Fifteen sacred places, from Cologne Cathedral, Notre-Dame and La Sagrada Família to Hagia Sophia, the Dome of the Rock, the Golden Temple, Angkor Wat, Borobudur and the cliff-top monasteries of Meteora.
For thousands of years people have poured their greatest skill into buildings for the sacred. This collection visits fifteen of the most remarkable, across many faiths: the Gothic cathedrals of Cologne and Notre-Dame, Gaudí's La Sagrada Família and Paris's Sacré-Cœur; Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque in Istanbul; Jerusalem's Old City and the Dome of the Rock; Mecca; the Golden Temple in Amritsar; Borobudur and Angkor Wat in Southeast Asia; the cliff-top monasteries of Meteora; Colombia's Santuario de Las Lajas; and the Irish island hermitage of Skellig Michael.
Many of them took extraordinary time and effort. Cologne Cathedral took 632 years to complete, La Sagrada Família has already outlasted the building of the Great Pyramids, and Angkor Wat contains more stone than the Great Pyramid of Giza. Hagia Sophia was the world's largest cathedral for nearly a thousand years, and the Dome of the Rock, completed in 691, is the oldest surviving Islamic monument.
Their histories are full of surprises. Bees on Notre-Dame's roof survived the 2019 fire, Viking graffiti is carved into Hagia Sophia's marble, the Blue Mosque's six minarets caused an international scandal, and the Golden Temple's free kitchen feeds 100,000 people a day. Medieval monks on Skellig Michael built stone huts that are still watertight, and Meteora's monks were once hauled up in nets.
Whether you are drawn by faith, architecture or history, each place below has fifteen facts to discover.
Every item on this page, with the one fact most people get wrong about it.
| Name | Where you'll meet it | The fact worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Cologne Cathedral | Cologne, Germany | Construction took a staggering 632 years. |
| Notre-Dame | Paris, France | A colony of bees on its roof survived the 2019 fire. |
| La Sagrada Família | Barcelona, Spain | Its construction has already outlasted the building of the Great Pyramids. |
| Sacré-Cœur Basilica | Montmartre, Paris | Rain naturally bleaches its stone white. |
| Hagia Sophia | Istanbul, Türkiye | Viking graffiti is scratched into its marble balustrades. |
| Blue Mosque | Istanbul, Türkiye | Its six minarets caused an international scandal. |
| Dome of the Rock | Jerusalem | Completed in 691, it is the oldest surviving Islamic monument. |
| Mecca | Saudi Arabia | A metro line there runs for only one week a year. |
| Golden Temple | Amritsar, India | Its free kitchen feeds around 100,000 people a day. |
| Borobudur | Central Java, Indonesia | It was built like a giant mortarless puzzle. |
| Angkor Wat | Siem Reap, Cambodia | It contains more stone than the Great Pyramid of Giza. |
| Meteora | Thessaly, Greece | Monks once reached the monasteries in nets and on rope ladders. |
| Santuario de Las Lajas | Nariño, Colombia | Its cathedral soars 100 metres above the canyon floor. |
| Jerusalem's Old City | Jerusalem | A ladder has stood untouched for centuries because of a religious stalemate. |
| Skellig Michael | Off County Kerry, Ireland | Its monks' stone huts are still watertight after more than 1,000 years. |
Longest Construction
632 years
Cologne Cathedral took 632 years to complete, guided at the end by a rediscovered medieval drawing. Cologne Cathedral
Biggest Free Kitchen
100,000 meals a day
The Golden Temple's langar serves free meals to around 100,000 people every day. Golden Temple
Oldest Islamic Monument
691 CE
The Dome of the Rock, completed in 691, is the oldest surviving Islamic monument. Dome of the Rock
Strictest Visitor Limit
180 a day
Only 180 visitors a day may land on Skellig Michael. Skellig Michael
Cologne, Germany
Cologne Cathedral was built to house the relics of the Three Kings and was completed using a rediscovered medieval drawing. Its Gothic exterior hides an iron roof frame, and Gerhard Richter designed one of its windows using chance. Visitors climb 533 steps to the observation platform.
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Paris, France
Notre-Dame stands on the site of a Roman temple, and its famous gargoyles and chimeras were added in the 19th century. Revolutionaries beheaded 28 statues they mistook for kings, and Victor Hugo wrote his novel to save the cathedral. All French road distances are measured from Point Zéro outside it.
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Barcelona, Spain
Gaudí was not the original architect of La Sagrada Família, and anarchists later destroyed his plans. The interior columns form a stone forest, and a magic square hides on the Passion façade. When finished it will be the world's tallest church.
