Atlas Obscura - Latest Articles and Places
atlasobscura.com
New wonders and curiosities added to the Atlas.
Articles100
Where the Bois de Sioux and Otter Tail rivers merge in southeastern North Dakota, the Red River of the North begins its winding trek northward into Canada. The river is renowned across the continent as an angler’s mecca for trophy channel catfish—monsters that draw fishermen hoping to reel in record-breaking river beasts. In Wahpeton, however, the biggest catch in town isn't lurking beneath the murky current; it rests firmly on dry land. Behold Wahpper, an undeniable titan of roadside Americana. Stretching 40 feet long, standing 12 feet tall, and tipping the scales at 5,000 pounds (2.5 tons), Wahpper holds court as the world’s largest catfish sculpture. His moniker is a cheeky portmanteau honoring both his hometown of Wahpeton and the classic fishermen’s brag: an undeniable whopper. Wahpper is the brainwork of celebrated fiberglass sculptor Dave Oswald, whose monumental wildlife and livestock landmarks populate the upper Midwest—including New Salem’s towering dairy monument, Salem Sue. Wahpper was brought to life in 1997 through a joint effort between local businesses, the Wahpeton Park Board, and the Wahpeton Visitors Committee, at a cost of roughly $12,000. When the behemoth was unveiled on August 3, 1997, hundreds of residents gathered in celebration, naturally marking the momentous occasion with a community fish fry. The Fish That Swims Every Spring While Wahpper was bolted to a permanent concrete pedestal along the riverbank to remain high and dry, nature regularly has other plans. The Red River of the North is notorious for aggressive springtime swelling during the regional snowmelt. When the river breaches its banks, water routinely rises up to encircle Wahpper’s pedestal. For a few days each spring, the giant fiberglass predator looks remarkably at home, appearing to effortlessly cruise through the submerged floodplain as if reanimated. A Friendly Clash of Titans Wahpper’s title as "World’s Largest" is not entirely without friendly contestation. Roughly 900 miles eastward across the Canadian border, the town of Dunnville, Ontario, hosts Muddy the Mudcat, a 50-foot-long fiberglass catfish built in 1983. However, while Muddy boasts a longer horizontal footprint and a whimsical, cartoonish caricature aesthetic, Wahpper remains the undisputed heavyweight champion in terms of volumetric scale, weight, and anatomical realism.
This is a place with two unique and magical places to see. The first, the abandoned Hood River Pumping Station, is at the parking lot to the Hood River Pipeline Trail. It is a decommissioned hydroelectric facility that used to supply electricity to Hood River, Oregon from 1923 until 2006. It was shut down after a 2006 flood destroyed the dam upstream. The pumping station building is still open and is now a graffiti-covered ruin with smashed windows, broken glass everywhere, and a few openings in the floor. The site is popular with urban explorers. The pumping station is the trailhead for the Hood River Pipeline Trail. The trail is about 3 miles in total length (out-and-back) that first follows a trail and railroad tracks and eventually to a catwalk that takes you over the Hood River! Then it gets even better as the catwalk "climbs" into the trees and becomes an elevated walk through the trees next to the river. Old and abandoned pipe and pipe structures are along the trail and many have great graffiti.
At one end of Thornton’s Arcade, beneath its elegant glass roof, four Victorian characters wait for their cue. When the clock strikes, Robin Hood, Friar Tuck, Richard the Lionheart, and Gurth the Swineherd spring into action, raising their fists to strike a bell. It is a wonderfully theatrical way to tell the time—and an unexpected spectacle in the middle of a shopping arcade. Installed in 1877, the clock was made by Leeds clockmakers William Potts & Sons, while the life-sized figures were created by local sculptor John Wormald Appleyard. Their subjects come from Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe, the hugely popular 1819 novel that turned medieval England into a world of knights, outlaws, monks, and swineherds. Richard the Lionheart and Friar Tuck strike the hours, while Robin Hood and Gurth mark the quarters. Five bells, supplied by John Taylor of Loughborough, provide the soundtrack. The figures are technically faux jacquemarts: moving clockwork figures that appear to strike a bell, although the real bells are operated inside the mechanism. Whatever the technical distinction, watching four life-sized medieval characters punch the air to mark the time is considerably more entertaining than checking your phone. Thornton’s Arcade opened in May 1878 as Leeds’s first purpose-built shopping arcade. Today, its ornate architecture, independent shops, and eccentric clock offer a charming reminder that Victorian shopping could come with considerably more spectacle than window displays.
Inspired by the natural environment in Phippsburg, there are a series of petroglyphs in the deep woods near the Center Ponds Trailhead located at 125 Parker Head Road. This site has one of Kevin's largest collections of petroglyphs to date, with over ten different carvings displaying creatures and scenes that could take place in the area. Intended to reflect the environment surrounding the stones, the carvings, which are embellished by trails on the Phippsburg Land Trust, display an array of photorealistic images of remarkable life-sized birds native to the region. On display are the great blue heron, the cardinal, the tree swallow, the thrush, the loon, and others. In certain areas, you can catch animals engaging with each other, birds chasing dragonflies or geese taking flight. Along the trail, a mars helicopter and a zumwalt destroyer can also be found, repetitive themes that makes Kevin's work identifiable as these images are revisited across sites. On short glance, you might mistake a carving for a real bird. There is a sense of action in these petroglyphs. Walking through, it will feel as if these creatures are in motion, ready to fly off the rock. Sudeith creates time capsules, capturing the activity surrounding the rocks in a language that will forever be digestible to those who come across it.
Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. Troy Taylor: There’s a story about a phantom riverboat that I always liked, about how if you heard the riverboat whistle blow on a foggy morning but you never saw the boat, that meant that someone who worked down on the docks was going to die within the next seven days. Amanda McGowan: A lot of old waterfront towns really play up the quaint and cutesy factor, you know, with a brunch cruise on a steamboat or something like that. But in Alton, Illinois, the vibe is a little bit more Widow’s Bay. Troy: Now, I don’t know how this story got started. There are rumors that it got started because of a riverboat that disappeared one year, but nobody knows for sure. Amanda: It makes sense. Alton is on the Mississippi River, which was the lifeblood of the city for much of its history. But the Mississippi is pretty unpredictable and it was often dangerous. Shipwrecks were really common. One stretch of the river in Southern Illinois was known as the graveyard because so many ships were lost there. Troy: The depths are always changing and they didn’t have depth finders and radar and GPS and things. And so, you know, people were dying on a regular basis on that river. And that’s a lot of stories. That’s a lot of ghost stories. Amanda: Today, Alton doesn’t depend on the river like it used to, and shipwrecks are, of course, a lot less common. But in Alton today, ghost stories still rule the day. Troy: I will say we are the most haunted small town in the Midwest. Absolutely. And one of the most haunted small towns in America, for sure. Amanda: I’m Amanda McGowan, and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world’s strange, incredible, and wondrous places. Today’s episode was brought to you in partnership with Enjoy Illinois. And today we’re going to Alton, which has been called the most haunted small town in America. It’s a place where practically every building has its own ghost story. And bubbling underneath all this lore is the fascinating history of a town shaped by the wild and unpredictable waters of the Mississippi River. We’ll explore some places with their own ghostly lore, and we’ll learn how these stories are helping to keep the history of the city alive. Or should I say, undead. This is an edited transcript of the Atlas Obscura Podcast: a celebration of the world’s strange, incredible, and wondrous places. Find the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. Troy: We love history. That’s the thing. Without history, we wouldn’t have all our ghost stories. Amanda: Alton, Illinois has become a destination for fans of the eerie, creepy, and weird. It’s home to one of the oldest Halloween parades in the country, which started back in 1916. And there’s no shortage of allegedly haunted places. There’s the Old Mill Company, where the owner can still be sensed checking up on his employees. There’s the First Unitarian Church, which is haunted by a troubled minister from the past. Or the Mineral Springs Hotel, this old 1920s resort where the former guests never exactly check out. if you know what I mean. But one of Alton’s most notorious sites is actually a little under the radar. It’s a parking lot right along the riverfront behind a row of industrial warehouse buildings. Troy: It can be an eerie spot at night. I still hear ghost stories. Amanda: This is Troy Taylor. He’s the author of Haunted Alton, the host of the American Hauntings podcast, and he also owns the American Oddities Museum in town. Troy: In fact, the very first ghost story anyone ever came into my bookstore to tell me was from a guy who did not know what the parking lot was and was walking his dog there one night and said that a man had approached him, was walking toward him, said he was dirty and torn up ragged clothes and everything was walking toward him. And his dog started barking at this guy. He said, he reached down to just sort of, grab ahold of his dog’s collar because he was really upset. And he reached down and then he said he looked up to apologize to the man and he was gone. It freaked him out so much that he just took his dog and went home and told his wife that he thought he’d seen a ghost. And she says, “Where was it?” And he explained and she said, ”Oh gosh, that’s where the prison was.” Amanda: Before this area was a parking lot, it was a penitentiary, actually the first penitentiary in Illinois. This system, the penitentiary system, was supposed to be a more humane form of punishment. We’ve done an episode more in depth on this in the past called Eastern State Penitentiary, which I’ll link to in the episode description. But it did not work out as planned. Very quickly, the Alton prison became overcrowded and flooding and poor drainage from the river led to all of these sanitary issues and disease outbreaks. Troy: The conditions were pretty awful. Not a lot of the money went into the food or the health care or the clothing. It went into people’s pockets instead. So the place was always pretty miserable anyway. And so there was a lot of death and things at the penitentiary for the first 20 years or so that it was open. Amanda: The state actually closed the facility in 1860. But shortly afterward, the Civil War broke out. And suddenly there was this crisis around where to house prisoners of war and defectors from the Union Army. Alton was a pretty convenient spot because men could just be shipped upriver from the battlefields down south. So the prison was reopened. Troy: And then things got really, really bad because it was so overcrowded, conditions no better than they were before. And then a smallpox epidemic broke out the following summer after they reopened. And they buried the bodies of a lot of the dead within the prison grounds because they couldn’t take the bodies out because they were contagious and then never moved them. So they left a lot of them there on the grounds in downtown Alton where the penitentiary was. And, you know, even after they closed the penitentiary, the bodies were left there. Amanda: They moved the cemetery, but they didn’t move the bodies, did they? As they say. After the war, the prison was closed once again. But over time, the surrounding land was converted into a public park, and the stones of the old prison got dragged away and reused in other construction projects. Troy: The rest of it was just left to decay. And that’s when the ghost stories really got started, was after the war in the 1870s. I’ve got newspaper articles that I’ve collected where people were talking about seeing and hearing ghosts and things out there. And then eventually they tore it down and turned it into a parking lot. And it’s still a parking lot to this day. Amanda: Today, there is a small marker on the edge of the lot made of remaining stones from the penitentiary. But most visitors probably pass by this parking lot without paying it much notice—unless they’ve come specifically to see a ghost. We’re going to take a quick break, but after this, we’ll visit a small spit of land that is slowly being eaten away by the Mississippi