Lonely Planet's Ultimate Travelist: Angkor Wat number one in list of the world's 500 top places to visit

Lonely Planet has declared Cambodia's magnificent UNESCO World-Heritage listed temple Angkor Wat to be the number one spot in a new guide to the world's best places to visit.

The guidebook publisher proclaimed Cambodia's major drawcard to be not just an interesting ruin, but a "spiritual epiphany in stone".

While you're now busy rejigging your southeast Asian itineraries to fit this mega-ttraction in, you can cross off Bangkok's Grand Palace. As an equally popular tourist destination, it languished, surprisingly, at the 499th spot - the list's rear end.

Australia earned accolades with its spectacular Great Barrier Reef, voted second best place in the world to visit as an 'enthralling' and 'vital ecosystem'. Just outside the top 10 was Victoria's Great Ocean Road, coming in at 12th place.

USA's Grand Canyon, Peru's Machu Picchu and the Colosseum in Italy also earned slots in the top 10 .

While Italy's famed Tower of Pisa withered at number 491, the lemon of the list was Philadelphia's Independence National Historic Park - which sounds as interesting as it is popular.

The new 'Ultimate Travelist' is a definitive collation of 500 of the most thrilling and memorable places for travellers, 'ranked in order of brilliance'.

The list was compiled using the highlights, attractions and sights nominate by authors and found across their collection of guidebooks.

The Lonely Planet community were also asked to weigh in on the vote, submitting their top 20 favourite sites.