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Photographer Michael Freeman has seen it all. He's been to the Valley of the Kings in Egypt and remote temples in Sudan's Nubian desert. Yet nothing has moved him in the same way as Angkor Wat (see above) in Cambodia, where "scale, artistry and location are all superlative."
Angkor Wat is actually just one of more than a dozen magnificent temples in the vast metropolis of Angkor, the capital of the Khmer Empire from the 9th to the 15th centuries. Within Angkor Wat, carved bas-reliefs illustrate scenes from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata—epic poems that are also sacred Hindu texts. "Just think that the single temple of Angkor Wat has the same tonnage of rock as the Pyramid of Cheops," marvels Freeman, "yet much of it is carved." Small wonder then that at least two million tourists visited Angkor in 2007—and that number is expected to increase by more than 15 percent a year. The best way to avoid the crowds is to go off-season (May-October), when you can stand quietly among ruins embedded in the surrounding rain forest.
Exploring Ancient Ephesus
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Over the centuries, a succession of empires—Greek, Persian , Roman, Byzantine and, finally, Ottoman—ruled over the city of Ephesus. Yet no matter how many times it changed hands , the city remained one of the most vibrant metropolises of the ancient world. Located on Turkey's western coast, nearly 300,000 people lived there at its height, in the second century A.D. Its busy seaport ferried goods from Asia to Greece, Italy and beyond.
Ephesus' greatest claim to fame was its temple to the goddess Artemis. One of the "seven wonders" of the ancient world, it was almost four times larger than the Parthenon in Athens. According to the New Testament, the Apostle Paul preached in Ephesus, prompting a riot led by silversmiths who crafted shrines to the goddess and feared for both their livelihoods and the future of the temple.
Today, a few columns are all that remain of the temple. But there is still much to see that evokes the city's former splendor. A three-tiered theater, built into the slope of a hill, once seated 25,000. Just outside the city stands the Church of Saint John, built in the fourth century over the evangelist's presumed tomb and expanded into a basilica some 200 years later.
Gaze at the Aurora Borealis
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Never mind the grizzly bears, the glaciers and the tundra . The best reason to go north (to Alaska, the Yukon or anywhere else above about 60 degrees latitude) is to see the Northern Lights.
Try to imagine the most colorful, textured sunset you've ever seen, then send it swirling and pulsing across an otherwise clear and starry sky. Maybe add some faint outlines of mountains on the horizon and a hooting gray owl for ambience .
But even more fabulous, in its own way, is the physics. Your planet is being buffeted by solar wind—particles of protons and electrons that the sun spews into space. Some of the charged particles get sucked into the earth's magnetic field and flow toward the pole until they collide with our atmosphere. Then, voilà: the aurora borealis (or aurora australis, if you happen to be at the bottom of the Southern Hemisphere).
The best times to see the aurora are around the fall and spring equinoxes, according to Janet Green, a physicist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), when geomagnetic storms—disturbances in the earth's magnetic field—are strongest. It helps if the sun is near a peak of activity in its 11-year sunspot cycle. You can sign up for aurora alerts online or keep an eye on NOAA's geomagnetic storm forecast. But most of all you need a cloudless night, a flask of something warm and bracing, and pepper spray in case a grizzly tries to join you for the show.
The Mystery of Tikal
I was only 7 years old when I visited Tikal. Along with other children, I broke away from the tour group and wandered among the chambers inside the ancient Mayan edifices. I ran my hands along the walls, imagining that if I pressed a stone just so, a secret chamber would open, revealing treasure or a royal sarcophagus.
No such luck—but that didn't diminish the mystery that enshrouds the ancient city in Guatemala. Founded in 200 B.C., it emerged as a regional superpower that dominated other city-states stretching from the Yucatán Peninsula to western Honduras . Tikal's reign abruptly ended when, for unknown reasons, the Mayans abandoned the city in A.D. 900. Enveloped by jungle, it would not be rediscovered until 1848. Since then, only 15 percent of the site has been excavated.
But what can be seen above ground is the archaeological equivalent of shock and awe. Six temple pyramids dominate the skyline, the tallest of which, Temple IV, stands 212 feet high. Visitors can scale it by means of wooden ladders and protruding roots. Temple VI lays claim to the most extensive hieroglyphics in the Mayan world, narrating the city's dynastic history.
A Glimpse of Old Pompeii
Pompeii's history reads like a Greek tragedy. Settlers originally flocked to the site of the Roman port city because of its fertile soil—the product of volcanic ash from nearby Mount Vesuvius. Yet that very same volcano would erupt and doom the city of 10,000 to 20,000 inhabitants in A.D. 79.
Many Europeans toured the city's ancient ruins in the decades following their initial excavations in 1748. Indeed, Pompeii became all the rage across the continent, inspiring a gaudy revival in Classical art and architecture.
But for archaeologists and present-day visitors, the real thrill of Pompeii is that the most mundane aspects of ancient Roman life have been preserved for centuries beneath fine-grained volcanic ash. Graffiti still covers walls; some of the excavated bakeries had bread loaves in their ovens. (The National Archaeological Museum in nearby Naples displays many of the most important finds.) Visitors to the city can tour homes such as the House of the Vettii—a residence of wealthy merchants, with walls adorned with frescoes depicting scenes from classical mythology.
Among the most moving sights is the Garden of the Fugitives, which displays plaster casts of some of the victims in their final moments of life. "It adds an extra dimension to Pompeii," observes Rick Jones, an archaeologist at the University of Bradford in England, who has conducted research at the site since 1994. "It creates a sense of intimacy, a connection to the people who lived there."
In the Cliffs of Mesa Verde
Mesa Verde's cliff dwellings are a little crumbly in places, and looters took away most of the pottery and baskets a century ago. But as you explore the southwestern Colorado national park, it's easy to imagine the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo Indians who built these cliff houses 800 years ago.
Ancestral Puebloans grew squash, corn and beans on the mesa and lived in simpler pit houses as early as A.D. 600. They began building cliff houses in the 1200s: multistory structures of sandstone bricks and mortar, tucked into deep rock alcoves.
The building boom occurred during a time of plenty. Archaeological research reveals that the first cliff dwellers ate deer and bighorn sheep and had tall, straight timbers for their roofs. Then came the lean years, according to park ranger Paul Ferrell. People hunted out the big game and deforested the mesa. In 1276 a 23-year drought began. The Ancestral Puebloans abandoned the site by 1300.
Cowboys found the cliff dwellings in the 1880s and subsequent explorers plundered them—until much of the mesa was turned into a national park in 1906. That protection, plus the arid climate and the shelter from overhanging rocks, beautifully preserved the cliff dwellings as well as artwork chiseled into cliff faces.
Mesa Verde's cliff dwellings are a little crumbly in places, and looters took away most of the pottery and baskets a century ago. But as you explore the southwestern Colorado national park, it's easy to imagine the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo Indians who built these cliff houses 800 years ago.
Ancestral Puebloans grew squash, corn and beans on the mesa and lived in simpler pit houses as early as A.D. 600. They began building cliff houses in the 1200s: multistory structures of sandstone bricks and mortar, tucked into deep rock alcoves.
The building boom occurred during a time of plenty. Archaeological research reveals that the first cliff dwellers ate deer and bighorn sheep and had tall, straight timbers for their roofs. Then came the lean years, according to park ranger Paul Ferrell. People hunted out the big game and deforested the mesa. In 1276 a 23-year drought began. The Ancestral Puebloans abandoned the site by 1300.
Cowboys found the cliff dwellings in the 1880s and subsequent explorers plundered them—until much of the mesa was turned into a national park in 1906. That protection, plus the arid climate and the shelter from overhanging rocks, beautifully preserved the cliff dwellings as well as artwork chiseled into cliff faces.
Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound
New Zealand
The Australians may claim the Great Barrier Reef as the Eighth Wonder of the World, but Rudyard Kipling gave the honor to New Zealand’s Milford Sound. Kiwis disagree with both—they rank it first or second. Milford is the most famous of more than a dozen grand fjords that make up majestic Fiordland National Park on the South Island’s southwestern coast. The 10-mile-long inlet is hemmed in by sheer granite cliffs rising up to 4,000 feet, with waterfalls cascading from the mountain ridges. Playful bottlenose dolphins, fur seals, and gulls call its waters home, and crested penguins nest here in October and November before leaving for Antarctica. Mitre Peak is the centerpiece, a 5,560-foot pinnacle whose reflection in the mirror-calm water is one of the Pacific’s most photographed sites. Flightseeing here is a great option, and boats leave frequently for two-hour cruises through the quiet beauty of the sound. On land, the Milford Track was once called by a flushed hiker “the finest walk in the world,” a description that has deservedly stuck. It is a four-day, 32-mile trek most serious hikers around the world dream of undertaking, despite the sand flies, at least an inch of daily rainfall, and strenuous stretches demanding as much attention as the awesome scenery.
Corcovado
Brazil
The mesmerizing 360-degree panorama from atop Corcovado Mountain showcases Rio de Janeiro’s beauty in all its heart-stopping glory. This unique, overpowering tableau of curving white beaches, skyscrapers, gray granite mountains, lush rain forest, and the island-studded Bay of Guanabara encouraged Rio’s nickname, Cidade Maravilhosa (Marvelous City). Corcovado’s summit is crowned by the 120-foot-high soapstone figure of Christ, his arms outstretched to a 75-foot expanse; the very symbol of the city, it was completed (nine years late) in 1931 to commemorate the 1922 centennial of Brazilian independence. Almost twice as high as its rival, 1,300-foot Pao de Açúcar (Sugarloaf Mountain), Corcovado offers a view of the gumdrop-shaped Sugarloaf, and confirms that no other major metropolis is as blessed with physical and natural beauty as Rio. The passenger train to the summit makes its steep 2.3-mile, twenty-minute ascent through lush Tijuca National Park, the largest urban park in the world—an 8,151-acre forest of platesize blue morpho butterflies and refreshing waterfalls.
WHAT: site. WHERE: reachable by taxi or car along a winding road, but the more interesting cog-train cuts through the encroaching jungle; Cosme Velho Train Station (every cabdriver knows this one), 513 Rua Cosme Velho. COST: $9. WHEN: trains leave every 30 minutes daily.
WHAT: site. WHERE: reachable by taxi or car along a winding road, but the more interesting cog-train cuts through the encroaching jungle; Cosme Velho Train Station (every cabdriver knows this one), 513 Rua Cosme Velho. COST: $9. WHEN: trains leave every 30 minutes daily.
Chichén Itzá
Mexico
The most famous, spectacular, and, consequently, most frequently visited of Mexico’s Mayan sites, the magnificent metropolis of Chichén Itzá was the principal ceremonial center of the Yucatán. If you are lucky enough to be here on the spring or autumnal equinox (March 21 or September 21), you will marvel at the mastermind who positioned the temple of El Castillo de Kulkulcán: The play of late-afternoon light and shadow creates a moving serpent (representing the ancient leader-turned-deity Kulkulcán) that, over the course of thirty-four minutes, slithers down 365 steps to the giant’s head at the base of the pyramid’s principal facade before disappearing into the earth. The 7-square-mile site at Chichén Itzá (2 square miles of jungle have been cleared) was inhabited for about 800 years, beginning as early as A.D. 432 during the Mayan Classic Period and ending with the arrival of the Toltec people. No more than thirty of its buildings have been explored, leaving hundreds untouched.Beat the bus caravans of day-trippers by staying at the romantic Hotel Mayaland, set in 100 private acres at the edge of the ruins. Many of the rooms have views of the cylindrical El Caracol observatory. The flowering gardens and pools help pass the hottest part of the day; the only way to visit the ruins at night is with tickets for the sound-and-light show (which is a lot more entertaining than one might imagine).
The Road to Mandalay River Cruise
Myanmar
Mandalay—one of the most evocative names on the globe. Kipling immortalized it (though he never visited) and Sinatra sang the tune. The capital of Burma (now Myanmar) prior to British rule (which lasted from the mid-19th century until 1948), and known as the Golden City, Mandalay was built in the 19th century by the last of the royal leaders and is still redolent of its royal past as the heartland of Burmese culture and religion. Its huge market is a thriving phantasmagoria of earthy smells and a polyglot mixture of cultures.
