2.The Dubai Fountain - World’s Largest Dancing Fountain

World's Beautiful Places must Visit Before Die

1.Jammu & Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir is the northernmost state of India. In the seventeenth century the Mughal emperor Jahangir set his eyes on the valley of Kashmir. He said that if paradise is anywhere on the earth, it is here, while living in a houseboat on Dal Lake.

 "Gar firdaus, ruhe zamin ast, hamin asto, hamin asto, hamin ast." If there is ever a heaven on earth, its here, its here, its here. In Jammu and Kashmir the most important tourist places are Kashmir, Srinagar, the Mughal Gardens, Gulmarg, Pahalgam, Jammu, and Ladakh. Some areas require a special permit for non-Indians to visit.

Before militancy intensified in 1989, tourism formed an important part of the Kashmiri economy. The tourism economy in the Kashmir valley was worst hit. However, the holy shrines of Jammu and the Buddhist monasteries of Ladakh continue to remain popular pilgrimage and tourism destinations. Every year, thousands of Hindu pilgrims visit holy shrines of Vaishno Devi and Amarnath which has had significant impact on the state's economy. The Vaishno Devi yatra alone contributes 475 crore to the local economy annually.

Tourism in the Kashmir valley has rebounded in recent years and in 2009, the state became one of the top tourist destinations of India. Gulmarg, one of the most popular ski resort destinations in India, is also home to the world's highest green golf course. The decrease in violence in the state has boosted the states economy specifically tourism. It was reported that 7.36 lakh tourists visited Kashmir in 2010 including 23,000 foreigners. In 2011, the number of tourist arrivals in Kashmir touched the mark of 10 lakh.

2.The Dubai Fountain - World’s Largest Dancing Fountain

Set on the 30-acre Burj Khalifa Lake, at the center of the Downtown Dubai development in Dubai, the Dubai fountain can shoot 83,000 liters of water at any moment and water jets as high as 240 feet into the air. Illuminated by 6,600 lights and 25 colored projectors, the 900 feet long fountain can seen from over 20 miles away.

The Dubai Fountain performs daily accompanied by a range of classical to contemporary Arabic and world music. The performance repertoire including Sama Dubai; Baba Yetu, an award-winning song in Swahili; the Arab world’s top-selling dance number Shik Shak Shok; and the signature piece of world-renowned Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, Con te partiro (Time to Say Goodbye).

 

When the fountain was inaugurated in 2009, it had two types of shooters - super shooters, which shoot water under more pressure up to 240 feet in the air, and extreme shooters, which can shoot water under the most pressure to 420 feet in the air.

 Because it takes a lot of time to build up enough pressure and energy to shoot water that high in the air, the super shooters are used the least during each show. The extreme shooters were used only once during the opening ceremony, after which they were disabled and no longer used in the shows.

3.Mount Rushmore National Memorial 

 Sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore, a granite batholith formation in the Black Hills in Keystone, South Dakota, United States. Sculpted by Danish-American Gutzon Borglum and his son, Lincoln Borglum, Mount Rushmore features 60-foot (18 m) sculptures of the heads of four United States presidents: George Washington (1732–1799), Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), and Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) The entire memorial covers 1,278.45 acres (2.00 sq mi; 5.17 km²)  and is 5,725 feet (1,745 m) above sea level.

 

South Dakota historian Doane Robinson is credited with conceiving the idea of carving the likenesses of famous people into the Black Hills region of South Dakota in order to promote tourism in the region. Robinson's initial idea was to sculpt the Needles; however, Gutzon Borglum rejected the Needles site because of the poor quality of the granite and strong opposition from Native American groups. They settled on the Mount Rushmore location, which also has the advantage of facing southeast for maximum sun exposure. Robinson wanted it to feature western heroes like Lewis and Clark, Red Cloud, and Buffalo Bill Cody, but Borglum decided the sculpture should have a more national focus and chose the four presidents whose likenesses would be carved into the mountain. After securing federal funding through the enthusiastic sponsorship of "Mount Rushmore's great political patron", U.S. Senator Peter Norbeck, construction on the memorial began in 1927, and the presidents' faces were completed between 1934 and 1939.

 

Upon Gutzon Borglum's death in March 1941, his son Lincoln Borglum took over construction. Although the initial concept called for each president to be depicted from head to waist, lack of funding forced construction to end in late October 1941.

