This place has great regard in history, the hiding place was found by Otto Frank and he kept them safe here till almost the end of the cold war. The Nazis however, discovered them just almost before the war could get over and deported these people as prisoners to concentration camps. Anne frank was once of the prisoners who died here in the concentration camp.

This was the house in which Anne Frank kept her diary so that she could deal with the boredom that she faced while she was confined to the walls of the house. She used to have dreams that this diary would be published some day.  She had described about the raging Nazi terror that took place outside the confines of her house.

Close to this is the Beguine Court which is enclosed in a courtyard in the main region of Amsterdam which dates back to as early as the fourteenth century. This place has several religious buildings. Also; this place behaves like an area which offers peace and quite compared to the ever bustling and busy Spui square.

Begijnhof was built in the fourteenth century mainly for the residents of the Beguines. This is a catholic order which unmarried or widowed women who would like the life of a pious person without becoming a nun.  The beguines used to care for the sick and educate the poor here in Amsterdam and in return they were offered free lodging.

The part that was called the ‘alteration’ of seventeen fifty eight. The main church here was confiscated from the catholic Beguines for protestant use. This place was also given to the priests during their brief stay in Amsterdam in the year sixteen hundred and seven.

For almost a century, the beguines had to make good without a church. Although in the year, sixteen hundred and seventeen, the beguines began construction of the secret chapel which was somehow authorized by the Protestants but, somehow had to be hidden from the public.

You should definitely check out the many tiny houses that are grouped here are courtyard.  The thirty fourth house year is the oldest house in all of Amsterdam. This place dates from as early as fourteenth century.  This is one of two wooden houses that lie in the city center.  The rest of the houses here were destroyed here in fires. Because of this, there was a law passed against building structures made of all timber. You will find scripture quotes and illustrations that are on the left side of the buildings bible plaque.

The English church which is just across the courtyard number forty eight; which dates back to the year fourteen hundred. These churches did also belong to the beguines. These too were later confiscated in the year fifteen hundred and seventy-eight.

The Normans were people who primarily gave the name to Normandy. The Normans Descended from the line of Viking kings and conquerors.  The population here is quite Frankish and Gallo-Roman. These Norman people rose to power during the first half of the tenth century. Later on, the term- Normans; stuck as these were the people who founded Normandy.

The Normans would always stand out with regards to architecture with their colonies. They would always revolutionize the places they conquered in the architectural department. They spread unique style and architectural wonder in England and in fence, and building beautiful architecture that is kept very much in style with French architectural style. Their style is usually depicted by rounded arches over windows.

The St .Mary’s arches dates all the way back from the normal era. This place retains many of its Norman features, which was later renovated and altered through the centuries. This place was the main church of many of the merchant folk and the local mayor who have now monuments built inside the church

This church also survived the Exeter Bombing which took place in the year nineteen hundred and forty two. The church suffered severe damage because of the incendiary bomb that erupted.  The roof which was built in the fifteenth century was badly damaged and a lot of the inside furniture and was damaged and lost in the fire.

In the year nineteen hundred and fifty, Dykes-Bower restored this church. The roof was rebuilt as a barrel vault.  This was done using timbers from the landing craft that belong to the United States that took part in the landing during Demolition day. The outside of the Church was not well restored as they replaced it with imitation stone. In today’s world, the St. Mary’s Arches is the homelike to the people who died defending Devon during the air raids.

This church has it nave right in the center.  It also has tow steps on which a chancel is raised. The two ails here are on the north and the south.  There is also a west tower which has three bells. Two of these bells are from the fifteenth century and the third bell is room the eighteenth century.

This church is also known to be the only Devon parish church to have two Norma Arcades. These are the Arches, also from where the church got its name! The nave has flanks from both sides by an arcade which has four bays which are all supported on a plain column with squares.

A seventeenth century reredos was erected in the year nineteen sixty nine. The alter here; and the rails of the alter are both of the same date. There are various monuments which belong to the previous mayor of Exeter.  Thos has a tomb here. Here are effigies of him.

