Recent Activity

• February 26, 2011 missmarymac has been to The Athenian Agora
  

  Athens, Greece

  The Athenian Agora

  This ancient Greek "place of assembly" and marketplace is being revealed layer by layer below the modern Athens cityscape

  Lying right beneath the northern slope of Athens’s Acropolis is the ancient Athenian Agora. Walking through the Agora takes the visitor back through the place where Athens’s mighty heart once... »

  Relics and Reliquaries, Curious Places of Worship, Incredible Ruins, Repositories of Knowledge | Edited by Sam Teicher and Dylan

• February 26, 2011 missmarymac has been to The Meadowlands
  

  New Jersey, US

  The Meadowlands

  Infamous marsh filled with toxic waste, WWII-era London, and dead mobsters galore.

  Blame the Meadowlands for New Jersey’s reputation as a toxic wasteland of humanity rather than its billing of "The Garden State." On the other hand, the vast wetlands area is an intrepid urban... »

  Watery Wonders, Fiery Wonders, Disaster Areas | Edited by littlebrumble

• February 26, 2011 missmarymac has been to The Great Stalacpipe Organ
  

  The Great Stalacpipe Organ

  An organ located deep within a cave and whose "pipes" are the geological features of the cave itself

  Deep in the Luray Caverns of Virginia sits the largest musical instrument in the world. The Great Stalacpipe Organ appears at first to be a normal looking organ, but instead of pipes, the organ is... »

  Curious Caves, Musical Wonders, Subterranean Sites | Edited by Dylan and Henry

• February 26, 2011 missmarymac has been to The Natural Bridge
  

  The Natural Bridge

  A sacred site for Indians surveyed by George Washington and owned by both King George III and Thomas Jefferson.

  Often cited as having a place among the great wonders of the natural world, particularly by early visitors to the US, Virginia's Natural Bridge is an enormous natural limestone arch. Carved by... »

  Natural Wonders, Geological Oddities, Curious Caves, Museums and Collections, Unique Collections, Cultures and Civilizations , Curious Places of Worship | Edited by Annetta, meelar and others

• February 26, 2011 missmarymac has been to Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death
  

  Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death

  Eighteen miniature death-scene dioramas

  In the early half of the 20th century, forensic science was non-existent. Police coroners did not have to be medically trained and crime-scene investigation was minimal. All this would be changed,... »

  Strange Science, Outsider Art, Unique Collections, Crime and Punishment, Miniatures | Edited by dzamonja and Nicholas Jackson

• February 26, 2011 missmarymac has been to Joya de Ceren - The Pompeii of the New World
  

  Joya de Ceren - The Pompeii of the New World

  A Mayan village preserved for centuries in volcanic ash

  Joya de Cerén was a pre-Hispanic farming community that, like Pompeii and Herculaneum in Italy, was buried under an eruption of the Laguna Caldera volcano c. AD 600. Because of the exceptional... »

  Fiery Wonders, Ghost Towns, Lost Tribes, Incredible Ruins | Edited by Annetta and eliauw

• February 26, 2011 missmarymac liked Museé Fragonard
  

  Paris, France

  Museé Fragonard

  The only remaining collection of flayed figures made by French "madman" Honoré Fragonard

  Founded in 1766, the Fragonard Museum is one of the oldest museums in France. Honoré Fragonard was one of the first medical masters of France, and his extensive collection contains rooms devoted... »

  Strange Science, Medical Museums, Obscura Day Location | Edited by Dylan, Salamalecs and 2 others

• February 26, 2011 missmarymac liked Musee Dupuytren
  

  Paris, France

  Musee Dupuytren

  Weird wax anatomical models reside here, as do other anatomical specimens

  This collection of thousands of anatomical waxes, pathology and terratology specimens was almost lost to history. The museum's collection was started by French chemist and father of toxicology... »

  Medical Museums | Edited by Dylan, Henry and others

• February 26, 2011 missmarymac liked The Room of Endangered and Extinct Species
  

  Paris, France

  The Room of Endangered and Extinct Species

  A haunting collection of the vanished and disappearing natural world

  Holding 257 rare specimens, La Salle des Espèces Menacées et des Espèces Disparues (The Room of Endangered and Extinct Species) is a glimpse into natural worlds that human progress has pushed to... »

  Museums and Collections, Natural History, Long Now Locations | Edited by allison, Dylan and others

• February 26, 2011 missmarymac liked Dans le Noir?
  

