It’s almost time for that long-awaited family vacation, and you’re starting to make plans. With so many destination choices, how do you decide where to go? For many families, that choice is often one of America’s national parks. The U.S. government maintains hundreds of national parks, monuments, recreation areas, and historic sites that are visited by millions of...

　　The vast expanse of the African continent spans several different climatic regions and contains everything from dry deserts to rainforests to snow-covered mountaintops. Check out some of the most-impressive physical features found in Africa. 　　Victoria Falls 　　 　　Victoria Falls.This spectacular Southern African waterfall, considered to be among the greatest in the world, is located along the Zambezi River...

　　 　　Good ol’ Boston. Greater Boston was the site of the American Revolution, is home to Harvard and MIT, and was the birthplace of Dunkin Donuts and public figures such as JFK. History runs through this city’s veins, although it can’t all be found in your textbook. Explore some of Boston’s bizarre and classic claims to fame. And,...

　　 　　Among the most opulent historical buildings in England are its palaces. Here are 9 of the most spectacular ones—most of them royal palaces but a few others too. 　　Earlier versions of the descriptions of these buildings first appeared in 1001 Amazing Places You Must See Before You Die, edited by Richard Cavendish (2016). Writers’ names appear in parentheses....

　　 　　38th parallelMilitary vehicles crossing the 38th parallel during the Korean War.(more)NARASome borders, like that between the United States and Canada, are peaceful ones. Others are places of conflict caused by rivalries between countries or peoples, disputes over national resources, or disagreements about the past. Eight of the most contentious borders in the world are described in this list. 　　Senkaku...

　　 　　AdstockRFThe United States is filled with memorials and monuments to its past. These nine commemorate some of the most important episodes in American history. 　　Earlier versions of the descriptions of these places first appeared in1001 Amazing Places You Must See Before You Die, edited by Richard Cavendish (2016). Writers’ names appear in parentheses. 　　The unfinished Crazy Horse Memorial is...

　　 　　Nikolai Sorokin/Dreamstime.com The site now occupied by Moscow was likely inhabited in Neolithic times, though 1147 is typically considered the year of the city’s founding. It has remained at the center of Russian life, and its architecture is a unique reflection of the country’s history. 　　Earlier versions of the descriptions of these buildings first appeared in 1001 Buildings You...

　　 　　Jeremy Woodhouse—Digital Vision/Getty ImagesEven in the 21st century, there are places on the planet where few people tread. Lonely mountain tops, desert interiors, Arctic ice floes, or the vast frozen ice sheets of Antarctica are remote places that come to mind immediately. But what about faraway islands of adventure? Are there any that remain in this modern age? Some...

　　 　　O Canada! The Great White North is truly diverse, beautiful, and full of history. Explore some of the country's natural and cultural claims to fame! 　　Inuksuk 　　 　　A stone inukshuk near English Bay, Vancouver, B.C., Can. The inukshuk was the inspiration for the official logo of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games.In Nunavut and other...

　　 　　gary718/Shutterstock The history of the Czech Republic reaches back more than a thousand years, and its capital, Prague, reflects that rich and varied existence. This list describes just nine of the Czech Republic’s innumerably significant buildings. 　　Earlier versions of the descriptions of these buildings first appeared in 1001 Buildings You Must See Before You Die, edited by Mark Irving...

　　 　　 Florence was founded in the 1st century BCE as a Roman military colony. During its long history it has served many other roles, including a brief stint as the national capital of Italy in the 1860s. But the city remains best known as the birthplace of the Renaissance, and most of these nine buildings reflect that era’s...

　　 　　The history of San Francisco feels like the history of the American West in a nutshell. From its beginnings as a rough and tumble Gold Rush settlement, to its adolescence as a counterculture capital, to its current incarnation as a high-tech metropolis, San Francisco has managed to pack a lot of excitement into roughly a century and...