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Towards the rock-hewn church of Abuna Yemata Guh in Tigray Ethiopia. Source: Reto Ammann / Adobe Stock.

Abuna Yemata Guh: Ethiopia’s Chapel in the Sky (Video)

Northern Ethiopia's Tigray Region is renowned for its collection of rock-hewn churches , the most incredible of which is Abuna Yemata Guh, carved out of sandstone and perched 650 feet above a steep...
Pinned to the side of its cliff face is the Xuan Kong Si, also known as the Hanging Monastery of Mount Heng. (Public domain)

15 Incredible Cliff Constructions from the Ancient World

Humans have created monumental constructions on cliff faces throughout the world. These striking architectural wonders have often times been inspired by the desire to come closer to the heavens or to...
Montezuma Castle: Arizona’s Strange Monumental Cliff Dwelling

Montezuma Castle: Arizona’s Strange Monumental Cliff Dwelling

Montezuma Castle is a national monument located in the western US state of Arizona. Although the name of the monument suggests a connection with the Aztecs, Montezuma Castle was in fact built by the...
Mule Canyon: Ancestral Pueblo Village of the Anasazi

Mule Canyon: Ancestral Pueblo Village of the Anasazi

The Four Corners region of the United States is a unique place in North America . It is the meeting place of the four corners of Utah, Arizona , New Mexico, and Colorado . With its distinct...
6000 tombs from a timespan of 2000 years provide archaeologists with special insight into ancient Chinese burial customs. Source: 51grb

Ancient Chinese Burial Customs Exposed at Cliff of Tombs

In China, archaeologists have found thousands of burials on a cliff. The burial ground was in use for over 2000 years. Many important historical artifacts have been uncovered in the tombs. These...
The Hanging Coffins of Sagada, Philippines

Unique and Unsettling: The Hanging Coffins of Sagada, Philippines

The Igorots are an indigenous tribe living in Sagada, Luzon Island, Philippines. The Igorots practice unique funerary customs, in which the dead are buried in coffins which are tied or nailed to the...
The Sumela Monastery, Turkey

The Thousand-Year History of the Spectacular Cliff Face Monastery of Sumela

The Sumela Monastery is one of the oldest and most historic monasteries in the Christian world. There are no exact records about when it was built or by who, but it is estimated that its history...
The rock-cut tombs of Pantalica, Sicily

Pantalica: The Spectacular Honeycomb Tombs of Sicily

Hidden away in the Hyblaean Mountains of Sicily lies a prehistoric cemetery called the Rocky Necropolis of Pantalica. Used during the late Bronze Age between the 13th and 7th century BC, it is a...
A carnivorous dinosaur track heading up the rock face at Cretaceous Park, Bolivia.

Footprints on the Wall: Were Dinosaurs Actually Climbing the Cliffs in Bolivia?

Some ancient rock art shows the deliberate leaving of hand prints by our ancestors leaving a lasting impression of their existence. The surprising prints that are to be found on a rock face in...
The Phugtal Monastery, India

An 8-Hour Walk to Get Groceries: This Monastery is so Remote That Almost No One Has Heard About It

The Phugtal Monastery is a Buddhist monastery located in the Ladakh region of the northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. This monastery was constructed inside a natural cave, and is considered...
Carved into the rock face, with a plaster façade, is Abba Yohani Church

Hidden Religion: Abba Yohani and the Clandestine Cave Churches of Ethiopia

Ethiopia is a land full of ancient relics. For example, the fossil remains of the earliest hominins were found in Ethiopia. The oldest stone tools known to have been intelligently manufactured by...
The Spectacular Subterranean Rock Church of Saint Jean

The Spectacular Subterranean Rock Church of Saint Jean

The Subterranean Church of Saint Jean is an impressive rock-carved church located in the village of Aubeterre-sur-Dronne, which is officially designated as one of the most beautiful villages in...
Hanging coffins of the Bo people in China

More than One Hundred Ancient Hanging Coffins Discovered in China

A cluster of 113 hanging coffins dating back 1,200 years have been discovered on cliff-faces and in caves in Zigui county, Hubei province, close to the site of the Three Gorges Dam in China. The...
Mysterious, Giant Face Found on Cliff in Canada - Man-Made or Natural?

Mysterious, Giant Face Found on Cliff in Canada—Man-Made or Natural?

By Tara MacIsaac , Epoch Times Parks Canada is trying to figure out how a face, estimated to be about 7 feet tall, appeared on a cliff in a remote region of Canada. It was discovered a few weeks ago...
Village in Morocco on rock avalanche

Village in Morocco is built on 4,500-year-old rock avalanche

For more than a century, geologists have been puzzled by the giant pile of boulders that sit underneath the village of Arroumd in the High Atlas of Morocco. However, according to a report in Live...
Cremated bones in 4000-year-old cist burial - Scotland

Cremated bones in 4000-year-old cist burial found hanging from Scottish cliff

Archaeologists have discovered cremated human remains in a Bronze Age cist burial hanging precariously from a cliff edge on Scotland’s Isle of Arran. One of the bones has been dated to between 2154...
Neanderthals would drive mammoth off the edge of cliffs

Neanderthals cleared of herding mammoth over cliff edge

It has long been believed that the piles of mammoth and woolly rhino bones found piled up at the foot of a cliff in Jersey was the result of Neanderthals driving the animals to their deaths over the...
Bamiyan Buddhas

World Heritage Committee halts reconstruction of ancient Bamiyan Buddhas

The World Heritage Committee (WHC) has halted the reconstruction of the magnificent Bamiyan Buddhas , which were obliterated by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001 despite wide-spread campaigns to...
Cliff Burials in China

Chinese archaeologists rescue remains of ancient cliff burials

Archaeologists in China are undertaking a rescue operation of 600 cliff burials , the oldest of which date back around 2,000 years to the Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD). Most of the ancient mountain...
Peru Purunmachu

The Sentinel Sarcophagi of the Warriors of the Clouds

In 1928, a powerful earthquake shook the hills surrounding the Utcubamba valley in Peru, revealing a seven foot tall clay statue, which came crashing down from the cliffside. Researchers were stunned...
Suspended Coffins in China

The mystery of the ancient hanging coffins suspended on a Chinese cliff face

On the mountain cliffs in Gongxian in Sichuan province, China, lies a peculiar sight –hundreds of ancient wooden coffins hanging precariously from the cliff face. Some believe they were hung on...