World Tour in 1 minute

New York City reigns as the ultimate tourist destination. In a single day, you can visit the place where George Washington was inaugurated as the first U.S. president, attend a performance of the world famous New York City Ballet and escape the city’s chaos with a walk through Central Park.

Taj Mahal

An icon of India, Agra's Taj Mahal was built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, who created the mausoleum in honor of his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. Since then, it has survived the rise and fall of empires and remains one of India’s most popular destinations.

Miami

Miami really has it all: a tropical climate, a glamorous, diverse population — and it was ranked one of the cleanest cities in America by Forbes magazine in 2008. Another interesting fact: Miami is one of the few major U.S. cities founded by a woman, Julia Tuttle.

São Paulo

Emperor Pedro I declared Brazil's independence from Portugal in the city of São Paolo in 1822. Since then, the city’s population has grown to more than 18 million, and includes one of the world’s largest Japanese communities outside of Japan.

Grand Canyon

With more than 5 million visitors each year, this World Heritage Site in Arizona is home to several major ecosystems, but only seven land crossings of the Colorado River for 750 miles. Navajo Bridge, above, is one of them.

Boston

The Puritans called it their “shining city on a hill.” Today, it’s known to many as the “Athens of America.” A city of firsts, Boston is home to the nation’s first public library, one of its first universities and its first subway system — not to mention Fenway Park.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Air-conditioned beaches, sailboat-silhouette d skyscrapers and islands shaped like palm trees: If you can imagine it, Dubai likely has it — or is building it. The Dubai Marina is the second largest man-made marina in the world, but it's working toward becoming its largest.

Provence

This carpet of purple finery provides more than just a pretty landscape. Lavender is used for cooking, cleaning, healing and a host of other things. You don’t have to travel to France to find world-class herbs; you can grow them in your own back yard. Still, it’s no wonder that celebrities, monarchs, epicures and plain old tourists flock to this part of France like moths to a light.

Death Valley

These majestic waves of sand span an area in California and Nevada known to have the lowest elevation in North America. But Death Valley is more than just desert and heat — it’s also home to the Devil’s Hole pupfish, a tiny fish that can be found only in a 92 degree Fahrenheit pool in this park.

London

The Tower Bridge is just one sight in a city full of attractions. This famous structure is a combination drawbridge, suspension bridge and museum. The bridge is raised around 1,000 times per year and was designed to match the Tower of London.

Victoria, British Columbia

Victoria sits on the southern tip of the largest island off the Pacific Coast of North America. In a city known as the "City of Gardens," Butchart Gardens, above, is its crown jewel. You might be surprised to know that this world-class botanical garden is an exhausted limestone quarry.

Egypt

These massive statues guard the gates of the Luxor Temple, a tribute to Amon, king of the Egyptian gods. Egypt is home to one of the world’s oldest continuous civilizations, and evidence of this long history can be found throughout its lands.

Bavaria

Bavarian King Ludwig II would come to be known as the “Fairy Tale King” for building this ornate castle, which has since become one of Germany’s most popular tourist attractions. From high on its perch, the castle overlooks a part of Germany famous for its castles, mountains, forests — and beer.

Turkey

The name of this place — Travertine Pools — means “cotton castle” in Turkish. The pools are made of travertine, a kind of limestone deposited by evaporating water from the hot springs, and visitors have been coming to soak in them since at least 200 BC.

Spain

Legend has it that visitors should ring the bell and make a wish at the top of this 237-step climb. The Knights Templar are credited with building the small hermitage that sits at the top of these stairs, which overlook a section of the Basque Country’s rough, rocky coastline.

New Zealand

Astonishing beauty is one hallmark of New Zealand, and Milford Sound is no exception. You’re looking at one of the most remote areas of one of the most remote nations in the world. Notably, this country is a nuclear-free zone — no nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed ships may dock in its ports.

Thailand

Thailand is home to Buddhist temples, coral reefs and floating markets. King Rama IV ordered the construction of a 32-kilometer- long canal in 1866, which later became home to the famous Damnoen Saduak floating market. Foodies claim it’s the place to find the freshest produce around.

Alaska

Minerals stain the mountains with rainbow hues here in the Polychrome Pass in Denali National Park. Home to the highest mountain in North America, the park spans an area larger than Massachusetts. Much of it is inaccessible by road, so park rangers use dogsleds to patrol its wilds during the winter months.

