QUICK FACTS
Identify: Hin Sam Wan, or Three Whale Rock
Location: Bueng Kan province, Thailand
Coordinates: 18.250964324624285, 103.81396773139028
Why it is unbelievable: The rock formation seems like a small household of whales.
Hin Sam Wan, or Three Whale Rock, is a pure formation in Thailand that’s named after its placing resemblance to a household of whales swimming aspect by aspect. It consists of three extraordinarily elongated, rounded boulders that appear like large cetaceans floating in a sea of timber.
Three Whale Rock shaped about 75 million years in the past as a consequence of long-term erosion and tectonic uplift. Wind and rain sculpted and smoothed the sandstone in northeastern Thailand into the shapes we see as we speak, with cracks within the rock serving to to type the slender boulders that now look a lot like whales.
The formation is located close to the border between Thailand and Laos, in a forest-covered nature reserve known as Phu Sing Forest Park. A community of climbing trails leads as much as the three whales, however solely the larger “mommy” and “daddy” whales are accessible by foot. The “child” whale — the smallest of the three — is closed to the general public.
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The views from the “backs” of the 2 greatest stone whales lengthen to the Mekong River and mountains in Laos’ Pakkading district, based on Nationwide Geographic. The whales sit on a excessive ridge and jut out over the forest cover, which reinforces the phantasm that they’re sea creatures of their pure habitat.
Three Whale Rock and the encircling space are a part of the Khorat Plateau. This area of uplifted sedimentary rock holds fossils — together with proof of dinosaurs — from the Cretaceous interval (145 million to 66 million years in the past) and the Cenozoic period (66 million years in the past to current).
Phu Sing Forest Park and its stone leviathans are protected as pure and cultural heritage websites.
