The world is a beautiful place. Each part of nature has something totally unique in it that looks like it is from another planet. This is probably why so many science fiction movies are able to film within our very real world. These fantastical objects and places can come in the form of hidden caverns full of crystals to the very technology we ourselves have developed today. Everywhere you look there is something new to see that will have you stop for a minute and simply question if you are in fact still on Earth or if you have wandered into another universe. Let’s take a look at some of the wildest objects and places found on the planet we call home.
Perfect Timing
Taken at a pristine beach, this photo immortalizes the exact moment when the sea surf breaks on a small rock.
Captured in a thousandth of a second, the image freezes time, allowing the viewer to fully appreciate the delicate splash and complex patterns. It’s a demonstration of nature’s transient beauty, a fleeting instant caught in perfect clarity.
Plane in the Sky
In this complex and mesmerizing photograph, a man has captured the reflection of a plane in a window after a rainfall. The plane’s image is refracted through individual droplets of water, creating a stunning kaleidoscope effect.
This ordinary scene is transformed into a work of art through the lens, displaying a creative blend of technology and nature’s beauty.
Real or Collage
This extraordinary image plays with perspective to create a stunning visual illusion. Three elements—the wall, the roof, and the tree beyond—align perfectly to look like a blended collage.
The angles are so flawlessly matched that they seem to be part of a complex artwork, though it’s just a single photo. It’s a captivating example of the serendipity that can be found in everyday life.
Pit to Hell
This disturbing yet fascinating image showcases lava that has formed to resemble a pile of bodies being sucked into a fiery void.
The twisting shapes and tormented figures invoke images of hell, offering a dark and unsettling glimpse into Earth’s inner fury. It’s a powerful reminder of nature’s destructive beauty and the thin line between creation and chaos.
The Road that Divides
This poignant photograph shows a road dividing two vastly different landscapes. On one side, the forest has been burned to a cinder; on the other, it remains lush and green.
The road acts as a barrier, a line of safety that protected one side from destruction. It’s an unforgettable illustration of the fragility of life and the resilience of nature.
Lighting Up the Sky
The drama of an incoming storm is captured over a tranquil farm, with blue lightning illuminating the clouds, and more clouds ominously gathering.
The electric blue contrasts sharply with the dark, churning clouds, creating an almost surreal scene. It’s a breathtaking display of nature’s power and a glimpse into the ever-changing dynamics of weather.
Sunflower Field
This peaceful image depicts a field of sunflowers all facing west, standing tall and uniform. The sunflowers’ uniform direction creates a sense of unity and harmony, a natural alignment that is both calming and inspiring.
It’s a soothing visual, reminiscent of a disciplined army of nature, a perfect blend of growth and order.
Electrical Storm
Snapped through the windshield of a car stopped at a sign, this image presents a stormy scene with grey clouds and distant rain.
The electric lines in the foreground appear to be holding up the storm, adding a surreal element to the composition. The photograph encapsulates a moment of anticipation, a stillness before the storm, reflecting both nature’s might and mankind’s presence.
Birds Flight
A rock’s impact on a car window has created an imprint shaped like a bird, set against a serene blue sky scattered with clouds. It resembles a bird in flight, rising towards the heavens, imbuing the image with a sense of freedom and transcendence.
It’s a spontaneous piece of art, born from a random occurrence, yet rich in symbolism and beauty.
Molten Falls
Yosemite’s Firefall is a phenomenon that captures the imagination. It appears as molten lava cascading down a cliff, but it’s actually a ray of sunlight reflecting off the snow. This event only occurs for 1-2 weeks near the end of February, under specific conditions.
Lasting only 10 minutes or less, it’s a fleeting and awe-inspiring sight that merges the real with the fantastical, offering a glimpse into the magical potential of our natural world.
Cold As Ice
You never know what you are going to stumble across as you head off into the woods for a rather snowy or in this case icy adventure. One unsuspecting hiker found themselves staring down at the rocky shoreline when they saw something that couldn’t be real.
It was a rock with an ice formation that looked like the aorta and ventricles of a heart. It appeared that they had found Elsa’s heart from the popular movie Frozen.
A Snow White Story
The fairytale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves features a sinister stepmother who tries to poison Snow White with an apple so that she is no longer the fairest of them all. This ‘ghost apple’ which is an icy apple shell looks like something the stepmom might have tried to give to Snow White.
When removed from the branch it is actually incredibly beautiful and now looks like something from Frozen. It seems like Disney has been getting some ideas from all over the world. Although this is not an apple we would suggest biting in to, it might have a bit of freezing after taste.
The Sands Of Time
As you wander around the desert in Egypt you would expect to find some tombs from the time of the Pharaohs or old settlements that have been written about in hieroglyphs. However, there is definitely one thing you would not expect to find and that is a gigantic whale’s skeleton.