Mandalay is the starting point for a cruise down the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) River, the country’s great natural highway and the focal point of Burmese life. The urban centers of its 2,500-year-old civilization line the banks, including the city of Bagan (formerly Pagan), where, along 8 miles of riverbank, some 2,200 Buddhist pagodas nestle so close together that they resemble a forest of spires and pinnacles. Founded by a Burmese king in A.D. 849, Bagan reached its apogee about 1000 and was abandoned in 1283 when Kublai Khan, in control of northern India, swept south with his soldiers. It was believed that building religious structures gained merit for a king and his people, so an army of skilled artisans embellished this spiritual center with what may originally have been more than 10,000 religious monuments.
Mandalay is the starting point for a cruise down the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) River, the country’s great natural highway and the focal point of Burmese life. The urban centers of its 2,500-year-old civilization line the banks, including the city of Bagan (formerly Pagan), where, along 8 miles of riverbank, some 2,200 Buddhist pagodas nestle so close together that they resemble a forest of spires and pinnacles. Founded by a Burmese king in A.D. 849, Bagan reached its apogee about 1000 and was abandoned in 1283 when Kublai Khan, in control of northern India, swept south with his soldiers. It was believed that building religious structures gained merit for a king and his people, so an army of skilled artisans embellished this spiritual center with what may originally have been more than 10,000 religious monuments.
Angkor Wat
Cambodia
Angkor, spread out over an area of about 40 miles in northwestern Cambodia, was the capital of the Khmer Empire from A.D. 800 to approximately 1200, and was abandoned in 1431, following the conquest of the Khmer kingdom. After decades of war and strife, its temples and monuments are once more open to travelers, and are among the world’s premier architectural sites. The city’s highlight, Angkor Wat, is a temple complex built at the beginning of the 12th century by King Suryavarman II. It took 25,000 workers over thirty-seven years to complete the construction, but after the fall of the empire, the complex remained unknown to the outside world until 1860, when French botanist Henri Mahout stumbled upon it deep in the jungle. Constructed in the form of a central tower surrounded by four smaller towers, it was dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu, and is embellished throughout with exquisite statues, carvings, and bas-reliefs depicting scenes from Hindu mythology.
Though considered a less-stellar attraction, the nearby fortified city of Angkor Thom boasts at its heart the Bayon, the last great temple built at Angkor. The Bayon is surrounded by fifty-four small towers that are now, like all of this magnificent religious complex, entangled in the dense growth of the implacable Cambodian jungle.
Though considered a less-stellar attraction, the nearby fortified city of Angkor Thom boasts at its heart the Bayon, the last great temple built at Angkor. The Bayon is surrounded by fifty-four small towers that are now, like all of this magnificent religious complex, entangled in the dense growth of the implacable Cambodian jungle.
Cappadocia
Turkey
A trip to the steppes of Central Anatolia is the next best thing to intergalactic travel, at a fraction of the cost and inconvenience. Centuries of wind and water have sculpted a surrealistic landscape from the soft volcanic terrain: minarets, cones, spires, “fairy chimneys,” and rocky pinnacles in shades of pinks and russet-brown soar as high as five-story buildings and cover an area of about 50 square miles. Ancient inhabitants of Cappadocia hollowed out the tufa cones and cliffs to create troglodyte-style cave dwellings that are still lived in today. A major trade route between East and West, Cappadocia was home to a dozen different civilizations. The early Christians arrived in the 4th century, sculpting from the rock domed churches, complete with vaulted ceilings, columns, and pews. The open-air museum is the site of an ancient monastic colony, once said to have had more than 400 churches, hermitages, and small monasteries. Today fifteen are open to the public. Some of the simple frescoes date back to the 8th century, but it’s the rich Byzantine frescoes of the 10th and 13th centuries that are the most astonishing.
Modern-day troglodytes must head for the utterly unique and charming Yunak Evleri hotel, a romantic web of tastefully restored connecting caves dating back as far as the 5th century.
Modern-day troglodytes must head for the utterly unique and charming Yunak Evleri hotel, a romantic web of tastefully restored connecting caves dating back as far as the 5th century.
