ABSTRACT
Over the course of humanity’s long history, we’ve built many remarkable buildings and places that travelers have sought out—for a variety of reasons. Some, like the French anthropologist Lévi-Strauss, travel in search of a “vanished” reality. Others, as Albert Camus suggests, travel to test themselves. In some cases, people are on religious pilgrimages and visit sites that have a sacred importance. Thus, for example, several million Muslims visit Mecca every year, and many Roman Catholics visit the Vatican. In other cases, travelers want to see the most famous and celebrated buildings because of their aesthetic and historic significance. That helps explain the importance of the Eiffel Tower, the Great Wall of China, the Frank Gehry Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and the Taj Mahal to tourists.
