Profane Landscapes Sacred Spaces

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Profane Landscapes, Sacred Spaces

Author : Miroslav Bárta
Publisher : New Directions in Anthropological Archaeology
ISBN 13 : 9781781794098
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (94 download)

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Book Synopsis Profane Landscapes, Sacred Spaces by : Miroslav Bárta

Download or read book Profane Landscapes, Sacred Spaces written by Miroslav Bárta and published by New Directions in Anthropological Archaeology. This book was released on 2019 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ever since Herodotus, it has been observed that Egypt - that is, ancient Egyptian civilisation - was a gift of the Nile. However, only recently have Egyptologists come to appreciate that Egypt was as much a gift of the desert as a gift of the water, at least as regards its very beginnings. To understand the civilisation that originally settled along the Nile Valley and in the Delta, we must study not only the remains of ancient monuments, excavated artefacts and reconstructed texts, but take proper account of the landscape, conditions and environment that shaped Egypt's culture, religion and ideology. This volume addresses various aspects of how the world was perceived in the minds of Egyptians, and how Egyptians subsequently reshaped their surrounding landscape in harmony with their view of geography and cosmological ideas. Profane landscape and sacred space thus blend into one multi-faceted concept.

The Sacred and the Profane

Author : Mircea Eliade
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN 13 : 9780156792011
Total Pages : 268 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (92 download)

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Book Synopsis The Sacred and the Profane by : Mircea Eliade

Download or read book The Sacred and the Profane written by Mircea Eliade and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 1959 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Famed historian of religion Mircea Eliade observes that even moderns who proclaim themselves residents of a completely profane world are still unconsciously nourished by the memory of the sacred. Eliade traces manifestations of the sacred from primitive to modern times in terms of space, time, nature, and the cosmos. In doing so he shows how the total human experience of the religious man compares with that of the nonreligious. This book serves as an excellent introduction to the history of religion, but its perspective also emcompasses philosophical anthropology, phenomenology, and psychology. It will appeal to anyone seeking to discover the potential dimensions of human existence. -- P. [4] of cover.

Sacred Landscapes in Antiquity

Author : Ralph Haussler
Publisher : Oxbow Books
ISBN 13 : 1789253284
Total Pages : 816 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (892 download)

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Book Synopsis Sacred Landscapes in Antiquity by : Ralph Haussler

Download or read book Sacred Landscapes in Antiquity written by Ralph Haussler and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2020-07-31 with total page 816 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From generation to generation, people experience their landscapes differently. Humans depend on their natural environment: it shapes their behavior while it is often felt that deities responsible for both natural benefits and natural calamities (such as droughts, famines, floods and landslides) need to be appeased. We presume that, in many societies, lakes, rivers, rocks, mountains, caves and groves were considered sacred. Individual sites and entire landscapes are often associated with divine actions, mythical heroes and etiological myths. Throughout human history, people have also felt the need to monumentalize their sacred landscape. But this is where the similarities end as different societies had very different understandings, believes and practices. The aim of this new thematic appraisal is to scrutinize carefully our evidence and rethink our methodologies in a multi-disciplinary approach. More than 30 papers investigate diverse sacred landscapes from the Iberian peninsula and Britain in the west to China in the east. They discuss how to interpret the intricate web of ciphers and symbols in the landscape and how people might have experienced it. We see the role of performance, ritual, orality, textuality and memory in people’s sacred landscapes. A diachronic view allows us to study how landscapes were ‘rewritten’, adapted and redefined in the course of time to suit new cultural, political and religious understandings, not to mention the impact of urbanism on people’s understandings. A key question is how was the landscape manipulated, transformed and monumentalized – especially the colossal investments in monumental architecture we see in certain socio-historic contexts or the creation of an alternative humanmade, seemingly ‘non-natural’ landscape, with perfectly astronomically aligned buildings that define a cosmological order? Sacred Landscapes therefore aims to analyze the complex links between landscape, ‘religiosity’ and society, developing a dialectic framework that explores sacred landscapes across the ancient world in a dynamic, holistic, contextual and historical perspective.

