Bakkagerði is a small village in Borgarfjörður Eystri on Iceland’s remote east coast, surrounded by steep mountains, narrow valleys, and the North Atlantic. The village serves as the main settlement and service center for the fjord, with a small harbor and colorful houses scattered beneath the surrounding peaks. Its isolated location gives Bakkagerði a strong connection to the landscape and to traditional rural life.

Kushiro is a port city on the eastern coast of Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost main island. The city faces the Pacific Ocean and is known for its fishing industry, wetlands, and cool maritime climate. Fog drifting in from the sea is common during warmer months and has become one of Kushiro’s defining natural features.

Oran is a major port city on Algeria’s western Mediterranean coast, set around a broad bay beneath the hills of Mount Murdjadjo. Its urban landscape combines a busy harbour, broad avenues, older quarters, and coastal neighborhoods. Oran is also strongly associated with raï music, a popular Algerian style that developed in the western part of the country.

Giant’s Causeway is a remarkable coastal formation on the north coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, where roughly 40,000 interlocking basalt columns extend from the foot of the cliffs into the sea. Most columns have a distinctive polygonal shape, created as layers of molten basalt cooled and contracted. The site forms part of the Giant’s Causeway and Causeway Coast UNESCO World Heritage Site and is protected as an important geological landscape.

Set along the edge of the Anti-Atlas and the northern reaches of the desert, Tata offers a landscape shaped by sun, stone, and water. The town sits within a wide oasis valley, where palm groves stretch across the land in sharp contrast to the surrounding dry hills. Life here depends on careful use of water, and visitors quickly notice how every field and garden is planned with purpose. The result is a setting that feels both remote and deeply connected to the land.