7 Things Americans Can Learn From Life In Spain

British Museum

A pilgrimage for fans of antiquity, many of Europe’s â€" and indeed the world’s â€" greatest treasures have ended up in its hallowed halls. 

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Tikal, Guatemala

Guatemala’s most significant Mayan ruin site, the once-bustling metropolis now gives off a haunted jungle ambience.

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Petra, Jordan

Most people’s impression of Petra comes from "Indiana Jones," but beyond experiencing the drama of the Siq, you can also explore the High Place of Sacrifice, the Monastery and countless tombs. 

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Twelve Apostles, Australia

Standing just off the Great Ocean Road, a scenic treat of limestone coast, the Apostles are the cherry on a very tasty cake.

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Fez Medina, Morocco

This tangled, unmappable labyrinth of 9,400 alleyways -- containing some 14,000 buildings and housing around 160,000 people â€" dates back more than 1,000 years.

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Aya Sofya, Turkey

A church, mosque and museum in one, Istanbul’s Aya Sofya defies easy categorization. It was built almost 1,500 years ago when Byzantine emperor Justinian I demanded a cathedral that would mimic the majesty of the heavens on earth and eclipse the wonders of Rome.

Mark Read / Lonely Planet

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Alhambra, Spain

With sheer red walls set against a mountain backdrop, the palace complex dominating Granada’s skyline is perhaps the most refined example of Islamic art anywhere in the world, and the most enduring symbol of 800 years of enlightened Moorish rule in medieval Spain.

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Iguazú Falls, Brazil - Argentina

The Guaraní name, Big Water, is a huge understatement: these falls are so enormous, tour boats in the foaming pools below look like matchsticks to viewers from the boardwalks above.

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Colosseum, Italy

This massive 50,000-seat amphitheater is Rome’s most thrilling sight, and a monument to raw, merciless power that can still be felt today by anyone who steps foot inside.

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Grand Canyon National Park, USA

Look down at two billion years of geologic time and you’ll see why the mile-deep, 277-mile-long phenomenon is nature’s cathedral.

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Taj Mahal, India

Acres of shimmering white marble and a few thousand semiprecious stones carved and inlaid in intricate Islamic patterns, all in perfect symmetry: this breathtaking mausoleum is architectural perfection.

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Great Wall of China

It’s a myth that it can be seen from space, but this awe-inspiring maze of walls and fortifications stretching for an astonishing 5,500 miles across China's rugged landscape seems both infinite and indestructible.

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Machu Picchu, Peru

It’s not the outrageously dramatic Andean setting, nor the way that the city clings to impossibly precipitous slopes that makes Machu Picchu so mind-blowing â€" it’s the fact that no one really knows what happened here.

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Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Stretching more than 1,860 miles up the northeastern coast of Australia, it’s home to the world’s largest network of coral reefs and thousands of species of fish and marine life.

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Temples of Angkor, Cambodia

The world’s greatest temple to the Hindu god Vishnu, the magnificent monument of Angkor Wat is the crowning glory of a complex of more than 1,000 temples, shrines and tombs that forms a virtual city of spires in the jungles of northern Cambodia.

Mark Read / Lonely Planet

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