Some of the best Christmas moments captured through a lens
The hottest place on Earth, Ethiopia's Danakil Depression roasts under an average-year round temperature of 34.4°C (94°F). However, the mercury can sometimes reach a blistering 50°C (122°F). Hot sulfur springs, bubbling lava, and thick crusty salt deposits are waiting to welcome the adventurous.
California's Death Valley is the location of the Racetrack Playa, where rocks and stones appear to slide across the baked landscape without human or animal intervention. For years this geological phenomenon puzzled even the brainiest of scientists, until somebody realized that movement is caused when ice sheets just a few millimeters thick start to melt during periods of light wind. These thin floating ice panels create an ice shove that moves the rocks at up to 5 m (16 ft) per minute.
An intricate cave system found on Sabah, the Gomantong Caves have been renowned for centuries for their valuable edible swiftlet nests, which are harvested for bird's nest soup. It's an ancient tradition and carefully policed: heavy fines and penalties are imposed on unlicensed collectors.
Kingley Vale in West Sussex has one of Europe's most impressive yew forests. Some of the trees are estimated to be at least 2,000 years old, a remarkable fact given that most ancient yew trees across Europe were felled after the 14th century, being the preferred material for the staves of longbows, used by the English and Welsh for hunting and as a weapon in medieval warfare.
Cappadocia, a historical region in Central Anatolia, bristles with hoodoos, or fairy chimneys—tall, thin spires of rock that were millions of years in the making. During the Roman period, persecuted Christians fled in droves to the region and built homes and churches in the chimneys. Many of these shelters still exist today.
About 40,000 interlocking basalt columns make up Giant's Causeway, an irregular platform of mostly hexagonal stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear under the sea. Legend says that a mythical Irish warrior built the causeway to reach Scotland after being challenged to a fight by an equally fearsome Scottish adversary.
A collection of unusually large and spherical boulders lying along a stretch of Koekohe Beach on New Zealand's South Island are explained by local Māori legends as the remains of eel baskets washed overboard from a sailing canoe.
The Great Blue Hole is a giant marine sinkhole off the coast of Belize. The sinkhole is part of the larger Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System, and is a popular destination with recreational divers.
Commonly called the "River of Five Colors" or the "Liquid Rainbow," the Caño Cristales' striking yellow, green, blue, black, and red colors are caused by plants anchored to the riverbed. Locals like to think the river flows out of the "Garden of Eden," and, indeed, many have said it's one of the most beautiful rivers on Earth.
Its name means "dead marsh" in the local dialect, and Deadvlei, a white clay pan located inside the Namib-Naukluft Park, does indeed appear to be bereft of life. The landscape is littered with the skeletons of long-dead trees, which stand forlornly near some of the highest sand dunes in the world.
There's a legend that attributes the Chocolate Hills found in the Bohol province of the Philippines to the tears of a giant named Arogo, who after losing the love of his life wept in sorrow, the drops of which formed the scattered hills. Others have said the rock formations resemble rows of Hershey's "chocolate kisses," the branded confection being the inspiration behind the name Chocolate Hills.
Looking like a scene out of Dante's Inferno, the southeast rift zone of Kilauea volcano on Hawaii's Big Island hisses and spits out molten lava straight into the ocean. Historically, Kilauea is the most active of the five volcanoes that together form the Big Island of Hawaii.
A distinctive geographical feature of Middle Island, which is moored off the south coast of Western Australia, Lake Hillier is also known as Pink Lake for its obvious bubble-gum color. The unusual tint is caused by algae, halobacteria, and other microbes.
Forever associated with the Steven Spielberg film 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' (1977), Devil's Tower in Wyoming remains a sacred site to indigenous Americans, whose names for the monolith include "Bear's House," "Aloft on a Rock," and "Brown Buffalo Horn." Incidentally, Devil's Tower was the first United States national monument, established on September 24, 1906, by President Theodore Roosevelt.
One of the most famous mountains in Japan, Mount Zaō is known for its "snow monsters," which are strange forms that appear in mid-winter that take shape after near-horizontal icicles begin to collect on trees which are then shrouded in snow. A full forest of these unworldly figures is enough to give anybody the shivers.
