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Èze is a seaside commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France. It is located on the French Riviera, 8.5 km (5.2 mi) to the northeast of Nice and 4.5 km (2.7 mi) to the west of Monaco. In 2018, Èze had 2,225 inhabitants known as Ezasques (masculine and feminine).
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Giethoorn is a village in the province of Overijssel, Netherlands, with a population of 2,795 in 2020. It is located in the municipality of Steenwijkerland, about 5 km (3.1 mi) southwest of Steenwijk. As a popular Dutch tourist destination both within the Netherlands and abroad, Giethoorn is often referred to as "Dutch Venice" or the "Venice of the Netherlands".
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Rovinj is a city in west Croatia situated on the north Adriatic Sea with a population of 14,294 (2011). Located on the western coast of the Istrian peninsula, it is a popular tourist resort and beach destination, in addition to being an active fishing port. Istriot, a Romance language once widely spoken in this part of Istria, is still spoken by some of the residents. The town is officially bilingual, Croatian and Italian, hence both town names are official and equal.
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Hallstatt is a small town in the district of Gmunden, in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. Situated between the southwestern shore of Hallstätter See and the steep slopes of the Dachstein massif, the town lies in the Salzkammergut region, on the national road linking Salzburg and Graz.
Hallstatt is known for its production of salt, dating back to prehistoric times, and gave its name to the Hallstatt culture, the archaeological culture linked to Proto-Celtic and early Celtic people of the Early Iron Age in Europe, c. 800–450 BC.
Hallstatt is at the core of the Hallstatt-Dachstein/Salzkammergut Cultural Landscape declared as one of the World Heritage Sites in Austria by UNESCO in 1997. It is an area of overtourism.
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Ohrid is a city in North Macedonia and is the seat of the Ohrid Municipality. It is the largest city on Lake Ohrid and the eighth-largest city in the country, with it recording a population of over 38,000 inhabitants as of 2021. Ohrid is known for once having 365 churches, one for each day of the year, and has been referred to as the "Jerusalem of the Balkans". The city is rich in picturesque houses and monuments, and tourism is predominant. It is located southwest of Skopje, west of Resen and Bitola. In 1979 and in 1980, respectively, Ohrid and Lake Ohrid were accepted as Cultural and Natural World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. Ohrid is one of only 40 sites that are part of UNESCO's World Heritage that are Cultural as well as Natural sites.
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Tinos is a Greek island situated in the Aegean Sea. It forms part of the Cyclades archipelago. The closest islands are Andros, Delos, and Mykonos. It has a land area of 194.464 square kilometres (75.083 sq mi) and a 2021 census population of 8,934 inhabitants.
Tinos is famous amongst Greeks for the Church of Panagia Evangelistria, for the island's 80 or so windmills, for about 1,000 artistic dovecotes, for 50 active villages and for the Venetian fortifications on the mountain Exomvourgo. On Tinos, both Greek Orthodox and Catholic populations co-exist, and the island is also well known for its sculptors and painters, such as Nikolaos Gysis, Yannoulis Chalepas and Nikiforos Lytras.
The island is located near the geographical center of the Cyclades islands complex, and because of the Panagia Evangelistria church, with the reputedly miraculous icon of Virgin Mary that it holds, Tinos is also the center of a yearly pilgrimage that takes place on the date of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary (15 August, Greek: Dekapentavgoustos). Many pilgrims make their way along the 800 metres (2,600 feet) from the ferry wharf to the church on their hands and knees as sign of devotion.
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Plovdiv is the second-largest city in Bulgaria, 144 km (93 miles) southeast of the capital Sofia. It had a population of 329,489 as of 2024 and 540,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is a cultural hub in Bulgaria and was the European Capital of Culture in 1999 and 2019. The city is an important economic, transport, cultural, and educational centre. Plovdiv joined the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities in 2016.
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Kotor, historically known as Cattaro, is a town in Coastal region of Montenegro. It is located in a secluded part of the Bay of Kotor. The city has a population of 13,347 and is the administrative center of Kotor Municipality.
