10 Awe Inspiring Man Made Wonders Of The World

There are wonders all around. We see them in nature and we even amaze ourselves with the things we make. In the history of humankind there have been only a few man-made structures that have blown the minds of the modern world. We often sit and wonder how these wonders could have been constructed in times without the tools and machinery we have at our disposal these days. Sit back and be in awe of these 10 man made wonders.

flickr/Jorge Dalmau

Teotihuacan

This ancient religious complex is better known for its “Pyramid of the Sun”. It was a pre-Colombian city in the Valley of Mexico. It is thought that the construction of the city began in 100 BC and continued on through 250 AD. Other notable features of Teotihuacan is the Avenue of the Dead and the Pyramid of the Moon.

flickr/kairoinfo4u

Karnak Temple

Karnak is said to be the second most visited ancient site in Egypt, next to the Great Pyramids of Giza of course. This colossal temple on the Nile River was a religious epicenter for Egyptians thousand of years ago. The temple is separated into four different precincts to honor different deities. Though one of them, the Temple of Amenhotep IV was deliberately dismantled because of the builder’s attempt to overthrow the priesthood that ruled the area. The full extent and layout is still unknown to this day.

flickr/KX Studio

Bagan Temples & Pagodas

Bagan is an ancient city located in Burma. From the 9th to the 13th century, it was the capital of the Kingdom of Pagan. This was the first kingdom to unify the surround regions which is now known of Myanmar. Over 10,000 Buddhist structures were built in the Bagan plains alone during the 11th and 13th centuries.

flickr/Jim G

Forbidden City

This man made wonder is located in the heart of Beijing, China, and is now the home to the Palace Museum. Before it was a tourist destination, The Forbidden City was where China’s rulers ruled the land. The Chinese Imperial Palace served the Ming dynasty all the way to the Qing dynasty.

flickr/Dennis Jarvis

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat was first a Hindu temple complex. It later became a Buddhist complex and then abandoned altogether. It is built in the jungles of Cambodia with vegetation growing through and into the structure. The outer wall is 13 feet tall and the grounds are surround by a moat that is 570 feet across. Quite a feat.

flickr/Jim

Petra

The historical and architectural city of Petra is well known for a variety of reasons. It is famous for the rock-cut architecture and advanced water conduit system. Al Khazneh, or The Treasury, is the sites most marvelous wonder and the main entrance to the man-made marvels that lie within. Petra is said to date back to around 100 AD.

flickr/Pedro Szekely

Machu Picchu

In Peru sits the Lost City of Machu Picchu. Well, it isn’t lost anymore but up until 1911 it was unknown. The jungle had swallowed the entire city. Literally. The blocks that make up the pyramid weigh up to 50 tonnes with such slotted precision that you can’t slide a thin knife blade into the joints. This was all done without mortar.

flickr/Vincent Hu

Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal may be the world’s most beautiful building. Its architectural influences come from three of the more elegant style of Islamic, Persian and Indian. There were 28 varieties of semi-precious stones to adorn the the outside of the building for an exquisite finish. But, during the 1857 Indian Rebellion, the British ripped off many of these stones.

flickr/Keith Roper

Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China is the world’s longest man made structure. It is roughly 2,419 miles long and has been around for over 2500 years. The better preserved parts of the wall are located in Beijing. And, the entire wall can be seen from space!

flickr/Darren

Great Pyramids of Egypt

What else is there to say about the Great Pyramids of Egypt. They’re constantly regarded as the number one man-made structure in the world. Anyone can see why. The Great Pyramid of Giza, in particular, is the largest of the three and was built with about 2,300,000 stone blocks. The base covers 592,000 square feet and the four sides were built with such precision it would be a feat to do today. The Pyramid of Giza is the only eight-sided pyramid and this effect can only be seen from above.

10 Most Famous Paintings of all Time

Every year millions of dollars are spent by art collectors eager to own the world’s most sought after paintings. However, the most expensive paintings are not necessarily the most famous paintings. The most famous ones are generally owned by museums, which very rarely sell them, and as such, they are quite literally priceless. An overview of the most famous paintings of all time, found in museums around the world.

