One of the world’s largest squares, framed by the tiled masterpieces of Safavid Isfahan.
The world's largest car-free old city.
The Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa on the platform holiest to Judaism and third-holiest to Islam.
The 27-metre mud minaret of the 16th-century mosque and the Tuareg gateway to the Sahara.
The fourth holiest city of Islam: the Great Mosque of 670 and the carpet souks.
The Andalusian capital of the Maghreb: the Great Mosque, the Mansourah ruins and the El Mechouar palace.
The golden shrine of Imam Ali and Wadi al-Salam, the largest cemetery in the world.
The shrine of Imam Reza, the largest mosque complex in the world by area, and twenty million pilgrims a year.
The mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, Timur's unfinished masterpiece and Kazakhstan's holiest site.
The Prophet's Mosque with its green dome, the second holiest city of Islam.
The city of saints: blue-tiled Sufi shrines and the hottest summers in the subcontinent.
The Kul Sharif mosque inside a Kremlin, the capital of Tatarstan where minarets and domes share a skyline.
The Sunday livestock market and the Id Kah mosque, the Silk Road oasis where China meets Central Asia.
Rumi's tomb and the whirling dervishes, the Seljuk capital in the middle of Anatolia.
The first Ottoman capital under Mount Uludag: the Green Mosque, the silk bazaar and Iskender kebab.
Medieval minaret and mausoleums.
Desert town and old religious centre.
Restored gateway fortress and madrasas on the old road west of Dushanbe.
Faded Ottoman-Italian Red Sea port.
Vast mosque of the Mouride brotherhood, goal of the Grand Magal pilgrimage.
Ancient Saharan town of desert libraries.
Coral-stone lanes and the Old Friday Mosque on the Indian Ocean.
Kuwait’s largest mosque, with a 26-metre dome, Andalusian-style tiling and space for 10,000 worshippers.
Oman's vast, serene grand mosque.
A skyline of 2,500-year-old gingerbread tower houses with white gypsum trim, one of the oldest cities in the world.
Three grand madrasas on one square.
An avenue of turquoise-tiled mausoleums in Samarkand, the finest tilework in Central Asia.
A walled Silk Road city preserved whole — minarets, madrasas and mud walls glowing at dusk.
Tiny island of coral-stone colonial buildings that named the country.
Living Silk Road museum-city.
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