In search of hidden paradise? Paradise is a state of mind, a beautiful place, an emotional condition, or a spiritual epiphany where perfection collides. We can see millions of beautiful paradise places around the world, and some of these places you may have never known if they existed or not. Here we explore the top ten hidden paradises in the world.
10 Kirkjufell Mountain
Do you know anything about Kirkjufell? It is an eye-catching as well as the most photographed mountain in Snaefellsnes. This picturesque mountain is one of the hidden paradises that sits on Iceland’s Snaefellsnes peninsula, near the town of Grundarfjörður. Also, it has stunning colors, unique pyramidal shapes, and a jaw-dropping location. Kirkjufell Mountain is better known for its stunning pictures.
The color of the mountain seems to change depending on the season. The mountain has a series of layers. The mountain’s lower part has sediments containing fossils, while the upper section consists of layers of lava. People go to the place, Grundarfjörður, to enjoy the sunset’s unique colors behind the mountain.
The height of Kirkjufell is 1519 feet. Kirkjufell means “Church Mountain” in Icelandic, as from certain angles, it resembles a steeple. During the last ice age, Kirkjufell protruded between two glaciers. Because of glacial erosion, the shape of the peak changed today. Stöðin is the mountain next to the Kirkjufell, looks like a congregation hall.
Kirkjufellsfoss waterfall also the most popular place in this country. Additionally, three waterfalls are running in the same river. But all share the same name for some reason. So, people do not visit them in winter. So, this iconic mountain will instantly take your breath away. It is one of the famous hidden paradises to see in Snaefellsnes.
The snow-tipped mountain transforms into a snow-covered mountain in the colder season. Kirkjufell comes in a vibrant hue of green and red foliage during the summer. During the Northern Lights, it gives the best scenic backdrop with glistening under the midday sun. So, it has got full right to be here on the list of one among the most beautiful hidden paradises in the world.
9 Cano Cristales
It is the world’s most beautiful river. This Colombian river originates from the province of Meta called Serrania de la Macarena. The protected area, Serrania de la Macarena National Park, covers an area of almost 2400 square miles, while the river within this park includes 62 miles.
The river comes alive with vibrant hues such as orange, green, yellow, blue, black, and red. So, the people commonly use the names, the River of Five Colors’ and ‘Liquid Rainbow’ to refer to this river. It looks like any other river for six months of the year. Finally, between June and November, the fifth color appears as well.
The mesmerizing beauty of this brightly and abnormally colored Cano Cristales occurs because of geological and botanical factors. The riverweed Macarenia clavigera caused the brilliant red colors of Cano Cristales. A unique species of plant, Macarenia clavigera, grows on the river floor. It requires a specific amount of sunlight and the right level of water. Moreover, the combination of blue water, green algae, and yellow sand provide a rainbow effect.
Usually, the Macarenia clavigera transforms red or into red’s different shades from blood red to maroon. The water flows fast during the wet season. So it does not get enough sunlight. The water is not enough in the dry season, and it goes into a colorless hibernation. Natural swimming pools and waterfalls are the impressive rock formations of this river. This river’s unique colors make it a big tourist attraction within the country and one of the world’s hidden paradises.
The summer season is the most spectacular time for tourists to see Cano Cristales. The Guiana Shield is the oldest rock globally and formed about 1.2 billion years where this river flows. So, it holds a position in the list of most beautiful hidden paradises in the universe.
8 Taylor Glacier Blood Falls
It sits in McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, which stretches over 62 miles through the Transantarctic Mountains. Antarctica covers its area about 98 percent with ice. It got its name due to the rosy color of Blood Falls resembles the color of blood. Taylor is a giant glacier, and a bright red frozen waterfall oozes out from it.
The water oozing out from the tongue of the glacier is iron-rich hypersaline. What caused the blood-red color? Initially, Antarctic explorers assumed that red-hued algae were the reason for the color. But later, they revealed that the presence of iron oxides leads to its color.
