Pictures speak louder than words. There’s no disputing the power that the right image has to convey a message loud and strong. Pictures don’t always make sense, much like life. These pictures all show things that you aren’t likely to encounter in everyday life and that require a second glance and some pondering. Some of them may even make the hair on the back of your neck stand up.
These Waters Go Deep
Nemo 33 is one of the deepest indoor pools in the world. In fact, it was the deepest from 2004 to 2014. Its maximum depth is 113 ft and it’s filled with non-chlorinated fresh water. If this sounds appealing to you, you’ll have to travel to Brussels, Belgium to take a dip. The 660,000 US gallons of water are heated by solar power and maintained at 86 °F.
As a result, divers who want to experience the pool can do so for extended periods without needing a dry suit. At 33 ft, there are several simulated underwater caves. Looking at this picture, this may be what the diver holding the camera is heading towards.
There’s Nothing Fruity About This Pomegranate
How does the theme song for The Little Shop of Horrors go? It seems like the cult classic film from 1986 didn’t only leave its mark on the human world, but plants were inspired too. The pomegranate in the photo is clearly impersonating the venus fly trap from the movie.
Although, unlike the venus fly trap, the pomegranate’s “teeth” are just unripe pips that have been exposed as a result of a gash to the protective outer shell. It may have been even more unnerving if the pips had turned red and juicy. Luckily we don’t live in a world where a pomegranate may take a bite out of you.
Two Times the Creeps
If you’ve never seen this before, it takes a moment to figure out what kind of otherworldly horror you’re being shown. Never mind walking into a room to see these shadow demons looming against a wall. There’s something innately scary about shadows with faces. Somehow it’s even worse when it’s children.
In the photo, it seems to be a terrifying shadow-world version of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. In fact, it’s just a reflection cast by a light shining through a full plastic bottle. Imagine if there were a dozen of these. What a great way to deter potential robbers or even family members who aren’t welcome.
Is This the Stairway to Heaven?
This is certainly not what we imagined from Jimi Hendrix’s ballad. What looks to be a giant’s green drillbit is actually a spiral staircase winding up the side of The Taihang Mountains in China. The architect clearly wants people to suffer and derives joy from making their calves implode. The stairway is 300 feet long.
Anyone who has ever spent five minutes on a Stairmaster will tell you that this is insane. It’s a minor miracle that anyone is able to get up to the top, and even more impressive that they don’t immediately fall off the side as their legs stop working. Let’s hope the structural integrity of hell’s stairway is sound, or people will come down a lot quicker than they go up.
The Giants That Lurk Beneath the Waves
It’s a humbling thought, knowing that we share the planet with the largest species that has ever existed. Blue whales are bigger than any dinosaur. Despite their colossal size, there is a lot we don’t know about whales. As big as these gentle giants are, the ocean is vast, and humans aren’t able to study it nearly as efficiently as we can anything on land. That’s not our domain.
Part of what makes the ocean so mysterious is often we can’t see what’s happening right beneath the surface. Do you think the people in this boat are aware that they shared space with a blue whale while it was happening? The surface if the water seems perfectly calm - not betraying the disturbance beneath. Blue whales only eat krill, but if it decided to surface, these folks would almost certainly get wet.
A Beautifully Strange Sea-Creature
Another reason that the ocean is so mysterious is that the creatures that live in it look so different to us. They are adapted to living in a different habitat from humans, and their features reflect this. Nonetheless, humans see themselves reflected in the things they encounter. Take the beluga whale. It’s not a whale at all, neither is it a porpoise, or a dolphin. It belongs to its own genus, and its closest relative is a narwhal.
These arctic cetaceans have an undeniably friendly disposition, as they look like they are always smiling with their mouths open. They enjoy interacting with other species and resemble a big, white, chubby dolphin. One of their quirky characteristics is that they appear to have legs within their tail. This is the stuff of legends. Mermaids are different from their Disney depictions.
The Icy Lurker in the Corner
Imagine walking outside on a crisp winter morning to sweep your driveway, and you casually look up to see this ice specter standing by your kitchen window. Even more harrowing would be if you were blissfully unaware of this ice stalker’s existence and you looked out of the window at night. What would you do? Call the cops or the Ghostbusters?
As much as people love to romanticize winter because freshly fallen snow is like magic incarnate, it does have some downsides. For example, sometimes the metal pipes freeze and start to leak, and because of the water running down the wall, we end up with icicle demons below the source of the leak.
