These Incredible Locations That Look Like They Could Be From Another Planet

Dallol volcano, Danakil Depression, Ethiopia

Dallol volcano is located in the Danakil Depression in North East Ethiopia. Mud, salt, iron stains, halophile algae and hot spring activity produce a colorful but dangerous landscape in the Dallol craters. It is located 269 feet below sea level in a remote area subject to the highest average temperatures on the planet.

Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat, located amid the Andes in southwest Bolivia. It is the legacy of a prehistoric lake that went dry, leaving behind a large desert-like landscape of bright-white salt, rock formations and cacti-studded islands.

Death Valley, CA

Death Valley is the lowest, hottest, driest portion of the North American continent. It is a land of extremes with snow frosted peaks, rare rainstorms that bring vast fields of wildflowers, and the highest recorded temperature on Earth.

White Desert, Farafra depression, Egypt

The White Desert is justifiably the most well-known desert destination in Egypt due to the quantity of unearthly and beautiful wind-carved rock formations shaped in the form of giant mushrooms or pebbles.

Jökulsárlón, Iceland

Jökulsárlón is a large glacial lake in southeast Iceland, on the edge of Vatnajökull National Park. Experience Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon in a boat tour and sail among the gigantic icebergs.

Namib-Naukluft National Park, Nambia

The Namib-Naukluft National Park is a national park of Namibia encompassing part of the Namib Desert (considered the world's oldest desert) and the Naukluft mountain range. It is the largest game park in Africa and the fourth largest in the world.

Mauna Kea, Hawaï

Mauna Kea is a dormant volcano on the island of Hawaii. Standing 13,802 feet above sea level, its peak is the highest point in the state of Hawaii. Its summit houses the world's largest observatory for optical, infrared, and submillimeter astronomy.

Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, China

Located in the Hunan province of south-central China, Zhangjiajie National Forest Park will amaze you with its timeless natural beauty. It is famous for its precarious peaks, limpid streams, dense forests, and large karst caves. The Hallelujah Mountains in Avatar were inspired by Heavenly Pillar in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park.

Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, Brazil

The Lençóis Maranhenses National Park is a national park located in Maranhão state, in northeastern Brazil. It is home to perfectly shaped white sand dunes filled with crystal-clear fresh water as far as the eye can see.

Lake Natron, Tanzania

Lake Natron in Tanzania is a salt and soda lake in the Arusha Region of northern Tanzania and one of the most serene lakes in Africa. Its alkaline water has a pH as high as 10.5 and is so caustic it can burn the skin and eyes of animals that aren't adapted to it.

Valle de la Luna, Chile

El Valle de la Luna is located 8 miles west of San Pedro de Atacama, to the north of Chile in the Cordillera de la Sal, in the Atacama Desert. It has various stone and sand formations which have been carved by wind and water.

Mount Teide, Tenerife, Canary Islands

In the middle of the Island of Tenerife sits Mount Teide, which is 12,198 feet high and is the highest mountain in Spain. It is also the world's third largest ocean-island volcano and is still active.

Dos Ojos, Mexico

Sistema Dos Ojos is a flooded cave system located north of Tulum, on the Caribbean coast of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico. It is one of the most extravagant diving sites and largest underwater cave systems.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Yellowstone National Park was the world's first national park. Here you can marvel at a volcano's hidden power rising up in colorful hot springs, mudpots, and geysers, as well as explore mountains, forests, and lakes to watch wildlife.

Waitomo Caves, New Zealand

Under the green hills of Waitomo lies a labyrinth of caves, sinkholes and underground rivers. The caves have amazing stalactites growing down from the ceiling and stalagmites growing up from the cave floor. The cave walls are also decorated with galaxies of native glow worms.

Hang Son Doòng, Vietnam

Son Doong Cave is the world's largest cave in the heart of the Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park in the Quang Binh province of Central Vietnam. At more than 656 feet high, 492 feet wide and 5km long, the cave is so big it has its own river, jungle and climate. Less people have seen the inside of Hang Son Doong than have stood on the summit of Mount Everest!

Zhangye Danxia National Geological Park, China

The Zhangye Danxia landform area is known as "the eye candy of Zhangye." The landscape has lots of precipitous red cliffs, most of which are several hundred meters high, and multicolored ridges of weathered strata, sometimes stretching to the horizon.

Lake Hillier, Australia

Lake Hillier is a pink-colored lake on Middle Island, the largest of the islands that make up the Recherche Archipelago off the coast of Esperance. Scientists speculate that the color comes from a dye created by bacteria that lives in the salt crusts. Western Australia is home to a number of extraordinary pink lakes.

Ice Caves, Skaftafell, Iceland

This cave is located on the frozen lagoon of the Svínafellsjökull glacier in Skaftafell, Iceland. The centuries old ice has metamorphosed into highly pressurized glacier ice that contains almost no air bubbles. The lack of air means that it absorbs almost all visible light, apart from the blue fraction which is then visible to the naked eye.

