Cultural heritage icons

Under-the-radar cultural heritage icons

Cultural heritage is what makes a destination and it’s people unique. And sadly, it is disappearing at an alarming rate. Yet tourism can help protect and preserve our precious cultural heritage so we are proud to work closely with the World Tourism Association for Culture and Heritage to highlight some icons which you may not be aware of. Join our resident cultural heritage expert and executive chairman of World Tourism Association for Culture and Heritage, Chris Flynn, who provides an overview of five amazing cultural and natural heritage places that are just as mysterious as they are beautiful. Add these places to your bucket list and start planning your next trip!

THE MYSTERIOUS LIVING STONES OF ROMANIA

The Trovants

Known as the Travonts, these mysterious stones continue to baffle geologists and scientists alike because of their strange and unnatural behaviour.

These rare bulbous, budging boulders are only found in a small town in Romania called Costesti. So amazing are the stones that over the centuries they have become part of local folklore, with some saying they grow, walk and even give birth to baby Trovants.

The strange thing is, science says they’re probably right! Trovants are spherical and/or irregular-shaped rocks that can be as small as a couple of millimeters and weigh only a few grams, or they can soar up to 4.5 meters high and weigh several tons.

These odd, gravity-defying boulders have baffled observers for centuries because they literally grow whenever it rains.

Scientists believed Trovants to be a type of concretion of mineral matter (specifically gritstone and conglomerates) which is embedded within rock layers of limestone, sandstone, or shale. It was this that caused the stones to blister, grow and move. However, in 2008, the International Geological Congress in Oslo claimed Trovants had been incorrectly classified because there was no mineral difference between the stones themselves and the sandstone beds on which they lay. Whatever they are, they are very, very strange.... but also simply amazing.

NASIR AL-MULK MOSQUE

Nasir Al-Mulk Mosque

Constructed between 1876 and 1888, during the Qajar dynasty, which ruled Iran from 1785 to 1925, it has been dubbed the “Pink Mosque” due to the plethora of pinkcoloured tiles blanketing the ceiling.

Located in Shiraz, a city famous for the ancient #Persian ruins of Persepolis which date back to approx. 550BCE, the spectacular rainbow of stained glass makes the “Pink Mosque” one of the most beautiful in Iran.

This is just another reason to visit this amazing culturally rich country, a city famous for the ancient Persian ruins of Persepolis which date back to 550 BCE, the spectacular rainbow of stained glass makes the “Pink Mosque” one of the most beautiful in Iran. which date back to approx. 550BCE, the spectacular rainbow of stained glass makes the “Pink Mosque” one of the most beautiful in Iran.

THE HARRIET TUBMAN MURAL

The Harriet Tubman Mural

Harriet Tubman was an American abolitionist and political activist.

Born enslaved in Dorchester County, Maryland, Tubman was beaten and whipped by her various masters as a child. In her early, she suffered a traumatic head wound when an irate overseer threw a heavy metal weight which hit her in the head, causing health problems throughout her entire life.

Tubman managed to escape to Philadelphia in 1849 only to return to Maryland to rescue her family soon after. Slowly, one group at a time, she brought relatives out with her, eventually guiding dozens of other enslaved people to freedom.

During the American Civil War, she served as an armed scout and spy for the Union Army. In her later years, Tubman was an activist in the movement for women’s suffrage.

The Harriet Tubman Mural, designed and painted by artist Michael Rosato, is a tribute to her extraordinary life. Located on an exterior wall of the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center, Dorchester, Maryland, the mural was completed on May 20, 2019

PUMA PUNKU – A MYSTERY THAT MAY BE GREATER THAN THE PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT

Puma Punku

Located 45 miles west of the modern-day city of La Paz, Bolivia - Puma Punku is situated close to the city of Tiwanaku, high upon a desert plateau of the Andes Mountains, at an altitude of more than 12,000 feet. It is in this isolated part of the world that we find a mysterious lost city consisting of incredibly smooth stone structures carved with precision-made cuts, clean right angles, and expertly fitted joints that leave experts today still scratching their heads.

Originally believed to date from around 600 BCE, it was the Austrian archaeologist Arthur Posnansky who, having spent years studying the site, came to the conclusion that the astronomical alignment of the stone structures was better suited to a date of approximately 15,000 BCE. If he’s right, then these are the remains of a lost ancient civilisation far older and technically advanced than modern day academia would have us believe. What do you think?

THE PETRIFIED FOREST NATIONAL PARK

Petrified Forest National Park

The Petrified Forest National Park is located in Navajo and Apache counties in northeastern Arizona.

It is estimated that the park’s earliest human inhabitants arrived at least 8,000 years ago. Evidence suggests that by around 2,000 years ago, they were growing crops in the area and building permanent dwellings in the form of pit houses. Named for its large deposits of petrified trees, the park covers approximately 900 square km (346 square miles)

The Petrified Forest is known for its fossils, especially fallen trees that lived in the Late Triassic period 225 million years ago.

The site, the northern part of which extends into the Painted Desert, was declared a national monument in 1906 and a national park in 1962.