A PEEP INTO THE NATURAL WONDERS OF THE WORLD

The ecosystem of the world is full of natural wonders ranging from glaciers, mountains, and rivers to rainforests and steep gorges. Some of the most popular locations include the following.

The Sahara Desert
The Nile river
The rainbow bridge
Mount Fuji
Mount Everest
Dead sea
Machu pichu
Great wall of China
Victoria waterfalls.
Paricutin Volcano.
Grand Canyon
Great Barrier Reef.

Sahara is an Arabic word that means the greatest desert.
It is the world’s largest hot desert.
It covers most of Northern Africa.
Most of the Sahara consists of rocks, less of sand dunes.
Safsaf Oasis lies on the surface of Sahara.
The southern part has a savannah called Sahel.
Desert was formed by wind erosion and occasional rains, since 3000BC.

Nile River:
This is the longest river (6650km) in the world.
It flows through 10 countries in Africa- Egypt, Sudan, Tanzania, etc
Ultimate source comes from forests of Rwanda.
There are 3 common tributaries- White, Yellow and Blue Nile.
Water in White Nile contains suspended white clay particles, used for farming.
It was the lifeline of ancient Egyptian civilization.

Machu Pichu:
It is an important archaeological site in Peru, South America.
It is located in a saddle between huge mountains of 8000ft high.
It was an estate settlement of the Inca empire and used for defense.
Terraced fields, stone masonry walls without mortar are specific features.
There are 140 structures including temples, houses, sanctuaries, parks etc.
There are more than one hundred flights of stone steps–often completely carved from a single block of granite.
There are a great number of water fountains that are interconnected by channels and water-drains perforated in the rock.
The temple of the Sun and the room of three windows are the most famous structures on Machu Pichu mountains.

Rainbow Bridge:
This is a suspension bridge, 570m in length and crosses the Tokyo Bay, in Japan.
It carries car, trains and pedestrians.
Built in 1993, the pillars are white in color with lighting done with red, white and green every night using solar energy.

In US, there is an arch bridge, naturally carved by erosion. Its also called as the rainbow bridge.

Dead Sea:
It is a world famous salt lake between Israel and Jordan.
It has 9 times more salt than in sea water.
It is 400m below mean sea level.
More salt, so animals cannot live and hence the name.
It is 18km wide and 67m long at the Jordan Valley.
Salt from Dead Sea is used to make cosmetics and fertilizers.

Mount Fuji:
This is the highest mountain in Japan.
It has a symmetrical shape and is attractive.
It is one of Japan’s three Holy Mountains.
A strato-volcano which is part of a National Park, it is surrounded by five lakes.
The climate is very cold due to the altitude and the cone is covered by snow for several months of the year. The lowest recorded temperature is −38.0 °C
Though one lakh years old, it is currently classified as active with a low risk of eruption.
Today this is a common destination for mountain climbing.

Mount Everest:
This is also called Sagarmatha, meaning head of the sky.
It is part of the Himalayas and is situated in Nepal.
Height is about 9000m above MSL.
There are many climbing routes for mountaineers.
Edmund Hillary (New Zealand) and Tensing Norway (Nepal) were the first to climb in 1953.

Victoria Waterfalls:
This is the largest waterfalls in the world.
It is situated on Zambezi River in South Africa.
It is 1.7km wide and 108m height.
Created by flat plateaus.
It lies between two countries- Zambia and Zimbabwe.
It’s a tourist centre for adventure sports.
Waterfalls cut back at major gorges, at Devils Cataract or Leaping waters.
There is a naturally formed safe swimming pool called Devil’s Pool.

Great Wall of China:
It is along wall built and rebuilt in 5th and 16th century BC.
Length is 6400km.


Paricutin Volcano:
This is a volcano that began as a fissure in a farmer’s field in 1943.
The lava covered two villages and eruption ended in 1952.
Youngest volcano became unique because all stages seen from conception.
It has a height of up to 420m.

Great Barrier Reef:
Largest coral reef system in the world.
It is located in Coral Sea, Queensland, Australia.
It is made of tiny living organism called polyps.
Supports lot of endangered species.
It is a group of 3000 individual reefs and 300 islands.
It was formed 20000 years ago.
Tourists who love scuba diving can visit the reefs.

Grand Canyon
This refers to a rift formed by Colorado River in the state of Arizona, in Southwest USA.
It is more than 6 – 40million years old.
It is a colorful landscape formed by erosion through rain and snow.
This has exposed ancient rocks and complete rock profiles/columns that are more than 6000ft deep.
There are many caves in which people lived long ago.
Tourists can see the area from Lipan Point, Eagle Point, and Moran Point etc.
Camps, trains, helicopters, skywalks are all available…