10 Best Places to Visit on Christmas Holidays

There are vast options for you that how you will spend your Christmas holidays. If you are planning to spend your Christmas holidays somewhere else then there are many destinations which offer unforgettable holidays.

Here is the list of 10 unique destinations for celebrating your Christmas:

1. San Francisco, California

The most scenic place with beautiful Victorian “painted lady” houses, idiosyncratic neighborhoods, and top restaurants with diverse cuisine from Asian to Latin. The City by the Bay is often a top-ranked U.S. city. There you can also enjoy the Great Dickens Christmas Fair which recreates Victorian London with 700-plus costumed actors depicting fictional and famous historic figures, dance parties featuring reels and waltzes, merchants and artisans galore, music representing the far-flung British Empire, and English pub grub.

2. St. Lucia

If you want to spend your Christmas vacations on white sand beach then St. Lucia is a best place, an extremely lush Caribbean island. This island has two volcanic peaks called the pitons. You will witness various enjoyable activities there such as, masquerade bands that perform in the streets, the Festival of Lights with its light sculptures and lantern contests in mid-December, or the countryside bonfires on Christmas Eve.

If you want to have relaxing vacation then there are two extraordinary hotels, Ladera and Jade Mountain. This small island is having so much to offer you on Christmas.

3. Charleston, South Carolina

If you want to celebrate your Christmas vacations in a spiritual manner then Charleston is a best place.  This historic district haves more than 3,500 18^th- and 19^th century house, spiritual concerts, house and garden tours, craft demonstrations, and storytelling about Lowcountry Christmas traditions that were created over the centuries at plantations like Middleton Place, Drayton Hall, and Magnolia Plantation make for a gracious Southern holiday.

Go to dine on horse-drawn carriage at any of three historic inns. Take your family to the Festival of Lights featuring millions of sparkling lights, Santa’s Village, and nightly train rides through an Enchanted Forest housed inside a state park.

4. Santa Fe, New Mexico

If you love folk life and want to enjoy your Christmas vacations on such place then Santa Fe is best destination for you. You can enjoy traditional Mexican, red-Indian and Spanish foods here. See and enjoy various classic Christmas activities here. But never forget to see the historic museums here. The fabulous Museum of International Folk Art and the New Mexico History Museum are worth watching.

5. Newport, Rhode Island

Newport Rhode Island is known as New England and it’s famous for its mansions. There are various cultural attractions, historic sites, and much more that you can desire for. Enjoy the formal Victorian dinner circa 1891, murder mysteries, and a Christmas concert. 

6. Puebla, Mexico

This beautiful colonial city is near the Mexico City, it takes only 2 hours by bus to reach there. Puebla is home to many Mexican delights from spicy and delicious foods to hand-painted ceramic potters and tiles. Beautiful old designed hotels in 16^th- through 18^th- century mansions called Tesoros de Puebla in the UNESCO-designated historic center.

7. Quebec City, Canada

The old fashioned town with mansard roofs and stone buildings; the Quartier Petit Champlain, where a cobblestone street is lined by specialty shops and evergreen adorned with lights. There is a beautiful castle like Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac hotel. If you wish to have classic snowy Christmas vacations then this place is perfect for you.

8. San Antonio, Texas

A place of colorful lights River Walk, which is getting day by day more attraction from tourists. More than 122,000 colored lights and 6,000 luminaries at Christmastime glitters with art installations like oversized fiberglass fish suspended over the river. A river barge is most scenic way to experience the River Walk. A best place for a colorful Christmas vacations.

9. Germany

You can have memorable Christmas vacations in Germany. Delicious traditional foods and drinks, you can witness and enjoy various cultural activities here. Germany is the country where tree-trimming tradition began. There will be so many indoor and outdoor Christmas festivals and concerts. Your every moment here will be full of joy and will make it a long lasting memory for you.  

10. New Orleans, Louisiana 

If you are a religious person then this place suits you more, caroling by candlelight in front of St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square; free jazz, gospel, and classical concerts inside the cathedral. See the top chefs cooking demonstrations. Variety of food at many restaurants, this is the place where you can rejoice your Christmas vacations.

The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China is one of the seven ancient wonders of the world. A great structure that was build human hand instead of modern machines, this wall is standing symbol of human courage, hard work and will to achieve impossible.  The Great Wall of China is most famous tourist attraction of China. 

Great Wall of China is an ultimate destination for tourists for sightseeing.  Millions of tourists from all over the world visits Great Wall of China every year. There are some great speculations about Great Wall of China that it can be seen from moon also! Such speculations had increased its attraction amongst the tourists of whole world.

The Great Wall of China & Its History

The wall is constructed over the mountains in such pattern that it looks like as a dragon is surrounding the mountains. Chinese calls it “Wan Li Chang Cheng” which means Wall of10, 000 Li. Li is distance measurement unit in Chinese (2 Li= 1Km).

