World Famous Place Photos Taken from Drones

Photographer Amos Chapple captures the world’s most famous landmarks — from the Taj Mahal to the Kremlin — using a drone. As soon as consumer drones came on the market, Chapple knew he needed one. After purchasing one and learning how to fly it, he began traveling the globe, photographing famous landmarks before such photography was made illegal.  "There was a window of about 18 months where it was possible to fly these things anywhere and people were excited to see it. I’m glad I made use of that time," Chapple told Business Insider. Now, with drone use illegal in many of these locations, his collection of beautiful drone images are some of the only aerial photos of their type. Chapple shared many of them with us and told the stories behind his shots. Amos Chapple Above the Kremlin at the heart of Moscow, Russia.   Amos Chapple Taj Mahal as the day's first tourists trickle through the gates.   Amos Chapple Barcelona, Spain. The neatly arranged suburbs around Sagrada Familia. Octagonal city blocks allow for the light, spacious street corners which make al fresco beer & tapas in Barcelona such a delight. Click here for the full Europe gallery.    Amos Chapple Paris’ Sacre?-Cœur, glowing in a hazy sunrise.   Amos Chapple The Vittoria Light in Italy, overlooking the Gulf of Trieste at sunset.     Amos Chapple Hotel Ukraina, lit up at dusk.   Amos Chapple The Church on Spilt Blood on an autumn morning. The church marks the spot where the reformist Tsar Alexander II was assassinated by a bomb-rolling revolutionary.   Amos Chapple The spiky skyline of Istanbul as a freighter sails for the Sea of Marmara.     Amos Chapple Known to the locals as "Hill 3," this knoll jutting above Mumbai's northern slums is no more valuable than the land below. Access to running water, which the hill lacks, is far more valuable than any view. Amos Chapple The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.   Amos Chapple The Lotus Temple, dotted with pigeons at sunrise. Designed by an Iranian exile, the building serves as the center of the Bahai'i faith in New Delhi, India.   Amos Chapple A knot of fishing boats at the entrance to Sassoon Dock in Mumbai, India.   Amos Chapple The angel atop the Alexander column in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Built after Russia’s victory over Napoleon, the column's 600-ton granite trunk was tipped into place by 2,000 soldiers. It balances without any attachment to its base. Amos Chapple The Mtkvari River winding through Tbilisi, Georgia's elegant capital.   Amos Chapple Worker and Kolkhoz Woman striding into the future that was. Built for the Soviet pavilion at the 1937 World's Fair in Paris, the steel masterwork now stands in the suburbs of northern Moscow.   Amos Chapple The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour at sunrise.   Amos Chapple The Katskhi Pillar in Georgia, where a hermit has lived for the past twenty years to be "closer to god."   Amos Chapple The Peter and Paul Cathedral in Peterhof, in Saint Petersburg, Russia, with the palace and gardens in the background. Beyond, the Finnish Gulf is obscured by fog. During WWII, Nazi armies occupied Peterhof, destroying it almost completely during their retreat.     Amos Chapple The star fort at Bourtange, Netherlands. Three centuries after the last cannonball was fired in anger at the fort, it now serves as a museum and the center of a sleepy farming village in eastern Holland. The low, thick walls were designed to offset the pounding force of cannon fire.   Amos Chapple Clouds swirl through the pillars of Sagrat Cor Church, high on a hill above Barcelona, Spain. Twenty minutes later a thunderstorm hit the city. Amos Chapple A ruined college in Gali, Abkhazia, near the "border" with Georgia, where ethnic Georgians made up 96% of the region’s pre-war population. Most fled, or were driven out of their homes after the war. Today Gali is a twilight zone of empty buildings and overgrown farmland.   Amos Chapple The windswept Liberty Statue, overlooking Budapest. Built in 1947 by the new communist rulers for the “Liberating Soviet Heroes” the inscription was amended swiftly after the USSR collapsed, "To the memory of all those who sacrificed their lives for the independence, freedom, and prosperity of Hungary." Amos Chapple The Palace at Petergof, perched on a bluff overlooking the sea some 19 miles from central Saint Petersburg.   Amos Chapple Jama Masjid, the heart of Islam in India. The red sandstone structure was built under the orders of the same Mughal emperor of Taj Mahal fame. Amos Chapple Visitors walk on fallen leaves in the Summer Garden, central Saint Petersburg’s oldest Park. Amos Chapple Buda castle on August 20. The barge in the center of the Danube is loaded with fireworks, launched later that night to celebrate Hungary’s national day. Buda castle on August 20, 2014. The barge in the centre of the Danube is loaded with fireworks, launched later that night to celebrate Hungary’s national day.  Clouds swirl through the pillars of Sagrat Cor Church, high on a hill above Barcelona. Twenty minutes later a thunderstorm hit the city.   Amos Chapple The Hermitage Pavilion near Saint Petersburg, Russia, wreathed in dawn mist. The little “whipped cream” pavilion was an example of the decadence which would eventually topple the Tsarist autocracy. It was famous for parties where tables laden with food would rise from beneath the floorboards into groups of delighted guests.   Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters   .    The Peter & Paul Fortress, Saint Petersburg's founding point. At the time of the fort's construction the islands of St. Petersburg were populated only by a ragtag collection of fishermen's huts. The area was deemed "too wild, too wet, too unhealthy" for human habitation, the equivalent of founding a capital city in the upper reaches of Hudson Bay.    Two wrestlers practising the ancient Indian sport of Kushti in a pit they had hacked into the ground two hours earlier.  Jama Masjid, the heart of Islam in India. The red sandstone structure was built under the orders of the Shah Jahan, the same Emperor who commissioned the Taj Mahal.    Russian tourists basking on the beach in Abkhazia. Click here for the full gallery on the embattled territory. Email from Young Park through Hak Joo Choi