10Birth of Venus

flickr/Shaw

The Birth of Venus is a painting by Sandro Botticelli created around 1485–87. It depicts the goddess Venus (or Aphrodite as she is known in Greek mythology) emerging from the sea upon a shell in accordance with the myth that explains her birth. The original location of the painting and its commissioner remain uncertain. Some experts attribute its commission to Lorenzo de’ Medici and the Villa of Castello as the site to which the work was originally destined. Today, the painting is held in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. A Birth of Venus high resolution image can be found here.

9Water Lilies

flickr/griannan

Water Lilies (or Nympheas) is a series of approximately 250 oil paintings by French Impressionist Claude Monet. The paintings depict Monet’s own flower garden at Giverny and were the main focus of his artistic production during the last thirty years of his life. The paintings are on display at museums all over the world. The one show above is displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

8Night Watch

flickr/TimDan2

Completed in 1642, at the peak of the Dutch Golden Age, The Night Watch is one of the most famous paintings by Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn. It depicts a city guard moving out, led by Captain Frans Banning Cocq and his lieutenant, Willem van Ruytenburch. For much of its existence, the painting was coated with a dark varnish which gave the incorrect impression that it depicted a night scene, leading to the name Night Watch. This varnish was removed only in the 1940s. The painting is on display in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. A high resolution image of the Night Watch can be found here.

7The Scream

flickr/jaime.silva

The Scream is a series of expressionist paintings and prints by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, showing an agonized figure against a blood red sky. The landscape in the background is Oslofjord, viewed from the hill of Ekeberg, in Oslo. Edvard Munch created several versions of The Scream in various media. The one shown above was painted in 1893 and is on display in The National Gallery of Norway. It was stolen in 1994 in a high-profile art theft and recovered several months later. In 2004 another version of The Scream was stolen from the Munch Museum, only to be recovered in 2006.

6Girl with a Pearl Earring

flickr/rogiro

Sometimes referred to as “the Dutch Mona Lisa”, the Girl with a Pearl Earring was painted by Johannes Vermeer. Very little is known about Vermeer and his works and this painting is no exception. It isn’t dated and it is unclear whether this work was commissioned, and if so, by whom. In any case, it is probably not meant as a conventional portrait. Tracy Chevalier wrote a historical novel fictionalizing the circumstances of the painting’s creation. The novel inspired a 2003 film with Scarlett Johansson as Johannes Vermeer’s assistant wearing the pearl earring.

5Guernica

flickr/rogiro

Guernica is one of Pablo Picasso most famous paintings, showing the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals, particularly innocent civilians. Picasso’s purpose in painting it was to bring the world’s attention to the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica by German bombers, who were supporting the Nationalist forces of General Franco during the Spanish Civil War. Picasso completed the painting by mid-June 1937. The painting can be seen in the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid.

4The Creation of Adam

flickr/tripleman

The Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512, at the commission of Pope Julius II, is one of the most renowned artworks of the High Renaissance. The ceiling is that of the large Chapel built within the Vatican in Rome. Central to the ceiling decoration are nine scenes from the Book of Genesis. Among the last to be completed was the Creation of Adam in which God the Father breathes life into Adam, the first man. The Creation of Adam is one of the famous paintings of all time and has been the subject of countless of references and parodies.

3The Last Supper

The Last Supper is a 15th century mural painting in Milan created by Leonardo da Vinci and covers the back wall of the dining hall at the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. It represents the scene of The Last Supper when Jesus announces that one of his Twelve Apostles would betray him. Leonardo began work on The Last Supper in 1495 and completed it in 1498 though he did not work on the painting continuously. Some writers propose that the person in the painting seated to the left of Jesus is Mary Magdalene rather than John the Apostle, as most art historians identify that person. This popular theory was the topic of the book The Templar Revelation (1997), and plays a central role in Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code (2003).

