The 17 greatest world wonders you’ve never heard of

There are several overused phrases in the broad lexicon of travel writing, but few quite as regular in their deployment as “hidden gem”.

It is an unimaginative use of language, bordering on cliche, put to work on a near-ceaseless basis to describe everything from a somewhat less busy beach (a little up the coast from a popular resort) to a neighbourhood restaurant in a corner of a big city (ever so slightly removed from the beaten tourist path).

And yet … there are occasions when places are both genuinely lacking in wider profile, and utterly deserving of your time and attention, should you find yourself in their vicinity.

Iceland’s Vatnajokull Glacier flies under the radar.Credit: iStock

Below, our experts pick their 17 out-of-the-way dots on the map that, for various reasons, are little-known to travellers, even though they make cameras click, jaws drop, and superlatives fall from mouths when you lay eyes on them.

Of course, “little-known” and “completely unknown” are different things, and if you have most definitely heard of the Tara River Canyon or Iceland’s Vatnajokull, let us know at [e-mail]

Equally, if you have experienced a world wonder that’s left you wondering why no one else has heard about it, then tell us about that, too. Just try not to call it a “hidden gem”.

Tara River Canyon, Montenegro

Rafting on the Tara River in Durmitor National Park, Montenegro.Credit: iStock

My primary feeling, on the drive to the Tara River Canyon, is one of scepticism. True, the road from Budva, on the Adriatic coast, is arcing up at a suitably impressive angle, and I’m in no doubt that the Ljubisnja mountains – shared by Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina – add up to a range of genuine heft and height. Still, I’m not convinced that the vast scar in the soil we are aiming for amounts to – as my guide has said (and as is often claimed in local literature) – the planet’s second-deepest canyon.

I’m still not. You can quibble on the maths, but this admittedly sizeable gap in the rocks – where one of the Balkans’ key rivers cuts through Durmitor National Park and the wider Dinaric Alps – is easily eclipsed for depth by similar geological features in Tibet, Nepal and Peru. And that’s before you discuss America’s grand statue on the canyon pantheon.

The Tara River Canyon is the world’s second deepest.Credit: iStock

But then, at up to 1310 metres from ridgeline to currents, the Tara River Canyon plays its part brilliantly. On approaching the precipice, my scepticism is replaced by a mild vertigo – the sensation underpinned by a golden eagle (many of them nest in the cliff face) whirling on the thermals beneath me, the river a ribbon of turquoise far below.

At the time, Montenegro was the planet’s newest country, a fledgling entity just a year into the independence it had declared in 2006 – and I remember thinking it remarkable that such a dramatic slice of geography was largely unknown to western European eyes. See visit-montenegro.com

Church of Saint George, Ethiopia

Don’t trust your guide at the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela. Or at least, don’t trust mine. He is assigned to me at random, peeled from a group of lanyard-draped tourist-minders at the entry gates to a site that deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Petra in Jordan – and yet is barely known throughout the world.

Lalibela, Ethiopia ...“built by angels”.Credit: iStock

“When were these built?” I gasp as we approach the first church, a magnificent edifice chiselled entirely from living rock, a multi-storey place of worship deep beneath the surface.

“A long, long time ago,” my guide answers.

I see. “And who made them?”

“Angels.”

Okay, let’s just enjoy the sights, shall we?

The Church of St George is breathtaking in its execution and preservation.Credit: iStock

There are 11 monolithic medieval churches scattered around this area, each painstakingly carved out by hand, a work of deep devotion and incredible skill completed, I later discover, in the 13th century at the behest of King Lalibela, who set out to build a “new Jerusalem”.

The pinnacle of his workers’ achievements is the Church of St George, a building shaped like a perfect cross, three storeys high (or rather, deep), and breathtaking in its execution and preservation. It’s still used as a place of worship today – though it probably wasn’t created by angels. See visitethiopia.travel

Maginot Line, France

The Maginot Line was extraordinary, the greatest engineering feat of the interwar years.Credit: Alamy

It’s scarcely unknown that this line was the 1930s French defence project born of the (correct) conviction that the Germans would be invading again sometime soon. More surprising, perhaps, is that the vast underground forts still exist – destroying them would mean blowing up half of north-eastern France – and that many may be visited.

