The Lower Awash Valley, Ethiopia

THE LOWER AWASH VALLEY (Ethiopia)

You may not have heard of Ethiopia's Awash River Valley, but you should know of the most famous person who ever lived there: this is Lucy, an early hominin fossil dated to about 3.2 million years ago. (Her scientific designation is AL 288-1, but she is also called Dinkinesh, "you are marvelous" in Amharic.) The Valley hosts one of the most important groupings of palaeontological sites on the African continent.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)

Mongolian Altai Petroglyphs

MONGOLIAN ALTAI PETROGLYPHS (western Mongolia)

This six-square-mile region on the south side of western Mongolia's White River Valley contains figures of roughly 10,000 wild and domestic animals, some dating back more or less 10,000 years, and depicting the Altai peoples' transition from hunting to domestic herding and on to the nomadic horse-based culture popularly associated with the much later Genghis Khan.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)

Chief Roi Mata's Domain

CHIEF ROI MATA'S DOMAIN (Vanuatu, Melanesia)

Oral tradition and archaeology meet at the sites of the mass grave and former residence of powerful Melanesian 13th-century paramount chief Roi Mata of Vanuatu. The grave, found by a French archaeologist in 1967, contains the bodies of over 25 members of his retinue. Roi Mata's reputedly peaceful reign came after he united the tribes into a single army.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)

Cueva de las Manos

CUEVA DE LOS MANOS (Río Pinturas, Santa Cruz, Argentina)

Spanish for "Cave of the Hands," located in a complex of rock art sites in the province of Santa Cruz Argentina, and named for the hundreds of hands stenciled on the rock walls. Dated to 7,300 BCE-700 CE, when several waves of people occupied the cave. Considered by some scholars to be the best physical evidence of South American early hunter-gatherer groups.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)

Taos Pueblo

TAOS PUEBLO (Taos, New Mexico, USA)

This ancient New Mexican village, split by a small stream, is considered one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the US. The multi-storied buildings were probably built between 1000 and 1450; the land taken by the US government in 1908 and returned in 1970 included sacred Taos Mountain and Blue Lake, whence the people believe they originated.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)

Patagonia

PATAGONIA (Chile and Argentina)

Don't let the name fool you: "Tierra del Fuego" (the Land of Fire) is NOT hot! It was named for the many bonfires the natives built to keep warm! The climate compares to the Aleutians, or Iceland. The whole region of Patagonia, the southernmost 1,000 miles or so of Chile and Argentina--is cool, being mostly steppes and lava plateaus at the southern end of the Andes.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)

The Great Rift Valley

THE GREAT RIFT VALLEY (Lebanon to Mozambique)

The Great Rift Valley is a 4,300-mile-long series of trenches that runs from Lebanon (in Asia) to Mozambique (in Africa). Tanzania's 30-mile-long Olduvai Gorge leading into the Rift is the site of some of the world's most important "early man" finds, associated with the team of Mary and Louis Leakey (prominent in the "National Geographic" when I was a kid).

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)

The Rock Art of Alta

THE ROCK ART OF ALTA (northern Norway)

Located in northern Norway and not discovered until 1973, several sites exhibit over 6000 carvings dating to at least 4200 to 500 BCE. Scenes show a culture that herded reindeer, built boats, and practiced shamanism regarding bears and other sacred animals. Speculation about their purpose includes ritual, territory marking--and simple artistic pleasure.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)

The Rock-Hewn Churches

THE ROCK-HEWN CHURCHES (Ethiopia)

In the heart of Ethiopia, medieval Christian King Lalibela ordered the carving of 11 monolithic churches, hewn out of the living rock as pilgrimage sites in a "New Jerusalem" after access to the Holy Land was cut off by the Muslim conquests. To add to their magnificence, the interiors of some are decorated with painted murals.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)

The Ifugao Rice Terraces

THE IFUGAO RICE TERRACES (The Philippines)

The Ifugao people in remote areas of the northern Philippines have been shaping the land to fulfill their needs for over 2,000 years, handing down the knowledge of building and maintaining these life-giving structures from one generation to the next. The terraces blend engineering, social cohesion, agriculture, and beauty into a sacred tradition.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)

The Easter Island Statues

THE EASTER ISLAND STATUES (Moai) (over 2,000 miles west of Chile in the Pacific)

Hundreds of these statues, properly called moai, were carved between the years 1250 and 1500. They represent ancestors guarding the land. Many were toppled in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, possibly as the result of internal conflict among the people. The largest was 33 feet high and weighed almost 81 tons! They are being restored.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)