Landmarks

Mount Fuji Japan · Honshu, west of Tokyo

Japan's highest mountain at 3,776 m, a volcanic cone so even that a single curve says its name. It last erupted in 1707; on clear winter days it is visible from Tokyo, about 100 km away. Fuji has been climbed as an act of worship for centuries and painted endlessly, most famously in Hokusai's Thirty-six Views, which is why UNESCO listed it in 2013 as a cultural site rather than a natural one. The tile keeps the jagged snow cap, the one detail every drawing of Fuji shares.

Counts towards: Pacific Rim · Natural Wonders · Island Hopper

Great Wall China · northern China

Not one wall but many, raised and rebuilt over some two thousand years to guard the northern frontier. The stone and brick stretches most visitors walk, such as Badaling and Mutianyu near Beijing, date from the Ming dynasty, with watchtowers at intervals along the ridges. The tile shows that Ming silhouette: a crenellated wall climbing the hills between two towers. A UNESCO World Heritage site since 1987 and one of the New Seven Wonders.

Counts towards: Pacific Rim · Ancient World · New Seven Wonders

Taj Mahal India · Agra, on the Yamuna

A mausoleum of white marble that the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan built for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, completed around 1653 after more than twenty years of work. The central dome is framed by four minarets and mirrored in a long pool, and the marble changes colour with the light from dawn to dusk. The tile keeps the dome and the four minarets. A UNESCO World Heritage site since 1983 and one of the New Seven Wonders.

Counts towards: New Seven Wonders

Sydney Opera House Australia · Bennelong Point, Sydney Harbour

Jørn Utzon's shells opened in 1973 after a famously difficult fourteen years of construction, and became the image of a whole country within a decade. The roofs are covered in more than a million ceramic tiles, which is why they read white from across the harbour. The building is still under copyright, so the tile shows a simplified silhouette of the shells, drawn under Australia's freedom-of-panorama rules. A UNESCO World Heritage site since 2007.

Counts towards: Pacific Rim · Southern Cross

Mitre Peak New Zealand · Milford Sound, Fiordland

Rahotu to the Māori, Mitre Peak rises about 1,683 m almost straight out of the dark water of Milford Sound (Piopiotahi) on the South Island, one of the tallest sea cliffs in the world. The English name comes from the peak's resemblance to a bishop's mitre. It is the most photographed mountain in New Zealand, usually with rain on the way: the fiord gets several metres of it a year. The tile shows the pointed peak and its reflection.

Counts towards: Pacific Rim · Southern Cross · Natural Wonders · Island Hopper

Haus Tambaran Papua New Guinea · Sepik River region

A haus tambaran is a spirit house of the peoples along the Sepik River, a men's ceremonial house where carvings and ancestral objects are kept. Its tall gabled front leans forward over the entrance and is painted with faces and patterns; some rise over 20 m. The form is so much a symbol of the country that the National Parliament in Port Moresby borrows it. The tile shows the leaning gable with its painted facade.

Counts towards: Pacific Rim · Southern Cross

Big Ben United Kingdom · Palace of Westminster, London

Big Ben is strictly the Great Bell, 13.7 tonnes, inside the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament; the tower itself was renamed Elizabeth Tower in 2012. The clock started in 1859 and its chimes have opened BBC radio news for a century. The tile is the tower with its four clock faces, which is what everyone means by the name anyway. The United Kingdom is one of the three island nations of the Island Hopper yakuman.

Counts towards: Island Hopper

Arc de Triomphe France · Place Charles de Gaulle, Paris

Napoleon ordered the arch in 1806 after Austerlitz; it was finished in 1836, long after his fall, and stands 50 m tall at the top of the Champs-Élysées where twelve avenues meet. The names of French victories and generals are carved on it, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with its eternal flame has lain beneath it since 1921. The tile keeps the single great arch with its relief panels. France belongs only to Europe's regional yaku, so its tiles are for Old World and One Region hands.

Colosseum Italy · Rome

The Flavian Amphitheatre, inaugurated in AD 80, held around 50,000 spectators for gladiator fights and animal hunts and is still the largest amphitheatre ever built. Half of the outer wall fell in earthquakes and was quarried for stone, which gives the building the broken profile the tile shows: three storeys of arches on one side, the lower ring on the other. A UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the New Seven Wonders.

