luxor, Egypt

From Luxor to Thebes: Journey to Ancient Egypt


wall like an egyptian
Engravings with egyptian religious motifs on one of the sandy walls of the temple of Karnak. The sun god Ra, is on the right.
Aurora over Luxor
The architectural amalgamation of the temple of Karnak, pink with dawn.
on the way to the mausoleum
Visitors to the Valley of the Kings walk along the boulevard that leads to the mortuary rooms of Pharaoh Hatshepsut, the most imposing building in the Valley of the Kings and Queens.
shadows of time
A worker from the temples of Luxor walks through a column-lined atrium.
Avenue of Sphinxes
Dozens of ram sphinxes make up the Avenue of Sphinxes that connects the Temple of Karnak to that of Luxor.
above nile
Cruzeiro stops at one of the various sluices that regulate the height of the waters of the Nile River.
Egyptian conversation up to date
Egyptian Guardians of the Temple of Karnak converse in the dawn sun.
karnak x 2
Cistern reflects part of the vast temple of Karnak.
vegetable column
A palm tree clashes with the order of columns prevailing in the Temple of Karnak
Thebes was raised as the new supreme capital of the Egyptian Empire, the seat of Amon, the God of Gods. Modern Luxor inherited the Temple of Karnak and its sumptuousness. Between one and the other flow the sacred Nile and millennia of dazzling history.

“In my time, we would have built this all in the studio. Is better!" shot Bette Davis. The insinuating-eyed actress was filming “Death on the Nile,” the Hollywood version of Agatha Christie's police classic.

To be fair to him, at the time, Luxor was not like the majestic Thebes that dazzled Alexander the Great and troubled successive Roman emperors and generals. It didn't compare to the current city either. The homonymous temple, for example, was lost among crowded bazaars and the unruly development of the center had resulted in chaos.

Faced with the importance of the area, however considered the largest open-air museum in the world, the UNESCO validated the drastic solution that followed without ceremony. Suddenly, the local governor ordered the demolition of hundreds of houses and shops to restore the place to its historic purity.

The heart of the complex became the Temple of Luxor, admirable from any perspective, extending to the Avenue of the Sphinxes. The works sacrificed the lives of the residents who could do little against the ridiculous amounts they received in compensation.

Avenue of the Sphinxes, Luxor, Egypt

Dozens of ram sphinxes make up the Avenue of Sphinxes that connects the Temple of Karnak to that of Luxor.

They also horrified the archaeologists who saw bulldozers “take care of” the excavation of the sphinxes. And they were precariously interrupted at the time of the Egyptian Spring Revolution. Agatha Christie could no longer narrate any of these crimes.

Even taking all the cares into account, Luxor is Luxor. Anyone who calls himself a traveler and even the most disinterested tourist knows that, on Earth, there is no equal.

Discovering Ancient Egypt at Luxor

We landed at the city airport with enthusiasm to match. We install ourselves aboard one of the cruises that sails up the Nile and the Nile down.

The next day, the sun was still resting in the east, we were already walking along the lane lined with sheep sphinxes and then in front of the Karnak temple, ready for the moment when their uncompromising guardians in turban and jilaba would allow us entrance. .

Guards, Karnak Temple, Luxor, Egypt

Egyptian Guardians of the Temple of Karnak converse in the dawn sun.

Gradually, the sun's rays filtered by the morning mist hit the tangle of columns, small sub-temples, pestles and other elements that form what is considered the second largest ancient religious site in the world, surpassed only by Angkor Wat, in Cambodia.

The complex was built between the Middle Egyptian Empire until the Ptolemeic period. It arose in the center of the former Ipet-Isut "The Highest of Places", place of worship of the triad of gods consisting of Amon, his consort Mut (the replacement of the previous half of Amon, Amonet) and Khonsun, their son .

During the XNUMXth, XNUMXth and XNUMXth dynasties, around thirty pharaohs continued the work.

