Strangest places on Earth. Part II

Strangest places on Earth. Part II

Legends of creation

Nature and humans can create bizarre things, and there are some absolutely strange places around the world. They can make you fascinated or scared and will never vanish from your memory once you see them.

PanARMENIAN.Net - Red Beach, China

Unlike the usual beaches, the Red Beach located in Panjin, China, doesn’t have red sand, but only seaweeds called Sueda, which grow during April or May and stay green until summer. When autumn comes, the landscape’s color turns from orange, to pink, and then to flaming red. To see the perfect view, you should visit the place from mid-September to mid-October. The Red Beach is located in the biggest wetland and reed marsh in the world, and actually hosts the most completed ecosystem that can be found: the area has become home to more than 260 kinds of birds and 399 kinds of wild animals. The place is also called as the “home of the cranes”.

Chocolate Hills, Philippines

The Chocolate Hills are a geological formation in Bohol province of Philippines. Being one of the country’s most famous tourist destinations, the conical and almost symmetrical hills, which are 30-50 meters high, are covered with grass that turns chocolate brown during the dry season.

Three legends explain the formation of the Chocolate Hills. The first tells the story of two feuding giants who hurled rocks, boulders, and sand at each other. After days of fighting the giants became friends. However, they forgot to clean up the mess they had made during their battle. Hence the Chocolate Hills stayed.

A more romantic legend tells about a powerful giant named Arogo, who fell in love with Aloya, a simple mortal. After Aloya’s death, Arogo could not stop crying. When his tears dried, the Chocolate Hills were formed.

The third legend is not that beautiful. It tells that a town was plagued by a giant, who ate all of the crops. To put an end to this injustice, the people piled spoiled food and placed it for the giant to eat. After eating it all, the giant couldn't digest the spoiled food, so he defecated, leaving behind him a mound of feces, until he had emptied his stomach of the food. The feces then dried, forming the Chocolate Hills.

Glass Beach, California, U.S.

Glass Beach gets its name from the smooth colorful glass pieces that you can find there. The site was once a trash dump so broken bottles from garbage cans of local residents are now little treasures to be found and photographed (and left behind). It is illegal to remove any glass from the site.

Plain of Jars, Laos

Giant stone jars of unknown ancient origin are scattered over hundreds of square kilometers around Phonsavan, Laos, giving the area the misleading name of Plain of Jars. The mysterious jars were carved from both sandstone and granite in various sizes from very small to about 3,5 meters high and are thought to be more than 2,000 years old. Legend has it that they were made to store rice wine while some believe they were for storing the dead. Until today the function of the jars is still disputed.

Goblin Valley State Park, Utah, U.S.

The eminent feature of this state park is its thousands of hoodoos and hoodoo rocks, referred to locally as "goblins", which are formations of mushroom-shaped rock pinnacles, some as high as several meters. Goblin Valley State Park is a showcase of geologic history. 170 million years ago, a vast inland sea deposited layers of mud, sand, and silt. Millions of years later, these deposits were sculpted by erosion and weathering. Softer parts of the rock eroded more quickly than harder layers, leaving behind the bizarre goblin shapes seen today.

Cat Island, Japan

Tashirojima is a small island in Japan, lying in the Pacific Ocean off the Oshika Peninsula. It is an inhabited island, although the population is quite small (around 100 people, down from around 1000 people in the 1950s). It has become known as "Cat Island" due to the large stray cat population that thrives as a result of the local belief that feeding cats will bring wealth and good fortune. The cat population is now larger than the human population on the island.

Kabayan Mummy Caves, Philippines

The Kabayan Mummy Burial Caves are manmade caves full of preserved mummies, isolated from most of the world. These mummies are some of the best preserved in the world. Some scientists believe that the Fire Mummies were created between 1200 and 1500 AD and buried in caves. Others believe that the process of mummification began at 2000 BC. What makes the Fire Mummies unique is their process of mummification that began shortly after a person died. Then the body was washed and set over a fire in a seated position, thus drying the fluids. Smoke from tobacco was blown into the mouth to dry the internal organs. Eventually, herbs were rubbed into the body. Mummified bodies were then placed in a coffin made of pinewood and laid to rest in rock shelters, natural caves or man-made burial niches. The practice of that mummification ended, since Spaniards colonized the Philippines in the 16th century.

Zhangye Danxia Landform, China

With its rolling hills, rocky peaks and multitude of colors, this otherworldly site looks like no place on Earth. The spectacular lunar landscape can be found at the Zhangye Danxia Landform Geological Park in Gansu Province, China. Like one giant red, orange and yellow-hued paint spattered artwork, the park offers breathtaking views that blaze with color. The unusual coloring in the rocks is the result of red sandstone and mineral deposits being laid down over 24 million years.

The Door to Hell, Turkmenistan

This giant hole in the Karakum Desert has been burning for over 40 years. Named by locals as 'The Door to Hell,' the crater in Turkmenistan was created by Soviet geologists in 1971 who were drilling at the site and tapped into a cavern filled with natural gas. The ground underneath the rig collapsed and left a hole with a diameter of 70 meters. The team was afraid the hole would release poisonous gases and decided to burn it off. They hoped it would be put out after a few days but the hole has been burning ever since. Its golden glow can be seen for miles.

Blood Falls, Antarctica

Blood Falls is an outflow of an iron oxide-tainted plume of saltwater, flowing from the tongue of Taylor Glacier onto the ice-covered surface of West Lake Bonney in the Taylor Valley of the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Victoria Land, East Antarctica. Iron-rich hypersaline water sporadically emerges from small fissures in the ice cascades. The saltwater source is a subglacial pool of unknown size overlain by about 400 metres (1,300 ft) of ice several kilometers from its tiny outlet at Blood Falls. The reddish deposit was found in 1911 by the Australian geologist Griffith Taylor, who first explored the valley that bears his name. The Antarctica pioneers first attributed the red color to red algae, but later it was proven to be due only to iron oxides.

It's also very interesting: Strangest places on Earth. Part I

Lusine Mkrtumova / PanARMENIAN.Net
 Most popular in the section
How collection of horned creatures turned into museum
New York’s first female crime boss
World’s largest boneyard
An Italian photojournalist’s journey through the pandemic
 At focus
Azerbaijan admits death of 192 soldiers in Karabakh offensive

Azerbaijan admits death of 192 soldiers in Karabakh offensive Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive.

 More articles in this section
Quarantine in metropoles Drone footage reveals deserted streets
Town without newborns and dead Four months without sun
Nine months in the Pacific Supporting women to overcome life changing events
---