Giant Crystal Cave

This is not a hoax, these are not fake or altered photos; these are genuine photographs of giant crystals taken in the Giant Crystal Cave discovered at the Naica Mine of Chihuahua, Mexico. The cave contains some of the largest natural crystals ever found: translucent gypsum beams measuring up to 36 feet (11 meters) long and weighing up to 55 tons. This horseshoe-shaped cavity deep inside Naica mountain, is about 30 feet (10 meters) wide and 90 feet (30 meters) long. Volcanic activity that began about 26 million years ago created Naica mountain and filled it with high-temperature anhydrite gypsum (giant shards of which are pictured above). When magma underneath the mountain cooled and the temperature dropped, the anhydrite began to dissolve. The anhydrite slowly enriched the waters with sulfate and calcium molecules, which for millions of years have been deposited in the caves in the form of huge selenite gypsum crystals. The crystals thrived because they were submerged in mineral-rich water with a very narrow, stable temperature range—around 136 degrees Fahrenheit (58 degrees Celsius). "There is no limit to the size a crystal can reach," geologist Juan Manuel García-Ruiz said. "It's the Sistine Chapel of crystals."