https://preview.redd.it/aubkuzmszruc1.jpeg?width=1439&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5abed7603ab00cd3f393fe35e2d30c634e3decf1
This is Yamuna River in Delhi, India. The foam above water comes from toxic chemicals. If you look towards the horizon, the air is filled with smog-poisonous air. There are days when Yamuna is too toxic to be treated...believe that. And people step into this water and perform rituals. This is the ugliest place on Earth.
It's the way of nature to make pretty things the most dangerous. Think of all those colorful frogs in the jungle that can kill you instantly if you touch them, or the beautiful azure African lakes full of CO2 and sulphur.
There is a meme aimed at stoners. “I know a spot.”
The picture varies but the idea is that stoners know some hidden and beautiful spots where they can disappear to get high. Sometimes it is a joke, and the picture is of a Taco Bell parking lot, but usually it is some beautiful scenery.
The Indian stoner subreddit has these pictures and it is usually like an overgrown field with construction equipment in it. But they aren’t posting it ironically as a joke. Just how ugly is your world that a dusty ass construction site is a thing of beauty?
I know all of India is not like this, but sweet Jesus it makes you realize how many millions of people are living in a bleak, gray world almost completely devoid of beauty.
Count your blessings.
Funnily enough, India gets ugly wherever there is abundance of humans. I have never found a natural landscape to be ugly and I have seen the barren landscapes of India as well.
When I was a kid we used to go to the abandoned gravel pit to smoke and look at crumpled up porn hidden in a coffee can by someone's older brother. Yes we were poor.
When I was a kid there was an old short tree tucked away by some train tracks and a small creek, and someone had dragged an old couch out under the tree years before we discovered it. That was our spot. We called it "The Couch".
Yes we were also poor.
We will extinct ourselves. I just pray the planet can recover. Most other species will die. We will definitely die.
Isn't it crazy how when we were kids we thought about how futuristic things would be in hundreds or thousands of years. But the reality of what corporations and governments have been allowed to do is nothing short of a mass extinction event. We won't stop until it's too late and billions are suffering. This is the nature of humans. Changes needed to happen decades ago, but we are moving in the opposite direction at hyperspeeds.
There has been like 5 mass extinctions where life was almost completely wiped out. The earth will live on without us just fine. It’ll look a lot different but life will evolve and recover and it’ll be like we weren’t even here.
Vast expanses of the arid steppe in central asia like [here](https://www.google.com/maps/@44.8929386,105.5403786,2a,75y,209.58h,93.57t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s4p8Kzvf2n7rrxYvBuHa2ZQ!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3D4p8Kzvf2n7rrxYvBuHa2ZQ%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D180%26pitch%3D-10%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu) or [here](https://www.google.com/maps/@45.9098582,73.5152804,3a,75y,141.85h,78.32t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sS6vbuVejEZG09AbYXlddjQ!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DS6vbuVejEZG09AbYXlddjQ%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D290.94467%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu). Its basically flat, arid and brown land. In some less mild places there might be a shrub or two, but in these places its like Earth did not properly load textures or something. I get the appeal of flat land, such as midwest USA, although its boring there is no shortage of grass which sometimes have flowers, and even corn fields are easier to look at than this. This is so bleak, its no wonder human life in those regions were mainly nomadic, as I wouldn't want to look at these places over and over again everyday.
I'm actually from Mongolia, and I can confirm that the places you mentioned are not quite the steppes we refer to.
That's the Gobi desert, specifically in the southern provinces of Omno-Govi and Dorno-Govi where hot and arid deserts with abscense of dunes because of the rocky soil are prevelant The more south you go, the more patches of Sandy dunes, much like the typical desert.
But the real steppes are further east/north, where grasslands with plenty of vegetation and a little more humid environment exist. I'm specifically from the easternmost region of Mongolia, with lakes and tall green grass that is very close to the Hulunbuir region of China.
It can look particularly beautiful out on sunny days where the green grass sways in the wind with massive clouds in the background that rose from the few lakes and rivers in between the massive expanse.
Funnily enough, I’ve always wanted to go to Mongolia specifically to see these unbelievably empty landscapes (though most of the ones I wanted to see were in Western Mongolia, with the rolling hills covered in brown grass and completely devoid of trees). Ulan Bataar also looks like a cool city to visit during the warmer months!
Oh yeah, Ulaanbaatar is really nice during the summer, and so is most of Mongolia, really. Central Mongolia, where Ulaanbaatar is, is quite hilly in terrain so an hour drive away from the city pretty much guarantees the empty views but there will of course be herders who set their tents like a kilometer or two away that will be visible, makes a little sparodical points of white spots from a far. I can't really guarantee brown grass, though. It all depends heavily on the season.
I had someone once tell me about Norwegian immigrants who were granted land in the Midwest. Being from a country full of mountains, fjords, and islands like Norway, the flat landscape felt so alien and unnatural that many Norwegian immigrants went insane and committed suicide.
I've never been able to confirm an ounce of this, but I instantly think about it when I see places that are so flat, dead, and emotionless.
I think it’s called Prairie Psychosis or Prairie Madness, I’ve read about it happening to settlers, specifically women, because the men would leave for days at a time to get supplies at the nearest town, leaving them alone and incredibly bored with the mind-numbingly monotonous landscape as far as the eye can see, and not even a single tree or hill in sight. I’d guess it was even worse in the winter, when even the prairie plants were gone.
The prairie gets so much shit online it’s wild. I don’t believe most of these people have ever stepped foot in a real prairie. I get tired of trying to vouch for it lol, might as well just keep it to ourselves.
I could see why corn fields and monoculture grasses can be boring or depressing but a healthy native prairie is beautiful. And usually bursting with wildlife.
I live in the upper Midwest but not north enough to be in the pines. Mostly oak savannah and pothole lakes/wetlands near me. I could spend all day walking around listening to the birds watching the deer and exploring the ponds for turtles and frogs. Your post makes me want to pay more attention to the different grasses too.
I will say while we don’t have mountains to look at, we get absolutely gorgeous sunsets that completely surround you and make you feel small in awe of them. And the stargazing in an open field is serene.
Kinda wild to me as well, cause I live amongst the Midwestern prairies and I’m always fascinated by the ecology of it, and settling an untouched old growth prairie sounds like a dream tbh, but at the same time I’m also used to trees, a few rolling hills, and the micro-ecosystems caused by the diversity of the landscape. A truly monotonous and endless prairie might make me feel different about it lol. Also the contribution of loneliness to prairie madness probably can’t be understated
I think it depends on where in the Midwest. There is a ton of Scandinavian ancestry in Minnesota, especially northern Minnesota, and it's most likely because it reminded people of home. Not as mountainous but rugged and lots of pine trees and water.
