Uniquely spikey Bryn Cader Faner in Wales dates from 3,000 BC. Located on a remote hillside 400m above sea level and two miles from the nearest road, this tomb is in a spectacular location.

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Decapitated head of one of 10 seated figures from 62BC located on the summit of the 2,000 metre tall Nemrut mountain, Turkey. The statues are 9 metres tall and include King Antiochus, gods, lions and eagles. The statues are located on two terraces on either side of a large burial tumulus [6016x3754]

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Colossal two-tonne, 1.5 metre tall, 3,000 year old statue of Hittite King Suppiluliuma in Hatay Museum, Antakaya (Antioch). The statue was found in 2012 at Tell Tayinat. The statue is believed to have been 3.5 metres tall originally. The rear has Hittite hieroglyphics, photo Sep 20. [2792 x 3626].

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Entrance to the huge 3600 year-old tomb of Clytemnestra, Mycenae, Greece. The roof of this bee-hive/tholos tomb is incredibly high.

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Baalbek Roman temple complex, Lebanon. Human in lower right for scale. One of the largest ancient ruins in the world, several platform stones weigh over 1,000 tonnes. An incredibly impressive site.

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Rare copper statuette of the god Sarapis Amun Agathodeamon, 300BC. The Egyptian-Graeco cult was introduced during the era of Alexander the Great. Artifact located in Athens' archaeological museum. [2612 x 3986].

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York just now, must be March.

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Monteriggioni, Tuscany, Italy. [OC] by a DJI Mavic drone. One of Siena's fortified towns against Florence, it withstood several attacks. There is a good museum inside the walls, and of course there are several references and products to Assassins Creed.

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Tilbury Fort, River Thames (Essex), UK [OC]. The UK doesn't have many star forts. By drone the outer moat and other earthworks can clearly be seen. There are other forts on the Thames between London and the English Channel, but this is the largest. English Heritage owns the site.

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Bar Shot on the HMS Revenge, Battle of Trafalgar 1805. The shot entered the 3rd lower deck port, hit a cannon, then bounced to the foremast where it decapitated a midshipman, then it swept a gun crew killing all seven before embedding in the hull. Now a sundial in the Whitby museum. [2725x 972].

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Nubian pyramids and Jebel Barkal hill, Sudan. Some of the temples in the hill are ornately decorated and date over 4000 years old. A far larger pyramid field is located at Nuri, not far from here.

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12,000 year-old grave goods of fantastic creatures including dog/goat-headed bee bodies, and giant centipedes. From prestigious graves in Kortik Tepe, now displayed in the Diyarbakir museum, Turkey. These amazing items pre-date writing, metal tools and agriculture. Link in comments. [2866x3840].

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Walmgate Bar. City walls are rare in the UK, but barbicans are even rarer - this is the last surviving one. It dates from the 12th century and was attacked in two sieges. The Minster in the background shows how far the walls run. Photographed yesterday, traffic lights photoshopped out.

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100s of stone cannon shot ready in Koules Venetian fort, in Heraklion, Crete. When the Ottomans overran and captured Crete in the 1600s, Heraklion and this fort alone remained. The walled city and this fort held out for a further 21 years of siege.

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Ischia castle [OC]. The castle is located on a small island opposite Naples, Italy. The views from the battlements and rear gardens are mint and like GoT. There is an impressive windy road up to the castle top too. Apparently the British shelled it in Napoleon Wars.

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Helmsley castle, North Yorkshire, England. [OC] Jan 2018. This is medieval castle that was refortified and fought over during the English civil war. The castle was then slighted to make it unusable. This resulted in half the keep falling, and half remaining standing.

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Raby Castle, Yorkshire, England. Dating from the medieval period, it is still lived in by local lords and their serfs/jesters.

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Kamianets Podilskyi castle, Ukraine [OC]. This lovely UNESCO castle is connected to a medieval town by a rock causeway with a fast-flowing river at the canyon bottom. The castle looks quite different from every angle, appearing more like a fort from the flanks.

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Ohrid castle, near Skopje. This UNESCO castle and town also has expansive city walls. Taken by drone in June [OC].

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The oldest life-size human statue in the world - Urfa man from 11,000 years ago. The statue is about 5'8 (174cm) high and has obsidian stones in his eye sockets. [OC] Discovered in Sanliurfa, Turkey, and on display in their excellent museum. Contemporary with nearby Gobleki Tepe. [3453x5597].

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York riverfront late summer nights (9pm). Anyone know what the buildings on the water are? Some seem empty or just used for storage.

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Jebel Barkal, Sudan [OC]. Different drone angle to show one of the three Egyptian temples and statue terrace at the foot of the hill. The pyramids can be seen behind the hill. At the foot of the rock pinnacle a temple cut inside the rock face which is ornately decorated.

