Located just outside the medieval coastal city of Piran, Slovenia, along the country’s Adriatic coastline, is the Sečovlje Saltpans Natural Park. The park is one of the last saltpans in the Mediterranean, where salt is harvested by hand using a method going back centuries. People and nature began co-creating these salt pans as early as the Roman...

Outside the ancient Thracian city of Nessebar, Bulgaria, is a picturesque pink lake: Lake Atanasovsko. Just a stone’s throw from the Black Sea, the lake is one of the few places in the world where visitors can enjoy a dip in a pink lake. Lake Atanasovsko covers about 28 square miles, but only a small section of the lake is actually pink. Located...

It isn’t uncommon to stumble upon a subterranean shrine in Laos’s “Cave Alley.” Since the 16th century, these natural pits in the mountains of Khammouane province have served as places of worship, often bedecked with prayer flags, floral garlands, and gold-plated Buddha statues with offerings of bottled water and plates of food at their feet. Elephant...

The Lehmja oak forest, or Lehmja tammik in Estonian, is a historic oak grove located near the town of Jüri, about 12 kilometers from Tallinn. Covering 12 hectares, it is the largest and one of the rarest old-growth oak forests near the capital, providing easy access to nature for city residents. The forest is a diverse and rich ecosystem, with its...

When English teacher Steve Springer retired from the Clark County School District, he still longed to do something with children. After road works in 2005 tore up part of the front yard outside his home in Henderson, Nevada, he had the idea to use his yard for some type of educational exhibit. A few months later, he hit upon the idea of displaying...

Some 700 miles east of Madagascar, situated on a submarine plateau in the Indian Ocean, sits the island nation of Mauritius, which was formed by volcanic activity some 8 million years ago. The island is the second largest of the Mascarene Islands and is home to some of the world’s rarest plants and animals, as well as approximately 1.2 million people. ...