Big Picture Earth

Deep in the Jordanian desert of Wadi Rum, three camels and their driver trek across the dunes. Ancient inscriptions left by the Bedouins, Nabataeans and other ancient peoples are still legible despite the centuries of winds and sand blowing across the landscape.

Maine's Baxter State park is home to streams, lakes, mountain peaks and wildlife. We meander down trails over lush green mossy banks and wander by picturesque ponds. Fungi and woodland creatures inhabit these 327 square miles of Acadian woods, which include the mighty Mount Katahdin.

In 1132, thirteen Cistercian monks began building an abbey in northern England. They constructed a place for a simple life of devotion and contemplation. You can now walk through the atmospheric ruins that remain and gaze through a window into a way of life which shaped the medieval world.

If you follow the eastward flow of fresh water from the Sierra Nevada mountains you will reach Mono Lake. The million year old lake possesses weird limestone towers called tufa. Photographers come from all over the world to capture the interplay of light on the mountains, desert, and water.

A walk through a narrow canyon, or siq, leads to an ancient city spectacularly carved from the surrounding cliffs. You will never forget Petra, the seat of the Nabataean empire which thrived and then disappeared right around the time of Christ's birth.

Built in prehistoric Britain over the course of 1000 years, Stonehenge is one of the most famous megalithic monuments in the world. In the midst of the ancient, brooding stones on the plains outside Salisbury, you can feel the drama of their 5000 year existence.