Category Archives: places

The wave

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The Wave, a sandstone formation in northern Arizona. Greg Bulla, http://www.gregbulla.com
By Gb11111 – Own work, CC0, Link

The Wave is a sandstone rock formation located in Arizona, United States, near its northern border with Utah. The formation is well–known among hikers and photographers for its colorful, undulating forms and the difficult hike required to reach it. Due to the fragile nature of the formation and the large number of people wishing to visit it, a daily lottery system is used to dispense only ten next–day permits.
info: wikipedia

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Eternal Flame Falls

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By Mpmajewski – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

The Eternal Flame Falls is a small waterfall located in the Shale Creek Preserve, a section of Chestnut Ridge Park in Western New York. A small grotto at the waterfall’s base emits natural gas, which can be lit to produce a small flame. This flame is visible nearly year round, although it can be extinguished and must occasionally be re-lit.
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Impressive Bulgarian cave with eye-shaped holes in ceiling

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image source

Prohodna is a cave in north central Bulgaria, popular tourist attraction for the two eye-like holes in its ceiling that create an eerie effect.  Prohodna is 262 meters (860 ft) long, and has two entrances which lie opposite one another, known respectively as the Small Entrance and the Big Entrance. The cave owes its name, which literally means Thoroughfare Cave or Passage Cave, to this feature.  Prohodna is most notable for the two equal-sized holes in the ceiling of its middle chamber. The holes, formed through erosion, let in light into the cave and are locally known as the Eyes of God or Oknata.
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Speicherstadt – the city of warehouses

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Speicherstadt (lit. city of warehouses) in Hamburg, Germany is the largest warehouse district in the world where the buildings stand on oak logs along canals near the Elbe. The district was built from 1883 to 1927 as a free zone to transfer goods without paying customs. The warehouses were built with different support structures, but Andreas Meyer created a Neo-Gothic red outer layer with little towers, alcoves, andglazed terra cotta ornaments. The warehouses are multi-storey buildings with entrances from water and land. Over the last years the area has been renovated to have museums, offices and entertainment options, but the old feel of the area remains. At sunset, the Speicherstadt is engulfed in a mysterious atmosphere when the facades of the red brick buildings and steel bridges are artfully illuminated.

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Crescent Lake – an oasis in the Gobi desert

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About 6 kilometers south of Dunhuang city in China, and surrounded by the Echoing-Sand Mountain, Crescent Lake can be called a natural wonder in the Gobi Desert. Actually, it resembles a crescent fallen down into the desert. Crescent Lake sits on the edge of an ancient city that once saw traders embark on their journey along the Silk Road to the West. Since the 1960’s the depth of the lake continually declined, but in 2006 the local government with help of the central government started to fill the lake and restore its depth. Its depth and size have been growing yearly since then.

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The Valley of Balls in Kazakhstan

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Torysh, also known as the “Valley of Balls”, is located close to the town of Shetpe in Western Kazakhstan. The rounded  concretions are 120-180 million years old and their size reaches 4 m in diameter. Geologists do not have a single opinion about the processes that created these mysterious formations. The balls are believed to be concretions —a hard, compact mass formed by the precipitation of minerals. The phenomenon is not rare — examples of such concretions are found all over the globe.
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