Lhasa
China
Lhasa, which in Tibetan means “the Holy City” or “Place of the Gods,” is the vortex of Tibetan spirituality, a city that mystifies and intoxicates, despite the present-day Chinese presence. The vast hilltop Potala, the empty thirteen-story fortress that was once the winter palace and seat of the god-king, the Dalai Lama, is the most recognizable of the city's landmarks. Its white-and-red walls and golden roofs rise above the holy city, seeming to grow out of the hill on which it has stood since the 17th century. It is now a museum, an empty shell of its former self, its central figure and his government having taken its life with them when they fled to India in 1959 following the Chinese occupation. And yet, as 20th-century Chinese-born novelist Han Suyin wrote, “No one can remain unmoved by the sheer power and beauty of the structure, with its thousand windows like a thousand eyes.” The Dalai Lamas, each of whom is believed to be the reincarnation of Avalokiteshvara, the Buddhist embodiment of compassion, ruled Tibet as spiritual and temporal overlords from 1644; the current Dalai Lama, the fourteenth reincarnation, was just sixteen when Tibet was occupied by China. His private apartments have been left untouched, and surprisingly the building, said to have as many as 1,000 rooms, has been left undamaged by the Chinese; in fact, they are restoring it—reportedly for the purpose of luring tourism.
The Li River
China
Reputed to possess the most beautiful mountains and rivers under heaven, Guangxi Province has been eulogized for thirteen centuries by painters and writers who tried to capture its unearthly karst formations on paper. A cruise down the Li River is like entering a classic Chinese scroll painting of mist, mountains, and rivers. From Guilin, the jade-green Li wends its way through spectacular, almost surreal scenery of humpbacked and eroded shapes with whimsical names like Bat Hill, Five Tigers Catch a Goat, and Painting Brush Peak. The timeless riverside landscape seems oblivious to the constant stream of tour boats that ply single-file past picturesque villages where young boys bathe the family water buffalo, women wash their clothes, and farmers plow the rice fields. Some fishermen on skinny bamboo rafts still employ cormorants that are trained to dive and trap fish in their beaks. A ring placed around their necks stops them from swallowing the catch.
The small town of Yangshuo is the southern terminus of the cruises, and though it may not be the “real China”—cybercafés, B&Bs, and cafés offering “American Brunch” have sprung up to cater to foreign tourists—prices are cheap, the locals are friendly, and everyone speaks English. A bike ride through the surrounding green plains and the forest-covered limestone peaks allows you to see some of China's most remarkable scenery.
The small town of Yangshuo is the southern terminus of the cruises, and though it may not be the “real China”—cybercafés, B&Bs, and cafés offering “American Brunch” have sprung up to cater to foreign tourists—prices are cheap, the locals are friendly, and everyone speaks English. A bike ride through the surrounding green plains and the forest-covered limestone peaks allows you to see some of China's most remarkable scenery.
The Lewis and Clark Trail
U.S.A
In the winter of 1803–1804, President Thomas Jefferson sent two Virginians, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, to lead the search for a navigable route through the American West to the Pacific Ocean, estimating that they'd be home within a year. He underestimated the task by about sixteen months, as Lewis and Clark endured a veritable American odyssey, blazing a 3,700-mile trail through a land previously known only to Indians and trappers.
Many sites along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail (which runs from Wood River, Illinois, to the Pacific Coast) have been established by the National Park Service, and from January 2003 till 2006 will take part in Lewis and Clark's bicentennial, giving “lewisandclarkers” the chance to follow in the footsteps of the great explorers, their thirty-three-man “Corps of Discovery,” and Sacagawea, their Shoshone guide and interpreter, who gave birth to a son (“Pomp”) along the way. Segments of the trail can be explored by foot, horse, bicycle, car, or boat, and patches remain where the landscape appears virtually unchanged since the explorers' journey. The notorious Lolo Trail through the Bitterroot Mountains on the border of Idaho-Montana remains almost as tough going today as then, when Lewis and Clark described it as the hardest test of the expedition.
