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Holy & Sacred Sites
20 entries
Bodh Gaya
The place of the Buddha's enlightenment and its towering Mahabodhi Temple
Fátima
The Portuguese hillside shrine built where three shepherd children reported Marian visions in 1917
Ise Grand Shrine
Shinto's holiest shrine, rebuilt from fresh cypress every 20 years
Karbala
The Iraqi shrine city of Imam Husayn and the vast Arbaeen pilgrimage
Lourdes
The Pyrenean grotto where a young girl's visions made a world center of prayer and healing
Lumbini
The garden in Nepal's lowlands where Buddhists honor the birthplace of the Buddha
Mecca
Islam's holiest city, home of the Kaaba and the destination of the Hajj
Medina
The City of the Prophet, burial place of Muhammad and Islam's second-holiest city
Mount Athos
The self-governing Orthodox monastic peninsula of northern Greece, closed to women for a thousand years
Mount Kailash
The unclimbed peak in western Tibet held sacred by four religions
Najaf
Iraq's shrine city of Imam Ali and the historic center of Shia learning
Santiago de Compostela
The Galician cathedral city at the end of the Camino, where pilgrims honor Saint James
St. Peter's Basilica
The Renaissance basilica over the tomb of Saint Peter, principal church of the papacy
The Bahá'í World Centre
The shrines, terraced gardens, and governing seat of the Bahá'í Faith in Haifa and Acre
The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Mexico City's great Marian shrine and the most visited Catholic sanctuary in the Americas
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre
The Jerusalem church over the places Christians venerate as the crucifixion and tomb of Jesus
The Golden Temple (Harmandir Sahib)
The gilded heart of Sikhism, open on four sides and feeding everyone who comes
The Temple Mount (Haram al-Sharif)
The walled platform in Jerusalem's Old City, holy to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif
The Western Wall
The surviving retaining wall of the Temple Mount and Judaism's foremost place of prayer
Varanasi
Hinduism's holiest city, where life and death meet on the steps of the Ganges