The Vermilion Cliffs National Monument in Arizona is named after the Vermilion Cliffs, steep, predominantly sandstone escarpments eroded for millions of years to expose hundreds of layers of richly colored rock strata. Pictured is the White Pocket formation, which looks like a huge, melting chocolate sundae.
Trollkirka translates as Troll Church. Hikers reaching this impressive natural wonder are blessed with a visually impressive network of marble and limestone caves nourished by tumbling cascades of crystalline water.
The sometimes smooth, sometimes sharp landscape of Zhangye National Geopark is streaked with the colors of coffee, ginger, and cinnamon, a 24-million-year-old layer cake of exceptional and beguiling beauty.
Resembling an enormous polished rhinestone, the turquoise-colored acidic crater lake of Ijen smolders in benevolence in mountains set across East Java. Trek to the rim of the crater at night and you can witness the famous electric blue flames of Ijen, ignited by sulfuric gas and reaching up to 5 m (16 ft) in height.
Madagascar is known for its unique lemur populations, but other wonders abound, not least the needle-sharp rock formations that pierce the Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve, located in the country's Melaky region. The name "Tsingy" is derived from a local word meaning "the place where one cannot walk barefoot." Wear boots!
This stunningly beautiful set of natural caves can be admired on a peninsula of solid marble bordering Lake General Carrera, a remote glacial lake that spans the Chile-Argentina border in Patagonia. The caves are only accessible by boat.
Lake Baikal, the largest freshwater lake by volume in the world, is especially alluring in winter. The ice season, which starts usually in mid-January and lasts until mid-April, affords visitors a stunning landscape of transparent turquoise ice that shimmers under a Siberian sun.
The Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming is the largest hot spring in the United States. It's also one of the most striking, with its colors matching most of those seen in a rainbow.
Sunk into the eastern Similkameen Valley of British Columbia is Spotted Lake, so named for the large "spots" of mineral deposits that gather in rings on the water's surface. From certain angles, the lake resembles the long neck of a giraffe.
Looking for a romantic place to pop the question? Head for Eternal Flame Falls in Chestnut Ridge Park in New York state. Tucked away behind a cascade of water is a flame that flickers nearly year-round. A small grotto at the waterfall's base emits natural gas, which is purposely lit to produce this wonderfully bewitching phenomenon.
Set within the Judge C. R. Magney State Park in Minnesota is the Devil's Kettle, an unusual waterfall and rock formation in which half of the Brule River disappears into a pothole. But where does the water go? Hydrologists believe the water that disappears into the rock reenters the river from underground.
Sources: (BBC) (Britannica) (European Space Agency)
Little observed by the outside world, the Richat Structure is a prominent circular feature in west-central Mauritania. Locals call this eroded dome 40 km (25 mi) in diameter the "Eye of the Sahara." The sedimentary rock exposed in this vast geological anomaly dates back to the appearance of oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere.
Iceland's Haukadalur Valley is one huge geothermal field of burping geysers and other geothermal crowd-pleasers. The biggest geysers are Strokkur and Geysir itself, which gave us the word 'geyser.'
Delve into the Waitomo Glowworm Caves on North Island and be charmed by thousands of luminous glowworms that call this cavern home. There are organized tours that include a boat ride under the glowworms. Now, there's a new meaning on finding light at the end of the tunnel!
Often described as the most unearthly place in Argentina, the Valley of the Moon lies within the Ischigualasto Provincial Park. It's a remote and arid landscape of wind-eroded rock formations shaped over millions of years. The name Ischigualasto derives from the extinct Cacán language, and means "place where the moon alights."
Mother Nature has endowed us with some truly majestic natural wonders. Spectacular in their beauty and grandeur, these attractions also number among the strangest and most bizarre on the planet. And the weirder the better, it seems.
Click through this gallery and be amazed by these places of peculiar note.
The world's strangest natural wonders
Weird and wonderful places to explore
TRAVEL Environment
Mother Nature has endowed us with some truly majestic natural wonders. Spectacular in their beauty and grandeur, these attractions also number among the strangest and most bizarre on the planet. And the weirder the better, it seems.
Click through this gallery and be amazed by these places of peculiar note.