Thursday March 28th, 2024
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14 Breathtaking Alien Landscapes You Can Only Find in the Middle East

For your eye-gasm pleasure we compile a list of the most breathtaking otherworldly desert landscapes found only in the Middle East.

Staff Writer

14 Breathtaking Alien Landscapes You Can Only Find in the Middle East

Recently, the internet was flooded with images of snowfall covering parts of the Sahara Desert; they were insane and otherworldly in the best way possible. So we mustered up all of the incredibly outlandish and breathtaking deserts in the Middle East for those who wishing they could travel to another planet, without actually having to leave Earth. 1. A snow sprinkled desert in Ain Sefr, Algeria. We imagine this is what it looks like if it snowed on Mars. Captured by Karim Bouchetata.

2.Travertine terrace formations in Badab-e Surt, Iran. Cooled carbonate minerals deposited over thousands of years are responsible for the stairs of nature. Photo captured by Ali Mehrpour.

3. Djara Cave in the Western Desert, Egypt. Dissolved limestone forming stalagmite, or those jagged looking things dangling from the cave ceiling that look like the teeth of alien monster that swallowed us whole. Photo captured by Haitham Abdel Fattah 

4. Jeitta Grotto, Lebanon. Again, infamous limestone caves shadowing over Nahr Al-Kalb. Could this be the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets' film set? Photo captured by Mistyleaf.

5. The Dead Sea, Tel Aviv. One of the world's saltiest oceans just doesn't look so salty [Pause for sarcastic laugh]. Photo captured by IISES.

7. Kasabah City, Morocco. If there were life on Mars, this is what the buildings would probably look like. Photo captured by Kudouy.  

8. Cave houses in North Cappadocia, Turkey. Yes, these are real houses, and real people used to live in them. Many of them have turned into hotels now attracting the lenses of photographers across the planet. Photo captured by Hot Air Ballooning Cappadocia.

9. Pamukkale salt pool, Turkey. We know it's a salt pool, but we're still envisioning Sid and Manfred from Ice Age scattering around these mystical salt pools. Photo captured by All Istanbul Tours.

10. Petra, Jordan. A long lost world of tombs, caves and temples carved into the rocks of Jordan. Ridiculously impressive and suspiciously not of this planet. Photo captured by Dave Bouskill.

11. Socotra Island, Yemen. Bet you didn't think Yemen would make it on the list! Creepy looking alien plants seem to flourish in Socotra Island. Next Star Wars set? We think so. Photo captured by Pickles the Kitten.

12. Wadi Al- Hitan, Egypt. Literally translated as the 'Whale Valley', it carries the fossils and remains of extinct suborder whales and their evolution. Photo captured by Valentino Primo.

13. Wadi Rum, Jordan. Decorated with chiseled canyons, native rock art and a carved valley amongst granite rock, Wadi Rum has been the filming site of popular movies like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and Rogue one: A Star Wars Story. (Yes, we are proud of our Arab territory being used for films, but we're also biased and wish they would shoot all of these kinds of epic films in EgyptPhoto captured by Guillaume Baviere.

14. Farafra, White Desert, Egypt. Last, and of obviously not least, the incredible limestone formations in the White Desert, in the form of fists and mushrooms erupting from the ground. A big hell yeah from the mother of the world. Photo captured by Valentina Primo.