Nadezhda Alekseevna Ionina

100 great wonders of the world

Introduction

The famous "father of history" Herodotus of Halicarnassus knew the seven wonders of the world. He made a long journey (even by our standards), visited many countries, got to know people and wrote down everything he learned about their past, "so that the past events do not come into oblivion over time." This is how the nine books of his History were born.

But for the first time, the wonders of the world, limiting their family, were classified and described by Philo of Byzantium, about whom very little historical information has survived. When he was born, what he looked like, how he got his daily bread, when he died - we do not know all this, and it is unlikely that we will ever know. But one thing is known for certain: his thin (12 pages) work, which is called "On the Seven Wonders of the World", has survived. From this small "booklet" we can also learn that he himself, with his own eyes, did not see any of the wonders of the world described by him. True, Philo of Byzantine describes other miracles, not those that are generally considered classical. So, for example, he does not consider the Pharos lighthouse a miracle, but his work tells in detail about the Babylonian walls. His work does not mention the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, and part of the pages relating to the description of the temple of Artemis, unfortunately, has been lost.

Thousands of years separate us from those distant ancient times. Since then, everything in the world has changed beyond recognition. People have created a lot of things that the ancient peoples could not even dream of. However, the power and glory of ancient art were eternal.

For centuries and millennia, the dreams and aspirations of humanity about eternal life, about striving for divine perfection, embodied in stone, have been frozen. Ancient stones of palaces, temples and cities tell us about the great and tragic pages of history.

The main goal set by the compilers of this book is to make a tiny contribution to the cause to which the great historians and architects, builders and archaeologists have dedicated their lives. Tell about their work and give them what they deserve so that our contemporaries know and remember about the creations of their ancestors and the people who returned these creations to humanity.

Archaeologists and historians have restored and brought to us the culture and monuments of disappeared peoples, the life and fate of entire civilizations, bit by bit of material culture, footprints on stone, remnants of frescoes and tiles. They were shaken with fever in the swamps of Mesopotamia, they languished from the heat in the deserts of Asia and Africa, lived in Bedouin tents, risking death from disease, being killed by robbers ... But they steadfastly, honestly and faithfully followed their duty and knowledge.

Traveling through the ancient writings, through the ruins of fortresses and temples, through the streets and squares of ancient cities, we make not just an excursion into history for the sake of curiosity. This is also humanity's knowledge of itself, for without knowledge of the past, there is not simply no future, without it all life often loses its meaning. These ancient cities lived, traded, seethed with daily worries, their inhabitants built palaces, created masterpieces long before our era. And in this world a gigantic spiritual culture was born, which has not aged even after millennia. On the contrary, the architectural creations of our time largely follow the masterpieces of antiquity.

Almost 2000 years ago, during the eruption of Vesuvius, three flourishing Italian cities perished, but with the revival of the buried cities, the ancient world in its entirety appeared for the first time before the eyes of people of modern times. Excavations in Pompeii greatly interested I.V. Goethe, and for his home in Weimar, the poet ordered a copy of a Pompeian wall painting. In Goethe Park, a kind of "pompeiana" was created - a Roman house and a statue with snakes. These hobbies of Goethe were reflected in his work of the Weimar period.

The discovery of ancient cities influenced European and Russian classicism, which embraced all types of spiritual culture. The magnificent baroque forms gave way to the noble simplicity and calm grandeur of ancient art and architecture.

Architects who worked in Russia showed great interest in the monuments of these cities. Charles Cameron, for example, creating a complex of baths in Tsarskoye Selo, completed it with a light gallery. The Cameron Gallery, with its wide spacing of Ionic columns, resembles the portico of country villas in poetic Pompeian murals.

The book, which the reader holds in his hands, is dedicated to extraordinary architectural structures, the most ancient unique buildings and modern buildings. She will tell not only about the buildings themselves, but also about the reaction that they caused among contemporaries. Any of the readers himself could have compiled such a book, because the ancient world left us in inheritance so many amazing monuments (and not only architectural ones) that it is simply impossible to tell about all of them in one book.

The famous cities of the world are famous for the fact that anyone can name their attractions, regardless of whether he was in these cities or not. One has only to mention the name of the French capital - and the huge Louvre, the famous Notre Dame Cathedral, the Eiffel Tower, seen in films or in photographs, immediately appear before our eyes ...

One German scholar has called Italy a "huge Louvre", but this definition seems too weak. Where to find words to glorify the beauty of Venice's canals, Pisa and Siena's squares, which have fully preserved the appearance of the Middle Ages, the central quarters of Florence and Bologna, the world-famous Trevi Fountain! ..

And the creators of this book had one more goal. The second millennium is coming to an end, humanity is on the threshold of the third ... Has it managed to adequately continue and preserve those traditions, the skill that we inherited from ancient times ... Was it able to continue the list of those ancient "seven wonders" so that the grateful memory of humanity forever preserved the images of amazing creations of brilliant masters ...

Egyptian pyramids

In the religion of the ancient Egyptians, their ideas about the afterlife were of decisive importance. These representations had a great influence on the development and formation of the style of the pyramids and tombs, on the entire architecture of Ancient Egypt as a whole. People considered preparation for the afterlife one of the main tasks of their earthly life, therefore, the improvement of the future tomb played an important role. The afterlife was envisioned by the Egyptians as a continuation of earthly existence: man, even after death, continues his path in the kingdom of immortality.

According to the religious teachings of the ancient Egyptians, man had several souls. The main ones were "Ka" and "Ba". "Ka" was the spiritual counterpart of a person with whom he meets after death. In the cult of the dead, "Ka" occupied a very important place. The tomb of the deceased was called "the house of Ka", the priest who performed funeral rites was called the "servant of Ka". "Ka" made the deceased able to exist after death, to perform vital functions.

"Ba" meant what might be called "pure spirit." He left a person after his death and went to heaven, this was the inner energy of a person, his divine content.

According to initial ideas, only the pharaoh had the right to exist in the afterlife. Funeral priests performed magic spells, performed funeral rites, and made sacrifices. Pharaoh could bestow immortality on members of his family, royal nobles. This meant that they could be buried next to the pyramid or the tomb of the overlord.

First of all, it was necessary to keep the body intact - to protect it from any outside influences. Only under the condition of the complete safety of the body "Ba" (the soul of the deceased) could, freely moving in space, at any time reconnect with the body.

These ideas gave rise to two consequences: the embalming of corpses and the construction of tombs, which were more reminiscent of fortresses. Each pyramid was supposed to serve as protection for the mummy hidden in it from any possible enemy, from any impudent actions, from disturbing peace.

Even building the middle pyramid was not easy. We had to send entire expeditions to deliver granite and alabaster blocks to the Giza plateau or the Saqqara plateau. From the beginning of the New Kingdom, pharaohs began to be buried in the Valley of the Kings west of Thebes, where a new necropolis was formed.

In total, there are about seventy pyramids, and maybe about eighty. More recently, in 1952, the Egyptian archaeologist Mohammed Zakaria Goneim discovered another hitherto unknown pyramid in Sakkara, twenty kilometers from Cairo!

Philo called among the wonders of the world "the pyramids at Memphis", most of the authors - the pyramids "in general", some - the three pyramids at Giza, and the most captious consider only the Great Pyramid of Cheops a miracle of the world.

The most ancient pyramid - the pyramid of Pharaoh Djoser - was erected about five thousand years ago. Its builder Imhotep was an architect, doctor, astronomer, writer, adviser to the pharaoh, for many centuries he was considered the greatest sage of antiquity, legends were made about him, his works and books had great authority over the millennia. Imhotep was considered a magician and wizard, and in later times he was deified, temples were built in his honor and statues were erected.

1. Machu Picchu. Cuzco, Peru.

Machu Picchu(literally "old peak", the true name is unknown) is sometimes called "the lost city of the Incas". The city is located at the top of a mountain range at an altitude of 2,057 meters above the valley of the Urubamba River in what is now Peru. This city was created as a sacred mountain refuge by the great Inca ruler Pachacutec a century before the conquest of his empire, that is, around 1440, and functioned until 1532, when the Spanish invaded the territory of the Inca empire. However, the Spanish conquistadors never reached the settlement of Machu Picchu, and the city was not destroyed. Therefore, it still remains a mystery where and why all its inhabitants mysteriously disappeared back in 1532. There is speculation that this was the winter residence of Pachacuteca. After the collapse of the Inca empire, the city lost its significance, and the inhabitants left it forever.

Due to its modest size, Machu Picchu cannot claim the role of a large city - there are no more than 200 structures in it. These are mainly temples, residences, warehouses and other premises for public needs. For the most part, they are built of well-worked stone, slabs tightly fitted to each other. It is believed that up to 1,200 people lived in and around it, who worshiped the sun god Inti and cultivated crops on the terraces. For more than 400 years this city was forgotten and was in desolation. It was discovered by an American researcher from Yale University, Professor Hiram Bingham in 1911. When he got here, accompanied by a government-sponsored guard and a local boy guide, he found peasants living there. In addition, the site has already been visited by sightseeing enthusiasts who have left their charcoal-engraved names on the granite walls.

Machu Picchu has a very clear structure. In the southeast, a complex of palace buildings is guessed. The stones from which they are made were processed so carefully that it is safe to say that these were the dwellings of dignitaries and nobles. In the western part there is a main temple with an altar for sacrifices. Opposite it is a residential area densely built up with two-storey houses. Between them, as in a labyrinth, narrow streets and stairs wind up, often leading to a dead end or to a terrace overhanging an abyss. In the southeastern tip of Machu Picchu, the Inca masons erected two impressive structures - a semicircular tower and an adjacent structure. From the Sacred Square, along a granite slope with terraces, along a long staircase, you can with great difficulty get to the top of the cliff, there lies a large, carved polygonal stone "intihuatana", or "the place where the sun is tied." Bingham suggested that here the Incas symbolically "tied" the sun so that it would not run away from them during the winter solstice. This elegant stone carved into the rock could also be a solar observatory, where the priests determined the best time to start sowing or harvesting, watching the disappearance of the shadows from the sun during the autumn and spring equinoxes.

To build a city in such an inconvenient place for construction required incredible skill. According to modern experts, more than half of the effort spent on the construction was spent on site preparation, drainage and foundation laying. Massive retaining walls and stepped terraces have been holding the city for more than 500 years, preventing rain and landslides from taking it down from the rocky cornice. The heirs of the Andean cultures to this day consider Machu Picchu a symbol of their connection with the great civilization of the past.

The road from Machu Picchu to Cusco is a fine example of the art of the Inca builders. Even in the rainy season, the road is in excellent condition. The entire empire was covered by a wide network of communications, about 40 thousand km long. The roads in the Inca state were primarily of strategic importance - troops had to pass along them. In addition, they promoted cultural exchange between all areas of the state. Thanks to the roads, people learned from each other the arts of ceramics, weaving, metalworking, architecture and construction.

2. Pyramids at Giza, Cairo, Egypt.

Complex pyramids at Giza is located on the Giza plateau in the suburbs of Cairo, Egypt. This complex of ancient monuments is located at a distance of about eight kilometers towards the center of the desert from the old city of Giza on the Nile. This ancient Egyptian necropolis consists of the Pyramid of Khufu (known as the Great Pyramid or Pyramid of Cheops), the Pyramid of Khafre and the Pyramid of Menkaur, as well as a number of smaller accompanying buildings known as the “queens” pyramids, sidewalks and valley pyramids. The Great Sphinx is located on the east side of the complex, facing east. The Pyramid of Cheops (or Khufu) is the largest of the Egyptian pyramids, the only one of the Seven Wonders of the World that has survived to this day.

Initially, the height of the pyramid was 146.6 meters (about a fifty-story skyscraper), however, due to the loss of the crown granite block "pyramidion" as a result of an earthquake, its height has now decreased by 9.4 meters and is 137.2 meters. The length of the side of the pyramid is 230 meters. It is composed of approximately 2.3 million stone cubes, stacked in 203 tiers (originally 210). The average weight of a stone is 2.5 tons, but there are also larger ones, whose weight reaches 15 tons. The time of construction is unknown. According to one of the legends, the pyramid was built in the XXVI century BC. Pharaoh Khufu (2590-2568 BC), in Greek his name sounded "Cheops". The architect of the pyramid is considered to be Chemiun, the vizier and relative of Cheops. According to Herodotus, 100,000 workers, who replaced each other every three months, built the pyramid for about 20-25 years. But this figure raises doubts among modern scientists. According to their calculations, only 8,000 people could easily build a pyramid without interfering with each other.

The circumstances and exact time of the construction of the Sphinx are still mysterious. The opinion of ancient authors, accepted in modern literature, that its builder was Khefren (Khafru), is confirmed only by the fact that during the construction of the temple, stone blocks of the same size were used for the statue as in the construction of the neighboring pyramid. The question of who ordered the statue is even more confused by the fact that the face of the statue has Negroid features, which is at odds with other surviving images of Khafru and his relatives. Scientists who used a computer to compare the face of the Sphinx with the signed statues of Khafru concluded that they could not represent the same person. Since the 1950s. in popular literature, the dating of the Sphinx to the period of the Old Kingdom began to be questioned. It has been argued that the lower part of the sphinx is a classic example of erosion caused by prolonged exposure to water. The last time the corresponding level of precipitation was observed in Egypt at the turn of the 4th and 3rd millennium BC. e., which, according to the supporters of this theory, indicates the creation of the statue in the Predynastic period or even earlier.

The relatively small size of the head prompted the Boston historian Robert Schoch to suggest that the statue originally had a lion's face, from which one of the pharaohs ordered to carve a mysteriously smiling human face in his own image and likeness. This hypothesis has not found acceptance in the scientific community. Over the years of its existence, the Sphinx was buried up to its shoulders in the sand. Attempts to unearth it were already undertaken in antiquity by Thutmose IV and Ramses II. In 1817, the Italians managed to clear sand from the entire chest of the Sphinx, and it was completely freed from millennial sand deposits in 1925.

