Places

Japanese Castles

Ōzu Castle

大洲市 · JP

Ōzu Castle: a four-tier timber keep reborn above the Hiji River through citizen donations in 2004

Japanese Castles

Sunpu Castle

葵区 · JP

Tokugawa Ieyasu's retirement castle where the shadow shogunate forged Edo Japan

Japanese Castles

Kagoshima Castle

鹿児島県 · JP

A castle without a keep — the restored Goromon guards Satsuma's soul at Tsurumaru

Japanese Castles

Tottori Castle

鳥取市 · JP

Castle of the Starvation Siege — and home to Japan's only spherical stone wall

Japanese Castles

Oshi Castle

行田市 · JP

The Floating Castle that defied Ishida Mitsunari's siege and survived the great Sengoku flood

Japanese Castles

Akashi Castle

明石市 · JP

Two three-story turrets stand side by side — a Harima castle five minutes from the station

Japanese Castles

Hirado Castle

平戸市 · JP

A sea castle embraced by three coasts — Japan's only hill castle laid out by Yamaga science

Japanese Castles

Komoro Castle

小諸市 · JP

The Ana-jo: Japan's only major castle that sits below its own town, with Takeda strategy in stone

Japanese Castles

Hara Castle

南島原市 · JP

Hara Castle — the cliff-top stage where the Shimabara Rebellion ended in martyrdom

Japanese Castles

Marugame Castle

丸亀市 · JP

Japan's tallest combined stone walls crowned by the smallest of the twelve surviving keeps

World Heritage Sites in Japan

Yanbaru National Park

国頭郡 · JP

Where the Okinawa rail darts through subtropical forest — a UNESCO Natural Heritage park

Japanese Castles

Akō Castle

赤穂市 · JP

Stage of the Forty-seven Ronin tale — a rare Edo-era seacoast castle in Akō

Japanese Castles

Kubota Castle

秋田市 · JP

A castle of earth, not stone: the Satake seat that anchors the 100 Fine Castles of Japan

Japanese Castles

Uwajima Castle

宇和島市 · JP

Pentagonal sea-castle of the Date clan, one of Japan's twelve surviving original tenshu

Japanese Castles

Toyama Castle

富山市 · JP

The Floating Castle on the Jinzu River, retirement seat of the Maeda lords of Etchu Province

World Heritage Sites in Japan

Sado mine

佐渡市 · JP

The gold mine that funded the Tokugawa shogunate — now a 2024 UNESCO World Heritage Site

World Heritage Sites in Japan

Amami-Ōshima Island, Tokunoshima Island, northern part of Okinawa Island, and Iriomote Island

鹿児島県 · JP

Where the Iriomote cat and Amami rabbit roam — two million years of island evolution

Japanese Castles

Iwamura Castle

恵那市 · JP

Highest of Japan's three great mountain castles, where a female lord's tragedy lingers in the mist

Japanese Castles

Sendai Castle

青葉区 · JP

Date Masamune's mountain fortress — the citadel of Sendai that never fell

Japanese Castles

Imabari Castle

今治市 · JP

Triple seawater moats and Japan's premier sea castle by master builder Todo Takatora

Japanese Castles

Matsumae Castle

松前町 · JP

Japan's northernmost castle, embraced by eight thousand cherry trees on the Hokkaido frontier

Japanese Castles

Shimabara Castle

島原市 · JP

The white castle that lit the Shimabara Rebellion — a five-story keep that ruined its own domain

Japanese Castles

Katsuren Castle

うるま市 · JP

Ocean Gusuku of Amawari — the World Heritage castle where Roman coins slept for six centuries

World Heritage Sites in Japan

Sacred Island of Okinoshima and Associated Sites in the Munakata Region

宗像市 · JP

The Shōsōin of the Sea — Sacred Island of Okinoshima, 4th-century ritual in the Munakata Region

Japanese Castles

Nakagusuku Castle

中城村 · JP

A UNESCO World Heritage gusuku whose limestone walls astonished Commodore Perry.