At the same time, they made Thebes a vast, diverse and supreme capital unique in ancient Egypt, scattered across the desert on both banks of the Nile: most of the city and the temples of Karnak and Luxor to the east.

A huge necropolis formed by private and royal cemeteries in the west.

Karnak Temple, Luxor, Egypt

The architectural amalgamation of the temple of Karnak, pink with dawn.

Luxor's Reason for Being

The function of the temple at Luxor was quite different from that of Karnak. It was not erected in honor of a god. It served the divine rejuvenation of royalty and it is very likely that it welcomed the coronation of various pharaohs of Egypt, always validated by the divine triad.

The Egyptians still considered it the "Southern Harem". It is believed that, with the Nile flooding in full, the Optet festival entered the scene. In a first phase, the effigies of Amon, Mut and Khonsun will have been carried along the Avenue of Sphinxes from the Temple of Karnak to that of Luxor.

Karnak Temple, Luxor, Egypt

Cistern reflects part of the vast temple of Karnak.

Along the way, they stopped in chapels erected for the event and filled with offerings. At the end of the ceremony, they returned by boat.

Later, they also started to make the outward journey on the Nile, in a kind of river marital celebration in which a small fleet of barges escorted the sacred barge.

This celebration will have admitted several days of popular debauchery in Egyptian fashion.

The Temples of Luxor and the Prolific Cosmogony of Egypt

The ancient imaginary of the Egyptian cosmogony has always proved inexhaustible. It changed and enriched itself in such a way that, at least, for a period equal to that of its formation, archaeologists will have new tombs and secrets to unravel.

Two opposing axes regulated the life of ancient Egypt: the flow of the Nile, from south to north, through the Sahara Desert. Above, the sky in which the crucial movements of life took place. The one of the Sun that ascended from one direction in the desert and plunged in the other, towards the rival sands, today, Libya.

Engravings, Karnak Temple, Luxor, Egypt

Engravings with egyptian religious motifs on one of the sandy walls of the temple of Karnak. The sun god Ra, is on the right.

During his journey, there was a nocturnal journey through the unknown and uncertainty. The reappearance of the sun represented the renewal of life. Long imbued in the population's mind and always urgent, this notion made each day something very special.

The paths of the Nile and the sun were regular and ubiquitous. For this reason, all works of art and monuments are related to them in some way. The Nile floods fed the nation.

Its long stream united the inhabitants of Upper and Lower Egypt, otherwise self-enclosed.

The Existential Threshold of the Nile in Thebes

In Thebes, the Nile still separated life from afterlife. We soon crossed it to the west and found the place that most contrasted with the Temple of Luxor. If this celebrated the renewal of earthly life, the Valley of the Kings and Queens was excavated and sealed in order to guarantee the preservation of the bodies of the pharaohs.

Their souls were supposed to revive to meet the Gods in the next life.

Karnak Temple, Luxor, Egypt

A palm tree clashes with the order of columns prevailing in the Temple of Karnak

The Valley of the Kings was inaugurated by Pharaoh Thutmose I. It is said that he was well aware that the fact that their backgrounds were buried in great pyramids made their tombs and treasures easy targets for profaners.

We do not comment on the encounter with the gods. We and dozens of lucky visitors came across Tutankhamun and other iconic pharaohs of Egypt. For a mere ten minutes, it has to be said, and no photo rights.

The suitors are so many that the authorities control the number of people and the time inside the tombs.

Valley of the Kings and the Mysterious Tomb of Tutankhamun

We are still far from summer in these remote parts of Africa. Even so, the heat that roasts us as we climb the dusty trails of Vale dos Reis is death and the dryness of the air worthy of Sara. The desert's aridity has always favored the conservation of sphinxes.

As we have been able to see, Tutankhamun, the boy king who ruled from nine to nineteen until he perished for reasons as or more debated than the finding of his tomb, still has his abode here.

