Historic sites

Exterior view believed to be ruins located on the western bank of the Nile River in the Valley of the Kings area opposite the ancient city of Thebes, now Luxor. Photograph taken as part of a trip author and diplomat Charles Thayer and his wife Cynthia took to Egypt and other countries in northern Africa in 1961. Trip journey and photos intended for possible magazine articles. Original negatives are in the Harry S. Truman Library collection.

Exterior view of hieroglyphic panel in the first courtyard of the mortuary temple of Rameses III. Ruins are at Madinat Habu near the Valley of the Kings area at Luxor, Egypt. Woman in view at lower left is probably Cynthia Thayer. Photograph taken as part of a trip author and diplomat Charles Thayer and his wife Cynthia took to Egypt and other countries in northern Africa in 1961. Trip journey and photos intended for possible magazine articles. Original negatives are in the Harry S. Truman Library collection.

Exterior view of the ruins of the Temple of Rameses III located at Madinat Habu near the Valley of the Kings area at Luxor, Egypt. Photograph taken as part of a trip author and diplomat Charles Thayer and his wife Cynthia took to Egypt and other countries in northern Africa in 1961. Trip journey and photos intended for possible magazine articles. Original negatives are in the Harry S. Truman Library collection.

Exterior view of two native youth with the Temple of Hatshepsut in view in the background. These ruins are located on the western bank of the Nile River in the Deir el-Bahri complex opposite the ancient city of Thebes, now Luxor. Photograph taken as part of a trip author and diplomat Charles Thayer and his wife Cynthia took to Egypt and other countries in northern Africa in 1961. Trip journey and photos intended for possible magazine articles. Original negatives are in the Harry S. Truman Library collection.

Exterior, expansive view of ruins at Temple of Rameses III site located at Madinat Habu near the Valley of the Kings area at Luxor, Egypt. Photograph taken as part of a trip author and diplomat Charles Thayer and his wife Cynthia took to Egypt and other countries in northern Africa in 1961. Trip journey and photos intended for possible magazine articles. Original negatives are in the Harry S. Truman Library collection.

This is a photograph of Cham Ruins on the top of a hill near a body of water at Quinhon, Vietnam.

Exterior view identified by Charles Thayer in his typewritten diary as Uspenski Cathedral (also called Assumption Cathedral) located in cathedral square in Vladimir, Russia. He described as "the cathedral is a large white Byzantine affair with an eighteenth century bell tower stuck on the front which rather ruins the proportions." Charles Thayer visited the area when he was living in Russia in 1935.

Exterior view with various Russians standing near what Charles Thayer identified in his typewritten diary as the "Golden Gate" located in Vladimir, Russia. It is example of ancient Russian city gates. Thayer visited the area while on a short trip he took to areas just east of Moscow while he was living there in 1935.

The Todaiji Temple in Nara, Japan, is a United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural (UNESCO) world heritage site and houses Japan's largest Buddha and is purported to be the largest wooden structure in the world.

Image of the Kashiwara Shrine, purported to be the tomb of the first Emperor of Japan in Kashiwara, Osaka Japan.