Counts towards: Ancient World · New Seven Wonders

Pyramids of Giza Egypt · Giza plateau, outside Cairo

The Great Pyramid was built for the pharaoh Khufu around 2560 BC and stood about 146 m tall, the tallest structure made by people for nearly four thousand years. Beside it stand the pyramids of Khafre and Menkaure and the Great Sphinx. It is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world still standing. The tile shows the three pyramids in a row, as they appear from the desert side.

Counts towards: Ancient World

Table Mountain South Africa · Cape Town

A flat-topped mountain of about 1,085 m that walls off Cape Town from the south. When the south-easterly wind blows, cloud pours over the rim and hangs down the face: locals call it the tablecloth. A cableway has run to the top since 1929, and the plateau has more plant species than many whole countries. The tile shows the level summit with the cloth spilling over it.

Counts towards: Southern Cross · Natural Wonders

Koutoubia Mosque Morocco · Marrakesh

The largest mosque in Marrakesh, built by the Almohads in the twelfth century. Its minaret of pink sandstone rises 77 m and set the pattern for the Giralda in Seville and the Hassan Tower in Rabat: square in plan, with a lantern on top and gilded orbs. From the Jemaa el-Fna square you steer by it at dusk. The tile shows the square minaret with its lantern.

Statue of Liberty United States · Liberty Island, New York Harbor

A gift from the people of France, dedicated in 1886. Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi sculpted the figure and Gustave Eiffel designed the iron frame inside; the copper skin weathered from brown to its green within a few decades. She holds a torch and a tablet dated July 4, 1776, and with her pedestal stands about 93 m above the harbour. The tile shows the raised torch and the crown's seven rays.

Counts towards: Pacific Rim

Niagara Falls Canada · Ontario, on the border with New York

Three waterfalls on the Niagara River between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. The Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side is the largest, about 57 m high and carrying the greatest flow of any waterfall in North America; the mist rises so high it can be seen from Toronto on a clear day. The falls have powered turbines since the 1890s. The tile shows the curved lip of the Horseshoe with the water falling into the gorge.

Counts towards: Pacific Rim · Natural Wonders

Chichen Itza Mexico · Yucatán Peninsula

A Maya city whose great step pyramid, El Castillo or the Temple of Kukulcán, is a calendar in stone: four stairways of 91 steps plus the platform on top make 365. At the spring and autumn equinoxes the afternoon sun throws a shadow of a serpent slithering down the north stairway to the carved head at its foot. The tile shows the pyramid with its stairway and temple. A UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the New Seven Wonders.

Counts towards: Pacific Rim · Ancient World · New Seven Wonders

Christ the Redeemer Brazil · Corcovado, Rio de Janeiro

The Art Deco statue by Paul Landowski and Heitor da Silva Costa was completed in 1931 on the 700 m summit of Corcovado, above Rio de Janeiro. The figure is 30 m tall on an 8 m pedestal, with arms spread 28 m wide over the city and the bay. The statue is still protected by copyright, so the tile shows a simplified silhouette drawn under Brazil's freedom-of-panorama rule. One of the New Seven Wonders.

Counts towards: Southern Cross · New Seven Wonders

Machu Picchu Peru · Andes, above the Urubamba valley

An Inca citadel of the fifteenth century on a ridge about 2,430 m up, built under the emperor Pachacuti and abandoned at the Spanish conquest, which never found it. Its dry-stone walls are fitted so closely that no mortar was needed. The explorer Hiram Bingham brought it to the world's attention in 1911. The tile shows the terraces with the peak of Huayna Picchu behind. A UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the New Seven Wonders. Peru and New Zealand each count towards four yaku, more than any other country.

Counts towards: Pacific Rim · Southern Cross · Ancient World · New Seven Wonders

Moai Chile · Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

Nearly 900 monolithic figures carved by the Rapa Nui people, most between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, from the volcanic tuff of the Rano Raraku quarry. Many stand on stone platforms called ahu, facing inland over the villages they once watched. Rapa Nui is Chilean territory about 3,500 km out in the Pacific, which is why Chile joins the Pacific Rim and Southern Cross yaku. The tile shows the long face and heavy brow of a single moai.

Counts towards: Pacific Rim · Southern Cross · Ancient World