LIFE Wonders of the World

ISBN-10: 1603200878
ISBN-13: 9781603200875
Category: Photography
Language: English
Published: 2009-10-20
Publisher: Life
Author: The Editors of LIFE

Description

The idea of choosing the Wonders of the World can be traced all the way back to the 5th century, B.C., when the Greek historian Herodotus of the Halicarnassus listed seven must-sees, the Great Pyramid of Khufu in Egypt and six other constructions that long ago vanished from the earth. In this deluxe new LIFE book, Wonders of the World, the editors return to the sites of the original Seven Wonders and then keep right on traveling around the globe--eventually visiting in words and pictures seven-times-seven Wonders, plus one more. There are old Wonders here and a new list offered by the New7Wonders Foundation, a Switzerland-based organization that conducted an online poll that saw more than a million votes cast for the world's greatest Wonders. There are man-made Wonders and natural Wonders. There are obscure Wonders and famous Wonders. The amazing stories behind your favorites are recounted as LIFE goes to the Colosseum, to Stonehenge, to the Great Wall, to Machu Picchu, to the Taj Mahal, to Easter Island, to The Acropolis and the Vatican and back to the Great Pyramid. We travel into outer space for a close-up look at the International Space Station, and into the sea for a sensational vantage on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. We go to the summit of Mount Everest and down into the mile-deep Grand Canyon in Arizona. We could not choose between the world's tallest waterfall, 3,212-foot-high Angel Falls in Venezuela, or that which is arguably the world's most awesome, Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe-Zambia border--so we went with both. Fifty Wonders in all, each more wondrous than the last. A reader cannot help being amazed and inspired by what man's industry has built through time, and what sublime Wonders nature has graced us with. This a book Herodotus would have loved! And then comes the big bonus: The 7 LIFE Wonders. We were sure that some of these fabulous sites were suitable for framing, and so we went to the vast LIFE archives and picked pictures of some of the most wonderful Wonders taken by famous LIFE photographers. Using a technique we developed in our 2009 book The Classic Collection, we inserted prints of these places in the last section of our book. Better yet: When you remove the prints to frame them, the image stays on the page, sp your lovely coffee-table book remains intact. For these wonders, a wondrous book.

Get the book

Similar books

Legendary Locals of Beacon Hill
By Karen Cord Taylor
John Collins Warren Dr. John Collins Warren (1778–1856) assisted his father, Dr. John Warren (1753–1815), in 1811 in removing the cancerous breast of Nabby ...
America and the Tintype
By Karen Halttunen, Steven Kasher, Brian Wallis
By Steven kasher, with contributions by Geoffrey Batchen and Karen Halttunen.
Rail Depots of Eastern North Carolina
By Larry K. Neal Jr.
This book hopes to provide rail enthusiasts, local and economic historians, and history lovers in general a look back at the heyday of railroads and how much they affected daily life in North Carolina.
The Hall: A Celebration of Baseball's Greats: In Stories and Images, the Complete Roster of Inductees
By The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
In this unique, 75th anniversary edition, read the stories of every player inducted into the Hall, organized by position.
Sheffield in the 1980s
By Mark Metcalf, Justine Jenkinson
We soon afterwards set up SCAM to complete what had been intended fifty years earlier,' explains Terry Howard, who was secretary of the group until it was finally wound up in 2017. And achieve they did by peacefully trespassing over ...
Brookfield and Elm Grove
By Thomas Ramstack
... (standing) Conrad Ramstack, Eleanor (Hastrich) Ramstack, Alma Theis, Veronica Ramstack, Helen (Phillips) Ramstack, and Joseph Ramstack. In 2009, this same tavern goes by the name O'Donahue's Irish Pub. (Author's collection.) ...
Antebellum Homes of Georgia
By David King Gleason
... 101 Bailey, Mary Elizabeth, 101 Banks, William, 94 Barnsley Gardens, 82 Barnett, Samuel, 26 Barnsley, Godfrey, 4, 82 Barnsley, ... James W, 79 Elliott, Virginia Tennessee, 79 Emily and Ernest Woodruff Foundation, 59 Emmel, Walter C, ...
Hiroshima: Ground Zero 1945
By Erin Barnett, Phil Mariani
This exhibition includes approximately 60 contact prints drawn from a unique archive of more than 700 photographs in the collection of the International Center of Photography.
Legendary Locals of Lake Forest
By Susan L. Kelsey, Arthur H. Miller
Susan L. Kelsey, Arthur H. Miller ... This became the Bell School in the first half of the 20th century. ... The photograph of Clarice Hamill and her daughter on page 58 came from the Bell School's 50th anniversary celebration, ...
Pembroke
By Karen Cross Proctor
The Bay Path, a main route from Boston to Plymouth, ran through the West Elm and High Street neighborhoods. Over the generations, these diverse and vibrant communities have helped to shape Pembroke into the town it is today.