Do these stairs go up or down? Optical illusion will leave you nauseous
Optical illusion that makes you sick… Was this photo taken at the top or bottom of the stairs?
- This optical illusion has sparked fierce debate on the internet – can you come up with the correct answer?
- The photo of a dimly lit staircase in a cave in California has gone viral as people try to figure out whether they are looking up or down the stairs
It’s a photo that has sparked fierce debate all over the internet.
This optical illusion has people scratching their heads trying to figure out whether this photo was taken from the top or bottom of these stairs.
The photo was taken in a dimly lit tunnel in a California cave that has been a tourist attraction since 1905.
It has caused a lot of confusion as the perspective of the photo can be seen both up and down.
Looking into the tunnel in the photo, visitors to the cave can be seen on the steps and there appears to be a ‘Low Ceiling’ sign warning people climbing up – or are they climbing down?
This optical illusion has people scratching their heads trying to figure out if this staircase goes up or down
Survey
Does the staircase lead up or down in this optical illusion?
- Upwards 2076 votes
- Down 1143 votes
The angle of the handrails confuses things further, as they can tilt upwards before leveling, or slope downwards before taking a steeper incline.
There has been a lot of discussion on social media about the different views.
One Reddit user commented, “There’s no point going down at all unless the stairs end in a long vertical drop in which people float.”
Another added, “Downstairs, you can tell by the shadows on the left side of the stairs.”
And a third said, “At first I was like ‘it’s obviously over’ and then I blinked and now it’s impossible to say.”
But there is a correct answer to this brain-bending puzzle.
The tunnel, which has an extremely low ceiling, was carved in 1902 by Chinese workers with only a shovel and pickaxe under the supervision of German artist Gustav Schultz
There has been a lot of discussion on social media about the different views, but the correct answer is that the stairs go down before the cave opens onto a beautiful view of the sea
The correct answer is that the stairs go down before the cave opens for a beautiful view of the sea.
Visitors must descend 145 steps, most of them uneven, slippery and narrow, in Sunny Jim’s Sea Cave to reach the bottom.
Once there, the light streams in and you can watch the water flow in and out of the cave from the viewing platform.
The tunnel, which has an extremely low ceiling, was carved in 1902 by Chinese workers with only a shovel and pickaxe under the supervision of German artist Gustav Schultz.
And it was used by bootleggers to smuggle alcohol and opium into San Diego during Prohibition between 1920 and 1933, when the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol was prohibited.
Similar optical illusions have long divided the internet and sparked heated arguments among friends and family.
One of the most famous was the two-tone dress in 2015 that some people saw as blue and black and others as white and gold.
Internet sensation: This photo of the dress has sparked debate, with viewers disagreeing on the color
The photo of the dress was first posted to Tumblr by Caitlin McNeill, a 21-year-old aspiring singer from Scotland, after noticing that her friends saw different colors in the photo.
It quickly became an online sensation with posts arguing about the dress’s original colors — and the science behind the debate — being viewed and shared millions of times.