Sacred journeys
Pilgrimages
Routes that gather many sites into one journey. Circuits of temples, mountain ascents, long roads walked across centuries. 53 pilgrimages on Pilgrim Map.
A
Islam · Najaf to Karbala · Iraq
Arbaeen Pilgrimage — Najaf to Karbala
زيارة الأربعين — النجف إلى كربلاء
A vast living visitation shaped by remembrance of Imam Husayn, shared walking, and extraordinary traditions of voluntary hospitality.
3 of 3 stations published
Hinduism · Maharashtra · India
Ashtavinayak Yatra
अष्टविनायक यात्रा
A complete eight-temple circuit through Maharashtra that begins at Morgaon, honors distinct forms of Ganesha, and traditionally returns to Morgaon to close the journey.
8 of 8 stations published
B
Chinese folk religion · Miaoli to Yunlin and return · Taiwan
Baishatun Mazu Pilgrimage
白沙屯媽祖進香
A vast annual Mazu procession whose endpoints are fixed but whose road, stops, and pace unfold through divination.
2 of 2 stations published
Buddhism · Kantō · Japan
Bandō Sanjūsankasho Pilgrimage
坂東三十三観音霊場
Thirty-three temples to Kannon across the eastern plain, a circuit of compassion shaped by twelfth-century warriors and walked still.
33 of 33 stations published
C
Christianity · California · United States
California Mission Trail
California Missions Trail / El Camino Real
Twenty-one surviving mission sites from San Diego to Sonoma, approached as living churches, Indigenous homelands, and places shaped by colonization.
21 of 21 stations published
Christianity · Northern Portugal to Galicia · Portugal, Spain
Caminho Português (Central Route)
Caminho Português de Santiago — Caminho Central
The inland branch of the Portuguese Camino, running from Porto's granite cathedral north into Galicia.
7 of 7 stations published
Christianity · spans into Spain (Galicia) · Portugal
Caminho Português (Coastal Route)
Caminho Português de Santiago — Caminho da Costa
The seaward branch of the Portuguese Camino, tracing the Atlantic coast north from Porto toward the Galician crossing.
4 of 4 stations published
Christianity · Iberian Camino network · Spain, Portugal
Camino de Santiago — Selected Sacred Sites
Caminos de Santiago
A cross-route collection of sacred places within the wider network of roads converging on Santiago de Compostela.
11 of 11 stations published
Christianity · Auvergne to the Pyrenees · France
Camino de Santiago — Via Podiensis
Voie du Puy / GR 65
The Le Puy road to Santiago — France's great pilgrim way over the Aubrac to the Pyrenees.
38 of 38 stations published
Christianity · Basque Country, Cantabria, Asturias, Galicia · Spain
Camino del Norte
Camino del Norte / Camino de la Costa
A six-church coastal spine from Irún through Asturias, with the official route continuing across Galicia to Santiago.
6 of 6 stations published
Christianity · Navarre, La Rioja, Castile and León, Galicia · Spain
Camino Francés
Camino Francés
Eleven mapped churches along the best-known Spanish approach to Santiago, presented as a partial sacred-site spine rather than a complete stage guide.
11 of 11 stations published
Christianity · Umbria/Lazio · Italy
Cammino di San Benedetto
Cammino di San Benedetto
A modern trail linking the birthplace, hermit cave, and mother abbey of the founder of Western monasticism.
7 of 7 stations published
Hinduism · Uttarakhand (Garhwal Himalaya) · India
Char Dham Yatra (Uttarakhand)
छोटा चार धाम / उत्तराखंड चार धाम यात्रा
Four Himalayan shrines to two river-goddesses, Shiva, and Vishnu, opened only when the mountains allow it.
4 of 4 stations published
Christianity · Provence · France
Chemin de Marie-Madeleine
Chemin de Marie-Madeleine
A Mary Magdalene pilgrimage through Provence, from Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer through Sainte-Baume to Saint-Maximin and its basilica.
5 of 5 stations published
Buddhism · Kantō · Japan
Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage
秩父三十四観音霊場
Thirty-four temples in a single Saitama valley — the third leg that makes the Hyakkasho complete.
