MESKENDIR VALLEY, CAPPADOCIA Photograph by Benh Lieu Song In this breathtaking photograph by Benh Lieu Song we see an aerial view of the Meskendir valley (and Gorëme in the far back part), in Cappadocia, central Turkey, where hot air balloon tours and trekking are quite popular. Cappadocia lies in eastern Anatolia, in…
WORLD’S LARGEST STONE BUDDHA Photograph by Ariel Steiner The Leshan Giant Buddha was built during the Tang Dynasty (618 – 907 AD). It is carved out of a cliff face that lies at the confluence of the Minjiang, Dadu and Qingyi rivers in the southern part of Sichuan province in China, near…
Photograph by Ramon Kristian Arellano Located 5 km (3 miles) from downtown Sucre, Bolivia is Cal Orko, an imposing limestone slab 1.5 km (0.9 miles) long and over 100 meters high (328 ft). On this steep face (inclination of 72 degrees), visitors can peer through time to when dinosaurs roamed the Earth over 68…
MEXICO’S GIANT CRYSTAL CAVE Photograph by Alexander Van Driessche Cave of the Crystals or Giant Crystal Cave (Spanish: Cueva de los Cristales) is a cave connected to the Naica Mine 300 meters (980 ft) below the surface in Naica, Chihuahua, Mexico. The main chamber contains giant selenite crystals, and are some of…
Opal is a hydrated amorphous form of silica. Its water content may range from 3% to 21% by weight, but is usually between 6% to 10%. Because of its amorphous character it is classed as a mineraloid, unlike the other crystalline forms of silica which are classed as minerals. It is deposited at a…
Situated within the Island Lake Conservation Area of Ontario, Canada, is the Dods and McNair Memorial Forest Trail, where people have been planting trees in memory of loved ones for years. After losing his wife Kerry to cancer in April 2011, Eric Landman set forth on creating an ambitious monument in her honour. By…
BADLANDS NATIONAL PARK Photograph by Jsoo1 on Wikimedia Commons Badlands National Park is a national park in southwestern South Dakota that protects 242,756 acres (98,240 ha) of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles, and spires blended with the largest undisturbed mixed grass prairie in the United States. On January 29, 1939, it was established…
The Three Sisters of New South Wales Photograph by JJ Harrison | Follow on Facebook The Three Sisters are a rock formation in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia. They are close to the town of Katoomba and are one of the Blue Mountains’ best known sites, towering above the…
China Danxia is a UNSECO World Heritage Site and the name given in China to landscapes developed on continental red terrigenous sedimentary beds influenced by endogenous forces (including uplift) and exogenous forces (including weathering and erosion). The inscribed site comprises six areas found in the sub-tropical zone of south-west China. They are characterized by…
THE ROCKY WAVE Photograph by G.A. KOUT | gakout.tumblr.com The Wave is located on the Colorado Plateau, near the Utah and Arizona border. The area is a gallery of twisted sandstone, resembling deformed pillars, cones, mushrooms and other odd creations. Deposits of iron claim some of the responsibility for the unique blending…