The old Mediterranean port of Kotor is surrounded by fortifications built during the Venetian period. It is located on the Bay of Kotor (Boka Kotorska), one of the most indented parts of the Adriatic Sea. Some have called it the southernmost fjord in Europe, but it is a ria, a submerged river canyon. Together with the nearly overhanging limestone cliffs of Orjen and Lovćen, Kotor and its surrounding area form an impressive landscape.
Since the early 2000s Kotor has seen an increase in tourists, many of them coming by cruise ship. Visitors are attracted to the natural environment of the Bay of Kotor and the old town of Kotor. Kotor is part of the World Heritage Site dubbed the Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of Kotor.
The fortified city of Kotor was also included in UNESCO's World Heritage Site list as part of Venetian Works of Defence between 16th and 17th centuries: Stato da Terra – western Stato da Mar in 2017.
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Chania, also sometimes romanized as Hania, is a city in Greece and the capital of the Chania regional unit. It lies along the north west coast of the island Crete, about 70 km (43 mi) west of Rethymno and 145 km (90 mi) west of Heraklion.
The municipality has 111,375 inhabitants (2021). This consists of the city of Chania and several nearby areas, including Kounoupidiana, Mournies, Souda, Nerokouros, Daratsos, Perivolia, Galatas and Aroni.
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Valletta, also known as Città Umilissima (transl. the Humblest City), is the capital city of Malta and one of its 68 council areas. Located between the Grand Harbour to the east and Marsamxett Harbour to the west, its population as of 2021 was 5,157. As Malta’s capital city, it is a commercial centre for shopping, bars, dining, and café life. It is also the southernmost capital of Europe, and, at just 0.61 square kilometres (0.24 sq mi), it is the European Union's smallest capital city.
Valletta's 16th-century buildings were constructed by the Knights Hospitaller. The city was named after the Frenchman Jean Parisot de Valette, who succeeded in defending the island against an Ottoman invasion during the Great Siege of Malta. The city is Baroque in character, with elements of Mannerist, Neo-Classical and Modern architecture, though the Second World War left major scars on the city, particularly the destruction of the Royal Opera House. The city was officially recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1980. The city has 320 monuments, all within an area of 0.55 square kilometres (0.21 sq mi), making it one of the most concentrated historic areas in the world. Sometimes called an "open-air museum",[10] Valletta was chosen as the European Capital of Culture for 2018. Valletta was also listed as the sunniest city in Europe in 2016.
The city is noted for its fortifications, consisting of bastions, curtains and cavaliers, along with the beauty of its Baroque palaces, gardens and churches.
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Tropea is a municipality in the province of Vibo Valentia, in the Italian region of Calabria. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia ("The most beautiful villages of Italy"). It has 5,661 inhabitants.
Tropea is a seaside resort with sandy beaches, located on the Gulf of Saint Euphemia, part of the Tyrrhenian Sea, on Italy's west coast and was named "Most beautiful village in Italy" for 2021.
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Český Krumlov is a town in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 13,000 inhabitants. It is known as a tourist center, which is among the most visited places in the country. The historic center with the Český Krumlov Castle complex is protected by law as an urban monument reservation, and since 1992, it has been a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its well-preserved Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architecture.
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Near Pak Ou (mouth of the Ou river) the Tham Ting (lower cave) and the Tham Theung (upper cave) are caves overlooking the Mekong River, 25 km to the north of Luang Prabang, Laos. They are a group of two caves on the west side of the Mekong river, about two hours upstream from the centre of Luang Prabang, and are frequently visited by tourists.
The caves are noted for their miniature Buddha sculptures. Hundreds of very small and mostly damaged wooden Buddhist figures are laid out over the wall shelves. They take many different positions, including meditation, teaching, walking, naga, peace, rain, and reclining (Nibbana).
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Bagan is an ancient city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Mandalay Region of Myanmar. From the 9th to 13th centuries, the city was the capital of the Pagan Kingdom, the first kingdom that unified the regions that would later constitute Myanmar. During the kingdom's height between the 11th and 13th centuries, more than 10,000 Buddhist temples, pagodas and monasteries were constructed in the Bagan plains alone, of which the remains of over 2200 temples and pagodas survive.