The Most Majestic Bird of All
This bird has eyes that speak of ancient, primal knowledge. It looks like it sees more than mere mortals do. This is the case. Harpy eagles see eight times better than humans do. Their food - monkeys in the Amazon - live amongst the canopy and can move pretty fast, so they have to be able to spot their meal before diving through the trees.
They hold the title of the biggest eagle in the world, and their nest is the size of a double bed. The feathers around their face can be adjusted to help them pick up sound waves. Basically, when this birdy looks at you, it’s figuring out what kind of monkey you are and whether you’ll give them indigestion.
Enough Birds to Blot Out the Sun
When birds start converging people start getting worried, and with good reason. Aside from the fact that such an enormous flock of birds flying overhead would likely turn the streets and everything else below them white, it’s a daunting sight to behold. Such a large number of any one species gathered is always mesmerizing and a little perturbing for anyone in the vicinity.
Think of herds crossing the African plains, or armies. When that many of any species come together, it’s for a purpose, and the hive mind shan’t be dissuaded from its goal, no matter who or what lies in its way. These starlings of Rome migrate every year from northern parts of Europe to seek warmer temperatures in Italy.
Counting Sheep at Night Is Not Recommended
Contrary to the age-old remedy for sleeplessness - we would highly advise against counting actual sheep at night as a way of trying to get to sleep. Most animals have tissue in their eyes that reflects light. Have you ever driven into your driveway at night to be greeted by your dog or cat and their glowing eyeballs?
Well, sheep have it too. The only animals that don’t have it are pigs and primates, and it serves to help animals see better in low-light conditions. Seeing one cat with glowing eyes is eerie, but nothing to lose sleep over. However, when there’s a whole herd of glowing eyes staring directly at you, that’s a different story.
Spiders Wanted to Go Camping Too
Even if you’re not arachnophobic, it doesn’t mean getting up close and personal with a huge cluster of spiders won’t send a shiver down your spine. Spending time outdoors and in nature away from the stresses of civilization can be rewarding, but it does have a few cons. There’s less protection from the element as well as from bugs. When you set foot into a forest you’re entering their home.
So they might just decide to come and pay you a visit. It’s not clear what it was about these campers and this tent in particular that drove the spiders mad, but we’d suggest letting them have it. Not that these cellar spiders can cause you harm, but having spiders crawl all over your skin as you try and reclaim your tent hardly seems appealing.
Feed Your Pets, Children, And…Escalators
Taking an escalator is supposed to make life easier - a convenient alternative to taking the stairs or waiting for an elevator. Yet there’s always a price to pay when you try and take s shortcut. Escalators are found everywhere and anyone is allowed to use them, yet they can be quite dangerous. It only takes a quick YouTube stroll to see all the people who have been mauled by escalators.
Just look at this photo. We bet when this person left the house they would never have guessed what the day had in store. The soft foam from a flip-flop can easily get caught in the sliding mechanism of an escalator if you aren’t quick enough to disembark. Remember folks, closed shoes are always better near machinery - you might be left limping home.
Is This a Plague Upon Us?
This photo inspires much curiosity and many questions. Where are all these frogs going in a swarm formation? There is a biblical story that involves several plagues. First, the water turned to blood and then God sent frogs. We’d like to argue that frogs don’t seem nearly as threatening.
They’re even kind of cute, with their bulbous eyes and ribbitting. But in this picture, there are a lot of them, and they all seem to be heading to the same place with haste. The most rational explanation is that they are waiting for food. This photo was taken after a storm had passed. Oftentimes, that’s when the bugs come out. What we are witnessing is a frog buffet waiting to happen.
Some Foul Nighttime Rituals in Action
Who doesn’t love a good evening walk along the beach? You can see the stars, and perhaps even drink in the moonlight reflecting off the ocean. The soothing sound of the waves caressing the sand is the perfect soundtrack for relaxation. You can see lights dancing in the distance, and…a gathering of white-robed figures standing in wait.
You can relax, it’s not the Ku Klux Klan. It’s an innocent arrangement of beach umbrellas. This is a prime example of how things take on a much more sinister edge under the cover of darkness. As long as the beach umbrellas don’t start chanting, it’s all good.
