PhotoScapes

A Photographic Travel Blog by Alexander Thorsten Blumenau

The Saalfeld underground mine – better knwon as “Feengrotten” (German for “fairy caves”) – is a small system of artificial tunnels, passages and galleries, which are connected with some natural caves. Saalfeld is located in the German state of Thuringia, [...]

Stretching south from mass-tourism-infested Cancun lies a part of the Yucatán coastline, which is also known as the Riviera Maya. While Cancun is definitely an overcrowded place and on my personal list ranks as one of the top architectural disasters [...]

Special gems at the Riviera Maya are the beaches in the south. Here you will find the quiet yet beautiful Carribean beach without concrete and if you are lucky you might even have it all for your own. After the [...]

The Yucatán peninsula is known for its rich fauna and flora. A small selection – mainly limited to insects, lizards and trees – is displayed in this set. Most of the images were taken near Tulum, Coba and at the [...]

Of all the Mayan cities in the Yucatán, the walled city of Tulum is certainly the one in the most pittoresque setting – built directly at the Caribbean Sea, including sandy beaches and a natural cliff with a once completely [...]

The Mayan site of Chunyaxche, also known as Muyil, is a Mayan city in southern Quintana Roo. Only “Muyil A” is open to the public. The site probably began to be populated already around 300 BC. The nearby lagoons of [...]

Around 30 miles away from Tulum and the Caribbean coast lie the ruins of the ancient Mayan City of Coba, from the middle and late classic period, from 500 to 900 AD. The city stretches over almost 40 square miles [...]

Spanish colonial times have left their architectural mark on the Yucatán Peninsula. While on this trip I avoided most larger cities, however some nice example of colonial architecture ca be found at the Hacienda Chichen which served as an archaeologists’ [...]

The place “the mouth of the well of the Itza”, as “Chich’en Itza” translates from Yucatec Maya, was already inhabited early on in Mayan times, and it was known as a major city in the 6th century AD. Most of [...]

To the south of the great plaza with the temple of Kukulcan in Chichen Itza stretches an area of smaller buildings and pyramids. I was in particular impressed by the so called nunnery group of buildings, with ornaments carved into [...]

Plymouth is just a short drive from Exeter in the UK, so I went there for a day trip in May 2006 while on my second stay in Devon this year. The last time I’ve been to Plymouth must have [...]

Powderham Castle, settled at western banks of the River Exe in Devon (UK), was built between 1390 and 1420 by Sir Philip Courtenay. It was damaged in the Civil War and later repaired and modified by several generations of the [...]

Cairo. the capital of Egypt – a city with an estimated population of over 15 million people, at least so I was told in Egypt, other sources speak of even larger numbers. In any case Cairo is the largest city [...]

The Saladin Citadel of Cairo – sometimes referred to as Mohamed Ali Citadel – is located on a part of the Mokattam (Muqattam) hill close to the center of Cairo. The first fortifications were erected under Salah al-Din, also known [...]

To the west of Cairo – about 20 km from the center – you will find the Giza plateau, famous for its three great pyramids and the Sphinx. Giza (also Gizeh or Ghizeh in English) is a town on the [...]

Memphis was the first capital of ancient Egypt and its remains lie about 20 km south of Cairo. It was founded aound 3100 BC by Menes, who unified the two separate Kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt. Today, the main [...]

Thebes, Niut or Niwt-imn (The City of Amun) were all names of the ancient city at the site of today’s Egyptian city of Luxor. At the time of the 11th dynasty, around 2100 BC, the city at the Nile river [...]

Opposite the city of Luxor, on the western bank of the river Nile lies the site of Deir el-Bahri, which translates as “Northern Monastery”. Separated from the tombs in the Valley of the Kings only by the mountain ridge stretching [...]