The world is a strange, wonderful, and sometimes frightening place. We present to you the most unusual places on Earth that are the result of the whims of Mother Nature or the work of human hands.
20. Spotted Lake, British Columbia, Canada
Spotted Lake has long been revered by the Okanagan Indians, and it is easy to understand why they consider it sacred. In summer, part of the lake’s water evaporates, due to which small, multi-colored mineral spots form on which you can even walk. This lake contains the largest number of different minerals in the world.
19. Saline de Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia
This is the largest salt pan in the world. And when a thin film of water gathers on the surface of a dried-up salt lake, it becomes the world's largest natural mirror.
18. Lake Natron, Tanzania
Looking for the weirdest places in the world? How about this terrifying lake? The animals that die in it turn into statues, through calcification. The presence of huge volumes of sodium bicarbonate ensures that all organisms that die in the lake turn into mummies.
17. The Devil's Bridge, Germany
The next in the ranking of the strangest places on the planet is the bridge, which is famous for its unique structural accuracy. The bridge itself and its reflection merge into a perfect circle, regardless of the viewing angle.
16. Pavement of the Giants, Northern Ireland
Sixty million years ago, the erupting volcano "generated" a mass of molten basalt from its bowels, which then solidified and shrunk in volume. As it cooled, cracks appeared in it, which can be seen today. There are approximately 37,000 polygonal columns at this UNESCO World Heritage Site, and they are ideally geometric. According to local legend, they were created by the legendary hero Finn McCool, who was preparing for a fight with giant Goll.
15. Dead Vley, Namibia
A surreal spectacle is a sunlit dead forest in a dry oasis surrounded by rusty orange giant sand dunes. The lack of water makes tree roots creep out, directly onto the sand, in search of the smallest droplets of moisture. This is a real struggle for life!
14. Green Lake, Austria
At an altitude of 776 meters in the Alps is a lovely picturesque place in the center of which is a small lake. But in April the usual at first glance, the park is dramatically transformed. Powerful streams of water that roll down the mountain slopes fill the gorge with clear water. And beneath it, benches, flowerbeds, bridges, lawns, trees and shrubs disappear. It turns out a real underwater park with a depth of 2 to 20 meters. Well, divers also need to rest somewhere.
13. Pamukkale, Turkey
A wonderful UNESCO World Heritage Site located in southwest Turkey. This is Pamukkale (Cotton Palace), around which are the ancient ruins of Hierapolis, the once great city. Water cascades from natural sources rich in calcium bicarbonate flow down the white travertine terraces and form stunning thermal pools with a snow-white surface, which have no analogues in the world.
12. Tunnel of love, Ukraine
On one of the sections of the industrial railway near the Ukrainian village of Klevan there is a green tunnel formed by interwoven branches of trees and shrubs. It seems that it was created as a decoration for some beautiful fairy tale.
It is believed that if a pair of lovers pass through this tunnel and make a wish, then it will certainly come true.
11. Hillier Lake, Western Australia
This wonderful lake was discovered in 1802. Its rich pink color persists all year round, which, according to some scientists, is associated with high salinity of the water in combination with the presence of salt-containing species of algae, known as Dunaliella brackish-water and pink bacteria - halobacteria.
10. Sea forts of Mansell, England
In the waters of the Thames and Mersey rivers, the remains of sea forts built to contain German air raids during World War II stand on stilts.
After the war, a group of pirate radio operators took over the forts, and in 1967, retired Colonel Paddy Roy Bates drove them out. Having occupied one of the forts - the Rafs Tower - he proclaimed the creation of his own independent state called the Principality of Sealand. And so that everything was “grown-up” Bates took the name Roy I Bates, developed a constitution and came up with the national symbols of Sealand. He transferred his family and friends to the platform, after which the judicial confrontation of the "self-proclaimed king of the lemurs", that is, the newly-born prince, with the British government began. And the result was not in favor of the government.
As a result, Sealand safely existed until 2006, and then due to a short circuit in the generator and a fire, the principality burned to the ground. A huge amount would be spent on restoration, and its owner decided to put up a miniature state for sale. No one has bought it yet.
And the other forts had a less saturated and bright fate. They look like an army of rusty, but merciless robots decided to arrange an invasion from the sea, and then stopped on the approach.