River, which would be pretty convenient for a certain Abraham Lincoln, who almost killed somebody here. Troy: He was embarrassed of it his entire life. Amanda: Today, the place once known as Bloody Island is not much of an island anymore at all. The shifting tides of the Mississippi River have over time reconnected this bit of land to one side of the river and washed away the rest of it. But back in the 1800s, this was an island right off the coast of Alton. The island was technically in between state lines between Illinois and Missouri, which made it a kind of no man’s land. It was a place where you could go to do things that were not quite approved by society—like having a duel. Troy: It was illegal in both states to duel, but because you were in that kind of shaded gray area, you could get away with it. Amanda: We’ve done a more in-depth episode on the dueling history of the island. I will link in the episode description. But just a few quick and relevant incidents. Early on in his political career, long before he was president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln had quite the dust up on Bloody Island. It was back when he was still a lawmaker in the Illinois Statehouse. The state was going through an economic crisis, and Lincoln did not approve of the way that the ruling Democratic Party was handling it. So he and his then-fiancé, Mary Todd, started to write these letters to a local paper under a pen name, Rebecca. The letters were directed at the state’s auditor, James Shields, and they were pretty insulting. And Shields was not very happy about this. Troy: So he challenged him to a duel and they went out there to the island Lincoln, because he was the one challenged, got to pick the weapons, and so Lincoln picked broadswords. And Lincoln, 6’4”, long, gangly arms, James Shields, an average-sized guy, so he’s like 5’7”. So Lincoln picks these bladed swords, and he stands, you know... a foot taller than this guy with these long arms. And Shields took one look at this and went, that’s a terrible idea. And they patched things up. And so there was no duel. Amanda: The two actually went on to make up, but Lincoln was not exactly proud of this behavior. Troy: He was embarrassed of it his entire life. Amanda: Reportedly, when he was asked about it later at the White House, Lincoln said, “I do not deny it, but if you desire my friendship, you will never mention it again.” But even after dueling fell out of fashion, the island had this fascinating and sometimes a bit gruesome afterlife. This prominent local family called the McPikes built a summer cottage on the island. But then in the 1860s, when the smallpox epidemic broke out at the Alton Penitentiary, this little summer cottage was reappropriated into a kind of quarantine hospital. Troy: They used the cottage to treat the sick. And then anybody that was close to death, they just took them out there. And I think it was kind of like, okay, well, if you’re going out to that island, you ain’t coming back, you know? And they just buried them out there when they died and left them after the war. And most of them, the bodies, a lot of them washed away during various floods. Amanda: Troy writes in his book Haunted Alton that local residents began avoiding the island in the late 19th century, in part because of rumors of ghosts that wandered the grounds. Today, the geography of the island is very different thanks to years of flooding and various damming projects. But today this is a recreation site. It’s even named after the infamous Lincoln incident. It’s called the Lincoln Shields Recreation Area, which I’m sure Lincoln would have loved. One final ghost story I’ll tell today is a little bit about ghosts, but a lot about the community of ghost enthusiasts who have really adopted Alton over the years and embraced the city’s allegedly haunted past. I mentioned the McPikes before. That was the local family who built a summer cottage on Bloody Island. After the Civil War, the family ended up building a much bigger mansion elsewhere in Alton. Henry McPike was a real estate developer and former mayor of the city, but his real love was wine and growing grapes. So he made sure to build a large wine cellar in his mansion. But after McPike died, the house just could not find a long-term stable owner. Troy: The house went through several different families and then eventually was just abandoned and sat empty for years and got a reputation. As an abandoned house that looks like the Adams family mansion will do in any town, it got a reputation for being haunted. Amanda: The future of the McPike mansion looked pretty dicey. In the 1980s, it was going to be torn down and replaced with a shopping mall. And it actually ended up on a list of the 10 most endangered historic properties in America. But then in the 90s, a couple named the Luedkes stepped in. Sharon and George Luedke bought the house thinking that they would fix it up and turn it into a historical bed and breakfast. But as it turned out, the amount of work and renovations that the house needed to stay upright was just too much. And grants and funds to help preserve the property would just not cover the cost. So they leaned into the house’s reputation and they started to hold ghost tours there. Today, these have become really popular, there’s even overnight versions. And paranormal enthusiasts with their ghost detecting equipment descend on the mansion, and in particular, the wine cellar, to try to pick up evidence of Henry McPike and the other residents of the house. Today, the McPike mansion frequently makes lists of the most haunted houses in America. Troy says at first he was a little skeptical. Troy: I think it was more of a case of it just looked like a haunted house and kids broke in and tore things up and vandals got in there. And it became the local haunted house. And again, in air quotes. But I think there was something to it. I mean, I’ve had my own experiences in this house over the years when I’ve had chances to be inside. I don’t think it’s anything malevolent or anything. I think it’s a family that really loved that house and are still there. But I do think there’s something to it. Amanda: Maybe you’ll see a ghost in Alton. Maybe you won’t. But however you feel about the paranormal, Troy tells me that in this city, ghost enthusiasts are helping to preserve the local history and make sure that it doesn’t fade away. Troy: We love history. That’s the thing. Without history and without these cool locations and historic spots, we wouldn’t have all our ghost stories. So we want to support that kind of stuff. We get together, we support the weird locations and even the not so weird locations, you know, the battlefields and the old houses and you name it—and that’s our thing. Our podcast is a co-production of Atlas Obscura and Sirius XM Podcasts. The production team for this episode includes Dylan Thuras, Kelly McEvers, Doug Baldinger, Kameel Stanley, Johanna Mayer, Manolo Morales, Jerome Campbell, Alexa Lim, Casey Holford, and Luz Fleming. Our theme music is by Sam Tindall.
