Anomalous Islands

Aerial view of Pigeon Key, with the partially decimated Overseas Railroad bridge running parallel to the new Seven Mile Bridge. - Overseas Railroad and Pigeon Key in Monroe County, Florida
Monroe County, Florida

Overseas Railroad and Pigeon Key

Island ghost town detailing Flagler's folly in building the Overseas Railroad

Pigeon Key has been abandoned twice: first by a devastating hurricane on Labor Day 1935 that killed the vast majority of its road - and railroad-building inhabitants, and again in 1982 when a new Seven Mile Bridge was opened, passing a few hundred me... »

Anomalous Islands | Submitted by littlebrumble

Solovki in Russia, Europe
Russia, Europe

Solovki

Monastery, army base, and infamous Soviet Gulag in the far Russian north

Solovki, or Solovetsky Islands as they are officially known are a tiny archipelago hidden in the most remote corner of Europe, in the far north of the continent, in Onega Bay of White Sea... »

Anomalous Islands | Submitted by stanestane

Fort Jefferson - Dry Tortugas in Key West, Florida
Key West, Florida

Dry Tortugas

Remote Florida islands have a history of sea turtles, sunken treasures, and one of the world's largest coastal brick fortresses

Juan Ponce de Leon first stumbled upon this stretch of islands in 1513, back when they were nothing more than clusters of coral inhabited by sea turtles... »

Watery Wonders | Submitted by anhie nguyen

Entrance - Svalbard Seed Bank in Norway, Europe
Norway, Europe

Svalbard Seed Bank

Cold storage for agricultural biodiversity

Your grandma is right. The bananas that you can buy today in your local supermarket are not as sweet as the ones that she ate in her childhood... »

Subterranean Sites | Submitted by stanestane

Jindo-Modo Landbridge in Chindo-gun, South Korea
Chindo-gun, South Korea

Jindo-Modo Landbridge

Landbridge created by the South Korean version of Moses

The story of Moses parting the Red Sea in order to save the Israelites from the Egyptians is well-known. South Koreans have a similar story. Their version is that the Island of Jindo was attacked by vicious tigers... »

Natural Wonders | Submitted by michelle

View from the water. - Great Isaac Cay in North America, Globe
North America, Globe

Great Isaac Cay

Post-apocolyptic paradise in the form of a haunted lighthouse left to crumble into the Atlantic

Erected in the 1850s to prevent the Bermuda Triangle from disappearing merchant ships, the 152-foot tall Great Isaac Lighthouse has become more of a participant in the area's mysteries than protector... »

Watery Wonders | Submitted by littlebrumble

Bouvet Island in Norway, Europe
Norway, Europe

Bouvet Island

The world's most remote island

For a place known as "the loneliest place on earth" a surprising number of people have tried to claim it as their own... »

Anomalous Islands | Submitted by cathar

Satellite photo - Nauru in Republic of Nauru, Oceania
Republic of Nauru, Oceania

Nauru

"The country that ate itself," Nauru has been eighty percent destroyed by strip mining

Known as the country that ate itself, Nauru is, along with the islands of Banaba (Ocean Island) in Kiribati and Makatea in French Polynesia, one of three big "phosphate rocks" of the Pacific... »

Anomalous Islands | Submitted by stanestane

Monkey Island in

Monkey Island

This small primate research island is teeming with playing, fighting wild monkeys

In 1938, four hundred and nine Rhesus Macaque monkeys were dropped off on Cayo Santiago. Today, known as Monkey Island, the nine hundred and fifty descendants of those founder monkeys run free on the island... »

Natural Wonders | Submitted by Anonymous

Snake Island - Snake Island - Ilha de Queimada Grande in Estado de São Paulo, Brazil
Estado de São Paulo, Brazil

Snake Island - Ilha de Queimada Grande

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

Off the shore of Brazil, almost due south of the heart of São Paulo, is la Ilha de Queimada Grande. The island is untouched by human developers, and for very good reason... »

Anomalous Islands | Submitted by Ushanka