Today's Featured Places

Heidelberg Project

One man's attempt to create an artistic wonder on a run-down block in Detroit

Detroit, Michigan, US 

Sigurgeirs Bird Museum

Largest private bird collection in Iceland, formed from a tragic accident

Myvatn, Iceland 

Weeki Wachee: City of Live Mermaids

Welcome to old Florida, where a 1940s mermaid show is still enchanting visitors

 

Waitomo Glowworm Caves

Massive numbers of bioluminescent fungal gnat larvae illuminate these caves

Waitomo Caves, New Zealand 

Alnwick Poison Gardens

The sign at the garden gate reads "Warning, these plants can kill you"

United Kingdom 

Galletta Meadows Estate

Metal Jurassic Park on the side of a California Highway

 

Blue Cave

An ethereal glowing blue ocean cave in Croatia

Otok Bisevo, Croatia 

Snake Island - Ilha De Queimada Grande

Off-limits and full of venomous pit vipers, its nickname is frighteningly apt

 

Chernobyl

Chernobyl's ghost cities

Chornobyl', Ukraine 

Ueno Zoo Escaped Animal Drill

Beasts escape from Tokyo Zoo to the delight of Japanese children

Tokyo, Japan 

Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University

Buddhist university that allows English-language speakers the opportunity to study with monks in Thailand

Bangkok, Thailand 

Antarctic Sculpture Garden

Antarctica's only sculpture garden, it has art and penguins, but no plants in sight

 

Urology Museum

Fascinating museum dedicated to the under-appreciated medical history of urology features some wince-inducing devices

 

The Mall of America

Equal parts record-breaking temple to consumerism and bizarre fun park, it's more then you think it is...

Minnesota, US 

Baikal Seals

Some of the world's only freshwater seals live in one very special lake in Russia

Mys Nizhneye Izgolov'ye, Russia 

Sacred Crocodile Ponds of Paga

Ghana's most docile crocodiles hold the souls of the village ancestors

Paga, Ghana 

The Museum of Holography

A Museum of Holography frozen in 1974

Chicago, Illinois, US 

Auroville

An experimental utopian "city of the future" in rural India, which may hold a dark secret

 

Birobidzhan

Fascinating early attempt at a Jewish autonomous settlement

Birobidzhan, Russia 

Pentecost Island Land Dive

The world's most primitive form of bungee jumping takes place each spring in the island nation of Vanuatu

Pentecote, Vanuatu 

Kitum Cave

A salty cave excavated by elephants is the location of a deadly disease vector

Kenya 

Antogo Fishing Frenzy

Annual rush for a sacred desert lake's fish stock

Bamba, Mali 

Freetown Christiania

Danish tourist destination well known for open stalls where vendors sell marijuana on the street

Copenhagen, Denmark 

Philadelphia's Magic Gardens

Folk art environment, gallery space, and nonprofit showcasing the work of mosaicist Isaiah Zagar

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US 

Great Train Graveyard

On the outskirts of a desert trading village, steel giants have been destroyed by salt

Uyuni, Bolivia 

El Caminito del Rey (The King's Little Pathway)

Spanning the El Chorro gorge, this pathway in serious disrepair draws visitors hoping to cross it illegally

Alora, Spain 

Eartha

The world's largest rotating world

Yarmouth, Maine, US 

Skara Brae

Amazing and mysterious Neolithic settlement on Scotland's Orkney Islands.

Sandwick, United Kingdom 

Swayambhunath Monkey Temple

Sacred Buddhist home of some spiritual monkeys

Kathmandu, Nepal 
more »

Recently Added Places

Museum of Broken Relationships

Where the lovelorn find a home for their sentimental keepsakes

We all have different ways of dealing with the mementos left behind when a love is lost. Unable to let go, some of us hide the barrettes he gave us before he left town to “find himself” in a... »

Museums and Collections, Unique Collections | Edited by Rachel and Seth Teicher

Clone Factory

Japanese company creates clone dolls that reside in the "uncanny valley"

Japan is blazing the trail when it comes to developing synthetic humans. Seemingly lacking whatever it is that tends to give Westerners the willies when it comes to human replicas, the Japanese... »

Strange Science, Commercial Curiosities | Edited by Rachel

Glendurgan Garden Maze

The twists and turns of this serpentine maze are over 170 years old.

In its earliest beginnings in the 1820s, Glendurgan Gardens was thoughtfully laid out to sustain its design for ages to come, and like most amazing landscapes, it took ages to arrive at its... »

Extraordinary Flora, Horticultural Marvels, Mazes | Edited by serflac, Rachel and others

Woodland Hills, California, US

Old Trapper's Lodge Statues

A wild west scene starring life-sized wooden statues hides in the trees behind Pierce College

In 1941, former tracker John Ehn opened a motel in Burbank and called it “The Old Trapper's Lodge”. Ehn filled it with western memorabilia, weapons and pelts that represented his earlier vocation,... »

Unusual Monuments, Strange Statues | Edited by Rachel

Collegeville, Minnesota, US

The St. John's Bible

The first hand-illuminated, hand-written bible since the invention of the printing press

The lifelong dream of prolific calligrapher, Donald Jackson, to create a hand-illumanited and hand-written bible came true in 1998 through what is now known as the "Bible project". The Bible... »

Astounding Timepieces, Rites and Rituals | Edited by bboas, Annetta and 2 others

Explorers Club Headquarters

A treasure trove of exploration artifacts, books, and artwork

Behind appropriately impressive heavy doors and ornate turn of the century stained glass windows, the Explorers Club headquarters on East 70th street looks like it has been been there forever -... »

Wonder Cabinets, Natural History, Repositories of Knowledge, Dead Explorers | Edited by Annetta, Rachel and others

Waco Mammoth Site

Visitors can walk over the largest concentration of Columbian mammoths to have died from one event

In 1978, two men were hunting for arrowheads along the Bosque River in Waco, Texas, and came upon a curiously large bone. When they took it to be examined at the nearby Baylor University, they... »

Fascinating Fauna, Natural History | Edited by allison

Los Angeles, California, US

Lummis Castle el Alisal

Eccentric journalist builds himself a castle stone by stone

Charles F. Lummis was an author and historian who, after dropping out of Harvard in 1881, decided to walk from Cincinnati to Los Angeles in a pair of street shoes. He had been offered a job as a... »

Architectural Oddities, Eccentric Homes | Edited by serflac and Rachel

Nautilus House

Fantastical house shaped like a seashell brings aquatic design to architecture

A young family tired of their conventional home yearned to live in something a little more intergrated with nature. Their wish was granted by Javier Senosiain of Senosiain Arquitectos, a... »

Architectural Oddities, Eccentric Homes | Edited by Rachel

Museum of Prosciutto di Parma

Ham is serious business at the Prosciutto Museum-Serious, delicious business.

Prosciutto di Parma is not just slivers of salty goodness -- It is a delicacy seeped in tradition and technique, and is the pride of the city of Parma. The fame of Parma ham goes all the way back... »

Museums and Collections, Unique Collections | Edited by Rachel and Seth Teicher