Which are most beautiful places on the planet? Which are the most popular?
In December, Instagram released its annual top 10 lists of the locations and cities that were photographed most often. But now, Google has compiled a heat map that gives us a more visual representation of the most photographed places in the world.
The beautiful heat map, which can be found on Sightsmap, shows the most photographed locations in yellow and the places with less photos and tags are given in duller colours. To display the hottest cities and places, Google gathered data from Google Maps Panoramio service, articles rated on Wikipedia and the number of Foursquare check-ins. According to the map, although New York City is the most photographed place on earth, Europe is an absolute winner, being a home to four of the top five cities. The top 10 most photographed places in the world are, in order:
- New York City
- Rome
- Barcelona
- Paris
- Istanbul
- Venice
- Monte Carlo
- Florence
- Buenos Aires
- Budapest
Today, many people love taking photos of beautiful places and iconic architecture, no matter whether they are on a vacation or simply walking down the city streets. And sharing images on the web has become more popular than ever, with the explosion of social media websites and different apps. So, it’s easy to say that the most photographed places are indeed among the most spectacular and popular among people. In fact, the heat map suggests that Panoramio service is more popular in some areas of the world than others. The ranking may not represent the real popularity of the world cities, but it definitely shows which locations people consider beautiful and worthy of sharing with the rest of the world.
So, where in the ranking is Dubai? Currently, the city’s world rank is 195, but interestingly, Palm Islands is standing on 67th place. Compared to the rest of the world, several Middle Eastern places are relatively popular. These include Palm Islands, the Great Pyramid of Giza (No. 16) and Valley of the Kings (No.61) in Egypt, Jerusalem (No.94), Mecca (No.126), Dubai (No.195), and beach Hurghada in Egypt at No. 256. Within the United Arab Emirates, Dubai, with its iconic buildings and architectural and engineering marvels, is the most photographed place. Below is the ranking for the UAE.
- Dubai
- Fujairah International Airport
- Dubailand
- Warsan
- Ajman
- Masdar City
- Mirdif City Centre
- Skyline University College, Sharjah
- Muhaisnah
- Palm Islands