Japanese Castles

Hagi Castle

萩市 · JP

260 years of the Mori clan — stone walls and moats hold the memory of Meiji Japan

World Heritage Sites in Japan

Ogasawara Archipelago

小笠原村 · JP

The Galapagos of the Orient — a Pacific UNESCO Natural Heritage of endemic life

Japanese Castles

Zakimi Castle

読谷村 · JP

Where Ryukyu's curving limestone walls dance — Gosamaru's World Heritage gusuku masterpiece

Japanese Castles

Kiyosu Castle

清須市 · JP

Where Nobunaga launched his bid for the realm before Okehazama

Japanese Castles

Kokura Castle

城内 · JP

Hosokawa Tadaoki's karazukuri keep — Kyushu's signature castle on the Murasaki River

World Heritage Sites in Japan

Jōmon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan

岩手県 · JP

Ten thousand years of hunter-gatherer paradise — seventeen Jomon sites rise as World Heritage

Japanese Castles

Aizuwakamatsu Castle

会津若松市 · JP

The red-tiled keep of Aizu — Japan's only crimson-roofed castle reborn from siege

Japanese Castles

Matsuyama Castle

松山市 · JP

Japan's youngest original tenshu crowning Shikoku's largest surviving connected-keep castle.

Japanese Castles

Okazaki Castle

康生町 · JP

Birthplace of Tokugawa Ieyasu — the Dragon Castle where the Mikawa samurai spirit was forged

Japanese Castles

Nakijin Castle

今帰仁村 · JP

Japan's earliest cherry blossoms set against a 1.5-km serpentine limestone wall

Japanese Castles

Kōchi Castle

丸ノ内 · JP

The only castle in Japan where the original tenshu and honmaru palace still stand side by side

Japanese Castles

Maruoka Castle

坂井市 · JP

Hokuriku's only surviving keep — an archaic watchtower reborn after the 1948 earthquake

Japanese Castles

Hirosaki Castle

下白銀町 · JP

Tohoku's only surviving castle keep, where 2,600 cherry trees frame white-plaster walls

Japanese Castles

Kanazawa Castle

金沢市 · JP

Stronghold of the million-koku Maeda lords, crowned with lead-tile roofs and namako plaster walls

Japanese Castles

Odawara Castle

小田原市 · JP

The impregnable seat of the Hojo five — and a nine-kilometer earthwork that defied even Hideyoshi

Japanese Castles

Okayama Castle

丸の内 · JP

Black-lacquered majesty — the Crow Castle that mirrors white Himeji across Sanyo Road

Japanese Castles

Gifu Castle

岐阜市 · JP

Where Oda Nobunaga raised his banner of unification — a Sengoku mountain castle on Mount Kinka

World Heritage Sites in Japan

Buddhist Monuments in the Hōryū-ji Area

斑鳩町 · JP

Buddhist Monuments in the Hōryū-ji Area — Japan's first World Heritage Site

World Heritage Sites in Japan

Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region

長崎県 · JP

250 years of Christian faith kept alive by lay believers alone, without a missionary in the land

Japanese Castles

Fushimi Castle

伏見区 · JP

The retirement castle that named an era — Hideyoshi's lost stronghold on Momoyama hill

Japanese Castles

Hikone Castle

彦根市 · JP

One of Japan's five National Treasure castle keeps, seat of the Ii clan's 350,000-koku domain

Japanese Castles

Inuyama Castle

犬山 · JP

Inuyama Castle: leading candidate for oldest of Japan's 12 surviving tenshu, on a Kiso-River bluff

World Heritage Sites in Japan

Hiraizumi – Temples, Gardens and Archaeological Sites Representing the Buddhist Pure Land

平泉町 · JP

Hiraizumi: where the Northern Fujiwara built a gilded Buddhist Pure Land in 12th-century Tohoku

Japanese Castles

Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the Kingdom of Ryukyu

沖縄県 · JP

Five hundred years of Ryukyu Kingdom carved in coral stone — nine UNESCO sites across Okinawa

World Heritage Sites in Japan

Shiretoko Peninsula

標津町 · JP

Where drift ice meets brown bears — UNESCO's lowest-latitude sea-ice wilderness

Japanese Castles

Nijō Castle

中京区 · JP

Site of the Tokugawa shogunate's Kyoto might and the Meiji Restoration handover, Nijo Castle

World Heritage Sites in Japan

Shrines and Temples of Nikkō

日光市 · JP

Ieyasu's mausoleum and Yomeimon's vivid carving, the apex of Edo architecture in Nikko

Japanese Castles

Azuchi Castle

近江八幡市 · JP

The phantom keep of Tenka Fubu — Oda Nobunaga's three-year wonder, now a Special Historic Site

