- Cambridge historian Sir Christopher Clark takes us to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites and explores the places of special beauty created by humans and nature.
- [PART 1: AFRICA] Professor Clark showcases UNESCO-listed universal heritage sites in N/E Africa. Egypt, with capital Cairo and the Pyramids, has the continent's largest metropolis and its only world-leading empire and civilization, the pioneer of true statehood and countless treasures. He travels south admiring Ramses the Great's legacy starring the Abu Simbel temples in Nubia, the Arab-black border. The continent's only Christian-inspired major state is Ethiopia, a former empire defined by its Roman-age conversion to a 'native' form of Christianity, from the first imperial capital in Gondhar to Lalibela's curious dozen of pilgrimage churches meant as a 'second Jerusalem', carved in soft stone. Then to Kenia, with the Massai traditions and the Swahili trade opulence on the island state of Lamu.—KGF Vissers
- [PART 2: INDIA] India is named after the river Indus, but the whole subcontinent is largely linked to many sacred rivers, the sole predominant one being the Ganges, central in the country's dominant religion, Hinduism, with a sophisticated philosophy and principles of cosmic balances in karma, reincarnation, natural interdependence and complementary divine forces, even in the same such as Shiva the creator and destroyer, with a spectacular cultic heritage. The noble warrior clans of Rajputs produced most of the many royal houses in the myriad of (mosty petty) principalities, such as the 23 that formed a belt of forts against likely Muslim invasions from the Muslim West. Prominent among those was Jaipur, named after Jai Shah, founder of its dynasty and builder of the most spectacular palace in an artificial duck hunt lake, but also of pioneering astrological observatories. Even under Muslim rule, mainly the Moghul empire which united most of the subcontinent by the reign of Akbar the Great, religious tolerance, cultural cross-fertilization and Hindu tradition regained important along Mulsim influence and a Persian court language. Magnificent monuments surpassing the past were built in successive new capitals, mainly Agra and Delhi, expressing uniquely a Koranic concept of Paradise in geometrical patterns, as in the Taj Mahal.—KGF Vissers
- [PART 3: MIDDLE EAST] Sir Christopher Clark starts in Jordan, where the Bedouin rock desert of Wadi Rum hides Petra, the remarkably clever-carved capital of the Nabataean culture, which grew rich as a trade route intersection node, until Rome subdues it as client province and Palmyra rivaled its rise. Then its off to Persian (now Iran), where Ancient capital Perseopolis, with the Achaemenid palace embodying a well-structured empire of unprecedented scale, was burnt down by Alexander the Great, yet was the scene of the last modern Shah's megalomaniac attempt to regain such glory, only to be toppled by Shiah clergy depositing is westernizing. Next the fabulous garden palace and mosque of the new Shiah capital at Isfahan. Finally the religious minorities heritage at Yazd.—KGF Vissers
- [PART 4: LATIN AMERICA] Sir Christopher Clark starts in Mexico, where the the oldest great Precolombian culture remains shrouded in mystery, but inspired all later ones. The Mayas and Aztecs built great temple cities, with similar cosmologies requiring massive sacrifices of human blood, even beating hearts. The Conquistadores and missions resulted in a mixed of cultures yielding treasures like Mexican cuisine as well as Plateresque Baroque, alas built on ruined Indian 'pagan' monuments. Next to Cuba, where he visits tobacco and rum production and the dance culture preserving the input of African slaves.—KGF Vissers
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