3. Iguazu Falls, Iguazu Park, Argentina.

Iguazu Falls is a complex of waterfalls on the Iguazu River, located on the border of Brazil (Paraná state) and Argentina (Misiones region). The falls are located on the border of the Argentine and Brazilian Iguazu National Parks. The name Iguazu comes from the words in the Guarani language: i (water) and guazu (large). Legend has it that God wanted to marry a beautiful Aboriginal woman named Naipu, but she fled with her lover in a canoe. In anger, God cut the river, creating waterfalls, dooming lovers to eternal fall. The falls were discovered in 1541 by the Spanish conquistador Don Alvaro Nunez Caseso de Vaca, who went to the South American jungle in search of gold and adventure.

The complex is 2.7 km wide and includes approximately 270 individual waterfalls. The height of the fall of the water reaches 82 meters, but at most waterfalls - a little more than 60 meters. The largest waterfall is Garganta del Diablo ("Devil's Throat") - a U-shaped cliff 150 meters wide and 700 meters long. This waterfall marks the border between Brazil and Argentina. During the dry season, visitors can see two separate waterfalls in the shape of two crescents. During the dry season, there are fewer rainfalls and the water level in the Iguazu River decreases. As a result, less water flows into the Iguazu Falls, so it splits into two separate falls. During the wet season, the two crescent moons come together to form one large waterfall approximately 4 km wide.

Many islands (including quite large ones) separate the waterfalls from each other. Most of the waterfalls are located within the territory of Argentina, however, from the Brazilian side it opens good view on "The Devil's Throat". In the vicinity of Iguazu, there is a national park where visitors can view wildlife and vegetation. Boat excursions are available on the Parana and Iguazu rivers. You can also visit the Itaipu Dam, one of the largest hydroelectric power plants in the world.

4. Taj Mahal Agra, India.

Taj Mahal- a mausoleum-mosque, located in Agra, India, on the banks of the Yamuna River. The construction time dates back to about 1630-1652. Built by order of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died in childbirth (later Shah Jahan himself was buried here). Inside the mausoleum there are two tombs - the shah and his wife. Their burial place is located in the same place as the tombs, but underground.

The Taj Mahal is a five-domed structure with a height of 74 m on a platform, with 4 minarets at the corners (they are slightly inclined to the side of the tomb in order not to damage it in case of destruction), which is adjoined by a garden with fountains and a pool. The walls are lined with polished translucent marble inlaid with gems. They used turquoise, agate, malachite, carnelian, etc. Marble has such a feature that in bright daylight it looks white, at dawn it looks pink, and on a moonlit night it looks silvery.

More than 20,000 craftsmen from all over the empire, as well as craftsmen from Central Asia, Persia and the Middle East were invited to build the complex. On the other side of the river, a twin building of black marble was supposed to be located, but it was not completed. A gray marble bridge was supposed to connect the two buildings. The mausoleum has numerous symbols hidden in its architecture and layout. For example, on the gate through which visitors to the Taj Mahal enter the park complex surrounding the mausoleum, a quote from the Koran is carved, addressed to the righteous and ending with the words “enter my paradise”. Considering that in the language of the Mughals of that time, the words "paradise" and "garden" are spelled the same, one can understand the plan of Shah-Jahan - to build a paradise and place his beloved within it. On the left side of the tomb is a red sandstone mosque. On right exact copy mosques. The whole complex has axial symmetry. The tomb has a central symmetry with respect to the tomb of Mumtaz Mahal. The only violation of this symmetry is the tomb of Shah Jahan, which was built there after his death.

5. Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA.

Grand Canyon, or the Grand Canyon, the Grand Canyon is one of the deepest canyons in the world. Located on the Colorado Plateau, Arizona, USA, in the territory national park Grand Canyon. It is cut by the Colorado River in the thickness of limestone, shale and sandstone. The canyon is 446 kilometers long. The width (at the plateau level) ranges from 6 to 29 kilometers, at the bottom level - less than a kilometer. Depth - up to 1600 meters.

Initially, the Colorado River flowed across the plain, but as a result of the movement of the earth's crust about 65 million years ago, the Colorado Plateau rose. As a result of the rise of the plateau, the angle of inclination of the current of the Colorado River changed, as a result of which its speed and ability to destroy the rock lying in its path increased. First of all, the river eroded the upper limestones, and then took on deeper and older sandstones and shales. This is how the Grand Canyon was formed about 5-6 million years ago. The canyon is still growing due to ongoing erosion.

Native Americans (Indians) knew about the Grand Canyon thousands of years ago. The first signs of human life in the canyon include rock paintings that were created by the Indians about 3 thousand years ago. In 1540, the Grand Canyon was discovered by a group of Spanish soldiers, commanded by García López de Cardenas, traveling in search of gold. Several Spanish soldiers, accompanied by Hopi Indians, tried to descend to the bottom of the canyon, but were forced to return due to lack of drinking water. Since then, the canyon has not been visited by Europeans for over two centuries. The first scientific expedition to the Grand Canyon, led by John Weasley Powell, took place in 1869. Powell explored and described the canyon. In 1903, US President Theodore Roosevelt visited the canyon and declared it a national monument in 1909.

6. Great Wall of China, Badaling, China.

the great Wall of China(translated from the Pinyin language - "Long wall of 10,000 li") - the largest architectural monument. Passes through northern China for 6 350 km. The construction of the first wall began in the 3rd century BC. NS. during the reign of Emperor Qin Shi-Huangdi (Qin dynasty), during the period of the "Warring States" (V-III centuries BC) to protect the state from the raids of the nomadic Xiongnu people. A fifth of the country's population, that is, about a million people, took part in the construction at that time. The wall was supposed to serve as the extreme northern line of the possible expansion of the Chinese themselves, it was also supposed to protect the subjects of the "Middle Empire" from the transition to a semi-nomadic lifestyle, from merging with the barbarians. The wall clearly fixed the boundaries of Chinese civilization, contributed to the consolidation of a single empire, just made up of a number of conquered kingdoms.

During the Han Dynasty (3rd century AD), the Wall was extended westward to Dunhuang. A line of watchtowers was also erected, extending into the depths of the desert, to protect trade caravans from nomadic raids. Those sections of the Great Wall of China that have survived to our time were built mainly during the Ming dynasty (XIV-XVII centuries). In this era, the main building materials were bricks and stone blocks, which made the structure more reliable. During the Ming reign, the Wall stretched from east to west from the Shanhaiguan outpost on the shores of the Bohai Bay of the Yellow Sea to the Yumenguan outpost at the junction of the modern provinces of Gansu and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The Manchurian Qing dynasty (mid-17th century - early 20th century), having overcome the Wall with the help of the treachery of Wu Sangui, treated the Wall with disdain. Over the three centuries of her reign, the Great Wall almost collapsed under the influence of time. Only a small section of it near Beijing - Badaling - was kept in order. It served as a kind of "gateway to the capital".

In 1984, Deng Xiaoping initiated a program to restore the Great Wall of China, financed by Chinese and foreign companies, as well as private individuals. A 60-kilometer stretch of the wall in the Mingin region of the Shanxi region in the northwest of the country is reported to be actively eroded. The reason is the intensive farming practices in China since the 1950s, which led to the drying up of groundwater, and as a result, the region became the main source and center of the origin of powerful sandstorms. More than 40 km of the wall has already disappeared, and only 10 km are still in place, but the height of the wall in some places has decreased from five to two meters.

7. Petra (Wadi Musa), Jordan.

Petra- the capital of Edom, or Idumea, later the capital of the Nabataean kingdom, the main city of the sons of Esau. The city is located on the territory of modern Jordan, at an altitude of more than 900 meters above sea level and 660 meters above the surrounding area, the Arava valley, in the narrow Siq canyon. The passage into the valley is carried out through the gorges located in the north and in the south, while from the east and west the cliffs drop vertically, forming natural walls up to 60 meters in height. Petra was located at the crossroads of two major trade routes: one connected the Red Sea with Damascus, the other - the Persian Gulf with Gaza off the Mediterranean coast. The spice caravans leaving the Persian Gulf had to bravely endure the harsh conditions of the Arabian desert for weeks until they reached the coolness of the narrow Siq canyon leading to the long-awaited Petra. There, travelers found food, shelter and cool life-giving water.

The annual rainfall in Petra is only about 15 centimeters. To get water, local residents cut canals and reservoirs right in the rocks. Over time, almost every drop of rain in and around Petra was collected and preserved. Thanks to the water that the inhabitants of Petra skillfully saved, they could grow crops and raise camels. In addition, they were able to build a city - the center of trade. Until now, along the entire length of the Siq canyon, water flows through winding stone canals.

For hundreds of years trade brought great wealth to Petra. But when the Romans opened sea routes to the East, the land trade in spices almost ceased, and Petra gradually became empty, lost in the sands. Many buildings of Petra were erected in different eras and under different owners of the city, including the Edomites (18th-2nd centuries BC), the Nabateans (2-106 BC), the Romans (106-395 BC), Byzantines and Arabs. In the XII century A.D. NS. it was owned by the crusaders. The first European of modern times to see and describe Petra was Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, a Swiss traveling incognito. Next to the ancient theater, you can see a building from the era of the Edomites or Nabateans. The monuments erected after the 6th century BC. practically not, because in that era the city had already lost its significance.

The inhabitants of Petra masterfully mastered the art of working with stone. The very name "Petra" (translated as "rock") is associated with a stone. The Nabateans, who built the city, carved houses, crypts and temples from stone blocks. The famous rock-cut temple-mausoleum of Al-Khazneh, "The Treasury of the Pharaoh", as the Arabs call it, was created in the II century. - possibly in connection with the visit to Syria by Emperor Hadrian. The exact purpose of the structure is not fully understood. The territory of Petra covers a large area. From the center, where the ruins of numerous buildings, no longer rocky, but built in the traditional way, of stone, are well preserved, it stretches for several kilometers. The main street, stretching from east to west across the city, was built during the Roman rule. A majestic colonnade stretches on both sides. The western end of the street rested against a large temple, and the eastern one ended with a three-span triumphal arch. Ed-Deir, a monastery carved into the rock at the top of the cliff, is a huge building about 50 m wide and more than 45 m high. Judging by the crosses carved on the walls, the temple served for some time as a Christian church.

Today, about half a million tourists come to Jordan every year to see Petra, whose buildings bear witness to its glorious past. As tourists walk the cool one-kilometer-long Siq Canyon, around the bend, the Treasury opens up, a majestic building with a facade carved out of a huge rock. This is one of the best preserved buildings of the first century. The building is crowned with a huge urn made of stone, which supposedly contained gold and gems... The canyon gradually expands, and tourists find themselves in a natural amphitheater, in the sandstone walls of which there are many caves. But the main thing that catches your eye is the crypts carved into the rocks. The colonnade and amphitheater testify to the presence of the Romans in the city in the first and second centuries.

8. Serengeti National Park, Tanzania, Kenya

Serengeti National Park- National Park on the territory of the Serengeti savannah, located in Tanzania and Kenya. Savannah stretches from the north of Tanzania, east of Lake Victoria, to the south of Kenya and covers an area of ​​about 30 thousand square meters. km. The name comes from the Masai word "siringet", meaning "stretched area". The Serengeti is located at an altitude of 920 to 1,850 m above sea level and its landscape varies from long or short grass in the south to hills covered with forests in the north. The Serengeti is characterized by congregations (over 1.5 million heads) of wild ungulates (antelopes, zebras, buffaloes, rhinos, giraffes, hippos), common (elephant, lion, cheetah, leopard, hyenas, etc.). The year-round, incessant migration of large herds of ungulates in search of a watering hole is considered one of the most striking seasonal phenomena in the wild.

The world's largest flock of lions, or, as zoologists call it, the lion's pride, was discovered in the Serengeti Park in 2005. The pride consists of 41 lions. They are led by three adult males, each of which is 10 years old. The pack also includes eight 4-year-old lionesses and 9 young "princesses" who are two years old. There are also 13 lion cubs living in the pride, aged from 4 months to a year. Nowhere in Africa has there been such a large flock before.

For the first time, Europeans learned about these places only in 1913. Unfortunately, like all the territories of the British colonies in East Africa, the Serengeti Plains quickly became a place of mass pilgrimage for hunters from Europe. The national park was founded in 1940 in connection with the danger of extermination of large animals by numerous hunters, both local and from other countries.

9. Victoria Falls, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Victoria- a waterfall on the Zambezi River in South Africa. Located on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. The waterfall is about 1800 meters wide and 128 meters high. Scottish explorer David Livingston visited the falls in 1855 and named it after Queen Victoria. Previously, the waterfall was known among the local population as "Thundering Smoke" ("Mosi-oa-Tunya"). The waterfall is located approximately in the middle of the course of the Zambezi River. Above the falls, the Zambezi flows over a flat basalt slab in a valley bounded by low and sparse sandstone hills. There are islands along the river, the number of which increases as you approach the waterfall. The waterfall itself was formed at the place where the Zambezi falls sharply into a narrow crevice. Numerous islets divide the waterfall on the ridge, forming channels. Over time, the waterfall retreated upstream, gnawing itself more and more crevices. These crevices now form a zigzagged river bed with sheer walls.

Victoria Falls is about twice the height of Niagara Falls, and more than twice as wide as its main part ("horseshoe"). Falling water creates spray and fog that can rise to heights of 400 meters or more and are visible up to 50 kilometers away. The waterfall was practically not visited by people until a railway was built here in 1905. After commissioning railroad they quickly gained popularity and maintained it until the end of British colonial rule. A tourist city has grown up on the side of Zimbabwe.

In the late 1960s, tourist numbers declined due to guerrilla warfare in Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) and the detention of foreign tourists during the reign of Vennett Konda in independent Zambia. Zimbabwe's independence in 1980 brought relative peace, and in the 80s a new wave of tourism began in the region. By the end of the 90s, almost 300 thousand people visited the falls annually. In the 2000s, the number of tourists visiting Zimbabwe began to decline due to unrest over the rule of Robert Mugabe.