World Heritage Sites in Japan

Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal Mining

Twenty-three sites across eight prefectures tracing Japan's stunning leap into heavy industry

Japanese Castles

Hiroshima Castle

基町 · JP

Risen beyond the atomic bomb — Hiroshima Castle, the 'Carp Castle' of Mori Terumoto's delta keep

World Heritage Sites in Japan

Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range

三重県 · JP

Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range — 1,200 years of Shinto-Buddhist fusion

Japanese Landmark Architecture

Ginkaku-ji Temple

左京区 · JP

Wabi-sabi made visible — Higashiyama culture's World Heritage Zen temple

Japanese Landmark Architecture

Meiji Jingū

代々木神園町 · JP

A forest of 120,000 trees in central Tokyo — the spiritual heart of Japan's New Year pilgrimage

Japanese Castles

Matsue Castle

松江市 · JP

Black-lacquered chidori soaring above Kameda Hill — the San'in region's only National Treasure keep

Japanese Landmark Architecture

National Museum of Western Art

上野公園 · JP

Le Corbusier's only Far Eastern work — a World Heritage museum in Ueno's forest

World Heritage Sites in Japan

Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara

奈良市 · JP

Roots of Nara-period Japanese Buddhism, eight components in the World Heritage

World Heritage Sites in Japan

Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine

大田市 · JP

Asia's first UNESCO mining heritage — forest-sustained silver that once fed a third of world trade

Japanese Landmark Architecture

Itsukushima

廿日市市 · JP

Itsukushima — the sacred Hiroshima island where the mountain itself is the god

Japanese Landmark Architecture

Byōdō-in Temple

宇治市 · JP

The Pure Land on Japan's 10-yen coin — a Heian dream of paradise on the Uji River

Japanese Castles

Matsumoto Castle

丸の内 · JP

Black-lacquered National Treasure — the only flatland keep of Japan's twelve survivors

Japanese Landmark Architecture

Tokyo Station

千代田区 · JP

Red brick reborn after a century — Japan's grand front gate is the railway hub of an entire nation

Japanese Castles

Kumamoto Castle

中央区 · JP

Where Kato Kiyomasa's musha-gaeshi walls still defy invaders — Japan's Three Premier Castles

Japanese Landmark Architecture

Edo Castle

千代田区 · JP

Japan's largest sōgamae fortress, seat of 260 years of Tokugawa rule, now the Imperial Palace

World Heritage Sites in Japan

Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto

京都市 · JP

Seventeen sacred sites of Kyoto, a World Heritage distillation of Heian-to-Edo Japan.

Japanese Castles

Shuri Castle

那覇市 · JP

Rising from five fires across six centuries — the vermilion palace of the Ryukyu Kingdom reborn.

European Castles

Eltz Castle

ヴィーアシェム · DE

Held by one family for 850 years — the unconquered medieval castle of the Eifel hills

World Heritage Sites in Japan

The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier

17 buildings, 7 countries, one architect - the first cross-continental UNESCO serial

Japanese Castles

Nagoya Castle

中区 · JP

Where the Golden Shachi gleam — the Tokugawa shogunate's flagship castle of Owari

Japanese Landmark Architecture

Kōtoku-in Temple

長谷 · JP

Seated under open sky for 750 years — meet Kamakura's bronze National Treasure

Japanese Landmark Architecture

Fushimi Inari-taisha

山城国 · JP

Through the vermilion tunnel of ten thousand torii — head shrine of Inari worship

World Heritage Sites in Japan

Historic Villages of Shirakawa-gō and Gokayama

南砺市 · JP

A silver-snow valley of nail-free triangular roofs — Japan's sixth UNESCO World Heritage

European Castles

Bodiam Castle

ボディアム · GB

Four corner towers mirrored in still water — England's most picturesque medieval moated castle

Japanese Landmark Architecture

Mount Unzen

島原市 · JP

Kyushu's restless stratovolcano where Heisei-shinzan still tells of nature's raw power

European Castles

Royal Castle in Warsaw

ワルシャワ · PL

Phoenix risen from total destruction, the Baroque palace housing the soul of the Kingdom of Poland

European Castles

Stirling Castle

スターリング · GB

On a volcanic crag — the Scottish royal fortress where Mary, Queen of Scots was crowned in 1542

