Dating back to as early as 1150 ., the ruins of Mesa Verde are one of the oldest in America.

They are set in the Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, USA and are all that is left of the ancient Pueblo people, also known as the Anasazi. Around 600 houses dug in the cliffs of Colorado can be found through the park, most of them very small, but some are absolutely huge, able to house more than 250 people. The Anasazi came to these places around 550 A.D., but only started digging their dwellings into the canyon cliffs around 1150.

Set in Haukadalur valley, in the south part of the country, Geysir is one of Iceland’s largest geysers.

Geysers are quite a sight to behold when they erupt and they are also one of Iceland’s most precious resources. Geysir is one of the lazier geysers, it only erupts 4-5 times a day, while others do it at intervals of 5-10 minutes. Here are some photos of Geysir’s eruption caught on camera.

The melting of Briksdal Glacier in photos shot over the years.

Briksdal Glacier used to be the largest glacier on the European mainland, in Norway. But due to global warming it has been reduced to a mere shadow of its former self. Once a great tourist attraction of the Scandinavian peninsula, Briksdal Glacier is now no longer available for glacier tours. As you can see from the photos the effects of global warming are undeniable and they say you can here the ice melting because of the caverns formed between the glacier and the rocks. It’s a tragedy, but, as always, nobody gives a damn and no one with some real power does anything about it.

2001

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A swimming pool on water, there’s something you don’t see every day.

Called the Badeschiff (that’s German for “bathing ship”) this floating swimming pool is really just an old barge transformed into a public pool last year in Berlin, on the Spree river. Unfortunately, the river itself is much too polluted for people to swim in, so this idea, as crazy as it looks, makes some sense.

It was first spotted in 2007, during a very hot Summer and during the off-season it’s covered and closed to the public. But the hot Summer is here again and the Germans in Berlin will once again be able to enjoy a swim in the cool water of the Badeschiff. Would’ve been cool if it had a glass bottom though, so you could see the river.

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Coober Pedy is a place where people like to live underground.

Coober Pedy is a small Australian town, famous for being the opal capital of the world because of the large quantity of opal stones that are mined here. What people don’t know about this place is that the locals mostly like to live underground. A tradition that goes back to the early 1900, when the first miners arrived in the area, cave-boring in the hillsides is still popular. The temperatures here during the Summer are unbearable for some, so they opt for underground living quarters, at approximately the same price as a surface-built house. The first one keeps a constant, cool temperature during the Summer while the second needs air-conditioning. It can get quite cold during the winter, though.

One of the most popular attractions in Coober Pedy are the underground churches.

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Angel waterfall in South America is the highest waterfall on Earth

Set in Canaima National Park, Venezuela, Angel is also one of the most beautiful falls on the planet. It’s a clear 802 meter drop right into the Kerep River flowing at the base of the falls. The water falls from so high an altitude that it’s turned into mist by the powerful winds, before it even reaches the bottom.

This incredible place was unknown to the outside world until aviator James Crawford Angel spotted it in 1933, while he was looking for a precious ore bed. He tried to land his plane on Ayuan-tepui in 1937 but it got stuck in the muddy ground, so he and three other companions had to descend by foot. It took them 11 days but they finally made it down and were able to tell the world about their incredible adventure, which eventually became popular and the falls were named Angel in his honor.
‘s plane remained there for another 33 years before being lifted out by a helicopter.

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A building partially covered with real gold.

Built in 1397 as a retirement villa for Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, Kinkaku is a three-story building, with the last two, fully covered with pure gold leaf. The temple was set on fire by a monk in 1950, but it was restored and the new gold coating dating from 1987 is much thicker than the original one.

Kinkaku is one of Japan’s most beautiful attractions and it serves as a “shariden”, a place where relics of Buddha are stored.

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Oh my God, the Chinese have stolen Venice.

Well, not literally stolen, but they copied it on a smaller scale. I’m talking about the Venetian Macao in China, the world’s largest casino and the third largest building in the world. It has more than 1000 slot machines and over 600 gaming tables open 24/7. So it’s safe to say you’ll find a table to lose your money at.

The Venetian is a huge complex with the central building standing over 40 stories high and costing $1,8 billion to build. It also has a smaller replica of the famous, romantic city of Venice which proves once again that Asians love to copy western culture.

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This is one of the most beautiful glaciers in the world.