10. Great Barrier Reef, Coral Sea, Australia

Great Barrier Reef- a ridge of coral reefs and islands in the Coral Sea, stretching along the northeastern coast of Australia for 2,300 km. In the northern part, its width reaches 2 km, in the southern - 150 km. Most of the reefs are underwater (which are exposed at low tide). In 1979, the Marine National Park was founded here with an area of ​​over 5 million hectares. The history of the Great Barrier Reef goes back about 18 million years. Modern history its development lasts about 8,000 years. New layers are still appearing on the old foundation. The main part of the reef encompasses over 2,100 individual reefs that are surrounded by nearly 540 barriers that form offshore islands.

There is a lagoon between the Reef and the coast. This area of ​​shallows rarely exceeds a depth of 100 m. From the sea side, the slopes of the reef fall steeply thousands of meters into the sea. The barrier at this point is affected by waves and winds. Coral growth is fastest here, while in places where waves and temperatures reach extreme heights, reefs lose the most building material. Most of the free material is woven into the reefs and forms new rocks, thus there are constant, alternating processes of destruction and subsequent restoration on the reef.

Due to the diversity and beauty of the underwater world on the territory of the Reef, as well as the almost always warm transparent sea water, this place is incredibly popular among tourists, especially those who are fond of diving. For this reason, the large islands adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef have turned into luxury tourist resorts.

11. Rainforests of the Amazon, Amazon Basin, Brazil

Amazon rainforest, or the Amazonian jungle is located on a vast, almost flat, plain, covering almost the entire Amazon basin. The forest itself occupies 5.5 million square meters. km. It is located on the territory of nine states (Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana). The Amazonian forests are the largest tropical forest in the world. They occupy half of the total remaining rainforest on the planet. The tropical rainforests of South America are the most biodiverse. The variety of animals and plants there is much greater than in the tropical forests of Africa and Asia. Every tenth described species of animal or plant is common in the Amazonian jungle.

At least 40 thousand species of plants, more than 3 thousand species of fish, 1,300 species of birds, about 500 species of mammals, more than 400 species of amphibians, almost 400 species of reptiles and about 100 thousand species of various invertebrates were described here. The largest variety of plants on Earth is present here.

According to some experts, per 1 sq. Km. there are 150 thousand species of higher plants, including 75 thousand tree species. The Amazonian jungle is home to many animals that can pose a serious danger to humans. Among the large predators, the jaguar, anaconda and caiman live here.

The Amazonian lowland is very poorly populated. The main routes of communication are rivers; along which there are small settlements and two large cities: Manaus - at the mouth of the Rio Negru and Belen - at the mouth of the river. Pair; there is a motorway to the last of the city of Brasilia. Due to ongoing climate change and tree felling, vast tracts of the Amazonian rainforest could become the Cerrado, the predominant type of arid savanna in modern-day Brazil.

Based on satellite observations of the Amazon floodplain over the past few decades, scientists have noted a 70% decline in forests. Deforestation negatively affected the fragile ecological balance of Amazonian forests and led to the extinction of many species of trees, plants and animals.

In addition, the decomposition of wood residues and other vegetation as a result of deforestation and forest burning leads to an increase in carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere by a quarter. This, in turn, enhances the greenhouse effect.

12. Angkor, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Angkor- the capital region of the Khmer Empire of the 9th-15th centuries, which dominated throughout Southeast Asia, where Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom survived - outstanding monuments of medieval Khmer art. Angkor stretches 24 km from west to east and 8 km from north to south. It is located on the shores of Lake Tonle Sap about 240 km northwest of the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. The construction of this grandiose temple complex continued for four centuries. It was started by the founder of the Angkor dynasty, Prince Jayavarman II in 802, and the last temple complexes were erected by King Jayavarman VII in the XII century. After his death in 1218, construction ceased, the builders of Angkor completed their centuries-old project. According to another version, the Khmer Empire simply ran out of deposits of sandstone.

Interestingly, all of Jayavarman II's successors followed his building principles. Each new ruler completed the city in such a way that its core was constantly moving: the center of the old city turned out to be on the outskirts of the new one. This is how this giant city gradually grew. Each time a five-tower temple was erected in the center, symbolizing Mount Meru, the center of the world. As a result, Angkor Wat turned into a whole complex of temples. Until our time, Angkor has come down not quite as a city, but rather as a city-temple. During the Khmer Empire, residential and public buildings were built from wood, which is quickly destroyed by the hot and humid tropical climate. In the construction of temples, sandstone stones were most often used. The fortress walls were made of tuff. This explains the relatively good preservation of religious and fortifications in the absence of residential buildings. However, during the heyday of the empire, more than a million people lived in Angkor Thom alone, which was more than any European city at that time.

The Ta Prohm Temple was built by Jayavarman VII in memory of his mother. Now it is interesting because it was not cleared of the jungle. The temple appears to be bearing the stamp of extraordinary beauty, here the entire surface is covered with a cloak of tree roots and lush greenery. Since the end of the civil war in Cambodia and the inclusion of the Angkor complex in the UNESCO World Heritage Site, active restoration work has been carried out in the rest of the temples. Preah Khan (in Khmer "sacred sword") is a huge temple built in honor of the victory over the tyam by King Jayavarman VII at the end of the 12th century. According to another version, the temple was dedicated to the memory of the king's father. Back in the late nineties of the XX century, like Ta Promkh, it was a jungle-covered ruin with gigantic trees growing on them. Now restorers from the United States are working there. The vegetation has already been almost completely removed.

The most beautiful monument of the entire Angkor complex is the most famous and well-preserved Angkor Wat temple, which was built over thirty years during the reign of Suryavarman II. After the death of the king, the temple took him into its walls and became a tomb-mausoleum. In the fortress of Angkor Thom located at a distance of two kilometers, the central Bayon temple and its fifty-four huge towers, each of which is decorated with four images of Buddha, deserve special attention. According to one version, a portrait of the king himself was presented in the image of the Buddha. This temple was the last large religious building built in Angkor. This thriving tourist destination has international Airport and many modern hotels. The distance from the center of Siam Riap to the main temple of the complex - Angkor Wat is about 5 km.

13. Sands of the Sahara, North Africa, Egypt.

Sahara is the largest desert on Earth, with an area of ​​about 9 million square kilometers, which is slightly less than the area of ​​the United States of America. The Sahara is located in North Africa, on the territory of more than ten states (Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, Sudan). The Sahara defies categorization within a single desert type, although the sandy-rocky type is predominant.

There are many regions in the desert: Tenere, Greater Eastern Erg, Greater Western Erg, Tanezruft, Hamada al-Hamra, Erg-Igidi, Erg-Shesh, Arabian, Libyan, Nubian deserts. The name "Sahara" is the Arabic translation of the Tuareg word "tener", meaning desert.

In 2008, an international team of scientists from Germany, Canada and the United States found out as a result of research that the Sahara became a desert about 2,700 years ago as a result of very slow climate evolution. Scientists managed to make such conclusions based on the study of geological deposits raised from the depths of Lake Joa, located in the north of Chad. According to research results, about 6 thousand years ago, trees grew in the Sahara and there were many lakes.

Thus, this work of scientists refutes the existing theory about the transformation of this part of Africa into a desert 5.5 thousand years ago and the fact that the process of desertification took only a few centuries. In the Sahara, about 160 thousand mirages are observed annually. They are stable and wandering, vertical and horizontal. Even special maps of caravan routes have been compiled with an assessment of the places where mirages are usually observed. These maps show where wells, oases, palm groves, and mountain ranges appear.

14. Saline of Uyuni, Altiplano plateau, Bolivia.

Uyuni Salt Flats- a dried up salt lake in the south of the Altiplano desert plain in Bolivia at an altitude of about 3650 m above sea level. It has an area of ​​more than 10.5 thousand square kilometers and is the largest salt marsh in the world. Located in the vicinity of the city of Uyuni in the departments of Oruro and Potosi in the south-west of the country. The inner part of the lake is covered with a layer of sodium chloride from 2 to 8 meters thick! During the rainy season, the salt marsh is covered with a thin layer of water and turns into the world's largest mirror.

About 40 thousand years ago, this area was part of Lake Minchin. After it dried up, there were two lakes that currently exist: Poopo and Uru-Uru, as well as two large salt marshes: Salar de Coipasa and Uyuni. According to experts, the Uyuni salt marsh contains a reserve of 10 billion tons of salt, of which less than 25 thousand tons are extracted annually.

Thanks to the development of tourism on the Uyuni salt marsh, local residents began to build hotels from salt blocks, where they can stay overnight. In addition, the Uyuni Salt Flats is an ideal tool for testing and calibrating remote sensing instruments on orbiting satellites. Uyuni's clear skies and dry air allow satellites to be calibrated five times better than using the ocean surface.

15. Ice of Antarctica, South Pole, Antarctica

Antarctica(translated from Greek "the opposite of the Arctic") - a continent located in the very south of the Earth, the center of Antarctica roughly coincides with the southern geographic pole. The area of ​​the continent is about 15 million square kilometers (of which 1.6 million square kilometers are ice shelves). Antarctica was discovered in 1820 by a Russian expedition led by Thaddeus Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev. The first to enter the mainland in 1895 were the captain of the Norwegian ship Antarctic Christensen and the teacher of natural sciences Karlsten Borchgrövink.

Antarctica is the highest continent on Earth, the average height of the continent's surface above sea level is more than 2000 m, and in the center of the continent it reaches 4000 meters. Most of this height is the permanent ice sheet of the continent, under which the continental relief is hidden and only ~ 5% of its area is ice-free - mainly in West Antarctica and the Transantarctic Mountains: islands, coastal areas, the so-called "Dry valleys" and individual ridges and mountain peaks (nunataks), towering above the icy surface.

The Antarctic ice sheet is the largest on our planet and is approximately 10 times larger than the nearest Greenland ice sheet. It contains ~ 30 million square meters. km of ice, that is, 90% of all ice on land. The average thickness of the ice layer is 2 500-2 800 m, reaching maximum value in some areas of East Antarctica - up to 5 kilometers.

A feature of Antarctica is a large area of ​​ice shelves (low "blue" areas of West Antarctica), accounting for ~ 10% of the area that rises above sea level; these glaciers are the source of record-breaking icebergs. In winter (summer in the northern hemisphere) the area sea ​​ice around Antarctica increases to 18 million square kilometers, and decreases to 3-4 million square kilometers in summer.

According to the Antarctic Convention, Antarctica does not belong to any state. Only scientific activities are allowed. The placement of military installations, as well as the entry of warships and armed ships south of 60 degrees latitude, is prohibited. Due to the severity of the climate, Antarctica has no permanent population. The temporary population of Antarctica ranges from 4000 people in summer to 1000 people in winter.

16. Ha Long Bay, Gulf of Tonkin, Vietnam

Ha-Long- a bay in the Ha-Long Gulf of Tonkin. The bay has a picturesque coastal landscape thanks to rocky limestone islands scattered in shallow waters. Due to the inaccessible terrain, almost all islets are uninhabited and not affected by human influence. The exceptional aesthetics of this area is combined with its biological value. The bay is located in the northeast of Vietnam, it stretches from the Yen Hurng region to the Van Don region, its length along the coast is 120 km.

There are almost two thousand limestone islands scattered in the bay, each of which is covered with wild vegetation. Most of the islands are towers from 50 to 100 meters high.

Some of the islands are hollow with giant caves. The largest grotto in the bay "Hang-Dau-Go" is one of the main attractions of the region. There are also large inhabited islands in the bay (Tuan Chau, Cat Ba), on which hotels are even built.

Local legends say that when the Vietnamese fought the Chinese invaders, the gods sent dragons to the Vietnamese. Dragons spewed precious stones from their jaws, which turned into stone islands. As a result, the islands formed a wall. This saved the locals and allowed them to preserve their lands. The dragons liked the land and decided to stay. The place to which the Mother of Dragons sank was named Ha-Long (long in Vietnamese means "dragon"), and the place her children chose was Bai-Tu-Long.

Ha Long Bay is considered the main attraction of Vietnam. And those who have never been to this place could see him in one of the Hollywood James Bond series "Tomorrow Never Dies."

17. Bora Bora Island, French Polynesia, Pacific Ocean

Bora Bora is one of the Leeward Islands of the Society Islands archipelago in French Polynesia in the Pacific Ocean. Bora Bora is a typical Thomas atoll with a central mountain surrounded by a coral reef with numerous motu.

The central island is made up mostly of basaltic lava, while motu is made up of coral debris and sand layers. The elongated central island is 9 km long and 5 km at its widest point. The settlements are located exclusively on the coast, while the lush interior of the island is inaccessible.

A 32 km long paved ring road surrounds the island, making travel between coastal settlements and hotels accessible, while the interior of the island in some places is only accessible by off-road vehicles.

Bora Bora has a population of about 7,500. The largest settlement of Vaitape (approximately 4,000 inhabitants) is located in the western part of the island opposite the main passage to the lagoon, which is so deep that it can handle even large cruise ships.

The settlement of the Society Islands as part of the Polynesian expansion occurred relatively late. The first wave of settlement reached the islands of Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and finally the Marquesas, from where the Society Islands were settled already in about 400. James Cook is considered the European discoverer of the island. He first landed on Bora Bora only in 1777 during his third voyage. On April 2, 1786, the French navigator Louis Antoine de Bougainville reached the island of Tahiti and declared the Society Islands a French possession, thereby founding modern French Polynesia. During World War II, after the Japanese naval air attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Bora Bora became an important US supply base in the South Pacific. However, during the war, the base was never attacked and was disbanded in 1946. Today Bora Bora is part of the territories in French Polynesia.

