In some places on this earth, visitors feel as if they have been transported to another world. It doesn't always have to be the hostile snow deserts of the poles or the lonely peaks of the Himalayas!
Our 10 most extraterrestrial places in the world are comparatively easy to reach and relatively safe to explore. Nevertheless, in some places you will actually wonder whether you are still on this world - the sight is so bizarre, strange and beautiful!
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Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia
The impressive Salar de Uyuni in the southwest of Bolivia is the largest salt lake in the world. Its gigantic mirror-smooth surface is used to align satellites. The salt crust is so thick that cars can drive on it - for example to the cactus-covered island of Incahuasi or to the Palacio de Sal, a hotel built entirely of salt.
Article: Salar de Uyuni
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Craters of the Moon, USA
If it weren't for a few green shoots now and then, you might actually think you were on the moon. At the Craters of the Moon in the US state of Idaho, bizarre rock formations, rolling hills of dark lava and endless stone fields that crunch underfoot like barbecue coals stretch over a gigantic 1600 square kilometres.
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Pitch Lake (Asphalt Lake) in Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago
It is described as "one of the ugliest sights in the Caribbean" - the bubbling asphalt lake on the dream island of Trinidad. With an area of 40 hectares, Pitch Lake, which looks like a car park, is the largest asphalt lake in the world. It is created in a completely natural way by bitumen seeping out of the earth and enables exports of up to 200 tonnes of asphalt per day.
Article: Pitch Lake in Trinidad
Mount Roraima at the border triangle of Brazil, Venezuela and Guyana
For thousands of years, people have been fascinated by the mighty table mountains of South America. Mount Roraima, which is 2 billion years old (!), is partly located in Venezuela's spectacular Canaima National Park. Above its 400-metre-high cliffs, it holds an unforgettable wonderland of unique animals, plants and rock formations.
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Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park, Madagascar
"Tsingy" means "where you cannot walk barefoot". Anyone who has been to the Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park in the west of Madagascar will confirm this. The unique karst formations, whose razor-sharp rocks rise up to 20 metres into the sky, have even been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley) near La Paz, Bolivia
Only 10km from La Paz, the Valle de la Luna feels like being transported to another world. Hardly a leaf of green penetrates the sandstone-coloured rock formations, which are composed of pyramids, rock needles, towers, caves and craters. After the rainy season (from January to March), the landscape has often changed completely.
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Rub al-Khali (Empty Quarter), Oman, UAE, Saudi Arabia
No, the largest sand desert in the world is not the Sahara, but the much less well-known Rub al-Khali in the south of the Arabian Peninsula. The area of the seemingly endless sand dunes is almost as big as Turkey. Not a soul lives here, just a few spiders and rodents. Even the caravans no longer take the risk of crossing the "Empty Quarter" since about 300 AD.
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Námafjall volcanic landscape, Iceland
The entire island nation of Iceland is one of the most volcanically active regions on earth. This can be observed particularly impressively in the volcanic landscape of Námafjall in the north-east of Iceland. Námafjall itself is an active volcano that gives the landscape around it an otherworldly appearance with smoking vents, post-sulphur yellow holes and boiling mud.
Article: Volcanic landscape Námafjall
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Mud volcanoes near Berca, Romania
The mud volcanoes near Berca have also formed a fascinating lunar landscape in eastern Romania. Natural gas brings hot mud and clay to the earth's surface here, which forms craters up to 8 metres wide as it cools. Sulphur and salt make it impossible for plants to thrive and so hardly any animals can be found here.
Article: Mud volcanoes near Berca
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Fjallsjökull glacier and Jökulsárlón glacial lake, Iceland
The blue shimmering icebergs that are washed into the glacial lake Jökulsárlón by the glacier Fjallsjökull look like a bizarre painting. On the black-sand shores of Iceland's deepest lake, the ice shards sparkle like thousands of diamonds.
Article: Fjallsjökull glacier and Jökulsárlón glacial lake.
Photo gallery: Glacier Fjallsjökull and glacial lake Jökulsárlón