172 Items Tagged

Lost Wonders

Old maps of Lemuria show how science can sometimes go really wrong.

The Frenzy About the Weirdest Continent That Never Existed

Forget Atlantis, the lost land of lemurs had people in a tizzy.

Frank Jacobs January 19, 2024

Unveiling the Mystery of a Royal Wedding Dress Lost for 179 Years

Made famous by 'The Empress' on Netflix, Sisi and her missing garment provoked an imperial hunt over centuries.

Ronan O'Connell August 30, 2023

In an undated photo, American artist Keith Haring works on the colorful carousel he designed for the original 1987 Luna Luna. The carousel features three-dimensional characters based on the line-drawn figures he became famous for.

amusement parks

The Once and Future Luna Luna Art Amusement Park

Basquiat’s Ferris wheel, Dalí’s fun house, and other wild and whimsical designs are now being restored thanks in part to rap superstar Drake.

Sarah Durn December 5, 2023

Podcast: Broken Angel

Join us for a daily celebration of the world’s most wondrous, unexpected, even strange places.

The Podcast Team September 27, 2022

A work in progress: Carved from a single block of wood, the harp-like yazh features a distinctive peacock head.

Meet the Man Recreating Ancient Musical Instruments Lost to Time

Tharun Sekar's creations include the yazh, a harp-like instrument played in India 2,000 years ago.

Radhika Iyengar April 5, 2021

The well-preserved wreck lies nearly 300 feet below the surface.

Found: A Shipwrecked Nazi Steamer, Still Filled With Cargo

It carried soldiers, military vehicles, and sealed crates that divers can't wait to open.

Isaac Schultz October 21, 2020

Permanently Closed

New Taipei City, Taiwan

Ghost Mask Museum

One man's hand-sculpted collection of colorful masks representing a host of gruesome spirits.

Permanently Closed

London, England

PsychoBarn

A traditional American farmhouse plopped in the middle of a Piccadilly courtyard.

Vientiane, Laos

Lao National Museum

American bombs, morbid memorabilia, and graphic photographs tell the story of the CIA-led “Secret War” from the Pathet Lao perspective.

Permanently Closed

Water flows from the sticker covered pipe.

Anchorage, Alaska

Beluga Point Fresh Water Spring

Clean, cold drinking water flows from a nondescript pipe in a roadside rock face.

The Great Auk Sculpture.

Fogo Island, Newfoundland and Labrador

Great Auk Sculpture at Fogo Island

A memorial to a giant seabird that was hunted to extinction.

Permanently Closed

Sjö-Gunnarsbo sanatorium

Ulricehamn SV, Sweden

Sjö-Gunnarsbo Sanatorium

An abandoned, deteriorating tuberculosis hospital from the turn of the 20th century.

Honeoye Falls, New York

Fairy Houses of Mendon Ponds Park

An unassuming nature trail winds through dozens of tiny houses built for the wee people.

Grouping of gravestones, Comet Lodge Cemetery.

Seattle, Washington

Comet Lodge Cemetery

The gravestones in this lost burial ground were bulldozed and replaced with houses and a dog park.

Permanently Closed

Ticket to USSR.

Ticket to the USSR

This small museum is basically a time capsule of daily life in the Soviet Union.

Gondolas and Piazzetta di San Marco, Venice, c. 1900.

The Quest to Find the Lost Column of Venice

Led by a pipe-smoking Venetian diver, an eclectic team is searching for a legendary monument.

Sarah Laskow and Vittoria Traverso March 7, 2018

Dust storms arise you read the words of Sennacherib on the Aqueduct of Jerwan.

Al-Shikhan, Iraq

Aqueduct of Jerwan

The surviving pieces of an ancient aqueduct that may have fed into the lost Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Permanently Closed

The unofficial memorial garden for George Michael.

London, England

George Michael Memorial

An unsanctioned shrine that sprung up outside the late singer's home is causing a stir in London's Highgate neighborhood.