{"id":361318,"date":"2026-03-27T17:01:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T17:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/361318\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T17:01:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T17:01:11","slug":"staggering-drone-images-show-three-colossal-whales-rising-from-a-forest-in-thailand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/361318\/","title":{"rendered":"Staggering drone images show three colossal ‘whales’ rising from a forest in Thailand"},"content":{"rendered":"

The world is filled with incredible rock formations: Australia\u2019s enormous red monolith,\u00a0Uluru; Northern Ireland’s dreamlike Giant’s Causeway; the United States’ hulking lump of granite, Half Dome. Then there’s Thailand’s Hin Sam Wan, or Three Whale Rock \u2013 perhaps the most surreal of them all.<\/p>\n

Like a family of giant whales, the 75-million-year-old\u00a0rock formation rises from an ocean of trees on a plateau high above the Mekong River in north-east Thailand.<\/p>\n

From above, the rock’s resemblance to a family of whales (mother, father and calf) is almost uncanny \u2013 the statuesque animals’ large, bulbous heads, dark-grey bodies and white jaws perhaps making them most akin to a pod of sperm whales<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The largest of the three whales is approximately 100m long \u2013 that’s roughly seven times the size of a large (real-life) sperm whale.<\/p>\n

A network of trails allows visitors to wander through lush forest, past waterfalls, tropical plants and singing birds, to the rock formation. From here, views stretch out across the mighty Mekong River and into Laos.<\/p>\n

One of the best ways to appreciate just how whale-like these boulders are is from above \u2013 as this selection of striking drone photos proves.<\/p>\n

\"HinThe ‘mother’ and ‘father’ whales. Credit: tawatchaiprakobkit\/Getty Images
\n\"HinHere, the ‘calf’ can be seen hiding in the wake of its parents. Credit: ST_travel\/Getty Images
\n\"HinSun sets over Hin Sam Wan. Credit: Pramote Polyamate\/Getty Images
\n\"HinA bird’s-eye view of the rock formation. Credit: Thirawatana Phaisalratana\/Getty Images
\n\"HinHin Sam Wan is surrounded by tropical forest. Credit: kckate16\/Getty Images
\n\"HinTourists stride out along the whales’ backs. Credit: bankerwin\/Getty Images
\n\"HinThe rock formation can be accessed via a network of walking trails. Credit: NonChanon\/Getty Images
\n\"HinThe Mekong River can be seen from atop Hin Sam Wan. Credit: Pramote Polyamate\/Getty Images
\nDrone footage captures the enormous size of Hin Sam Wan. Credit: Mr. Buddee Wiangngorn\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

More amazing stories from around the world<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The world is filled with incredible rock formations: Australia\u2019s enormous red monolith,\u00a0Uluru; Northern Ireland’s dreamlike Giant’s Causeway; the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[85,46,141,386],"class_list":["post-361318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}