Believe it or not: 10 of the world’s most surreal landscapes

Artificial intelligence might produce some weird-looking landscapes, but believe it or not, these places are all natural.

Rainbow Mountains, China

The bare rocky ridges of China’s Rainbow Mountains look improbable.Credit: iStock

These bare rocky ridges, protected in Zhangye Danxia National Geopark in Gansu Province, look truly improbable on two counts. First, the rock is deeply eroded into towers, humps and strange shapes. Second, the gods seem to have taken a huge paintbrush and run lines of different colours right along the ridges: white, red, orange, yellow. The bands are produced by different concentrations of ferrous salts laid down on sedimentary rocks once beneath the ocean.

Grand Prismatic Spring, USA

Microscopic thermophilic organisms give Grand Prismatic its startling colours.Credit: iStock

The largest hot spring in Yellowstone National Park is an almost perfect circle 100 metres wide, and its warmth is an ideal home for microscopic thermophilic organisms. That’s what gives the pool its startling rings of colour: yellow organisms flourish in the hottest water, orange and brown ones in cooler zones. The pool looks like a giant blue eye surrounded by grey volcanic deposits and makes for great photos. See nps.gov

Chocolate Hills, Philippines

Bohol’s Chocolate Hills look like mud pies made by children.Credit: iStock

You’d swear these perfectly round hills near Bohol are artificial – they look like mud pies made by children, except they’re green with vegetation in the wet season (and brown at other times). The unusual landforms are spread over 50 square kilometres and are said to have been formed during a battle of giants. They’re actually karst in origin, the result of limestone erosion. The largest is 120 metres, though most are shorter. See philippines.travel

Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni looks like a scene straight out of Star Wars. Credit: iStock

Like Star Wars hovercraft appearing in the distance in a shimmering desert, so do 4WDs on these huge salt plains in south-west Bolivia, where the haze from the heat makes everything wobble. In some places the surface is smooth, in others shattered into hexagons like a giant honeycomb, but the plain is all flat as far as you can see. Pink flamingos provide an occasional pink pop amid the whiteout. See salardeuyuni.com

Spotted Lake, Canada

The Spotted Lake in Canada looks like a pop-art painting or a giant piece of bubble wrap.Credit: iStock

At the height of summer, the water in this mineral-rich lake in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley largely evaporates, leaving behind a series of almost circular, separate ponds whose colour depends on the amount of calcium or sulphates. The result looks like a pop-art painting or a giant piece of bubble wrap splashed with green, blue or yellow. Local First Nations people consider the lake sacred and once used it as a health spa. See destinationosoyoos.com

Wadi Rum, Jordan

Jordan’s Wadi Rum has been used as a backdrop for many films.Credit: iStock

This jagged mountain landscape regularly features in sci-fi movies as a stand-in for Mars or imaginary planets. You can see why. The giant cliffs and sand dunes of its barren canyons are rust-red or, depending on the light, sometimes orange. The best way to see them is from a hot-air balloon or the back of a camel. Stay overnight in a Bedouin tent and the spectacular display of stars seems otherworldly, too. See visitjordan.com

Rainbow Lakes, Australia

Western Australia’s Lake Hillier looks like it has been artificially dyed.

You’ll find pink lakes across Western Australia and South Australia, plus some in Murray-Sunset National Park in north-west Victoria. The ones near Esperance in southern WA might be the most striking for two reasons: there are lots of them, scattered like puddles across the landscape, and they range from pale pink to deep red and occasional orange. They’re the result of saline minerals in the water, but look as if they’ve been artificially dyed. See westernaustralia.com

Panjin Red Beach, China

Panjin’s beach isn’t sand at all, but rather a river delta with salinity suited to a seaweed species that turns bright red in autumn.Credit: iStock

Several destinations have red beaches because of the colour of the surrounding rock, such as the Greek island Santorini or Hormuz in Iran. But none beat Panjin in China’s Liaoning Province for colour and peculiarity, since this isn’t sand at all, but rather a river delta with salinity suited to a seaweed species that turns bright red in autumn, and pink or orange at other times. October is the month to see it at its vivid best.

Pamukkale, Turkey

Limestone deposits ooze down a hillside like cake batter at Pamukkale.Credit: iStock

This World Heritage-listed wonder is created as limestone deposits ooze down a hillside like cake batter, in the process forming an almost surreal series of pools and terraces like frozen waterfalls in blinding white. The water, meanwhile, is a startling turquoise blue. Pamukkale, a wellbeing retreat in ancient times, also sports a Greek theatre and a Sacred Pool littered with classical Greek columns that you can see in the slightly fizzy water below you as you swim. See goturkiye.com 

Painted Dunes, USA

Visit Lassen Volcanic National Park in California at sunset to get the best view of its colours.

This area of Lassen Volcanic National Park in California is made of hardened volcanic ash, although from a distance it looks like sand. In places where the ash has oxidised, the dunes are spotted with red and orange. To make things seem even odder, occasional trees stick up out of the barren, desert-like landscape, while snowy mountains loom on the distant horizon. The colours are best just before sunset. See nps.gov