34 of 34 stations published
Buddhism · Chūgoku · Japan
Chūgoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage
中国三十三観音霊場
A modern Kannon circuit across western Honshu, established in 1981 to honor temples that lay outside the great medieval routes.
29 of 33 stations published
Roman Catholic Christianity · Belém, Pará · Brazil
Círio de Nazaré
Círio de Nossa Senhora de Nazaré
Belém walks with Our Lady of Nazaré from the old cathedral to Sanctuary Square in one of the world's great living Marian processions.
2 of 2 stations published
Christianity · Great Moravian heritage network · Slovakia
Cyril and Methodius Route — Great Moravian Sites
Cyrilometodějská stezka
Two Slovak heritage sites within a much larger European network devoted to Cyril, Methodius, their disciples, and the legacy of Slavic literacy.
7 of 2 stations published
D
E
F
Chinese sacred mountain traditions · Shandong, Shaanxi, Hunan, Shanxi, and Henan · China
Five Great Mountains of China
五岳
Five mountains ordering sacred geography as east, west, south, north, and center—an inherited system, not a single trail.
5 of 5 stations published
Sikhism · Punjab, Bihar, and Maharashtra · India
Five Takhts of Sikhism
ਪੰਜ ਤਖ਼ਤ ਸਾਹਿਬਾਨ
Five living seats of Sikh authority connected by devotion and history rather than by one prescribed road.
5 of 5 stations published
Buddhism · Shanxi, Sichuan, Anhui, Zhejiang · China
Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains of China
中国佛教四大名山
Four mountains across China, each held as the earthly abode of a different bodhisattva, visited in any order pilgrims choose.
4 of 4 stations published
G
H
I
K
Shingon Buddhism and the Kii sacred landscape · Kudoyama and Koyasan, Wakayama Prefecture · Japan
Koyasan Choishi-michi
高野山町石道
Stone choishi lead from Jison-in through a shrine-linked mountain landscape to Daimon and Koyasan's great precincts.
7 of 7 stations published
Shinto and Buddhism · Wakayama Prefecture, Kii Peninsula · Japan
Kumano Kodo — Nakahechi and Kumano Sanzan
熊野古道・中辺路と熊野三山
Sacred oji thresholds lead through the Kii mountains toward Kumano's three grand shrines, river, waterfall, and layered traditions of death, rebirth, and renewal.
8 of 8 stations published
L
M
Christianity · Thessaly · Greece
Meteora Monasteries
Μετέωρα
Six living monasteries held above the Thessalian plain within one of Orthodox Christianity's great monastic landscapes.
6 of 6 stations published
Christianity · Mount Athos, Chalkidiki · Greece
Monastic Community of Mount Athos
Άγιον Όρος
All twenty sovereign monasteries of the Holy Mountain, presented as a living monastic community rather than a single prescribed circuit.
20 of 20 stations published
Shinto, Buddhism, Shugendo, and Fuji-ko devotion · Fujiyoshida and Mount Fuji, Yamanashi Prefecture · Japan
Mount Fuji Sacred Ascent — Yoshida Worship Route
富士山・吉田口登拝道
Oshi lodging, the northern Sengen shrine, the mountain, and a summit sanctuary reveal Mount Fuji as a living ascent of worship rather than only a climb.
4 of 4 stations published
N
P
Hinduism · Uttarakhand (Garhwal Himalayas) · India
Panch Kedar
पञ्च केदार
Five Himalayan temples to Shiva, each holding one part of a scattered, reassembled god.
5 of 5 stations published
Christianity · Hampshire/Surrey/Kent · United Kingdom
Pilgrims' Way (Winchester to Canterbury)
Pilgrims' Way
A North Downs road to Becket's shrine, walked for centuries and named, in part, by Victorian imagination.
58 of 58 stations published
Q
R
S
Ancient Greek religion · Aegean (Ege Bölgesi), near modern Didim · Turkey
Sacred Way of Didyma
Ἱερὰ Ὁδός (Hiera Hodos) / Kutsal Yol
A defunct processional road linking a Greek city to the oracle sanctuary second only to Delphi.
