He drifted, enormous and silent, down the alleys of Old Town, past the smashed-in doors of coffeehouses and bakeries, past the motorcars flung through shopwindows.

NEWYORKER: The Tiger��s Wife

Floating serenely in the Aegean Sea some 250 miles from the capital, Bozcaada constitutes a momentary pause in the clamour of modern life: a quiet, bucolic place of hidden beaches, cobbled alleys, whitewashed townhouses and old-timers playing backgammon on street corners.

BBC: Turkey��s best-kept secret

Starting at 8 am and usually lasting until 11 am on Friday and Saturday, Islam guides people through the confusing warren of alleys to 400-year-old forts, tranquil Christian cemeteries and colonial mansions.

BBC: Saving Dhaka��s heritage

While it does not have the tightly wound alleys and low wooden buildings of the old city, its heart is very traditional.

BBC: Seeing Tokyo along the Yamanote Line

The old town of mud-brick houses linked by labyrinthine alleys is disappearing, eaten up by broad avenues lined by high-rise buildings.

ECONOMIST: Xinjiang

Even locals and compass equipped cartographers lose their way in millennia-old Medina streets flanked by some 3, 000 derbs (winding alleys), which predate city planning and defy satellite mapping.

BBC: Get lost in a Moroccan souq

Some, like Beijing-based designer Mi Qiu, believe China ought to preserve more of its traditional housing forms like the centuries-old villages and hutong--neighborhoods traversed by narrow, winding alleys.

CNN: Beijing embraces Brave New World of buildings