Legendary and often inexplicable, these man-made monuments have awed and inspired humanity for thousands of years
THE GREAT WALL
Northern China
The world’s longest wall (13,248 miles and counting) is rich with irony: Built to keep invaders out, it’s now China’s biggest attraction drawing tourists in. Tens of millions of people visit the Great Wall annually, thanks to its 2,600-year history and scenic path that snakes across nine provinces—spanning beaches, deserts, grasslands, plateaus and, most famously, rugged mountain ranges.
Designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987, the wall is not one continuous rampart but a network of multiple walls, watchtowers and fortresses originally built in pieces by three clashing kingdoms. At least six dynasties reconstructed it over time. Most of the wall that stands today—the 5,500-mile section most people recognize as the Great Wall—is a relic of the Ming Dynasty, which ruled from 1368 to 1644.
The majority of visitors pinpoint the Badaling segment because of its proximity to Beijing, less than 50 miles away. The first section of the wall to open to the public (in 1957), Badaling has since welcomed more than 370 foreign leaders and celebrities. To the east, well-preserved Mutianyu is the most popular area for foreign tourists but still less crowded than Badaling. The dramatic Jiankou section, with its unrestored ruins and ultra-steep passes, is the most photogenic—and dangerous.
Whatever section you climb, comfortable shoes or hiking boots are in order, as steps were intentionally built at varying heights to thwart enemies. But once you’ve braved the sharp rises and taken in the majestic surroundings, you can count yourself a warrior among those who defended their territories all those centuries ago.
Distance: 78 kms from Beijing around 2 hours
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ACROPOLIS
Athens, Greece
Democracy. Philosophy. Theater. Freedom of speech. What do these noble concepts have in common? They were all born on the Acropolis of Athens, the most intact classical-Greek monumental complex still in existence.
Originated from the Greek words for summit and city, an acropolis—a fortified area typically built on high ground—was a central feature of many ancient Greek cities. But the Athenian Acropolis, perched on a 500-foot walled hilltop, is naturally the most famous. Its hallmarks—the Propylaea gateway, the Erechtheum shrine, the Temple of Athena Nike, and, of course, the Parthenon—were developed during the fifth century B.C. by the leading architects and sculptors of the time, under the direction of Pericles, a celebrated general and politician.
With its 46 Doric and Ionic columns, the Parthenon is the most photogenic edifice on the “sacred rock.” Dedicated to Athena, goddess of Athens, the temple appears square from a distance, but doesn’t actually contain straight lines. Three of its interior walls and many of its columns were destroyed in 1687 A.D. when the Venetian army shelled the Parthenon, then functioning as a powder arsenal for Turkish forces. Modern restoration of the structure has been ongoing for more than 40 years, and visitors aren’t allowed inside—not so different from antiquity, when only priests and other VIPs were permitted.
Fortunately, the vistas of the exterior are enough to satiate today’s patrons. In view from nearly any point in the city, the Pentelic marble structure assumes varying tints as the sun travels across the sky: honey, rose, white and, after dark, a warm, floodlit gold. Taken with the knowledge that this hilltop city of temples has endured through centuries of wars, occupation and looting, it’s a remarkable sight to behold.
Distance: Acropolis is located in Athens so typically it could be ~5 kms from your hotel in Acropolis
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ANCIENT CITY OF PETRA
Southwest Jordan
Petra crossed the pop-culture radar when it appeared in the 1989 film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. But there’s much more to the Rose-Red City than its iconic façade. Half-built, half-carved into the desert sandstone of the Wadi Musa valley, 150 miles south of Amman, this ancient trading center contains more than 35 historical landmarks, including temples, obelisks, altars, colonnaded streets, a 3,000-seat theater and 500 known tombs.
Nomadic Nabataean Arabs first settled Petra (originally called Raqeem and renamed by the Greeks) around the fourth century B.C. By the first century B.C., the city was flourishing as the capital of the Nabataean Empire, with a population of 30,000. At the crossroads of silk, spice and incense trade routes, Petra also thrived thanks to its innovative water-management system.
Present-day tourists approach the city the same way travelers would have 2,000 years ago—through the Siq (meaning shaft), a 0.75-mile slot canyon. At the other end, the Treasury comes dramatically into view. From there, visitors are free to explore the extensive ruins of this UNESCO World Heritage site, concluding with the Ad-Deir Monastery, an ancient hilltop temple reached via an 800-step, rock-hewn stairway.
An earthquake in the fourth century A.D., along with shifting trade routes, led to Petra’s decline. It wasn’t until 1812 that Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt confirmed—in full Bedouin disguise—the legend of its existence. Archeologists have studied the city ever since and continue to make new discoveries, such as a ceremonial platform not detected until 2016 (one scholar estimated 85 percent of the city is still buried). But Petra’s secrets only invite modern adventurers deeper into its fascinating past.
Read at length about the spending time in Jordan here
Distance:
- from Amman : 236 kms around 3 hours
- from Jerusalem : 275 kms around 4 hours 45 minutes
- from Tel Aviv : 330 kms around 6+ hours
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COLOSSEUM
Rome
In a 2,774-year-old city where ancient ruins wait around every bend, the Colosseum stands out as Rome’s supreme emblem. And its extravagant design—column-framed arches, breezy grand promenades, travertine walls and polished marble seats—starkly contrasts with the bloody entertainment that took place on the arena’s sandy wooden floor.