Dragon blood trees, Socotra, Yemen

The dragon's blood tree is endemic to the island of Socotra, in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Yemen. They live on granite mountains and limestone plateaus.

Pamukkale, Turkey

Pamukkale translates as "cotton castle" in Turkish. It is a natural site in Denizli Province in southwestern Turkey. The city contains hot springs and travertines, terraces of carbonate minerals left by the flowing water.

Baikal Lake, Russia

Lake Baikal, the world's oldest and deepest freshwater lake, curves for nearly 400 miles through southeastern Siberia, north of the Mongolian border. It lies in a cleft where Asia is literally splitting apart, the beginnings of a future ocean.

Monte Roraima, Venezuela

Mount Roraima is one the most mysterious and alluring mountains in the world. An enormous flat-topped mesa, its sheer cliffs rise from one of the most remote areas of the Amazon rainforest.

Giants Causeway, Northern Ireland

The Giant's Causeway lies at the foot of the basalt cliffs along the sea coast on the edge of the Antrim plateau in Northern Ireland. It is the result of an ancient volcanic eruption and is made up of some 40,000 massive black basalt columns sticking out of the sea. The dramatic sight has inspired legends of giants striding over the sea to Scotland.

Vaadhoo Island, Maldives

At this surreal beach in Vaadhoo Island, Raa Atoll, Maldives, this magical phenomena has been called the "Sea of Stars" due to its glowing blue waves. The bioluminescence is caused by marine microbes called phytoplankton.

Benagil Sea Cave, Algarve, Portugal

The Benagil Sea Cave is part of a system of caves that lines Portugal's southern coast in the Algarve region. This most iconic cave is located just around the corner from a beach in the tiny town of Benagil.

Naica Mine, Mexico

The Naica Mine of the Mexican state of Chihuahua, is a working mine that is best known for its extraordinary selenite crystals. The Cave of Crystals is a cave approximately 1,000 feet below the surface in the limestone host rock of the mine. The chamber contains giant selenite crystals, some of the largest natural crystals ever found.

Antelope Canyon, Arizona

Antelope is the most visited slot canyon in the Southwest, partly because it is easily accessible and by far the most publicized, and also since it is extremely beautiful, with just the right combination of depth, width, length, rock color and ambient light.

Red Beach, Panjin, China

Sand is probably the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about beach. However, this is not the case with the Panjin Red Beach in China, which is, actually, red, and not covered in sand at all. Such phenomena is caused by a type of sea weed Sueda. It starts growing during April and May, then stays green during the summer, but starts turning vividly red in autumn.

Mutnovsky Volcano, Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia

On Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, fire and ice meet to form an otherworldly underground. Located on a slope of the peninsula's Mutnovsky volcano, the cave's stream is fed by volcanic hot springs. Sunlight filters through thinning glacial ice above.

Painted Dunes, Lassen Volcanic National Park, California

The Painted Dunes are multicolored pumice fields formed by oxidation of volcanic ash as they fell out of volcanic eruptions that have sculpted the area inside Lassen National Park in Northern California. The ash on Painted Dunes is brightly oxidized because it fell on lava flows when they were still hot.

Yuanyang Rice Terraces, Yunnan, China

The Yuanyang Rice Terraces are situated in the southern Ailao Mountains, dug out by the Hani people. They are outstanding for their grandiose area with shallower slopes.

Firefly Forest, Chugoku Region, Japan

Here, swarms of fireflies illuminate the undergrowth in a Japanese forest, creating an enchanting night-time spectacle.

Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park, Madagascar, Africa

The otherworldly terrain of Tsingy de Bemaraha on the western side of Madagascar is not for those afraid of heights, with razor-sharp rocks, tiny precarious rock bridges and 300ft drops. Despite the UNESCO Heritage Site's barren appearance, the maze-like stone forest is home to 11 types of lemur and over 100 bird species.

Sentinels of the Arctic, Finnish Lapland

In this snow covered landscape, in Finnish Lapland, temperatures can range from -104 to -59 degrees and completely engulf trees in solid ice.

Abraham Lake, Canada

Abraham Lake is an artificial lake on North Saskatchewan River in western Alberta, Canada. The underwater formations are actually frozen bubbles of flammable methane gas trapped in the icy manmade lake.

Door to Hell, Derweze, Turkmenistan

The "Door to Hell" is a natural gas field in Derweze, Turkmenistan, that collapsed into an underground cavern in 1971, becoming a natural gas crater. Geologists set it on fire to prevent the spread of methane gas and it has been burning continuously since then.

Avenue of the Baobabs, Madagascar

The Avenue of the Baobabs is a prominent group of baobab trees lining the dirt road between Morondava and Belon'i Tsiribihina in the Menabe region of western Madagascar. The baobabs can be up to 800 years of age and reach heights of 98 feet. The diameter of the larger trees can reach up to 36 feet with a circumference of 160 feet.