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A breathtaking natural clifftop plateau, Preikestolen — known in English as Pulpit Rock — rises a sheer 604 metres above the dark, mirror-still waters of Lysefjord in Rogaland, southwestern Norway. Forged by the retreating glaciers of the last Ice Age some 10,000 years ago, the near-perfectly flat, roughly 25-by-25-metre ledge of ancient gneiss appears almost architectural in its geometry, as though the mountain itself had been cleaved by design. The approach is an 8-kilometre round-trip trail that winds through boulder fields, across wooden boardwalks and past glacially polished rock faces, rewarding hikers with a panorama of staggering scale: fjord walls plunging into cobalt water, cascading waterfalls, and a silence broken only by wind and the distant cry of birds. Preikestolen has drawn adventurers, painters and photographers since the early twentieth century and featured memorably in the filming of Mission: Impossible – Fallout. Access is free; only a modest parking fee applies, making this one of Scandinavia’s most democratic grand spectacles.