For one intrepid explorer, they found themselves tripping over something which at first appears to be a rock but was in fact a piece of bone. Upon further inspection, it was actually the complete skeleton of a whale in the middle of the desert. How it got here only scientists can truly know.
Into The Future
The United Arab Emirates is known for its cities that appear to be growing straight out of the desert. Their skyscrapers designed by some of the biggest names in architecture are steel and glass monoliths that appear to have been designed with the future in mind.
Each one pierces through the clouds, and the city of Dubai looks like it has been built into the clouds itself. Living in a penthouse here must truly feel celestial.
Puppies On Board
Even pregnant dogs need to go for the occasional check-up and ultrasound with their owner’s veterinarian of choice. This mom to be found herself under the plates of an x-ray machine to see just how many puppies she was carrying and the resulting x-ray itself is pretty remarkable.
You can see each individual puppy’s skeleton and if you try you can even count just how many heads and thus puppies there are. This owner is sure in for a handful.
A Tower Of Books
The Spanish window pictured here might look like books are pouring out of it in a continuous stream, but it is actually a sculpture.
Famed Spanish artist, Alicia Martin has made it her life’s work to create sculptures around Madrid which feature books. Most of them feature books in a stream like this one.
A Not So Optical Illusion
This phone line appears to be floating somewhere in the Russian countryside. If you look at it closely, you can see the charred remains of where the bottom half of it used to be.
A fire raged through the area at one point, and the bottom was burned. The telephone wires continue to hold the pole in place which gives it this ghostly floating appearance.
All Aboard The Zigzag Express
Train tracks tend to need to run straight, or at a gradual curve if a train and all of the cars are going to make it to their next station without any mishaps.
An earthquake hit New Zealand, and the train tracks in the city of Canterbury ended up getting completely bent by the natural disaster.
An Alternate Reality
This forest looks like it has been split between two worlds. The top layer is leafy and green, while the bottom layer is red and looks like it belongs in an apocalyptic world.
Toxic waste in Western Hungary, which contained large amounts of aluminum was spilled in the region, and this is the result.
Black And White Santa
Santacon is an event that brings people of all ages together so that they can share their love of Christmas and the jolly gift giver.
This participant decided to try something totally unique. She created a black and white Santa outfit, which definitely made her stand out from the rest of the red and white dressed crowd.
Flat Or Round?
Paris, France is known for producing many artists and their great works of art. This optical illusion is just the latest public masterpiece.
It looks like a giant grass sphere, that children can crawl all over. In reality, it is completely flat, and the lines that have been mown into the grass are what creates the 3D appearance.
An Incoming UFO
We are used to clouds looking like fluffy white pieces of cotton candy floating in the sky, not UFOs. This cloud has a yellow tinge to it, and a shape that is remarkably like that of a flying saucer.
It is called a lenticular cloud, and they are known for being stationary rather than those that move with the wind.
Now You See Me
Modern structures all seem to be built with glass and metal to envision the future that we all seem to have and as you stare into these trees you will see the epitome of that vision. In Sweden, set amongst the trees is a luxury treehouse that has been designed to completely mask itself.
The mirrors that make up the sides work to reflect the sky and the forest around it effectively making it look like a secret military base or a structure built by aliens.
Rock Creatures
Lord of the Rings is probably the most famous fantasy film for turning things like molten rock and lava into the monster Balrog in the film but this rock feature looks like it could rival him. It appears that part of the rock face was sheared away to create the gaping maw of a subterranean creature that has come up for a snack.
Maybe it is the water equivalent of the Balrog. All we know is that it definitely needs to be in a film and brought to life with CGI.
An Antler Affair
Any good fisherman knows that if you spend enough time out in the woods you will come across some truly extraordinary animals. For this Irish fisherman, he was out trawling the ocean for fish when something snagged in his net.
He hoisted it up, expecting to find some garbage, and low and behold, it was a pair of massive antlers. After further inspection, it was announced that the antlers were 10,000 years old and from an earlier species of what we call elk now.
The Dinosaur Snake
You know that eerie feeling you get when something brushes against your ankles while you stand in somebody of water? Imagine going for a swim and you look down to see this gigantic snake’s
tail lazily flicking against you in the water.
This would definitely be cause for some alarm, but now this gigantic snake dinosaur is extinct, which makes it nothing to fear but definitely something to gawk at. All we know is that this skeleton looks like it could be from the movie Anaconda if it was set during one of the dinosaur eras.
The Heavenly Pit
Within mainland China, there is a sinkhole that looks like a small paradise hidden on Earth. It is a giant sinkhole that has slowly filled with greenery and even a stream that makes it look like a world within a world. Those who manage to visit feel as if they have stepped onto another planet.
It would be an excellent filming location if it wasn’t so hard to get into.
