14 Most Historical Cities to Visit in the World

Resting along the sacred Ganges River, Varanasi remains among the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities.

Founded in the 11th century BCE, Varanasi emerged as a prominent center of learning and silk trade route under the patronage of the Mughals. Pilgrims continue to bathe in the Ganges, believed to wash away sins, or cremate loved ones at the burning ghats lining the riverbanks.

The Old City still winds with narrow alleyways full of brassware and sadhus dressed in orange. Varanasi persists as the spiritual heart of India, where daily rituals have remained largely unchanged for over 3000 years. An enduring emblem of Hindu devotion and history, Varanasi offers an unparalleled glimpse into India’s rich past and present.

Highlights: Varanasi Ghats • Ganges River Cruise • Shri Kashi Vishwanath Temple • Sarnath

Recommended length of stay: 2-3 days

Learn more: India Tours & Vacations • India Travel Guide

With traces of habitation dating back 7,000 years, Athens stands as one of the longest-inhabited cities in Europe. Various ancient monuments still adorn the city, from the Acropolis perched high over downtown to the ruins of the Ancient Agora marketplace below.

Cobblestone streets pass by neoclassical buildings left over from Athens’ emergence as the capital of modern Greece in the 19th century. Athens remains infused with history at every corner, whether walking beneath the Temple of Olympian Zeus’ towering Corinthian columns or gazing at the Panathenaic Stadium, where the first modern Olympics were held in 1896.

Much of Athens’s ancient, Byzantine, and modern heritage persists for you to discover.

Highlights: Acropolis • Acropolis Museum • Plaka • Temple of Hephaestus • National Archeological Museum

Recommended length of stay: 1-2 days

Learn more: Greece Tours & Vacations • Greece Travel Guide

Established as the capital of the Incan Empire in the 13th century, Cusco is an archaeological jewel of South America.

Lying in a high Andean valley lined with ruins, the Spanish colonial buildings of downtown Cusco were constructed atop Incan palaces, using the same stonework. The fusion of Native American and European culture continues in the city’s architecture and festivals.

Beyond Cusco’s sprawl, sites like Machu Picchu preside over the Andes, whose ancient roads still link the former towns in the Sacred Valley ruins. The heart of historic and modern Peru, Cusco still brims with an enduring Incan legacy among Spanish Baroque churches and indigenous markets.

Highlights: Pisac • Moray • Maras • Sacsayhuamán • San Blas Neighborhood • Coricancha

Recommended length of stay: 2-3 days

Learn more: Peru Vacations & Tours • Peru Travel Guide

Spanning over 3000 years of history, Rome serves as an open-air museum to the rise and fall of an empire.

Layers of architectural wonders testify to Rome’s bygone eras, from the Colosseum, built for gladiatorial games, to the Roman Forum, once buzzing with political intrigue. The Pantheon’s record-holding dome and Trevi Fountain's Baroque backdrop surface between medieval churches and Renaissance palazzos in the city center.

History in the city intertwines seamlessly with everyday life, whether that’s sipping espresso in Piazza Navona or tossing a coin into the ever-running fountains. Home to the Vatican and Capitoline Hill, the Eternal City immerses you in its legendary past and lively present.

Highlights: Colosseum • Pantheon • Roman Forum • Vatican Museums • Baroque City Center

Recommended length of stay: 4-5 days

Learn more: Rome Vacations & Tour Packages • Rome Travel Guide

Established around 1400 BC, the city of Luxor served as the religious heart of ancient Egypt, with its famous temples and tombs erected alongside the eastern Nile.

The stunning Karnak Temple once connected to Luxor Temple via an avenue of sphinxes, offering tribute to Amun-Ra and Egyptian royalty buried in the Valleys of the Kings and Queens. Luxor's ancient ruins are among the world’s greatest concentration thereof, and they still stand remarkably intact amongst modern shops and houses, their hieroglyphs as vibrant as when carved by artisans millennia ago.

From towering columns to paintings depicting Egypt's golden days, Luxor brings the New Kingdom empire to vivid life.

Highlights: Karnak Temple • Valley of the Kings • Valley of the Queens • Luxor Temple • Temple of Hatshepsut

Recommended length of stay: 2-3 days

Learn more: Egypt Tours & Vacation Packages • Egypt Travel Guide

A stroll through the old wooden machiya townhouses in Kyoto offers a walk back in time. Serving as Japan’s capital for over 1000 years, the city blossomed into an epicenter of trade and culture, leaving over 2000 temples, shrines, and gardens dotting the contemporary cityscape.

