To mark Halloween this year, we’re visiting some unusual burial places. While it is common for cemeteries to have parking lots, you might think it unlikely that the reverse would happen. However, there are a surprising number of graveyards in…

Via Appia (The Appian Way) was one of the earliest Roman Roads, running south-east of the Italian capital towards Brindisi. Via Appia Antica is the oldest section of the road, dating to 312 BC, and is lined with monuments and…

This summer, communities around North America are marking the two-hundredth anniversary of the start of the War of 18121. Perceptions of the conflict and its outcomes very much depend on where you live and what history you were taught in…

The rain shadow caused by the massive bulk of the Himalayan mountains creates arid conditions for a huge distance to the east. The 1,600km (1,000 mile) long arc of the Gobi Desert spans the border between China and Mongolia; it…

For the first half of the twentieth century, the city of Detroit enjoyed decades of prosperity and spectacular development driven by a booming motor industry. But since the 1950s, a succession of challenges – including economic recessions, competition from overseas…

They say hell is a pretty bad place to be, but this Hel is rather pleasant – at least in summertime. Poland’s Hel Peninsula is a 35-km (22-mile) long sand bar peninsula jutting into the Baltic Sea. Formerly used as a military installation due to its strategic location, today the peninsula is one of Central Europe’s most popular beach resort destinations.