10 Linguistic Hot Spots You Should Visit

While the average businessman, doctor, or teacher might dream about spending a long weekend on an isolated tropical beach as far as possible from the thoughts and responsibilities of normal life, some language lovers just can’t get enough of their work! If that describes you, here are suggestions for your next vacation locations.

1. Rosetta Stone – British Museum in London

The ancient Rosetta Stone’s three-language inscription unlocked the 1400-year-old secret of hieroglyphics in one of the most significant feats of translation ever performed.

2. Gutenberg Museum – Mainz, Germany

The century-old printing museum honors not only the founder of the legendary press, but features equipment and materials from across the world.

3. “It’s a Small World” – any Disneyland 

Featuring possibly the most translated song ever written, the slow watery ride takes visitors through the world in miniature, inhabited by 300 audio-animatronic dolls.

4.  National Museum of Language – College Park, MD

Designed “to inspire an appreciation for the magic and beauty of language,” this volunteer-run museum focuses on language diversity in America.

5. Temple of the Inscriptions – Chiapas, Mexico

This impressive, nine-level ancient Maya Temple contains panels and piers covered in carved images and huge amounts of hieroglyphic Maya script.

6. The Pillars of Ashoka – various locations including Delhi and Allahabad

These forty-foot, fifty-ton pillars from the 3rd century BCE were inscribed with edicts in the Brahmi script.

7. Georgia Guidestones – Elbert County, Georgia, USA

On a lighter, less ancient note, this quirky granite monument is inscribed in eight modern languages as well as Babyslonian, Greek, Sanskrit, and Egyptian hieroglyphs and has been nicknamed the “American Stonehenge.”

8. Shiloah (Siloam) inscription - City of David, Jerusalem, Israel

Found within Hezekiah’s Tunnel, the Shiloah inscription was for many years considered the oldest Hebrew inscription until a surprise discovery in 2013.

9. Ikom Monoliths – Cross River State, Nigeria 

These volcanic-stone monoliths of unknown age feature faces and patterns as well as inscriptions in Nsibidi, a West Central African script possibly 7,000 years old.

10. “Golden Dreams of Gandhiji” by Dr. Kesiraju Srinivas – Internet

Our final destination is not a place at all. Stay tuned for the web release of Ghazal Srinivas’ record-breaking tribute to Gandhi, sung in 65 foreign languages and 60 Indian languages.

Where will language take you next? Tell us in the comment box below.