History travel tips and stories. Vacations ideas, cruises spa and resorts

Near San Agustin one finds some of South America’s greatest, and most mysterious, archaeological sites. The remains of a mysterious civilisation are found there. There are eagles, snakes, men with clenched teeth and fists, monkeys, salamanders, women giving birth and men worshipping the sun.

The area is dotted with freestanding monumental statues carved of stone left behind by a mysterious pre-Colombian civilization.About 500 statues can be found spread out in groups in the region.

These beautiful sculptures, carved as far as 3000 BC at the Valley of the Statues. San Augustin is actually a collection of ceremonial and burial sites scattered over an area of 250 square miles.

These huge statues are characterized by their great design and dimensions, some measuring up to 5 meters. Most of the statues share a mixture of man and animal features.

There are various Asian and African influences in some of the sculptures – for example statues of Gorillas, statues showing African Elephant, statues wearing Indian head-pieces statues with clearly Asian eyes – which has led the academic community to believe that this culture was so advanced it had extensive contact with Africa and Asia.

Archeologists have uncovered a mere 10 percent of the statues and ruins, and it is theorized that huge mayan-like pyramids and other structures remain buried throughout the area. There is a small museum at the park headquarter and it provides information like literature and maps.

Damascus, Syria is one of oldest cities in the Middle East, known to have been inhabited from the 3000 B.C. In 1979 the old city of Damascus, was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. Khan As’ad Pasha is one of the most beautiful and famous historical buildings in the Old City. 

Khan As’ad Pasha was built and named by the governor of Syria – As’ad Pasha al-Azem in 1751-52. It is situated in the walled city of Damascus, covers an area of 2,500 sq. m. and has been described as one of the finest work of architecture in the city.

The construction contains walls of stone, consisting of alternate courses of black basalt and white limestone, four central pillars, flat roof, brick domes and stone vaults. The rooms are arranged in several stories around a central courtyard, which is covered by nine domes.

In this article we present you a traditional dance of the Maori –HAKA, which was used before battle. The Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand. This dance presents one of the aspects of Maori culture. It is an expression of the passion, vigor and identity of the race.

 Klosterneuburg is a city located on the Danube River, not far from Vienna. With vineyards creeping up the hills, Klosterneuburg is one of the most beautiful countryside and fascinating communities. The city is hugely popular with tourists who want to go there for an easy daytrip. Klosterneuburg awaits you with many museums, memorials and other unique cultural attractions.

 The city is home to the oldest private working winery in Austria. The biggest wine producer is the Klosterneuburg Abbey, which history began in the 1114, when it was founded in 1114 by saint Margrave Leopold III. At an age of 900 years, this winery is not only the oldest wine estate in Austria, but also the largest with its 108 hectares of cultivated land. Today it offers wine tastings and wine sales in the wine shop of the abbey.

There is also and the world’s first viticulture school, which is teaching wine knowledge on an international level. This is The Federal College of Viticulture and Pomology, one of the only schools in the world with a focus on wine-making.

The National Library of Belarus, Minsk is a curious structure that was just completed in 2006. The library is located in new 72 meter tall building in Minsk. It has 22 floors. There are a number of biblical quotations inscribed on the building’s facade, in Belorussian, Russian, English and Arabic, amongst others.

The complex includes four separate conference rooms: The large conference hall with 500 seats, two round-shaped conference rooms, and a small conference room for private talks.
The local network consists of more than 100 servers and 1,400 personal computers.  Electronic resources comprise 80 databases representing history, culture, the arts of Belarus.

The National Library of Belarus is lit at night in stunning fashion by 4646 color-changing  fixtures. The authors suggested hiding the light sources behind the glass to create an illusion of a giant color display. One controller manages up to four STAR fixtures and consists of LED drivers, brightness control, diagnostics, and communication modules.