2Starry Night

flickr/Tasayu Tasnaphun

The Starry Night was painted by Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh. Although Van Gogh sold only one painting in his life, the aftermath of his work is enormous. Starry Night is one of his most famous paintings and has become one of the most well known images in modern culture. The painting shows the village of Saint-Rémy under a swirling sky, in a view from the asylum towards north. The cypress tree to the left was added into the composition. Since 1941 it has been in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. A Starry Night high resolution image can be found here.

1Mona Lisa

flickr/Chirag D. Shah

The most famous painting of all time, the Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo da Vinci during the Renaissance in Florence. He began painting the Mona Lisa in 1503 or 1504 and finished it shortly before he died in 1519. The painting is named for Lisa del Giocondo, a member of a wealthy family of Florence. In 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen by Louvre employee Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian patriot who believed the Mona Lisa should be returned to Italy. After having kept the painting in his apartment for two years, Peruggia was finally caught when he attempted to sell it to the directors of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Today, the Mona Lisa hangs again in the Louvre in Paris where 6 million people see the painting each year.

7 Wonders of the Ancient World

The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World is one of the first travel lists in history. The idea of creating a list of architectural wonders arose following Alexander the Great’s conquest of much of the known world in the 4th century BC, which gave Greek travelers access to the civilizations of the Egyptians, Persians, and Babylonians.

The Greek writers didn’t refer to these monuments as “Wonders” but rather as “top sights” or “things to be seen” (theamata). Each person had his own version of the Seven Wonders list. Some lists contain such ancient wonders as the Walls of Babylon and the Palace of Cyrus, King of Persia. The most famous lists of are those of Antipater of Sidon and Philon of Byzantium, both created in the 2nd century BC. Today, new seven world wonders lists are created all the time but these are the original wonders of the world.

7Mausoleum of Halicarnassus

wikipedia/Wikipedia

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was built between 353 and 350 BC for Mausolus, a governor in the Persian Empire. After Mausolus died Artemisia, his wife and sister, (a custom in the region to keep the power and the wealth in the family) decided to build him the most splendid tomb, a structure so famous that the word Mausolus’s name is now the eponym for all grand tombs, in the word mausoleum. The construction was also so beautiful and unique that Antipater of Sidon put it on his original wonders of the world list. Artemisia lived for only two years after the death of her husband. The urns with their ashes were placed in the yet unfinished tomb. The mausoleum was destroyed by a series of earthquakes in the 15th century. The remaining stones were used to built the massive Bodrum Castle.

6Statue of Zeus at Olympia

flickr/dobrych

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia was made by the Greek sculptor Phidias around 432 BC. The seated statue, some 12 meters (43 feet) tall, was so large that “if Zeus were to stand up he would hit the roof of the temple it was housed in”. The sculpture seated on a magnificent throne of cedarwood, inlaid with ivory, gold, ebony and precious stones. In Zeus’ right hand there was a small statue of a crowned Nike, goddess of victory, and in his left hand, a golden scepter on which an eagle perched. The circumstances of its eventual destruction are a source of debate: it was either carried off to Constantinople, where it was destroyed in a fire in 475 or the statue perished with the temple when it burned in 425.

5Lighthouse of Alexandria

wikipedia/Wikipedia

The Lighthouse of Alexandria was built between 280 and 247 BC on an island at Alexandria to guide sailors into the harbor at night. Constructed from large blocks of light-colored stone, the lighthouse was made up of three stages: a lower square section with a central core, a middle octagonal section, and, at the top, a circular section. With a height estimated between 120 and 140 meters (390–460 ft), it was among the tallest structures on Earth for many centuries. The lighthouse was badly damaged by several earthquakes and disappeared completely in 1480, when the Sultan of Egypt built a fort on the site of the lighthouse, using some of the fallen stones. The name of the island that it was built on, Pharos, eventually became the Latin word for lighthouse.

