Residents in a Chinese city have been stunned after a giant mirage of a 'ghost city' towered across the skyline.
The apparition
appeared earlier this month after heavy rainfall and humid conditions along the Xin'an River in Huanshan City in East China.
Tall buildings, mountains and trees appeared to rise up through the ghostly mist that had descended over the river at dusk. There is usually nothing buy sky across the horizon.
Amazed residents recorded the footage with some even suggesting that it could have been a 'vortex' to a lost civilisation.
The pictures have baffled experts who visited the city to check that there were not actually any of the building already there.
It is believed that the sight may have been a mirage - a form of illusion that is common in in humid weather.
The phenomenon is caused when moisture in the air becomes warmer than the temperature of water below.
As the rays of sunlight cross from the colder air into the warmer air it is 'bent' or refracted - creating a reflection in the air.
The patterns in the mirage are typically blurred and shimmering with a resemblance to human structures. They are similar to a reflection seen in water.
Although they happen occasionally, the mirage in China is believed to be one of the clearest ever recorded.
'It's really amazing, it looks like a scene in a movie, in a fairlyland,' said one resident.
She said that a number of similar sights had been seen recently although this one was the most spectacular.
A number of mirages have previous been reported in China. In 2006, English-language paper China Daily published four images of what it said were mirages off the coast of Eastern China's Shandong province.