More Wonders of the World

I’ve never quite gotten the whole Seven Wonders of the World thing. Isn’t wonder-ful subjective? What others find awe inspiring, I sometimes find shrugworthy. The Christ the Redeemer statue, for instance, which in 2007 was named one of the Seven Wonders of the New World, stirs absolutely nothing in me. Conversely, places that have amazed me (Australia’s Uluru being one) others have found mildly interesting at best.

And how do we even define a “wonder”? Is it a great work of humanity? Is it a stunning natural landscape or phenomenon? Is it something that represents a monumental moment in time?

We, all of us, answer this question differently, which raises the question what are the “wonders” we have encountered on our travels?

IndependentTraveler.com reached out to some of our contributing editors, as well as our readers on Twitter and Facebook for their lists of the wonders they’ve encountered on their travels.

Without further ado, here are our many Wonders of the World. Please share your list in the comments below.

Brittany Chrusciel, Contributing Editor
Ta Prohm Temple at Angkor Wat, Cambodia
Mangal Mahadev (108-foot-tall Shiva statue), Ganga Talao, Mauritius

Jenny Szymanski Jones (via Facebook)
Victoria Falls, Zambia
Gulfoss Waterfall, Iceland
Grand Canyon, Arizona, U.S.A.

Carolyn Spencer Brown, Editor in Chief
Petra, Jordan
Big Sur, California, U.S.A.
Fjords, Norway

Kingshuk Mazumder (@KingShuk03 via Twitter)
Lotus Temple, New Delhi, India

Erica Silverstein, Contributing Editor
Great Wall of China
Yosemite National Park, California, U.S.A.
Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania

@jayme_p via Twitter
Magens Bay, St. Thomas, U.S. V.I.
Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada

Jessica McMillan (@jedijesser via Twitter)
The Ink Pots, Banff, Alberta, Canada

Chris Gray Faust, Contributing Editor
Pantheon, Rome, Italy
Masada, Israel

Ashley Kosciolek, Contributing Editor
Colosseum and Vatican City, Italy
Anne Frank House, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Wawel Castle, Krakow, Poland

–written by Dori Saltzman