The most famous landmarks in the world

Work began on 19 March 1882 to a Neo-Gothic plan by Francisco de Paula del Villar. He resigned a year later and Antoni Gaudí reworked the project entirely, staying with it until his death in 1926. UNESCO listed it in 1984 within the Works of Antoni Gaudí, and Benedict XVI consecrated it as a minor basilica in 2010. The Tower of Jesus Christ reached 172.5 m in February 2026, with its viewing platform due in 2027. A dedicated site collects tickets and visiting guides for the Sagrada Familia.

Gustave Eiffel and his team raised the tower for the 1889 Exposition Universelle, finishing the work in 2 years, 2 months and 5 days between 1887 and 1889. It stands 330 m tall. The tower is not listed by UNESCO on its own, but it sits inside the Paris, Banks of the Seine property. Its operator describes it as the world's most visited paid monument, with around 7 million visitors a year. Travelers can plan a visit to the Eiffel Tower before arriving.

The Parthenon went up between 447 and 432 BC inside the building programme directed by Pericles, with Iktinos and Kallikrates as architects and Pheidias supervising the sculpture. UNESCO inscribed the rock in 1987. Much of the surviving Parthenon sculpture is no longer on the hill itself, and is displayed instead in the Acropolis Museum, which opened in 2009. A separate page explains how to visit the Acropolis and what the ticket covers.

The Mughal emperor Shah Jahan commissioned the mausoleum in 1631 for his queen Mumtaz Mahal. Building started in 1632, the main tomb was finished in 1648 and the wider complex by 1653, with Ustad Ahmad Lahauri most often credited as principal designer of a team effort. UNESCO inscribed it in 1983. The outer dome rises 44.4 m while the inner dome stops at 24.35 m, so the vault above the tomb chamber sits far below the silhouette seen from the garden.

A 15th-century Inca citadel linked to the ruler Pachacutec, Machu Picchu sits at 2,430 m in Peru. UNESCO inscribed it in 1983 as the Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu, and it was named one of the New7Wonders of the World in 2007. Daily access is capped, since the Ministry of Culture sets a base capacity of 4,500 visitors a day, lifted on a fixed list of high-season dates, so entry is tied to a chosen circuit.

The Great Pyramid was raised as the tomb of Pharaoh Khufu in the Fourth Dynasty, dated by convention to roughly 2589 to 2566 BC. It originally stood about 146.5 m, and the loss of its outer casing stones has left it lower today. UNESCO inscribed the plateau in 1979 as Memphis and its Necropolis, the Pyramid Fields from Giza to Dahshur. In 2007 the pyramid received honorary status alongside the New7Wonders of the World rather than being voted in, because it alone survives from the ancient list.

Sedefkâr Mehmed Ağa built the mosque between 1609 and 1617 for Sultan Ahmed I, giving it six minarets, an unprecedented number for an Ottoman mosque at the time. It stands inside the Historic Areas of Istanbul, inscribed by UNESCO in 1985. The popular name misleads slightly, since the blue is inside: the İznik tilework lining the prayer hall rather than the exterior. There are practical notes on the Blue Mosque for first-time visitors.

Vespasian commissioned the amphitheatre around AD 70 to 72, his son Titus inaugurated it in AD 80 and Domitian added to it afterwards. Romans knew it as the Flavian Amphitheatre, after the dynasty that built it. It stands inside the Historic Centre of Rome, inscribed by UNESCO in 1980, and was named one of the New7Wonders of the World in 2007. The Parco Archeologico del Colosseo recorded 14,733,395 entries in 2024 across its four parts. A companion site sets out Colosseum entry options.

Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi sculpted Liberty Enlightening the World, and Gustave Eiffel engineered the internal framework that holds it up. It was dedicated on 28 October 1886 and inscribed by UNESCO in 1984. From the ground to the tip of the torch it measures 305 ft 1 in, with the figure itself 151 ft 1 in above a 154 ft pedestal. Few famous international landmarks arrived in pieces: the statue crossed the Atlantic disassembled into 350 parts packed in 214 crates, reaching New York Harbor on 17 June 1885.

