Deep within the Andes, a rough drive from Popayán, lies one of the pre-Colombian Americas’ most fascinating and least known sites - the hypogea of Tierradentro. Here mysterious chambers are scattered through a remote valley, plundered by grave robbers but only properly excavated in the 1930s… /1

Popayán, in Colombia’s Andean south west, might not be a UNESCO site (yet), but its series of whitewashed colonial mansions and ecclesiastical architecture is a delight after the heat of Cartagena - and with one very surprising monument tucked away on the outskirts… /1

I've just heard the terrible news that my friend - and friend of many here - Andrew West, @babelstone.co.uk, the incomparably brilliant Sinologist and Tangutologist passed away suddenly but peacefully on 10th July. 1/2

Within its massive walls, Cartagena thrived as one of the main trade entrepôts of the Caribbean, supporting a network of merchants, trade houses, and fabulous ecclesiastical architecture /1

Up from Mompós to Cartagena, the great fortress of the Spanish Americas - reinforced with some of the most extensive defences in the world following British and French attacks to become an unassailable bastion of Spanish presence in the Caribbean /1

Founded in 1537, Santa Cruz de Mompós is a beautifully preserved Colombian colonial town by the banks of a lazy Rio Magdalena, and is listed as UNESCO World Heritage for its almost unparalleled preservation of pre-independence historic fabric /1

Back in beautiful Bogota, where the colonial centre of La Candelaria - dating in some parts as far back as the mid-16th century - is looking beautiful in the intermittent sun and rain sweeping over the mountains /1

One of UNESCO’s grimmest world heritage sites, the Valongo wharf - buried under a growing Rio - was the principal arrival point for imperial Brazil’s massive slave trade. Between 1811 and 1831, when British blockades stopped the trade, up to a million slaves were landed here to be sold and bought.

Bom dia Rio! As one time capital of the grand Portuguese Empire - and home of the exiled Emperors - Rio de Janeiro has a charming collection of colonial remains, many of which are focused around the grand Praça XV de Novembro and the old shoreline /1

Six months into my time here, and I’m finally starting to dip my toes into São Paulo’s surprisingly good craft beer scene (here with a saison at Tank Brewpub in Pinheiros)

Back in Brazil and a lovely foray to the coast and the port of Santos. The island forming the city’s core, São Vicente, was discovered in 1502 and settled over the coming decades as Portugal stepped up trade with south eastern Brazil. /1

Denny Abbey, on a low island between Stretham and Waterbeach is Cambridgeshire Fens, is a fascinating palimpsest. Within this rambling medieval farmhouse, you see, are the entombed remains of a medieval abbey and, within that, an even older cruciform Templar church /1

While pretty, there’s not much to show that St Mary’s church in Walkern, near Stevenage, is pre-conquest - just some nice Norman features amid later additions… /1

Another truly wonderful church long on my bucket list, Holy Trinity Great Paxton, which underneath medieval additions has something almost unique - a preserved set of Saxon nave arcades, crossing arch, and even clerestory windows, from what originally must have been an important minster church /1

More awesome Saxon churches - this time in Norfolk, the county holding one of the greatest number of pre-conquest buildings in the country. We start at the beautifully sited St Mary’s in Cranwich, where a Saxon round tower rears over a Saxon nave (spot the quoins) and potentially chancel /1

A great day tracking down Saxon churches in rainy Lincolnshire! 🧵 We start off at St John the Baptist in Great Hale, where a later church is strapped to a functional Saxon tower - narrow windows in a rubble wall, one of which with a jamb made from a much eroded reused Saxon statue /1

Belém was the first European colony in the Amazon, planted by Portugal in 1616 above the Guajará Bay where the Amazon meets the Atlantic. Sited at the mouth of the tropical forest and nearly on the equator, it would grow hugely important in the trade of wood, food produce, and later rubber /1

Out onto the Suriname river to see some beautiful pink-bellied delphine friends…

Deep in the Surinamese jungle, reached only by boat or dirt road, lies the UNESCO World Heritage site of Jodensavanne. Founded in 1680s by Sephardic Jews seeking to cross the Atlantic to set up an effectively autonomous state, its astonishing ruins include the oldest synagogue in the Americas /1

Built by Dutch colonists in 1667 on the foundations of older British and French constructions, Fort Zeelandia is the oldest building in Paramaribo and the core from which modern day Suriname grew /1

Still in the Guyanas, but a completely different feel in Paramaribo, the capital of Suriname - a former Dutch colony still populated by gentle wooden architecture and tree lined avenues /1

In the seventh century, it became a thing for women across the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to wear pieces of old Roman glass framed in gold settings as pendants on necklaces. Top left is a new find recorded this week on @findsorguk.bsky.social with others on PAS & the necklace from Sarre.

Waking up in Georgetown, Guyana, the only English speaking country in South America with some fascinating colonial relics - and also the fastest GDP growth on the planet /1

Fact check: Well, no. There’s no vast underground structure found beneath the #Pyramids of #Giza. trowelandpen.com/2025/03/26/n...

Well, no. There’s no vast underground structure found beneath the Pyramids of Giza

Rendering of the structures that the authors of the study claim to have found beneath the Giza plateau. Graphic: OmniCore Tech via Facebook If you’ve been scrolling through social media latel…

trowelandpen.com

Short hop out of Santo Domingo to stop off at one of the weirdest city parks - a collection of flooded cenotes, dating back to the last ice age when sea level changes caused flooded limestone chambers to collapse. There’s even a boat inside!

This building is, with the exception of Norse projects on Greenland, the oldest cathedral in the Americas - a wellspring of congregational Christianity from which all others sprung. Begun in 1514 in European gothic style, the Basilica Cathedral of Santo Domingo is a beauty… 1/6

To see the oldest European footprint in the Americas, you can’t do much better than Santo Domingo - founded a mere four years after Columbus first set foot on Hispaniola. So I go stumbling around the colonial city to track down some of the oldest post-Colombian buildings on the continent… 1/7

Stepping out into the recôncavo, the hinterland around Salvador, once populated by brutal sugarcane plantations, indigenous villages, and quilombos of escaped slaves - to the beautiful riverine town of Cachoeira 1/9

Salvador’s oldest historic core is the Pelourinho, set around an old flogging post, and it’s here that some of its most impressive churches and monasteries still cluster today 1/9

Perched on a peninsula watching the Bay of All Saints, Salvador has good claim to be Brazil’s oldest city - as well as its original capital - and is stuffed to the gills with some of the best architectural heritage in the country. What a treat! 1/4