The most mysterious mysteries of the world that have been solved. Unsolved natural mysteries of the world


There are still many unsolved mysteries in the world, despite all the development of science, technology, as well as numerous studies. Although, it would seem, there should already be logical explanations for these mysterious things, as before, people can only guess what they are facing.

1. The rumble of Taos


In the small American town of Taos, you can often hear an incomprehensible hum, which can be compared to the distant sound of a diesel engine. Despite the fact that the sound can be perfectly heard with the naked ear, various audio devices are not able to fix it. Until now, nobody knows where this sound comes from.

2. The Voynich manuscript


The Voynich manuscript was written in an incomprehensible language, which people have been trying to decipher in vain for centuries. The only thing that is clear in the manuscript is the drawings (but they also look like something unearthly).

3. Jack the Ripper


The name Jack the Ripper can be found in many TV series and films related to serial killers. He killed 11 women in East London in the late 1800s, but his identity was never revealed. Most of the victims of the maniac were prostitutes, whose bodies were mutilated beyond recognition, and their throats were slit.

4. Bermuda Triangle


The legendary Bermuda Triangle can be found between Miami, Bermuda and Puerto Rico. Pilots often say that their instruments are failing in this place, and that numerous ships have disappeared without a trace here. While there are many theories, from gas bubbles escaping from the bottom to aliens, no one really knows what is behind the strange phenomena.

5. Letters of the Zodiac


During the 1960s and 1970s, a criminal was operating in the San Francisco Bay Area, who became known as the Zodiac Killer thanks to mysterious encrypted letters that he sent to the police and the press. Despite the fact that one of the four letters was deciphered (any maniac or psychopath would envy its content), the other three still remain a mystery.

6. Rongorongo


On the mysterious Easter Island, where the famous moai stand, a set of hieroglyphs was discovered, which was named Rongorongo. These symbols have never been deciphered, although they may contain clues as to who and why the huge stone heads are scattered throughout the island.

7. Loch Ness monster


For centuries, people have heard of the Loch Ness monster and how unlike any other creature it is. Over the years, there have been many sightings of Nessie, as well as a number of photos and videos. Even today, some argue, the monster exists and floats underwater.

8. Stonehenge


Stonehenge is one of the most famous and fascinating ancient structures in the world. The biggest mystery in it is not how it was created, but why.

9. Lost Atlantis


The debate is still going on about whether Atlantis once existed. But Plato was firmly convinced of its existence and mentioned Atlantis in his writings. But, according to a number of historians, today the mysterious island, together with the magnificent city, plunged into the depths of the ocean and no one has found them until now.

10. Aliens


UFOs are observed all over the world. For centuries, people have been asking themselves the question that humanity cannot be alone in an endless universe. While some have claimed to have been abducted, there is no evidence of this.

11. Signal "Wow!"


When Jerry Eiman was working on the SETI project on the radio telescope at Ohio University, he never expected to be able to pick up the real signal coming from deep space. His equipment recorded a 72-second signal from the constellation Sagittarius. But since then, no one has been able to catch him again.

12. D.B. Cooper


When D.B. Cooper hijacked a Boeing 727 in 1971, he received a ransom of $ 200,000. After that, he jumped out of the plane with a parachute. He was never found.

13. Geoglyphs of Nazca


The Nazca civilization created some of the most breathtaking geoglyphs on Earth. The desert plateau features giant lines that depict spiders, monkeys, sharks, killer whales, flowers and just abstract patterns. Their accuracy is incredible, especially considering that the drawings can only be seen from an airplane, which the Nazca could not have done.

14. SS Ourang Medan


The case of the Dutch freighter Ourang Medan or "The Man from Medan" in Malaysia is perhaps one of the most fascinating and mind-boggling mysteries that have ever existed in the history of sailing. It all started with an SOS message in 1947, which said “The captain and all the officers lie dead in the cockpit and on the bridge. Maybe the whole team is dead. " Further, the telegraph operator reported that he, too, was dying. When the Silver Star ship came to the rescue, it turned out that indeed the entire crew was dead for no apparent reason.

