One of the world’s most ancient cities,the 3,000-year-old Varanasi is the spiritual capital of India.

I’ve never felt more alive than in this astonishing city of the dead

If happiness is defined as “the state of pleasurable contentment of mind” then this ancient city,for all of its horrors and delights,is my unlikely happy place.

  • Anthony Dennis
Purple reign … FOSO dazzles under the night sky.

The Hills Hoists are alive in stunning new light installation

This latest light installation from the creator of Uluru’s Field of Light is as mesmerising as the location,at the junction of the Murray and Darling rivers,surrounded by the 40,000-year-old Perry Sandhills.

  • Sue Wallace
Lean times at Caerphilly Castle’s South-East Tower.

More angled than Pisa:Europe’s other precarious leaning tower

Part of the second-largest castle in the UK,the tower remained untouched,leaning at 10 degrees,when the rest of the structure was restored.

  • David Whitley
The striking Royal Pavilion,Brighton.

Inside Britain’s silliest building,once fit for a future king

With OTT Indian architecture and Chinese interiors,this building tells a tale of ridiculous princely decadence.

  • David Whitley
Walk Japan’s seven-day Snow Country tour means keeping an eye out for bears.

Bear attacks have surged in Japan. I met the man who still hunts them

There were hundreds of bear attacks in Japan last year,including 13 fatalities. Only six traditional hunters of the animals remain in this “very dangerous” pursuit.

  • Steve Madgwick
Advertisement
The award-winning Uluru-Kata Tjuta Cultural Centre was opened in 1995 to mark the 10th anniversary of Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa being handed back to its Traditional Owners.

Australia’s 50 greatest buildings (besides the Opera House),named by experts

Our panel looked far and wide to consider dozens of gems old and new,decorative and functional for inclusion and readers can also contribute.

  • Katrina Lobley
Top Withens,the ruined farmhouse on Haworth Moor,is said to be the inspiration for Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.

Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi inspire a new crowd to this bleak,beautiful place

A whole new generation setting off in search of Heathcliff’s windswept,isolated home. Though where it’s actually located is something of a grey area.

  • David Whitley
Several times daily a full-size train make its way through Hanoi’s famous (or infamous) tourist train street.

Seventeen places that became hit tourist attractions by accident

Railway tracks,a convenience store and even a public toilet are some of the places that were never supposed to be on tourists’ radars,but now attract huge crowds.

  • Ben Groundwater
Gyeongju’s burial mounds sit in the heart of the city.

The Asian treasure-filled mounds more mysterious than the pyramids

At first glance it looks like your average city park,until you realise the grass-covered hills are too smooth and symmetrical to be anything but artificial.

  • Craig Platt
The Peabody Stack Room is a great sky-lit atrium constructed around five tiers of cast-iron balconies.

The world’s 10 most beautiful libraries every book-lover should visit

From Trinity College to Tianjin,these are the world’s most extraordinary reading rooms.

  • Nick Trend