4Temple of Artemis

wikipedia/Zee Prime

The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus was a Greek temple dedicated to Artemis, the goddess of hunt, wild animals and a lot of other things. It took 120 years to built and was finally finished around 550 BC. Built of marble, it was the favorite wonder of Antipater of Sidon. A young man called Herostratus burned the temple down on July 21, 356 BC to achieve lasting fame. The outraged Ephesians sentenced Herostratus to death and forbade anyone from mentioning his name, which apparently didn’t work out very well. That very same night, Alexander the Great was supposedly born. The temple was restored, destroyed by the Goths, and restored again. In 401, the temple was finally destroyed by a mob led by the Archbishop of Constantinople.

3Hanging Gardens

flickr/iCarlitos

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are the most mysteries of the seven wonders. Some historians even question whether the Hanging Gardens were an actual creation or a poetic creation due to the lack of documentation of them in the chronicles of Babylonian history. Supposedly , the gardens were built by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II around 600 BC. He is reported to have constructed the gardens to please his homesick wife who longed for the trees and plants of her homeland Persia. Diodorus Siculus described multi-leveled gardens reaching 22 meters (75 feet) high, complete with machinery for circulating water. The gardens were destroyed by several earthquakes after the second century BC.

2Colossus of Rhodes

Built between 292 and 280 BC, the Colossus of Rhodes was a giant statue of the Greek god Helios, erected in the city of Rhodes. The Colossus was made of bronze and iron and stood over 30 meters (107 ft) high, making it one of the tallest statues of the ancient world. It was the last of the seven wonders to be completed but the first to be destroyed, by an earthquake in 226 BC. The statue snapped at the knees and fell over on to the land. The pharaoh of Egypt offered to pay for the reconstruction of the statue, but the oracle of Delphi made the Rhodians afraid that they had offended Helios, and they declined to rebuild it.

1Great Pyramid of Giza

wikipedia/Nina

The Great Pyramid wat Giza as built as a tomb for Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu over a 20-year period concluding around 2560 BC. It consists of an estimated 2.3 million limestone blocks transported from nearby quarries. The limestone blocks used for the casing was quarried across the river Nile. The gigantic granite stones found in the King’s chamber weigh 25 to 80 tons and were transported from Aswan, more than 500 miles away. At 146.5 meters (480.6 ft), the pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years. The Great Pyramid at Giza is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to have survived the wrath of time. Or, as an Arab proverb goes: “Man fears time, but time fears the Pyramids.”

Qutub Minar: the leaning tower of Delhi

The 72.5-metre-tall red sandstone and marble Qutub Minar is the tallest structure in Delhi, and the tallest brick minaret in the world. It’s also an excellent example of Indo-Islamic architecture and one of the major sights in the Indian capital. When we visited, it seemed to be equally popular with foreign and local visitors.

Construction of the Qutub Minar began in the 1190s. Over the years, more stories were added. As a result, the tower tilts slightly to one side. (Thought the photo was crooked, did ya?)

Qutub Minar is more than just a conical tower. It’s part of an ancient complex with evidence from several periods of history. Inscriptions on the walls are gorgeous Arabic stone carvings of Qur’anic verse from the Mughal era. But there’s also some Brahmi.

Sadly, it’s not possible to go inside the monument and climb the 379 steps. 32 years ago, a power failure caused panic and 45 people were killed, many of them children on a school outing.

Just as well one can’t enter perhaps. According to this article in the Times of India, Qutub Minar began tilting soon after its construction. The tower now leans 25 inches and there’s concern it will lean even further due to rainwater leekage.

Qutub Minar Practicals

• Qutub Minar is open daily, sunrise to sunset
• Price: 250 Rupees for foreigners
• Getting there: Qutub Minar is in Mehrauli, in the southern part of New Delhi, and quite easy to reach by metro (Qutub Minar station). Walk or take an auto-rickshaw from the metro station to the monument.

Back in Prague

This is my sixth time visiting the capital of Bohemia and will by far be my longest stay. It’s weird when you know you’re going to be here for a while because you think more like a local than a tourist. I have been sampling local little restaurants and bars, walking the streets to really get to know all the nooks and crannies as opposed to waltzing around taking a million pictures and doing all the touristy stuff. After a few days here, this is what I have confirmed in my own mind: Prague is the best preserved and most beautiful city in Europe in terms of architecture and buildings; Prague by night is as good as anywhere on Earth in terms of aesthetic value; the food is very good and very heavy; and the beer is the best in the world and I don’t even think it’s comparable.

