Heritage collection
UNESCO World Heritage
99 UNESCO-tagged sacred places: living pilgrimage routes, historic sanctuaries, and cultural landscapes.
Aachen Cathedral
Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
In the octagonal chapel that Charlemagne built as the heart of his empire, 32 Holy Roman Emperors ascended a marble throne to receive their crowns....
Abu Mena
Izbat Muhammad Farid, Alexandria, Egypt
In the desert southwest of Alexandria, a Roman soldier's martyrdom gave rise to one of Christianity's earliest and greatest pilgrimage centers....
Ajanta caves, Maharashtra
Phardapur, Maharashtra, India
In a horseshoe gorge of the Deccan Plateau, Buddhist monks spent seven centuries carving thirty caves from the basalt cliffs....
Ancient Jericho/Tell es-Sultan
Jericho, West Bank, Palestinian Territories
Tell es-Sultan rises from the Jordan Valley as one of humanity's oldest continuously inhabited places....
Antequera, Dolmen de Menga
Antequera, Andalusia, Spain
In the Andalusian landscape near Antequera, three megalithic tombs demonstrate that 5,500 years ago, humans were already creating monuments of extraordinary ambition and...
Aphrodisias
Karacasu, Aydın, Turkey
Aphrodisias existed because of Aphrodite. The city took her name, lived under her protection, and created the sculptors who gave divine form to marble across the Roman...
Arles
Arles, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France
Arles preserves the full arc of Western sacred history within a single city. Roman amphitheatre and theatre gave way to a necropolis where Christians sought burial near...
Avebury
Avebury, England, United Kingdom
Avebury surrounds you rather than keeping you at a distance. Unlike its famous neighbor Stonehenge, this vast Neolithic monument invites you to walk among its massive...
Axum
Axum, Tigray, Ethiopia
Axum is the holiest city in Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity—claimed resting place of the Ark of the Covenant, coronation site of emperors, and origin point of a faith that...
Ayers Rock (Uluru)
Macdonnell Region, Australia
Uluru rises 348 meters from the red desert of central Australia—a sandstone monolith that changes color with the light, from grey to orange to deep blood-red....
Bagan
Nyaung-U, Mandalay, Myanmar
Bagan spreads across the central plain of Myanmar: over two thousand Buddhist temples, stupas, and monasteries surviving from a time when more than ten thousand were built....
Bagrati Cathedral, Kutaisi
Kutaisi, Imereti, Georgia
Rising from Ukimerioni Hill above Kutaisi, Bagrati Cathedral has witnessed the unification of Georgia, the coronation of its greatest king, and centuries of destruction...
Banská Stiavnica, Calvary
Banská Štiavnica, Region of Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
On a hill above the ancient silver mines of Banská Štiavnica, the wealthy mining community built Europe's most elaborate Baroque Calvary....
Basilica of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Marian Hill in Levoča, Slovakia
Levoča, Prešov Region, Slovakia
Each July, over half a million pilgrims climb Marianska Hora to the Basilica of the Visitation outside Levoca, Slovakia....
Bath
Bath, England, United Kingdom
At Bath, Britain's only natural hot springs bubble up from deep within the earth at 46 degrees Celsius, as they have for millennia....
Borobudur
Desa Borobudur, Central Java, Indonesia
Rising from the Kedu Plain of Central Java, Borobudur is the world's largest Buddhist monument—a three-dimensional mandala carved in volcanic stone....
Boudhnath (Boudha)
Gokarneshwar Municipality, Bagamati Province, Nepal
Rising 36 meters above Kathmandu's northeastern sprawl, Boudhanath Stupa is one of the largest Buddhist stupas in the world and the most sacred Tibetan Buddhist site...
Bourges Cathedral
Bourges, Centre-Val de Loire, France
Bourges Cathedral rises from one of the earliest Christian communities in Gaul, its five naves flowing without interruption toward the altar....
Brihadeeswara Temple, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu
Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India
In 1010 CE, the Chola emperor Rajaraja I completed a temple so vast that its tower rises 216 feet and its capstone weighs 80 tons....
