Image: Sky Noir Photography by Bill Dickinson / Moment / Getty Images
About This Quiz
Have you ever been browsing social media only to see a picture of a place you've never seen before? Have you ever Googled that place and put it on your bucket list? If you've done that a lot, you might be able to get every one of these questions right.
There are at least 195 countries, thousands of cities, millions of neighborhoods and billions of places in the world. Once you expand into the digital world, even sites like Amazon and Facebook can be considered places, so the number of places on Earth reaches infinity. And that's not even counting the ocean. The world is a big place, and there are so many places to see and so little time to do so. The United States alone has thousands of monuments and landmarks that stand among the world's greatest, and the country isn't even 250 years old.
To narrow things down, we'll keep this quiz to the coolest places on Earth. Some of them are big, some of them are small and all of them are real. Can you identify a city based on its skyline? What about a world-famous beach? If you consider yourself well-traveled, here's the quiz to put your skills to the test. If you just need vacation ideas, this will work, too. Let's see what you got.
Mexico
Egypt
The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest and only ancient wonder that is still standing. Theories of how the pyramids were built have floated through the universe for millennia, and the mammoth structure would've required the manpower of hundreds of thousands of laborers.
Japan
Iran
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British Columbia Parliament
The Parliament House of Singapore
United States Capitol Building
Parliamentary and legislative buildings around the world are some of the best examples of architecture. The U.S. Capitol Building was built by slave labor and finished in 1800, and today it houses the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.
The Legislative Palace of Peru
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Buenos Aires
Cape Town
Sydney
The Sydney Opera House is probably the world's most recognizable, and in addition to 1.2 million event attendees, another 350,000 people visit the building each year to take a tour. It sits on Sydney Harbor, which hosts one of the world's most popular New Year's Eve celebrations.
Christchurch
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Lower East Side
Greenwich Village
SoHo
Times Square
Central Park and the NYC skyline are two of the most iconic images of the Big Apple, but Times Square might take the crown for the king of the city. The intersection of food, finance, entertainment and society is impossible to miss when visiting Manhattan.
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Red Sea Coral Reef
New Caledonia Barrier Reef
Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia is one of Earth's greatest treasures. It is the largest system of reefs in the world and home to thousands of species of marine life. Almost 3,000 reefs and 900 islands are interconnected and span close to 1,500 miles.
Florida Reef
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Pisa
Of all the monuments Italy has to offer, the Leaning Tower of Pisa is one of the most famous. The tower took 199 years to build and began sinking just five years into construction in 1178. It has been leaning ever since, but renovations might ensure it never falls.
Rome
Florence
Milan
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Medellin
Rio de Janeiro
The Christ the Redeemer statue is arguably the most famous statue of Jesus in the world, and it has stood atop Mt. Corcovado and looked over Rio since 1931. It became one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in 2007.
Lima
Buenos Aires
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Wales
Ireland
England
How in the world did Stonehenge get there and what in the world does it mean will likely be a mystery forever. The ring of 13-foot-tall, 25-ton stones dates as far back as 3,000 BC and it could have been a burial site.
Scotland
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Perth
Buenos Aires
Toronto
The "CN" in CN Tower stands for Canadian National, which was the name of the rail company that built the tower. Millions of people visit the structure each year, and until the Burj Khalifa rose in 2007, it was the tallest free-standing structure in the world.
Chicago
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Miami
Dubai
Dubai is the jewel of the United Arab Emirates and is home to the tallest building in the world (Burj Khalifa) and the sailboat-shaped Burj Al Arab Jumeirah. Dubai is one of the richest and most luxurious countries on the planet and is also home to the world's largest shopping mall.
Sydney
Singapore
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Hong Kong
Singapore
Monaco
Vatican City
The Pope might be the most powerful person in the world, and his official residence is the Sistine Chapel, located in Vatican City. The city-state is also the least populous country on Earth and doesn't have a retail housing market.