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My Beautiful Pakistan

10 Most Expensive Cities In The World

Ever wondered what are the most expensive places in the world to live? Everyone knows that it costs more to live in some places than others, but just what is the most expensive city in the world to live in. This is a list of the 10 cities in the world where it is most expensive to live in early 2009 as defined by the Economist, although this will most likely change in line with regional economic changes and currency fluctuations.
10. Singapore

Singapore Central Business District. Produced by Someformofhuman and published under GNU Free Documentation Licence.

Singapore is both a city and country located in south east Asia. The city of just under 5 million people takes up the majority of the country of 710km2, leading to an extremely high population density of almost 7000 people per km2. It is located on a small island, which lies in one of the busiest waterways in the world which connects east Asia with south Asia, Africa and Europe. The city first started to grow to prominence under European rule because of it's high strategic importance and the city has continued to grow in stature since independence. The city has an extremely strong economy based it's business friendly policies leading to many international corporations having a base here. There is also a thriving high-tech manufacturing part to the economy, and the Port of Singapore is one of the world's busiest ports, particularly in the transhipment of goods. This thriving economy combined with lack of space for expansion leads to Singapore being the tenth most expensive city in the world to live.

9. Geneva

Photo originally from www.ork.ch and licenced under Creative Commons "Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 France".

Geneva is a city nestled between Lake Geneva and The Alps in Switzerland. Although most of the city is in Switzerland, due to the high cost of living in the city proper many people commute in from nearby France. Geneva is famous for being the location where the Geneva Conventions were signed, which govern the handling of prisoners of war. Geneva is also home to the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and many United Nations departments are also based here. In addition to being a major city in humanitarian terms, Geneva is also the 6th most important financial centre in the world. All of these factors, along with the fantastic location alongside Lake Geneva and a policy to preserve the city, leads to it having the ninth highest cost of living worldwide.

8. Frankfurt

Frankfurt skyline at night. Author Nicolas 17 and published under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 licence.

Frankfurt is joint seventh most expensive city to live in along with Helsinki. Frankfurt is a city in Germany, and is located on the Main River, which leads to it's full name Frankfurt am Main. When Germany was divided, it was located in west Germany, and so with berlin isolated became the economic powerhouse of west Germany, and upon re-unification it retained this position. It is the largest financial centre of mainland Europe, and both the European and German central banks are located here, as well as the Frankfurt stock exchange which is one of the biggest in the world. All of this wealth leads to Frankfurt being the joint seventh most expensive city in the world to live in.

7. Helsinki

Helsinki Cathedral and the wider area. Photgraph by Mikko Paananen and modified by Majestic and Ilmari Karonen. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5, Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 and Attribution ShareAlike 1.0.

In terms of the cost of living, Helsinki is joint seventh most expensive along with Frankfurt. Helsinki is the capital city of Finland, and is located in the far south of the country next to the Gulf of Finland. Despite being at the south of Finland, it is still a very northerly city and so can get very cold in the winter. Helsinki is the economic centre of the Finnish economy, and this partly explains the high cost of living. Helsinki has traditionally had a large shipbuilding industry and this continues to this day, although there are now also more hi-tech industries such as Nokia which is located just outside the city. Along with other Scandinavian countries, Finland has a relatively high tax rate, and this combined with the large amount of wealth generated is probably what results in Helsinki having the joint seventh highest cost of living in the world.

6. Zurich

The central part of Zurich along with the four main churches. Photo by Ikiwaner distributed under a GNU Free Documentation Licence.

Located in Switzerland, Zurich comes sixth on the list of most expensive cities in the world by living costs. Zurich is to Switzerland like New York is to the USA, it is the commercial capital of the country but not the political one. Zurich is home to many top educational institutions, and this helps ensure that the top minds in Switzerland and further afield come to live in Zurich, and it is likely that many of these will spend at least some of their working lives here. A large proportion of the Swiss economy is based on financial services, and many multinational companies such as UBS, Zurich Financial Services and Credit Suisse are based here. In addition, the population of Zurich is very diverse, and this potentially explains why many international companies, such as IBM, Google and Microsoft have facilities here. All of these factors mean that Zurich has a very strong economy, and this results in the 6th highest cost of living worldwide.

5. Oslo

This street is the Karl Johan gate with the Royal Palace in the distance. Photo by Mahlum and distributed under GNU Free Documentation License Version 1.2.

