Articles und photos featuring UNESCO listed world heritage sites, natural heritage sites as well as cultural landscapes
At the Bosporus, where Europe and Asia shake hands, muezzin’s prayer call sounds five times a day. What would Istanbul be without all its mosques. Religiosity aside, they are cultural and architectural masterpieces. Here you can see my photo series of all historically important mosques of Istanbul, taken over years of Istanbul visits…
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The mask culture of Buddhism and Tibet is something absolutely unique. Through masks and dances the most different legends, myths, characters, but also the fight of good against evil are being told. In particular in the Kingdom of Bhutan that culture is pretty much alive and most colourful. Its strongest form of expression is Tshechu, the mask festival.…
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In the East of Kathmandu, where the entry lane of the airport meets the large Boudhe East-West road, one of the largest Buddhist places of worship rises up: the Boudhanath Stupa Jarung Khashor. Its vibe becomes literally tactile in particular in dusk as well as dawn hours, when pilgrims celebrate the Kora, the clockwise circumnavigation…
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The Tiger’s Nest monastery is the Kingdom of Bhutan’s number one cultural icon. It is located remote, among rocks and clouds high in the sky at 3100 metres and can be reached only by foot. The monastery is dedicated to Guru Padmasambhava, who first introduced Buddhism to Bhutan. It is said he was meditating for 3 years, 3 months, 3 weeks, 3 days and 3 hours in a cave underneath today’s Tiger’s Nest monastery…
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With more than 80 million years of existence, Namib desert is the oldest on Earth. With day temperatures easily exceeding 120 °F it is also one of the world’s most hostile places. Despite all inhospitality it boasts with beauty, especially at sunrise or in the evening hours. Then the desert becomes on eye candy made by giant dunes, strong contrasts and hidden structures, that are being revealed best when seen from above with a helicopter flight…
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Iranian Dasht-e Lut is the world’s hottest desert. In 2016 satellites measured unbelievable 78.2°C, what is the highest ever calculated surface temperature on Earth. Our planet’s heat pole is a UNESCO World Heritage and impresses with sand dunes being up to 450 metres high as well as the rugged surreal rock landscape of the Kalouts…
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Once the Persian Empire was one of the largest of the ancient global empires and existed long before our time reckoning has started. The ruins of its former capital Persepolis as well as the tombs of Naqsh-e Rustam tell of that period. For about 200 years it united areas reaching from North Africa to Indus River and involved Caucasus as well as the Kazakhstan steppe.…
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For more than 1.000 years Hagia Sophia sits where Europe and Asia shake hands. Even today this last of late antiquity’s main churches can still boast with having the largest dome of the world. It served as main and coronation church of old Byzantium and its capital Constantinople, present Istanbul, as well as Ottoman main mosque.…
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Around St. Lucia, in the very East of South Africa, climate becomes tropically sticky and doesn’t let you sleep well. Where Swaziland isn’t far away and the waters of the Indian Ocean surge, the cohesive coastline scatters creating a lagoon landscape being an El Dorado for hundreds of hippos.…
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When it comes to remnants of the Eastern bloc, then Berlin and Kiev are pretty much alike as social as well as architectonical traces are still yet omnipresent in both cities of a 3 million. Kiev’s most remarkable eye catcher is one of the tallest of its kind, that is the imposing Mother Motherland Statue.…
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