Sep 21, 200608:10 AMThe Life

Trek from PS to... power spots

Stonehenge is a place of pilgrimage for neo-druids and those following pagan or neo-pagan beliefs. The midsummer sunrise began attracting modern visitors in 1870s, with the first record of recreated Druidic practices dating to 1905 when the Ancient Order of Druids enacted a ceremony.

The Potala Palace in Lhasa was the chief residence of Tibet's Dalai Lama until the current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, was forced to flee to Dharamsala, India in 1959.

Uluru/Ayers Rock rises 1,114 feet above the surrounding desert and extends more than 7,000 feet beneath the surface. The local Anangu people do not climb Uluru because of its great spiritual significance. They also request that visitors not climb the rock, partly because the path crosses a sacred traditional dreaming track, and partly due to a sense of responsibility for the safety of visitors to their land. The Anangu have a spiritual connection to Uluru, and feel great sadness when a person dies or is injured while climbing.

Machu Picchu, nestled 7,700 feet above sea level in the Peruvian mountains, is a well-preserved pre-Columbian ruin, probably the most familiar symbol of the Inca Empire. All of the construction in Machu Picchu uses the classic Inca architectural style of polished dry-stone walls of regular shape. The Incas were masters of this technique, called ashlar, in which blocks of stone are cut to fit together tightly without mortar. Many junctions are so perfect that not even a knife fits between the stones. The Incas never used the wheel in any practical manner, so how they moved and placed these enormous stone blocks is a mystery.

Today's featured photo is the Great Pyramid of Giza (451 feet high), courtesy of Google Maps. Built as the tomb of Egyptian pharaoh Khufu (Cheops), it is the oldest and last remaining of the Seven Wonders of the World. A few hundred yards southwest of the Great Pyramid lies the slightly smaller Pyramid of Khafre, one of Khufu's successors. These days, the pyramid of Khafre is taller, since the Great Pyramid has lost about 30 feet of material from its tip. In ancient times, Khufu's pyramid was indeed taller, but even then, Khafre's pyramid appeared taller because its sides are at a steeper angle, and it was constructed on higher ground.



[more treks]