Welcome to one of Downtown Murphy’s oldest buildings and quite possibly one of its most colorful. This was once the Bank of Murphy, established on January 16, 1899. Today, it’s home to FairyCross Bottle Shop. Apparently, after more than a century, this building decided it had earned the right to stop dealing in money and start dealing in wine. Before you head inside, take a good look at the marble steps. Notice how worn they are? Those aren’t just scratches and weathering. They’re the footprints of history...literally. For decades, thousands of customers, bankers, shopkeepers, and assorted characters walked through these doors, slowly wearing down the marble beneath their feet. The building is one of the oldest surviving commercial structures in downtown Murphy. Its original brick façade was covered with stucco sometime in its long history, but many of its architectural details remain, including the graceful arched doors and windows and the original marble threshold. When the Bank of Murphy opened its doors in 1899, A.F. Dickey was president, A. McD. Harshaw was vice president, and Luke Bayless served as the bank’s first manager and cashier. Bayless was credited with helping make the bank successful through his financial knowledge and sound business judgment. And then, just five years later, someone decided to put that sound financial institution to a rather explosive test. On September 9, 1904, burglars broke into the bank and blew open the vault. They made off with more than $4,000, a considerable fortune at the time, and apparently left behind only a few pennies. The burglars were never caught. So, if you’re looking for the original Murphy mystery, you’ve found it: Who blew up the bank, where did they go, and what happened to all that money? The case remains unsolved more than 120 years later. Small-town history apparently comes with its own cold cases. But the building has another curious secret. When it was originally constructed, a dragon adorned the edge of the roof, appearing to peer down at pedestrians below. In classical architecture, mythical creatures such as dragons could serve as guardians of wealth and treasure. For a bank, the symbolism was particularly appropriate: strength, security, and a very clear message to potential burglars—we have a dragon. Unfortunately, the dragon eventually disappeared from the roof. Fortunately, it wasn’t lost to history. Today, the creature is preserved and on display at the Cherokee County Historical Museum, just a short walk away in Downtown Murphy. The building continued to operate as a bank until the 1920s. After that, it went through a remarkable succession of identities, becoming home to an ice cream parlor, retail stores, a hair salon, and a travel agency. And then came wine. Since 2023, the building has been home to FairyCross Bottle Shop, a wine and specialty food shop that has given this very old building a decidedly more convivial second, or perhaps sixth, act. The shop takes its name from fairy crosses, naturally occurring crystal formations found in this part of Western North Carolina. Local folklore considers these tiny, cross-shaped stones sacred and magical. Every so often, a local will bring some into the shop, where they are given to someone who happens to be going through a difficult time. There’s just one condition: make a wish. It seems fitting that a building with a dragon on its roof, a history of bank robbers, and more than a century of stories should now have a little magic inside it, too. Think about that for a moment: a building that began by safeguarding people’s money, survived a vault explosion, lost a dragon, hosted an ice cream parlor and a hair salon, and eventually became a place where people gather to drink wine…and, occasionally receive a tiny magical crystal and a reason to make a wish. Not a bad retirement plan for a 125-year-old building. So next time you’re standing outside, take another look at those worn marble steps. Imagine the bankers, customers, burglars, shoppers, beauticians, travelers, and everyone else who crossed that threshold over the decades. The building has witnessed fortunes being made, fortunes being stolen, businesses coming and going, and Murphy itself changing around it. And somehow, through it all, it’s still here. These days, you just have to walk through the old bank doors and ask for a glass of wine, and maybe make a wish.
Outside the Kyrgyz National Academy of Sciences, at the western end of Chuy Avenue, a mass of rust-red concrete blocks juts out over the pavement — part tree, part cloud, part city skyline tipped on its side. Small brass plaques are fixed to the ends of the blocks. Each carries a name. Aitmatov. Sydykbekov. Umetaliev. Academician Akaev. The names are all that’s left. When the sculptor Turgunbai Sadykov finished the work in 1995, every block held a life-size bronze portrait of the person named below it: the writers, poets, physicians, and scientists that a four-year-old country had chosen to claim as its founders. Then the bronzes began to go missing. One, then another, then more. Most people assume they were taken for the scrap value of the metal. Rather than keep replacing them, Sadykov had the remaining figures removed, and the monument has stood empty ever since. In 2016 the artist Brad Downey worked with a local research team to identify who had originally been portrayed, then tracked down Kyrgyz professionals working in those same fields today and photographed them standing in the vacant niches — a temporary restaffing of the nation’s fathers with the nation’s living. Come in the late afternoon, when the sun turns the concrete a deeper orange and the fountains behind it are running. Children cycle around the base. Almost nobody looks up. The plaques catch the light with nothing above them.
Far beyond the sun drenched beach resorts of coastal Vietnam lies an unexpected wilderness that most travelers entirely overlook. Con Chim Islet is a hidden oasis anchoring the vast expanse of Thi Nai Lagoon, defined by an ancient and sprawling labyrinth of mangrove forests. What makes this wetland truly spellbinding is its role as a protected refuge for numerous rare and elusive avian species, including unique herons, egrets, and specialized wildlife that rely on this rich habitat. As dusk approaches, thousands of wild birds blanket the sky in synchronized flight before settling heavily onto the dense emerald canopy. Visitors navigate this submerged labyrinth via small local boats or stand up paddleboards, gliding silently through winding green tunnels where traditional fishermen still practice ancestral net casting techniques. Far from the typical tourist trail, this secretive aquatic ecosystem pulses with hidden life and biodiversity.