2 of 2 stations published
Christianity · Piedmont and Lombardy · Italy
Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy
Sacri Monti
Nine sacred mountains of chapels built as an alternative Holy Land when the real one grew hard to reach.
9 of 9 stations published
Buddhism · Kansai · Japan
Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage
西国三十三所
The oldest Kannon circuit in Japan — thirty-three temples across western Honshu, walked since the eighth century.
36 of 33 stations published
Christianity · Kosovo and Metohija · Kosovo
Serbian Orthodox Monasteries of Kosovo
Српски православни манастири на Косову и Метохији
Four frescoed medieval Serbian Orthodox monuments under UNESCO protection in the contested heart of the Balkans.
4 of 4 stations published
Christianity · Aegean and western Anatolia (ancient Roman Asia) · Turkey
Seven Churches of Revelation
Ἀποκάλυψις Ἰωάννου — αἱ ἑπτὰ ἐκκλησίαι
Seven first-century congregations addressed by name in the Book of Revelation, each given a specific commendation or rebuke.
7 of 7 stations published
Buddhism · Shikoku · Japan
Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage
四国八十八ヶ所霊場
Eighty-eight temples around an island, a circuit walked beside Kūkai across thirteen centuries.
88 of 88 stations published
Buddhism · Island-wide · Sri Lanka
Solosmasthana
සොළොස්මස්ථාන
The sixteen (or seventeen) places tradition holds the Buddha himself visited or blessed across Sri Lanka.
7 of 7 stations published
Buddhism and shared multi-religious sacred traditions · Sabaragamuwa Province · Sri Lanka
Sri Pada Pilgrimage
ශ්රී පාද / சிவனொளிபாத மலை
A night ascent toward a footprint shrine held sacred through Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, and Christian traditions.
1 of 1 stations published
Christianity · Scottish Borders and Northumberland · United Kingdom
St Cuthbert's Way
St Cuthbert's Way
A 100-kilometer cross-border path from the country of Cuthbert's early monastic life toward Holy Island.
3 of 3 stations published
Christianity · County Wicklow · Ireland
St Kevin's Way
Slí Chaoimhín
A 30-kilometer waymarked trail over the Wicklow Gap to the monastic valley St Kevin founded.
3 of 3 stations published
Christianity · Southwest Finland archipelago · Finland
St Olav Waterway — Turku to Korpo
Pyhän Olavin merireitti — Turku–Korppoo
A northern pilgrimage leaves Turku Cathedral and crosses islands and ferries through medieval churches toward the wider St Olav Ways to Nidaros.
4 of 4 stations published
Christianity · Antalya & Isparta Provinces (ancient Pamphylia and Pisidia) · Turkey
St Paul Trail
Aziz Paul Yolu
A modern waymarked trail through the Taurus Mountains, following where Paul's first mission is believed to have passed.
7 of 7 stations published
T
Buddhism · Gyeongsangnam-do and Jeollanam-do · South Korea
Three Jewel Temples of Korea
삼보사찰 (Sambosachal)
Three temples, each keeping one Jewel of Buddhism — Buddha, Dharma, Sangha — still living centers of Korean practice.
3 of 3 stations published
Hinduism · Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu · India
Twelve Jyotirlingas
द्वादश ज्योतिर्लिंग (Dwadasha Jyotirlinga)
Twelve self-manifested lingams of light, scattered the length of India, each a complete pilgrimage in itself.
12 of 12 stations published
V
Christianity · Aosta Valley to Lazio · Italy
Via Francigena — Italian Section
Via Francigena in Italia
A curated sacred-site spine along the Italian Via Francigena, descending from the Alps through the Po Valley and Tuscany toward Rome.
12 of 12 stations published
Christianity · Western Hungary to the Loire Valley · Hungary, France
Via Sancti Martini
Chemin de Saint-Martin / Szent Márton útja
From Martin of Tours's birthplace in Roman Pannonia to his tomb on the Loire, a modern route strung across six of his stations.
6 of 6 stations published