Australia to ban climbing on Uluru from 2019: BBC

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-41827203

Fuzhou's Sanfang Qixiang: The 'Beverly Hills' of imperial China: CNN

http://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/fuzhou-tourist-attraction/index.html

The Grand Canyon of the Arctic Circle: CNN

http://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/disko-island-greenland/index.html

Krak des Chevaliers, Syria

Krak des Chevaliers (French pronunciation: ​[kʁak de ʃəvaˈlje]; Arabic: حصن الفرسان‎‎), also Crac des Chevaliers, Ḥoṣn al-Akrād (حصن الأكراد), Castle Alhsn, formerly Crac de l'Ospital, is a Crusader castle in Syria and one of the most important preserved medieval castles in the world. The site was first inhabited in the 11th century by a settlement of Kurdish troops garrisoned there by the Mirdasids; as a result it was known as Hisn al-Akrad, meaning the "Castle of the Kurds". In 1142 it was given by Raymond II, Count of Tripoli, to the Knights Hospitaller. It remained in their possession until it fell in 1271. It became known as Crac de l'Ospital; the name Krak des Chevaliers was coined in the 19th century.

Krak des Chevaliers overlooking the surrounding area.

The Hospitallers began rebuilding the castle in the 1140s and were finished by 1170 when an earthquake damaged the castle. The order controlled a number of castles along the border of the County of Tripoli, a state founded after the First Crusade. Krak des Chevaliers was among the most important, and acted as a center of administration as well as a military base. After a second phase of building was undertaken in the 13th century, Krak des Chevaliers became a concentric castle. This phase created the outer wall and gave the castle its current appearance. The first half of the century has been described as Krak des Chevaliers' "golden age". At its peak, Krak des Chevaliers housed a garrison of around 2,000. Such a large garrison allowed the Hospitallers to exact tribute from a wide area. From the 1250s the fortunes of the Knights Hospitaller took a turn for the worse and in 1271 Mamluk Sultan Baibars captured Krak des Chevaliers after a siege lasting 36 days, supposedly by way of a forged letter purportedly from the Hospitallers' Grand Master that caused the Knights to surrender.

Renewed interest in Crusader castles in the 19th century led to the investigation of Krak des Chevaliers, and architectural plans were drawn up. In the late 19th or early 20th century a settlement had been created within the castle, causing damage to its fabric. The 500 inhabitants were moved in 1933 and the castle was given over to the French state, which carried out a program of clearing and restoration. When Syria declared independence in 1946, it assumed control. Today, a village called al-Husn exists around the castle and has a population of nearly 9,000. Krak des Chevaliers is located approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) west of the city of Homs, close to the border of Lebanon, and is administratively part of the Homs Governorate. Since 2006, the castles of Krak des Chevaliers and Qal'at Salah El-Din have been recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. It was partially damaged in the Syrian civil war from shelling: the full extent of the damage is unknown, but there have been reports of hasty repairs. Source: Wikipedia

Krak des Chevaliers from the southwest

The inner court seen from the south

The area between the inner and outer walls is narrow and was not used for accommodation.

The south face of the inner ward with its steep glacis

Hall of the knights, 2009

The east end of the castle's barrel-vaulted chapel

Syrian Civil War: Smoke coming from the castle, August 2013

Artist rendering of Krak des Chevaliers seen from the northeast. From Guillaume Rey Étude sur
les monuments de l'architecture militaire des croisés en Syrie et dans l'île de Chypre (1871).

Plan of Krak des Chevaliers from Guillaume Rey Étude sur les monuments de l'architecture
 militaire des croisés en Syrie et dans l'île de Chypre (1871). North is on the right

Photo Source: Collected from Internet

Spis Castle

The 49,485-square meter castle is Slovakia’s most popular castle ruin. It is now among the biggest castle complexes in Europe. The first incarnation, built in the 12^th century, collapsed due to tectonic quakes. The structure we see today was constructed in the early 13^th century specifically for anticipated Tatar incursions. From being a fortress, the castle was converted into a palatial home for Hungarian noble families in the last succeeding hundreds of years. In 1780, a massive fire destroyed much of the Spis Castle. Its remains are now a National Cultural Monument and a UNESCO World Heritage.

Spectacular abandoned castles around the world: CNN

http://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/abandoned-castles-worldwide/index.html

6 of the most romantic towns in northern Italy's lakes region: CNN

http://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/italy-romantic-lake-towns/index.html

Hanoi after dark: 7 unconventional nightlife experiences: CNN

http://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/hanoi-nightlife/index.html

Instant vacation: The world's best travel photos: CNN

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Tabasco island: Is this the hottest place in the world?CNN

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Corvin Castle

Corvin Castle, also known as Hunyadi Castle or Hunedoara Castle (Romanian: Castelul Huniazilor or Castelul Corvinilor; Hungarian: Vajdahunyadi vár), is a Gothic-Renaissance castle in Hunedoara, Romania. It is one of the largest castles in Europe and figures in a top of seven wonders of Romania.

Corvin Castle was laid out in 1446, when construction began at the orders of John Hunyadi (Hungarian: Hunyadi János, Romanian: Iancu or Ioan de Hunedoara) who wanted to transform the former keep built by Charles I of Hungary. The castle was originally given to John Hunyadi's father, Voyk (Vajk), by Sigismund, king of Hungary, as severance in 1409. It was also in 1446 when John Hunyadi was elected as the regent-governor of the Kingdom of Hungary by the Diet.