There are stone structures are called stone rings that exist in the Isles of the UK. The number of these stone rings, two times of the existing count, was built originally. Rather than circles, these are called rings, since they are built in slightly non-circular, elliptical shapes. More than nine hundred of them exist. Stonehenge, a prehistoric monument, is located in Wiltshire, an English country. Stonehenge is one of the most famous sites, for its sacredness, in the world. Composed of earthworks that surround a set of large stones, standing in a circular arrangement, Stonehenge is surrounded by the most densely populated complex of monuments from the Neolithic and the Bronze Age, which lasted from around 4000 to 2000 BC in southern England. There are about several hundreds of burial mounds also. The assumption of the antiquarians of 17th century was that the Druids constructed the Stonehenge (and other such megalithic structures), and this was before the times when the archeological dating methods were developed. The Driud, unfortunately, did not have anything to do with the construction or use of the stone rings, especially Stonehenge, since the Druid priesthood society, in Britain, came to existence after 300 BC. The Egyptian travelers were often attributed with the Stonehenge, since they were thought, by the 19th century historians, as the ones who had infused Europe with Bronze Age culture. Later, when the dating systems were resolved and re-invented, the stone rings seemed to predate even the Egyptian culture.

The stone rings in Stonehenge were assumed to be used for activities of sacred rituals, by the mid-20th century. The pioneers of astronomical study of ancient civilizations (aka archeoastronomy), Prof. Alexander Thom and Gerald Hawkins from Oxford University had conducted precise surveys at many stone rings and discovered alignments, celestially significant, and had discovered that the stone rings at Stonehenge were used for astronomical observation purposes.

Stonehenge was built during a two-thousand year period from 3100 to 1100 BC. Each stone of Stonehenge weighs about 25 tons, which were transported from far away locations of over hundreds of miles away. This massive structure was used for multiple purposes. This is a mystic of nearly imperishable nature and is located at a site, specifically rich in terrestrial energy and power and of course celestially significant. Stonehenge was used as an astronomical device, for predicting annual cycle periods when the energies of the earth were influenced by the sun, moon and stars. This occurrence was of most high duration, potential and importance during this particular period. It was regarded as the people’s temple, built by and for them and festivals of renewal used to be held at the energetic periods that were determined on the basis of the astronomical observations.  Certain types of stones were used to build a structure like the Stonehenge, and the stones were positioned in accordance with sacred geometry. The gatherings at this most popular stone ring acted as a battery, since the concentration and emanation of the earthly energies occurred at this site.

During the time of Prophet Muhammad, from 570 to 632 AD the holy city of Mecca reached its major religious significance. Muhammad took Mecca under his control in 630 and destroyed the pagan idols, except those of Mary and Jesus. The Hajj Pilgrimage to Mt. Arafat was joined with the different rituals of Mecca, and the Ka’ba was declared as the most important place of the Muslim. The Ka’ba, the Zamzam we and the sacred hills of Safa and Marwa are located within the vast structure called Haram al-Sharif, which means ‘The Noble Sanctuary’. There are seven very tall minarets and 64 gates that form the outer shell of this colossal building. At a time more that 1.2 millions of holy pilgrims can be inside the holy structure and is the largest mosque in the world. The word Ka’ba means cube, and, thus, this sacred place is cubically built and the roof is flat. It is raised to fifty feet, with corners oriented towards the compass points. The walls to the east and west are aligned to sunrise at summer solstice and sunset at the winter solstice. Though the surrounding structures of Ka’ba have gone through tremendous reconstructions and changes since the 7th century, Ka’ba still remains as it was when Muhammad existed.

All followers of Islam (male or female) are required to do the Hajj pilgrimage and one of the five pillars of Islam. The pilgrimage takes from 8th to 13th of the month of Dhu al-Hijjah in the Islam’s lunar calendar, every year. The main aim behind making the Islamic attend Hajj every year is one measure to unify Muslims from all over the world, and currently Mecca has succeeded in gathering about twenty lakhs of people every year. Located in the south-east corner of Ka’ba is the sacred stone, which is kissed by the pilgrims, after they take seven rounds in counter-clock direction around the Ka’ba, in the mosque. The pilgrims also visit other places in the vicinity of Mecca, which include Muzdalifah, Mt. Arafat and Mina and then go back to the sacred Ka’ba.