Just to let you know, the Dry Valleys of Antarctica are one of the most planet’s hostile environments. The unique blood Falls is entirely lacking or free from oxygen, and there are 17 different types of microbes. Photosynthesis does not take place in them without sunlight and oxygen. The bacteria recycle the sulfate supply of them, reducing it to sulfite, which would react with the water’s high iron content producing more sulfate to feed on them.
Water analysis also indicated that, with autotrophic bacteria, the pool supports a rare ecosystem that metabolizes ferric ions and sulfates. The combination of low freezing temperatures and heat helps the liquid’s movements. The water’s high salinity, also known as brine, prevents these blood falls from freezing. The glacier slid and moved to trap the waterbed over the lake, a massive ice chunk over the years.
Once it reaches outside of the world, the subglacial brine lake scraps the iron from the underlying bedrock provides it the signature rusty color. But that outside path remained a mystery until now. Thus, it is one of the wonders and hidden paradises hiding beneath the ice.
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7 Beppu Hot Springs
Beppu is the planet’s second-largest source of thermal spring water. There are more than 2500 hot spring vents. Also, people designated it as a place of scenic beauty. Beppu is also Japan’s largest Onsen town, located in the Oita prefecture, Kyushu region. The group of hot springs in Beppu city is known as Beppu Onsen that divided into eight tropical spring areas, Beppu Hatto. Its long hot spring baths and the charming townscape fascinates the visitors.
We will see many kinds of hot spring baths, such as open-air outdoor baths, foot baths, indoor baths, steam baths, sand baths, etc. Apart from bathing, the most popular thing to do in Beppu is “Hell Tour,” which is the tour of the rarest hot springs. Beppu also is home to national medical facilities and volcanic research institutes.
Rail connected it with other cities along the east coast of Kyushu and Kitakyushu to the north. The Beppu district has several spas and is better known for its boiling ponds, and this is what we called Jigoku that ejects the mud high into the air.
Other major tourist attractions of one of these hidden paradises, Beppu, include Lake Shidaka, Mount Tsurumi, and the Kijima plateau. The richness of its resources is the most significant characteristic of the hot springs of Beppu. Additionally, Hamasaki Onsen, Horita Onsen, Myoban Onsen, Kannawa Onsen, Shibasaki Onsen, Kanagawa Onsen, Kankaiji Onsen, Beppu Onsen are the hot spring areas.
We will see some weird animals, like Hyppo.In Beppu, the heat gets unbearable during the summer. Additionally, here we can see the incredible sight of the natural waters. Boiled the eggs right in the multicolored water and vegetables cooked in Hells’ steam are the Entire commerce systems that arisen around the springs.
6 Spotted Lake
Let’s see at some of the facts you need to know about this magical place! The most mineralized lake situated in the northwest of Osoyoos in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada, depends on the presence and concentration of various precious minerals in the water and the water body change color.
The colorful pools contain minerals such as calcium, sodium sulfates, and magnesium sulfate. Additionally, scientists identified eight other minerals and traces of four more with lesser quantities, includes silver and titanium. It measures 0.16 miles wide and 0.43 miles long. The local Okanagan people used the spotted water to treat skin disease, body aches, warts, and battle wounds.
Okanagan tribe considered the spotted lake as a sacred area. The water evaporates from the lake, leaving small,multi-shaped, colorful pools of mineral water during the summer that give the lake its name. During World War I, people made ammunition using minerals from Spotted Lake Khiluk. The Canadian government and indigenous communities have owned this protected lake since 2001.
In summer, Spotted Lake has 365 individual pools of water that range in vibrant color from yellow, green, purple, orange, and blue, depending on the content in the mineral. Because of the hardening of minerals, occur the pathways between the pools of Spotted lake’s water. However, officials prohibited walking through the area of the lake.
