The world in which people are fortunate to live is magnificent. Man ennobles and decorates it as best he can, inventing and erecting structures that are destined to live for centuries. Even in ancient times, the Greeks compiled a list of natural seven wonders of the world, which included the most famous and famous buildings of architecture: the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and a number of other great buildings.
But nature creates even more majestic and unique things that amaze with their beauty and originality. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, a vote was held via the Internet and telephone communications, as a result of which seven new wonders of nature were named. This included mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, natural phenomena… I would like to tell about some of them.
Grand Canyon: description of a miracle
Where is the Grand Canyon? And what is it anywaylike this?
It is located in the USA and is considered one of the most famous in the world. This is a giant gorge with many branches, striking a difficult and rather picturesque landscape. The length of the gorge is almost 500 kilometers, the minimum width is 180 meters, the maximum width is 28 km. On average, it is about 16 km. The depth of the gorge is just over one and a half kilometers.
So, where is the Grand Canyon and what it is, clearly. I would like to say how he appeared.
This miracle was created by the Colorado River, which has eroded the site for many millions of years. The water managed to cut through the road, forming amazing and beautiful stone structures. The river drop in the canyon is large - an average of 1.3 kilometers. Accordingly, the climate inside is diverse and strongly depends on the depth of the gorge. It is very hot at the bottom, cacti, thorns and other vegetation typical of the desert grow there. The higher to the surface of the Grand Canyon, the more the climate changes - first there are plants of the tropical zone, then the temperate zone.
The canyon is home to about a hundred species of animals, almost 400 species of birds, seven dozen species of various kinds of fish, amphibians and reptiles.
Great Barrier Reef. What is this miracle?
To the question: where is the Great Barrier Reef, you can answer like this: not far from Australia, on its northern side. This rather large system, formed from billions of coral polyps, from almost three thousand isolated reefs and 900 islands stretching almost3000 kilometers.
The reef is so huge that it can even be seen from space. On the north side, it is almost continuous, on the south it consists of a group of separately located reefs, which have been chosen by divers from all over the world. But tourists are allowed to visit only part of the islands, while observing a number of rules and regulations. You can’t, for example, categorically touch the reefs.
The corals that make up their basis are a beautiful and mesmerizing sight. Among them, many unique inhabitants found their homes: fish, plants, shellfish.
Although under the natural influence of the environment and some inhabitants who love to feast on corals, reefs are destroyed, however, due to the constant favorable climate, their growth is noticeably greater.
Northern Lights - a miracle of nature
Many wonders of the world have a local specific distribution, and you will not see them in other regions of the earth. This applies, for example, to the northern lights. The sky is suddenly painted with different colors, and they flash on and off. This transfusion of colors is connected with the physical processes taking place in the upper layers of the Earth.
It is more correct to call this natural wonder of the world the aurora borealis, because it occurs over both poles - north and south. Most often formed in spring and autumn in the periods before and after the equinox. It manifests itself in different ways: the sky simply glows or stripes form on it, rays and curtains appear. The northern lights are short - up to ten minutes, and can lasta few days.
Iguazu Falls: where is it located and why is it amazing
Waterfalls are a very beautiful sight. You can stand nearby for hours, listening to the rumble of falling water and enjoying the myriad of drops that play different colors in the sun. This is probably why one of the waterfalls was included in the list of natural wonders of the world.
In total, many water skates participated in the competition, but the three largest reached the final - the famous Niagara, Victoria, located in Zimbabwe, and Iguazu, located on the border of two South American states - Brazil and Argentina. As a result, the crown of the winner went to the last one.
Iguazu has 275 waterfalls. Their total width is more than 3 kilometers, and their height is 80 meters. It is taller and wider than its competitors and much prettier. Cascades and streams of water rush from a height, forcing thousands of visitors to admire the flying colorful splashes.
Halong Bay
Located in the bay of the same name, located in Vietnam in the South China Sea. Its name translates as “the place where the dragon entered the sea waters.”
There are a lot of large and small islands in the bay (at least three thousand in total), a lot of rocks, various caves and cliffs of the most bizarre shapes. Some of the islands are limestone caves, some even have lakes. On one of them (Catba) a lot of coral reefs grow near the shore. And on Tuan Chau, during the reign of Ho Chi Minh, a residence was even erected where he rested.
Some cavesand grottoes are widely known. For example, the Grotto Drum, in which, when the wind is strong, sounds are heard, as if someone is beating a musical instrument.
Komodo
Komodo Park, located in Indonesia, is a unique place. Nature there has remained unchanged since the Jurassic period (150-200 million years). The park includes three large islands and a mass of smaller islands of volcanic origin, the area of which is approximately 2 thousand square kilometers. The main and largest of them is Komodo, stretching for 35 kilometers along the sea and having a width of about 15 kilometers. Despite the fact that the rains here are not frequent - they only fall during January - the climate is great.
The park is famous for the fact that the descendants of ancient dinosaurs live in it - Komodo monitor lizards. Of course, civilization has left its mark on them, and, compared to their ancestors, they are small - only three and a half meters long and weighing a quarter of a ton. But for modern animals, even these look like dangerous predators - a monitor lizard can easily bite a goby.
Jeju Island
Oval in shape, it is located in the southern part of the sea relative to the Korean Peninsula and translates as “Far Island”. It was formed millions of years ago after the eruption of one of the volcanoes and consists entirely of magma and lava. Until now, an extinct volcano with a height of almost 2 thousand meters rises in the middle of the island.
The uniqueness of Jeju is due to nature and climate - it is typically maritime subtropical. Animals and birds live here, which should live more in Siberia: deer, foxes, chipmunks, cuckoos. Also a lotblack beaches - such sand was formed after volcanic eruptions.
The island is included in the list of natural wonders of the world and is under the protection of UNESCO.
Table Mountain
There is a legend that the Lord God after the creation of the planet touched it. It was there that Table Mountain (or Tafelberg) arose. It is located in southern Africa, near Cape Town. The mountain is so named because of its shape: it resembles a cone with a cut off top. When you climb to the top, overcoming 1000 meters, you find yourself on a huge three-kilometer plateau.
A tourist begins to get acquainted with the mountain from the slopes covered with evergreen forests. The animal world is represented by jackals, snakes, monkeys. And the plant has more than 2,000 plants, many of which exist only here.
Amazon
A famous river flowing in South America. It is considered the most full-flowing on Earth (contains 25 percent of the water of all world rivers) and the second longest. Along the banks of the Amazon and many of its tributaries, there is a tropical forest that occupies a gigantic territory - almost six million square kilometers - and belongs to 9 countries. The forest is amazing in that many of its inhabitants - and this is more than a million species of animals and plants - have not yet been studied. They are considered the future genetic fund of the planet.
Puerto Princesa Underground River National Park
And the last of the natural wonders of the world, which will be the story - Puerto Princesa Park. Heis located fifty kilometers from the city of the same name on the Philippine island of Palawan. The main attraction is the underground river flowing into the South China Sea. The path of the river runs through many caves, decorated with stalactites and stalagmites sticking out from everywhere.
The uniqueness of the park is that 8 types of forests grow in it: mountain, mangrove, growing in swamps and so on. Accordingly, the flora and fauna are rich and unique: there are more than 800 species of plants, almost three hundred of which are trees; 165 species of birds - 15 live only on this island; more than 30 species of mammals.