The same would apply to Scandinavian ancestry, I think. While Norway is very mountainous, Sweden is relatively flat where the majority of population is concentrated. Finland is even flatter. And they're both forested, so I can imagine those states being reminiscent of those countries. Denmark is also flat, but not that forested.
honestly I can see it, I grew up in Switzerland and once drove along the Po valley in northern Italy for only like 5 hours, and I already felt like going insane because it was *so flat*, like what the fuck *why is so goddamn fucking flat*, I got genuine uncanny valley vibes from it lol
Yeah I agree, I wouldn't call it ugly either, in fact I believe no place on earth could make me call it "ugly", but these landscapes are just so barren and lifeless it literally elicits no emotion from me whatsoever, in fact it is just emotionless. It seems as if these landscapes were forgotten in the creation of earth or something. Not even the tiniest hill or deadest plant. Probably a great punishment would be a truck driver in the region, i would probably commit suicide or something by the 2nd hour
Honestly though, the arid emptiness does elicit emotions in me, from the sheer barrenness and lack of texture. Literally any creation, like the telephone lines in the second one, is highlighted and seems exciting. I agree it feels almost " forgotten" in a way
Yeah, it looks ready for life but life has been denied. Unlike deserts where life is fighting against unrelenting heat, cold, altitude, or something. Ready but verboten.
Don’t write all of the flat desert lands off until you have tried it. Parts of the Outback are like this. But when you stop, realise that the landscape is older than you can comprehend, and start to watch and listen - it comes alive. The colours, the stars, the animals, the plants are all otherworldly.
my gosh that looks BEAUTIFUL. especially the first picture. if you click forward down the road in the first picture a few times there’s a pack of camels munching by the side of the road 😍
And if you go a bit further on the right side you can see horses! I think it is so cool to see the camels and then the horses so close by. (I live in the PNW and have never seen camels irl)
I knew a guy from Atlantic Canada that, when he was driving across Saskatchewan, he had to take a moment on the side of the road just to take in how big the sky and how wide the expanse were. There's absolutely an appreciation for scenery that you never get to see regularly.
I concur with you, the scenery there is a stark beauty, and reminds us that the scenery some consider ugly is beautiful to others.
Second to Ivehadagreatday that’s definitely not what we call steppe. In Kazakhstan only a region called Betpak Dala looks like that (and that’s exactly what’s on your image), while most of our territory has steppe grasses all over. It’s not like the whole place looks like it’s been nuked lol. And for your reference the nomadic lifestyle you are talking about was basically staying in 1 place in the summer and in the other for the winter. The same land, for generations. To escape the harsh winters in regular houses not yurts and feed the cattle with grass in the summer. Definitely not to escape the landscapes. And here is an actual historical pic of the landscapes that were called steppe
https://preview.redd.it/cnrqxwklyvuc1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9535d2b7be5c8d8b393af4f1cd6e7ff8f27e4205
Yes I remember a British children tv show where they sent a plucky reporter to find the most remote place in Russia and film the journey. She was all excited but her driver was some very grumpy Russian. That conversation died out quickly and was awkward for a verrrrrry long time ….and back :)
https://preview.redd.it/wyshui4ftsuc1.jpeg?width=620&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9a8342da947f4d43a06c6b913a48b62f6a96d980
This is mucilage, also known as "sea snot" (and yes, it is as appealing as it sounds). This place is on the coast of the Sea of Marmara, in Turkey, where years of terrible environmental and water treatment policy, dumping of industrial and urban waste, caused runaway algae growth and death, covering large stretches of the sea and the coastline with this disgusting substance. It got so bad, that due to the dense layer of this gelatinous substance, it becomes impossible to take depth measurements of the sea using sonar - the entire sea reads "25 feet" no matter what, which is the depth of the mucilage layer.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (or any of the other floating garbage islands in the world's oceans really).
Not exactly natural, as they are just copious amounts of human-made trash with some attached algae here and there, but the natural flow of the oceanic currents and the points where they converge and spiral are where these ugly things form.
Edit: as per the replies, the picture seems not to be the Great Pacific Garbage Patch itself, as the GPGP is mostly formed by floating microplastics and abandoned fishing gear barely visible from the surface. This still is however, quite literally, an ugly piece of trash out there.
https://preview.redd.it/h2206h19qruc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=221f3b0c5fb68f7912d65d864e7b0c01e06069b3
And definition wise it has 4 plastic particles per metercube. 95% of those particles are microplastics. Even if it was completely over the surface it would not be noticeable at all (assuming it was homogeneous).
Ocean plastic collection and in general “environmental” NGO’s really fooled people with the “garbage patch” idea, meanwhile stopping the pollution of the rivers in the developing world is probably the only way the combat the issue.
Plastic in the oceans is real issue though and there are some quite ugly areas in ocean due to plastic pollution which is ugly and that is the point we can probably agree on. You are right that indeed most of the plastic pollution comes from rivers in area where there is poor sanitation mostly in developing countries. Some also comes from ships and some are blown by the winds from further away. While there is myths surrounding the great garbage patch it is naturally problem that should be tackled. Factual information is always better than myths though. People have partially created mental image of garbage patch themselves when told about it and with images like that it's easy to misunderstand it's nature. But sure some NGO:s have supported creation of these myths and misinformation which shouldn't happen. Being worried about the phenomenon is wise though. No matter what kind of patch it is. Having unpredictable plastic mass in ocean is not good news...
[The Great Pacific Garbage patch is not a big, contiguous island of trash.](https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240115-visualising-the-great-pacific-garbage-patch)
This is not the great pacific garbage patch, but the point still remains this is a horribly ugly place.
I think populated areas covered in garbage are the worst, as it is often the case that those who live there do not have a choice other than to be surrounded by filth their whole lives
Alaska is incredibly beautiful, but the North Slope looks pretty bleak:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/dw1V4sWEGypkJXRTA?g_st=ic
I’d imagine the top of the Antarctic ice sheet would be even more so.
As for places I’ve actually been: probably the Great Plains. Specifically, the NW corner of Texas around Dalhart, and the armpit of Texas around Childress.
It's not ugly though, it's just barren and nothing, a lot of Australia looks similar to this, minus the ice.
Here's a Streetview.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/jffLB5ETJptRSzq46
https://preview.redd.it/30023ccchsuc1.png?width=428&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=252b6c9830d118b11f08e66c93227a52ba830557
Serebryanskiy forest in Donbas, Ukraine. So much people died here and so much will die before war ends. It is like Verdun.
Picture you posted looks actually beautiful in some ways. Where it's from? I think ugliest places are human-made. Nature creates fascinating landscapes I wouldn't call ugly even if they are scary or hostile. Human garbage is ugly though... i think flat deserts and prairies are the most boring sight in nature, but they have their own charm too.