  Paris, France

  Dans le Noir?

  "In the Dark" Restaurant in Paris offers dinner in complete darkness

  They say eating is a visual experience. Not at "Dans le Noir?" it isn't. Dinner in complete darkness is what Dans le Noir? offers. Judging from the majority of reviews, whether this is a good... »

  Commercial Curiosities, Bizarre Restaurants and Bars | Edited by Dylan, wythe and others

• February 26, 2011 missmarymac liked Museum of Eroticism
  

  Paris, France

  Museum of Eroticism

  Inside a former cabaret, seven floors of erotic art

  As a diversion from Paris' more serious renowned sights is Paris' Erotic Museum. Housed in a former cabaret, the museum fills seven floors with erotic art and artifacts from Europe, the Americas,... »

  Museums and Collections, Unique Collections | Edited by Madiha Bataineh, Nicholas Jackson and others

• February 26, 2011 missmarymac has been to Dubrovnik Cathedral Treasury (Riznica Katedrale)
  

  Dubrovnik Cathedral Treasury (Riznica Katedrale)

  A wunderkammer of gold and silver reliquaries and ancient saintly bones

  The 12th-century Dubrovnik Cathedral in Croatia is home to an extraordinary reliquary museum containing more than 200 ornate gold and silver reliquaries. The cathedral’s treasury, protected from... »

  Relics and Reliquaries | Edited by michelle, Dylan and others

• February 26, 2011 missmarymac has been to Plaster Citizens of Pompeii
  

  Plaster Citizens of Pompeii

  Their last minutes captured in plaster

  Those that did not flee the city of Pompeii in August of 79 AD were doomed. Buried for 1700 years under 30 feet of mud and ash and reduced by the centuries to skeletons, they remained entombed... »

  Memento Mori, Disaster Areas, Long Now Locations, Incredible Ruins | Edited by Annetta, Dylan and others

• February 26, 2011 missmarymac has been to Isola di San Michele
  

  Isola di San Michele

  Venice's island of the dead

  Across the waters from the Cannaregio district of Venice, a red walled island houses the city's dead. New by Venice standards, the cemetery has been the only official Christian burial grounds... »

  Memento Mori, Catacombs, Crypts, & Cemeteries | Edited by Annetta and Nicholas Jackson

• February 26, 2011 missmarymac has been to The dome illusion
  

  The dome illusion

  A master of trompe-l'oeil creates a stunning tourist-fooling dome out of a flat ceiling

  The Jesuit church of Saint Ignazio was supposed to have a glorious dome, but when the money ran out in 1642, the plans were scrapped. Instead of foregoing the dome entirely, painter and Jesuit... »

  Optical Oddities, Curious Places of Worship | Edited by Annetta, Sanglorian and others

• February 26, 2011 missmarymac has been to Torre Argentina - Roman Cat Sanctuary
  

  Torre Argentina - Roman Cat Sanctuary

  Hundreds of lucky felines haunt the ruins where Caesar was murdered

  In Rome the cats have an ancient temple-complex all to themselves. Known as Largo di Torre Argentina, this archaeological wonder was excavated as part of Mussolini's rebuilding efforts in 1929,... »

  Fascinating Fauna, Long Now Locations | Edited by Annetta, wythe and 2 others

• February 26, 2011 missmarymac has been to Pyramid of Cestius
  

  Pyramid of Cestius

  The only "Egyptian" pyramid in Europe and the legendary tomb of Remus

  Egyptomania gripped Rome in the wake of the conquest of Egypt in 30 BC. Both massive original artifacts and inspired copies cropped up all over the city, but only two actual pyramids were known to... »

  Catacombs, Crypts, & Cemeteries | Edited by Annetta, adam and 2 others

• February 26, 2011 missmarymac has been to Santa Maria della Concezione
  

  Santa Maria della Concezione

  The crypts of Capuchin friars decorated with the bones of over 4000 friars, including an entire "crypt of pelvises"

  In 1775, the Marquis de Sade wrote of it, “I have never seen anything more striking.” Granted, the crypt was to his tastes. Mark Twain wrote about it in his 1869 book Innocents Abroad. When... »

  Memento Mori, Relics and Reliquaries, Ossuaries, Mummies, Catacombs, Crypts, & Cemeteries, Curious Places of Worship | Edited by michelle, Dylan and 2 others