Ruins of a long lost palace and Royal Stables have been found during the construction of a tunnel in downtown Madrid.
Read MoreRuins of lost palace found in downtown Madrid
History
The 11th century cave churches of Göreme
Rediscovered by Europeans in the 18th century, Göreme has been inhabited for millennia. The Romans used it as a necropolis and it was a very important Christian location in the early Middle Ages. The small city is just one example of many towns carved into fairy chimney rock formations in Cappadocia, central Turkey.
Read MoreBasilica Cistern: A Forest of Roman Columns under Istanbul
The center of tourist attractions in Istanbul is Sultanahmet Square. On one side you have Hagia Sophia, on the other the Blue Mosque, and right beside that the Hippodrome, all a hop and skip away from the majestic Topkapi Palace. What you don’t see - and I walked past it on my first visit to Istanbul - is that right next to Hagia Sophia: an underground forest of Roman columns called Basilica Cisterna.
Read MoreThe 7 wonders of the ancient world: Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
I visited the ruins of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, one the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, in Turkey, and the statues which used to be there and are now in the British Museum.
Read MoreThe Buddhist temples of Kyoto are full of cute Japanese kids
Kyoto is possibly Japan’s most important city historically. It was not only the imperial capital of the country for over a thousand years, but also the birthplace of none other than Super Mario. And Nintendo. Yeah, I like Nintendo.
In 2011 I was in Japan shooting the FIFA World Cup of Clubs, which Barcelona F.C. eventually won. I was on my way from Tokyo to Toyota, where one of the matches took place, and stopped for a day trip on Kyoto.
Read MoreSun rises behind Angkor Wat, which unusually faces west, on a hot and humid summer day during rainy season. I was very lucky to get a good sunset on that day, as it rained constantly.
The ruins of the great city of Angkor
Machu Picchu, Tenochtitlán, Heracleion. The list of lost cities found in jungles, deserts or under the sea by modern archaeologists goes on. Once myths, now part of history. El Dorado, Atlantis, Z and many others still fuel the imagination of dreamers who hope to one day stumble upon ruins.
The city of Angkor was never lost, per se, but so much of it's history has been forgotten that it's almost as it has. The Khmer Empire was the greatest on earth and to this day parts of it are still being unearthed.
Capital of the great Khmer Empire in the 12th century, Angkor must have been a magnificent place to be in it's time. With a population estimated at the time of more than a million people, it's total area was greater than today's Paris and has more stones than all structures in Egypt combined.
In Angkor (word that stands for capital in sanskrit) we find the symbol of Cambodia, pictured in the country's national flag, the Angkor Wat (Temple City or Pagoda City).
The Angkor Wat is surrounded by a 3km long moat, with a stone bridge taking to the central part.
The Angkor Wat was the first temple I visited during my stay in large complex. It's the largest religious monument in the world covering 162.6 hectares of land and was built by Suryavarman II in dedication to the Hindu god Vishnu, the guy that unified the empire.
Cambodia is HOT and HUMID. I can't stress more these two words more without waking up the neighbors. Go early and take tons of water. I mean at least 3 liters per person. There will be vendors selling you stuff everywhere. Water is one dollar.
Here is a map so you can better understand the place.
Millions of tourists per year, specially during dry season, becomes unsustainable and causes damage to the ruins, which are stepped on and touched indiscriminately. This picture was taken at the entrance of the Wat, to the west of the Cruciform Terrace off the limits of the above map.
From the Cruciform Terrace you start to get a better view of the towers, that disappear behind the walls as you get close.
Angkor Wat has a huge corridor surrounding the temple like a frame. Along the walls are inscriptions of great battles of the Khmer empire. View from inside the Gallery of 1000 Buddhas into the Battle of Lanka corridor.
Engraving in the outer corridor of the Wat with what seems to be a bullet hole, from the confrontations between the Vietnamese and the Khmer Rouge.
Man takes a break from the hot and humid Cambodian summer outside a window at the Wat.
Angkor Wat was originally built as a Hindu temple later converted to Buddhist in the 14th or 15th century. Here a Buddha declared the base of a column.
Standing under doorways that seem to repeat into almost infinity gives the impression you are standing in between mirrors, but with no sign of your reflexion.
A butterfly rests on the centuries old engraving on the north side of the Angkor Wat.
Very similar to the view from the Cruciform Terrace is the entrance of the main temple. It's interesting to note that these temples were not built as a place for worship, but as a house for several gods, so they were never intended to be visited by masses of people.
