Page 49 - Off the Tourist Trail - 1000 Unexpected Travel Alternatives (Part 1 of 2)

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ANCIENT AND HISTORICAL SIGHTS

ABOVE Imposing palatial structure of Potala Palace, historic home of the Dalai Lamas, situated high up on
an outcrop above the Lhasa Valley, Tibet
‘
POTALA PALACE, LHASA, TIBET A match for the dramatic mountains that surround it, LEPTIS MAGNA, LIBYA On the Mediterranean coast, east of Tripoli, stand the most
the great Red Palace sits on top of the great White Palace, which in turn sits on top of wonderful Roman remains in Africa. The city began life under the Phoenicians in the
Red Hill, 985 ft (300 m) above Lhasa. At 12,140 ft (3,700 m) above sea level, the whole rich, 10th century BC. It was incorporated into the Roman Empire in AD 43, and went on to
historic complex is also way above most of the rest of the world. Potala Palace was the flourish as a trading post, particularly after a native son, Septimius Severus, became emperor.
home of the Dalai Lamas from 1649 to 1959, and it is a place of immensities, with 200,000 Excavations have revealed large marbled baths, a beautiful theater (see p22), a market
statues, 10,000 shrines, and 1,000 rooms. The opening of the Qingzang railway from China place, and a basilica as well as some of the finest figurative mosaic floors ever discovered.
in 2006 has brought many visitors, keen for an insight into this remote and spiritual place. There are also some strikingly modern details, such as chair rails and baseboards.

JERASH, JORDAN All the power and GLENDALOUGH, IRELAND In the heart TRÔO, LOIR-ET-CHER, FRANCE Carved
brilliance of Rome can be seen in these of the Wicklow Mountains lies a glacial into the white cliff above the Loire River,
stupendous ruins. With beautifully valley with two lakes, famous for its beauty the troglodyte village of Trôo (from trou –
preserved city walls, temples, baths, and and its “city of seven churches.” Founded “hole”) has provided safe lodging for
theaters, and a main street flanked with as a monastery in the 6th century, the site centuries; its oldest dwellings date from
imposing pillars, some consider this to is noted for its distinctive tower, decorated the 12th century. They are still in demand
be the best Roman site outside Italy. crosses and 11th–12th-century churches. as second homes for stylish Parisians.

JANTAR MANTAR OBSERVATORY, JAIPUR, INDIA From the pyramids of Egypt to the METEORAS MONASTERIES, GREECE SACSAYHUAMAN, PERU Just outside the
standing stones of Stonehenge and the Bighorn Medicine Wheel, man has always Fittingly named after meteora, Greek for city of Cusco stands an Inca complex of
studied the heavens. This astronomical observatory in west central India, however, is a “suspended in air,” this collection of 16 huge walls and vast boulders, which fit as
real curiosity. Jantar Mantar is the largest and best preserved of five similar ensembles monasteries hovers atop astonishing if nature had fashioned them. It consists
built by Maharajah Jai Singh II between 1727 and 1734. It consists of a series of 16 stone pillars of rock. Ropes and pulleys were of three tiered walls zigzagging towards
and marble structures which act as instruments for measuring time and the movement used for supplies, and ladders could be a tower, interrupted by great doorways.
of celestial bodies. They were designed on a large scale for greater accuracy, and its pulled up in case of attack. Remote and Built in the 15th century over 70 years,
Great Sundial, the world’s largest, can tell the time to within 2 seconds. Some of the unbreachable, they helped to keep alive with a labor force of 20,000, it is a masterly
instruments are still used to forecast how hot the summer months will be, as well as the traditions of the Orthodox Church feat of Inca construction. Pizarro’s forces
the expected duration and intensity of the monsoon. during the 500 years of Ottoman rule. took the fort in 1536 after weeks of seige.

TRE CASTELLI, BELLINZONA, PAESTUM, CAMPAGNA, ITALY This is PANCHA RATHAS, MAMALLAPURAM,
SWITZERLAND Though small, Bellinzona the most important ancient Greek site INDIA The Pancha Rathas are five lovely
is of strategic importance as a gateway to south of Naples. Paestum has three 7th-century rock temples cut from single
Italy, guarding the St Gotthard Pass and massive Doric temples in an excellent pink granite outcrops. Being attached to
the Ticino valley. Fortified since the 1st state of repair: the Basilica, or Temple of the earth they could not be consecrated,
century BC, it was the focus of a power Hera (mid-6th century BC); the Temple so they were never used for worship.
struggle between its Italian occupants of Neptune (5th century BC); and the With beams, lintels, and “thatched” roofs
and Swiss neighbors in the 13th–15th Temple of Ceres, thought to date between in imitation of earlier, wooden examples,
centuries, resulting in an ensemble of three its two neighbors. One of its finest they influenced the design of Hindu
castles, joined by lofty city walls. treasures is the Tomb of the Diver. temples over the following 1,000 years.

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