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.
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| Methane bubbles trapped beneath the winter ice of Abraham Lake in Alberta, Canada. |
On the coast of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, just north of Dahab, a nearly circular patch of deep blue water cuts into the Red Sea reef. This is the Blue Hole in Dahab, one of Egypt's best-known diving sites and one of the most recognisable underwater formations in the region.
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| The Blue Hole in Dahab is a famous Red Sea sinkhole surrounded by the rugged mountains of South Sinai, Egypt. |
Hussaini Suspension Bridge is one of those places that looks unusual even before you get close to it. The bridge is made of wooden planks and cables and hangs above the Hunza River in Upper Hunza, with the high Karakoram mountains surrounding it. The gaps between the planks give the crossing a rough and exposed appearance, which is one reason the bridge has become well known among travellers and photographers.
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.
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| Balanced Rock stands among the dramatic red rock formations of the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, Colorado. |
There are plenty of unusual places in Florida, but few are as easy to miss as the Ochopee Post Office. Sitting beside U.S. 41 in southwest Florida, this little white building looks more like a garden shed than a working post office. Yet it is a genuine USPS facility and is officially recognised as the smallest post office in the United States.
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| The U.S. Postal Service recognises the Ochopee Post Office in Florida as the smallest post office in the United States. |
Hidden in the hills of Nanjing, China, are three enormous pieces of limestone that were meant to become one of the largest stone monuments e...