Landscapes of the Sacred

Author : Belden C. Lane
Publisher : JHU Press
ISBN 13 : 9780801868382
Total Pages : 334 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (683 download)

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Book Synopsis Landscapes of the Sacred by : Belden C. Lane

Download or read book Landscapes of the Sacred written by Belden C. Lane and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This substantially expanded edition of Belden C. Lane's Landscapes of the Sacred includes a new introductory chapter that offers three new interpretive models for understanding American sacred space. Lane maintains his approach of interspersing shorter and more personal pieces among full-length essays that explore how Native American, early French and Spanish, Puritan New England, and Catholic Worker traditions has each expressed the connection between spirituality and place. A new section at the end of the book includes three chapters that address methodological issues in the study of spirituality, the symbol-making process of religious experience, and the tension between place and placelessness in Christian spirituality.

Sacred Landscapes in Antiquity

Author : Ralph Haussler
Publisher : Oxbow Books
ISBN 13 : 1789253349
Total Pages : 360 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (892 download)

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Book Synopsis Sacred Landscapes in Antiquity by : Ralph Haussler

Download or read book Sacred Landscapes in Antiquity written by Ralph Haussler and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2020-07-31 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From generation to generation, people experience their landscapes differently. Humans depend on their natural environment: it shapes their behavior while it is often felt that deities responsible for both natural benefits and natural calamities (such as droughts, famines, floods and landslides) need to be appeased. We presume that, in many societies, lakes, rivers, rocks, mountains, caves and groves were considered sacred. Individual sites and entire landscapes are often associated with divine actions, mythical heroes and etiological myths. Throughout human history, people have also felt the need to monumentalize their sacred landscape. But this is where the similarities end as different societies had very different understandings, believes and practices. The aim of this new thematic appraisal is to scrutinize carefully our evidence and rethink our methodologies in a multi-disciplinary approach. More than 30 papers investigate diverse sacred landscapes from the Iberian peninsula and Britain in the west to China in the east. They discuss how to interpret the intricate web of ciphers and symbols in the landscape and how people might have experienced it. We see the role of performance, ritual, orality, textuality and memory in people’s sacred landscapes. A diachronic view allows us to study how landscapes were ‘rewritten’, adapted and redefined in the course of time to suit new cultural, political and religious understandings, not to mention the impact of urbanism on people’s understandings. A key question is how was the landscape manipulated, transformed and monumentalized – especially the colossal investments in monumental architecture we see in certain socio-historic contexts or the creation of an alternative humanmade, seemingly ‘non-natural’ landscape, with perfectly astronomically aligned buildings that define a cosmological order? Sacred Landscapes therefore aims to analyze the complex links between landscape, ‘religiosity’ and society, developing a dialectic framework that explores sacred landscapes across the ancient world in a dynamic, holistic, contextual and historical perspective.

Sacred Places and Profane Spaces

Author : Jamie S. Scott
Publisher : Praeger
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.X/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis Sacred Places and Profane Spaces by : Jamie S. Scott

Download or read book Sacred Places and Profane Spaces written by Jamie S. Scott and published by Praeger. This book was released on 1991-09-30 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The editors and contributors to this pioneering volume have focused the lense of geography on new territory as they inquire critically into the spatial dimensions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, making this interdisciplinary project truly a new idea in the study of comparative religion and human geography. Editors Jamie Scott and Paul Simpson-Housley have organized the study into three broad areas of inquiry and have coined the term Geographics to encompass the three distinct yet interrelated spatial dimensions implicated in the study of religion. The first area concerns the literal role played by specific sites, regions, or geographical phenomena in the development of the three religions. The focus here is on city, wilderness, river valley, and mountain as well as flood, earthquake, whirlwind, and famine with attention devoted to methodological, epistemological, and ontological issues. The symbolic or interpreted role played by these same specific entities in the three religions is the second notion to be explored. The third focus is an inquiry into the geography of prophetic and apocalyptic visions and the role of geographical imagination in the development of religious self-understanding. This interface of natural and historical geography with the geography of the prophetic and apocalyptic imagination produces a graphic, sometimes terrifying landscape. The volume's nine essayists have approached their chapters with this threefold schematization in mind so that the book consists of one study devoted to each of these dimensions in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, as well as an introduction and afterword by the editors. Each essay discusses the relationship of the spatial and the sacred in scripture and in subsequent literary and theological reflection upon scriptural themes. The range of topics and variety of approaches used reflect the interpretive ambiguities that stem from the unique social, political, and economic functions conferred on places and spaces of particular significance in the life and thought of a religious tradition or community. The section on Judaism explores Jewish agricultural settlements in Palestine; the Temple Mount al-haram al-sharif; and the Garden of Eden. Indepth looks at Finland, women's geography, and the apocalyptic world comprise the section on Christianity. Iranian feasting and pilgrimage circuits, modern Egypt, and sacred geography are assessed in the final section on Islam. This carefully edited, innovative study offers a unique approach to the study of religion and will be read profitably by scholars and students of religion and geography.

