Nijo-jo, the site of Shogun Tokugawa leyasu’s castle, is a short bus or taxi ride up Horikawa-dori. The bus stop is called Nijo-jo mae, “in front of Nijo Castle.” It is impossible to miss, the moat, the white wall blocks along, the massive gate will tip you off. And yet, there’s no castle here. The five-story castle keep that once stood here (like the ones still standing in Osaka and Himeji) burned to the ground in the 18th century.
What there is to see instead is perhaps more splendid. The shogun’s …

Two thousand years ago in India, the legend goes, a Jain priest who could fly, and a disciple who could create gold founded a glorious sacred city on the crest of a mountain. They called it Shatrunjaya (place of victory). Now it is the Jains holiest pilgrimage site, and every year believers come for a day, a week or even months. To most Jains, these pilgrimages to Shatrunjaya, near Palitana in the western state of Gujarat, are sacred obligations. In seeming contrast to their workaday lives as India’s premier bankers …

Lady Liberty is something almost every visitor wants to see. The statue is located on Liberty Island in New York Harbor. It is a mile and a half southwest of Manhattan. It is just off the New Jersey coast. Castle Clinton serves as the boat dock for boarding the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. Circle Line ferries leave Battery Park seven days a week for the ten-minute ride to Liberty Island.
Lady Liberty has lifted her lamp since 1886. Her multimillion dollar restoration was finished in 1986, in time for …

This tale is one of passion, intrigue and even of ghosts. It spans a period of 800 years and goes back to the time of the Crusaders and to the time of the legendary outlaw Robin Hood. In the year 1187 the Seljukian Turks, the Saracens, captured Jerusalem once again in the name of Islam. Incensed, the Europeans set off on a crusade to recapture the fallen city and marched to the Holy Land. They were led by Phillip Augustus of France, and King Richard I of England and such …