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The Everglades
There is nothing like the Everglades on Earth, and they are a mix between the Amazon and the Congo all in Florida. The forest is home to the Florida panther and American crocodile and covers more than 1.5 million acres of land.
Redwood State Park
White Mountain National Forest
Tongass National Forest
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Vietnam
You'll find unique rain forests sitting atop limestone towers that are sprouting out of sparkling emerald waters if you visit this body of water in Vietnam. The phrase "Ha Long" translates to "descending dragon" and the bay covers about 600 square miles of Earth.
Australia
Japan
Hawaii
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Pompeii
Roanoke Island, Easter Island, Tikal, Angkor, Petra and Pompeii are some of the world's most famous lost civilizations. Pompeii and its residents were essentially mummified and preserved under lava, and the city wasn't rediscovered until the 1500s.
Babylon
Alexandria
Carthage
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Florence
Syracuse
Milan
Venice
So many tourists want to visit this northern Italian city that officials have begun charging visitors to enter the city each day. Venice is made up of 118 islands separated by canals and connected by hundreds of bridges.
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Sweden
Switzerland
Iceland
Iceland is known for its vistas of the Northern Lights, midnight suns and this geothermal spa known as the Blue Lagoon. The lagoon is actually human-made and is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the country.
Norway
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The Big Dipper
Every human on Earth should learn how to find the Big Dipper for the simple fact that the two stars at the end of its cup perfectly align with the North Star, and everybody should know how to find the North Star.
Orion's Belt
Winter Hexagon
Summer Triangle
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Colorado
Nevada
Arizona
It took millions of years for river water to carve out the Grand Canyon, and today it is one of the most popular natural landmarks in the world. The canyon became a national park in 1919 and is located in Arizona.
Utah
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Iran
Jordan
Petra in Jordan is consistently voted as a must-visit destination in the world. The archaeological site dates back to the 5th century BC and is the most visited site in the country. It eventually fell to the Roman Empire but flourished during the 1st century AD.
Syria
Egypt
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Mercury
Earth
The Blue Planet (aka Earth) is the only planet where life as we know it exists. Throughout billions of years the perfect amount of the ideal elements all came together for Earth to form, and we will probably never fully understand how or why. It was first seen from space in 1946.
Venus
Mars
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Chateau de Fontainebleau
Luxembourg Palace
Palace of Versailles
There is no shortage of historical monuments in France, and the Palace of Versailles regularly rivals the Louvre, Notre-Dame and the Eiffel Tower as the most visited in the country. Today it is practically a museum, but it was the site of some of France's most important moments.
Elysee Palace
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Alamo Square
Haight-Ashbury
San Francisco is home to some of America's most iconic neighborhoods, but the Haight-Ashbury district might be the city's most famous. It is the epitomic physical manifestation of everything 1960s and served as the center of the counterculture movement.
Fisherman's Wharf
Russian Hill
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Mykonos
Santorini
You only have to look at summer vacation pictures for a few seconds before stumbling across a Greek island, and this one, Santorini, is one of the most famous. It's known for its white homes, blue roofs and lava-carved landscape.
Milos
Naxos
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Antarctica
It's not the easiest place to travel to, but it is one of the places that every person should visit before they die. Nothing compares to Antarctica, and the land is the most mysterious continent on Earth. Despite its cold weather, it's a desert, the largest in the world.
The Sahara
Iceland
Patagonia
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Beijing
Hong Kong
A skyscraper is a building at least 150 meters tall, and Hong Kong is home to more than 350 of them. New York City has the second most skyscrapers with 277, and Shanghai rounds out the top three with 218 skyscrapers.
Shanghai
Singapore
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Italy
Germany
France
Hungary
The Hungarian Parliament building sits just on the Pest side of Budapest directly along the Danube River. It is one of the most famous legislative buildings in the world and is the biggest building in Hungary.