The Bagan Archaeological Zone is a main attraction for the country's nascent tourism industry.
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Jaffna is the capital city of the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna District located on a peninsula of the same name. With a population of 88,138 in 2012, Jaffna is Sri Lanka's 12th most populous city. Jaffna is approximately ten kilometres (six miles) from Kandarodai which served as an emporium in the Jaffna peninsula from classical antiquity. Jaffna's suburb Nallur served as the capital of the four-century-long medieval Tamil Jaffna Kingdom.
Prior to the Sri Lankan Civil War, it was Sri Lanka's second most populous city after Colombo. The 1980s insurgent uprising led to extensive damage, expulsion of part of the population, and military occupation. Since the end of civil war in 2009, refugees and internally displaced people began returning to homes, while government and private sector reconstruction started taking place. Historically, Jaffna has been a contested city. It was made into a colonial port town during the Portuguese occupation of the Jaffna peninsula in 1619 who lost it to the Dutch, who would lose it to the British in 1796. During the civil war, the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) occupied Jaffna in 1986. The Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) briefly occupied the city in 1987. The LTTE again occupied the city from 1989 until 1995, when the Sri Lankan Army regained control.
The majority of the city's population are Sri Lankan Tamils with a significant number of Sri Lankan Moors, Indian Tamils and other ethnic groups present in the city prior to the civil war. Most Sri Lankan Tamils are Hindus followed by Christians, Muslims and a small Buddhist minority. The city is home to number of educational institutions established during the colonial and post-colonial period. It also has number of commercial institutions, minor industrial units, banks, hotels and other government institutions. It is home to many historical sites such as the popular Jaffna library that was burnt down and rebuilt and the Jaffna fort which was rebuilt during the Dutch colonial period.
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Saddan Cave is a major Buddhist cave temple with hundreds of small Buddha statues. It is located in the southernmost point of the Zwegabin Mountain range, Hpa-An, Kayin State, Myanmar. Saddan Cave is 107 metres (351 ft) long from east to west and 40 metres (130 ft) wide, and is the longest cave in Karen State with a narrow entrance. The cave is located at a height of about 30 feet (9.1 m) from the ground and has a round shape. The cave is named after Saddan, the king of elephants who lived near the cave. The largest of the stalagmites is called the "Stone Pillar of the King of Elephants". The Saddan Cave Pagoda festival is held every year on the last day of Thingyan.[1][2] At the exit of Saddan Cave, there is a large lake, which is said to be King Saddan's bathing lake. Saddan Cave was a resting place for the legendary King Paarwana when he was a hunter, according to Karen legend.
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The Kawgun Cave is a Buddhist cave temple, located in Kawgun Village, Hpa-An, Kayin State, Myanmar. The cave is lined with thousands of small Buddha statues covering its walls. The cave is an important historical and cultural heritage site in Myanmar. The rear of the cave leads to a row of floating restaurants in the Ruby Lake.
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Kanchanaburi is a town municipality in Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand. The town of lies to the southeast of Erawan National Park within Kanchanaburi Province, approximately 120km west of Bangkok. In 2006 it had a population of 31,327. That number was reduced to 25,651 in 2017. The town covers tambons Ban Nuea and Ban Tai and parts of Pak Phraek and Tha Makham, all of Mueang Kanchanaburi District, and parts of tambon Tha Lo of Tha Muang District.
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Phanom Rung Historical Park is an archaeological site in Thailand, covering the ruins of Prasat Phanom Rung, a Hindu Khmer Empire temple complex set on the rim of an extinct volcano at 402 metres (1,319 ft) elevation. It is located in Buriram Province in the Isan region of Thailand and was built at a time when Khmer social-political influences were significant in Srisaket. It was built of sandstone and laterite between the 10th and 13th centuries. It was a Hindu shrine dedicated to Shiva, and symbolises Mount Kailash, his heavenly dwelling.
