Sacred Sites International

06/15/2026

A massive strike by Russia has seriously damaged a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the 11th Century Dormition Cathedral. See more below.

A Ukrainian drone attack in the Russian city of Tula, south of Moscow, killed three people.

06/07/2026

1,000-year-old Arizona fish-shaped sacred archeological site has been permanently damaged during border wall construction near Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona. A 50-foot swath of earth near the fish’s head has been scraped away.

The site is near the Tohono O’Odham reservation and on the tribe’s traditional lands, said Tribal Chairman Verlon Jose. “This was more than land, it was memory, it was identity, it was history,” Tohono O’Odham Tribal Chair Verlon Jose said. “For us O’odham, sacred sites are not just places, they are living connections to our ancestors.”

Jose called on federal officials to take better protections in the future. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security last year waived a host of environmental and other protections to expedite border wall construction.

06/03/2026

Grateful that Assemblymember James C. Ramos, a member of the Serrano and Cahuilla tribes and the first California Native American elected to the state legislature, sponsored the California Indian Freedom Act of 2026, AB 1881, which was approved last week and now will be heard in the state Senate. It will allow Native Americans access to state lands for the practice of their religion, including gathering of Native plants, holding ceremonies, and other religious traditions.

Below is a photo of Mount Kuuchamaa, also known as Tecate Peak, revered by the Kumeyaay people of southern and Baja California. The Border Wall has cut them off from their sacred mountain.

The above bill is designed to prevent obstacles, such as the Border Wall, from preventing Native Americans access to their sacred sites.

05/27/2026

This is Iya Moopa, the Mother Fertility Goddess worshipped in the Yoruba tradition. Her abode is the Osun River in Nigeria. She, along with other deities, are venerated in the Osun Osogbo Sacred Grove. Nigeria declared it to be a National Monument in 1965 and it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005.

There are annual festivals that take place every August drawing hundreds of people from Yoruba land: Nigeria, Togo and Benin.

A feature of the site are the many sculptures depicting goddesses and gods along with their artfully decorated shrines.

05/22/2026

This is the Celtic menhir at Cwm Rhaeadr Fawr (valley near Aber Falls), Gwynedd, Wales. This is an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest), a Special Area of Conservation and a National Nature Reserves.

05/20/2026

This is the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, a Buddhist temple in Kandy, Sri Lanka, located in the Royal Palace.

Rituals are performed three times daily: at dawn, at noon and in the evenings. On Wednesdays, there is a symbolic bathing of the relic with a herbal preparation made from scented water and fragrant flowers called Nanumura Mangallaya; this holy water is believed to contain healing powers and is distributed among those present. The Kandy Esala Perahera is conducted annually to pay homage to the Sacred Tooth Relic.

05/19/2026

This is the partially frozen Gurudongmar Lake, a high altitude glacial lake located in the northeast Indian state of Sikkim. Located at an altitude of over 5,150 metres (16,900 ft), the lake is located to the north of the Himalayas, and is fed by glaciers of the Khangchengyao massif. It forms the headwaters of the Teesta river and is considered sacred by Buddhists and Sikhs.

05/15/2026

This is the Cathedral of Saint-Julien of Le Mans, France, which was built from 6th C to the 15th century CE. We are featuring it because of several unusual features: They have installed a menhir outside on one of the corners of the cathedral (were there pagan people at the site which predated the structure?) We have not been able find out anything more specific about the menhir. The menhir looks like it may have been carved? What do you think?

Also, the cathedral is architecturally interesting because of massive bifurcating flying buttresses. They split the load allowing for an even taller and thinner building.

05/13/2026

This is Takht-i-Bahi ("Throne of the Water Spring") an exceptionally well-preserved 1st-century CE Buddhist monastic complex located in Mardan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Perched on a 150-meter-high hill, this UNESCO World Heritage Site (1980) represents ancient Gandharan architecture and was a major center of learning until the 7th century

05/11/2026

These are some drawings and photos of Rapa Nui before it was managed and before large numbers of tourists were arriving by air and by sea. The earliest drawing is from 1772-1775.