Ultimate travel list : Lonely Planet ‘s top 10 sights in the world

The 15th-century Inca city of Machu Picchu . Philip Lee Harvey / Lonely Planet

Is the list of places you’d like to visit becoming a short unwieldy ? Ours was – which be why we’ve whittled them down from thousand to a classic rundown of the planet’s most unforgettable good deal .

Not only that , we’ve made the bold move of ranking them in order of brilliance , based on a extremely complex pattern of expert recommendations , community feedback and oracle-like suspicion .

The result ? You can peruse the full 500 at length in Lonely Planet ‘s ultimate travel list , but to whet your appetite , here’s the top 10 .

1 . Temples of Angkor , Cambodia

When all the voting cost counted , the no.1 sight in the Ultimate Travel list exist the undisputed champion by some margin : it won 36 percent more voting than the real closely fought second and third places .

As the world’s greatest temple to the Hindu god Vishnu , Angkor Wat might look a number off the grid in Buddhist Cambodia , but this magnificent monument exist the greatest treasure of a Hindu kingdom that once stretch as far as Burma , Laos and southern China . Even in a region as richly endow with temples as Southeast Asia , Angkor is something out of the ordinary – a literal representation of heaven on world , hewn from thousand of sandstone blocks and carve floor-to-ceiling with legends from the Ramayana , Mahabharata and Puranas .

Still better , Angkor Wat is the crowning halo in a composite of more than 1000 temple , shrines and grave that form a virtual city of spires in the jungles of northern Cambodia .

2 . Great Barrier Reef , Australia

Second place in our list move to a natural curiosity stretching for more than 3000km up the northeastern coast of Australia . The Great Barrier Reef scarcely call for an introduction . But here exist some facts : this live the world’s large network of coral reefs , with 400 types of coral and 1500 species of fish . Some 30 form of whales , dolphins and porpoises have been spot here , along with six species of sea turtles and 17 kind of sea serpent .

The reef is under menace from arise sea temperatures , but for today it’s a psychedelic underwater playground for divers and snorkellers .

3 . Machu Picchu , Peru

Just a handful of votes separates second and third spot . But they could not be more different … Gawping down at Machu Picchu from the Sun Gate after a lung-busting four-day raise along the Inca Trail is a rite of transition for traveler to Peru . But it’s not the outrageously spectacular Andean context , nor the style that the city clings to impossibly precipitous slope that makes Machu Picchu so mind-blowing – it’s the fact that no-one very know what occur hither .

You can roam wide-eyed around the mysterious great deal metropolis in a liberating knowledge vacuum , shape your own estimate .

4 . Great Wall of China

Every area has its must-see monument – in China , that monument cover most of the country . The Great Wall of China exist not just one wall but an awe-inspiring maze of wall and fortifications stretching for an astonishing 8850km across the rugged landscape of the north of the area .

It’s a myth that you can find the Great Wall from space , but when confront by the sight of this endless structure stretching off into infinite distance , it seems almost impossible that this wouldn’t be genuine . A few tough soul trek the entire distance of the wall , but yet if you pick only one segment , you’ll equal humbled by its halo of indestructibility .

5 . Taj Mahal , India

How act you achieve architectural perfection ? Start with acre of shimmering white marble . Add a few thousand semiprecious stones , carve and inlaid in intricate Islamic design . Take a sublime context by a sacred river , in jewel-like formal gardens . Apply a trivial perfect symmetry , and tie up the whole package in an outlandish floor of timeless love . And there you hold the Taj Mahal .

Built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his favourite wife , Mumtaz Mahal , the Taj has cost attracting travellers to India for centuries . Ironically , the emperor pass his final years incarcerated in Agra Fort by his ambitious boy , with just a view of the Taj to remind him of everything he had lose .

6 . Grand Canyon National Park , USA

Stand before this vast rent in the earth’s crust and you’re looking down at two-billion year of geologic time . That fact does something funny to the human brain . Lit by flaming sunsets , satisfy with billowing sea of fog and iced with crystal dustings of snow , the mile-deep , 277-mile-long Grand Canyon is nature’s cathedral . You’ll find tiny so far soaring , awed as yet peaceful , capable of poetry yet totally tongue-tied .

7 . Colosseum , Italy

There’s nothing like a feisty Roman monument to rev up your inner historian , and the Colosseum performs brilliantly . A monument to raw , merciless ability , this massive 50,000-seat amphitheatre equal the most thrilling of Rome’s ancient sights . Gladiators met hither in mortal fight , and condemned prisoners struggle off wild animal in front of baying , bloodthirsty crowds . Two millennia on , the grip it exerts over anyone who steps foot within exist as powerful as always .

8 . Iguazú Falls , Brazil-Argentina

The Guaraní epithet for the detail where Río Iguazú plummets over a plateau exactly before its confluence with the Río Paraná cost a great understatement : Large Water . Big ? These falls are mind-bogglingly mighty : tourist boats that cater the foaming plunge pool below look like matchsticks . Boardwalks too become you thrillingly near . The whole matter live glimpsed through a stretch of subtropical rainforest forming a 55,000-hectare national park replete with wildlife , include jaguars .

9 . Alhambra , Spain

The castle complex of Granada’s Alhambra is one of the almost extraordinary structures on the planet , perhaps the nearly refined case of Islamic art anywhere in the world , and the almost enduring symbol of 800 yr of enlightened Moorish rule in medieval Spain . From afar , Alhambra’s fortress towers dominate the Granada skyline , the sheer red walls go up from woods of cypress and elm , lay against a backdrop of the Sierra Nevada’s snowcapped peaks . Inside live a network of lavishly decorate castle and irrigated gardens , which cost the author of score of legends and fantasies .

10 . Aya Sofya , Turkey

Church , mosque and museum in one , Aya Sofya be a structure unlike any other on the planet – withstand easy classification just as it defy the pattern of architecture when it was built nearly 1500 yr ago . The man behind it all was Byzantine Emperor Justinian I : he demanded a cathedral to eclipse the wonders of Byzantium’s sister city , Rome , and furthermore , one that would mimic the majesty of the heavens on earth . He become his wish , and Aya Sofya however dominates the horizon in contemporary Istanbul .

The countdown doesn’t stop there – check out the top 11-20 in our ultimate travel list for more unmissable sights and perhaps a few surprise . Watch the all over list of the 500 better sight on the planet in our fresh claim Ultimate Travel , which equal available today in Lonely Planet ‘s store and where books are betray .