Apartheid Museum and Soweto, Johannesburg
Johannesburg, Gauteng
A powerful museum telling the story of apartheid and the struggle against it.
Historic sites
Robben Island
City of Cape Town, Western Cape
The island prison where Nelson Mandela was held for 18 of his 27 years in prison, a UNESCO site.
Historic sites
Bo-Kaap, Cape Town
City of Cape Town, Western Cape
A neighbourhood of brightly painted houses and cobbled streets on the slopes of Signal Hill, the historic home of the Cape Malay community.
Historic sites
Cradle of Humankind
Gauteng
A UNESCO site of limestone caves that have produced many of the world's early human fossils, including 'Mrs Ples'.
Historic sites
Grytviken, South Georgia
An abandoned whaling station on a sub-Antarctic island, where the explorer Ernest Shackleton is buried.
Historic sites
Bulguksa Temple and Seokguram, Gyeongju
Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang
Gyeongju was the capital of the Silla kingdom for nearly a thousand years and is called 'the museum without walls'.
Historic sites
Gyeongbokgung Palace, Seoul
Jongno-gu, Seoul
The grandest of Seoul's five royal palaces, built in 1395 for the Joseon dynasty, set against the mountains.
Historic sites
Bukchon Hanok Village, Seoul
Jongno-gu, Seoul
A hillside neighbourhood of traditional Korean wooden houses (hanok) with tiled roofs, between Gyeongbokgung and Changdeokgung palaces.
Historic sites
Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and JSA
Paju-si, Gyeonggi
The heavily fortified border strip between North and South Korea.
Historic sites
Hahoe Folk Village, Andong
Andong, North Gyeongsang
A traditional village of tiled and thatched houses in a bend of the Nakdong River, still lived in by the Ryu clan, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Historic sites
Suwon Hwaseong Fortress
Suwon, Gyeonggi
A fortress wall built in the late 18th century around the centre of Suwon, nearly 6 km long, with gates, watchtowers and bastions, a UNESCO World Her…
Historic sites
Alcazaba and Gibralfaro, Málaga
Málaga
The Alcazaba is an 11th-century Moorish fortress-palace on the hillside above Málaga's centre, with layers of gates, courtyards, fountains and garden…
Historic sites
Alhambra, Granada
Granada
The palace and fortress of the Nasrid sultans, the last Muslim rulers of Spain, set on a hill above Granada with the Sierra Nevada behind.
Historic sites
Aqueduct of Segovia
Segovia
A Roman aqueduct built around 100 AD, striding through the heart of Segovia on two tiers of granite arches, up to 28 m high, built without mortar.
Historic sites
Mezquita of Córdoba
Córdoba
The great mosque of Córdoba, begun in 785, with a forest of more than 850 columns supporting red and white striped arches, and a dazzling mihrab of g…
Historic sites
Plaza Mayor, Salamanca
Salamanca
Often called the most beautiful square in Spain: a vast 18th-century baroque square of golden sandstone, enclosed by arcades and balconies, with meda…
Historic sites
Real Alcázar of Seville
Sevilla
A royal palace begun by the Moors and rebuilt by Christian kings in the Mudéjar style, with richly tiled and carved halls, courtyards with pools, and…
Historic sites
Galle Fort
Galle, Southern
A fortified old town built by the Portuguese and Dutch on a headland on the south coast, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with ramparts, a lighthouse, c…
Historic sites
Sigiriya Rock Fortress
Sigiriya, Matale
A 5th-century palace built on top of a 200 m rock rising from the jungle, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Historic sites
Temple of the Tooth, Kandy
Kandy, Central
Sri Lanka's most sacred Buddhist temple, in the royal palace complex beside Kandy Lake, housing a relic of the Buddha's tooth.
Historic sites
Ancient City of Polonnaruwa
Polonnaruwa District, North Central
The medieval capital of Sri Lanka, from the 11th to 13th centuries, with palaces, temples and stupas spread over a large park, a UNESCO World Heritag…
Historic sites
Dambulla Cave Temple
Matale District, Central
Five caves under a huge rock, used as Buddhist shrines for over 2,000 years, filled with 153 Buddha statues and ceilings covered in murals, a UNESCO …
Historic sites
Jaffna
Jaffna District, Northern
The capital of Sri Lanka's Tamil north, with a distinct culture, Hindu temples such as the golden Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil, a Dutch fort, and its own …
Historic sites
Paramaribo historic inner city
Paramaribo
Suriname's capital, with Dutch colonial wooden buildings, a UNESCO site, and the wooden St Peter and Paul Cathedral.
