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| by Nicholas DeRenzo | Art + Culture, Nature Appreciation, China, Norway, Egypt, New Orleans, New York City | 0 |
(Courtesy Time)
TIME’s upcoming Great Places of History—Civilization’s 100 Most Important Sites (pre-order on Amazon.com, released October 11, $18.59) is the kind of coffee table book that will have you polishing up your bucket list and booking flights to far-flung locales. From the Great Wall of China and Easter Island to Auschwitz and Pearl Harbor, these 100 locations represent the highlights (and sometimes very lowlights) of the human experience—architectural wonders, battlefields, cathedrals, castles, universities, skyscrapers, and ancient mysteries.
What makes this list particularly interesting is its inclusion of a few newer spots (some built within the last decade) among the widely accepted classics. It may be too soon to tell if they’ll stand the test of the time, but it’s interesting to imagine that our new endeavors may eventually become the stuff of history.Here are some of the new additions that caught my eye:
- #74. Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Spitsbergen, Norway: A repository for seed varieties built inside a mountain in Arctic Norway in 2008, or as TIME calls it: “a Noah’s Ark for the world’s plants”
To these, I would add the following, which didn’t make it onto the list:
Ground Zero/One World Trade Center, New York City: A symbol of America’s resilience
Now it’s your turn: which sites from recent history would you add to the list?
MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL:
10 Natural Wonders to See Before They Disappear
15 Places Your Kids Should See Before 15