For decades this rare 100 year-old 'Pillbox' or defensive bunker had been neglected and vandalised, until it was about to be demolished in 2023. Built by the military during World War One to guard a strategic bridge over a once-tidal creek on the East Coast of England, this historic monument was rescued and rebuilt by raising funds in the local community, to be turned into a 'Living History' centre. As so many of the original, concentric blocks were thrown into the creek by vandals, the construction team have specially cast replica blocks to complete this small, circular building. All the walls have been re-built on new foundations, and a special viewing window has been added where the most blocks were missing. New exact replica steel doors are on order, as is the new toughened plate glass window. Very soon visitors will be able to see what it was like 'being on duty' during war time in a defence bunker, overlooking the seaward marshes to the East and the main road to Southwold and its important Harbour. Threats of German invasion were taken very seriously in both world Wars and the beaches of the East coast of England were considered to be the most vulnerable landing places. The Pillbox will also be the centre-piece of a local History Trail taking in a 14C church, a medieval village now lost to the sea, and whats left of the significant navigation of The River Blyth to Halesworth, Suffolk, a historic, Georgian brewing and malting town.
The Connell Lake dam is an imposing, almost gothic structure. Weather-worn and cracked in places, it blocks fish passage on Ward Creek. Frequently flagged by federal agencies like NOAA Fisheries, the dam cuts off miles of vital fish habitat. In 1954, the dam served as the backdrop for the climax of the film noir Cry Vengeance. A gun battle took place on top of the dam, and a dummy was thrown over the side to simulate the villain's death—a movie that can now be viewed for free online. This site offers a glimpse into the grittier industrial past of Alaska and the complex history of the Tongass National Forest. It once supplied millions of gallons of fresh water through a wooden-stave pipeline, portions of which are still visible decaying near the structure. The nearby pulp mill operations were also part of a broader reckoning featured in the March 1988 Sports Illustrated article "The Forest Service Follies," which exposed heavy subsidization and ecological strain in the Southeast Alaska timber industry. Several trails start at the parking lot near the dam. Visitors can follow the old pipeline corridor down toward the mill site, loop around the lake, or follow Ward Creek back toward Ward Cove.
One of literature’s greatest gifts is its ability to transport us to other worlds: some utopian and fantastical, others dark and unnerving, scary and supernatural ... This guide is all about the latter (which are, arguably, much more fun). These are the novels, short stories, and novellas that get under your skin, that stay in your psyche long after you’ve put them down and returned to the world of the living. Little do folks know that many of these works were inspired by — or, in a few cases, explicitly based on — real-life places that you can still visit today. Whether you’re a proud horror nerd or a self-proclaimed scaredy cat, there’s something indescribably special about visiting places that affected authors so deeply they simply had to put them down on paper. From the various historic structures that inspired Count Dracula’s castle, to the isolated island ruins that tugged at Lovecraft’s imagination, to the Maine water tower that was immortalized in “It,” these eerie places around the world are unforgettable stops for book lovers to explore during spooky season. Journey to one (or all) of these horror-coded locales this fall for scary stories that leap off the page. 1. Ruins of Whitby Abbey - Whitby, England It was at this dilapidated monastery that Bram Stoker first learned of Vlad Dracula (a.k.a. Vlad the Impaler), the Wallachian prince who would inspire his most famous novel, Dracula. As Stoker read about Vlad in a book he had checked out from the local library, he was no doubt inspired by his setting: a Gothic church destroyed during anti-Catholic rampages during the English Reformation. In fact, it is in the town of Whitby that the character of Count Dracula first lands in his ghost ship, the Demeter. Today, the ruins are a popular destination for Gothic lit fans from around the world. Visitors can roam through the ancient structures or learn more about the site’s centuries of folkloric history in the Whitby Abbey Museum. In the days just before Halloween, the Abbey hosts a family-friendly costume contest and Great Pumpkin Party; it even set the world record for “largest gathering of people dressed as vampires” in 2022, with 1,369 Dracula-inspired participants. 2. Bran Castle - Bran, Romania Built in the late 14th century, this towering medieval castle is supposedly where Vlad Dracula was imprisoned for two months in 1462 after being captured by the Hungarians. While it’s more likely that Vlad only ever saw this building while passing through Bran, it’s still easy to imagine the blood-thirsty ruler behind bars in its underground passages or, perhaps at the very top of a twisting spire. Now a museum, the castle fully embraces its legendary status as both Vlad’s one-time prison and the home of Stoker’s Count Dracula, who is described as “a Transylvanian count, owner of a castle built somewhere on top of a high cliff, from where he watches over the river valley.” The castle’s annual Halloween event, “The Legend of Dracul,” takes visitors on an immersive tour of the building, with eerie special effects and actors who blur the lines between fiction and reality. 3. Stephen King’s Former House - Bangor, Maine Stephen King, a born-and-raised Mainer, spent many of his most fruitful writing years in this mansion, whose spider and dragon-adorned front gate is the only clue to its former owner’s identity. The house is now an archive of King’s work which — though not open to the public — can be booked by appointment for scholarly purposes. However, even if you don’t go inside the house, it’s still well-worth a visit, with red wood walls and stately trees that recall many of the Maine neighborhoods from King’s books. Walking through Bangor’s Whitney Park Historic District, you’ll feel transported to the author’s fictional Maine towns, from Castle Rock to Derry. 