World's Only Swirl Canyon

Around 85 kilometers from Pune, near a village called Nighoj, are what could be termed as the largest natural potholes in Asia :-). Its basically a thin but long gorge, with around 2 kilometers of black stone (most probably basault), shaped by the river into all swirly shapes imaginable. The local geological people also say its world's only "swirl canyon". Unlike Grand Canyon, which is created by the flow of the Colorado river digging top to bottom and which is also GRAND, the canyon at Nighoj are created by small hard pebbles that vigorously swirl in the river flow, grind the basault base and create circular holes in it. You can see a sample of the swirly effects in the pictures above. And yeah, the thing is not grand ... less than 100 feet deep may be and less than 3 kms long. But its is a sight to watch ... to see how some tiny stones and a [huge] chunk of water can make an otherwise dull and barren landscape look very interesting and ominous.

We could see the swirls in stone because its summer, otherwise we were told that in monsoon the place is full of deep swirling water, and putting foot in the water is more fun than suicide. As is always the case in India, people habe built a temple at the place where people flock to see the gorge and thank the goddess that they are not inside it.