Religions Archives | Page 2 of 3 | World Heritage Sites

A view of snow-capped Mount Fuji across Lake Kawaguchiko, with a small plane above the lake.

Fujisan, sacred place and source of artistic inspiration

Mount Fuji and numerous natural and religious sites related to its spiritual importance.

The red rock stands out from a perfectly flat green and brown landscape.

Uluru – Kata Tjuta National Park

An awe-inspiring rock formation that is sacred to the local indigenous people, and similar red-rock domes not far away.

Ellora Caves

34 stunning stone-cut caves with carved and painted images from three different religions.

Entranceway into a shrine, with detailed carvings over the doorway, mostly painted gold, with a white carved dragon right in the center.

Shrines and Temples of Nikko

A complex of ornate and colorful religious buildings in a lovely forest setting.

A temple with a tall pyramid-shaped roof, covered in carvings.

Great Living Chola Temples

Three outstanding 11th-12th-century temples covered with carvings depicting elements of Hindu mythology.

Pilgrimage Church of Wies

A magnificent rococo church with a legend that draws the faithful to visit.

Four huge sitting statues, with a doorway - about 3x higher than a person and reaching to knee height on the statues - in the center. At Ramses Temple, Nubian Monuments

Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae

Magnificent temples demonstrating the power of Ancient Egyptian civilization.

Saint Sophia Cathedral seen from directly centered. White with green domes and one central gold dome.

Kyiv: Saint-Sophia Cathedral and Related Monastic Buildings, Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra

An Orthodox Christian cathedral and monastery dating back to the 11th century.

Rice terraces with palm trees and mountains in the distance.

Cultural Landscape of Bali Province: the Subak System as a Manifestation of the Tri Hita Karana Philosophy

A traditional communal system interconnecting natural, religious and cultural components.

A group of temples, each with a pointed roof, at Ayutthaya

Historic City of Ayutthaya

A 14th-18th century city that served as a seat of the Siamese royal court and whose art and architecture show international influences.

Baroque towers on the Abbey's cathedral.

Abbey of St. Gall

An 8th-century monastery with a beautiful Baroque cathedral and an ancient library.

Sulaiman-Too Sacred Mountain

A small mountain with a very long history as a sacred site.

The church is primarily rectangular shapes, with no high church tower, but all of the edges - the roof lines and the windows - are embellished with detailed gothic-style stone lacework.

Monastery of Batalha

A well-preserved and impressive masterpiece of Late Flamboyant Gothic architecture with Manueline Baroque elements.

Below where this photo was shot is a line of large statues of saints along the edge of the church's roof. Beyond that is Saint Peter's square, which is round, with pillared colonnades around the sides, except the far section which is open to a straight boulevard. The city of Rome spreads very far in the distance.

Vatican City

A tiny city-state with a long history at the center of the Catholic Church and containing magnificent works of art and architecture.

A very elegant central entrance: stairs up to an arched doorway, a rose window above that, rows of statues on the ground floor and above the door, three square towers on top, all with detailed carved ornamentation. The rest of the building is much smaller and extends on both sides out of the picture, two stories tall with simple rows of windows.

Monastery of Alcobaça

A masterpiece of Gothic Cistercian art and architecture.

The hall is large, with a row of pillars down the center and tall arched windows on either side. the pillars support a ceiling with gothic arches.

Maulbronn Monastery Complex

An intact and complete medieval monastery that demonstrates the transition from Romanesque to Gothic architecture.

A white mosque with gray domes and very tall slender minarets. Beside it is a structure that looks like a castle's keep, round with crenellations around the top.

Historic Cairo

A collection of more than 800(!) structures – a fortress, religious sites, houses, cemeteries and many more – dating from about 100 AD until the 18th century.

Convent of Christ in Tomar

An architectural retrospective of Portugal and the Knights Templar in the form of a monastic center dating to the 12th-16th century.

The front of the cathedral in Modena, with typical Romanesque rounded arches above the entry door and upper windows.

Cathedral, Torre Civica and Piazza Grande, Modena

Romanesque architecture and art in harmony, in a charming Italian city.

Delos

Extensive archeological site of an ancient Greek commercial center on an Aegean island.

View over the old town of Dubrovnik: lots of red roofs and the blue sea beyond that.