Remains Of The Past
Imagine going for a leisurely boat ride along the snowy shoreline of Svalbard in Norway, and you take a glance down into the shadowy depths of the water only to be greeted by this sight. It looks like the giant skeleton of a dragon from Game of Thrones that plunged into the water and did not manage to leave it.
The long white vertebrae definitely look like they could belong to a dragon instead of a whale; it actually does. We think that this place would make the perfect setting for a television show about dinosaurs or even a prequel series for Game of Thrones.
The Night Sky
There are many phenomena that light up the sky, like the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights, but then there are also these strange formations that look like descending aliens. On this starry night, some kind of cosmic phenomenon caused red flares of light with branching tendrils descending from them to puncture the sky.
It really looked as if aliens had finally decided to come down to Earth for a quick ‘Hello,’ but this was not the case; just the stars playing tricks on our minds.
A Green Invasion
Plants and wildlife are extremely resilient; even when they are cut back, they have a way of encroaching into the built environment. This abandoned mall in Thailand was a concrete jungle until it began to flood, and seeds were deposited throughout it. Now, these seeds have used the water to feed their roots and slowly grow throughout the structure.
As they encroach more and more it appears as if nature is reclaiming its lost ground and an entirely new ecosystem is being built.
Transparent
Fish that spend a lot of time close to the surface of the ocean are usually brightly colored to fend off attackers but also to protect them from the sun. Those fish that tend to dwell in dark caverns or close to the ocean floor do not need to be brightly colored, and in fact, if you look at this little guy he is completely transparent.
You can see each bone in his body as well as his tiny pulsing organs.
A Wood Nymph
Driftwood art has become incredibly popular as artists began to make sculptures that resemble real things like animals and now people. Japanese artist, Nagato Iwasaki began to produce
driftwood people that are anatomically correct right down to their wooden kneecaps.
This sculpture looks like it could walk off into the woods at any moment and begin conversing with fairies and other woodland creatures. Perhaps some driftwood friends should be constructed and if an animation team got a hold of them they could make for an interesting film.
A Giant Water Feature
Quarry’s make great spots to go for a swim and from above look like they were created by aliens. Typically, they have been used for pit mining and then flooded with water once the mining is complete. Over time they make for unique ecosystems where fish will start to breed and humans will start to use the spots for swimming.
This one has a water geyser that draws people from all over Sweden because it looks like a whale’s blowhole is going off constantly.
The Hologram Experience
Nowadays, people don’t really enjoy going to the circus because the conditions that the animals are kept intend to be quite poor. In Germany, they decided to find a solution for this as children and adults alike still love being able to see these wondrous creatures up close. The answer was simple: holograms. The animals are projected as holograms which look even more magnificent than the real thing in this case.
Circus goers can get as close as they want to this elephant without any fear of it becoming upset and see it in great detail. It also works to raise awareness for animal cruelty and why these magnificent creatures should be on the plains of Africa and not kept in captivity.
Wings Or Fins
Stingrays are some of the most unique creatures found within the ocean. Their circular yet almost paper-thin bodies allow them to glide along the ocean floor at astonishing speeds and their little mouths make them appear to always be smiling. Their actual bone structure though is fascinating to look at and it definitely appears to be the skeleton of an alien.
The bones are unique because of how fine they are and this is what makes them light enough to glide around the ocean floor.
A Secret Staircase
Back when people lived in gigantic mansions full of rooms and hidden compartments, secret staircases were considered the norm. An old English home has a very special staircase built into a hidden panel underneath a mirror that leads to a room behind it.
From this room, the hidden person can watch who walks by and also listen to conversations without anyone being the wiser. It really is the perfect hidey-hole and maybe something that modern houses should adopt?
A Hidden Universe
Some objects just appear to be celestial in nature and this opal is one of those. As you peer into its depths it looks like clouds are swirling around and a dark landmass is rising up to meet them.
If you have seen Men In Black then you know that marbles sometimes contain universes within them and this little stone looks like it could be hanging off the neck of the cat in the first film.
The Levitating Cruise Ship
This cruise ship might appear to be floating over land as it makes its way to some unknown destination, but it is actually a resort.
If you venture to Jeongdonjin in South Korea, you can board this cruise ship, which is now a fancy resort. The view from each porthole provides a nice view of the beach below.
Where Giants Roam
In Ireland, there is a spot where it looks like giants have built a road to nowhere. If you have ever read the story, Jack and the Beanstalk then this looks like the perfect place for the beanstalk to start growing so that the giants can climb up and down and walk along this road.
Each rock is gigantic and looks as if it has been designed for some giant feet and not those that are human-sized.
The Real World Frozen
Disney sure has been able to find a lot of inspiration for its perpetually icy children’s film Frozen. In Alberta, Canada, there is a lake that freezes each winter with gas bubbles. These bubbles make the lake appear to be something out of a Star Trek film or one in which Elsa has fallen and tried to freeze herself out of.
