The Lybrook Badlands, at over 7000 feet elevation, offer a comfortable summer hiking destination. Countless, multihued sandstone hoo doos are so ingeniously shaped that they appear crafted in a Santa Fe artist’s studio rather than by natural forces. The cliffs separating the steps complicate long-distance hiking. Easy routes between the levels are limited and difficult to find. The Badlands are located approximately two-and-a-half hours from Albuquerque... 

The theatre was constructed in the 1st century CE and further extended in the 3rd century CE. The theatre had a capacity of 3-4,000 spectators. Part of its 22m-high facade is still intact. In summer, performances are held in the better-preserved lower section. credit: claudio.secci  Read More →

The Bonavista Peninsula meets Trinity Bay on the east and Bonavista Peninsula on the west. In many ways, the peninsula is the heartland of the island. History and tradition maintains the Viennese explorer John Cabot was the first European to set foot here, on June 24, 1497. Bonavista is a shortened version of “O Bueno Vista,” or “Oh Happy Site,” the words spoken by Cabot when he first saw land. First settled in the late sixteenth... 

Over 70 abandoned trolleys, subways and buses have found home in a North Carolina forest. The trains, once filled with people, now sit decaying on winding tracks stretching through the snowy forest, infusing visitors with a certain apocalyptic feel. The trains are from big cities such as New York City and Philadelphia, but have been left to rot in this unusual graveyard. credit: ttcfan4476  Read More →

Famous Highgate Cemetery is one of unusual historical destinations in London. Features include Victorian buildings, chapels, catacombs, The Lebanon Circle and Egyptian Avenue, all of outstanding architectural importance. The most famous resident of Highgate Cemetery East is Karl Marx, whose monument attracts comrades and others from all over the world. Visitors are free to wander through the East Cemetery, with its memorials to Karl Marx, George Eliot... 

Tazumal is an architectural complex and Pre-Columbian Maya archeological site in Chalchuapa, El Salvador. Tazumal, which means “the place where the victims were burned” in the early Quiche language, is the remains of a Maya community that inhabited the area from A.D. 100 to 1200. It’s believed that Tazumal functioned as an important trading center and that much of the site still remains unexcavated. The excavated ruins on display... 

The Yungang Grottoes lie in the northern part of Shanxi province about ten miles west of the industrial city of Datong. The approximately fifty caves carved in the sandstone cliffs of the Wuzhou mountain range stretch for about a kilometer along the Wuzhou River. The construction of the caves was started under the auspices of the noted monk Tan Yao in 453 and took 50 years to complete. The 53 grottoes in Yungang Grottos include some 1,000 niches with...