Volcanos

32 wonders

Earth’s furnace made visible — cones, calderas, and crater lakes.

Volcán de Fuego erupting at dawn, seen from Acatenango, Guatemala

Acatenango

Sacatepéquez and Chimaltenango Departments, near Antigua, Guatemala

A 3,976-metre stratovolcano climbed almost entirely for the view of a different volcano — from its upper slopes you camp level with Fuego, one of the most active vents in Central America, and watch it erupt through the night.

Al Wahbah Crater, Harrat Kishb, Makkah Province, western Saudi Arabia

Al Wahbah Crater

Harrat Kishb, Makkah Province, western Saudi Arabia

A two-kilometre hole in the Arabian desert with a floor of white salt crystals — long assumed to be a meteorite crater, and in fact the scar of a steam explosion from below.

Arenal Volcano, Alajuela, northern Costa Rica

Arenal Volcano

Alajuela, northern Costa Rica

A near-perfectly conical volcano rising above the rainforests of northern Costa Rica — for decades one of the world's most active, now resting, surrounded by hot springs, waterfalls, and abundant wildlife.

Bulusan Volcano & Lake, Sorsogon, Bicol, Philippines

Bulusan Volcano & Lake

Sorsogon, Bicol, Philippines

An active, rainforest-cloaked stratovolcano at the southern tip of Luzon, cradling a still crater-foot lake — the green, misty heart of Bulusan Volcano Natural Park.

Cotopaxi, Cotopaxi Province, Ecuador

Cotopaxi

Cotopaxi Province, Ecuador

A near-perfect glacier-capped cone rising almost 5,900 metres from the Andean highlands — one of the world's highest active volcanoes, and among the most symmetrical anywhere.

Danakil Depression, Afar Region, northeastern Ethiopia

Danakil Depression

Afar Region, northeastern Ethiopia

One of the hottest, lowest, and most alien places on Earth — a searing volcanic desert of neon-yellow sulphur springs, salt flats, and a permanent lava lake, where three tectonic plates are tearing the land apart.

Jeju Island, Jeju Province, South Korea

Jeju Island

Jeju Province, South Korea

A volcanic island crowned by South Korea's highest peak, riddled with the world's finest lava-tube caves and edged by a sunrise crater rising straight from the sea.

Kamchatka Volcanoes, Kamchatka Peninsula, Russian Far East

Kamchatka Volcanoes

Kamchatka Peninsula, Russian Far East

A remote peninsula bristling with snow-capped volcanoes, geysers, and hot springs — one of the most volcanically active places on Earth, roamed by some of the world's largest brown bears.

Kawah Ijen, East Java, Indonesia

Kawah Ijen

East Java, Indonesia

A volcano famous for two rare sights: electric-blue flames that flicker across its crater in the dark as sulphurous gas ignites, and the world's largest highly acidic crater lake — a vast turquoise pool with the acidity of battery acid.

Kīlauea, Island of Hawaiʻi, United States

Kīlauea

Island of Hawaiʻi, United States

One of the most active volcanoes on Earth — a shield volcano on Hawaiʻi whose lava has repeatedly reshaped the island, sometimes glowing in a lava lake and, at times, spilling in rivers of fire to the sea.

Mayon Volcano, Albay, Bicol Region, Philippines

Mayon Volcano

Albay, Bicol Region, Philippines

The Philippines' most active volcano and, by many accounts, the most perfectly symmetrical cone on Earth — a 2,463-metre stratovolcano that dominates the Bicol skyline and, as of mid-2026, is in active eruption.

Mount Ararat, Iğdır Province, Eastern Anatolia, Turkey

Mount Ararat

Iğdır Province, Eastern Anatolia, Turkey

Turkey's highest peak — a snow-capped dormant volcano of two joined cones rising in near-perfect isolation above the plains of the Armenian highlands, its ice cap visible a hundred kilometres away.

Mount Bromo, East Java, Indonesia

Mount Bromo

East Java, Indonesia

A smoking volcanic cone rising from a vast 'Sea of Sand' inside an ancient caldera — one of Earth's most dramatic sunrise views, ringed by the peaks of the Tengger massif in East Java.

Mount Damavand, Alborz range, Mazandaran Province, northern Iran

Mount Damavand

Alborz range, Mazandaran Province, northern Iran

The highest peak in Iran and in the whole Middle East — a near-symmetrical stratovolcano above the Alborz range, with sulphur fumaroles still venting at the summit crater and hot springs on its flanks.

Mount Elbrus, Kabardino-Balkaria, Caucasus, Russia

Mount Elbrus

Kabardino-Balkaria, Caucasus, Russia

The highest peak in Europe — a twin-coned dormant volcano wrapped in 22 glaciers, rising 5,642 metres above the Caucasus range.

Mount Etna, Sicily, Southern Italy

Mount Etna

Sicily, Southern Italy

Europe's largest and most active volcano — a snow-capped, constantly rumbling giant looming over eastern Sicily, whose frequent eruptions have built astonishingly fertile slopes of vineyards and orchards.

