HAVE you noticed anything strange about the beach in this picture?
At first glance, the more observant of you may have thought it was a lake, or inland beach, perhaps man-made.
But no – it's actually right on the coast.
We'll give you a clue: It's unlikely you'll get carried off by the 'current', or if you did, you wouldn't get washed away far, and you wouldn't make much progress if you decided to set off from it by boat.
That's right – Gulpiyuri beach in Llanes, Asturias is backwards. The usual mountain-sand-sea landscape is the wrong way round, and the sea stops at the mountain on the 'horizon'.
It's also largely thought to be the smallest beach in the world.
At just 50 metres long, it would take you less time to walk around a small flat than to stroll from one end of Gulpiyuri beach to the other.
And by the way, it does indeed have tides.
How does this happen?
Well, the sea – the main body of it, that is; the Cantabrian Sea along the northern strip of Spain, 'fed' by the Atlantic Ocean – filters into this 100-metre circle through a hole in the rock, so even though the sea off the actual Gulpiyuri beach is bordered entirely by mountains along its horizon, it still gets waves and something of a current.
Just that even at high tides and on a choppy, windy day, it's a bit too small to practise kite-surfing in, given that it's only double the length of a standard swimming pool.
The sea comes through a complex labyrinth of channels and caves in the mountain from the beach on the opposite side, landing in a dip in the sand, deepened over time and the action of the waves to form a permanent pool, complete with tides.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com