4. Bradford College - Haverhill, Massachusetts This former liberal arts school closed in 2000 but rumors about it still remain; namely, that it was here where H.P. Lovecraft hid his “Necronomicon,” or book of the dead, while he was dating a student at the college. It may or may not still sit somewhere beneath the school’s Tupelo Pond, in a tunnel just waiting to be unsealed. (While the book’s existence is questionable, the tunnels are almost certainly real, having been built for students to get around during inclement weather.) While there are no traces of Lovecraft left today (the property is now Northpoint Bible College), the challenge to find the “Necronomicon” remains. Plus, it’s worth a visit simply for the spooky lore that surrounds the campus: stories of a young woman drowning in the pond and rumors of restless spirits roaming the halls. 5. New Slains Castle Ruins - Cruden Bay, Scotland Along with Bran Castle and Whitby Abbey, these ruins may have inspired Bram Stoker’s iconic vampire abode. The author is said to have visited the 16th-century castle during one of his many trips to Cruden Bay between 1892 and 1910 — the crumbling turrets, broken staircases, and dank walls surely feeding his imagination. In fact, New Slains is mentioned by name in two of Stoker’s lesser-known novels, “The Watter’s Mou’” and “The Mystery of the Sea.” At the nearby Kilmarnock Arms, visitors can still see Stoker’s name penned in the guest ledger, with the hotel noting that, at the time of his stay, “nobody paid much attention to the red-haired and bearded six footer ... yet he was soon to thrill and terrify the world with his creation.” 6. Corvin Castle - Hunedoara, Romania Vlad the Impaler rears his beastly head yet again at this elaborate 15th-century castle, where it’s said that he lost his mind during his seven years imprisoned in the dungeon. Whether Vlad ever even set foot in the castle is, admittedly, up in the air, but it nevertheless fits the bill for a horror novel: split into three sections — the Knight’s Hall, the Diet Hall, and circular stairways — the castle is surrounded by hulking towers that were used for both defense and as a prison. Today, this eerie structure is open daily for tours that pass over the castle’s iconic wooden bridge and continue through flowered courtyards and grand banquet halls. There’s even the occasional Dracula-inspired event, such as a “Vampires on the Edge”: a summer masquerade ball where “dark cabaret performances blur the line between art and temptation.” 7. Grip the Raven - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania In the Rare Books section of Philadelphia’s Free Library sits a taxidermied raven in a glass box. His name is Grip, and he belonged to Charles Dickens, even making an appearance in Dickens’s 1841 book, “Barnaby Rudge.” Edgar Allan Poe — a critic at the time — panned the book, which meant that later, when his poem “The Raven” received wide acclaim, others in the literary world couldn’t help but point out his hypocrisy. “Here comes Poe with his Raven, like Barnaby Rudge, / Three fifths of him genius, two fifths sheer fudge,” went one mocking refrain. Grip (who has also been called Grip the Clever, Grip the Wicked, and Grip the Knowing) was named a Literary Landmark by the American Library Association in 1999 and enjoys a tranquil existence just steps away from the only complete copy of The Raven in Poe’s hand, a manuscript of “Murders in the Rue Morgue” and first editions of all Poe’s works. Those wishing to pay their respects to this most famous (and creepy) of birds can do so any time the Free Library is open. 8. Nan Madol Ruins - Nanwei, Micronesia HP Lovecraft’s fictional sunken “corpse-city,’ R’lyeh, is believed to have been inspired by these Micronesian ruins — the remnants of megalithic structures built between the 12th and 13th centuries atop nearly a hundred artificial islands. In Lovecraft’s short story, “The Call of Cthulhu,” the site is characterized as “built in measureless eons behind history by the vast, loathsome shapes that seeped down from the dark stars.” Nan Madol is perhaps even more eerie than Lovecraft’s R’lyeh; it’s still a mystery how its massive stones were rolled into place, and at the center of the complex sits a royal mortuary, called “Mouth of the High Chief.” Though it is possible to visit the site, it’s still quite undeveloped (definitely no visitors center!), so hiring a local guide is recommended. 9. Jennings Hall - North Bennington, Vermont Shirley Jackson moved to the sleepy town of North Bennington in 1940, where she remained for the rest of her life. While her husband taught at the nearby Bennington College, Jackson wrote short stories and novels that would become staples of the horror genre, from “We Have Always Lived in the Castle” to the “The Haunting of Hill House.” The latter, published in 1959, is rumored to be based on Jennings Hall, a secluded, gray-stoned mansion on the Bennington College campus that — sure enough — is perched on a hill. Jennings is now the home of the school’s music department, so you may just hear beautiful melodies coming from inside on your visit. 10. Thomas Hill Standpipe - Bangor, Maine Not only does this storage facility control Bangor’s water pressure — it also lay the foundation for an important part of Stephen King’s “It”: the spot in Derry where Stan Uris first encounters Pennywise the clown. When King lived in his Bangor mansion just down the street, he would sit and write in a small park beneath the standpipe, letting its dark shadow shape his creepy opus. The site also has its own bit of haunted history: In 1940, when two boys were playing on the interior stairwell, one of them fell 25 feet and passed away the next day from his injuries. Unsurprisingly, the facility was soon closed to the public; however, since 1991, Water District employees have led quarterly tours for horror and water regulation fans alike. 11. Strawberry Hill - London, England This “little Gothic castle” on the River Thames inspired what many scholars believe to be the first Gothic novel: “The Castle of Otranto” by Horace Walpole. Walpole, who bought the property in the mid 18th century, once woke from a nightmare in which he saw a giant armored fist atop the home’s grand staircase, and this single, haunting image prompted him to write the book. With its delicate marriage of medievalism and terror, the “The Castle of Otranto” became a runaway success and is believed to have inspired Mary Shelley, Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, and more. You can still walk in Walpole’s footsteps today, as the estate is now part of St. Mary’s University and open to the public five days a week. Around Halloween, Strawberry Hill fully embraces its spooky history, transforming into a “dark labyrinth of ancient hauntings,” with guides sharing the many ghosts and supernatural occurrences the home has seen over the years. The house even hosts nighttime “bat walks” and a Victorian Magic Lantern Show, that Walpole, the ultimate lover of doom and gloom, would have undoubtedly loved. 