BABYLON (Iraq)
Babylon! The very name is exotic. Likely the world's largest city in its heyday as the capital of two separate Babylonian Empires (19th-15th and 7th-6th centuries BCE), this site lies on the Euphrates River just south of present-day Baghdad. Last occupied in the 10th century CE, it now lies in ruins, though it is being vigorously rebuilt. Its Hanging Gardens were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)
MARRAKESH (Morocco)
The Medina (old Arab quarter) of Marrakesh was founded 1070-72 by the Almoravids, a confederation of Berber tribes whose empire included NW Africa and S Spain (Andalusia). It has a major Mosque, a Kasbah, battlements, monumental doors, and gardens from that period. Later additions--and the stalls of vendors--add to the charm. It is today one of Africa's busiest cities, as well as a site of Sufi pilgrimage.
(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)
AL ZUBARAH (Qatar)
Ruins are all that remain of this originally nearly-1,000-acre fortified city on the NW coast of Qatar. Founded in the first half of the 18th century by the founder of Bahrain's Al Khalifa royal family, it was once a center of global trade between the Strait of Hormuz and the western arm of the Persian Gulf. Today it is Qatar's most substantial archaeological site.
(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)
PERSEPOLIS (southwestern Iran)
Once the seasonally-occupied ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire in modern day Iran, it rested on a walled platform, with grand entrances and five halls of varying size. Its function is unclear. The name means "Persian city" in Greek (from the Old Persian name "Parsa"). It was looted in 330 by Alexander the Great's army, and burned thereafter.
(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)
THE OLD WALLED CITY OF SHIBAM (central Yemen)
This 16th-century city of seven-story sun-dried mud brick tower houses in central Yemen is known as the "Manhattan (or sometimes Chicago) of the Desert” for its resemblance to modern skyscrapers. The one-time caravan stop on the Southern Arabian plateau's spice and incense route is surrounded by a fortified wall on a rocky spur above the bed of a wadi.
(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)
THE KASBAH OF ALGIERS (Algeria)
The citadel of Algiers and the traditional quarter around it were founded on the ruins of a 10th-century Berber city. While some old mosques (and Ottoman-style palaces) remain, before French rule began in 1839 there were 166 buildings meant for religious use, including 109 mosques; 19 remain. Home today to 40,000-70,000 people, the city is in severe disrepair.
(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)
THE DEAD SEA (between Jordan and Israel/West Bank)
Named because its high salt content--9.6 times as salty as the ocean--prevents plants and animals from flourishing, it's 31 miles long and 9 wide at its widest point. In the Jordan Rift Valley between Jordan (east) and Israel and the West Bank (west); its main tributary is the Jordan River. Ancient manuscript scrolls found nearby starting in 1947 are named for it.
(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)
LEPTIS MAGNA (near Tripoli, Libya)
81 miles east of Tripoli in Libya stands one of the best-preserved Roman sites in the Mediterranean. A prominent city of Carthage and later Roman Libya, Emperor Septimius Severus (reigned 193-211), was born there in 145. It fell to the Vandals in 439; was restored in 533, it never recovered its former importance, fell to Muslim invasion in 647, and was abandoned.
(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)
THE BAMIYAN VALLEY (Afghanistan)
Home to two monumental 6th-century Buddha statues (125 feet and 180 feet tall, carved directly into a cave-riddled cliff nearly a mile long) until destroyed as idolatrous by the Taliban in March 2001, the area which once lay along one of the "Silk Roads" still has remains of 3rd-5th century Buddhist monastic centers and 6th-10th century Islamic forts.
(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)
