Sacred journeys
Pilgrimages
Routes that gather many sites into one journey. Circuits of temples, mountain ascents, long roads walked across centuries. 29 pilgrimages on Pilgrim Map.
Ancient Greek religion
Buddhism
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
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
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
Buddhism · Kansai · Japan
New Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage
新西国三十三所
A modern Kansai Kannon circuit organized in 1932 to make the old route walkable for working pilgrims.
38 of 33 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
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 · 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
Christianity
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 · 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 · 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
Christianity · Provence · France
Chemin de Marie-Madeleine
Chemin de Marie-Madeleine
A Provençal devotional route between the shore where Mary Magdalene is said to have landed and the cave where she is said to have died.
5 of 5 stations published
Christianity · Nile Delta, Wadi El Natrun, and Assiut · Egypt
Holy Family Trail in Egypt
طريق العائلة المقدسة
Five key stations, out of the roughly twenty-five that make up Egypt's full Holy Family Trail, from Old Cairo to Assiut.
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.
10 of 12 stations published
Christianity · Yucatán · Mexico
Ruta de los Conventos de Yucatán
Ruta de los Conventos
Three Franciscan convents on a colonial route where evangelization was built, literally, on top of Maya ceremonial ground.
3 of 3 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
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.
9 of 7 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 · 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
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
Hinduism
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
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
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
