Wings Around the Seven Wonders Tour

Fourteen Scenic General Aviation Flights Around Humanity’s Greatest Monuments

The modern New 7 Wonders are Chichén Itzá, Machu Picchu, Christ the Redeemer, the Colosseum, the Taj Mahal, Petra, and the Great Wall of China. This Chernair tour is built as 7 sets of 2 scenic flights, each designed to circle the landscape around one wonder rather than simply crossing continents from monument to monument.

Recommended Aircraft + Flying Style
Single-engine or light twin GA aircraft: Cessna 172, Cessna 182, Kodiak 100, DA62, Piper Cherokee, or Bonanza. Fly low, slow, and visual where terrain and airspace allow.

Leg 1 — MMUN → MMCT

Cancún, Mexico → Chichén Itzá, Mexico
A Caribbean-to-jungle flight from Cancún toward the ancient Maya city of Chichén Itzá.

Into the Mayan Green

The tour begins over the turquoise edge of the Yucatán, where resort coastlines quickly fall away into endless jungle. Ahead lies Chichén Itzá, once one of the great cities of the Maya world, its stepped pyramid rising from the forest like a stone calendar. The aircraft tracks inland, leaving the modern coastline behind, and the landscape becomes quieter, older, and more mysterious.

Leg 2 — MMCT → MMMD

Chichén Itzá, Mexico → Mérida, Mexico
A westbound scenic continuation across Yucatán, keeping the Maya heartland beneath the wings.

Stone, Sun, and Silence

Departing near Chichén Itzá, the second flight gives one last chance to orbit the ruins before heading toward Mérida. Below, the jungle hides cenotes, old roads, and settlements that once connected a vast civilization. The wonder is not only the pyramid itself, but the idea that astronomy, architecture, religion, and power were carved into stone under the tropical sun.

Leg 3 — SPZO → SPHY

Cusco, Peru → Andahuaylas, Peru
A high-altitude Andean flight beginning near the old Inca capital of Cusco.

The Road to the Cloud City

From Cusco, the aircraft climbs into thin mountain air. Valleys cut deep into the Andes, and ridgelines rise like walls around the cockpit. Machu Picchu is not just a destination here; it is a hidden chapter in a much larger Inca landscape. The route follows the feeling of the Sacred Valley, where terraces, rivers, and mountain shadows guide the story westward.

Leg 4 — SPHY → SPZO

Andahuaylas, Peru → Cusco, Peru
A return flight through the highlands, bringing the pilot back toward the Inca world.

The Empire in the Mountains

The second Machu Picchu leg turns back toward Cusco, with the Andes now unfolding in reverse. Somewhere among those peaks, Machu Picchu clings to its ridge above the Urubamba River, built with astonishing precision in one of the most dramatic settings on Earth. The flight feels less like sightseeing and more like searching for a secret the mountains agreed to protect.

Leg 5 — SBJR → SDAG

Rio de Janeiro/Jacarepaguá, Brazil → Angra dos Reis, Brazil
A coastal flight past Rio’s mountains, beaches, and the statue of Christ the Redeemer.

Arms Above the Harbour

Departing Rio, the aircraft turns toward Corcovado Mountain, where Christ the Redeemer stands above the city with arms outstretched. Below are beaches, bays, favelas, forest, and granite peaks, all compressed into one of the world’s most cinematic skylines. The flight then follows the coast toward Angra dos Reis, trading urban drama for islands and green Atlantic hills.

Leg 6 — SDAG → SBCB

Angra dos Reis, Brazil → Cabo Frio, Brazil
A sweeping coastal return across Rio’s visual theatre.

The City Beneath the Statue

Flying east again, Rio reappears like a stage set between sea and mountain. Christ the Redeemer is not hidden in a remote ruin; it watches over a living city. From the cockpit, the statue becomes a marker of scale — humanity below, mountain above, ocean beyond. The route continues toward Cabo Frio, carrying the tour from sacred symbol to open Atlantic light.

Leg 7 — LIRU → LIRJ

Rome Urbe, Italy → Marina di Campo, Elba, Italy
A departure from Rome with a scenic pass near the Colosseum before crossing toward the Tyrrhenian Sea.