Cynics say the line didn’t hold up the stormtroopers for more than 15 minutes – and, certainly, it wasn’t as effective as hoped. But that was because the network of forts – 142 in the Moselle departement alone – didn’t go far enough: the Belgian frontier and Ardennes were unprotected.

Some 9.6 kilometres of underground tunnels served as living quarters, kitchens and 19 artillery blocks.Credit: Alamy

As far as it went, the line was extraordinary, the greatest engineering feat of the interwar years. They remain stunning sites and the greatest of them all is the Hackenberg, at Veckring, north-east of Metz.

Some 9.6 kilometres of underground tunnels served as living quarters, kitchens and 19 artillery blocks, still equipped with cannons. The whole Ligne Maginot fortification in France spans 80 hectares, housed 1200 men and required 4800 potatoes a day. Fortunately, there was (and still is) an on-site potato peeling machine. Also still operating is the cacophonous electric railway that whirled troops, and now whirls visitors, into the bowels of the fort. See visit.alsace

Trongsa Dzong, Bhutan

Trongsa Dzong is vividly painted with eye-popping murals to out-wow anything else in this otherworldly Himalayan destination.Credit: iStock

My first glimpse is enough to stop me in my tracks. Or at least it would be, if I weren’t hurtling down a steep, gravelly road on a mountain bike, gratefully descending from the breathlessly lofty, windswept 3420-metre Pele La pass. As it was, a few prudent tugs on the brakes brings me fishtailing to a halt.

Gazing across the canyon carved by the churning Mangde Chhu river, my eyes lock onto a gleaming, muscular complex of whitewashed walls, red roofs and gilded spires crouched on a vertiginous ridge – the lovechild of Lhasa’s Potala Palace and Dracula’s castle. Fortress? Monastery? Stately royal residence? Trongsa Dzong is all three.

Choekhor Rabtentse Dzong, to give its full name, was built in the mid-17th century on a strategically located outcrop in the dead centre of Bhutan. It may lag behind cliff-clinging Tiger’s Nest temple in Instagram likes, and be far less thronged than the squat bulk of Punakha Dzong or the phallic mystique of Chimi Lhakhang, all regulars on greatest hits itineraries in the country’s west.

But the largest of the monastery fortresses boasts an extraordinary mountain setting, lofty Ta Dzong guard tower and no fewer than 23 lhakhangs (Buddhist temples) vividly painted with eye-popping murals to out-wow anything else in this otherworldly Himalayan destination.

Venture across the elegant cantilevered bridge and through a gateway guarded by grimacing demons to delve into a bustling citadel seemingly little changed in centuries. Courtyards lined with prayer wheels and dizzying decorations bustle with red-robed monks and administrative officers – but scant tourists.

This astonishing monument remains a historic marvel visited by relatively few – and all the more atmospheric and imposing for it. See bhutan.travel

Rugen chalk cliffs, Germany

Ruger Chalk Cliffs stand in a remote, secluded corner of Germany.Credit: Heinz Wohner/GNTB

For Germans, the chalk cliffs of Rugen are an iconic, almost sacred site – the Teutonic equivalent of the White Cliffs of Dover.

But while Britain’s bluebird-friendly national symbol overlooks a bustling port and one of the world’s busiest waterways, the Kreidefelsen (as Germans call them) stand in a remote, secluded corner of the little-visited Bundesrepublik.

Looking out across the Baltic, these craggy chalk cliffs are spectacular, and the thick forest that surrounds them is intensely atmospheric.

Rugen, Germany’s biggest island, is popular with domestic tourists and this giddy viewpoint (immortalised by Germany’s great romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich) is one of its many attractions.

The eastern shore is sandy, the west coast is wild and marshy. The interior is a pretty patchwork of woods and meadows, crisscrossed by scenic cycle paths. Steam trains chug between the main resorts. Ostseebad Binz is the best base, a jolly seaside town with direct trains to Hamburg and Berlin. See germany.travel

Banteay Chhmar, Cambodia

Ancient ruins at Banteay Chhmar near Battambang, Cambodia. Credit: Alamy

It’s my fourth day in Cambodia in 2011, and I’m already experiencing temple fatigue.

Staying in Siem Reap, the satellite town to Angkor, means daily visits to the (admittedly spectacular) ruins of the 12th-century temple complex – now with added throngs of tourists and souvenir sellers.

