Al Wahbah Crater Saudi Arabia

This massive crater is long thought to have been created by an ancient meteor strike or may have been found to volcanic activity after a massive underground steam explosion caused a mage flow ran into a subterranean source of water. In result of huge eruption a colossal amount of earth into the air leaving behind this crater. Al Wahbah Crater 1.2 miles across and more than 800 feet deep, located in the middle of flat, barren desert of Taif Saudi Arabia. The crater is natural anomaly that would have been a wondrous enough on its own and hides its own salt field in its giant bowl. Al Wahbah Crater is an impressive pock mart on the earth holding stunning salt flat in its depth. Therefore, white phosphate plain forms a pattern of beige psychedelia that creates the spot all the more attractive.

Moreover, the strange salt point is, the green vegetation grows on and around its rim, even though crater is arid and barren.  The Al Wahbah crater is home to beautiful palm trees and shrubs. With the passage of time, the crater importance is converting into big tourism place and Saudi Arabia government has set their sights on the crater, providing facilities like building roads and market to the site to make it easier for tourist. The crater is also getting popular site for camping and walking.  Moreover it’s not difficult to climb down from the rim to the bottom of the crater there from the North side on a prepared path, though maximum circumference has steep, unclimbable cliffs. However, at the top of the path is a stone hut which covers rubbish and debris, and some appropriate places for camping, although there are better places to camp to the South.

Therefore, if a person wants to get in the middle of crater, then he might go in 15 to 25 minutes, but be remember this crater is very slippery and hard for people to come up to the surface. Thus, to climb back up takes 20 to 40 minutes max. Hence there is only one paved route down into the crater and not recommended to climb down in groups of less than 3, as the path is quite loose in several places and the risk of accident is high, whilst not huge, is ever present. Also there is no mobile signal within the crater, and the site receives very few visitors without a doubt, even over weekends.

The Incredible illuminated Cave Pools in France

The incredible illuminated pools in France looks like something straight out of a fairytale but can be visited if you know where to find them. A hunter found the enchanting La Grotte de St Marcel d’Ardeche in 1836, actually lost his ferret into a cavity in the cave. The cave is located in the south of France near Saint-Remèze. The fascinating pool formation is known as gours and rimstone, made by accumulations of minerals and calcite. 

What captivated the early explorers were the guided tours, guests can wander through a series of lovely halls and water-basins which nestle within a 1,968-ft-long network. Therefore, diverse colored lit pools look like they're part of a movie set, so it comes as no amazement that they have been featured in two French films, Les Deux Mondes and L'âge de Raison. The entry is just 10€ for adults, and 7€ for kids and more information can be found on the website. 

The cave offers to walk along a botanical poth called “le chemin de la grosse pierre“  or discover the fauna and flora of the “Gorges de l’Ardèche” and a menhir and a dolmen. Indeed the cave is very impressive as lots of different forms of stalactites, stalagmites and delicate translucent limestone veils, and crystals like snowflakes The French definitely know how to make their natural landscape most attractive, as lighting and sound & light show makes the most impressive features of limestone cave. The cave of Saint Marcel d’Ardèche will leave you an unforgettable memory.

The Mysterious Fortress Por-Bazhyn, Serbia

Por-Bazhyn is Russia’s most mysterious archaeological site located in the center of a remote lake (Tere-Khol) of Southern Siberia. The Por-Bazhyn rectangular area of 162 meters and outer walls are 40 feet high enclosing an area of seven acres criss-crossed with the labyrinthine remains of over 30 buildings. It is thought, that Por-Bazhyn built by the Uighurs, a Turkic who once ruled an empire that spanned from Mongolia till Southern Siberia. Uighurs might have been built the building for defense purpose. Archaeologists are in trying to find the purpose of building a complex and why it was abandoned? However, few evidence of great fire at Por-Bazhyn or may be other reason the Uighurs eventually left. The Po-Bazhyn is first explored in 1891 by a Russian archeologist who has noticed similarity of layout to Karac Balgasum, (the former capital of Uighur Empire). Therefore, dendrochronology and radiocarbon dating point to that the “fortress” was built between AD 770 and 790.

Por-Bazhyn location is eight kilometer west of the village of Kungurtuk in the southwest of the Republic of Tuva close to the Russian border with Mongolia. The unique layout of Por-Bazhyn is more intricate as compared to other Uighur fortresses of that period. Vladimir Putin, president of the Russian Federation, even impressed him greatly with both the scale of the excavations and the site itself and these ruins suggest it would have been nearly impregnable. Moreover during excavation, some wood samples extracted supporting the compacted clay fabrics of the wall, an old Chinese building technique. This shows, Chinese architects and builders were directly involved in the construction of this fortress. Moreover, in 2007 a large-scale fieldwork was taken by the Russian Academy of Sciences, the State Oriental Museum, and Moscow State University. And they found clay tablets of human feet, faded colored drawings on the plaster of the walls, giant gates and fragments of burnt wood, but nothing substantial that could be responsible for a conclusive answer as to why the structure was built.

