Diamond Jubilee: 4,000 beacons to be lit across the world for the Queen

More than 4,000 Diamond Jubilee beacons will be lit across the globe in celebration of the Queen's 60-year reign.

The Queen will light the final beacon from the concert stage where Stevie Wonder, JLS, Sir Elton John and a host of stars will perform in her honour on June 4.

Bruno Peek, pageantmaster of the Diamond Jubilee beacons, has described the number of communities who have registered to hold celebration bonfires as "truly amazing", easily surpassing the 2,012 they hoped to attract.

[Related link: Queen lights final beacon at close of stunning Jubilee concert]

After the pop stars have paid a musical tribute to the monarch in the shadow of Buckingham Palace, the Queen will walk out in front of the crowds and set the national beacon ablaze.

She will place a diamond, made from crystal glass, into a special pod at 10.30pm, triggering the lighting of the last beacon nearby in The Mall.

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Mr Peek, who organised the Golden Jubilee beacons in 2002, delivered the crystal to the Tower of London earlier this month during a lavish ceremony.

He said: "Our aim was to light 2,012 beacons because 2,012 have never been lit before.

"For the Golden Jubilee there were 1,800 beacons lit and we wanted to surpass that, but by the end of the night we will have over 4,120 - that's truly amazing.

"The beacons will be lit around the world on Monday June 4 from Tonga to the Falkland Island and Malta to Kenya."

The network of beacons that will criss-cross the UK will be placed on historic landmarks, hill-top vantage points and famous mountains.

On Hadrian's Wall 60 beacons will be lit in sequence - one for each year of the Queen's reign.

The highest peaks of the UK's four nations will be lit up to mark the 60-year milestone by teams from four charities.

Forces charity Help For Heroes will conquer Ben Nevis in Scotland, Walking With The Wounded will climb Snowdon in Wales, Cancer Research UK will scale England's Scafell Pike, while Field Of Life take on Northern Ireland's highest peak, Slieve Donard in the Mourne mountain range in County Down.

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There will also be beacons on the battlements of the Tower of London, St James's Palace, Lambeth Palace, the parapet of Windsor Castle, the Long Walk in Windsor Great Park, Sandringham, Balmoral, Edinburgh's Palace of Holyroodhouse and Killyleagh Castle in Northern Ireland.

The Treetops Hotel in the Aberdare national park in Kenya - where the Queen was told by the Duke of Edinburgh in 1952 her father George VI had died and she was monarch - will also light a beacon.

The first beacon to be lit in the UK will be by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) matrics - a support group for surveying students and those newly qualified - as it was the first organisation to sign up to the project.

The body will put flames to 47 beacons across the country at 10pm and be the first to light up the night sky in honour of the Queen.