The Muslims kneel down to pray to their God, five times in a day and they face towards the direction of the Mecca. Thus, an invisible bond, called qibla, is said to form between the devotees and Mecca, and so Muslims are said to, virtually, visit Mecca, five times a day. In fact, all the mosques in the world are supposed to be built with their entrances facing Mecca. One can find pictures and paintings of the holy Ka’ba, depicting various ways and modes of traveling to Mecca around the world. Often, these are pictures of a pilgrim praying on a holy carpet inside the Ka’ba. Mecca is also regarded as the magnet of explorers.

Dendera is a location of a very old holy place. The astronomical alignment of the main temple of Dendera, before 5000BC, is found to be towards Gamma Draconis – a Pre-dynastic temple rebuilt during the Old Kingdom, and developed still more by the New Kingdom, of pharaohs. What we see there today marks the works of the Greek and Romans – who built the Hypostyle Hall in 1st century AD, along with the sanctuaries, that came into existence because of the Ptolemies in 1st century BC. The temple of Dendera was primarily a shrine for worshipping Hathor – a patroness of earthly love. She was a goddess who healed and provided feminine nourishment in a great way. In ancient times the place known as lunet or Tantere – or Tentyris, as known to the Greeks – which was the capital of the 6th nome of Northern Egypt and was a town of some importance – is now known as Dendera. The population of this place has graduated to Qena, across the river to the eastern bank of the Nile. This ancient temple is now a part of the ruins, lying isolated on the edge of the deserts.

According to studies conducted in recent times, the temple of Dendera was involved in several interrelated activities. Apart with being a place of pilgrimage it was also a healing destination where miraculous cures were provided by the goddess Hathor. It also used to be an ancient kind of hospital with various physical, physiological, and psychiatric therapies being practiced, that worked wonders. It played the role of the source and destinations for many festivals and processions. The Dendera complex encloses several other magical features like a sacred lake, a sanatorium where various magical healings were practiced, and, the most sacred of all, a temple of the goddess Isis. There are beautiful and knowledge consistent astrological calendars carved and painted on the ceilings with detail to seek interest of the viewers, inside the main temple of Dendera. There are some ceilings inside the temple which are in blackened condition. For information of future visitors – these blackened marks were from the cooking fires of the village people, when Napolean’s scholars had found a centuries-old Arab village established inside the temple, during their first visit to Dendera.

This site belongs to the 19th-century basilica and it is traditionally linked to the Saint Denis’s beheading in the third century. Denis was the patron of the city. Legend says that he was martyred and Bishop Denis carried his severed head to several miles in the north. This is where the suburb of Saint-Denis is located.

France was defeated by Prussians in the 1870 Franco-Prussian War. The Sacré-Coeur Basilica was then offered as a guilt to the communes and also to gain their vote of confidence for curing the French misfortunes. This church was devoted to Sacred Heart of Jesus; it was a cult which became really popular after 1873. The first pilgrimage was set up in Burgundy to Paray-le-Monial. Christ’s sacred heart encouraging prayer revelations were reported here in the 17th century.

Basilique Sacré-Coeur’s foundation stone was first laid in the year 1875. The structure was declared sacred in the year 1891 and the construction was completed in 1914. After the First World War ended, the Basilique Sacré-Coeur was then given the basilica status in 1919. This building has a lot in common with the Basilica Notre-Dame de Fourviere, located in Lyon.

Basilique Sacré-Coeur was made by Paul Abadie and he used a Romanesque-Byzantine architectural theme. The basilica was inspired by St-Front located in Perigueux or Dordogne. It is a multi domed church built on a Roman theme. Sacré-Coeur has three arched portico and it is surmounted by 2 bronze statues of local saints – King Saint Louis IX, and Joan of Arc. The statues are designed by Hippolyte Lefebvre.

