MeRiz's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
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Zionsville, Indiana

Antique Fan Museum

A collection of over 2000 air-moving devices of all kinds displayed in the Fanimation headquarters.
Bomarzo, Italy

The Monsters of Bomarzo

A 16th-century horror show built in a lovely Italian garden.
York, England

Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate

One of the shortest streets in York has an especially odd name.
Mantua, Italy

Lovers of Valdaro

A young Italian couple has been locked in an embrace for over 6,000 years.
Washington, D.C.

Culture House

A historic neighborhood church is reborn as a psychedelic arts collective.
Northome, Minnesota

The Lost 40

A mapping error in the 19th century made loggers think this section of the forest was underwater.
Sacramento, California

Sacramento's Original Street Level

The California capital city once stood 10 feet lower than it does today.
Rotterdam, Netherlands

Cube Houses

These slanted cubic abodes are a creative if odd solution to a zoning pickle.
Paris, France

Water Tank Beneath Palais Garnier

The subterranean "lake" below the Paris opera house inspired the Phantom of the Opera's lair.
Hong Kong

A Sky Full of Gods and Buddhas

Thousands of abandoned statues of deities are taken to this hillside in southern Hong Kong.
Hamelin Pool, Australia

The Stromatolites of Hamelin Pool

Living fossils in this remote Australian bay provide a glimpse of what Earth may have looked like 3.5 billion years ago.
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Xul Solar Museum

Xul Solar was an artist of alternate worlds, inventor of languages, and dreamer of utopias.
Cairo, Egypt

The Cairo Genizah

Hundreds of thousands of ancient documents offer a unique glimpse into Jewish life in Cairo.
Waxhaw, North Carolina

The Museum of the Alphabet

Trace the history of writing at this unusual North Carolina destination.
Matera, Italy

Sassi di Matera

People have been living in the cave houses on this Italian hillside since the Neolithic era.
Norway

Mount Halti Peak

Citizens of Norway want to gift the peak of Mount Halti to Finland for its 100th birthday.
Margate, England

Margate Shell Grotto

Grotto replete with mystical designs laid out in glued shell mosaics.
Godalming, England

Witley Wonder Underwater Ballroom

The hidden "ballroom" under a mansion lake was built by a criminal who ate a cyanide pill during his trial.
Otsuchi, Japan

Wind Telephone

A disconnected rotary phone for "calling" lost loved ones offered a unique way of dealing with grief in disaster-stricken Japan.
Larvik, Norway

The Rakke Compass

What might look like a cliffside sacrificial altar at first glance is actually a stone compass pointing to cities and lighthouses all around the world.
London, England

Twinings Tea Shop

A 300-year-old tea shop that brought tea to the English people, not to mention the Queen herself.
Bodega Bay, California

Children's Bell Tower

A poignant memorial to a young boy whose death spurred a dramatic increase in organ donations in Italy—dubbed the "Nicholas Effect."
Ross, North Dakota

Oldest Mosque in the U.S.

The oldest still-existing mosque in the United States sits in a remote prairie in North Dakota.
Xinxing District, Taiwan

The Dome of Light

The world’s largest work of glass art hides in this stunning Taiwanese subway station.