Old City of Dubrovnik

A well-preserved medieval, Renaissance and Baroque city inside extensive intact fortifications.

Mont-Saint-Michel appears as a pile of stone structures up a hill, forming a conical shape with a recognizably Gothic church spire at the top.

Mont-Saint-Michel and its bay

A magnificent Gothic abbey on top of a small island in a bay with dramatic tides.

In Lumbini, Nepal, a long white building with a railing around the roof and flags on the corners.

Lumbini, the Birthplace of the Lord Buddha

The holiest place in Buddhism, containing archeological evidence of Lumbini’s importance as a pilgrimage site.

My Son Sanctuary

Evocative ruins of Champa kingdom Hindu temples, elaborately carved, with brick towers.

In a shaded grove, a large abstract artwork that has rather organic shapes with an arch extending over them.

Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove

An ancient forest where Yoruba gods reside and ancient religious practices continue.

High rocks like columns. Front center, low in the photo, is a monastery, in white plaster with a red roof, on a small outcropping. Behind it is a far taller rock, and at the very top right of the photo, more buildings are visible, looking tiny on the top of the rock. Mountains in the distance behind.

Meteora

Perched on high rocks, these monasteries served as places of retreat and prayer for monastic communities.

A cobbled street curves ahead, lined by simple two-story houses, each covered in plaster and painted a pastel white or brown.

Jewish Quarter and St Procopius’ Basilica in Třebíč

A historical Jewish neighborhood and a Catholic Basilica illustrate how Jews and Christians co-existed peacefully.

The Torii gate stands on two massive poles, each with two smaller poles flanking it. A lower, straight crosspiece near the top, and along the very top, a crosspiece that is slightly curved upward at each end. The whole thing is painted reddish-orange. It stands in a flat field, with a wooded hill behind.

Itsukushima Shinto Shrine

A well-preserved shrine dating to the 12th century and harmonizing beautifully with the surrounding landscape.

A bright yellow temple with curving roofs on each story, standing on the shore of a lake.

Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto, Uji and Otsu

A set of 17 sites comprising culturally-significant religious architecture and landscaped gardens.

A young man dressed in walking clothes and carrying a small backpack passes a sign reading "Santiago de la Compostela 790"

Routes of Santiago de Compostela: Camino Francés and Routes of Northern Spain

Ancient long-distance pilgrimage routes, still walked today.

The castle is perched on a hill, with a single square tower in its middle. The left'hand wing is brick and/or stone, while the right-hand wing is white plaster with exposed timber beams.

Wartburg Castle

An imposing castle, important because of its role in Martin Luther’s life.

The entrance to the cave is set into the side of a hill. The cave is quite large, perhaps 2-3 stories tall, judging by the people standing right inside the entrance., and has four very large square columns holding up the wide rectangular entrance.

Elephanta Caves

Caves devoted to the Hindu deity Shiva, containing art dating to the 5th and 6th centuries.

An image of Jesus washing the feet of the apostles. The Apostles are grouped on the right, int robes of blue and capes of red or white. They have halos around their heads. Jesus is on the left, washing the feet of a man who is presumably sitting, but the painting is rather unsophisticated so the man just looks smaller than the others, who are standing.

Wooden Churches of Maramureş

Elegant timber-built church architecture, filled with bright vernacular religious imagery.

A gnarled tree and its roots grow on top of and around a piece of a ruined temple. Walls of the temple are behind.

Angkor

Evocative archeological site with 1000+ temples testifying to an exceptional civilization.

Side view of the cathedral, with the spires at the right and a side entrance in front. Incredibly ornate in typical gothic style, with gothic arched windows, flying buttresses and elaborate sculptural details around every available surface.

Cologne Cathedral

An undisputed masterpiece of Gothic architecture.

A tomb stands on a pedestal in a niche, all of it painted white as well as the wall behind it. On top of the tomb is a pillar with what looks like an urn on the top and a relief of the person's face halfway up the side. Below the tomb, a figure leans on each side of the pedestal: both are women in white marble. The left hand one leans her elbow on the pedestal and her face on her hand. On the right the woman has her hands clasped on the pedestal and looks up at the tomb.

Roskilde Cathedral

A medieval cathedral in a unique mix of styles that inspired cathedrals throughout Northern Europe.