On the first day I visited Lumbini in Nepal which was the birthplace of Buddha. Since Buddhism is based around the teachings of the Buddha(Siddhārtha Gautama) this is an important religious monument in the Buddhist religion. It seemed very serene and peaceful and seemed very natural.

The next morning, I was walking down a bustling street when I saw this colossus of a statue of a man in the middle of these trees and I decided to walk over and check it out. It turns out that this statue was Bodh Gaya and this was where Buddha reached his enlightenment. This is very important to the Buddhists because this is the place where he reached enlightenment and since he was enlightened he was able to teach others to become enlightened.

Hinduism

Varanasi is considered one of the holiest cities in hinduism. The four dhams and the four cardinal directions are all represented within the city as the four deities Maha Ghat, Rama Ghat, Shankudhara Ghat, and Mir Ghat. Varanasi also has 12 churches, three Jain mandirs, nine Buddhist shrines, three Gurdwaras (Sikh shrines), and 1,388 Muslim holy places.

I was driving through a town in India when I saw a building that was as colorful as a rainbow. The Badrinath Temple is a holy temple dedicated to the god Vishnu. It's only open for 6 months a year April through November. There is a 3.3 foot tall black statue of Vishnu which looked really cool. The building itself contrasted the mountain behind with an explosion of color.

Islam

A few days later we arrived in Saudi Arabia, we were driving around when we reached the city Mecca and I was intrigued by a giant crowd of people surrounding this arena like building so I decided to check it out. Inside this arena was a large black box in the center inscribed with unusual gold characters. This was the Kaaba which is the holiest shrine in Islam, is a shrine for prayer. The actual mosque was built over hundreds of years.

After we visited the Great Mosque we decided to drive down to Medina and see Islams second most holy site Al-Masjid an-Nabawi or the Prophet's Mosque. The history behind it is the original Prophet's Mosque was built by the Prophet(Muhammad) and was only 30 x 35 meters in size. It increased in size when more Muslims joined the religion and it eventualy grew to what it is today.

Judaisim

The next day I visited Temple Mount, which was in the middle of a bustling city and the Jews regard this as the holiest site. They also that this is the place the world expanded from. The building itself is very colorful, compared to the surrounding area, which is pretty bland and dull, but there were a lot of people there.

While we visited Temple Mount we explored Jerusalem a city filled with many people and religions. Jerusalem is one of the Four Holy Cities and is considered the holiest city. The Jewish people decided that this would be the place to build Holy Temple during the life time of King David in the Tenth Century BC.

Christianity

A few days later we were driving through West bank in Israel and we stopped to look at the Jordan river which was weaving along next to us. This river is of great importance to the Christian religion because this is the placed that Jesus was baptized. I thought this place was quite peaceful and beautiful. There was just farmland and forestry alongside the road so it was pretty quiet. This is a must see on a trip to the middle east.

After a few day's after I visited The Jordan River, I went to Vatican City in Rome. I was just strolling along and I recognized St. Peter's Basilica and decided to take a look. It's revered as one of the greatest churches in Christianity. The Catholics believed that St. Peter a disciple of Jesus was buried directly below the high alter.