The city in the world with the fifth highest cost of living is the Norwegian capital city of Oslo. Oslo is Norway's biggest city, both economically and by population. Norway is one of the most developed countries in the world, with a large income from a variety of sources. These include the large offshore oil and gas reserves, maritime engineering and insurance and tourism. Norway has one of the highest average wages for a country in the world, and Oslo has an average even higher than this national average. Due to the high average wage, linked to the fact that many basic commodities such as many foodstuffs are imported, leads to an extremely high cost of living. This is further exaggerated by the very high Norwegian tax rate. Finally there is large public opposition to both the development of the city itself with high-rise buildings and the surrounding areas, resulting in space becoming at a premium. All of these factors combine to make Oslo the fifth most expensive city in the world in which to live.

4. Copenhagen

The former stock exchange building on an island in Copenhagen. Now a major tourist attraction.

Copenhagen is the fourth most expensive city in the world in which to live. Like Helsinki and Oslo which also appear in the top 10 most expensive cities in terms of cost of living, it too is the capital city of a Scandinavian country. In Copenhagen's case the country is Denmark, and like both Oslo and Helsinki, it is not only the political capital city but the dominant city in the country economically and culturally as well. Copenhagen is the location for many international head and regional offices, such as Maersk which has head offices in Copenhagen and Microsoft, for which Copenhagen provides the regional headquarters. Recently Copenhagen, and Denmark as a whole has seen massive growth, both domestically and internationally. For example, the largest wind turbine manufacturer, Vestas, is a Danish company. All of these factors combined lead to Copenhagen having an extremely strong economy, with the corresponding high wages, which results in it being in fourth position on the list of most expensive cities in terms of cost of living.

3. Paris

Paris at dusk. The Eiffel Tower can be seen near the centre of the screen. Note the reality low-rise nature of the buildings. Photo by Benh LIEU SONG and distributed under GNU Free Documentation License Version 1.2.

Paris is the capital city of France, and comes in third on the list of most expensive cities in the world. The city of Paris is a rather compact area, although the metropolitan area is much larger and includes many satellite towns. The central area of Paris, and the area with which this cost of living list deals with, refers solely to the city of Paris. Paris is famous for tourism, and whilst this generates a large amount of money for the local economy, it does lead to demands for less development of the older parts of the city. As such this leads to less modern space for both commerce and residences than many other cities, and this pushes up the cost of living. Another factor in the high cost of living is the strong economy of the Paris region, and therefore high average wage. Major industries in Paris include the previously mentioned tourism, as well as finance and high-tech manufacturing. All of these factors combine to give the city of Paris the third highest cost of living worldwide.

2. Osaka-Kobe

View of Osaka taken from the Umeda sky building to the north. Photo taken by Flying Toaster and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.

The second highest cost of living is for two linked cities in Japan - Osaka and Kobe. As with many Japanese cities, both of these have an extremely high population density, which leads to expensive housing and other costs. Both cities are very large with populations in excess of 1 million. In each city there are a number of different industries, with many large multinational companies having their headquarters in the respective cities. Examples of these include Mitsubishi, Mizuno, Panasonic, Sanyo and Sharp. There is also a relatively large financial industry in both cities, leading to high wages. The high cost of land, as well as high wages, combine to make the Osaka-Kobe region the second most expensive region in the world in which to live.

1. Tokyo

Some of the skyscrapers of Tokyo with Japan's tallest mountain, Mount Fuji in the background. This photo was taken by Morio and permission granted under GNU Free Documentation License Version 1.2.

The Japanese capital city of Tokyo comes first on the list of most expensive cities to live in. In addition to being the top of the list of cities with the highest living costs, it is also the centre of the world's largest metropolitan area by both population and economy. This is probably what makes it the most expensive city in the world in which to live. The Tokyo stock exchange is one of the world's largest, and is the largest one in Japan. Many international companies are based in Tokyo, and yet more have regional offices in the city which leads to a lot of highly paid jobs. In addition, the large size of the population leads to massive demand for space, and this is further exacerbated by the fact that Tokyo is surrounded by the Bay of Tokyo and a lot of steep hills and mountains. All of these factors combine to make Tokyo the most expensive city in the world in which to live.

Burj Khalifa the Tallest Building in the World's Pictures and Image

Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world according to the three main criteria of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH). The CTBUH ranks the world's tallest buildings based on 'Height to Architectural Top,' 'Height to Highest Occupied Floor' and 'Height to Tip.'

At 828 metres (2,716.5ft), Burj Khalifa is 320 metres taller than Taipei 101, which at 508 metres (1,667 ft) had held the record for the world's tallest building measured to the architectural top since 2004, the year the project was announced.