Savoyarde, the great bell, too has nationalist refrences. France annexed Savoy in 1860 and the bell is one of the worlds heaviest, weighing in at 19 tons. The basilica is made up of Seine-et-Marne or Château-Landon stone. It is a frost-resistant travertine which bleaches through the ages to gleaming white color. There are big bronze doors to the main portal and it has foliage designs.

On the inside, the Basilique Sacré-Coeur is dim and quite gloomy. The only exception here is the golden mosaics which glow from the apse. The Greek cross has a large dome of 83m height and it is located over the crossing.

This temple was founded in the ninth century and it was then rebuilt again in the nineteenth century.  This place is best known for its copy of the sacred Buddhist scripture, the Tripitaka Koreana.

The suneung and the Ljeong monks first settled here in Haeinsa in the year eight hundred and two. These monks came here from china.  The name, ‘reflection of a smooth sea; was taken from the Buddhist sutra that compares Buddha’s wisdom to a calm sea. Hence when the mind is free from all the wants and worries of the world then you will be able to attain incomparable calmness. This is the ideal state in which the awareness of your existence is clearly reflected.

The temple was built by the great king Aejang. He did this in gratitude o the monks for saving his wife.

According to legend, the monks tied the tumor which the kings wife had, and tied the other end of the string to a tree. After reciting the verse s, the tumor has disappeared and the tree had withered and died.

After about one hundred years, Korea was at war with the thirteenth century Mongols. At this time, the government here in Korea was in exile on the Ganghwa Island. The government commissioned a copy of the Buddhist scripture so that Buddha could intervene and help them out during the war. The scripture was created and happens to be one the best copies of the Buddhist scriptures in all of Asia.

The wood blacks, on which the scriptures were written, were woodblocks which were made of white birch. These were soaked and boiled in sea water for about three years. They were later dried for another period of three years.

Haeinsa were caught in a devastating fire in the year eighteen hundred and seventeen. This nearly destroyed the wooden temple and its buildings.  However the Tripitaka Library which was located at the read end of the complex which was built in fourteen eighty eight, was not damaged at all.  The hall was rebuilt in the year eighteen hundred and eighteen.  This happened to the late joseon dynasty.  These were built on the foundation that was built by the Haeinsa’s monks almost one thousand years ago.

The library hall has had the sacred wooden blocks designated to the Korean national treasure in the years nineteen sixty two. This is now a UNESCO world heritage site. The site was listed by UNESCO in the year nineteen ninety five.

In the latter part of the twentieth century, the monks of Haeinsa got computers and entered the contents of the Tripitaka Koreana into an electronic form. This took about two years. This text is now stored on CD ROM. The monks now have plans to make a translation of the scriptures into different languages started with Korean.

When you come here to the Haeinsa temple, check out the Tripitaka , there are about  fifty two million three hundred and eighty tow thousand and nine hundred and sixty Chinese characters which have been carved on eighty-one thousand  double sided wooden blocks  all in about six thousand eight hundred and two volumes.  This apparently is supposed to be the oldest and most complete works of the Buddhist scriptures in the entire world. Also these scriptures have been beautifully made.

The scriptures are displayed in shelves that go across the floor all the way to the ceiling. The oldest temple building here is the Janggyeong Panjeon.

This building is known for being the oldest building built here which was originally made to store exhibits and artifacts from the fifteenth century solutions and discoveries. The people here along with UNESCO worked on ways to keep the preserved woodblocks from deteriorating.

Apart from all this, there is a main worship hall called Daejeokkwangjeon which was called the hall of great silence and light. The foundation for this was rebuilt in eighteen. . This place houses a big Buddha’s statue which was carved in the year seventeen sixty nine. A vairocana Buddha statue is placed here instead of the usual seokgamani statues.  These are one of the five celestial Buddhas. Vairocana is known to be the center of the universe. Behind this statues are the wall paintings of Buddha’s entire life.