12. Villa Diodati - Cologny, Switzerland Mary Shelley penned her first draft of “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus” inside this gorgeous, secluded mansion right next to Lake Geneva. In June 1816, tempestuous weather left Shelley and her husband and stepsister stranded here for three days while visiting its tenants, John William Polidori and Lord Byron. To pass the time, this impressive group of authors spent time spinning spooky yarns; this resulted not only in Shelley’s iconic work but also Polidori’s “The Vampyre,” a.k.a. the first modern vampire story. Since the villa is privately owned, horror heads are, tragically, unable to step inside; however, dedicated pilgrims can walk along the Chemin de Ruth and take a peek at the home over a shoulder-high stone wall. You may even spot the plaque on its exterior that honors Lord Byron, “Poête Anglais.” 13. Fort Independence - Boston, Massachusetts This former island was transformed into Fort Independence in the mid-19th century, a granite bastion fort that provided harbor defense for Boston. However, at the time Edgar Allan Poe served there, in 1827, it was still called by its original name: Castle Island. It’s said that Poe may have based his short story, “The Cask of Amontillado,” on a despised army lieutenant who was walled up within a vault in the fort. Whether this legend is true or (more likely) the result of decades of telephone amongst army members, it’s easy to see how Poe would have latched onto its stone walls and relatively isolated location. Today, the fort is open to the public as Fort Independence and Castle Island State Park, a 22-acre historic site where you can explore the fort, wander down nature paths, take in prime views of the Boston skyline, and even enjoy a good hot dog or lobster roll at Sullivan’s on Castle Island. 14. Stephen Harris House - Providence, Rhode Island On one of Providence’s oldest streets, this seemingly normal yellow clapboard house is, in fact, home to some unsettling history. In 1763, merchant Stephen Harris constructed it over a former burial yard and was then plagued ceaselessly by misfortune: He fell into financial ruin, several of his children died, and his wife went mad, confining herself to the attic. These events struck a chord with Providence resident H.P. Lovecraft, whose 1924 novella, “The Shunned House,” is a not-so-thinly-veiled retelling of Harris’s woes. (Coincidentally, Lovecraft’s aunt lived in the house for a short time as the companion to its then owner, Mrs. H. C. Babbit.) The house is not open to the public, but feel free to stroll by and let your imagination do the work as to all that happened inside ...
The building that printed Soviet Azerbaijan's newspapers and books is shaped like an open book. It takes a moment to register from the pavement, and then it becomes difficult to see anything else: two great pages picked out in cut stone, spread wide across the front of the printing house. Worked into them is a history of writing. Egyptian hieroglyphs sit at one end and a Mayan calendar at the other, with Chinese, Georgian, Armenian and Arabic script filling the space between. Above the figures run the mastheads of the Soviet press, among them Iskra, the first socialist newspaper in Russia, and Pravda. And across the wall, in Azerbaijani and Russian, sits the most reproduced political slogan of the twentieth century: workers of the world, unite! It is mounted on the building that spent decades reproducing it. The street outside is called Mətbuat prospekti, Press Avenue, named after the printing house. Nobody involved was aiming for subtlety. The building still works, and it looks it. Its own online reviews divide neatly between visitors calling the mosaic outstanding and tenants complaining that nothing has been renovated in decades and the lift is ancient. Both are right. Soviet-era mosaics have been clad over, renovated away and demolished across Baku, and this one has lasted partly because nobody has got round to touching the building underneath it.
Navalcarnero may be a small town southwest of Madrid, but its streets are steeped in history. Founded in the 15th century, it became an important stop between Madrid and Toledo and is now particularly celebrated for its wine production. The town's vineyards form part of the Denomination of Origin Vinos de Madrid, and its winemaking tradition has long been one of Navalcarnero's defining features. Yet among its wine cellars and historic streets is a doorway that recalls a rather more aristocratic chapter in the town's past. On October 7, 1649, King Philip IV of Spain married his niece, the Archduchess Mariana of Austria, in Navalcarnero. The couple received their nuptial blessing in two adjoining houses belonging to Miguel González Ollero, a local priest and lawyer, which had been temporarily converted into a palace for the royal occasion. The newlyweds then spent two nights there, effectively turning the modest residence into their royal honeymoon suite. A royal coat of arms was placed above the entrance, and years later the building acquired the name Casa de la Cadena, or “House of the Chain,” after a ceremonial chain was installed in front of the doorway, attached to enormous stone bollards. The house was eventually demolished and the chain disappeared, but the story survived. The portal visible today is therefore not the original doorway, but an exact reconstruction created in 1998 under the direction of sculptor Feliciano Hernández. Hernández based it on a 19th-century engraving, probably dating from 1857, recreating the appearance of the long-vanished house with remarkable fidelity. One particularly intriguing detail is genuine, however: the royal coat of arms above the portal was donated to the town in 1988 by the Rey Benito family, who had astonishingly been using it as a doorstep since 1940. Hernández restored it and incorporated it into the reconstructed façade, while the lower coat of arms is a modern reproduction by the same sculptor. The replica was inaugurated on October 10, 1998, and nearby, on Calle de Felipe IV—formerly Calle de la Cadena—the original commemorative inscriptions celebrating the royal wedding can still be seen. Thus, Navalcarnero's royal honeymoon house has vanished, but its doorway has been resurrected: part historical evidence, part reconstruction, and part wonderfully tangible reminder that, once upon a time, a Spanish king and his bride spent their wedding nights here.
