Are these the most magical settlements in the world? A village inside a volcano crater, cliff houses

[Surya Gayatri]

made of clay and a tiny town that lives under a rock


* Some villages exist in what would be considered as uninhabitable places around the world

* They have thrived by adapting to the natural surroundings and some remain hidden away from the rest of the world

* Hidden villages can be found in the middle of the Grand Canyon, in clay structures on rock faces, and underground



Bravest village ever? The settlement of Aogashima in the Philippine Sea, has 200 inhabitants who live in the middle of a volcanic crater




Hidden behind a rock! This tiny settlement is concealed from the Greek coastline behind a giant rock on the island




Long way to the corner shop! Only 16 people live in this tiny village nestled high on the cliffs near the coast of the Faroe Islands




Nestled in one of the driest locations on earth, is Huacachina; a town complete with trees, hotels, shops and even an oasis library - tranquil!




Fairytale village! Undredal is hidden in a narrow valleyin the Aurlandsfjord in Norway, and looks like something out of Disney movie




Gorge-ous views! Tiny hilltop village, Rougon, boasts panoramic views of the surrounding Verdon Gorge in the south of France


More to see here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3050646/A-village-inside-crater-active-volcano-cliff-houses-clay-tiny-town-lives-rock-magical-settlements-world.html

_____________________
Dream worlds, indeed.

[underpants]

1. Amazing

[d_r]

2. that first picture

is where captain nemo used to park the nautilus.

ETA I had to look it up on wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aogashima

[Surya Gayatri]

4. Nemo of 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea' fame? Who knew?

[d_r]

34. Yeah Capt Nemo's secret base

[kwassa]

36. So this was Finding Nemo ....

[d_r]

43. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming

[Zorra]

3. Thanks, amazing. Oddly enough, your OP evoked the thought that human adapatability may

be the main reason for our eventual extinction.

[Surya Gayatri]

5. We may indeed have to adapt ourselves right off of this planet.

Climate-change deniers, who contend that 'science and technology will always find a way', are going to have to put their money where their mouth is all too soon, I fear.

[myrna minx]

6. Thank you - I was feeling a bit down and this made my day.

How enchanting.

[Surya Gayatri]

8. Happy to help. I was bedazzled just compiling the OP.

[Demeter]

7. I am more inmpressed by Detroiters, surviving the most hostile location on earth

[Surya Gayatri]

9. Their perseverence is admirable, but the surroundings not nearly so enchanting!

That said, some of those haunting 'art' photographs of the desolate, abandoned buildings in Detroit almost make it magical.

[treestar]

10. Wow so beautiful

They could get tourists from the publicity - though it looks like they are tough places to get to!

[Surya Gayatri]

11. '...they ARE tough places to get to...'

Which is precisely why they have remained pristine and unspoiled.

I suspect that tourists are the last thing these isolated folks want!

[treestar]

12. Yes, that's how they ended up there in the first place maybe

So lucky to look out every day and see what they see.

[Surya Gayatri]

13. A whole other perspective on the world...

That said, to get to the hospital or specialist medical care, be prepared to wait.

[treestar]

14. Yes, and have to take the trip to get there

That would be the downside. Though I guess they are quite expert in getting to and from their villages!

[Surya Gayatri]

15. They make detailed shopping lists before taking the boat to the big city!

And, the mail boat only comes once a week, at best.

[brer cat]

16. Wow, wow,

and another wow! You make me want to get my travelin' shoes on and hit the road. These are so enchanting it is hard to believe people actually live there.

[Surya Gayatri]

17. They do look enchanted, don't they? As if they only reappear once every hundred years...

[brer cat]

18. Right.

My first thought was a book illustration from some fantasy classic.

[Chakaconcarne]

19. I'll be at one of these places in 8 months....

Huacachina... It's a 2 hour bus ride from Lima, Peru and very much a stopping off point for many traveling the Gringo trail...

It's looks peaceful in this picture, but late in the day when travelers come through there are people sandboarding on the dunes and dune buggies all over.

It must be beautiful inside that crater of the first picture.

[Surya Gayatri]

35. Lucky you. It WOULD have to be gringos spoiling the quiet and messing up the dunes.

[suffragette]

20. On one trip to France, I remember seeing some cave dwellings between Angers and Saumur

When I was on the train.

Fascinating spotting these troglodyte dwellings.

[Surya Gayatri]

21. There are cave dwellers all over France, wherever there are cliffs!

Very eco-friendly way to live. Warm in winter and cool in summer!

[suffragette]

22. And quite beautiful to see!

[tclambert]

23. if you build a house in the crater of a volcano, you are just asking for it.

How would you get insurance for such a house? Maybe the policy would have a special rider saying, "This policy will not cover losses incurred due to eruptions."

[Surya Gayatri]

24. You might say the same for people who build along known fault lines...

San Andreas? How do people get insurance there?

[tclambert]

25. I hear insurance companies are giving Florida homeowners trouble.

The governor of Florida may not believe in climate change or rising sea levels, but insurance companies do.

[Surya Gayatri]

26. Expect the phenom of insurance refusal to accelerate.

[dreamnightwind]

39. I live near the San Andreas

For the most part, people here have no earthquake insurance, it is prohibitively expensive. I know of a number of people who don't have any (myself included) and noone who does, small sample but I believe it is representative.

[sabrina 1]

29. Maybe insurance isn't something they worry about. They must be pretty adaptable people to

live inside a volcano. And they may have decided that if it does erupt, and I hope they would have enough warning, they would go someplace? Might even have a plan for that eventuality.

Or is it possible the Governments have some policies that cover them if they need it?

