14 Mystifying Places On Earth You Should Visit Before You Die. #4 Is Awe-Inspiring!

It's easy to forget how beautiful the world is when you're cooped up in a gritty urban jungle, a cubicle in a sterile workplace, or your familiar small town.

Not only is there so much of Earth still left unexplored by any human eyes, there's so much of it unexplored by each and every one of us.

While I am sure we all wish we could get up and go to new cities, meet new people, and try new things, it's nearly impossible to make the world your oyster when you lack the resources.

Fortunately, with the web, we can see and learn about foreign lands. Thanks to vivid photographs and the information age, we do have access to see was was once unseeable.

I mean, did you know there is an underground city in Turkey discovered as recently as 1963? Or a city that has been on fire since 1962?

Civilization has been known to change its surrounding into whatever it pleases, but there still remain a few places on Earth that are baffling to the modern eye.

These mystifying, sometimes ominous, sometimes breathtaking locations are at the top of the list of the ones we wish we could visit before we die.

1. Jacob's Well, Texas

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Jacob's Well is a spring in Texas that first drops to 30 feet, then reaches a depth of 120 feet through its four chambers. The water is so crystal clear it appears as though you are truly diving into the abyss.

2. The Tunnel of Love, Ukraine

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The Tunnel of Love in the forest of Kleven, Ukraine is used to transport goods, but it's also pretty incredible to look at.

3. Piles of Salt, Bolivia

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Wikipedia

The largest salt flat in the world, the salt mounds of the Salar de Uyuni are the remnants of a prehistoric lake. Mined through the typical process, salt is put into mounds, dried, and enriched with iodine.

4. The Crooked Forest, Poland

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Trees in the "Crooked Forest" have been growing this way since they were first planted in the 1930s, though no one knows exactly how or why.

5. Blood Falls, Antarctica

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Wikipedia

It isn't the set of a horror movie, the "blood" is iron oxide-tainted saltwater. Nevertheless, there is still a mystery here. Biologist are baffled by the various species of microbes that have managed to live in the glacier's ice without oxygen.

6. Living Root Bridges, India

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Wikipedia

The forming of the "Living Root Bridges" of Northeast India are a long-standing tradition. People train the pliable tree roots to grow in the form of a bridge — a process that takes up to 15 years. However, while the bridges seemingly have "always" been there, the people have no idea when they were first created.

7. Kolmanskop, Namibia

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A ghost town in the Namib dessert, Kolmanskop was abandoned after World War I. Once a thriving diamond mining town, the people exhausted its resources and left in 1954. Today the sand has taken over much of the property.

8. Sedlec Ossuary, Czech Republic

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The ossuary is believed to contain somewhere between 40,000 and 70,000 skeletons. Many of the bones have been used as furnishings and decorations. After the Black Death was introduced in the Czech Republic, mass graves were needed. When those got too big…this was their grim solution.

9. Rio Tinto, Spain

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Jose A. / Flickr Creative Commons

The Spanish river has been mined for copper, silver, and gold since 3,000 BC. Today, due to it's low pH, it is highly acidic and dangerous.

 

10. The Hill of Crosses, Lithuania

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The origin of the tradition of placing crosses and crucifixes on the hill in northern Lithuania is unknown. Believed to have begun after the 1831 climax of the November Uprising, over the years, the amount of crosses has increased dramatically.

11. The Aral Sea, Kazakhstan

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Formerly one of the four largest lakes in the world, since the Soviet Union began using it for irrigation in the 1960s, the Aral Sea is now only 10 percent of its original size. Many ships can be found abandoned on the now completely dry land.

12. Socotra, Indian Ocean

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The archipelago contains 700 species of flora and fauna found nowhere else on Earth.

13. The Eye of the Sahara, Africa

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Once believed to be caused by asteroid impact, geologist have now determined the "Richat Structure" is a highly symmetrical, geological dome. With a 25 mile diameter, the structure is visible from outer space.

14. Inverted Tower, Portugal

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These "Initiation Wells" were never used for water. Instead, the deep, spiraling structures were used for ceremonies like Tarot initiation rites. Located at the Quinta da Regaleira in Portugal, the whimsical estate belonged to wealthy merchants but was sold to Carvalho Monteiro in 1892, who wanted to create a "bewildering" place that reflected his interests.