Plains and Plateaus of the World by Drone

Contributor and pilot FreD served up this epic video of the wildllife of the Altiplano in northern Chile.  Also known as the Andean Plain or the Bolivian Plain, the Altiplano is a key component of the Andes Mountain system.  It is the second largest high plateau in the world after the Tibetan Plateau.  It is dominated by vicuna and llama herding, species which you'll see in abundance in this spectacular video.  Most of the Antiplano territory is in Bolivia and Peru; it covers only a small amount of territory in Chile.

As much as anything, the Great Plains region of the United States is known for a long-vanished sight: massive herds of bison (also known as American Buffalo), which at one point numbered over 25 million in population in North America.  While the species was nearly extinguished as American settlement moved inexorably west there has been some (modest) recovery in the population.  In this aerial video by Aerialphoto_brandon you'll see a few bison on the plains of northwestern Oklahoma.

Alberta is the Canadian province where the prairies of central Canada and the mountains of western Canada meet.  Contributor and drone pilot Myworldphoto created this short but extremely impressive video of the southern part of the province, not far from the country's southern border with the United States.  While the Canadian Rockies are visible in the background, the aerial video shows a side of Alberta such as expansive canola fields which resemble the landscape of Saskatchewan, the province to its east.  

Although the Eastern European nation of Moldova is close to both the Carpathian Mountains and the Black Sea, it has a distinctive landscape devoid of mountains or coastline.  The dominating features of this former Republic of the USSR are two rivers (the Dniester and the Prut, the latter a Danube tributary) between which most of the country lies, and the Moldavian Plateau which covers much of it.  In this video, Skycinema gives us an epic aerial view of this landscape in the northern part of the country.

Northern India's dominant physical features are the Himalayan Mountains and the great Indo-Gangeatic Plain which runs to their south.  The latter is one of the world's great "flat spots" and its fertile soil feeds hundreds of millions.  In this drone video by Avijit Sarkar, you'll get a bird's eye view of the magnificent plain in North Bengal, the northern area of the Indian state of West Bengal.  Note both the vastness of the plain and the rather sudden shift to the mountainous north in the distance.  

Khuisiin Naiman Lake is a large freshwater body in the landlocked Northeast Asian country of Mongolia.  The oddly-shaped lake is located near the geographic center of the country, to the southwest of the capital city Ulan Bator.  The lake sits nearly 2.4k meters (about 8k ft) above sea level on the Great Mongolian Plateau, one of the most important geological features of Central Asia.  Contributor Bagi Max used a drone to create an unforgettable aerial tour of this incredibly beautiful place during the peak of Autumn colors. 

One of the defining geographical features of Hungary is the landform known as the Great Hungarian Plain, an area which covers much of Hungary as well as parts of six other Central and Southeast European countries.  Like the Great Plains in the USA, it's an area of grassy flat land and rolling hills.  Because of its lack of natural defenses, the Plain has been the site of many military campaigns in history.  In this video, you'll get a bird's eye view of the great Plain near Hortobágy in east-central Hungary.

The North European Plain represents one of the world's top windpower resources.  It's no surprise then that the world's largest wind turbine company is Danish, and that Germany had the third largest windpower fleet by installed capacity as of 2017.  In this video, contributor and pilot Skydronauts used a DJI Mavic Pro drone to film some of the GE turbines at the Alsleben Wind Project.  The project, located in the North German state of Saxony-Anhalt, is one of the country's largest installations.

Contributor and pilot IDStudio created this beautiful drone video from a town in the northwestern corner of Serbia, near its borders with its neighbors Bosnia Herzegovina and Croatia.  Adaševci is a small town in the province of Vojvodina, which covers much of the northern portion of this country which was part of the former Yugoslavia.  It's in an area called the Pannonian Plain, also known as the Carpathian Basin, which is home to some of the most fertile land in Southeastern Europe.   

In the middle of the Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar, the Irrawaddy River makes a large bend which created a large area of plains.  On this fertile plain grew the Pagan Empire, one of the two main political forces in Southeast Asia in the 12th and 13th centuries (the other being the Khmer Rouge in present-day Cambodia).  During this time, it was home to literally thousands of Buddhist pagodas and temples.  See these Sacred Plains from above in this amazing drone video by contributor and pilot Xavigator.  

One of the defining geographical features of Europe is the great plain which stretches from northern France all the way to northern Poland.  The Great North European Plain is home to some of Europe's most important agricultural areas, as well as major cities like Amsterdam, Berlin, and Warsaw.  Given the lack of mountainous obstacles, it's also home to some of the most fought over land in the world.  In this video by The Art of Drones, you'll get an epic bird's eye view of the countryside of the Netherlands, at the western end of the great plain.

The great Serengeti, which means "endless plains", is one of the most prominent geographical features of Sub-Saharan Africa.  It covers much of northern Tanzania and part of neighboring Kenya.  The Serengeti is known for having some of the world's largest concentrations of dozens of large mammals (including lions) as well as hundreds of bird species.  In this dronie video by Yassin Skart, you'll get an epic view of the great serengeti, which is considered one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa.

In this video, contributor and drone pilot Projekte uses a drone to remind us that some of the world's largest plains aren't actually called "plains".  This video was shot in Eastern Colorado in the USA, on the Great Plains.  The video is entitled "Safari" to show how similar the terrain appears to the most famous plain in Africa - the great Serengeti, which runs across much of Tanzania and is considered the world's best safari destination.  Watch the video and picture roaming zebras and lions! 

One of Australia's more amazing topographical features is the Great Australian Bight.  The bay formed by this gigantic bend lies off the country's southern coast, covering (depending on geographical definitions) between two and four of its states.  The core part of the Bight is the area off of the Nularbor, a giant treeless area with coastal cliffs that runs for hundreds of mi/km.  In this video, Airscape gives us a bird's eye view of these cliffs with a dronie pull-out shot over the Bight in South Australia. 

