At first my jet-lagged brain could not process more than their looming yet beautiful presence, and proximity to the nearby town. I had imagined them constructed in the middle of some vast, remote, practically inaccessible stretch of desert wasteland…as is over 90 percent of the remaining country. But they were here in all their significant historical splendor. All three! The most famous, the Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest …
What is Machu Picchu? There is no reference to Machu Picchu in Inca literature or folklore, so what is this culturally sophisticated engineering city in the Andes of Peru? Many archeologists believe that it was constructed as a retreat for the Inca nobility between 1400 and 1500 AD. But the extensive terracing suggests it may have been a center for crop testing or used as a trading hub. Who lived …
High in the Andes Mountains of Peru live direct descendents of the ancient Inca people, invaded by Spanish Conquistadors in the 1500’s. This indigenous group of people are called the Q’ueros. They are the few that escaped forced labor by the Spanish, those able to live in “villages in the clouds” in the refuge of the holy mountains (Apus), guarding much of their sacred knowledge and keeping it intact over …
Although the trail to the remarkable Inca engineering and cultural achievement called Machu Picchu is Peru’s most famous destination, Cañon del Colca, or Colca Canyon is a grand and extraordinary experience…one not to miss! One of the deepest canyons in the world — nearly 14,000 feet from its highest point to its lowest, twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, it is home to the Andean condor, a sacred bird …
Since most of the world is dealing with scorching summer temps, here’s a cooling visual reprieve. Croatia’s first national park since 1949 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Plitvice Lakes is the country’s oldest and largest with sixteen lakes and innumerable waterfalls. Located very close to the Croatian border with Bosnia, it’s about a two hour drive from either Zagreb or the Adriatic coast. The park is broken up into the …
The Royal Palace situated within the city of Angkor Thom, close to Siem Reap Cambodia, belonged to kings of the tenth and first half of of the eleventh centuries. King Jayavarman VII built the city, whose name translates to “Great Kingdom” and includes Angkor Wat, over a 30 year period with the assistance of 6,000 elephants. A Chinese emissary, who provided the only first-hand account of the Khmer, described the splendor …