7 places on Earth that look AI-generated but are completely real
A blood-red lake, a sideways waterfall and a forest rising from turquoise water are among seven real landscapes spread across the world.
Explore the world’s seven natural wonders, including bioluminescent bays, pink beaches, rainbow rivers and white dunes.
Scroll through social media long enough and you are bound to come across spectacular landscapes that look almost too strange to be real. Sometimes they are, with AI-generated images increasingly mixed in among genuine photos from around the world.
But Earth has plenty of real places that are every bit as remarkable, from a blood-red lake in Africa to a volcano that glows electric blue after dark.
Lençóis Maranhenses, Brazil: A 'desert' covered in lakes
From above, Lençóis Maranhenses National Park looks like an enormous desert covered by endless waves of white sand. But during the rainy season, water collects between the dunes, filling the landscape with hundreds of temporary blue and green lagoons.
An aerial view of Lençóis Maranhenses National Park. (Getty Images/Ignacio Palacios)
The dunes stretch across 90,000 hectares of the park, which are constantly changing due to rain and wind near the coast of northeastern Brazil.
"The lakebeds are coated with a layer of brown or green algae and cyanobacteria, contributing to the ever-changing scenery and variety of shapes and colours, composing a landscape of unique beauty rarely found anywhere else in the world," UNESCO explained.
Kawah Ijen, Indonesia: The volcano with 'blue lava'
Indonesia's Kawah Ijen is like no other volcano on Earth, with electric-blue streams glowing across the rocky landscape in the darkness.
A person standing near the "blue lava" at Indonesia's Kawah Ijen volcano. (Getty Images/Sopon Chienwittayakun)
Despite its appearance, the phenomenon is not actually blue lava. Sulfur-rich gases escape from cracks around the crater and ignite when they mix with oxygen, producing brilliant blue flames that are easiest to see at night.
Kawah Ijen also contains a striking turquoise crater lake surrounded by sulfur deposits, adding another unusual splash of color to the volcanic landscape.
Horizontal Falls, Australia: A waterfall that runs sideways
Australia's Horizontal Falls turns the basic idea of a waterfall on its side. Instead of water plunging over a cliff, enormous tides force seawater through narrow gaps in the rocky McLarty Range in Western Australia's remote Kimberley region. The area is also known as Garaanngaddim by the local Indigenous people.
"Whilst the Horizontal Falls are not a true waterfall in the strictest sense, it is possibly the only way to describe this impressive phenomenon," Australia's Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development explained. "Twice daily, millions of litres of seawater cascade, hurtle and tumble from one bay to another (and to another), through narrow gaps between two sets of orange sandstone massifs."
Water streams through the Horizontal Falls in the Kimberley region of Western Australia on Oct. 5, 2011. (Getty Images/James D. Morgan)
The two main gaps are roughly 79 feet and 20 feet wide, and the flow reverses as the tides change, and the difference in water level from one side to the other can reach around 13 feet.
Lake Kaindy, Kazakhstan: Ghost forest rising from a lake
Bare tree trunks rise straight out of the turquoise water at Lake Kaindy, giving the mountain lake the appearance of a flooded ghost forest.
The unusual landscape dates to 1911, when a powerful earthquake triggered a landslide that blocked a river in Kazakhstan's Tian Shan Mountains. Water backed up behind the natural dam and flooded the forest that once stood in the gorge.
A dead forest rising out of Lake Kaindy in the south of Kazakhstan. (Getty Images/Natalia Garidueva)
More than a century later, the trunks still poke above the surface, while preserved branches and needles can be found beneath the water.
Abraham Lake, Canada: Bubbles frozen beneath the ice
During the depths of winter, Abraham Lake in Alberta can become covered with stacks of white bubbles seemingly suspended beneath clear ice.
Bubbles of methane trapped in the ice-covered Abraham Lake in Alberta, Canada. (Getty Images/chinaface)
The bubbles are methane produced as naturally occurring bacteria break down plant material at the bottom of the human-made lake. As the gas rises toward the surface during sufficiently cold weather, layers of ice can trap the bubbles before they escape into the atmosphere.
The result is a frozen pattern that can resemble everything from stacks of pancakes to white jellyfish locked beneath the ice.
Marble Caves, Chile: A cathedral carved by water
Along the shore of General Carrera Lake in Chilean Patagonia, turquoise water has carved passages through solid marble, creating sweeping arches, columns and caves.
The Marble Caves, a series of sculpted caves in the General Carrera Lake in Chile. (Getty Images/R.M. Nunes)
Water erosion slowly sculpted the Marble Caves over thousands of years. Reflections from the lake can wash the marble walls in shades of blue and turquoise that change with the light and water level.
General Carrera Lake covers about 1,850 square kilometers, making it the largest lake in Chile, with the Marble Cathedral, Marble Chapel and surrounding caverns among its most visually distinctive features.
Lake Natron, Tanzania: Africa's blood-red lake
Lake Natron in northern Tanzania can take on deep shades of red and pink, creating a blood-red lake surrounded by the dry landscape of Africa's Great Rift Valley.
An aerial view of patterns of red algae and salt formations in shallow salt waters of Lake Natron, Africa. (Getty Images/Paul Souders)
The eerie colors are natural. As water evaporates and the lake becomes increasingly salty, salt-loving microorganisms thrive, with their pigments giving parts of the shallow lake its red and pink appearance.
Lake Natron is less than 10 feet deep in many areas and, despite the levels of salt being overwhelming for most animals, provides an important breeding area for lesser flamingos.
A group of lesser flamingos stands in shallow waters as Lake Natron reflects the soft pink and orange hues of the sky in Tanzania, Africa. (Getty Images/Jianmei Wang)
