Here are some that have done that for me:
India: The Ganges River in Varanasi, India, at sunrise. My wife and I arrived when it was still dark. Little urchins sold us bits of lighted candles sitting on leaves, which we set adrift from our hired rowboat.
On the riverbank, the dead were being cremated in pyres of wood. Nearby, the living were going about their daily rituals of brushing their teeth, washing themselves and their clothing, saying their prayers. Mind-boggling.
Turkey: Military cemeteries at Conk Bayiri, Gallipoli. One held Ottoman troops, another Commonwealth soldiers - casualties of the First World War battle. Almost all were very young, and some of the inscriptions made me weep.
Jerusalem: The Dome of the Rock. This golden-topped shrine is where Mohammed is said to have begun his ascent to heaven. You don't have to be Muslim, or even particularly religious, to feel you're in a special place.
Jordan: Petra, a city carved into sheer rock faces by the Nabataeans, who settled there more than 2,000 years ago. Visitors enter through the Siq, a narrow, kilometre-long gorge with 80-metre-high cliffs soaring overhead. I did it 20 years ago on horseback, led by a cheeky Bedouin boy, an experience in itself. At the end of the Siq is your first glimpse of Petra's most-photographed building, the Treasury, carved in the 1st century for a king.
Argentina: Iguazu Falls. Not one waterfall but a system of 275 falls spanning 2.7 kilometres, located where Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina meet.
Italy: Venice's old city. Try to visit St. Mark's Square very early in the morning, before, as one Italian guide told me, "the people outnumber the pigeons.''
Thailand: The Grand Palace complex in Bangkok, which contains Thailand's most sacred site, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.
Australia: Circular Quay and the harbour bridge in Sydney, Australia. The quay is a transportation hub abuzz with ferries coming and going and folks strolling along the promenade. Even better at night.
Works of art that have made a lasting impression include the marble statue Winged Victory, in the Louvre, in Paris, which stopped my wife in her tracks, and Michaelangelo's towering David, in Florence's Galleria dell'Accademia, which did the same to me. Also in Florence: two Botticelli masterpieces, the Birth of Venus and La Primavera, both in the Uffizi gallery.
Most of what's on this list is made-made. That's partly because I've yet to visit some of the world's greatest natural wonders, such as the Grand Canyon and Victoria Falls.
But there are some dazzlers here at home.
Newfoundland, for icebergs. I remember standing at the edge of a cliff outside Twillingate, overlooking what they call Iceberg Alley, and marvelling as scores of chunks of polar ice in assorted shapes and shades drifted past.
Alberta: The Banff-Jasper Highway, with its icefield and views of the Rockies. If you're driving, take turns, otherwise the driver will miss much of it.
Ontario: Niagara Falls, impressive in any season, but my lasting memory is of a sunny, winter day when nearby trees sparkled with frozen spray.
British Columbia: Tofino, for ocean views and huge waves rolling in at beaches near Pacific Rim National Park.
Quebec: Upwards of 70,000 northern gannets gathered on Bonaventure Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, just off the village of Gaspe. You can walk to within two metres of the nesting area.
My most memorable view was from the tiny balcony of our hotel room in Ravello, perched 335 metres above the Tyrrhenian Sea on Italy's Amalfi Coast. Tour boats bound for Capri resembled toys in a tub, and traffic snaking along the cliff-hugging coast road could be seen but not heard.
Doug English can be reached at denglishtravel@gmail.com or by mail c/o London Free Press, P.O.E. Box 2280, London, Ont. N6A 4G1.
