To betoken out that the earth is full of wonders is hardly a revelation, whether y'all're talking about aboriginal or modern marvels, feats of architecture and engineering, or naturally occurring places of breathtaking beauty. Information technology is surprising, however, that even with and then much to adore, people continue to limit their lists of wonders to single digits. That's why we've compiled this listing of natural wonders, incorporating nominations from other sources every bit well as a few of our own. From African deserts to European volcanoes to phenomena that can be experienced across the globe, here are 39 of the planet's most spectacular natural sites.

The New Vii Wonders of Nature

Back in 2000, the New7Wonders Foundation decided to reboot the Seven Wonders concept so that the places on the list were really withal standing, organizing a global poll to determine what the new wonders would exist. In light of the campaign'due south success, the foundation decided to tally another set of votes, which totaled over 500 million, to name the new Seven Wonders of Nature. Hither's the final listing:

The Amazon River

One of the most impressive water bodies on Earth, the Amazon is the longest river in South America at over 4,000 miles and has the largest drainage organization on the planet, discharging roughly 7,4000,000 cubic feet per second. Whether or not the Nile is, in fact, longer is a point of contention for some as debates rage over the Amazon's true headwaters.

Surrounding the river's drainage basin, the Amazon Rainforest is just as impressive, stretching out over nine different countries and roughly xl percentage of Brazil's land mass. With all that space, it's no wonder the Southward American rainforest plays host to more species than any other bioreserve on the planet, including countless species that have yet to be recorded.

Jeju Island

Jeju Island is a volcanic island and province of South korea that sits to the s of the peninsula between Southward Korea and Nihon. The World Heritage site Jeju Volcanic Isle and Lava Tubes is found hither and includes both the extensive Geomunoreum lava system and Mount Hallasan, the highest mountain in South Korea.

Ha Long Bay

Ha Long Bay in northern Vietnam is a pop tourist destination thanks to its gorgeous limestone karsts and floating fishing village. The mural formed by its i,600-two,000 islands and islets, about of them uninhabited, is just spectacular. Thanks to these unusual landforms, many of them still unaffected past man impact, the surface area became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1994.

Iguazu Falls

The famous Iguazu Falls straddles the Iguazu River on the border between Argentina and Brazil. Its proper name, Iguazu, means "large water" in Guarani, and it seems appropriate — made of 275 waterfalls, information technology's the largest waterfall organization in the world. The tallest of these waterfalls, where approximately one-half of the river'southward flow falls, is chosen the Devil's Throat — a long, narrow, U-shaped chasm whose thunderous sound visitors never forget.

Puerto Princesa Subterranean River

The Puerto Princesa Subterranean River is located on the Philippine Island of Palawan and leads into a cave that you can take boat tours through. Information technology was impressive enough as information technology was, but in 2010, a grouping of environmentalists discovered the river has a second floor, so there are pocket-size waterfalls inside the cave. As the river emerges directly into the sea, its lower portion is subject to tidal influences.

Komodo Island

Komodo Isle is part of the Indonesian archipelago and is famous for being the abode of the Komodo dragon. Its history too makes it a special identify as its inhabitants (around ii,000, compared to the island's 5,700 remaining Komodo dragons) are said to be descendants of former convicts who were exiled to the island in the 19th century by a sultan in Sumbawa. Besides found on the island is Pink Sand Beach, one of the earth'due south best destinations for snorkeling and diving when the island is open up to visitors.

Tabular array Mountain

Table Mountain is a famous landmark that towers over Cape Town, South Africa. There are some swell views of the city from the top (attainable via hiking trail and cableway). Its main characteristic is a level plateau that stretches approximately two miles from side to side, edged by impressive cliffs. It's as well a cool place to practice some deject watching — from afar — as the plateau is often covered past the famous tablecloth clouds.

The CNN list of natural wonders

The CNN list sits a little bit better with us than the voter-influenced New7Wonders version — we can't get behind a listing that doesn't include the Thousand Canyon or the Groovy Barrier Reef. Once more, this is by no ways administrative or scientific.

The Great Barrier Reef

Australia's famous, gigantic barrier reef is sadly at risk of beingness destroyed by climate change, overfishing, and tourism — coral bleaching is more than widespread than previously thought, and scientists have admitted this peachy wonder is at a concluding stage, a sorry end to the world'due south biggest single construction fabricated past living organisms.

The Grand Coulee

The famous, massive canyon cut by the Colorado River through Arizona is ane of the few wonders that belongs on every iteration of this list. At 277 miles long, up to 18 miles broad, and attaining a depth of over a mile, it's not the longest nor the steepest canyon in the world, just its overall calibration combined with the beautifully colored landscape makes it 1 of the most amazing natural wonders. The Colorado River has been carving this canyon over the course of, according to several studies, five to six one thousand thousand years.

