Dramatic castle ruin perched on a basalt cliff edge.
A fortified hill inhabited for 5,000 years, its medieval stone ramp and gate towering over the old city.
The oldest European building in sub-Saharan Africa, a haunting slave-trade fort.
Ancient Dilmun fort by the sea, UNESCO-listed.
The great Crusader castle, UNESCO-listed.
One of the oldest continuously inhabited sites.
Sobering slave-trade fortress, UNESCO-listed.
Ottoman stone city below a hilltop castle.
Neo-Renaissance royal retreat in the Carpathian foothills at Sinaia.
Ottoman-era citadel quarter stacked above the bay of Algiers.
Medieval capital on the Yantra gorge.
Baroque town of castles and bull's-blood wine.
The "Camelot of Africa" โ a walled compound of 17th-century stone castles built by Ethiopian emperors.
Soviet memorial complex where the 1941 garrison held out for weeks โ colossal concrete sculptures and the eternal flame.
Renaissance Radziwill palace and park.
16th-century castle, UNESCO-listed.
Manilaโs walled Spanish city: Fort Santiago, the San Agustin Church and horse-drawn kalesa rides along the ramparts.
One of Europeโs largest castle ruins, sprawled across a travertine hill.
Fortress on Castle Rock holding the Scottish crown jewels and the one oโclock gun.
Fairy-tale romantic castle above a town of thermal springs.
Belarusโs best-preserved historic centre, with two castles above the Neman.
Sea fortress islands off Helsinki, UNESCO-listed.
Storybook fortress on a rock island ringed by a river canyon.
The oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world, the Kingโs weekend home, with St Georgeโs Chapel and the State Apartments.
Historic fortress and the Crown Jewels.
Renaissance sea fortress at Helsingor โ the Elsinore of Shakespeareโs Hamlet.
Medieval cathedral, round tower and Cormacโs Chapel crowning a limestone outcrop where St Patrick baptised a king.
Moorish palace-fortress of Granada.
Red-sandstone castle ruin above the old town of Heidelberg and the Neckar valley.
Shogun-era castle famous for the pair of golden shachihoko dolphins on its roof and the lavishly rebuilt Honmaru Palace.
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