Brihadeeswarar Temple
Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India
The Brihadeeswarar Temple in Thanjavur, completed in 1010 CE under Rajaraja Chola I, is one of India's grandest Shiva temples and a UNESCO Great Living Chola Temple....
Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi
Amkhera, Madhya Pradesh, India
The Great Stupa at Sanchi rises from a hilltop in central India—a hemisphere of stone that has held sacred meaning for over 2,300 years....
Bulguksa Temple
Gyeongju-si, North Gyeongsang, South Korea
Bulguksa Temple rises on the slopes of Mount Tohamsan as a physical theology—Korean Buddhism made visible in stone....
Burgos Cathedral
Burgos, Castile and León, Spain
Burgos Cathedral rises in the heart of Castile, Spain's first Gothic church and the only Spanish cathedral designated as a standalone World Heritage Site....
Cahokia Mounds, Collinsville, Illinois
Collinsville, Illinois, United States
Eight miles from downtown St. Louis, across the Mississippi, 70 earthen mounds mark what was once the largest city north of Mexico....
Canterbury Cathedral
Canterbury, England, United Kingdom
Canterbury Cathedral has drawn pilgrims for over eight centuries, since four knights murdered Archbishop Thomas Becket at the altar in 1170....
Carcassonne
Carcassonne, Occitania, France
Carcassonne rises above the Aude River as Europe's largest surviving medieval fortified city....
Cathedral of Trier — the Holy Robe
Trier, Trier, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
Trier Cathedral has stood on the same Roman foundations since the 4th century — the oldest cathedral church in Germany and the custodian of the Heilig-Rock, the seamless...
Chaco Canyon, New Mexico
San Juan County, New Mexico, United States
In the high desert of New Mexico, the ruins of Chaco Canyon stand as testimony to a civilization that achieved extraordinary things....
Changu Narayan Temple
Bhaktapur, Bagmati Province, Nepal
On a forested hilltop east of Kathmandu, Nepal's oldest Hindu temple has watched over the valley for over 1,600 years....
Chartres Cathedral
Chartres, Centre-Val de Loire, France
Chartres Cathedral rises from the wheat fields of France as medieval Christianity's most complete surviving statement....
Chavín de Huántar
Chavín de Huantar, Ancash, Peru
Rising from a high Andean valley at the confluence of two rivers, Chavin de Huantar served as the Americas' earliest pilgrimage center for over five hundred years....
Chichen Itza
Pisté, Yucatán, Mexico
Chichen Itza rises from the Yucatan jungle as one of the most powerful sacred sites in the Americas....
Cologne Cathedral
Köln, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Cologne Cathedral rises from the Rhine plain in twin spires that took six centuries to complete....
Delos
Municipality of Mykonos, Aegean, Greece
Delos stands where light entered the world. According to Greek myth, this tiny island was floating and rootless until Leto gave birth to Apollo and Artemis here, and the...
Delphi
Municipal Unit of Delphi, Thessaly and Central Greece, Greece
Delphi stands where the Greeks placed the center of the world. Zeus sent eagles from the ends of the earth; where they crossed, he set the omphalos, the navel stone....
Durham Cathedral
Durham, England, United Kingdom
For 120 years, monks fleeing Vikings carried the body of St. Cuthbert across northern England....
Easter Island
Easter Island, Valparaiso Region, Chile
At the most isolated inhabited place on Earth, a Polynesian people carved nearly a thousand stone figures to embody their ancestors....
Ellora caves, Maharashtra
Khuldabad, Maharashtra, India
Over four centuries, Buddhist monks, Hindu devotees, and Jain ascetics carved 34 temples and monasteries into a basalt cliff in western India—side by side, in the same...
Ephesus
Selçuk, Aegean Region, Turkey
For three millennia, the hills above Ephesus have been sacred to feminine divinity—first Cybele, then Artemis whose temple was one of the Seven Wonders, and now Mary,...
Epidauros
Municipal Unit of Epidavros, Peloponnese, Western Greece and the Ionian, Greece
Epidauros was the most important healing sanctuary in the ancient Greek world. Here, in an intimate valley of the Peloponnese, patients came to sleep in the sacred...
