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They are among nature's most in incredible wonders –
huge, delicately balanced rocks that look like they're about to topple
over at any moment. Some may last for thousands of years but the
lifespan on some of the selection we have below, one suspects, is going
to be a little bit shorter. Are you ready to rock and roll?
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Balanced Rock, Rocky Mountain National Park
An amazingly balanced mushroom-shaped rock on the north side of Lumpy
Ridge in Rocky Mountain National Park. Precariously balanced atop a
slender plug of rock that sits on a gigantic boulder, this amazing rock
has been sculpted by wind erosion and glacial action of over millions of
years. Because of its shape the rock is aptly named "Balanced Rock" and
it lies at the end of a trail which is also named after it. The rock can
be accessed via Cow Creek Trail or Gem Lake Trail. |
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Thor's Hammer, Bryce Canyon, Utah
This amazingly balanced rock known as "Thor's Hammer" is a spectacular
and classical example of a Hoodoo rocks. A geological name for tent rock
or fairy chimney. Such rocks are tall, thin spires of rock that
protrudes from the bottom of an arid drainage basin or badland and were
created due to of erosion processes whenever relatively hard rock
overlays softer more erodible rock, such as sandstone. |
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Balanced Rock, Idaho
This precariously balanced rock South of Buhl City in the Salmon Falls
Creek Canyon, Idaho, USA is truly amazing. The wind-carved rock which is
over 14.6 metres (48 feet) tall, 12.2 metres (40 feet) wide and weighs
about 36 Tonnes (40 tons), balances delicately but firmly on a very
small rocky pedestal, which is only 0.9x0.45 metres (3x1.5 feet). |
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Balanced Rocks of Hyderabad, India
Nature has gifted Hyderabad with a magnificent landscape of amazing rock
formations. Being at the heart of the Deccan Plateau in Southern India,
the rocks in the region, mostly granite, are about 2,500 million years
old and are amongst the oldest and hardest rocks in the world.
Weathering effect of several million years resulted in splitting and
rounding of the stones into amazingly balanced and picturesque rock
shapes. Geologist call this phenomenon - onion peel weathering (or
spheroidal weathering).
There are innumerable rock formations of varied shapes in whole of
Deccan Plateau including Hyderabad and surrounding area. In this post I
am showcasing only few of these Amazingly Balanced Rocks. |
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Balanced Rock, Garden of the Gods
This amazingly balanced rock is located in the "Garden of the Gods"
public park in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Being easily accessible it is
a popular tourist spot.
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Mexican Hat, Utah
"Mexican Hat" is an amazingly balanced rock off the US highway US-163 in
Utah. The 18 metres (60 feet) wide and 3.7 metres (12 feet) thick,
almost flat rock, perched on a much smaller rock, derives its name from
its sombrero (Mexican hat) like shape. Because of its fame, a small
nearby town, south-west of the rock, also bears the same name - Mexican
Hat.
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Balanced Rock near Ben Amera Monolith, Mauritania
The Ben Amera in Mauritania is one of the largest monolith in the world.
It is located close to the border with Western Sahara and the whole area
is littered with rocks of varied sizes. Amongst these rocks is this
amazingly balanced rock. Although most of the balanced rocks around the
world are known by some identifying name, however this rock has no name
(or atleast I couldn't find it).
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Krishna's Butterball, Mahabalipuram
Mamallapuram (aka Mahabalipuram) a tourist town 60 km south of Chennai,
India is famous for its stone carvings which dates back to the Tamil
Pallava dynasty in the 7th-9th century. These structures carved out of
granite rocks, are among the oldest existing examples of Dravidian
(South Indian) architecture.
One of the most famous rock here, created by nature and not by any human
hand, is a precariously balanced natural rock known as Krishna's
Butterball. This giant rock is perched on a stony mound seemingly in
defiance of the law of gravity. Reportedly the kings in ancient times
had tried to dislodge it using elephants but failed. |
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Balanced Rock, Colorado National Monument
Colorado National Monument, near the city of Grand Junction, CO, USA has
one of the grand landscapes of the American West within a vast plateau
and canyon panorama. Amongst several towering monoliths there is this
large perched rock precariously balanced on its base!
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Golden (Balancing) Rock, Burma
This eight metres high, granite rock besides being precariously
balanced, has a small 5.5 metre high pagoda atop it. Commonly known as
Golden Rock Pagoda it is located at the top of Mt. Kyaiktiyo and is
reportedly the third most important Buddhist pilgrimage site in Burma
after the Shwedagon Pagoda and the Mahamuni Pagoda. The golden look is
due to gold leaves/foils pasted on the granite rock by the devotees.