The Arena of an Empire

Rome rises beneath the aircraft as a layered city of roads, domes, ruins, and memory. The Colosseum sits at its heart, once the arena of imperial spectacle and public power. From above, its broken oval still dominates the ancient centre. The flight leaves the city behind, but the story of Rome follows the coastline — empire, conquest, engineering, and endurance.

Leg 8 — LIRJ → LIRU

Elba, Italy → Rome Urbe, Italy
A return to Rome from the island of Elba, closing the Colosseum pair.

Returning to the Eternal City

Crossing back over the sea, the aircraft returns toward Rome like a messenger from the edge of the old empire. The Colosseum comes back into view not as a ruin, but as proof that architecture can outlive emperors. The flight ends where history refuses to stay buried, among roads and stones that still shape the modern city.

Leg 9 — VIAG → VIDP

Agra, India → Delhi, India
A northbound flight beginning beside the Yamuna River and the Taj Mahal.

White Marble at First Light

The Taj Mahal appears as a vision of symmetry beside the Yamuna, built as a mausoleum and remembered as one of the world’s great monuments to love and loss. Departing Agra, the aircraft circles the city before following the plains north. The land below is dense with history: Mughal roads, river cities, farmland, and the long pull of Delhi ahead.

Leg 10 — VIDP → VIAG

Delhi, India → Agra, India
A return flight south to Agra, designed for another scenic arrival over the Taj Mahal region.

The River and the Mausoleum

The second Taj leg reverses the perspective. Delhi falls behind, and the aircraft descends toward Agra, where the Taj Mahal waits like a pale flame near the river. From the air, its power is not only in its beauty, but in its placement — gardens, water, marble, and sky arranged into a single act of remembrance.

Leg 11 — OJAQ → OJAI

Aqaba, Jordan → Amman, Jordan
A desert flight north from the Red Sea, routing near Wadi Musa and Petra.

The Rose-Red City

The aircraft departs Aqaba and climbs over desert ridges toward Petra, the Nabataean city carved into sandstone cliffs. This is a wonder built not upward, but inward — façades cut directly from rock, hidden behind narrow passages and desert silence. The route continues north toward Amman, following a landscape of trade routes, kingdoms, and stone.

Leg 12 — OJAI → OJAQ

Amman, Jordan → Aqaba, Jordan
A southbound return through Jordan, revisiting Petra from the opposite direction.

Through the Siq of the Sky

Flying south, the desert opens again, and Petra’s country returns beneath the wings. From above, the wonder is part of a harsher geography: canyons, wadis, cliffs, and ancient caravan corridors. The flight descends toward Aqaba and the Red Sea, leaving the carved city behind like a secret sealed back into the mountains.

Leg 13 — ZBAA → ZYAA

Beijing Capital, China → Yangcun, China
A northern China flight designed to pass near Great Wall country northwest of Beijing.

Wall Across the Ridges

The Great Wall is not one single line but a vast system of fortifications across mountains, passes, and old frontiers. Leaving Beijing, the aircraft tracks toward rugged terrain where sections of the Wall climb ridges like a stone spine. Unlike the other wonders, this one stretches beyond a single viewpoint; it is a landscape-scale monument to defence, labour, and empire.

Leg 14 — ZYAA → ZBAA

Yangcun, China → Beijing, China
A final cross-country leg through northern mountain country connected to the Wall’s frontier story.

The Last Frontier

The final flight carries the tour across northern China, where the Great Wall’s story continues through mountains, watchtowers, and old borderlands. The aircraft moves from one horizon to another, following the idea of a barrier so large it became part of the geography itself. By the time Chengde comes into view, the journey has crossed jungles, mountains, cities, deserts, rivers, coastlines, and empires.

Final Reflection

From the Maya forests of Mexico to the ridges of northern China, this Chernair tour is not a race between monuments. It is a slow aerial pilgrimage around seven places where humanity left permanent marks on the Earth. Each wonder tells a different story — power, faith, memory, beauty, survival, empire, and mystery — and from the cockpit, they become more than landmarks. They become chapters in one long flight across civilization itself.

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