Silhouette of Shambhala roller coaster at sunset in PortAventura Park, Salou, Tarragona, Spain

© Joaquim F. P./Getty Image

What goes up...

Whether they are screaming with delight and waving their hands or closing their eyes and praying for this to be over, these riders are on the downslope of one of Europe's biggest and fastest hypercoasters (that's a roller coaster over 200ft tall). Spain's PortAventura Park is home to seven coasters, but Shambala dwarfs the others at 249ft (76m) high, with a maximum speed of 83mph. In Spain, rollercoasters are known as 'montañas rusas', Russian mountains, a reference to the ice slides constructed in 18th century Russia. Meanwhile in Russia, they are known as 'amerikanskiye gorki', or American slides.