We immediately think of them when projecting ourselves on our journey and they embody the history of their territory: the monuments.
They are for this reason very popular with tourists, who are millions each year to travel to visit them.
Here are the ten most popular in terms of attendance in ascending order in 2018 (1), the reference year of study, since it precedes the periods of closure following the Covid-19 pandemic.
The World War II Memorial (Washington, USA)
Annual visitors:
4.7 million
Opened to the public in 2004 in the National Mall Park, in Washington DC, this monument is located on a 59-hectare esplanade also housing the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.
As its name suggests, it pays tribute to the 16 million American soldiers who served during the Second World War.
The monument is made up of 56 memorial columns (one per US state and territory) and two triumphal arches arranged in a circle around a fountain.
The memorial is free and open 24 hours a day.
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The Vietnam Veterans Memorial (Washington, USA)
Right next to the World War II memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial honors the 58,000 Americans killed in the Vietnam War.
Adobe Stock / Chansak Joe A
Annual visitors:
4.7 million
With an almost identical number of visitors and an obvious geographical proximity to the World War II memorial (the monument is located in the Constitution Gardens, a 200,000 square meter park adjacent to the National Mall), the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is another monument dedicated to American soldiers who died during the Vietnam War.
It is made up of three distinct monuments: a black granite wall on which are inscribed the names of some 58,000 soldiers killed during the conflict, the statue of the Three Soldiers, representing three bronze sculptures, and the Vietnam Women's Memorial dedicated to American women. who took part in the conflict.
Peterhof Palace (Saint Petersburg, Russia)
Peterhof Palace was the residence of Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia from 1682 to 1725. Adobe Stock / Mistervlad
Annual visitors:
5.2 million
Russia is often associated with the Basil-the-Blessed Cathedral and Red Square (located in Moscow), but it was the Peterhof Palace in Saint Petersburg that attracted the most visitors to the country in 2018 , or about 5.2 million.
Built in 1723, "
Stone Courtyard
" (in reference to its sponsor Peter the Great, 1st Emperor of Russia from the end of the 17th to the beginning of the 18th century) draws its inspiration from the Palace of Versailles.
It has two gardens, a lower one of 102 hectares and an upper one of 15 hectares, a large waterfall and 176 fountains.
A real jewel of history which had to be rebuilt after the Second World War because of the numerous German bombardments of which it was the target.
The Eiffel Tower (Paris, France)
The Eiffel Tower (here seen from the Trocadéro) is a symbol of France's cultural influence in the world.
AFP photo / Gustafson Porter + Bowman
Annual visitors:
6.2 million
It needs no introduction: the Eiffel Tower is THE cultural symbol of France abroad.
Its iron construction completed in 1889 by Gustave Eiffel for the Universal Exhibition in Paris culminates at 312 meters, which earned it the title of the tallest monument in the world until 1930 and the inauguration of the Chrysler Building in New York .
If it attracted nearly 6.2 million visitors in 2018, it has accumulated nearly 300 million since the completion of its construction.
The Parthenon (Athens, Greece)
Despite the looting and erosion of time, the Parthenon still stands, a magnificent symbol of ancient Greek civilization.
Adobe Stock / Violet Stone
Annual visitors:
7.2 million
The Parthenon of Athens is located in the Acropolis, the citadel built on the upper part of the capital and serving at the time of ancient Greece as a defensive position in the event of an enemy attack.
Built in the 6th century BC.
AD, the marble monument is dedicated to Athena, goddess of wisdom and warlike strategy.
Largely looted and deteriorated throughout history, the Parthenon is a source of architectural inspiration around the world.
Read also48 hours in Athens, our guide to vibrate with the Greek capital
The Taj Mahal (Agra, India)
With its architectural styles with combined influences, the Taj Mahal is a unique building of its kind.
Adobe Stock / Sean Hsu
Annual visitors:
7.5 million
Like the Eiffel Tower in France, the Taj Mahal is a life-size postcard of India.
All marble, it rises to 73 meters and rests on a square base.
Four minarets surround this mausoleum built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in the 17th century.
The mixture of Indian, Ottoman and Persian architectural styles makes it a unique monument in the world.
Read alsoIndia: the ten most beautiful forts of Rajasthan
The Colosseum (Rome, Italy)
The Colosseum, once able to accommodate nearly 50,000 spectators, is now weakened by mass tourism.
Adobe Stock / scaliger
Annual visitors:
7.7 million
Located in the center of Rome, this millennial amphitheater is one of the last witnesses to the passage of the Roman Empire.
Once used for wild animal and gladiator fights, the Colosseum is now a very popular tourist attraction in the Eternal City, but suffers from overcrowding: the building is regularly subject to renovations.
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The Lincoln Memorial (Washington DC, USA)
The Lincoln Memorial is a national memorial in the United States.
Adobe Stock / kmiragaya
Annual visitors:
7.8 million
Back to the United States and to Washington DC for this monument: the Lincoln Memorial, a building built in homage to the 16th president of the country, Abraham Lincoln.
36 marble columns surround a building containing a six-meter high statue of the Republican President.
Like nearby memorials, Lincoln's is considered a national memorial by the United States Congress.
The Palace of Versailles (Versailles, France)
With its 64,110 square meters of surface area and its gigantic domain, the Palace of Versailles unleashes the fantasies of tourists from all over the world.
Thomas Garnier
Annual visitors:
8.1 million
The Palace of Versailles and its classical architecture continue to attract the attention of tourists from all over the world.
It must be said that it has arguments: 64,110 square meters of surface, 3000 rooms and more than 2000 windows as well as an area with an area of 660 hectares.
Dizzying figures and at the height of the palace, main residence of Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI.
The Forbidden City (Beijing, China)
The Forbidden City is the most visited monument in the world.
Adobe Stock / Sanga
Annual visitors:
17 million
It has no more prohibition than the name and it surpasses by far the works quoted above: the Forbidden City, in Beijing, is the most visited monument in the world and reminds us of the extent to which the figures for tourism, on the scale of China, surpass anything one can imagine.
The walls of the imperial palace, built in the 15th century, have welcomed in six centuries no less than 24 emperors from the Chinese imperial Ming and Qing dynasties.
According to Chinese authorities, nearly 100 million tourists have visited part of the 72-hectare site since 2012.
(1) Methodology: this ranking comes from a study carried out in 2019 by the online statistical data portal Statista. This infographic is based on figures from 2018 from national ministries of culture.