The Routledge Companion to Landscape Studies

Author : Peter Howard
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351762923
Total Pages : 780 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (517 download)

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Book Synopsis The Routledge Companion to Landscape Studies by : Peter Howard

Download or read book The Routledge Companion to Landscape Studies written by Peter Howard and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-09-03 with total page 780 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new edition of The Routledge Companion to Landscape Studies contains an updated and expanded selection of original chapters which explore research directions in an array of disciplines sharing a concern for ‘landscape’, a term which has many uses and meanings. It features 33 revised and/or updated chapters and 14 entirely new chapters on topics such as the Anthropocene, Indigenous landscapes, challenging landscape Eurocentrisms, photography and green infrastructure planning. The volume is divided into four parts: Experiencing landscape; Landscape, heritage and culture; Landscape, society and justice; and Design and planning for landscape. Collectively, the book provides a critical review of the various fields related to the study of landscapes, including the future development of conceptual and theoretical approaches, as well as current empirical knowledge and understanding. It encourages dialogue across disciplinary barriers and between academics and practitioners, and reflects upon the implications of research findings for local, national and international policy in relation to landscape. The Companion provides a comprehensive and up-to-date guide to current thinking about landscapes, and serves as an invaluable point of reference for scholars, researchers and graduate students alike.

Landscapes of the Secular

Author : Nicolas Howe
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022637680X
Total Pages : 250 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (263 download)

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Book Synopsis Landscapes of the Secular by : Nicolas Howe

Download or read book Landscapes of the Secular written by Nicolas Howe and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2016-09-05 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “What does it mean to see the American landscape in a secular way?” asks Nicolas Howe at the outset of this innovative, ambitious, and wide-ranging book. It’s a surprising question because of what it implies: we usually aren’t seeing American landscapes through a non-religious lens, but rather as inflected by complicated, little-examined concepts of the sacred. Fusing geography, legal scholarship, and religion in a potent analysis, Howe shows how seemingly routine questions about how to look at a sunrise or a plateau or how to assess what a mountain is both physically and ideologically, lead to complex arguments about the nature of religious experience and its implications for our lives as citizens. In American society—nominally secular but committed to permitting a diversity of religious beliefs and expressions—such questions become all the more fraught and can lead to difficult, often unsatisfying compromises regarding how to interpret and inhabit our public lands and spaces. A serious commitment to secularism, Howe shows, forces us to confront the profound challenges of true religious diversity in ways that often will have their ultimate expression in our built environment. This provocative exploration of some of the fundamental aspects of American life will help us see the land, law, and society anew.

Scribbling through History

Author : Chloé Ragazzoli
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1474288839
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (742 download)

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Book Synopsis Scribbling through History by : Chloé Ragazzoli

Download or read book Scribbling through History written by Chloé Ragazzoli and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-05-31 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For most people the mention of graffiti conjures up notions of subversion, defacement, and underground culture. Yet, the term was coined by classical archaeologists excavating Pompeii in the 19th century and has been embraced by modern street culture: graffiti have been left on natural sites and public monuments for tens of thousands of years. They mark a position in time, a relation to space, and a territorial claim. They are also material displays of individual identity and social interaction. As an effective, socially accepted medium of self-definition, ancient graffiti may be compared to the modern use of social networks. This book shows that graffiti, a very ancient practice long hidden behind modern disapproval and street culture, have been integral to literacy and self-expression throughout history. Graffiti bear witness to social events and religious practices that are difficult to track in normative and official discourses. This book addresses graffiti practices, in cultures ranging from ancient China and Egypt through early modern Europe to modern Turkey, in illustrated short essays by specialists. It proposes a holistic approach to graffiti as a cultural practice that plays a key role in crucial aspects of human experience and how they can be understood.