Mount Fuji, Honshū, Japan

Mount Fuji

Honshū, Japan

Japan's highest peak — an almost perfectly symmetrical, snow-capped stratovolcano rising to 3,776 metres, standing alone above the plains and visible on a clear day from central Tokyo, a hundred kilometres away.

Mount Kanlaon, Negros Island, Central Visayas / Negros Island Region

Mount Kanlaon

Negros Island, Central Visayas / Negros Island Region

The highest peak in the central Philippines and one of the country's most active volcanoes — a forested stratovolcano crowning Negros, ringed by a national park rich in endemic wildlife.

Mount Pinatubo Crater Lake, Zambales / Tarlac / Pampanga, Luzon, Philippines

Mount Pinatubo Crater Lake

Zambales / Tarlac / Pampanga, Luzon, Philippines

The volcano behind the second-largest eruption of the 20th century now cradles a serene turquoise crater lake — reached by a 4x4 ride across ash-grey lahar canyons and a short hike to the rim.

Mount Popa & Taung Kalat, Mandalay Region, central Myanmar

Mount Popa & Taung Kalat

Mandalay Region, central Myanmar

An extinct volcano rising green from the dry central plains of Myanmar, beside a sheer volcanic plug crowned by a golden monastery reached by 777 steps.

Mount Teide, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

Mount Teide

Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

Spain's highest peak and the third-largest volcano on Earth measured from its base — a 3,715-metre cone rising from a vast caldera of frozen lava, often floating above a sea of cloud.

Mount Yasur, Tanna Island, Vanuatu

Mount Yasur

Tanna Island, Vanuatu

One of the world's most accessible active volcanoes — a crater that has erupted almost continuously for centuries, flinging glowing lava bombs into the night sky just metres from its rim.

Ngorongoro Crater, Ngorongoro Highlands, Northern Tanzania

Ngorongoro Crater

Ngorongoro Highlands, Northern Tanzania

The world's largest intact volcanic caldera — a 20-kilometre-wide, 600-metre-deep collapsed crater that has become a natural amphitheatre teeming with one of the densest concentrations of large wildlife on Earth.

Nyiragongo, Virunga, eastern DR Congo

Nyiragongo

Virunga, eastern DR Congo

A volcano cradling one of the world's largest and most active lava lakes — a churning pool of molten rock that glows red against the night sky over the Virunga mountains.

Ol Doinyo Lengai, Gregory Rift, near Lake Natron, Northern Tanzania

Ol Doinyo Lengai

Gregory Rift, near Lake Natron, Northern Tanzania

The 'Mountain of God' — a near-perfect ash cone in the Rift Valley and the only active volcano on Earth known to erupt natrocarbonatite, a strange, cool, runny lava that flows black and dries chalky white.

Concepción volcano, Ometepe island, Lake Nicaragua, Nicaragua

Ometepe

Lake Nicaragua, Rivas Department, southwestern Nicaragua

Two volcanoes standing in a freshwater lake and joined at the base into a single hourglass island — one still erupting, the other carrying a crater lake and cloud forest.

Pacaya, Escuintla, near Antigua, southern Guatemala

Pacaya

Escuintla, near Antigua, southern Guatemala

One of Central America's most active volcanoes, an accessible cone near Antigua where hikers walk over old lava fields toward the glow of a restless summit.

Santorini Caldera, Cyclades, Aegean Sea, Greece

Santorini Caldera

Cyclades, Aegean Sea, Greece

A flooded volcanic crater ringed by 300-metre cliffs of banded ash and lava — the drowned remains of one of the largest eruptions in human history.

Taal Volcano & Lake, Batangas, Calabarzon, Philippines

Taal Volcano & Lake

Batangas, Calabarzon, Philippines

A volcano within a lake within a volcano — one of the world's smallest and most active volcanoes, sitting on an island inside a crater lake that fills a far larger ancient caldera, just south of Manila.

Mud volcanoes at Gobustan, southwest of Baku, Azerbaijan

The Gobustan Mud Volcanoes

Gobustan District, southwest of Baku, Azerbaijan

A grey lunar plain of cones that erupt cold — mud, brine and methane pushed up from kilometres below by gas pressure rather than heat, in the country that has more of them than anywhere on Earth.

Tongariro National Park, Central Plateau, North Island, New Zealand

Tongariro National Park

Central Plateau, North Island, New Zealand

New Zealand's oldest national park — a volcanic heartland of steaming craters, brilliant emerald lakes, and lava fields, crossed by one of the world's finest day hikes, and gifted to the nation by Māori in 1887 to keep it intact.

Volcanoes National Park, Northwestern Rwanda (Virunga Mountains)

Volcanoes National Park

Northwestern Rwanda (Virunga Mountains)

A chain of forest-cloaked volcanoes on Rwanda's northern border, home to wild mountain gorillas and the setting for Dian Fossey's famous research — one of Africa's most moving wildlife encounters.