The Tokaj wine region in northeastern Hungary has been producing wine since Roman times. Tokaj’s wines were historically prized throughout Europe, thanks to a gift of numerous bottles that the prince of Transylvania presented to King Louis XIV. Deligh…
The old city of Segovia, about 90 km north of Madrid, is best known for its aqueduct, but this historic city is full of architectural curiosities, such as the ornamental façades and geometric textures on the walls of many of the houses, the strangest o…
The Qasr al-Farid tomb (The Lonely Castle) carved into rose-coloured sandstone in Hegra, also known as Madain Saleh, a UNESCO World Heritage site, near Saudi Arabia’s northwestern town of al-Ula. (Photo: AFP) In a bid to promote historical sites,…
Sunomata Castle stands at the confluence of the Sai and Nagara rivers, in the city of Ōgaki in Gifu Prefecture. It’s a typical Japanese castle with a strong foundation of stone and a multi-storied wooden building on top with a gable roof and decorate…
One hundred thirty miles from Mexico City, Querétaro is a small paradise and the right place for cold weather lovers. With a wide variety of landscapes—scrubland in the central zone’s highlands, coniferous and oak forests to the north, and dry fore…
The 1999 Hollywood movie The Mummy is set in Egypt, but was filmed largely in Morocco. Marrakech became the Cairo of 1926, the year the story takes place, and the lost city of “Hamunaptra” was set inside a vast horseshoe-shaped geological feature ca…
The Adda Valley cuts through the high plains of Lombardy as an unexpected verdant hiatus. From the A4 highway or from the Milan-Venice railway, its appears for just a few seconds as a thick forest, steeply sloping down to the river, which is here partic…
A place name is more than a name – it’s a historical record of the name-givers. By examining some of the most common toponyms, Britain’s ‘deep history’ is revealed. See where Danes, Welsh, and Anglo-Saxons stamped their name on…
Vladimir Ilich Lenin, the founder and first leader of the Soviet Union, lives on in the hearts and minds of the Russian people, but also in one little-known geoglyph in the country’s Siberia region – pine tree forest that spells “Lenin” in Cyril…
The Siberian tundra, where average temperatures in winter can plunge as low as -40C, might seem like an unlikely place to build a science and technology hub. Yet, hidden among the birch and pine trees and – for much of the year – the snow, stands on…
Bird-eye view of Tianducheng (via Wikimedia Commons) In a statement released on April 27, the Chinese Ministry of Housing and Urban Development issued strict prohibitions on public architecture that “plagiarizes, imitates, and copycats” existing des…
This tiny island nation in the Mediterranean Sea has held strategic and historic importance across the ages. As a result, the country exhibits a rich blend of many cultural influences. From its sun-kissed shores, the deep blue Mediterranean Sea all arou…
Iranian archaeologists have discovered 20 new inscriptions in Naqsh-e Rostam historical complex near the southern city of Shiraz. Archaeologists say the inscriptions were unearthed from Kuh-Hussein walls and the tombs of Achaemenid kings. In the histori…
Rainbow-coloured fish swirled around my legs in crystal-clear South Pacific waters. On a semi-tropical rainforest walk, I clapped my hands and chirping flightless birds ran towards me, tame from lack of predators. People rode bicycles along 13km of narr…
There are many places in the world, which are known for their beauty. In such a situation, today we are going to tell you about some such waterfalls, you will be surprised to know the merits of them. You must have seen many water springs, but you will b…
A view of the Western Ghats. Credit: IWP/Flickr, CC BY 2.0. On March 20, the controversial Hubballi-Ankola railway line project was cleared at the Karnataka State Wildlife Board (KSWB) meeting in Bengaluru amid protests from members. The proposed 164.44…
Shanghai Disneyland, one of 14 Disney theme parks globally, reopened yesterday, making it the first Disney park to resume operations since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic forced entertainment venues around the world to close their doors. The Ho…
It seems like travelers won’t be able to make their usual Stonehenge pilgrimage for the summer solstice in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. But the English Heritage organization has devised the next best thing: a livestream. The county of Wiltsh…
Germany and Belgium’s border problem. Photo: gunnsteinlye/Flickr Along the German-Belgian border runs an old disused railway track, the Vennbahn. It passes through three countries, starting at the German town of Aachen, goes through Belgian territory …
The Dead Cities formed a centre of agriculture for the region, supplying wheat, grapes, olives and wine for Antioch and Apamea from the Roman classical period when the Byzantine Empire was near its peak. Serjilla covers an area of around 19.7684 acres a…