A stone giant exhausted after his long travels decided to rest a while and drink from a pond far below. He lay down and started drinking from the crystal clear pond. So delicious was the water that he was unable to quench his thirst no matter how much he tried. Weeks have passed, months, years. The body of the stone giant became one with the hills and even his tongue has turned to water. This might seem like a fairy tale, yet you’ll be able to see this stone giant if you ever come to Wattens, Austria. He’s still there, guarding the entrance to Swarovski Kristallwelted, otherwise known as the Crystal Worlds. This is a one-of-a-kind theme park that was created by the people who first created Swarovski crystals.

Shimmering clearest blue and stretching as far as the eye can see, this is one of Iceland's famed crystal ice caves. The giant solid waves look frozen in time but they are slowly moving along as part of the Vatnajokull Glacier – which stretches across eight per cent of the island. The images were captured in February 2014 by British photographer Rob Lott, 49. Photo: A wide view of Rob Lott in the crystal ice cave in the Vatnajokull Glacier, Iceland. (Photo by Rob Lott/Barcroft Media)

People will spout about impermanence of digital records, but books are really fragile, too. Alexis Arnold from San Francisco wanted to illustrate that with her project The Crystallized Book: collecting books and growing Borax crystals on them. Books range from literature classics to magazines, and there’s even a mysterious and arcane tome called “Linux: The Complete Manual”.

Dutch artist Suzan Drummen‘s large-scale floor installations are mesmerizing and complex circular patterns made out of mirrors and brightly colored glass. The fractal-like arrangements feature ornate and elaborate circles growing exponentially out of each other and vibrant rings of spiraling colors winding into the surface of the floor. They are composed of crystals, chromed metal, precious stones, mirrors and optical glass. A sensory experience, and visually stimulating, the glittering installations play with the architecture of the space — climbing up walls and sweeping across the surfaces — examining the idea of illusion and optical effects.

The Verzasca is a Swiss 30-km long mountain river originating at Pizzo Barone and flowing into Lake Maggiore. It is known for its clear turquoise water and vibrant colored rocks, as well as its treacherous currents. The Verzasca Dam is a few kilometers upriver from this lake.

Artist Vik Muniz is known for his gigantic composite installations and sculptures created from thousands of individual objects. In this new collaboration with artist and MIT researcher Marcelo Coelho, Muniz takes the opposite approach and explores the microscopic with a new series of sandcastles etched onto individual grains of sand.