10 Enigmatic Places Explained: Nazca, Easter Island, Stonehenge and More

Giant drawings in a desert, stone heads staring across an island, rocks that slide across a dry lakebed on their own: some places look as if they hold a secret. Here are ten of the world’s most enigmatic landscapes, from Peru to Japan, and what archaeologists and geologists have learned about each one.

Ancient monuments: Nazca, Rapa Nui and Stonehenge

1. Nazca Lines, Peru

On the arid coastal plain about 400 km south of Lima, the Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Palpa cover some 450 km². Thousands of lines, geometric shapes and figures of animals and people were made between about 500 BC and AD 500 by removing the dark, weathered surface stones to expose the lighter ground beneath. The famous hummingbird and monkey are best seen from a light aircraft or the roadside viewing tower.

2. The moai of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Chile

Rapa Nui lies 3,700 km off the Chilean coast, one of the most remote inhabited islands on Earth. Its Polynesian settlers carved about 900 moai between roughly the 10th and 16th centuries, most from volcanic tuff quarried at Rano Raraku, using basalt tools. They range from 2 to 20 metres tall. The island has more than 300 ceremonial platforms, or ahu; the largest, Ahu Tongariki, holds 15 moai.

3. Stonehenge, England

Work began on Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain about 5,000 years ago, and the stone circle itself dates from about 2500 BC. Its smaller bluestones were brought from the Preseli Hills in south-west Wales, more than 250 km away. The monument is aligned with the sun: it rises over the Heel Stone at the summer solstice and sets over it at the winter solstice. With Avebury it became one of the UK’s first UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1986.

Geological wonders: Fly Geyser, Racetrack Playa and the cenotes

4. Fly Geyser, Nevada, USA

This rainbow-coloured mound in Hualapai Flat, north of Gerlach, is partly man-made. A well drilled in 1916 hit near-boiling water; in 1964 a geothermal test well nearby failed, and the escaping water began building the present cones from calcium carbonate and silica. Heat-loving bacteria and algae paint them red and green. The Burning Man Project bought Fly Ranch in 2016 and runs guided nature walks on Saturdays in season.

5. The sailing stones of Racetrack Playa, California

For decades nobody had seen the rocks of Death Valley’s Racetrack move, only the trails they left. In the winter of 2013–2014 a team led by Richard and James Norris finally filmed them. Thin “windowpane” ice, 3–6 mm thick, formed on shallow water, broke up in the morning sun and, pushed by light winds of about 4–5 m/s, shoved the rocks along at a few metres a minute. Leave the stones where they are and stay off the playa when it is wet.

6. Cenotes of the Yucatán, Mexico

The Yucatán Peninsula has thousands of cenotes, natural sinkholes where the limestone roof has collapsed over groundwater. The name comes from the Yucatec Maya ts’ono’ot. A ring of cenotes traces the buried rim of the Chicxulub crater, left by the asteroid impact of 66 million years ago. For the Maya they were the main source of water and gateways to the underworld; offerings were recovered from the Sacred Cenote at Chichén Itzá. Hellas has a famous cousin too: Melissani Cave on Kefalonia. Our cenote guide covers swimming in them.

Volcanic landscapes: Aogashima and Mount Bromo

7. Aogashima, Japan

About 358 km south of Tokyo, Aogashima is a volcano within a volcano. The island’s Ikenosawa caldera, about 1.5 km across, holds a second cone called Maruyama. The last eruption, from 1781 to 1785, killed around 130 of the 327 islanders. Today about 170 people live there, making it Japan’s smallest municipality. Our Aogashima guide explains how to get there.

8. Mount Bromo, Indonesia

Bromo (2,329 m) is the most active cone inside the Tengger caldera in East Java, rising from a plain of volcanic sand called the Sea of Sand, protected since 1919. It is part of Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park. Visitors drive up from Cemoro Lawang to the Penanjakan viewpoint, and each year the Tenggerese people climb the crater rim during the Yadnya Kasada festival to throw offerings into the crater. See our Bromo film story for a view from the air.

Dreamscapes: Las Pozas and an Irish tree tunnel

9. Las Pozas, Xilitla, Mexico

Between 1949 and 1984, the British surrealist Edward James filled more than 32 hectares of jungle near Xilitla, in the Sierra Gorda of San Luis Potosí, with concrete sculptures among waterfalls and pools. Some structures, such as the Staircase to Heaven, rise four storeys and lead nowhere. The garden has been open to the public since 1994 and is cared for by the Fondo Xilitla foundation.

10. Tree tunnel, Ireland

The list ends with a quieter mystery: a country lane in Ireland, labelled County Meath, where the branches of the trees on both sides meet overhead and turn the road into a long green tunnel. Scenes like this are at their best in early-morning mist or autumn colour, and they are a reminder that the most enigmatic places are sometimes simply the most atmospheric.