WHITE PEACOCKS

You may think this stunning bird is albino, but it isn’t. Albino animals and birds have a complete lack of color and eyes that are red or pink and the white peacock has eyes that are a beautiful shade of blue. Chicks are born yellow, but as they mature, these birds become white.

The white peacock is found in grasslands of Australia and India and have a genetic mutation that is known as Leucism, which causes the lack of pigments resulting in white, pale or patchy coloration of the skin, hair or feathers. We are familiar with the blue and green peacocks that are found in India, Sri Lanka and Burma that are known for their iridescent tails.

BISMUTH CRYSTALS

Bismuth is one of the prettiest crystals on our planet and is known for its complex geometric hopper form and is rainbow colored. Bismuth is 86% as dense as lead and is a brittle metal and has been known since ancient times.

It is often confused with lead and tin however it is its own element. These crystals have even been used for healing purposes with many experts in crystal healing stating that Bismuth is a stone of “transformation and change, helping to adapt to change with calm assurance.” These stunning crystals are found in Australia, Bolivia and China with a beautiful spectrum of colors that you rarely see in other popular crystals.

RAINBOW EUCALYPTUS

These colorful trees look as though someone painted them, however they are naturally like this, with peeling bark revealing these unique colors, and only indigenous to the northern hemisphere, growing in the Philippines,

New Guinea and Indonesia. Thanks to the tropical forests that receive a lot of rain, the rainbow eucalyptus is able to thrive and can grow up to 250 feet tall. Of course, the most special thing about these trees is its bark. The previous seasons bark peels off in strips revealing brightly colored new bark. The peeling results in vertical streaks of red, orange, green and blue and is a sight to see. Besides the climate they live in, the rainbow eucalyptus growing include full sun and moist soil. So if you live in an area that receives plenty of rain and frost-free, you can actually grow your own rainbow eucalyptus tree.

VERY DISTINCT WATERFALL

Located in Antarctica, Blood Falls is a five story waterfall that pours out of the Taylor Glacier in the continent’s McMurdo Dry Valleys and is something out of this world. Its bright red color is alarming yet stunning. The deep red falls were first discovered in 1911 and it wasn’t until last year, that scientists discovered why the waters were red. According to research by the University of Alaska Fairbanks,

the dark red coloring is due to oxidized iron in brine saltwater, the same process that gives iron a dark red color when it rusts. This is truly one of the most eerie waterfalls on our Earth; with water so salty it is more like brine.

CORPSE FLOWER

The corpse flower, or titan arum, is one of the largest and rarest flowers on Earth and is most known for its not so nice smell. In fact, the smell is so bad; it is compared to rotting meat or a decaying corpse. The plant can reach over ten feet in height and while the smell isn’t pleasant, people wait years to see this flower bloom. The corpse flower generally requires seven to ten years of vegetative growth before blooming and after its first bloom, some plants may not bloom again for another seven to ten years. The rotten smell of this plant is actually used to lure flies and beetles to its blossom.

DIQUIS SPHERES

There is a mystery surrounding these stone spheres found in Costa Rica, located on the Diquis Delta and on Isla del Cano. There are over three hundred petro spheres scattered along the country and are still considered a great-unsolved archaeological mystery.

Since the 1930’s hundreds of these perfectly shaped spheres have been discovered ranging in different sizes, with the heaviest one weighing many tons. According to world-mysteries.com, the spheres are monolithic sculptures made by human hands. Unlike the stone balls found in Jalisco, Mexico, these objects are not natural in origin with almost all of them made of granodiorite.

STONEHENGE

Stonehenge is one of the most well known mysteries found on our planet. Located in Wiltshire, England, Stonehenge consists of a ring of standing stones, with each stone standing approximately thirteen feet high, seven feet wide and weighing 25 tons. The prehistoric monument was built about 5,000 years ago with many scholars now agreeing that it was built as a burial ground.

However, these experts have yet to determine what other purposes they served and how a civilization with no modern technology or the wheel was able to create this ancient monument.

PURPLE CARROTS

We grew up eating orange carrots, but did you know that carrots of different shades of purple were once the norm? According to Popular Science, carrots were first domesticated in Afghanistan and spread to the eastern Mediterranean about 1,000 years ago. By the early 1500’s, orange carrots spread to parts of Europe, but the purple, yellow, red and white carrots continued to grow in Asia and the Middle East.

No one is sure how orange carrots came about, but purple carrots might have become less popular because they tend to leach a dark pigment onto whatever they are cooked with and orange carrots are said to be easier to grow. You can still find purple carrots at a few groceries stores, they are said to have an intensely sweet, sometimes peppery flavor.

KOROIT OPAL

Koroit Opals are known for their strong, deep ironstone with beautiful patterns and color scattered on them. The Koroit Opal Field in Queensland, Australia, was first discovered in 1897 by Lawrence Rostron who later formed a group of eight and after many years, created the large Glasgow syndicate, which is known as the Scottish, and Australian Opal Mines.

Koroit Opals have become popular for making jewelry and pendants thanks to their unique patterns and stunning colors. These gemstones aren’t pricey and are very popular among opal fans because of their originality, variety of colors and clean face.

NAZCA LINES

A collection of giant geoglyphs known as the Nazca Lines are found in the Peruvian coastal plain, approximately 250 miles south of Lima, Peru. They are pretty bizarre, depicting various plants, animals and shapes that were made by the ancient Nazca culture almost 2,000 years ago. These lines are best viewed from up above, where you can see the massive outlines of the 300 or so geometric designs, which include basic shapes such as triangles, rectangles as well as spirals and wavy lines.

To this day, Peruvian archeologists are still discovering more of these geoglyphs. In 2016, a team found a geoglyph that depicts a 98-foot-long mythical creature that has many legs and has its tongue sticking out.