15. Aluminum wedge from Ayud


Back in 1974, a group of workers in Romania discovered three different objects while excavating a trench at a depth of 10 meters. Two of the objects were 2.5 million years old prehistoric elephant bones. The third object stunned everyone - it was an aluminum wedge that was found along with ancient bones.


Many people love to solve all sorts of riddles. And especially attracted by those that have not yet been solved. Ciphers, riddles and coded public messages tease us with their intrigue: why is this message encrypted? what great secrets can it hide?

There are a great many such riddles, but we decided - in the spirit of the times - to compose some Top-10 mysteries of the world that have not yet been solved.


In the first place, of course, is the Voynich manuscript. Named after the Polish-American antique book dealer Wilfrid M. Voynich, who acquired it in 1912, The Voynich Manuscript is a detailed book, quite thick - 240 pages, written in a completely unknown language.


Unknown until now! And there is not even any suggestion of what kind of language it might be. Its pages are also filled with colored drawings and strange diagrams, images of incredible events, and plants that are unlike any known species, which only adds intrigue to a document that cannot be deciphered. The author of the manuscript is unknown, but radiocarbon analysis, as well as several examinations, showed that its pages were made somewhere between 1404 and 1438. The manuscript has been called "The most mysterious manuscript in the world."


In second place is Kryptos, a mysterious cipher-covered sculpture by artist Jim Sanborn and located in front of the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in Langley, Virginia, USA. It is so mysterious that even the CIA itself could not fully decipher its code.


The sculpture contains four ciphers, and although three of them were successfully deciphered, the fourth has not yet been deciphered. In 2006, Sanborn gave a hint that the first encryption contained clues to the fourth, and in 2010 he revealed another: 64-69 NYPVTT in the fourth part means the word "Berlin".


In third place is the Bale cipher. The Bale cipher is a set of three ciphers that purportedly reveal the location of one of the greatest buried treasures in American history: many thousands of pounds of gold, silver and precious stones... The treasure was originally mined mysterious man named Thomas Jefferson Bale in 1818 during gold mining in Colorado.


Of the three ciphers, only the second was decoded. Interestingly, it looks like the key to the cipher is the American Declaration of Independence - amazing fact given that Bale's name is the same as the author of the Declaration.

The decrypted text indicated the location of the treasure: Bedford County, Virginia, but its exact location appears to be encrypted in one of the remaining ciphers. Today, treasure hunters scour the (often illegal) hills of Bedford County in search of this myriad of wealth.


The fourth place is taken by the Phaistos disc. The mystery of the Phaistos disc is like an Indiana Jones story. Discovered by the Italian archaeologist Luigi Pernier in 1908 in the ruins of the Minoan palace at Festa, the disc is still one of the most famous mysteries in archeology. It is made of baked clay and contains mysterious symbols that may represent the unknown shape of the hieroglyphs. It is believed to have been made sometime in the 2nd millennium BC.


Some scholars believe that these hieroglyphs resemble the characters for "Linear A" and "Linear B" writing, in other words, the written languages ​​that were once used in ancient Crete.


Then what is the problem? The fact that "Linear A" cannot be deciphered.


In fifth place is encryption from Chaboro. It is actually an 18th century Shepherd's Monument in English Staffordshire. If you look at it from afar, it can be mistaken for a sculptural reproduction of the famous painting by Nicolas Poussin "The Arcadian Shepherds". But if you look closer, you immediately notice a strange sequence of letters: DOUOSVAVVM, a code that has not been deciphered for more than two and a half centuries. Although the author of this cipher remains unknown, some believe that this code may be a clue left by the Knights Templar regarding the location of the Holy Grail.

Many of greatest minds our world tried to decipher this code and failed, including Charles Dickens and Charles Darwin.


In sixth place is the so-called Tamam Shud case. The Tamam Shud case is considered one of Australia's biggest mysteries and revolves around an unidentified person who was found dead in December 1948 at Somerton Beach in the Australian city of Adelaide. In addition to the fact that the person was never identified, the matter became even more mysterious when a tiny piece of paper with the words "Tamam Shud" was found in a secret pocket sewn into the man's trousers. This phrase translates to "finished" or "completed" and is used on the last page of the Rubayat collection of poems by Omar Khayyam. In addition to this mystery, a copy of the Rubayat was soon found, which contained a strange cipher, presumably left by the dead man himself.