Erdene Zuu Monastery
Kharkhorin, Övörkhangai Province, Mongolia
Rising from the ruins of Genghis Khan's capital on the endless Mongolian steppe, Erdene Zuu Monastery marks the place where an empire of conquest transformed into a...
Etchmiadzin Cathedral
Vagharshapat, Armavir Province, Armenia
Built in the early 4th century on the site where Gregory the Illuminator saw Christ descend from heaven, Etchmiadzin stands as the spiritual heart of the Armenian...
Fanjingshan mountain and temple, Tongren
Tongren, Guizhou, China
Rising from the primordial forests of Guizhou, Fanjingshan is China's Fifth Sacred Buddhist Mountain and the earthly throne of Maitreya, the Buddha yet to come....
Geghard Monastery
Goght, Kotayk Province, Armenia
Carved into the cliffs of the Azat River gorge, Geghard Monastery has held Armenian Christian worship since the 4th century....
Göbekli Tepe
Haliliye, Şanlıurfa, Turkey
Rising from the plains of southeastern Turkey, Göbekli Tepe predates Stonehenge by 6,000 years and the pyramids by 7,000....
Gračanica Monastery
Gračanica, Kosovo
Consecrated in 1321, Gracanica Monastery rises in the heart of Kosovo as the finest achievement of Serbian medieval art....
Great Mosque of Djenné
Djenné, Mopti, Mali
Rising from the floodplain of the Bani River, the Great Mosque of Djenné is the largest mud-brick building in the world....
Great Pyramid of Giza
Giza, Giza, Egypt
The Great Pyramid rises from the Giza Plateau like a geometric mountain, its proportions so precise that modern engineers struggle to explain how 4,500-year-old technology...
Great Zimbabwe
Nemanwa Growth Point, Masvingo Province, Zimbabwe
The largest stone structure in precolonial sub-Saharan Africa, Great Zimbabwe stands as testimony to a sophisticated Shona kingdom that flourished from the 11th to 15th...
Grishneswar Jyotirlinga Temple, Verul, Maharashtra
Ellora, Maharashtra, India
At Verul in the Deccan, less than a kilometre from the rock-cut monasteries of Ellora, stands the closing verse of the Dwadasha Jyotirlinga Stotram....
Group of Monuments at Hampi
Hampi, Karnataka, India
Hampi sprawls across a boulder-strewn landscape in Karnataka, its sixteen hundred monuments testifying to the Vijayanagara Empire's golden age....
Gyeongju Historic Area
Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang, South Korea
For nearly a millennium, Gyeongju served as the capital of the Silla kingdom and the center of Korean Buddhism's golden age....
Hal Saflieni Hypogeum
Paola, South Eastern Region, Malta
Carved into living rock over 5,000 years ago, the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum descends three levels into the earth where Malta's Temple Builders interred their dead and,...
Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town
Hebron, Judea and Samaria, Palestinian Territories
One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on Earth, Hebron holds the Cave of Machpelah—the burial place of the patriarchs and matriarchs venerated by Judaism,...
Hierapolis Plutonion and the Cleopatra Pool
Pamukkale, Pamukkale, Denizli, Turkey
Hierapolis was built on a karstic fault that exhales both deadly carbon-dioxide and warm mineral water....
Horyuji
Ikaruga, Nara Prefecture, Japan
The pagoda and main hall of Hōryū-ji have stood for over 1,300 years—the oldest surviving wooden structures on earth....
Hurezi (Horezu) Monastery
Romanii de Jos, Vâlcea, Romania
Founded in the 1690s by Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu and now home to a community of Orthodox nuns, Horezu Monastery stands as the supreme achievement of the Brâncovenesc...
Itchan Kala
Khiva, Xorazm Region, Uzbekistan
Rising from the Khorezm desert, Itchan Kala preserves twenty-five centuries of sacred history within mud-brick walls that have witnessed Zoroastrian fire worship, Silk...
Jain temples of Khajuraho
Jatkra, Madhya Pradesh, India
Rising from the eastern reaches of Khajuraho, these temples stand apart from their more famous neighbors....
