These clever 18 optical illusions simply aren’t what they seem

Or dastardly optical illusion photo? This beautiful building in Paris seems to be sinking, but it’s a trick: it’s actually the green lawn that goes uphill. Just tilt the picture to line up the building straight, and you’ll see the French pigeons in the foreground making their way up a grassy green slope. Mon Dieu!

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Or strange erosion in a slot canyon in Utah? These holes in the rock of Little Wild Horse Canyon look a lot like delicious melting Swiss cheese, but this funny optical illusion is just a product of wind, water, and time. Fondue, on the other hand, is a product of the 1970s, cheese, and heat. Is anyone else hungry now?

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Or another of the mind-bending optical illusion photos you can take at the Bolivian salt flats? The world’s largest salt flats, Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, are so incredibly flat and level for miles and miles that the horizon line seems to go on forever. Without any depth perception, the eye is tricked into falling for amazing optical illusion photos like this one!

Or two curious bovines? There probably isn’t a zombie cow problem in the mountains of Northern Spain, but if there were, it might look a little like this. Watch out, brown cow! Or maybe it’s one cow head, two bodies? Either way, we’ll leave them to it.

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Or just a low angle making this slim building look like a front? If you’re familiar with the Flatiron Building in Manhattan, New York City, then you know how an oddly shaped building (in this case, a weird, triangular one) can appear flat or fake from different angles.

Or a perfectly mirrored bridge? The staggered construction of this beautiful bridge over the Manzanares River in Madrid, Spain, makes its reflection look like stairs leading up from the still water.

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Or wooden stairwell? Viewed from the ground floor, the wooden planks of this staircase and the landing roofs create an optical illusion photo that messes with your eyes, seeming to go up and up. How many stories can you see?

Or is he simply flying in the foreground? Relative to the size of the woman in this optical illusion photo, the bird passing over her head appears enormous. But he’s probably just closer to the camera than she is. We hope.

Or a trick of perspective at Scotland’s Ladybower Reservoir? This clever picture might be the ultimate in optical illusion photos. A human hand holding a plug over the reservoir spillway, which appears to be draining fast. It does look like a lovely place for a dip though if a bit cold.

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Source: RD.com