travel

The Royal Palaces of Abomey (UNESCO 1985) preserve the 44-hectare earthen palace complex of the Kingdom of Dahomey in Benin, built by 12 successive kings from c. 1625 to 1900 CE. The site is notable for its bas-relief visual history panels, the legacy of the Agojie female military corps, and the 2021 return from France of 26 royal treasures looted during the French conquest of 1892. Abomey lies 145 kilometres north of Cotonou and is best reached by road.

The Archaeological Site of Carthage, inscribed by UNESCO in 1979, preserves two superimposed cities 15 kilometres northeast of Tunis: the Phoenician trading metropolis founded around 814 BCE that dominated the western Mediterranean, and the Roman Carthago rebuilt from 29 BCE that became one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire. Key monuments include the Baths of Antoninus — the third largest Roman baths in the ancient world — and the Punic Tophet sanctuary containing over 20,000 funerary urns. The site is accessible by suburban railway from central Tunis.

The amphitheatre of El Jem (UNESCO 1979) in Thysdrus, built c. 230–238 CE, is the third-largest Roman amphitheatre in the world with a capacity of 35,000, built entirely of dry-laid limestone without mortar. The wealth of Thysdrus derived from olive oil exports across the empire; in 238 CE the governor Gordian I was proclaimed emperor here in a reign lasting 36 days. The adjacent Archaeological Museum holds the finest Roman mosaic collection in Tunisia.

Timgad (UNESCO 1982) — Colonia Marciana Traiana Thamugadi, founded by Emperor Trajan in 100 CE for veterans of the Third Augustan Legion — is the finest surviving example of Roman orthogonal urban planning, preserved by Saharan sand burial from the 7th century until French excavations from 1881. The site on the Algerian steppe at 1,050m includes a triumphal arch, a 3,500-seat theatre, 14 bath complexes, a public library, and complete street grid legible in both plan and pavement.

Timbuktu (UNESCO 1988, In Danger 2012–present) reached its height under the Songhai Empire as one of the great centres of Islamic learning, with 25,000 students, 150–180 Quranic schools, and the three great mosques of Djinguereber (1327 CE), Sankore, and Sidi Yahia. The city holds an estimated 400,000+ private manuscripts and suffered deliberate destruction of 14 of its 16 sacred mausoleums during the 2012 Islamist occupation — an act prosecuted by the ICC as a war crime.

Chan Chan in northern Peru — 5 km from Trujillo — is the largest pre-Columbian city in South America and the largest adobe city in the world, covering 20 sq km. Capital of the Chimu Empire from c. 900 CE until the Inca conquest of the 1470s, its nine royal compounds with 9–12 m adobe walls and maritime-themed friezes remain on the UNESCO In Danger list due to El Niño erosion.

Tiwanaku, on Bolivia’s altiplano at 3,850 metres and 72 km from La Paz, was the spiritual and political capital of the pre-Inca Andes from roughly 500 to 1000 CE. Its Gate of the Sun — a 10-tonne carved andesite doorway bearing the relief of the creator deity Viracocha — and its Akapana pyramid are among the most important monuments of South American civilisation.

The Konark Sun Temple in Odisha, built around 1250 CE under King Narasimhadeva I, is designed as a colossal stone chariot of the sun god Surya, with 24 carved wheels (each 3 metres in diameter) and a surviving audience hall 39 metres tall. UNESCO-inscribed in 1984, it sits 64 km from Bhubaneswar and 35 km from Puri as part of Odisha’s Golden Triangle.

The Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi (UNESCO 1989) stand on a sandstone hill 46 km from Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh — the oldest stone structures in India and the most complete early Buddhist ensemble anywhere. The Great Stupa, originally built by Emperor Ashoka in the 3rd century BCE, is surrounded by four elaborately carved stone gateways (toranas) from the 1st century BCE depicting 547 Jataka tales. The site is notable for its aniconic representation of the Buddha, indicated by symbols rather than a human image.