It has the right vantage spots and the highway to visit the famous polka dots of the lake. Nowadays. A fence erects this incredible lake, protecting the area and only allowing the visitors to see it from afar.
5 Panjin Red Beach
Panjin Red Beach is the world’s most giant wetland and reed marsh, situated in Dawa County, Panjin City, Liaoning province, China. It is better known for its seepweed-covered landscape that features the red plant of Suaeda salsa, provides the illusion of a red beach. It also hosts the most completed ecosystem. Additionally, it is one of the hidden paradises in the world. This plant belongs to the family Chenopodiaceae.
Brazil’s Panjin Red Beach provides shelter to many wild water birds. It also consists of 260 species of birds and 399 other wild animals, including rare and endangered crane species. The astronomical beauty of “red weed” surrounded a vast luscious landscape as if found on Mars. This unique species can thrive in highly acidic soil or fertile soil.
The growth cycle of this plant begins in December. It becomes deep red when they reach maturity. While the seepweed plants are common to the world’s coastal areas, the color of the Red Beach distinguished the seepweed of Red Beach. It has green sprouts in the spring but transforms a lush jade in early summer. During the peak viewing seasons of Red Beach, it explodes into a range of crimson’s shades, from late summer into early fall.
To keep the inhabitants and beautiful nature of this Red Beach safe, the officials granted state-level protection. Even though the officials closed the Red Beach section closed to the public, there still a single space for the people that work as a tourist attraction. The other names of Panjin Red Beach are Red Seabeach, Red Beach, and the cranes’ home. People used reeds to make paper. The very best time to visit this place is mid-September to mid-October, when the color reaches its best.
4 Pamukkale’s Travertine Pools
Pamukkale is one of Turkey’s most significant natural and historical treasures, located in Denizli in southwestern Turkey. It sits in the River Menderes valley, which has almost a temperate climate throughout the year. It can reach up to 8860 feet long, 1,970 feet wide, and 525 feet high. The mineral-rich Pamukkale is high in calcium, magnesium sulfate, and bicarbonate. Aptly called them Cotton Castle. The site gets its name from the enormous cascading white pools with a stunning mirage of turquoise water.
It is better known for its massive white limestone terraces and hot springs. Earthquakes formed these hot springs thousands of years ago. The calcium-rich water from the springs built the limestone walls. The Pamukkale’s travertine terraces are pure white, and as such, almost look like they made from ice and snow at a distance.
The area has seventeen hot water springs. We can find it in the ancient holy city, Hierapolis, that sits above the travertines. Romans rebuilt this Hierapolis. Pamukkale attracts the tourists not only for its healing waters but also for its natural travertine.
People used its water to recover from kidney stones, stroke, high blood pressure, rheumatism, eye and skin diseases, circulatory problems, digestive maladies, nutritional disorders, nervous and physical exhaustion, and chronic disorders. Together with Hierapolis, people recognized this Pamukkale as a World Heritage Site. Visitors cannot access the terraces and are only allowed to follow the pathway. The very best time to visit this spot is between June and August, when we expect many tourists during the day.
3 Zhangye Danxia
The rainbow-like mountain Zhangye Danxia is also known as “the eye candy of Zhangye.” It is a geological park, a geologically significant area, located in Gansu’s province in China. It consists of several formations of distinctly rainbow-colored rock and spreads across 116 to 197 square miles.
The Rock of Zhangye Danxia forms a different range of colors from deep red, green to yellow when this masterpiece glow in the rain, looks like a rainbow mountain. Many steep red cliffs are sometimes a hundred meters high, multicolored ridges of weathered strata, and stretching to the horizon.
Its peaks peeping via the clouds and mist gives mirage-like great mountains’ scenery and pavilions. Some of the red rocky outcrops resemble beautiful shapes like towers, castles, cones, humans, birds, creatures, and beasts. The erosion of red sandstone formed Zhangye’s danxia. Moreover, exposed layers of slanting rock have different colors, shapes, sizes, textures, and patterns.
