Is Niagara Falls a Wonder of the World?
It is called one constantly. It is on almost none of the lists. Here is every list that matters, who wrote it, and where Niagara actually stands.
No. Niagara Falls is not an official wonder of the world. It is not on the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, it was not a finalist in the New7Wonders of Nature vote, and it is not a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A CBC panel did name it one of the Seven Wonders of Canada in 2007.
No single organisation decides what counts as a wonder of the world, so the honest answer depends entirely on whose list you mean.
Key takeaways
- There is no official wonders list. Every list in circulation was made by a broadcaster, a private foundation or a website, and none of them speaks for anyone but itself.
- On the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, the waterfall place belongs to Victoria Falls, not Niagara.
- In the New7Wonders of Nature vote announced in 2011, Iguazu Falls won. Niagara did not reach the 28 finalists.
- Niagara Falls is not a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Victoria Falls and Iguazu Falls both are.
- Niagara is neither the tallest waterfall nor the widest. What it very likely does hold is the largest unbroken curtain of falling water by volume over a single continuous crest.
Which wonders list do people actually mean?
Four different lists get called "the wonders of the world", and they have almost nothing to do with each other. One is ancient, two were run by the same private foundation as public votes, and one is a treaty mechanism that is not a wonders list at all. Niagara Falls is on none of them.
The table below is the whole answer in one place. Who made each list, when, and whether Niagara Falls is on it.
| The list | Compiled by | When | Niagara on it? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seven Wonders of the Ancient World | Greek writers | c. 2nd century BC | NoBuilt structures only, and compiled long before Europeans saw the falls |
| Seven Natural Wonders of the World | Commonly credited to CNN | The 1990s | NoVictoria Falls holds the waterfall place |
| New7Wonders of the World | New7Wonders Foundation | 2007 | NoBuilt structures only, so a waterfall was never eligible |
| New7Wonders of Nature | New7Wonders Foundation | 2011 | NoNot among the 28 finalists. Iguazu Falls won |
| UNESCO World Heritage List | UNESCO, by treaty | Since 1978 | NoNever inscribed. The only official body here, and not a wonders list |
| Seven Wonders of Canada | CBC panel | 2007 | YesChosen by the panel |
Why is Niagara Falls not one of the Seven Natural Wonders?
Because Victoria Falls got the waterfall place. The list most people mean by "the seven natural wonders" is usually credited to a CNN feature in the 1990s, and it names the Grand Canyon, the Great Barrier Reef, the harbour of Rio de Janeiro, Mount Everest, the aurora borealis, Paricutin volcano in Mexico, and Victoria Falls.
Seven slots, one planet, and only one of them was ever going to be a waterfall. Victoria Falls took it. There was no committee, no criteria published for anyone to argue with, and no vote. It was an editorial choice by a news organisation, and it has been reproduced so many times since that it now reads like a finding.
Lists of seven natural wonders circulated long before the 1990s and none of the versions is canonical. That is worth holding on to, because it is the reason the question has no clean answer.
Is Niagara Falls a UNESCO World Heritage Site?
No. Niagara Falls is not a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It has never been inscribed. Victoria Falls and Iguazu Falls both have been, which means the two waterfalls that beat Niagara to the wonder lists also carry the one designation in this whole discussion that has any legal standing.
It is worth being precise about what that designation is, because people reach for it as a substitute. The World Heritage List is a treaty instrument for protecting places of outstanding universal value. It is not a ranking, it is not a wonders list, and inscription is not a title. A site gets on it because a national government nominates it and a committee assesses it against published criteria. There is no public record of Niagara Falls ever having been nominated by either country.
What happened in the New7Wonders of Nature vote?
Iguazu Falls won, and Niagara did not reach the final 28. The New7Wonders of Nature campaign ran from 2007 and announced its winners on 11 November 2011: the Amazon rainforest, Ha Long Bay, Iguazu Falls, Jeju Island, Komodo, the Puerto Princesa underground river, and Table Mountain.
The campaign is worth understanding before you treat the result as a verdict on anything. It was run by a private foundation, not by any government or international body. Voting was open by internet, phone and paid SMS, and it was not one person one vote: you could vote as many times as you were willing to pay for. No vote totals were ever published and no independent audit was released. UNESCO repeatedly declined to endorse the campaigns and publicly distinguished its own World Heritage List from them.
So Niagara Falls lost a popularity contest with unlimited paid voting and unpublished results. That is a very different thing from being assessed and found wanting.
So what lists is Niagara Falls actually on?
One list with a real jury, and several without. In 2007 the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation ran a Seven Wonders of Canada programme, and Niagara Falls was one of the seven chosen by its panel. That exercise produced two sevens, the panel's and the audience's, so it is worth saying which one you mean.
