Devils Golf Course: Death Valley's Salt Landscape

At first glance, Devils Golf Course looks less like a landscape and more like something carved from another world. The ground is covered with sharp ridges, rough mounds, and irregular spires of salt and mud, stretching across the floor of Death Valley. Green grass, a fairway, and an ordinary golf course are absent. The name comes from the brutally uneven terrain, said to be so rough that only the devil could play golf there.

The jagged salt formations of Devils Golf Course in Death Valley National Park, California.

Ball’s Pyramid: Australia’s Striking Volcanic Sea Stack

Out in the Tasman Sea, far from Australia’s mainland, a dark column of rock rises sharply from the water. It looks almost too steep and isolated to be real. This is Ball’s Pyramid, a spectacular volcanic sea stack belonging to the Lord Howe Island Group. The first sight of Ball’s Pyramid is particularly difficult to forget. There is no broad shoreline or gentle slope around it. Instead, the rock rises abruptly from the ocean, making it look like a giant piece of the ancient landscape was left standing after everything around it disappeared.

Ball’s Pyramid rises sharply from the Tasman Sea as part of the Lord Howe Island Group World Heritage Area.

Abraham Lake, Alberta: The Famous Frozen Methane Bubbles

Abraham Lake looks like an ordinary mountain reservoir in the summer. In winter, however, the lake develops a strange feature that has made it famous far beyond Alberta: hundreds of pale bubbles appear trapped beneath the clear ice.

Methane bubbles trapped beneath the winter ice of Abraham Lake in Alberta, Canada.

Parus Rock: The Sail Rock of Russia

On Russia's Black Sea coast, near the resort city of Gelendzhik, a remarkable slab of sandstone rises almost vertically from the shoreline. Known as Parus Rock, or Sail Rock, it looks surprisingly like the sail of a ship standing against the sea. The unusual shape is not the result of human construction. It is a natural rock formation shaped by the long interaction of the coastline, erosion, and differences in the strength of the surrounding rocks.

Parus Rock, also known as Sail Rock, stands dramatically along the Black Sea coast near Praskoveyevka in Krasnodar Krai, Russia.

Balanced Rock: Garden of the Gods, Colorado

Balanced Rock is one of the most recognisable formations in the Garden of the Gods Park in Colorado Springs. Its considerable mass of red rock appears to rest on a much narrower base, creating the impression that the formation could topple at any moment. It is a simple shape, but seeing it in person makes the illusion much more striking than a photograph suggests.

Balanced Rock stands among the dramatic red rock formations of the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Eye of the Sahara: The Richat Structure in Mauritania

From the ground, the Sahara can seem almost endless—sand, rock, dry valleys, and a horizon that goes on for miles. Yet in northern Mauritania, a geological formation's full beauty is difficult to appreciate from the surface. From above, the landscape suddenly forms a gigantic series of circular rings that resemble an enormous eye.

The Richat Structure, known as the Eye of the Sahara, forms a huge circular pattern in the Sahara Desert of Mauritania.

Salar de Uyuni: Bolivia’s Giant Salt Flat

A landscape of bright white salt stretches almost to the horizon in southwestern Bolivia. In the dry season, its surface breaks into enormous geometric patterns. After rain, a thin layer of water can spread across the plain and turn the entire landscape into a near-perfect reflection of the sky. This is Salar de Uyuni, the Uyuni Salt Flat, one of the most extraordinary landscapes in South America.

The vast Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia features geometric salt patterns across one of the world’s largest salt flats.

Tuhala Witch’s Well: Estonia’s Flooding Well

Most wells are places where people go to collect water. The Tuhala Witch’s Well in Estonia has a rather different reputation. Every so often, usually during spring flooding, water suddenly rises through the well and spills over its wooden cover. For a while, the quiet countryside around Tuhala appears to have a well that is "boiling".

Tuhala Witch’s Well overflows during a spring flood in Estonia, creating the unusual “boiling” effect associated with the site.