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Seven most beautiful sunset spots in the world
From Zanzibar to Kosovo, here are the best places on Earth to get a spectacular twilight
Perhaps the most spectacular sight one can see while trotting the globe is a truly breathtaking sunset, when the final blaze of evening light floods the landscape - whether its a forest canopy, a barren desert or a gently lapping ocean tide.
And if you love to capture these moments for posterity, you aren’t alone - according to data recently gathered by Forbes, 286 million images of sunsets were uploaded to Instagram in 2018.
If you fancy your own Instagrammable slice of twilight paradise, here are seven spots that have grown famous for their sunsets:
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Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
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Wandering through the winding sidestreets of Stone Town - being sure to stop off at the birthplace of Zanzibar’s most famous son, Farrokh Bulsara (better known as Freddie Mercury) visitors can end the day on a high at the city’s bustling waterfront, where rooftop bars and restaurants offer spectacular views of the sun as it dips below the horizon over the Tanzanian mainland.
Even if your trip to Zanzibar is a fleeting one, be sure to stick around on the island into the evening for its famed moonrise - it’s equally spectacular.
Cappadocia, Turkey
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Cappadocia (or Kapadokya) is a bizarre lunar-esque landscape of rocky outcrops in the dead centre of Turkey. Forbes Magazine describes the area as a “magical land of hot-air balloons, underground cities and whimsical fairy chimneys”.
Writer Laura Begley Bloom says of Cappadocia: “It's one of my favorite places in the world and definitely one of my favorite spots to watch a beautiful sunset.”
Grundarfjörður, Iceland
A tiny Icelandic town with just under 1,000 inhabitants, Grundarfjörður sits between a mountain range and a lava field, making it the perfect spot to capture some extremely dramatic sunsets, punctuated by the strikingly unique Kirkjufell mountain.
This picturesque settlement is tucked away on the Snæfellsness peninsula, around 175km to the north west of Reykjavik.
Isle of Skye, Scotland
Raw, windswept and rugged, the Isle of Skye is Scotland’s most uncompromising corner, and the backdrop to some of the most jaw-dropping sunsets anywhere on Earth.
The Quiraing, a popular hiking route, is a particular hotspot for sunset photographers, with orange and yellow light bouncing chaotically off the unusual rock forms and low-hanging clouds.
Prizren, Kosovo
A little off the beaten track, Kosovo’s second city of Prizren is best explored on foot. In the evening, take the winding paths up to the city’s imposing Ottoman-era fort for a perfectly-framed view of the sun dipping below the Dinarides Mountains.
Down below, mosque minarets blare out the call to prayer from the banks of the Bistrica, and sit snugly alongside a patchwork array of Orthodox and Catholic churches.
Milford Sound, New Zealand
New Zealand’s mountainous Fiordland region can seem intimidating to the European eye - this is not an Alpine landscape of rolling valleys and green, sloped foothills; this is difficult, uninvitingly angular terrain where giant granite cliffs and piles of jagged rocks separate glacier-capped peaks. Large sections of this wild wonderland, which includes the world-famous Milford Sound, were mostly inaccessible until the 1950s, when an ambitious tunnel was constructed through the Homer Saddle.
Now, however, travellers can easily access the spectacular fjord, which offers some of the most breathtaking sunsets to be found anywhere in the world, particularly in the summer months.
Table Bay, South Africa
Cape Town, South Africa’s most exciting metropolis, is a beautiful and captivating destination in and of itself. But for the best sunset in the region, head north into Table Bay and Bloubergstrand, where the spectacular vistas include something hard to see from Cape Town; Table Mountain.
The Capsule says that “every summer evening” the sky “produces something that doesn’t require any filters or edits”, exhibiting “the full colour spectrum across the oceans”.