The monetary unit of French Polynesia is the Pacific franc, which is fixed in value against the euro. The island's economy is almost entirely based on tourism. Bora Bora, along with Tahiti, is considered one of the most open islands for tourists in the southern part of the Pacific Ocean. The island is replete with numerous high-end hotels, visited mostly by American and Japanese tourists. Many luxury hotels are located on the motu and offer holidaymakers dwellings located on stilts directly in the lagoon.

The main attraction of Bora Bora is the lagoon with its rich underwater world. In the depths of the lagoon, barracudas and sharks live, which, under the supervision of an instructor, are allowed to be fed. The most famous diving attraction is the Stingray Road, which is a section of the lagoon inhabited by big amount different types of stingrays.

Worth seeing are the ruins of more than 40 marae (ceremonial grounds), most of which are located in the vicinity of the village of Faanui.

18. Niagara Falls, USA, Canada

Niagara Falls- the common name for three waterfalls on the Niagara River, which separates the US state of New York from the Canadian province of Ontario. Niagara Falls are Horseshoe Falls, sometimes also called Canadian Falls, American Falls and Bridal Vail Falls.

Although the difference in elevation is not very large, the falls are very wide, and in terms of the volume of water passing through it, Niagara Falls is the most powerful in North America. The height of the waterfalls is 53 meters. The foot of the American Falls is obscured by a pile of stones, which is why its apparent height is 3 times less. The width of the American Falls is more than 300 m, the Horseshoe Falls is almost 800 m. The name Niagara takes its name from the Iroquois word “Onguiaahra”, which literally means “Water Thunder”. The local indigenous people were the Iroquois tribe of Ongiara.

The roots of the waterfall lie in the Wisconsin glaciation, which ended about 10 thousand years ago. The North American Great Lakes and the Niagara River are the result of the last continental ice sheet - a huge glacier that moved across the terrain from eastern Canada. After the ice melted, the drainage ditch on the side of the Great Lakes became the modern Niagara River, which could no longer flow through the old valley and formed a new channel in the altered landscape. When the newly formed river stumbled upon erosion-free dolomite rocks, this layer began to erode much more slowly than the soft shale and sandy rocks lying at the lower level. As a result, the river undercut the solid layers and formed a waterfall.

In the 19th century, tourism became fashionable, and by the middle of the century, this industry became the main one in the region. The popularity of the waterfall among tourists increased dramatically after the end of the First World War due to the spread of car traffic. Today, the beauty of this natural wonder attracts many tourists from all over the world, which contributes to the prosperity of cities located on the shores of Niagara Falls, New York, USA and Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. The most colorful view of the falls is from the Canadian coast. A few hundred meters downstream across Niagara, the "Rainbow Bridge" is thrown, open for the movement of cars and pedestrians between the two countries. Hydroelectric power plants have been built under the waterfall. this moment generate up to 4.4 gigawatts of electricity.

19.Pagan, Magway District, Myanmar (Burma)

Pagan(or Bagan) - the ancient capital of the kingdom of the same name in the territory of modern Myanmar. The city sits on a dry plateau along the western bank of the Ayeyarwaddy River, southeast of Mandalay, near the town of Chawk in Magway County. Currently, on the site of the ancient city, there is an archaeological zone with thousands of pagodas, temples, stupas and monasteries. The ruins of Pagan cover an area of ​​about 40 square kilometers.

Most of the buildings were built during the XI-XIII centuries, when Pagan was the capital of the dynastic kingdom. King Pyinbya at the end of the 9th century moved the capital to Pagan. However, the transfer of the capital in Burmese history happened quite often, and in the XI century, King Anoratha moved the capital to another city. Anoratha decided to turn Pagan into a cultural center. He established the teachings of Theravada Buddhism as the state religion and sent a spiritual mission to Sri Lanka, from where the monks came and helped him complete the conversion of the entire country to Theravada.

Pagan became the center of science, religion and culture, one of the largest cities in the world. At the end of the 13th century, the kingdom was occupied by the Mongols. The city was plundered, golden pagodas were stripped, numerous religious relics were stolen.

The city of Pagan does not exist as such - there is only Bagan airport, and several villages (Nyaung U, We-ji In, Myinkaba, Old Bagan) around and inside a huge archaeological zone with thousands of large and small stupas and pagodas scattered around. The most significant stupas, such as Shwezigon and Lokananda Chaun, which keep the teeth of the Buddha, are covered with gold, the approaches to them are asphalted, and many pavilions have been built around.

Most of the pagodas are built of red brick and white stone and are not covered in gold. Less significant pagodas are also being protected and restored. In the distance, there are many very small stupas and pagodas, some of them destroyed. In some places between the temples - a scorched desert, in some places - standing alone palm trees, in some places - green thickets.

Usually temples are symmetrical in shape with four altars and Buddha statues in each direction of the horizon. There are also over 700 stupas with holy relics. Also interesting are the Gubyauzhi caves - temples with a labyrinth of corridors painted with frescoes. Older frescoes are two-tone, later frescoes are multi-colored, and the images are often fantastic and surreal.

This place is very popular among tourists, since here you can go from temple to temple for more than one day, meditate in front of the altars, climb the upper tiers along steep steps and through the inner dark stairs, admire the sunset from special viewing platforms on the tops of the temples. Despite its obvious cultural and historical significance, UNESCO was unable to declare Pagan a World Heritage Site for political reasons.

20. Fjords of Norway, north of the country, Norway

Fjord(translated from the Norwegian "bay") - a narrow, winding and deeply cut into the land sea bay with rocky shores. The length of the fjord is several (usually tens) times greater than the width. The shores of the fjord in most cases are formed by rocks up to 1000 m high. Most often, fjords are of tectonic origin and arose with a sharp and sudden change in the direction of movement of tectonic plates from opposite to opposite. As a result, numerous cracks and faults are formed at the edges of the plates, already compressed by the preliminary oncoming motion, which are filled with seawater. In some cases, the formation of fjords is the result of the processing of river valleys and tectonic depressions by glaciers, followed by their flooding with water.

In Norway, fjords are located in the northern part of the country. They formed during the last ice age. Each fjord has its own characteristics and attractions. So, the Geiranger Fjord is famous for the highest and most picturesque waterfalls. The Sognefjord is the longest fjord in the world. The Hardangerfjord is famous for the surrounding area, where magnificent orchards bloom in the spring. The Lisefjord is famous for the Preikestolen rock, where you can enjoy a magnificent view, and the most daring can go to the very edge of the cliff.

Due to their beauty and scenic beauty, the fjords are of well-deserved interest among tourists from all over the world.

Sacred site of three religions

The Temple Mount, an approximately rectangular hill in the southeastern part of the Old City of Jerusalem. It is traditionally identified with Mount Moriah, the place indicated to Abraham by God for the sacrifice of his son Isaac. Jerusalem is one of the most ancient cities in the world, more than 3500 years old. It is a sacred site of three ancient religions: Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

Khalifa Tower - the tallest building on the planet

Burj Khalifa as of January 2013 is the tallest skyscraper in the world. It is located in the capital of the Arab Emirates, the city of Dubai. The height of the building is 828 meters and its construction lasted six years. The building cost a whopping $ 1.5 billion.

The petrified forest in Arizona (USA) - the largest in the world

One of the most stunning national parks in the United States is the Petrified Forest, located in the heart of Arizona, in the Painted Desert, near Holbrook. This is an amazing place where you can see real stone trees. There are many such places on earth, but this is the largest of all known in our world. More than two hundred million years ago, dinosaurs roamed here and huge trees, more than thirty meters, towered here. In diameter, they reached two or more meters.

11. Rainforests of the Amazon

Amazon Basin, Brazil.

Amazon rainforest, or the Amazonian jungle is located on a vast, almost flat, plain, covering almost the entire Amazon basin. The forest itself occupies 5.5 million km2. It is located on the territory of nine states (Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana). The Amazonian forests are the largest tropical forest in the world. They occupy half of the total remaining rainforest on the planet. The tropical rainforests of South America are the most biodiverse. The variety of animals and plants there is much greater than in the tropical forests of Africa and Asia. Every tenth described species of animal or plant is common in the Amazonian jungle.

At least 40 thousand species of plants, more than 3 thousand species of fish, 1,300 species of birds, about 500 species of mammals, more than 400 species of amphibians, almost 400 species of reptiles and about 100 thousand species of various invertebrates were described here. The largest variety of plants on Earth is present here.

According to some experts, there are 150 thousand species of higher plants per 1 km2, including 75 thousand species of trees. The Amazonian jungle is home to many animals that can pose a serious danger to humans. Among the large predators, the jaguar, anaconda and caiman live here.

The Amazonian lowland is very poorly populated. The main routes of communication are rivers; along which there are small settlements and two large cities: Manaus - at the mouth of the Rio Negru and Belen - at the mouth of the river. Pair; there is a motorway to the last of the city of Brasilia. Due to ongoing climate change and tree felling, vast tracts of the Amazonian rainforest could become the Cerrado, the predominant type of arid savanna in modern-day Brazil.

Based on satellite observations of the Amazon floodplain over the past few decades, scientists have noted a 70% decline in forests. Deforestation negatively affected the fragile ecological balance of Amazonian forests and led to the extinction of many species of trees, plants and animals.

In addition, the decomposition of wood residues and other vegetation as a result of deforestation and forest burning leads to an increase in carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere by a quarter. This, in turn, enhances the greenhouse effect.

12. Angkor

Siem Reap, Cambodia

Angkor- the capital region of the Khmer Empire of the 9th-15th centuries, which dominated throughout Southeast Asia, where Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom survived - outstanding monuments of medieval Khmer art. Angkor stretches 24 km from west to east and 8 km from north to south. It is located on the shores of Lake Tonle Sap about 240 km northwest of the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. The construction of this grandiose temple complex continued for four centuries. It was started by the founder of the Angkor dynasty, Prince Jayavarman II in 802, and the last temple complexes were erected by King Jayavarman VII in the XII century. After his death in 1218, construction ceased, the builders of Angkor completed their centuries-old project. According to another version, the Khmer Empire simply ran out of deposits of sandstone.

Interestingly, all of Jayavarman II's successors followed his building principles. Each new ruler completed the city in such a way that its core was constantly moving: the center of the old city turned out to be on the outskirts of the new one. This is how this giant city gradually grew. Each time a five-tower temple was erected in the center, symbolizing Mount Meru, the center of the world. As a result, Angkor Wat turned into a whole complex of temples. Until our time, Angkor has come down not quite as a city, but rather a city-temple. During the Khmer Empire, residential and public buildings were built from wood, which is quickly destroyed by the hot and humid tropical climate. In the construction of temples, sandstone stones were most often used. The fortress walls were made of tuff. This explains the relatively good preservation of religious and fortifications in the absence of residential buildings. However, during the heyday of the empire, more than a million people lived in Angkor Thom alone, which is more than any European city at that time.

The Ta Prohm Temple was built by Jayavarman VII in memory of his mother. Now it is interesting because it was not cleared of the jungle. The temple appears to be bearing the stamp of extraordinary beauty, here the entire surface is covered with a cloak of tree roots and lush greenery. Since the end of the civil war in Cambodia and the inclusion of the Angkor complex in the UNESCO World Heritage Site, active restoration work has been carried out in the rest of the temples. Preah Khan (in Khmer "sacred sword") is a huge temple built in honor of the victory over the tyam by King Jayavarman VII at the end of the 12th century. According to another version, the temple was dedicated to the memory of the king's father. Back in the late nineties of the XX century, like Ta Promkh, it was a jungle-covered ruin with gigantic trees growing on them. Now restorers from the United States are working there. The vegetation has already been almost completely removed.

The most beautiful monument of the entire Angkor complex is the most famous and well-preserved Angkor Wat temple, which was built over thirty years during the reign of Suryavarman II. After the death of the king, the temple took him into its walls and became a tomb-mausoleum. In the fortress of Angkor Thom located at a distance of two kilometers, the central Bayon temple and its fifty-four huge towers, each of which is decorated with four images of Buddha, deserve special attention. According to one version, a portrait of the king himself was presented in the image of the Buddha. This temple was the last large religious building built in Angkor. This thriving tourist destination has an international airport and many modern hotels. The distance from the center of Siam Riap to the main temple of the complex - Angkor Wat is about 5 km.

13. Sands of the Sahara

North Africa, Egypt.

Sahara- the largest desert on Earth, with an area of ​​about 9 million km2, which is slightly less than the area of ​​the United States of America. The Sahara is located in North Africa, on the territory of more than ten states (Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, Sudan). The Sahara defies categorization within a single desert type, although the sandy-rocky type is predominant.

There are many regions in the desert: Tenere, Greater Eastern Erg, Greater Western Erg, Tanezruft, Hamada al-Hamra, Erg-Igidi, Erg-Shesh, Arabian, Libyan, Nubian deserts. The name "Sahara" is the Arabic translation of the Tuareg word "tener", meaning desert.

In 2008, an international team of scientists from Germany, Canada and the United States found out as a result of research that the Sahara became a desert about 2,700 years ago as a result of very slow climate evolution. Scientists managed to make such conclusions based on the study of geological deposits raised from the depths of Lake Joa, located in the north of Chad. According to research results, about 6 thousand years ago, trees grew in the Sahara and there were many lakes.

Thus, this work of scientists refutes the existing theory about the transformation of this part of Africa into a desert 5.5 thousand years ago and the fact that the process of desertification took only a few centuries. In the Sahara, about 160 thousand mirages are observed annually. They are stable and wandering, vertical and horizontal. Even special maps of caravan routes have been compiled with an assessment of the places where mirages are usually observed. These maps show where wells, oases, palm groves, and mountain ranges appear.

14. Saline marsh Uyuni

Altiplano plateau, Bolivia.

Uyuni Salt Flats- a dried up salt lake in the south of the Altiplano desert plain in Bolivia at an altitude of about 3650 m above sea level. It has an area of ​​more than 10.5 thousand km2 and is the largest salt marsh in the world. Located in the vicinity of the city of Uyuni in the departments of Oruro and Potosi in the south-west of the country. The inner part of the lake is covered with a layer of table salt 2-8 meters thick! During the rainy season, the salt marsh is covered with a thin layer of water and turns into the world's largest mirror.

