Here is the list from 10 -1 (numbers are tourists who visit per year)

10. Comoros - 15,000
9. Solomon Islands - 14,000
8. Central African Republic - 14,000
7. Sao Tome and Principe - 12,000
6. Turkmenistan - 8,000
5. Moldova - 7,000
4. Marshall Islands - 6,000
3. Tajikistan - 4,000
2. Kiribatu - 3,900

and the least visited country....

1. Tuvalu - 1,100

Anyone been to any of these?

No

For those of you looking for a reason to break onto this list here is a trekking tour for ya to hit up #3

http://www.wildfrontiers.co.uk/group-tours/kyrgyzstan-tajikistan-high-pamir-explorer/2000118

Sorry that is a driving holiday while I'm sure splendid this is a mountain climbing website so i'm sure your more interested in the trek. you'll sub Kyrgyzstan out in favor of Afghanistan so i hope that doesn't ruin your trip. 30 days walking the wakhan corridor

http://www.wildfrontiers.co.uk/group-tours/tajikistan-and-afghanistan-wakhan-corridor-trek/2000114

I've been to one of these countries (Marshall Islands) twice, and have been on three of the islands comprising the country (Kwajalein Atoll, Majuro, and Bikini Atoll). I was there both times to dive the shipwrecks in Bikini lagoon, which were sunk in US nuclear tests in 1946. They include the WWII aircraft carrier USS Saratoga, and WWII Japanese Imperial Flagship HIJMS Nagato, and a number of smaller vessels. The Saratoga is the among the best wreck dives in the world (the only thing I've dived that came anywhere close in size and complexity was the Andrea Doria). Got lots of surface and underwater photos which I could scan if anyone's interested. I can say categorically that there is nothing that's anything like a mountain on any of the islands, unless the huge synthetic aperture radar station on Kwaj counts.

Bikini is as close as I've gotten to true isolation; since the US conducted atmospheric and underwater nuclear tests there though the early sixties it was off limits to everyone but Atomic Energy Commission personnel until 1997, when a dive "resort" was created in the old AEC facilites. The resort consisted of military style barracks for up to ten visitors and a few staff, a mess hall, a dive shack with a compressor and some tools, a rec room with ping pong tables and a TV+VCR (for watching videos of the dives, and the library of old movies, cartoons and porn left by the AEC staff), and a dock with a boat. There was nothing else on the entire island other than ruins of concrete bunkers from WWII and the nuclear tests. It's pretty wild going for a walk in the early morning and knowing that, aside from the people back at the barracks, there's no other human for hundreds of miles. There's also no phone, no internet (there was a sat phone for emergencies), no TV or radio, no boat traffic, no emergency facilities, and only one flight a week in or out.

Curious about the numbers, where do these come from and how are they measured?

JHH60 wrote:
Bikini is as close as I've gotten to true isolation ...

Sounds pretty interesting and private. Can't help but wonder if it was the same one made famous by the Italians in 1957 ...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4nc5GXC0Is[/youtube]

Need a source for that list to see how they rate places. For example, where's North Korea on that list? Can't see them getting more than 15,000 visitors per year. Also Somalia and Zimbabwe come to mind as places that are not on any list of 'must see' tourist hot spots.

2. Kiribatu - 3,900

Cruise ships from Hawaii will regularly (once a week?) stop at Fanning Island, which is the northeasternmost atoll of Kiribati. Perhaps the 3,900 mentioned above reflects this ... or not.

Along the way, the ships cross the Kiribati-United States water border, which is kind of cool.

where's North Korea on that list? Can't see them getting more than 15,000 visitors per year.

This might be another technicality. Apparently one can visit the DMZ, enter into a room that straddles the border and walk around a table into NK for a brief moment.

Haven't been to any of those yet, but I've always thought Sao Tome and Principe has some cool looking mountains:

North Korea; Can't see them getting more than 15,000 visitors per year.

Chinese tourist like to go to North Korea. I don't know the numbers though.

Also Somalia and Zimbabwe come to mind as places that are not on any list of 'must see' tourist hot spots.

Somalia, yes, but Zimbabwe is a popular destination. A quick search says ~1,000,000 tourist last year.

The surprisingly high amount of Zimbabwe visitors is most likely due to the location of Victoria Falls I'd presume. Not so sure about Somalia, well I'm sure a whole lot more people are trying to leave there right now then go in and visit........

Yeah I love the concept of random mountains in obscure places (like the picture above of Pico Cao Grande). When boating around Papua New Guinea I saw a relatively massive volcano island. Upon my return home and after some research I found out that it was Mt Vineuo (2536m), on Goodenough Island. I can guarantee hardly any of you (IE a good sample of mountaineers from all around the world known for climbing such challenges, not even considering the rest of the western world) have ever heard of the mountain let alone climbed it, despite the island having a large influence on the halt of the Japanese southern invasion during WW2. The sheer size of the volcano jutting out of the ocean was an awesome sight.........

Oh yes, I was going to mention this...... In true 'rare sights' fashion, my camera battery died that morning.

After being armed with two fully charged camera batteries at the start of my adventure, 2 weeks in the jungles and rugged highlands of PNG in some of the most spectacular photograph worthy landscapes in the world and staying in a tent or bamboo shacks without any form of electricity anywhere in sight proved to be too much on the 2nd last day of my adventure.

Shame as I can't really find any decent pictures of the mountain on the internet. Goes to show.......

Confluence.org has some photos of neat mountains and other land forms.

Hombori Mtns, Mali: http://www.confluence.org/photo.php?visitid=15721&pic=7

Another shot of the spire-peak in Sao Tome: http://www.confluence.org/photo.php?visitid=6513&pic=2

Elephant Rock in Chad: http://www.confluence.org/photo.php?visitid=18342&pic=6

Sorry I can't embed the photos in the post here. You'll have to click the link.

I'd love to get to the Marshall Islands.
Need to find someone whom I can trust for some deep wreck dives.