As for the controversy, on the one hand, there are apologists that the 3200-year-old discoverer of the tomb, the British archaeologist Howard Carter, deceived the Egyptian authorities, misappropriated a good part of the riches and simulated the previous desecrations of the tomb, the the first of which he claims took place shortly after Pharaoh's funeral, followed by a second fifteen years later.

On the other side are defenders that, as claimed by Carter, the tomb had already been stolen several times before the archaeologist's find, considered the greatest archaeological triumph of all time.

The Unlikely Egyptian Tomb Hunt Napoleon Bonaparte

In large part, the mentor of the fever of Egyptian tombs and treasures was Napoleon Bonaparte.

After the conquest of Italy, the rulers of the Directory of the empire, began to pressure for France to invade England. Napoleon objected. With the support of Foreign Minister Talleyrand, he managed to impose a campaign across Egypt to affect the prolific English trade routes with his Crown Jewel, India.

By that time, Egypt was under the control of the Egyptian Mamelukos. In 1798, Napoleon's forces managed to avoid Admiral Nelson's armada, land on Egypt's Mediterranean coast, and win several decisive battles, including the Battle of the Pyramids.

But, furious that the French armada had escaped him, Lord Nelson did not rest until he corrected the flaw. It finally detected the 400 enemy ships and destroyed them at the Battle of Aboukir. This action left Napoleon's forces “stranded” in Egypt.

Napoleon: From Conqueror to Obsessed with Egyptian History

The Emperor tried to make the best of his unexpected situation. It was rumored that the Turkish army was preparing to attack him. Napoleon tried to stop him by attacking the Ottomans in what is now Syria and Palestine.

Only he found himself surrounded in the British-controlled city of Acre.

A few months later, he was forced to return to Egypt with his forces weakened. In the meantime, the war had spread to Europe and France found itself increasingly vulnerable.

Napoleon decided to return. He again avoided Nelson's armada and focused his efforts on removing the administration he considered "a bunch of lawyers." It was not long before he replaced it with a Consulate of three consuls of which he himself became the leader.

Napoleonic troops surrendered to the British in September 1801. In the three years he spent in Egypt, the French Emperor became obsessed with the nation's millenary history and culture.

Columns, Karnak Temple, Luxor, Egypt

A worker from the temples of Luxor walks through a column-lined atrium.

It encouraged around 150 scientists, mathematicians, engineers and artists to study ancient monuments, terrain, flora and fauna as well as society and various other aspects of Egyptian civilization. The result of their work was a huge illustrated compendium called “Description of L'Égypte".

Howard Carter: The Famous English Tomb Hunter

This work generated an almost insane Egyptology that would last for at least another two hundred years. It also simplified the studies and searches of explorers who joined the movement. Howard Carter was just one of the explorers who gave himself to him.

In 1922 – the year in which Egypt declared independence from the United Kingdom and in which Carter found the tomb of Tutankhamun – a law came into force in which Egypt sought to defend itself from this new fever. The law dictated that any archaeological find of an intact treasure would have to stay in Egypt while if the treasure was already violated, it could be divided between Egypt and whoever found it.

Every time an object appears on the face of the Earth that Egyptologists are certain belongs to Tutankhamun's treasure, the strife re-emerges. Who finally opened the tomb for the first time? Whether or not Carter was able to transport the treasures out of Egypt.

In any case, in the end, the Egyptian authorities, anxious for emancipation from the British settlers, refused to divide the spoils.

There remains, on the sidelines, the prolific theme of Tutankhamun's curse, covered in countless documentaries, movies, books, computer games and a little bit of everything else, and with a growing list of victims from various countries and walks of life.

Distinguished notorious pharaohs are Tutankhamun's neighbors, including nine Ramses. These days, the deceased member of Egyptian royalty with the most sumptuous mortuary halls is by far Pharaoh Hatshepsut, the second regent in the history of Egypt and one of the “great women in history that we are aware of” as described by the Egyptologist James Henry Breasted.

