My Favorite Sights Seen in the '00s

With just 2 remaining, there are have been 3,651 days this decade on which to have seen wonderful things. While I have previously posted My Favorite Cities Visited, My Favorite Museums and My Favorite Photographs Taken, as well as various categories saluting favorite performers I saw onstage, this list is much narrower in scope.

Listed below are the most singularly spectacular sights I saw during the decade, limited to those I saw for the first time in the '00s (thus no Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, nor much of the U.S.). I will also exclude performances, events, special occasions and people altogether. And while sentiment may co-mingle with aesthetics in terms of the sights most indelibly etched into my memory, these are My Favorite Sights Seen in the '00s, thus I'll elect to omit unforgettable yet harrowing sights such as Ground Zero, abandoned New Orleans neighborhoods, the Texas Book Depository and the like.

Simply put, of many amazing things that I saw in many places, these are the ones that I remember most fondly:

(All photos are mine, except of paintings and where indicated. Click to enlarge)

1. The Treasury in Petra, Jordan


2. The Sistine Chapel Ceiling


3. The Great Pyramids and Sphinx


4. Leaning Tower of Pisa


5. Roman Coliseum


6. Sydney Opera House


7. Fallingwater


8. The Raphael Stanzas at the Vatican


9. Sagrada Familia (Barcelona)


10. Church on Spilled Blood (St. Petersburg)


Honorable Mention:

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao


The Alamo


Michaelangelo's David


The Duomo in Florence


Roman Forum


Kilkenny Castle (Ireland)


Botticelli's Birth of Venus


The Western Wall and Dome on the Rock


The Hermitage Interior



The French Quarter


St. Mark's Basillica (Venice) - (Interior photo not mine)


Fenway Park - Yes, the Red Sox really lost to the Yankees 22-1 on June 19, 2000


Loch Ard Gorge (Australia)


Cliffs of Moher (Ireland)


Vasa Warship from 1628 (Stockholm)


Special Mention:

These were my favorite sights that didn't exist before the '00s (see also: My Favorite New Architecture of the '00s):

Cloud Gate (The Bean) in Chicago


Milwaukee Art Museum Addition