From trenches located at crushing depths to rock formations that emerge like daggers from
the ground, here are 11 places on Earth no human has ever set foot on:
Number 11 Mariana Trench, Pacific The ocean is the least explored place on Earth,
so it's no wonder that vast portions have remained untouched by humans. One of those
areas is Mariana Trench – a narrow fissure in the sea floor, located in the western part
of the Pacific. The trench is the deepest known region on the planet and was formed
millions of years ago. The Challenger Deep, located in the southern end of the Mariana
Trench, is said to be the deepest spot in the ocean. It contains more than 20 underwater
volcanoes, vents bubbling up liquid sulfur and marine life adapted to pressures up to
10,000 times stronger than at sea level. Movie director, explorer and ocean enthusiast James
Cameron descended to 35,756 feet during his 2010 expedition – and he could have gone
a little deeper. A high-resolution map published in 2014 said that it bottoms out at 36,037
feet. This means that the deepest point still hasn’t been seen. The US has jurisdiction
over the Mariana Trench and a protected marine reserve was created in 2009 by G. W. Bush.
Number 10 Northern Patagonia, Chile Hosting Chile's wildest landscapes, the area
hides untouched rainforests, peaks, rivers, and lakes. The field of northern Patagonia
is also home to one of the largest masses of ice found outside of the polar region.
The high elevation preserves the remaining Ice Field that once covered all of the Argentinian
and Chilean Patagonia in the Andes. A team of scientists used polar-ice monitoring satellites
to determine that some of the glaciers in Patagonia are melting faster than anywhere
else in the world, receding at a rate of 21 billion tons per year. Even though it is now
retreating, the frozen area is still over 1,600 square miles. Several researchers and
explorers have crossed the ice field over time, but much of its glaciers still remain
unexplored.
Number 9 Machapuchare Mountain Machapuchare is a sacred peak for the Hindu
religion. It’s said that Lord Shiva, an important Hindu deity, lives here. The ‘Fish
Tail Mountain’ gets its name from the shape of the peak as seen from a certain angle.
As one of the last unexplored places on Earth, it represented a target for the western mountaineers
that tried to conquer it. In 1957, Wilfrid Noyce came the closest anybody ever has to
the summit, but the king of Nepal asked him to respect the religious customs and not set
foot on it. He and his companion turned back 150 feet short of the peak, producing the
only climbing record of the mountain. The impact of alpine climbing is much more understood
today, with sites like Everest being completely overtaken by climbers. The religious status
of the mountain may have had an environmental benefit too, leaving the Machapuchare as the
only pristine mountain peak in the Himalayas. Number 8 Sarlacc Pit, Canada
A giant gaping cave was found in Canada in 2018 and it was named Sarlacc Pit, after the
pit-dwelling beast in Star Wars. The discovery of the cave, concealed in the ground of the
British Columbia's Provincial Park, was a remarkable achievement for the explorers.
The cave was first accidentally spotted in April during a helicopter caribou counting
flight. What’s more remarkable is that the 320 feet long and almost 200 feet wide ground
hole managed to escape detection before. According to the man whose company funded the initial
survey expedition, it’s because the site has been covered in snow year-round up until
20 to 50 years ago. Caver Lee Hollis made the first and only known descent into the
cave up to now, reaching 260 feet down, as the deluge of the cave's waterfall prevented
further exploration. Researchers estimate that the surge of the glacier melt that courses
down one side of the cave's mouth, nearly 4,000 gallons of abrasive water per second,
helped the structure's formation.
Number 7 New Hebrides Trench Although we’ve reached to the sky in exploration,
very few attempted to go in the other direction. We may know more today about stars and galaxies
than we know about Earth’s oceans. There are more than 30 deep-sea trenches around
the world and most can be found in the Pacific Ocean. In 2013 an expedition to the unexplored
New Hebrides trench in the Pacific has revealed, with the help of high-tech cameras, the abundance
of crustaceans and cusk eels that live more than 23,000 feet deep. Scientists said that
eels have appeared in other deep-sea trenches around the world but in extremely low numbers.
The ecology of the Hebrides differs from other regions of the ocean that have been studied.
The difference in the ecosystem is believed to be caused by the unproductive water above
the trench, where many fish species are unable to survive.
Number 6 Star Mountains, Papua New Guinea The Star Mountains is a massive mountain range
extending from the Indonesian border to the Hinderberg wall. It’s a network of huge
limestone plateaus, up to 6,000 feet tall and 30 miles long, that protect the area.
The Bluffs stretch for over 30 miles, creating a diverse and undisturbed wildlife habitat.
A survey of the region found more than 1,100 plant and animal species, 100 of which were
new to scientists. The area of the Star Mountains is believed to be one of the wettest on the
planet, with rainfall being at over 10,000 mm per year.
