OLD KOTOR (Montenegro)
The Montenegrin town of Kotor's Venetian period fortifications include city walls, gates, and ramparts which protect the Old Town, parts of which date back to Roman and Byzantine times. The medieval portions include an 1166 cathedral. The inner bay of Kotor, an inlet of the Adriatic, has surrounding mountains, islets, and towns aside from Kotor.
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AAPRAVASI GHAT (Maritius)
This "Immigration Depot" on the Indian Ocean island of Maritius was once a transshipment point for slaves. With the 1834 emancipation of most enslaved people in British colonies, they were replaced with laborers from India who would work hard for low wages in the "Great Experiment" of indentured servitude; business at the depot thus went on as usual until 1923.
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VENICE (Italy)
Founded in the 5th century, this romantic city's famed canals divide it into 118 small islands linked by over 400 bridges, including the Rialto. The city sits in, not by, its renowned lagoon. In the 10th century proximity to Asia made it a maritime powerhouse; it is now an architectural masterpiece adorned by some of the world's greatest artists: Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and others.
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WESTMINSTER (London, England)
London's Westminster Abbey was built in 1245 where a church had been since the 7th century. All coronations have been held there since 1066, and 16 royal weddings since 1100. Over 3,300 prominent people--monarchs, prime ministers, poets, actors, scientists--are buried there. Nearby Westminster Palace (with its "Big Ben" Clock Tower) was first built in 1016 and rebuilt 1840-1876. It was the primary residence of English monarchs until 1512; Parliament has met there since the 13th century.
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QUITO (Ecuador)
Founded on the ruins of an Inca city by the Spanish in 1534, Quito, capital of Ecuador, is located at 9,350 feet on the slopes of the active Pichincha volcano, just 16 miles from the Equator. Built utilizing indigenous and European styles, it has one of the largest, best-preserved historic centers in the Americas. It was inscribed in the UNESCO list's first year.
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MACAO (China)
Since 1999 Macau has been a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, but it began its development as a Portuguese trading post in 1557; thus its unique blend of Portuguese and Chinese architecture. The "Las Vegas of the East" now has a gambling industry 7x larger than Las Vegas, and one of the highest per capita incomes in the world.
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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)
DARIEN (Panama)
"Central America" is a region, not a continent. Darien, in Panama, is a natural bridge spanning North and South America. It lies up against the border of Colombia (which is in South America); the rest of Panama and all countries of Central America are actually in North America. Balboa crossed the Isthmus here to become the first European to view the eastern edge of the Pacific.
(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)
THE PAPAL PALACE, AVIGNON (France)
From 1309 to 1376, the Pope lived not in the Vatican but in Avignon, France. The seven popes who reigned there were all French, and beholden to the French crown. They lived in this, one of the largest medieval Gothic buildings in Europe. Two further "antipopes"--leaders of a schismatic church after the legitimate papacy returned to Rome--also lived at Avignon.
(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)
CHANGDEOKGUNG PALACE (Seoul, South Korea)
This 15th-century complex comprises official and residential buildings set in a large park in Seoul, South Korea. Noted for the buildings' blending in with the natural topography of the site instead of imposing themselves upon it, only about 30% of the pre-Japanese structures have survived the damages of the Japanese occupation of Korea (1910–1945).
(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)
INDEPENDENCE HALL, (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA)
This iconic Philadelphia edifice is where both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were debated and adopted. Built in 1753, it has served the state of Pennsylvania as well as the nation. A forerunner to the League of Nations, itself a forerunner to the U.N., was also founded here. A nearby building houses the famously-cracked Liberty Bell.
(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)
THE TOWER OF LONDON (London, England, UK)
Dating to the Norman Conquest (1066) the castle, inflicted by the ruling French, was resented as a symbol of oppression. It contains several buildings within two rings of walls and a moat. Sometimes a royal residence, armory, treasury, menagerie, and home of the Crown Jewels of England, it was also famously used as a prison from 1100 to 1952. Today it's a popular tourist attraction.
(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)
BIKINI ATOLL (Marshall Islands in the central Pacific Ocean)
From 1946 to 1958 the U.S. detonated 23 nuclear weapons in the open air and underwater at the Bikini Atoll in the then-U.S. territory of the Marshall Islands, causing untold damage to the health of inhabitants of islands in the region and far beyond--as far as the U.S. and Europe. The Atoll lent its name to a swimwear style that started in 1946 and continues to this day.
(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)
LE MORNE BRABANT (Mauritius)
A 1,824-foot monolith on a peninsula in Mauritius in the Indian Ocean mostly surrounded by a lagoon and riddled with caves and overhangs, its natural defenses made an ideal refuge for escaped slaves ("Maroons") from mainland Africa, Madagascar, India, and SE Asia who settled the rock before emancipation in 1835. It has been a symbol of freedom ever since.
(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)
THE HISTORIC TOWN OF GRAND BASSAM (Côte d'Ivoire/Ivory Coast, Africa)
The first capital of Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) is an example of a turn-of-the-century colonial town with four quarters for trade, administration, Europeans, and Africans. A fishing village sits alongside colonial architecture. Once the country's most important city, it attracted people from all parts of Africa, Europe, and the Mediterranean Levant.
(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)
THE MADARA RIDER (Bulgaria)
This badly-eroded rock relief located east of Shumen in NE Bulgaria was carved 75 feet above ground level in the 7th-8th century, during the reign of the Bulgarian Khan Tervel. The identity (if any) of the near-life-sized figure is unknown. He is seen thrusting a spear into a lion at his horse's feet, with a dog running after him and a bird in front of his face.
(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)
POPOCATEPETL MONASTERIES (central Mexico)
Fifteen colonial monasteries in the central Mexican states of Morelos, Puebla, and Tlaxcala are located on slopes south and east of the Popocatépetl volcano. Built in the 16th-century by Augustinians, Franciscans, and Dominicans to evangelize the area, almost all feature a very large atrium--actually a chapel for outdoor services for the natives--in front of the church.
(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)
THE ROYAL PALACES OF ABOMEY (Benin, Africa)
Sited on 100 acres at Abomey, Benin, they were once the royal complex of the ancient West African Kingdom of Dahomey. Founded in 1625 by the Fon people, the empire traded with Europeans on the Slave Coast, selling them prisoners of war until the late 19th century. The twelve palaces once accommodated up to 8,000 people.
(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)
