Ten Popular Natural Attractions

Great Barrier Reed - The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system, composed of roughly 3,000 individual reefs and 900 islands that stretch for 2,600 kilometres (1,616 mi) and cover an area of approximately 344,400 km. The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland in northeast Australia. A large part of the reef is protected by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

The Great Barrier Reef can be seen from outer space and is sometimes referred to as the single largest organism in the world. In reality, it is made up of many millions of tiny organisms, known as coral polyps. The Great Barrier Reef supports a wide diversity of life and was selected as a World Heritage Site in 1981.[1][2] CNN has labelled it one of the seven natural wonders of the world.[5] The Queensland National Trust has named it a state icon of Queensland.[6

Mount Everest - Mount Everest or Qomolangma or Sagarmatha or Chomolungma pronounced as (Jongmalunga) is the highest mountain on Earth, as measured by the height of its summit above sea level. The mountain, which is part of the Himalaya range in High Asia, is located on the border between Nepal and China.

Partucin Volcano - Parícutin (or Volcán de Parícutin, commonly also accented Paricutín) is a volcano in the Mexican state of Michoacán, close to a lava-covered village of the same name. It appears on many versions of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World list.

It began as a fissure in a cornfield owned by Tarascan american farmer Dionisio Pulido on February 20, 1943. Pulido, his wife, and son, all witnessed the initial eruption of ash and stones first-hand as they plowed the field. Much of the volcano's growth occurred during its first year, while it was still in the explosive pyroclastic phase. Nearby villages Paricutín (after which the volcano was named) and San Juan Parangaricutiro were both buried in lava and ash; the residents relocated to vacant land nearby. No one died from the Parícutin volcano.

Grand Canyon - The Grand Canyon is a very colorful, steep-sided gorge, carved by the Colorado River, in the U.S. state of Arizona. It is largely contained within the Grand Canyon National Park — one of the first national parks in the United States. President Theodore Roosevelt was a major proponent of the Grand Canyon area, visiting on numerous occasions to hunt and enjoy the scenery.

The canyon, created by the Colorado River cutting a channel over millions of years, is about 277 miles (446 km) long, ranges in width from 0.25 to 15 miles (0.4 to 24 kilometers), and attains a depth of more than a mile (1,600 m). Nearly two billion years of the Earth's history has been exposed as the Colorado River and its tributaries cut through layer after layer of sediment as the Colorado Plateaus have uplifted.

Harbor of Rio de Janeiro - Rio de Janeiro Harbour, River of January, is considered as one of the seven wonders of the natural world. It has been known as one of the most beautiful natural harbors. ” The climate is wonderful. The beaches are free to everyone.

Rio de Janeiro Harbour is located in Brazil on the south-western shore of Guanabara Bay. The bay is surrounded by the city of Rio, the second largest city and former capital of Brazil, along a strip of land between the mountains and the Atlantic Ocean.

Yellowstone National Park - Millions of visitors each year come to YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK , America's oldest national park and the largest in the lower 48 states, to glory in its magnificent mountain scenery and abundant wildlife, and above all to witness hydrothermal phenomena on a unique scale. Measuring roughly sixty by fifty miles, and overlapping slightly from Wyoming's northwestern corner into Idaho and Montana, the park centers on a 7500ft-high plateau, the caldera of a vast volcanic eruption that occurred a mere 600,000 years ago. Into it are crammed more than half the world's geysers , in which the rain and snow that seep through the bedrock escape the pressure-cooker conditions under the surface in intermittent spectacular blasts, plus thousands of fumaroles jetting plumes of steam, mud pots gurgling with acid-dissolved muds and clays, and hot springs .

The Alps - The Alps (German: Alpen; French: Alpes; Italian: Alpi; Slovenian: Alpe) is the name for one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east, through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west. The word "Alps" was taken via French from Latin Alpes (meaning "the Alps"), which may be influenced by the Latin words albus (white) or altus (high), or a Celtic word.

The highest mountain in the Alps is Mont Blanc, at 4,808 metres (15,774 ft), on the French-Italian border. All the main peaks of the Alps can be found in the list of mountains of the Alps and list of Alpine peaks by prominence.

Victoria Falls - Africa's Victoria Falls or Mosi-oa-Tunya are, by some measures, the largest waterfall on the planet, as well as being among the most unusual in form, and having arguably the most diverse and easily-seen wildlife of any major waterfall site.

The unusual form of Victoria Falls enables virtually the whole width of the falls to be viewed face-on, at the same level as the top, from a distance as close as 60 m (200 ft), because the whole Zambezi River drops into a deep, narrow slot-like chasm, connected to a long series of gorges. Few other waterfalls allow such a close approach on foot to the heart of their power

Polar Aurora - The aurora (plural aurorae/auroras) is a bright glow observed in the night sky, usually in the polar zone. For this reason some scientists call it a "polar aurora" (or "aurora polaris"). In northern latitudes, it is known as the aurora borealis, which is named after the Roman goddess of the dawn, Aurora, and the Greek name for north wind, Boreas. Especially in Europe, it often appears as a reddish glow on the northern horizon, as if the sun were rising from an unusual direction. The aurora borealis is also called the northern lights since it is only visible in the North sky from the Northern Hemisphere. The aurora borealis most often occurs from September to October and from March to April.

Galápagos Islands - The Galápagos Islands (Spanish names: Archipiélago de Colón or Islas Galápagos, from galápago, "saddle"- after the shells of saddlebacked Galápagos tortoises) are an archipelago made up of 13 main volcanic islands, 6 smaller islands, and 107 rocks and islets. The oldest island is thought to have formed between 5 and 10 million years ago, a result of tectonic activity. The youngest islands, Isabela and Fernandina, are still being formed, with the most recent volcanic eruption in 2005.

The Galápagos archipelago is part of Ecuador, a country in northwestern South America. The islands are distributed around the equator, 965 kilometres (about 600 miles) west of Ecuador (recently found to have 3 volcanos in the center island, all of them active) (0° N 91° W).

They are famed for their vast number of endemic species and the studies by Charles Darwin that led to his theory of evolution by natural selection.