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AMID THE GREEN WHEAT FIELDS, OAK GROVES AND ANcient olive trees of Andalusia, a giant solar energy farm shimmers like a silver sea. Even under cloudy skies, the arrays of [...]

IN OCTOBER 1881, not long after he finished his joyous Luncheon of the Boating Party, probably his best-known work and certainly one of the most admired paintings of the past [...]

KABUL, 2004 ON A HOT DAY IN LATE APRIL some 30 archaeologists, cultural officials and National Museum of Afghanistan staffers crammed into a small office at the city's Central Bank. [...]

LATE SEPTEMBER sunlight filters onto the blue velvet furnishings of the jewel-box theater built for Marie Antoinette at Versailles. The painted, original backdrop depicts a rustic farmhouse hearth, and I […]

Under a cloudless, inky sky in London, Valentine, friend of Proteus, the distinctly ungentlemanly gentleman in William Shakespeare's comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona, was begging Julia to forgive Proteus […]

Strike an opening chord and suspend disbelief; the past is alive once more. The ghost of Giuseppe Verdi, the great 19th-century Italian composer, glides down the halls and over the [...]

"You absolutely must see this," commands Richard Demarco, an elfin character with flashing green eyes who firmly grasps my arm and leads me down the corridor of his venue, a […]

We are ascending into the clauds in a rickety wooden cable car that is open to the elements; I wrap myself more deeply inot the woolen lap robe and try […]

A vacation at the Haus Paradies Hotel in Switzerland's Lower Engadine valley is described. The Swiss Alps and the countryside are highlighted.

Thirty years ago I tuned in our family's black-and-white console TV to watch an orchestra conductor nearly as hyperactive as I was perform the magic trick of conjuring images out [...]

Prince Sadruddin of Switzerland formed Alp Action to join grassroots conservation organizations with corporate sponsors to preserve the Alps. Tourism, downhill skiing, bobsled races and other activities cause environmental damage.

Seated on a cushion at the Pharaoh Tutankhamun's feet, Ankhesenamun hands her young husband an arrow to shoot at ducks in a papyrus thicket. Delicately engraved on a gilt shrine, [...]

As it happened, I was with vulcanologist Giuseppe Patane just three days after Sicily's Mount Etna--at 10,902 feet, the tallest active volcano in Europe--erupted in October 2002. As Patane, who [...]

Taking measured steps around a lush garden terrace in ancient Egypt, Anthony Hopkins as the Macedonian general Ptolemy dictates his memoirs of helping Alexander the Great conquer the world. While […]

In a clearing of the tropical forest near the entrance to Ta Som, an 800-year-old temple at Angkor, in northwest Cambodia, two architects are having a friendly argument. For the [...]

As Iraq fitfully rebuilds, a groundbreaking exhibition is showcasing that nation's rich roots in Mesopotamia, the region that gave birth to the world's first urban civilization some 5,000 years ago. [...]

As we rattle along rutted dirt tracks in a battered jeep, Aung Kyaing, chief archaeologist of Pagan's breathtaking 1,000-year-old Buddhist temples, points out an enormous pentagonal pyramid sparkling in the [...]

Curled up under blankets inside my goat-hair tent, I thought I was settled in for the night. But now, drummers are beating a jazzy rhythm outside and women's ululations pierce […]

I am standing in Anne Frank's narrow bedroom in front of yellowing, meticulously restored fan magazine photographs of 1940s Hollywood film stars Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo, and Princess Elizabeth [...]

AFTER VIOLENT STORMS DESTROYED THOUSANDS OF TREES IN 1999, FEARS OF DISASTER EASED WHEN THE CLEANUP REVEALED PANORAMAS UNSEEN FOR CENTURIES, FITTING NEATLY INTO A 25-YEAR RESTORATION PLAN Under leaden […]

There is not a breath of wind in the soft spring Tuscan air. Why then am I dangerously weaving about like a storm-tossed sailor with a too-short wooden peg leg? […]

Here's my chance. i am sitting at a drum set, ready to play live at the "on stage" exhibit at Seattle's Experience Music Project. Through billowing smoke, the lights sweep […]

After surviving a 15-year civil war, the city is once again a mecca for artists and entrepreneurs, a landscape covered with stunning architecture and an archaeological wonderland of new discoveries […]

Just two years after a devastating earthquake, the basilica of St. Francis in Assisi reopens its doors Sergio Fusetti was standing at the altar when he heard a sound like […]

The ibm executives were skeptical. the polycarbonate plastic pyramid that architect Renzo Piano had lugged into the Paris offices looked far too fragile. After all, it had to serve as […]