About 40 thousand years ago, this area was part of Lake Minchin. After it dried up, there were two lakes that currently exist: Poopo and Uru-Uru, as well as two large salt marshes: Salar de Coipasa and Uyuni. According to experts, the Uyuni salt marsh contains a reserve of 10 billion tons of salt, of which less than 25 thousand tons are extracted annually.

Thanks to the development of tourism on the Uyuni salt marsh, local residents began to build hotels from salt blocks, where they can stay overnight. In addition, the Uyuni Salt Flats is an ideal tool for testing and calibrating remote sensing instruments on orbiting satellites. Uyuni's clear skies and dry air allow satellites to be calibrated five times better than using the ocean surface.

15. Ice of Antarctica

South Pole, Antarctica.

Antarctica(translated from Greek "the opposite of the Arctic") - a continent located in the very south of the Earth, the center of Antarctica roughly coincides with the southern geographic pole. The area of ​​the continent is about 15 million km2 (of which 1.6 million km2 are ice shelves). Antarctica was discovered in 1820 by a Russian expedition led by Thaddeus Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev. The first to enter the mainland in 1895 were the captain of the Norwegian ship Antarctic Christensen and the teacher of natural sciences Karlsten Borchgrövink.

Antarctica is the highest continent on Earth, the average height of the continent's surface above sea level is more than 2000 m, and in the center of the continent it reaches 4000 meters. Most of this height is the permanent ice sheet of the continent, under which the continental relief is hidden and only ~ 5% of its area is ice-free - mainly in West Antarctica and the Transantarctic Mountains: islands, coastal areas, the so-called "Dry valleys" and individual ridges and mountain peaks (nunataks), towering above the icy surface.

The Antarctic ice sheet is the largest on our planet and is approximately 10 times larger than the nearest Greenland ice sheet. It contains ~ 30 million square meters. km of ice, that is, 90% of all ice on land. The average thickness of the ice layer is 2500-2800 m, reaching a maximum value in some areas of East Antarctica - up to 5 kilometers.

A feature of Antarctica is a large area of ​​ice shelves (low "blue" areas of West Antarctica), accounting for ~ 10% of the area that rises above sea level; these glaciers are the source of record-breaking icebergs. In winter (summer in the northern hemisphere) the area of ​​sea ice around Antarctica increases to 18 million km2, and in summer it decreases to 3-4 million km2.

According to the Antarctic Convention, Antarctica does not belong to any state. Only scientific activities are allowed. The placement of military installations, as well as the entry of warships and armed ships south of 60 degrees latitude, is prohibited. Due to the severity of the climate, Antarctica has no permanent population. The temporary population of Antarctica ranges from 4000 people in summer to 1000 people in winter.

16. Ha-Long Bay

Gulf of Tonkin, Vietnam.

Ha-Long- a bay in the Ha-Long Gulf of Tonkin. The bay has a picturesque coastal landscape thanks to rocky limestone islands scattered in shallow waters. Due to the inaccessible terrain, almost all islets are uninhabited and not affected by human influence. The exceptional aesthetics of this area is combined with its biological value. The bay is located in the northeast of Vietnam, it stretches from the Yen Hurng region to the Van Don region, its length along the coast is 120 km.

There are almost two thousand limestone islands scattered in the bay, each of which is covered with wild vegetation. Most of the islands are towers from 50 to 100 meters high.

Some of the islands are hollow with giant caves. The largest grotto in the bay "Hang-Dau-Go" is one of the main attractions of the region. There are also large inhabited islands in the bay (Tuan Chau, Cat Ba), on which hotels are even built.

Local legends say that when the Vietnamese fought the Chinese invaders, the gods sent dragons to the Vietnamese. Dragons spewed precious stones from their jaws, which turned into stone islands. As a result, the islands formed a wall. This saved the locals and allowed them to preserve their lands. The dragons liked the land and decided to stay. The place to which the Mother of Dragons sank was named Ha-Long (long in Vietnamese means "dragon"), and the place her children chose was Bai-Tu-Long.

Ha Long Bay is considered the main attraction of Vietnam. And those who have never been to this place could see him in one series of Hollywood films about James Bond "Tomorrow Never Dies."

17. Bora Bora Island

French Polynesia, Pacific Ocean.

Bora Bora is one of the Leeward Islands of the Society Islands archipelago in French Polynesia in the Pacific Ocean. Bora Bora is a typical Thomas atoll with a central mountain surrounded by a coral reef with numerous motu.

The central island is made up mostly of basaltic lava, while motu is made up of coral debris and sand layers. The elongated central island is 9 km long and 5 km at its widest point. The settlements are located exclusively on the coast, while the lush interior of the island is inaccessible.

A 32 km long paved ring road surrounds the island, making travel between coastal settlements and hotels accessible, while the interior of the island in some places is only accessible by off-road vehicles.

Bora Bora has a population of about 7,500. The largest settlement of Vaitape (approximately 4,000 inhabitants) is located in the western part of the island opposite the main passage to the lagoon, which is so deep that it can handle even large cruise ships.

The settlement of the Society Islands as part of the Polynesian expansion occurred relatively late. The first wave of settlement reached the islands of Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and finally the Marquesas, from where the Society Islands were settled already in about 400. James Cook is considered the European discoverer of the island. He first landed on Bora Bora only in 1777 during his third voyage. On April 2, 1786, the French navigator Louis Antoine de Bougainville reached the island of Tahiti and declared the Islands of the Society a possession of France, thereby founding modern French Polynesia. During World War II, after the Japanese naval air attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Bora Bora became an important US supply base in the South Pacific. However, during the war, the base was never attacked and was disbanded in 1946. Today Bora Bora is part of the territories in French Polynesia.

The monetary unit of French Polynesia is the Pacific franc, which is fixed in value against the euro. The island's economy is almost entirely based on tourism. Bora Bora, along with Tahiti, is considered one of the most open islands for tourists in the southern part of the Pacific Ocean. The island is replete with numerous high-end hotels, visited mostly by American and Japanese tourists. Many luxury hotels are located on the motu and offer holidaymakers dwellings located on stilts directly in the lagoon.

The main attraction of Bora Bora is the lagoon with its rich underwater world. In the depths of the lagoon, barracudas and sharks live, which, under the supervision of an instructor, are allowed to be fed. The most famous diving attraction is the Stingray Road, which is a section of the lagoon inhabited by many different stingray species.

Worth seeing are the ruins of more than 40 marae (ceremonial grounds), most of which are located in the vicinity of the village of Faanui.

18. Niagara Falls

USA, Canada.

Niagara Falls- the common name for three waterfalls on the Niagara River, which separates the US state of New York from the Canadian province of Ontario. Niagara Falls are Horseshoe Falls, sometimes also called Canadian Falls, American Falls and Bridal Vail Falls.

Although the difference in elevation is not very large, the falls are very wide, and in terms of the volume of water passing through it, Niagara Falls is the most powerful in North America. The height of the waterfalls is 53 meters. The foot of the American Falls is obscured by a pile of stones, which is why its apparent height is 3 times less. The width of the American Falls is more than 300 m, the Horseshoe Falls is almost 800 m. The name Niagara takes its name from the Iroquois word “Onguiaahra”, which literally means “Water Thunder”. The local indigenous people were the Iroquois tribe of Ongiara.

The roots of the waterfall lie in the Wisconsin glaciation, which ended about 10 thousand years ago. The North American Great Lakes and the Niagara River are the result of the last continental ice sheet - a huge glacier that moved across the terrain from eastern Canada. After the ice melted, the drainage ditch on the side of the Great Lakes became the modern Niagara River, which could no longer flow through the old valley and formed a new channel in the altered landscape. When the newly formed river stumbled upon erosion-free dolomite rocks, this layer began to erode much more slowly than the soft shale and sandy rocks lying at the lower level. As a result, the river undercut the solid layers and formed a waterfall.

In the 19th century, tourism became fashionable, and by the middle of the century, this industry became the main one in the region. The popularity of the waterfall among tourists increased dramatically after the end of the First World War due to the spread of car traffic. Today, the beauty of this natural wonder attracts many tourists from all over the world, which contributes to the prosperity of cities located on the shores of Niagara Falls, New York, USA and Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. The most colorful view of the falls is from the Canadian coast. A few hundred meters downstream across Niagara, the "Rainbow Bridge" is thrown, open for the movement of cars and pedestrians between the two countries. Hydroelectric power plants have been built under the waterfall, which currently generate up to 4.4 gigawatts of electricity.

19. Bagan Magway District, Myanmar (Burma).

Pagan(or Bagan) - the ancient capital of the kingdom of the same name in the territory of modern Myanmar. The city sits on a dry plateau along the western bank of the Ayeyarwaddy River, southeast of Mandalay, near the town of Chawk in Magway County. Currently, on the site of the ancient city, there is an archaeological zone with thousands of pagodas, temples, stupas and monasteries. The ruins of Pagan cover an area of ​​about 40 km2.

Most of the buildings were built during the XI-XIII centuries, when Pagan was the capital of the dynastic kingdom. King Pyinbya at the end of the 9th century moved the capital to Pagan. However, the transfer of the capital in Burmese history happened quite often, and in the XI century, King Anoratha moved the capital to another city. Anoratha decided to turn Pagan into a cultural center. He established the teachings of Theravada Buddhism as the state religion and sent a spiritual mission to Sri Lanka, from where the monks came and helped him complete the conversion of the entire country to Theravada.

Pagan became the center of science, religion and culture, one of the largest cities in the world. At the end of the 13th century, the kingdom was occupied by the Mongols. The city was plundered, golden pagodas were stripped, numerous religious relics were stolen.

The city of Pagan does not exist as such - there is only Bagan airport, and several villages (Nyaung U, We-ji In, Myinkaba, Old Bagan) around and inside a huge archaeological zone with thousands of large and small stupas and pagodas scattered around. The most significant stupas, such as Shwezigon and Lokananda Chaun, which keep the teeth of the Buddha, are covered with gold, the approaches to them are asphalted, and many pavilions have been built around.

Most of the pagodas are built of red brick and white stone and are not covered in gold. Less significant pagodas are also being protected and restored. In the distance, there are many very small stupas and pagodas, some of them destroyed. In some places between the temples - a scorched desert, in some places - standing alone palm trees, in some places - green thickets.

Usually temples are symmetrical in shape with four altars and Buddha statues in each direction of the horizon. There are also over 700 stupas with holy relics. Also interesting are the Gubyauzhi caves - temples with a labyrinth of corridors painted with frescoes. Older frescoes are two-tone, later frescoes are multi-colored, and the images are often fantastic and surreal.

This place is very popular among tourists, since here you can go from temple to temple for more than one day, meditate in front of the altars, climb the upper tiers along steep steps and through the inner dark stairs, admire the sunset from special viewing platforms on the tops of the temples. Despite its obvious cultural and historical significance, UNESCO was unable to declare Pagan a World Heritage Site for political reasons.

20. Fjords of Norway

North of the country, Norway.

Fjord(translated from the Norwegian "bay") - a narrow, winding and deeply cut into the land sea bay with rocky shores. The length of the fjord is several (usually tens) times greater than the width. The shores of the fjord in most cases are formed by rocks up to 1000 m high. Most often, fjords are of tectonic origin and arose with a sharp and sudden change in the direction of movement of tectonic plates from opposite to opposite. As a result, numerous cracks and faults are formed at the edges of the plates, already compressed by the preliminary oncoming motion, which are filled with seawater. In some cases, the formation of fjords is the result of the processing of river valleys and tectonic depressions by glaciers, followed by their flooding with water.

In Norway, fjords are located in the northern part of the country. They formed during the last ice age. Each fjord has its own characteristics and attractions. So, the Geiranger Fjord is famous for the highest and most picturesque waterfalls. The Sognefjord is the longest fjord in the world. The Hardangerfjord is famous for the surrounding area, where magnificent orchards bloom in the spring. The Lisefjord is famous for the Preikestolen rock, where you can enjoy a magnificent view, and the most daring can go to the very edge of the cliff.

Due to their beauty and scenic beauty, the fjords are of well-deserved interest among tourists from all over the world.

Wednesday, May 24, 2017 09:27 PM ()

1. Machu Picchu. Cuzco, Peru.

Machu Picchu(literally "old peak", the true name is unknown) is sometimes called "the lost city of the Incas". The city is located at the top of a mountain range at an altitude of 2,057 meters above the valley of the Urubamba River in what is now Peru. This city was created as a sacred mountain refuge by the great Inca ruler Pachacutec a century before the conquest of his empire, that is, around 1440, and functioned until 1532, when the Spanish invaded the territory of the Inca empire. However, the Spanish conquistadors never reached the settlement of Machu Picchu, and the city was not destroyed. Therefore, it still remains a mystery where and why all its inhabitants mysteriously disappeared back in 1532. There is speculation that this was the winter residence of Pachacuteca. After the collapse of the Inca empire, the city lost its significance, and the inhabitants left it forever.

Due to its modest size, Machu Picchu cannot claim the role of a large city - there are no more than 200 structures in it. These are mainly temples, residences, warehouses and other premises for public needs. For the most part, they are built of well-worked stone, slabs tightly fitted to each other. It is believed that up to 1,200 people lived in and around it, who worshiped the sun god Inti and cultivated crops on the terraces. For more than 400 years this city was forgotten and was in desolation. It was discovered by an American researcher from Yale University, Professor Hiram Bingham in 1911. When he got here, accompanied by a government-sponsored guard and a local boy guide, he found peasants living there. In addition, the site has already been visited by sightseeing enthusiasts who have left their charcoal-engraved names on the granite walls.