Why the layers have different colors? Red sandstone dropped when the area was with rivers. Mudstone deposited on the red sandstone when the ground sank into the basin. During other periods, sedimentary rocks which are varying can form. These rocks contain ferrous salt in the mud and stone.
Due to the sedimentary environments change, layers of sedimentary formed have various vibrant colors of yellowish-green, grayish-green, red, purplish-red, and gray. Every segment of them took thousands of years to create. After different geological times, the gorgeous colorful layers we see today formed due to the river and wind erosion. Thus, this makes tourists attract this place from all over the world. Also, it deserves their position on the list of top ten beautiful hidden paradises in the world.
2 Lake Retba
It is better known for its unusual vivid pink color. This rare lake will surely catch the unsuspecting eyes of the visitors. It lies in Cap-Vert Peninsula Senegal and sits 30 km northeast of the capital, Dakar. The Dunaliella salina bacteria caused its distinct pink color, and the lake’s salt content attracted these bacteria, which is harmless to humans, and swimming in the lake is also possible.
Some narrow dunes from the Atlantic Ocean separated Lake Retba, and this lake’s salt content is very high. This beautiful lake is not the only world’s pink lake. This pink color is most visible during the dry season, and this season starts in November and ends in June.
The locals referred it to Lac Rose. People used it for consumption. Its salt production is most famous, and shores are always full of salt piles, the white sand like salt extracted from the lakebed. Sometimes, we see the lake as blood-red due to salt levels reaching up to forty percent. The salt’s concentration in the lake is almost 1.5 times higher as compared with the Dead Sea.
It got the property of being buoyant because of too high salinity. We see only some fish species in the lake. These species can survive in this saline water because of their ability to pumping the extra salt out. The people who extract the salt from this lake cover their bodies in Shea butter for protecting themselves from the harsh sunlight.
Many living organisms cannot survive in Retba due to its high salt content, so this lake serves mostly as a tourist point and produces salt. Along its shores, no significant towns developed. It is also one of the hidden paradises in the world.
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1 Lencois Maranhenses
Lencois Maranhenses is one of the world’s most unique and marvelous places. This national park sits in northeastern Brazil’s Maranhão state. During the rainy season of every year, Lençóis Maranhenses treats visitors to a fantastic sight. Endless calm oases of turquoise lakes intercepted by silky white sands at regular intervals will make the adventurer’s heart skip a beat!
During the rainy season, it rains and forming the dunes to become clear blue and green lagoons. It looks like an archetypal desert at first glance. This area includes various fish like wolf fish and during the dry season, the fish despite almost complete disappearance of the lagoons. Birds brought their eggs from the sea.
The sand from riverbeds deposits at the river’s mouth, and winds and sea currents brought it back to the continent. Only a few lagoons at Lençóis Maranhenses National Park are huge. When the dry season comes around, the sun heats this region quickly. Also, visitors can swim in the lagoons. This park also consists of a range of species like 133 species of plants, 112 bird species, and at least 42 reptile species, including endangered species. Moreover, it is a popular destination for ecotourists.
About 70% of the rainfall occurs during the months between January and May. The Parnaíba and Preguiças rivers carried the sand to the park from the continent’s interior, and the average annual temperature of this park’s area is 79 °F and 83.3 °F. The lagoons are usually interconnected with one another and along the rivers that run via this region. Besides the dunes, the ecosystem also includes an area of restinga and mangrove ecosystems.
The best time for us to visit this beautiful park is from May to September when sunny; the lagoons are almost full. Sixty thousand visitors visit this park a year. Activities such as “adventure tourism, rustic camping, surfing, canoeing, and horseback riding” are included. During the rainy season of every year, Lençóis Maranhenses National Park of Brazil treats visitors to a fantastic sight. So, it holds the top position on the list of beautiful hidden paradises.