Historic sites
Pyramiden ghost town, Svalbard
An abandoned Soviet coal-mining town, closed in 1998 and left almost as it was, with the world's most northerly statue of Lenin, a cultural centre wi…
Historic sites
Gamla Stan, Stockholm
Gamla Stan, Stockholm
Stockholm's old town, on a small island, with narrow cobbled lanes, ochre and red houses, and the Stortorget square.
Historic sites
Visby, Gotland
Visby, Gotland
A medieval Hanseatic town on the island of Gotland in the Baltic, encircled by a 3.4 km wall with more than 50 towers, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Historic sites
Ales Stenar
Köpingebro, Skåne
A ship-shaped setting of 59 large standing stones, 67 m long, on a hill above the Baltic Sea at Kåseberga in Skåne, the southern tip of Sweden.
Historic sites
Kalmar Castle and Öland
Kalmar
A Renaissance castle on the water in Kalmar, one of the best preserved in Scandinavia, where the Kalmar Union of Denmark, Norway and Sweden was signe…
Historic sites
Uppsala Cathedral and Old Uppsala
Uppsala
The largest church in the Nordic countries, a Gothic cathedral with twin spires, where Swedish kings were crowned and the botanist Carl Linnaeus is b…
Historic sites
Chapel Bridge and Old Town, Lucerne
Luzern, Lucerne
Lucerne's covered wooden footbridge, built in the 14th century, crosses the River Reuss diagonally, with painted panels under its roof and the stone …
Historic sites
Château de Chillon
Montreux, Vaud
A medieval castle on a rock in Lake Geneva near Montreux, one of the most visited historic monuments in Switzerland.
Historic sites
Bern Old Town
Bern
Switzerland's capital has a remarkably preserved medieval old town on a loop of the River Aare, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with 6 km of covered ar…
Historic sites
Jiufen Old Street
Jiufen, New Taipei
A former gold-mining town on a steep hillside above the sea north-east of Taipei, with narrow alleys of teahouses, red lanterns and food stalls, said…
Historic sites
Hisor Fortress
Hisor, Nohiyahoi Tobei Jumhurí
A restored 18th-century fortress gate and walls about 25 km west of Dushanbe, with two madrasas and a mausoleum nearby.
Historic sites
Stone Town, Zanzibar
Zanzibar, Zanzibar West
The old Swahili trading town of Zanzibar, a UNESCO site, with carved doors, the House of Wonders, the Old Fort, the former slave market and the Forod…
Historic sites
Ayutthaya Historical Park
Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya
The ruins of the old Siamese capital, sacked by the Burmese in 1767, with prang towers, temples and Buddha statues, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Historic sites
Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai
Chiang Mai
A golden temple on a mountain above Chiang Mai, reached by a naga-lined staircase of 306 steps (or a funicular), with views over the city.
Historic sites
Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew, Bangkok
Bangkok
The former royal residence, a dazzling complex of gilded spires and halls built from 1782, with Wat Phra Kaew, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, Thai…
Historic sites
Sukhothai Historical Park
Sukhothai
The ruins of Sukhothai, the first capital of Siam in the 13th century, with graceful Buddha statues, lotus-bud chedis and temples reflected in ponds,…
Historic sites
Mrigadayavan Palace, Cha-am
Cha-am, Phetchaburi
A summer palace built in 1923 for King Rama VI on the beach between Hua Hin and Cha-am.
Historic sites
Wat Arun, Bangkok
Bangkok
The Temple of Dawn, on the west bank of the Chao Phraya, with a tall central prang decorated with colourful porcelain pieces.
Historic sites
Kunta Kinteh Island, The Gambia
Upper Niumi, North Bank
An island in the Gambia River with ruins of a fort linked to the slave trade, a UNESCO site, and the nearby village of Juffureh, known from Alex Hale…
Historic sites
Koutammakou, Togo
Kandé, Kara
The land of the Batammariba people, with tower-like mud houses (takienta), a UNESCO site, in the north of Togo, extending into Benin.
