What famous places have wowed you?

[wowfudge]

Inspired by the thread about the famous places that have disappointed, I thought I'd ask which places have been awe-inspiring, perhaps unexpectedly?

For me, a visit to Ephesus in Turkey in the 80s was amazing - baking hot, but hardly any tourists and you could go pretty much anywhere.

I loved climbing up to the crown of The Statue of Liberty.

We've also stumbled across local festivals in Corsica and a wedding procession in Corfu and have great memories.

Maiden Castle in Dorchester and the Italian Challenge in Orkney!

Oh yeah the Eiffel Tower too! Especially at night all lit up!

Caesars palace in Vegas
When dad said these casinos were the size of a block in a street ..I didn’t believe him
Till I saw for myself
They are actually bigger

Forgot the Leaning Tower of Pisa, went up it and was restricted to 20 people at a time and remember being relieved all the people were petite as I had visions of it collapsing. 😎

Also forgot Lapland in winter, quite magical.

Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House though mainly as its on TV a lot and couldn't get over being in England 24 hours before.

Venice.
Florence.

Florence
Rome
The Leaning Tower of Pisa
Pompeii (had wanted to go for years and it didn't disappoint)
(Bit of an Italy theme going on...!)

York and Bath , both beautiful, even with loads of tourists like us
Warwick Castle
The Tower of London - recently was lucky to have a private tour and see the Ceremony of the Keys - absolutely fantastic

Red Square and St Basils

The sheikh zayed mosque in Abu Dhabi. It's staggeringly beautiful.

Monument Valley

Marrakech - we went with no expectations and we fell in love with it. Even though somebody tried to pickpocket both of us! It made us more vigilant... The people were so friendly and we were not in any way intimidated. We walked and used the bus and got really lost in some dodgy areas but never felt really unsafe. We want to go back to do the South of the city as we never got that far down as we were too busy exploring the area we were staying. I think people go to these places expecting to be wowed and when it doesn't happen as soon as they get off the plane they think they've had a bad experience instead of going with the flow.

Gorge du Verdin from Pointe Sublime.
Descending into Thrihnukagigur, the hollow volcano in Iceland.
Walking from St. Paul's to the Globe at the weekend, so there's very little traffic.
Sunset over Paris from the top of the Eiffel Tower.