r/opticalillusions • u/0M0MN0M • 13h ago

Impossible Cliff Illusion

Gallery image

Gallery image

Photographed just now on a flight over Lake Erie.

2.3k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

62 comments sorted by

122

u/Yuval444 13h ago

God I understand but I can't see it the way it actually is

29

u/Dependent-Tank-3889 11h ago

Top of the cliff is beach and the slope is trees

5

u/peppapony 8h ago

That actually helped me to see it a lot easier!

5

u/MidAmericanNovelties 8h ago

I saw it normal until I realized the illusion. I can't get it to flip back to the real way.

1

u/KSknitter 9h ago

It is easier if you zoom in.

1

u/jerseyztop 6h ago

If you zoom in you can see that the cliff is a beach. Wild!!

181

u/Fallingpeople 12h ago

This is some MC Escher level of photography.

13

u/Sea_Gap_6569 12h ago

This comment made it click 👍🏽

49

u/Academic_Value242 12h ago

I have no idea what I’m seeing or what I’m supposed to be seeing with this one.

18

u/delboy8888 12h ago

Me too. Can someone explain where this alleged cliff is? I can't see any cliffs, possible or impossible.

21

u/zengooey 12h ago

The commenter who said “world’s largest infinity pool” helped me see it. Do you see the ‘s’ shape? Imagine the water to the right is a plateau (“infinity pool”), ‘s’ is the cliff, and to the left is lower.

7

u/eosfer 10h ago

Wow, now I can't see it back to normal!

3

u/delboy8888 6h ago

Thank you. First good explanation!

3

u/Pretty_Original124 10h ago

Imagine all the water on the south and east of the barrier island to be higher elevation like the top of an infinity pool.

2

u/mainstreetmark 11h ago

Imagine the curvy coastline is a high dam holding back water. As the dam snakes around, you can see the front of the dam/cliff. Imagine that exposed land is a vertical cliff.

1

u/apathy420 10h ago

What I am seeing is a tiny village area about to be flooded by a huge ocean on a cliff if it rains

23

u/djscoots10 13h ago

Neat

2

u/SaintJewiub 13h ago

Any explanation on this?

14

u/SomeBrowser227 12h ago

it appears to be one landmass, connected to the mainland, the shape and angle makes it look like it should be sloping, but its not. i think.

3

u/AlphaCharlieN7 12h ago

Also, the right side of the peninsula is darker, feeling like a shadow from the "top of the cliff"

6

u/Spins13 12h ago

It’s all flat, there is no cliff

3

u/rotten-blood 12h ago

the second picture is the explanation lol

1

u/superhelical 11h ago

It's Rondeau sand spit on Lake Erie. Great place to camp

12

u/wswsc05 13h ago

Eerie

25

u/J-Mc1 13h ago

World's biggest infinity pool...

2

u/zengooey 12h ago

Thank you! Didn’t see it until I read your comment.

10

u/Guitar_Nutt 12h ago

Thats awesome! Thanks for putting in the screenshot of the map, that was very helpful to understand it.

4

u/seenhear 7h ago

This is possibly the best real world illusion I've seen. Fantastic.

4

u/Mega_Hi 13h ago

thought it was the netherlands for a sec

3

u/Yunzer2000 12h ago
  1. The illusion seems to stem mostly from the darker vegetation of this sand cape island creates the appearance of a shadow behind the white sand beach and so a "light always comes from up" perceptual illusion.
  2. But also, the whole thing gets reinforced becasue the dark vegetated old beach ridges on the island which get truncated by the present day closest beach line creates the perfect illusion of rock strata on the face of the "cliff" disappearing behind the "brow".

The usual test - rotate the picture 180 degrees and the illusion goes away - confirms that it is No. 1 that does most of the work, but my geologist-brain ends up embellishing the illusion even more.

3

u/According-Spot3795 11h ago

This looks like an aerial view of land and water. I don’t get what illusion it’s supposed to be.

3

u/dacv393 10h ago

One of the first times I see no illusion. All I see is what it actually is. Can't make myself see a cliff

2

u/Traditional_Mood_348 13h ago

That dam better hold up! Nice one, OP!

2

u/drmuffin1080 12h ago

Alright that’s badass

2

u/SpacePolice04 12h ago

Zooming helps see it properly. My brain still wants to see a cliff but the zoom helps.

2

u/guiltysnark 12h ago

This is exactly why residents of the Moon think the earth landing was faked.

2

u/zoobiz 12h ago

So cool. You can completely understand what’s happening if you zoom in, but once you zoom out again, your brain sees the impossible cliff again.

1

u/gooblefrump 8h ago

Thanks, you helped me to see it

2

u/-Gay-_- 12h ago

OH took me a second there that's so cool

2

u/OddCaramel6614 10h ago

Excellent 👌🏻

2

u/darth_malmal 8h ago

This took me a while to see and now I can’t unsee it. Pretty cool.

2

u/Dear-Rooster-259 7h ago

This should win an award or something, not everyday you see photography like this

2

u/AlexCivitello 6h ago

I saw it correctly at first, now I can't see it right at all. Incredible photograph!

1

u/CTblDHO 13h ago

Thats a great post right here, good job op

1

u/Hippi_Johnny 12h ago

Like a Roger Dean Yes album cover

1

u/Beginning_Result6298 12h ago

Man, I've been wanting to just block this sub for crappy posts. Glad I didn't.

This is awesome. Thanks!

1

u/GaryBuseyIsMyName 10h ago

Thats awesome! Directly north of Cleveland and I never knew that existed

1

u/Dazzling_Marzipan474 10h ago

Did you happen to take a video?

1

u/svt66 9h ago

Very hard to unsee the cliff even when I know what it is.

1

u/fuyu-no-kojika 8h ago

literally just zoom in and you will see it

1

u/DoYouReadThisOrThat 6h ago

The photo looks exactly like the map rendering. What has everyone in a uproar over this?

1

u/flightofthewhite_eel 1h ago

Took me a second but I do see it now

1

u/abdimamu 59m ago

Holy what an illusion

1

u/SoundOfUnder 2m ago

I didn't see the optical illusion for the longest time and i was wondering what everyone is seeing 🤣🙈

1

u/ParticularOk533 11h ago

This is one of the best I’ve seen!

0

u/Ganellon 12h ago edited 12h ago

Flat earther here. This checks out. Not an illusion. /s

1

u/underthesauceyuh 12h ago

Please say sike