Italy’s Siena Cathedral, built from 1215 to 1263 is one of the great masterpieces of medieval architecture.  It contains works of art by Renaissance greats from Donatello, Bernini, and Michelangelo.  Most stunning of all, however, is the cathedral floor, entirely covered with marble mosaics depicting scenes from the Old Testament, Greek and Roman myths and history.  No one photo does it justice, it’s so immense.  Here you see Crates of Thebes (265-285 BC) atop the Mount of Wisdom casting riches into the sea for a life of tranquil simplicity.

The floor is covered over for most of the year and is only unveiled during (plus a few days before and after) September.   So plan to be there then to witness a truly magnificent artistic creation of Western Civilization. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #282 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

January 2003. Our campsite at dawn in the center of the Sahara called the Téneré in Niger. We found hand stone axes here 8,000 years old when the Sahara was green. Crossing the world’s greatest desert is a true expedition, one of the most astounding adventures to be had on earth, geographically, culturally, and historically. Unfortunately, it is too dangerous with lawless and ideological banditry today. I can hardly wait to do it once more when it is safe again. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #70 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

This is the view of the lakes of Bariloche in Argentine Patagonia.  It was taken in January of this year from a viewpoint called Cerro Campanario.  This really is one of the most beautiful places on Earth.  I was here exploring Patagonia with your fellow TTPers.  Hope to visit this place again sometime soon! (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #251 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

When gold was discovered in the Klondike of Canada’s Yukon in 1896, the fastest way to get there was a tiny hamlet at the end of a long inlet of Alaska’s Inland Passage coast called Skagway. By 1898, Skagway was a lawless Wild West boom town flooded with prospectors who needed entertainment and release from the arduous travails of gold searching – and ladies who would provide it for a price.

The Brass Pic (as in a miner’s pic & shovel) was one of many Houses of Negotiable Affection in Skagway that flourished until the gold panned out in 1900. It’s preserved as a museum today in fond memory of those days of commercially consensual delight. Skagway is a terrific place to experience, drawing over a million visitors a year. Come here to see what draws them. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #198 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

Quick – name the only country in the world named after a woman.  It’s the island nation in the Caribbean of St. Lucia, named after the patron saint of virgins, 4th century Saint Lucia.

The charm, beauty, and serenity of St. Lucia are unequaled in the Caribbean.  Here you can have your own private retreat overlooking the twin peaks of The Pitons.  The St. Lucian people take great pride in the immaculate spotlessness of their island and in their matchless reputation for personal warmth and hospitality.

While an English-speaking country and member of the British Commonwealth, there is a French tradition here as well, reflected in the fine cuisine and wines in restaurants.  Yet I became fond of the local Piton beer as well.  St. Lucia is the easiest island in the Caribbean to fall in love with – so it is no wonder that couples come from all over the world to get married or honeymoon here.

If you want to spend a few days of bliss away from all the cares of the world, you can’t do better than this place of heaven in the Caribbean. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #190 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

At the top of Italy’s boot heel, there’s an ancient village named Alberobello that’s become a World Heritage Site.

This is because the villagers have preserved a prehistoric building technique with the conical roofs of their homes built up of corbelled limestone slabs with no mortar. The homes are collectively called trulli (true-lee) as each home individually is a called a trullo (true-low). Some trulli are centuries old albeit regularly rebuilt in the traditional way and maintained immaculately.

It’s a fascinating look into unique millennia-old living. Yet it is only one example of this little-visited part of far southern Italy that’s worth exploring. There’s so much more to Italy than Rome, Florence, Venice and such tourist magnets, as worthwhile visiting them may be. You’ll learn that very quickly when you start exploring Italy’s remoter regions.

(Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #255 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

Fifty two years ago – August 1971 – I was able to climb the Great Pyramid of Cheops all the way to the top. 450 feet high, 4,000 years old, the only one of the original Seven Wonders of the World to still exist, it was my first time in Egypt and I had to give it a go.

Of course, this is illegal. So I waited near sunset and all the tourists had gone, walked around to the northwest corner hidden from most views where there was one lonely guard. I gave him 20 Egyptian pounds which made him very happy, and up I went. Each block at the bottom is about five feet tall and gets smaller as you climb, with over 200 stone layers or “courses” base to apex. The top is flat, about 10-foot square – the limestone casing reaching a point gone long ago.