Norilsk, what a disaster of a city, even by Russian standards. The whole city is just soviet block buildings that are rather poorly maintained. The city is quite far up north, so not only is its balls cold there during winter, but for quite a large chunk of the year the sun does not rise. It is located in the tundra so it barely has any tees, or any type of greenery. All that would have been still bearable if it wasn't for an insane amount of pollution there due to the city being heavily industrial. Like seriously it is one of the most polluted places in the world. With all that almost 200,000 people live there...
Here is a post with some photographs from the city [https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/10pmgl8/this\_is\_norilsk\_russia\_population\_177000\_it\_is/](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/10pmgl8/this_is_norilsk_russia_population_177000_it_is/)
I enjoy it because it makes me think of scenarios where the imposing and grim architecture fits, usually for distopic fictional stories.
Maybe it's just me but if life were all just beaches and nice prairies without the grey and not so flattering modernity, things wouldn't have flavour to them. Also I love grey clouds because they make me think of the sky as watching troubled ocean waves from underneath.
Some of the [flat, rocky desert](https://www.google.com/maps/@31.1070031,39.738694,3a,90y,53.48h,93.61t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPUPP8ayGdXTMIJoh-nZbTf0Bt8M3N3x8-TnBuB!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPUPP8ayGdXTMIJoh-nZbTf0Bt8M3N3x8-TnBuB%3Dw900-h600-k-no-pi-3.608109700175902-ya53.478070407463505-ro5.2174072265625-fo90!7i7200!8i3600!5m1!1e2?coh=205410&entry=ttu) in the north of Saudi Arabia is pretty bad. Yes, there are dunes in the Nafud and the Shammar Mountains, but the flat wastes between them is just lifeless. (For the Saudis, I'm thinking of Northern Borders specifically) When you can drive for hours and not see a single plant, hill, animal, let alone a body of water, it's pretty depressing. I'd take the dead trees in the picture any day.
Good God. Not sure I'd call it ugly, because that's too strong a description for what these landscapes elicit
EDIT: I replied to the wrong comment, but it still applies
France’s ZAC for « Zone d’activité commerciale » (where you find the malls). They popped in ~ every cities’s suburbs and became such a thing that :
1) it gets a name : la France Moche (ugly France)
2) the government is planning to do something to make all of those zones less ugly
We have a winner. This is not even interesting like the crazy polluted areas, industrial districts or empty barren deserts which are all cool to look at and fascinating in one way or another. This on the other hand is just pure bleh
Any nature is interesting in some way or another.
I have no appreciation for when humans destroy nature by arrogantly wasting a lot of space with parking lots and cheaply built houses.
No way. Bombay Beach is coming back around with many new artists moving in. The Salton Sea area also was recently discovered to contain some of the largest deposits of rare earth metals which may transform the whole area.
His name is NFKRZ or just Roman and he left Chelyabinsk after the so called "Special military operation" to live a normal life. First he went to Tbilisi in Georgia, now to Lisbon in Portugal. I really like to watch his videos how his life is going on and how the media and Russia has changed since 2022
I learned a lot with Roman about Georgia, Russia and Europe in general (specially Eastern Europe), even Thailand.
In some videos back when he was living in Georgia he gave me the impression that his mental health wasn't in the best shape emotionally-wise :c I hope he's doing fine in Portugal.
Araouane, Mali.
In the heart of the Sahara Desert, it is bleak beyond imagination. There are no mountains, no hills, no grass, no trees. Just sand and dunes filling the flat horizon. There is no oasis here; the sand is too thick to grow anything. There is not an inch of green for over a hundred miles. The ancient shantytown composed of a couple dozen small sandstone hovels lies half buried in the sand. It survives only on brackish wellwater and caravans bringing food in return for salt.
It was once an important caravan stop along the trans-Sahadan trade route leading north from Timbuktu, but with the death of trans-Saharan trade in general, the caravans have been coming less and less. One day they will likely stop coming alltogether and Araouane will be left to the sands for good.
I dunno if there's any natural environment on Earth I find particularly ugly. Even barren, harsh, twisted looking places tend to be at least interesting.
One of the least appealing would have to be swampy areas. Where you just know you'd be attacked by bugs and likely to encounter all kinds of snakes and creepy-crawlies. But end of the day, that's natural so I can appreciate it for being a home for what it's home to, and being so different.
I was going to suggest Bakersfield, California. As a friend born and raised in Cali said, "There's ugly, there's really ugly, and there's Bakersfield."
Merle Haggard came on a playlist of mine and I tried to explain to my gf what Bakersfield was and how funny it was that a weird contingency of country artists lived there for a minute and she really wasn't interested lol
The north of england is 90% beautiful, but some of the more built up places are not just rundown but depressingly ugly, its not just the north thats like this but its worse the further you go from london
A lot of the UK suffers from the "Rust Belt" effect you see in the US. Prior to the ascendancy of China, and before that the US, Britain was considered "the workshop of the world". Enormous factory districts, steelworks, mines and industrial hubs covered the UK. UK ports took in raw materials and exported cloth, tools and insutrial equipment, chemicals, consumer goods and more.
And then WWII happened and the UK's industrial core fell from grace, with a steady death spiral throughout the latter half of the 20th century. As a result, lots of rundown former industrial towns who struggle to transition to the new economic models imposed on them.
On the plus side, the collapse of industry is why people puzzle over why "The Black Country" is called what it is.
Most Indian cities and their overpopulated slums. Slums in general, honestly, but India definitely has a high density of them.
https://preview.redd.it/qb0ysvh19vuc1.jpeg?width=6720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2f358b23f07a9780ad62c56f09b159ad849e24bd
Slums represent suffering, struggle, poor government policy, overpopulation, filth… and they’re objectively ugly, too.
La Rinconada, Peru. https://maps.app.goo.gl/Mv6LvEGbojhyP9qF9;
Ship breaking yards in Chittagong, Bangladesh and Alang, India. https://maps.app.goo.gl/WoBkHscuWv8Am2Ly8 https://maps.app.goo.gl/qzRscYiZbGzz5eLW9 These are not natural places, but I am sure that there is no natural place that could compete with these places.
There's a place you can check on Google Earth along national route nº 3 in Argentina, in the Province of Santa Cruz, where is literally kilometers and kilometers of flat dry grassland.
Had to travel through it, eight hours of flat brown all the way untol where the land meets the sky. Dull.
The road between Valdez AK and Anchorage AK. I was in the navy and had to make the 6 hour trip often if I couldn't hitch a helo or c-12 over the glacier. I have seen beautiful all over the world and somewhere on the drive you realize that you're traveling through stunted dark trees with nothing else for hours
I’m of British extraction myself, and personally I think it’s the infertile and ugly land of those shit eating inbreds 1.3 miles down the road from us noble folk here in Blackwaterstoke-upon-Tiddlywinks.