Historic sites
Ha'amonga 'a Maui trilithon, Tonga
Kolonga, Tongatapu
A stone gateway built in the 13th century from three huge coral limestone slabs, on Tongatapu.
Historic sites
Amphitheatre of El Jem
El Jem, Mahdia
One of the largest Roman amphitheatres in the world, built around 238 AD, remarkably intact, with space for 35,000 spectators, a UNESCO site.
Historic sites
Medina of Tunis and the Bardo Museum
Tunis
The Bardo has one of the world's finest collections of Roman mosaics, in a former palace.
Historic sites
Sidi Bou Said and Carthage
Sidi Bou Said, Tunis
A clifftop village of white houses with blue doors above the Gulf of Tunis, with the Café des Délices.
Historic sites
Kairouan
Kairouan
A holy city, a UNESCO site, with the Great Mosque of Uqba founded in 670, one of the oldest in Africa, and the Aghlabid Basins.
Historic sites
Matmata and the Tunisian Sahara
Matmata, Gabès
Troglodyte Berber homes dug into the ground around courtyards; one, the Hotel Sidi Driss, was Luke Skywalker's home in Star Wars.
Historic sites
Ephesus
Selçuk, İzmir
One of the best-preserved ancient cities in the Mediterranean, once the capital of Roman Asia Minor with up to 250,000 people.
Historic sites
Göbekli Tepe
Haliliye, Şanlıurfa
The world's oldest known monumental temple, built around 9600 BC by hunter-gatherers, thousands of years before Stonehenge, with huge T-shaped stone …
Historic sites
Hagia Sophia, Istanbul
Fatih, İstanbul
Built as a cathedral by the Byzantine emperor Justinian in 537, later a mosque, then a museum, and again a mosque since 2020, with a vast dome that s…
Historic sites
Mount Nemrut
Kâhta, Adıyaman
A mountain top at 2,134 m where King Antiochus of Commagene built a tomb mound in the 1st century BC, with huge stone heads of gods and kings now sca…
Historic sites
Topkapı Palace, Istanbul
Fatih, İstanbul
The palace of the Ottoman sultans for nearly 400 years, on a point above the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn, with courtyards, pavilions tiled in Iznik…
Historic sites
Ani ruins
Digor, Kars
The ruined medieval Armenian capital on the closed border with Armenia, once a city of 100,000 people, with the remains of churches, a cathedral and …
Historic sites
Ancient Merv
Mary
The ruins of one of the great cities of the Silk Road, once among the largest in the world, destroyed by the Mongols in 1221, a UNESCO World Heritage…
Historic sites
Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle
Kamianets-Podilskyi, Khmelnytska
A medieval castle on a rocky promontory beside a deep river canyon, guarding the bridge to an old town that sits almost on an island in a loop of the…
Historic sites
Kyiv Pechersk Lavra
Kyiv
A great Orthodox monastery complex founded in 1051, with golden-domed churches, a bell tower and caves where monks' mummified remains lie in undergro…
Historic sites
Lviv Old Town
Lviv, Lvivska
A UNESCO-listed old town of churches, cafés and cobbled streets in western Ukraine, with influences from Polish, Austrian, Jewish and Armenian commun…
Historic sites
Old Dubai: Al Fahidi and the Creek
Bur Dubai, Dubai
The old quarter of Dubai, with traditional houses topped by wind towers, small museums and galleries.
Historic sites
Avebury Stone Circle
Marlborough, Wiltshire
The largest stone circle in Britain, so big that part of the village of Avebury sits inside it.
Historic sites
Bodiam Castle
Northiam, East Sussex
A storybook castle with round towers and battlements, rising straight out of a wide moat.
Historic sites
Chartwell
Westerham, Kent
The family home of Sir Winston Churchill from 1924 until the end of his life, kept much as it was in the 1930s, with his books, pictures and uniforms.
Historic sites
Christ Church, Oxford
Oxford, Oxfordshire
The grandest of Oxford's colleges, founded by Cardinal Wolsey and Henry VIII in 1546.
Historic sites
Corfe Castle
Corfe Castle, Dorset
The dramatic ruin of a royal castle on a steep hill in a gap in the Purbeck Hills, above a village of grey stone cottages.