Machu Picchu has a very clear structure. In the southeast, a complex of palace buildings is guessed. The stones from which they are made were processed so carefully that it is safe to say that these were the dwellings of dignitaries and nobles. In the western part there is a main temple with an altar for sacrifices. Opposite it is a residential area densely built up with two-storey houses. Between them, as in a labyrinth, narrow streets and stairs wind up, often leading to a dead end or to a terrace overhanging an abyss. In the southeastern tip of Machu Picchu, the Inca masons erected two impressive structures - a semicircular tower and an adjacent structure. From the Sacred Square, along a granite slope with terraces, along a long staircase, you can with great difficulty get to the top of the cliff, there lies a large, carved polygonal stone "intihuatana", or "the place where the sun is tied." Bingham suggested that here the Incas symbolically "tied" the sun so that it would not run away from them during the winter solstice. This elegant stone carved into the rock could also be a solar observatory, where the priests determined the best time to start sowing or harvesting, watching the disappearance of the shadows from the sun during the autumn and spring equinoxes.

To build a city in such an inconvenient place for construction required incredible skill. According to modern experts, more than half of the effort spent on the construction was spent on site preparation, drainage and foundation laying. Massive retaining walls and stepped terraces have been holding the city for more than 500 years, preventing rain and landslides from taking it down from the rocky cornice. The heirs of the Andean cultures to this day consider Machu Picchu a symbol of their connection with the great civilization of the past.

The road from Machu Picchu to Cusco is a fine example of the art of the Inca builders. Even in the rainy season, the road is in excellent condition. The entire empire was covered by a wide network of communications, about 40 thousand km long. The roads in the Inca state were primarily of strategic importance - troops had to pass along them. In addition, they promoted cultural exchange between all areas of the state. Thanks to the roads, people learned from each other the arts of ceramics, weaving, metalworking, architecture and construction.

2.Pyramids at Giza Cairo, Egypt.

Complex pyramids at Giza is located on the Giza plateau in the suburbs of Cairo, Egypt. This complex of ancient monuments is located at a distance of about eight kilometers towards the center of the desert from the old city of Giza on the Nile. This ancient Egyptian necropolis consists of the Pyramid of Khufu (known as the Great Pyramid or Pyramid of Cheops), the Pyramid of Khafre and the Pyramid of Menkaur, as well as a number of smaller accompanying buildings known as the “queens” pyramids, sidewalks and valley pyramids. The Great Sphinx is located on the east side of the complex, facing east. The Pyramid of Cheops (or Khufu) is the largest of the Egyptian pyramids, the only one of the Seven Wonders of the World that has survived to this day.

Initially, the height of the pyramid was 146.6 meters (approximately fifty-story skyscraper), however, due to the loss of the crown granite block "pyramidion" as a result of the earthquake, its height has now decreased by 9.4 meters and is 137.2 meters. The length of the side of the pyramid is 230 meters. It is composed of approximately 2.3 million stone cubes, stacked in 203 tiers (originally 210). The average weight of a stone is 2.5 tons, but there are also larger ones, whose weight reached 15 tons. The time of construction is unknown. According to one of the legends, the pyramid was built in the XXVI century BC. Pharaoh Khufu (2590-2568 BC), in Greek his name sounded "Cheops". The architect of the pyramid is considered to be Chemiun, the vizier and relative of Cheops. According to Herodotus, 100,000 workers, who replaced each other every three months, built the pyramid for about 20-25 years. But this figure raises doubts among modern scientists. According to their calculations, only 8,000 people could easily build a pyramid without interfering with each other.

The circumstances and exact time of the construction of the Sphinx are still mysterious. The opinion of ancient authors, accepted in modern literature, that its builder was Khefren (Khafru), is confirmed only by the fact that during the construction of the temple, stone blocks of the same size were used for the statue as in the construction of the neighboring pyramid. The question of who ordered the statue is even more confused by the fact that the face of the statue has Negroid features, which is at odds with other surviving images of Khafru and his relatives. Scientists who used a computer to compare the face of the Sphinx with the signed statues of Khafru concluded that they could not represent the same person. Since the 1950s. in popular literature, the dating of the Sphinx to the period of the Old Kingdom began to be questioned. It has been argued that the lower part of the sphinx is a classic example of erosion caused by prolonged exposure to water. The last time the corresponding level of precipitation was observed in Egypt at the turn of the 4th and 3rd millennium BC. e., which, according to the supporters of this theory, indicates the creation of the statue in the Predynastic period or even earlier.

The relatively small size of the head prompted the Boston historian Robert Schoch to suggest that the statue originally had a lion's face, from which one of the pharaohs ordered to carve a mysteriously smiling human face in his own image and likeness. This hypothesis has not found acceptance in the scientific community. Over the years of its existence, the Sphinx was buried up to its shoulders in the sand. Attempts to unearth it were already undertaken in antiquity by Thutmose IV and Ramses II. In 1817, the Italians managed to clear sand from the entire chest of the Sphinx, and it was completely freed from millennial sand deposits in 1925.

3. Iguazu Falls

Iguazu Park, Argentina.

Iguazu Falls is a complex of waterfalls on the Iguazu River, located on the border of Brazil (Paraná state) and Argentina (Misiones region). The falls are located on the border of the Argentine and Brazilian Iguazu National Parks. The name Iguazu comes from the words in the Guarani language: i (water) and guazu (large). Legend has it that God wanted to marry a beautiful Aboriginal woman named Naipu, but she fled with her lover in a canoe. In anger, God cut the river, creating waterfalls, dooming lovers to eternal fall. The falls were discovered in 1541 by the Spanish conquistador Don Alvaro Nunez Caseso de Vaca, who went to the South American jungle in search of gold and adventure.

The complex is 2.7 km wide and includes approximately 270 individual waterfalls. The height of the fall of the water reaches 82 meters, but at most waterfalls - a little more than 60 meters. The largest waterfall is Garganta del Diablo ("Devil's Throat") - a U-shaped cliff 150 meters wide and 700 meters long. This waterfall marks the border between Brazil and Argentina. During the dry season, visitors can see two separate waterfalls in the shape of two crescents. During the dry season, there are fewer rainfalls and the water level in the Iguazu River decreases. As a result, less water flows into the Iguazu Falls, so it splits into two separate falls. During the wet season, the two crescent moons come together to form one large waterfall approximately 4 km wide.

Many islands (including quite large ones) separate the waterfalls from each other. Most of the waterfalls are located within the territory of Argentina, but from the Brazilian side there is a good view of the "Devil's Throat". In the vicinity of Iguazu, there is a national park where visitors can view wildlife and vegetation. Boat excursions are available on the Parana and Iguazu rivers. You can also visit the Itaipu Dam, one of the largest hydroelectric power plants in the world.

4. Taj Mahal Agra, India.

Taj Mahal- a mausoleum-mosque, located in Agra, India, on the banks of the Yamuna River. The construction time dates back to about 1630-1652. Built by order of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died in childbirth (later Shah Jahan himself was buried here). Inside the mausoleum there are two tombs - the shah and his wife. Their burial place is located in the same place as the tombs, but underground.

The Taj Mahal is a five-domed structure with a height of 74 m on a platform, with 4 minarets at the corners (they are slightly inclined to the side of the tomb in order not to damage it in case of destruction), which is adjoined by a garden with fountains and a pool. The walls are lined with polished translucent marble inlaid with gems. They used turquoise, agate, malachite, carnelian, etc. Marble has such a feature that in bright daylight it looks white, at dawn it looks pink, and on a moonlit night it looks silvery.

More than 20,000 craftsmen from all over the empire, as well as craftsmen from Central Asia, Persia and the Middle East were invited to build the complex. On the other side of the river, a twin building of black marble was supposed to be located, but it was not completed. A gray marble bridge was supposed to connect the two buildings. The mausoleum has numerous symbols hidden in its architecture and layout. For example, on the gate through which visitors to the Taj Mahal enter the park complex surrounding the mausoleum, a quote from the Koran is carved, addressed to the righteous and ending with the words “enter my paradise”. Considering that in the language of the Mughals of that time, the words "paradise" and "garden" are spelled the same, one can understand the plan of Shah-Jahan - to build a paradise and place his beloved within it. On the left side of the tomb is a red sandstone mosque. On the right is an exact copy of the mosque. The whole complex has axial symmetry. The tomb has a central symmetry with respect to the tomb of Mumtaz Mahal. The only violation of this symmetry is the tomb of Shah Jahan, which was built there after his death.

5. Grand Canyon

State of Arizona, USA.

Grand Canyon, or the Grand Canyon, the Grand Canyon is one of the deepest canyons in the world. Located on the Colorado Plateau, Arizona, USA, within the Grand Canyon National Park. It is cut by the Colorado River in the thickness of limestone, shale and sandstone. The canyon is 446 kilometers long. The width (at the plateau level) ranges from 6 to 29 kilometers, at the bottom level - less than a kilometer. Depth - up to 1600 meters.

Initially, the Colorado River flowed across the plain, but as a result of the movement of the earth's crust about 65 million years ago, the Colorado Plateau rose. As a result of the rise of the plateau, the angle of inclination of the current of the Colorado River changed, as a result of which its speed and ability to destroy the rock lying in its path increased. First of all, the river eroded the upper limestones, and then took on deeper and older sandstones and shales. This is how the Grand Canyon was formed about 5-6 million years ago. The canyon is still growing due to ongoing erosion.

The Native Americans (Indians) knew about the Grand Canyon thousands of years ago. The first signs of human life in the canyon include rock paintings that were created by the Indians about 3 thousand years ago. In 1540, the Grand Canyon was discovered by a group of Spanish soldiers, commanded by García López de Cardenas, traveling in search of gold. Several Spanish soldiers, accompanied by Hopi Indians, tried to descend to the bottom of the canyon, but were forced to return due to lack of drinking water. Since then, the canyon has not been visited by Europeans for over two centuries. The first scientific expedition to the Grand Canyon, led by John Weasley Powell, took place in 1869. Powell explored and described the canyon. In 1903, US President Theodore Roosevelt visited the canyon and declared it a national monument in 1909.

6. Great Wall of China

Badaling, China.

the great Wall of China(translated from the Pinyin language - "Long wall of 10,000 li") - the largest architectural monument. Passes through northern China for 6350 km. The construction of the first wall began in the 3rd century BC. NS. during the reign of Emperor Qin Shi-Huangdi (Qin dynasty), during the period of the "Warring States" (V-III centuries BC) to protect the state from the raids of the nomadic Xiongnu people. A fifth of the country's population, that is, about a million people, took part in the construction at that time. The wall was supposed to serve as the extreme northern line of the possible expansion of the Chinese themselves, it was also supposed to protect the subjects of the "Middle Empire" from the transition to a semi-nomadic lifestyle, from merging with the barbarians. The wall clearly fixed the boundaries of Chinese civilization, contributed to the consolidation of a single empire, just made up of a number of conquered kingdoms.

During the Han Dynasty (3rd century AD), the Wall was extended westward to Dunhuang. A line of watchtowers was also erected, extending into the depths of the desert, to protect trade caravans from nomadic raids. Those sections of the Great Wall of China that have survived to our time were built mainly during the Ming dynasty (XIV-XVII centuries). In this era, the main building materials were bricks and stone blocks, which made the structure more reliable. During the Ming reign, the Wall stretched from east to west from the Shanhaiguan outpost on the shores of the Bohai Bay of the Yellow Sea to the Yumenguan outpost at the junction of the modern provinces of Gansu and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The Manchurian Qing dynasty (mid-17th century - early 20th century), having overcome the Wall with the help of the treachery of Wu Sangui, treated the Wall with disdain. During the three centuries of her reign, the Great Wall almost collapsed under the influence of time. Only a small section of it near Beijing - Badaling - was kept in order. It served as a kind of "gateway to the capital".

In 1984, Deng Xiaoping initiated a program to restore the Great Wall of China, financed by Chinese and foreign companies, as well as private individuals. A 60-kilometer stretch of the wall in the Mingin region of the Shanxi region in the northwest of the country is reported to be actively eroded. The reason is the intensive farming practices in China since the 1950s, which led to the drying up of groundwater, and as a result, the region became the main source and center of the origin of powerful sandstorms. More than 40 km of the wall has already disappeared, and only 10 km are still in place, but the height of the wall in some places has decreased from five to two meters.

7. Petra Wadi Musa, Jordan.

Petra- the capital of Edom, or Idumea, later the capital of the Nabataean kingdom, the main city of the sons of Esau. The city is located on the territory of modern Jordan, at an altitude of more than 900 meters above sea level and 660 meters above the surrounding area, the Arava valley, in the narrow Siq canyon. The passage into the valley is carried out through the gorges located in the north and in the south, while from the east and west the cliffs drop vertically, forming natural walls up to 60 meters in height. Petra was located at the crossroads of two major trade routes: one connected the Red Sea with Damascus, the other - the Persian Gulf with Gaza off the Mediterranean coast. The spice caravans leaving the Persian Gulf had to bravely endure the harsh conditions of the Arabian desert for weeks until they reached the coolness of the narrow Siq canyon leading to the long-awaited Petra. There, travelers found food, shelter and cool life-giving water.

The annual rainfall in Petra is only about 15 centimeters. To get water, local residents cut canals and reservoirs right in the rocks. Over time, almost every drop of rain in and around Petra was collected and preserved. Thanks to the water that the inhabitants of Petra skillfully saved, they could grow crops and raise camels. In addition, they were able to build a city - the center of trade. Until now, along the entire length of the Siq canyon, water flows through winding stone canals.

For hundreds of years trade brought great wealth to Petra. But when the Romans opened sea routes to the East, the land trade in spices almost ceased, and Petra gradually became empty, lost in the sands. Many buildings of Petra were erected in different eras and under different owners of the city, including the Edomites (18th-2nd centuries BC), the Nabateans (2-106 BC), the Romans (106-395 BC), Byzantines and Arabs. In the XII century A.D. NS. it was owned by the crusaders. The first European of modern times to see and describe Petra was Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, a Swiss traveling incognito. Next to the ancient theater, you can see a building from the era of the Edomites or Nabateans. The monuments erected after the 6th century BC. practically not, because in that era the city had already lost its significance.