9. Seven Giants, Russia
In Siberia, there is one of the most unusual places on the planet. It is known as the "Seven Giants" and "Mansi Doodles." These huge stone pillars of weathering from 30 to 42 meters high are located west of the Urals, on Mount Man-Pupu-ner. They were not created by human hands, but by ice and snow for many years.
Legend has it that the monoliths were once giant brothers, and their leader was Torev (Bear). Hearing about the beauty of the daughter of the leader of the Mansi, the giants went to war on the tribe in order to capture the beauty by force. But the good spirits gave the son of the leader a magical weapon - a fire sword and shield, with which he turned into a stone of giants. While dying, one of them threw aside a tambourine, which also turned to stone and turned into the peak of Koip (“Drum”).
8. Monticello Dam, California
Lakes, as a rule, do not have a giant "discharge", which sucks water into some cavernous invisible drain. However, the artificial Lake Berries is special.
When heavy rains create an excess pressure of water, a hole appears in the water surface of the lake, creating a fantastically beautiful and strange failure, which you hardly want to get into.
The unique design of the spillway, officially known as the “hole of glory”, allows you to miss an excess of water equal to 1370 cubic meters in one second. The depth of the drain is 21 meters.
7. Caves of Ra Poletta, New Mexico
Since 1990, a man named Ra Paulette took a shovel and pickaxe, and walked into the desert in New Mexico to make the caves out of malleable sandy mountains of fabulous beauty. The caves he digs manually include underground galleries decorated with intricate patterns. They come to the mind of the creator right at work.
6. Bloodfall, Antarctica
“Is this Antarctic glacier bleeding?” This is a perfectly reasonable question when you look at the Taylor Glacier, east of the Ross Ice Shelf. A red liquid flows down it, staining ice in its path, but there is a very reasonable explanation for this. Red substance is a high salt, microbial-filled water that has accumulated under the glacier for millions of years. As the water reaches the surface, it is saturated with oxygen, as a result of which a rusty waterfall is formed, worthy to enter the top 20 most strange places on Earth
5. Fun Cemetery, Romania
For most people, death is a terrible and sad event. However, some believe that remembering people who have gone to another world is necessary with a smile, not with tears.
An example of a non-standard approach to death is a cemetery located in the Romanian village of Sepyntsa. Each of the 800 multi-colored tombstones is marked by a funny anecdote from the life of a person buried beneath him, and often contains details of his death, accompanied by a fun illustration.
The colors of wooden tombstones have a certain meaning.
- Green has become a symbol of life.
- Black color traditionally represented death.
- Yellow is a symbol of fertility.
- Red symbolized passion.
And blue was originally the dominant color chosen by artist Stan Jon Patrash - the author of the first “fun” tombstone.
Fragmented epigraphs and bright colors make this cemetery one of the most unusual places in the world.
4. Badab-e-Surt, Iran
These beautiful travertine terraces in northern Iran are an incredible natural phenomenon that has formed at an altitude of 1840 meters above sea level for thousands of years. Travertine is a type of limestone formed from a precipitate of calcium in running water.
The unusual reddish color of the terraces is explained by the high content of iron oxide in one of the sources.
3. Nazca Lines, Peru
Animal figures and geometric patterns engraved on the Nazca Plateau in Peru are one of South America's greatest secrets. Who created them and why? Scientists have no answer, only speculation.
Images are clearly visible only from the air or from the observation tower located next to the highway. The contour of each of these geoglyphs (some of them are up to 200 m long) is made using a single continuous line.
2. Socotra Island, Yemen
This island, separated more than six million years ago from mainland Africa, looks like the scenery from a science fiction film. Socotra's incredible and unique biological diversity means that there are plants and trees that are not found anywhere else in the world. The ancient and twisted dragon tree and the mushroom tree look especially strange.
1. Cat Island, Japan
There is a joke that in fact seals rule the world. Well, in every joke, as you know, there is only a fraction of the joke. Seals still managed to capture one island.
A short ferry ride from the east coast of Japan will take you to Tashiro Island, where about 100 people and many, many cats live.
Initially, cat breeding on the island was encouraged, as locals made silk, and mice were a natural enemy of silkworms. Local fishermen believed that the pussies bring them luck, and the island even has a cat temple, as well as a newly built cat-shaped hollow (entertainment for tourists). It goes without saying that dogs are not allowed on the island.
