Non-Fiction Book Reviews

Book Review: 1000 Sacred Places

By Sandy Amazeen Dec 18, 2010, 22:33 GMT

A spiritual journey around the worldHoly places and spiritual sites are found throughout the world. In addition to the holy sites of the great religions, you can find countless spiritual places of indigenous peoples and vanished cultures. This book represents 1,000 such special places, including some of the great Christian cathedrals in Europe; pilgrim paths and places of pilgrimage; Hindu, Buddhist and Shinto temples in Asia; the most important mosques ...more

From the dawn of humanity, human beings have seen the sacred in mountains, lakes, boulder fields, caves and elsewhere. This compendium of one thousand sacred places provides the armchair traveler as well as the jet-setting globetrotter with a broad range of natural and manmade sites encompassing a host of religious beliefs. Sensibly laid out by color-coded geography including map spots at the start of each chapter, every entry is conveniently coded indicating which of twenty-four religions or cultures are tied to that location. Every site includes a brief history, general description and rundown on its spiritual significance and many are accompanied by a color photograph. The sheer diversity and age range of religious sites is amazing, taking in everything from ancient petroglyphs on boulders in Tanum, Sweden to stunning cathedrals like the Catedral Metropolitana built on the ruins of Tenochtitlan in Mexico.

Anyone curious to know more about the many sacred sites scattered across the globe will appreciate this volume that is sure to instill a sense of awe at humanity’s quest for the spiritual in the world around them.