Due to the content of the poems of Omar Khayyam, many believe that this message was a posthumous note of some kind, but it still remains unsolved, as well as the case itself.


In seventh place is not an object - a signal. One summer night in 1977, Jerry Eman, a volunteer for the SETI program (a widespread program for searching for signals from extraterrestrial intelligence), became perhaps the first person to receive a message from another planet. Jerry Eman was scanning radio waves from deep space, hoping to accidentally stumble upon a signal that carried signs of an intelligent race when he noticed a leap in his dimensions. And I came across. The signal lasted 72 seconds - the longest possible sample duration that Jerry Eman's equipment and scan range allowed. It was loud and apparently transmitted from a place that no human had ever been: from the constellation Sagittarius from a point near a star called Tau Sagittarius, 120 light-years from Earth.

Jerry Eman wrote the word "Wow!" on the original printout of the signal, and that's why it was called "Wow! Signal". All attempts to catch the signal once again have been unsuccessful, leading to much debate about the nature of its origin and its meaning.


In eighth place is the so-called "Letters of the Zodiac", but this has nothing to do with the signs of the zodiac. Zodiac Letters is a series of four encrypted letters believed to have been written by the famous Zodiac, a serial killer who terrorized San Francisco residents in the latter half of the 1960s and early 1970s. The letters are written with icons, partly reminiscent of letters, partly runes. There is no separation of words from each other.

The letters were probably written as a way to tease journalists and the police, and although one letter (more precisely, three fragments from it) was deciphered, three others remain unsolved. The deciphered message suggests that in three months the Zodiac, from a ready-made Aztec priest, became a victim of his own addiction to homicide, tearfully begging him to help him stop killing people (by putting him, for example, in a gas chamber). In addition, Starliper's transcript ends with the sentence "My name is Lee Allen." By the way, the identity of the Zodiac itself has also never been established, the killer has not been caught, although the murders of the Zodiac have not been identified since the 70s.


In ninth place are Georgia's guiding stones. Georgia's Guiding Stones, sometimes referred to as the "American Stonehenge", is a granite monument erected in 1979 in Elbert County, Georgia. The stones contain engravings in eight languages ​​- English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese and Russian - and each contains ten "new" commandments for the "Age of Reason". They look like four steles, practically connected in a cross with a pillar in the middle and covered on top with a "cap" of a small square slab


Well, what's so mysterious, the majority will ask. The monument does not contain any encrypted messages! Yes, it does not. Its purpose and origin remain a mystery. It was erected by a man whose identity could not be accurately established, and who was hiding behind the pseudonym R.C. Christian. Where he got these commandments from is also unknown, for no sources contain anything like that.


Of these ten commandments, the first is perhaps the most controversial: "Keep humanity below 500 million in perpetual balance with wildlife." Many believe this is a calling to bring the human population down to a specified number, and critics of the Guiding Stones have even demanded that they be destroyed. Some fans of conspiracy theories even believe that they were created by the "Secret Society of Lucifer", calling for a new world order.

There is a version that these giant "letters" were also established taking into account some astronomical considerations - hence, in fact, the name: "American Stonehenge".


In tenth place are Rongo-rongo boards. These mysterious wooden plaques with the inscriptions of the inhabitants of Easter Island. It is currently not clear whether each character represents a separate word or syllable. Today, only about 25 "plaques" have survived in museums around the world. Traditionally, they are numbered with letters of the Latin alphabet, which, however, is not the only way to designate "tables", among which there is one rod, two inscriptions on the chest decoration of Reimiro, as well as an inscription on a snuff-box and on a figure of tangata manu.

The "tablets" were discovered in 1864 by Bishop E. Eyro, who claimed that these tablets were in almost every Aboriginal home, but the islanders were practically unable to read them. Within two years, almost all the tablets that E. Eiro saw had died: either from his own hands, or during civil strife. They are believed to be written in Rapanui. The last Rapanuet who knew Rongo-Rongo, Vick, died in 1866.