The Myth of Shangri-La

Author : Peter Bishop
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 9780520066861
Total Pages : 328 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (668 download)

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Book Synopsis The Myth of Shangri-La by : Peter Bishop

Download or read book The Myth of Shangri-La written by Peter Bishop and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1989-01-01 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Bishop's engrossing and readable account provides us with a fascinating picture of European myths concerning the Land of the Snows and of the role these myths played in shaping perceptions of the Orient. Bishop's riveting portrait of European conceptions is an important and exceptionally well written contribution to an understanding of Western attitudes toward Tibet and all of East Asia."--Morris Rossabi, author of Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times

Rock Art and Sacred Landscapes

Author : Donna L. Gillette
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1461484065
Total Pages : 284 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (614 download)

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Book Synopsis Rock Art and Sacred Landscapes by : Donna L. Gillette

Download or read book Rock Art and Sacred Landscapes written by Donna L. Gillette and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-10-16 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Social and behavioral scientists study religion or spirituality in various ways and have defined and approached the subject from different perspectives. In cultural anthropology and archaeology the understanding of what constitutes religion involves beliefs, oral traditions, practices and rituals, as well as the related material culture including artifacts, landscapes, structural features and visual representations like rock art. Researchers work to understand religious thoughts and actions that prompted their creation distinct from those created for economic, political, or social purposes. Rock art landscapes convey knowledge about sacred and spiritual ecology from generation to generation. Contributors to this global view detail how rock art can be employed to address issues regarding past dynamic interplays of religions and spiritual elements. Studies from a number of different cultural areas and time periods explore how rock art engages the emotions, materializes thoughts and actions and reflects religious organization as it intersects with sociopolitical cultural systems.

Central Places and Un-Central Landscapes

Author : Giorgos Papantoniou
Publisher : MDPI
ISBN 13 : 3038976784
Total Pages : 314 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (389 download)

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Book Synopsis Central Places and Un-Central Landscapes by : Giorgos Papantoniou

Download or read book Central Places and Un-Central Landscapes written by Giorgos Papantoniou and published by MDPI. This book was released on 2019-04-01 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume examines the applicability of central place theory in contemporary archaeological practice and thought in light of ongoing developments in landscape archaeology, by bringing together ‘central places’ and ‘un-central landscapes’ and by grasping diachronically the complex relation between town and country, as shaped by political economies and the availability of natural resources. Moving away from model-bounded approaches, central place theory is used more flexibly to include all the places that may have functioned as loci of economic or ideological centrality (even in a local context) in the past. Fourteen chapters examine centrality and un-central landscapes from Prehistory to the late Middle Ages in different geographical contexts, from Cyprus and the Levant, through Greece and the Balkans to Italy, France, and Germany.

Religion, Material Culture and Archaeology

Author : Julian Droogan
Publisher : A&C Black
ISBN 13 : 1441184317
Total Pages : 209 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (411 download)

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Book Synopsis Religion, Material Culture and Archaeology by : Julian Droogan

Download or read book Religion, Material Culture and Archaeology written by Julian Droogan and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2012-11-22 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religion, Material Culture and Archaeology offers a new understanding of the materiality of religion. By drawing on the field of archaeological theory and method, the relationship between religion and material culture is explored. It is argued that the material elements of religious life have been largely neglected by the discipline of religious studies, while at the same time religion has been traditionally seen as problematic for archaeologists. Why do we not talk of the discipline of the archaeology of religion, in the same way we do the anthropology of religion, or the sociology of religion? The volume considers the historical problems of approaching the material elements of religious life and bridges the methodological gap between religious studies and archaeology by proposing a new way of understanding the materiality of religion – as active, engaged and projecting a level of autonomous social agency. Finally, the critical examination of archaeological approaches to the materiality of religion is furthered through the consideration of non-archaeological ways of examining the social roles that material culture plays in human life.

Landscapes of Pilgrimage in Medieval Britain

Author : Martin Locker
Publisher : Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
ISBN 13 : 1784910775
Total Pages : 298 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (849 download)

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Book Synopsis Landscapes of Pilgrimage in Medieval Britain by : Martin Locker

Download or read book Landscapes of Pilgrimage in Medieval Britain written by Martin Locker and published by Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2015-02-28 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book seeks to address the journeying context of pilgrimage within the landscapes of Medieval Britain. Using four case studies, an interdisciplinary methodology developed by the author is applied to four different geographical and cultural areas of Britain to investigate the practicalities of travel along the Medieval road network.

