Pinkest Places on Earth

These are a collection of the pinkest places on Earth. All of them are real places you can visit that was not Photoshopped in any way. They are either man-made places like buildings or naturally formed for instance a lake.

Lake Hillier

A saline lake on the edge of Middle Island off the south coast of Western Australia. The lake was discovered in 1802 by British Navigator and Cartographer Mathew Flinders on the HMS Investigator. He saw the lake as the pink hue body of water that it is known as today. The pink colour is considered to be due to the presence of the organism Dunaliella salina and Halobacterium cutirubrum. Dunaliella salina is a type of algae growing in the lake which contains carotene giving the algae the bright pink colour. Halobacterium cutirubrum is a type of ocean bacteria with a high concentration of halophilic archaebacteria. There is a large sign near the lake that describes why the water is pink, too.

La Muralla Roja

It’s a postmodern apartment complex in Manzanera, Calpe, Spain designed by world-renowned architect, Ricardo Bofill, in 1968. It’s formed like a fortress with many stairs and high walls. “La Muralla Roja” translates to “The Red Wall.” The architecture has influences of Arab Mediterranean adobe towers in North Africa. The outside was painted various tones of reds to accentuate the contrast with the landscape. It also has various hues of blues and violets to work with the stronger and weaker contracts from the sky. Together they make an optical effect for the illusion of space.

Las Coloradas Lake

A large pink lake in Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. The region is a part of a protected wetland with crocodiles, flamingos, sea turtles, jaguars and other sea birds. The water is pink because of red-coloured algae, plankton and brine shrimp which like the high salt content. The lake is used for fishing and sea salt harvesting which dates back to the days of Mayans collecting salt from shallow lagoons from nearby floods.

Pink Sands Beach

This beach is located on Harbour Island in The Bahamas. The pale pink colour is from microscopic coral insects, known as Foraminifera. It’s a bright pink or red shell full of holes to extend pseudopodia, footings that it uses to attach itself and feed. They mostly reside on the underside of the coral reefs on the seafloor feeding on insects.

Cherry Blossoms Parks in Japan

This is mostly a seasonal excursion to see all the pink sakura flowers in bloom. Most of the blooms take place in early April in the spring. The event is called hanami in short flower viewing. Depending on the backdrop you need for the photograph to capture the best cherry blossom for your photo, many places in Japan have cherry blossoms, for example, in Shinjuku Gyoen in Tokyo, Philosopher’s Path in Kyoto, Kema Sakuranomiya Park in Osaka, Mount Yoshinoyama in Yoshino and Himeji Castle in Himeji.

Zhangye National Geopark

This is more of a rainbow park, but there is pink in many places alongside the rocks. It is partly a national park located in Zhangye, China. The formations of the sandstone’s colour are due to the wind, rain and the years of the land reacting to the tectonic plates from the Himalayan mountains.

Hawa Mahal

The name translates to “The Palace of Winds” or “The Palace of Breeze.” Jaipur in India is nicknamed the “pink city” because of this building. The palace is a five-story pyramidal-shaped monument with semi-octagonal bays and small windows called Jharokhas decorated with intricate latticework giving the monument its unique façade. Built-in red and salmon pink-coloured sandstone preserved its colour since the day of construction in 1799.

El Salar de Galerazamba

This sea is located Santa Catalina Bolívar of Cartagena on the coast of Colombia within the small pueblo of Galerazamba. The sea is a commercial salt mine where they collect the salt from the sea when the water evaporates. It has a high saline level that forms after rainfall and breaks into salt granules. The sea also has a high level of halophilic microalgae that produce beta carotene that makes reddish hues.

Rua Nova do Carvalho

This used to be Lisbon’s red-light district is now transformed into a trendy family-friendly place in the Cais do Sodre neighbourhood. The street was painted pink in 2011 to help rebrand the neighbourhood to a happier trendier place after the brothels and run-down bars closed in 1963. The street is locally known as Rua Cor de Rosa. Places that have been there since the 18th century like Penão Amor and Sol e Pesca are now nightclubs.

The Wave

These are sandstone formations in Arizona near Coyote Buttes, north of the Utah-Arizona border. Only a few people can visit the park at a time due to the fragility of the sand formations. The Wave forms a U-shaped trough that eroded into Navajo Sandstones in the Jurassic era. There are dinosaur tracks, a boneyard, rock formations unique to the area.

The Erawan Museum

This is a pink palace inside and out, but it’s actually a museum, not a palace. This museum is located in the Samut Prakan Province, Thailand. It’s filled with crafts, paintings, sculptures and architecture that are very significant to the culture of Thailand. It has a three-headed elephant in the front, the museum is sectioned off into three levels standing for Earth, Heaven and Hell. The building and the property around the building are pink for religious and cultural reasons. The interior has just as much pink with beautiful sculptures on display.

Temple of the Rising Dragon

It’s a 17-story pink cylindrical superstructure with a bearded red and green dragon wrapped around the building. The name of this building is Wat Samphran. The building is in Amphoe Sam Phran, Thailand. It’s a large Buddist temple built-in 1985. The building is a combination of Chinese beliefs (the dragon [Mangkorn] and Thai culture and beliefs by the local monks. The dragon is built out of iron and fibreglass.

Jubilee Synagogue

It’s also known as Jerusalem Synagogue because it’s on Jerusalem Street. In Czech, it is known as Jubilejní synagoga. The name Jubilee Synagogue refers to the anniversary of Franz Joesph I in the defeated Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The synagogue is located in Prague, Czech Republic. It’s a combination of Moorish Revival architecture with detailed Art Nouveau decorations. It’s visible with its big bold Mudéjar red-and-white stripes (that look pink and beige nowadays) with large light blue horseshoe arches. The inside of the building is even more decadent but mostly in blue.

Dohány Street Synagogue

This synagogue is located in Erzsébetváros, Budapest, Hungary. It is also known as the Great Synagogue or Tabakgasse Synagogue. The synagogue was built between 1854 to 1859. Its design is based on the Moorish Revival style which is based on Islamic decoration models from North Africa and medieval Spain with a mixture of Byzantine, Romantic, and Gothic elements. There are pink patterns throughout the building; from the exterior stripes to the interior ornamental fixtures and tile work. The Hungarian Jewish Museum is also in the synagogue.

Tân Định Church

Tân Định church is a Roman Catholic church in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Its formal name is the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It was built during the French colonial period in the 1870s. The building is neo-Romanesque with neo-Gothic and neo-Renaissance elements. It was painted for its centennial celebration in 1957. It’s light strawberry cream on the inside and salmon on the outside ever since.

Casa Rosada

This is the executive mansion and office for the President of Argentina. It’s also known as Casa de Gobierno which translates to the Government House. The building is located in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The architectural style is a combination of Italianate–Eclectic. It is the same building that Juan and “Evita” Perón addressed the public from the balcony between the late 1940s to early 1950s. President Bartolomé Mitre chose the building that occupied Spanish colonial viceroys in 1862 as the government house. Then his successor, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, decided to paint the exterior pink reportedly to defuse political tensions by mixing the red and white colours of the country’s two opposing political parties: red for the Federalists and white for the Unitarians.

Paul Smith Pink Wall

This is an Instagram phenomenon found in West Hollywood, Los Angeles. It’s a store that’s painted their walls vivid bright pink in 2005. Many people take pictures of themselves in front of the pink backdrop for selfies. The colour of the pink wall is the same pink as the jackets from the Pink Ladies from the 1970’s movie Grease. It rose to popularity because of social media. The store has a security guard to prevent cars from colliding with photo takers and enforce a no-professional-camera rule.

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Banner Credit: Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash