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I came across a random image and saved it because of the intriguing rock formations...

enter image description here

The EXIF metadata is well populated (the photo was taken in July 2011 for example), but contains no latitude/longitude coordinates. I reversed Google searched, and then used 'tin eye'. Both of these came up empty.

I also uploaded the image to the chatroom and someone suggested that it might be around the Isle of Wight, but those formations are long and slender. The cliffs look similar to Dover's, but the colour is wrong. I think overall the foliage is wrong for the British Isles.

Notice on the right a rounded structure, possibly man-made or possibly leading to a grotto.

Question: has someone seen these rocks previously who can nail down their precise locale?

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  • looks potentially photoshopped to me :/
    – Mark Mayo
    Jan 3, 2016 at 12:51
  • 2
    using photoshop as a generic verb meaning fake - not necessary the actual tool Photoshop. I've been to Oregon, just looked sort of familiar.
    – Mark Mayo
    Jan 3, 2016 at 12:59
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    It's certainly not the Needles, though those are a pretty famous example. Might be worth browsing through the various categories at commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Geological_stacks Jan 3, 2016 at 13:20
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    I can't prove it, but in hindsight if I had to, I'd put money on it being an unusual angle of the 12 Apostles in Victoria, Australia. Coastline looks wrong though :/
    – Mark Mayo
    Jan 3, 2016 at 13:40
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    Definitely not Dover -- the "white cliffs" are most definitely white. Jan 3, 2016 at 21:57

1 Answer 1

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These look a lot like the Tri Brata sea stacks in Kamchatka:

Tri Brata
Picture from Wikimedia Commons, originally uploaded by Gistereziz to the Russian Wikipedia and released into the public domain.

The photo in the question is clearly taken from a somewhat different angle. But the shapes of the stacks match very closely, as do the striations on the middle stack and even the shape of the mountain top in the background. I'm willing to bet that these are the same rocks.

(Remarkably, the Wikipedia page on the Tri Brata was the first link I clicked in their list of sea stacks, after finding my way to that page from the Twelve Apostles link in Mark Mayo's answer! I thought the correct site might be listed on that page, but I totally did not expect to find it so quickly.)

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  • 2
    Gah and I was searching for three sisters.:D (tri brata is three brothers in russian transcribed into latin alphabet).
    – DRF
    Jan 3, 2016 at 18:19
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    I think you have nailed it. Kamchatka never occurred to me but the photo is a dead-on match!
    – Gayot Fow
    Jan 3, 2016 at 18:29
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    This picture creeps me out for some reason. Jan 3, 2016 at 19:54
  • @Carcigenicate - With a little creativity, the leftmost one can look like a person screaming (dark spot on the upper half is the mouth), and the middle one has a monsterous face (large dark spot as the mouth, two eye spots above it). Or, the face and the other two rocks are tentacles. It's the kindof thing where you might have noticed it subconsciously, and only registered it as "creepy". At least, that's what happened to me.
    – Bobson
    Jan 4, 2016 at 15:33
  • @Bobson Maybe. I'm Trypophobic though, and it makes me feel a similar kind of uncomfortable as when I see holes in skin. I don't know what about this image would trigger it though. Jan 4, 2016 at 15:40

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