Historic sites
Cragside
Rothbury, Northumberland
The Victorian home of the inventor and industrialist Lord Armstrong, and the first house in the world lit by hydroelectricity.
Historic sites
9/11 Memorial and Museum, New York
Manhattan, New York
Two large reflecting pools set in the footprints of the Twin Towers, with the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the attacks of 2001 and 1993…
Historic sites
Alcatraz Island
San Francisco, California
A former federal prison on a rocky island in San Francisco Bay, which held Al Capone and others until 1963.
Historic sites
French Quarter, New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana
The oldest neighbourhood of New Orleans, with Spanish and French colonial buildings with iron balconies, Jackson Square and St Louis Cathedral, and l…
Historic sites
National Mall, Washington, D.C.
Washington D.C., District of Columbia
A long park between the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial, lined with monuments and the free museums of the Smithsonian Institution.
Historic sites
USS Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbor
‘Aiea, Hawaii
The white memorial straddles the sunken battleship USS Arizona, which was sunk in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.
Historic sites
Graceland, Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee
The home of Elvis Presley, where he lived from 1957 until his death in 1977, preserved with its Jungle Room, his cars, planes, costumes and gold reco…
Historic sites
Colonia del Sacramento
Colonia del Sacramento, Colonia
A Portuguese colonial town on the River Plate, a UNESCO site, with cobbled streets such as the Calle de los Suspiros, a lighthouse and old houses.
Historic sites
Montevideo Ciudad Vieja and Rambla
Ciudad Vieja, Montevideo
Uruguay's capital, with the old town, Palacio Salvo, the Mercado del Puerto for grilled meat (asado), and the Rambla, a 22 km seafront promenade.
Historic sites
Itchan Kala, Khiva
Khiwa, Xorazm
The walled inner town of Khiva, a remarkably complete Silk Road city of mud-brick walls, madrasas, minarets and palaces, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Historic sites
Old Bukhara
Bukhara
A holy Silk Road city with more than 140 monuments, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Historic sites
Registan, Samarkand
Samarkand, Samarqand
The great public square of Samarkand, framed by three monumental madrasas from the 15th to 17th centuries, covered in blue and turquoise tilework, on…
Historic sites
Shah-i-Zinda, Samarkand
Samarkand, Samarqand
An avenue of mausoleums climbing a hillside, built from the 11th to the 19th centuries, with some of the most beautiful glazed tilework in Central As…
Historic sites
Aral Sea and the ship graveyard, Moynaq
Mŭynoq, Karakalpakstan
Moynaq was once a fishing port on the Aral Sea, which has shrunk dramatically since Soviet irrigation diverted its rivers, one of the world's worst e…
Historic sites
St Peter's Square
Bernini's vast oval square in front of St Peter's Basilica, embraced by curving colonnades of 284 columns, with an Egyptian obelisk in the centre.
Historic sites
Hoàn Kiếm Lake and Ngọc Sơn Temple, Hanoi
Hanoi, Hà Nội
The lake at the heart of Hanoi, where, legend says, a golden turtle took back a magic sword from Emperor Lê Lợi after he drove out the Chinese.
Historic sites
Hội An Ancient Town
Hội An, Đà Nẵng
A well-preserved trading port with yellow merchant houses, Chinese assembly halls and the Japanese Covered Bridge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Historic sites
Temple of Literature, Hanoi
Hanoi, Hà Nội
Founded in 1070 as a temple to Confucius, it later became Vietnam's first university.
Historic sites
Cù Chi Tunnels
Ho Chi Minh City, Hồ Chí Minh
A network of more than 200 km of tunnels used by Viet Cong guerrillas during the Vietnam War, with hidden entrances, kitchens and booby traps.
Historic sites
Imperial City of Huế
Huế
The walled citadel of the Nguyễn emperors, who ruled Vietnam from 1802 to 1945, with the Purple Forbidden City, palaces and gates, much damaged in th…
Historic sites
Independence Palace, Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh City, Hồ Chí Minh
The former presidential palace of South Vietnam, also called the Reunification Palace, kept much as it was on 30 April 1975, when a North Vietnamese …
Historic sites
Great Zimbabwe
Masvingo
The stone ruins of a medieval city, the capital of a great trading kingdom from the 11th to 15th centuries, with the curving Great Enclosure and the …