The Devil's Pulpit, an ancient gorge in Finnich Glen in Stirlingshire. Local legend has it that it was a place where 'evil visited' - where Druids performed secret rituals, witch burnings took place, and where the Devil himself preached to his followers whilst standing in the blood red waters that flow through the gorge.
I'm not so sure, but would say this one is a better example of photoshopping - the water in particular appears to have been 'tampered' with. The red colouring is supposed to be due to it flowing over a red sandstone bed - I've seen plenty of examples of that in my time, but nothing as pronounced as this one.
A double offering - Calbuco volcano in Southern Chile erupting in 2015 after five decades of inactivity. The aerial view at the bottom was created by merging some of the many photos taken of the eruption by ESA's Sentinel 1 satellite.
Bete Giyorgis (in English, the Church of Saint George) - one of eleven rock-hewn monolithic churches in Lalibela, Ethiopia. Built in the 12th century, it is accessed via a very narrow, downwards spiralling, man-made canyon which changes to a tunnel closer to the church. The interior contains a replica of the Ark of the Covenant - which only priests are allowed to view.
Salar de Uyuni - at over 3,900 square miles, the world's largest salt flat. In southwest Bolivia, it's near the crest of the Andes, 11,995 ft above sea level.
All these pictures tell me that the world is a beautiful place, occasionally disfigured by human interference.
Yes, humans in the main are a destructive species - although there are some examples of how man has enhanced the planet, albeit few and mainly from the past. I prefer to attempt to focus mainly on the planet’s natural beauty, such as this - Laponia in Northern Sweden. With an area of 3630 square miles, it’s one of the largest wilderness areas in Europe. It’s also the traditional home of Sweden's Sami people who, like Australia’s Aboriginal people, quite sensibly live in harmony with their environment rather than change/destroy it. They live in tune with nature by splitting their year into eight seasons according to nature’s changes.
The Bayon Temple, a Khmer temple in the centre of the royal city of Angkor Thom, Cambodia. Built by Jayavarman VII in approx.1200AD, it originally had 54 towers, each with four giant stone faces - thought to be of Buddha - facing the four points of the compass, but only 37 towers remain. Aside from the missing towers, it resembles the original structure in that it was constructed hurriedly - stones simply laid on top of each other like a dry stone dyke - giving it a rather aged, and weather-beaten appearance.
On Mrs Fez' "bucket list". I'll probably need a jackpot win on the Lottery just to afford the medical insurance for her!
Svartifoss waterfall in Vatnajökull National Park, Iceland. Surrounded by dark lava columns which give it its name - Svartifoss means 'dark water' in Icelandic.
The Marble Caves in the Chilean part of Patagonia. Marble deposits on the edges of General Carrerra Lake were worn away over thousands of years by water to form colourful caves, tunnels, and huge columns of pure marble.
The frozen bubbles of Abraham Lake in Canada. A man-made lake, it's Alberta’s largest reservoir. The bubbles are methane gas, released by decaying plants on the lake bed, which become trapped within ice just below the surface as the lake begins to freeze.
