World Attractions

Key

Great Barrier Reef Is actually 2800 reefs linked together - thriving in shallow coastal waters, this Australian reef has a wide diversity of species rivaled only by the Amazon Rain Forest - is in danger of being destroyed by pollution.	Iguacu Falls A breathtakingly beautiful 3 km stretch of waterfall shared by Argentina and Brazil - with a thunderous 24 story water plunge - the Falls sit in a tropical forest made possible by the high rising mist created by the falling water.	Ayers Rock is the world's largest monolith [one rock] rising 318 meters above the desert floor and with a circumference of 8 km. The Rock is arkose, a course-grained sandstone rich in feldspar at least 2.5 km thick. Uplifting and folding between 400-300 mya turned the sedimentary layers nearly 90 degrees to their present position. The surface has then been eroded. The rock extends nearly 5.5 km beneath the surface of the ground.	Victoria Falls The Zambezi River flows broad to the brink of a 1700m wide basalt stone lip before taking a 100 meter plunge into the thunderous chasm of the gorge below. This is the world's largest sheet of falling water. The rapids that follow as the river continues are among the most dangerous in the world.	Great Pyramid of Egypt The last remaining wonder of the Ancient World, they rise to a height originally of 146.5 meters [now 137] with a base of 12 city blocks, with the length of each side being 230 meters [now 227 meters due to the loss of the capping stones taken to build Cairo]	Sydney Opera House Surrounded by water on three sides, at what is known as Bennelong Point, stands one of the most magnificent buildings on one of the most beautiful harbors in the world. The Sydney Opera House, Originally designed by the Danish Architect Joern Utzon, is meant to look like a giant sailing ship.
Mount Kilimanjaro Africa's largest volcano and among the largest on the Earth is indeed a beautiful and fascinating volcano of the world. Kilimanjaro's summit crater, known as Kibo, measures an incredible 1.5 miles across. The highest point on Kibo's steep rim is Uhuru, the highest peak in Africa. Nestled in the center of Kibo is a smaller crater, 600-feet deep in sulfurous ashes.	Rock of Gibralter The Rock of Gibraltar is famous for its strategic importance; it holds an underground military communication center and a naval base. It is now in the hands of Great Britain and guards the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea.	The Grand Canyon Located entirely in northern Arizona, the park encompasses 277 miles of the Colorado River and adjacent uplands. One of the most spectacular examples of erosion anywhere in the world, Grand Canyon is unmatched in the incomparable vistas it offers to visitors on the rim. Grand Canyon National Park is a World Heritage Site.	Taj Mahal Located at the city of Agra in the State of Uttar Pradesh, the Taj Mahal is one of the most beautiful masterpieces of architecture in the world. Agra, situated about 200 km south of New Delhi, was the Capital of the Mughals (Moguls), the Muslim Emperors who ruled Northern India between the 16th and 19th centuries.	Amazon Rainforest The Amazon is one of the world's great rainforests. The Amazon river runs 3,000 miles from the Andes to the sea, and is longer than any river but the Nile. The vast Amazon basin covers more than two and a half million square miles, more than any other rainforest and is home to countless animal and plant species.	Atacama Desert The Atacama Desert of Chile is a sparsely populated virtually rainless plateau, running from the Pacific Ocean to the Andes Mountains. The average width is less than 100 miles but it extends 600 miles south from the Peruvian border. The mountains nearest the ocean are the Pacific coastal range, with an average elevation of 2500 feet. The Cordillera Domeyko, a range of foothills of the Andes Mountains, lies east. The Atacama is made up of salt basins (salars) sand and lava flows. The landscape is so desolate it is sometimes described as "moon like".
Chapultepec At the end of Paseo de la Reforma avenue looms Chapultepec hill, noteworthy for the centuries-old forest which encircles it and for the castle which crowns its summit. For hundreds of years Chapultepec has been a focal point in this city of such tremendous population growth that an airy expanse of green is absolutely vital. It is complemented by important cultural centers including world-class museums (as the Museum of Anthropology), amusement parks, a zoo and lakes, and is crisscrossed by access routes.	Stonehenge A megalithic [large rock] ruins dating back thousands of years - was considered to be a religious shrine and or an astronomical observatory! It is not a single structure but consists of a series of earth, timber, and stone structures that were revised and re-modeled over a period of more than 1400 years.	Mount Everest Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world. Its elevation of 8,850 meters was determined using GPS satellite equipment on May 5, 1999. In 1953 Edmond Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit and were the first we know who accomplished the feat!	Great Wall of China More than 2,000 years old and remains one of the great wonders of the world, an engineering feat rarely matched in the 22 centuries since its construction began. Stretching 4,500 miles, from the mountains of Korea to the Gobi Desert, it was first built to protect an ancient Chinese empire from marauding tribes from the north. But it evolved into something far greater — a boon to trade and prosperity and ultimately a symbol of Chinese ingenuity and will.	CN Tower Defining the Toronto skyline, the CN Tower is Canada's most recognizable and celebrated icon. At a height of 553.33m (1,815 ft., 5 inches), it is the World's Tallest Building, an important telecommunications hub, and the centre of tourism in Toronto.	The Alps The Alps is a vast mountain system in south central Europe, extending over 600 miles through South France, North Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. It includes several hundred peaks and glaciers, including numerous peaks over 12,000 feet, with Mont Blanc highest at 15,771 feet. Pine forests reach up to 7,000 feet, while above 9,000 feet many of the mountains are perpetually snow capped.