You don’t have to leave your planet to feel like you’re in some other remote world. See a list of 10 places, here on Earth, where the feeling of being on another planet is guaranteed.
10. The Eisriesenwelt Ice Caves, Austria
Ice caves are very different from normal caves. When we are inside it, it seems that we are not on Earth, but in the bowels of some remote planet. There are many ice caves around the world and the Eisriesenwelt are the best known. They extend for 40km. Only a portion of this labyrinth is open to tourists, but it is enough to feel the climate and the mystery that surrounds the place.
9. Dry Valleys, Antarctica
Seals who wander, lost, into the Dry Valleys of the Transantarctic Mountains, die from lack of food and water. Their carcasses can exist for centuries due to the dry climate.
The Dry Valleys of Antarctica, according to scientists, is the area on Earth most similar to what would be a Mars landscape. The region hardly ever has snow and, except for some rocky plains, it is the only continental part of Antarctica that is not ice. The valley floor features some lakes permanently frozen, several meters thick and, under that ice, live some organisms extremely simple, which are objects of study.
8. Socotra Island, Indian Ocean
This island simply dispenses with any notion of what is considered “normal” for a terrestrial landscape. If you woke up there, you would probably think you are on another planet, or at least some remote era. Socotra is part of an archipelago that was geographically isolated from Africa 6 or 7 million years ago. As in the Galapagos Islands, it has about 700 rare and very different species. The climate is arid, and yet there are incredible specimens of plants – some species have not changed in the last 20 million years.
7. Rio Tinto, Spain
Rio Tinto’s giant open pit mines create a surreal environment, transforming the landscape into something similar to what we would see on the Moon, for example. The growth of the river not only consumed mountains and valleys, but village lands. The river had its name taken from the color of its waters, practically red and extremely acid (with pH ranging between 1.7 and 2.5), rich in metals.
6. Kliluk, Lake Stained, Canada
In the hot summer sun, the water of Lake Manchado evaporates and the minerals contained in it are crystallized. This causes the formation of several circles with white edges: shallow pools, which reflect the mineral content of water in shades of green and blue. This water contains one of the highest concentrations of minerals in the world: sulfate magnesium, calcium and sodium sulfate, plus traces of other minerals, such as titanium and silver. Canadian Indians bathed in these waters and in the mud of the lake to heal wounds.
5. Uyuni Salt Lake, Bolivia
The Uyuni Salt Lake is perhaps one of the most spectacular landscapes in the world. A magnificent area with an impressive salt desert (the largest in the world), active volcanoes and geysers – like an alien mirage, completely out of reality.
4. Vale da Lua, Brazil
The Brazilian representative of “alien” landscapes is Vale da Lua, in Brazil. It is a rock formation, sculpted by water erosion, full of natural pools. It is located 38 km from Alto Paraíso, in Goiás. Its rock formations are one of the oldest on the planet, made of quartz and other crystals.
3. Hot Blood Stream, Japan
Chinoike Jigoku
or Blood pond hell in Beppu, Oita, Japan. Chinoike Jigoku features a pond of hot, red water and a large souvenir shop. It is one of the more photogenic of the eight hells.
The Hot Blood Stream is one of the “hells” (jigoku) of Beppu, Japan. Nine spectacular hot springs that are more “to see” than to shower. The landscape includes a lake of red and hot water, colored by the iron present in the liquid. Hot Blood was elected the most photogenic of the “hells”.
2. The Stone Forest, China
Shilin (in Mandarin, Stone Forest) is formed of smooth stones, surrounded by water that covers the floor. Water erodes everything but the pillars. The Stone Forest has been known since the Ming Dynasty as the First Wonder of the World.
The Richat Structure, Mauritania
This spectacular formation in Mauritania is located in the southwestern part of the Sahara desert. It is so large that it is visible from space, with a diameter of 30 miles. Previously, it was thought that the formation was caused by the impact of a meteorite that had fallen on the region, but now it has been concluded that it is the result of erosion. The exact cause of its circular shape is still a mystery.
To reflect: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil, is that good men do nothing”. (Edmund Burke)
Chinese police dismantled a factory that makes artificial eggs from plastic materials and inedible human waste. And it exports its product to the Arab world and to Morocco, especially through Arab merchants !!!
The factory produces about 50,000 cartons per day (each with 360 eggs …)
This egg is the cause of the spread of gastrointestinal cancer diseases!
At present, the director of the Chinese factory is in jail. What is strange is that this Chinese industrial egg does not differentiate it from the original egg, either in shape or texture, and inside it is egg white and egg yolk, like the original chicken eggs, and is now widespread in our markets .
