1001 Historic Sites You Must See Before You Die

by Richard Cavendish (Editor), Koichiro Matsuura (Preface)

Both casual travelers and dedicated history buffs will relish this visitor's guide to palaces, cathedrals, temples, battlefields, homes of great artists and statesmen--places and monuments that bear witness to thousands of years of human history. Packed with vivid color photos and detailed textual entries 1001 Historic Sites carries its readers off to places that

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, History, Reference, World History, Geography

960 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2008

About the author

Richard Cavendish (1930 - 2016) was a writer, lecturer, broadcaster, historian & leading authority on Magic and Witchcraft. He is the author of 'The Black Arts', a study of the European tradition of magic.

Reviews

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not a book that can be easily carried in a backpack or suitcase, as it is quite a weighty article. It has some wonderful photographs to tickle the travellers tastebuds,with the story of the site to help make the mind up. The sites are listed by continent and country, many of the sites are well known but others very little heard of and in many cases I never knew existed.Some of them may even be surprising! Use the book to plan ahead or if you are just an armchair traveller, its great to pick up and browse and wish you were there.

[Jim · Rating 1 out of 5]

Without a doubt, one of the worst-written books I have ever encountered, or perhaps just a case that in nearly every mini-essay I tried, there were multiple grammar and prose infractions that destroyed the experience. Much of the prose is similar to some I have seen in freshman-level history reports, and these folks were likely paid to write this mess. Clearly there was no actual editor in charge (or one who badly dropped the ball). Usually when I come across something that causes my teeth to grind, I simply delete it from my record, but I felt I had to warn people. I couldn't keep reading, it was so painful. If you must try it, just thumb through and enjoy the pictures. I suspect, at least I hope, that those in charge were better at selecting important and interesting landmarks than shepherding the work of their contributors (and this wish may be unrealized as well, because the inclusion of dig pits, mines, stadiums, and the like are questionable). My mom used to say, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything," but sheesh!

[I actually didn't "read" the entire book, because I didn't want a coronary, though I looked through it and even sampled additional entries; I didn't want the book languishing on my to-read list.]

[Allisonperkel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Extremely US/EU centric- at times it felt they were just fishing for yet another church to add to the book. Descriptions were fairly boring - standard really.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like these types of books because they give a very brief overview of what to look for when preparing your next trip. I mean, this list is not extensive and it leaves so much out but it gave me some ideas about where I should start looking for further sites of interest. Also some excellent pictures.

[Neil · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love books like this to spur the wanderlust, but this one left me kind of cold. For locations that I know the selections seemed rather arbitrary (with a heavy focus on UNESCO world heritage sites). The pictures are lacking and there's nothing like information that might help a traveler get to the place and make good use of time. That just leaves some rather unexciting text that isn't very friendly for the kind of browsing one does through a book like this.

The places are still cool, but for a book to encourage you to go to them, you could do much better.

[Brooke · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Historic” here is subjective, both in content (Disneyland? “Juliet’s Balcony” in Verona?) and in context (Europe — heavily biased toward Western Europe — takes up more than half the book at just over 500 pages; Africa receives only about 60 pages, 24 of which relate to Egypt). I also spotted factual errors in familiar entries (referring to Crown Prince “Rupert” instead of Rudolf; placing Louis Riel in a cemetery in Regina rather than Winnipeg) which made me question the accuracy and depth of research of other contributions.

[Yusif Mammadli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Visited 56 of them so far - January 2018

[Chico]

Only seen 12 of these Historic Sites, got some catching up to do, question is where next? Love these books they give me so many things to do!!

[Gabe Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely U.S. and Western European oriented. Countless countries were left out of the book all together, and many entries had me falling asleep reading them.