Harbor of Rio de Janeiro

Brazil'due south about famous city fills in the spaces between the surrounding mountains and the sea, making information technology ane of the about cute cities on Earth. Above it all, information technology'southward watched over past the Christ the Redeemer statue — one of the regularly cited man-fabricated wonders of the globe.

Mountain Everest

Everest'south peak is 29,035 feet above sea level, or at least it was. Nepal's earthquake in 2015 is believed to have clipped the mountain's summit, so India and Nepal are about to measure information technology anew. For the sake of counting these, if you lot've seen Mount Everest, located on the border of Nepal and Tibet, y'all've been to information technology. You don't have to have fabricated information technology to the tiptop.

Aurora

The aurora (also known as the aurora borealis, northern lights in the n, and aurora australis in the southward) is caused by the collision of solar winds with Earth'south magnetosphere and can exist viewed from pretty much anywhere within certain latitudes, depending on the visibility and severity of the geomagnetic storms.

Victoria Falls

Victoria Falls — on the Zambezi River between Republic of zimbabwe and Zambia — is the largest waterfall past volume in the world at over 5,500 feet wide and 355 feet high. Its local name in Tokaleya Tonga is Mosi-oa-Tunya, which literally means "the smoke that thunders," gives a perfect explanation of what you'll experience if you get shut to it.

Paricutín volcano

Paricutín volcano in Mexico makes information technology on near lists just for the sheer bizarreness of its history. It was a cornfield in 1943 and then, in the span of a yr, grew to a peak of eleven,475 feet. Past the time the volcano's eruptions ceased in 1952, its peak measured a whopping nine,210 feet. The villages effectually it are buried in lava, and only a church building bell tower juts out from the rock.

The runners-upward

The world'south far too big and wonderful to limit the called natural wonders to 7 and in that location are glaring omissions on the list to a higher place (Yellowstone, the Sahara Desert, and so on). So it's worth our time to go into some of the ones that aren't included on the final lists but should be considered natural wonders anyhow.

Bu Tinah shoals

Bu Tinah, off the coast of Abu Dhabi, is a coral archipelago that is totally closed to the public (hence the lack of photo). Its thriving habitat is a unique living laboratory of key significance for climatic change research. This distinctive natural habitat — with its shallow waters, seagrass beds, and tall mangroves ready amid all-encompassing coral reefs — hosts rare and globally endangered marine life.

The Dead Body of water

The Dead Sea, on the border of Hashemite kingdom of jordan and Israel, is one of the saltiest bodies of water in the globe. And then salty that you can famously bladder in it and that no macroscopic organisms can survive in information technology. It was one of the world's starting time health resorts (for Herod the Great) and has supplied a wide variety of products, from asphalt for Egyptian mummification to potash for fertilizers. Nevertheless, it's receding at an alarming rate.

Mount Kilimanjaro

Kilimanjaro is Africa'due south tallest mountain and, as it's a dormant volcano, the tallest complimentary-standing, or non-massif, mountain in the globe. Since Hans Meyer and Ludwig Purtscheller reached its tiptop in 1889, information technology has remained a popular climbing destination. It has likewise been the subject of many scientific studies because of its shrinking glaciers.

Jeita Grotto

The Jeita Grotto is a series of karst caves in Lebanon that was inhabited in prehistoric times and is now a major cultural symbol of the nation, not to mention a practical ane considering information technology supplies drinking h2o to over a million Lebanese people.

Masurian Lake District

This well-connected system of lakes (comprising over 2,000) in Poland is a pop European vacation spot. Connected past rivers and canals, the lakes form an extensive system of waterways surrounded by big forests and historic towns. It's a great destination if you like water sports like sailing or windsurfing, equally well as activities such as hiking, fishing, and kayaking.

The Sundarbans

The Sundarbans — mostly in Bangladesh, though partially in easterm India — is one of the world's largest tidal mangrove forests, and it'southward famous for also beingness 1 of the largest Bengal tiger reserves. A UNESCO Globe Heritage site since 1987 on the Indian side and 1997 on the Bangladesh side, it covers 140,000 hectares and is dwelling to a wide range of wild fauna, including 260 bird species and other threatened species, such every bit the estuarine crocodile and Indian python.

Maldives

Kudos to the Maldives for getting the entire land on the list. The Maldives is a series of coral atolls in the Indian Ocean, and if climate change raises sea levels past even a little fleck, it will no longer exist — the nation'southward highest bespeak is just about seven feet and 10 inches off the water (it'southward the world's lowest state). Its waters are home to several ecosystems, including 187 species of vibrant difficult coral. This area of the Indian Body of water lone houses ane,100 species of fish, five species of sea turtles, 21 species of whales and dolphins, 400 species of mollusks, and 83 species of echinoderms.

Angel Falls

The world's tallest uninterrupted waterfall (at 3,212 feet) is in the jungles of Venezuela. It was non known to the exterior world until American aviator Jimmie Angel, following directions given by the explorer Félix Cardona who had seen the waterfall six years earlier, flew over Angel Falls on Nov xvi, 1933. The falls are named later on him.

