CAIRO - In these days we all need to wind down and relax. Even in the midst of our fasting there are other things occupying our thoughts about the future. We need something or some occasion to calm us down.
Well, the train journey from Cairo to (...)
Sitting proudly on a lush wooded hill overlooking the River Thames, Windsor Castle covers an area of about 13 acres and is the oldest and largest residential castle in the world.
Dating back to King William the Conqueror and his invasion of England (...)
In the Cairo Museum, behind a colossal group of limestone statues of King Amenophis III, his wife Tyi and three of their daughters, from the temple of Medinat Habu on the West Bank at Luxor, there is a small section dedicated to Pharaoh Amenhoptep (...)
The delightful tiny Hungarian town of Visegrad, situated on the bend in the river Danube just twenty five kilometres north of Budapest, has played a role in European history far greater than its size would suggest.
With fewer than two thousand (...)
Poland has an impressive fourteen World heritage sites. These range from the historic centres of Cracow and Warsaw to the concentration camp at Auschwitz Berkenau and include historic churches and mediaeval towns. Among them is the stunning Castle (...)
The nomadic tribes who migrated into the region of present-day Kazakhstan in the 13th century were united as a single nation in the middle of the 16th century. The area was conquered by Russia and became a part of the Russian empire in the 18th (...)
In a country not short of splendid monuments and magnificent natural beauty, the Alhambra Palace in southern Spain is one of the most enchanting places on earth. Reminding us of that Golden Age of Islam, the Alhambra speaks to the hearts of people (...)
The ‘Singing Revolution' is the term often used for the spontaneous outbreak of singing for national independence from the Soviet Union which took place in Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia from 1987 to 1991, leading to the restoration of their (...)
If we look back in the holy Qura'n, at how Muslims have responded to Almighty Allah throughout history, we see a tale of people turning away again and again from the straight path. Even though, time and time again, Allah has sent down Prophets to (...)
From the 17th century, Oman had its own empire, and vied with Portugal and Britain for influence in the Gulf and Indian Ocean. With a strategically important position at the mouth of the Gulf, at its peak in the 19th century, Omani influence or (...)
Al-Azhar, ‘The Resplendent'. is one of the most famous and venerable Islamic institutions in the world. Its very name shows the esteem and the honour in which Al-Azhar is held by Muslims. Greater than any one man or group of men, for one thousand (...)
Some people always look angry, don't they? You can see it on their faces. These people look as though they will explode any minute and vent their anger on the first person who gives them the chance to do so. Heaven help the waiter who is late with (...)
Famed for the Manhattan skyline and the Statue of Liberty, New York is not as well known for its medieval sculpture. On a wooded hill overlooking the Hudson River, though, the Cloisters Museum is not only a surprise, but a real breath of fresh air (...)
With so much of the world's attention focused this week on the new Pope in Rome, many eyes are now also looking at a small hill town in Italy famous as the home of one of Italy's great saints and namesake of the new Pope, Francis I. Saint Francis of (...)
As white smoke billowed from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel in Rome on Wednesday evening and thousands of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics hurried into Saint Peter's Square to greet their new pope, the world held its breath to see who the (...)
When Annie Moore set off from Ireland's County Cork on December 20, 1891, she thought nothing special about her own desire to leave the land of her birth. Like so many others of her generation, she was forced to leave behind her beloved home because (...)
Life is a mystery and things happen to us in a way that is quite out of our control. The late President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela had no inkling when running once more for president last year that he would not live to be sworn in for another term as (...)
Muslims believe that Islam has existed since the beginning of time and that it is the natural religion of mankind. As such, then, they believe that Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) is not the founder of Islam but the last of a long line of Messengers sent by (...)
It was the handcuffs that attracted people's attention. What the three of them had done wasn't immediately apparent, but being handcuffed to each other in a crowded tramcar in Alexandria was what attracted the gaze of every single passenger. You (...)
“The Victorian clergyman, John William Burgon, famously described the ruins of Petra in Jordan as "A rose-red city, half as old as time," The magic and the romance of Petra remain today, attracting visitors from all over the world to this lost and (...)
Earlier this month, in an announcement from Rome that took the whole world by surprise, the Roman Catholic leader, Pope Benedict XVI, announced his intention to relinquish his office on February 28 and cease to be Pope. The decision was all the more (...)
Earlier this month, millions of Cambodians mourned their former King Norodom Sihamouk at his funeral procession in Phnom Penh. The eighty year old monarch, crowned seventy years ago, was revered and respected by all. Sihanouk had won independence (...)
Democracy is not a numbers game. It is not the domination of one group over another just because they have one more vote than all their opponents put together. Democracy doesn't work like that. Similarly, in a democratic system people have to live (...)
The Pyramids at Giza are, of course, famous throughout the world as symbols of Egypt and high on the must see list of every visitor to this country. There are other pyramids, though, on the other side of the world on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, (...)
Even the devil himself can quote scripture! It is easy for anyone to take a quotation out of context and touse this quotation in support of any spurious argument. The idea of Islam fighting non-believers, for example, is one of the most widely (...)