From Stonehenge to the Sagrada Familia, from the Acropolis to Angkor Wat, human beings have directed extraordinary amounts of energy toward the creation of architecture that expresses their religious beliefs. Indeed, in most cultures throughout history, the greatest buildings are religious ones. Both an overview of architecture and a survey of major faiths, The Secret Language of Sacred Spaces offers fascinating insights into some of the most impressive man-made structures in the world. By revealing how these historical places of worship were used and how the tenets of a faith are encoded in both their structure and embellishment, the book enhances our understanding and appreciation of these enduring testaments to belief and ceremony. The superb full-colour photographs are supplemented by ingenious decoder sections - by using the selective isolation of photographic detail, first we see the whole in glorious colour, and then the detail in context with fascinating explanatory annotations. While the book emphasises the key living faiths, with major sections on Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism, early chapters also look at the great sites of prehistory and antiquity, including the stone circle at Avebury, in southwest England, and the Pyramids at Giza.