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Smart News / Smart News Travel

View of the rebuilt walls of Babylon, a kingdom in ancient Mesopotamia, now located in the modern-day city of Hillah. The site of Babylon has been selected to be inscribed as a Unesco World Heritage Site.

Ancient City of Babylon Among New Unesco World Heritage Sites

Other additions include ancient metallurgy sites in Burkina Faso, Iceland’s Vatnajökull National Park and eight buildings designed by Frank LLoyd Wright

João Gilberto circa 1960.

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Bossa Nova Became a Turning Point in Brazilian Culture. João Gilberto Helped Launch It

The musician, who died at 88, developed the understated style in his sister’s bathroom, launching the cool, sophisticated sound to international acclaim

The original 3,000-year-old lion sculpture was destroyed during the razing of Baghdad's Mosul Museum

Lion of Mosul Statue Brought Back Through 3-D Printed Replica

The resurrected sculpture is featured in the Imperial War Museum’s ‘Culture Under Attack’ exhibition

Maurice Sendak, "Diorama of Moishe scrim and flower proscenium (Where the Wild Things Are)," 1979-1983, watercolor, pen and ink, and graphite pencil on laminated paperboard.

See Maurice Sendak’s Little-Known Designs for the Opera and Ballet

A new exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum explores how the ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ author pivoted to a career in set and costume design

"Seinfeld"'s Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Michael Richards

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Hoochie Mama!: An Interactive ‘Seinfeld’ Experience Is Coming to New York

The attraction will include costumes, sets, a gift shop, yada, yada, yada

Hansel Mieth, photograph from “International Ladies’ Garment Workers: How a Great Union Works Inside and Out"

Women Who Shaped History

‘Life’ Magazine’s Earliest Women Photojournalists Step Into Spotlight

A new exhibition highlights images by Margaret Bourke-White, Marie Hansen, Martha Holmes, Lisa Larsen, Nina Leen and Hansel Mieth

Exterior of the church of Kuñotambo after conservation.

Pioneering Conservation Project Saves Earthquake-Damaged Peruvian Church

The work was part of a larger initiative to retrofit earthen buildings that are vulnerable to seismic activity

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres' "The Grand Odalisque" is one of eight works of art featured in the project

The Louvre Recruited Top Perfumers to Create Scents Inspired by Its Famous Works of Art

The fragrances evoke masterpieces including ‘Venus de Milo,’ ‘The Winged Victory of Samothrace’ and ‘La Grande Odalisque’

This summer, Fairbanks' Running Reindeer Ranch is offering visitors the chance to practice yoga alongside adult and baby reindeer

Alaska Now Offers Reindeer Yoga Classes

Attendees find their flow as reindeer wander around, grazing on grass, sniffing humans’ belongings and eventually settling down for the session

L to R: The statue of St. George prior to 2018 restoration attempt, statue post-restoration, and statue following recent "unrestoration"

Statue of St. George Undergoes ‘Unrestoration’ to Salvage Botched Paint Job

A 2018 restoration attempt left the 16th-century statue looking like a cartoon character

Cool Finds

Volunteers Counted All the Squirrels in Central Park

Three hundred people tallied up the number of bushy-tailed residents over the course of 11 days last October

The hand-tooled leather cover

A Bible Owned by Lincoln, Unknown to Historians for 150 Years, Goes on Display

The relic offers a new opportunity to reflect on Lincoln’s religious beliefs

French gallerist Philippe Mendes poses next to Eugene Delacroix's lost preliminary painting of “Women of Algiers in Their Apartment."

Cool Finds

Lost Version of Delacroix Masterpiece Goes on View After Being Found in Paris Apartment

The painting, made in preparation for 1834’s ‘Women of Algiers in Their Apartment,’ went missing in 1850

Inside Poster House

The U.S. Is Now Home to Its First Poster Museum

Poster House, which just launched in New York, seeks to ‘cover posters from all over the world and time periods,’ its director says

The Fortingall Yew.

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U.K.’s Oldest Tree Is Being Besieged by Tourists

Visitors to the Fortingall Yew are snapping twigs, stealing needles and tying beads and ribbons to branches, which experts believe may be stressing it out

John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz, the creators of BASIC.

New Hampshire Is First State to Install Highway Marker to Computer Programming

The roadside sign is dedicated to BASIC, a computer programming language developed at Dartmouth College in 1964

Thanks to a $392,000 restoration campaign, tourists can now explore the space, roaming the baths’ still-standing walls and the extensive network of tunnels hidden below

You Can Now Tour the Tunnels Beneath Rome’s Baths of Caracalla

The newly opened underground network features a brick oven once used to heat the baths’ caldarium, as well as a contemporary video art installation

Paisaje Artico de Sommarøy

This Norwegian Island Wants to Become the World’s First Time-Free Zone

‘Our goal is to provide full flexibility, 24/7,’ one resident said. ‘If you want to cut the lawn at 4 a.m., then you do it.’

Still from Mona Lisa Beyond the Glass

The Louvre’s First VR Experience Lets Visitors Get Close to the ‘Mona Lisa’

The project will be featured in a major da Vinci exhibition dropping in October

Trending Today

Grand Canyon Will Soon Be a Dark Sky Park

After three years of retrofitting lights, the national park will soon be certified by the International Dark Sky Association

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