River Nil - Egyptian

The Nile (iteru in Ancient Egyptian) was the lifeline of the ancient Egyptian civilization, with most of the population and all of the cities of Egypt resting along those parts of the Nile valley lying north of Aswan. The Nile has been the lifeline for Egyptian culture since the Stone Age. Climate change, or perhaps overgrazing, desiccated the pastoral lands of Egypt to form the Sahara desert, possibly as long ago as 8000 BC, and the inhabitants then presumably migrated to the river, where they developed a settled agricultural economy and a more centralized society.

The river Nile froze twice in recorded history, in 829 and 1010.
The present Nile is at least the fifth river that has flowed north from the Ethiopian Highlands. Satellite imagery was used to identify dry watercourses in the desert to the west of the Nile. An Eonile canyon, now filled by surface drift, represents an ancestral Nile called the Eonile that flowed during the later Miocene (23–5.3 million years before the present). The Eonile transported clastic sediments to the Mediterranean, where several gas fields have been discovered within these sediments.

During the late-Miocene Messinian Salinity Crisis, when the Mediterranean Sea was a closed basin and evaporated empty or nearly so, the Nile cut its course down to the new base level until it was several hundred feet below world ocean level at Aswan and 8,000 feet (2,400 m) below Cairo. This huge canyon is now full of later sediment.

Lake Tanganyika drained northwards into the Nile until the Virunga Volcanoes blocked its course in Rwanda. That would have made the Nile much longer, with its longest headwaters in northern Zambia.

Despite the attempts of the Greeks and Romans (who were unable to penetrate the Sudd), the upper reaches of the Nile remained largely unknown. Various expeditions had failed to determine the river's source, thus yielding classical Hellenistic and Roman representations of the river as a male god with his face and head obscured in drapery.

Agatharcides records that in the time of Ptolemy II Philadelphus, a military expedition had penetrated far enough along the course of the Blue Nile to determine that the summer floods were caused by heavy seasonal rainstorms in the Ethiopian highlands, but no European in Antiquity is known to have reached Lake Tana, let alone retraced the steps of this expedition farther than Meroe.

Arab Saudi : Makkah

Makkah is the holiest city on earth to Muslims. Five times each day, the world's one billion Muslims, wherever they may be, turn to the Holy City of Makkah to pray. And at least once in their lives, all Muslims who are not prevented by personal circumstance perform the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Makkah. Thus each year the Holy City of Makkah is host to some two million hajjis (pilgrims) from all over the world.

The Holy Mosque in Makkah houses the Ka'aba, in the corner of which is set the Black Stone which marks the starting point for the seven. circumambulations of the Holy Mosque which every hajji must complete.

Jabal hira, to the northeast, is the site of the cave where the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, sought peace for contemplation and where he received the first verse of the Holy Qur'an.

Makkah is the place where the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was born - the place where God's message was first revealed to him and the city to which he returned after the migration to Madinah in 622 AD.

Indonesia : Sanur Beach, Bali

While the rest of Bali's beaches have developed at a breathtaking pace, Bali's first beach resort remains largely unchanged.

Sanur is one of Bali's biggest traditional villages but it's also one of the most established tourist areas. Fine hotels, restaurants and modern entertainment venues compliment traditional village activities like drama and dance, so it's a good place to enjoy the delights of a tropical island and gain a real appreciation of Balinese culture and local life.

Gradual and early development has meant that Sanur has grown alongside the village, with hotels located right next door to local meeting halls and Brahmanic temples. Many hotels have expansive gardens that face the ocean in a picturesque unbroken seaside promenade.

Hang out, sunbathe on the soft sand beach. Located on the east coast, Sanur has a coral reef that makes it ideal for snorkeling - you can even do sea-walking. While local beach restaurants and bars provide an ethnic alternative to hotel dining.

Watersports. More and more popular, both within and beyond the reef.
Sanur is an important religious centre and the venue for many colourful ceremonies and traditional dances that mark the calendar each year. It's also the kind of place where exclusive hotels, boutiques and chic restaurants nestle in with the local shops and cultural centres.

Explore Sanur's shady lanes and discover traditional markets, shops nightspots and local life, especially in the late afternoon.
Nightlife in Sanur is pretty relaxed. It starts and finishes earlier than in Kuta. Most restaurants fill up early in the evening and apart from a few bars and the disco, generally wind up around midnight.