16 mysterious sights: Salar de Uyuni, Eye of Africa, Desert Floor Drawings, Racetrack Playa, Spotted Lake, Cotton Castle...

(quote)

Mysterious Sights: Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

Salar de Uyuni is a magical place: When covered by water, the world’s largest salt flat becomes a mirror, and anyone walking across it appears to be walking on clouds. The salt crust, which covers 4,086 square miles in southwestern Bolivia at 11,995 feet above sea level, is nearly flat, which makes it ideal for calibrating the altimeters of satellites. Salar de Uyuni's origins lie in prehistoric lakes; it is a major breeding ground for several species of flamingoes.

Mysterious Sights: Eye of Africa, Mauritania

The Eye of Africa - whose official name, the Richat Structure, seems so mundane in comparison - was spotted in central Mauritania by astronauts on early space missions. In the expanse of the Western Sahara Desert, the formation has a diameter of about 30 miles. At first, scientists thought a meteorite had hit the Earth, causing this impression. But now it is believed to be a symmetrical uplift that erosion has revealed. No one has explained yet why it is circular.

Mysterious Sights: Middle East Desert Floor Drawings

The secrets of these stone structures are only now being unraveled, probably because it is nearly impossible to get the entire picture at ground level. But with views from airplanes and satellites, archaeologists have discovered thousands of these “floor drawings” of stones in Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The wheels measure from 82 feet to 230 feet across and could be at least 2,000 years old; other stone structures are far older. What were they used for? Did they carry special meaning? That is still secret.

Mysterious Sights: Racetrack Playa, California

Even NASA cannot explain it. It’s best to gaze in wonder at the sliding rocks on this dry lake bed in Death Valley National Park. Racetrack Playa is almost completely flat, 2.5 miles from north to south and 1.25 miles from east to west, and covered with cracked mud. The rocks, some weighing hundreds of pounds, slide across the sediment, leaving furrows in their wakes, but no one has actually witnessed it. Is it the wind? Something to do with ice? Will it ever be explained?

Mysterious Sights: Spotted Lake, Canada

Many minerals are found in high concentrations in Spotted Lake; that causes the phenomenon that gives the lake its name. Spots form during summer when much of the water evaporates, leaving the minerals, which harden and form walkways among the spots. The water’s color is determined by the unique combination of minerals. The site, near Osoyoos in British Columbia, is owned by the First Nations and is not open to the public. However, it can be easily seen from Highway 3, which runs past the lake.

Mysterious Sights: Pamukkale, Turkey

Cotton Castle, Pamukkale’s translated name, is a wildly popular tourist site. Seventeen hot-water springs in the area spill out water in temperatures ranging from 95 degrees to 212 degrees, which contains a high concentration of calcium bicarbonate. The water flows off a cliff, cools and hardens into calcium deposits that form terraces, as white as cotton and bright enough to be easily seen from the town of Denizli, which is on the opposite side of the valley, 12 miles away. These terraces, which continue to grow, hold pools of water. Soakers are welcome; shoes are not, to protect the deposits.

(unquote)

Read more at original source...

Photos courtesy of Jake Clifford and Connie Ricca / Bing Travel