High places

Horn Head is located in County Donegal, northernmost part of Ireland. It is a 200 meters high cliff with breathtaking views, rugged peninsulas and cliff-top walks. Also great spot for birdwatching as there are many guillemots and gulls and small numbers of puffins.

Whiteface Mountain is the fifth-highest mountain in New York State, and one of the High Peaks of the Adirondack Mountains, USA

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Giant Buddha carved into one of the Tianzi mountains, Zhangjiajie forest park in Hunan province, China. I'm not sure if the giant Buddha is real or fake

The world is full of mysteries, magic, and beautiful places that seem like they could only exist in our imagination or in books and movies. Believe it or not, some of these places are actually real!

Photographer Ryan Koopmans, 33, spent ten years capturing the views. His pictures showcase the stunning variation in architecture in places like Dubai, Singapore, London, South Africa and Chicago.

Fanjingshan is the highest peak in China’s Wuling Mountains and is a sacred place in Chinese Buddhism. This place of enlightenment includes New Golden Summit, where two Buddhist temples are perched high in the sky.

From views at the top of towering skyscrapers, endless shopping, to browsing through museums, here are some ideas for Chicago family vacation.

“I nudged myself closer to the ledge and closed my eyes and thought 'Oh what a life this is, why do we have to be born in the first place, and only so we can have our poor gentle flesh laid out to such impossible horrors as huge mountains and rock and empty space,' and with horror I remembered the famous Zen saying, 'When you get to the top of a mountain, keep climbing.' The saying made my hair stand on end; it had been such cute poetry sitting on Alvah's straw mats.”