March 20, 2014

Ten of the world’s great natural wonders – in pictures

From the giant redwoods of California to the almost miraculous honeycomb rock formations of the Giant's Causeway, marvel at some of the planet's most extraordinary natural landscapes

Lonely Planet: Ngorongoro crater, Tanzania — A group of elephants walking in Ngorongoro crater, Tanzania. At 610 metres deep and covering 260 sq km, this is the largest unflooded caldera in the world, and a haven for both wildlife and Maasai livestock Photograph: John Bryant/Getty Images/Gallo Images Roots Collection

Lonely Planet: Wuhua Hai, or Five Flower Lake, China — Wuhua Hai, or Five Flower Lake, in China’s Jiuzhaigon national park, glistens in varying shades of turquoise, and the lake’s floor is strewn with ancient tree trunks. According to legend, the region’s 108 coloured lakes were created when a goddess dropped a mirror her lover had given her, smashing it into 108 pieces Photograph: MelindaChan/Getty Images/Flickr Open

Lonely Planet: Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland — The near-perfect hexagonal columns of he Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland look like they were carved by a stonemason – or honed into honeycomb. It is easy to understand why people once believed the causeway was a supernatural feature Photograph: Stuart Stevenson/Getty Images/Flickr RF

Lonely Planet: Cappadocia — The arid plateau of Cappadocia in Turkey hides vast, subterranean cities and towering fairy chimneys that were hewn by wind and rain, heat and cold, and then carved out by troglodytes Photograph: Traveler1116/Getty Images

Lonely Planet: Victoria Falls, on the Zambezi river — Victoria Falls, on the Zambezi river between Zambia and Zimbabwe, was named after Queen Victoria by the explorer David Livingstone, but locals call it Mosi-oa-Tunya, meaning ‘the smoke that thunders’. The falls plummet 108 metres, creating a mist visible from 20km away Photograph: Kelly Cheng/Getty Images/Flickr Open

Lonely Planet: Redwoods in the Giant Forest, Sequoia national park, California — Towering sequoias in the aptly-named Giant Forest of Sequoia national park, California. These living giants are the tallest trees on the planet, rocketing more than 100 metres into the sky, with trunks the width of a road; the most famous of them, General Sherman, has become an attraction in its own right Photograph: Michael Hansen www.michaelhansen.com/Getty Images/Flickr RF

Lonely Planet: Steam rising from the crater atop Kilauea — Steam rising from the crater atop Kilauea in Hawaii, the world’s most active volcano. It has been constantly erupting for over three decades, creating the fastest-growing piece of land on the planet Photograph: Fuse/Getty Images

Lonely Planet: The Dallol volcano in north-east Ethiopia — The Dallol volcano in north-east Ethiopia forms part of the Great Rift Valley, the world’s largest rift system, stretching 6,000km from the Red Sea down to Lake Malawi. Up to 75km wide in places, it’s cradled by a series of cliffs, rising from the valley floor to the top of the highest escarpments Photograph: Pascal Boegli/Getty Images/Flickr Open

Lonely Planet: The Grand Canyon — The Grand Canyon’s layers of colour crack open the Colorado plateau, which is up to 1.6km deep and 29km wide in places. Its sheer immensity makes it one of the most impressive gorges in the world Photograph: Roberto Soncin Gerometta/Getty Images/Lonely Planet Images

Lonely Planet: The eroded landscape of Zabriskie Point in Death Valley — The eroded landscape of Zabriskie Point in Death Valley, the most consistently hot place on Earth Photograph: Michael Wells/Getty Images/fStop

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