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Holgate Windmill on it's hill with the Minster and large railway shed to the rear. York has a few hills, many bigger than you expect when running up them.

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Scarborough castle, Yorkshire, UK [OC]. The strategic headland also has the remains of a Roman signal station on the cliff edge. The castle was refortified, besieged and slighted in the civil war. In WW1 German battleships shelled the castle and then the town with 500 shells. 17 people were killed.

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Greenan Castle, Scotland [OC]. This Scottish tower house is built right on the very edge of a high cliff. Very vertigo!

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Middleham castle, Yorkshire [OC]. From above it's possible to see the curtain wall and keep clearly. This is a very historic castle. The future Richard III spent much time here. The Kingmaker imprisoned Edward IV here briefly. My first drone flight ever was here. Now an English Heritage site.

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Argos castle, Greece. This huge castle dominates the skyline for miles. Oddly it's empty and unmanned! It would be a massive tourist attraction in the UK. The lower-centre section and other parts of the wall is actually built on top of huge cyclopean Mycenaean stones - over 3,000 years old.

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Pirizen Fortress, Kosovo [OC]. This fort sits atop a deep gorge that gives access to the city plain, so is strategically located. There is also a hilltop castle one mile deeper into the gorge from here. I managed to fly the drone from one to the other. Links in comments.

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Ancient helmet with rams for Mars, god of war, engraved on sides. Ohrid Museum, Macedonia.

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Stobi near Skopje. Famous for its amazing mosaics, from the air its city walls are also impressive. This town was conquered by Macedons and then by the Romans where it was a provincial capital. Take by drone in June [OC].

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FYI the ring road is closed clockwise where A59 joins. Traffic being redirected through Poppleton, miles of queues nearly back to A64. The roundabout is blocked with containers.

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Santa Teresa Fort, Uruguay. [OC]. Taken December 2017 by DJI Mavic.

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Chocolate Works today, before the rain, with the Minster way off in the background. Anyone been in these apartments? Look very swish, not in my budget!

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Roman inscription near Baku, Azerbaijan - nearly 4000 miles from Rome. The time of Emperor Domitianus Caesar Augustus Germanicus, Lucius Julius Maxim, and Centurion XII of the Lightning Legion. Pretty astounding to think it's a 7 hour flight from Hadrian's Wall near me. Image [OC]

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Roman mosaic, Setif, Algeria [OC]. This is the largest Roman mosaic I have seen, and also one of the most detailed. Most museums in Algeria don't allow photos, but luckily this one did. Links to more photos in comments.

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Armenia's only remaining Greco-Roman building, the 'temple' at Garni located on a spectacular gorge edge in mountains [OC]. Links in comments.

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General Militade's helmet and a Persian helmet, battle of Marathon 490BC. The helmets were engraved and offered as victory tokens. Now located in Olympia museum. [3920x2933]. Many thanks to the Redditers that drew my attention to this and other amazing historical stuffs.

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Roman signal station on a Yorkshire cliff [OC]. There are Roman signal stations at Filey, Scarborough and Goldsborough. Excavations at Goldsborough found Roman coins and the skulls of soldiers that died violent deaths. These are displayed in Whitby museum. Links in comments.

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I saw a few abandoned dredgers in Alaska, but this was the biggest by far, located just outside of Nome, near-arctic Alaska [OC]. The tail boom is also massive, though it's not clear from this angle. Each scoop on the belt is the size of an arm chair. The interior was fascinating to explore.

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1100 year old Christian fresco saved from Faras cathedral, Sudan. [OC]. Sudan had Christian kingdoms for over 700 years. This amazing fresco of young men burning in hell is in Sudan's national museum. Warsaw also has several. The cathedral is now under the Meroe dam, as is Buhen fortress. Very sad.

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Aurelian city gate of Rome [OC]. The walls date from 270AD, but were also refortified and used in Italy's later wars. The gate shown here is Porta San Sebastiano and is the start of the Appian Way. I'd recommend renting a bicycle and spending a few hours cycling around the walls, and tens of gates.

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Kirby Muxloe [OC]. This fortified Manor House now only has a single tower and gate remaining. The tower is deceptively high from this photo. The whole castle is made of small bricks, like Teutonic castles in Poland. Now an English Heritage site.

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Roman inspired 'Kiosk' and Egyptian Lion Temple [OC], Naqa, Sudan. The British museum's famous Augustus bust was found at Meroe not far from here.

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Baalbek, Lebanon, has one of the largest Roman buildings I have seen. Both in its individual blocks and in its cumulative structure. However, not far away in a quarry is this 1,000 ton Roman monolith [OC] that never made it into the temple. There are even two larger monoliths too. Links in comments.