Inside the main building is a dry pool. There is a similar one on the opposite side.
Columns full of inscriptions in Sanskrit decorate the interior of the main temple.
Finally I get to the main temple. Looking at the ruins, I can't help but imagine how this was in it's prime. A lot of the decoration was in gold and was looted, and in wood, which rotted away.
A couple chats and rests in the shade just outside the central part of the temple. Possibly the girl wasn't allowed to go the top of the temple. It won't matter how hot it is, you have to wear a shirt with sleaves, pants that go under the knee and no hat to enter the topmost bit of the temple.
From the highest point you have a clear view of what was a great city, now reclaimed by the jungle. With the exception of the temples, the houses of the gods worthy of stone, mortals built their houses with wood. That's why only the temples survived while everything else disappeared.
Inscriptions on the columns were added later and were written in either Sanskrit or ancient Khmer.
Two Chinese toursist pose for photos inside one of the long hallways of the Wat. Many Chinese and Korean tourists love to take pictures of themselves, it seems even more than enjoying the site.
Two young monks rested beside the empty pools at the base of the temple. Many people would stop and donate them money and pray.
A statue of Vishnu, the God with 4 pairs of arms is now in the southwest corner of the temple, but it is believed that this statue may have been originally placed in the very center of Angkor Wat, at the top.
It is truly a breathtaking experience to visit Angkor Wat. So much raw history right in front of your eyes and still so much to be uncovered.
What's next? Machu Picchu, Tenochtitlán, Heracleion? Maybe. If I'm lucky I might stumble upon Atlantis too.
The so-called "European-style palace" was an exotic building with its columns and round shapes, very different from the traditional local architecture. These are the most famous ruins of this site.
Ruins of the Old Summer Palace
Known as the Gardens of Perfect Brightness 圆明园, the ruins of the old Summer Palace are a memory of one of the most beautiful palaces in China. During the second Opium War, in 1860, European forces plundered and destroyed the place, taking relics that dated back 3500 years. Charles George Gordon, a French captain, wrote "You can scarcely imagine the beauty and magnificence of the places we burn. It made one's heart sore to burn them; in fact these places were so large, and we were so pressed for time, that we could not plunder them carefully." Many Chinese artifacts in western museums today are the result of plundering and looting of ancient China. Then in 1900 again the eight nations, during the boxers rebellion, came back and tore down whatever had survived.
The ruins are one of the very few remaining "unrestored" ancient sites of Beijing I know of. Most places have been either completely restored to look like they would have in ancient times or simply torn down to give space to modern buildings.
I used quotation marks because although these are ruins, I can't say I'm completely convinced this is all original. While I don't have proof of anything, several facts lead me to believe these aren't simply the ruins of what was once the largest palace in the history of China. Many of the stone pieces and their engravings seemed to me too well conserved for such an old piece, specially when thousands of people are stepping on them and handling them everyday.
Another notable fact is that - and architects or engineers reading, please correct me if I'm wrong - some of the stones were noticeably different. It seemed that several blocks were actually marble, while others were of a simpler material, not cement, but of the likes.
The pictures in this post are from two very different times of the year, winter 2015 and spring 2016.
Students walk over the ruins of one of the European style buildings. These stones seemed like marble to me.
I found it very interesting that visitors were allowed to walk over the ruins, something unthinkable in Italy or Greece these days.
The gardens have been more or less restored to the same layout as they were and some of the rubble piled up in an orderly fashion. This picture is from 2015. This year, a boardwalk is being constructed for people to walk on and probably only view the ruins from a distance.
On a hot spring day last week, a tourist looks at ruins that have been stacked up in a seemingly random fashion. It's like a modern day Stonehenge.
The column standing in the back is one of the items I suspect of its veracity. The engravings look so fresh to be that old and gone through so much.
In China, it's very common to see people, specially women, with umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun.
In one corner of the park there is a maze, which I believe is modern. I like mazes. I saw several people just jump over the little walls. I swear I figured it out myself.
At the center of the maze, there is a beautiful gazebo with a bit of shade for you to rest before trying to find your way out.
This pavilion and arch are two of the very few structures that remain standing in the site of the Summer Palace. Although very beautiful, the current Summer Palace is a lot smaller than this one and, they say, less beautiful.
Several man-made lakes decorate the gardens of the palace.
This lion seemed authentic. I'm no specialist, but after all I've seen in China with its repairs, I'm skeptical of everything.