Beyond that, Niagara appears on a long tail of "seven natural wonders of North America" style lists. Those are compiled by private publishers and travel websites, their membership varies from one to the next, and none of them speaks for anyone but its author. They are popular labels, not designations, and the article you are reading would be doing the same thing it criticises if it presented them as more.
Is Niagara Falls the biggest waterfall in the world?
No, and the honest version of that answer is more interesting than the boast. Niagara Falls is not the tallest waterfall. That is Angel Falls in Venezuela, at about 979 m, roughly seventeen times the drop at Horseshoe Falls. It is not the widest either, by a wide margin.
What Niagara very likely does hold is narrower and harder to say in three words: the largest unbroken curtain of falling water by volume over a single continuous crest. Victoria Falls has a bigger curtain by area. Iguazu is spread across hundreds of separate cascades. Horseshoe Falls concentrates an enormous volume into one continuous curved lip, and that concentration is what people are reacting to when they call it a wonder.
It also runs. The Niagara River drains four of the Great Lakes, which makes its flow among the steadiest of any large river on earth. Great waterfalls elsewhere have seasons where they thin to rock. Niagara does not.
How does Niagara compare with Victoria Falls and Iguazu Falls?
Set the three side by side and the pattern is clear. Niagara loses on every measure of scale and wins on volume, consistency and access.
| Niagara Falls | Victoria Falls | Iguazu Falls | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Height | About 57 m (188 ft) at Horseshoe Falls | About 108 m (355 ft) | Around 80 m (260 ft) at its highest |
| Width | About 670 m (2,200 ft) along the Horseshoe crest | About 1,708 m (5,604 ft) | A system spread over roughly 2.7 km |
| Shape | Three falls. Horseshoe is one continuous curved crest | One continuous sheet across a single chasm | Hundreds of separate cascades |
| On a wonders list | No | Yes, Seven Natural Wonders of the World | Yes, New7Wonders of Nature |
| UNESCO World Heritage | No | Yes | Yes |
Is Niagara Falls natural or man-made?
Natural, but the amount of water going over it is a policy decision. The falls formed as the Niagara River cut back through the escarpment after the last ice age, and the gorge below them is the record of that retreat. Nothing about the waterfall is built.
The flow is another matter. Under a 1950 treaty between Canada and the United States, a minimum of 100,000 cubic feet per second must go over the falls during daylight hours in the tourist season, and 50,000 at other times. Everything above the minimum can be diverted to the hydroelectric stations downstream, and in practice a great deal of it is.
The consequence is one most visitors never hear: for roughly five months of the year the falls run at half the summer daytime flow, all day. What you see in January is not what you see in July. The treaty guarantees the display, not the river.
Which side should you see it from?
This is the question the wonder question usually turns into. The two sides are genuinely different experiences rather than two views of the same thing, and the honest answer is that they are not interchangeable.
You stand beside the falls and above them. Cave of the Winds puts you on wooden decks a short distance from the water of Bridal Veil Falls. The American Falls is the one you get close to.
Cave of the Winds and Maid of the MistYou stand in front of Horseshoe Falls and see the whole curve, which is the view on most postcards. Journey Behind the Falls takes you into tunnels cut through the rock behind the sheet of water.
Boat ride and Journey Behind the FallsCannot choose? Most visitors with a full day do both, and the bridge crossing takes minutes. See the one-day tour of both sides. Bring your passport: it is an international border.
What about the eighth wonder of the world?
There is no eighth wonder. The phrase is a figure of speech with no official standing whatever, and it never had any. It has been attached over the years to canals, bridges, skyscrapers, sports stadiums, racehorses and entertainers, usually by whoever was promoting them.
Niagara Falls has certainly been called it. So has almost every other famous landmark on earth. If you searched for the phrase hoping to find out which place officially holds the title, the answer is that no place does, because there is no title to hold.
Does any of this matter?
Here is what the lists actually tell you: that in the 1990s a news desk had one waterfall slot and used it on Victoria Falls, and that in 2011 a paid-SMS poll went to Iguazu. Neither is a measurement. Neither was made by anyone with the standing to settle it.
What is measurable is this. Niagara puts more water over a single continuous crest than almost anywhere on earth, it does it every day of the year without a dry season, and it does it within walking distance of a car park in two countries at once. No other waterfall of this scale is anything like as reachable. That combination, not the ranking, is why forty years of list-makers have kept having to explain why they left it off.
Niagara loses every contest of scale and wins the one that decides whether you will ever stand in front of it.
So, is it a wonder?
No list is going to settle it for you. Stand at the rail while a boat below you disappears into the spray at the base of Horseshoe Falls, and you will have your own answer inside ten seconds.
Not travelling yet? Tap the heart on any tour card to save it, and it will be waiting in your wishlist.
Frequently asked questions
Is Niagara Falls a wonder of the world?