But I have already committed to a trip to another, lesser-visited temple complex, a day’s drive from Angkor which, like its more famous counterpart, had been commissioned by King Jayavarman VII.

To make things easier, we take a helicopter to reach it, drifting across dense jungle until its remnants came into sight, like buoys bobbing in an ocean of greenery.

There are no queues at Banteay Chhmar, just tumbledown pillars carved with stories from another time, archways half-consumed by rapacious plants and long-forgotten towers adorned with crumbling faces that survey the ruins with tranquil resignation.

Surprisingly little has changed in the interim, though a new road now means the journey time from Siem Reap has been slashed to 2½ hours, and the complex is cleared of civil war landmines and on Cambodia’s Tentative List of World Heritage Sites. See whc.unesco.org

Elqui Valley, Chile

Elqui Valley is one of the most beautiful in South America.Credit: iStock

Between the beach town of La Serena and the Chilean Andes lies one of the most beautiful valleys in South America – the Valle del Elqui, rising gently from the fertile plains to the Agua Negra Pass at 4779 metres above sea level.

I drove up the valley on the meandering, well-paved Ruta 41, following a long road trip through the Atacama. This is the southern limit of the desert region, and as you climb, the steep higher slopes turn tan-coloured, baked by perpetual sunshine, while the well-watered valley floors are carpeted in green.

Elqui is an important wine-growing region. Cultivation of muscat, muscatel, Pedro Ximenez and torontel grapes to make pisco began in Chile in the 19th century; it’s now the national drink. I stopped at a distillery to the south of the small town of Vicuna. I expected firewater and was pleasantly surprised by the floral and honeyed notes.

An even more enjoyable tasting was at the Alfa Aldea Astronomy Centre, where glasses of shiraz and delicious snacks were handed out during a chilled stargazing session below startlingly clear night skies.

Gabriela Mistral, Chile’s 1945 Nobel-winning poet – the first Latin American author to receive the prize – lived in the Elqui Valley and described it as “a heroic scar in the mass of mountains, but so brief, that it is nothing but a torrent through two green banks. And this little place can be loved as perfection”. It can indeed. See chile.travel

Vatnajokull, Iceland

Surround yourself in thousands of years of frozen, tingling and translucent blue time at Iceland’s Vatnajokull Glacier.Credit: Getty Images

Iceland is not unknown to tourists. It’s therefore surprising that an even more momentous spectacle is still hiding away.

It’s called the Vatnajokull ice cave, and is exactly what you’d expect: a tremendous glassy cavern, deep in the core of an almighty glacier.

Getting there isn’t easy (perhaps that explains the obscurity). You need guides and wheels to assist you over endless Mordor-black sands, followed by a hike to a gaping entrance, resembling the frigid lair of an Arctic dragon.

Slowly you edge inside (this place is dangerous, helmets are compulsory); finally, you are surrounded by thousands of years of frozen, tingling and translucent blue time, like a vast and crystalline daydream. Magnificent. See visiticeland.com

Chavin de Huantar, Peru

Chavin de Huantar is an ancient Andean site of worship.Credit: iStock

With sharp fangs and snakes for hair, the Lanzon is a four-metre-high stone deity that has been glaring at anyone entering its sacred space since 500BC.

It sits at the centre of an underground labyrinth in Chavin de Huantar, an ancient Andean site of worship that UNESCO calls “a unique monument of universal significance”.

Coming face to face with the underground Lanzon is more exciting than most experiences of dusty ruins.

As I turn from an empty chamber into a narrow, straight tunnel, anticipation builds as each step takes me closer to a thin, dimly lit column at the far end. Looking up at the carved face gives me chills.

The image is angled, so I can’t fully appreciate what sort of half-man, half-beast it is. Above ground, stone art depicts the heads of jaguars and the hallucinogenic San Pedro cactus. A wonder indeed. See peru.travel

Long Meg and Her Daughters, UK

Prehistoric Neolithic standing stone circle Long Meg and Her Daughters, Cumbria, England.Credit: Alamy

Long who and her what? There are more than 1300 stone circles across Britain but Long Meg and Her Daughters is the third-biggest stone circle in England after Avebury and Stanton Drew.

So you can imagine my surprise when I arrived to find no visitor centre and no other humans – just a herd of inquisitive cows lurking around dozens of giant stone pillars dating back to 1500BC.