Number 5 Gamburtsev Mountains, Antarctica Mountains the size of the Alps have been found
in Antarctica, entombed in ice – suggesting that the ice sheet formed more rapidly than
scientists initially thought. Using gravity and radar sensors, maps were created showing
details of the Gamburtsev subglacial mountains. Expecting to find flat plateaus eroded over
time, they were amazed to discover an area with peaks and valleys, looking similar to
the European Alps. The presence of the ridged peaks suggests the ice formed quickly, burying
the landscape under up to 2.5 miles of ice. Hidden beneath Angus dome, one of the coldest
places on Earth, no one has ever even seen the Gamburtsev Mountains. However, if all
the ice in Antarctica melted, their ridges and peaks would become one of the continent’s
highest mountain ranges. The mountaintops now measure almost 9,000 feet above sea level
and would bounce back to more than 10,800 feet without the ice sheet.
Number 4 Yucatan Cenotes, Mexico There are thousands of cenotes all across
Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, places that once were revered by the Mayans as sacred wells,
and still an attraction for people worldwide. The Yucatan is characterized mainly by its
limestone bedrock, a soluble type of rock that can dissolve after being exposed to water
for millennia. The collapse of limestones sometimes reveals the cave underneath, thus
marking the birth of a cenote. The caves fill over time with water filtered directly by
the earth, creating lakes and stunning views. Since there aren’t many rivers in the Yucatan,
they were once the primary source of water for the Mayans. They were also considered
gateways to the afterlife – now making a magical place for swimming and snorkeling.
Located in remote mountain areas, most of the cenotes are difficult to access and sometimes
undisturbed even by wildlife. Estimates suggest that there are more than 6,000 such places
and less than half of them have been studied or even registered.
Number 3 Gangkhar Puensum, Bhutan Gangkhar Puensum, in translation ‘White
Peak of the Three Spiritual Brothers’, is the highest mountain in Bhutan, with its peak
reaching almost 25,000 feet. Most of the sources say that it’s located at the border with
China. However, for many years, different maps would show it as various heights and
even place it in completely different locations. It’s said to be the highest mountain in
the world that has still not been fully summited by man. There have been four expeditions,
none of them successful due to impassable terrain and sudden weather changes. The villagers
say it was the spirits of the mountain that prevented the climbers from summiting it.
The peak has been unreachable to climbers since 1994 when all mountaineering above 20,000
feet was prohibited in the country due to spiritual beliefs. In 2003, mountaineering
was completely forbidden. Gangkhar Puensum still remains a mystery to man, with ghostly
apparitions and strange disappearances reported there.
Number 2 Sahka Federal Republic, Russia One-fifth of Russia is covered by the Siberian
Sakha Republic, also known as Yakutia. The major part is located above the Arctic Circle.
The hard soil which is covered by permafrost, make Yakutia a deadly place to live. In July,
some parts of Yakutia can reach up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, whilst the average recorded
temperature is as low as -50 degrees. Sahka is one of the few places on Earth where the
mountains, rivers, and lakes are still untouched by civilization. The largest river system
can be found there, preserving more than 10% of the world's wildlife. It’s also the least
populated area of its size and the entire population can fit into one district of Tokyo.
Fauna and flora that exist dating back to the ice age were preserved here. With 1,850
species of higher plants, over a hundred are considered medicinal and used in traditional
medicine. Also unique are the horses of Yakutia, which can easily withstand -50 degrees and
find food under the snow. Number 1 Tsingy de Bemahara National Park,
Madagascar Tsingy de Bemahara, translating as ‘Where
one cannot walk barefoot’, is a national park located in Madagascar covered in huge
rock formations shaped like needles, protruding from the ground. Formed millions of years
ago by groundwater erosion into deep caverns, the combination of rounded surfaces and jagged
spires certainly look like a daunting climb. This has provided the local wildlife with
protection against human intrusion. The national park has a length of 930 square miles and
is today one of the Unesco World Heritage sites. Escalating the Tsingy seems far easier
for the Sifaka lemur, a primate that evolved there and can easily jump between the spires.
In the 1990s, a French speleologist founded an organization to help preserve and explore
the area. With the help of the locals, a set of suspended bridges and steel cables was
built, allowing the landscape to be seen from the air. However, getting to the park is still
no easy feat. Located on the remote west coast of Madagascar, Tsingy de Bemahara is only
accessible by a dirt road, which becomes unnavigable for six months a year during the rainy season.
One can also opt for one of the two river routes but it’s worth knowing that they’re
both infested with crocodiles. Thanks for watching! Do you know other places
on Earth that are untouched by humans? Tell us about them in the comment section below!