We often talk about excessive noise, whether it’s in reference to occupational or environmental noise, but it’s not very often that we talk about quiet places.
From some of the remotest corners of the world to technological soundproof solutions, we’ve curated a list of the top 10 quietest places to visit on earth.
10. Tak Be Ha Cenote, Mexico
Last but by no means least, the cathedral-like underwater caves of the Yucatan Peninsula are among the last unspoiled places in the world. Among its nearly 7,000 caves, the Tak Be Ha Cenote is said to be one of the quietest, with only the occasional sound of dripping water.
Did you know: Cenotes are holes of fresh water in the jungle. There are different types of cenotes; open-cenotes, and cave-cenotes. The oldest ones are the ones that are completely open.
9. Antarctica
This frozen continent has never been permanently occupied by man with no towns or villages, and a landscape only broken up by the odd research station or expedition hut.
Did you know: Antarctica holds most of the world’s fresh water! An incredible 60-90% of the world’s fresh water is locked away in Antarctica’s vast ice sheet, the largest ice sheet on earth covering 14 million km2.
8. Makgadikgadi Pans, Botswana
Spanning 3,900 square kilometres, the Makgadikgadi Pan – one of the world’s largest salt flats – sits in the middle of a dry desert in north-east Botswana. It is all that remains of the defunct Makgadikgadi Lake and the only plant life is a thin layer of blue/green algae. Very little wildlife exists in the area during the dry season but that all changes following the rains, so this should only be on the list for certain months of the year strictly speaking.
Did you know: Studies suggest that modern Homo sapiens began to evolve in this region 200,000 years ago when it was a vast, exceptionally fertile area of lakes, rivers, marshes, woodlands and grasslands.
7. Zurich, Switzerland
Silent sanctuaries are hard to come by in urban cityscapes, but Zurich might be your best bet, according to the World Hearing Index.
A survey done earlier this year identified the Swiss city and the least noise polluted in the world, based on people’s hearing ability assessed from 200,000 hearing tests worldwide and research from the World Health Organization on noise pollution across 50 locations.
Extra Trivia: The Top 10 Quietest Cities
- Zurich, Switzerland
- Vienna, Austria
- Oslo, Norway
- Munich, Germany
- Stockholm, Sweden
- Dusseldorf, Germany
- Hamburg, Germany
- Portland, US
- Cologne, Germany
- Amsterdam, Netherland
6. Landmannalaugar, Iceland
Looking for quiet open roads? Travellers says the Landmannalaugar in Iceland is hard to beat. Not only can you go miles without seeing anyone there are some incredibly silent volcanic patches all throughout Iceland.
Did you know: The natural hot spring adds more value to this beautiful valley. Visitors can freely bathe all year round and explore this extraordinary site.
5. Kielder Mires, England
At last a UK entry! – Northumberland’s Kielder Mires (England’s largest area of blanket bog) was found to be the quietest place in Britain a few years ago, based on factors such as the distance from the nearest road or flight path.
Did you know: Kielder Mires sits on the western outpost of Kielder Water and Forest Park which spans 250 square miles, and is the largest planted forest in England with 150 million trees.
4. Kelso Dunes, Mojave Desert, US
The Mojave Desert is famed for its vistas and harsh living environment which accounts for its lack of wildlife, planes or cars. The scorching summer heat keeps run-of-the-mill visitors away leaving any intrepid travellers to enjoy the sound of silence.
Did you know: This unique and isolated dune system rises more than 600 feet above the desert floor, and the colour of the dunes is created from many golden rose quartz particles.
3. Olympic National Park, Washington, US
At last a more natural entry to the charts; the One Square Inch of Silence in Washington’s Olympic National Park, located within the Hoh Rainforest area of the park. This scrap of wilderness offers a “diverse natural soundscape combined with substantial periods of natural quiet.”
Apparently, the park contains the largest intact coniferous forest across the Lower 48 US states and has one of the most pristine, untouched and ecologically diverse environments in the country. It is frequently monitored for possible noise intrusions.
Did you know: The Olympic National Park covers more than 900,000 acres, has over 3,000 miles of rivers and streams, 60 named glaciers and 1 national natural landmark?
2. Building 87, Washington, US
Next on our list of quietest places on Earth is the place described as “where sound goes to die”. This Microsoft research lab in the city of Redmond, Washington, was officially the quietest place on Earth until November 2021, according to Guinness World Records.
The silent space, created by the tech company for optimal audio and device testing, is an anechoic chamber – a room insulated from exterior sounds and designed to absorb all reflections of sound and electromagnetic waves inside, making it completely echo-free.
1. Orfield Laboratories, Minnesota, US
Top of our list is the anechoic chamber that can be found at the Orfield Laboratories in Minneapolis, which reclaimed the Guinness record in November 2021.
Tours of the facility can be booked through its website, but it warns that visitors cannot be in the chamber alone for any significant amount of time without supervision. Journalists, however, have been left alone there, in the dark. Most lasted for less than 20 minutes, tortured by the absence of noise – apart from the sound of their own bodies.
If you fancy a sound-free session a little closer to home, there is an anechoic chamber at the University of Salford which is open to the public on a few dates each year; definitely worth a Google search I think!
So there you have it! The top 10 quietest places on earth. Have you ever visited any of these eerily quiet spaces?
Yes I have. 50 years ago myself and a friend were hiking out from Mt. Olympus in Olympic Nation Park. We’d learned of a fallen climber who may have been dead (He turned out to be fine.) Our group decided to send two of us out the eleven miles back to the trail head for help. We were on snowshoes and it was the dead of night, dark as can be and snowing hard. When we’d stop to rest we could turn off our head lamps, put our hands in front of our faces and not see them. And we could hear two sounds; the sound of the falling snow landing on already deep snow, and the sound of our own beating hearts. I’ll never forget it!