The Bronze Age circle is made up of 59 enormous stones, 27 of which remain upright.Credit: Alamy

Local boy William Wordsworth was a fan. “Next to Stonehenge, it is beyond dispute the most notable relic that this or probably any other country contains,” he said. Indeed, he wrote a poem dedicated to the site: “A weight of Awe not easy to be borne; Fell suddenly upon my spirit.”

Legend has it that Long Meg was a local witch who was turned to stone, along with her daughters, for profaning the Sabbath while they danced wildly on the moor. For many years, it was used as a site for religious rituals, or perhaps as a meeting place to trade goods.

Today, the Bronze Age circle is made up of 59 enormous stones, 27 of which remain upright. Meg herself – a red sandstone pillar standing four metres tall and weighing nine tonnes – stands just outside the circle.

Consider combining with a visit to Little Meg (one of the smallest stone circles in Britain) and Lacy’s Caves, a series of strange man-made chambers built into a cliff beside the River Eden. See visitcumbria.com

Lake Abbe, Djibouti

Lake Abbe, Djibouti, where thousands of limestone chimneys are strewn on a salt bed.Credit: iStock

A strong contender for “country most likely to be pinned incorrectly on a map”, the entirety of this tiny East African nation is an enigma.

Sandwiched between Eritrea, Ethiopia, disputed Somaliland and Houthi hotspot the Gulf of Aden, Djibouti is not in the most inviting neighbourhood.

Unsurprisingly, mass tourism has never taken off. But there’s at least one place that deserves positive attention.

Lake Abbe teeters between biblical and apocalyptic.Credit: iStock

I cross the border from Ethiopia by road to reach Lake Abbe, a salt-encrusted basin in the Afar Depression. After passing through nomadic desert settlements, we arrive at sunset.

I watch coils of smoke spiral from limestone chimneys, blurring flocks of retiring flamingos into smudgy silhouettes. In the distance, a young boy herds goats and donkeys. Teetering between biblical and apocalyptic, it is a scene borrowed from another time.

The Saloum Delta, Senegal

The verdant backwaters of the Saloum Delta.Credit: iStock

We speed towards the Saloum Delta, seven strangers wedged in a death-trap taxi that creaks and groans as our driver swerves away from oncoming lorries. Senegalese cabbies attach goats’ tails to their cars for luck. It means they don’t have to drive sensibly.

It is a relief, then, to finally see the mangrove-lined shores of the shimmering delta, all silver in the afternoon sun. This is where the Sine and Saloum rivers pour serenely into the Atlantic amid the chatter of exotic birds.

Something about the place gets into your soul. I explore the verdant backwaters by kayak, watching fish leap out of the brine, goading the goliath herons, pelicans and nearby fishermen, who cast out nets from colourful boats.

The 180,000-hectare Saloum Delta is on many a twitcher’s bucket list. But it’s not all about the wildlife. Amid the mangroves and back-channels are islands, some made of shells.

Fadiouth, just north of the delta, is perhaps the most fascinating. There, seafood-quaffing locals have reclaimed the sea with spent clamshells.

Houses, pathways and even graveyards are made from old shells, which crunch underfoot wherever you walk. And walk you must: there are, mercifully, no cars on Fadiouth. See whc.unesco.org

Odontotos Rack Railway, Greece

Odontotos Rack Railway, Greece.Credit: iStock

With the whir of an antique carriage clock, Greece’s unique Odontotos Rack Railway carries me away from the northern Peloponnese beach resort of Diakopto towards the high-flung hamlet of Kalavryta on the slopes of Helmos, which is smeared with snow, even in early June.

Developed to climb the steepest slopes, there are only 50 of these cog railways in the world today, mostly in Italy and Switzerland. Greece has only this one.

Odontotos Rack Railway packs a lot of thrills into a 60-minute ride.Credit: iStock

Blasted from the mountain’s flanks between 1889 and 1895 by Italian labourers, it climbs to a height of 700 metres over a distance of 23 kilometres and packs a lot of thrills into a 60-minute ride.

Jiggering along a 76-centimetre track, the dinky electric-powered train dives into tunnels barely bigger than hobbit holes, clatters across car-wide bridges and stutters alongside V-shaped gorges filled with frothing snowmelt.

