Egypt’s two temples together known as Abu Simbel date to the reign of Ramses II from 1279 to 1213 BCE. The temples are dedicated to the sun gods Amon-Re and Re-Horakhte. The main temple’s most striking feature is its innermost sanctuary, which contains a shrine that’s perfectly illuminated by the sun’s rays twice per year around February 22 and October 22.

The Old New Synagogue in Prague is considered to be Europe’s oldest synagogue still in use. It was built in the Gothic style around the 1270 and endured for centuries, though it briefly fell under Nazi occupation during World War II. However, the synagogue persevered through the war, and continues to hold Jewish services today.

Bahá’u’lláh is the founder of the Bahá’í faith. Upon his passing in 1892, the mansion in Acre, Israel, where he spent the final 13 years of his life, became a shrine dedicated in his honor. Worshippers around the globe face toward this Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh during their daily prayers.

Beginning in the late 19th century, NYC’s Lower East Side was nicknamed “Jewish Plymouth Rock,” as it welcomed floods of European immigrants. The neighborhood’s Eldridge Street Synagogue is a particularly historic building, built in 1887 as the first Jewish house of worship in the Americas constructed by Eastern European Jews. The space now serves as both a museum and place of worship.

Located in Abu Dhabi, the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is one of the more visually stunning mosques in the world, thanks to the 90,000 tons of white Macedonian marble used in its construction. The mosque is one of the few in the region open to non-Muslims, and its design features over 80 marble domes held up by 1,000 pillars.

Since the 14th century, most of the buildings in Djenné, Mali, have been constructed of mud. Builders use a process of baking mud-and-straw bricks in the sun and then stacking them to create walls, which are then covered in yet more mud to add stability. The Great Mosque, constructed in 1907, is one of the largest and most distinctive examples of this style of architecture.

Though Islam is a minority religion on the continent, South America is still home to several significant mosques, none bigger than the King Fahd Islamic Cultural Centre in Buenos, Aires, Argentina. The mosque was partially funded by the Saudi Arabian government, officially opened in 2000, and is capable of fitting around 1,500 Islamic worshippers.

Located at the base of Mount Inari in Kyoto, the Fushimi Inari Shrine is one of the most popular and recognizable Shinto shrines in Japan. Its most distinctive feature is the path of bright orange gates known as torii. Thousands of these torii line trails for visitors to follow up the mountainside.

The Yitzhak Navon Station is among the deepest subway stations in the world, located 260 feet below the surface. In 2021, a small synagogue opened within the station to cater to the railline’s 7,000 daily passengers traveling through the holy city of Jerusalem. It is the world’s deepest underground synagogue.

The Hagia Sophia in modern-day Istanbul, Turkey, was originally constructed as a Christian church during the Byzantine Empire in the sixth century. It was repurposed as a mosque after the Turkish conquest of Constantinople in 1453, and later converted to a museum in 1935 after Turkish President Kemal Atatürk secularized the building. Most recently, it was reconverted into a mosque in 2020.

It’s a common practice in Judaism to place written notes (“kvitlachim”) within the crevices of Israel’s Western Wall — a place of prayer for and holy pilgrimage site also known as the Wailing Wall. The tradition first began around the mid-16th century. More than 1 million notes are placed in the wall each year — even Pope John Paul II and President Barack Obama participated in the practice during past visicallts.

Fire temples are so named because Zoroastrian prayers are performed in the presence of fire. Though few remain today, notable fire temples around the world include Azar Gashnasb, Azar Barzin Mehr, and Atashgah of Isfahan, which are all located in modern-day Iran. There is also the Bahram Fire Temple in Yazd, featuring a flame that has been purportedly lit for 1,500 years.

Stupas are heap-like, hemispherical structures that often contain the remains of a holy person. They originally appeared in India prior to the fifth century BCE and later became key symbols in the Buddhist religion, with many now purported to contain the ashes of Buddha himself. Stupas are also significant to followers of Hinduism and Jainism, though Buddhism remains the religion most commonly associated with these structures.

The Shrine of the Three Kings, also known as the Magi or Three Wise Men, sits within Germany’s Cologne Cathedral. This gilded shrine is displayed above the high altar at the rear end of the church, and is purportedly said to contain precious relics that could include the remains of the Magi themselves.

Constructed in the seventh century, the Dome of the Rock is the oldest existing Islamic monument. According to Muslim theology, the rock within the dome marks the spot where the Prophet Muhammad was taken up into heaven to meet Allah. The dome is adjacent to the equally significant Al-Aqsa Mosque, also built in the seventh century.

Djamaa el Djazaïr — known in English as the Great Mosque of Algiers — boasts the tallest minaret of any mosque in the world. Minarets are tall towers primarily used to call Muslims to prayer, and this one stands a record 867 feet tall. The mosque was completed in 2019 and can accommodate 37,000 worshippers within Algeria’s capital city.

Budapest’s Dohany Street Synagogue is Europe’s largest Jewish house of worship, and the second biggest in the world behind the Temple Emanu-El in New York City. Constructed in 1859, the building was designed in a Moorish style, featuring two twin spires. It’s an important site in Neolog Judaism, a reform movement found mainly in Hungarian-speaking regions.

Dating back nearly 2,000 years, the Ise Grand Shrine in Ise, Japan, is a sacred Shinto shrine that houses the sun goddess Amaterasu, as well as the Sacred Mirror of the Emperor. In keeping with Shinto beliefs, the shrine and accompanying Uji Bridge are taken down and reconstructed every 20 years. This act signifies the Shinto practice of rebirth and renewal.

Known in Arabic as al-Masjid al-Ḥarām, the Great Mosque of Mecca dates back to the 16th century and encloses the Kaaba — Islam’s holiest shrine. The city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, serves as the terminus of an annual Islamic pilgrimage called the hajj, and as a result, the mosque receives millions of visiting worshippers each year. The structure spans 3.8 million square feet and is capable of holding 820,000 people.

Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, is the oldest synagogue in the United States still standing today. The temple was built in 1658 by the Congregation Yashuat Israel, an organization founded by a group of Dutch-born sephardic Jewish immigrants. In an effort to escape persecution, the congregation chose Rhode Island because of the state’s reputation of promoting religious tolerance.