We’ve gathered information about some of the world’s greatest wonders according to the top travel author Howard Hillman. Everyone perhaps would want to see Paris, Disneyland, or even Mt. Everest, but what we’re certain about is that all of us have our own dream destination and that pure experience of witnessing the beauty of other places and the culture and lifestyle of people living there are real treasures anyone can have and do truly shape a person’s wisdom and perspective in life. And to have that dream be transformed into at least a little of reality, we’re pleased to share some of the world’s magnificent places we should be dying to see.
Potala Palace
This massive palace, currently a museum, in Lhasa, Tibet was once the winter religious and political seat of Tibet under the Dalai Lama. The 1000-room palace is really two palaces: A red one at the top and a white one below it. The former was used for religious purposes. It has chapels, shrines and prayer halls. It also contains sacred scriptures, outstanding murals, and the gold covered stupa tombs of eight Dalai Lamas, while the latter was used for secular functions. Its facilities included bureaucratic offices, monk dormitories, a seminary, and the Dalai Lama’s living quarters.
The building’s air today is filled with chanting and scents (incense and yak-butter burning lamps) that visitors encountered centuries ago. The views from the Potala Palace’s roof and balconies are spectacular. Below lies Lhasa city and, beyond, the valley countryside and distant snow-capped Himalayan mountains.
Fjords of Norway
Glaciers slowly carved the Fjords of Norway out of hard-rock coastal mountains. The resulting narrow fjords are walled in by incredibly steep cliffs, verdant slopes and snow-capped mountain tops.
If you have time to visit only one fjord, let it be Sognefjord, which is only about 70 kilometers north of Bergen. It stretches 204 kilometers inland, has stunning fjordscapes, and boasts some picturesque villages. One of its arms, Naeroyfjord, is a tourist favorite because of its narrowness and skyscraping cliffs.
Neuschwanstein Castle
Neuschwanstein Castle is one of the world’s most fanciful, recognizable and controversial buildings. It’s a bizarre castle conceived by the “Mad King” Ludwig II of Bavaria, Germany. It was built in the 19th century but designed as a fanciful recreation of medieval castles dating back to the 12th century.
It’s easy to surmise that Walt Disney’s theme-park castles were inspired by Ludwig’s fairy-tale design when you look at the exterior of Neuschwanstein. Its interior’s just as whimsical as the exterior. Highly skilled craftsmen fashioned ornate rooms influenced by scenes from operas by Richard Wagner.
Petra
It’s an ancient city of tombs, temples and other monumental buildings carved into solid sandstone cliffs in arid gorges in southern Jordan. The cliff buildings of Petra were sculpted by the Nabataeans, an Arab tribe that flourished from around the 4th century BC to 106 AD, when the Romans took control.
The wavy sandstone geological strata give the facades and interior surfaces of the rock-hewn buildings interesting layered and whorled patterns – in a range of hues from pale yellowish white to intense desert rosy red. The Treasury building with its double-level colonnades is the favorite of most tourists.
More information from Hillman Wonders of the World: http://www.hillmanwonders.com/