The Sumptuous Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut

To celebrate it, we join dozens of other curious people from Egypt and walk along the long lane that leads to the almost vertical cliffs of Deir el Bahari. From flat, the boulevard slopes towards the blue sky.

He points to the top of the colonnaded terraces that we reach almost thirty meters high.

on the way to the mausoleum

Visitors to the Valley of the Kings walk along the boulevard that leads to the mortuary rooms of Pharaoh Hatshepsut, the most imposing building in the Valley of the Kings and Queens.

The temple's axis appears to have been purposefully aligned with the position of the sunrise on the winter solstice (December 21 or 22) when sunlight falls on one of the statues of Osiris on either side of the entrance to the second chamber.

Scholars have further noted that a light box placed to reveal how the light moves away from the central axis and illuminates the statue of the god Amon-Ra (however, the Egyptians merged the deity of Amun with that of the sun god Ra), the pharaoh Thutmose III and then the god of the Nile Hapi.

On the Path of the Controversial Colossus of Memnon

We left that hyperbolic mortuary temple with the sun still high. From there, we returned closer to the irrigated banks of the river in search of the Colossus of Memnon.

Erected in 1500 BC as guardians of the tomb of Pharaoh Amenhoep III, the statues are XNUMX meters tall and show the Egyptian king seated with his hands on his knees.

We thus find them effortlessly even though they were displaced after superlative floods from the Nile destroyed one of Egypt's largest and most opulent pharaonic complexes and successor monarchs began to use their stone blocks in other constructions. Although portentous and intimidating, the statues also did not avoid the colossal misunderstanding of their baptism.

In 27 BC, an earthquake destroyed the colossus north of the ancient temple. This statue started to make a strange sound. It usually happened early in the morning, it is now said that due to the sudden increase in temperature and the evaporation of dew in the crevices of the monument.

Now, the phenomenal sound became so famous that it attracted Roman tourists (including emperors) and Greeks of the time who took the trouble to travel for days to reach the place and to inscribe at their base whether or not they had heard the sound. They had no idea it was a statue of Amenhoep III.

The Greeks, in particular, began to attribute the sound to the laments of King Memnon's mother.

Memnon was a king of Ethiopia who led his army up Africa towards Asia Minor to help defend Troy from attack by the Greeks. Despite his bravery, he was killed by Achilles. It would not have served as a great compensation, but, when he died, he conquered the status of a hero among the Greeks.

In 20 BC, the historian Strabo, who lived in Asia Minor, arrived better informed than his Hellenic countrymen and described the sound as a kind of coup. To the traveler and geographer Pausanias, a lyre string broke. Still others narrated it as a blow on copper or an unusual whistle.

above nile

Cruzeiro stops at one of the various sluices that regulate the height of the waters of the Nile River.

To be honest, we didn't hear anything and didn't have time to wait. In a few hours, the cruise on which we embarked would start the navigation up the Nile, closer to Aswan.

We had much more of the Nile and Ancient Egypt to unravel so we left Memnon and the colossus that was never his handed down to history.

Aswan, Egypt

Where the Nile Welcomes the Black Africa

1200km upstream of its delta, the Nile is no longer navigable. The last of the great Egyptian cities marks the fusion between Arab and Nubian territory. Since its origins in Lake Victoria, the river has given life to countless African peoples with dark complexions.
White Desert, Egypt

The Egyptian Shortcut to Mars

At a time when conquering the solar system's neighbor has become an obsession, an eastern section of the Sahara Desert is home to a vast related landscape. Instead of the estimated 150 to 300 days to reach Mars, we took off from Cairo and, in just over three hours, we took our first steps into the Oasis of Bahariya. All around, almost everything makes us feel about the longed-for Red Planet.
Mount Sinai, Egypt

