This photo caused heated discussions on the Internet.

this an optical illusion had people scratching their heads trying to figure out if this photo was taken from above or below this flight of stairs.

The photo was taken in a dimly lit tunnel located in a California a cave that has been a tourist attraction since 1905.

This caused a lot of confusion, as the angle of the photo can be viewed either up or down.

Looking into the tunnel in the photo, visitors to the cave can be seen on the steps and a “Low Ceiling” sign warning people going up – or are they going down?

Survey

In this optical illusion, are the stairs leading up or down?

• Up 202 votes
• Down 111 votes

The angle of the railing makes things even more confusing, as they can either slope up before leveling out, or slope down before taking on a steeper slope.

There was a lot of discussion on social media about different views.

One Reddit user commented: “Going down doesn’t make any sense unless the stairs end in a long vertical drop that sends people flying.”

Another added: “Down, you can see it by the shadow on the left side of the stairs.”

And a third said: “At first I thought it was ‘obvious’ and then I blinked and now it’s impossible to tell.”

But there is a correct answer to this puzzle.

The extremely low-ceilinged tunnel was carved in 1902 by Chinese laborers using a single shovel and pickaxe under the guidance of German artist Gustav Schulz

There has been a lot of debate on social media about different views, but the correct answer is that the stairs go down before the cave opens up to a beautiful view of the sea

The correct answer is that the stairs go down before the cave offers a wonderful view of the sea.

Visitors must descend 145 steps, most of them uneven, slippery and narrow, in the Sunny Jim Sea Cave to reach the bottom.

Once there, the light floods in and you can watch the water flow into and out of the cave from the observation deck.

The tunnel, with its very low ceiling, was carved in 1902 by a Chinese worker with a single shovel and pick, under the guidance of German artist Gustav Schulz.

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 caused heated arguments between friends and family.

One of the most famous was a two-tone dress in 2015, seen by some as blue and black and by others as white and gold.

Internet sensation: This photo of the dress sparked a debate, and viewers disagreed about the color

The photo of the dress was first posted on Tumblr by Caitlin McNeil, a 21-year-old aspiring singer from Scotland, after noticing that her friends were seeing different colors in the photo.

It quickly became an internet sensation, with posts debating the original colors of the dress – and the science behind the debate – being viewed and shared millions of times.