Escape: Travel Inspiration and Ideas
These gaping chasms certainly are a sight to be-hole-d. MailOnline Travel has scoured the globe for eye-popping images of the world's most jaw-dropping abysses - from stunning marine sinkholes to dizzyingly colossal shafts on land. Our journey into the world of inky black cavities takes in the world's largest sinkhole (inset) - Xiaozhai Tiankeng, or Heavenly Pit - a monster in China that at one point reaches 2,172 feet into the earth. Red Lake in Croatia (top left), Europe's largest sinkhole, is also on the list. It's 1,732ft deep and contains 565,034,667 cubic feet of water. Our marine sinkhole picks, meanwhile, include the deepest known underwater sinkhole - the Dragon Hole in the South China Sea - the epic Great Blue Hole in Belize (top right) and the beautiful Dean's Blue Hole in the Bahamas (bottom left). Notable sinkholes in Oregon, Australia (bottom right) and New Zealand also figure.