Glenfinnan Church, or St Mary and St Finnan's Catholic Church, is a fine example of Pugin architecture in a stunning historic location high above the shores of Loch Shiel. The Church was completed in 1873 having been designed by Edward Welby Pugin in the ' late Early English' Style.

 Glenfinnan Church, or St Mary and St Finnan's Catholic

Neolithic Romeo and Juliet? The Star-Crossed Lovers of Valdaro

The “Lovers of Valdaro” are a pair of human skeletons that were discovered in 2007 by a team of archaeologists at a Neolithic tomb in Italy. The two skeletons appear to have died while they were gazing into one another’s eyes and hugging each other, thus reminiscent of a “lovers’ embrace.”

Their Embrace Amazingly Goes Back 6,000 Years

For 6,000 years, two young lovers had been locked in an eternal embrace, hidden from the eyes of the world. Despite their embrace lasting six millennia, the Lovers of Valdaro only became known ten years ago, when their tomb was discovered near Mantua, in the northern region of Lombardy.

Digging in the village of Valdaro, a team of archaeologists led by Elena Maria Menotti found a double burial: a young man and woman considered to be about 20 years of age, huddled close together, face to face, their arms and legs entwined, as if they were embracing.

What’s even more impressive, double burials from the Neolithic period are very uncommon, and the position of the couple is certainly unique. Furthermore, it is the only example of a double burial in Northern Italy found to date. When the “lovers” were discovered, photos of their embrace were published on media worldwide causing great excitement, especially since the discovery took place near Valentine’s Day.

 Neolithic Romeo and Juliet? The Star-Crossed Lovers of

Fashionable 2,000-Year-Old Roman shoe found in a well!

When the Romans pushed their way north into the German provinces, they built (circa 90 AD) The Saalburg, a fort that protected the boundary between the Roman Empire and the Germanic tribal territories. At its peak, 2,000 people lived in the fort and the attached village. It remained active until around 260 AD.

Somewhere during the 19th century, The Saalburg was rediscovered and excavated, then later fully reconstructed. It’s now a UNESCO World Heritage site and houses the Saalburg Museum, which contains many Roman relics, including a 2,000 year old shoe, apparently found in a local well.

If you think the Italians have mastered the craft of making shoes, well, they don’t have much on their ancestors. According to the site Romans Across Europe, the Romans  “were the originators of the entire-foot-encasing shoe.” The site continues:

There was a wide variety of shoes and sandals for men and women. Most were constructed like military caligae, with a one-piece upper nailed between layers of the sole. Many had large open-work areas made by cutting or punching circles, triangles, squares, ovals, etc. in rows or grid-like patterns. Others were more enclosed, having only holes for the laces. Some very dainty women’s and children’s shoes still had thick nailed soles.

 Fashionable 2,000-Year-Old Roman shoe found in a well! When

Human hands - Ancestral Shoshone Indian-made petroglyphs (~1000 to ~200 years old) on fluvial, quartzose sandstone cliff face (Wasatch Formation, Paleocene to lowermost Eocene) in Wyoming.

These handprints were produced by rubbing of fingers on the slightly friable sandstone surface.

 Human hands - Ancestral Shoshone Indian-made petroglyphs

Hundreds of Roman gold coins found in basement of old theater

Archaeologists are studying a valuable trove of old Roman coins found on the site of a former theater in northern Italy.

The coins, at least 300 of them, date back to the late Roman imperial era and were found in a soapstone jar unearthed in the basement of the Cressoni Theater in Como, north of Milan.

"We do not yet know in detail the historical and cultural significance of the find," said Culture Minister Alberto Bonisoli in a press release. "But that area is proving to be a real treasure for our archeology. A discovery that fills me with pride."

Whoever placed the jar in that place "buried it in such a way that in case of danger they could go and retrieve it," said Maria Grazia Facchinetti, a numismatist -- or expert in rare coins -- at a Monday press conference.

"They were stacked in rolls similar to those seen in the bank today," she said, adding the coins have engravings about emperors Honorius, Valentinian III, Leon I, Antonio, and Libio Severo "so they don't go beyond 474 AD."

"All of this makes us think that the owner is not a private subject, rather it could be a public bank or deposit," Facchinetti added.

Archaeologists also uncovered a golden bar inside the jar.

 Hundreds of Roman gold coins found in basement of old

 Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, England. Photographer: @monalogue

The nuraghe Genna Maria is an archaeological site in the comune of Villanovaforru, province of South Sardinia.

It is located atop a hill in the Marmilla region. The structure is complex, formed by an original central tower, built in the middle Bronze Age, to which later were added other four towers and a bastion. One of the four towers was subsequently sacrificed during a further intervention, that also saw, presumably, the edification of the mighty external wall of hexagonal shape.