“Hida Folk Village” is an open air museum and site area is an approximately 99,000 sq. m. It exhibits about 30 typical farmhouses and buildings, including a few “gassho-zukuri” traditional Japanese homes built with steeply pitched thatched roofs, from the Hida region, the mountainous district of Gifu Prefecture around Takayama. About 30 old private houses with sloped- and thatched-roof houses which bore the heavy snowfall were reconstructed in the village. This village was created by moving old folk and farming homes from various villages and the nearby Shirakawa-Go region to one particular place.

Features of Hida Folk Village in Japan
- A collection of traditional farmhouses from the surrounding region.
- The purpose is to give the traveling visitors as well as the residents of Japan a concrete idea regarding the history and culture of the Japan.
- Some of these structures feature traditional craftsmen plying their arts.
- The decorative details of these structures including the interiors are very fascinating.
- All the exhibited buildings are well preserved displaying even the everyday utensils.
- The surrounding wooded hills are dotted with religious shrines, both Buddhist and Shinto.
All exhibited buildings are carefully preserved, display everyday utensils and are open to the public to explore. Near the entrance is a beautiful glass fountain by Rene Lalique, which once stood in the Paris Lido; further on, the collection includes exquisite sixteenth-century goblets, Tiffany glass lamps and rooms designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Establishment: July 1, 1971
Opening day: open throughout the year
Opening time: 8:30-17:00 (at the time summer, autumn and winter light-up extended)
Entrance price: Adult 700 yen, small junior high school student 200 yen

Aladzha monastery is the most famous medieval rock monastery on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. The archeological finds and dating of the murals survived in the chapel show that the monastery flourished in the period of the Second Bulgarian State, 13th-14th C. The monastery has been attracting many explorers and visitors due to its beautiful woodland location 14 km from Varna.

The monastery rooms were cut out on two levels in the almost 40-meter high limestone rock. The church, cells, dining room, small funeral church, the crypt (tomb) and facility rooms were on the first level. The second level was a natural niche hosting the chapel at its east side. A winding wooden staircase connected the two levels.

After Bulgaria’s fall under the Ottoman rule at the end of the 14th C, Aladzha monastery gradually fell into decay and was finally abandoned, probably in the 17th-18th c. The local Christians inhabitants continued to worship this holy place through the years of the Ottoman suppression as evident by a silver signet ring of the 18th c found in the Crypt.
The real name of the monastery remains unknown. The name “Aladzha”, probably given during the ottoman rule, is as Arabic-Persian origin and means “sundry-colored“.

Djumaya (Friday) Mosque
Is an active Muslim temple, known also as Ulu (”main”) Djumaya Mosque. As legend goes, the last name is dated back to the time when the Ottomans conquered Plovdiv in 1371. The Muslim temple was built in the place of an Orthodox cathedral from the 13th c., dedicated to Saint Petka ( Paraskeva). Djumaya Mosque is the second biggest Muslim building within the boundaries of today’s Bulgaria, having build-up area of about 1500 sq.m.  The Plovdiv Clock-tower The Plovdiv  Clock-tower is situated on the Sahatteppe. It is considered that this is one of the oldest clock-towers not only in Bulgaria but also in the whole Europe. Its construction is dated back to the 16th c. In the beginning of the 19th c this remarkable monument broke down. In 1812 the town public undertook the restoration of the tower.

Ancient-revival ensemble around Hissarkapiya
The architecture of the Ancient Plovdiv represents a top manifestation of another  outstanding period of Bulgarian history the National Revival (18th-19th c.). There is homogeneous architectural ensemble, where the structures from the epoch of National Revival connect all historical layers, a rare combination of national traditional architecture and older historical layers, forming a homogeneous ensemble.

Balabanov  House
Hadji  Panayout Lampsha a rich merchant and moneylender, built house of the beginning of the 17th century. It is of imposing size built on an area of 546 sq.m. and with a capacity of 4723 cubic meters. Its last owner the merchant Louka Balabanov, whose name it bears to this day. Today a permanent exhibition of modern paining is displayed on the first floor of the house. On the second floor, once used to receive guests and even, today furnished in the typical town style of the National Revival Period.