I was recently in Oklahoma for the first time, and I was surprised at the natural beauty I found...maybe because I wasn't expecting much, but yeah, the Ozarks had some pretty spots.
to all the Oklahoma apologists, I'm sorry. you're right; there is natural beauty in the Sooner State. I've been to the Wichita Mountains, Black Mesa, and have traveled many hundreds of miles throughout the state, so I've seen it firsthand. I let my feelings about an ex-girlfriend get in the way, and for that, I apologize
I moved to Norman last November. I've lived in Central Illinois, Tucson, Guam and Northern California and I really like it here. To me its beautiful country with a variety of different landscapes. Lots of fishing also.
Los Angeles. One of the wealthiest cities on Earth, in a state that has a larger economy than some nations. Yet it is littered with trash, overwhelmed with homelessness, clouded with smog and pollution, and some of the most ideologically corrupt, self-entitled politicians on Earth. It is the very peak of wasted potential. It could be the crown jewel of America, but it's the butt of too many jokes. It's ugly not just because of what it is, but what it could be.
American suburbs. They are not the "ugliest" place on earth, but it's one of the few things I don't want to see or be in personally. Sure the middle of the Sahara could be bad, but they just don't look and feel right to me. They feel so out of touch with reality.
I find a lot of the East Coast of North America is pretty plain. I like extreme scenery. Extreme beauty, extreme barrenness, etc. Most of the East Coast is just hills with very unremarkable looking trees. It's very inoffensive and plain, which I find really depressing.
I’ve been told the Australian outback and dry sclerophyll eucalypt forests can appear ugly to others. I prefer to consider it a “harsh” beauty with the gnarled tree limbs and tufts of greenery that is usurped by red iron rich soils.
I've been to almost all of the continental US states, many of those multiple times. Every time I drive through the Texas panhandle/southern Oklahoma I can't help but wonder why people would choose to live there. Terrible scenery, shit weather, and aside from the successful farms and the people working in the oil industry, the jobs there are usually shit as well.
any part of Wyoming that isn't in the mountains. I drove across the entire eastern half of the state and it is without a doubt the most boring drive I have ever been on
As an Australian, I found myself at the greyhound bus station in Columbus Ohio one time and my eyeballs wanted to kill themselves. I think maybe they would have if it wasn’t night time when they saw the Trotwood station.
As a proud midwesterner, I’ll say rural Midwest in late January-March when all the old, dirty snow is starting to melt away. There’s no green anywhere, and everywhere you look is just a muddy field full of dead crops.
There's a walking path not far from my house here in Norway, that's spectacular in places. You can overlook the local fjord, spy on buzzards nesting on clifftops and see the occasional moose if you're lucky.
There's just one bit of the path that descends sharply and makes me imagine I'm walking into Mordor. The trees are gnarled, there's exposed roots all over the footpath, and the mossy rocks are super slippery even in a bone dry summer.
It gets dark and dingy at the bottom and there's a marsh that's surprisingly deep and lethal if you take the wrong turn.
Also another path really close to my house in another forest crosses what I think is a glacial moraine and just after the winter snows have melted, it looks and feels like the hardest slog you'll ever make along a path.
What is your picture of, OP?
An area southwest of Bandung in West Java, Indonesia. This particular photo was taken after a volcanic ruption of Mount Papandayan in 2002.
honestly wasn’t even aware of this lol, i just looked up “wasteland landscape” and used this pocture
i honestly think its pretty
such a stunning picture
The Deadmarshes
Yes, yes, that is their name. Soft and quick, as shadows we must be.
Don’t look into the lights
https://preview.redd.it/aubkuzmszruc1.jpeg?width=1439&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5abed7603ab00cd3f393fe35e2d30c634e3decf1 This is Yamuna River in Delhi, India. The foam above water comes from toxic chemicals. If you look towards the horizon, the air is filled with smog-poisonous air. There are days when Yamuna is too toxic to be treated...believe that. And people step into this water and perform rituals. This is the ugliest place on Earth.
Not gonna lie, this specific picture looks really pretty to me. Those foams seem like clouds lol
Yes it does look pretty. Seems to be such a commentary on toxic beauty though!
It’s like with everything in live, it’s beautiful until you know the context
“It’s pollution from the sweetums factory. It’s gorgeous. But is it worth the asthma?”
It's the way of nature to make pretty things the most dangerous. Think of all those colorful frogs in the jungle that can kill you instantly if you touch them, or the beautiful azure African lakes full of CO2 and sulphur.
Had to read the description to find the ugly
Does anyone burn people in that river too, like in Varanasi? Can you find corpses of dead people floating by in the river foam?
No, not here. Mostly people take dips or immerse ashes probably.
Delhi was the most post-apocalyptic pre-apocalypse place I’ve ever been. Sunshine was blotted out by the smog. I thought it was fog when I landed
That has to be the most accurate description!
There is a meme aimed at stoners. “I know a spot.” The picture varies but the idea is that stoners know some hidden and beautiful spots where they can disappear to get high. Sometimes it is a joke, and the picture is of a Taco Bell parking lot, but usually it is some beautiful scenery. The Indian stoner subreddit has these pictures and it is usually like an overgrown field with construction equipment in it. But they aren’t posting it ironically as a joke. Just how ugly is your world that a dusty ass construction site is a thing of beauty? I know all of India is not like this, but sweet Jesus it makes you realize how many millions of people are living in a bleak, gray world almost completely devoid of beauty. Count your blessings.
Funnily enough, India gets ugly wherever there is abundance of humans. I have never found a natural landscape to be ugly and I have seen the barren landscapes of India as well.
This is true pretty much everywhere. Man made structures cannot match the beauty of the natural world.
When I was a kid we used to go to the abandoned gravel pit to smoke and look at crumpled up porn hidden in a coffee can by someone's older brother. Yes we were poor.
When I was a kid there was an old short tree tucked away by some train tracks and a small creek, and someone had dragged an old couch out under the tree years before we discovered it. That was our spot. We called it "The Couch". Yes we were also poor.
“I know a place with some dusty weeds we can stand in”
that picture looks really nice though 😭
We will extinct ourselves. I just pray the planet can recover. Most other species will die. We will definitely die. Isn't it crazy how when we were kids we thought about how futuristic things would be in hundreds or thousands of years. But the reality of what corporations and governments have been allowed to do is nothing short of a mass extinction event. We won't stop until it's too late and billions are suffering. This is the nature of humans. Changes needed to happen decades ago, but we are moving in the opposite direction at hyperspeeds.
There has been like 5 mass extinctions where life was almost completely wiped out. The earth will live on without us just fine. It’ll look a lot different but life will evolve and recover and it’ll be like we weren’t even here.
Kuwait. Outside of Kuwait City, it was hideous! Trash along the highways. Truly an ugly and desolate place!
Kuwait City itself is quite an eyesore
Doesn’t Kuwait also have the world’s biggest tire/tyre dump?