Many architects contributed to the designing and building of this church. The construction took place in different phases. The construction of the church began in the year sixteen hundred and forty five. Later on in the year sixteen hundred and seventy the church was made bigger. The addition took about another century. A new building was being added by Florentine architect Giovanni Servandoni. Although the construction was abandoned before it could be completed. The great author, Victor Hugo and others like Marquies de Sade and Charles Baudelaire, all of these had their weddings done here. The church of saint Sulpice was later damaged, burned and turned into a temple of victory. It was later reconstructed and decorated by Eugene Delacroix in the nineteenth century.

The outside was called the cathedral of the river of gauche. . This is apparently one of the largest churches in the city of Paris. The facade is essentially a big baroque edifice which is pretty lopsided in its appearance. Its actually even looks like an actual part of the great roman coliseum. Sculptures of four bishops are place in the church square at a fountain by a famous local called Visconti.

Inside the church are the Delacroix Frescoes, the chapelle des Anges is right at the entrance. You can see Jacob wrestle with an angel and saint Michael having a fight with evil and defeating it. There is also a beautiful painting of Heliodorus being driven from the temple.  If you would like to see most of the artists work then you should go to the muse Delacroix.

The Rococo chapelle de la Madonna is one of the biggest masterpieces here. The statues of the Virgin Mary here is most extra ordinary. The tomb of the cure languest de Gergy, the founder of the world first pediatric hospital; is found here. This man supervised the entire completion of the saint Sulpice. Michel Ange slodts was the one who designed the tomb. He was trained in the city of Rome. The inscriptions on this represent the Christians defeat of death, an angel is shown pulling back the curtain of immortality.

This church has one of the largest organs in the world; it has about six thousand pipes and has been played by many famous musicians like Marcel Dupre and Charles Mari Widor. This beautiful structure is today known very famously for its music. Concerts are held here quite frequently. The organ was originally constructed by Aristtide Cavaille coll. The casing for the organ was later designed by Chalgrin. The statues were made by Clodion. This place is located on the west side of the nave.

You will also be able to see the famous meridian line which is also called gnomon.  The Da Vinci code talks about the gnomon.  Apparently there is a narrow brass strip that the monks use this as a reference point in regard to find the Holy Grail. You could try looking for it at the west end.

The meridian line is apparently a fascination astronomical instrument that is from the eighteenth century. This line helped to study planets and determine dates of Easter every year. The way it is designed is that the suns rays pass through the opening which is located in the south transept and these rays then rest on the many points which indicate different things throughout the year. During the winter solstice, the rays come and hi the obelisk.  In the spring, there is an autumn equinox. Also, there is a bronze table that helps in finding out the information hat is needed.  There is a Latin inscription that has a meridian line.

About the Da Vinci code:

In the nineteenth chapter of the Da Vinci code, an albino monk names Silas visits the saint Sulpice on the information that Sauniere gives to Silas. Sauinere reveals the information to Silas at gun point inside the louvre. The monk shows a keystone which is believed to unlock the secrets to finding the Holy Grail.

The saint Sulpice is church is supposed o be the most eccentric church in history of any of the buildings in Paris. The church is built over the ruins of the temple of the Egyptian goddess Isis.

There are many historical artifacts in this region. There are paintings by Cranachs. The doors of the all saints church i.e. the Scholosskirche which emanates the castle church. This was built in fifteen hundred and six.  The structure caught fire in the year seventeen sixty.  The French people had destroyed this place during unsettled times; whenever it prevailed in this region.  This entire place was again rebuilt and restored much later.

The wooden doors were later replaced by brass doors. The door has Latin inscriptions made on them.  This church contains the tombs of martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon.  These were later also joined by the tombs of Frederick the wise and john the constant.  They were also portraits made of the reformers of that time like Lucas the younger.

The famous saint Mary’s church which served as a church along with a teaching ground for Luther.  There are amazing paintings made by Lucas the elder. One of these paintings is a very beautiful representation of the last supper.