The cobblestone streets of Prague are like a maze and the little short cuts are everywhere with dead ends around the other corner. It will take the entire time I am here to really know the streets even just in the area where I am living, which is Prague 1, right off the old town square. A pretty sweet location and right in the heart of everything. I am fortunate to be sharing a flat with 4 good friends and our flat is very large with the only problem being there is only one bathroom, but nothings perfect I suppose.

The weather in Prague has been typical of Central Europe and Bohemia in general for this time of year. It snows regularly then stops and is sunny then repeats the same cycle with some rain and clouds sprinkled in between. It is also bitterly cold here, even in late March. It may not get warm the entire time I am here.

Anyway, I’ll be doing weekend trips over the next month around Central Europe and hopefully get to a beach at some point. So keep checking in and thanks for all the emails by the way and I apologize if I have been slow in responding but I have been busy and was on the road for a while.

5 New Things in Vegas

Las Vegas is the epitome of many things including excess, gambling, hotels, restaurants and nightlife. For me personally, it’s one of my favorite places but the turnover in Vegas can be pretty high and things change often. The new trend is toward new, luxury, over the top and celebrity influenced. I just took a trip out to Vegas to see what’s new for 2014. Here are 5 new things in Vegas.

The Cromwell Hotel

The Cromwell Hotel is a new and the first, boutique luxury hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. It is located at the corner of Flamingo and the Strip and is on the former site of Barbary Coast and Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall.

The Cromwell is a chic, cool, new hotel that is in line with the new trend of boutique luxury hotels gripping major cities around the world. There is of course a casino and several bars. There will only be one restaurant in the Cromwell and it will be the first ever restaurant by celebrity chef, Giada de Laurentiis. It should open in a month or so.

The rooms at the Cromwell are very cool and reminiscent of another Vegas hotel that many people don’t know about called the Artisan; which is off the strip. The Cromwell has just recently opened and I look forward to staying there the next time I head out to Vegas.

Drai’s Beach Club and Nightclub

Drai’s Beach Club and Nightclub will be the newest and trendiest addition to the Las Vegas nightlife scene when it opens Memorial Day weekend this month. You may recognize the name Drai’s from the infamous Las Vegas late night spot formerly in the Barbary Coast and Bill’s. It is the place that didn’t even really open until 4am and went well after the sun rose.

Drai’s Beach Club and Nightclub will be on the rooftop of the Cromwell Hotel and will feature a great view of both Caesars Palace and the Bellagio. When the Bellagio fountains are going, it will be a pretty amazing view, especially at night.

While Drai’s Beach Club and Nightclub was still under construction during my visit, chatting with Victor Drai was an experience and from the sound of it, he thinks this new venture is going to be a massive success. I cannot argue! The location alone is enough to convince me! I look forward to checking it out after it opens.

The Linq

The Linq is a new and much needed addition to the Las Vegas Strip. It is located where the old Imperial Palace used to be across from Caesars Palace. It is basically an outdoor shopping and nightlife walkway flanked by the flamingo Hotel on one side and the new Quad Hotel on the other.

There are a ton of restaurants and bars and even a Brooklyn Bowl; which after the arenas at Mandalay, MGM and Hard Rock is the biggest event space in Las Vegas. I popped in for about 30 minutes and it’d be a cool place for a big show, without a doubt. However, it cannot touch the original in Brooklyn.

As you walk down the Linq, you can’t help but think that this is a welcome and an ‘about time’ change for this part of the Vegas Strip which used to be disgusting. While it is certainly much more upscale than it used to be, I can’t help but think; is the culture of the area going to change…we shall see, but again, it is 1000% better than it was before and seems to be catching on with tourists and locals alike.