The Phanom Rung sanctuary compound was constructed over several phases, dated by means of iconography of its art and architectural styles together with its inscriptions. These comprise two foundations of sacred brick buildings of 10th century C.E., the minor sanctuary of 11th century, the central sanctuary built by King Suryavarman II in 12th century and two Bannalais (libraries) of the 13th century. Further sacred buildings built in the reign of King Jayavarman VII in 13th century, including the Royal attire Changing Pavilion, the Kudi Rishis of Nong Bua Ray, the medical centre or hospital (Arokayasala) and Prasat Ban Bu, a rest house with fire where travelers could shelter (Dharmasala) on the plain at the foot of Phanom Rung, alongside the road linking Angkor and Phimai. These evidence an important vice-regal centre on and around the mountain that flourishes from the 10th to the 13th centuries.
Thailand's Department of Fine Arts spent 17 years restoring the complex to its original state from 1971 to 1988. On 21 May 1988, the park was officially opened by Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn. In 2005, the temple was submitted to UNESCO for consideration as a future World Heritage Site.
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al-Ula, officially AlUla, is an ancient Arabian oasis city and governorate located in Medina Province, Saudi Arabia, 350 kilometres (220 miles) northwest of the city of Medina. Situated in the Hejaz, a region that features prominently in the history of Islam as well as several pre-Islamic Semitic civilizations, al-Ula was a market city on the historic incense trade route that linked India and the Persian Gulf to the Levant and Europe.
From an archaeological perspective, the immediate vicinity contains a unique concentration of precious artifacts, including well-preserved ancient stone inscriptions that illustrate the development of the Arabic language, and a concentration of rock dwellings and tombs that date from the Nabatean and Dedanite periods that coincided with Greco-Roman influence during classical antiquity. Saudi Arabia's first UNESCO World Heritage Site, Hegra (also known as al-Hijr, or Mada'in Ṣalih), is located 22 km (14 miles) north of the city, in al-Ula governorate. Built more than 2,000 years ago by the Nabataeans, Hegra is often compared with its sister city of Petra, in Jordan. Meanwhile, the ancient walled oasis city of al-Ula, locally known as al-Dirah, situated near the oasis's palm grove that allowed for its settlement, contains a dense cluster of mudbrick and stone houses. al-Ula was also the capital of the ancient Lihyanites (Dedanites).
The Jabal Ikmah epigraphs and petroglyphs are located in the mountains around al-Ula. In 2023, they have been inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World International Register. Dating back to the second half of the first millennium BCE, they played a significant role in the evolution of Old Arabic languages and dialects. Carved in sandstone, these nearly 300 inscriptions are written in the pre-Nabataean Arabic languages Aramaic, Dadanitic, Thamudic, and Minaic.
Today, the city of al-Ula is within the Governorate of al-Ula, one of seven constituent counties of Medina province. The city is located 110 km (68 miles) southwest of Tayma and 300 km (190 miles) north of Medina. The city (municipality) covers 2,391 square kilometres (923 sq mi), and has a population of 60,103 as of 2022. In addition to the ancient old town al-Dīrah, a more recent historical and adjacent settlement, al-Judaydah, displaying the settlement patterns of Arabic-Islamic urbanism, remains occupied and is currently experiencing a redesign. Since the 1980s, the oasis of al-Ula has experienced significant agricultural and urban growth. Since then, the settled Bedouins have been added to the population of Sedentary people and, as in the rest of the kingdom, a large population of immigrant workers.
The area is also known for its striking landscape of rocks, canyons, and wadis, and the contrast between these dry surroundings and the lush, palm-filled oases near the city's centre. The oasis of al-Ula was once a key stop on the Hejaz railway, linking Damascus to Medina.
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Jerash is a city in northern Jordan. The city is the administrative center of the Jerash Governorate, and has a population of 50,745 as of 2015. It is located 30.0 miles (48.3 kms) north of the capital city Amman.
