La Scala dei Turchi
Located on the south coast of Sicily, in Réalmonte, this beach is surrounded by white limestone cliffs. With the erosion of the sea, the rock has been sculpted and its white colour (limestone called Marga) stands out perfectly in the middle of the blue sea. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea and can also take the Spanish name of "La escalera de turcos" because of the steps drawn on its surface.
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Photo credits :Flickr : elwoodd / myriapod / chicco / sun_sand_sea
The pink sand beach
Harbour Island, in the Bahamas, is a small island 5 km long and 800 meters wide known for its luxurious hotels and especially its pink sand beaches. Apparently the colour of the beaches of this paradise island is due to pigments contained in the corals that wash up on the beach.
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Photo credits: Flickr: pazzani / solarnu / pazzani
Glass Beach
Located in California, in the MacKerricher Regional Park, the beach is covered with polished glass, a phenomenon not natural but due to ocean pollution. Originally, the area's residents, who had no landfill, came here to leave their garbage and bulky waste, but in 1967, the North Coast Water Quality Board realized too late that this situation had to be remedied. Today, the area is protected and large items have been cleaned up but the ground is still littered with these small coloured glass pebbles.
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Cathedral Beach
In Spain, in Ribadeo, the Playa de los Catedrales immediately catches the eye with its huge 30-metre high cliffs carved by the sea and the wind. Thus, large arches, like the buttresses of a cathedral, cover the beach but are only visible at low tide.
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Photo credits: Flickr: jmmpereda / xindilo / braveheart1999
Schooner Gulch Beach
Schooner Gulch Beach is located in Mendocino County, California. Its particularity lies in its large round rocks on the shoreline, created by a rare geological phenomenon. Called "Bowlings balls", these smooth rocks, lined up on the sand, can be admired at low tide for better visibility. Another characteristic of these rocks is that they are uniform in size and shape, yet the human hand has nothing to do with it!
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Photo credit: Flickr: johnkay
Maho Beach
Maho Beach is a beach located on the island of Saint Martin in the West Indies. Located near the Princess Juliana International Airport, it is world-famous for beach-skimming planes and tourists. It is also possible to receive objects or to be thrown into the water when the planes are at full power, in any case it does not scare holidaymakers who rush to photograph the plane flying over them!
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The purple sand beach of Pfeiffer Beach
In California, this beach has the particularity of having a purple-colored sand, due to the deposit of garnet found in the surrounding rocks.
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Credit: Flickr / jacqueline_poggi
Papakolea Beach and its green sand
Located in Hawaii, Papakolea Beach, also known as "Green Sand Beach" is a green sand beach. Composed of olivine (a green and transparent mineral), the sand takes on a light green to khaki color. The origin of this colour goes back several tens of thousands of years when a volcano exploded this green sand mixed with lava, which today has disappeared.
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Photo credits: Flickr / bigislandhawaiianvacation / nanovivid
Mexico City's hidden beach
On the Marieta Islands in Mexico, the hidden beach is said to have been created in the 20th century when the government decided to install military bases and carried out dynamite tests.
Icelandic Beach Vik
The black sand beach borders the Icelandic village and faces the cliffs of Mount Reynisfjall and was awarded the title of one of the 10 most beautiful beaches in the world in 1990. The black colour of the sand comes from the volcanic rock of the sub-glacial Katla volcano below Mırdalsjökull.
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Photo credits: Flickr / davidblaisonneau / jacquesmeynierdemalviala
Find out the rest of the ranking : The most unusual beaches
