Also known as the Temple of the Golden Pavilion – for obvious reasons. The present pavilion is a modern one, dating from the 1950s, after the previous structure was burned down by a crazed monk. However, there has been a temple on the site since the 14th century AD.
March 14, 2010
These foxes or kitsune are messengers of Shinto deity Inari and offer good luck and protection against evil spirits.
October 18, 2009
The ornate facade illustrates the so-called Baroque Mestizo style of church architecture found in the Peruvian Andes.
October 17, 2009
The baldacchino and immense dome of the largest church in the world. St Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican Palace remain the ultimate symbols of the incredible heights of opulence, wealth and waste that the Roman Catholic Church reached during the 16th century.
October 17, 2009
One of the last masterpieces of classical Ottoman architecture, it is popularly known as the Blue Mosque, for the blue tiles on its inside walls.
October 17, 2009
Built between five hundred to a thousand years ago, the monks and hermits of the Greek Orthodox Church sought ever more remote and difficult-to-reach places from where to pray and contemplate. Hence their position amongst these spectacular sandstone rock formations in central Greece. Nowadays a sealed road links all the monasteries and they are as… [Read more…]
October 17, 2009
The view southwest across the Golden Horn, towards the magnificent Suleymaniye Mosque.
October 17, 2009
The iconostasis of the Church of St George, within the grounds of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in Istanbul. The Greek presence in Turkey is now small, but the Ecumenicl Patriarchate still serves at the spiritual home of the Greek Orthodox Church for believers in Greece and scattered all over the world. It claims its… [Read more…]
October 17, 2009
The Sufi dervishes of the Mevlevi order in Turkey are famous for their Sema, a ceremony in which they spin themselves into a trance-like state as a way of becoming closer to God.
October 16, 2009
October 16, 2009
The view from one of the towering spires of Antoni Gaudi’s unfinished masterwork, La Sagrada Familia Basilica.
August 27, 2009
Small offerings of food, fruit and flowers on woven palm leaf are made to the gods twice daily. The Balinese are a very religous and superstitious people. Their religion is a unique blend of Indian Hinduism and local animism. Bali remained the last bastion of Hinduism on the Indonesian archipelago after the arrival of Islam… [Read more…]
August 27, 2009
Prambanan is one of the largest Hindu temple complexes in South East Asia. Built over a thousand years ago, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is located near the Javanese city of Yogyakarta. Unfortunately a 2006 earthquake caused major damage to the site rendering much of it unstable and off-limit to visitors.
August 5, 2009
Itself conceived as one giant stupa, Borobudur is adorned with a further 72 individual stupas, each housing a statue of the Buddha. Each level of the monument represents a level of consciousness on the path towards enlightenment, until ultimately at the very top, there remains one giant empty stupa – enlightenment and the banishment of… [Read more…]
March 14, 2010
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