From world-famous sites to forgotten locations that bear the imprint of historical vents, this comprehensive guide to places that bear the mark of history takes in monuments, battlefields, castles, bridges, and more. With succinct reviews of each location from an international team of historians led by general editor Richard Cavendish, this highly visual guide will educate and inform students and travelers (real or armchair) alike. 1001 Historic Sites is a comprehensive one-stop list of the must-see sites around the world for the regular traveler and for armchair travelers it provides an unmissable virtual tour of places they can't reach. From heritage sites that preserve wonders of the ancient world such as The Great Wall of China, to memorials that commemorate significant moments in the 20th century, from concentration camps to Checkpoint Charlie, the most famous point on the Berlin Wall, the timescale covered by the 1001 sites in the book is immense. It goes so far back through time that it starts before true human beings existed at all - in the Sterkfontein Caves, near Johannesburg in South Africa, the so-called cradle of the human race where pre-human hominids lived some three million years ago. Includes New Zealand content - 8 historic sites.

Author Biography

Richard Cavendish is a historian of ideas and an authority on Britain's historic heritage. He writes a regular monthly column in History Today magazine and has just completed a book on the kings and queens of Britain from David and Charles. He edited The Encyclopaedia of the Unexplained and the partwork Encyclopaedia of the Supernatural: Man, Myth, and Magic, republished in 21 volumes in the US in 1995. He is the author of A Guidebook to Prehistoric England, was for several years editor of Out of Town magazine and planned, contributed to, and edited numerous guidebooks to Britain for the Automobile Association as well as an A-Z Gazetteer to Britain.