Many sites along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail (which runs from Wood River, Illinois, to the Pacific Coast) have been established by the National Park Service, and from January 2003 till 2006 will take part in Lewis and Clark's bicentennial, giving “lewisandclarkers” the chance to follow in the footsteps of the great explorers, their thirty-three-man “Corps of Discovery,” and Sacagawea, their Shoshone guide and interpreter, who gave birth to a son (“Pomp”) along the way. Segments of the trail can be explored by foot, horse, bicycle, car, or boat, and patches remain where the landscape appears virtually unchanged since the explorers' journey. The notorious Lolo Trail through the Bitterroot Mountains on the border of Idaho-Montana remains almost as tough going today as then, when Lewis and Clark described it as the hardest test of the expedition.
The Grand Canyon
U.S.A
Few things in this world produce such awe as one’s first glimpse of the Grand Canyon. The mesmerized John Muir wrote, “It will seem as novel to you, as unearthly in color and grandeur and quantity of its architecture as if you had found it after death, on some other star.” It took nature more than 2 billion years to create the vast chasm—in some places 17 miles wide—through a combination of shifting uplift, erosion, and the relentless force of the roaring Colorado River, which runs 277 miles along its length, a mile beneath its towering rims. Each year more than 4 million visitors flock to experience the wonder of its constantly changing pastel hues and unpredictable play of light and shadow, but 90 percent of them never make it past the visitor center, exhibits, museums, and gift shops at the popular (and congested) South Rim, at an elevation of 7,000 feet.
Book at least a year in advance (or pray for last-minute cancellations) at the uniquely sited El Tovar Hotel, built here by Hopi workers in 1905 of native stone and ponderosa pine logs. It is considered the crown jewel of all the national park hotels, and guests will find out why during a quiet moment in a wicker rocking chair on its wide porch, with edge-of-the-world views.
Book at least a year in advance (or pray for last-minute cancellations) at the uniquely sited El Tovar Hotel, built here by Hopi workers in 1905 of native stone and ponderosa pine logs. It is considered the crown jewel of all the national park hotels, and guests will find out why during a quiet moment in a wicker rocking chair on its wide porch, with edge-of-the-world views.
The Masai Mara
Kenya
The Masai Mara is nature's stage for what must be the most spectacular wildlife pageant on earth. Each year when the rainy season ends in May, hundreds of thousands of wildebeests mass together, moving in search of greener pastures and vital sustenance from the Serengeti (Masai for "endless plains") in Tanzania north to the wide-open grasslands of Kenya's Masai Mara, where they arrive in July and August. Along with migrating herds of zebra, antelope, and gazelle, there are at times more than a million animals on the move, and a horseback safari affords you a remarkable vantage point to view an animal kingdom unrivaled anywhere in Africa. (The core of the Masai Mara Game Reserve is closed to those on horseback, but you can reach it in a four-wheel-drive for a glimpse of lions, cheetahs, hyenas, giraffes, and elephants.) Riding through the unspoiled Loita Hills and the great rolling plains of the Mara, you'll pass through manyattas (villages) of the nomadic Masai people, who protect the game they believe to be "God's cattle.” Some ascents will reach 8,600 feet, providing spectacular views and open vistas. And while you marvel at the views, the staff proceeds ahead to set up camp in a lovely setting and has dinner and a hot shower ready for your arrival.
Victoria Falls
Zimbabwe and Zambia
The falls are every bit as monumental and magnificent as you imagined, their noise greater than a million migrating wildebeests, their mists visible from 40 miles away. Dr. David Livingstone, who in 1855 became the first European to set eyes on them, named them after his queen (who unfortunately would never see them); they were soon widely recognized as one of the natural wonders of the world. A fantasy destination of every adventure traveler, the falls are a mile wide, spanning the entire breadth of the Zambezi River. As they crash 400 feet to the gorge below, they create a delicate, endless shower of rain, rainbows, and - if the moon is bright and full enough - lunar rainbows that drift in and out of view. At dawn and dusk the sky, water, and mist take on hues of pink and orange, especially during the wet season from March to May, when the cascades are at their greatest capacity and the opaque spray is kicked 1,000 feet into the sky. It is easy to imagine Dr. Livingstone's awe as he wrote: "On sights as beautiful as this, Angels, in their flight must have gazed." So was named today's 15-minute heart-stopping "Flight of the Angels" over the falls, which rates as one of the world's most scenic plane trips.