The earliest evidence of settlement in Jerash is in a Neolithic site known as Tal Abu Sowan, where rare human remains dating to around 7500 BC were uncovered. Jerash flourished during the Greek, Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods, when it was known as Gerasa. It was one of the cities of the Hellenistic cities of the Decapolis. It was an important city in early Christian times and its early churches, some of which were formerly temples, include notable examples of the evolution of church architecture. In the mid-eighth century the 749 Galilee earthquake destroyed large parts of it, and subsequent earthquakes contributed to additional destruction.
In 1120, Zahir ad-Din Toghtekin, atabeg of Damascus ordered a garrison of forty men to build up a fort in an unknown site of the ruins of the ancient city, likely the highest spot of the city walls in the north-eastern hills. It was captured in 1121 by Baldwin II, King of Jerusalem, and utterly destroyed. The Crusaders immediately abandoned Jerash and withdrew to Sakib (Seecip), the eastern border of the settlement.
Jerash was then deserted and reappeared in the historical record at the beginning of Ottoman rule in the area during the early 16th century. In the census of 1596, it had a population of 12 Muslim households. However, archaeologists found a small Mamluk hamlet in the Northwest Quarter which indicates that Jerash was resettled before the Ottoman era. The excavations conducted since 2011 have shed light on the Middle Islamic period as recent discoveries have uncovered a large concentration of Middle Islamic/Mamluk structures and pottery. The ancient city has been gradually revealed through a series of excavations since 1925.
Jerash today is home to one of the best-preserved Greco-Roman cities, which earned it the nickname "Pompeii of the Middle East". Approximately 330,000 visitors arrived in Jerash in 2018, making it one of the most visited sites in Jordan. The city hosts the Jerash Festival, one of the leading cultural events in the Middle East that attracts tens of thousands of visitors every year.
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Misfat al Abriyeen or Misfah al Abriyyin is a village in the wilayah of Al Hamra in Oman.
Located in an oasis at 900 metres (3,000 ft) above sea level in the Western Hajar mountains, it has an extensive falaj water canalization system which dates back more than 2,000 years. It is still in use nowadays to supply the village with water from a local spring, and to irrigate the terraced fields where crops such as mangoes, pomegranates, figs, and olives are grown.
The settlement is perched on a rock, which acts as a natural fortification, and is characterized by narrow stone-paved roads and houses built with mud, stone and sarooj. Several of the buildings that are still standing date back more than 200 years. Its architectural style has been described as similar to that of the Yemeni highlands.
The village has undergone significant restoration work in the past years, with the creation of new hotels and heritage houses, and has been placed in the Best Tourism Villages list by the World Tourism Organization in 2021.
The valley of Wadi Al-Saq can be reached from the village and is a tourist destination for hiking and trekking. From Misfat departs the trekking route W9 along an ancient donkey path, leading to the junction with W8 to Bilad Sayt and W10 to Sharaf Al Alamayn.
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Lake Turkana is a saline lake in the Kenyan Rift Valley, in northern Kenya, with its far northern end crossing into Ethiopia. It is the world's largest permanent desert lake and the world's largest alkaline lake. By volume it is the world's fourth-largest salt lake after the Caspian Sea, Issyk-Kul, and Lake Van (passing the shrinking South Aral Sea), and among all lakes it ranks 24th.
Lake Turkana is now threatened by the construction of the Gilgel Gibe III Dam in Ethiopia due to the damming of the Omo river which supplies most of the lake's water.
Although the lake commonly has been—and to some degree still is—used for drinking water, its salinity (slightly brackish) and very high levels of fluoride (much higher than in fluoridated water) generally make it unsuitable for drinking directly, and it has also been a source of diseases spread by contaminated water. Increasingly, communities on the lake's shores rely on underground springs for drinking water. The same characteristics that make it unsuitable for drinking, limit its use in irrigation. The climate is hot and very dry.
The rocks of the surrounding area are predominantly volcanic. Central Island is an active volcano, emitting vapour. Outcrops and rocky shores are found on the east and south shores of the lake, while dunes, spits and flats are on the west and north, at a lower elevation.
