An item on the Newsday website says that Toronto’s own CN Tower is the 11th most photographed landmark (or at least the 11th most hashtagged landmark) on the planet. That’s a bit surprising in some ways, as it puts what was once the world’s tallest freestanding structure higher on the list than such notable places as The Taj Mahal and even Buckingham Palace. Then again, it IS a very large tower and it’s in a huge city that’s very close to not only millions of Canadians but tens of millions of Americans who want to come up and take advantage of our low dollar and gaze longingly at photos of Justin Trudeau with his shirt off. So perhaps it’s not surprising we almost made the top 10. Still, if we’re as interesting as we think we are, we must do better. I mean, I can think of a ton of things in the city that are FAR more attractive and interesting to take photos of, including The Ontario College of Art and Design, the interior of the new Art Gallery of Ontario by architect Frank Gehry, Sugar Beach, the Distillery District, the Humber Bay Bridge.
The Eiffel Tower is said to be the most Instagrammed landmark on the planet.
For the record, here are the top 25. Note how London placed three landmarks in the top seven and NYC had two in the top eight.
1. Eiffel Tower, Paris
2. Big Ben, London
3. Grand Canyon, Arizona
4. London Eye, London
5. Empire State Building, New York City
6. Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
7. Tower Bridge, London
8. Statue of Liberty, New York City
9. Sagrada Familia, Barcelona
10. Colosseum, Rome
11. CN Tower, Toronto
12. Machu Picchu, Peru
13. Burj al Arab, Dubai
14. Taj Mahal, India
15. Buckingham Palace, London
16. Arc de Triomphe, Paris
17. Sydney Opera House, Australia
18. Sacre Couer, Paris
19. Stonehenge, England
20. Chichen Itza, Mexico
21. Hollywood Sign, Los Angeles
22. Great Wall of China
23. Willis Tower, Chicago
24. Trevi Fountain, Rome
25. Golden Temple, Amritsar, India
How many have you been to? Drop me a line: jim@jimbyerstravel.com.
As a travel guy, I’ve been lucky to see a lot of the world and can claim 22 of the 25. I haven’t been to the Golden Temple or Chichen Itza, and I’ve never been to Machu Picchu. But I’ve managed the others.
