Grey Seals A grey seal is released on the southern coast near Czolpino on the Baltic sea, June 2005. Early this week, 10 young grey seals were released into the chilly waters of the Baltic as part of a project to reintroduce the voracious carnivores to the southern Baltic. (JANEK SKARZYNSKI/AFP/Getty Images) Not too long ago on the geologic time scale (around 9 million years ago), carnivorous beasts roamed the forests of Europe. The giant mammals, including an enormous "bear...

No, time hasn’t frozen. Hierve el Agua looks very much like a waterfall stuck in time, but the cliff is a mineral formation that was created over thousands of years. This hidden gem of a world wonder is located in the central valleys of Oaxaca, Mexico. Surrounded by rolling green hills, two turquoise bathing pools sit atop the cliffs offering a unique place to swim as well as an amazing view of the landscape. Daring swimmers can approach the edge...

Ellora Caves, India Tourists look at a large Hindu stone structure at the Ellora Caves in the western Indian state of Maharashtra on November 16, 2012. The 34 Ellora caves are structures excavated out of the vertical face of the Charanandri hills. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images) Sacred sites are known for their beauty, both in architecture and setting. Their construction is amazing proof of religious devotion — many are built on mountain tops and some hang off the side of a...

Though it may be isolated from most of the world, Borneo is hardly a small place. Geographically, it's the third largest island in the world and is divided between three countries: Indonesia, Brunei and Malaysia. Environmentally, it has one of the oldest rain forests in the world and hosts an enormous array of endemic species. And because it was an island apart from the world of much of its history, Borneo is rich with the cultural traditions of its indigenous...

Blue holes are some of the most mysterious and under-explored wonders of the Earth. They serve as the entryway to the world's most spectacular cave systems, attracting free diverswho dare to plumb the mysteries of these underwater chambers. At more than 600 feet deep, Dean's Blue Hole in Long Island, the Bahamas, is said to be the world's deepest blue hole.It is almost twice as deep as any other explored cave in the Bahamas, according to the Bahamas Journal of...

Hot air balloons carrying tourists rise above the pagodas at dawn in Myanmar's northern ancient town of Bagan on Feb. 26, 2012. (STR/AFP/Getty Images) For years, Myanmar was an island unto itself. Though the Asian country of 60 million is bordered by multiple countries, for years it practiced a policy of isolationism. Little was known of what happened inside the country's borders aside from the ethnic violence that became deadly enough to make international headlines. But after a democratic election...

An aerial view of Los Angeles seen from the Goodyear Blimp in Feb. 2014. (Dan Marker-Moore) “It has always been a dream to ride in the [Goodyear] blimp,” said photographer Dan Marker-Moore, who got his wish this year. The photographer not only took incredible photos from inside the blimp, he also got to test out his flying skills. The Los Angeles-based photographer got to ride in the Spirit of America, one of the three blimps in Goodyear fleet. The Spirit...

Azure Window, Gozo, Malta New York's Brooklyn Bridge and China's Lupo Bridge areamazing feats of engineering, but many of the world's most awe-inspiring bridges were crafted by Mother Nature herself. Natural bridges and arches areformed by the natural, selective removal of rock, caused by processes of erosion, according to the Natural Arch and Bridge Society. Some of the stunning bridges and arches on this list were formed by the corrosive action of flowing rivers or ocean waves. Some were formed...

It might be the world’s most sophisticated food fight. From March 2-4 during the northern Italian town of Ivrea’s Annual Carnival, the small medieval burg’s 25,000 or so residents form battalions, don ornate uniforms and engage in fierce street combat to the beat of kettle drums. But the combatants are wielding a decidedly strange weapon of choice: millions of fresh oranges. (MORE: When Life Gives You Lemons, Make THIS) According to The New York Times, like many carnival traditions, the...

Hundreds of discarded tanks are seen lined up row upon row in a former military repair plant in Kharkov, Ukraine, on April 30, 2013, just 20 miles from the border with Russia. (Patvel Itkin/Caters News Agency) The images above feature a rare glimpse inside an abandoned tank graveyard in Kharkov, Ukraine. More than 400 tanks, lined up row upon row, have been left to the elements for decades. Photographer Patvel Itkin spent months trying to find the site after hearing...

In an age when people assume that any bit of information is just a click away, the thought that a jetliner could simply disappear over the ocean for more than two days is staggering. But Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 is hardly the first reminder of how big the seas are, and of how agonizing it can be to try to find something lost in them. It took two years to find the main wreckage of an Air France jet that...

For more than a century, the legend of Tarzan has sparked the imagination of the Western world and molded its views of Africa. But the King of the Jungle's creator, American novelist Edgar Rice Burroughs, never even set foot on the continent. He drew most of his inspiration from Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book and from what he'd learned from Africans at the 1893 World Fair in Chicago. Since Burroughs first penned the tale of a young boy raised by...