Jame' Mosque of Isfahan
Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
In the heart of Isfahan, where the bazaar opens into tranquil courtyard, stands a mosque that has hosted continuous prayer since 771 CE....
Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi
Anuradhapura, North Central Province, Sri Lanka
A cutting from the tree under which the Buddha attained enlightenment was brought to Sri Lanka in the 3rd century BCE....
Jokhang Temple
Chengguan District, Tibet, China
For nearly fourteen hundred years, Jokhang Temple has stood at the center of Tibetan Buddhism, housing what is believed to be the most sacred Buddha image in existence....
Kadalekalu Ganesha Temple, Hampi, Karnataka
Hampi, Karnataka, India
On the boulder-strewn slopes of Hemakuta Hill, the Vijayanagara sculptors carved their devotion into a single massive granite boulder....
Kakadu National Park
West Arnhem Region, Australia
Kakadu National Park holds the longest continuous record of human habitation on Earth....
Kakatiya Rudreshwara Ramappa Temple, Telangana
Palampet, Telangana, India
Rising from the Telangana countryside on a star-shaped platform, Ramappa Temple stands as the pinnacle of Kakatiya dynasty architecture....
Kathmandu Valley
Kathmandu, Bagmati Province, Nepal
The Kathmandu Valley is a sacred landscape unlike any other on Earth. Seven UNESCO World Heritage monument zones hold temples, stupas, and shrines where Hindu and Buddhist...
Kizhi Pogost, Kizhi Island
Kizhi, Republic of Karelia, Russia
Rising from an island in Lake Onega, Kizhi Pogost stands as the supreme achievement of Russian wooden architecture....
Kumano Hayatama Taisha
Shingū, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan
Kumano Hayatama Taisha stands at the mouth of the Kumano River where it meets the sea, one of three grand shrines that have drawn pilgrims for over a millennium....
Kumano Hongū Taisha
Tanabe, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan
For over a thousand years, every path of the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage has led here....
Labna
Santa Elena, Yucatán, Mexico
Rising from the limestone hills of the Puuc region, Labna preserves the most elaborate ceremonial arch in all Maya territory....
Lake Mungo
Willandra Lakes, New South Wales, Australia
In the dry lakebed of outback Australia lies evidence of humanity's earliest spiritual practices—a woman cremated with ceremony 42,000 years ago, a man laid to rest with...
Leshan Giant Buddha
Leshan, Sichuan, China
For ninety years, three generations of craftsmen carved Maitreya Buddha into the cliffs where three rivers meet at Leshan....
Lingaraj Temple, Bhubaneswar, Odisha
Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, Odisha, India
Lingaraj is the architectural and devotional centre of Bhubaneswar, the Temple City of India....
Lumbini
Parsa, Lumbini Province, Nepal
Lumbini is the birthplace of Siddhartha Gautama, who became the Buddha. For over two millennia, pilgrims have traveled to this garden in southern Nepal where, according to...
Machu Picchu
Machupicchu, Cusco, Peru
For nearly four hundred years, Machu Picchu waited in the cloud forest, abandoned but not destroyed, its stones slowly embraced by jungle while Spanish conquistadors...
Mahabodhi Temple and Bodhi Tree, Bodh Gaya, Bihar
Bodh Gaya, Bihar, India
The Mahabodhi Temple marks where it happened—where a man sat down beneath a pipal tree and, after forty-nine days of meditation, achieved complete liberation from...
Maya Site of Copan
Copán Ruinas, Copán, Honduras
Copan stands where rulers enacted creation. For 400 years, Maya kings carved themselves as deities in elaborate stelae, believing the stone would hold their divine essence...
Merv Oasis
Mary, Mary Region, Turkmenistan
Once the largest city in the world, Merv stands in Turkmenistan's Karakum Desert as the most completely preserved of the Silk Road's ancient oases....
Necropolis of Bet Shearim
Emek Izrael Regional Council, North District, Israel
When Jews were barred from burial on the Mount of Olives after 135 CE, they came to Bet She'arim....
Old Town of Ghadames, Libya
Ghadames, Nalut, Libya
Rising from the Sahara at the confluence of three ancient trade routes, the Old Town of Ghadames has sheltered travelers, merchants, and pilgrims for over two millennia....
