Over time every inhabited region of the world evolves particular characteristics that give it a personality, a distinct, atmosphere.

The shape this unique personality takes depends on:

• the culture's construction patterns — the ways it builds on and alters the natural landscape of its region;
  
  
• the culture's traits — its specific, individual values, beliefs and ways of living.

People of all cultures make changes in their natural environment. They till fields and plant particular crops. They dig into the ground for fuels, ores and minerals. They clear the land and build structures on it, often with an architecture distinct to their culture. They layout towns and cities. They construct lines of transportation that range from a narrow mountain footpath to an eight-lane automobile expressway.

When people alter their natural landscape, geographers call it a cultural landscape. It no longer reflects nature, but the culture that transformed it.


Multiple cultural influences

The cultural landscape reflects the influences of successive generations of people who have lived in a particular region.

The geographer's term for this is "sequent occupence," an abstract term. To help me remember the idea, I turn it into the more concrete "sequential occupation."

Regardless of what you call it, the point is you can often still see the imprint of earlier generations, making the cultural landscape a composite of varied influences.

These generations may share the same culture. But cultures are not static. They evolve and each generation tends to modify its culture. So the imprint each leaves will be different.

Sometimes two or more cultures will leave their imprint. Rather than the subtle modifications made by shared-culture generations, changes to the cultural landscape brought about by different cultures can be quite striking.

One example is the Moorish architecture so prevalent in Spain's Andalusia region. The Moors occupied the area from 711 to 1492, and their buildings still clearly contribute to the flavor of today's Andalusia.

The Tanzanian capital of Dar es Salaam is another example. Arabs from the offshore island of Zanzibar first settled this Indian Ocean coastal city of 1.3 million people.

German colonizers established the city as capital of their East African empire. The Germans flavored Dar es Salaam with a wood-beamed Teutonic architecture.

Following Germany's defeat in World War I, the British took over. Their main imprint came about through a large immigrant population from India, then a British colony. These immigrants built three- and four-story apartment houses that could have been transplanted from India.

In 1961 Tanzania became independent and Dar es Salaam became its capital. For the first time in its history, this African city was under African control.

Inquisitive travelers exploring Dar es Salaam can look for the imprints of five cultures — the long-standing Arab influence plus within less than a century German, British, Indian and African influences.


Cultural traits add to the flavor

A cultural landscape consists of more than the obvious changes people make to their environment. Looking just a these modifications only gives you a taste of the place, not its full flavor.

To zero in on the sense of place, you also need to explore the present culture's traits. They, too, contribute to the unique atmosphere.

Some of these traits are obvious — the type of clothing people wear, the foodstuffs available in the markets, the way people interact. Others tend to be more elusive — the noises, the smells, the pace of life. Still others are intangible -- the culture's values and beliefs as reflected in their customs. But all contribute to that distinct atmosphere.

The average visitor may have difficulty defining what makes a city or a region distinctive. But it provides the inquisitive traveler a great opportunity to explore, observing and sorting out those cultural traits and modifications to the natural landscape that contribute to the unique flavor of a place.