Since then, scientists from all over the world have been trying to decipher the rongo rongo. T. Bartel, Yu. V. Knorozov and N. A. Butinov, I. K. Fedorova and many others made a significant contribution to the study. However, there is a lack of consensus even on the definition of the type of writing, let alone specific readings. The well-known theorist of grammatology I. Gelb believed that this is not writing, but only magical drawings, arguing that his signs are so similar to each other, differing only in respect of small details that an attempt to differentiate them encounters enormous difficulties.

Butinov and Knorozov prove that this is not a pictography, but a morphemic-syllabic writing. New Zealand researcher S.R. Fisher (in his 1997 monograph) believes that the tablets "mostly reproduce the magic formula of fertilization, fixed in the later version of the creation of the world, and are based on repeating the producing formula: agent X fused with agent Y and gave birth to object (s) Z". According to the ironic description of the linguists K.I. and I.K. Pozdnyakov, "it turns out a leapfrog, in which everyone copulates in the most incredible combinations."

4.8 (95.91%) 44 votes

In our history, there are many blank spots and unsolved mysteries that excite the minds of scientists and mere mortals, whether it be an unsolved murder, mysterious ancient civilizations or amazing archaeological finds. Many mysteries of the past have yet to be revealed, and who knows, maybe fortune will smile at you.

The assassination of John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy was professionally shot with just two shots (one in the back and the other in the head) as his motorcade passed through the streets of Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963.

Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested 45 minutes after the shots rang out. After several hours of interrogation, for which no prosecutor's sanction was even issued, Oswald was charged with premeditated murder and sentenced to death penalty... The verdict was carried out by Jack Ruby in the garage of a police building in the presence of hundreds of journalists on November 24 of the same year.

On November 29, President Lyndon Johnson sets up a Commission of Inquiry into this audacious assassination. The commission is chaired by Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He later discovered that Oswald had acted alone and fired from the sixth floor of the school library building with a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle.

Jack the ripper

The oldest and most mysterious Jack the Ripper murders that struck fear in the heart of Victorian London still capture the imagination. From August to November 1888, five prostitutes were murdered in East London, Whitechapel.

Everything, from the crime itself to the identity of the murderer and detailed letters about the atrocity committed, was shrouded in mystery. It is generally accepted that there were five victims in total, but this number was enough to excite the whole of Great Britain.

Jack the Ripper became a kind of personification of the social problems of that time: poverty, crime, disease that awaited every Briton on the doorstep of his home.

Stonehenge riddles

Built in three sections over 6,400 years ago during the Neolithic period on the Salisbury Plain (southern England), Stonehenge has been impressing visitors with its grandeur for several thousand years. This architectural monument consists of 30 vertical and 30 horizontal slabs, each weighing about 6 tons.

All slabs were carved from basalt quarried 400 kilometers northwest of the Salisbury Plain. Both the goals and the methods of building this stone temple in the open air are covered with mystery. Different versions are voiced: from an observatory and a pagan temple to a UFO landing site.

Lost Island of Atlantis

One of the oldest mysteries in the world, the legend of Atlantis, has fascinated the inquisitive minds of mankind since ancient times. According to the Greek philosopher Plato, Atlantis was a large island somewhere west of the Pillars of Hercules (the rocks of Gibraltar) and the home of an incredibly advanced civilization known as the Atlanteans.

Plato described Atlantis as a place with an unusually beautiful palace complex surrounded by three circular canals. Each ruler, inheriting a palace, wanted to surpass his predecessor, so the palace complex was constantly expanding.

Atlantis was the richest nation of its time, but irrepressible ambition and constant striving for power gradually eroded the foundations of this civilization, and a natural disaster, a powerful earthquake, completed the fall of Atlantis. Whether this is true or myth, we will never know. It remains only to believe Plato.

The riddle of the Sphinx

The Sphinx is not only a symbol of Egypt, but also Greece, Phenicia and Syria. In fact, the mystery of the Sphinx goes back a long way before it appeared at the pyramids of Giza. The famous question that cost travelers who met the Sphinx on their way life: Who walks on four legs in the morning, on two in the afternoon, and on three in the evening? If the answer to this question is correct, then the Sphinx will collapse.

The only person who, according to ancient Greek myths, answered the question correctly is Oedipus (answer: human). Despite the fact that the mystery has long been solved, the stone Sphinx still raises many questions.