On-shore and off-shore winds can be extremely strong, as the lake warms and cools more slowly than the land. Sudden, violent storms are frequent. Three rivers (the Omo, Turkwel and Kerio) flow into the lake, but lacking outflow, its only water loss is by evaporation. Lake volume and dimensions vary. For example, its level fell by 10 m (33 ft) between 1975 and 1993. Despite the lack of outflow, in ecology it is often regarded as a part of—or at least associated with—the Nile basin because of its prehistoric connection to this system and the similarities in their aquatic faunas.
Due to local temperatures (its surface water typically is 27–31 °C [81–88 °F], and the mean air temperature of the region generally is similar or slightly higher), aridity and geographic inaccessibility, the lake retains its wild character. Nile crocodiles are found in great abundance on the shore flats. The rocky shores are home to scorpions and carpet vipers. The lake is rich in fish and fishing is very important to the local economy, but this is threatened by falling water levels and overfishing.
Lake Turkana National Parks are now listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Sibiloi National Park lies on the lake's eastern shore, while Central Island National Park and South Island National Park lie in the lake. Both are known for their Nile crocodiles.
An abundance of hominid fossils have been discovered in the area surrounding Lake Turkana.
The area still sees few visitors, being two days' drive from Nairobi. The lake is also an imaginary boundary of the Rendille and Borana and Oromo to the Turkana land. The area is primarily clay-based and is more alkaline than seawater.
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Lalibela is a town in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Located in the Lasta district and North Wollo Zone, it is a tourist site for its famous rock-cut monolithic churches designed in contrast to the earlier monolithic churches in Ethiopia. The whole of Lalibela is a large and important site for the antiquity, medieval, and post-medieval civilization of Ethiopia. To some Christians, Lalibela is one of Ethiopia's holiest cities, and a center of pilgrimage.
Ethiopia was one of the earliest nations to adopt Christianity in the first half of the 4th century, and its historical roots date to the time of the Apostles. The churches themselves date from the 7th to 13th centuries and are traditionally dated to the reign of the Zagwe (Agaw) king Gebre Meskel Lalibela (r. c. 1181–1221).
The layout and names of the major buildings in Lalibela are widely accepted, especially by local clergy, to be a symbolic representation of Jerusalem. This has led some experts to date the current church construction to the years following the capture of Jerusalem in 1187 by the Muslim leader Saladin.
Lalibela is roughly 2,500 metres (8,200 ft) above sea level. It is the main town in Lasta, which was formerly part of the Bugna district. The rock-hewn churches were declared a World Heritage Site in 1978.
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The Siwa Oasis is an urban oasis in Egypt. It is situated between the Qattara Depression and the Great Sand Sea in the Western Desert, 50 kilometres (31 mi) east of the Egypt–Libya border and 560 kilometres (350 mi) from the Egyptian capital city of Cairo. It is famed from its role in ancient Egypt as the home to an oracle of Amun, the ruins of which are a popular tourist attraction, giving it the ancient name Oasis of Amun-Ra, after the major Egyptian deity.
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Timgad was a Roman city in the Aurès Mountains of Algeria. It was founded by the Roman Emperor Trajan around 100 AD. The full name of the city was Colonia Marciana Ulpia Traiana Thamugadi. Emperor Trajan named the city in commemoration of his mother Marcia, eldest sister Ulpia Marciana, and father Marcus Ulpius Traianus.
Located in modern-day Algeria, about 35 kilometers (22 mi) east of the city of Batna, the ruins are noteworthy for representing one of the best extant examples of the grid plan as used in Roman town planning. Timgad was inscribed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982.
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Matmata is a small Berber speaking town in southern Tunisia. Some of the local Berber residents live in traditional underground "troglodyte" structures. In 2004 it had a population of 2,116.
The structures typical for the village are created by digging a large pit in the ground. Around the perimeter of this pit artificial caves are then dug to be used as rooms, with some homes comprising multiple pits, connected by trench-like passageways.
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El Kef, also known as Le Kef, is a city in northwestern Tunisia. It serves as the capital of the Kef Governorate.
El Kef is situated 175 kilometres (109 mi) to the west of Tunis and some 40 kilometres (25 mi) east of the border between Algeria and Tunisia. It has a population of 45,191 (2004 census). The old town is built on the cliff face of the table-top Jebel Dyr mountain. El Kef was the provisional capital of Tunisia during World War II. It was the command centre of the Front de Libération Nationale during the Algerian War of Independence against the French in the 1950s.