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Montmartre, Paris
Sacré-Cœur rests on 83 deep underground pillars and houses La Savoyarde, one of the world's heaviest bells. Nuns have prayed there without interruption for over a century, and early critics called it a cream puff. It was paid for by millions of small donations.
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Istanbul, Türkiye
Hagia Sophia was the world's largest cathedral for nearly a thousand years before becoming a mosque, a museum and a mosque again. Ottoman plaster unintentionally preserved its Byzantine mosaics. Its "weeping column" is said to have mystical powers.
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Istanbul, Türkiye
Locals call it the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, and more than 20,000 handmade tiles line its interior. Ostrich eggs were hung to repel spiders, and an iron chain at the entrance made the sultan bow his head. Its architect was a star pupil of Mimar Sinan.
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Jerusalem
The Dome of the Rock is a shrine rather than a mosque, built over the sacred Foundation Stone. A Jordanian king sold personal property to re-gild its roof, and the Knights Templar mistook it for Solomon's Temple. Its interior contains no depictions of living beings.
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Saudi Arabia
Entry to Mecca is restricted to Muslims, and the Kaaba's cover is handmade anew every year. The clock tower above the Great Mosque has the world's largest clock face, and the Zamzam well has supplied water for millennia. The city has no airport within its boundaries.
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Amritsar, India
The Golden Temple's foundation stone was laid by a Sufi saint, and its four entrances symbolise openness to all. Visitors walk down into the complex as a sign of humility, and machines make 25,000 flatbreads an hour. Its gold is polished with soapnuts and lemon juice.
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Central Java, Indonesia
Borobudur's walls form the world's longest collection of narrative reliefs, and a hidden base conceals forbidden scenes. A British governor rediscovered the ruins in the jungle, and engineers later took the whole temple apart to restore it. Workers hauled two million volcanic blocks without draught animals.
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Siem Reap, Cambodia
Angkor Wat faces west, unusually for a temple, and its central tower aligns with the equinox. Sandstone blocks were floated down canals, and its moat stops the ground from collapsing. It appears on Cambodia's national flag.
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Thessaly, Greece
Meteora means "suspended in the air", and only six of its original twenty-four monasteries remain active. Nearby Theopetra Cave preserves 50,000 years of human history. Meteora also starred in a James Bond film.
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Nariño, Colombia
Las Lajas was born from a reported miracle in 1754, and its sacred image appears to run deep inside the rock. A 50-metre bridge forms its entrance plaza, and the neo-Gothic basilica took 33 years to build. The Daily Telegraph named it the world's most beautiful church.
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Jerusalem
Jerusalem's Old City covers less than a square kilometre, and its walls were built by the Ottoman sultan Suleiman. The sealed Golden Gate has been closed for centuries, and King Herod's engineering anchors the Western Wall. The Mount of Olives holds the world's oldest active Jewish cemetery.
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Off County Kerry, Ireland
Monks lived on Skellig Michael for around 600 years and survived a Viking raid in 823. Visitors climb about 600 ancient steps, and only 180 may land each day. The island became a planet in Star Wars, and its puffins inspired the porgs.
Read the full article →8 questions, every answer is somewhere above.
1. How long did Cologne Cathedral take to complete?
2. Which insects survived the 2019 fire on Notre-Dame's roof?
3. Who was the original architect of La Sagrada Família?
4. What was found scratched into Hagia Sophia's marble?
5. What was used in the Blue Mosque to repel spiders?
6. How many people does the Golden Temple's free kitchen feed each day?
7. How did monks once reach Meteora's monasteries?
8. Which Star Wars creatures were inspired by Skellig Michael's birds?
Work continues, funded only by tickets and private donations, with builders using 3D printing and aerospace engineering. When its central spire is complete it will become the world's tallest church, though deliberately lower than a nearby mountain.
Technically it is a shrine, not a mosque. It was built over the sacred Foundation Stone between 688 and 691, while congregational prayers take place at the nearby Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Its official name is the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, and locals rarely call it the Blue Mosque. The nickname comes from the more than 20,000 handmade blue ceramic tiles lining its interior.
No. Entry into the holy city is restricted to Muslims. The explorer Sir Richard Burton famously disguised himself to enter in the 19th century.
Victor Hugo invented Quasimodo, but the memoirs of British sculptor Henry Sibson describe a real hunchbacked carver working on the cathedral in the 1820s, who may have inspired him. Hugo wrote his novel partly to save the building from demolition.
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