Strength in the Legs, Faith in God

Moses received the Ten Commandments on the summit of Mount Sinai and revealed them to the people of Israel. Today, hundreds of pilgrims climb, every night, the 4000 steps of that painful but mystical ascent.
Big Zimbabwe

Great Zimbabwe, Endless Mystery

Between the 1500th and XNUMXth centuries, Bantu peoples built what became the largest medieval city in sub-Saharan Africa. From XNUMX onwards, with the passage of the first Portuguese explorers arriving from Mozambique, the city was already in decline. Its ruins, which inspired the name of the present-day Zimbabwean nation, have many unanswered questions.  
Tulum, Mexico

The Most Caribbean of the Mayan Ruins

Built by the sea as an exceptional outpost decisive for the prosperity of the Mayan nation, Tulum was one of its last cities to succumb to Hispanic occupation. At the end of the XNUMXth century, its inhabitants abandoned it to time and to an impeccable coastline of the Yucatan peninsula.
Machu Picchu, Peru

The City Lost in the Mystery of the Incas

As we wander around Machu Picchu, we find meaning in the most accepted explanations for its foundation and abandonment. But whenever the complex is closed, the ruins are left to their enigmas.
Rapa Nui - Easter Island, Chile

Under the Moais Watchful Eye

Rapa Nui was discovered by Europeans on Easter Day 1722. But if the Christian name Easter Island makes sense, the civilization that colonized it by observant moais remains shrouded in mystery.
Jerusalem, Israel

Closer to God

Three thousand years of history as mystical as it is troubled come to life in Jerusalem. Worshiped by Christians, Jews and Muslims, this city radiates controversy but attracts believers from all over the world.
Edfu to Kom Ombo, Egypt

Up the River Nile, through the Upper Ptolemaic Egypt

Having accomplished the unmissable embassy to Luxor, to old Thebes and to the Valley of the Kings, we proceed against the current of the Nile. In Edfu and Kom Ombo, we surrender to the historic magnificence bequeathed by successive Ptolemy monarchs.
Okavango Delta, Not all rivers reach the sea, Mokoros
Safari
Okavango Delta, Botswana

Not all rivers reach the sea

Third longest river in southern Africa, the Okavango rises in the Angolan Bié plateau and runs 1600km to the southeast. It gets lost in the Kalahari Desert where it irrigates a dazzling wetland teeming with wildlife.
Hikers on the Ice Lake Trail, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 7th - Braga - Ice Lake, Nepal

Annapurna Circuit – The Painful Acclimatization of the Ice Lake

On the way up to the Ghyaru village, we had a first and unexpected show of how ecstatic the Annapurna Circuit can be tasted. Nine kilometers later, in Braga, due to the need to acclimatize, we climbed from 3.470m from Braga to 4.600m from Lake Kicho Tal. We only felt some expected tiredness and the increase in the wonder of the Annapurna Mountains.
Architecture & Design
napier, New Zealand

Back to the 30s – Old-Fashioned Car Tour

In a city rebuilt in Art Deco and with an atmosphere of the "crazy years" and beyond, the adequate means of transportation are the elegant classic automobiles of that era. In Napier, they are everywhere.
lagoons and fumaroles, volcanoes, PN tongariro, new zealand
Adventure
Tongariro, New Zealand

The Volcanoes of All Discords

In the late XNUMXth century, an indigenous chief ceded the PN Tongariro volcanoes to the British crown. Today, a significant part of the Maori people claim their mountains of fire from European settlers.
Military Religious, Wailing Wall, IDF Flag Oath, Jerusalem, Israel
Ceremonies and Festivities
Jerusalem, Israel

A Festive Wailing Wall

The holiest place in Judaism is not only attended by prayers and prayers. Its ancient stones have witnessed the oath of new IDF recruits for decades and echo the euphoric screams that follow.
Fort São Filipe, Cidade Velha, Santiago Island, Cape Verde
Cities
Cidade Velha, Cape Verde

Cidade Velha: the Ancient of the Tropico-Colonial Cities

It was the first settlement founded by Europeans below the Tropic of Cancer. In crucial times for Portuguese expansion to Africa and South America and for the slave trade that accompanied it, Cidade Velha became a poignant but unavoidable legacy of Cape Verdean origins.