European Castles

Toompea Castle

タリン · EE

Medieval Danish Crusader fortress crowning Tallinn's Old Town, home of Estonia's parliament

European Castles

Sforza Castle

ミラノ · IT

Residence of Visconti and Sforza, ceiling painted by Leonardo da Vinci — Milan's grandest fortress

Japanese Landmark Architecture

Tōdai-ji Temple

奈良市 · JP

The world's grandest wooden hall enshrining the Great Buddha of Nara, head temple of Kegon Buddhism

Japanese Landmark Architecture

Ise Jingū

伊勢市 · JP

Shinto's holiest sanctuary, the 'eternally young' shrine reborn every twenty years

European Castles

Durham Castle

City of Durham · GB

A Norman fortress above the Wear, a living college since 1837 and World Heritage Site since 1986

European Castles

Hohenzollern Castle

Bisingen · DE

The ancestral seat of imperial Hohenzollern, a Neo-Gothic dream crowning the Swabian Jura

European Castles

Spiš Castle

ジェフラ · SK

Central Europe's largest 3.9-hectare castle ruin — a UNESCO sky fortress on a travertine bluff

European Castles

Reales Alcázares

セビリア · ES

A thousand-year palace where Mudejar artistry meets the world's oldest still-living royal residence

European Castles

Nesvizh Castle

ミンスク州 · BY

A yellow Baroque palace of the Radziwill dynasty, inscribed by UNESCO in 2005

European Castles

Kernavė

Širvintos District Municipality · LT

The first capital of pagan Lithuania — UNESCO's mound-locked "Troy of Lithuania"

European Castles

Chillon Castle

Veytaux · CH

Where Byron's verse made a medieval Swiss castle echo across the world — Chillon on Lake Geneva

European Castles

Buda Castle

一区 · HU

Eight centuries of Hungarian kings, in stone above the Danube — Budapest's World Heritage palace

European Castles

Bratislava Castle

ブラチスラヴァ · SK

The 'upturned table' above the Danube — Slovakia's symbolic capital castle

European Castles

Mir Castle Complex

ミール · BY

Belarus's only castle-class World Heritage — a red-brick fusion of Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque

European Castles

Karlštejn Castle

Karlštejn · CZ

The Gothic mountain stronghold Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV built to guard the Imperial Regalia

European Cathedrals

Bourges Cathedral

ブールジュ · FR

The first High Gothic cathedral south of the Loire — five portals, five aisles, one masterpiece

European Cathedrals

Salisbury Cathedral

ソールズベリー · GB

England's tallest 123 m spire guards the finest surviving Magna Carta original

European Castles

Bran Castle

Bran · RO

Where Dracula's legend lives — a Carpathian cliff-top fortress crowning Transylvania

European Cathedrals

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

ソフィア · BG

Five gilded domes inscribing prayer on the Balkan sky — Sofia's Neo-Byzantine memorial

European Cathedrals

Cathedral of Our Lady of Strasbourg

ストラスブール · FR

Pink Vosges sandstone soaring skyward — a 142-metre single-towered Gothic cathedral

Japanese Landmark Architecture

Hōryū-ji Temple

斑鳩町 · JP

Founded by Prince Shotoku in 607 — home to the world's oldest surviving wooden structures

Japanese Castles

Osaka Castle

大阪城 · JP

The Taiko's ambition and the Tokugawa's prestige — one of Japan's three great castles in Osaka

European Cathedrals

Bagrati Cathedral

クタイシ · GE

The cathedral that lost its World Heritage status — Georgia's medieval icon rebuilt on Kutaisi hill

Japanese Landmark Architecture

Tokyo National Museum

上野公園 · JP

Japan's oldest national museum and the supreme guardian of 89 National Treasures

European Cathedrals

Helsinki Cathedral

ヘルシンキ · FI

A neoclassical white cathedral crowned by a green dome and twelve apostles — the face of Finland.

European Cathedrals

Rouen Cathedral

ルーアン · FR

Three towers, three centuries — the French Gothic compendium that Monet painted thirty times

World Heritage Sites in Japan

Shirakami-Sanchi

青森県 · JP

Eight millennia of untouched beech wilderness: Japan's first UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site

European Castles

Hofburg Palace

インネレシュタット · AT

640 years of Habsburg winter rule — Europe's grand imperial palace, emperors to presidency

European Cathedrals

Burgos Cathedral

ブルゴス · ES

Spain's only standalone UNESCO World Heritage cathedral, a pure French Gothic gem in Castile.