The Potatoes Are Fighting Back
Potatoes are great. You can mash them, fry them, roast them, or stick ‘em in a stew. With the right ingredients and some patience, you can even turn them into vodka. The humble potato is more versatile than any other vegetable. But what happens when they are left unutilized, to their own devices?
Eldritch Horror is what. In this photo, we see what happens to abandoned potatoes if they don’t rot. Those alien tendrils are roots, desperately seeking some soil. It’s amazing how tenacious plants can be. If you aren’t planning on using your potatoes, give them away or you risk returning to a kitchen that looks like the inside of a ‘90s server room.
A Whole New Meaning to the Term “Bubblehead”
Fish aren't renowned for being the smartest creatures in the animal kingdom. They lack a frontal cortex, which is the part of the brain associated with reasoning and memory. Fish navigate their lives primarily on instinct. Their entire existence revolves around eating and mating to pass on their genes.
Some of them have evolved in remarkable ways. Here we see the barreleye fish. The top of its head is completely transparent, to allow as much light as possible to get to its eyes (the two green baubles). The barreleye fish lives in the deep, so any advantage it can get means a better chance to survive, so they might eat and mate another day.
More Suspicious Activity in the Bird World
Birds are all about the weird phenomena. They're the closest living relatives to dinosaurs and if you've ever watched a pigeon scoff down some crisps, it's not hard to believe it. Birds are much more sensitive than humans to the earth's electromagnetic field, as it helps them to navigate.
Often just before earthquakes, birds will gather in huge numbers because they feel something is wrong. But there was no earthquake on this night. Just a bunch of pigeons gathered for a bird conference in a random parking lot. We're sure they had their reasons, but we're not pigeons so we wouldn't understand. Maybe they just liked the glow of the pharmacy.
A Home With Personality
A roof is an integral part of any house. It protects those who live inside from the elements and forms part of the structure where we can safely store our stuff. But with some quirky architectural design, it can really let the character of the home shine through. Cleverly placed windows can become eyes and a mouth, that gaze out upon passersby.
It seems benign enough in the daytime, sure, but at night with shadows and eyes glowing from within, this might be a horrific sight to behold. Do those that enter ever re-emerge? It might be enough to deter burglars from trying to break in. If your house could talk, what would it say to the outside world?
A Playground of Death
The longer you look, the more bizarre it gets. Did someone (or a bunch of people) go to all the effort of carrying this playground slide to the top of this building? If so, it seems like a lot of work to pull off a prank. How did they even get it onto the roof, or did they assemble it up there?
Is it a playground for the ghost children in the building, or are they hoping to make some? Anyone that slides off there is almost certainly not going to live to tell the tale. It appears that the building is also past its prime and seems like it might be empty.
Looks Like Somebody Forgot to Moisturize
There is no better artist than nature. She never misses a single detail and works with a more diverse range of mediums than any other. All the great artists in history have been in imitation and reverence of her work. Look at the lizard’s skin in the photo. Shedding is a totally normal and healthy process for all reptiles.
Their skin doesn’t stretch like ours, so as they grow, they shed and a new layer replaces the old one. It also allows them to get rid of any parasites. It’s the human equivalent of throwing out clothes that no longer fit. The skin which is shed doesn’t contain any of the pigment, it’s just a husk of the animal. Nonetheless, it’s something remarkable to behold, especially if it’s intact like the one in the photo.
This Bug Is a Raspberry With Legs
We are taught when we’re young that we shouldn’t eat just any berries we encounter in the wilderness, especially if they’re red. Generally, most people buy their fruit at their local grocery store, as it’s much more convenient and less hazardous than foraging. This is probably for the best, considering there are bugs out there that look exactly like a raspberry.
It’s called rambutanura hunanensis, and it belongs to a family of bugs that can stab you with their proboscis and even act as a vector for disease. There are many cultures where eating bugs is as normal as snacking on raspberries, but we’d recommend giving this one a skip.
Spiders Have the Advantage for Shadow Puppets
Don’t ever get into a shadow puppet showdown with a spider. Their long legs are much better at casting shapes than stubby human fingers. It’s impossible to gauge the true form of something based on the shadow it casts. An old fireside or sleepover favorite is to cast shadows with your hands that take on the shapes of living things.
Some people are so skilled that they can tell entire stories in this manner. In this photo, we see a shadow cast by a spider. We can’t be sure of its size, but perhaps it might be safer to throw the lamp out of the window.