Olympic rowing canal
Length 2320m, width 135m, normal depth 2,5 m. It is a thoroughly artificial canal. The canal was inaugurated in 1989 for the World Youth Championship in canoe-kayak.One of the best rowing canals internationally: covers all possible distances.

The regional ethnographic museum
The house of Argir Kuyumdzhiouglu  is a typical representative of baroque style Plovdiv housing architecture from the epoch of the National Revival. Master Hadji George built it in 1847. It is of imposing dimensions: four stories, each having area of 570 sq.m., 2 big parlors, 12 rooms and more than 130 windows. In 1938 moved to the house the present Ethnographic Museum in Plovdiv. The collection preserved more than 40 000 movable monuments of culture.

The Zlatyu Boyadzhiev Gallery
The house belonged to the eminent Plovdiv figure of the National Revival Period Dr Stoyan Chomakov, one of the most famous champions of church independence and spiritual union of the Bulgarians before the liberation of Bulgaria from the Ottoman rule. In 1984 in it was exhibited the biggest collection of 71  pictures of the famous Bulgarian artist Zlatyu Boyadzhiev (1903-1976).

Monument to Khan Krum
Khan Krum (803-814) is a great Bulgarian Statesman with a vision, who not only has united people from different ethical origin, but also founded the institutions of State, modern for its time and has established the first written laws in Bulgarian history in view of granting order, and security. The composition is a bronze and black granite; it was done out of three tons of metal.

The city art gallery – Tsanko Lavrenov
In the house of Krikor Maesrobovich are exhibited 60 canvasses of the artist, giving a complete and all-round idea of his work, which with its original individual style recreates the atmosphere, the spirit and the life-style of the Bulgarian National Revival Period and the present day. On the  first floor of the building is exhibited Mexican art a gift from the Mexican government on the occasion of the 1300th anniversary of the Bulgarian state.

The museum of aviation
Near Krumovo, 15 km away from  the town, is situated the Plovdiv Airport. In close proximity is The Museum of Aviation and War-glory. The exposition was made in 1991 on an area of 43 decares and it follows the fighting path of Bulgarian aviation from the time of its creation to the present day with help of many documents and photos.

Laos, officially the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south, and Thailand to the west. Laos traces its history to the Kingdom of Lan Xang or Land of a Million Elephants, which existed from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century. In the Lao language, the country’s name is “Meuang Lao“. Laos’ isolation from foreign influence offers travelers an unparalleled glimpse of traditional Southeast Asian life. From the fertile lowlands of the Mekong River valley to the rugged Annamite highlands, Laos is the highlight of Southeast Asia.
Enigmatic and relatively undeveloped, Laos bears the dubious distinction of being the most bombed country in history. However, it is gradually emerging from its tumultuous recent history thanks to a combination of foreign aid, a growing ecotourism industry, and its charming, philosophical people. Theravada Buddhism is a dominant influence in Lao culture. It is reflected throughout the country from language to the temple and in art, literature, performing arts, etc. Many elements of Lao culture predate Buddhism.
Laos has rich vegetation, mainly monsoon forest. Parts of the Annamite chain are covered with tropical evergreen forest, where rainfall is highest and in the south, tropical pine forests can be found. Laos has a large number of animal species, including as many as 500 different birds. Reptiles include many snakes, including king cobras. Laos is famous for its woven silk and cotton which are found in varying designs throughout the country. Each area has its own specific design.

From at least the ninth century, the territory of present-day Ukraine was a center of medieval East Slavic civilization forming the state of Kievan Rus. The Pechersk Lavra in Kiev is one of the oldest monasteries in Eastern Europe, built by Kiev monks back in 1051, this striking building is the most holy place in the Ukraine, so it is included on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites. The Pechersk Lavra is also called the Monastery of Caves.