Mount Rushmore has become an iconic symbol of the United States, and has appeared in works of fiction, and has been discussed or depicted in other popular works. It attracts over two million people annually.

 4.Easter Island

Located 3,700 km (2,300 miles) off the west coast of Chile, Easter Island is the world's most isolated inhabited island. It is also one of the most mystifying places on Earth, possessing a history that remains as unclear as it is evocative.

 

Easter Island's tiny land area (only 117 sq. km.) and remarkable isolation make its discovery and settlement an event that seems as unlikely as it was mysterious. The original settlers seem to have been Polynesian, although there is substantial evidence that they were joined by a South American people early in the island's history. The island's native name, Rapa Nui, is Polynesian. Isolated for centuries from the outside world, the people of Rapa Nui developed their own distinctive culture, a culture perhaps best known by the moai, huge figures carved of volcanic rock. Hundreds of these sculpted monoliths dot the landscape, some in imposing rows, others toppled, broken, and scarred by violence. Scholars have been able to reconstruct some of the tragic history that lies behind the disintegration of Rapa Nui culture, but many important parts of the puzzle-including how and why the moai were built-remain uncertain.

The first Europeans to stumble upon the tiny island were the Dutch, under the command of Admiral Jacob Roggeveen. Roggeveen made landfall on Rapa Nui on Easter Day of 1722, thus providing Easter Island with its modern name. Easter Island remained only slightly less isolated over the ensuing centuries, although it did attract the malevolent interest of Peruvian slave ships during the 19th century. Despite these depredations, the majority of Easter Island's population is still composed of descendants of its original inhabitants Even today, their distinctive language and cultural traditions give visitors a glimpse of an ancient lifestyle.

All of the residents of Easter Island live in the town of Hanga Roa, and it is an easy day's drive from town around the island in search of moai and ahu (the rectangular stone platforms which moai were mounted on). One of the most famous sites on the island is Rano Raraku, where 70 moai seem to rise from the earth. The remains of over 150 other figures lie in a nearby volcanic crater, where the rock for the moai was extracted. It is still unclear how the moai were moved from these rock quarries to other parts of the island.

The restored village of Orongo offers another Easter Island mystery. The village sits in a spectacular setting, between the volcano of Rano Kao and a sheer cliff drop-off. Rocks found at the village contain 150 carvings showing figures with a man's body and a bird's head. Anthropologists believe they were part of a religious cult, but the details on the "Bird Man" are still obscure.

5.Rio de Janeiro

  Welcome to the Cidade Maravilhosa, or the Marvelous City, as Rio is known in Brazil. Synonymous with the girl from Ipanema, the dramatic views from Christ the Redeemer atop Corcovado mountain, and fabulously flamboyant Carnival celebrations, Rio is a city of stunning architecture, abundant museums, and marvelous food.

 

 Rio is also home to 23 beaches, an almost continuous 73-km (45-mile) ribbon of sand.

 

As you leave the airport and head to Rio's beautiful Zona Sul (the touristic South Zone), you'll drive for about 40 minutes on a highway from where you'll begin to get a sense of the dramatic contrast between beautiful landscape and devastating poverty.

 

 In this teeming metropolis of 12 million people (6.2 million of whom live in Rio proper), the very rich and the very poor live in uneasy proximity. You'll drive past seemingly endless cinder-block favela, but by the time you reach Copacabana's breezy, sunny Avenida Atlântica—flanked on one side by white beach and azure sea and on the other by condominiums and hotels—your heart will leap with expectation as you begin to recognize the postcard-famous sights. Now you're truly in Rio, where cariocas (Rio residents) and tourists live life to its fullest.

 

Enthusiasm is contagious in Rio. Prepare to have your senses engaged and your inhibitions untied. Rio seduces with a host of images: the joyous bustle of vendors at Sunday's Feira Hippie (Hippie Fair); the tipsy babble at sidewalk cafés as patrons sip their last glass of icy beer under the stars; the blanket of lights beneath the Pão de Açúcar (Sugarloaf Mountain); the bikers, joggers, strollers, and power walkers who parade along the beach each morning. Borrow the carioca spirit for your stay; you may find yourself reluctant to give it back.