I was a philosophy doctoral student back then, so I sat down, took out from my daypack Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, and read my idol’s wisdom in the light of the setting sun. It was a sunset I’ll never forget, too mesmerized by the moment to take a picture. The photo is of me taken recently where I began my climb of decades ago. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #126 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)

The Curonian Spit is a 60 mile-long and skinny stretch of sand separating the 625 square-mile Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea. It is jointly shared by Lithuania and Kaliningrad. The trees of one section of the pine forests covering the spit are weirdly twisted and distorted by some unknown force of nature. Their bizarre undulations have earned it the sobriquet, “The Dancing Forest.” It’s one of the as-yet unexplained mysteries of life on our planet, and a wondrous one to see. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #200 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

“Changpa” means “northerners” in Tibetan, the nomads who survive with their herds of goats and yaks in the 15,000-foot high plateau of northern Tibet known as the Changtang.

In 1987, I conducted an overland expedition from Beijing to Kathmandu, crossing the entire Changtang north to south. TTP’s Dr. Joel Wade was with me. Occasionally, we’d chance upon a Changpa encampment. For many of them such as this young girl holding a handful of barley meal, we were the first white people they had ever seen.

The Changpa live in one of the most remote and harshest places on earth. We can hardly imagine what life is like for them any more can they imagine ours. Being with them is an unforgettably profound experience. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #254 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

The male Magnificent Frigatebird has a flap of loose bright red skin on his neck called a “gular sac.” During mating season, they huff and puff, filling it with air to blow it up like a balloon. They then parade around showing off for the ladies, for the bigger the red balloon, the more the ladies are aroused. Size matters, even in the Galapagos.

This is only one of many courtship displays among the birds and animals of these extraordinary islands. No wonder the Galapagos are called “evolution’s laboratory.” (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #199 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

On either side of the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar there are two small mountains known since great antiquity as the Pillars of Hercules. The pillar on the northern, European side is the famous Rock of Gibraltar. That on the southern, African side is Mount Abyla, Phoenician for “lofty mountain.”

The legend for the Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans was that Hercules pushed the two pillars apart to join the Mediterranean with the Atlantic. We think today of Hercules as a comic-book bodybuilder, while the truth is opposite. The entire ancient Mediterranean world very seriously worshipped him. For the Phoenicians, he was Melqart, King of the Earth. For the Greeks, he was Heracles, Divine Protector of Mankind. He was the same for the Romans, who pronounced his name as Hercules.

The Phoenician trading port of Abyla has a history of 3,000 years, from Phoenician to Carthaginian to Roman to Byzantine to Christian Visigoths to Islamic Berbers to Portuguese – and since 1668 to Spain, which continues to govern it today as the Spanish Autonomous City of Ceuta on the Mediterranean coast of Morocco.

Ceuta is a charming European city with beautiful beaches, open air cafés with great sangria, very relaxed and pleasant. It is here you find the statue of Hercules separating his Pillars commemorating the legend pictured above. Easy to get to with high-speed ferries from Algeciras near Gibraltar, Ceuta is definitely worth your while to experience. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #137 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)

November 17, 1976. When I wrote my book “The Adventurer’s Guide,” it was a fantasy of mine to go on the Tonight Show and have Johnny Carson hold a “tsantsa,” a human shrunken head – as a book chapter was “How To Live With Headhunters.” As you can see, that fantasy came true. I still can’t believe how relaxed I was in the studio photo. That’s because Carson had a magical ability to put a guest like me, no professional performer, at ease. The cameras and lights, the audience, millions watching on TV all went away. It was just me talking to this friendly fellow with no one around. An amazing experience. Some dreams can really happen! (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #40 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

The Antarctic island of South Georgia is home to a million King penguins, plus countless fur seals, gigantic elephant seals, staggering numbers of seabirds such as albatrosses, amidst a backdrop of towering mountains with massive glaciers spilling off them.

Nothing can prepare you for the incomprehensible size of the penguin rookeries here, densely packed as far as the eye can see (all those white dots on the hills behind are penguins). Nor for the size of bull elephant seals weighing up to 8,000 pounds, especially when they rise up and crash their chests against each other in mating challenges emitting deafening bellows. Nor being surrounded by a thousand fur seals unafraid of you. The density of wildlife combined with the magnificent beauty of the island is completely overwhelming.