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Heathrow Airport
Changi Airport
Singapore is smaller than the city of New York and has a smaller population, but the country is one of the richest in the world. The city-state is full of uber-modern architecture and cutting edge technology around every corner. Its airport is rated as one of the best in the world.
Charles de Gaulle Airport
Soekarno-Hatta International Airport
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Biltmore Estate
North Carolina's Biltmore Estate looks like it was plucked from a Disney fairytale, but it's a real American house. The home was built for the Vanderbilt family and it has a winery, hotel and village on premises. The building has 250 rooms and more than 60 fireplaces.
Mar-a-Lago
Monticello
Hearst Castle
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India
Australia
Bolivia
Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni takes the crown as the largest salt flat in the world and has consistently been voted as a must-visit destination. The salt plain formed when lakes dried up, and the site is one of the world's richest reserves of lithium deposits, which is the element used in cell phone batteries.
South Africa
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Mars
Venus
Jupiter
Jupiter is the sixth planet from the Sun and the largest planet in our solar system by far. It is more than double the size of all the other planets combined and has at least 79 moons. It might also rain diamonds on the planet.
Neptune
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Bedrock
Castle Rock
Hogsmeade
Black Rock City
Burning Man's temporary city in the Black Rock Desert is called Black Rock City. The summer festival has been held since 1986 and is one of the most unique festivals in the world. There is no single focus, and visitors take part in a variety of activities.
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Great Otway National Park
Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
Zhangjiajie National Forest Park
Zhangjiajie National Forest Park looks like something out of this world and became China's first national forest in 1982. Visitors can wander through cliff-side walkways and glass skywalks close to 5,000 high. The park is also home to the world's tallest outdoor elevator.
Tandayapa Cloud Forest
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Shibuya
If you've ever seen an image of the bustling downtown area of Tokyo, you've probably seen Shibuya Crossing. The intersection is more trafficked than Times Square and is rumored to be the busiest intersection in the world.
Ginza
Asakusa
Osaka
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India
The most expensive residential property in the world is London's Buckingham Palace, which is home to the British Royal Family and will likely never be for sale. The most valuable private residence in the world is this $2 billion home in India known as Antilia.
China
Russia
Saudi Arabia
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Angel Falls
Victoria Falls
Iguazu Falls
Spanish conquistadors discovered Iguazu Falls in the 16th century, and the name roughly translates to "big water." The falls sit in both Brazil and Argentina, and there are 275 drops that reach 269 feet tall.
Niagara Falls
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Shanghai
The Shanghai Tower is about 500 feet taller than the Oriental Pearl Tower, but it's hard to tell from Shanghai's skyline. The Pearl Tower is probably the most iconic structure in the world's most populous city.
Singapore
Beijing
Seoul
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Antelope Canyon
You'll find Antelope Canyon on Navajo land in Arizona's southwest desert. The two sections of the canyon called "The Crack" and "The Corkscrew" are popular tourist destinations in the area, but no one can visit the canyon on their own. You'll have to book through a tour group.
Mesa Verde
Bryce Canyon
Zion National Park
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Positano
This quaint and colorful village on Italy's southern Amalfi coast is a top vacation destination during summer time. If you can't make it to the fishing town for vacation, you can surely catch images of it all over the Internet or in one of many films.
Sorrento
Portofino
Cinque Terre
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Ngorongoro Conservation Area
Kruger National Park
Serengeti
Maasai Mara
Africa has no shortage of majestic animals roaming on protected reserves, and Maasai Mara is one of the most famous places in the world to see African wildlife. Between July and November, more than 2 million animals migrate through the area.
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Zakynthos
Here's another Greek island you've probably seen before and would perhaps like to visit. The turquoise waters of Navagio Beach (aka Shipwreck Beach) can be recognized all over the world. The wrecked MV Panagiotis sits on the beach's white sands.
Mykonos
Naxos
Milos
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