Built in a Renaissance-Gothic style and constructed over the site of an older fortification on a rock above the small Zlaști River, the castle is a large and imposing structure with tall towers, bastions, an inner courtyard, diversely coloured roofs, and myriads of windows and balconies adorned with stone carvings. The castle also features a double wall for enhanced fortification and is flanked by both rectangular and circular towers, an architectural innovation for the period's Transylvanian architecture. Some of the towers (the Capistrano Tower, the Deserted Tower and the Drummers' Tower) were used as prisons. The Buzdugan Tower (a type of mace after which it was named) was solely built for defensive purposes and it had its exterior decorated with geometric motifs. The rectangular shaped towers have large openings to accommodate larger weapons.

The castle has 3 large areas: the Knight's Hall, the Diet Hall and the circular stairway. The halls are rectangular in shape and are decorated with marble. The Diet Hall was used for ceremonies or formal receptions whilst the Knight's Hall was used for feasts. In 1456, John Hunyadi died and work on the castle stagnated. Starting with 1458, new commissions were being undergone to construct the Matia Wing of the castle. In 1480, work was completely stopped on the castle and it was recognised as being one of the biggest and most impressive buildings in Eastern Europe.

The 16th century did not bring any improvements to the castle, but during the 17th century new additions were made, for aesthetic and military purposes. Aesthetically, the new Large Palace was built facing the town. A two level building, it hosted living chamber and a large living area. For military purposes, two new towers were constructed: the White Tower and the Artillery Tower. Also, the external yard was added, used for administration and storage. The current castle is the result of a fanciful restoration campaign undertaken after a disastrous fire and many decades of total neglect. It has been noted that modern "architects projected to it their own wistful interpretations of how a great Gothic castle should look". The castle has been featured in the video game Age of Empires II HD The Forgotten as the wonder of the Magyar civilization. Source: Wikipedia

The ruins of the castle in 1865

Photo Source: Collected from Internet

De Haar Castle

De Haar Castle (Dutch: Kasteel de Haar) is located near Haarzuilens, in the municipality of Utrecht in the Netherlands. The current buildings, all built upon the original castle, date from 1892 and are the work of Dutch architect P.J.H. Cuypers, in a Neo-Gothic restoration project funded by the Rothschild family.

The oldest historical record of a building at the location of the current castle dates to 1391. In that year, the family De Haar received the castle and the surrounding lands as fiefdom from Hendrik van Woerden. The castle remained in the ownership of the De Haar family until 1440, when the last male heir died childless. The castle then passed to the Van Zuylen family. In 1482, the castle was burned down and the walls were torn down, except for the parts that did not have a military function. These parts probably were incorporated into the castle when it was rebuilt during the early 16th century. The castle is mentioned in an inventory of the possessions of Steven van Zuylen from 1506, and again in a list of fiefdoms in the province Utrecht from 1536. The oldest image of the castle dates to 1554 and shows that the castle had been largely rebuilt by then. After 1641, when Johan van Zuylen van der Haar died childless, the castle seems to have gradually fallen into ruins. The castle escaped from total destruction by the French during the Rampjaar 1672.

In 1801 the last Catholic van Zuylen in the Netherlands, the bachelor Anton-Martinus van Zuylen van Nijevelt (1708-1801), bequeathed the property to his cousin Jean-Jacques van Zuylen van Nyevelt (1752-1846) of the Catholic branch in the Southern Netherlands. In 1890, De Haar was inherited by Jean-Jacques' grandson Etienne Gustave Frédéric Baron van Zuylen van Nyevelt van de Haar (1860-1934), who married Baroness Hélène de Rothschild. They contracted architect Pierre Cuypers in 1892 to rebuild the ruinous castle, which took 15 years. Source: Wikipedia

 

Interior of the main hall

Before restoration (1862)

Photo Source: Collected from Internet

Będzin Castle

The Będzin Castle is a castle in Będzin (pronounced: [ˈbɛnd͡ʑin]) in southern Poland. The stone castle dates to the 14th century, and is predated by a wooden fortification that was erected in the 11th century. It was an important fortification in the Kingdom of Poland and later, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

The village of Będzin originated in the 9th century. The local wooden fort, that the records show existed as early as the 11th century, was destroyed during the Tatar invasion in 1241 and subsequently rebuilt. During the reign of Casimir III the Great the castle received an upgrade from wooden fortress to a stone one, and the stone fort was operational as early as in 1348. The growing trading village of Bytom was given Magdeburg Law city rights shortly afterwards, in 1358.

The castle was meant to be a military outpost on the southwestern border of the Kingdom of Poland (later, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth). It was the most westward fortification, and was meant to hold off any invasion coming to Lesser Poland from Bohemian or Silesian lands. In 1364 the castle was visited by Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor. In 1588, Maximilian III, Archduke of Austria, was held prisoner in here, after his defeat in the War of the Polish Succession (1587–1588).

The castle fell into disrepair in the late 16th century. The fire of 1616 and damage during The Deluge in 1657 resulted in the further destruction. The fortress was periodically repaired, but due to shifts in the layout of the borders and relations between Poland and its neighbours, it lost much of its importance. After the partitions of Poland, Będzin fell into Prussian control and the castle became property of the Hohenzollern family. In 1807, the nearby lands were transferred to the Duchy of Warsaw, and in 1815, to the Congress Poland. In 1825 the castle was virtually falling apart, and when a piece of the stone crushed a passerby, demolition of the castle was ordered, but before it was started, the castle was declared a monument. In the 1830s the castle was bought by Count Edward Raczyński and partially rebuilt, with a Protestant church temporarily housed inside, but after Raczyński's death in 1845 plans to open an academy or a hospital there were abandoned, and the castle once again fell into disrepair. The castle was not rebuilt again until the times of People's Republic of Poland, when in 1952–1956, a museum was opened there. Source: Wikipedia

Photo Source: Collected from Internet