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Cultural Preservation

The peak of La Danta—one of the world's largest pyramids—pokes through the forest canopy. "All this was abandoned nearly 2,000 years ago," says archaeologist Richard Hansen. "It's like finding Pompeii."

El Mirador, the Lost City of the Maya

Now overgrown by jungle, the ancient site was once the thriving capital of the Maya civilization

"You didn't learn your history, you lived it," says Cornelia Bailey, who grew up on Sapelo.

Holding on to Gullah Culture

A Smithsonian curator visits a Georgia island to find stories of a shrinking community that has clung to its African traditions

Of the 14 murals at Holy Trinity Cathedral, only three survived, including The Baptism of Our Lord, by Castera Bazile, and The Last Supper, by Philomé Obin.

About the Smithsonian Institution-Haiti Cultural Recovery Project

About the Smithsonian Institution-Haiti Cultural Recovery Project

Ancient Pyramids Around the World

No matter if the civilization was Mesopotamian, Egyptian, or Mayan, its legacy today is in part marked by towering pyramids

India's Golden Temple at Amritsar—destroyed and rebuilt over centuries of strife—is to Sikhs what Mecca is to Muslims.

Saving Punjab

A Sikh architect is helping to preserve cultural sites in the north Indian state still haunted by 1947’s heart-wrenching Partition

In 7 B.C., at a point along the Via Aurelia, the Romans erected a monument to the emperor Augustus.

Via Aurelia: The Roman Empire’s Lost Highway

French amateur archaeologist Bruno Tassan fights to preserve a neglected 2,000-year-old ancient interstate in southern Provence

Suits like these worn in 1966 by Buzz Aldrin and Jim Lovell (right) were made to resist the extreme conditions of space travel for only a short period.

After Space, Saving Suits, Boots and Gloves

The spacesuits that kept U.S. astronauts alive now owe their survival to one woman

"I still wonder why that young woman gave up her seat. It's not as if our bodies bear visible proof of our years."

Do Not Go Gentle

The feisty man’s guide to aging anything but gracefully

The 13th century Tripitaka Koreana features 81,258 wooden blocks thought to be the world's most complete collection of Buddhist texts.

Preserving the World’s Most Important Artifacts

The Memory of World Register lists over 800 historic manuscripts, maps, films and more to help raise funds for preservation

The New York Public Library maintains the world's largest collection of tobacciana, materials related in some way to tobacco's history, use, and mystique.

Libraries’ Surprising Special Collections

Tucked away in libraries across the country are unexpected archives and world-class treasures

Now ancient Famagusta, tucked into a modern city of 35,000 people, is largely forgotten, except, perhaps, as the setting for Shakespeare's Othello.

Endangered Site: Famagusta Walled City, Cyprus

Once located in the midst of high-volume shipping lanes, a forgotten city with multiple European influences could be lost forever without an intervention

In 1908, the whaling industry collapsed and Herschel Island was deserted.

Endangered Site: Herschel Island, Canada

An abandoned island off the coast of the Yukon Territory holds a unique place in the history of the Pacific whaling industry

Coro is a "unique example of a well-conserved urban area with Spanish, Antillean, Dutch and indigenous architectural influences," says Venezuelan architect Maria Eugenia Bacci.

Endangered Site: Port City of Coro, Venezuela

One of South America’s best preserved towns, this Spanish colonial port city now faces deteriorating conditions

Mohamed Mahmoud on the roof of his Al-Hamoni family library, of which he is curator, in Chinguetti, Mauritania.

Endangered Site: Chinguetti, Mauritania

The rapidly expanding Sahara Desert threatens a medieval trading center that also carries importance for Sunni Muslims

The 103-year-old Centennial Baptist Church was built by a black architect and was pastored by Rev. Elias Camp Morris, the first president of the National Baptist Convention.

Endangered Site: Centennial Baptist Church

Built by a self-taught black architect, the Arkansas church has hosted leaders in the black community for over a century

View of Jaisalmer Fort, built in 1156 by Rawal Jaisal, which has 99 bastions around its circumference.

Endangered Site: Jaisalmer Fort, India

The famed fort has withstood earthquakes and sandstorms for a millenia, but now shifts and crumbles

14th-century Visoki Decani Monastery in Kosovo and Metohija, Serbia.

Endangered Site: Visoki Decani Monastery, Kosovo

The fate of the 14th-century abbey has been darkened by ethnic violence in the Balkans

The 2,400-mile-highway "took us to places that we needed to be, not in a literal sense, but a more philosophical sense," says curator Roger White.

Endangered Site: Historic Route 66, U.S.A.

The 2,400-mile highway was eclipsed by interstate highways that bypassed neon signs of roadside diners

A 65-foot statue of Buddha within one of 130 caves in northwest China is threatened by erosion and earthquakes.

Endangered Site: Xumishan Grottoes, China

This collection of ancient Buddhist cave temples date back to the fifth and tenth centuries, A.D.

Hasankeyf is home to thousands of human-made caves, hundreds of medieval monuments and a rich-ecosystem.

Endangered Site: The City of Hasankeyf, Turkey

A new hydroelectric dam threatens the ancient city, home to thousands of human-made caves

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