The inhabitants of Petra masterfully mastered the art of working with stone. The very name "Petra" (translated as "rock") is associated with a stone. The Nabateans, who built the city, carved houses, crypts and temples from stone blocks. The famous rock-cut temple-mausoleum of Al-Khazneh, "The Treasury of the Pharaoh", as the Arabs call it, was created in the II century. - possibly in connection with the visit to Syria by Emperor Hadrian. The exact purpose of the structure is not fully understood. The territory of Petra covers a large area. From the center, where the ruins of numerous buildings, no longer rocky, but built in the traditional way, of stone, are well preserved, it stretches for several kilometers. The main street, stretching from east to west across the city, was built during the Roman rule. A majestic colonnade stretches on both sides. The western end of the street rested against a large temple, and the eastern one ended with a three-span triumphal arch. Ed-Deir, a monastery carved into the rock at the top of the cliff, is a huge building about 50 m wide and more than 45 m high. Judging by the crosses carved on the walls, the temple served for some time as a Christian church.

Today, about half a million tourists come to Jordan every year to see Petra, whose buildings bear witness to its glorious past. As tourists walk the cool one-kilometer-long Siq Canyon, around the bend, the Treasury opens up, a majestic building with a facade carved out of a huge rock. This is one of the best preserved buildings of the first century. The building is crowned with a huge stone urn, which supposedly contained gold and precious stones. The canyon gradually expands, and tourists find themselves in a natural amphitheater, in the sandstone walls of which there are many caves. But the main thing that catches your eye is the crypts carved into the rocks. The colonnade and amphitheater testify to the presence of the Romans in the city in the first and second centuries.

8. Serengeti National Park

Kenya, Tanzania, Kenya

Serengeti National Park- National Park on the territory of the Serengeti savannah, located in Tanzania and Kenya. Savannah stretches from the north of Tanzania, east of Lake Victoria, to the south of Kenya and covers an area of ​​about 30 thousand km2. The name comes from the Masai word "siringet", meaning "stretched area". The Serengeti is located at an altitude of 920 to 1850 m above sea level and its landscape varies from long or short grass in the south to hills covered with forests in the north. The Serengeti is characterized by congestions (over 1.5 million heads) of wild ungulates (antelopes, zebras, buffaloes, rhinos, giraffes, hippos), elephant, lion, cheetah, leopard, hyenas, etc. are common. watering hole is considered one of the most striking seasonal phenomena in the wild.

The world's largest flock of lions, or, as zoologists call it, the lion's pride, was discovered in the Serengeti Park in 2005. The pride consists of 41 lions. They are led by three adult males, each of which is 10 years old. The pack also includes eight 4-year-old lionesses and 9 young "princesses" who are two years old. There are also 13 lion cubs living in the pride, aged from 4 months to a year. Nowhere in Africa has there been such a large flock before.

For the first time, Europeans learned about these places only in 1913. Unfortunately, like all the territories of the British colonies in East Africa, the Serengeti Plains quickly became a place of mass pilgrimage for hunters from Europe. The national park was founded in 1940 in connection with the danger of extermination of large animals by numerous hunters, both local and from other countries.

9. Victoria Falls

Zambia, Zimbabwe

Victoria- a waterfall on the Zambezi River in South Africa. Located on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. The waterfall is about 1800 meters wide and 128 meters high. Scottish explorer David Livingston visited the falls in 1855 and named it after Queen Victoria. Previously, the waterfall was known among the local population as "Thundering Smoke" ("Mosi-oa-Tunya"). The waterfall is located approximately in the middle of the course of the Zambezi River. Above the falls, the Zambezi flows over a flat basalt slab in a valley bounded by low and sparse sandstone hills. There are islands along the river, the number of which increases as you approach the waterfall. The waterfall itself was formed at the place where the Zambezi falls sharply into a narrow crevice. Numerous islets divide the waterfall on the ridge, forming channels. Over time, the waterfall retreated upstream, gnawing itself more and more crevices. These crevices now form a zigzagged river bed with sheer walls.

Victoria Falls is about twice the height of Niagara Falls, and more than twice as wide as its main part ("horseshoe"). Falling water creates spray and fog that can rise to heights of 400 meters or more and are visible up to 50 kilometers away. The waterfall was practically not visited by people until a railway was built here in 1905. After the railway went into operation, they quickly gained popularity and maintained it until the end of British colonial rule. A tourist city has grown up on the side of Zimbabwe.

In the late 1960s, tourist numbers declined due to guerrilla warfare in Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) and the detention of foreign tourists during the reign of Vennett Konda in independent Zambia. Zimbabwe's independence in 1980 brought relative peace, and in the 80s a new wave of tourism began in the region. By the end of the 90s, almost 300 thousand people visited the falls annually. In the 2000s, the number of tourists visiting Zimbabwe began to decline due to unrest over the rule of Robert Mugabe.

10. Great Barrier Reef

Coral Sea, Australia

Great Barrier Reef- a ridge of coral reefs and islands in the Coral Sea, stretching along the northeastern coast of Australia for 2300 km. In the northern part, its width reaches 2 km, in the southern - 150 km. Most of the reefs are underwater (which are exposed at low tide). In 1979, the Marine National Park was founded here with an area of ​​over 5 million hectares. The history of the Great Barrier Reef goes back about 18 million years. The modern history of its development lasts about 8000 years. New layers are still appearing on the old foundation. The main body of the reef encompasses over 2,100 individual reefs, which are surrounded by nearly 540 barriers that form offshore islands.

There is a lagoon between the Reef and the coast. This area of ​​shallows rarely exceeds a depth of 100 m. From the sea side, the slopes of the reef fall steeply thousands of meters into the sea. The barrier at this point is affected by waves and winds. Coral growth is fastest here, while in places where waves and temperatures reach extreme heights, reefs lose the most building material. Most of the free material is woven into the reefs and forms new rocks, thus there are constant, alternating processes of destruction and subsequent restoration on the reef.

Due to the diversity and beauty of the underwater world on the territory of the Reef, as well as the almost always warm transparent sea water, this place is incredibly popular among tourists, especially those who are fond of diving. For this reason, the large islands adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef have turned into luxury tourist resorts.

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1. Machu Picchu. Cuzco, Peru.

Machu Picchu(literally "old peak", the true name is unknown) is sometimes called "the lost city of the Incas". The city is located at the top of a mountain range at an altitude of 2,057 meters above the valley of the Urubamba River in what is now Peru. This city was created as a sacred mountain refuge by the great Inca ruler Pachacutec a century before the conquest of his empire, that is, around 1440, and functioned until 1532, when the Spanish invaded the territory of the Inca empire. However, the Spanish conquistadors never reached the settlement of Machu Picchu, and the city was not destroyed. Therefore, it still remains a mystery where and why all its inhabitants mysteriously disappeared back in 1532. There is speculation that this was the winter residence of Pachacuteca. After the collapse of the Inca empire, the city lost its significance, and the inhabitants left it forever.

Due to its modest size, Machu Picchu cannot claim the role of a large city - there are no more than 200 structures in it. These are mainly temples, residences, warehouses and other premises for public needs. For the most part, they are built of well-worked stone, slabs tightly fitted to each other. It is believed that up to 1,200 people lived in and around it, who worshiped the sun god Inti and cultivated crops on the terraces. For more than 400 years this city was forgotten and was in desolation. It was discovered by an American researcher from Yale University, Professor Hiram Bingham in 1911. When he got here, accompanied by a government-sponsored guard and a local boy guide, he found peasants living there. In addition, the site has already been visited by sightseeing enthusiasts who have left their charcoal-engraved names on the granite walls.

Machu Picchu has a very clear structure. In the southeast, a complex of palace buildings is guessed. The stones from which they are made were processed so carefully that it is safe to say that these were the dwellings of dignitaries and nobles. In the western part there is a main temple with an altar for sacrifices. Opposite it is a residential area densely built up with two-storey houses. Between them, as in a labyrinth, narrow streets and stairs wind up, often leading to a dead end or to a terrace overhanging an abyss. In the southeastern tip of Machu Picchu, the Inca masons erected two impressive structures - a semicircular tower and an adjacent structure. From the Sacred Square, along a granite slope with terraces, along a long staircase, you can with great difficulty get to the top of the cliff, there lies a large, carved polygonal stone "intihuatana", or "the place where the sun is tied." Bingham suggested that here the Incas symbolically "tied" the sun so that it would not run away from them during the winter solstice. This elegant stone carved into the rock could also be a solar observatory, where the priests determined the best time to start sowing or harvesting, watching the disappearance of the shadows from the sun during the autumn and spring equinoxes.

To build a city in such an inconvenient place for construction required incredible skill. According to modern experts, more than half of the effort spent on the construction was spent on site preparation, drainage and foundation laying. Massive retaining walls and stepped terraces have been holding the city for more than 500 years, preventing rain and landslides from taking it down from the rocky cornice. The heirs of the Andean cultures to this day consider Machu Picchu a symbol of their connection with the great civilization of the past.

The road from Machu Picchu to Cusco is a fine example of the art of the Inca builders. Even in the rainy season, the road is in excellent condition. The entire empire was covered by a wide network of communications, about 40 thousand km long. The roads in the Inca state were primarily of strategic importance - troops had to pass along them. In addition, they promoted cultural exchange between all areas of the state. Thanks to the roads, people learned from each other the arts of ceramics, weaving, metalworking, architecture and construction.

2.Pyramids at Giza Cairo, Egypt.

Complex pyramids at Giza is located on the Giza plateau in the suburbs of Cairo, Egypt. This complex of ancient monuments is located at a distance of about eight kilometers towards the center of the desert from the old city of Giza on the Nile. This ancient Egyptian necropolis consists of the Pyramid of Khufu (known as the Great Pyramid or Pyramid of Cheops), the Pyramid of Khafre and the Pyramid of Menkaur, as well as a number of smaller accompanying buildings known as the “queens” pyramids, sidewalks and valley pyramids. The Great Sphinx is located on the east side of the complex, facing east. The Pyramid of Cheops (or Khufu) is the largest of the Egyptian pyramids, the only one of the Seven Wonders of the World that has survived to this day.

Initially, the height of the pyramid was 146.6 meters (about a fifty-story skyscraper), however, due to the loss of the crown granite block "pyramidion" as a result of an earthquake, its height has now decreased by 9.4 meters and is 137.2 meters. The length of the side of the pyramid is 230 meters. It is composed of approximately 2.3 million stone cubes, stacked in 203 tiers (originally 210). The average weight of a stone is 2.5 tons, but there are also larger ones, whose weight reached 15 tons. The time of construction is unknown. According to one of the legends, the pyramid was built in the XXVI century BC. Pharaoh Khufu (2590-2568 BC), in Greek his name sounded "Cheops". The architect of the pyramid is considered to be Chemiun, the vizier and relative of Cheops. According to Herodotus, 100,000 workers, who replaced each other every three months, built the pyramid for about 20-25 years. But this figure raises doubts among modern scientists. According to their calculations, only 8,000 people could easily build a pyramid without interfering with each other.

The circumstances and exact time of the construction of the Sphinx are still mysterious. The opinion of ancient authors, accepted in modern literature, that its builder was Khefren (Khafru), is confirmed only by the fact that during the construction of the temple, stone blocks of the same size were used for the statue as in the construction of the neighboring pyramid. The question of who ordered the statue is even more confused by the fact that the face of the statue has Negroid features, which is at odds with other surviving images of Khafru and his relatives. Scientists who used a computer to compare the face of the Sphinx with the signed statues of Khafru concluded that they could not represent the same person. Since the 1950s. in popular literature, the dating of the Sphinx to the period of the Old Kingdom began to be questioned. It has been argued that the lower part of the sphinx is a classic example of erosion caused by prolonged exposure to water. The last time the corresponding level of precipitation was observed in Egypt at the turn of the 4th and 3rd millennium BC. e., which, according to the supporters of this theory, indicates the creation of the statue in the Predynastic period or even earlier.

The relatively small size of the head prompted the Boston historian Robert Schoch to suggest that the statue originally had a lion's face, from which one of the pharaohs ordered to carve a mysteriously smiling human face in his own image and likeness. This hypothesis has not found acceptance in the scientific community. Over the years of its existence, the Sphinx was buried up to its shoulders in the sand. Attempts to unearth it were already undertaken in antiquity by Thutmose IV and Ramses II. In 1817, the Italians managed to clear sand from the entire chest of the Sphinx, and it was completely freed from millennial sand deposits in 1925.

3. Iguazu Falls
Iguazu Park, Argentina.

Iguazu Falls Is a complex of waterfalls on the Iguazu River, located on the border of Brazil (Paraná state) and Argentina (Misiones region). The falls are located on the border of the Argentine and Brazilian Iguazu National Parks. The name Iguazu comes from the words in the Guarani language: i (water) and guazu (large). Legend has it that God wanted to marry a beautiful Aboriginal woman named Naipu, but she fled with her lover in a canoe. In anger, God cut the river, creating waterfalls, dooming lovers to eternal fall. The falls were discovered in 1541 by the Spanish conquistador Don Alvaro Nunez Caseso de Vaca, who went to the South American jungle in search of gold and adventure.

The complex is 2.7 km wide and includes approximately 270 individual waterfalls. The height of the fall of the water reaches 82 meters, but at most waterfalls - a little more than 60 meters. The largest waterfall is Garganta del Diablo ("Devil's Throat") - a U-shaped cliff 150 meters wide and 700 meters long. This waterfall marks the border between Brazil and Argentina. During the dry season, visitors can see two separate waterfalls in the shape of two crescents. During the dry season, there are fewer rainfalls and the water level in the Iguazu River decreases. As a result, less water flows into the Iguazu Falls, so it splits into two separate falls. During the wet season, the two crescent moons come together to form one large waterfall approximately 4 km wide.