Historic sites like the tranquil Philosopher's Path and sublime Golden Pavilion reflect the enduring religious heritage, while geisha still entertain in the Gion district. Beyond the stone-paved canalside alleys and cherry-tree-lined central avenues, the imperial villas and castle fossils of the eighth century persist alongside avant-garde cuisine and fashion.

Kyoto persists as the country’s cultural sanctuary, where tradition and innovation have thrived alongside serene natural splendor for centuries.

Highlights: Kiyomizu-dera Temple • Arashiyama Bamboo Grove • Kinkaku-ji Temple • Gion District • Nishiki Market

Recommended length of stay: 2-3 days

Learn more: Japan Tours • Japan Travel Guide

Straddling Europe and Asia, Istanbul unfurls a unique cultural fusion. Ottoman palaces, Byzantine churches, and Roman ruins mingle within its seven storied hills alongside grand mosques, aromatic bazaars, and bustling cafés lining the Bosphorus Strait.

Once the capital of imperial Rome, Constantinople, and the Ottoman and Byzantine Empires, conquerors from ancient Greeks to Atatürk have left enduring marks. Yet beyond the Hagia Sophia’s glittering mosaics and Topkapi’s bejeweled chambers, the melodic call to prayer resounds between modern galleries and fashionable nightlife venues.

Eastern and Western influences persist within Istanbul’s diverse neighborhoods, embodying a historic melting pot that bridged civilizations.

Highlights: Hagia Sophia • Blue Mosque • Topkapi Palace • Bosphorus Strait Cruise • Grand Bazaar and Spice Market

Recommended length of stay: 3-4 days

Learn more: Turkey Tours & Vacations • Turkey Travel Guide

Beyond the tropical gardens and colonial shopfronts of this revitalized river town lies the epicenter of the ancient Khmer Empire.

Once home to Angkor, the largest pre-industrial metropolis, this lush region still shields over 1000 stunning stone temples. Consumed by jungle for centuries, the awe-inspiring 12th-century Angkor Wat, with its delicate devata bas-reliefs, now rises from the emerald canopy, echoed by the mystical smiles of Bayon and jungle-entwined Ta Prohm.

Days still start in Siem Reap markets filled with fruits, fabrics, and the echoes of chanting, saffron-robed monks gliding through town. As the home of an advanced civilization lost to time, Siem Reap unveils Cambodia’s majestic heritage amongst lush ruins.

Highlights: Angkor Wat Archeological Park • Angkor National Museum • Siem Reap Circus School • Tonlé Sap Lake

Recommended length of stay: 2-3 days

Learn more: Cambodia Tours & Vacations • Cambodia Travel Guide

Founded in the eighth century and home to one of the world’s largest car-free urban areas, Fez encapsulates Morocco’s ancient soul.

Behind high walls, inner medinas unfold, as they have since medieval times, into a labyrinth of dusty alleys and souks featuring silk robes, leather bags, and carved cedarwood. The oldest university ever, ornate 14th-century madrasas, mosques, and dye-filled tanneries still operate in view of passersby. Fez later became the capital for the Marinid and Idrisid dynasties, when Merinid architectural marvels like the 14th-century Bou Inania Madrasa were erected.

Walking through the artisan warrens, fragrant spice sacks, and babbling fountains, the intangible, enduring magic of Old Morocco persists.

Highlights: Fez Medina • Jnan Sbil Gardens • Bou Inania Madrasa • Chouara Tannery • Kairaouine Mosque

Recommended length of stay: 2-3 days

Learn more: Morocco Tours & Vacations • Morocco Travel Guide

Faded majesty cloaks Havana’s vibrant heart and soul. Once one of the wealthiest colonial cities as a Spanish trading hub, until Castro’s 20th-century revolution, Old Havana still captivates in decaying glory.

Ornate Baroque cathedrals loom behind caught-in-time 1950s American cars cruising the seaside Malecón, while salsa music drifts from open-windowed art deco buildings. Yet beyond the crumbling, colorful architecture lining lively plazas, passion spills from Havana’s popsicle-hued houses, women in floral dresses swaying to rumba rhythms, and smiles swirling around ice cream shops while cigar smoke fills the air.