Bay of Fundy

Canada's Bay of Fundy is famous for having the highest tidal ranges in the world, with an incredible maximum of 53 anxiety (though the highest water level ever recorded was a whopping 71 anxiety in 1869). Information technology's also a popular whale-watching destination — 12 species of whales, including the rare right whale, call the Bay of Fundy home each summer and fall.

The Black Wood

Federal republic of germany'southward famous Blackness Wood is famously dumbo and dark, just it'southward besides home to the cuckoo clock, charming niggling towns, and fairytale castles. It's the place where Hansel and Gretel had their encounter with the witch and where Petty Blood-red Riding Hood was followed by the wolf.

The Cliffs of Moher

Western Ireland'southward Cliffs of Moher are one of the state's most popular tourist destinations. And for adept reason. The cliffs hug the Atlantic Ocean for roughly v miles and, at their tallest, tower around 700 feet over the body of water. Not just popular with people, the Cliffs of Moher also provide a habitat for more than 20 different types of seabirds, including puffins and peregrine falcons.

El Yunque

Stretching a small-scale 29,000 acres, El Yunque is the only tropical rainforest in the US National Forest System — notice it just a short drive eastward of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The Galapagos Islands

Among the natural wonders, the Galapagos Islands are perhaps most famous for their biological diversity, which informed Charles Darwin'south groundbreaking theory of evolution by natural selection. Among the islands' about iconic inhabitants are the behemothic tortoise, bluish-footed booby, Galapagos albatross, Santa Atomic number 26 land iguana, and Galapagos fur seal. Together, all of the species that visitors are most eager to see are known as the Big 15, a play on Africa's Big Five safari animals.

Matterhorn

The Matterhorn, which rises to fourteen,692 feet between Italy and Switzerland, is considered one of the most hard mountains to climb in the world, particularly from the Italian side.

Milford Sound

Rudyard Kipling called this fiord on New Zealand's South Isle the "eighth wonder of the globe." To run across it for yourself, venture out to the northernmost role of Fiordland National Park. While there, snap a photo of the nation's famous Mitre Peak, conveniently located on the shores of the sound.

Mud volcanoes of Azerbaijan

Republic of azerbaijan is home to between 350 and 400 mud volcanoes, more than any other state in the world.

Uluru

Australia's Uluru (or Ayer's Rock) ranks among the continent's most recognizable natural wonders icons, rising up over the barren Ruby Eye virtually Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. The Anangu people, 1 of the oldest homo societies in the world, are the traditional and current owners of Uluru.

Vesuvius

Vesuvius

Photo: S-F/Shutterstock

As impressive equally this Italian volcano near Naples is as a geographical landmark, Mount Vesuvius is almost famous for its fierce history, which includes the destruction of Pompeii and neighboring Herculaneum in 79 Advertisement.

Yushan

Yushan is Taiwan'due south tallest mountain, sometimes referred to as Mount Jade. Information technology'due south surrounded by a national park of the aforementioned proper noun where hikers will find several scenic routes to explore.

Our picks: Matador Network Natural Wonders

There are a few obvious choices which didn't make whatsoever of the natural wonders' lists above, so we're throwing them in ourselves.

Yellowstone

Yellowstone obviously has to be on here. The Yellowstone Caldera supervolcano and surrounding Yellowstone National Park represent one of the most hit landscapes in the world. Pictured in a higher place is the Thousand Prismatic Bound.

The Sahara Desert

The Sahara is the earth's hottest desert, having been known to reach temperatures of 120 degrees Fahrenheit during the summertime, and it's the largest desert outside the polar regions. It spans most of northern Africa, stretching across 10 countries and the disputed territory of Western Sahara.

Salar de Uyuni

Bolivia's common salt flat is the earth's largest. During the rainy season, h2o collects on the footing creating a mirror-like result, giving photographers something actress surreal to capture. You can read the legend backside this and other natural wonders here.

Pando

Pando is a tree colony spread across more than than 100 acres in Utah that'due south actually a single organism, the largest in the world. It weighs around 13 million pounds and is also one of the oldest organisms on the planet. Unfortunately, the extensive quaking aspen grove is dying due to grazing wild fauna and homo inroad.

Giant's Causeway

Behemothic'south Causeway is a grouping of some 40,000 basalt columns in Northern Ireland that's believed to be about fifty-threescore million years old.

Zhangjiajie

The stunning sandstone pillars of Wulingyuan Breathtaking and Historic Interest Expanse's Zhangjiajie looks like it belongs on Avatar's Pandora rather than Earth. Luckily, visitors only have to travel as far as Red china's Hunan Province to see this spectacular natural wonder for themselves.

This article about natural wonders was outset published in 2014 and updated on July 18, 2019.

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