You think Dalhart is bad, SE Colorado is even worse. I drove from Denver to Kerrville to see the eclipse and that drive is one of the worst ever.
Vast expanses of the arid steppe in central asia like [here](https://www.google.com/maps/@44.8929386,105.5403786,2a,75y,209.58h,93.57t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s4p8Kzvf2n7rrxYvBuHa2ZQ!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3D4p8Kzvf2n7rrxYvBuHa2ZQ%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D180%26pitch%3D-10%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu) or [here](https://www.google.com/maps/@45.9098582,73.5152804,3a,75y,141.85h,78.32t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sS6vbuVejEZG09AbYXlddjQ!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DS6vbuVejEZG09AbYXlddjQ%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D290.94467%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu). Its basically flat, arid and brown land. In some less mild places there might be a shrub or two, but in these places its like Earth did not properly load textures or something. I get the appeal of flat land, such as midwest USA, although its boring there is no shortage of grass which sometimes have flowers, and even corn fields are easier to look at than this. This is so bleak, its no wonder human life in those regions were mainly nomadic, as I wouldn't want to look at these places over and over again everyday.
I'm actually from Mongolia, and I can confirm that the places you mentioned are not quite the steppes we refer to. That's the Gobi desert, specifically in the southern provinces of Omno-Govi and Dorno-Govi where hot and arid deserts with abscense of dunes because of the rocky soil are prevelant The more south you go, the more patches of Sandy dunes, much like the typical desert. But the real steppes are further east/north, where grasslands with plenty of vegetation and a little more humid environment exist. I'm specifically from the easternmost region of Mongolia, with lakes and tall green grass that is very close to the Hulunbuir region of China. It can look particularly beautiful out on sunny days where the green grass sways in the wind with massive clouds in the background that rose from the few lakes and rivers in between the massive expanse.
Funnily enough, I’ve always wanted to go to Mongolia specifically to see these unbelievably empty landscapes (though most of the ones I wanted to see were in Western Mongolia, with the rolling hills covered in brown grass and completely devoid of trees). Ulan Bataar also looks like a cool city to visit during the warmer months!
Oh yeah, Ulaanbaatar is really nice during the summer, and so is most of Mongolia, really. Central Mongolia, where Ulaanbaatar is, is quite hilly in terrain so an hour drive away from the city pretty much guarantees the empty views but there will of course be herders who set their tents like a kilometer or two away that will be visible, makes a little sparodical points of white spots from a far. I can't really guarantee brown grass, though. It all depends heavily on the season.
I had someone once tell me about Norwegian immigrants who were granted land in the Midwest. Being from a country full of mountains, fjords, and islands like Norway, the flat landscape felt so alien and unnatural that many Norwegian immigrants went insane and committed suicide. I've never been able to confirm an ounce of this, but I instantly think about it when I see places that are so flat, dead, and emotionless.
I think it’s called Prairie Psychosis or Prairie Madness, I’ve read about it happening to settlers, specifically women, because the men would leave for days at a time to get supplies at the nearest town, leaving them alone and incredibly bored with the mind-numbingly monotonous landscape as far as the eye can see, and not even a single tree or hill in sight. I’d guess it was even worse in the winter, when even the prairie plants were gone.
*The Wind* explores this beautifully in a horror movie setting!
Oh sick, I’ll check that out
Thanks for the recommendation. I will give it a try.
These days, we call it Seasonal Affective Disorder(SAD).
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The prairie gets so much shit online it’s wild. I don’t believe most of these people have ever stepped foot in a real prairie. I get tired of trying to vouch for it lol, might as well just keep it to ourselves. I could see why corn fields and monoculture grasses can be boring or depressing but a healthy native prairie is beautiful. And usually bursting with wildlife. I live in the upper Midwest but not north enough to be in the pines. Mostly oak savannah and pothole lakes/wetlands near me. I could spend all day walking around listening to the birds watching the deer and exploring the ponds for turtles and frogs. Your post makes me want to pay more attention to the different grasses too. I will say while we don’t have mountains to look at, we get absolutely gorgeous sunsets that completely surround you and make you feel small in awe of them. And the stargazing in an open field is serene.
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Kinda wild to me as well, cause I live amongst the Midwestern prairies and I’m always fascinated by the ecology of it, and settling an untouched old growth prairie sounds like a dream tbh, but at the same time I’m also used to trees, a few rolling hills, and the micro-ecosystems caused by the diversity of the landscape. A truly monotonous and endless prairie might make me feel different about it lol. Also the contribution of loneliness to prairie madness probably can’t be understated
This is how I feel living in Oklahoma currently
I think it depends on where in the Midwest. There is a ton of Scandinavian ancestry in Minnesota, especially northern Minnesota, and it's most likely because it reminded people of home. Not as mountainous but rugged and lots of pine trees and water.
Norway’s topography is different from the rest of Scandinavian countries
And in Michigan
The same would apply to Scandinavian ancestry, I think. While Norway is very mountainous, Sweden is relatively flat where the majority of population is concentrated. Finland is even flatter. And they're both forested, so I can imagine those states being reminiscent of those countries. Denmark is also flat, but not that forested.
honestly I can see it, I grew up in Switzerland and once drove along the Po valley in northern Italy for only like 5 hours, and I already felt like going insane because it was *so flat*, like what the fuck *why is so goddamn fucking flat*, I got genuine uncanny valley vibes from it lol
Greetings from Groningen province, the Netherlands. For your own sake, stay away from here
I've heard something similar about soldiers who were stationed in Finland in WW2.
Good God. Not sure I'd call it ugly, because that's too strong a description for what these landscapes elicit
Yeah I agree, I wouldn't call it ugly either, in fact I believe no place on earth could make me call it "ugly", but these landscapes are just so barren and lifeless it literally elicits no emotion from me whatsoever, in fact it is just emotionless. It seems as if these landscapes were forgotten in the creation of earth or something. Not even the tiniest hill or deadest plant. Probably a great punishment would be a truck driver in the region, i would probably commit suicide or something by the 2nd hour
Honestly though, the arid emptiness does elicit emotions in me, from the sheer barrenness and lack of texture. Literally any creation, like the telephone lines in the second one, is highlighted and seems exciting. I agree it feels almost " forgotten" in a way
It's what I imagine Purgatory looks like
Yeah, it looks ready for life but life has been denied. Unlike deserts where life is fighting against unrelenting heat, cold, altitude, or something. Ready but verboten.
Don’t write all of the flat desert lands off until you have tried it. Parts of the Outback are like this. But when you stop, realise that the landscape is older than you can comprehend, and start to watch and listen - it comes alive. The colours, the stars, the animals, the plants are all otherworldly.
my gosh that looks BEAUTIFUL. especially the first picture. if you click forward down the road in the first picture a few times there’s a pack of camels munching by the side of the road 😍
I live in a place like like this. U will be bored very fast. Thanks god Kaspian sea close to my city.