The nostalgic capital brims with gritty romance and revolutionary spirit amidst rhythmic ruins.

Highlights: Old Havana • Malecón Seawall • Fusterlandia • Fina La Vigía

Recommended length of stay: 2-3 days

Learn more: Cuba Tours & Vacations • Cuba Travel Guide

On the banks of the Thames unfolds over two millennia of history within one cosmopolitan metropolis.

In London, once the epicenter of an empire, medieval palaces and churches mingle with neoclassical museums, Victorian stations, and London Tower’s royal secrets. For all its legacy of conquest and royalty, the neighborhoods reveal the city’s enduring spirit, from Notting Hill’s Portobello Market and regal Knightsbridge to historical pubs haunted by the words of Charles Dickens.

Double-decker buses pass ancient Roman walls as Big Ben chimes over Harrods, Savile Row, and the West End’s sleek galleries. Layers of eras converge within London’s dynamic urban sprawl, one that still resounds with its world-shaping influence.

Highlights: Tower of London • Buckingham Palace • Westminster and Big Ben • British Museum

Recommended length of stay: 3-4 days

Learn more: England Tours & Vacations • England Travel Guide

The former royal capital of Lan Xang is named a UNESCO World Heritage Site and bridges ancient temples with faded French colonial villas.

Saffron-robed monks still glide silently down streets first trod by rural farmers. Golden temple roofs peek above their banana leaf counterparts, while mango trees and bougainvillea vines cloak traditional wooden homes in this forest-enclosed peninsula town. Morning mist rises while the faithful offer alms to hundreds of monks, their robes glowing before glittering shrines or riverside cafes.

Tranquil and timeless, here, golden temples share Luang Prabang’s pastoral valleys and bamboo groves with village life little changed for centuries.

Highlights: Historic Center • Alms-giving Ceremony • Mount Phousi • Pak Ou Caves

Recommended length of stay: 2-3 days

Learn more: Laos Tours

Framed by towering Volcan Pichincha, Quito unfurls down an Andean valley first inhabited before the Incan empire. Colonial conquistadors left Baroque churches and convents, which stand today in one of the world’s best-preserved historic centers.

Whitewashed walls and iron-grille balconies flank lively plazas in the Old Town, where vendors sell Andean textiles beside 16th-century facades. Yet 21st-century Quito also thrums with artistic energy, from Capilla del Hombre’s showcase of native artists to Old Town cafés filled with university students.

Through the heart of Mitad del Mundo pulses Quito’s bold mix of Incan, Spanish, and contemporary heritage amid Andean peaks and equatorial sunshine.

Highlights: Historic Center • Middle of the World Equatorial Line • Otavalo Market • Pichincha Volcano

Recommended length of stay: 2-3 days

Learn more: Ecuador Tours & Vacations • Galapagos Islands and Ecuador Travel Guide

Once a thriving Swahili trading post now cloaked in tropical forest, Pate Island unveils the remains of a now-forgotten coastal mercantile empire off Kenya’s northern shore.

From the crumbling 13th-century Great Mosque and expertly carved Mwana wa Pate pillar to ruined palace walls tangled in mango tree roots and fading pillar tombs, almost no records remain of this influential Swahili settlement that traded slaves and gold across Indian Ocean networks for centuries.

Wandering through stone-town ruins being slowly reclaimed by nature, listening to ocean waves lap at what was likely East Africa’s oldest harbor, opens a window to a flourishing but now abandoned world that still holds many secrets.

Highlights: Historic Siyu • Takwa Ruins • Beaches • Dhow Sailing

Recommended length of stay: 4-5 days

Learn more: Kenya Safaris & Tours • Kenya Safari Guide

Wandering ancient streets once trafficked by merchants, artisans, and conquering armies, the sheer endurance of these historic cities awes as much as their splendor. Layers of fallen civilizations mingle seamlessly with enduring tradition, vibrant spiritual sites sit steps from buzzing cafés, and faded grandeur cloaks neighborhoods that are very much alive.

You can uncover relics of ancient craftsmen, trace incredible structures, or enjoy historic vantage points nearly unchanged by time. For more ideas on where to go, you can explore our trips of a lifetime or discover new ideas and information on the top times to travel with the best places to travel by month.