Ngorongoro Crater - Tanzania

Ngorongoro Crater - Tanzania

At 19km wide and with a surface of 264 sq km, Ngorongoro Crater is one of the world's largest unbroken calderas that isn't a lake.The Unesco World Heritage Site has steep unbroken walls soaring 400m to 610m and provides the setting for an incredible natural drama as prey and predators graze and stalk their way around the open grasslands, swamps, and acacia woodland on the crater floor.

The crater is home to some 300 elephants, 600 spotted hyenas, 55 lions and a large number of wildebeest, buffaloes, zebras and gazelles. Another huge draw is the chance to see the critically endangered black rhino, around 30 inhabit the crater floor. Unfortunately they are hard to photography as they are often too far away, but great to see with binoculars.

Elephanta Island - Mumbai

In the middle of Mumbai Harbour, the rock-cut temples on Elephanta Island are a UNESCO World Heritage Site and worth crossing the waters for. Home to a labyrinth of cave-temples carved into the basalt rock of the island, the art-work represents some of the most impressive temple cravings of all India. The main Shiva-dedicated temple is an intriguing latticework of courtyards, halls, pillars and shrines, with the magnum opus a 6m tall statue of Sadhashiva - depicting a three-faced Shiva as destroyer, creator and preserver of the universe.

The temples are thought to have been created between AD 450 and 750, when the island was known as Gharapuri. The Portuguese renamed it Elephanta Island because of a large stone elephant near the shore, which collapsed in 1814 and was moved by the British to Mumbai's Jijamata Uydan.