Burj Khalifa achieved the distinction of being the world's tallest structure - surpassing the KVLY-TV mast (628.8 metres; 2,063 ft) in North Dakota, USA - 1,325 days after excavation work started in January 2004.


The tower also beats the 31-year-old record of CN Tower, which at 553.33 metres (1,815.5 ft) had been the world's tallest free-standing structure on land since 1976.

Burj Khalifa employs a record-breaking 330,000 cubic metres of concrete, 39,000 metric tonnes of steel rebar and 142,000 square metres of glass; and it took 22 million man hours to build.


Other world records for Burj Khalifa include the highest occupied floor in the world, at over 550 metres (1,800 ft); the highest outdoor observation deck in the world - At the Top on Level 124; and the tallest service elevator, which travels to a height of 504 metres (1,654 ft).







Mr. Mohamed Alabbar, Chairman, Emaar Properties, said that with the unveiling of the final height of Burj Khalifa, the world now had a new reference point for high-rise developments.

"Burj Khalifa is an example of collaboration on a global scale, and the tremendous positive energy that can be generated when people from all over the world come together to work towards a common goal. Thousands of professionals and skilled workers from around the world worked on this once-in-a-lifetime project."



"More than 60 of the world's leading consultants including South Korea's Samsung Corporation and New York-based Turner Construction International realised the design for Burj Khalifa of Chicago-based Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM)," he said.



Burj Khalifa employed the latest advances in wind engineering, structural engineering, structural systems, construction materials and methods. All design considerations took into account the 12,000 people who will live and work in the tower. The handover to residents of the various components of Burj Khalifa will begin in February.



With a total built-up area of about 6 million sq ft, Burj Khalifa features nearly 2 million sq ft of residential space and over 300,000 sq ft of prime office space, in addition to the area occupied by the keenly awaited Armani Hotel Dubai and the Armani Residences. The tower also features modern lifestyle amenities including clubs, health and fitness facilities, gourmet restaurants and the 124th floor observation deck, 'At the Top.'



Burj Khalifa is the focal point of the 500-acre 'mega-project' by Emaar Properties, described as
the new heart of Dubai.

Highest Glass Floor of the World

If you're scared of heights, it may be time to look away now.

Not content with having the tallest building in America , the owners of Sears Tower in Chicago have installed four glass box viewing platforms which stick out of the building 103 floors up.

The balconies are suspended 1,353 feet in the air and jut out four feet from the building's Skydeck.

Floating on air: Visitors get their first view from The Ledge, four glass balconies suspended from the 103rd floor of Chicago 's Sears Tower

Designers say the platforms - collectively dubbed The Ledge - have been purposely designed to make visitors feel as they are floating above the city.

The reward is unobstructed views of Chicago from the building's west side and a heart-stopping vista of the street and Chicago River below - for those brave enough to look straight down.

'It's like walking on ice,' visitor Margaret Kemp, from Bishop, California said. 'The first step you take you think "Am I going down?"'

Fearless: Anna Kane, five, spreads out on the floor of the 10ft square box which is 1,353ft up

Spectacular: She also enjoyed amazing views out across the city

'At first I was kind of afraid but I got used to it,' 10-year-old Adam Kane from Alton , Illinois , said as clouds drifted by below.

'Look at all those tiny things that are usually huge.'

John Huston, one of the owners of the Sears Tower , even admitted to getting 'a little queasy' the first time he ventured out on to the balcony. However, after 30 or 40 trips, he seems to have got used to it.

Thrillseekers: The boxes jut out four feet from the building and were specifically designed to make visitors feel as if they are floating

'The Sears Tower has always been about superlatives - tallest, largest, most iconic,' he said.

'The Ledge is the world's most awesome view, the world's most precipitous view, the view with the most wow in the world.'

The balconies are 10ft high and 10ft wide, can hold five tons, and have glass which is 1.5 inch thick.

Unfazed: Although some adults felt dizzy after experiencing the Ledge, children seemed to take it in their stride

Long way up: Even the floor of the platforms are glass - few were brave enough to look straight down

Inspiration came from the hundreds of forehead prints visitors left behind on Skydeck windows every week. Now, staff will have a new glass surface to clean: floors.

Architect Ross Wimer said: 'We did studies that showed a four-foot-deep (1.2 metres) enclosure makes you feel like you're floating since there's only room for one row of people, not two.'

The Skydeck attracts 25,000 visitors on clear days. They each pay $15 to take an elevator ride up to the 103rd floor of the 110-story office building that opened in 1973.

Towering: A view of the Sears Tower (black building in the foreground). The Ledge is on the 103rd floor