Sanctuaries
14 ancient sanctuaries across 11 countries, from Varanasi (Kashi) (1,800 BCE) to St Michael's Mount (1135 CE), and the theories that connect them.
Varanasi (Kashi)
The city of light where the cosmos is said to have been founded — and where dying is a liberation.
Temple Mount / Haram al-Sharif
The Foundation Stone: for three faiths, the point where heaven and earth are fastened together.
Delos
The floating island anchored so a god could be born — where no one was allowed to be born or die again.
Delphi
The navel of the ancient world, where a priestess breathed the breath of the earth and spoke for a god.
Persepolis
The ceremonial heart of the first world empire, tuned — some argue — to the light of Nowruz.
Bodh Gaya
The immovable spot: the patch of earth where, tradition says, all Buddhas attain awakening.
Ise Grand Shrine
A shrine two thousand years old and never more than twenty — eternity achieved by perpetual rebuilding.
Monte Sant'Angelo
The oldest shrine of Michael in the West — a cave the archangel is said to have consecrated himself.
Skellig Michael
Beehive cells on a sea-crag at the edge of the known world — the first bead on the Michael axis.
The Kaaba, Mecca
The cube at the centre of a billion daily compass bearings — the world's strongest living example of sacred orientation.
Mont-Saint-Michel
'The wonder of the West' — an abbey grown like a crystal on a tidal rock, dedicated to the weigher of souls.
Chaco Canyon
Great houses in a barren canyon, tied to the horizon by roads that go nowhere.
Sacra di San Michele
An abbey grafted onto an alpine peak, midpoint of the sword-straight line of Michael sanctuaries.
St Michael's Mount
A tidal island where, legend says, fishermen saw the archangel of high places in 495 CE.