Places Aksel Wants to Go

Egyptian treasure trove of fossils documenting the whale's transition from land mammal to sea creature.

One of the most well-preserved temples of ancient Egypt.

Ancient Egyptian relief, claimed to depict an electrical light.

This eatery is emblematic of the connection between Jamaica and Nubia.

This North African stone complex is considered to be the oldest astronomical observatory on Earth.

One of its engravings is believed to be among the first representations of medical and surgical instruments.

Some believe that this ancient mural depicts technology far ahead of its time, but in reality it's nothing quite out of place.

An Ethiopian cloud forest protects some of the last wild arabica plants.

Life and death are on parade at the most reliably perilous site of “the Great Migration.”

An Ethiopian "Jerusalem" featuring a church hewn out of a single rock.

A powerful tribute to the victims who suffered under Ethiopia's most devastating regime.

This nightlife venue and cultural center keeps a unique Ethiopian musical tradition alive in the nation’s capital, but breakneck urban development threatens to shut it down.

Ethiopian standing stones featuring remarkably preserved carvings of swords and people.

One of the largest early 20th-century bridges in Sudan.

Every Friday, Sufi dervishes whirl around the tomb in a trance-like state as part of a sacred ritual called dhikr.

The best-preserved example of a unique structure in Nubian architecture.

Crumbling pyramids and temple ruins stand within the shadow of this sacred butte.

A remote monument to one of the fiercest battles fought by the Victorian British Army.

These Nubian pyramids are strange and unique, even by pyramid standards.

These pillars are one of the few remnants from the mysterious lost empire of Makuria.

Iranian tombstones shaped like male and female sexual organs.

It's bad manners to eat and drink on the subways of Tokyo, unless the train is this bar. 

The petrified remains of 150-million-year-old trees can be seen in and among the houses of the local villagers.

Tracks of ceratosaurus and Coelophysis rhodesiensis tracks can be found fossilized in the sandstone near Mt. Etjo.