Where In The World Is ... 'The World's Largest Mirror'? | Weather.com
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Where In The World Is ... 'The World's Largest Mirror'?

(Henryk Welle/ Getty Images)

Somewhere in the world, you can walk on water without getting wet, each step taking you across a landscape that appears to reflect the entire sky.

Some call this place "the world's largest mirror." That's because of the way that, during certain months of the year, it transforms into a vast, reflective surface that appears to stretch unbroken to every horizon. The reflection is so flawless that visitors often become disoriented, unable to tell which way is up or down. Photographers flock there to capture impossible images: people appearing to walk on clouds, vehicles driving through the sky, and flamingos wading through reflected stars.

But if you visit during a different time of year, you'll see something quite different: A brilliant white desert of crystallized salt. The salt crust is so geometrically precise it looks like nature decided to tile the landscape.

Can you guess where this shape-shifting wonder exists?

(Leonardo Costa Farias/ Getty Images)
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This 4,000-square-mile expanse sits at over 12,000 feet above sea level, making it not just the world's largest salt flat, but also one of its highest. The mirror effect happens during the rainy season, when a thin layer of water spreads across the salt surface, creating reflections so perfect that NASA uses satellite images of it to calibrate their instruments in orbit.

The salt tells an ancient story. The place was once a prehistoric lake that dried up thousands of years ago, leaving behind deposits up to 30 feet thick in some places. Local families still harvest the salt by hand using traditional methods, raking it into neat pyramids that dot the landscape like small white mountains.

(FEBRUARY/ Getty Images)

OK, have you made your guess?

This is Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, a salt flat so impossibly flat and vast that standing in its center, you can see the curvature of the Earth itself. During dry season, it's a dazzling white desert; during the rains, it becomes nature's largest mirror, reflecting everything from pink flamingos to the Milky Way.

Ready to walk on the sky? Tell us in the comments!

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