These Decomposing Flowers That Look Goth
It’s not a mass grave, but you’re not wrong for thinking it appears as such. These are the flowers that should rest upon Edgar Allan Poe’s grave, surely. When they’re alive, snapdragons are vibrant flowers that can paint a garden a plethora of colors and attract all kinds of pollinators.
However, in death, they take on a very morbid and somewhat chilling appearance. Their seedpods look like human skulls. Very small ones, but the resemblance is uncanny. If the pod is squeezed, the head opens and the mouth closes. You can’t be too careful about what message you might be sending if you buy someone a bunch of snapdragons.
The Uprising of Kitchen Appliances
What we are looking at here is clearly what the robot uprising will be based on. Future robots will see that we ignored the pleas of an oven in need and they will treat it in the same way. Anyone who says appliances don’t have personalities has never owned a second-hand toaster that scorches everything.
Or a coffee maker that delivers a light electric jolt with your morning coffee. This oven in the picture is trying to express something. Whether it needs help because it’s malfunctioning, or the chef using it needs help with their egregious cooking, it warrants investigation. One cannot simply ignore an LED cry for help.
Stairs That Serve No Purpose
All this bathroom is missing is a clown in the corner and we have ourselves a horror story. We can’t see where these stairs lead but we can see that they end a few feet from the ground right next to a toilet. Judging by the complete lack of purpose and the tiles around it, it seems likely that the building underwent some renovations and it was cheaper to leave the stairs than to demolish them.
The bathroom looks like it could use renovations in a few areas, starting with new tiles and paint. Even if they don’t take out the staircase, maybe using it as shelving for some pot plants might make it look less like a murder scene.
The Monkey Looks Like a Cartoon
Sometimes nature's works of art are absurd. This monkey looks like he was drawn for a cartoon. A proboscis can be found on a few very different animals. It's the trunk of an elephant, a tapir's snout, or the sucky mouthpart of a bug. It's also this monkey's nose. It's called a proboscis monkey. Unlike the other aforementioned animals, it doesn’t use its long nose for eating or any practical functionality.
The only feature its ridiculous, member-shaped nose has is to attract a mate. Scientists believe that male monkeys with bigger noses are able to make louder vocalizations, and the girl monkeys are into it. Aside from their goofy faces and potbellies, these monkeys have a grey undercoat and reddish-brown fur on their head and shoulders, which gives them unique and pretty coloring.
The Robot Uprising Continues
First the oven, now the car. It may look like a scene from a Pixar film, but this console made a face of abject horror all on its own. It looks as though the driver made a joke that it found particularly offensive. It must have been hella offended to detach itself from the overhead compartment from where it’s supposed to shine light and blow air into the car without getting emotional.
It must have been quite a shocking experience for the driver too. One expects a certain function from inanimate objects and when they don’t remain that way it can result in some panic. Fortunately, they saw the humor in the situation, which means they probably didn’t get smacked in the face while they were driving.
We Found the Trapdoor of the Gods
Cloud cover has long made people get in touch with their imaginative side. When we gaze up, we see shapes in the fluffy white formations. Clouds can elevate a sunset or a sunrise to a level of awe that inspires art and love. They take so many forms and colors that it’s easy to forget that their entire reason for being is rain.
They even have an effect on our mood. When it’s overcast, we say it’s gloomy and that’s how we feel. In this picture, it looks as though some giant living in the sky has left a trapdoor to get through the layer of clouds. It’s a lovely reminder to us that no matter how gloomy things may appear, there’s always a blue sky on the other side.
Excuse Me, Coming Through
This tortoise is on a mission and he won’t be stopped! Tortoises are famously tenacious. Think of the story of the tortoise and the hare. The tortoise won the race because it flat-out refused to give up. In that fable, it’s seen as a good attribute because the tortoise won. But the other side of that story is they are extremely stubborn creatures. They are practically moving rocks, so they are tougher than most things they encounter.
It’s how they survive. Moving takes energy and time, so it’s easier for a tortoise to try and move through an obstacle than around it. That’s what we’re seeing in this photo. Someone probably had some delicious cucumber on the other side of the wall and the tortoise decided to go into demolition mode.
Don’t Get Into a Fight With This Tree
Sometimes, nature goes a little crazy with defenses. There are plants, bugs, and animals out there that are best left alone. It’s the most surprising when plants present such a violent barrier to the outside world. We all know that if you tangle with cacti you’re going to have a bad time, but we think of trees as being non-threatening.
