Violent gusts whipped loose soil into the air as I hiked through Cappadocia's Love Valley. Pink- and yellow-hued hillsides coloured the rolling landscape scarred with deep red canyons, and chimneystack rock formations loomed in the distance. It was arid, hot, windy and devastatingly beautiful. Millennia ago, this volatile, volcanic environment naturally sculpted the spires surrounding me into their conical, mushroom-capped shapes, which now draw millions of visitors to hike or hot-air ba...

Violent gusts whipped loose soil into the air as I hiked through Cappadocia's Love Valley. Pink- and yellow-hued hillsides coloured the rolling landscape scarred with deep red canyons, and chimneystack rock formations loomed in the distance. It was arid, hot, windy and devastatingly beautiful. Millennia ago, this volatile, volcanic environment naturally sculpted the spires surrounding me into their conical, mushroom-capped shapes, which now draw millions of visitors to hike or hot-air ba...

In 1905, a deadly earthquake rocked the landscape of Himachal Pradesh, an Indian state in the western Himalayas. Sturdy-looking concrete constructions toppled like houses of cards. The only surviving structures were in towns where the residents had used an ancient, traditional Himalayan building technique known as kath kuni. On a warm Tuesday afternoon, I was headed towards one of them: Naggar Castle, which was built more than 500 years ago as the seat of the region's powerful Kullu king...

In 1905, a deadly earthquake rocked the landscape of Himachal Pradesh, an Indian state in the western Himalayas. Sturdy-looking concrete constructions toppled like houses of cards. The only surviving structures were in towns where the residents had used an ancient, traditional Himalayan building technique known as kath kuni. On a warm Tuesday afternoon, I was headed towards one of them: Naggar Castle, which was built more than 500 years ago as the seat of the region's powerful Kullu king...

fter long hours driving through endless scrub, negotiating mountains, a billowing sandstorm, camels and rusting car wrecks, we finally arrived at Ghadames. Located 600km south-west of Tripoli, deep in Libya's barren region of Tripolitania, the soaring white-and-ochre walls of this palm tree-fringed town seemed an incongruous sight. The name of Ghadames has been known for at least 2,000 years, although its present compact structure was developed by Muslim Arabs in the 7th Century, after w...

fter long hours driving through endless scrub, negotiating mountains, a billowing sandstorm, camels and rusting car wrecks, we finally arrived at Ghadames. Located 600km south-west of Tripoli, deep in Libya's barren region of Tripolitania, the soaring white-and-ochre walls of this palm tree-fringed town seemed an incongruous sight. The name of Ghadames has been known for at least 2,000 years, although its present compact structure was developed by Muslim Arabs in the 7th Century, after w...