A Hindu devotee wearing a t-shirt printed with a portrait of Lord Shiva takes a holy dip while participating in the “Bol Bom” pilgrimage in Kathmandu August 10, 2015. The faithful, chanting the name of Lord Shiva, run about 15 km (9 miles) barefooted toward Pashupatinath temple seeking good health, wealth and happiness. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

A Hindu devotee takes sand bath at Sangam, the confluence of the rivers Ganges and Yamuna, in Prayagraj, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Monday, June 5, 2023. Prayagraj in the northern Uttar Pradesh state is an important Hindu pilgrimage center. (Photo by Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP Photo)

A Hindu devotee in a trance on their pilgrimage to the Batu Caves temple in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on January 28, 2018. Malaysian Hindu participate in the annual Hindu thanksgiving festival in which devotees subject themselves to painful rituals in a demonstration of faith and penance held in honour of Lord Murugan, Hindu in Malaysia celebrated Thaipusam begin on Jan 28 until 31 this year. (Photo by Aflo/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A participant of “Bread Procession of the Saint”, takes part in the ceremony in honor of Domingo de La Calzada Saint (1019-1109) who helped poor people and pilgrimage, in Santo Domingo de La Calzada, northern Spain, Wednesday, May 11, 2016. Every year during spring season, “Las Doncellas” (White Virgins), hold on their head a basket cover with white cloth while they walk past along of this old village in honor of the saint. (Photo by Alvaro Barrientos/AP Photo)

Kyaiktiyo Pagoda, also known as Golden Rock is a well-known Buddhist pilgrimage site in Mon State, Burma. It is a small pagoda (7.3 metres (24 ft)) built on the top of a granite boulder covered with gold leaves pasted on by devotees. According to legend, the Golden Rock itself is precariously perched on a strand of the Buddha's hair. The balancing rock seems to defy gravity, as it perpetually appears to be on the verge of rolling down the hill. The rock and the pagoda are at the top of Mt. Kyaiktiyo. It is the third most important Buddhist pilgrimage site in Burma after the Shwedagon Pagoda and the Mahamuni Pagoda. A glimpse of the "gravity defying" Golden Rock is believed to be enough of an inspiration for any person to turn to Buddhism.

An Indian woman collects camel dung during the annual cattle fair in Pushkar, in the western Indian state of Rajasthan, Sunday, November 10, 2013. Pushkar, located on the banks of Pushkar Lake, is a popular Hindu pilgrimage spot that is also frequented by foreign tourists who come to the town for the annual cattle fair and camel races. (Photo by Ajit Solanki/AP Photo)

A cleric and a woman pray behind a closed door of Masoume shrine in the city of Qom, some 80 miles (125 kilometers) south of the capital Tehran, Iran, Monday, March 16, 2020. On Monday, Iran closed the Masoume shrine, a major pilgrimage site in the city of Qom, the epicenter of the country's new coronavirus outbreak. Authorities were already restricting access and barring pilgrims from kissing or touching the shrine, but it had remained open. (Photo by AP Photo)

This Monday, September 15, 2014 photo shows glazed bricks displayed at the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad. The Islamic State militants seek to purge society of all influences that don't conform with their strict, puritanical version of Islam. That means destroying not only relics seen as pagan but also Muslim sites they see as contradicting their ideology, particularly Sunni Muslim shrines they see as idolatrous as well as mosques used by Shiites, a branch of Islam they consider heretical. (Photo by Hadi Mizban/AP Photo)