A Journey through the Beyond

Author : Silvia Zago
Publisher : Lockwood Press
ISBN 13 : 194848854X
Total Pages : 521 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (484 download)

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Book Synopsis A Journey through the Beyond by : Silvia Zago

Download or read book A Journey through the Beyond written by Silvia Zago and published by Lockwood Press. This book was released on 2022-02-01 with total page 521 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume offers the first comprehensive overview of the evolution over time of a foundational concept of the Egyptian afterlife beliefs, the Duat, or netherworld. The Duat is a complicated, multifaceted notion, which was never canonized into a single version of the beyond, but offered instead a variety of alternatives attempting to describe the metaphysical realms beyond the visible world, and beyond life. Theological speculations gave rise to a rich textual and visual repertoire, which underwent a process of evolution over thousands of years, during which newer ideas and images were constantly introduced. Through the analysis of royal and non-royal funerary texts from the late Old Kingdom to the end of the New Kingdom, this book traces the development of the conceptualization of the notion of Duat, outlining what it encompassed and where it was imagined to be located. In addition to the translation and discussion of the most significant passages of the texts analyzed, each chapter also provides an overview of the individual compositions and of the relevant theological, cosmological, and astronomical notions complementing the conceptual framework, of which the Duat formed but a part. Additionally, discussions of concurrent changes in Egyptian culture, society, and ideology are included in order to clarify the context in which afterlife beliefs and related texts evolved. An analysis of the correlation between funerary compositions and their material supports complements the study, emphasizing the Egyptians' belief in a magical synergy between texts, images, and their contexts in the activation of a suitable, effective afterlife for the recipients of the texts.

Sacred Sites and Holy Places

Author : Saebjorg Walaker Nordeide
Publisher : Brepols Pub
ISBN 13 : 9782503541006
Total Pages : 281 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (41 download)

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Book Synopsis Sacred Sites and Holy Places by : Saebjorg Walaker Nordeide

Download or read book Sacred Sites and Holy Places written by Saebjorg Walaker Nordeide and published by Brepols Pub. This book was released on 2013 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this volume two important veins of interdisciplinary research into the medieval period in Scandinavia and the Baltic region are merged, namely the Christianization process and landscape studies. The volume authors approach the common theme of sacrality in landscape from such various viewpoints as archaeology, philology, history of religion, theology, history, classical studies, and art history. A common theme in all articles is a theoretical approach, complemented by illustrative case studies from the Scandinavian, Baltic, or Classical worlds. Aspects of pagan religion, as well as Christianity and the establishment of the early Church, are considered within both geographical setting and social landscape, while the study of maps, place names, and settlement patterns introduces new methodologies and perspectives to expose and define the sacral landscape of these regions. The contributions are put into perspective by a comparison with research into the sacral landscapes of Central Europe and the Classical world. New interdisciplinary research methods and new models have been developed by the contributors to present new vistas of sacrality in the Scandinavian and the Baltic landscape. To open up these case studies, a selection of over sixty images and maps accompanies this cutting-edge research, allowing the reader to explore sacralization and the Christianization process within its medieval setting.

Haunted Spaces, Sacred Places

Author : Brian Haughton
Publisher : Red Wheel/Weiser
ISBN 13 : 1601639708
Total Pages : 238 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (16 download)

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Book Synopsis Haunted Spaces, Sacred Places by : Brian Haughton

Download or read book Haunted Spaces, Sacred Places written by Brian Haughton and published by Red Wheel/Weiser. This book was released on 2008-06-17 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author of Hidden History explores the archaeology, legends and strange sightings at 32 ancient sites around the world—from Stonehenge to Angkor Wat. In Haunted Spaces, Sacred Places, historian Brian Haughton takes readers on a revealing tour of ancient landmarks that are rich in mystery and unexplained phenomena. Organized by region, this book takes readers from the mysterious megaliths of Britain and Ireland to the haunted tombs of the Etruscans, the Pagan origins of Germany's Aachen Cathedral, the ancient Native American city of Cahokia, the enigmatic Cambodian Temple of Angkor Wat, and the sacred Aboriginal rock formation of Uluru. In Haunted Spaces, Sacred Places you will discover: The history of ancient sites such as Stonehenge, Chartres Cathedral, Delphi, Cuzco, and the Ohio Serpent Mound. The relationship between ancient Native American sites and unexpected phenomena in Colorado’s San Luis Valley. The truth behind the legends of the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor in China, home of the Terracotta Warriors. The prevalence of modern encounters with ghosts, UFOs, spook lights, Bigfoot, and phantom dogs at ancient sacred places. With more than 25 photographs and illustrations, this is the ideal reference work for those interested in the connections between ancient places, folklore, and unexplained phenomena.