Photo: San Diego Reader
Source: Day Trip from Delhi: Taj Mahal and the Red Fort of Agra
Day Trip from Delhi: Taj Mahal and the Red Fort of Agra; Mary Spierling; San Diego Reader
Destination Verona; Lauren Probert; Travel News
Photo: Travel News
Glorious Guimaraes: Chic and cheerful in Portugal’s new European Capital of Culture; Victoria Gooch; Daily Mail
Guimaraes is hardly the most famous of cities. But Portugal’s original capital is undergoing a renaissance as one of the 2012 European Capitals of Culture. Victoria Gooch takes a tour.
Source: Glorious Guimaraes: Chic and cheerful in Portugal’s new European Capital of Culture
Falling for Victoria Falls; Sam Bradley; IOL
Photo: IOL
A trip to this World Heritage Site promises more than just smoke and thunder, writes Sam Bradley.
Source: Falling for Victoria Falls
Guide to Afghanistan: The Adventures of a KL-ite (Part 10 – Living at the feet of Buddha); Zan Azlee; Fatbidin.com
Afghanistan – Cultural Landscape and Archaeological Remains of the Bamiyan Valley
This week is part 10 of Zan Azlee multimedia documentary, Guide To Afghanistan: The Adventures of a KL-ite, which includes video, still photos and text. As you would know, this is concurrent with the 10-part feature on The Malaysian Insider website, of which you can view part 10:
Retreat to rainforest; Cameron Wilson; Traveller
Photo: Traveller
Cameron Wilson explores Lamington National Park’s forests and birdlife along its extensive network of walking tracks.
Source: Retreat to rainforest
Mies van der Rohe’s Villa Tugendhat restored in Czech Republic; AP
Photo: Petr David Jozek
Mies van der Rohe masterpiece in Brno, seen as an exemplar of modernist architecture, to reopen after £5.7m restoration…
Source: Mies van der Rohe’s Villa Tugendhat restored in Czech Republic
Under Sabratha’s spell, near the sea in Libya; Alice Sun-Cua; GMA Network
Photo: Alex Cua & Alice Sun-Cua
The very name sounded exotic enough: Sab-ra-tha, the three syllables rolling in the tongue like some sweet, mysterious fruit.
Experience Korean lifestyle in North Jeolla; Lee Hyo-Sik; Korea Times
Photo: Korea Times
Once a prison, now a spiritual and tourist hub; Grigory Kubatian; RBTH
Photo: Grigory Kubatian
Located in the White Sea in northwestern Russia, the Solovetsky Islands once housed one of Russia’s first gulags, but now its centuries-old monastery and the seascape’s stark beauty attracts thousands of tourists and the spiritually inclined.
Zebras, rhinos and close encounters of a Zambian kind; Errol Barnett; CNN
Photo: Errol Barnett/CNN
“Stop the car, stop the car! There’s a bull elephant in the road!” Words Errol Barnett listened to closely as they’re being shouted by a man sitting next to him clutching an AK-47.
Source: Zebras, rhinos and close encounters of a Zambian kind
A trip to Lanna; Pichaya Svasti; Bangkok Post
Photo: Bangkok Post
To learn about the lives of Queen Jammathewi of the Hariphunchai empire and Princess Dara Rasmi, a royal consort of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V), Smile Trip, a cultural group, invites history buffs to a trip to Lamphun and Chiang Mai from Feb 2-5. The trip will be led by culture experts Chulpassorn Phanomwan Na Ayudhya and Charoen Tanmahapran.
Source: A trip to Lanna
Emerging; Cornelia Rabitz; Deutsche Welle
Photo: Picture Alliance
Guimaraes is full of construction sites. The Portuguese town with a thousands years of history and the youngest population in Portugal is putting on the finishing touches for its year as European Capital of Culture.
Source: Emerging
A visit to Sri Lanka’s medieval capital, Polonnaruwa; Seth Miller; Wandering Aramean
Photo: http://www.wandr.me
Source: A visit to Sri Lanka’s medieval capital, Polonnaruwa – Wandering Aramean
New Discoveries at Ancient City of Bosra; Science News
A team of archaeologists has announced new discoveries unearthed at the archaeological site of the ancient city of Bosra, southern Syria.
The Pergamon Museum; Ino Manalo; Inquirer Lifestyle
A friend from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization once told Ino Manalo that his organization’s famous World Heritage List generally excludes museums. Ino Manalo suppose this may have to do with the fact that museums are very obviously heritage sites. As such, they do not need a Unesco declaration to be accorded recognition and protection.
Emerald of the Earth’s belt; Wang Ru; China Daily
Photo: China Daily
Masada, Herod’s desert fortress; Hello Magazine
Photo: Hello Magazine
The scene of scores of biblical stories, home to monks and hermits, symbol of Jewish resistance, location for film and opera… there are reasons aplenty to visit this remarkable isolated mountain in the Judean Desert near the Dead Sea. The view from its summit gives things a different perspective.
Source: Masada, Herod’s desert fortress
Protecting Libya’s heritage; Nato
Photo: Nato
Libya boasts a rich cultural heritage; Palaeolithic rock paintings, Greek and Roman ruins and ancient desert oases. These historic treasures, including six UNESCO World Heritage sites, have suffered years of neglect and most recently the perils of conflict.
Source: Protecting Libya’s heritage
Evolution World Tour: Wadi Hitan, Egypt; Abigail Tucker; Smithsonian Magazine
Egypt – Wadi Al-Hitan (Whale Valley)
In Egypt’s Western Desert, evidence abounds that before they were the kings of the ocean, whales roamed the earth on four legs.
In 1902, a team of geologists guided their camels into a valley in Egypt’s Western Desert—a desolate, dream-like place. Centuries of strong wind had sculpted sandstone rocks into alien shapes, and at night the moonlight was so bright that the sand glowed like gold. There was no water for miles. A nearby hill was known as “Mountain of Hell” because of the infernal summer heat.
Yet in this parched valley lay the bones of whales.
Some of the skeletons were 50 feet long, with vertebrae as thick as campfire logs. They dated back 37 million years, to an era when a shallow, tropical sea covered this area and all of northern Egypt.
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