On the same day of the bet, Phileas Fogg and his new butler, Passepartout undertook a journey to Paris. As luggage he carried a change, 20,000 pounds, (half of his fortune, the other half had been staked) and a travel guide.And from Paris, smoothly, to TurinFrom Turin, they crossed all of Italy to BrindisiFrom Brindisi, crossing the Mediterranean by boat, to SuezFrom Suez, across the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea to BombayThey crossed India to AllahabadFrom Allahabad to BenaresAnd from Benares to CalcuttaThey left India to get to Hong KongAnd through China to ShanghaiFrom Shanghai to Yokohama in JapanAnd from Japan to AmericaAnd they came to San FranciscoFrom San Francisco to Omaha in NebraskaAnd from Omaha to ChicagoAnd from Chicago to New YorkAnd across the Atlantic to Cobh (former Queenstown) in IrelandAnd from Cobh to DublinAnd from Dublin to LiverpoolAnd finally, from Liverpool to LondonAnd with British punctuality, after 80 days, Mr. Fogg followed by a delirious crowd made his entrance into the Reform Club.
The most hostile place in the World: Northern Sentinel Island
They settled in the region 60,000 years ago and receive visitors with violence.
It is hard to believe that there are people in the world who know nothing about television, have never seen a car or made-up clothing.
However, there are still tribes that are completely separate from global civilization and do not maintain any contact with the outside world.
Nearly 60,000 years old, North Sentinel Island is a part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which lies in the Indian Ocean, between Myanmar and Indonesia.
There, it is the place where there is one of the most isolated tribes on the planet.
Sentinelians are so hostile to external contact that the island was considered the most difficult place in the world to visit.
Sentinels seem to be direct descendants of the first humans to emerge from Africa.
The number of inhabitants cannot yet be certified, but it is estimated that there are between 40 and 500 natives.
No matter the character of the visitor, when they arrive on the island’s shores, whether on purpose or by accident, islanders receive intruders almost always in the same way: with spears and arrows, in an attack position.
Gifts, such as food and clothing, are of no importance to them.
This hostility reached the point where the natives offered resistance to rescue missions after the tsunami in 2004.
Just as the disastrous tsunami hit the Indian Ocean, a group of rescuers offered help to Sentinels through an Indian navy helicopter.
They wanted to find and help the survivors, although the chances were slim.
They tried to drop packages of food to the ground, but were met with hostility from the natives, including a sentinel warrior who came out of the dense jungle and shot an arrow trying to hit the helicopter.
Not much is known about these tribal people: the language is strange and the habits are unknown.
Their dwellings are hidden in the dense, closed forest, so there is no clue as to how they live.
All that is known is that Sentinels are hunters and gatherers, as they do not cultivate anything, it seems.
They live on fruits, fish, tubers, wild pigs, lizards and honey.
India has sovereignty over the Northern Sentinel, but it is believed that the people of that island do not even know what India is.
After several unsuccessful attempts to reach friendly contact, the Indian government finally stepped aside and banned all visits to the island.
The Indian Navy imposed a 3-mile protection zone to keep tourists, explorers and others busy at a distance.
Accidental encounters still occur and none of them ends well.
There are several horror stories of how Sentinelians have treated ‘guests’: most people return from the island terrified and injured when they return.
In 1896, a fugitive from the British Andamans prisons, drifted at sea and ended up by accident on the island’s shores.
A few days later, a search party found the body on a beach, pierced by arrows and with a cut throat.
In 1974, a group went there to make a documentary and the film’s director was wounded by an arrow in the leg.
Contact attempts
Indian anthropologist T.N. Pandit made several government-sponsored trips to the Northern Sentinel in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
“Sometimes, they turn their backs on us and sit on their hips like they are going to defecate,” he said.
“This is a symbol of insult to them, as we were not welcome.” Surprisingly, there was only one case where an outsider did not face an aggressive reception.
On January 4, 1991, a group of 28 people, composed of men, women and children, approached Pandit and his entourage.
“It was unbelievable how they volunteered for our meeting,” he said.
“They must have decided that it was time to get in touch with other people, or they were studying us”.
In 1991, Indian anthropologist Madhumala Chattopadhyay managed to establish a brief contact after several incursions to the island, but the project was eventually suspended to protect the tribe.
After these attempts, the local population closed again and, since then, never allowed any approach of “outsiders”.
Unfortunately, the last contact with the inhabitants of the island, in 2006, was not as good as expected.
Two fishermen were killed while fishing illegally within the island’s protection strip.
Sentinelans are among the last communities that live without contact with globalization.
Perhaps it is better to leave them as they are, as bringing them into civilization can be extremely negative.
After all, they may not be immune to various diseases that exist today and it can be extremely complicated to adapt to the modern world.
