16 Amazing Lakes Around the World That Are Strangely Beautiful

In summer, much of the water in British Columbia’s Spotted Lake evaporates, leaving behind circular deposits of different minerals. Depending on their mineral composition, these deposits can be blue, green, white or yellow, looking like giant polka dots.

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There are several pink lakes in the world, including Dusty Rose Lake in British Columbia, but Lake Retba is probably the most famous. The pink colour of the water comes from a type of algae attracted to the high salt content, which rivals that of the Dead Sea.

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Contrary to popular belief, Lake Natron’s waters won’t turn animals into stone and in fact, it supports a healthy ecosystem complete with flamingos. However, due to deposits of natron and trona, the water here can become so alkaline that it can burn your skin.

The Kelimutu volcano on the island of Flores has not one but three crater lakes. What makes these lakes unique is that each has a different colour and just to really baffle scientists, they periodically change colour.

In winter, Grüner See in Styria is a small lake surrounded by a park. In summer, though, melting ice from the nearby mountains fills the area with crisp, clear water and the park becomes submerged, making for a surreal underwater world complete with bridges and park benches.

Virtually on Italy’s borders with Austria and Switzerland, Lake Resia or the Reschensee is an artificial lake that was built after World War II and united two natural lakes. It also submerged several villages and in winter, you can walk across the ice to the bell tower of what used to be the church in Graun.

An artificial lake in Alberta, Abraham Lake freezes over in winter, just like most other Canadian lakes. However, at Abraham Lake, bubbles of methane gas released by plants on the bottom rise to the surface and get trapped in the ice.

It used to be one of the world’s largest lakes but since the 60s, irrigation projects caused the Aral Sea to dry up and shrink to only about 10 percent of its original size. This destroyed a bustling fishing industry, leaving shipwrecks in a desert-like landscape, but restoration projects may bring the water back some day.

Lake Baikal holds a fifth of the planet’s unfrozen freshwater supply and is the world’s oldest lake. It’s home to unique species, including freshwater seals. In winter, the thick layer of ice that covers the lake’s surface becomes nature’s canvas, with interesting patterns made by cracks that can be several feet wide.

Jellyfish Lake is famous for its golden jellyfish, which have evolved to become completely harmless. These jellyfish migrate across the lake every day but sadly their population has declined from several million to about 600,000.

The water in Boiling Lake merrily bubbles away at temperatures high enough to make a cup of tea with. Rainwater and the water from two streams flow down into a basin which was formed by an opening in Earth’s crust, then gets heated up by lava.

The Hells of Beppu are a collection of eight hot springs, each one quite different from the others. Among the weirder of these little lakes are one with boiling, bright blue water; one with red water; one with bubbling mud; one with milky water and one with a geyser.

The fact that it’s a perched lake that doesn’t contain any groundwater already makes Lake McKenzie on Fraser Island a bit of an oddity. What’s really odd though is that the water here is so pure that few species can survive in it.

It’s a good idea to wear good sunglasses when you visit because the silica sand is a blinding white.

Laguna Colorada has red water due to red sediments and algae. The water is dotted with white islands made up of borax and the lake is home to a rare species of pale pink flamingo.

There are freshwater lakes, there are saltwater lakes and then there is Lake Balkhash, which is both. The western part has fresh water while the eastern part has salt water and a narrow strait keeps these two parts in balance.

The crater lake of Taal Volcano is the world’s largest lake on an island in a lake on an island, since Taal Volcano is an island in Taal Lake, which is on Luzon Island.

As if this isn’t mind-blowing enough, there is a small island called Vulcan Point in the crater lake, making it the largest island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island.