In the early Iron Age in the site developed a new village.

 Nuraghe Genna Maria The nuraghe Genna Maria is an

Fort Bard, also known as Bard Fort (Italian: Forte di Bard; French: Fort de Bard), is a fortified complex built in the 19th century by the House of Savoy on a rocky prominence above Bard, a town and comune in the Aosta Valley region of northwestern Italy.Fort Bard has been completely restored after many years of neglect. In 2006 it reopened to tourists as the Museum of the Alps, it has additional art exhibitions and galleries. In the summer, the main courtyard is used to host musical and theatrical performances.

 Fort Bard, also known as Bard Fort (Italian: Forte di

Photographer Unknown: DM for Credit or Removal.

 Madain Saleh, Saudi Arabia. Photographer Unknown: DM for

One of the most famous British legends is that of King Arthur and the sword in the stone.⁣⁣⁣

According to the various versions of the story, the sword could only be pulled out of the stone by the true king of England.⁣⁣⁣

A similar, though much less well-known, story can be found in the Italian region of Tuscany, and has even been suggested by some as the inspiration for the British legend. This is the sword in the stone of San Galgano.⁣⁣⁣

San Galgano is reported to be the first saint whose canonisation was conducted through a formal process by the Church. Consequently, much of the San Galgano’s life is known through the documents of this canonisation process, which was carried out in 1185, just a few years after his death.⁣⁣⁣

 One of the most famous British legends is that of King

Fanjingshan or Mount Fanjing, in Guizhou Province in southwest China, is a sacred Buddhist site and a place of great natural beauty with unusual rock formations and rich biodiversity. Many Buddhists believe that Fanjingshan is where one can reach spiritual enlightenment as Maitreya Buddha did. Since the Tang Dynasty, which ruled over China from the 7th to the 10 centuries, scores of temples have been built here but only a few survive.

One of these pairs of temples are located on a top of a lonely column of rock that looks like a giant thumb. Known as the Red Cloud Golden Peak, the rocky thumb soars nearly a hundred meters above the surrounding mountains, at the summit of which are two temples—the Temple of the Buddha and the Temple of Maitreya—that are separated by a narrow gorge that visitors can cross via a short bridge. Climbing this 8,000-steps peak is one of the main appeals of visiting Fanjingshan for the stunning above-the-clouds views of the Wuling mountain range from the summit.

 The Temples of Mount Fanjing Fanjingshan or Mount Fanjing

Varna Man And The Wealthiest Grave of The 5th Millennium BC

Source: https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-europe/varna-man-002798?fbclid=IwAR1WfQ_8pZauZpfkaIdh1WIQbf1UH4xo0PVZ3t0un0LomHaZYIaU-ysafxQ

 Varna Man And The Wealthiest Grave of The 5th Millennium BC

Mount Roraima, part of Venezuela's 30000-square-kilometer Canaima National Park, is the site of the highest peak of the country of Guyana's Highland Range. The mountains of this range, including Roraima, are considered to be some of the oldest geological formations known, some dating back to two billion years ago.

 Mount Roraima, part of Venezuela's 30000-square-kilometer

Amazing perspective of The Pyramids of Giza.

 Amazing perspective of The Pyramids of Giza. 📷 @krimamr You

The ancient Roman city of Baiae, on the northwest shore of the Gulf of Naples...

was once a popular coastal resort famous for its idyllic location and therapeutic mineral springs that drew the likes of Julius Caesar, Nero and Caligula. But what really enticed the wealthy and the powerful to this resort town were its beach parties, the wine and the women.

In Baiae, “unmarried women are common property, old men behave like young boys, and lots of young boys act like young girls,” wrote the ancient Roman scholar Marcus Terentius Varro. Others described it as a “den of licentiousness and vice" and a "vortex of luxury". Baiae’s hedonism was as notorious as that of Las Vegas today.

But much of Baiae now lies underwater. The same subterranean volcanic activity that brought hot water to the surface and turned Baiae into the imperial capital of debauchery and vice also caused its downfall, quite literally. The entire land dropped like a plate by more than six meters —a process known as bradyseism, caused by the emptying of the underlying magma chamber. This happened during the 16th century, but by then, Baiae was already a mere shadow of its former magnificence.

Baiae was built on the Cumaean Peninsula, originally as a port. It became a luxurious resort and a gateway for the elite towards the end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the Roman Empire. Baia was the hottest vacation spot among prominent members of the Roman aristocracy such as Julius Caesar, Nero, Caligula, Augustus, Pompeius the Great, Marcus Antonius, Septimius Severus … the list goes on. Many had their own villas built there.

