Superlative · canyons
The Most Beautiful Canyons in the World
15 places · every one real, mapped, and worth the trip
A canyon is deep time laid open — river and rock cutting down through layer after layer until the walls glow with colour and the light does the rest. Where our list of the most spectacular canyons and gorges is about sheer scale and drama, this one is about beauty: colour, light, water, and shape.
This is our editors' pick of the most beautiful canyons in the world. It isn't a strict ranking; each is a real, mapped place with an honest note on how to reach it and the season and light that show it best.
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Grand Canyon The great one
Arizona, United States
A mile-deep, layered chasm in Arizona that turns gold, rose, and violet as the sun crosses it — the canyon all others are measured against.
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Taroko Gorge Cut through marble
Taroko National Park, Hualien County, eastern Taiwan
One of very few river gorges anywhere carved entirely through marble, with walls rising as much as a kilometre above the Liwu River.
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Durmitor & the Tara Canyon Europe's deepest canyon
Durmitor National Park, northern Montenegro
The Tara has cut roughly 1,300 metres down through the limestone plateau of northern Montenegro over some 80 kilometres.
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Antelope Canyon Canyon of light
Navajo Nation, near Page, Arizona, United States
A narrow Arizona slot where shafts of sunlight fall through sculpted, wave-like sandstone in glowing orange and purple.
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Fjaðrárgljúfur The mossy gorge
Near Kirkjubæjarklaustur, South Iceland
A serpentine Icelandic canyon of green moss-clad walls and a winding river, cut by glacial meltwater.
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Verdon Gorge The turquoise gorge
Provence, southeastern France
France's 'Grand Canyon', its limestone walls plunging to a startling turquoise river through the Provençal Alps.
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Colca Canyon
Arequipa Region, southern Peru
One of the deepest canyons on Earth in the Peruvian Andes, terraced by ancient farmers and patrolled by condors.
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Zion Canyon
Utah, United States
Utah's red and cream sandstone walls rising sheer above the Virgin River, hung with gardens and waterfalls.
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Charyn Canyon
Almaty Region, Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan's 'Valley of Castles', a fiery red-rock canyon of eroded towers on the steppe.
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Blyde River Canyon
Mpumalanga, South Africa
A vast green canyon in South Africa, its round rock formations and cliffs draped in subtropical forest.
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Samaria Gorge
White Mountains, Chania, Crete, Greece
A long Cretan gorge narrowing to the famous 'Iron Gates', walked from the mountains down to the Libyan Sea.
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Chicamocha Canyon
Santander, Colombia
A huge arid canyon in Colombia, its ridged walls dropping to a river far below, crossed by a cable car.
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Vikos Gorge
Zagori, Pindus Mountains, Epirus, Greece
One of the deepest gorges in the world for its width, cutting through Greece's Pindus mountains in Zagori.
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Wadi Shab
Ash Sharqiyah coast, northeastern Oman
An Omani desert canyon of turquoise pools and a hidden waterfall cave, reached on foot through palm groves.
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Fish River Canyon Africa's great canyon
ǁKaras, southern Namibia
The largest canyon in Africa, a vast desert chasm of switchback bends in southern Namibia.
Canyons live and die by the light: slot canyons glow only when the sun is high, desert canyons are richest at dawn and dusk, and mossy or riverine canyons are greenest after rain. Deep desert canyons are dangerous in flash-flood season. Each guide notes the best time and how to reach it.
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