30 Strange, Beautiful and Unexpected Sightings Captured by Drones
Drones are one of the greatest technological achievements.
While they can be used for all kinds of incredible purposes, we're most fond of the unusual sights they can capture. These flying cameras show us things that have never been seen before, or grant us new and unusual perspectives to the ordinary and make them spectacular.
Don't believe us? Keep scrolling for 30 of the most strange, beautiful and unexpected sightings ever captured by drones.
(via YouTube/Wanaii Films)
1. Yancheng Dafeng Dream Maze
(via YouTube/Guinness World Records)
Looking to get lost? The world's largest permanent hedge maze is none other than the Yancheng Dafeng Dream Maze in Yangcheng, China. The 8.8. acre maze has an incredible winding path measuring 5.87 miles long, with scenery depicting a huge elk, hearts, stars, orbs and more.
2. Blue Whale Visits Boat
(via YouTube/DolphinDroneDom)
Blue whales aren't just the largest animals on earth, but the largest animals to ever live, so it's quite the event to be visited by one while out on an ocean journey. These travelers were lucky enough to encounter one during a cruise. For reference, that's a 21-foot-long boat, and the whale is just a baby!
3. Mass Sheep Herding
(via YouTube/Caters Clips)
Shepherding is impressive work, but we think it's even more incredible from an aerial view. We're sure this massive flock containing hundreds of sheep could get quite unruly, but with the help of talented dogs, a shepherd can drive the sheep exactly where they want them to go with little to no problem.
4. The Uffington White Horse
(via YouTube/Matthew Williams)
The Uffington White Horse is a remarkable prehistoric hill figure that measures 110 meters across. It somewhat resembles the figure of a horse and exists in Oxfordshire, England. It's made of deep trenches of crushed white chalk, and impressively dates back more than 3,000 years.
5. Visitors Crowd the Great Wall of China
(via YouTube/CGTN)
National Day of the People's Republic is an incredibly important holiday celebrated in China, which is probably why the festivities last a full week in October, rather than just a day. It's estimated that half of China's population of 1.3 billion people travels for the holiday every year, which explains how this section of the Great Wall of China in Beijing can get so crowded there every year.
6. Changsha Meixihu International Culture & Arts Centre
(via YouTube/Boring Creation Studio)
If you're on the lookout for stunningly out-of-this-world architecture, you have to take a look at the Changsha Meixihu International Culture & Arts Centre in Changsha, China. Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, this example of contemporary art looks like something from the future, and we can't peel our eyes away from it.
7. Leshan Giant Buddha
(via YouTube/Hu's Lost)
The Leshan Giant Buddha located in Sichuan, China is 233 feet tall, making it the largest Buddha statue in the entire world. Incredibly, its construction began back in 723 A.D., but due to delays, was put on hold for 70 years before being completed. The beautiful statue peeks out of red sandstone cliffs overlooking the Min and Dadu Rivers.
8. Mama Duck
(via YouTube/Dan Oshier Productions)
You're not seeing things—this enormous rubber duckie really is as big as it looks. Nicknamed "Mama Duck," it's the largest rubber duck in the world at over six stories tall and weighing 11 tons. First unveiled in 2014, it travels the world to appear at maritime festivals, delighting spectators of all ages.
9. Davis-Monthan AFB
(via YouTube/Flyr)
The Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona is the biggest military aircraft boneyard in the entire world. Because of its dry climate and non-acidic soil, it's the ideal location to store government aircraft and aerospace vehicles, and more than 4,000 such aircraft are currently parked at the base.
10. Australian Pink Lakes
(via YouTube/Fore to Four Golf)
Have you ever seen a bubblegum-pink lake like this one? Australia is actually home to a number of them, including this view of Hutt Lagoon on the Coral Coast in Western Australia. the highly salty water here is known to change colors with the seasons from pink to red to purple. These unique hues are due to algae and microbes.
11. Rush Hour on the World's Widest Freeway
(via YouTube/Do It Perfect!!!!!!!)
Texas's Katy Freeway, also known as Interstate 10, is the widest freeway in the world. In certain sections, it boasts a whopping 26 lanes. That's a lot of cars. It typically serves more than 219,000 vehicles each and every day—and even despite the many lanes, it still gets backed up from time to time.
12. Decatur Sinkhole
(via YouTube/11Alive)
While sinkholes happen all the time, all over the world, this one in Decatur, Georgia was particularly sizable, swallowing up a massive section of the street along with it. Clearly, when this surface layer collapsed, there was nothing underneath it to hold up the road! We're glad that in this case, nobody was hurt. Sometimes, people aren't so lucky.
13. The Raisting Crop Circle
(via YouTube/AscTecVideos)
This drone footage shows an unbelievable crop circle that appeared overnight in Raisting, Bavaria back in 2014. It was 75 meters across and attracted thousands of visitors at the time—especially because no one knows precisely how it was made. We especially enjoy this footage because it shows just how tiny the people look in comparison to the enormous circle.
14. Abandoned Gold Mine
(via YouTube/Jim T)
Manhattan, Nevada, founded back in 1908, was once a bustling gold-mining site, but is now practically a ghost town. This image captures one of their large open-pit mines, which now exists as a massive crater in the earth. When it was created, each layer dug away in the hopes of excavating valuable gold.