Among the more amazing natural sights in Turkey's Central Anatolia region is Lake Tuz.  It's the second largest lake in Turkey (after Lake Van in Eastern Anatolia) as well as one of the largest salt lakes in the world.  Located roughly between the cities of Konya and Ankara, the lake covers about 1.6k square km (a bit over 600 square mi).  It is home to one of the world's largest bird sanctuaries.  Alp Karaguelle created this epic drone selfie flying over this amazing salt lake on the great Central Anatolian Plain.

If you've heard the term the "Great Plain of Northern Europe" and wondered what it really meant, this drone video by top contributor and pilot Rlardon will give you an excellent visual picture.  This footage was shot over the Zuid-Beveland Peninsula in the Dutch province of Zeeland, as well as over the Belgian towns of Straboek and Wijnegem.  These areas, like most of the Benelux country region, are part of a vast plain which extends southwards from here to western France, down to the Pyrenees.  

Top AirVuz contributor nevinxavier brings us this fantastic drone video of Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt flat.  The flats cover an area of about 10k square km (around 3.6k square mi.) of the Bolivian Antiplano (itself part of the Andes system) in the Potosi Department in the southwestern corner of the country.  In effect a giant mirror, the Salar de Uyuni was used as a filming location for the Star Wars film the Last Jedi (2017), the eighth installment in the series; the flats "played the role" of Planet Crait.

Content creator and drone pilot CarrandDrone gives us a nice bird's eye view of the Wheat Belt in the interior of the vast state of Western Australia.  Mukinbudin is a small town with a population of less than 1,000 inhabitants, situated a few hours drive due east of the WA capital city Perth.  The video will give you a sense of the beauty and endless horizons of Western Australia, a state which is roughly 4x the size of the state of Texas in the USA by land area and dwarfs the entire Great Plains area of the USA.   

While northern Italy is thought of as being covered in mountains, it's actually more accurate to say it's surrounded by mountains: specifically, various sub-ranges of the Alps and Apennines.  In between, there are large areas of plains, which are home to some of Italy's best farmland.  One of the most prominent is the great Lombardy Plain, which lies in the part of the region south of Milan.  You can see this very flat, fertile area from a bird's eye view, compliments of contributor and drone pilot Mark59.

Former Drone Video of the Week Finalist chill_side brings us this fantastic drone video from the plains of Russia.  The video was filmed around the Tsivil River, a relatively short waterway which is a tributary of the Volga.  It runs a course of about 170 km (around 110 mi.) through Chuvashia, a republic (essentially, an oblast or province) of the Volga Region.  The area filmed is part of a larger region known as the Volga Upland, a vast plateau which lies to the west of the great river bearing its name.

Content creator and pilot Lemelpictures used a DJI Inspire 2 drone to create this stunning video of a rural area of northwestern Poland in the Fall season.  The area is the Pomeranian Voivodeship (province) west of Gdansk, the provincial capital.  It's the heart of the historical region of Pomerania, which covers most of northwestern Poland and a part of northeastern Germany.  The area anchors the eastern end of the great North European Plain, which runs across the northern part of the continent.

Check out these aerial views of the Plain of Alsace is northeastern France, compliments of AirVuz contributor and drone pilot Lucas_Ang.   The plain is the heart of Alsace, a historical region which lies between the Vosges Mountains to the west and the Rhine River (also the border with Germany) to the east.   Along with its sister region Lorraine (which lies to its west) Alsace was ceded to Germany following France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1871 then retaken by France following Germany's defeat in World War I.  

Check out this stunning drone video of the region of Central Russia, compliments of AirVuz content creator and pilot Buots Vladimir.  The Central Federal District is one of the eight official regions of Russia; it consists of 18 oblasts (provinces) that form a rough arrow pointed to the east with the base being a stretch of Russia's western border.  The area forms the heart of the great East European Plain, which covers the former western Soviet republics and extends east to the Ural Mountains.  

The surreal beauty of the interior of the Baltic republic of Latvia is revealed in this highly cinematic drone video by contributor Nils Sokolovs.  Away from its Baltic Sea Coastline, interior Latvia lies in the heart of the great East European Plain, which stretches from eastern Poland all the way to Russia's Ural Mountains.    Given the country's wet weather and extensive marshlands, the countryside here is known for the thick fog which develops and covers the flat, serene landscapes.  

Most of Bangladesh is an alluvial plain, part of the Plain of Bengal which also covers portions of India.  The Banglashi portion of the plain is crossed with numerous rivers, most of which eventually feed into the Brahmaputra River, essentially the national river of Bangladesh and comparable in importance to the Ganges on the Indian sections of the plain.  In this drone video by SHohad, you'll get a bird's eye view of the Bangladeshi plain, whose agricultural output sustains the lives of many millions.  

If you don't think that plains areas can be beautiful, check out this drone video from Southern France by tonyfinn.  It's from an area called Camargue, which is an area in the delta of the River Rhône in the Bouches-du-Rhône Department.  It's roughly halfway between Marseille and Montpillier, two of the largest cities on the country's Mediterranean coastline.  It's the largest river delta in Western Europe, and like most deltas it's a haven for various flora and fauna, including over 400 identified species of birds. 

Check out this fantastic drone video from the windswept North European Plain in the Netherlands, compliments of AirVuz contributor and pilot By_ewold.  Using the small and versatile DJI Mavic Air drone, he filmed the area around the village of Conwerd.  Conwerd is located in Friesland, one of the two northernmost Dutch provinces.  The largest of the 12 provinces of the Netherlands by area (including water area), Friesland defines flat territory - its highest point is only 45 meters above sea level (148 ft.).