The High Roller

The High Roller at the end of the Linq is the world’s highest observation wheel at some 550 feet over Las Vegas. It takes about 30 minutes to do a full revolution and the views from the apex of the wheel are fantastic.

I have also been on the London Eye and it is the same kind of thing but a nice addition to the choice of experiences in Las Vegas. I have to say that since I have now done it once, I likely won’t do it again but I am glad I did it. It is worth a spin if you’re in town.

The individual pods are big enough for 40 people and they feature 8 TV’s in each pod with some guy talking to you. He is a combination of cool/funny/annoying and the air conditioning can be incredibly cold so keep that in mind if you’re in shorts and a tee shirt-or less; it is Vegas after all!

Nobu Hotel

While technically the Nobu Hotel is about a year old now, many people still don’t know about it. It is a small hotel wholly within Caesars Palace and is the brainchild of Nobu restaurant partners Robert de Niro and Chef Nobu himself; both of whom I was fortunate enough to meet last year.

I was fortunate to attend the opening event and party last year and this was my first time back at the hotel since. I have to say they have made some great strides and the rooms are fantastic.

I literally want to buy the bed for my own place; I have never slept on a more comfortable mattress. The Japanese amenities are all welcomed and the bathrooms, especially showers and sink are excellent.

Obviously, there is a Nobu restaurant downstairs and it is the biggest one on the world. I have been fortunate to eat at several of them around the world, if not close to all of them and this is definitely right up there for quality, décor and food. I highly recommend Nobu and the Nobu Hotel.

Disclaimer: I was brought out to Las Vegas by Caesars Entertainment and was fully comped for my flights, transportation, stay at the Nobu Hotel and for the High Roller. All opinions expressed here are solely my own and have not been influenced in any way-as always.

Auschwitz and Birkenau

“How fortunate for leaders those men do not think.”
“The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one.”
– Adolph Hitler

A man who mastered the art of propaganda uttered these infamous words. He was right. If the masses of men did think for themselves, the Holocaust wouldn’t have happened. It only takes a brave few to stand up for their beliefs. The Nazi army – jaded, brainwashed and living in fear – never had the courage to speak out against the unthinkable tragedies that fell upon the Jews of Eastern Europe during the Nazi Holocaust of the Second World War.

Growing up in the United States, the son of a Jewish mother, I learned about and studied the Holocaust. I had read a lot of books and seen all the notable films touching on the subject. The tragedies in print and on film are graphic and unbelievable, but they cannot put you in the state of mind to properly quantify what actually happened. I knew that one day I would visit the sights of the Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau extermination camps. I wasn’t prepared, though, for how I would feel.

My cousin and I left Krakow to arrive early and avoid the crowds. We came to the bus station in Oswiecim and walked toward Auschwitz I. It was kind of surreal. It doesn’t really strike you until you are in the small museum at the Auschwitz I entrance that you are about to go to a place where thousands of people were brutally executed, just 60 years ago. It’s a very uneasy feeling and then you don’t really know what will happen when you actually get into the camp.

As we approached the main gate, we saw a phrase written on the top of the gate, Arbeit Macht Frei, Work Shall Set You Free. We know now that was a complete and utter lie. Very few people survived the camps no matter how hard they worked.

The camps do not look the way you think. They are well organized. The buildings are on a grid system and rowed up perfectly. They are constructed of dark bricks and seem almost peaceful until the bitter irony of where you are sets in. Right when you walk into the camp, on the right hand side, is the public execution site. There are gallows for public hangings and further down is the firing squad wall where the Nazis opened fire on groups of people for any number of outrageous reasons. The wall and the gallows make it easy to visualize what it must have been like to be a prisoner there.

The thoughts that came into my mind were incomprehensible. Maybe I could have done something to help the people if I were alive then. I wish I could have led them to freedom and alerted the world of the atrocities. I felt completely powerless and angry.

