Canyons are slow arguments between rock and water, and the winner is always the water given enough time. What varies is the rock, the climate and how long the argument has been running. Here are fourteen of the most remarkable.
1. Grand Canyon, USA
The reference point for the entire category: roughly 277 miles long, up to 18 miles wide, and more than a mile deep, carved by the Colorado River through northern Arizona.
The exposed rock layers span an enormous stretch of geological time, which is why the canyon is as significant scientifically as it is visually. The South Rim is the accessible side. The Grand Canyon is the canyon every other canyon is measured against.
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2. Colca Canyon, Peru
A canyon in southern Peru roughly twice the depth of the Grand Canyon, with terraced agriculture on its slopes that has been worked continuously since pre-Inca times.
It is among the best places in the world to see Andean condors, which ride the morning thermals up out of the gorge at close range. Villages sit along the rim. Colca is the canyon where extraordinary depth coexists with continuous human farming.
3. Fish River Canyon, Namibia
Often described as the largest canyon in Africa, a vast gorge in the south of the country with a river that reduces to isolated pools for much of the year.
A multi-day hiking route runs along the floor, open only in the cooler months and requiring permits and preparation. The scale is difficult to photograph. Fish River is the canyon that gives southern Africa its most severe landscape.
4. Tara River Canyon, Montenegro
A deep, forested limestone gorge in Durmitor National Park, with strikingly clear green water running through it and a famous arched bridge above.
It is among the deepest canyons in Europe and is best known for rafting, with the surrounding national park protected for its glacial lakes and peaks. The water is startlingly cold. Tara is the canyon that shows Europe can do this at scale too.
5. Verdon Gorge, France
A limestone canyon in Provence with water in an almost implausible shade of turquoise, produced by mineral content and glacial flour.
A road runs along the rim with viewpoints, and the gorge is a major destination for climbing and kayaking. The colour is the reason people come. Verdon is the canyon whose water looks artificially tinted and is not.
6. Waimea Canyon, Hawaii, USA
A red-and-green gorge on Kauai, cut into volcanic rock rather than sedimentary layers, which gives it a completely different character from mainland canyons.
Frequent rainfall keeps the walls vegetated and produces waterfalls into the gorge, and the colours shift constantly with the weather. Clouds often obscure it. Waimea is the canyon that proves you do not need a desert to make one.
7. Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon, Tibet
By several measures the deepest canyon in the world, cut by the Yarlung Tsangpo river as it turns sharply through the eastern Himalaya between enormous peaks.
The depth figures are extraordinary, exceeding those of any other canyon, though much of it is extremely remote and difficult to access. Permits and logistics are demanding. Yarlung Tsangpo is the canyon that holds the depth record and almost nobody has seen.
8. Copper Canyon, Mexico
A network of interconnected canyons in Chihuahua, collectively larger and in places deeper than the Grand Canyon, and home to the Rarámuri people.
A railway runs through the system, crossing bridges and tunnels along one of the more spectacular rail journeys in North America. It is a system rather than a single gorge. Copper Canyon is the canyon complex that outsizes its more famous northern neighbour.
9. Blyde River Canyon, South Africa
A green, subtropical canyon along the Drakensberg escarpment, unusual among major canyons for being densely vegetated rather than arid.
Viewpoints look out over the Three Rondavels, distinctive rounded rock formations rising from the gorge. The scenery is lush rather than stark. Blyde River is the canyon that breaks the assumption that canyons are dry.
10. Charyn Canyon, Kazakhstan
A red sandstone gorge on the steppe east of Almaty, with eroded columns and formations in a section known as the Valley of Castles.
It is often compared to the American southwest and sits in near-total silence, with very few visitors relative to its scale. A trail runs along the floor. Charyn is the canyon that looks like Arizona and is nowhere near it.
11. Vikos Gorge, Greece
A limestone gorge in the Pindus mountains of northern Greece, extremely deep relative to its width, with stone villages and old arched bridges along its rim.
It is a walking destination rather than a viewpoint destination, with routes through the gorge floor and along the sides. The villages are the other attraction. Vikos is the canyon best experienced by walking through rather than looking down.
12. Kings Canyon, Australia
A sandstone gorge in the Northern Territory with sheer walls, a rim walk that climbs steeply at the start, and a sheltered pocket of vegetation on the floor.
The area holds cultural significance for the Luritja people, and the rim walk is closed in the hottest part of the day during summer for safety. Water appears unexpectedly. Kings Canyon is the canyon that hides a green oasis inside red rock.
14. Itaimbezinho, Brazil
A dramatic canyon in Aparados da Serra National Park in southern Brazil, with near-vertical walls and waterfalls dropping into the gorge from the rim.
Frequent cloud fills the canyon and then clears, which makes viewing conditions highly variable. Trails run along the top and into the valley. Itaimbezinho is the canyon where the weather decides whether you see anything at all.
15. Sumidero Canyon, Mexico
A narrow gorge in Chiapas with walls rising vertically as much as a kilometre above a river, best seen by boat from the water rather than from above.
The perspective from below, looking straight up at the walls, is the reverse of every other entry on this list. Wildlife is often visible along the banks. Sumidero is the canyon you look up at instead of down into.
Rock Losing to Water, Slowly
What these share is time. Every one is a cross-section through geology that was invisible until a river spent a few million years removing the evidence in front of it.
Most of these have accessible viewpoints requiring nothing more than a short walk, and several have serious multi-day routes for anyone who wants them. If you visit, check seasonal access and local guidance first — canyon floors flood, rim trails close in heat, and several of these require permits. Then find a viewpoint and give it longer than a photograph takes.
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