What is the oldest undisturbed and untouched forest in the world?

 Mount Lico, a mountain in northern Mozambique, Africa, stands 1,100 meters high with sheer cliffs reaching 700 meters. This makes Mount Lico extremely difficult for humans to climb. Who would want to climb a mountain that's 1,100 meters high when you could climb something higher but easier?

Mount Lico supports the growth of old-growth rainforest on its summit:

The forest has actually been untouched by humans. In 2018, a team of researchers and expert mountain climbers visited the forest (detected by Google Earth for scientific advancement) for exploration*. They discovered small animals that may or may not have been known to science (including a new butterfly species). Curiously, they noticed mysterious clay pots near a small stream located at the top of the mountain, and they assumed they were placed there for religious ceremonies. The most convincing perception of all the news about the Mount Lico rainforest is that it is untouched, inaccessible, and fortunately undisturbed for a very long time.

*For more information and photos of the Mount Lico Expedition and its exploration:

How Google Earth led a team of scientists to discover an untouched mountaintop rainforest

Translator's Note: I'll add some photos to show how great Mount Lico is:

Mount Lico from a distance.

The dense forest of Mount Lico when photographed from the air.

It takes a struggle to get to the top of the mountain.

This is the condition of the Mount Lico forest.

A new species of chameleon was discovered on Mount Lico.

A species of frog, breviceps, was found on Mount Lico.

A mysterious pot found in the rainforest of Mount Lico.

Documentation from National Geographic about the Mount Lico Expedition

Are there any Wonders of the World left untouched?

 Machhapuchhre, the “Matterhorn of Nepal”, a mountain in the Annapurna Himalayas, is off-limits to climbers to preserve its beauty. Its name, from the Nepali माछापुच्छ्रे, means “fishtail”, a reference to its twin peaks which together resemble the tail of a fish.

Machhapuchhre has special personal significance for me, mainly because it was my first glimpse of the Himalayas after a long rain-drenched week hiking the Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) Trail. I was tired, morose, spirits damp as my soggy socks, leeches clinging to my calves, frustrated that the non-stop rain had so far denied me my entire reason for being in Nepal — to see the highest mountains in the entire world, a dream I’d kept close to my heart since I first learned about the Himalayas in the Children’s Britannica as a kid — when the clouds parted and I saw Machhapuchhre’s twin peaks shining in the morning sun. It was glorious.

Here’s a photograph from my phone. The camera is terrible, but if you squint at the upper-right hand corner you’ll see Machhapuchhre:

To give you an idea of how I’d been hiking the whole week, here’s me in a trashbag I’m using as a makeshift rain jacket because I stupidly didn’t realize how rainy it’d be on the ABC trail, and so prepped as if I were going to hike in Southern California (where I’d done most of my hiking):

But I digress. Here’s a closer view of Machhapuchhre on the way to Chomrong, one of the small towns on the ABC trail. The rest of these photographs are, of course, not by me. (But damn I wish they were!)

Closer still, this time from Tadapani, another town on the ABC trail:

Different angle from the Annapurna Sanctuary:

Twin peaks up close:

Yet another different angle:

The Matterhorn for comparison, so you know why Machhapuchhre is called the “Matterhorn of Nepal”:

They both have tremendous vertical relief in a short horizontal distance, combined with a steep pointed pyramidal profile. Then again Machhapuchhre is 6,993 m to the Matterhorn’s 4,478 m, so you can think of Machhapuchhre as what you’d get if the Matterhorn started 8,000+ feet higher up.