All we know is that this definitely could be the setting for a sci-fi film.
High flying
When these aircraft were putting on a show, onlookers couldn’t help but laugh when a seagul seemed to get in the way. Those spectating from a distance noticed that the bird actually looked as though it was a part of the routine.
It certainly looks like something from a movie with the smoke coming from the rare of the bird!
Puppy love
This puppy certainly looks like he’s having the best time chasing these bubbles around but how he managed to get himself trapped in one we’ll never know.
And even more, it appears as though this family’s new pet is about to drift away. In fact, the picture was just taken as the exact right time and if you look closer at the image, you’ll understand what we’re talking about.
Twister
This crazy force of nature is hard to comprehend. With a mix of nature’s storms and sunshine, a rainbow lifts from the ground above this home.
Only a few centimeters away, or so it seems, there is a spiraling twister tearing up the back yard of the home. The perfect storm caught at the perfect time.
Smile
There’s nothing better in life than to be reminded that everything will be ok and when times get hard, all you have to do is smile.
With the sun shining perfectly through the clouds, these birds were captured at exactly the right time flying above the sunset. Both occurrences look to be a happy, smiling face and how cute it is!
Bird or Rabbit?
Is it a bird? Is it a rabbit? Is it real or not? This picture can certainly play tricks with the mind.
Flying low above the ground, some people would think this is a picture from a movie about superhero rabbits flying around on their aircraft but others may simply see a bird going in for a landing.
A World Within A Spring
Last but not least, we come to the Grand Prismatic Spring in Wyoming, United States. Staring down at this spring from the sky it literally looks like you are staring into the depths of a rainbow if one was made out of water.
It doesn’t look like the kind of place you can swim but if you have a drone you definitely want to capture an aerial view of this because it looks like a place that exists in a galaxy far far away.
Straight Out Of A Fairy Tale
Disney has been making a number of live action films of some of their classics, and when you look at this picture both Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella immediately come to mind.
Can’t you imagine Belle or Cinderella swinging the front door open and being greeted by fluttering birds and little mice all dressed up?
The Ghost Ship
Weather, and in particular, clouds, have the ability to create a number of optical illusions. One blustery day in San Francisco, created a site that few had seen before.
It appeared as if a ghost ship was silently gliding through the sky. Those antennas that look like masts, are actually the top of a high-rise building.
The Emperor’s Corridor
The Czech Republic is full of fairy tale buildings, and little cities that look as if they have been untouched by time.
The landscape around these is just as magical. In an area known as the Emperor’s Corridor, it looks as if you have stepped into the video game Skyrim.
Green And Red
The Christmas season is full of green and red colors, and this forest in Spain looks like it is ready to celebrate.
All of those red leaves have fallen off of the tree in preparation for winter, and the bright green moss is what makes the trunk stand out.
Follow The Rainbow Road
Sometimes the light hits the road just right, and you happen to be wearing polarized sunglasses. That is what happened for this person when they came upon some freshly paved stretch of road.
The result is this rainbow road, that looks like it will take you on a pretty grand adventure.
Dreamland
A lot of people have a place that they go to in their dreams. For some people it is their family home, and for others, it might just be this picturesque view of Norway.
This literally looks like it is something out of The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit films.
The Latest In Horror
Crafting a horror film that is both haunting and scary can be tough. You need lots of suspense, usually a child, and some sort of malevolent presence.
This parent saw their child framed in the doorway, and snapped this quick picture. It definitely looks like the poster for a new, very scary film.
The Underground Church
If you have seen films like The Apostle, then you know one of the criteria for these flicks is a spooky looking church with an altar.
This church in Poland was carved underground, and placed in a salt mine so that miners would always have a place to pray. You can still visit it today.
Memoirs Of A Geisha
Japan is one of those places that a traveler never forgets. Cherry blossom season, combined with the traditional wooden homes and restaurants makes it a beautiful place to visit.
For fans of the film Memoirs of a Geisha, this picture looks exactly like a screenshot from it. It might just be time to rewatch the movie.
Into The Woods
Leaving the city for a weekend getaway, especially one that involves skiing is a ton of fun.
One family was headed out on their way for a skiing trip, when they noticed the drive was very similar to the one in Stephen King’s The Shining. Everyone made it to their cabin okay, don’t worry!
Halos In The Sky
Long exposure photography has become the go to for night shots. Photographers can track the movement of stars, planets, and anything else in the night sky that is whizzing around.
That includes drones, which are what created these halos on top these mountain peaks. There are no UFOs here – that we know of.
The Real Blade Runner
The futuristic world of Blade Runner is one that is instantly recognizable. The sky is shaded red from pollution, and all of the cities are full of people.
In San Francisco, the skyline was red one evening which could be due to a number of things. For fans of the film, this is definitely a glimpse into the future.