This beautifully illustrated guide explores the connections between people, faith, and landscape and features plans, reconstructions, and stunning photography of little-known holy sites. Beginning with the magnificent cathedrals, mosques, and temples of the world’s great religions and concluding with earthworks, and holy mountains, wells, and rivers, it traces the wisdom these spots embody and explores the ways in which we gain spiritual insights from them today. The examination of sites of pilgrimage, sacred stones, and places of isolation and meditation—from the Chapel of the Nativity of Christ in Jerusalem to Mount Tai Shan, the most revered of China’s five sacred mountains—make this an essential reference work for anyone fascinated by ancient traditions and religions.

This beautifully illustrated guide explores the connections between people, faith, and landscape and features plans, reconstructions, and stunning photography of little-known holy sites. Beginning with the magnificent cathedrals, mosques, and temples of the world’s great religions and concluding with earthworks, and holy mountains, wells, and rivers, it traces the wisdom these spots embody and explores the ways in which we gain spiritual insights from them today. The examination of sites of pilgrimage, sacred stones, and places of isolation and meditation—from the Chapel of the Nativity of Christ in Jerusalem to Mount Tai Shan, the most revered of China’s five sacred mountains—make this an essential reference work for anyone fascinated by ancient traditions and religions.