Huge wooden wheels tell a story of engineering that predates electric pumps and modern water systems in Hama, Syria, along the Orontes River. Their broad rims, wooden compartments, and elevated aqueducts were designed to solve a simple but important problem: how to lift river water high enough to reach the city’s gardens, houses, mosques, and public baths.
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| The Norias of Hama are traditional wooden waterwheels built along the Orontes River to lift water into elevated channels. |
On the southern coast of Sydney, the Pacific Ocean has created something that looks almost too neat to be natural. Cut into a wide sandstone platform in the Royal National Park, the Figure 8 Pools are a collection of shallow rock pools, including one famous formation shaped remarkably like the number 8.
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| The famous Figure 8 Pool is a natural sandstone formation shaped by the long-term action of ocean waves. |
Hidden in the hills of Nanjing, China, are three enormous pieces of limestone that were meant to become one of the largest stone monuments ever attempted. They are known collectively as the Yangshan Quarry Stele, a colossal project ordered in 1405 by the Yongle Emperor of the Ming dynasty. The plan was to create a monumental stele in honour of his father, the Hongwu Emperor, at the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum.
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| The enormous unfinished base of the Yangshan Quarry Stele. |
Deep beneath the town of Derinkuyu in central Türkiye lies one of the most remarkable underground settlements ever carved into rock. The Derinkuyu Underground City is not simply a collection of caves. It is a carefully planned subterranean complex containing rooms, storage areas, stables, places of worship, a school, wells, ventilation shafts, and narrow passageways.
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| A view inside the multi-level underground city of Derinkuyu in Cappadocia, Turkey. |
Deep beneath the green hills of Waikato lies a place that seems almost unreal. The Waitomo Glowworm Caves are famous for a dark underground chamber where thousands of tiny blue-green lights shine above visitors like stars in a night sky. The experience is especially memorable because visitors view the glowworms from a quiet boat moving along an underground stream.
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| A spectacular glowworm cave in New Zealand creates a starry-sky effect, with hundreds of tiny lights glowing against the darkness. |
On the flat floor of Racetrack Playa in Death Valley National Park, rocks appear to have travelled across the desert by themselves. Some leave long, winding trails behind them, while nearby stones remain exactly where they were. For decades, nobody could watch the rocks move, which made the place one of the strangest natural mysteries in the American West.
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| A sailing stone leaves a long trail across Racetrack Playa in Death Valley. |
Deep in Antarctica’s McMurdo Dry Valleys, a strange red stain cuts through a wall of ice. It looks almost like blood spilling from Taylor Glacier, which is why the site became known as Blood Falls. But there is nothing supernatural about it. The strange colour comes from salty water, rich in iron, that has been held captive beneath the glacier for an unusually long time. One of the strangest sights in nature on Earth is when this ancient brine reaches the surface, reacts with oxygen, and turns a rusty red.
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| Blood Falls seeps from the end of Taylor Glacier into Lake Bonney in Antarctica. |
Inside St Paul’s Cathedral in Liège, Belgium, a remarkable marble figure sits beneath the arches of the church. With bat-like wings, chains around his body, and a troubled expression, the sculpture looks unlike the usual images of the devil. He is young, handsome, and almost sorrowful. This unusual figure is Le Génie du Mal, or The Genius of Evil, created by Belgian sculptor Guillaume Geefs in 1848. It is often known as the Lucifer of Liège. The sculpture has an unusual story involving two brothers, a controversial earlier statue, and a religious message about the triumph of virtue over evil. Its beauty is perhaps the most surprising part of all.
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| Guillaume Geefs’ Le Génie du Mal, the famous Lucifer sculpture inside St Paul’s Cathedral in Liège. |
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| The emerald-green waters of Charco de los Clicos contrast with Lanzarote's black volcanic coastline. |
In the heart of the Brazilian cerrado, there is a landscape that looks like it is from another planet. Vale da Lua, or Moon Valley, is an impressive rock formation in the state of Goiás, close to Alto Paraíso de Goiás. It is one of the most unusual places to visit in Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park, with strange sculpted rocks, narrow channels, natural pools and smooth curves.
The name comes from the rocks' appearance. Over thousands of years, water has worn down the old stone into rounded shapes and winding grooves. Standing among them, it is easy to understand why visitors compare the landscape to the surface of the Moon.
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| Vale da Lua is renowned for its unusual rock formations in Goiás, Brazil. |
Huge wooden wheels tell a story of engineering that predates electric pumps and modern water systems in Hama, Syria, along the Orontes River...