Bigfoot (Sasquatch)

The Yeti is the nightmare of all tourists and hunters in North America. Scientists consider the Yeti to be just a part of folklore. However, many people still believe that these humanoid creatures inhabit all over the globe.

Eyewitnesses describe the Yeti as an ape-like creature:

  • 2.5 - 3 meters tall;
  • weighing more than 500 kg;
  • covered with dark brown or red hair;
  • big eyes;
  • heavy forehead, and a crest on the head, like a male gorilla.

The Yeti footprint can be up to 60 cm in length.

Lost cities in the sands of the Sahara

The ruins of long forgotten civilizations have been found beneath the sands of the Sahara Desert. Proofs of the existence of a highly developed civilization Garamant remained undocumented due to the harsh regime of Gaddafi (Libya). However, now, due to the change in the political situation in the country, archaeologists have a chance to reveal the secrets of this ancient culture.

The elongated skull, found in the city of Andahuaylillas, pretty frayed the nerves of anthropologists. The skull has an unusually elongated crown, enlarged eye sockets, and a full complement of adult teeth, even though the skull clearly belongs to a child.

The group of anthropologists who visited the site were divided. Some argue that this is not even a human skull, while others are inclined to believe that its owner underwent a special procedure to lengthen the shape of the skull from early childhood, as part of an ancient rite.

Is there a chance someday to find answers to these hitherto unsolved mysteries of mankind?

The world is full of mysteries and secrets. Some of them have been solved. But there are also those, a reasonable explanation for which has not yet been found. Below is a list of ten unsolved mysteries of the world.

D. B. Cooper is the pseudonym of an unknown criminal who hijacked a Boeing 727 with 42 passengers on November 24, 1971, flying from Portland to Seattle. After receiving $ 200,000 in ransom, he released the passengers, made the pilots take off and jumped out with a parachute. Despite an extensive investigation by the FBI, it was never possible to obtain any information about the whereabouts of the offender, his real name and further fate. Of the ransom received, only $ 5,800 was found on the banks of a river in Washington state.
There are several theories regarding the circumstances of the crime and the fate of DB Cooper. According to the FBI, Cooper died after the jump, but no physical evidence was found to support this theory. This terrorist attack remains the only unresolved case of air piracy in American aviation history.


Taman Shud is an unsolved criminal case involving the murder of an unknown man who was found dead on December 1, 1948, at Somerton Beach in Adelaide, Australia. There were no visible wounds on the body of the deceased. In addition, an autopsy showed that he was completely healthy before his death. The men found a bus ticket in their pockets chewing gum, cigarettes, coins, matches and a few other things. The biggest resonance was caused by a piece of paper found on him, torn from a copy of a very rare edition of Omar Khayyam, on which only two words were written - Tamam Shud ("Tamam Shud"). The investigation has so far failed to establish either the identity of the deceased, or precisely determine the method of killing him.

Atlantis


One of the unsolved mysteries of the world is “Atlantis” - a legendary island, possibly a civilization (archipelago or even a continent) whose existence and location are uncertain. The lost city became famous thanks to the mentions and comments of the ancient Greek historians Herodotus, Posidonius, Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, Proclus. According to the records of the philosopher Plato, Atlantis was located west of the Pillars of Hercules, opposite the Atlanta mountains and was swallowed up by the sea in one day (probably an earthquake or tsunami) in about 9500 BC. NS. However, most modern historians believe that Atlantis is a typical philosophical myth.


The Voynich manuscript is a mysterious, undeciphered book written in the 15th century (1404–1438) by an unknown author in an unknown language using an unfamiliar alphabet. The thickness of the book is 5 cm, it contains about 240 pages, measuring 16.2 by 23.5 cm.During its existence, the manuscript has been intensively studied by many professional cryptographers, including those recognized all over the world, and none of them managed to decipher a single word ... There is a theory that this book is just a collection of meaningless random symbols that have no meaning, but there are those who believe that the manuscript is an encrypted message.


In sixth place in the ranking of unsolved mysteries of the world is the signal "Wow!" - a strong narrowband space radio signal recorded by Dr. Jerry Eiman on August 15, 1977, while working on the Big Ear radio telescope at Ohio State University. The anomaly lasted 72 seconds and did not recur. There are many versions explaining the origin of the signal. The most interesting of these is the theory that the signal was sent from an alien starship that was moving.