The Sidi Bou Makhlouf Mausoleum entombs the patron saint of the city.
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Ghadames or Ghadamis is an oasis town in the Nalut District of the Tripolitania region in northwestern Libya.
Ghadamès, known as 'the pearl of the desert', stands in an oasis. It is one of the oldest pre-Saharan cities and an example of a traditional settlement. Its domestic architecture is characterized by a vertical division of functions: the ground floor used to store supplies; the first floor is for the family, overhanging covered alleys that create what is almost an underground network of passageways; and, at the top, open-air terraces reserved for the women.
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Kye Gompa is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery of the Gelugpa sect located on top of a hill at an altitude of 4,166 metres (13,668 ft) above sea level, close to the Spiti River, in the Spiti Valley of Himachal Pradesh, Lahaul and Spiti district, India.
It is the largest monastery of the Spiti Valley and a religious training center for lamas. It reportedly had 100 monks in 1855.
The monastery is dedicated to Lochen Tulku, the 24th reincarnation of the great translator Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo.
It is about 12 km (7.5 mi) north of Kaza and 210 km (130 mi) from Manali by road.
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Samding Monastery (Tibetan: ཡར་འབྲོག་བསམ་སྡིང་དགོན།) "The Temple of Soaring Meditation" is a 13th century gompa built on a hill along a narrow peninsula that juts into Yamdrok Lake, southwest of Lhasa and about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) east of Nangkatse, in Tibet. It is associated with the Bodong, the Nyingma, and the Shangpa Kagyu schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Samding Monastery is the seat of Dorje Pakmo, the highest female incarnation in Tibet, and as Vajravarahi she is the consort of the wrathful deity Hayagriva, a Heruka.
Dorje Pakmo is the third highest-ranking person in the hierarchy after the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama.
Closer to Lhasa, there is another branch of Samding Monastery on the small island of Yambu in Rombuza Tso or "corpse-worm bottle lake", which apparently, received this name because it was used as a burial place for monks.
In 1716, the Khenmo (abbess) became famous when she turned herself and her nuns into sows to prevent a Mongolian raid on the nunnery (McGovern gives 1717 for this event). Monks as well as nuns live in the monastery under Khenmo Dorje Pakmo, who also lives in Lhasa.
Samding was destroyed by China after 1959 but is in the process of being restored. It is located 112 kilometres (70 mi) southwest of Lhasa, at an altitude of 4,423 metres (14,511 ft), on a barren hill about 90 metres (300 ft) above the lake at the neck of a narrow peninsula jutting out into the water.
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Potala Palace is a museum complex in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. It was formerly the winter palace of the Dalai Lamas, built in the dzong style on Marpo Ri (Red Mountain). From 1649 until 1959 it served as the Dalai Lamas' residence, after which it became chiefly a museum following the annexation of Tibet by China.
The palace is named after Mount Potalaka, regarded in Buddhist tradition as the mythical abode of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. Construction of the present structure was begun in 1645 at the order of the 5th Dalai Lama, advised by Konchog Chophel, the Thirty-fifth Ganden Tripa of the Gelug school. It was built on the site of an earlier palace attributed to Songtsen Gampo (traditionally dated to 637).
Built at an altitude of about 3,700 metres on Marpo Ri in the centre of the Lhasa Valley, the palace measures 400 m east–west and 350 m north–south. Its sloping stone walls average 3 m thick, 5 m at the base, with copper poured into the foundations for earthquake protection. Rising 13 storeys, the complex contains more than 1,000 rooms, 10,000 shrines, and some 200,000 statues, reaching a height of 119 m above the mountain and over 300 m above the valley floor.
