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Tamil Nadu, India

The Meenakshi Temple, located in the ancient city of Madurai, is one of the most impressive Indian Hindu temples.

Rebuilt in the 14th century and renovated in the 17th century, the structure is formed by 14 gopurams (gatehouse towers) adorned with several (about a thousand) colourful sculpted pillars, celebrating the Princess Meenakshi and her marriage to Shiva.

Every evening it is represented the symbolic ceremony of the sexual union: Shiva, carried on a silver palanquin, is washed, perfumed, incensed and then taken to Parvati’s room.

The temple has been declared best Swachh Iconic Place (SIP) in India on 2017 and is one of the main Shivaism pilgrimage destinations and attracts thousands of visitors a day.

the White Desert, Egypt

The Sahara el Beyda, well known as the White Desert, is one of the most spectacular deserts in the world. Its chalk rock formations, after millions of years of wind and sand erosion, have bizarre shapes like, for example, the rock named “The chicken and the mushroom”.

The area is a National Park located about 50 km North of the town of Farafra, Egypt.

The desert was also the location of the music video of the song Echoes, the first single released by the British rock band Klaxons, from their second studio album, Surfing the Void.

Unfortunately, due to the armies and Islamist militant presence, the area is not safe, though local agencies organize trips for tourists.

Prayer Flags, Tibet

The colorful flags, originated with the ancient Tibetan religion bön and typical of the mountain areas of Tibet and Himalayas are not ornaments or even simple flags: they spread wisdom, peace, strength and wellness to all living beings.

Horizontal prayer flags are called lung-ta (small and rectangular or square shape) and vertical flags are called darchor (rectangular and large, attached to vertical posts).

Their high altitude position is not accidental: the blow of the wind touches the prayers printed on the flags and the air is purified by the mantra, spreading all the virtues in space.

The five traditional colours are placed in a specific order from left: blue, white, red, green, and yellow. They represent the five elements, which balanced, produces harmony and health:

blue: sky
white: wind
red: fire
green: water
yellow: earth

Tibetans continually arrange new flags alongside the oldies, symbolizing a welcoming of new life.

Since they are sacred, the flags should be treated with respect: they should not be placed on the ground or used for other purposes.

La Mosquitia, Honduras

The wilderness area named La Mosquitia, located in the western part of Honduras, has one of the largest tropical rainforests in the world. It is characterized by great biodiversity and unexplored places.

In 2015, the National Geographic announced that a secret archaeological expedition with the assistance of the Honduran military discovered an unknown ruined city: the legendary Ciudad Blanca, also known as the City of the Monkey God.
Due to his extraordinary biodiversity and by the animals’ behavior, it is supposed that no humans have been in the lost city in the last 600 years, since it was abandoned. To protect the area, its location is still not revealed.

To be safe, it is necessary to visit the rainforest with a guide, because the area has no tourism facilities and it is nowadays used as a drug route.

Tassili n’Ajjer Nat. Park, Algeria

The Tassili n’Ajjer National Park, UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1982, is an outstanding plateau of about 70.000 km² composed mostly of black and red sandstone that, due to the erosion, has spectacular shapes of canyons, natural rock arches and volcanic ridges.

The National Park, located in the south-eastern area of Algeria at the borders of Mali, Niger and Libya, reachable from the town of Djanet, is one of the most important archaeological sites in the world, with a well-preserved collection of remains and over 15,000 rock engravings and drawings dating back to the Neolithic era.

Maunsell Forts, UK

Projected by the engineer Guy Maunsell and built in 1942 during the World War II on order by the Great Britain Royal Navy in the Thames Estuary Special Defence Units program, the sea forts were equipped with radar and anti-aircraft guns; they hosted over 100 soldiers each and their purpose was to protect the coast close to London from the attack of the German air force Luftwaffe and Navy.
During the war, these fortresses destroyed 22 German aircraft, 30 rockets and an S-Boot ship.

Now they stay abandoned since 1958 after a period in the mid-1960s when they were occupied by the first pirate radios like Radio Sutch, Radio City, Radio 390 and Radio Essex.

The sea forts are located about 11 km from the Suffolk coast and there are boat tours organized with departure from Whitstable Harbour. Info at www.maunsellseaforts.com.

Bardenas Reales, Spain

Located in the Navarra region, about 100 km North-West of Zaragoza, the desert area of the Bardenas Reales is characterized by clay and chalk soils eroded by wind and water, creating stunning landscapes like canyons, plateaus and strange shaped hills (one of that, the Cabezos Castildetierra, is considered the symbol of this area).

The area (about 42.000 hectares) is divided into three well-defined zones: the Bardena Negra, the Plano and the Bardena Blanca.

Landscape, temperature and movie location (in 1999 it was the set of a nuclear bunker in James Bond – The World is not Enough and recently it has become the Dothraki Sea in the popular TV series Game of Thrones) make this area similar to the Western U.S.A. famous national parks.