Here also is the abandoned whaling station of Grytviken where the heroic explorer Ernest Shackleton is buried. You can only get here by expedition cruise ship. South Georgia is one of the great experiences on our planet. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #96 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

Go down to the Atlantic coast beach of Mauritania’s capital Nouakchott at sunset, and you’ll see a very unusual fish market. A fishing boat laden with the day’s catch is ready to come ashore, but the crew is afraid the wind and surf may capsize the boat as they do, losing their catch in the process.

So they float just outside the surf line so buyers with boxes and baskets can wade out to buy the fish right off the boat, and wade back. Only when the boat is empty will the crew attempt to beach it. Just one of this West African country’s intriguing sights.

.(Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #249 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

Want to get this close to a leopard – and safely? Come with me on a safari in Africa and I’ll show you how. Yes, she’s lethal – to the animals she hunts, not you. Yes, you can make such lethal beauty an indelible part of your life.

We really do only live once on this Earth. You really do owe it to yourself to make the most of it. You really can’t take it with you. It really is time to live your dream, to fill your soul with life-memorable experiences. Life lasts but a snap of the finger.

So what adventures have you always dreamed of? Let me know and maybe you and I can make them become real together. I’m only an email away: [email protected]. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #204 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

On a mountain top on the island of Corfu in 1890, Empress Elizabeth of Austria built a magnificent marble palace called the Achilleion, dedicated to her hero, the legendary Achilles of Homer’s Iliad. Here she retreated from the world, amidst the palace’s gorgeous gardens overlooking the Mediterranean abundant with larger-than-life statues of her ideal man, “who despised all mortals and did not fear even the gods."

All of Europe knew her as Sisi. Adored by her husband Emperor Franz Joseph I, renowned as the most beautiful – and most beloved -- woman of her time, she was Austria’s Empress for 44 years. Her life ended tragically, murdered at random by an anarchist who wanted to “kill a royal.”

The Achilleion today is maintained immaculately in all its original glory as a museum you can visit. Don’t pass the chance to see it for yourself. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #76 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

The Turfan Oasis in East Turkestan is far older than the Silk Road. Sitting in the Turfan Depression, second lowest on earth at over 500 feet below sea level) with a climate perfect for agriculture (like grapes for wine!), it was first settled by the Caucasian Tocharians some 4,000 years ago.

Over time it was absorbed into various empires ruling the Tarim Basin encircling the empty Takla Makan desert – proto-Mongols, the Tang Dynasty, the expanded Tibetan Empire at its height in the700s AD, Buddhist Uyghurs, and Genghiz’s Mongols. By the 1400s, the people of Turfan were mostly Buddhist or Nestorian Christian. By the end of the 15th century, they were ruled by the Moslem Moghuls who converted them to Islam.

Turfan was a key trading oasis on the Northern Silk Road which Marco Polo’s father and uncle, Niccolo and Maffeo traversed in 1266 to meet Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan. (Marco’s route with them in 1271 took the less-traveled Southern Silk Road underneath or south of the Takla Makan). I traversed both Silk Roads in 2008. Here I am at the Emin Minaret in Turfan. It’s a fabulous place to explore. Maybe some day again? (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #239 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

The Eiffel Tower is especially impressive at night. Taking the elevators to the first, second, and finally the third platform on top with the girders lit up against the black of night makes you gape at the herculean engineering achievement of Gustav Eiffel. It’s overwhelming that it took only 26 months to build – from the start on January 28, 1887 to the celebration of its completion on March 31, 1889.

The Eiffel was built for the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the 1789 French Revolution, and of the century of scientific progress and the Industrial Revolution since. It may seem bizarre that it was bitterly opposed by hundreds of Paris’ artistic and intellectual elite, who publicly condemned it as “a giddy, ridiculous tower dominating Paris like a gigantic black smokestack… stretching like a blot of ink the hateful shadow of the hateful column of bolted sheet metal.”

Too bad for them, for The Eiffel was quickly embraced by Parisians as a beloved symbol of their city, while it has gone on to be one of the world’s most epically famous monuments.