Old Sana`a
Yemen
Sana's claims to be the oldest inhabited city on earth, and although other cities clamor for the same title, visitors are convinced. Yemen's capital, said to have been founded by a son of Noah, is bewitching, and its highlight is the ancient medina (non-European) quarter, Old Sana'a. Extraordinarily ornate mud-brick houses - often four or five stories tall and some believed to be more than 400 years old - are built in a unique 1,000-year-old high-rise style. Colored-glass windows and intricate gingerbread facades embellished or covered with brilliant white gypsum lend a whimsical wedding-cake appearance to the city. Shutters and doors are painted blue, and some of the older windows are made with panes of paper-thin alabaster. The narrow streets seem straight out of the Arabian Nights. More than forty souks are found within the Suq al-Milh, where frankincense and myrrh are still sold, together with roasted locusts, sticky dates, sequined fabrics, and the spices that make the local cuisine one of the most delicately delicious in the Middle East.
Petrodvorets
Russia
To get a taste of the mind-boggling opulence of imperial St. Petersburg, take the boat service from the riverside Winter Palace (The Hermitage) and motor on the Neva River to the Gulf of Finland to Petrodvorets, Peter the Great's Grand Palace. Just as St. Petersburg was built as a powerful combination of both East and West - too Russian to be European, too European to be Russian - Petrodvorets was Peter's "window on Europe.” He built it in the early 1700s to rival the architecture and glittering court life of Versailles, and to show European royalty that he could keep up with the best of them. Peter personally drew up the plans for the extravagant summer palace and 300 acres of gardens, where 66 fountains, 39 gilded statues, and 12 miles of manmade canals were constructed by the finest French and Italian architects and engineers. St. Petersburg experienced near annihilation during the 900-day German siege in World War II, but the czar's pet project, completed after his death by Catherine the Great, was painstakingly rebuilt according to Peter's original plans.
Venice
Italy
Here it is, the Venice of your dreams, wooing, intriguing, disorienting, and exhilarating visitors like no other city on earth. Misty and mystical bridge between East and West, straddling both yet belonging to neither, Venezia is like a faded, once great queen that still manages to enchant and beguile. The never-ending stream of tourism began well over 1,000 years ago, and no wonder: As Henry James said, a visit to Venice becomes a perpetual love affair.
THE TOP SIGHTS
GALLERIE DELL'ACCADEMIA - Venice's largest museum, the Accademia contains the most extensive collection of Venetian masters in the world, spanning the 13th to the 18th centuries and all the major painters including Titian, Tintoretto, Giorgione, Veronese, Bellini, and Carpaccio. Viewing 15th-century depictions of the city, it's amazing to see how little has changed. WHERE: Campo della Carità, Dorsoduro. Tel 39/041-522-2247.
CA' D'ORO AND THE GALLERIA GIORGIO FRANCHETTI - Created by early-20th-century philanthropist Baron Giorgio Franchetti, the Ca' d'Oro comprises two joined palaces (the opulent 15th-century Ca' d'Oro-one of the city's most famous and beautiful canalside palazzi - and the smaller Ca' Duodo) and contains the baron's private collection of paintings, sculpture, and furniture, which he donated to the Italian government during World War I.
THE TOP SIGHTS
GALLERIE DELL'ACCADEMIA - Venice's largest museum, the Accademia contains the most extensive collection of Venetian masters in the world, spanning the 13th to the 18th centuries and all the major painters including Titian, Tintoretto, Giorgione, Veronese, Bellini, and Carpaccio. Viewing 15th-century depictions of the city, it's amazing to see how little has changed. WHERE: Campo della Carità, Dorsoduro. Tel 39/041-522-2247.
CA' D'ORO AND THE GALLERIA GIORGIO FRANCHETTI - Created by early-20th-century philanthropist Baron Giorgio Franchetti, the Ca' d'Oro comprises two joined palaces (the opulent 15th-century Ca' d'Oro-one of the city's most famous and beautiful canalside palazzi - and the smaller Ca' Duodo) and contains the baron's private collection of paintings, sculpture, and furniture, which he donated to the Italian government during World War I.