Named after explorer Francisco Moreno, Perito Moreno glacier is one of only three Patagonian glaciers that are not retreating. The 30 km-long ice formation sometimes advances into the L-shaped”Lago Argentino” acting as a natural dam and separating its two halves. The water on one side of the river rises with up to 30 meters higher above the normal level of the lake, in its attempt to brake the icy barrier. The enormous amount of pressure produced by the pushing waters sometimes breaks the frozen dam in an extraordinary event. This glacier rupture cycle isn’t regular, it occurs between once a year and once in more than a decade, but if you happen to see it, it’s totally worth the wait.

The Perito Moreno Glacier is part of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, the world’s third largest fresh water reserve.

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One of the oldest chapels in all of France.

But age is not what makes it special, but it’s placement, on an 85 meters-high volcanic spire. Christians have to walk up 268 steps carved in the small mountain, to reach the place where Joan of Arc’s mother Isabelle Romee supposedly came to pray once.

Saint Michel d’Aiguile was built in 962 in Le Puy-en-Velay, a beautiful little French town also popular for its Notre Dame cathedral and it looks like it’s watching over it from above. It is quite a sight to behold.

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Would you let someone jump over your infant like this?

Known as El Colacho in Spain, the Baby-Jumping Festival is a popular event that takes place in Castillo de Murcia near Burgos, every year since 1620. It’s basically all about infants laying on a blanket and adults dressed as devils jumping over them i a procession that’s supposed to cleanse the little ones of all evil doings. Doesn’t sound like it works, but hey who am I to contradict tradition? I just wonder if in history any of the devils tripped and fell over the poor babies…

I for one wouldn’t have my kid jumped over by a grown-up like this, even if they’d allow me to keep my hand over him as protection. If that guy falls my hand isn’t going to break his fall, the baby might though…

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The Sedlec Ossuary ( Kostnice Sedlec) is a Roman Catholic Church in Sedlec, The Czech Republic, famous for its unusual, organic decorations.

Unlike other churches that like to use religious paintings and religious jewelery as decorations, this one uses between 40,000 and 70,000 human bone. Built especially as an ossuary in 1400, the macabre decorating started in 1870 when the Schwarzenberg family hired a woodcarver to arrange all the heaps of bones in order. You can see the result in the photos, but just so u know, there are 4 giant bell-shaped mounds in each corner of the chapel, an enormous chandelier which contains at least one of every bone in one’s body in the center of the chapel, and a signature of the artist, executed in bone, of course, and other “works of art”.

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Didn’t know they had deserts in Europe.

La Dune de Pila, as the French call it, is the largest sand dune in Europe. It’s located in the Arachon Bay, 60 km from the city of Bordeaux, and it is a very popular tourist attraction in France. The dune is 3 km long, 500 m wide and it has a maximum height of 117 m above sea level.

The Dune of Pyla is a recent formation, born in the XVII century through accumulation of Aeolian sand on a transverse dune. Each year, the dune covers about 8,000 square meters and at this rate, in 40 years the camping and the road at the bottom of the slope will be completely covered by sand.

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What’s amazing is that people pay to be close to these man-eaters.

This is Cango Wildlife Ranch in South Africa, a unique endangered animal shelter where people can dive in a pool with crocodiles and get close enough to see their teeth. Anyone over 12 years-old is allowed to dive into the cleverly designed cage that keeps the adrenalin junkies safe from the crushing bite of the crocodiles, but all children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.

There is a small opening at about half the height of the cage where crocs can actually get their noses into the cage, close enough for you to touch them, but thankfully it’s to tight for them to open their mouth. Some activists may complain about how the crocodiles are treated but the organizers at The Cango Wildlife Ranch say that no harm comes to the animals and that they just want to show people how magnificent the crocodile is in its natural environment, so they can understand why it is such a perfect predator.

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How would you like to see what people in New York are doing all across from London?

The Telectroscope was born from a very old, wacky idea of digging a tunnel to the other side of the world. Many of us had this idea or at least saw it in practice in children’s cartoons but nobody was crazy enough to try it. Nobody except artist Paul St. George who actually did it…sort of. He came across a 19th century article where a reporter misspelled the word electroscope, a device that measures electrostatic charges, and even misunderstood what it does, saying it was a device for the suppression of absence. The idea was a big thing at the time and people’s imagination started working, so St. George thought he’d try to put it in practice.

The Telectroscopes built in London and New York allow passers-by to take a look at what people are doing on the other side of the devices, not through a tunnel built between them but through a trans-Atlantic broadband network and HD cameras. So during the day Londoners can take a look at New York during the night and vice-versa.

The Telectroscope will be available for the public until June 15 and the company that created it wants to host special reunions between family and friends and even a marriage proposal from the other side of the Atlantic.

Read more on this incredible device right here

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