Rebel and were here in Paris with our son Brandon on Thanksgiving last year. I took this picture on that night. Should you ever be in Paris, be sure to visit the Eiffel – all the way to the top! – at night. The experience is simply glorious. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #240 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

The island of Madeira in the Atlantic some 320 miles west of Morocco was first discovered, uninhabited, by Portuguese explorers in 1418. It has been a part of Portugal ever since. In the 1600s it became renowned for its Madeira wine, with English wine makers settling there and exporting it to England and the American colonies. The English consul Charles Murray built a beautiful estate, "Quinta do Prazer", Pleasure Estate, high above the capital of Funchal, which by the late 1800s was converted into the Monte Palace hotel.

100 years later, Portuguese entrepreneurs developed the property into one of the most spectacular tropical gardens in the world, with lakes, waterfalls, and exotic tropical plants turning it into a fantasy wonderland. You can spend hours wandering around relaxing and luxuriating in this peaceful paradise. Which is just what we do whenever we are here. We’ll be here again early next summer. You should plan on being with us. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #243 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

It’s hard to find a better example of the glory of nature than here – a lagoon off the Luangwa River in Africa’s Zambia. It’s also hard to believe I took this picture just a few days ago – and now I’m back home, and Africa so far away.

It was so fulfilling, so rewarding for me, over the past weeks, to provide a life-memorable experience of real Africa to eight TTPers – they’ll never forget it ever. I plan to be here again soon – perhaps you’ll be with me. There’s a primordial magic in Africa that grips your soul like nowhere else. The wisdom of those most familiar with the world is: “If you can visit only two continents in your life, go to Africa – twice.” (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #145 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)

The Ancient Greeks began settling in the Mediterranean’s largest island around 750 BC. They called it Sikelia, after the Sikani and Sicel tribes that lived there. They flourished, building numerous cities, all with temples to their Olympian gods. The city of Akragas – now called Agrigento on the south coast – grew to a population of 200,000 by the 500s. It was here that the Greeks built the most outstanding examples of monumental Greek architecture that still exist today.

Along a ridge outside the city, they erected temples to Zeus, Hera, Heracles (Hercules) and many others. The one you see here the Romans called the Temple of Concordia (harmony), for by the time they showed up in the 200s, the Greek name was lost. In the foreground lies a remnant of a bronze statue to one of the Greek gods – perhaps Apollo. The glory that was Greece has been gone with winds of millennia. It can be a very emotional experience to be here.(Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #248 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

The megalithic temple of Hajjar Qim (hah-jar seem) on the island of Malta in the center of the Mediterranean, was built a thousand years before the pyramids in Egypt. The Stone Age people there made their temples of enormous stones weighing several tons cut from the limestone bedrock with tools of stone and antler horn for they had no metal, and moved them using small round-cut rocks as ball bearings for they had no wheels.

The massive stone I’m in front of weighs over 20 tons. These folks figured out all by themselves how to build these extraordinary temples to their gods and goddesses close to six thousand years ago. Nobody taught them. They were the first.

These ancient temples are only one of the so many things that entrance the visitor to Malta. Medieval walled cities, sea caves of day-glo blue water, sunset dining in fabulous restaurants with great food, great beer, and great wine, luxury hotels made from palaces or palazzos – all at reasonable cost.

90% of Maltese are devoutly Christian, having been so since converted by St. Paul himself in 60 AD. They are warm and welcoming, eager to have you join in the fun of their village festivals. I had such a wonderful time with them when I was first here in 2009 (when the photo you see was taken). I’ve been back twice now and can’t wait to be there again. So much so I’ll be leading an exploration of Malta over next Memorial Day (May 25-June 2). Let me know on the Forum if you’d like to join me. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #241 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

In the city of Lezhë overlooking the Adriatic Sea, there is a memorial to Albania’s national hero, Scanderbeg (1405-1468). Born Giorgi Kastrioti in this city of northern Albania, he earned the title of “Lord Alexander” – Scanderbeg in Albanian – for his military genius in leading his Christian army against the Moslem armies of the Ottoman Empire.  For 25 years (1443-1468), his 10,000 Christian Knights consistently inflicted defeat after defeat upon always much larger Moslem forces.

His victory in the Battle of Albulena in 1457, where he destroyed an Ottoman army of 70,000, killing 15,000 and taking 15,000 prisoners, so astounded all of Christendom that Pope Calixtus III appointed him Captain-General of the Holy See, and gave him the title of Athleta Christi, Champion of Christ.

