50 Natural Wonders To Blow Your Mind

From the people who have been delivering trustworthy guidebooks to every destination in the world for 40 years, Lonely Planet's 50 Natural Wonders To Blow Your Mind will take you on a tour of the world's most mind-boggling wild and wonderful places, and discover just how extraordinary our planet really is.

In today's age of information, there are smartphones in the most remote corners of our world and our cities are huge bustling metropolises growing larger by the day. But despite this cumulative urbanisation, there is a tacit understanding among the human race that connection to nature is an essential factor in our happiness.

For all our obsession with man-made wonders nothing compares to the creations of Mother Nature. Vast underground cave systems, wild desert landscapes, breathtaking waterfalls, staggering geology and spectacular vestiges of our prehistoric past all remind us of our small place in earth's story.

And even with our ever-expanding knowledge of the way the world came to be, some landscapes still leave us utterly perplexed. This is the mystery and the majesty of the natural world. In this book we've attempted to capture just a fraction of what it has to offer, and we hope it inspires you to get out and find your own slice of pleasure in the great outdoors.

Beach idyll
Beach of the Cathedrals // Spain
Hidden Beach, Marieta Islands // Mexico
Moeraki Boulders, South Island // New Zealand
Palawan Island // The Philippines
Santorini, Cyclades Islands // Greece
Vaadhoo Island // Maldives

Deep down
Cave of Crystals // Mexico
Darvaza Crater // Turkmenistan
Grand Prismatic Spring, Wyoming // USA
Great Barrier Reef, Queensland // Australia
Great Blue Hole // Belize
Hang Son Doong // Vietnam
Jeita Grotto, Keserwan // Lebanon
Lake Baikal, Siberia // Russia
Manjanggul Lava Tube // South Korea
Marble Caves // Chile and Argentina
Mendenhall Ice Caves, Alaska // USA
The Mariana Trench // Western Pacific Ocean

Mountainous wonders
Huangguoshu Waterfall // China
Lauterbrunnen Valley // Switzerland
Milford Sound, South Island // New Zealand
Mount Everest // Nepal and Tibet
Mount Roraima // Venezuela
Musandam Fjords // Oman
Perito Moreno Glacier // Argentina
The Grand Canyon, Arizona // USA
Tianzi Mountains // China
Trolltunga // Norway

Mystical and mythical
Aurora Borealis // Greenland
Fairy Pools, Isle of Skye // Scotland
Fingal's Cave, Inner Hebrides // Scotland
Giant's Causeway, County Antrim // Northern Ireland
The Waitomo Glow-worm Caves // New Zealand
Uluru, Northern Territory // Australia

National parks
Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory // Australia
Lencois Maranhenses National Park // Brazil
Plitvice Lakes National Park // Croatia
The Wildebeest Migration // Tanzania and Kenya
Yosemite National Park, California // USA

Strange landscapes
Bristlecone Pines, California // USA
Crooked Forest // Poland
Eye of the Sahara // Mauritania
Ice Towers of Mount Erebus // Antarctica
Living Root Bridges of Cherrapunji // India
Pamukkale // Turkey
Sagano Bamboo Forest // Japan
Salar de Uyuni // Bolivia
Socotra Island and Archipelago // Yemen
Spotted Lake, British Columbia // Canada
White Desert // Egypt

About Lonely Planet: Started in 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel guide publisher with guidebooks to every destination on the planet, as well as an award-winning website, a suite of mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveller community. Lonely Planet's mission is to enable curious travellers to experience the world and to truly get to the heart of the places they find themselves in.