Turkey
Assos
A temple of Athena perches on volcanic rock above the Aegean, Lesbos shimmering on the horizon.
The Temple of Athena stands on volcanic rock 238 metres above the Aegean, its remaining columns framing the Greek island of Lesbos like a painting hung at the world's edge. Below, a tiny harbour village of stone houses curves around a cove so sheltered the water barely moves. Wild thyme and salt air mix with woodsmoke from the fish grills.
Assos is where Aristotle established a school and taught for three years, drawn perhaps by the same mix of remoteness and splendour that still defines the place. The Temple of Athena, built around 530 BC, is the only Archaic Doric temple in Anatolia, set on a promontory with unbroken views to Lesbos ten kilometres across the strait. The village of Behramkale below wears its grey volcanic stone well, its old mansions converted into small boutique hotels. The harbour is just big enough for a few fishing boats and a row of tables where the catch is grilled within hours of landing.
Solo
Read where Aristotle read. The acropolis is often empty in the mornings, the climb from harbour to temple steep enough to feel earned, and an evening at the quay with grilled fish and a book is a cliché that actually works.
Couple
The stone mansions of the harbour village are intimate and quiet, with terraces over the cove. Watch the sunset from the Temple of Athena as Lesbos turns purple on the horizon, a view unchanged in twenty-five centuries.
- The Temple of Athena was built around 530 BC and sits on volcanic rock 238 metres above the Aegean Sea.
- Aristotle lived and taught in Assos for three years before going on to found his school in Athens.
- From the acropolis, the Greek island of Lesbos is clearly visible ten kilometres across the water.
- The harbour village below the acropolis has old stone mansions converted to small boutique hotels.
Fresh sea bream grilled over coals at the tiny harbour, eaten metres from the boats that landed it.
Peynir helvası, Çanakkale's warm fresh-cheese and semolina sweet, the local way to finish lunch.
Moulay Idriss Zerhoun
Morocco
Five pilgrimages here during the moussem are said locally to equal one hajj to Mecca.
Giverny
France
Water lilies floating on the exact pond Monet painted until his eyes failed him.
Monsaraz
Portugal
A walled village of whitewashed stone above a lake so still it doubles the sky.
Mikindani
Tanzania
Livingstone sailed from this coral-stone harbour on his final expedition.
Sinop
Turkey
A prison peninsula where Diogenes was born and waves crash on three sides.
Bafa Lake
Turkey
A Byzantine monastery on a boulder-strewn island in a lake that was once an Aegean inlet.
Lake Van
Turkey
A vast soda sea where you float without trying, ringed by snow-capped volcanoes.
Datça Peninsula
Turkey
Two seas collide at a wind-raked cape where almond blossom blankets the hills each February.