Let there be lights!

The Inuit imagined them to be walruses playing with human skulls, while the Vikings thought they were reflections of the ghosts of virgins. The scientific account, however, of the beautiful waves of blue, green, red, violet and white light known as the aurora borealis (northern lights) and aurora australis (southern lights), is that they are caused by electrically charged particles blown from the sun and attracted to the earth's magnetic poles.

The best countries to see this astounding natural display are the cold, snowy northern ones, and the higher the altitude the better. Top locations include Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Scandinavia, Russia and Antarctica, although the lights are also occasionally seen in lower latitudes including the UK and northern Europe. The spectacle can be seen all year round, the prime season being from September through to March (with autumn and spring being optimum).

There is, of course, no guarantee that you'll see the northern or southern lights at a given location or at a given time - the difficulty in catching them is part of their attraction. But we've rounded up a dozen locations around the world where your chances are highest of viewing the jaw-dropping sight that is the aurora borealis or australis.