From there, you can rest from the unrelenting slow bake of southern India in the cool, dark stone of the underground temple.

BBC: Escape from Goa: Hampi and the ruins of Vijayanagara

There are 14 dark and mossy stone chhatris, each with a square platform and stairs leading to the domed ceilings.

BBC: Orchha, a living medieval town

The church was tiny, built of dark, almost black stone that gave it a forbidding air.

NEWYORKER: Faith

The numerous grape varieties are grown elsewhere in Austria, but maturation of the sparkling wines takes place in the dark 2.3km network of stone and brick tunnels that run under the northern 19th district.

BBC: In the kitchen with Viennese history

Hussein took extra time to put on the familiar dark suit he always wore to court, Stone recalled.

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Natural light is the primary design element, complemented by Japanese natural stone, light Myanmar oak, and dark maple.

FORBES: Snazzy And Seductive: Park Hyatt Seoul

One of the first Tudor homes to be made from brick, many of its original features -- including a vast stone fireplace and a wall of intricately carved dark wood panels -- remain to this day.

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It was a pagan desire, she thought, and it was a pagan place: a dark garden of yews and straggling roses and, at its center, the stone church, with its altar and its font and, above it all, the bells, suspended in the chill air of the belfry, heavy and still, waiting to be brought to life.

NEWYORKER: The Bell Ringer