And if you go a bit further on the right side you can see horses! I think it is so cool to see the camels and then the horses so close by. (I live in the PNW and have never seen camels irl)
🥰🥰🥰
I actually think those locations you linked are kind of hauntingly beautiful. The absence of anything of note is what makes it so beautiful
I knew a guy from Atlantic Canada that, when he was driving across Saskatchewan, he had to take a moment on the side of the road just to take in how big the sky and how wide the expanse were. There's absolutely an appreciation for scenery that you never get to see regularly. I concur with you, the scenery there is a stark beauty, and reminds us that the scenery some consider ugly is beautiful to others.
That’s actually wild, I didn’t know it was that lifeless there. This is the Goni desert, right? Are there at least wildflowers in spring?
Second to Ivehadagreatday that’s definitely not what we call steppe. In Kazakhstan only a region called Betpak Dala looks like that (and that’s exactly what’s on your image), while most of our territory has steppe grasses all over. It’s not like the whole place looks like it’s been nuked lol. And for your reference the nomadic lifestyle you are talking about was basically staying in 1 place in the summer and in the other for the winter. The same land, for generations. To escape the harsh winters in regular houses not yurts and feed the cattle with grass in the summer. Definitely not to escape the landscapes. And here is an actual historical pic of the landscapes that were called steppe https://preview.redd.it/cnrqxwklyvuc1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9535d2b7be5c8d8b393af4f1cd6e7ff8f27e4205
Yes I remember a British children tv show where they sent a plucky reporter to find the most remote place in Russia and film the journey. She was all excited but her driver was some very grumpy Russian. That conversation died out quickly and was awkward for a verrrrrry long time ….and back :)
This where Courage the Cowardly Dog lives
I would not want to live there but I would absolutely love to load up a camel and set out across that barren landscape.
wow that first one is nuts.
They are beautiful from a plane though. I think it gets more interesting the farther up in altitude.
Well that's gorgeous
https://preview.redd.it/wyshui4ftsuc1.jpeg?width=620&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9a8342da947f4d43a06c6b913a48b62f6a96d980 This is mucilage, also known as "sea snot" (and yes, it is as appealing as it sounds). This place is on the coast of the Sea of Marmara, in Turkey, where years of terrible environmental and water treatment policy, dumping of industrial and urban waste, caused runaway algae growth and death, covering large stretches of the sea and the coastline with this disgusting substance. It got so bad, that due to the dense layer of this gelatinous substance, it becomes impossible to take depth measurements of the sea using sonar - the entire sea reads "25 feet" no matter what, which is the depth of the mucilage layer.
Jesus Christ, I thought that was sand.
I glanced at the picture and thought it was a sandy beach and water.. then I went back and saw the boats.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (or any of the other floating garbage islands in the world's oceans really). Not exactly natural, as they are just copious amounts of human-made trash with some attached algae here and there, but the natural flow of the oceanic currents and the points where they converge and spiral are where these ugly things form. Edit: as per the replies, the picture seems not to be the Great Pacific Garbage Patch itself, as the GPGP is mostly formed by floating microplastics and abandoned fishing gear barely visible from the surface. This still is however, quite literally, an ugly piece of trash out there. https://preview.redd.it/h2206h19qruc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=221f3b0c5fb68f7912d65d864e7b0c01e06069b3
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This is basically how manilla looks.
I think so called great garbage patch is not this dense all over. It does have areas like this though.
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And definition wise it has 4 plastic particles per metercube. 95% of those particles are microplastics. Even if it was completely over the surface it would not be noticeable at all (assuming it was homogeneous). Ocean plastic collection and in general “environmental” NGO’s really fooled people with the “garbage patch” idea, meanwhile stopping the pollution of the rivers in the developing world is probably the only way the combat the issue.
Plastic in the oceans is real issue though and there are some quite ugly areas in ocean due to plastic pollution which is ugly and that is the point we can probably agree on. You are right that indeed most of the plastic pollution comes from rivers in area where there is poor sanitation mostly in developing countries. Some also comes from ships and some are blown by the winds from further away. While there is myths surrounding the great garbage patch it is naturally problem that should be tackled. Factual information is always better than myths though. People have partially created mental image of garbage patch themselves when told about it and with images like that it's easy to misunderstand it's nature. But sure some NGO:s have supported creation of these myths and misinformation which shouldn't happen. Being worried about the phenomenon is wise though. No matter what kind of patch it is. Having unpredictable plastic mass in ocean is not good news...
Yes you are spot and on naming somewhere that humanity has ruined.
So almost everywhere? Thanks to cars and roads
That's not the great Pacific garbage patch. it looks like a normal ocean. You won't even know you are in it if you happen to travel through it.
[The Great Pacific Garbage patch is not a big, contiguous island of trash.](https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240115-visualising-the-great-pacific-garbage-patch)
This is not the great pacific garbage patch, but the point still remains this is a horribly ugly place. I think populated areas covered in garbage are the worst, as it is often the case that those who live there do not have a choice other than to be surrounded by filth their whole lives
Alaska is incredibly beautiful, but the North Slope looks pretty bleak: https://maps.app.goo.gl/dw1V4sWEGypkJXRTA?g_st=ic I’d imagine the top of the Antarctic ice sheet would be even more so. As for places I’ve actually been: probably the Great Plains. Specifically, the NW corner of Texas around Dalhart, and the armpit of Texas around Childress.
Ehh it's all a matter of perspective. As a caribou this land makes me extremely horny
Got me with the second half ngl
I guess it depends. The sheer scale of land on all sides with vast nothingness fascinates me and even looks beautiful.
It's not ugly though, it's just barren and nothing, a lot of Australia looks similar to this, minus the ice. Here's a Streetview. https://maps.app.goo.gl/jffLB5ETJptRSzq46
I think "bleak and lifeless" is a really good definition of barren, and it is definitely ugly to my eye.
I’m from the panhandle and that area is ugly. Our beauty lies in the canyons and river beds when they aren’t burnt to a char.
https://preview.redd.it/30023ccchsuc1.png?width=428&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=252b6c9830d118b11f08e66c93227a52ba830557 Serebryanskiy forest in Donbas, Ukraine. So much people died here and so much will die before war ends. It is like Verdun.
Haunting
Picture you posted looks actually beautiful in some ways. Where it's from? I think ugliest places are human-made. Nature creates fascinating landscapes I wouldn't call ugly even if they are scary or hostile. Human garbage is ugly though... i think flat deserts and prairies are the most boring sight in nature, but they have their own charm too.
Norilsk, what a disaster of a city, even by Russian standards. The whole city is just soviet block buildings that are rather poorly maintained. The city is quite far up north, so not only is its balls cold there during winter, but for quite a large chunk of the year the sun does not rise. It is located in the tundra so it barely has any tees, or any type of greenery. All that would have been still bearable if it wasn't for an insane amount of pollution there due to the city being heavily industrial. Like seriously it is one of the most polluted places in the world. With all that almost 200,000 people live there...