European Castles

Kronborg Castle

ヘルスィングウーア市 · DK

Where Hamlet wanders — the Renaissance castle on the Oresund and Shakespeare's Elsinore

European Castles

Malbork Castle

マルボルク · PL

The world's largest brick Gothic fortress — the Teutonic Knights' citadel above the Nogat

European Cathedrals

Notre-Dame d'Amiens

アミアン · FR

France's tallest Gothic vault and largest interior, built in just fifty years

European Castles

Wartburg

アイゼナハ · DE

Where Luther translated the Bible — the World Heritage cliff-top castle that inspired Neuschwanstein

European Castles

Edinburgh Castle

シティ・オブ・エディンバラ・カウンシル · GB

Edinburgh's volcanic crown - the Scottish royal fortress that survived 26 sieges

European Cathedrals

Speyer Cathedral

シュパイアー · DE

Where eight Holy Roman emperors sleep — the largest surviving Romanesque basilica in red sandstone

Japanese Landmark Architecture

Kinkaku-ji Temple

北区 · JP

A golden pavilion mirrored on a pond — Muromachi Zen culture distilled in one icon

European Castles

Castel Sant'Angelo

ローマ・カピターレ · IT

From Hadrian's mausoleum to a papal fortress — Rome's two-millennia cylindrical citadel on the Tiber

European Cathedrals

Reims Cathedral

ランス · FR

Where 25 French kings were crowned — the High Gothic forest of stained glass at Reims

European Cathedrals

St. Vitus Cathedral

フラッチャニ · CZ

Coronation seat of Bohemia — six centuries of Gothic, crowned by Mucha's Art Nouveau stained glass

European Cathedrals

Basilica of Saint-Denis

サン＝ドニ · FR

Where Gothic was born and French kings sleep eternally — cradle of an architectural revolution

European Cathedrals

Cathedral of Christ the Saviour

ハモーヴニク · RU

Destruction and resurrection — Russian Orthodoxy's soul carved into a 103-meter golden dome

World Heritage Sites in Japan

Yakushima

屋久島町 · JP

Ancient Yakusugi cedars and moss-clad primeval forest on Japan's first natural Heritage island

European Cathedrals

St. Stephen's Cathedral

インネレシュタット · AT

The Habsburg coronation church and Vienna's defining Gothic spire piercing the sky at 136 metres

European Cathedrals

Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba

コルドバ · ES

Where Islam meets Christianity — a forest of red-and-white double arches on the UNESCO list

European Cathedrals

Saint Sophia Cathedral

キーウ · UA

Beneath gilded onion domes, a thousand years of prayer at the cradle of Kyivan Rus

European Cathedrals

Archbasilica of St. John Lateran

ローマ · IT

The Pope's own cathedral and the mother church of all Catholic Christendom

European Castles

Prague Castle

フラッチャニ · CZ

The largest ancient castle in the world — a thousand years of European power, on one hilltop

European Cathedrals

Seville Cathedral

セビリア · ES

The world's largest Gothic cathedral, where Columbus rests and Spain's glory endures

European Cathedrals

St Mark's Basilica

Venezia-Murano-Burano · IT

A Byzantine jewel ablaze in gold mosaic — mirror of a thousand years of Venetian Republic glory

European Cathedrals

Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela

サンティアゴ・デ・コンポステーラ · ES

The Romanesque World Heritage cathedral over Saint James's tomb, terminus of the Camino de Santiago

European Cathedrals

Aachen Cathedral

アーヘン · DE

Where Charlemagne sleeps — Northern Europe's oldest dome and a founding UNESCO site

European Cathedrals

Canterbury Cathedral

カンタベリー · GB

Where Becket fell — the mother church of Anglicanism and a 1,400-year UNESCO pilgrimage

Japanese Landmark Architecture

Itsukushima Shrine

廿日市市 · JP

The vermilion shrine that floats on the sea — the Seto Inland Sea's oldest UNESCO sanctuary

Ancient Ruins of the World

Lascaux

モンティニャック＝ラスコー · FR

Rediscovered by four teenagers in 1940 — a 20,000-year-old gallery of humanity's earliest masters

Ancient Ruins of the World

Hiroshima Peace Memorial

大手町 · JP

8:15 a.m., 6 August 1945 — the iron skeleton that became a UNESCO 'negative heritage' site