6. The Cape Winelands

About 40 km to the east of Cape Town, lying in the shadow of a continuous belt of Cape fold belt mountains,

 

 lies a series of generous valleys known as the Cape Winelands – a collection of historic towns, little hamlets and Cape Dutch farmsteads that provide well-regarded South African wines to the world.

 

 These mountains create an incredible scenic backdrop for a myriad vines, but they are also one of the reasons wines do so well here.

 

 Their geological compositions provide unique soil conditions that directly effect the character of wine.

Famous For its wines

The boundaries of this municipality, which covers an area of 22,289 square kilometres (8,606 sq mi), coincide roughly with the boundaries of the geographical area that has been known since the early days of the Cape Colony as "The Boland". In Afrikaans Boland means "up land" or "the higher land" or "the land above" (i.e. in contrast to the low coastal areas of the original Dutch settlement at the Cape). However, the term "Boland", as originally used, was a loose concept, with no defined borders (cf. the informal but not meaningless terms "The Sahara" or "The Rocky Mountains"). The Boland is generally mountainous, with range after range of beautiful and isolated sandstone peaks reaching towards 2000m but also has broad, fertile valleys that are home to some of the country's finest vineyards.

The region has a Mediterranean climate. Summers are hot and dry and winters cool and damp, with snow on the peaks during August and September. The extent and diversity of the geographical features here are truly marvellous. There are so many peaks, ranges, escarpments, valleys, cliffs, rivers, pools, waterfalls, screes, canyons, springs, forests, caves and other natural features that no person could visit all of them in a lifetime.

 7.Torres del Paine

Soaring almost vertically more than 2000m above the Patagonian steppe, the granite pillars of Torres del Paine (Towers of Paine) dominate the landscape of what may be South America's finest national park. Before its creation in 1959, the park was part of a large sheep estancia, and it's still recovering from nearly a century of overexploitation of its pastures, forests and wildlife.

 

Most people visit the park for its one greatest hit but, once here, realize that there are other attractions with equal wow power. We're talking about azure lakes, trails that meander through emerald forests, roaring rivers you'll cross on rickety bridges and one big, radiant blue glacier. Variety spans from the vast openness of the steppe to rugged mountain terrain topped by looming peaks.

Part of Unesco's Biosphere Reserve system since 1978, the park is home to flocks of ostrich-like rhea (known locally as the ñandú), Andean condor, flamingo and many other bird species. Its star success in conservation is undoubtedly the guanaco, which grazes the open steppes where pumas cannot approach undetected. After more than a decade of effective protection from poachers, these large, growing herds don't even flinch when humans or vehicles approach. The puma population is also growing, and huemul (an endangered Andean deer) have been spotted in Valle Frances.

 

When the weather is clear, panoramas are everywhere. However, unpredictable weather systems can sheath the peaks in clouds for hours or days. Some say you get four seasons in a day here, with sudden rainstorms and knock-down gusts part of the hearty initiation. Bring high-quality foul-weather gear, a synthetic sleeping bag and, if you're camping, a good tent. It is always wise to plan a few extra days to make sure that your trip isn't torpedoed by a spot of bad weather.

The crowning attraction of this 1810-sq-km park is its highly developed infrastructure, which makes it possible to do the whole 'W' hike while sleeping in beds, eating hot meals, taking showers and even drinking the random cocktail. It's essential to make reservations ahead of time.

 

If you want to sleep in hotels or refugios (rustic shelters), you must make reservations in advance. Plan a minimum of three to seven days to enjoy the hiking and other activities. Guided day trips on minibuses from Puerto Natales are possible, but permit only a glimpse of what the park has to offer.

At the end of 2011, a raging fire burned over 40,000 acres. The fire took weeks to contain, destroyed old forest, killed animals and burned several park structures. An international visitor was charged with accidentally setting the fire while trying to start an illegal campfire. The hiker denied setting the fire but paid a US$10,000 fine and agreed to help with reforestation efforts. Chile has since enacted a stricter 'Ley del Bosque' (forest law) to protect parks and Conaf has started to actively remove visitors found breaking park guidelines. The affected area, mostly between Pehoé and Refugio Grey, is essentially the western leg of the 'W' trek.

Be conscientious and tread lightly – you are among hundreds of thousands of yearly guests.

