I had the most fascinating flight from China to England. The pilot made an arching loop up north through Mongolia and across Russia. I've done this before but the weather was less than optimal... and at night... and on an aisle seat. This time was a perfect, window-seat opportunity to see what mysteries could be unlocked in the vast emptiness of Asia.
The strange fields
Across Mongolia was vast swathes of desert. At first I assumed this sandy wasteland was just burning wasteland, but I started seeing salt flats that turned out to be sheets of ice across the land, becoming more apparently as the mountain region of the himalayas were coming closer.
But it was rarely as empty as it truly seemed. Very occasionally, I would see some kind of town or desert city, surrounded by hundreds of kilometers of nothingness again. There were barely any roads connecting them anywhere, just a single dusty highway heading off to the horizon somewhere. Why was there a town in such a place? Take a closer look:
A first glance, it's just fields. But what are the crops? What are the harvests or the mining materials, even? These fields are vague shadows, ethereal rectangles that seem to serve no apparent purpose... any ideas?
The Inefficient Rivers
I saw a lot of these. Incredibly winding rivers. Seems pretty dumb if you ask me. Why not just cut through the middle and save millions of years of erosion efforts?
This, on the other hand looked very man made, or alien-made. I don't see what the point of this round, wind-swept semi-circle lakes with a strange structure in the middle.
To make it more curious, a close up of this area shows direct, straight lines cutting through it. More on these in a moment:
The Landing Strip
Another town I discovered, after seeing absolutely nothing for a good hour or so of sonic flight speeds across the landscape. Presumably this was the only water supply they could work with, but it was plentiful enough that they even build a landing strip in the area... for what purpose this town exists remains a mystery.
Russia
After Mongolia, we hit Russia and living standards possibly got even more difficult, if that's even possible. Ice, Icy lakes, Icy mountains, and more Ice in an unforgiving flat land extending for hours and hours in any direction, despite going over 500km/h at any given moment.
Again, I can't really explain the round, twisting areas with hundreds of mini, sweeping lakes as if slashed into the ground with a knife.
The Mystery Lines
This is throwing me off big time, and if anybody can even begin to postulate what these could be, I'd love to hear ideas. I started seeing strange, straight lines extending for dozens of miles at a time. They weren't deeply cut through the landscape like the train tracks or roads we flew over, nor were they observably near any civilisation.
I thought I was imagining it at first; every photo I took wouldn't be high enough quality to make them obviously visible. I was worried I'd never be able to take a snap to show that they were truly there. Was I going mad?
Finally, I found some of the gridlines coated in ice, thus making them reflective and more obvious. Finally, proof. They were real. But in this photo you can also see that they were not only limited to the snowy parts, look closely at the bottom right. You can see they extend in all directions:
Even more strangely, they even cut straight through the frozen lakes:
I cannot express how vast the reaches of these gridlines extended. In any given photo, you are looking at multiple kilometers in every direction. But they were going for hundreds, and hundreds of kilometers, crossing mountains, lakes, on either sides of train tracks and beyond.
I barely saw a single man-made structure the entire time. WTFFFFFFFF??
Finally, here's the Russian Whale in full =D
I think you may get more details if you zoom in more closely with a more powerful camera. It is strange to see places that man inhabit when numerous more habitable areas are left as forests and deserts. Fascinating pictures, especially that of the jagged winding river.
Yeah the rivers were so beautiful, and so many of them across the whole landscape. Great stuff indeed =)
RE: The Russian gridlines
Gridlines usually are associated with agriculture
While there may not be any going on today, you may see vestiges of camp related work during the Gulag concentration camp days.
How about the ones on the ice-covered lakes?
Could it be that they are at the bottom of the lakes and show through?
If not...I have no idea.
I know now =P
Must have been an adventurous journey
And I want to believe you had a wonderful time
What am I seeing on the last image OMG
Haha cool right?
Yea
I was really looking forward to seeing the Russian Whale. You did not disappoint. I thought the whale might have some steem power though. I have no idea what those grid lines mean. Perhaps a pilot would know. Are you still in England? I hope you're enjoying your trip. Thanks for sharing those pictures. I wonder what kind of camera you used.
Just my phone! Yeah I'm still in England for a good 2 weeks =) So far so good! I know what the grid lines are now! Finally! Maybe I'll post about it... maybe not
Awesome. Enjoy your stay. You can still write it in the comments. Thanks :)
The Russian Whale is so cool.
The grid lines are really odd; especially on the ice too.
This image here looks like a painting, almost hard to believe it is a photo taken up high. It is amazing how things look from up high.
My guess for the winding stream/lakes is to increase surface area, or in this case contact area for access to water to more people or animals or farms....
Oh yeah this is my favourite one, I still take second glances when I scroll past! Good guess and surface area may be correct, relating to 'path of least resistance', too
I am really amazed by the quality of the pictures! Not only you got a window seat, but the windows was kind of clean ^^
Yeah I loved taking them... not often you get
All in one flight with a decent phone camera!
I usually ask for an aisle seat on long flights. I like to be able to stand up and down without bothering people. ;)
Looks like you enjoyed your flying time. Those long lakes are like some weird stuff from high school biology lab. Reminded me of those parasites stored in lab jar. lol.
Good day, man.
Wow, quite the imagination lol. Thanks for checking the pics out!
cheers, man. :D
Direct lines are the result of geological exploration. Straightness is explained by the work of surveyors. This video has an answer to your question. Unfortunately, the language is only Russian, and there are no subtitles, but you can watch from the fifth minute, and everything will become clear.
I think you're on the right track to where I was discovering things: Seismic surveys for oil deposits. You can see similar ones in Libya and elsewhere. Thousands of square km's of effort to find gas and oil!
Those strictures look more like alien-made than man-made :)
Beautiful scenery.
P.S: A DSLR camera would've provided a good zoom. But the images are really cool. I guess you had a nice time flying :)
Yeah I always wish for a nice camera but I always break them by being in extra-humid countries or getting sand in them or whatever. I can't be trusted =P
Lol. You may look for a sand-resistant camera :p
I think seeing land from a very fast moving Airbus can be a bit difficult. However, those pictures are really beautiful. Also those vast of emptiness of desert land shows that humanity only cover an integral part of the surface of the earth. @mobbs well done. However, how was the trip?
I'm still in England for another 10 days or so =) Just relax and save money, no need to be a tourist in my own land! But yes, very pleasant thanks!
Happy staying. It's good to be home!
waaaah the russian whale is kind of cute and it was nicely photographed I'm jealous.
Mysterious lines and abstract landscapes...nice ! I've never had the chance to see that during the numerous flights I took between Europe and China.
Why you flag 4 of my post? Did I do something wrong to you? WTF.. you are the big fish then swim in your pool, if you don’t like my post then get lost. You just bully the newbie.
@mobbs wtf son of a bitch...flag one ☝️ post is enough...you just flagged 4 of my post. Is that make you better....NO...you are just fucking a loser
I'm not sure how being a loser is related; the images aren't yours, they're stolen, so I flagged them, simple
https://steemit.com/photography/@kengtong/building-and-the-cables How about this one loser and this one https://steemit.com/photography/@kengtong/never-ending-road I took it from my cell. Next time don’t be too smart
@mobbs don’t be judge too fast loser
shrug, You still stole images, and deserve not to have rewards as a result of that. I just chose a few at random. Don't think too deeply about it. I wasn't trying to be smart or whatever else you're trying to project onto my personality. I just saw a thief and flagged accordingly, an moved on with my day. I suggest you do the same ^__^