By the 1500s with Scanderbeg but a memory, the Ottomans conquered Albania and Islamized it for almost 400 years. With the rise of Albanian nationalism in the late 19th century, Scanderbeg’s memory was revived. Today he is revered by Albanians who only ostensibly remain Islamic yet idolize a Christian King who devoted his life to defeating their country’s Moslem oppressors. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #247 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

This is the Rock of Aphrodite – where Greek mythology says the Goddess of Love was born fully formed from the sea-foam surging around it – and makes Cyprus the Island of Love. It is south of Paphos on the island’s west coast.

Adjacent is the Temple Sanctuary of Aphrodite, where pilgrims came from every Greek city and kingdom for 2,000 years to worship her. The ancient Greeks prayed to Aphrodite more than any of their other gods, for she was the apotheosis of love, desire, and fertility or having children. Which explains why today couples travel from all over the world to get married here.

Folks have been living in Cyprus for a really long time. So long that they were the first people in the world to domesticate cats over 9,000 years ago. A Neolithic village has been unearthed called Choirokoitia that’s surprisingly sophisticated for being 8,000 years old. In Roman times, after Jesus rose Lazarus from the dead, he went to Cyprus -- there is a beautiful church, the Agios Lazaros, built over his tomb.

The Painted Churches of Troodos are adorned with magnificent medieval art. The ruins of a Crusaders’ fortress inspired the fairy tale castle of Walt Disney’s Snow White. I hope Cyprus’ inspirational history will inspire you to explore it someday. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #101 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

East of Borneo in Indonesia is a large starfish-shaped Island called Sulawesi, where in the south-central mountains the Toraja people have created one of the most exotic cultures on earth. They bury their dead in caves carved out of vertical cliffs, with balconies at the entrances lined with clothed wooden effigies called a Tau Tau as guardians for the departed.

The Toraja live in villages composed of family long houses with enormous peaked roofs of wood and thatch, decorated with exquisite painted art and scores of buffalo horns. While Indonesia is predominantly Moslem, the Toraja are a blend of Christian-animist. They are a gentle, peaceful people, marvelously welcoming and friendly. It is a priceless privilege to spend time with them, as I was able to during the summer of 2016. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #49 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)

While exploring the Roman ruins of Sabratha on the Mediterranean coast of Libya in 2014, I came upon the men’s bathroom in the Gymnasium.  “Now here’s a loo with a view!” I exclaimed, and noticed it was designed to have water flowing through the trough below the series of toilets.

Founded as a trading post by the Phoenicians in the 6th century BC, it was settled and rebuilt by the Romans some 500 years later, flourishing for centuries as a main supplier of olive oil for the Empire.  Monumental temples and theatres were constructed, along with sumptuous villas adorned with gorgeous mosaic floors.  All of this has been excavated for the visitor to explore as a preserved UNESCO World Heritage Site.

It’s a shame Libya has collapsed into chaos now, for Sabratha and nearby Leptis Magna are among the most magnificent Roman ruins anywhere.  One day the chaos will be over. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #246 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

Dalat, South Viet Nam, 1961. I was 17 years old. A friend of my father’s, Herb Klein, came by our house. He was a prominent businessman whose passion was big-game hunting. He had just returned from the mountain jungle highlands of South Viet Nam and regaled us with stories of the Montagnard tribespeople who were plagued by tigers with a taste for human flesh. He told me that after climbing the Matterhorn, living with Amazon headhunters, and swimming the Hellespont, hunting a man-eating tiger should be my next adventure.

“You’d be saving so many lives, Jack,” he told me. “There’s one I heard about from the Co Ho Montagnards that’s killed and eaten almost 20 of them in the forests outside the town of Dalat. I know who can guide you, he was mine, his name is Ngo Van Chi.”

Somehow, I talked my parents into letting me do this. I had saved up the money from giving tennis and judo lessons. So there I was, in pitch dark in a “mirador” of branches and leaves, holding a .300 Weatherby with a flashlight wired to the barrel, waiting for this man-eating tiger to come for the rotting water buffalo we set out as bait. Chi and I heard the tiger, I put the rifle barrel out, Chi clicked on the flashlight, I saw these two enormous red eyes, and fired.

And there he is, the Man-Eater of Dalat, who would never kill another human being ever again. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #175 photo ©Jack Wheeler)