1001 Natural Wonders You Must See Before You Die: UNESCO Edition [Hardcover]

Michael Bright (Author), Koichiro Matsuura (Preface)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0764162330 | ISBN-13: 978-0764162336 | Edition: 2.0

Updated and enhanced with new descriptions of natural wonders selected by UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) as World Heritage sites, this beautiful volume takes readers to the most spectacular places on Earth--sights and locations so breathtaking that once seen, they are never forgotten. Among them are:

The iconic rocks and pinnacles of the Arizona desert

The frozen, majestic Scandinavian archipelagos

The secluded Spanish wetlands, home to the world's few remaining Iberian lynx

The fragile reefs of Australia's coastline, now threatened by global warming

Written and compiled by a team of the world's most well-traveled writers, ecologists, photographers, and conservationists, 1001 Natural Wonders circumnavigates the globe, traveling to the most outstanding locations our planet has to offer. Readers will take an armchair tour augmented by the explosive rumbling of Caribbean volcanoes, and visit places like Bryce Canyon, Utah, a rugged, dramatic national park located just a few hours' drive from Salt Lake City. Packed with information on the creation, development, and location of each natural wonder, and describing protected areas and endangered species in detail, this comprehensive guide offers compelling insight into our planet's priceless resources. It celebrates hundreds of millions of years of the Earth's turbulent natural history and displays our planet's beauty, which is our unique heritage. Hundreds of magnificent color photos.

Editorial Reviews

Review

1001 Natural Wonders You Must See Before You Die covers some of the most beautiful sights on Earth and comes from the world's best traveled writers, ecologists, photographers, and conservationists."
--The Midwest Book Review

From the Back Cover

[back cover]


Let us take you on an incredible journey to the most spectacular natural wonders in the world. Spanning every continent and ocean on the planet, here is a conglomerate of once-in-a-lifetime experiences that you can revisit time and time again. Natural history

writer Michael Bright has selected 1001 of mother nature’s most spectacular, heart-stirring creations—sights and locations so breathtaking that once seen, are never forgotten.



[front flap]


With the help of some of the world’s leading explorers, 1001 Natural Wonders circumnavigates the globe, traveling from arid deserts to frozen wastes, across grasslands and steppe, lakes and rivers, and from mountain tops to ocean depths. Each wonder has been selected for its grandeur and sheer natural beauty.



This is the definitive guide to the most spectacular sights in the natural world, celebrating hundreds of millons of years of the Earth’s long and furious history. Some places are located in the remote wilderness, others just a bus ride from town, but whatever and wherever they are, they are rendered here with an inspiring immediacy.



Entries are packed with information on the creation and development, location and spectacle of each phenomenon. 100 Natural Wonders is the most detailed and comprehensive guide of its kind.



For the would-be explorer, dedicated tourist, traveler, nature-lover, student, or simply for the inquisitive, this compilation of the world’s most amazing vistas and experiences is an absolute must, an insight into our planet’s priceless resources. .



[back flap]


MICHAEL BRIGHT is an executive producer with the BBC’s Natural History Unit. He and his colleagues are based in Bristol, England, but they scour the entire world for stories and images. He is the author of over 75 natural history books, including Andes to Amazon; the producer of countless television and radio programs, including the award-winning television series Natural World and Wildlife on One; and has been editorial consultant on reference works, such as Discovering the Wonders of our World and The Wildlife Year. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 960 pages
• Publisher: Barron's Educational Series; 2.0 edition (August 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764162330
• ISBN-13: 978-0764162336
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.6 x 2.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #101,224 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 49 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Could be better, but... January 14, 2007

By Grant Collier

Format:Hardcover

Given the enormity of the task of identifying 1,001 of the world's greatest wonders, the authors did a pretty good job. But they were clearly biased in their selections. This book was originally published in England. Not coincidentally, 54 pages are devoted solely to the British Isles. This represents about 6% of the book. This may not seem like that much until you consider that the Britsh Isles have about 0.2% of the world's land mass. Likewise, about 170 pages were devoted to Western Europe ... 19% of the book for 2.5% of the world's land mass. Other sections of the book seemed to be given disproportionate coverage as well. 10% of the entire North America section was devoted to New Mexico. The whole of Canada barely got more coverage than this. The enormous country of Russia got just 7 pages. New Zealand - an incredibly scenic country - got just 13 pages. The breathtaking islands in French Polynesia got 2 pages of coverage (and they completely ignored Moorea Island).

All of this being said, this is still a fairly impressive book that can be used to get a general idea of places you might like to visit. It has nearly 1,000 pages, so even with the disproportionate coverage, it still provides a pretty good glimpse at a lot of the natural wonders around the world. And there are some pretty nice photos, though I do wish there was a photo of every place, rather than a photo of about 1 in every 2 or 3 places. Photos can say more about a natural wonder than a couple paragraphs of text. Hopefully, the authors will someday come out with a new edition with more photos and less biased coverage of places throughout the entire world.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Photography December 30, 2005

By Olivia

Format:Hardcover

Bought as a Christmas Gift for our family. The book is printed on high quality glossy photo paper with maybe more than 400 gallery-quality photos of the wonders around the world. Many are truely breathtaking. I was tempted to read it from cover to cover at the begining and it soon proved to be a daunting task to cover the 900+ pages. So I was content to flip from page to page glancing at the photos and occasionally read the descriptions, which are simple and to the point. This is truely a wonderful book to own. I'd keep it close at hand on a coffee table or a bed-side table and once a while pick it up and let myself wander among the wonders.

58 of 77 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars The coffee table book for armchair travellers February 13, 2006

By Edward Sanders

Format:Hardcover

I love to travel and thus peruse lots of books to explore and plan my future trips. I liked "1000 places to see before you die" as it did decent job in describing places worth visiting in all countries and continents. This book is a very weak copycat.

It seems that the criteria for choosing "natural wonders" was their proximity to US and south US in particularly and/or availability of the pictures. For instance, the book has tons of places in Texas, Arizona, etc. Not that these places are not nice, but the book completely ignores Moorea in Pacific, New Zealand has only marginal coverage and there are only couple of places in the whole India worth mentioning.

The book does have nice pictures, so it would qualify as a coffee table book for people who do not travel further than nearest McDonald yet like to dream or talk about faraway places. But do not take it as a guide for places you must see before you die: you will miss much of the world then!