Cocoa, Chocolate, Sao Tome Principe, Agua Izé farm
Meal
São Tomé and Principe

Cocoa Roças, Corallo and the Chocolate Factory

At the beginning of the century. In the XNUMXth century, São Tomé and Príncipe generated more cocoa than any other territory. Thanks to the dedication of some entrepreneurs, production survives and the two islands taste like the best chocolate.
Obese resident of Tupola Tapaau, a small island in Western Samoa.
Culture
Tonga, Western Samoa, Polynesia

XXL Pacific

For centuries, the natives of the Polynesian islands subsisted on land and sea. Until the intrusion of colonial powers and the subsequent introduction of fatty pieces of meat, fast food and sugary drinks have spawned a plague of diabetes and obesity. Today, while much of Tonga's national GDP, Western Samoa and neighbors is wasted on these “western poisons”, fishermen barely manage to sell their fish.
Swimming, Western Australia, Aussie Style, Sun rising in the eyes
Sport
Busselton, Australia

2000 meters in Aussie Style

In 1853, Busselton was equipped with one of the longest pontoons in the world. World. When the structure collapsed, the residents decided to turn the problem around. Since 1996 they have been doing it every year. Swimming.
Composition on Nine Arches Bridge, Ella, Sri Lanka
Traveling
Yala NPElla-Kandy, Sri Lanka

Journey Through Sri Lanka's Tea Core

We leave the seafront of PN Yala towards Ella. On the way to Nanu Oya, we wind on rails through the jungle, among plantations in the famous Ceylon. Three hours later, again by car, we enter Kandy, the Buddhist capital that the Portuguese never managed to dominate.
Drums and Tattoos
Ethnic
Tahiti, French Polynesia

Tahiti Beyond the Cliché

Neighbors Bora Bora and Maupiti have superior scenery but Tahiti has long been known as paradise and there is more life on the largest and most populous island of French Polynesia, its ancient cultural heart.
View of Fa Island, Tonga, Last Polynesian Monarchy
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Got2Globe Portfolio

Exotic Signs of Life

Sydney, Australia's exemplary criminal city, Harbor Bridge
History
Sydney, Australia

From the Exile of Criminals to an Exemplary City

The first of the Australian colonies was built by exiled inmates. Today, Sydney's Aussies boast former convicts of their family tree and pride themselves on the cosmopolitan prosperity of the megalopolis they inhabit.
Ruins, Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia
Islands
Discovering Tassie, Part 2 - Hobart to Port Arthur, Australia

An Island Doomed to Crime

The prison complex at Port Arthur has always frightened the British outcasts. 90 years after its closure, a heinous crime committed there forced Tasmania to return to its darkest times.
St. Trinity Church, Kazbegi, Georgia, Caucasus
Winter White
Kazbegi, Georgia

God in the Caucasus Heights

In the 4000th century, Orthodox religious took their inspiration from a hermitage that a monk had erected at an altitude of 5047 m and perched a church between the summit of Mount Kazbek (XNUMXm) and the village at the foot. More and more visitors flock to these mystical stops on the edge of Russia. Like them, to get there, we submit to the whims of the reckless Georgia Military Road.
View from the top of Mount Vaea and the tomb, Vailima village, Robert Louis Stevenson, Upolu, Samoa
Literature
Upolu, Samoa

Stevenson's Treasure Island

At age 30, the Scottish writer began looking for a place to save him from his cursed body. In Upolu and the Samoans, he found a welcoming refuge to which he gave his heart and soul.
Jabula Beach, Kwazulu Natal, South Africa
Nature
Saint Lucia, South Africa