Ancient Ruins of the World

Nazca Lines

イカ県 · PE

Two millennia of giant desert drawings — visible only from above, etched into Peru's southern coast

Ancient Ruins of the World

Hampi

Vijayanagara District · IN

Hampi — the boulder-strewn UNESCO ruins of South India's lost Vijayanagara capital

Ancient Ruins of the World

Masada

Tamar Regional Council · IL

A clifftop fortress above the Dead Sea, where Jewish resistance is etched in stone

European Cathedrals

Florence Cathedral

フィレンツェ · IT

The dome that opened the Renaissance — Brunelleschi's masonry colossus, still the world's largest

Ancient Ruins of the World

Çatalhöyük

コンヤ県 · TR

An Anatolian mound where one of the world's oldest proto-cities arose around 7500 BCE

Ancient Ruins of the World

Taxila

ラーワルピンディー県 · PK

The Heart of Gandharan Buddhism — Ancient South Asia's Oldest University City of Stupas and Ruins

Ancient Ruins of the World

Roman Forum

ローマ · IT

The beating heart of ancient Rome - where the Senate spoke and Caesar burned

Ancient Ruins of the World

Hattusa

Boğazkale district · TR

The lost capital of the Hittite Empire — a Bronze Age megacity on the Anatolian plateau

Ancient Ruins of the World

Nalanda Mahavihara

Nalanda · IN

Where Xuanzang Studied — The World's First Residential University and Heart of Mahayana Buddhism

European Cathedrals

Notre-Dame de Chartres

シャルトル · FR

High Gothic perfected — the miracle cathedral where 152 medieval stained-glass windows still glow

European Cathedrals

St Paul's Cathedral

ロンドン · GB

Risen from the Great Fire — Sir Christopher Wren's English Baroque crown atop Ludgate Hill

Japanese Castles

Himeji Castle

姫路市 · JP

Where the white heron alights — Japan's supreme World Heritage castle keep

Ancient Ruins of the World

Ellora Caves

アウランガーバード県 (マハーラーシュトラ州) · IN

Three faiths carved into a single cliff — the world's only rock-cut temple ensemble

Ancient Ruins of the World

Cave of Altamira

サンティリャーナ・デル・マル · ES

Where 15,000-year-old bison gallop the ceiling — the cave that reset prehistory

Ancient Ruins of the World

Tikal

ペテン県 · GT

Pyramid temples piercing the Peten rainforest — the largest Classic Maya metropolis

Ancient Ruins of the World

Minaret of Jam

シャラク地区 · AF

A 60-meter brick tower in an Afghan canyon — the high point of 12th-century Ghurid art

European Cathedrals

Milan Cathedral

ミラノ · IT

135 marble spires and the golden Madonnina crown the world's largest Gothic forest of stone

Ancient Ruins of the World

Harappa

サーヒーワール県 · PK

The 1921 rediscovery that named a civilization — northern type-site of the Indus Valley

Japanese Landmark Architecture

Kiyomizu-dera Temple

東山区 · JP

The 'Stage of Kiyomizu' atop Higashiyama, a Heian-founded World Heritage cliff temple

Ancient Ruins of the World

Teotihuacan

メヒコ州 · MX

Lost megacity called 'City of the Gods', Sun and Moon Pyramids on the high plateau

Ancient Ruins of the World

moai

パスクア島 · CL

887 megalithic statues on a remote South Pacific island, Rapa Nui's stone giants

Ancient Ruins of the World

Göbekli Tepe

シャンルウルファ県 · TR

Older than farming — the world's first stone temple still sleeps on a Turkish hill

Ancient Ruins of the World

Pantheon

ローマ · IT

The oldest surviving Roman dome, a 1900-year-old temple and the cradle of domed church architecture

Ancient Ruins of the World

The Great Sphinx

ギーザ · EG

Humanity's oldest colossal sculpture, a single limestone monolith guarding the Pyramids

Ancient Ruins of the World

Hadrian's Wall

カンブリア · GB

The 117-kilometre stone frontier of Emperor Hadrian, Rome's northernmost World Heritage rampart

Ancient Ruins of the World

Western Wall

エルサレム · PS

Two millennia of prayer etched into stone — Judaism's holiest accessible site

European Cathedrals

Cologne Cathedral

ケルン · DE

157-meter twin spires over six centuries of construction, the apex of German Gothic

