The Great Tours: The World’s Most Sacred Sites

By: Jill Carroll, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Jill Carroll

Do human beings have an innate, elemental impulse to declare something sacred—and then feel compelled to connect with it by creating a sacred space? The history of various civilizations say that we do. From ancient times, people realized they lived in a world they could not always control; there had to be something beyond their own lives that controlled their world.

From the Lascaux cave in France where ancient peoples used the walls as a canvas for their most meaningful sacred images and thoughts, to the Middle East, British Isles, China, Peru, India, Egypt, and more, we see evidence that our ancestors built and used specific spaces and rituals to connect to the sacred. In The Great Tours: The World’s Most Sacred Sites, Dr. Jill Carroll will take you on a journey around the globe and through time to show you some of the most renowned sacred sites in existence today.

What Are Sacred Spaces?

Sacred spaces are those places people have designated as connecting us to something bigger than ourselves, often to our idea of the divine. In The Great Tours: The World’s Most Sacred Sites, you will explore many different types of sacred sites including:

· Natural sites. Indigenous peoples knew the natural world intimately and many of their sacred sites paid homage to places in the natural world.

· The Built Environment. From the Pyramids at Giza to the architects of the Renaissance to the Great Mosque of Mecca, people have constructed enormously detailed sacred spaces that tell the story of their religion and deities and/or provide a space to encounter the sacred and divine.

· Sacred Complexes. In addition to individual sacred spaces and holy sites, you will also tour sacred complexes—places where multiple elements of divine space and practices meet.

While you will visit dozens of sacred sites on this tour, Dr. Carroll reminds us there are many more we could visit and others we have yet to unearth. All around the world, you will see how humanity has always found a way to create spaces and practices that connect us to something bigger than ourselves.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2025 The Great Courses (P)2025 The Teaching Company, LLC