Best of all is the grand finale: clattering through Portes, a pair of rusted Lord of the Rings-like iron gates framing a low dark tunnel that’s as terrifying as the entry to Moria. See visitgreece.gr

The temple of Ranakpur, India

The vaulted ceiling of the Jain temple at Ranakpur, India.Credit: iStock

In a world where people spend half their lives staring down at their phone, it pays to look up.

Not least inside the enthralling Jain temple at Ranakpur, which possesses one of the most spectacular ceilings on Earth: intricately carved, blindingly white and utterly dazzling.

The fine craftsmanship doesn’t stop there. Tucked away in the lesser-visited Aravalli hills between Jodhpur and Udaipur, the marble temple covers 48,000 square metres and has 29 separate halls, 80 domes, 426 columns and 1444 pillars – all wrought in exquisite detail. It adds up to a wondrous labyrinth of marching elephants, dancing goddesses and slithering serpents.

No two pillars are the same and according to legend, it is impossible to count them all (so maybe don’t trust that figure of 1444). See tourism.rajasthan.gov.in

Toprak-Kala, Uzbekistan

Ruins of the Toprak-Kala fortress of ancient Khorezm in Kyzylkum Desert, Uzbekistan.Credit: iStock

Late afternoon, and an excursion to the remote site of Toprak-Kala, 80 kilometres from Urgench, before catching a flight to Tashkent and onwards to the UK.

On paper, the visit seems little more than a postscript to the intoxicating tour of the Silk Road cities Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva, with their exotic mix of souks, mosques, madrassas and minarets.

But the excavated remains of this desert palace-fortress and town – the capital of Chorasmia in the second and third centuries AD – are a revelation.

In the warm rays of the sinking sun, its sandy escarpments and high, defensive walls glow gold, and the stunted remains of its tall towers and mysterious arches cast long shadows across the flat, desert landscape.

This silent and spectacular ruin, once a cultural epicentre and a haven for the strings of camel trains traversing east to west, seems to epitomise the romance and allure of the Silk Road like nothing else. See uzbekistan.travel

Santo Antao, Cape Verde

Primordial Santo Antao is completely off-radar.Credit: iStock

Adrift in the mid-Atlantic, the entire Cape Verde archipelago isn’t widely known; those who can place it on a map probably think of beachy Boa Vista and Sal.

But the northernmost island of Santo Antao? Completely off-radar. And an entirely different proposition.

Santo Antao is primordial. No part flat or uncracked. It’s like a half-finished project, rough-edged and raw, that’s been abandoned to the ocean’s fury.

They call it the “hiking island” because that’s what it’s excellent for. Trails used by locals for centuries now allow walkers to explore.

One day, I trace the north coast, along stark, plunging cliffs; on another, I hair-pin up a rock wall to a surreal high plateau; then, I climb into the lush Paul valley, where I drink potent local grogue, breathing air sweetened by the sugarcane from which it was made. Santo Antao has drama, variety, good trails, good drink. See visit-caboverde.com

Teifi Pools, Wales

The Teifi Pools in Wales are an otherwordly place.Credit: Alamy

Ever wanted to be the person in those car adverts? The one driving as the camera pans out to reveal a jaw-dropping hillscape – operatic sky stretching across windswept moors, and reflected in moody expanses of water.

Of course you have. And you can: just follow the single-track road from the small Welsh village of Pontrhydfendigaid, skirting the ghostly ruins of Strata Florida, (a 12th-century Cistercian abbey, possibly once home to the Holy Grail), and up to the Teifi Pools.

These glacial lakes and reservoirs are well above sea level, so remote you might be on the moon, and so deep they were once considered unfathomable. Hike the Teifi Pools Walk (a 9.6-kilometre loop), fish for wild brown trout or just gaze – awestruck – at the raw majesty of this otherworldly place. See visitwales.com

CONTRIBUTORS (in order of appearance) Chris Leadbeater; Ben Groundwater; Anthony Peregrine; Paul Bloomfield; William Cook; Amanda Hyde; Chris Moss; Sean Thomas; Natalie Paris; Greg Dickinson; Sarah Marshall; Gavin Haines; Heidi Fuller-Love; Oliver Smith; Sarah Baxter; Sophie Butler, Hattie Garlick

This story is an edited version of an article that first appeared in the Telegraph UK.