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Resafa/Sergiopolis city wall gate [OC], Syria. One of the eeriest places I have been. 15m high city walls over a mile long in the middle of the desert. Inside the city walls - mostly nothing, destroyed by later mongols. Two churches and some deep water cisterns, that's about it. Links in comments.

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Three weeks in Sudan, returning yesterday - Meroe was the highlight [OC]. Meroe is a huge archeological site with city ruins and several necropolis, including the famous one shown here. Many of the 2000+ year old pyramid tombs have subterranean painted chapels and carved porches above ground.

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Housesteads Roman Fort on Hadrian's Wall by drone [OC]. Probably the most interesting site on Hadrian's Wall, it is located on one of the best stretches to walk. Housesteads is certainly one of the best preserved Roman forts in the UK, and has a small museum on site. Links in comments.

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Apamea, Syria, 2010 [OC]. Apamea has one of the Roman world's longest great colonnades - at over one mile long. Sadly the site has been much damaged by looters digging for treasures (see links). One of Apamea's best mosaics can be seen in Brussel's Cinquantenaire museum. More links in comments.

6yr ⋅

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Egyptian era glassware from Sudan's Meroe Royal City. Now located in Khartoum National Museum. [OC]. Full description in image.

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Tower of Elahbel, Palmyra, Syria. Four-story vertical Roman tomb. Photo taken in 2010 [OC]. I believe ISIS destroyed this remarkable wonder in 2015 :( Links in comments.

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Lambaesis Roman Garrison, Batna, Algeria. Free-standing building in the centre of a square Roman garrison in Algeria. An insignia of a Legion can be seen above the gate. The Lambaesis site has a large Colosseum with gladiator pits, tombs, roman roads, camp walls and two triumphs. [OC]

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Cawthorne Roman Practice camp. Pickering, Yorkshire, UK. [OC]. The earth works here are huge, but only from the air can they be fully appreciated. Cawthorne has four Roman camps. This is the clearest and most impressive. It's on a ridge edge with a great view, which is hard to tell from this photo.

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Gonio Roman Fort, Georgia, Caucasus [OC]. On the Black Sea coast near Batumi, this is one of the most complete and impressive Roman forts I have visited. Oddly, there are some modern bunkers and firing ports in some towers. Very hard to get a decent photo due to being in a wood. Links in comments.

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Brough castle, Cumbria, UK. [OC]. The A66 east-west main road was an important medieval road and has several key castles.

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Lhasa Potola Palace [OC]. This girl asked to take my photo (westerners get asked this sometimes). In return I asked for her photo and got this lovely shot. I would have been too shy had she not asked me first. She is likely Han Chinese and in Tibetan dress for 'fun'.

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Maiji Shan, Gansu Province. 1000 year-old Buddhist grottoes clinging a huge rock face. It was a three hour wilderness hike without seeing a soul to get to this photo viewpoint[OC]. This is the only photo that came out with good sharpness as 200mm zoom maxed out. Links in comments.

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My Everest, from Tibet. [OC]. I choose to walk from the main tourist area to the view point here, it took one hour. The altitude gave me a headache like no other. A small hill at the end was like a mountain. Lucky that the clouds cleared for a short photo opportunity.

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3000+ year old Buhen Fort, Sudan. This massive structure was one of several Egyptian forts used as springboards to raid into Nubia. Sadly it is now under the Aswan Dam's waters.

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Longmen grottoes of Luoyang city, Henan, China [OC]. These huge caves and statues date from 400AD and have UNESCO status. Some of the 2,000+ caves have giant statues or ornate carvings inside. Luoyang also has great museums, city walls, temples and ancient chariot tombs.

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Hua Shan plank walk [OC]. Located near Xian, this is one of the most spectacular places I have been in China. The cable car up alone is amazing. Then it's a long downward hike to another cable car station. Anyone have photos of hiking all the way down without cable cars? The path looks amazing.

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Bolton castle, Yorkshire, UK [OC]. Mary Queen of scots stayed here for six months. Later the castle was slighted in the civil war. One tower is now missing. The castle has been used in several films. It has an enclosure with wild boars which is worth seeing.

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West Kennet Long Barrow, UK [OC]. This ancient tomb dates from 3600 BC. It's older than Stonehenge. Avebury stone circle is near, as is Silbury Hill.

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Silbury hill monument from 2400BC [OC]. This 40m high man-made mound is the largest in Europe. It is located near Avebury stone circle and the West Kennet Barrow (tomb). The purpose of the massive ancient mound was t

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Forced drone update of 250mb in Sudan interior meant no more drone for entire holiday 😞 This also happened in UK and on Road of Death, Bolivia (but at least could find high-speed Wifi day later). Why / how this happen? I had no 3G or phone signal. Is there a way to avoid? Photo is Soleb temple.

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