Hidden World

Every day we explore extraordinary places and the remarkable stories behind them. • Beautiful places. • Fascinating stories. Photography is used under licence from talented photographers around the world.

📍 Kilwa Kisiwani, Tanzania 🇹🇿 From the 13th to the 16th century, Kilwa’s merchants handled gold, silver, pearls and ceramics moving across the Indian Ocean. A traditional dhow on these waters echoes the trade that made the island prosperous. 📷 Baz R / Pexels

📍 Tikal, Petén, Guatemala 🇬🇹 Tikal grew in the Maya forest from the 6th century BC to the 10th century AD. Beyond its temples and plazas, UNESCO protects 57,600 hectares where archaeology and tropical ecology remain intertwined. 📷 Welly Huang / Pexels

📍 Fann Mountains, Sughd, Tajikistan 🇹🇯 The Fann Mountains concentrate seven summits above 5,000 metres into a compact knot of the Pamir-Alay. Glacial lakes and juniper groves lie between ridges still little altered by economic activity. 📷 Khusen Rustamov / Pexels

📍 Kuang Si Falls, Luang Prabang, Laos 🇱🇦 Kuang Si’s stair-stepped pools change with the season: minerals including copper tint the water blue in dry months, while the rains deepen it to green. The main cascade drops about 60 metres. 📷 Mykhailo Petrushchak / Pexels

📍 Quilotoa, Ecuador 🇪🇨 Quilotoa is a two-kilometre volcanic caldera filled by a crater lake. Ecuador’s geophysical institute still classifies it as potentially active and monitors ground deformation and thermal waters. 📷 Wilson Latacunga / Pexels

📍 Eguisheim, France 🇫🇷 Eguisheim grew in concentric rings around its castle. Lanes follow the line of fortified walls laid out from 1257, bending between half-timbered houses and old winegrowers’ courtyards. 📷 PHILIPPE SERRAND / Pexels

📍 Batalha Monastery, Portugal 🇵🇹 Batalha Monastery was founded to commemorate Portugal’s victory at Aljubarrota in 1385. Over two centuries of building, its royal cloister helped shape a distinct Portuguese Gothic style. 📷 Jose Cruz / Pexels

📍 Mud Volcanoes, Qobustan, Azerbaijan 🇦🇿 Mud volcanoes form when tectonic pressure pushes underground gas, water and mud to the surface rather than molten lava. Azerbaijan has recorded about 350 of these restless cones. 📷 Tom D'Arby / Pexels

📍 Yungang Grottoes, Datong, China 🇨🇳 The Yungang Grottoes were carved from the mid-5th to early 6th century. Across 252 caves and niches, roughly 51,000 statues mark an early high point of Chinese Buddhist art. 📷 Crudop MichaeLP / Pexels

📍 Dendera Temple, Egypt 🇪🇬 Dendera was the principal cult centre of Hathor, goddess of music, joy and motherhood. Its Ptolemaic temple still preserves astronomical engravings across the ceiling. 📷 Diego F. Parra / Pexels

📍 Sun Temple, Konark, India 🇮🇳 Konark’s 13th-century Sun Temple was conceived as Surya’s chariot. Its 24 stone wheels are about three metres across, carved with symbols of seasons and months. 📷 Bipul Swain / Pexels

📍 Biertan, Romania 🇷🇴 Biertan’s fortified church reflects how Transylvanian Saxon villages turned their churches into places of refuge. The ensemble also served for centuries as the seat of the Transylvanian Lutheran Church. 📷 Filip Marcus Adam / Pexels

📍 Blagaj Tekke, Bosnia and Herzegovina 🇧🇦 Blagaj Tekke stands beside the source of the Buna River, tucked into the cliff, spring and former mills as one ensemble. Its guest house was built before 1664 and later rebuilt. 📷 Matea Gvozdenović / Pexels

📍 Derawar Fort, Cholistan, Pakistan 🇵🇰 Derawar is the best-preserved of a chain of Cholistan desert forts that guarded caravan and pilgrimage routes. Its forty round bastions rise above walls stretching about 1.5 kilometres. 📷 Hassan Ehsan / Pexels

📍 Amphitheatre of El Jem, Tunisia 🇹🇳 Built around AD 238, El Jem’s free-standing amphitheatre could hold about 35,000 spectators. Its arcaded structure rose on flat ground rather than being cut into a hillside. 📷 Mahdi Nefzi / Pexels

📍 Chahkooh Gorge, Qeshm, Iran 🇮🇷 Chahkooh Gorge follows fractures in Qeshm’s folded rocks. Rare flash floods and salt-laden winds have carved its sandstone walls into bowls, hollows and narrowing passages. 📷 Behnam Ramezani / Pexels

📍 Monemvasia, Greece 🇬🇷 Settlement on Monemvasia’s rock dates to the 6th century, when its naturally fortified position became a refuge. The town later grew down the slope, where sailors and merchants lived in the Lower Town. 📷 Kostas Dimopoulos / Pexels

📍 Teyuna–Ciudad Perdida, Colombia 🇨🇴 Teyuna–Ciudad Perdida spreads more than 200 stone-and-earth structures across 33 hectares. The settlement was built from the 7th century and abandoned at the end of the 16th. 📷 Ákos Helgert / Pexels

📍 Paro Taktsang, Bhutan 🇧🇹 Bhutanese tradition links this cliff to Guru Rinpoche, who is said to have meditated here in the 8th century. The monastery complex was built around the sacred caves in 1692. 📷 Harsh Suthar / Pexels

📍 Lalbagh Fort, Dhaka, Bangladesh 🇧🇩 Construction on Lalbagh Fort began in 1678 under Mughal prince Muhammad Azam. He was recalled before it was finished, and the complex still carries the story of an imperial project left incomplete. 📷 Tanha Tamanna Syed / Pexels