15. View From Angel Falls
(via YouTube/kaniblurous)
Angel Falls (also known as Salto Ángel) is a waterfall in Venezuela that happens to be the highest in the entire world. With a height of 3,212 feet and a plunge of 2,648, nothing on Earth quite measures up to it—which is why this death-defying look over the falls and toward the forest below is such a stunning view.
16. Cruise Ship Graveyard
(via YouTube/King of Kings Yahawashi Is Coming Back 4)
Because of everything going on in the world at the moment, the cruise industry has tanked. Cruise companies are closing, and many previously epic cruise ships have been abandoned. The result? This cruise ship scrapyard in Turkey shows the state of a number of ships left for parts.
17. Dongchuan Red Land
(via YouTube/Autel Robotics)
In Yunnan, thanks to the area's warm and humid climate, the iron in the soil rusts, turning it a rich red color. Between the rust-tinted soil, green trees and golden crops, the result is spectacular landscapes that are unlike anything else we've seen in the world. We wouldn't blame you if you thought you were traveling through a painting.
18. Christ the King
(via YouTube/Michael Pasek)
Rio de Janeiro's Christ the Redeemer statue may be impressive and world-famous, but the statue shown here, Christ the King in Świebodzin, Poland, is actually the tallest statue of Jesus Christ in the world. Including its mound, it's 172 feet tall—with the crown itself standing at almost 10 feet tall, and we think it deserves some recognition.
19. White Shark Lunges at Drone
(via YouTube/Eric Mailander)
This footage captured in Monterey Bay, California shows a massive, 12-foot-long white shark lunging toward what it thinks is a tasty morsel of food. It's a good thing it was just the shadow of the drone, and not the drone itself, because it easily would have been lost forever to the sea—and we wouldn't have this spectacular image.
20. Talat Rot Fai Train Night Market
(via YouTube/Scott Sharick)
To the naked eye, this might at first look like some sort of modern art installation. In actually, it's a high aerial view of Bangkok, Thailand's Talat Rad Rai Night Market. Those glowing squares are actually the tops of vibrantly lit tents, and the little dots between them are the people perusing the market.
21. Mont-Saint-Michel
(via YouTube/Wanaii Films)
If you think Mont-Saint-Michel looks like something out of a fairytale, you're not alone. Located in Normandy, it's one of France's most famous landmarks and is visited by more than three million people yearly. The fact that the monastery becomes an island when the tides are high only adds to its mystery and intrigue.
22. Shanghai World Financial Center
(via YouTube/DJI Phantom)
China truly is home to some stunning and staggering architecture, and that includes the Shanghai World Financial Center. Located in Shanghai's Pudong district, this marvel is 1,614 feet tall, making it the 12th biggest building in the world. It's used for all kinds of things, including being a hotel, office space and mall. If you're scared of heights, we don't recommend getting a job here.
23. Dubai Skyscrapers
(via YouTube/Drone Snap)
Dubai, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, is a veritable oasis in the center of a desert. It's an incredible, bustling city packed with skyscrapers, with the incredible Burj Khalifa at its center. This building is the tallest structure and building in the entire world, and has been since it was completed in 2009.
24. Magnetic Islands Shipwreck
(via YouTube/TheChurchie76)
This unique shipwreck located in Cockle Bay, Magnetic Island, off the waters of Australia is a sight to behold. When it was a ship, it was called the SS City of Adelaide and sailed for more than 50 years before it caught fire and was run aground. That was more than 100 years ago, and today, it's become covered in mangrove trees and hosts all kinds of wildlife.
25. Stack Rock Fort
(via YouTube/Alex Brown)
Stack Rock Fort is quite the isolated fortification, located on a tiny island in the Milford Haven Waterway, off the coast of Pembrokeshire, Wales. The fort was originally designed to help defend the United Kingdom at sea, and was even briefly utilized during World War I.
26. Rovinj
(via YouTube/RS Drone)
Rovinj, Kroatia is a tiny town, but that doesn't make this aerial view of the place any less fantastic. This busy fishing port built on a jutting peninsula boasts classic Venetian architecture and is one of the country's biggest tourism hotspots. Whether you're looking to the sea from the town or vice versa, you're going to have your breath taken away.
27. Marina Bay Sands
(via YouTube/Flight 365)
Not sure quite what you're looking at? That's the Marina Bay Sands, Singapore's premier resort. It consists of three main 55-story towers topped with an enormous SkyPark resembling a balancing ship. It's also the world's most expensive standalone casino property, and we're not at all surprised.
28. Mauritius's Underwater 'Waterfall'
(via YouTube/ReubenMRU)
Mauritius is known for being one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, but it also boasts spectacular views of an incredible underwater "waterfall." Of course, the water isn't truly falling under the ocean. Instead, it's an optical illusion created by the direction of the running sand, and we haven't seen anything else like it.
29. Thousands of Flying Snow Geese
(via YouTube/Collin Harrington)
Few sights are more majestic than watching incredible birds take flight, but the view might be even more spectacular from above. These thousands of flying snow geese, captured in Florida, are proof of that. Watching them swarm together as if they all share the same mind, is quite the sight indeed.
30. The Medieval City of Monteriggioni
(via YouTube/The Adventures of a Florentine)
It's not often that the average person gets to encounter a medieval walled town, but Italy's Monteriggioni in Tuscany is just that. The great wall that stretches around the place was built between 1213 and 1219 and measures 1,870 feet across, containing a population of about 10,000 people.