"Taos rumble"

"Taos Rumble" is an unsolved anomalous sound phenomenon emanating from the desert near Taos, New Mexico, USA. The sound is similar to the movement of heavy equipment on a highway, although there are no major roads in the area of ​​the town. It is interesting that only local residents hear it and, extremely rarely, visitors. Scientists who investigated it failed to find the source of the hum.
Such a phenomenon has been known since the beginning of the 60s of the XX century and was observed almost all over the world, but it is most often heard in North America, Europe and Australia. Sometimes "noises" are accompanied by other sounds, hissing, whistling, etc. With prolonged listening can cause headaches, dizziness, nausea, indigestion and others discomfort.


The Loch Ness Monster (Nessie) is a mysterious animal or a group of animals supposedly living in the mysterious Scottish Loch Ness Lake, whose depth in some places reaches 250 meters. Numerous eyewitness accounts describe this mysterious creature as a 40-foot long animal with four fins and a long neck with small bumps that appears from time to time on the surface of the lake. There are several theories explaining the nature of the alleged animal, one of them says that the Loch Ness monster is nothing more than a plesiosaur that has survived to this day. Today, scientists can neither confirm nor deny its existence.


Amelia Mary Earhart is an American pilot, journalist and poet. The first female pilot to fly over the Atlantic Ocean in 1932. In 1937, while trying to make a round-the-world flight, Amelia disappeared without a trace in the central part The Pacific in the area of ​​Howland Island. Despite an immediately organized search and rescue operation, on which the US government spent about $ 4 million (the most expensive and large-scale operation in the history of the American navy), no traces of either the plane or the pilot were found. The search for the famous female pilot continues today, but the mystery of the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, her navigator and the plane remains unsolved.


Jack the Ripper is a nickname for an unknown serial killer (or assassins) operating in the Whitechapel area of ​​London in the second half of 1888. His victims were prostitutes from poor neighborhoods, mostly middle-aged, whose throats were slit by the killer before opening the abdominal cavity. The removal of some organs from the bodies of the victims was explained by the assumption that the killer had some knowledge of anatomy or surgery. However, all the names exact amount victims, as well as the identity of Jack the Ripper still remain a mystery.


The first place in the list of unsolved mysteries of the world is occupied by the Bermuda Triangle - a geographical area with an area of ​​4 thousand km. sq. in the Atlantic Ocean. It is considered the site of many (more than 100) unexplained disappearances of ships, yachts and airplanes. To explain the mysterious accidents, most put forward various hypotheses from unusual weather phenomena, magnetic anomalies, giant wandering waves, to abductions by aliens or inhabitants of Atlantis. The most famous case related to the Bermuda Triangle is the disappearance of five Avenger-class torpedo bombers. These planes took off on December 5, 1945 from the US naval base in Fort Lauderdale and never returned. Their fragments were never found.

Unsolved natural riddles the world

Stone waves

Our planet Earth will never cease to amaze us. Let me introduce you to another extraordinary place - Wave Rock, located in the city of Perth, Australia. Wave Rock is a stunning rock that resembles the crest of a huge wave, as if someone had frozen the water and turned it into stone. It is part of Hyden Rock, which according to scientists is more than 2,700 million years old. V recent times more and more tourists flock here, and surfers dream of getting a photo with such a huge "wave".








Swallow Cave



Nature is genius in her creations, sometimes she delights and bewitches. So, the Swallow Cave, which is located in the tropics of central Mexico, attracts base jumpers and cavers from all over the world.





Its size is impressive, its beauty delights, and its originality is mesmerizing. The Swallow Cave is the 2nd deepest in Mexico and 11th in the world.



It descends to the depths of the Earth to a depth of 376 meters, which is commensurate with the height of the Empire State Building (381 m without a spire).


Unique creations of nature

Desert "Black Rock" (USA). This mystical place is located in the state of Nevada. Brightly colored in different colors geysers, dry riverbeds and rugged cliffs make this a fantastic place.


Yellowstone National Park. Located in the USA. These are terraces of hot springs, similar to living sculpture which is constantly changing due to the smooth flow of water and limestone erosion.


