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October 26th, 2026
Daily puzzle · Hard · Satellite map
Theme: Technicolor Terrain: Striped and Painted Deserts
Each of these dry landscapes owes its rainbow hues to minerals leaching through layered sediment over millions of years. Arizona's Painted Desert reveals bands of red, lavender and gray clay beneath the Colorado Plateau, while China's Zhangye Danxia shows ridges striped like folded fabric from iron and trace minerals. Peru's Vinicunca got its pink and turquoise stripes only recently, after melting glacier ice exposed mineral layers long hidden beneath it, and Iran's Rainbow Valley on Hormuz Island is colored by volcanic ochre soils. Australia's Rainbow Valley, near the MacDonnell Ranges, rounds out the set with sandstone cliffs banded in white, orange and red from ancient groundwater staining.
1
Painted Desert, United StatesThis badlands region in northern Arizona is known for its sweeping bands of red, orange and gray mudstone.
2
Zhangye Danxia, ChinaThis landform in Gansu province is famous for sandstone and siltstone ridges striped in red, yellow and green.
3
Vinicunca, PeruAlso called Rainbow Mountain, this Andean peak near Cusco shows pink, turquoise and gold mineral stripes.
4
Hormuz Island, IranThis small island in the Strait of Hormuz has soil in shades of red, yellow and purple from volcanic minerals.
5
Rainbow Valley, AustraliaThis conservation reserve south of Alice Springs features sandstone bluffs banded by ancient mineral staining.