As we continued wandering around the camp, we came to the building we knew we would have to see, eventually – the cattle cars. When they arrived in Auschwitz, the Nazis immediately inspected them and their doctors to determine which of the Jews were healthy and strong enough to do manual labor. The few deemed fit to work were put right to work. The rest of the thousands were led directly to a large room where they thought they were going to shower. The Nazis made these people take their clothes off and enter the alleged shower room packed together like pigs. With no clothes to deal with it would be easier to retrieve valuables and useful things.

Once these thousands of people were in the room that had a capacity of 1500, the doors were locked. Poison gas was then let in from the fake showerheads. Within 15 minutes everyone in the room was dead. After the gas dispersed, the doors opened for the adjacent crematorium, where Nazis entered, picked up two or three dead Jews at a time and placed them on metal conveyors. After they were stacked up, they shoved them into the massive ovens until they were reduced to ashes. This went on until everyone had been cremated. The next round of people would be brought in and the horrific process was repeated.

Walking through these rooms was unbearable. I could picture was the people packed into the room, grasping and clawing for air and safety – their cries unheard until only a mass pile of dead naked bodies remained. My stomach felt terrible. How could this have happened? How could the Nazis seemingly have no remorse? These were innocent people – misled, captured and put to a horrible death for no reason other than their Jewishness. I felt hatred towards the Nazis, towards the German people who followed a maniac and never stood up for what they must have known was right. I felt a deep sadness for the hundreds of thousands of Jews and other “inferior” people who lost their lives prematurely at Auschwitz I.
After viewing the crematorium, we made our way back to the small museum at the front to catch the shuttle to Auschwitz II-Birkenau.

Auschwitz II-Birkenau lies three kilometers from Auschwitz I. It was built when massive numbers of Jews, Slavs, disabled people, homosexuals and others were being brought to Auschwitz for a more efficient means of killing them. This camp was the first and final stop for over a million innocent people.
The sheer numbers of people killed in the camp is daunting and the size of Auschwitz II-Birkenau is astounding. It is so big that when it was up and running, it contained over 300 barracks for the 425 acres of camp. Little is left of the camp now. The Nazis attempted to conceal the horrific genocide by destroying the camp before it was liberated in 1945.

What remains now are the brick barracks built for horses but used to house humans and the seemingly endless rows of eerie stand-alone chimneys. The Nazis burned the wooden barracks, but we can still see the horrifying smokestacks. These chimneys bear witness to the vastness of this death camp. When you first walk into the camp past the watchtower, a barbed wire wall and moat that go on forever greet you. Through the barbed wire there is the chilling reality of the chimneys, representing nothingness, where the ancestors of millions faced their final hours.

As you walk through the gates and follow the restored railroad tracks that once brought the condemned to meet their deaths, I felt horror, melancholy, and an uncontrollable anger for what actually occurred to the innocent people who had to endure the unrelenting wrath of the Nazis.

My first instinct was to again direct it at Hitler and the Nazis, but it goes beyond that – to the world community, the governments of Europe, America – for not getting involved in the war earlier and possibly saving masses of people. I was numb, mentally and physically, walking around this death camp where millions lost their lives, watching tourists snapping photos, smiling and cracking jokes on the hallowed ground.

It reminded me of the current situation near ground zero in New York City where I lost lots of people I knew and cared about. Currently, the World Trade Center site is a tourist attraction where people hock cheap photos of the towers and tourists ogle the hole and happily snap photos like they just achieved a goal. This made me sick. It brought the camps closer to home and soon enough I broke down.

It was inevitable and I am surprised that I lasted as long as I did. It was necessary and I felt better. I felt like I was crying with the people who died in the camp along with their families and ancestors. As I wept, I felt close to the dead. It was a strange feeling and when I finally stopped crying, sitting on a rock in the very back of the camp, there was an eerie silence.

Suddenly, it was as if I was hearing the cries of the dead – embracing the cries that went unheard so few decades ago. In that moment of enlightenment, I started to envision the everyday lives of the people in the camps and see their faces and feel their spirits. It was as if they were embracing me knowing I would never forget what happened and would pass my experience along to others.

