Earth From Above: Incredible Aerial Pictures of the World's Great Landmarks

The Taj, with the Yamuna river snaking away towards its source in the Himalayas.

Taj Mahal as the day’s first tourists trickle through the gates.

Two wrestlers practising the ancient Indian sport of Kushti in a pit they had hacked into the ground two hours before.

The Lotus Temple, dotted with pigeons at sunrise. Designed by an Iranian exile, the building serves as the centre of the Bahai’i faith in Delhi.

A knot of fishing boats at the entrance to Sassoon Dock, Mumbai.

Morning over Maximum City. Known to the locals as “Hill 3” this knoll jutting above Mumbai’s northern slums is no more valuable than the land below. Access to running water, which the hill lacks, is far more valuable than any view.

Paris’ Sacré-Cœur glowing in a hazy sunrise.

Russian holidaymakers on the beach in Abkhazia.

A ruined college in Gali, near the “border” with Georgia, where ethnic Georgians made up 96% of the region’s pre-war population. Most fled, or were driven out of their homes after the war. Today Gali is a twilight zone of empty buildings and overgrown farmland.

The star fort at Bourtange. Three centuries after the last cannonball was fired in anger at the fort, it now serves as a museum and centre of a sleepy farming village in eastern Holland. The low, thick walls were designed to offset the pounding force of cannonfire.

A golfer putting on a green of the Kauri Cliffs Golf Course with the islands around Matauri Bay in background

Worker and Kolkhoz Woman striding into the future that was. Built for the soviet pavilion of the 1937 world fair in Paris the steel masterwork now stands in the suburbs of northern Moscow.

The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour on the banks of the Moskva River at sunrise.

Hotel Ukraina, lit up at dusk.

The spiky skyline of Istanbul as a freighter sails for the Sea of Marmara.

Buda castle on August 20. The barge in the centre of the Danube is loaded with fireworks, launched later that night to celebrate Hungary’s national day.

Buda castle at night.

The windswept Liberty Statue, overlooking Budapest. Built in 1947 by the new communist rulers for the “Liberating Soviet Heroes” the inscription was amended swiftly after the USSR collapsed, “To the memory of all those who sacrificed their lives for the independence, freedom, and prosperity of Hungary”

Clouds swirl through the pillars of Sagrat Cor Church, high on a hill above Barcelona. Twenty minutes later a thunderstorm hit the city.

You see the neatly arranged suburbs around the Sagrada Familia. Octagonal city blocks allow for the light, spacious street corners which make al fresco beer and tapas in the town such a delight.

The Katskhi Pillar, where a Georgian hermit has lived for the past twenty years to be “closer to god.”

The Mtkvari River winding through Tbilisi, Georgia’s elegant capital.

For Peter the Great, the windswept bog meant access to the Baltic sea, and the wider world beyond. With Swedish armies still rallying to recover the lost territory, the Russians raced to secure their gains. In 1704 the Admiralty shipyard was completed, allowing the construction of a naval force which would eventually rival the British Empire’s. Today the Admiralty’s gilded spire, topped by a weather vane in the shape of a ship, again marks the headquarters of the Russian Navy.

The Palace at Petergof, perched on a bluff overlooking the sea some 30km (19mi) from central Saint Petersburg. In his later years Peter the Great kept a study in the palace from where he could look out to the distant spires of Saint Petersburg, and the island fortress of Kronstadt guarding his new capital.In the background you can see the frozen Gulf of Finland. If you want to know what bleak truly feels like, head to that wasteland on a dark winter’s day.

The Church on Spilt Blood during a squally autumn morning. The church marks the spot where the reformist Tsar Alexander II was assassinated by a bomb-rolling revolutionary.  It was under Alexander that serfs were freed, and Alaska sold to the US for $7.2m.

The Hermitage Pavilion wreathed in dawn mist. The little “whipped cream” pavilion was an example of the decadence which would eventually topple the Tsarist autocracy. It was famous for parties where tables laden with food would rise from beneath the floorboards into groups of delighted guests. 

Visitors walk on fallen leaves in the Summer Garden, central St. Petersburg’s oldest Park.

The angel atop the Alexander column in the centre of St. Petersburg.

The Russian Orthodox Peter and Paul Cathedral rising through winter mist.

The angel atop the Alexander column. Built after Russia’s victory over Napoleon, the column’s 600 ton granite trunk was tipped into place by 2,000 soldiers. It balances without any attachment to its base.

The Vittoria Light, overlooking the Gulf of Trieste at sunset.