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The Yaghnobis are a mountain people of Tajikistan who speak a descendant of Sogdian, once the common language of the Silk Road. In 1970, Soviet authorities emptied their valley and sent its inhabitants to grow cotton in the lowlands. Some eventually returned, bringing the language back with them.
The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace is an immense Catholic church built by Côte d’Ivoire’s first president, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, in his hometown and newly appointed capital, Yamoussoukro. Completed in 1989, it closely resembles St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, only larger by some measurements: its dome rises 158 metres and its interior holds 18,000 people. Each of its 7,000 seats has an individual air vent, while one stained-glass window includes Houphouët-Boigny kneeling beside Jesus.
Yabusame originated as a way of training samurai in preparation for warfare, but it has always had close connections with Japan’s Shinto religion, and so is usually performed at Shinto shrines. Yabusame itself is very simple. An archer on horseback starts at one end of a roped-off track around 255 metres long, and gallops down it at high speed. Without stopping or slowing down, he fires three arrows in succession, each at one of three wooden targets placed about 70 metres apart on one side of the track.
Yves Simon is a French singer/writer.
In the jungles of Yucatán Peninsula, crystal clear cenotes fuel their surrounding ecosystems with fresh water. Numbering in the thousands, these flooded sinkholes are unique to this region of Mexico, and were principal water sources for many Maya settlements.
Missing rings are rare in oak and elm trees - the only recorded instance of a missing ring in oak trees occurred in the year 1816, also known as the Year Without a Summer.
The Yareta plant grows at a rate of approximately one millimeter per year, and thus many yaretas are over 3,000 years old.
The Yonaguni Monument is a massive underwater rock formation off the coast of Yonaguni, Japan.
The Yule Goat is one of the oldest Scandinavian and Northern European Yule and Christmas symbols and traditions.
Yungas Road, Bolivia, is one of the world's most dangerous roads. In 2006, one estimate stated that 200 to 300 travellers were killed yearly along the road. The road includes cross markings on many of the spots where vehicles have fallen.