johnmsparrow's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
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Paris, France

Le Chabanais

A grotto-like lodge decorated with gilded mosaics, rocks and a noisy waterfall was the setting for the most sumptuous pleasure house of 1900s Europe.
New York, New York

MoMath - The Museum of Mathematics

A Pythagorean funhouse that tries, successfully, to prove that math is the coolest thing ever.
San Francisco, California

The Wave Organ

A huge musical instrument played by the ocean.
Ishinomaki, Japan

Cat Island

On Japan's Tashirojima Island, cats are king.
London, England

Columbia Road Shops and Flower Market

The Columbia Road Flower Market is now open every Sunday, rain or shine.
London, England

Goodwin's Court

An easily overlooked stretch of ornate window fronts and gaslight lamps that could be right from the pages of Dickens.
London, England

Hoxton Street Monster Supplies

A special shop catering to the needs of things that go bump in the night, and also helps kids become writers.
Stockholm, Sweden

Stadsbiblioteket (Stockholm Public Library)

The library's graceful rotunda is like a bibliophile's temple.
Helsingborg, Sweden

Museum of Failure

From Coke II to Google Glass, this exhibit features some of the most spectacular commercial flops.
Helsinki, Finland

Sibelius Monument

An abstract monument to a symphonic composer.
Coral Gables, Florida

Venetian Pool

The only swimming pool listed on the National Register of Historic Places is emptied and refilled each day with naturally filtered water.
Dublin, Ireland

The Long Room Library at Trinity College

The gorgeous library at Trinity College is home to remarkable treasures of Irish identity.
Baltimore, Maryland

George Peabody Library

It's not hard to see why the historic Peabody Conservatory of Music's library has been described as a "cathedral of books."
Manchester, England

Chetham's Library

Dating back almost 400 years, the oldest public collection library in the United Kingdom was once the study hall of Karl Marx.
Manchester, England

John Rylands Research Institute and Library

A Victorian Gothic masterpiece housing a world-class collection of rare books and manuscripts.
Bisbee, Arizona

Bisbee Stairs

Stairs often replace streets on the steep slopes of this old mining town.
Munich, Germany

Umschreibung

A stairway to heaven, or to nowhere at all.
Hong Kong

Kowloon Walled City Park

Remnants of the most densely packed city in world history, that thrived on anarchy for 30 years.
Kawasaki, Japan

Anata No Warehouse

This faux-seedy Japanese arcade is made up to look like a maze of alleys straight out of a cyberpunk dystopia.
Norway

Svalbard Seed Bank

Cold storage for agricultural biodiversity.
Moulins, France

Mantin House

French Time Capsule-19th Century home revealed to the public.
Hauterives, France

Le Palais Idéal

This whimsical castle of grottoes was the labor of love of a French postman, and one of the greatest achievements of outsider architecture.
Sanremo, Italy

Old Bussana (Bussana Vecchia)

An ancient rogue artist community hidden next to one of the world's most glitzy and glamorous cities.