The Seven Wonders of the World for 2026

Near the village of Haworth in West Yorkshire, England at sunset on a summer evening

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Bradford Pennines Gateway, England

One of the reigning monarch’s ongoing Kings Series of nature reserves, the Bradford Pennines Gateway is part of a nationwide initiative to protect and celebrate the UK’s natural heritage, enhance biodiversity, and give local communities better access to nature. Rather like King Charles himself, there’s something stoic and un-showy about this 1,272-hectare region, resided in, and beloved by, the Brontë sisters and encompassing Ilkley Moor, Penistone Hill Country Park, Harden Moor and Bingley North Bog.

Right on the upland edge where Bradford begins to fray into heathery oblivion. These are landscapes of unhurried drama: undulating moors, wind-polished gritstone tors and views that collapse into long, moody distances broken only by the slow, stately flap of a marsh harrier. New trails knit the old wool villages of Haworth, Stanbury and Thornton into a tapestry of slow travel, with signposted routes pointing you towards medieval packhorse bridges, secret waterfalls, and a pub or two that still understands a proper pint. If Britain ever needed proof that the everyday could still surprise, the Bradford Pennines Gateway delivers with quiet aplomb.

The remains of Cuicul village in Djemila town

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Djemila, Algeria

Algeria is the largest country in Africa, yet decades of unrest make it one of the least-visited nations on the continent. Now, a (very) small trickle of visitors is braving the paperwork required to gain a tourist visa. The undoubted highlight of the north of the country is the Roman ruins of Djemila, a firm on our list for the seven wonders of the world. Founded by Emperor Septimius Severus as a retirement village for elderly centurions, the forums, basilicas and archways of the city, all still intact, sit in an open arena of mountains, jutting into crayon blue skies that feel untrammelled. Stand where ancient markets once sold olives and wool, then trace the grooves carved by cartwheels as you explore a city built for people who believed altitude brought them closer to the gods. Most intriguingly of all, archaeologists say that, despite the immense size of the ruins, less than 40 per cent of it has been unearthed to date.