Ancient Ruins of the World

Giza Necropolis

ギーザ県 · EG

Birthplace of the pyramid: Memphis and 30 km of necropolis from Saqqara to Dahshur

Ancient Ruins of the World

Pripyat

キーウ州 · UA

Where 50,000 vanished overnight — the Soviet model city Pripyat frozen as a ghost-town pilgrimage

Ancient Ruins of the World

Buddhas of Bamiyan

バーミヤーン州 · AF

The 55m cliff Buddha that Xuanzang once revered, lost in 2001 — UNESCO dark heritage

European Castles

Windsor Castle

ウィンザー・アンド・メイデンヘッド · GB

The world's oldest occupied castle, the symbolic seat of the British monarchy since 1066

European Castles

Bastille

4区 · FR

Where the French Revolution began — a vanished fortress, now a square of liberty in eastern Paris

Ancient Ruins of the World

Valley of the Kings

ルクソール · EG

Where pharaohs descend into the underworld — the necropolis that gave us Tutankhamun

Ancient Ruins of the World

Terracotta Army

8,000 life-sized warriors guarding the First Emperor, the century's greatest find

Ancient Ruins of the World

Tower of London

タワーハムレッツ・ロンドン特別区 · GB

950 years of royal castle from 1066, ravens, jewels and Beefeaters of the World Heritage

Ancient Ruins of the World

Mausoleum at Halicarnassus

ムーラ県 · TR

The Wonder that gave 'mausoleum' its name — now a foundation in Bodrum

Ancient Ruins of the World

Giza pyramid complex

ギーザ県 · EG

Three pyramids and the Sphinx of the Old Kingdom 4th Dynasty on the Giza plateau

Ancient Ruins of the World

Abu Simbel

アスワン県 · EG

Ramses II's might and the world rescue of the 1960s, twin rock temples reborn in the desert

European Castles

Neuschwanstein Castle

シュヴァンガウ · DE

An Alpine fairytale castle by Bavaria's mad king and the original Disney princess castle

European Cathedrals

Westminster Abbey

シティ・オブ・ウェストミンスター · GB

Site of every English coronation since 1066, the medieval Gothic mausoleum of Britain's monarchy

Ancient Ruins of the World

Temple of Ephesian Artemis

セルチュク · TR

An Ancient Wonder reduced to a single column — the marble temple of Artemis

Ancient Ruins of the World

Mohenjo-daro

ラーカナ地区 · PK

2500 BC Indus megacity, planned grid and undeciphered script of earliest urbanism

Ancient Ruins of the World

Borobudur

ジョグジャカルタ市 · ID

The world's largest Buddhist monument and the apex of 9th-century Shailendra art

European Castles

Château de Montsoreau

モンソロー · FR

The only Loire chateau built directly in the riverbed, stage of Dumas's La Dame de Monsoreau

World Heritage Sites in Japan

Kyoto Prefecture

日本 · JP

Where a millennium of imperial capital coexists with the Sea of Japan's hidden coast

Ancient Ruins of the World

Chernobyl

ヴィーシュホロド地区 · UA

Where humanity's worst nuclear disaster froze time — Ukraine's dark tourism mecca

Ancient Ruins of the World

Great Pyramid of Giza

ギーザ県 · EG

The 4,500-year-old pyramid of Khufu, the only surviving wonder of the ancient world

European Cathedrals

Notre-Dame de Paris

4区 · FR

On the Île de la Cité, the absolute canon of 12th-century French Gothic and a symbol of resurrection

Ancient Ruins of the World

Parthenon

アテネ自治体 · GR

Ancient Greece's masterpiece atop the Acropolis, the eternal canon of classical architecture

Ancient Ruins of the World

Stonehenge

エイムズベリー · GB

Britain's 5,000-year-old prehistoric stone circle, the world's most famous solar calendar in stone

Ancient Ruins of the World

Angkor Wat

シェムリアップ州 · KH

A 12th-century Khmer-built Hindu temple turned Buddhist, the world's largest religious monument

Ancient Ruins of the World

Colosseum

ローマ・カピターレ · IT

Rome's largest amphitheater and the symbol of the ancient Western world, standing since AD 80

Japanese Landmark Architecture

Mount Fuji

静岡県 · JP

Japan's tallest peak at 3,776 m, a sacred volcano of religion and art