Xavier's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
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Turkmenistan

The Gates of Hell

A fiery crater has been burning in the Karakum Desert since 1971.
Alghero, Italy

Neptune's Grotto

Stalactites and stalagmites in a beautifully lit cave.
Los Angeles, California

Underground Tunnels of Los Angeles

During prohibition, corrupt city officials ran drinking dens under the streets of Downtown Los Angeles.
Naica, Mexico

Giant Crystals of Naica

A gargantuan crystal kingdom.
Rye, Colorado

Bishop Castle

The largest self-built castle in the U.S., six decades in the making.
Los Angeles, California

Bradbury Building

The legendary building that needed ghostly approval before being built.
Truro, Massachusetts

North Truro Air Force Station

This abandoned radar station from the Cold War era now only broadcasts a seriously ominous air of isolation.
Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts

Singing Beach at Manchester-By-The-Sea

Friction between grains of sand cause a curious "singing" sound.
Danvers, Massachusetts

Danvers State Hospital

The inspiration for H.P. Lovecraft's horror stories and Batman's Arkham Asylum is now a condominium complex.
Alexandria, Minnesota

Kensington Runestone

14th century Norse artifacts in Northwestern Minnesota could have proved a Viking landing before Columbus.
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Blaschka Glass Flowers

Impossibly life-like natural history models created out of glass by a father and son.
Boston, Massachusetts

Ether Monument

Statue commemorating the use of ether in anesthesia.
Boston, Massachusetts

Mapparium Globe

An enormous, inside-out glass globe built in 1935.
Cambridge, Massachusetts

MIT Edgerton Center

MIT students continue the legacy of beloved professor "Doc" Edgerton through learning by doing.
Boston, Massachusetts

The Ether Dome

19th-century operating theatre in which the use of ether was first demonstrated - plus, a skeleton and a mummy!
Cambridge, Massachusetts

MIT Museum: Arthur Ganson

Bouncing, delightful, mechanical art at the MIT Museum.
Castle Hill, New Zealand

Castle Hill

The Dalai Lama named this New Zealand landscape the "Spiritual Center of the Universe."
Paris, France

Museum of Vampires

The macabre collection of Jacques Sirgent, an expert scholar on the undead and all of their trappings.
Salem, New Hampshire

Mystery Hill: America's Stonehenge

America's oldest archaeological site or a muddled case of wishful thinking.
Ivrea, Italy

Battle of the Oranges

A 12th-century Italian skirmish gets reenacted with 500,000 pounds of flying citrus.
Prague, Czechia

Old New Synagogue

Synagogue built from the stones of Solomon's temple contains the golem of Prague.