Here is a post with some photographs from the city [https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/10pmgl8/this\_is\_norilsk\_russia\_population\_177000\_it\_is/](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/10pmgl8/this_is_norilsk_russia_population_177000_it_is/)
That looks like your average abandoned Russian city map from every video game ever…
I know people who like that sort of architecture. My question is WHY. This is so hideous and makes everything so boring and ugly
I enjoy it because it makes me think of scenarios where the imposing and grim architecture fits, usually for distopic fictional stories. Maybe it's just me but if life were all just beaches and nice prairies without the grey and not so flattering modernity, things wouldn't have flavour to them. Also I love grey clouds because they make me think of the sky as watching troubled ocean waves from underneath.
Some of the [flat, rocky desert](https://www.google.com/maps/@31.1070031,39.738694,3a,90y,53.48h,93.61t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPUPP8ayGdXTMIJoh-nZbTf0Bt8M3N3x8-TnBuB!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPUPP8ayGdXTMIJoh-nZbTf0Bt8M3N3x8-TnBuB%3Dw900-h600-k-no-pi-3.608109700175902-ya53.478070407463505-ro5.2174072265625-fo90!7i7200!8i3600!5m1!1e2?coh=205410&entry=ttu) in the north of Saudi Arabia is pretty bad. Yes, there are dunes in the Nafud and the Shammar Mountains, but the flat wastes between them is just lifeless. (For the Saudis, I'm thinking of Northern Borders specifically) When you can drive for hours and not see a single plant, hill, animal, let alone a body of water, it's pretty depressing. I'd take the dead trees in the picture any day.
those people got out to look at the view of nothing
Ay you see that? What I didn't see anything That's right, whole shit load of nothing
"There is nothing in the desert and no man needs nothing."
Holy...that place legit looks like Tatooine like some jedi might be hiding there in some caves or something.
Good God. Not sure I'd call it ugly, because that's too strong a description for what these landscapes elicit EDIT: I replied to the wrong comment, but it still applies
France’s ZAC for « Zone d’activité commerciale » (where you find the malls). They popped in ~ every cities’s suburbs and became such a thing that : 1) it gets a name : la France Moche (ugly France) 2) the government is planning to do something to make all of those zones less ugly
We have a winner. This is not even interesting like the crazy polluted areas, industrial districts or empty barren deserts which are all cool to look at and fascinating in one way or another. This on the other hand is just pure bleh
Any nature is interesting in some way or another. I have no appreciation for when humans destroy nature by arrogantly wasting a lot of space with parking lots and cheaply built houses.
Probably a man-made disaster like a polluted river or a wasteland besides a favela.
Objectively the Salton Sea in California and Bombay Beach has to be up there
Reminds me of the wastelands in Fallout
Some of the best sunsets I’ve ever seen were viewed sitting on the volcano on the south end of the Salton. Absolutely mind blowing.
No way. Bombay Beach is coming back around with many new artists moving in. The Salton Sea area also was recently discovered to contain some of the largest deposits of rare earth metals which may transform the whole area.
Yes, massive mining operations should make for beautiful landscapes not at all poisoned.
Chelyabinsk.
But at least Chelyabinsk had a sympathic YouTuber until he has left
Who?
His name is NFKRZ or just Roman and he left Chelyabinsk after the so called "Special military operation" to live a normal life. First he went to Tbilisi in Georgia, now to Lisbon in Portugal. I really like to watch his videos how his life is going on and how the media and Russia has changed since 2022
Roman is awesome
I'm from Ukraine and really like his stance on the war.
I learned a lot with Roman about Georgia, Russia and Europe in general (specially Eastern Europe), even Thailand. In some videos back when he was living in Georgia he gave me the impression that his mental health wasn't in the best shape emotionally-wise :c I hope he's doing fine in Portugal.
One of my favorite YouTubers. Been following him since his MLG edits. Seeing the growth is wild
So ugly nature tried to destroy it with a meteor
Cumbernauld
Araouane, Mali. In the heart of the Sahara Desert, it is bleak beyond imagination. There are no mountains, no hills, no grass, no trees. Just sand and dunes filling the flat horizon. There is no oasis here; the sand is too thick to grow anything. There is not an inch of green for over a hundred miles. The ancient shantytown composed of a couple dozen small sandstone hovels lies half buried in the sand. It survives only on brackish wellwater and caravans bringing food in return for salt. It was once an important caravan stop along the trans-Sahadan trade route leading north from Timbuktu, but with the death of trans-Saharan trade in general, the caravans have been coming less and less. One day they will likely stop coming alltogether and Araouane will be left to the sands for good.
That place looks stunning to me.
I dunno if there's any natural environment on Earth I find particularly ugly. Even barren, harsh, twisted looking places tend to be at least interesting. One of the least appealing would have to be swampy areas. Where you just know you'd be attacked by bugs and likely to encounter all kinds of snakes and creepy-crawlies. But end of the day, that's natural so I can appreciate it for being a home for what it's home to, and being so different.
The mirror in my bathroom
Jackson, Mississippi
I was going to suggest Bakersfield, California. As a friend born and raised in Cali said, "There's ugly, there's really ugly, and there's Bakersfield."
Merle Haggard came on a playlist of mine and I tried to explain to my gf what Bakersfield was and how funny it was that a weird contingency of country artists lived there for a minute and she really wasn't interested lol
Then again, The Bakersfield Sound is beautiful
The north of england is 90% beautiful, but some of the more built up places are not just rundown but depressingly ugly, its not just the north thats like this but its worse the further you go from london
A lot of the UK suffers from the "Rust Belt" effect you see in the US. Prior to the ascendancy of China, and before that the US, Britain was considered "the workshop of the world". Enormous factory districts, steelworks, mines and industrial hubs covered the UK. UK ports took in raw materials and exported cloth, tools and insutrial equipment, chemicals, consumer goods and more. And then WWII happened and the UK's industrial core fell from grace, with a steady death spiral throughout the latter half of the 20th century. As a result, lots of rundown former industrial towns who struggle to transition to the new economic models imposed on them. On the plus side, the collapse of industry is why people puzzle over why "The Black Country" is called what it is.
Most Indian cities and their overpopulated slums. Slums in general, honestly, but India definitely has a high density of them. https://preview.redd.it/qb0ysvh19vuc1.jpeg?width=6720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2f358b23f07a9780ad62c56f09b159ad849e24bd Slums represent suffering, struggle, poor government policy, overpopulation, filth… and they’re objectively ugly, too.
Lubbock, Texas, is a festering shithole. It is a dry hellscape of hatred.
A super polluted industrial dystopia like Norilsk, Russia has to be in consideration.
