Global Nomad — By Brendan on January 24, 2009 at 8:08 pm
Filed under: adventure, Chimaera, nature, turkey
Filed under: adventure, Chimaera, nature, turkey
The Chimaera
One of the strangest natural phenomena I’ve ever seen is Turkey’s bizarre Chimaera, a hillside pockmarked with flames coming out of the ground. Seriously.
No, this is not some volcanic phenomenon we’re talking about, but a clean flame, as if there were some huge barbecue running under the hill. It’s not just one or two, either, but dozens of them, all over the hill, snaking out to crevices in the rocks. Seriously weird.
Gas leaks out of the earth here and somehow ignites spontaneously—if you cover it and the flame goes out, as soon as you uncover it lights itself again. Weird…
