The mysterious Gobi Desert lies between Mongolia and China. In the southern reaches of this vast barren land, in the Qinghai Province of China, you can find a natural spring that looks more like a figment of an abstract artist’s imagination than a real place on our planet. This place is the Aiken Spring, but it’s better known under its colloquial name - the Devil’s Eye. View stunning images of this unique natural location in a series of photos captured by photographer Jonas Daley on an infrared camera.
The landscape around the spring is desolate but features vibrant tones of red, orange, turquoise, and pink. The bright colors appear because the water in the spring has a high sulfur content.
To get to the spring, one must make their way to the bottom of a 647-meter (2,122 ft) slope - hence the resemblance to an eye. The high sulfur content of the water makes it smell rather unpleasant - an odor often described as ‘rotten eggs’ - but many consider sulfur springs to have restorative properties.
Daley is a photographer based in China, and he often travels to the remotest corners of the globe to push both his physical and creative limits. In these colorful aerial images, Daley captured the essence of the ever-vibrant but barren Aiken Springs for everyone to see and enjoy its exotic beauty. You can view more of Daley’s work on his Website, Instagram Page, and Behance Page.