8.Marrakesh 

From the moment you arrive in Marrakesh, you’ll get the distinct feeling you’ve left something behind – a toothbrush or socks, maybe? But no, what you’ll be missing in Marrakesh is predictability and all sense of direction. Never mind: you’re better off without them here.

 

Start at action-packed Djemaa el-Fna and head north into Marrakesh’s maze of souqs, where Berber tribes once traded slaves, gold, ivory and leather, and where modern tourists scour people-packed alleys for carpet bargains and babouches. 

 

 If you look carefully, you’ll also spot a number of creative new boutiques and galleries. They signify the evolving face of the medina as a new generation of craftsmen and artists try to connect the city’s hankering for modernity with its traditional craft heritage.

 

Beyond the souqs, the medina is an ideal place to explore private palaces and riad mansions, many of which now provide the city’s most atmospheric accommodation. But it’s worth leaving the old city occasionally for dinner, drinks and art galleries in the ville nouvelle (new town), mountain bike rides in the palmeraie (palm oasis) or horse-riding and weekend retreats in the Agafay Desert and Ouirgane.

 9.Everest Base Camp

You’ll be smitten by Nepal, a country of hospitable people, beautiful scenery, and a large variety of cultural traditions.

 

 This blend of outdoor adventure and cultural exploration is a great way to experience the Himalayan Mountains - the world’s most impressive mountains.

 

Our carefully crafted itinerary ensures proper acclimatization, allowing you to fully enjoy one of the world’s great treks and the easy walk up Kala Pattar. You'll experience:

• Base camp living, spending a night at camp and meeting Everest climbers
• The infamous Khumbu Icefall up close and personal
• Stunning views from 18,000-foot Kala Pattar
• Friendly Sherpa people
• Mountain Madness-style hospitality, including our private food service and the best teahouses in the Khumbu

Discover why this has become one of our most rewarding journeys and a Mountain Madness Classic, first developed more than 25 years ago by our founder Scott Fischer.

 Why Go With Mountain Madness

• Over 25 years' experience in Nepal
• Private food service with a wide variety of traditional and Western meals prepared by our cooks
• Luxurious hotel accommodations in Kathmandu's Yak-n-Yeti
• Kathmandu cultural tour
• Yak support allows you to carry only your daypack
• Hand-selected teahouses
• Highly skilled professional Western and Nepali guides
• All-inclusive price

Hope i think you are planning to go at base came 

happy journey

10.The Great Barrier Reef

 

As the world’s most extensive coral reef ecosystem, the Great Barrier Reef is a globally outstanding and significant entity. Practically the entire ecosystem was inscribed as World Heritage in 1981, covering an area of 348,000 square kilometres and extending across a contiguous latitudinal range of 14^o (10^oS to 24^oS). The Great Barrier Reef (hereafter referred to as GBR) includes extensive cross-shelf diversity, stretching from the low water mark along the mainland coast up to 250 kilometres offshore. 

 

This wide depth range includes vast shallow inshore areas, mid-shelf and outer reefs, and beyond the continental shelf to oceanic waters over 2,000 metres deep.

Within the GBR there are some 2,500 individual reefs of varying sizes and shapes, and over 900 islands, ranging from small sandy cays and larger vegetated cays, to large rugged continental islands rising, in one instance, over 1,100 metres above sea level. Collectively these landscapes and seascapes provide some of the most spectacular maritime scenery in the world.

 

The latitudinal and cross-shelf diversity, combined with diversity through the depths of the water column, encompasses a globally unique array of ecological communities, habitats and species. This diversity of species and habitats, and their interconnectivity, make the GBR one of the richest and most complex natural ecosystems on earth. There are over 1,500 species of fish, about 400 species of coral, 4,000 species of mollusk, and some 240 species of birds, plus a great diversity of sponges, anemones, marine worms, crustaceans, and other species. No other World Heritage property contains such biodiversity. This diversity, especially the endemic species, means the GBR is of enormous scientific and intrinsic importance, and it also contains a significant number of threatened species. Attime of inscription, the IUCN evaluation stated "… if only one coral reef site in the world were to be chosen for the World Heritage List, the Great Barrier Reef is the site to be chosen".

Hope you already asking leave to your Boss

cheers,

Happy Journey