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The Jokhang is considered the "heart of Lhasa". The Jokhang consists of a Tibetan Buddhist temple, its temple complex, and a Gelug school monastery. Located in Barkhor Square, it was built in c.640 by King Songsten Gampo to house the Jowo Mikyo Dorje, a statue of Akshobhya Buddha, brought to Tibet by his Nepalese queen, Bhrikuti. Another statue, the Jowo Shakyamuni, brought by his Tang Chinese queen Wencheng, is currently housed in the temple and the Jowo Mikyo Dorje is housed in the Ramoche, in Lhasa.
Many Nepalese and Indian artists and craftsmen worked on the temple's original design and construction. Around the 14th century, the temple was associated with the Vajrasana in India. In the 18th century the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty, following the Nepalese Gorkha invasion of Tibet in 1792, did not allow the Nepalese to visit this temple and it became an exclusive place of worship for the Tibetans. Early into the Cultural Revolution, the Red Guards attacked the Jokhang temple in 1966 and for a decade there was no worship. Renovation of the Jokhang took place from 1972 to 1980. In 2000, the Jokhang became a UNESCO World Heritage Site as an extension of the Potala Palace, which has been a World Heritage Site since 1994. After its UNESCO status was conferred, PRC China redeveloped parts of the World Heritage Sites in Lhasa, and the Barkhor Square in front of the temple was partially demolished and encroached upon.
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Norbulingka is a palace and surrounding park in Lhasa, Tibet built from 1755. It served as the traditional summer residence of the successive Dalai Lamas from the 1780s up until the 14th Dalai Lama's exile in 1959. Part of the "Historic Ensemble of the Potala Palace", Norbulingka is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and was added as an extension of this Historic Ensemble in 2001. It was built by the 7th Dalai Lama and served both as administrative centre and religious centre. It is a unique representation of Tibetan palace architecture.
Norbulingka Palace is situated in the west side of Lhasa, a short distance to the southwest of Potala Palace. Norbulingka covers an area of around 36 hectares (89 acres) and considered to be the largest man-made garden in Tibet.
Norbulingka park is considered the premier park of all such horticultural parks in similar ethnic settings in Tibet. During the summer and autumn months, the parks in Tibet, including the Norbulingka, become hubs of entertainment with dancing, singing, music and festivities. The park is where the annual Sho Dun or "Yoghurt Festival" is held.
The Norbulingka palace has been mostly identified with the 13th and the 14th Dalai Lamas who commissioned most of the structures that still stand today. During the invasion of Tibet in 1950, a number of buildings were damaged, but were rebuilt beginning in 2003, when the Chinese government initiated renovation works here to restore some of the damaged structures, and also the greenery, the flower gardens and the lakes.
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Sera Monastery is one of the "great three" Gelug university monasteries of Tibet, located 1.25 miles (2.01 km) north of Lhasa and about 5 km (3.1 mi) north of the Jokhang. (The other two are Ganden Monastery and Drepung Monastery.)
The origin of its name is attributed to a fact that during construction, the hill behind the monastery was covered with blooming wild roses (or "sera" in Tibetan). (An alternate etymology holds that the location that was surrounded by raspberry shrubs called 'Sewa' in Tibetan, that formed like a 'Rawa' in Tibetan, meaning "Fence".)
The original Sera Monastery is responsible for some 19 hermitages, including four nunneries, which are all located in the foothills north of Lhasa.
The Sera Monastery, as a complex of structures with the Great Assembly Hall and three colleges, was founded in 1419 by Jamchen Chojey of Sakya Yeshe of Zel Gungtang (1355–1435), a disciple of Je Tsongkhapa. During the 1959 revolt in Lhasa, Sera monastery suffered severe damage, with its colleges destroyed and hundreds of monks killed.
After the Dalai Lama took asylum in India, many of the monks of Sera who survived the attack moved to Bylakuppe in Mysore, India. After initial tribulations, they established a parallel Sera Monastery with Sera Me and Sera Je colleges and a Great Assembly Hall on similar lines to the original monastery, with help from the Government of India. There are now 3000 or more monks living in Sera, India and this community has also spread its missionary activities to several countries by establishing Dharma centers, propagating knowledge of Buddhism.
Sera Monastery in Tibet and its counterpart in Mysore, India are noted for their debate sessions.