Anyhow, it is beautiful to see, all of them.

[Thor_MN]

53. If there is an eruption, one has bigger things to worry about.

One has to first survive an eruption to be able to collect on an insurance policy.

Is homeowner's insurance even a thing in remote locations of the world? I would think there needs to be a certain population density before insurance companies start extracting value out of a region.

[HubertHeaver]

59. If the volcano blows, who will survive to collect?

[christx30]

27. Sure, but if *I* build a volcano lair,

suddenly I'm a supervillian.

Double standards.

[Surya Gayatri]

28. Is this some oblique James Bond reference or something else?

[tclambert]

32. Blofeld hid his evil lair inside a volcano in "You Only Live Twice."

[Surya Gayatri]

33. So I got it in one...!

[WillyT]

30. K & R !!!

[Surya Gayatri]

31. Hi Willy...glad you enjoyed it!

[freshwest]

37. I'll leave for a while on this one. Perfect. Thank you.

Last edited Sat Apr 25, 2015, 02:42 AM - Edit history (1)

[Surya Gayatri]

38. You're welcome. Ça fait rêver ! (It makes you dream!)

[freshwest]

40. It was my father's dream, too:

Judy Collins Sings "My Father"

Edmund StAustell - Feb 15, 2013

Some songs are just so good and so moving that they never grow old. This beautiful love song to her Father and to the dream of living in France is one such song. For those whose native language is not English, here are the lyrics:

My father always promised us
That we would live in France
We'd go boating on the Seine
And I would learn to dance

We lived in Ohio then
He worked in the mines
On his dreams like boats
We knew we would sail in time

All my sisters soon were gone
To Denver and Cheyenne
Marrying their grownup dreams
The lilacs and the man

I stayed behind the youngest still
Only danced alone
The colors of my father's dreams
Faded without a sound

And I live in Paris now
My children dance and dream
Hearing the words of a miner's life
In words they've never seen

I sail my memories of home
Like boats across the Seine
And watch the Paris sun
set in my father's eyes again

My father always promised us
That we would live in France
We'd go boating on the Seine
And I would learn to dance

I sail my memories of home
Like boats across the Seine
And watch the Paris sun
set in my father's eyes again.

Neither of us ever made it there. He died when I was 13 and he was 51. The second image of her in the video is like a twin of me. This song makes me cry listening to it after all these years.

There was no mother to take over, and I realized I had to grow up fast and take care of myself. I hope I did an adequate job. I think a lot of him on the holidays, and the older I get, the more I miss him.

Strange, after half a century, isn't it. He had many paintings of such scenes he loved to look at, hoping for the future, but he was not a miner, though. Thanks for the French and the translation.

[Surya Gayatri]

57. Good morning, freshwest. I've only just logged on today and found this

touching reminiscence about your dad. He died too, too young. And you 'had to grow up fast and take care of yourself.'

'And watch the Paris sun
set in my father's eyes again'

Beautiful, just beautiful.

Thanks for acquainting me with this song from Judy. I didn't know it.

Paris will always be here, fresh. She's the eternal 'Ville de Lumière'. Perhaps you'll make it one day.

[Thespian2]

41. I am amazed!!

Thanks for the link.

[Liberal_in_LA]

42. I love this kinda stuff. thx for posting

[tridim]

44. How do they keep the desert sand out of the pond?

I would think that desert city would be consumed every year.

[brett_jv]

47. And the island off Greece ...

Falling rocks must be a serious danger in that place.

And you see the homesteads on teh TOP of the rocks, esp. the mansion on the right-hand side of the pic? How the heck do they get up there? I mean, the view has got to just be AMAZING but damn what a HASSLE everything must be. Someone has a heart-attack up there, unless there's a helicopter just waiting to rescue them (maybe they even have their own?), that person is pretty much toast. Would love to visit these places though!

[YOHABLO]

45. What, no Walmart?

[HeiressofBickworth]

46. What will happen

to those lovely island locations when the seas rise due to climate change? It's good that there will be pictures to remember by.

[secondwind]

48. Thank you Surya for this wonderful treat for my eyes, I can go to sleep now and dream of these

far-away places. :-D

[Surya Gayatri]

54. This is the next day here in Europe, secondwind...

Hope these visions flitted through your dreams last night.

[burrowowl]

49. Beautiful villages!

[blkmusclmachine]

50. Neat!

[Surya Gayatri]

56. Happy to give you something beautiful. We need a break from the angry mood around here!

[MidschoolLiberal17]

51. Breathtaking indeed!

If anyone, by chance, went to these areas, be sure to take a picture and post it on a thread so every DUer can see it!

[Surya Gayatri]

58. Glad you enjoyed the photo album...and welcome to DU!

Many DUers are superb photographers. Keep a look out for them. There's even a monthly photo contest.

[Art_from_Ark]

62. The Aogashima trip is potentially doable for me

It would be a 3-day trip, which would involve traveling from Tokyo's Haneda Airport to Hachiojima Island, then by helicopter from Hachiojima to Aogashima. Total price for a round trip for me, including 2 nights accommodation on the island, would be around $600.

[Historic NY]

52. Aogashima...............

"Still considered a Class-C active volcano by the Japan Meteorological Agency, the last eruption of Aogashima was during a four-year period from 1781–1785."

I'd shudder at every little vibration....

[Surya Gayatri]

55. Japan really knows their stuff re volcanos and earthquakes. I think they'll have ample warning..

[Art_from_Ark]

61. The eruption of Mt. Ontakesan last September

seems to have caught a lot of people off guard. Although according to Wiki, there were some precursors about three weeks before the eruption.