The abbey traces its origin to 708, when Bishop Aubert founded an oratory after a vision of the archangel Michael, and a Benedictine community was installed in 966 by Duke Richard I of Normandy. UNESCO inscribed Mont-Saint-Michel and its Bay in 1979. The gilded copper archangel crowning the spire is far younger than it looks, since Emmanuel Frémiet's 4.5 m figure was placed there in 1897, on a neo-Gothic spire of the same century. Full detail on visiting the abbey at Mont-Saint-Michel sits on its own page.

Construction began in 1386, and the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo, founded in 1387, still runs the conservation work today. The gilded Madonnina was placed in 1774 and stands at 108.5 m. Approximately 3,400 statues cover the building. The cathedral is not on the UNESCO list, and it has never had a finished date in the ordinary sense, since the same body has been completing and maintaining it for more than six centuries. A guide to seeing Milan Cathedral up close covers the roof terraces.

Building started in 1238 under Muhammad I, founder of the Nasrid dynasty, and the palaces peaked in the 14th century, when Yusuf I added the Comares Palace and Muhammad V the Palace of the Lions. UNESCO listed it in 1984 as Alhambra, Generalife and Albayzín, Granada, extended in 1994. The property reaches past the hilltop to the Generalife gardens and the Albayzín opposite, so the classic view sits inside it. It drew 2,725,612 visitors in 2024. One page covers booking a route through the Alhambra.

King Rama I founded the palace in 1782 as the seat of the new Chakri dynasty, and Wat Phra Kaew, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, was built inside the walls a year later. The complex covers approximately 218,400 square metres and carries no UNESCO listing. It also remains a working seat of state, since the Bureau of the Royal Household keeps offices in the grounds, which is why parts of the complex can close without notice for ceremonies.

Po Lin Monastery coordinated the project, and the seated bronze Buddha was inaugurated on 29 December 1993. It stands 34 m tall on Lantau Island, reached by 268 steps from the plaza below, with a road for visitors with mobility needs. There is no UNESCO listing. Barely three decades old, it is among the youngest landmarks here, and it was built as a modern statement rather than inherited from an older age.

The core of the building went up in 1703 as Buckingham House for the Duke of Buckingham, and John Nash turned it into a palace for George IV from the 1820s. It holds 775 rooms in total, among them 19 state rooms, 52 royal and guest bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms and 78 bathrooms. As a popular landmark it is unusually restricted, since only those 19 State Rooms open to visitors, and only during the summer opening run by the Royal Collection Trust.

Petra was the capital of the Nabataean kingdom, its monuments carved directly into sandstone cliffs. Al-Khazneh, the Treasury, dates to the 1st century BC or 1st century AD and is widely identified as the tomb of King Aretas IV. It stands 39.5 m high. UNESCO inscribed the site in 1985, and it was named one of the New7Wonders of the World in 2007. Europe knew nothing of the city until the Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt reached it in 1812.

El Castillo, the Temple of Kukulcán, is a stepped pyramid 30 m high with four staircases of 91 steps each, which with the top platform total 365, the days of the year. UNESCO inscribed the city in 1988 and it joined the New7Wonders of the World in 2007. The light and shadow descent of Kukulcán is not limited to the two equinox days, since the pattern builds gradually across much of the year. Climbing is prohibited, and INAH widened the delimited area around the pyramid in April 2025.

King Suryavarman II built Angkor Wat between 1113 and 1150 as a state temple and mausoleum dedicated to Vishnu. The temple occupies 162.6 hectares and is enclosed by a moat 190 m wide, and it is widely described as the largest religious monument in the world. UNESCO inscribed the wider Angkor property in 1992. It began as a Hindu temple and was later converted to Buddhist use, so the dedication to Vishnu predates the worship carried on there today.

Danish architect Jørn Utzon won the international design competition in 1957. Construction began in 1959, Utzon resigned in 1966 and another team finished the building, which Queen Elizabeth II opened on 20 October 1973. UNESCO inscribed it in 2007. The shells carry 1,056,006 tiles, and they became buildable only when the roof geometry was redrawn as sections of a single sphere.

A survey run between 2007 and 2012 catalogued 43,721 heritage sites across 15 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, and set the wall's recorded total length at 21,196.18 km. UNESCO inscribed it in 1987, and it was named one of the New7Wonders of the World in 2007. The total is unusual among important landmarks in the world, because it counts wall segments, trenches, defensive structures and natural barriers built by many dynasties, rather than a single unbroken line.