Baiae’s glory days came to an end with the barbarian invasions and raids by Muslim rulers in the 8th century. Then, in the 16th century, it vanished beneath the Tyrrhenian Sea.

 The Sunken City of Baiae The ancient Roman city of Baiae

 Yemen Shahare Mountains and Birch Pass. Photographer

The Atacama Giant is a large anthropomorphic geoglyph in the Atacama Desert, Chile. It is one out of nearly 5,000 geoglyphs that have been discovered in the Atacama in the last three decades. It is the largest prehistoric representation of a human figure in the world with the height of 119 metres (390 ft). Its location is about 497 miles (800 kilometers) south of the Peru's Nazca lines - the best known geoglyphs in the world. Some believe that this particular geoglyph represents an extraterrestrial being that had contact thousands of years ago with humans in the area. According to academics, they are believed to have been created between AD 600 and AD 1500, although accurately dating geoglyphs has always been problematic, so their age cannot be concluded with any certainty.

 The Atacama Giant is a large anthropomorphic geoglyph in

Pompeii, Italian Pompei, preserved ancient Roman city in Campania, Italy, 14 miles (23 km) southeast of Naples, at the southeastern base of Mount Vesuvius. Around noon on August 24, 79 CE, a huge eruption from Mount Vesuvius showered volcanic debris over the city of Pompeii, followed the next day by clouds of blisteringly hot gases.

Buildings were destroyed, the population was crushed or asphyxiated, and the city was buried beneath a blanket of ash and pumice. For many centuries Pompeii slept beneath its pall of ash, which perfectly preserved the remains.

When these were finally unearthed, in the 1700s, the world was astonished at the discovery of a sophisticated Greco-Roman city frozen in time. Grand public buildings included an impressive forum and an amphitheatre; lavish villas and all kinds of houses, dating back to the 4th century BCE, were also uncovered. Inside were some preserved remains of people sheltering from the eruption; others lay buried as they fled; bakeries were found with loaves still in the ovens. The buildings and their contents revealed day-to-day life in the ancient world—and stirred 18th-century interest in all things classical.

 Pompeii, Italian Pompei, preserved ancient Roman city

.Naqsh-e Rustam, the Ancient Necropolis of Powerful Persian Kings

Naqsh-e Rustam is an ancient necropolis situated northwest of Persepolis, the capital of the Achaemenid Empire. Naqsh-e Rustam (Naqsh-e Rostam) is an impressive reminder of once glorious Achaemenid Persian Empire (c. 550–330 BC) and it stands as a magnificent manifestation of ancient Persian art. Naqsh-e Rustam is the house for the immense rock tombs cut high into the cliff. The rock tombs belong to four Achaemenian kings. The ancient tombs attracted Sasanian kings as well. They wished to imitate the glory of the Achaemenian kings; maybe that is why they created huge reliefs besides the tombs. The immense rock reliefs mainly depict the investiture scenes and the equestrian fights of the Sasanian kings. However, the history of Naqsh-e Rustam is not limited to  the Achaemenid and Sassanid periods. There is evidence that the site exists from the Elamite period.  An ancient rock relief dating back to Elamite period indicates that Naqsh-e Rustam had been a sacred place during the ancient times. That might be the reason Darius I ordered to carve his monumental tomb into the cliff at the foot of Mt. Hosain (Huseyn Kuh). His rock tomb is famous for its two inscriptions known as the king’s autobiography. The inscriptions indicate that Darius the Great had been the king who ruled according to justice. Travel to Iran and enjoy visiting so many great cultural attractions especially the great ones registered on UNESCO World Heritage List or waiting to be registered. Pasargadae, Persepolis, Naqsh-e Rajab that lies a few hundred meters from Naqsh-e Rustam, and Naqsh-e Rustam, the ancient necropolis of the powerful Persian kings are the best cultural attractions of Iran located in Shiraz, Fars province

 .Naqsh-e Rustam, the Ancient Necropolis of Powerful Persian

An attempt to build an imaginary image of the most famous king of ancient Egypt, Ramses II, based on the king's mummy.

Pharaoh during Egypt's golden age, King Ramses II built more monuments and sired more children than any other Egyptian king.

What makes a king mighty? Ramses II (ca 1303–ca 1213 B.C.) recognized that diplomacy and an exhaustive public relations campaign could mitigate any military shortcomings. His celebrated building accomplishments, including the marvels at Karnak and Abu Simbel, reflected his vision of a great nation and of himself as the “ruler of rulers.” He erected more monuments and statues—and sired more children—than any other pharaoh. As a result, he has long been regarded by Egyptians as Ramses the Great and his 66-year reign is considered to be the height of Egypt’s power and glory.