These emotions are difficult to express. My breakdown in Auschwitz II-Birkenau was a moment of clarity. It made me feel closer to the Holocaust than I ever had before. It made it real. Being there brought me to another level of understanding – something books and films can’t quite accomplish. I hope all people make this pilgrimage – to never forget what happened to millions of innocent people.

Machu Picchu, Peru

Recently, I have been getting a lot of people asking me about Machu Picchu so I wanted to repost something I posted last April with a few changes. Machu Picchu is one of those places that just completely baffles you. It is hard to comprehend how this city came to be and even moreso: how it came be be lost. The “Lost City of the Incas” is so mysterious that if you choose to do the 4 day Inca Trail hike to get there, you will spend most of your time trying to figure out just how they got all of these rocks and stuff up the massive Andes Mountains. You can ask your guide but they can’t give you a definitive answer. Machu Picchu is an example of what a wonder of the world should be. It is mysterious, tough to reach, beautiful and captivating. In a word Machu Picchu is awesome.

Machu Picchu is 70 kilometers northwest of Cusco, on the crest of the mountain Machu Picchu, located about 2,350 meters above sea level. It is one of the most important archaeological centers in South America and the most visited tourist attraction in Peru. From the top, at the cliff of Machu Picchu, is a vertical precipice of 600 meters ending at the foot of the Urubamba River. The location of the city was a military secret because its deep precipices and mountains were an excellent natural defense. Luckily for the rest of the world, it was finally discovered.

On July 24, 1911, Machu Picchu was brought to the attention of the West by Hiram Bingham III, an American historian then employed as a lecturer at Yale University. He was led there by locals who frequented the site. This explorer/archaeologist began the archaeological studies there and completed a survey of the area. Bingham coined the name “The Lost City of the Incas”, which was the title of his first book.

Bingham had been searching for the city of Vitcos, the last Inca refuge and spot of resistance during the Spanish conquest of Peru. In 1911, after years of previous trips and explorations around the zone, he was led to the citadel by Quechuans who were living in Machu Picchu in the original Inca infrastructure. Bingham made several more trips and conducted excavations on the site through 1915. He wrote a number of books and articles about the discovery of Machu Picchu.

All visits to Machu Picchu at some point leave from Cusco, which can be reached via a domestic flight from Lima, or international flight from La Paz, in Bolivia. Taking the tourist train from Cusco (which takes 3.5 hours to get to Machu Picchu), you have several options.

The most common way is to take the train to Machu Picchu in the morning, explore the ruins for a few hours and return to Cusco in the afternoon. Another option and the one I did is to hike the Inca Trail, on either a four-day or two-day version, both of which are controlled by the government. They require travelers to be reasonably fit. The trip takes a few days, and involves sleeping in tents. It is a tough hike but one of the most beautiful and rewarding experiences imaginable. It is the best hike in South America that anybody can do. Day 2 is a little tough but you can certainly persevere and reach your goal. One other thing that is better about the Inca Trail than just taking the bus or train is that you get to see a lot of ruins along the trail that are just as good and in some cases even better than Machu Picchu itself.

Another option is to stay overnight near the ruins themselves, rather than return on the same day. There are many hotels at nearby, yet dumpy, Aguas Calientes, but only one hotel at Machu Picchu itself-which I took a nap in their lobby. Buses run from Aguas Calientes to the ruins throughout the day, an 8km ride up the mountain (aproximatively 1.5 hours walk up a steep zigzagging dirt road).

Once you do finally arrive at famed Machu Picchu, you are in for a treat. It is as good as advertised. It is as mysterious when you are there as you think it is as you are getting to it. Usually it is cloud covered and very eerie looking. You will spend hours peering into centuries old rooms constructed by the Incas well ahead of their time. It is a really amazing place to just relax and take it in.

It is one of the new 7 wonders of the world, so take it in and realize how lucky you are to be there and see it before Peru starts severely limiting the amount of tourists and effectively limiting peoples ability to actually see this wonder of the world. Tourism has been a big problem so please practice responsible tourism at the site so everyone in the future can enjoy it as well.