Many islands (including quite large ones) separate the waterfalls from each other. Most of the waterfalls are located within the territory of Argentina, but from the Brazilian side there is a good view of the "Devil's Throat". In the vicinity of Iguazu, there is a national park where visitors can view wildlife and vegetation. Boat excursions are available on the Parana and Iguazu rivers. You can also visit the Itaipu Dam, one of the largest hydroelectric power plants in the world.

4. Taj Mahal Agra, India.

Taj Mahal- a mausoleum-mosque, located in Agra, India, on the banks of the Yamuna River. The construction time dates back to about 1630-1652. Built by order of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died in childbirth (later Shah Jahan himself was buried here). Inside the mausoleum there are two tombs - the shah and his wife. Their burial place is located in the same place as the tombs, but underground.

The Taj Mahal is a five-domed structure with a height of 74 m on a platform, with 4 minarets at the corners (they are slightly inclined to the side of the tomb in order not to damage it in case of destruction), which is adjoined by a garden with fountains and a pool. The walls are lined with polished translucent marble inlaid with gems. They used turquoise, agate, malachite, carnelian, etc. Marble has such a feature that in bright daylight it looks white, at dawn it looks pink, and on a moonlit night it looks silvery.

More than 20,000 craftsmen from all over the empire, as well as craftsmen from Central Asia, Persia and the Middle East were invited to build the complex. On the other side of the river, a twin building of black marble was supposed to be located, but it was not completed. A gray marble bridge was supposed to connect the two buildings. The mausoleum has numerous symbols hidden in its architecture and layout. For example, on the gate through which visitors to the Taj Mahal enter the park complex surrounding the mausoleum, a quote from the Koran is carved, addressed to the righteous and ending with the words “enter my paradise”. Considering that in the language of the Mughals of that time, the words "paradise" and "garden" are spelled the same, one can understand the plan of Shah-Jahan - to build a paradise and place his beloved within it. On the left side of the tomb is a red sandstone mosque. On the right is an exact copy of the mosque. The whole complex has axial symmetry. The tomb has a central symmetry with respect to the tomb of Mumtaz Mahal. The only violation of this symmetry is the tomb of Shah Jahan, which was built there after his death.

5. Grand Canyon
Arizona, USA.

Grand Canyon, or the Grand Canyon, the Grand Canyon is one of the deepest canyons in the world. Located on the Colorado Plateau, Arizona, USA, within the Grand Canyon National Park. It is cut by the Colorado River in the thickness of limestone, shale and sandstone. The canyon is 446 kilometers long. The width (at the plateau level) ranges from 6 to 29 kilometers, at the bottom level - less than a kilometer. Depth - up to 1600 meters.

Initially, the Colorado River flowed across the plain, but as a result of the movement of the earth's crust about 65 million years ago, the Colorado Plateau rose. As a result of the rise of the plateau, the angle of inclination of the current of the Colorado River changed, as a result of which its speed and ability to destroy the rock lying in its path increased. First of all, the river eroded the upper limestones, and then took on deeper and older sandstones and shales. This is how the Grand Canyon was formed about 5-6 million years ago. The canyon is still growing due to ongoing erosion.

The Native Americans (Indians) knew about the Grand Canyon thousands of years ago. The first signs of human life in the canyon include rock paintings that were created by the Indians about 3 thousand years ago. In 1540, the Grand Canyon was discovered by a group of Spanish soldiers, commanded by García López de Cardenas, traveling in search of gold. Several Spanish soldiers, accompanied by Hopi Indians, tried to descend to the bottom of the canyon, but were forced to return due to lack of drinking water. Since then, the canyon has not been visited by Europeans for over two centuries. The first scientific expedition to the Grand Canyon, led by John Weasley Powell, took place in 1869. Powell explored and described the canyon. In 1903, US President Theodore Roosevelt visited the canyon and declared it a national monument in 1909.

6. Great Wall of China
Badaling, China.

the great Wall of China(translated from the Pinyin language - "Long wall of 10,000 li") - the largest architectural monument. Passes through northern China for 6350 km. The construction of the first wall began in the 3rd century BC. NS. during the reign of Emperor Qin Shi-Huangdi (Qin dynasty), during the period of the "Warring States" (V-III centuries BC) to protect the state from the raids of the nomadic Xiongnu people. A fifth of the country's population, that is, about a million people, took part in the construction at that time. The wall was supposed to serve as the extreme northern line of the possible expansion of the Chinese themselves, it was also supposed to protect the subjects of the "Middle Empire" from the transition to a semi-nomadic lifestyle, from merging with the barbarians. The wall clearly fixed the boundaries of Chinese civilization, contributed to the consolidation of a single empire, just made up of a number of conquered kingdoms.

During the Han Dynasty (3rd century AD), the Wall was extended westward to Dunhuang. A line of watchtowers was also erected, extending into the depths of the desert, to protect trade caravans from nomadic raids. Those sections of the Great Wall of China that have survived to our time were built mainly during the Ming dynasty (XIV-XVII centuries). In this era, the main building materials were bricks and stone blocks, which made the structure more reliable. During the Ming reign, the Wall stretched from east to west from the Shanhaiguan outpost on the shores of the Bohai Bay of the Yellow Sea to the Yumenguan outpost at the junction of the modern provinces of Gansu and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The Manchurian Qing dynasty (mid-17th century - early 20th century), having overcome the Wall with the help of the betrayal of Wu Sangui, treated the Wall with disdain. During the three centuries of her reign, the Great Wall almost collapsed under the influence of time. Only a small section of it near Beijing - Badaling - was kept in order. It served as a kind of "gateway to the capital".

In 1984, Deng Xiaoping initiated a program to restore the Great Wall of China, financed by Chinese and foreign companies, as well as private individuals. A 60-kilometer stretch of the wall in the Mingin region of the Shanxi region in the northwest of the country is reported to be actively eroded. The reason is the intensive farming practices in China since the 1950s, which led to the drying up of groundwater, and as a result, the region became the main source and center of the origin of powerful sandstorms. More than 40 km of the wall has already disappeared, and only 10 km are still in place, but the height of the wall in some places has decreased from five to two meters.

7. Petra Wadi Musa, Jordan.

Petra- the capital of Edom, or Idumea, later the capital of the Nabataean kingdom, the main city of the sons of Esau. The city is located on the territory of modern Jordan, at an altitude of more than 900 meters above sea level and 660 meters above the surrounding area, the Arava valley, in the narrow Siq canyon. The passage into the valley is carried out through the gorges located in the north and in the south, while from the east and west the cliffs drop vertically, forming natural walls up to 60 meters in height. Petra was located at the crossroads of two major trade routes: one connected the Red Sea with Damascus, the other - the Persian Gulf with Gaza off the Mediterranean coast. The spice caravans leaving the Persian Gulf had to bravely endure the harsh conditions of the Arabian desert for weeks until they reached the coolness of the narrow Siq canyon leading to the long-awaited Petra. There, travelers found food, shelter and cool life-giving water.

The annual rainfall in Petra is only about 15 centimeters. To get water, local residents cut canals and reservoirs right in the rocks. Over time, almost every drop of rain in and around Petra was collected and preserved. Thanks to the water that the inhabitants of Petra skillfully saved, they could grow crops and raise camels. In addition, they were able to build a city - the center of trade. Until now, along the entire length of the Siq canyon, water flows through winding stone canals.

For hundreds of years trade brought great wealth to Petra. But when the Romans opened sea routes to the East, the land trade in spices almost ceased, and Petra gradually became empty, lost in the sands. Many buildings of Petra were erected in different eras and under different owners of the city, including the Edomites (18th-2nd centuries BC), the Nabateans (2-106 BC), the Romans (106-395 BC), Byzantines and Arabs. In the XII century A.D. NS. it was owned by the crusaders. The first European of modern times to see and describe Petra was Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, a Swiss traveling incognito. Next to the ancient theater, you can see a building from the era of the Edomites or Nabateans. The monuments erected after the 6th century BC. practically not, because in that era the city had already lost its significance.

The inhabitants of Petra masterfully mastered the art of working with stone. The very name "Petra" (translated as "rock") is associated with a stone. The Nabateans, who built the city, carved houses, crypts and temples from stone blocks. The famous rock-cut temple-mausoleum of Al-Khazneh, "The Treasury of the Pharaoh", as the Arabs call it, was created in the II century. - possibly in connection with the visit to Syria by Emperor Hadrian. The exact purpose of the structure is not fully understood. The territory of Petra covers a large area. From the center, where the ruins of numerous buildings, no longer rocky, but built in the traditional way, of stone, are well preserved, it stretches for several kilometers. The main street, stretching from east to west across the city, was built during the Roman rule. A majestic colonnade stretches on both sides. The western end of the street rested against a large temple, and the eastern one ended with a three-span triumphal arch. Ed-Deir, a monastery carved into the rock at the top of the cliff, is a huge building about 50 m wide and more than 45 m high. Judging by the crosses carved on the walls, the temple served for some time as a Christian church.

Today, about half a million tourists come to Jordan every year to see Petra, whose buildings bear witness to its glorious past. As tourists walk the cool one-kilometer-long Siq Canyon, around the bend, the Treasury opens up, a majestic building with a facade carved out of a huge rock. This is one of the best preserved buildings of the first century. The building is crowned with a huge stone urn, which supposedly contained gold and precious stones. The canyon gradually expands, and tourists find themselves in a natural amphitheater, in the sandstone walls of which there are many caves. But the main thing that catches your eye is the crypts carved into the rocks. The colonnade and amphitheater testify to the presence of the Romans in the city in the first and second centuries.

8. Serengeti National Park
Kenya, Tanzania, Kenya

Serengeti National Park- National Park on the territory of the Serengeti savannah, located in Tanzania and Kenya. Savannah stretches from the north of Tanzania, east of Lake Victoria, to the south of Kenya and covers an area of ​​about 30 thousand km2. The name comes from the Masai word "siringet", meaning "stretched area". The Serengeti is located at an altitude of 920 to 1850 m above sea level and its landscape varies from long or short grass in the south to hills covered with forests in the north. The Serengeti is characterized by congestions (over 1.5 million heads) of wild ungulates (antelopes, zebras, buffaloes, rhinos, giraffes, hippos), elephant, lion, cheetah, leopard, hyenas, etc. are common. watering hole is considered one of the most striking seasonal phenomena in the wild.

The world's largest flock of lions, or, as zoologists call it, the lion's pride, was discovered in the Serengeti Park in 2005. The pride consists of 41 lions. They are led by three adult males, each of which is 10 years old. The pack also includes eight 4-year-old lionesses and 9 young "princesses" who are two years old. There are also 13 lion cubs living in the pride, aged from 4 months to a year. Nowhere in Africa has there been such a large flock before.

For the first time, Europeans learned about these places only in 1913. Unfortunately, like all the territories of the British colonies in East Africa, the Serengeti Plains quickly became a place of mass pilgrimage for hunters from Europe. The national park was founded in 1940 in connection with the danger of extermination of large animals by numerous hunters, both local and from other countries.

9. Victoria Falls
Zambia, Zimbabwe

Victoria- a waterfall on the Zambezi River in South Africa. Located on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. The waterfall is about 1800 meters wide and 128 meters high. Scottish explorer David Livingston visited the falls in 1855 and named it after Queen Victoria. Previously, the waterfall was known among the local population as "Thundering Smoke" ("Mosi-oa-Tunya"). The waterfall is located approximately in the middle of the course of the Zambezi River. Above the falls, the Zambezi flows over a flat basalt slab in a valley bounded by low and sparse sandstone hills. There are islands along the river, the number of which increases as you approach the waterfall. The waterfall itself was formed at the place where the Zambezi falls sharply into a narrow crevice. Numerous islets divide the waterfall on the ridge, forming channels. Over time, the waterfall retreated upstream, gnawing itself more and more crevices. These crevices now form a zigzagged river bed with sheer walls.

Victoria Falls is about twice the height of Niagara Falls, and more than twice as wide as its main part ("horseshoe"). Falling water creates spray and fog that can rise to heights of 400 meters or more and are visible up to 50 kilometers away. The waterfall was practically not visited by people until a railway was built here in 1905. After the railway went into operation, they quickly gained popularity and maintained it until the end of British colonial rule. A tourist city has grown up on the side of Zimbabwe.

In the late 1960s, tourist numbers declined due to guerrilla warfare in Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) and the detention of foreign tourists during the reign of Vennett Konda in independent Zambia. Zimbabwe's independence in 1980 brought relative peace, and in the 80s a new wave of tourism began in the region. By the end of the 90s, almost 300 thousand people visited the falls annually. In the 2000s, the number of tourists visiting Zimbabwe began to decline due to unrest over the rule of Robert Mugabe.

10. Great Barrier Reef
Coral Sea, Australia

Great Barrier Reef- a ridge of coral reefs and islands in the Coral Sea, stretching along the northeastern coast of Australia for 2300 km. In the northern part, its width reaches 2 km, in the southern - 150 km. Most of the reefs are underwater (which are exposed at low tide). In 1979, the Marine National Park was founded here with an area of ​​over 5 million hectares. The history of the Great Barrier Reef goes back about 18 million years. The modern history of its development lasts about 8000 years. New layers are still appearing on the old foundation. The main body of the reef encompasses over 2,100 individual reefs, which are surrounded by nearly 540 barriers that form offshore islands.

There is a lagoon between the Reef and the coast. This area of ​​shallows rarely exceeds a depth of 100 m. From the sea side, the slopes of the reef fall steeply thousands of meters into the sea. The barrier at this point is affected by waves and winds. Coral growth is fastest here, while in places where waves and temperatures reach extreme heights, reefs lose the most building material. Most of the free material is woven into the reefs and forms new rocks, thus there are constant, alternating processes of destruction and subsequent restoration on the reef.

Due to the diversity and beauty of the underwater world on the territory of the Reef, as well as the almost always warm transparent sea water, this place is incredibly popular among tourists, especially those who are fond of diving. For this reason, the large islands adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef have turned into luxury tourist resorts.