The electoral palace is one of the other buildings here that were damaged in the seventeen hundreds.  This place now is a center for archives. Amongst all this amazing places; you will also fine the houses of Lucas the elder and Melanchthon.  Lucas was the then mayor of the town of Wittenberg.

There is a spot that is located outside the Elster gate at which Martin Luther was seen publicly burning the papal bull in the fifteenth century. This place is now marked by an oak tree.

The famous humanist Philipp Melanchthon was a famous protestant reformer. He along with his friend Martin Luther has statues that honor the both of them right in front of the town hall.

On the door of the all saints castle church, is where Luther nailed his ninety five theses. This is where the beginning of the protestant revolution started coming into play. The Anabapisy is one of the earliest moments in the regions where the zwichau prophets came here around the year fifteen twenty one.

John Frederick the Magnanimous was compelled to resign from his post and most of the territory that was part of the Albertine branch was assign to the Wettin house.

There are a lot of protestant pilgrims who come to this entire city to pay their homage to their long gone leader.

This place is officially names Lutherstadt Wittenberg. The German city is famous for being associated with martin Luther. Martin Luther was a leader of the German reformation. The Lutheran sites here are brought together and the place was designated as a UNESCO world heritage site in the year nineteen hundred and ninety six.  Along with this, Eisleben was also added as a heritage site.

Wittenberg is located about sixty eight kilometers north of Leipzig and about one hundred kilometers from Berlin which lies to the south of it.  This place is otherwise a quite German town.  Here the Wittenberg sites are known for its protestant pilgrims who come here along with the historian from many parts of the world.

According to legends, john the Baptist who was one of the twelve apostles brought Mary to Ephesus. Over here you will find   Saint Johns basilica.

Many archeologists who have come here have examined the building and found the house of the virgin to be dating from the sixth or the seventh century.  Although the foundations it has are much older and date back from the first century. This was the approximate time when Mary was alive.

For a very long time this place was a frequent place of visit for orthodox Christians over many centuries.

This place was actually discovered by a German nun called Sister Anne Catherine Emmerich who apparently never ever traveled away from her home.

She apparently woke up one night in a trance with the stigmata and many visions that included the Virgin Mary traveling along with john the Baptist from Jerusalem all the way to Ephesus.

Mary’s house was later describes in detail and was record by a writer at her bedside called Brentano.

Sister Emmerich later described the house to be rectangular and made of stone.  This apparently was the house that john had built for Mary.  This place also had a fireplace, and a big round back wall.  The room which came next has a spring going right into the room and this apparently was Mary’s bedroom.

According to sister Emmerich, The Virgin Mary was died at the age of sixty four and was buried near a cave right near her house. When the coffin was later check it was empty. This place was later converted into a chapel.

In about eighteen ninety one , two priests of the Lazarus order  decided to set out to Ephesus to see the house of he virgin Mary.  This place later became a catholic pilgrimage site.  And about eighteen ninety seven, this place was turned into a shelter for visitors.

Later, popes john Paul the sixth and john Paul the second, both visited this place and confirmed that it is an appropriate place for Christians to pilgrimage at.  In the year two thousand and six, pope benedict also celebrated mass here.

In fact a French clergyman named gouyet read Brentano’s writings and the Frenchman later traveled all the way to Ephesus to find the house of the Virgin Mary.  He apparently found the house matching sister emeriches description, he also sent work to the many bishops of Paris and Rome but strangely he didn’t not get any response.

The lazars priests usually come here to celebrate mass; twice everyday. The t shaped building which is made of stone is made of a bedroom and a kitchen on the left side of it.  The interior of this place is made quite simply with fitted with an alter with many sacred images of the Virgin Mary along with the infant Jesus.

There were people from a nearby mountain village who are believed to have been venerated from a long time from the descendants of the Christian from Ephesus. This place was called the panaya kapulu.  This place was called the chapel of the most holy.

They also believed that mother Mary had died here and every year there is a feast that the Christians celebrate called the assumption of the Virgin Mary.

There is a belief that the spring that runs under the virgin Marys house, has healing properties.  Infect inside the house there are crutches and canes which are left behind by the people who have been healed here.