In the winter, although super cold and windy, there aren't many people and it's well worth the visit. In the summer, it's packed and might not be as pleasant.
"Department of Halting Destruction of Living Beings - administers punishment for any act of harming living beings. (...) Upholding human value and protecting living beings form an important aspect of China's traditional morality" - says the sign beside this statue.
The Dongyue "Temple of Hell"
Along with the Imperial Palace and Tiananmen Square, one of the most famous landmarks of Beijing is the Temple of Heaven, in the southern part of town. It's in every guidebook and about every tourist that passed through the city since Marco Polo has been there.
What a lot of people don't know is that hidden in what is now the Russian shopping district lies the TEMPLE OF HELL HELl HEll Hell hell *echoes and fades just like in Fraggle Rock*
In reality, it is a Daoist temple called Dongyue, which was named after Mount Tai, one of the Five Sacred Mountains of Daoism.
New and old contrast in today's Beijing. A Walmart is just across the street and about 3 Starbucks.
The place is known informally as the Temple of Hell because of it's scary statues of death and punishment.
Well, that seems like an awesome place to bring the kids, right?
School kids go on a field trip to see statues of demons killing humans and other scary stuff.
There were 76 "departments" of all sorts of sins, and then some others dedicated to paperwork, such as the "Department of Filing Forms" and the "Department of Distribution of Medication". This was the "Department of Suicides".
Some people come to worship these gods and ask for their help. They go door to door with incense and bow to the statues.
The school kids could care less about the statues. All they wanted to do was run around.
I call this one "Donnie Darko". Didn't know he was a Daoist god.
In the entrance of many temples and palaces in China, there is an elevation. Legend says this is to keep spirits from coming in. It also works with toddlers.
In the back of every single room there was what I believe is a Daoist Priest, looking over this big bureaucratic underworld. All rooms were dark, damp and humid.
Shy little girl walked past in silence. I wonder if she had a good night's sleep after this visit.
This department was of Nature's Creatures. On the left you see a ghost with a twig on his head. Now imagine him talking.
The departments are small rooms full of statues. The temple has been in this place since 1319. Apparently these statues are from 2002.
Durham, NC, fairly represented at the Dongyue Temple.
On the other side of a busy street in front of the temple is a large gate.
A group of Daoist priests were there practicing their instruments. I do have video and will edit and post them some time in the future. I think it was the first time they ever picked up an instrument... or they were actually supposed so sound like they were in hell.
And tonight when you go to sleep, remember this face. He'll take you to the other side. MUAHAHA *Vincent Price's evil laugh from Thriller*
The ancient town of Qibao
In the outskirts of Shanghai is the little ancient town of Qibao 七宝镇. The name means "Town of Seven Treasures".
According to legend, the seven treasures are
- iron Buddha made in the Ming Dynasty
- a bronze bell that came out of nowhere
- Gold Script Lotus Sutra written by a 10th century concubine
- 1000-year-old catalpa tree
- jade axe
- gold cockerel
- jade chopsticks
The place has been inhabited for over 1000 years and is the only ancient town in central Shanghai. It's easy to get from downtown, just take the subway.
Differently from the Beijing hutongs, the small alleys in the ancient Shanghai area are two stories tall. Today, this street in Qibao is full of shops selling souvenirs and food to tourists.
Little girl struggles to eat a squid tentacle. Street food is one of the main attractions in Qibao.
One interesting xiaochi (snack) I had never seen are these eggs. There are hundreds of quail eggs piled up with some goose eggs in the middle and then cemented together with some kind of sugar or salt. They then heat it up from the bottom to cook it and break it open from the side and sell the individual eggs.
The Puhui river cuts the small town in half and is a big part of the attraction. Restaurants and teahouses are along the margins.
Some people still live in the ancient houses in the town. Qibao is also known to be the place where Zhang Chongren, the artist who inspired Chang Chong-Chen, character of the Adventures of Tintin.
The roofs of the buildings are unique to this region and distinct from those in Beijing and Xi'an. It's amazing you can tell apart each region by the architecture of the roofs.
The Marco Polo Bridge and the start of WWII
Described by the famous Venetian traveller Marco Polo in his book, the Lugou Bridge, as it is known in China, became internationally known by the adventurer's name. Written 20 years after his visit to Cathay, in The Travels of Marco Polo, the explorer described the bridge as a wonder of the orient, although his faulty memory played some tricks on him.
When you leave the City of Cambaluc and have ridden ten miles, you come to a very large river which is called PULISANGHIN, and flows into the ocean, so that merchants with their merchandise ascend it from the sea. Over this River there is a very fine stone bridge, so fine indeed, that it has very few equals. The fashion of it is this: it is 300 paces in length, and it must have a good eight paces of width, for ten mounted men can ride across it abreast. It has 24 arches and as many water-mills, and 'tis all of very fine marble, well built and firmly founded. Along the top of the bridge there is on either side a parapet of marble slabs and columns, made in this way. At the beginning of the bridge there is a marble column, and under it a marble lion, so that the column stands upon the lion's loins, whilst on the top of the column there is a second marble lion, both being of great size and beautifully executed sculpture. At the distance of a pace from this column there is another precisely the same, also with its two lions, and the space between them is closed with slabs of grey marble to prevent people from falling over into the water. And thus the columns run from space to space along either side of the bridge, so that altogether it is a beautiful object.
The Travels of Marco Polo, apud Historic Beijing in Pictures
In the central part of the bridge are stones from the old bridge, worn out by time. In the back, Wanping fortress gate.
Marco Polo did get a few things wrong. I can't blame him, it was a long time after his journey. He said the bridge had 24 arches instead of the actual 11. Then again, the bridge was destroyed and then reconstructed in 1698, 400 years or so after Polo's visit. Who knows what other modifications it went through over the years.
Undated ancient painting of the bridge. You can see that the structure is arched, unlike today's completely flat surface. China.org.cn
A very interesting thing about the Lugou bridge are the hundreds of lions sculpted all over. Legend says they are uncountable. Some have tried and say they are between 482 and 496. Originally were supposed to be 627. It's also important to note that not all lions were carved at once and were added along the centuries in different dynasties.
Pretty old statue of a male lion. You can see it's very worn out.
Just like in real life, there are basically two types of lions, the male and the female. But unlike the furry live animals, you can't tell the gender apart by the mane. It is what is under their foot that shows their sex. Male lions have balls (duh) under one paw and females have little cubs.
Newer statue of a female lion with its cubs.
Another female statues that seems very recent.
Now you might be asking yourself "how come there is no consensus on how many lions there are?" Shouldn't it be simple as taking the time and counting? Well, it's not that simple. You see, not only are some statues worn out with time, many lions are hidden, such as cubs popping out of their mothers mane or the ambiguous one at the beginning of the bridge.
Is this one lion looking to the left with a super wide face or are they two lions head to head? This statue is one of the first you see when you walk on the bridge.
The Marco Polo Bridge Incident and WWII
While westerners know this bridge because of Marco Polo - myself included-, this place is known for something completely different in China. It was exactly on this spot that the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II started in 1937. What about the invasion of Poland? Well, that happened in 1939. The two continental wars merged eventually.
On this bridge the Japanese attacked the town of Wanping, now a part of Beijing municipality. Bullet and cannon holes can still be seen on the fortress walls.
The WWII Database has loads of historical photos and details of the incident.
In China this place is very symbolic of the resistance against Japanese invasion. When I took these pictures, several families with older folks were there. Some of those men, visiting with their grandchildren, probably lived the war when they were kids. The Japanese committed unspeakable war crimes against the Chinese in Beijing, Jinan, Nanjing and several other places. The forces of Japan are said to have issued an order to not consider Chinese people human, therefore international war law would not apply to them (Haruko Taya Cook & Theodore F. Cook, Japan at War 1993 ISBN 1-56584-039-9, p. 153 apud Wikipedia).
The war only finished after American intervention and the bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki with Japanese surrender in 1945. This part of history we all learn.
China's participation was the first to start, and the last to finish.
In recent years the bridge has been restored and new stone bricks were laid. Now there is a parallel new bridge for heavy traffic and this one was retired and is used only by pedestrians, bicycles and electric bikes.
Japanese troops celebrate victory at the Lugou Bridge in 1937 (World War II Database)
Same spot from the previous photo, taken in 2016.
The Wanping fortress' gate leads directly to the Marco Polo Bridge.
Here you can already see some of the ancient stones and the old wheel marks of worn out pavement of the Marco Polo Bridge.
Old lady stretches for her morning exercise outside the Wanping fortress. Battle marks are clearly seen on the wall.
It was a very cold winter morning that day. At 8 am a group of senior citizens danced to a song outside Wanping fortress.
Inside Wanping fortress today are many shops, restaurants and museums dedicated to the Sino-Japanese war, called the "Anti-Japanese war" by the Chinese.