For many people, the highlights of Iran (apart from the people) are the mosques and medrassahs and the blue tiles that adorn such buildings. However, much of this architecture was built after Timur (Tamerlane) cut swathes through the region, and given that he had his capital in Samarkand (Uzbekistan) the most impressive examples are actually […]
Exploring Persepolis – Iran Read More »
One of the highlights of southern Georgia is Vardzia – an extensive cave monastery (500m long and rising up 19 tiers) that was largely built in the latter part of the 12th century. We had 2 hours to explore the site so I decided to spring for the $5 for an audio tour and set
Because you can never see too many petroglyphs (and I don’t say that facetiously – I actually find them fascinating), one of our quick stops in Azerbaijan was to visit the Gobustan petroglyphs. This National park is home to more than 6,000 rock engravings dating from between 5,000–40,000 years ago – some of which are
Gobustan Petroglyphs – Azerbaijan Read More »
Turkmenistan is, in a similar fashion to North Korea, a very closed country, which can make it quite difficult to visit. We needed Letters of Invitation (one of our group was refused this because in his photo he wasn’t clean-shaven and yet didn’t have a full beard … just a 5-day growth) and Visas, both
Konye Urgench – Turkmenistan Read More »
First day on the overland truck started with a quick overview of the truck itself, where everything goes and how everything works. Then it was loads of photos with the owners of the hostel and off down the tiny backstreets of Almaty in our humungous beast! Took forever to get out of Almaty, and then
Tamgaly Petroglyphs – Kazakhstan Read More »
Much closer than Cerro Vizcachas, in fact just below the road where it passes below the 3.6m telescope, are the rock engravings, or petroglyphs, of La Silla. I visited these a couple of times when I first arrived at La Silla about 15 years ago, but haven’t been back since. Given I was wandering
Petroglyphs – La Silla Observatory Read More »
The other reason (apart from Kuelap) that Chachapoyas won out over the other towns with archaeological sites was that the Sarcophagi of Karajía really captured my imagination. I’d come across them on the Atlas Obscura website that Charlotte put me onto and I just had to visit another site with “big heads” given I’d done
Sarcophagi of Karajía & Quiocta Cavern – Chachapoyas, Peru Read More »
Chachapoyas is a long way from anywhere in Peru but, if one looks at it a certain way, it is on the way to Tarapoto where I was headed to do the Vegetarian Cooking and Yoga retreat. I decided to head here (as opposed to Cajamarca or Chiclayo which were my other options) because of some
Kuelap – Chachapoyas, Peru Read More »
If you’ve spent any time at all in Guatemala or Honduras, you will have seen at least one (and probably several) Mayan ruins. Tikal in particular is incredible (at least that’s what my memory from 16 years ago tells me), but I have also visited Copán in Honduras, as well as several other lesser-known sites.
Joya de Cerén Archaeological Ruins Read More »