The area of contact with the bottom rock is very small and by slightly
rocking the upper rock a thread can reportedly be passed through the
contact point. Many faithful therefore believe that the upper rock is
floating in air or balanced on hair of Lord Buddha.
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Balanced Rock, Arches National Park, USA
Arches National Park, located near Moab, Utah has a large number of
variety of geological formations. As the name suggests it has over 2000
natural sandstone arches, including the world-famous Delicate Arch.
Amongst these arches is located one of the biggest "Balanced Rock" in
the World - almost the size of 3 buses. The total height of Balanced
Rock is about 39 metres (128 feet) with top balanced rock having a
height of about 17 metres (55 feet) from its base.
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Kadov Rocking Stone, Kadov, Strakonice,
Czechoslovakia
Kadov Rocking Stone is a big granite boulder, which rests with its
centre of gravity on the pointed rock. It used to be easy to make it to
rock. Its height is 1.5 metres, weight is around 30 tons and
circumference is 11 metres.
Towards the end of 19th century it was pushed down by some vandals and
remained on the ground until 1983, when it was re-erected and put into
its original position by the team of five enthusiastic volunteers led by
Pavel Pavel, a Czech engineer and experimental archaeologist,
investigating how the ancient civilizations did transport heavy weights.
Using this stone as a model he estimated that only 160 people with
wooden sledges would have been necessary for transportation of the 800
ton stones in Baalbek.
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Balancing Rock, Digby, Nova Scotia, Canada
This rock is a 30 feet high horizontal columnar basalt at the Nova
Scotia, Canada. What make the balancing rock amazing, around 50% of the
rock column stands over the air. If the stone is man made, can you
imagine how difficult is to find the precise calculation to stand the
huge rock at the edge of cliff for hundreds of years against storms,rain,
and winds?
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Idol Rock, Brimham Moor, North Yorkshire, UK
Idol rock is a family of several balance rocks that scatter around 50-
acre of Brimham Moor area, North York shire, UK. Idol rock is around 200
tonnes and it is only supported by a smaller pyramidal stone. It is
unbelievable and outstanding. The small pyramidal stone carries huge
pressure from Idol rock and balances the odd shape stone flawlessly.
Another family of Idol rocks are The Sphinx, The Watchdog, The Camel,
The Turtle, and The Dancing Bear. All these strange , amazing, and huge
balanced stone can be found at Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural
Beauty. It is free to enter
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El Torcal de Antequera, Andalucia, Spain
El Torcal de Antequera is karst stone towers of terrace limestone rock
with horizontal weathering patterns.It is tall, old and stable.Wind,
rain and sun have evolved the stone become flapjack stacks that attracts
many people every year. Although it is strong and balance, Climbing the
rock is not recommendable.
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Kjeragbolten, Norway
Kjeragbolten or Kjerag Boulder is a 5 square meters (roughly 15 sq ft)
rock that is stuck between 2 gigantic wall of Kjerag mountain. The rock
is trapped above 1,000 meters air for thousand of years. It is safe to
stand above the Boulder. The only thing to remember is Don’t look down
when you ride it
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Peyro Clabado, Sidobre, France
Peyro Clabado or Nailed Rock is located at Languedoc, France. It is
eroded granite boulders and rock formations that is left by 300 million
years activity of Old mountain that formed western Europe. One of the
balance rock is 780 tons weight .One day, around one millennium to the
future, the Peyro Clabado will just sand and sediment. Before that time,
Don’t miss a chance to visit this object
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Mushroom Rocks, Kansas, USA
The Rocks can be found in Mushroom Rock State Park, at the Smoky Hills
region of Kansas. The Mushroom Rock State Park is only 5 acres and it
saves old mushroom balancing rocks that are already here since the time
of Dinosaurs. The size of the balancing rock is different. One of them
is so big so that it looks like a hookah-smoking caterpillar in the
movie Alice of the wonderland. Mushroom Rocks of Kansas is still working
now and when the job completed, we wont find any mushroom rock again
here. Before too late, make a schedule to visit it
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Chiremba Balancing Rocks, Epworth, Zimbabwe
Chiremba Balancing Rocks are typical weathered boulders balancing rock
same as what on Sidore-France. It was carved by winds and weather since
millions of years before it looks like what we know today.
Chiremba Balancing Rocks is located only few miles from Zimbabwe`s
capitol or Southeast of Harare.
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The Steady Hand Of Man
This balancing rocks is the creation of ,an artist, Daliel Leite. He got
inspiration from the balancing stone object around the world and he
tried to make his own balancing stone in a small scale. He only know
small information of art of balancing rock and he applied it on this
rocks. It is unknown whether the rocks tumbling down seconds after it
was photographed or not.
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