But hidden among iconic sites such as Angkor Watt, the Great Barrier Reef and Machu Picchu are some very obscure sites - including a church of bones, a town eaten by sand - and a scuba diving spot between two tectonic plates.

Here TravelMail takes a closer look a the locations on Lonely Planet's list that you probably won't have heard of.   

Dark tourism is one of the travel success stories of the last decade - and it is perhaps no surprise that top of the list is Chernobyl 

In recent years, visits to the nuclear explosion site have increased exponentially, with Kiev-based tour company, SoloEast, estimating that it takes approximately 10,000 tourists there each year.

Guests must provide documentation at several check points upon reaching the site via tour bus.

Once there, visitors are banned from touching anything, eating or drinking any food or beverage that does not come from outside the zone, and are even warned against sitting on the ground.

Needless to say, all discarded objects and property littered in and around the abandoned city must also remain.

(dailymail.co.uk)