The southern part of the Madeira Islands, belonging to Portugal, are home of Cabo Girão, a 589-m-high and 1 km long sea cliff that is a popular lookout point:

Image: Gerard Janot

The mountain with the highest cliffs in Ireland is Croaghaun in County Mayo. At 664 m (2,178 ft), they are also the third-highest cliffs in Europe. The Croaghaun Cliffs loop around the uninhibited northwest of Achill Island and are accessible only by climbing to the top of the mountain. Hikers are then rewarded with breathtaking views of a vast array of sheer rock faces.
Croaghaun is Europe’s third-highest cliff:

Image: Boholaman

3. The Cliffs of Moher near Doolin in County Clare, Ireland, rise 120 metres (394 ft) above the Atlantic Ocean at Hag’s Head, their lowest point, and 214 metres (702 ft) north of O’Brien’s Tower, their highest point. The scenic beauty makes the cliffs a popular tourist destination in Ireland that draws about one million visitors each year.
Looking north from the Cliffs of Moher:

Image: dlloyd

Beachy Head is the name of chalk cliffs on the south coast of England, close to the town of Eastbourne in the county of East Sussex, immediately east of the Seven Sisters, a series of chalk cliffs close to the English Channel.

Beachy Head is the highest chalk sea cliff in Britain, rising to 162 m (530 ft) above sea level.

Image: Sue Wallace

1. The White Cliffs of Dover stretch east and west from the town of Dover in the British county of Kent. The up to 106-m-high cliff face can be clearly seen across the English Channel from France.

Image: Gdr

Though there are many more breathtaking cliffs worldwide, we have tried to zero in on either the ones with the most beautiful views or that have some other highest, tallest or steepest attribute.

Image: Peter Morgan

Probably nothing inspires quite like the view from the top a cliff because the often long and steep hike is forgotten as soon as we glimpse the world from atop where we rest, birdlike, drinking in the scenery and ready to spread our wings. Join us on a tour of some of the most incredible cliffs around the world.

According to Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary, a cliff is “a very steep, vertical, or overhanging face of rock, earth, or ice.” The term comes from the Middle English word “clif”, which is derived from the Old High German “klep” and the Old Norse “klif”. The latter is interesting because to this day, some of the most spectacular cliffs have names inspired by Norse mythology.