The Pechersk Lavra is a complex of churches, masterpieces of architecture by themselves, has been a holy place of worship for devout Christians. Its main feature: crypts and catacombs filled with princes, famous people and priests. There are lots of tiny skeletons in robes on plinths, candles, and far too many visitors. Those of faint heart may find themselves beating a hasty retreat. The spiritual and intellectual influence of Kiev-Pechersk Lavra contributed to the spread of Orthodox thought and the Orthodox faith in the Russian world from the 17th to the 19th century.

There are unique frescos preserved on the walls of the Labyrinth, painted by the monks some of which are almost 900 years old. Taking a candle each and walking through the narrow catacombs… The relics in the catacombs are worshiped by thousands of pilgrims from all over the world that pass through every year.

Imagine going back 100 million years or more to feel the power of the cosmic forces that helped shape our planet, and come face to face with giant dinosaurs.

Restless Planet is a unique electronic media and natural history experience, where visitors enter a prehistoric world.

That’s really impressive. Located in the heart of Dubailand, this place has the feeling of being back 100 million years ago in the era the prehistoric dinosaurs. The world’s ultimate theme park faces you with state-of-the-art electronic media and natural history experience. Partnering with Natural History Museum of London , dinosaur authority Jack Horner, Tokyo-situated animatronics team Kokoro and international theme park specialists Jack Rouse Associates, the Restless Planet will become real very soon.

Nowadays after the Islamic Revolution, Iran is going under a quite transformation and this is exactly the tourism in the country.The country has many attractions, including sprawling pre-Islamic ruins, mosques glittering with kaleidoscopic mosaics of tile, and cities that present both a stern theocratic face and a glitzier Western one. Imam Square is one of the largest plazas in the world, and holds the most stunning treasures of Islamic architecture.

Iran culture is among the richest in the world. A lot of inspiring literature, thousands of poets and writers, magnificent and impressive architecture, live customs dating back to Zoroastrians over 3000 years ago, and other unique characteristics of the nation are rivaled by only a few countries.

Another feature of Iranin culture is art.By the way culture and art are two closely concepts forming the soul of human civilizations. Iranian exquisite carpets, subtle soulful classic music, outstanding tile work of unique blue mosques, old influential architectural style and countless brilliant literary works are famous in the world.

As well as the food is very delicious accompanied by herbs and spices and skill and patience of many generations of cooks.

The Rossio Railway Station is a stunning structure set between Rossio Square and Restauradores Square in Lisbon, Portugal. The railway station was designed by the architect José Luís Monteiro. They integrated eight doors match the nine palatial windows and incredibly decorated clock tower located on the top of the facade.

Rossio station is a curiosity in that the platforms are some 30 metres above the main entrance. Services from here are all suburban trains to the tourist sights of Sintra via Queluz. The Rossio station has been recently renovated and was build in 1887. The boarding platform is now fasten to the Metro Station, which is with the nearest Metro station at Restauradores, (not with Rossio Metro).

San Pedro is located in very historical area of Argentina. Its doors are open for every guests and offer the most outstanding conveniences of the region. The building ‘San Pedro’ is originally built by conquistadors in 18^th century to provide and exchange goods, as well as to be a restful spot for those who loved to travel from the heights of Peru, or returning to them.

The structure is made of natural materials such as clay, stone, water and fire. Its careful restoration has conserved the original architecture while including a range of textures furnishings and ornaments that breathe life into a stucture of great comfort.

The oldest church is situated just near by San Pedro between beautiful trees. The massive stucture hides a small grotto protecting San Pedriti, which is a sclupture from 16^th century.

Durley House is located at Sloane Street in Chelsea and Knightsbridge. The house is just stroll away from Hyde Park, Harrods and King’s Road. Durley House has 11 suites rooms, each one very stylished, elegantly furnished with antiques and provides a soothing atmosphere right in the heart of vibrant London.

When you step into this beautiful house, you actually believe that you were walking into the hallway of private residence. At the first floor you will find out warmth of the glowing fireplace. Just next to it is the reception area and an attractive cosy sitting room.

When you go upstairs you will get into another world- eleven fully-furnished suites. Each of them has been individually designed. This house is perfect spot for such a travellers, which are not staying in London for more than a week.