An Africa as Wild as Zulu

On the eminence of the coast of Mozambique, the province of KwaZulu-Natal is home to an unexpected South Africa. Deserted beaches full of dunes, vast estuarine swamps and hills covered with fog fill this wild land also bathed by the Indian Ocean. It is shared by the subjects of the always proud Zulu nation and one of the most prolific and diverse fauna on the African continent.
Sheki, Autumn in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Autumn Homes
Autumn
Sheki, Azerbaijan

autumn in the caucasus

Lost among the snowy mountains that separate Europe from Asia, Sheki is one of Azerbaijan's most iconic towns. Its largely silky history includes periods of great harshness. When we visited it, autumn pastels added color to a peculiar post-Soviet and Muslim life.
Lion, Elephants, PN Hwange, Zimbabwe
Natural Parks
PN Hwange, Zimbabwe

The Legacy of the Late Cecil Lion

On July 1, 2015, Walter Palmer, a dentist and trophy hunter from Minnesota killed Cecil, Zimbabwe's most famous lion. The slaughter generated a viral wave of outrage. As we saw in PN Hwange, nearly two years later, Cecil's descendants thrive.
U Bein Bridge, Amarapura, Myanmar
UNESCO World Heritage
u-bein BridgeMyanmar

The Twilight of the Bridge of Life

At 1.2 km, the oldest and longest wooden bridge in the world allows the Burmese of Amarapura to experience Lake Taungthaman. But 160 years after its construction, U Bein is in its twilight.
Heroes Acre Monument, Zimbabwe
Characters
Harare, Zimbabwewe

The Last Rales of Surreal Mugabué

In 2015, Zimbabwe's first lady Grace Mugabe said the 91-year-old president would rule until the age of 100 in a special wheelchair. Shortly thereafter, it began to insinuate itself into his succession. But in recent days, the generals have finally precipitated the removal of Robert Mugabe, who has replaced him with former Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Viti Levu, Fiji Islands, South Pacific, coral reef
Beaches
Viti levu, Fiji

Islands on the edge of Islands

A substantial part of Fiji preserves the agricultural expansions of the British colonial era. In the north and off the large island of Viti Levu, we also came across plantations that have only been named for a long time.
Solovestsky Autumn
Religion
Solovetsky Islands, Russia

The Mother Island of the Gulag Archipelago

It hosted one of Russia's most powerful Orthodox religious domains, but Lenin and Stalin turned it into a gulag. With the fall of the USSR, Solovestky regains his peace and spirituality.
white pass yukon train, Skagway, Gold Route, Alaska, USA
On Rails
Skagway, Alaska

A Klondike's Gold Fever Variant

The last great American gold rush is long over. These days, hundreds of cruise ships each summer pour thousands of well-heeled visitors into the shop-lined streets of Skagway.
full cabin
Society
Saariselka, Finland

The Delightful Arctic Heat

It is said that the Finns created SMS so they don't have to talk. The imagination of cold Nordics is lost in the mist of their beloved saunas, real physical and social therapy sessions.
herd, foot-and-mouth disease, weak meat, colonia pellegrini, argentina
Daily life
Colónia Pellegrini, Argentina

When the Meat is Weak

The unmistakable flavor of Argentine beef is well known. But this wealth is more vulnerable than you think. The threat of foot-and-mouth disease, in particular, keeps authorities and growers afloat.
Meares glacier
Wildlife
Prince William Sound, Alaska

Journey through a Glacial Alaska

Nestled against the Chugach Mountains, Prince William Sound is home to some of Alaska's stunning scenery. Neither powerful earthquakes nor a devastating oil spill affected its natural splendor.
The Sounds, Fiordland National Park, New Zealand
Scenic Flights
Fiordland, New Zealand

The Fjords of the Antipodes

A geological quirk made the Fiordland region the rawest and most imposing in New Zealand. Year after year, many thousands of visitors worship the sub-domain slashed between Te Anau and Milford Sound.