There were three dynasties who had contributed to the construction of this wall.

1. Qin
2. Han
3. Ming

The Great Wall of China was initially constructed by the Qin from 221-207 B.C, after that it was Han dynasty who constructed it from 206B.C-220A.D.  Lastly it was the Ming who contributed in construction of this Great Wall from 1368-1644 A.D.  The main purpose of this Great Wall of China was to stop the invasion of brutal Huns from the North of the Chinese borders.  Throughout the history millions of labors had labored on this Great Wall of China and many from them died while working.

Length of the Great Wall of the China

It was the Qin emperor who unified China first, after that he connected all the walls across the country into one. This measure was taken to save the north border of China from invaders. This wall travel through deserts, rivers, mountains, grasslands and plateaus expanding nearly 6,700 kilometers, this Great Wall is stretched from east to west side of China. It was built in almost two millenniums.

Currently though there is much advance technology and easy means of construction but many parts of this Great Wall are left in ruins.

The Places from Where Great Wall Of China Passes

The Great Wall of China passes through Shanhaiguan Pass, Liaoning, Hebei, Tianjin, Beijing, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, and Gansu. This Great Wall ends at Jiayuguan Pass. It covers area of almost 6,700 Km , height of wall varies from place to place, its maximum height is 9 meters and minimum is 4.5 meters.  Depth wise measurement of this wall is 4.5 m to 8m.

The Great Wall of China is built of stones, bricks, soil, sand, straw, wood, clay and whatever that whatever that was available in that specific era depending on the territory and time period.

Modern Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China which we see today was built by the Ming dynasty 600 years ago. At that time the original wall was in ruins. Ming emperors ordered to re-build this great wall. This great wall was re-built in 200 years of time period. This Great Wall survived all through centuries because there was an invention during that time, it was mixing rice flour to create extreme tough bricks and mortar.

Now some parts of Great Wall of China are in great condition because those were restored by the Chinese government to attract the tourists. Every year thousand of tourists from all around the world visit this Great Wall.

Top 3 Mysterious Places of the World

According to experts mysterious sites around the world were created by ancient civilization with the help of advanced knowledge and technology and that possibly can be more advanced than our current one.  Some do not believe that there was any so much advanced ancient civilization on earth and ancient astronauts who came down from heaven handed all of the superb knowledge down to us

Most of scientists do not believe on up stated ideas they try to explain ancient enigmas on the ground of religion and ritual.

According to Discovery Channel there are 3 places, which are the Most Enigmatic Places in the World. But aside from that there are so many other places around the world that capture our imagination because they seem to be so mysterious.

1. Stonehenge

Stonehenge is one of the most popular mysterious places in the world.

It’s a megalithic monument on the Salisbury Plain in Southern England. It’s composed of 30 upright stones, which are called sarsens, each stone is ten feet tall with more 45 tons weight; they are aligned in a circle with 30 lintels (each lintel weight is 6 tons) perched horizontally atop the sarsens in a continious circle. Inside the outer circle there another circle composed of similar stones and constructed in same fashion.

There are so many great monuments around the world now question is that what is so special about Stonehenge? Who built this? Is it was an astronomical observatory, a religious site or something supernatural?  There are no exact answers for these questions.

According to some experts Druids built Stonehenge, but they can’t tell about the builders. It was constructed between 5,000 and 3,000 years ago, from that it’s easy to know that it was built before that the first metal tools were invented.

Apart from that who built this stone monument, but that anyone can understand that in its construction thousands of people were involved. Dragging huge stones from Marlborough Downs, 30 Km to the south of Stonehenge that is remarkable achievement and amazing feat of engineering.

Stonehenge is even mentioned in Arthurian legend that names Merlin as the engineer.

Another interesting thing is that Stonehenge is built on such angle that the sun rising over the horizon appears to be perfectly placed between gaps in the megaliths.

2. Nazca Lines

Nazca Lines the excellent group of geolyphs in the world located in Nazca Desert, between the towns of Nazca and Palpa on the Pampas de Jumana in Peru. Engraved on the surface of the desert pampa sand about 300 figures made of straight lines, geometric shapes and pictures of animals and birds. All these engraved drawn images on the desert can be seen only from the air.

There are three mysterious features about Nazca Plateau:

·        The straight lines in the pattern of crossing lines in all directions are many kilometers long.

·        Many of lines form geometric shapes like angles, triangles, bunches, spirals, rectangles, wavy lines, etc.

·        Those lines form animal patterns also.

It is believed that the people called Nasca drew these lines but how they created this wonder of the world no one had explained. As the Nazca lines cannot be viewed except from the air it is assumed that the Nazca people had never seen their work from this vantage point.

3. Easter Island

Easter Island, which is called Rapa Nui in local language, is located in the southeastern Pacific Ocean and it’s under control of Chile government.