No, Niagara Falls is not a wonder of the world in any official sense. It does not appear on the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, the New7Wonders of Nature, or the UNESCO World Heritage List. A CBC panel named it one of the Seven Wonders of Canada in 2007. No single body decides what counts as a wonder.
Is Niagara Falls one of the seven natural wonders of the world?
No, Niagara Falls is not one of the seven natural wonders of the world. The seven usually listed are the Grand Canyon, the Great Barrier Reef, the harbour of Rio de Janeiro, Mount Everest, the aurora borealis, Paricutin volcano and Victoria Falls. Victoria Falls holds the waterfall place on that list, not Niagara.
Why is Niagara Falls not a wonder of the world?
Niagara Falls is not a wonder of the world because each of the lists that exist was compiled by someone with their own criteria, and none of them chose it. The best known natural list picked Victoria Falls for the waterfall place, and the 2011 public vote picked Iguazu Falls. Neither decision was made by an official body.
Is Niagara Falls a UNESCO World Heritage Site?
No, Niagara Falls is not a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It has never been inscribed on the list. Victoria Falls and Iguazu Falls both have been. World Heritage is a treaty mechanism for protecting sites, not a wonders list, so inscription is not the same thing as being called a wonder.
Who decides what counts as a wonder of the world?
Nobody decides what counts as a wonder of the world. There is no international authority that designates wonders. The lists in circulation come from a news organisation, a private Swiss foundation that ran paid public votes, national broadcasters and travel websites. UNESCO has repeatedly declined to endorse the New7Wonders campaigns.
Is Niagara Falls one of the seven natural wonders of North America?
Niagara Falls appears on several seven natural wonders of North America lists, but those lists are compiled by private publishers and websites rather than by any official body, and their membership varies from one to the next. Treat the label as a popular one rather than a designation.
Is Niagara Falls the largest waterfall in the world?
No, Niagara Falls is not the largest waterfall in the world. It is not the tallest, which is Angel Falls in Venezuela at around 979 m, and it is not the widest. Its strongest claim is that Horseshoe Falls is very likely the largest unbroken curtain of falling water by volume over a single continuous crest.
Is Niagara Falls bigger than Victoria Falls?
Niagara Falls is not bigger than Victoria Falls by height or width. Victoria Falls is roughly twice as tall and its sheet is more than twice as wide. Niagara carries far more water on average, and it carries it consistently all year, while parts of Victoria Falls thin to bare rock late in the dry season.
Is Niagara Falls natural or man-made?
Niagara Falls is natural. The falls formed as the Niagara River cut back through the escarpment after the last ice age. How much water goes over them is managed, though. A 1950 treaty between Canada and the United States sets minimum flows over the falls, and the rest is diverted to hydroelectric stations.
What are the three waterfalls at Niagara Falls?
The three waterfalls at Niagara Falls are Horseshoe Falls, which straddles the border and carries most of the water, American Falls on the New York side, and Bridal Veil Falls, the narrow one separated from American Falls by Luna Island.
What is the eighth wonder of the world?
There is no eighth wonder of the world. The phrase is a figure of speech with no official standing, applied over the years to everything from engineering projects to entertainers. Niagara Falls has been called it, and so has almost every other famous landmark.
Is Niagara Falls worth visiting if it is not a world wonder?
Niagara Falls is worth visiting whether or not it is a world wonder, because the lists have no bearing on what you see. Niagara sends more water over a single crest than almost anywhere on earth, and unlike most great waterfalls you can reach the base of it by boat, walk to within a few metres of falling water, and do both in an afternoon.
Where these figures come from
Dimensions and flow figures for waterfalls vary between authorities. These are the bodies whose published numbers this article follows, and the places to check anything here against.
- Niagara Parks. The agency of the Government of Ontario responsible for the Canadian side, and the usual source for Horseshoe Falls dimensions and flow. www.niagaraparks.com
- New York State Parks. Manages Niagara Falls State Park on the New York side, established in 1885. parks.ny.gov
- International Joint Commission. The Canada and United States body that oversees the 1950 Niagara River treaty governing how much water goes over the falls. www.ijc.org
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre. The World Heritage List itself, which is where the absence of a Niagara Falls inscription can be confirmed. whc.unesco.org
- New7Wonders. The foundation that ran the 2007 and 2011 campaigns, and publishes the winning lists. www.new7wonders.com
About this article
- Written by
- The Visiting Niagara Falls editorial team. We are a booking marketplace for Niagara Falls tours and tickets on both sides of the border, not an operator and not a tourist board.
- How it was researched
- Every list in the table was checked for its compiler, its date and its membership. Figures that different authorities report differently are given as ranges or attributed rather than stated flat.
- What we left out
- Claims we could not stand behind. There is no public record of Niagara Falls being nominated for World Heritage status or reaching the New7Wonders shortlist, so this article says it did not reach the finalists and stops there.
- Last checked
- Corrections
- Found something wrong? Tell us and we will fix it and say so.