Most visitors to Kanchanaburi come for the world-famous bridge over the river Kwai, but there is much more to see in the area.
Wat Tham Suea, or the “tiger cave temple” is one of the most famous temples in Kanchanaburi and worth a few hours to visit.
There is another temple near Krabi with the same name as well as the tiger temple that was closed down after being accused of drugging the tigers. This temple is not either one of those two.
This temple gets its name from supposedly having a family of tigers that was living in the cave before it was a temple.
This temple plays host to an enormous golden Buddha, visible for miles around, known as “Chin Prathaporn”. It was constructed in 1973. It is an amazing 18 meters high and 10 meters wide with many local Thai residents coming up daily to make merit here. There is a 157 step climb to the temple or a cheap tram ride from the base of the hill.
The temple is open from 7:30am until 4:30pm on Monday to Friday, and 7am until 5:30pm on ...
The Mausoleum of Khoja Daniyar sits on a quiet hillside along the northeastern edge of ancient Afrasiab in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, overlooking the Siab River.
This long, low building crowned with five simple domes houses an extraordinary sarcophagus nearly eighteen meters in length, draped in green velvet embroidered with verses from the Quran. Local tradition holds that the remains of the biblical prophet Daniel rest here, a figure known in the region as Daniyar or Khoja Daniyar.
Daniel was a Jewish prophet of the sixth century BC who served in the courts of Babylonian and Persian kings. Famous for interpreting dreams and surviving a night in a den of lions, he is revered across Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Though he is not named in the Quran, Islamic tradition regards him as one of the righteous prophets sent to the Children of Israel. Muslims, Christians, and Jews all visit this site, each praying according to their own custom, making it a rare place of shared devotion.
According to the ...
Samarkand ranks among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central Asia, with evidence of settlement in the Zerafshan River valley stretching back more than two and a half millennia. Known in antiquity as Maracanda, it served as the capital of Sogdiana and was captured by Alexander the Great in 329 BC.
Over the following centuries it passed under successive Iranian, Turkic, and Arab rule, flourishing as a major Silk Road trading and craft center. In 1220 Genghis Khan’s Mongol armies destroyed much of the city.
After a period of recovery it rose to its greatest prominence when Timur, known in the West as Tamerlane, chose it as the capital of his vast empire in the late fourteenth century. Under the Timurid dynasty, especially during the reign of Timur’s grandson Ulugh Beg, Samarkand became a brilliant hub of architecture, science, and Islamic learning.
The city later declined, was absorbed into the Khanate of Bukhara, and stood largely deserted for decades in the eighteenth century ...
The railway network of Uzbekistan traces its roots to the late nineteenth century when the Russian Empire built the Trans-Caspian line across the region. During the Soviet period the system expanded into a dense network of broad-gauge tracks that linked industrial centers and agricultural zones.
After independence the country began modernizing its rails, focusing first on passenger comfort and then on speed. The breakthrough came in 2011 with the introduction of the Afrosiyob high-speed trains built by Spain’s Talgo.
These Spanish trainsets cut the Tashkent to Samarkand journey from more than four hours to roughly two hours and soon extended service to Bukhara. In 2026 Uzbekistan Railways added a new generation of Korean-built trains that pushed the high-speed corridor farther west to Khiva, completing a continuous modern spine across the heart of the country.
The route from Bukhara to Samarkand follows the upgraded high-speed line that runs roughly two hundred twenty kilometers across the open ...