[Harris · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading “1001 Historic Sites You Must See Before You Die” and “1001 Natural Wonders You Must See Before You Die,” both very similar entries in the “1001” series, I must say, they were my least favorite of the series so far. While each contained some interesting and beautiful places around the world that are definitely worth checking out, and, like all entries in the series, are open to entertaining debates, the lists of “Historic Sites” and “Natural Wonders” often provide too little information to really be useful. In “Historic Sites,” the vast number of palaces throughout the world that were included can become tiresome; also, more than half of the book is devoted to Europe and North America, greatly neglecting South America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania (this was less of an issue in “Natural Wonders.” In particular, entries without photographs feel neglected compared to the more “well documented” entries; this is especially evident in the natural wonders, where even the photos do not really do justice to the breathtaking places it describes. As travel books, neither is very user friendly either; the hefty tomes are not very portable and, to make matters worse, often provide very little information on how to actually get to these “must see” places. This was particularly troubling with some locations, such as the Røst Coral Reef in Norway, which can only be reached via submarine! While they do provide some cool ideas for places that one might want to travel to some day, they only really have random suggestions.

[Sumi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those books where you could have a good time arguing about what really is a 'must see' and what isn't. Some are fairly easy for *most* people to agree upon. For example, if you do happen to be in Paris, the Eiffel Tower is a must-see, it's an icon. You see the Eiffel Tower you think of Paris or at least of France.

However, I really fail to understand why the Rose Bowl in Pasadena is a must-see. Perhaps it's something only football fan could explain to me. There were many equally curious inclusions.

My friend, Lynne, might be pleased to know that Green Gables made the cut and was included on the list...

If nothing else, read the book so that you, too, can say 'Now why on earth did *that* make the list?!'

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, I have a long way to go before I come close to hitting 1,001, but I have seen the following:

Harper's Ferry (WV), US Supreme Court, The White House (no inside tour), The Capitol, Washington Monument, Ford's Theater and the house across the street where Lincoln actually died, Library of Congress (twice), Lincoln Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery, Gettysburg Battlefield, Hoover Dam, Gateway Arch, O.K. Corral (Tombstone, AZ) and Dealey Plaza (Dallas, TX).

While there are other places (listed) that I would like to see, there are also places that I have no desire to travel to.

[Jim Blessing · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a person that loves to travel, this is a super book! It describes and has beautiful pictures of 1,001 historical sites throughout the world. The information is quite timely, because my wife and I are now retired and wanting to travel to Europe in the coming years (we visited England last year including several of the sites listed in this book).

This is must read for someone who wants to become more aware of all the really cool places in the world!

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think it comes down to is that there are not 1001 historic sites you need to see before you die. I guess I need to read something titled "26 Places to See Before You Die" instead, and save this book for browsing through when I'm already going somewhere and need to fill the time.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was overwhelming.In a good way. Realized there much to see in the world. felt I have such a ways to go. Many places in other continents that made me think, my bucket list I need to work on quickly. Great vignettes.

[Katie (BooksRUs) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set up similarly to "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die", I liked the other book better. I'm not much of a traveler, but I am a reader which is why I liked the other one better. But I did find some places in this book that I want to visit now.

[Belinda]

Georgeous pictures....really makes you want to travel. Good reference or coffe table book.

[Melissa McClintock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went through this book and took notes on places I wanted to go. Also, places I want to research. A nice thing about this book is the short synopsis of history with each place.

[Rahmadiyanti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Setelah 3 bulan lebih nyicil baca, selesai juga.

[Pascal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Australian Edition 2008, preface by Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO
(Aboriginal cover)

[Dianne Wolfer]

Fun to scroll through and make travel plans …

[Son]

good reference for backpacker

[Alisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the organization of the book and found some good places to add to my list. I wish they made the spread more even, though. Popular countries took up dozens of pages while places with just as much to offer had very few. (Hungary had 3 and Iceland had a whopping 1.)

[Kristina Moses]

As others have said, there were plenty of editing errors which really annoyed me. The worst was listing a location in Canada as "the only known viking settlement in the United States>" -_-; I originally wanted to read through the whole thing, but I decided not to waste my time. It's nice to flip through and look at the pictures of the places, but some entries don't even include a picture. I found myself needing to google more info/pictures to fully get a sense of the place.