Travel guides

St Mark’s Basilica, the cathedral of Venice, is the most famous of the city’s churches and one of the best known examples of Byzantine architecture.

It lies on St Mark’s Square, adjacent and connected to the Doge’s Palace and has been the seat of the Patriarch of Venice, archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Venice since 1807. For its opulent design, gilded Byzantine mosaics, and its status as a symbol of Venetian wealth and power from the 11th century on, the building was known by the nickname Chiesa d’Oro (”church of gold”). Visit Venice, part of all sightseeing tours,  it is great vacation location, specially during carnival.

Coordinates: 45.4345° N 12.3396° E

Borobudur is a ninth century Buddhist Mahayana monument in Central Java, Indonesia. The monument comprises six square platforms topped by three circular platforms, and is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. A main dome is located at the center of the top platform, and is surrounded by seventy-two Buddha statues seated inside perforated stupa.

The monument is both a shrine to the Lord Buddha and a place for Buddhist pilgrimage. The journey for pilgrims begins at the base of the monument and follows a path circumambulating the monument while ascending to the top through the three levels of Buddhist cosmology, namely, Kamadhatu (the world of desire); Rupadhatu (the world of forms); and Arupadhatu (the world of formless). During the journey, the monument guides the pilgrims through a system of stairways and corridors with 1,460 narrative relief panels on the wall and the balustrades. It is in 100 famous travel attractions.
Evidence suggests Borobudur was abandoned following the fourteenth century decline of Buddhist and Hindu kingdoms in Java, and the Javanese conversion to Islam. It was rediscovered in 1814 by Sir Thomas Raffles, the British ruler of Java. Borobudur has since been preserved through several restorations. The largest restoration project was undertaken between 1975 and 1982 by the Indonesian government and UNESCO, following which the monument was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Borobudur is still used for pilgrimage, and once a year Buddhists in Indonesia celebrate Vesak at the monument. It is Indonesia’s single most visited tourist attraction.

Coordinates: 7°36′29″S, 110°12′14″E

The Ngorongoro Crater is the world’s largest unbroken volcanic caldera. The Crater, which formed as the giant volcano exploded and collapsed on itself around 2 million years ago, is 610m deep and the floor is 260km². The steep sides of the crater mean that it has become a natural enclosure for a very wide variety of wildlife, including most of the species found in East Africa. The Munge Stream drains Olmoti Crater to the north, and is the main water source draining into Lake Makat, the seasonal salt lake in the center of the Crater. Africa’s great tourist destination.

The Lerai Stream (which is used for the tourist hotels and campgrounds) drains the humid forests to the south of the Crater, and it feeds the Lerai Forest on the Crater floor - when there is enough rain, the Lerai drains into Lake Makat as well. The other major water source in the Crater is the Ngoitokitok Spring, near the eastern Crater wall. There is a picnic site here open to tourists, and a huge swamp fed by the spring, and inhabited by hippopotamus, elephants, lions, and many others. Many other small springs can be found around the Crater floor, and these are important water supplies for the animals and local Masaai, especially during times of drought. Aside from herds of zebra, gazelle and wildebeest, the crater is home to the “big five” of rhinoceros, lion, leopard, elephant and buffalo. The crater plays host to almost every individual species of wildlife in East Africa, and there are an estimated 25,000 animals within the crater.

Coordinates: 3°12′32″S 35°27′46″E

Mesa Verde National Park is a U.S. National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Montezuma County, Colorado, United States. The park occupies 81.4 square miles (211 square kilometers) and features numerous ruins of homes and villages built by the ancient Pueblo people. It is best known for several spectacular cliff dwellings — structures built within caves and under outcroppings in cliffs — including Cliff Palace, which is thought to be the largest cliff dwelling in North America. The Spanish term Mesa Verde translates into English as “green table”.

Coordinates: 37.183784° -108.488687°

Mount Rushmore National Memorial, near Keystone, South Dakota, is a monumental granite sculpture located within the United States Presidential Memorial that represents the first 150 years of the history of the United States of America with 60-foot (18 m) sculptures of the heads of former U.S. Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. The entire memorial covers 1,278 acres (5.17 km²), and is 5,725 feet (1,745 m) above sea level. It is managed by the National Park Service, a bureau of the United States Department of the Interior. The memorial attracts approximately 2 million people annually. One of best vacation locations in USA.

Coordinates: 43°52′44.21″N 103°27′35.37″W

Devils Tower is a monolith (an igneous intrusion) or volcanic neck located near Hulett and Sundance in Crook County, northeastern Wyoming, above the Belle Fourche River. It rises dramatically 1267 feet (386 m) above the surrounding terrain. the summit is 5112 feet (1558 m) above sea level.

It is part of the first United States National Monument, established on September 24, 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt. 1347 acres (5.45 km²) are included within the Monument’s boundaries. In recent years about 1% of the Monument’s 400,000 annual visitors climb Devils Tower. The monolith is featured prominently in the 1977 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Nice tourism attractions.

Coordinates: 44°35′26″N, 104°42′56″W

Carlsbad Caverns National Park is a United States National Park located in the Guadalupe Mountains of the southeastern corner of New Mexico (Eddy County). Visitors can hike into the interior rooms on their own via the natural entrance, or take an elevator (the exit for everyone) directly down into the center of the public cave area. Ranked very high on natural wonders list.

Approximately two thirds of the park has also been set aside as a wilderness area, helping to ensure no future changes will be made to the habitat.
Peak visitation typically occurs on the weekends following Memorial Day and the 4th of July. The park entrance is located on US Highway 62/180 approximately 18 miles (29 km) southwest of Carlsbad, New Mexico. The park participates in the Junior Ranger Program.

Coordinates: 32.17528° -104.44208°

The Vatican Museums are the public art and sculpture museums in the Vatican City, which display works from the extensive collection of the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Julius II founded the museums in the 16th century. The Sistine Chapel and the Stanze della Segnatura decorated by Raphael are on the visitor route through the Vatican Museums. As of November 2006, it was visited by more than 4,000,000 people for the year. This is part of all Italy vacation guides.

Coordinates: 41°54′23″N, 12°27′16″E