Commissioned by Emperor Vespasian in 72 A.D. as a pleasure palace for the people, the “Flavian Amphitheatre” was completed eight years later by his son, Emperor Titus. The grand opening kicked off with 100 days of games, during which 9,000 animals—from lions, tigers and bears to crocodiles, wolves and even elephants—were slaughtered in staged hunts.
Of course, the venue’s most famous spectacles were the gladiatorial contests. Tens of thousands of onlookers, seated by social rank and shaded by a massive cloth awning, gaped in suspense as convicts, slaves and prisoners of war who were trained for combat would contend and often fight to the death.
After 400 years of use, the Colosseum fell into ruin, with its building materials appropriated for projects like the Palazzo Venezia and the cathedrals of St. Peter and St. John Lateran. Efforts to restore the amphitheater began in the 1990s.
Today, visitors can see the tiered seating, stroll the third level and explore the underbelly of cells and tunnels. Trapdoors facilitated “special effects”—animals and sets raised into the stadium on winchoperated lifts—and in 2015, Italian officials revealed an exact reproduction of one of these mechanisms, which is now permanently on display. It’s a place to step back in time, unleash the imagination and be struck with awe and dread.
Distance: Colosseum is located in Rome so typically it could be ~5 kms from your hotel in Rome
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THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZA
Northern Egypt
The Great Pyramid of Giza—completed around 2560 B.C. for the fourth-dynasty Pharaoh Khufu—is not only the biggest of the three famous pyramids on the Giza plateau, it’s also the oldest and northernmost of the group. And, at 450 feet, it was the tallest building in the world for almost four millennia, until modern skyscrapers came along.
Naturally, the Great Pyramid gets the most publicity, but this UNESCO World Heritage site, perched on the fringes of Cairo, is chockfull of gawk-worthy monuments: six pyramids in all, plus the remains of temples, mastabas (flat-topped funerary structures) and a giant sphinx to boot.
Egyptologists continue to debate about the construction of these ancient tombs. Modern theories posit that a 20,000-strong paid, skilled workforce hauled 2.3 million blocks of limestone and granite—weighing 2.5 to 15 tons each—up a ramp using sledges, rollers, ropes and levers. The effort required millions of manhours over the course of 10 to 20 years. Still, as discoveries are made (in 2017, new cavities were found within the Great Pyramid), secrets persist: How the ancient Egyptians oriented the pyramids so precisely north without the North Star to direct them remains unknown.
Today’s visitors can roam the complex and even enter the low, narrow, steep, and dim corridors of the pyramids’ interiors. But they won’t view these massive feats of engineering as they appeared in their heyday: brilliant sparkling white, thanks to an outer veneer of highly polished white limestone, which was stripped for other building projects over time. But the pyramids’ sheer size, exact proportions and staying power through the ages still command a near-reverent sense of respect.
Distance: 28 kms from Cairo (around 30 minutes)
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STONEHENGE
Wiltshire, U.K.
Was it a temple created for the worship of ancient deities? An astronomical observatory? A sacred burial site? A memorial to ancestors? A place of healing? So much of Stonehenge’s allure stems from the mysteries of its prehistoric purpose and cultural significance.
Its construction is also enigmatic. Believed to be built and used by Neolithic and Bronze Age inhabitants between 3700 and 1600 B.C., the monument originated as a massive circular ditch and bank, called a henge, dug on Salisbury Plain using primitive tools. An estimated 80 bluestones, some weighing up to 4 tons and hauled—incredibly—200 miles from the Preseli Hills in Wales, were added several hundred years later (43 remain). Around 2000 B.C., at least 50 (and likely more) sarsen stones were positioned to form the monument’s outer arc. Builders continued to tinker with the bluestones, arranging and rearranging them, until roughly 1600 B.C. Modern theories speculate the transportation and erection of Stonehenge’s monoliths required substantial manual labor using sledges, rafts, ropes, levers, teams of oxen and hundreds of men.
But the real wonder of this UNESCO World Heritage site is in seeing it in person, surrounded by esoteric burial mounds and sheep grazing in the misty U.K. countryside. Close contact has been prohibited since 1978, but even separated by rope from these ancient stone circles, visitors are struck by their mystical aura, eerie symmetry and impressive stature (the tallest sarsen rises 24 feet). In his 1891 novel, Tess of the d’Urbervilles, British author Thomas Hardy described Stonehenge as “a very temple of the winds,” and the depiction still rings true today.
Distance: 145 kms from London, UK
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MORE ANCIENT MARVELS
▸▸ Constructed primarily between 1238 and 1358 A.D. on the site of a small ninth-century fortress in Granada, Spain, the intricate Alhambra is the world’s only medieval Muslim palace.
▸▸ Built in the sixth century A.D. in Istanbul, the Hagia Sophia—an Orthodox Christian basilica cum mosque cum museum—is considered the pièce de résistance of Byzantine architecture.
▸▸ The most ancient center for higher learning on the Indian subcontinent, Nalanda University, in northeastern India, drew scholars from across Asia for 800 years, beginning in the third century B.C.
