Chamarel

The village of Chamarel in southwest Mauritius is home to two natural wonders – the magnificent Chamarel Falls and the colored earths of Chamarel. The earths are particularly unusual; created by volcanic rocks that cooled at different temperatures, the earths form beautiful patterns of colour in the exposed hillsides. And if you mix the coloured earth together, they\’ll eventually settle into separate layers. Sometimes the colours play tricks on you and appear to be shadows.

Over the millennia, the rocks were pulverized into sands which have the amazing property of settling into distinct layers: if you take a handful of each of the seven different colours of dirt and mix them together, they\’d eventually separate into a colourful spectrum, each dot of sand re-joining its colour caste.

Since the earth was first exposed, rains had carved beautiful patterns into the hillside, creating an effect of earthen meringue.