Blue Volcano To Crooked Forest: 5 Unbelievable Places That Exist On Earth

Weird, wonderful and totally out of the ordinary - these are places that you won't believe actually exist on earth. Take a look inside a cave that has been cut off from the rest of civilization for 5.5 million years, a forest where trees have grown crooked and gigantic geoglyphs, among others. Some of these places you can visit, while others are banned to tourists. Some have invited alien conspiracy theories, others are yet to be fully understood by science. Read on to find out more about five of the most mysterious places in the world. 

Movile Cave in Romania

Movile Cave is a cave that was discovered in 1986 in Romania. Workers were testing the ground to see if it was suitable for a power plant when they stumbled upon the cave, which had been sealed off from the rest of the world for 5.5 million years. Cut off from the rest of the planet, life in this cave evolved in isolation. According to BBC, scientists have discovered 48 species in this cave, including 33 that are not found anywhere else in the world. 

Life has flourished in Movile Cave for millions of years, despite a complete absence of light and a poisonous atmosphere. Unique spiders, leeches, centipedes and other animals - many of these never seen by humans before - abound in this cave. Many of these creatures are born without eyes, which would be useless in the dark, and almost all of them are pale, evolving as they did away from sunlight. 

Crooked Forest in Poland

The unsolved mystery of what curved the trees of the 'Crooked Forest' in Poland has fascinated scientists for generations. Located near the town of Gryfino, these bizarre woodlands consist of around 400 oddly-shaped pine trees - and nobody is really sure what caused their unusual 'J-shape'. According to IFL Science, theories range from a unique gravitational pull in the area to aliens. 

Ringing rocks of Pennsylvania

When you hit a rock, you would expect to hear a dull thud. In the Ringing Rocks County Park in Pennsylvania, US, however, there is a field of boulders that produce a metallic clang when they are struck. According to Atlas Obscura, the rock field is spread out around seven acres and only a third of the rocks 'ring' on being hit. For the longest time, scientists could not figure out why the rocks produced the metallic sound, but in 1965 a group of scientists crushed, broke, and sliced the rocks. They found that when struck, each rock produced a low frequency sound not detectable by the human ear. The tones of multiple rocks interact with each other to produce the sound we hear. 

Nazca Lines in Peru

The Nazca Lines are a collection of gigantic geoglyphs - large designs or motifs produced on the ground - in Peru. These geoglyphs were created around the first century CE by the ancient Nazca culture in South America. According to History.com, there are three basic types of Nazca Lines: straight lines, geometric designs and pictorial representations. Some of them stretch up to 1,200-feet.

Experts have debated about the purpose of these lines since they gained widespread attention in the 1930s, with theories ranging from aliens to astronomical significance. More recent research suggests that these giant geoglyphs were ritual-related. 

Kawah Ijen volcano in Indonesia

A blue volcano? This is not a scene from a fantasy movie, but a place that you can actually visit in Indonesia. Dazzling blue fire streams down the Kawah Ijen volcano at night. According to National Geographic, these blue flames result from the combustion of sulfuric gases.