CHURCH, mosque, masjid, pagoda, temple, wat, paya, synagogue, cathedral, spirit house- sacred and revered structures take many names and many forms. Many of the world’s greatest buildings were built to honour and praise our creator, or at least to help secure a better afterlife for its sponsor.
Main mosque, Berbara, Somaliland. The run-down town has some Ottoman era buildings, but often it was hard to tell what was new or old.
Interior of the stone-built St Peter's Cathedral, Likoma Island, Malawi.
Chau Say Tavoda, one of the dozens of temples at Sieam Reap, Cambodia.
A window allows light into Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque, Esfahan.
Because of he numerous architecural masterpieces, Iranians say “Isfahan nesfe Jahan”, Esfahan is half the world. Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque.
Shops light up in Emam Mosque, Esfahan. Shops are a common feature at mosques. The income provides for the upkeep and for community purposes.
Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque at night.
Mosques over the world are an oasis of calm in often hectic cities.
Mosques in Yazd, Iran, which briefly served as the capital of the Muzaffarid Dynasty in the fourteenth century.
Mosque and mountains, Mahan, 30km from Kerman.
Some parts of this Armenia church, Monastry of St Thaddeus, Maku, Iran, date from the 7th century.
Rasafa, Syria, was a Roman trading city and became a Christian site of pilgrimage in the 4th century.
Al-Hamidiyah Souq, dating back to the Ottoman era, seen from the 7th century Umayyad Mosque, Damascus, Syria.
In the Syrian capital of Damascus sits one of the world's oldest, largest and most beatiful mosques, the Umayyad.
St Simeon spent 37 years sitting atop a pillar in the 5th century, at this site oustide Aleppo, Syria
Palmyra's Temple Of Bal.
Massive columns cast shadows at the Temple Of Bel, Palmyra.
Massive columns of Baalbek, Lebanon.
Massive bases were needed to support the imposing columns at Baalbek.
Abu Simbel's temples were built in the13th century BC, during the reign of the Pharaoh Ramesses II.
Massive pillars dwarf tourists at Karnak Temple, Egypt.
The Hypostyle Hall in the Precinct of Amun-Re contains 134 columns (20m high and 3m in diameter) in 16 rows.
More columns!
A donkey brings its owner home at dusk in Al Qasr, 12th century oasis town, Egypt.
The magnificent Angkor Wat, 1993. Built as a Hindu Temple by Suryavarman III in the 1100s, construction took around 30 years.
Huge stained galss windows in the old Scottish chruch in Livingstonia, Malawi.
The Shinto shrine, Meiji Jingu, is one of the most pleasant places in Tokyo to escape.
Mevlid-i Halil Mosque, built next to the site where prophet Abraham is believed to have been born, in multicultural Sanliurfa, Turkey.
Built in the early 1600, the Sutlan Ahmet mosque is often called the Blue Mosque. Istanbul, Turkey.
Covered since the coming of Islam to Constantinople, these magnificent mosaics are in the Aya Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey.
The cavernous interior of Istanbul's Aya Sophia Museum. The massive structure began life as a cathedral, was converted to a mosque, before its latest incarnation.
Built in the year 500, the Emperor ordered the Aya Sophia to be the greatest building in Christendom. It was.
Built in the early 1600s, the Sultan Ahmet mosque, Istanbul, is one of the great works by legendary architect, Sinan.
One of the finest examples of Mughal architecture, Lahore, Pakistan's Badshahi Mosque.
Sun sets on Lahore, Pakistan.
Zenkov Cathedral, a Russian Orthodox church in Al Mata Kazakhstan. Islam is the major religion in the region, although the Orthodox Church is strong.
A church in Graff-Reneit, South Africa's oldest inland town.
Lokeshvara, a Buddhist deity that projected benevolence, looks out in four directions from 37 towers atop the iconic Khmer temple, Bayon, in Siem reap, Cambodia.
Neak Pean is a 12th century reservoir built to support the nearby temple of Preah Khan, in Cambodia's Siem Reap. The central sanctury was dedicated to the Bodhisattava Lokesvara.