50 Natural Wonders To Blow Your Mind

Book excerpt: From the people who've been delivering trustworthy guidebooks to every destination in the world for 40 years, Lonely Planet's 50 Natural Wonders To Blow Your Mind will take you on a tour of the world's most mind-boggling wild and wonderful places, and help you discover just how extraordinary our planet really is. For all of our obsessions with man-made wonders, nothing compares to the creations of Mother Nature. Vast underground cave systems, wild desert landscapes, breathtaking waterfalls, staggering geology and spectacular vestiges of our prehistoric past all remind us of our small place in Earth's story. Even with our ever-expanding knowledge of the way the world has come to be, some landscapes still leave us utterly perplexed. This is the mystery and the majesty of the natural world. In this book we've attempted to capture just a fraction of what our planet has to offer, and we hope it inspires you to get out and find your own slice of pleasure in the great outdoors. Contents: Beach idyll Beach of the Cathedrals // Spain Hidden Beach, Marieta Islands // Mexico Moeraki Boulders, South Island // New Zealand Palawan Island // The Philippines Santorini, Cyclades Islands // Greece Vaadhoo Island // Maldives Deep down Cave of Crystals // Mexico Darvaza Crater // Turkmenistan Grand Prismatic Spring, Wyoming // USA Great Barrier Reef, Queensland // Australia Great Blue Hole // Belize Hang Son Doong // Vietnam Jeita Grotto, Keserwan // Lebanon Lake Baikal, Siberia // Russia Manjanggul Lava Tube // South Korea Marble Caves // Chile and Argentina Mendenhall Ice Caves, Alaska // USA The Mariana Trench // Western Pacific Ocean Mountainous wonders Huangguoshu Waterfall // China Lauterbrunnen Valley // Switzerland Milford Sound, South Island // New Zealand Mount Everest // Nepal and Tibet Mount Roraima // Venezuela Musandam Fjords // Oman Perito Moreno Glacier // Argentina The Grand Canyon, Arizona // USA Tianzi Mountains // China Trolltunga // Norway Mystical and mythical Aurora Borealis // Greenland Fairy Pools, Isle of Skye // Scotland Fingal's Cave, Inner Hebrides // Scotland Giant's Causeway, County Antrim // Northern Ireland The Waitomo Glow-worm Caves // New Zealand Uluru, Northern Territory // Australia National parks Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory // Australia Lencois Maranhenses National Park // Brazil Plitvice Lakes National Park // Croatia The Wildebeest Migration // Tanzania and Kenya Yosemite National Park, California // USA Strange landscapes Bristlecone Pines, California // USA Crooked Forest // Poland Eye of the Sahara // Mauritania Ice Towers of Mount Erebus // Antarctica Living Root Bridges of Cherrapunji // India Pamukkale // Turkey Sagano Bamboo Forest // Japan Salar de Uyuni // Bolivia Socotra Island and Archipelago // Yemen Spotted Lake, British Columbia // Canada White Desert // Egypt About Lonely Planet: Since 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel media company with guidebooks to every destination, an award-winning website, mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveller community. Lonely Planet covers must-see spots but also enables curious travellers to get off beaten paths to understand more of the culture of the places in which they find themselves. The world awaits! Important Notice: The digital edition of this book may not contain all of the images found in the physical edition.