Easter Island, also called Rapa Nui, is the most isolated island on Earth—it’s located 2,000 km from the nearest speck of land and 3,700 kilometers from the continental coast of Chile, and yet Easter Island has captivated the world. Famed for its stone heads—or moai, as they are known locally—the entirety of Easter Island is …
From the World Heritage inscription for Quseir Amra: Quseir Amra bears exceptional testimony to the Omayyad civilization which was imbued with a pre-Islamic secular culture whose austere religious environment only left behind insignificant traces in the visual arts. It is the best conserved architectural ensemble, if not the most complete, of all the Omayyad palaces …
From the World Heritage inscription for the Monasteries of Daphni, Hosios Loukas and Nea Moni of Chios: Although geographically distant from each other (Daphni is located in Attica, Greece, 11 km from Athens; Hossios Luckas in Phocis, 67 km from the capital, and Nea Moni in the centre of the island of Chios), the three …
I first visited Bulgaria in 2011 as part of a G Adventures trip from Budapest to Istanbul. I was able to visit cities like Belogradchik, Sofia and Veliko Tarnovo. However, I never got to the Black Sea. My agent Stephen Hanselman (who took the photos for this post) and his wife Julia Serebrinsky recently visited …
What a day. I’m still exhausted even after a night’s sleep. Yesterday was probably the second most grueling day of my travels (the first being the 30 hours I went from the Solomon Islands, to Nauru, to Kiribati, to Fiji, to Hawaii). I got up at 3am in Tel Aviv and left for the airport …
From the World Heritage inscription for the Acropolis, Athens: The Acropolis of Athens is the most striking and complete ancient Greek monumental complex still existing in our times. It is situated on a hill of average height (156m) that rises in the basin of Athens. Its overall dimensions are approximately 170 by 350m. The hill …
The McDonald’s in Noumea wasn’t anything special. Nothing special on the menu. The only thing of note was how they organized their value meals. You picked a sandwich, you picked a side (salad or fries) and a drink. Each meal was the same price. They also had the Royal Cheese from Pulp Fiction fame. Not …
From the World Heritage inscription for Angkor: Angkor, in Cambodia’s northern province of Siem Reap, is one of the most important archaeological sites in Southeast Asia. It extends over approximately 400 square kilometers and consists of scores of temples, hydraulic structures (basins, dikes, reservoirs, canals) as well as communication routes. For several centuries Angkor was …
From the World Heritage inscription: The Taj Mahal is located on the right bank of the Yamuna River in a vast Mughal garden that encompasses nearly 17 hectares, in the Agra District in Uttar Pradesh. It was built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal with construction starting in 1632 …