They provide us with shade and oxygen, pretty flowers in the spring, and leaves that change with the seasons like we change our clothes. But nature can be brutal. There are many plants that have developed defense mechanisms such as poison or, as we see in this picture, thorns. The silk floss tree produces an abundance of beautiful pink flowers when it blooms, and the nasty thorns keep animals from eating them.
Creepy Stuff From the Deep
The most credible monsters are likely to live in the ocean. There’s so much of it that humans haven’t explored. Many of the weirdest-looking beasties that have been discovered on our planet are from the depths of the ocean. It’s like an alien world. Even the creatures that we expect to encounter are a little scary - such as sharks.
Many people are scared of sharks, even though they are a perfectly normal part of the ocean’s ecosystem. Nothing from the ocean behaves in the same way that we are used to. Look at this terrifying picture of tentacles reaching up from the abyss. Oh wait, it’s seaweed. Even the grass of the ocean is dangerous. If any of those get tangled around a leg, it could cause the person to drown.
Knock Knock Is Anyone Home?
There’s nothing scarier than an unwanted, unannounced visitor simply lurking outside your door. Sometimes we prank our family members - or ourselves - without even realizing it. It’s good etiquette to leave your dirty shoes outside. This goes double for gumboots, as they are usually covered in soil or mud that can be tracked into the house.
But if you leave your boots directly in from of a door with a glass panel, you’re sure to spook the other people living in your house. Or if you forget, you may even scare the pants off yourself. It would be even worse to encounter such a thing at night. You may end up inadvertently trapping your loved ones inside the house.
Nature’s Wrath Can Be Brutal
Nothing screams “apocalypse” quite like the sky turning black. Most of us think of the weather as being a mundane topic of conversation and a part of everyday existence. It’s simply there. But in certain parts of the world, the weather is something to be observed with a wary eye. In most tropical locations, the rainy season means monsoons and hurricanes.
In the US, Tornado Alley is an area where tornados occur most often. Weather events such as these can’t be predicted or rationed with. All we can do is get out of the way and wait for them to pass. There are those who chase storms in order to capture the awesome beauty and terrible destructive power they wield. Those people are crazy.
That’s One Bedazzled Bug
Sometimes the most spectacular sights are the ones that are overlooked by most. Take a look at this majestic ladybug, covered in dew. Dew is like nature’s glitter, and when the early rays of light lift the veil of night, all of her creations are sparkly.
Some of the animals that live in the desert rely on it as a water source. This ladybug is wearing it purely for aesthetic purposes. Ladybugs are seen as lucky, and if you are fortunate enough to have one land on you, that’s a good omen. They keep the garden healthy by eating aphids.
The Bedding Is Haunted
This photo shows a lady face-to-face with a specter of a witch in a red cape. But her reaction hardly seems appropriate. Could it be that she didn’t see the danger that stared her in the face, or was it simply a trick of the light and the perfect timing that allowed the photographer to capture an illusion?
A good lesson to take from this is that life is all about perspective. From hers, she was doing her chores. From the people below, she narrowly escaped being pulled over the balcony by a red ghost.
Not Where We’d Prefer to Sit
Bees are crucial to life on Earth. They are pollinators, that allow plants to grow. Without plants, we wouldn’t have the oxygen we need to breathe or food to eat. Animals also rely on plants for food and shelter. Over the last few decades, the global population of bees has seriously decreased and it’s not good.
People are doing whatever they can to help bees thrive. Including, apparently, lending them a bicycle. We weren’t aware that bees were such avid cyclists, but there’s nothing wrong with picking up a new hobby. Perhaps this colony is hoping to hitch a ride and save some energy as they go about their day finding flowers. You’d need to be very brave with buns of steel to operate that taxi.
This Is No Ordinary Crystal
At first glance, it looks like a cluster of spiders got petrified in crystal. But no, this is not the work of some arachnophobic mage. They aren’t small sea urchins either. What we’re actually looking at is a quartz crystal - something which occurs commonly all over the world - peppered with a much rarer compound called mannardite.
Mannardite is found in only a few places in the world and is characterized by jet-black, thin, streaks. It’s very rare to appear in abundance and in the form it took in the photo. Phantom quartz is any quartz in which multiple layers are visible. Usually, it gives the appearance of something ethereal swirling inside the crystal, hence the term “phantom.” In this case, the phantoms are mannardite.