Ten Scottish attractions have made it into a guide of the world's ultimate sights.
Alongside the Sydney Opera House, the Grand Canyon and the Arc De Triomphe are some of this country's top tourist sites including Skara Brae and the Scott Monument.
The capital fares best in this review of 1000 unmissable world sites with three mentions. The Scott Monument falls in to the Spookiest Building category and is described as a "spiky gothic fantasy".
And for visitors who put illuminations at the top of their itinerary the guide promises they'll be 'swept away' by the International Festival's firework finale.
The Lonely Planet guide divides the world's must see attractions into lists including Most Intriguing Lost Cities, which name checks Skara Brae in Orkney, and Best Sporty Sights chapter, which includes the Old Course at St Andrews.
In the west, according to the guide, there are two ultimate sites you should visit before you die - along with Paris's metro entrances and a famous portrait of Gustav Klimt, the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Willow Tea Rooms are accorded Art Nouveau Icons status.
The other Glaswegian tourist attraction listed is the monument in the city's Royal Exchange Square, included because of the traffic cone which is perched permanently on the Duke of Wellington's head and is described as making him look "fetching in orange".
Elsewhere the travel writers say that Shetland's Up Helly Aa is one of the world's Most Entertaining Parades and that although Loch Ness at first glance is like a "very large lake" it is one of the planet's Most Mysterious Sites.
And finally the beauty of Eilean Donan castle near Skye is said to have "launched a thousand tourist brochures".