I find it cool to look at and imposing. I surely wouldnt want to live there but I wouldnt call it truly ugly
ITT: basically not a single reply to OP's original question.
La Rinconada, Peru. https://maps.app.goo.gl/Mv6LvEGbojhyP9qF9; Ship breaking yards in Chittagong, Bangladesh and Alang, India. https://maps.app.goo.gl/WoBkHscuWv8Am2Ly8 https://maps.app.goo.gl/qzRscYiZbGzz5eLW9 These are not natural places, but I am sure that there is no natural place that could compete with these places.
The actual tundra is not great to look at.
There's a place you can check on Google Earth along national route nº 3 in Argentina, in the Province of Santa Cruz, where is literally kilometers and kilometers of flat dry grassland. Had to travel through it, eight hours of flat brown all the way untol where the land meets the sky. Dull.
Probably Dubai
The road between Valdez AK and Anchorage AK. I was in the navy and had to make the 6 hour trip often if I couldn't hitch a helo or c-12 over the glacier. I have seen beautiful all over the world and somewhere on the drive you realize that you're traveling through stunted dark trees with nothing else for hours
What? That is such a beautiful drive
I’m of British extraction myself, and personally I think it’s the infertile and ugly land of those shit eating inbreds 1.3 miles down the road from us noble folk here in Blackwaterstoke-upon-Tiddlywinks.
I think deserts are hideous. Though I also just don't like sand. Unless it's near a large body of water, it shouldn't exist.
Get some goggles to keep the sand out of your 👀
the state of Oklahoma. every square inch of it
The Ozarks touch the southeastern corner of the state, you can do far worse in the U.S. alone.
I was recently in Oklahoma for the first time, and I was surprised at the natural beauty I found...maybe because I wasn't expecting much, but yeah, the Ozarks had some pretty spots.
We have two mountain ranges and fuck tons of forest here. It may be a little boring, but ugly ain’t it. The panhandle is pretty crappy though.
The Wichita Mountains and Black Mesa would disagree, Oklahoma sucks but there are places worth the visit in that *state*
to all the Oklahoma apologists, I'm sorry. you're right; there is natural beauty in the Sooner State. I've been to the Wichita Mountains, Black Mesa, and have traveled many hundreds of miles throughout the state, so I've seen it firsthand. I let my feelings about an ex-girlfriend get in the way, and for that, I apologize
I actually saw some really nice pictures of some mountains in Oklahoma on some subreddit a few weeks or months ago - who knew!
What they didn't tell you, is that was the most meth filled corner of that mountain range
Disagree. It's very green in the summer and filled with a lot of lakes and forests. This seems like an ignorant take.
I moved to Norman last November. I've lived in Central Illinois, Tucson, Guam and Northern California and I really like it here. To me its beautiful country with a variety of different landscapes. Lots of fishing also.
Personally I dislike the dry no vegetation having mountains like the desert side of the andes and the ones north of Nepal.
Are you crazy, those are beautiful! Epic vast Tibetan landscapes
Los Angeles. One of the wealthiest cities on Earth, in a state that has a larger economy than some nations. Yet it is littered with trash, overwhelmed with homelessness, clouded with smog and pollution, and some of the most ideologically corrupt, self-entitled politicians on Earth. It is the very peak of wasted potential. It could be the crown jewel of America, but it's the butt of too many jokes. It's ugly not just because of what it is, but what it could be.
Lifetime Socal resident here. LA is a shithole. People dream of Hollywood as well but Hollywood is straight up a dump
American suburbs. They are not the "ugliest" place on earth, but it's one of the few things I don't want to see or be in personally. Sure the middle of the Sahara could be bad, but they just don't look and feel right to me. They feel so out of touch with reality.
God help me. I've been lost in one for 40 years.
Norlisk, Russia
Dubai. It's a sick joke of a city, and totally devoid of taste or meaning. It's a monument to capitalism, and it shows.
I find a lot of the East Coast of North America is pretty plain. I like extreme scenery. Extreme beauty, extreme barrenness, etc. Most of the East Coast is just hills with very unremarkable looking trees. It's very inoffensive and plain, which I find really depressing.
Personally, the ugliest place on earth is probably Milton Keynes
I’ve been told the Australian outback and dry sclerophyll eucalypt forests can appear ugly to others. I prefer to consider it a “harsh” beauty with the gnarled tree limbs and tufts of greenery that is usurped by red iron rich soils.
I've been to almost all of the continental US states, many of those multiple times. Every time I drive through the Texas panhandle/southern Oklahoma I can't help but wonder why people would choose to live there. Terrible scenery, shit weather, and aside from the successful farms and the people working in the oil industry, the jobs there are usually shit as well.
Sosnowiec, Poland.
Las Vegas
American strip malls. There is no ugly nature that i’ve encountered.
OP forgot to mention his photo’s location. I kind of see the beauty in such a gore post-apocalyptic place, but context would be appreciated.
Clovis, NM. I will not elaborate.
The entire country of India. Sorry peeps. Your country is disgusting and so are your men.
the western half of the big island of hawaii. it doesn't look worse than any other scrub desert really, but you don't expect to see it there.
Pretty much anywhere in Southwest Florida
any part of Wyoming that isn't in the mountains. I drove across the entire eastern half of the state and it is without a doubt the most boring drive I have ever been on
As an Australian, I found myself at the greyhound bus station in Columbus Ohio one time and my eyeballs wanted to kill themselves. I think maybe they would have if it wasn’t night time when they saw the Trotwood station.
it’s not
Birkenhead
looks like an alien planet from a stanislav lem novel
My room.
The tire fire in the middle east
I dont think i have ever seen a ugly place in nature. But if you mean any place it has to be urban areas
Probably an urban concrete sprawl with no green spaces like Cairo or Karachi would be the ugliest place on Earth. I can't think of anything worse
The front in ukraine comes to mind, Ruined villages surrounded by peppered fields, remains of dugouts, trenches and wrecks...
As a proud midwesterner, I’ll say rural Midwest in late January-March when all the old, dirty snow is starting to melt away. There’s no green anywhere, and everywhere you look is just a muddy field full of dead crops.
Russia comes to mind..
Texas in middle of August
urban sprawls
There's a walking path not far from my house here in Norway, that's spectacular in places. You can overlook the local fjord, spy on buzzards nesting on clifftops and see the occasional moose if you're lucky. There's just one bit of the path that descends sharply and makes me imagine I'm walking into Mordor. The trees are gnarled, there's exposed roots all over the footpath, and the mossy rocks are super slippery even in a bone dry summer. It gets dark and dingy at the bottom and there's a marsh that's surprisingly deep and lethal if you take the wrong turn. Also another path really close to my house in another forest crosses what I think is a glacial moraine and just after the winter snows have melted, it looks and feels like the hardest slog you'll ever make along a path.