From the people who've been delivering trustworthy guidebooks to every destination in the world for 40 years, Lonely Planet's 50 Natural Wonders To Blow Your Mind will take you on a tour of the world's most mind-boggling wild and wonderful places, and help you discover just how extraordinary our planet really is. For all of our obsessions with man-made wonders, nothing compares to the creations of Mother Nature. Vast underground cave systems, wild desert landscapes, breathtaking waterfalls, staggering geology and spectacular vestiges of our prehistoric past all remind us of our small place in Earth's story. Even with our ever-expanding knowledge of the way the world has come to be, some landscapes still leave us utterly perplexed. This is the mystery and the majesty of the natural world. In this book we've attempted to capture just a fraction of what our planet has to offer, and we hope it inspires you to get out and find your own slice of pleasure in the great outdoors. Contents: Beach idyll Beach of the Cathedrals // Spain Hidden Beach, Marieta Islands // Mexico Moeraki Boulders, South Island // New Zealand Palawan Island // The Philippines Santorini, Cyclades Islands // Greece Vaadhoo Island // Maldives Deep down Cave of Crystals // Mexico Darvaza Crater // Turkmenistan Grand Prismatic Spring, Wyoming // USA Great Barrier Reef, Queensland // Australia Great Blue Hole // Belize Hang Son Doong // Vietnam Jeita Grotto, Keserwan // Lebanon Lake Baikal, Siberia // Russia Manjanggul Lava Tube // South Korea Marble Caves // Chile and Argentina Mendenhall Ice Caves, Alaska // USA The Mariana Trench // Western Pacific Ocean Mountainous wonders Huangguoshu Waterfall // China Lauterbrunnen Valley // Switzerland Milford Sound, South Island // New Zealand Mount Everest // Nepal and Tibet Mount Roraima // Venezuela Musandam Fjords // Oman Perito Moreno Glacier // Argentina The Grand Canyon, Arizona // USA Tianzi Mountains // China Trolltunga // Norway Mystical and mythical Aurora Borealis // Greenland Fairy Pools, Isle of Skye // Scotland Fingal's Cave, Inner Hebrides // Scotland Giant's Causeway, County Antrim // Northern Ireland The Waitomo Glow-worm Caves // New Zealand Uluru, Northern Territory // Australia National parks Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory // Australia Lencois Maranhenses National Park // Brazil Plitvice Lakes National Park // Croatia The Wildebeest Migration // Tanzania and Kenya Yosemite National Park, California // USA Strange landscapes Bristlecone Pines, California // USA Crooked Forest // Poland Eye of the Sahara // Mauritania Ice Towers of Mount Erebus // Antarctica Living Root Bridges of Cherrapunji // India Pamukkale // Turkey Sagano Bamboo Forest // Japan Salar de Uyuni // Bolivia Socotra Island and Archipelago // Yemen Spotted Lake, British Columbia // Canada White Desert // Egypt About Lonely Planet: Since 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel media company with guidebooks to every destination, an award-winning website, mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveller community. Lonely Planet covers must-see spots but also enables curious travellers to get off beaten paths to understand more of the culture of the places in which they find themselves. The world awaits! Important Notice: The digital edition of this book may not contain all of the images found in the physical edition.

“A poet celebrates the wonders of nature in a collection of essays that could almost serve as a coming-of-age memoir.” —Kirkus Reviews As a child, Nezhukumatathil called many places home: the grounds of a Kansas mental institution, where her Filipina mother was a doctor; the open skies and tall mountains of Arizona, where she hiked with her Indian father; and the chillier climes of western New York and Ohio. But no matter where she was transplanted—no matter how awkward the fit or forbidding the landscape—she was able to turn to our world’s fierce and funny creatures for guidance. “What the peacock can do,” she tells us, “is remind you of a home you will run away from and run back to all your life.” The axolotl teaches us to smile, even in the face of unkindness; the touch-me-not plant shows us how to shake off unwanted advances; the narwhal demonstrates how to survive in hostile environments. Even in the strange and the unlovely, Nezhukumatathil finds beauty and kinship. For it is this way with wonder: it requires that we are curious enough to look past the distractions in order to fully appreciate the world’s gifts. Warm, lyrical, and gorgeously illustrated by Fumi Nakamura, World of Wonders is a book of sustenance and joy. Praise for World of Wonders Barnes & Noble 2020 Book of the Year An NPR Best Book of 2020 An Esquire Best Book of 2020 A Publishers Weekly “Big Indie Book of Fall 2020” A BuzzFeed Best Book of Fall 2020 “Hands-down one of the most beautiful books of the year.” —NPR “A timely story about love, identity and belonging.” —New York Times Book Review “A truly wonderous essay collection.” —Roxane Gay, The Audacity

"To most of us there have come exceptional, unworldly moments, like unsuspected deeps in a stream, when we fell through appearances - fell through ourselves - into an intuition of majesty and wonder." - Bhikkhu Nyanasobhano in Landscapes of Wonder Landscapes of Wonder deftly transports the spirit of Buddhist contemplation off the cushion and into the natural world. With a lyricism and spiritual immediacy reminiscent of Thoreau and Emerson, in eighteen meditational essays Bhikkhu Nyanasobhano considers Buddhist themes through the prism of nature. The reflections captured in these satisfying literary explorations will appeal to all who appreciate contemplation of the natural world and our place in it.

Washington State has some of the most spectacular scenery in the world, and among that spectacular scenery are seven very special places. Freelance photographer and Washington State native Howard Frisk has put together a simple guidebook that focuses on just those seven places. Each one is presented with beautiful full color photographs, and a description of what makes it amazing along with interesting and useful tidbits of information. The Seven Wonders of Washington State are meant to be experienced first hand, and his guide can show you where, when and how to experience them yourself.The Seven Wonders of Washington are: Mt Rainier Mt St Helens The Columbia River Gorge Palouse The Hoh Rain Forest Long Beach The Channeled Scablands

Discover Earth's most beautiful and fascinating natural landmarks. From the spectacular granite domes of Yosemite to the reefs of the Bahama Banks and the ice sheets of the Antarctic, this is an unparalleled survey of the world's natural treasures. From the Rocky Mountains to the Great barrier Reef and everything in between, Natural Wonders of the World combines breathtaking landscape photography and illustrations with 3-D terrain models and other explanatory artworks to reveal what lies beneath the surface and explain the geological processes to show how the features were formed. Plants and animals that inhabit each environment are also included, making Natural Wonders of the World a complete celebration of our world. Produced in association with the Smithsonian Institution.

China has more varied habitats for wildlife than anywhere else on the planet. But above all, China is a place of 1.3 billion people, most of whom still live in the countryside. This work explores the length and breadth of one of the world's most spectacular and mysterious countries.