It is small, hilly, treeless island of volcanic origin.  It is one of most isolated inhabited territory on earth but this aspect is cause of its fame, the thing which makes it apart from any other place on earth is its hundreds of megalithic human like statues that face inland from the shore. These statues are called moai.

Approximately all moais are carved out of compressed, easily worked volcanic ash. In these moais largest ones weight is 165 tons and its height is almost 22 meters.

It really looks mysterious that on a barren island how these mega statues were carved? Who built these and why? And how such gigantic statues were carved?

Scholars are unable to answer these questions some suggest that Easter Island inhabitants, the Rapanui who were came from Polynesia.

Easter Island is also known as Te-Pito-O-Te-Henua, meaning “The Navel of the World” and as Mata-Ki-Te-Rani, meaning “ Eyes Looking at Heaven”.

Top 10 Largest Churches of the World

Christianity is the world’s largest religion and church is the place where they go to worship God! There are millions of churches all around the world. Here I had compiled a list of world’s 10 largest churches in terms of their floor area. Thousand of people go to these houses of God.

Here are the top 10 largest churches of the world:

1. St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City

The Saint Peter’s Basilica building is considered one of greatest building of its time. Construction of this church building was started on 15^th April 1506 and it was completed in 15^th November 1626. This great building which we have today taken almost 120 years, its having largest interior with the width of 150 m and length of 220 m. More than 60,000 people can hold prayers together in this holy building. The basilica is the holiest building in all churches of the world. Its official name in Italian is Basilca di San Pietro in Vaticano.

2. Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida, Brazil

The new Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida was established as a minor basilica by Pope Saint Pius X in 1908.  Its new building was built in 1955 and it was architected by  Bendito Calixto.  Bendito Calixto designed it in form of Greek cross. This building’s length is 173m, width 168m, height 100 m and dome height is 70 m.  This church is having cpacity for 45,000 people. It was named as most important National Marian Shrine in Brazil by Pope John Paul II.

3. Cathedral of Seville, Spain

Cathedral of Seville in Spanish called as Catedral de Santa Maria de la Sede. This is the third largest church in the world and some claim it largest Gothic cathedral in the world. Its construction was started in 1402 and it was completed in 16^th century. Its building covers total area of 11,520 sq/m.  Christian architects added extra dimension to its height and now its central nave rise to a height of 138 ft.

4. Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, United States

This church’s architect was designed by the George Fredrick Bodley and Philip Hubert Frohman. Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in United States is considered to be the 4^th largest church in the world.  Its interior is having length of 183.2 m and width is 70.7 m. Originally it was designed as Byzantine Romanesque but later on it was changed to Gothic. This church was damaged by huge fire in 2001. Its building is having capacity for almost 20,000 people.

5. Liverpool Cathedral, United Kingdom

Liverpool cathedral of England is considered as 5^th largest church in the world. The total area covered by this church is 9,600 sq meters. Its building is mainly made of sand stone. Its bell tower is largest in the world and houses the world’s highest 219 feet and heaviest 31 tons ringing peal of bells. Those 13 bells are called Bartlett Bells. Its nave height is 116 feet and choir height is 116 feet also. It haves only one tower and that is bell tower.

6. Church of the Most Holy Trinity, Portugal

Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Portugal is the 4^th largest Catholic Church and sixth largest Christian church in the world. It is also known as Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Fatima. This church’s construction was started in 2004 and it was completed in 2007 and it was consecrated on October 12, 2007. Its length is 95 m and width is 115 m. Round about 9,000 people can hold up in its building.

7. Milan Cathedral, Italy

Milan Cathedral is dedicated to Santa Maria Nascente and it taken almost six centuries to be completed. It is referred as one of the greatest churches of the world. Its length is 157m and width is 92 meters. Forty thousand people can sit together in its building to worship God. In Gothic Cathedrals it is largest in world and in Christian churches it’s on 7^th number. It is considered as most famous building in Europe.

8. Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Belgium

Its first stone was laid by the King Leopold II in 1905 and its construction was completed in 1970. It taken time because its construction was stopped twice during both world wars, this church covers 164.5 meters area in length and 107.80 meters area in width. This is sixth largest Roman Catholic Church in the world. Almost 2,000 people can sit in this building.

9. Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, Ivory Coast

Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Ivory Coast is listed as world’s largest church in the Guinness World Records. Its covers area of 30,000 sq meters and almost 18,000 people can worship God in it. Its construction was started in 1985 and it was completed in 1989. This church was consecrated in 1990 by Pope John Paul II.

10. Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lichen, Poland

Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lichen is the largest church in Poland. Its 7^th largest church in Europe and 10^th largest in the world, its construction was started in 1994 and it was completed in 2004.  It covers area of 120 meters in length and 77 meters in width. This church was built in hone of the Blessed Virgin Mary and it also holds a 200 year old painting known as the “Our Lady of Sorrows, Queen of Poland.”