Our Lady of Guadalupe
Guadalupe, Extremadura, Spain
The Royal Monastery of Santa María de Guadalupe in the Sierra de las Villuercas is a UNESCO World Heritage site (1993, ref 665) and one of Spain's most consequential...
Pashupatinath Temple
Kathmandu, Kathmandu, Bagmati Province, Nepal
Pashupatinath is Nepal's most sacred Shiva temple and the spiritual heart of the country....
Rock-Hewn Churches, Lalibela
ላሊበላ / Lalibela, Amhara Region, Ethiopia
In the Ethiopian highlands, eleven churches descend into volcanic rock rather than rise above it....
Sacred City of Caral-Supe
Supe, Lima, Peru
Five thousand years ago, when Egypt was building its pyramids, people in the Supe Valley of Peru were building theirs....
Saint-Sophia Cathedral, Kiev
Kyiv, Kyiv, Ukraine
Built in the 11th century as the mother church of Kyivan Rus', Saint-Sophia Cathedral stands as one of the oldest surviving Christian monuments in Eastern Europe....
Sanctuary in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska
Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, Lesser Poland, Poland
Rising above the Beskid foothills southwest of Krakow, Kalwaria Zebrzydowska recreates Jerusalem's sacred geography across 380 hectares of forested hills....
Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidauros
Epidauros, Epidauros, Argolis, Peloponnese, Greece
Epidauros was the principal sanctuary of Asklepios, Greek god of healing, and the mother-shrine from which all other Asklepieia drew their authority....
Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Congonhas
Congonhas, Minas Gerais, Brazil
On a hillside in Minas Gerais, twelve prophets in soapstone look down from their staircase, scrolls unfurled, announcing what the chapels below depict: Christ's Passion,...
Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain
For more than a thousand years the granite squares of Santiago have been the final paving stones of a journey that begins in dozens of European countries....
Seven Saints of Marrakesh
Marrakesh, Marrakech-Safi, Morocco
Marrakesh is a city built around saints. Seven holy men—scholars, mystics, protectors of the poor—lie buried within its walls....
Sri Dalada Maligawa, Temple of the Tooth
Kandy, Central Province, Sri Lanka
Beside Kandy's lake stands the palace-temple that has held the Sacred Tooth Relic of the Buddha since the seat of Sinhala kingship settled in these hills....
Stonehenge
West Amesbury, England, United Kingdom
Stonehenge rises from Salisbury Plain as the most recognized prehistoric monument on Earth....
Swayambhunath, Kathmandu
Kathmandu, Bagmati Province, Nepal
Swayambhunath rises from a forested hill four kilometers west of central Kathmandu, its gilded spire visible across the valley....
The acropolis of Baalbek
Baalbek, Baalbek-Hermel Governorate, Lebanon
Baalbek stands in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, where Phoenicians worshipped Baal, Greeks honored the sun, and Romans built temples on a scale they attempted nowhere else in...
The Great Mosque of Kairouan
Kairouan, Kairouan, Tunisia
Founded in 670 CE, only thirty-eight years after the Prophet Muhammad's death, the Great Mosque of Kairouan stands as the oldest mosque in Africa and the template for all...
The Temple of Haeinsa, Gaya-san
Hapcheon, South Gyeongsang, South Korea
Haeinsa is one of Korea's Three Jewel Temples, representing the Dharma itself. High on Mount Gayasan, this active monastery safeguards the Tripitaka Koreana, the world's...
Todaiji
Nara, Nara Prefecture, Japan
In 752 CE, Emperor Shōmu consecrated a bronze Buddha of unprecedented scale—15 meters tall, cast from nearly all the copper in Japan—to bring peace to a nation wracked by...
Toji
Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan
For over 1,200 years, Tō-ji has been the beating heart of Shingon Buddhism—the esoteric tradition that Kūkai brought from China in the 9th century....
Wat Xieng Thong, Luang Prabang
Luang Prabang, Luang Prabang, Laos
At the tip of Luang Prabang's peninsula, where the Mekong meets the Nam Khan, Wat Xieng Thong has stood since 1560....