Lake Powell, Glen Canyon. Located in the United States in the state of Utah. Glen Canyon National Wildlife Refuge, established in 1972, covers an area of ​​more than 1 million acres. It is a harsh desert with numerous canyons stretching for 298 km along Lake Powell. The lake was created as a result of the obstruction of the Colorado River and its tributaries.


"Dry Valley". Located in Antarctica. This desert is the driest place on earth, and the only part of Antarctica not covered with ice. There has been no rainfall here for several million years.


Socotra Island. It is part of a small archipelago of six islands in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Somalia, about 350 km south of the Arabian Peninsula. Socotra is one of the world's most isolated archipelagos of continental origin. Despite the hot and dry climate, the island abounds in many extremely rare flora and fauna, one third of them are endemic, i.e. found only here.


Rio Tinto quarry in Andalusia (Spain). Rio Tinto's huge quarries create a lunar landscape. The quarries are named after the river of the same name, which flows here and flushes minerals from the huge craters. Mining has been carried out here for many centuries, so the river turned bright red-orange.


Spotted Lake. The lake is located in British Columbia, Canada. Depending on the weather conditions and the time of year, the lake crystallizes and turns into a certain color. Many "spots" are formed on the lake - circles of minerals. This is the world's largest concentration of sulfates, as well as silver and titanium.


"Frozen Waterfalls". They are located in Mexico. From Spanish (Hierve el agua) it translates as "boiling water". This is another of the wonders of the world. They are formed by water with a high content of calcium carbonate, which, when settling, forms incrustations and bizarre relief forms.


National park"Arches". The park is located in Utah (USA), near the city of Moab. This is an alpine desert, painted in all shades of dark red, in which various natural formations (arches, columns, fantastic figures) rise. This place is rightfully called one of the "Natural Wonders of the World".


Shilin stone forest. Located in China. This is a stunning example of karst topography. The rocks are made of limestone and formed by water that has destroyed everything except these tree-like pillars. Since the Ming Dynasty, Shilin Stone Forest has been known as the "First Wonder of the World".


"Eye of the Sahara" (Rishat structure). Located in Mauritania. This natural formation with a diameter of about 30 km is clearly visible from space. Its origin is still a mystery. Initially, it was believed that the Eye was formed as a result of the fall of a meteorite. However, modern geologists believe that the Richat structure is the result of erosion.


"Gates of Hell" (Davraz). This famous burning crater is located in Turkmenistan in the middle of the Karakum Desert. The crater, 60 m in diameter and 20 m deep, is a well in which gas burns, set on fire after the completion of geological exploration work.


"Petra" is an ancient city. Located on the territory of modern Jordan, at an altitude of more than 900 m above sea level, in the narrow Siq canyon. In 2007, Petra was named one of the new Seven Wonders of the World.


Rice terraces "Banaue". They are located in the Philippines in the Ifuago mountains. They are spread over an area of ​​over 4000 sq. km, at an altitude of 1524 m above sea level. Locals call them "the eighth wonder of the world": hand-carved terraces on which rice has been growing for 2000 years.


Eisreisenwelt Ice Caves. There are many ice caves in the world, but the Eisreisenwelt Caves are the largest of them. The total length of the caves is 40 km.


Drawing "hummingbird" on the Nazca plateau, Peru.


Goreme National Park, Turkey


Volcano "Ankisabe", Madagascar. Erosion on slopes.


"Chocolate Mountains". Bohol Island, Philippines "Buccaneel Archipelago". Located 800 km west of the coast of Australia. The rocks on the islands are two billion years old.


"Cone on Tolbachik", Russia. These breakthroughs on the Kamchatka volcano Tolbachik, reminiscent of the Martian landscape, appeared in 1945. The place where the photo was taken is called the "lunar walkers' base". It was here that the Soviet lunar rovers were tested.


Antelope Canyon, USA


The most popular and famous canyon in the southwestern United States, in the Navajo Desert, Arizona. Consists of two sections called the Upper and Lower Canyon, or "The Crack" and "The Corkscrew". The Navajo Indians call the canyon "bighanilini", which simply means "the place where the water cut its way in the stone." It is logical The Lower Canyon also has its own name - “Hasdestwazi” (“stone vaults”).