The Walls of Carcassonne
France
An extraordinary example of early military architecture, Carcassonne is the very image of a storybook medieval town. It is surrounded by the longest walls in Europe (nearly 2 miles), a fairy-tale concoction of turrets, watchtowers, battlements, and drawbridges begun in the 6th century. It would take thirteen centuries of alterations, additions, and embellishments by the Romans, Gauls, Visigoths, Arabs, Franks, and French royalty before the double ramparts encircling this prosperous fortified city, the largest in Europe, were completed. The lices, a path between the concentric inner and outer fortifications, offers views within the preserved citadel as well as the lush green countryside and the River Aude without. Its nighttime illumination provides high drama, though torchlight is no longer used. La Cité is the older part of town, sitting on a 1,500-foot hill that for centuries was the border between the present France and Spain. The 12th-century Cathédrale St.-Nazaire has the most interesting architecture in La Cité. If you're looking for an exquisite spot to check your bags, try next door at the Hôtel de la Cité, on the site of a former Episcopal palace. Built into the ancient ramparts and incorporating one of the fifty-two watchtowers, the newly renovated ivy-covered hotel is one of the finest in the area and boasts an elegant restaurant, La Barbacane.
London
England
A city of contrasts, London is simultaneously the cradle of pomp, pageantry, and history and the birthplace of all things groundbreaking and cutting edge. Once the immutable capital of fish-and-chips, it's now a cheerful chameleon, brilliantly reinventing itself when no one is looking, then preening nonchalantly when the global spotlight turns its way.
SOME OF LONDON'S MOST NOTABLE SIGHTS
BRITISH MUSEUM - Unless you have a week to visit the 2.5 miles of galleries, head for the Elgin marbles (which once decorated the Parthenon in Athens), the Rosetta Stone, the Magna Carta, and the Egyptian mummies. WHERE: Great Russell St. Bloomsbury. Tel 44/ 20-7323-8299; www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk.
BUCKINGHAM PALACE - Official residence of the queen. When she's away in August and September, parts of the 600-room landmark (the state apartments, the throne room, and the Picture Gallery) are open to the public. The Changing of the Guard is done on alternate days at 11:30 A.M. WHERE: St. James's. Tel 44/20-7839-1377; www.royal.gov.uk.
HAMPTON COURT - Five hundred landscaped acres of gardens and a famous maze of tall hedges (the key is to turn left upon entering). For 200 years a royal palace: Henry VIII and five of his six wives lived here. Owes much of its present look to Sir Christopher Wren.
SOME OF LONDON'S MOST NOTABLE SIGHTS
BRITISH MUSEUM - Unless you have a week to visit the 2.5 miles of galleries, head for the Elgin marbles (which once decorated the Parthenon in Athens), the Rosetta Stone, the Magna Carta, and the Egyptian mummies. WHERE: Great Russell St. Bloomsbury. Tel 44/ 20-7323-8299; www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk.
BUCKINGHAM PALACE - Official residence of the queen. When she's away in August and September, parts of the 600-room landmark (the state apartments, the throne room, and the Picture Gallery) are open to the public. The Changing of the Guard is done on alternate days at 11:30 A.M. WHERE: St. James's. Tel 44/20-7839-1377; www.royal.gov.uk.
HAMPTON COURT - Five hundred landscaped acres of gardens and a famous maze of tall hedges (the key is to turn left upon entering). For 200 years a royal palace: Henry VIII and five of his six wives lived here. Owes much of its present look to Sir Christopher Wren.
Petra
Jordan
The rose-red city of Petra, one of the wonders of the ancient world, has parts that are miraculously preserved and others that have been eroded and sculpted by floods and the elements. Until Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt "rediscovered" it in 1812, Petra had been forgotten for centuries. It can be reached on foot by the Siq Gorge, a narrow, winding passageway at times no wider than 6 feet, with rock faces on either side as high as a four-story building. At the end of this eerie, mile-long passageway, a magical sight looms through the fissure ahead: the Khaznah or Treasury, a soaring, classical Greek-style temple hewn right into the sheer face of a 130-foot cliff. It dates back to 56 B.C. and is one of the best-preserved of Petra's wonders. Petra, which means "rock," was a fortress city and thriving trade center whose inhabitants carved houses, temples, and tombs, sometimes with extremely elaborate and columned facades, out of the natural canyon walls. The area, 2 square 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.
