10 far-off destinations at the edge of the world

Mt. Aspiring National Park, South Island, New Zealand - Untouched and remote, this national park on New Zealand's South Island is so striking, so otherworldly that it was the set for The Lord of the Rings movies. At Mt. Aspiring National Park, where civilization as you know it ends and Middle-Earth fantasy begins, aquamarine ice edges ancient glaciers on mountains. Rocky landscapes are like sculptures. And glowing green moss droplets blanket dense forests. It's the edge of a completely uninhabited, epic landscape. - Photo by Lake Wanaka Tourism

North Cape, Finnmark, Norway - If you're looking at a globe, Norway's North Cape sits near the very top, overlooking the Arctic Ocean. Snapping a photo here at the spot dubbed "The Top of the World" is a rite of passage among European road trippers, especially motorcyclists and RVers striving for the continent's northern reaches. When they finally arrive, they celebrate. Recycling bins full of empty champagne bottles are the evidence. - Photo by Hurtigruten

Makgadikgadi Pan, Botswana, Africa - A stark, eerie, and vast salt flat—one of the world's largest—was left behind thousands of years ago when a superlake dried up here in the Kalahari Desert. No vegetation can grow on this pan the size of Switzerland, and very little wildlife can exist here during the harsh, dry season of unrelenting hot winds. The sheer emptiness of the hauntingly featureless terrain seems to stretch to eternity on the Makgadikgadi Pan. Photo by Uncharted Africa Safari Company

Ilulissat, Qaasuitsup, Greenland - In Greenland, the world's least populated country, there are no roads between any of the towns, leaving your transport options to boat, plane, helicopter, or dogsled. It's one of the world's most inhospitable places, where larger boats can navigate for only part of the year and where the growing season isn't long enough for fruits and vegetables. Fly into the isolated west coast town of Ilulissat or the nearby Saqqaq village, where each year, billions of tons of icebergs more than 300 feet tall calve off and glide out of the fjord. - Photo by Iurie Belgurschi/Greenland.com

Mt. Kailash, Himalayas, Tibet - This Himalayan mountain may not be the globe's highest point, but many religions revere it as the meeting place of heaven and Earth. Each year, thousands pilgrimage through the remote villages of Tibet's High Plateau and around Mt. Kailash. A holy ritual, the trek at the edge of heaven is said to bring good fortune, and many travelers call the encounter life changing. - Photo by Cristy Elmendorp

Bunda Cliffs, Nullarbor Plain, Australia - At the edge of the world in southern Australia, great white sharks occasionally swim in the ocean below the imposing precipice of the Bunda Cliffs, which reach heights up to 393 feet and stretch on for 62 miles. It's not much kinder or gentler up on the cliff top, the biggest single slab of limestone in the world. This remote, treeless, and arid Nullarbor Plain is nearly the size of the United Kingdom, but making the drive is the ultimate Aussie road trip. - Photo by MetaMythic

Tierra Del Fuego, Patagonia, Argentina - The small town of Ushuaia in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago is Argentina's last outpost at the end of the Pan-American Highway. Here, trees are stunted and twisted by extreme weather, and everything in town feels permanently battened down. There's nothing but miles and miles of water between you and the frozen loneliness of Antarctica. - Photo by Dan Clarke

Fogo Island, Newfoundland, Canada - You don't have to go to extreme lengths or great expense to arrive at the edge. According to the Flat Earth Society, one of the four corners of the globe is across the border in Canada. Fogo Island, an isolated eastern annex of the already remote Newfoundland, juts so far into the North Atlantic that it practically neighbors Greenland. Here, currents sweep past the craggy coast, carrying majestic chunks of blue ice and migrating humpback whales. Along untouched stretches, you can find the odd avant-garde studio, part of the local Shorefast Foundation's international artist-residency program. - Photo by Laura Bly/BlyontheFly.com

Antarctica - At the world's southern tip, Antarctica has no buildings apart from the occasional abandoned scientific station. There are no roads or tracks, no power lines, no permanent inhabitants—nothing. It's a continent that is 98 percent covered by ice that averages at least a mile in thickness. But the magnitude of wildlife that is here, among intricately carved icebergs and giant glaciers, seems impossible, like a forgotten paradise. - Photo by Antarctic Iceberg via Shutterstock

Kamchatka, Siberia, Russia - Eight time zones east of Moscow is a massive swath of unpopulated Siberian wilderness and one of the most active volcanic regions in the world. Kamchatka also happens to be home to roads potholed beyond repair, cities that feel post-apocalyptic, and crumbling old Soviet military bases with rusting fighter jets. At the edge of the capital city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, smoking volcanoes dominate the horizon, threatening to destroy what's left of this civilization. But the scenery is stunning and unspoiled in this portion of the Pacific Ring of Fire. - Photo by 56th Parallel