1: Spotted Lake, British Columbia, Canada.
In the summer the water of the lake evaporates and small mineral pools are left behind, each one different in colour to the next.
2: Thor’s Well, Oregon, USA.
In rough conditions at Thor’s Well in Oregon, also known as Spouting Horn, the surf rushes into the gaping sinkhole and then shoots upwards with great force.
3: Pamukkale, Turkey.
A remarkable UNESCO World Heritage Site in southwest Turkey. Water cascades from natural springs and down the white travertine terraces and forms stunning thermal pools perfect for a quick dip.
4: Lake Hillier, Western Australia.
Discovered in 1802, It keeps its deep pink colour year-round, which some scientists say is down to high salinity combined with the presence of a salt-loving algae species known as Dunaliella salina and pink bacteria known as halobacteria.
5: Badab-e Surt, Iran.
These beautiful travertine terraces in northern Iran are an incredible natural phenomenon that developed over thousands of years. Travertine is a type of limestone formed from the calcium deposit in flowing water, and in this case it’s two hot springs.
6: The Tianzi Mountains, China.
Found in the northwest of Hunan Province in China, these staggering limestone pinnacles are covered in lush greenery and often shrouded in mist. Unsurprisingly they are the inspiration for the floating mountains in the blockbuster movie Avatar.
7: The Nasca Lines, Peru.
The animal figures and geometric shapes etched by the ancient Nasca into Peru’s barren Pampa de San José. Visible only from the air, some of the unexplained shapes are up to 200m in length and each one is executed in a single continuous line.
8: The Bermuda Triangle, North Atlantic ocean.
Long shrouded in mystery, the infamous 500,000 square miles also dubbed the devil’s triangle is roughly the area between Florida and Puerto Rico. Conspiracies abt this place include unusual magnetic readings & missing planes, ships.
9: Socotra Island, Yemen.
Socotra’s incredible and unique biodiversity means that there are plants and trees here not found anywhere else in the world – particularly bizarre are the ancient and twisted dragon’s blood tree and the bulbous bottle tree.
10: The Giant’s Causeway, Northern Ireland.
There are an estimated 37,000 polygon columns at this World Heritage Site, so geometrically perfect that local legend has it they were created by a giant.
11: The Hand in the Desert, Chile.
Chilean sculptor Mario Irarrázabal is responsible for this weird work of art rising out of the sand in the middle of Chile’s Atacama desert. This huge unnerving sculpture captures a feeling of loneliness, exacerbated by its secluded location.
12: Chocolate Hills of Bohol Island, Phillipines.
Bohol’s 1700-odd conical hills dot the middle of the island in the Philippines. They only earn their ‘chocolate’ nickname in the dry season when the foliage goes from lush green to brown.
13: Red Beach, Panjin, China.
Very cool and very weird, this beach is covered in a type of seaweed called Sueda, which turns bright red in autumn. Thirty kilometres southwest of Panjin, these tidal wetlands are an important nature reserve for migrating birds.
14: Plain of Jars, Laos.
Shrouded in myth, megalithic stone jars are scattered in groups from one to 100. A working theory is that the huge cylindrical jars were used in ancient funeral ceremonies, though local legend has it that the jars were used to brew rice wine for giants.
15: Goblin Valley, Utah, USA.
No, this is not Mars but an uninhabited valley 216 miles southeast of Salt Lake City in Utah. Soft sandstone has, for many years, been eroded by wind and water to form strange pinnacles or hoodoos that some think resemble goblins.
16: Whale Bone Alley, Siberia.
A stretch of the northern shore on remote Yttygran Island, 82km off the coast of Alaska, has become a macabre tourist destination. Massive whale jawbones, ribs and vertebrae stand horizontal in the ground forming an eerie alleyway.
17: Glass Beach, California, USA.
This glittering sea glass beach in California is a remarkable side effect of years of rubbish being dumped on the beach. It wasn’t until the 1960s that this was stopped and by then the sea was full electrical appliances to bottles and cans.
18: The Catacombs, Paris, France.
The creepy catacombs are a network of old quarry tunnels beneath Paris and the final resting place of around six million Parisians. Most are anonymous skulls and bones taken frm the city’s overcrowded graveyards during the 18th & 19th centuries.
19: Fly Geyser, Nevada, USA.
This geyser was created accidentally in 1964 after an energy company drilled down into geothermal waters, today a scalding fountain erupts up to five feet high and the resulting mineral build up means the cone is growing by several inches each year.
20: The Zuma Rock, Niger State, Nigeria.
This rock has natural contours on the surface which depict the image of a human face with a visible mouth, eyes, and nose. The natives believed the face represented the deity and ancestral powers protecting the community.
