Kızılçukur (Turkey)

Kizilçukur is the kind of place that once seen is difficult to forget, no matter how hard you try. A great fissure in the plateau, it is a gaping hole into which you could suddenly fall if you didn't carefully watch where you were stepping. Extending over three kilometres, this mass of erosion-blunted tuff peaks, referred to by Americans as badlands, interspersed with the fairy chimneys for which Cappadocia is so famous, is a miracle of natural scenery.

What's more, by planting apricot trees here, man has made his mark on the peaks of Kizilçukur, lending an air of lost oases to the little valleys that weave their way through this forest of knifes pointed at the sky. The resulting jamboree of colours – ochre, red, orangey hues, white and green – is another fundamental, defining aspect of the scenery (and is what gave the valley its name). I criss-crossed this marvel of nature on foot, and the images that passed before my eyes before I fell asleep that same evening left me with the gentle impression of having walked on the surface of a moon drenched in Mediterranean light.