Nepean Point, Ottawa

Sitting high above the Ottawa River across from Parliament Hill, this lookout is topped with a towering statue of Quebec's founder, Samuel de Champlain. A French explorer, Champlain established Canadian colonies in the early 1600s. He also charted the seacoast from Nova Scotia to Massachusetts, and explored river routes in Quebec and central Ontario. Another building block in Canadian history was the trading of fur, which Champlain began by working with First Nation peoples. In the statue he clutches his astrolabe, an instrument used for navigation that historians believe he lost on a portage of the Ottawa River.