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The world''s best known landmarks, including the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Houses of Parliament in London, and Empire State building in New York, fell dark on Saturday, following Sydney''s Opera House and Beijing''s Forbidden City in joining a global climate change protest, as lights were switched off across the world to mark the Earth Hour event.

Several cities in the Basque Country turned off the lights between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. local time for one hour on Saturday in support of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) initiative Earth Hour.

Public buildings, monuments and millions of private homes went dark to draw attention to the threat of global warming. Guggenheim museum, Aznar Building, Bilbao City Council, the Basilica of Begoña and San Vicente Church are some of the examples in Bilbao (Biscay).

In addition, Kursaal Congress Palace in Donostia-San Sebastian also joined the initiative.

People were turning off lights and appliances for an hour from 2030 local time in a gesture to highlight environmental concerns and to call for a binding pact to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

This year was the fourth annual Earth Hour, organized by the World Wildlife Fund.

As each time zone reaches the appointed hour, skylines went dark and landmarks dimmed, from Berlin''s Brandenburg Gate to the Pyramids in Egypt.

Some 4,000 cities in more than 120 countries, starting with the remote Chatham Islands off the coast of New Zealand, were voluntarily switching off on Saturday to reduce energy consumption, though traffic lights and other safety features would be unaffected, organizers said.

More than one thousand monuments were turning off the lights.

Organizers hoped the event would put pressure on global lawmakers to push for clear progress on agreeing a binding international pact to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Andy Ridley, a WWF (World Wildlife Fund) employee in Sydney, came up with the idea of Earth Hour in a bar with friends.

Speaking on Saturday he said he hoped this year''s event would inspire world leaders to strive for a much stronger climate agreement than that struck at December''s Copenhagen climate change summit.

In the United States, the lights went out at the Empire State Building in New York, the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and the Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta, among many other sites in the Eastern time zone.

In Paris, the lights were switched off on the Eiffel Tower.

For safety reasons, the tower''s many lights could only be turned off for five minutes and not the full sixty minutes as symbolized by the candles placed at the Champs De Mars.

In Germany, lights were switched off at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and the ancient Acropolis in Greece fell dark during Earth Hour.

The famed Parthenon temple went dark in two stages, with the interior and front lights going off first and the rest about five minutes later.

In Egypt lights were switched off at the Pyramids and Sphinx.

Lisa Ashpy, a Canadian tourist, watching the event at the Pyramids said, "We''re all from the same planet and we''re all making a vote to save our planet and to remind ourselves of things that we can do."

Businesses, hotels and buildings in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro turned their lights off, and in Mexico City the Angel of Independence''s lights were also turned off to mark the event.

Earth Hour organizers said there was no easy way to measure how much energy had been saved worldwide.

They added that the fact that so many countries had signed up to take part was in itself a key message to world leaders that global warming was an issue of great concern to people worldwide.

Some 88 cities took part in last year''s Earth Hour, which has the backing of the United Nations as well as global corporations, non-profit groups, schools, scientists and celebrities, including Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett and retired Cape Town Archbishop Desmond Tutu.