Great Blue Hole, Belize


Part of the Lighthouse Reef System, this formation is located 60 kilometers from Belize. The almost perfectly round hole with a diameter of 400 meters is the most desirable for all divers on the planet. Inside it, the depth reaches 145 meters in depth, and a large number of marine organisms are found on the walls of this natural well, which are just waiting to be photographed and examined. Due to the large difference in depth, the color of the water in this place differs sharply from the surrounding surface.


Crystal Cave of the Giants, Mexico

Deep in a mine in southern Mexico, in Chihuahua, is a group of mineral crystals hidden from human eyes. Their height reaches several meters, the shape is usually rectangular, but there are also cylindrical ones, and the color changes from silver to golden. Most likely, the space surrounding the crystals was filled with rock, which was gradually washed out by underground streams of water, leaving such unusual formations.


Blue Lake Cave, Brazil

The Mato Grosso do Sul area in Brazil contains many picturesque underground lakes - Gruta do Lago Azul, Gruta do Mimoso, Aquário Natural. The first of them is a natural room, the interior of which is formed by bizarre stalactites and stalagmites, as well as a vast blue lake. Its beauty impresses all tourists who have managed to see this miracle of nature, the transparency of the water and its rich bright blue hue are especially remembered.


Giants Causeway, Ireland

An area covered with 40 thousand basalt columns correct shape, was formed as a result of the oldest volcanic eruption. It is located in the northeast of Northern Ireland, most of the columns are hexagonal, but there are columns with 4, 5, 7 and 8 sides. The highest of them reaches a height of 12 meters, and the thickness of solidified lava around is up to 28 meters. In 2005, according to a Times poll, Giants Causeway was named the fourth wonder of the world in the UK (or rather, the fourth wonder of Great Britain)


Fire Falls - "Horse Tail"

This stunning waterfall is located in the Yosemite National Park, California (USA). It's called Horsetail Fall.



Just a few days in February, you can see with your own eyes a rare phenomenon - the reflection of the rays of the setting sun in the falling stream of the waterfall. The waterfall turns fiery orange. This waterfall is located on the eastern slope of Mount El Capitan.



The waterfall consists of two cascading streams with a height of about 480 m. The total height of the waterfall is 650 meters. The best location to shoot is the north road leading to the Yosemite Valley, east of Mount El Capitan.


Lightning Catatumbo

Lightning Catatumbo (Spanish: Relámpago del Catatumbo) is a natural phenomenon that occurs over the confluence of the Catatumbo River into Lake Maracaibo ( South America). The phenomenon is expressed in the appearance of a glow at an altitude of about five kilometers. Lightning strikes occur at night (140-160 times a year) and the discharges last about 10 hours. This adds up to about 1.2 million discharges per year.

Lightning can be seen from a distance of up to 400 kilometers. They were even used for navigation, which is why the phenomenon is also known as the "Maracaibo Lighthouse".



The Catatumbo lightning is believed to be the largest single ozone generator on Earth. Winds coming from the Andes cause thunderstorms. Methane, which is rich in the atmosphere of these wetlands, rises to the clouds, fueling lightning bolts.

Local defenders environment believe that this unique area should be protected by UNESCO.

Fish rain in Honduras

Animal rain is a relatively rare meteorological phenomenon, although such cases have been recorded in many countries throughout human history. But for Honduras, this is a regular phenomenon. Every year between May and July a dark cloud appears in the sky, lightning flashes, thunder roars, a strong wind blows and heavy rain pours for 2-3 hours. Once it stops, hundreds of live fish remain on the ground.



People pick it up like mushrooms and carry it home to fry it. Since 1998, the Festival de la Lluvia de Peces (Fish Rain Festival) has been held here. It is celebrated in the city of Yoro, department de Yoro, Honduras. One of the hypotheses for the occurrence of the phenomenon is that strong winds raise fish into the air from the water several kilometers in height, since the waters Caribbean the northern coast of Honduras is teeming with fish and other seafood. However, no one has yet witnessed how this happens.

And now a photo gallery of unusual places on the planet. All of them are so amazing that they are more similar to the landscapes of other worlds, and not to the surface of our planet.