 An attempt to build an imaginary image of the most famous

Stack Rock Fort is a fort built on a small island in the Milford Haven Waterway, Pembrokeshire. A 3-gun fort was built between 1850 and 1852, and then upgraded in 1859 with a new building that completely encased the original gun tower. It is now a Grade II* listed building and a Scheduled Monument.

 Stack Rock Fort is a fort built on a small island in the

Sigiriya, also called Lion Rock or Lion Mountain, site in central Sri Lanka consisting of the ruins of an ancient stronghold that was built in the late 5th century CE on a remarkable monolithic rock pillar. The rock, which is so steep that its top overhangs the sides, rises to an elevation of 1,144 feet (349 metres) above sea level and is some 600 feet (180 metres) above the surrounding plain.

The Sinhalese king Kashyapa I (reigned 477–495) built a palace in the shape of a monumental lion on the several acres of ground at the summit, intending it to be a safeguard against his enemies. However, the king was defeated in 495, and the palace fell into ruin. The site soon became a pilgrimage destination, however, and it is now a popular tourist spot. Visitors begin the final ascent to the top through the open paws of the lion, one of the few remaining portions of the palace that are still intact. Also notable are 21 rock paintings of apsaras (celestial singers and dancers).

Sigiriya was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1982.

 Sigiriya, also called Lion Rock or Lion Mountain, site in

Scrabo Tower is a 135 feet (41 m) high 19th-century lookout tower or folly that stands on Scrabo Hill near Newtownards in County Down, Northern Ireland. It provides wide views and is a landmark that can be seen from afar. It was built as a memorial to Charles Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry and was originally known as the Londonderry Monument. Its architectural style is Scottish Baronial Revival.

 Scrabo Tower is a 135 feet (41 m) high 19th-century lookout

Source: https://futureworldblogger.com/50-best-places-to-visit-in-france-travel-to-france/

 Mont Saint-Michel in France Source:

 Venice, Italy. 📷 @lennart You can also follow me at

McDermott's Castle, Abandoned Fairytale Irish Castle In The Middle Of A Lake, County Roscommon, Ireland.

 McDermott's Castle, Abandoned Fairytale Irish Castle In The

The Castle of Coca is one of the most spectacular castles in the province of Segovia. A masterpiece of Mudejar and Gothic military architecture, the Coca Castle presents the traveler as an impressive brick mass, protected by a powerful moat that exceeds twenty meters in depth.

Other Photographer's Unknown: DM for Credit or Removal.

 The Castle of Coca The Castle of Coca is one of the most

Caerlaverock Castle is a moated triangular castle first built in the 13th century. It is located on the southern coast of Scotland, eleven kilometres south of Dumfries, on the edge of the Caerlaverock National Nature Reserve.

 Caerlaverock Castle is a moated triangular castle first

Old Gothic Hearse found in Dresden. Germany, from 1800s.

 Old Gothic Hearse found in Dresden. Germany, from 1800s

The 'deep time' concept of ingenious Australians.

Deep time asks us to rethink our narrow conceptions of time by looking back far into Earth’s history, and looking forward far into the future.

The Indigenous Australian sense of history spans the 65,000 or more years they have lived on this continent. This goes way beyond the Western concept of “ancient history”, set in the Northern Hemisphere and reaching little beyond 6,000 years.

Source: https://theconversation.com/all-things-will-outlast-us-how-the-indigenous-concept-of-deep-time-helps-us-understand-environmental-destruction-132201

 The 'deep time' concept of ingenious Australians. What is

These buildings are considered the unofficial symbol of Galicia and date back to the 15th Century. Galicia is the last autonomous region pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago walk through to arrive at the famous Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.

The original purpose was to store feed for the animals. They also were used to house any farm produce that needed to be stocked or further ripened. Horreos are seen throughout the Camino de Santiago. Those in Galicia are slimmer and longer than those found in states such as Asturias whose horreos are wide and square.

Horreos in Galicia range in size from over 10 meters in length to even as little as one meter in length. These granaries are usually made of granite. They are always elevated to ensure rodents are unable to feast on the contents inside.  Today, these buildings are no longer utilised due to advancements in modern agriculture which also means they are no longer being built.  Most older properties in Galicia have an horreo on the land, but sadly many of them are unkept. This is because owners are required to apply for a special permit, at a high cost, to renovate these protected buildings.

 Horreos These buildings are considered the unofficial

Harpea's Cave, Navarra, Spain. This is a perfect example of tectonic plates movement.