Ten Little Known Places to Visit

“Traveling tends to magnify all human emotions”

You must have heard of the Grand Canyon, the Galapagos Islands, and Venezuela’s Angel Falls; you’ve probably even heard of more obscure natural wonders such as the needle-like rock forests at Tsingy de Bemaraha. But no matter how much of the Earth we cover, there’s always something breathtaking just around the bend. Follows next are the slides of some of the most ambiguous oddities in the world, totally unheard of, that are sure to take your breath away.

Kirkjufell Mountain

The Kirkjufell Mountain in Iceland is best known for stunning pictures brought back by tourists. It is a photogenic mountain with three picturesque waterfalls running into a crystal clear stream at the mountain’s foot.

Cano Cristales

The Cano Cristales, also known as the “River of Five Colors” is tucked neatly away in the mountains of British Colombia. Only accessible by airplanes, you would want to visit this natural oddity during summers when the heat brings out the most vibrant shades of red.

Taylor Glacier

The Antarctic Taylor Glacier vomits a continuous stream of iron-rich hyper saline water onto the surrounding snow. An ancient underground pool of saltwater about 400 meters (1,300 ft) below the surface of the ice from which the iron-rich water squeezes its way up through a fissure to the surface and comes in contact with oxygen for the first time, the iron hydroxide reacts instantly, giving us a waterfall of rust—the Blood Falls.

Beppu Hot Springs

Beppu, Japan is one of the world’s hot spring hot spots; there are more than 2,500 springs in the area—the second largest such cluster in the world. The springs are colloquially known as the “Eight Hells,” since there are eight main areas, each producing a unique type of spring.

Spotted Lake

Also known as Khiluk to the First Nations of the region, the Spotted Lake in the Okanagan Valley has high concentrations of 11 different minerals, including calcium and magnesium sulfate, and some trace amounts of titanium and silver. In the summer, when the lake partially evaporates, the minerals precipitate into rounded “holes.” Each hole takes on a different color, depending on which minerals are more concentrated in that particular spot.

Panjin Red Beach

This gorgeous crimson landscape is located in China, near the city of Panjin. It’s situated in the middle of an immense, sprawling wetland area in the Liaohe River Delta, but it’s the only part of the wetland that takes on this vibrant coloration. Rather than sand, the beach is covered with a highly alkaline soil, which is too basic for most plants to live on. In the summer, the seaweed is a dark green color—pretty but not exactly breathtaking. But in autumn, the mature plants take on a fiery red color that turns the beach into a one-of-a-kind spectacle.

Pamukkale’s Travertine Pools

One of the most unique sights in the world is, without a doubt, the cliffside travertine pools in Pamukkale, Turkey. Travertine is a type of limestone that’s found in a lot of the world’s hot springs. When the spring reaches the surface, the travertine solidifies into stepped structures that hold the spring water. The pools are initially formed from soft calcium carbonate that later solidifies into travertine. Because of the high calcium content, the end result is a hillside that’s white as snow.

Zhangye Danxia

The Zhangye Danxia Landform Geological Park is located in southwest China and contains more than a few unusual features. Probably the most startling are the multicolored mountains known as Danxia landforms. The surreal coloration comes from red sandstone and natural mineral deposits that have formed over the course of 24 million years. Each “stripe” constitutes a different mineral, and over the ages, they’ve formed layer upon layer, resulting in a rainbow pattern.

Lake Retba

There are a handful of names that have been given to this lake, some by locals and some by visitors, but they all essentially mean the same thing: “The Pink Lake.” Lake Retba is located in Senegal, and it’s only separated from the Atlantic Ocean by a thin strip of sand dunes. Because of that slight geographic separation, a species of algae called Dunaliella Salina has been able to proliferate in the lake’s warm waters.

Lencois Maranhenses

Lencois Maranhenses National Park is absolutely peppered with them. Located in northeastern Brazil, this sand-covered, 155,000-acre park isn’t actually a desert, even though it looks like one. When the rainwater collects between the dunes, it forms thousands upon thousands of separate lagoons that stretch as far as the eye can see. Each lagoon functions as a completely unique ecosystem.