The future of Por-Bazhyn’s is doubtful, as structure sits on a bed of permafrost slowly melting and warmer temperature causing the water level is rising. The above reason may cause to collapse the structure into the lake, possibly in next 70 years or so. Moreover, the structure has also been badly hurt due to major earthquake happened in past centuries. The first excavations of the site wasn’t carried out until almost 60 years later by another Russian archeologist who saw construction characteristics typical of Chinese architecture from the T’ang Dynasty. Based on anecdotal evidence, the so-called Selenginsk inscription, the lead archeologist of the excavation S.I. Vainshtein offered that Por-Bazhyn was a defense fortress built by the second Uighur ruler, Boyan-Chur in 750CE. Vainshtein's hypothesis soon became the most widely accepted and disseminated by other investigators, even though it was based solely on speculation.

In 2007, large-scale fieldwork was undertaken by the Russian Academy of Sciences, the State Oriental Museum, and Moscow State University. Archaeologists found clay tablets of human feet, faded coloured drawings on the plaster of the walls, giant gates and fragments of burnt wood, but nothing substantial that could provide a definitive answer as to why the structure was built.

Lotus Lake Thailand

Indeed Lotus Flower Lake is a marvelous natural surprise in Thailand’s northeast which is so popular for rice farming region and is about 45km south east from the Udon Thani ring road, at Lake Nong Han on the banks of Ban Diam, in the Kumphawadpi Reserve. The lake covers a large area of about 68 square kilometers and being 15km long and 5km at the widest point.

The wetlands remain mainly hidden by tall elephant grasses that belie the expanses of water lying beyond them, and are notorious for the most part only by the local villagers who venture out to fish and to collect snails and lotus stalks for use in the preparation of their daily meals. The Lotus Lake is widespread due to pink and crimson red flowers blooms in low season between November till end February. The flowers start to bloom in October just after rainy season and reaching at full bloom in December. The surroundings of lake transformed millions of lotus flowers stretch across 600 square acres area in every direction just like hot pink horizon.  

Red Lotus Sea is recognizing as world’s second strangest lakes by Travel & Leisure. Furthermore, another feature make this lake so attractive when you see number of  variety birds flying around the boats and over  lake gives you a pleasure. There might be three or four birds darting across the front of boat and dart back in the opposite direction. They may chase you and hovering till the end of your journey even when the boat comes to a stop. 

If you want to see Lotus Lake, then best time is 6:00am until 10:00am as the best displays remains when the sun is not bearing down on them. The limpid waters may only be visited on a wooden boat and millions of startling flamingo pink lotus flowers dances above the crystalline waters of the lotus sea. These stunning wetlands are home to more than 80 species including of birds, grey heron, purple heron, black kite, Brahminy Kite, and cotton pygmy-goose. You can easily say land of Lotus flower, because seeds and stem may both be eaten. Moreover delicious foods are also entice you to taste them, specially spicy salads, lime-bathed fish, fresh meat dishes, are favorite among the Thais. 

The Spiral Jetty, Utah

The Spiral Jetty actually a monumental earthwork was created by artist Robert Smithson in April 1970. Smithson documented the construction of the sculpture in a color film named “Spiral Jetty”.  It is located off Rozel Point in the north arm of Great Salt Lake Utah entirely of mud, salt crystals, black basalt rocks and water. Spiral Jetty is 460 m long, 4.6 m wide coil that stretches over 1500 feet into the lake. Although, you may consider as symbolize of large-scale earthwork of land art. Unquestionably the spiral Jetty is an exceptional art historical reputation and its exclusive exquisiteness have drawn visitors and media attention from throughout Utah and around the world. In the normal precipitation, water level stays a level, but varies with precipitation in the mountains surrounding the area, exposing the jetty in times of drought and submerging.

Therefore, spiral jetty is sometimes visible and sometimes submerged depending upon the water level. Moreover due to consistent ruddy water and salt encrustation, the black basalt rock emerges in large white rock. Moreover, during the construction of the jetty, Robert Smithson & his wife wrote and directed a 32-minute color film, Spiral Jetty and funded by Virginia Dwan and Douglas Christmas. In the movie, Smithson recorded his voice displaying natural history museum, prehistoric relics, construction process, earth history and his interest in geology, astronomy, paleontology, mythology and cinema.

Robert Smithson selected the Rozel Point site, due to red blood color water and connection with primordial sea and stark anti-pastoral beauty and industrial leftovers from adjacent Golden Spike National Historic Site, as well as an old pier and a few unused oil rigs. The thriving Salt-tolerant bacteria and algae make the red hue water, although isolated from fresh water. The construction company moves the rock into lake by a large tractor and a front end loader to haul the 6,650 tons of rock and earth into the lake. However, Smithson initially faces difficulties to motivate the contractor to accept this strange proposal along with land rights and earthmoving equipment. The construction took six days when the lake water was unusually low due to drought. So when the water level comes back make the spiral jetty invisible. In 2002, the area experience another drought revealing the spiral jetty second time. This time spiral jetty remained visible almost a year due to lowering the water level. The similar scenario happened in the year of 2005, 2010 and 2011. As off 2015, spiral jetty is above water and complete visible.

However, Smithson died in a plane crash in Texas three years after finishing the spiral jetty and has led to a controversy over the preservation of the sculpture. The Utah state has owned the sculpture in 2011 due to exposure and growing number of visitors. Though, it is expected that jetty will again disappear once the drought is over. So, spiral jetty surfaced many times between 1970 and 2015 due to lake-level fluctuations and survived robust wave erosion; the hard salt crust maybe cemented the boulders together and provided a protective layer on the jetty surface. Source: Charismatic Planet