5 of the Most Mesmerizing Places on Earth
On a planet home to colors, textures, and surprises that stimulate our senses, it's hard to choose a favorite – so why pick just one? Here are a handful of bucket list-worthy places that really do exist.
Source: TripAdvisor
1) Son Doong Cave (Vietnam)
Han Son Doong in Vietnam's Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park is the world’s largest cave, housing many limestone grottoes, stalactites and stalagmites and home to a variety of wildlife, including monkeys, bats and flying foxes. It wasn’t discovered until 1990 and wasn't open to the public until 2013. It is so large it has its own weather system (including clouds) inside, and a 747 airplane could easily fly through it.
Source: Living + Nomads
2) Ta Prohm (Siem Reap, Cambodia)
Ta Prohm is the modern name of the temple in Siem Reap, Cambodia, built in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. Abandoned for hundreds of years after the fall of the Khmer Empire, Ta Prohm is a beautiful result of the battle between nature and architecture.
Source: Curly Tales
3) Waitomo Glowworm Caves (New Zealand)
Visitors can venture underground to witness hundreds of thousands of these bioluminescent insects line the ceiling of this limestone cave, 30 million years in the making. In such vast numbers, they create the illusion of an overhead sky full of stars.
Source: Getty Images
4) Petra (Jordan)
Located amid rugged desert canyons and mountains between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea, Petra is an amazing ancient city carved from red sandstone. Originally known to its inhabitants as Raqmu or Raqēmō, it has been inhabited since prehistoric times.
Source: World Atlas
5) Bagan (Myanmar)
Bagan is an ancient city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Today, more than 2,000 of the original 10,000 temples in the country still stand. Historically, Bagan was the capital city of the Pagan Empire and the cultural epicentre of a kingdom that ruled over the regions surrounding the Irrawaddy River during the 10th to 13th centuries.
“Don’t listen to what they say. Go see. ”