Kourion's ruins are full of mosaics: mythological scenes, geometric patterns, hunting parties. But tucked near the main courtyard of one villa is something the rest of the island almost never shows: gladiators, fighting, identified by name. According to Cyprus's own Department of Antiquities, gladiatorial combat is a rare subject for mosaic art anywhere on the island, which is what gives this otherwise modest 3rd-century house its name. The floor is split into several panels. In one, two fighters face off under their own inscribed names in Greek, Margarites and Hellenikos, locked mid-duel. In another, a heavily armed gladiator named Lytras advances on an opponent of whom only a helmeted head and a foot survive, while a third figure in civilian dress, a referee named Darios, holds a rod and tries to intervene. It is one of the few places in the Roman world where you can put faces, poses and even names to the men who fought in Cyprus's arenas, most of which have left no other trace.
At 47 metres tall, with a range of 60 kilometres, the Créac'h Lighthouse is the most powerful lighthouse in Europe. Located on the island of Ouessant, it marks the entrance to the English Channel. The lighthouse is currently undergoing renovation, but it remains fully operational. At night, its lanterns illuminate the entire coastline of the island, accompanied by the sound of waves crashing against the rocks. Lie down near the lighthouse and take in the scenery to experience an eerie sense of serenity. If you come by bike at night, don't forget to bring a headlamp — there are no streetlights along the road leading to the lighthouse. If you come during the day, you can enjoy a landscape straight out of a dystopian movie, surrounded by numerous abandoned structures and old bunkers.
An old-style cableway built in the sixties. The cableway starts near Gubbio city center and bring you to the top of Monte Ingino, where the Sant'Ubaldo basilica is. Cabins are indeed open air cages, suitable for up two people, in which you stay standing. Moreover they does not stop at the starting and arrival stations, so you have to jump in and out. Return ticket costs less than 10 euros and the trip lasts 6 minutes to go from 532 m to 8o3 m. View is breathtaking and being in a open cage that rocks with the wind while climbing over Gubbio's rooftops add a little spice to the trip.
Along the sidewalks of Macquarie Street, in the shadow of the grand stone arches of Sydney Hospital, sits a striking geographical and cultural anomaly. A bronze wild boar squats above a fountain basin, its snout worn down to a polished, gleaming gold. Anyone who has ambled through the Mercato Nuovo in Florence will experience an immediate sense of déjà vu: this is an exact 1:1 scale replica of Il Porcellino, the famous 17th-century masterpiece sculpted by Pietro Tacca. While the Florentine boar spends its days promising luck and a return trip to Tuscany to passing tourists, its Sydney twin works a far more pragmatic and unusual shift: it serves as a full-time, unsalaried contributor to Australia’s oldest hospital. The arrival of this Florentine icon on the opposite side of the globe stems from a story of nostalgia, battlefield medicine, and family legacy. In 1968, the Italian Marchesa Clarissa Fiaschi Torrigiani donated the bronze casting—specially produced by the renowned Ferdinando Marinelli Artistic Foundry in Florence—to honor two men in her family: her father, Dr. Thomas Fiaschi, and her brother, Dr. Piero Fiaschi. Both men were prominent surgeons at Sydney Hospital and military medical heroes for the Australian forces overseas. Thomas, who emigrated from Florence in the late 19th century, brought pioneering surgical techniques to Australia alongside a deep passion for Italian culture and winemaking, even founding Sydney's chapter of the Dante Alighieri Society. Positioned right at the hospital’s entrance, the boar's superstitious charm quickly captured the imagination of locals. The ritual requires passersby to rub the boar’s snout—hence the mirror-like shine compared to its dark patina—and drop a coin through the drainage grate below. Unlike its counterpart in Italy, the coins dropped into Sydney’s Porcellino don't just sit in an ornamental basin. They are collected regularly and funneled directly into the Sydney Hospital Foundation to fund medical equipment and research. For its steady, uninterrupted ability to rally micro-donations for over half a century, hospital staff officially dubbed the statue “The Silent Volunteer,” seamlessly turning a piece of Renaissance folklore into an active engine for public health
No American Thanksgiving dinner is complete without turkey, stuffing, gravy, and "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" by Arlo Guthrie, son of legendary folksinger Woody Guthrie and a talented songwriter in his own right. Based on a true story, the ballad recounts an act of kindness gone awry where Arlo, who had dumped the garbage that accumulated in Alice's home off a cliff, was arrested for littering in the small town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts. And it's this criminal blemish which jeopardized Guthrie's chances of getting drafted into the US Army to "burn women, kids, houses, and villages," as he dryly remarks. The nearly 20-minute song helped put the town of Stockbridge on the map, and as critical as Guthrie might have been towards the local police institution, residents seem to have welcomed the artist's cultural contribution with open arms, the site of Alice's Restaurant becoming something of a tourist destination. But as astute listeners of the song will know, "Alice doesn't live in the restaurant, she lives in the church nearby the restaurant, in the bell tower." The church in question (also a quick jaunt from the railroad tracks) was built six miles south of Stockbridge as St. James Chapel in 1829, renamed Trinity Church by the time it came under the possession of Alice and Ray Brock around 1964. The property changed hands several times until Arlo acquired it in 1991 to create the Guthrie Center, an interfaith house of worship. Today, the center has become a beloved folk music venue, hosting a summer concert series and monthly open mic hootenannies, along with community lunches and a Thanksgiving dinner that can't be beat. The facility is also open during routine business hours, inviting visitors to look at a few displays highlighting contributions to the fight against Huntington's disease, which took the life of Arlo's father. With permission, you can visit the second floor and see various musical instruments, stained glass windows, and part of the stairwell to the bell tower where Alice once lived (though the tower itself is closed off).
Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. Amanda McGowan: Every small town has that one spot where people sneak off to at night. In Point Pleasant, West Virginia, back in the 1960s, that place was the McClintic Wildlife Management Area. The locals called it the TNT area. During World War II, this had been a giant munitions factory that produced explosives, but after the war, the factory closed, the land was open to the public, and you could wander around the crumbling remains of all the buildings there. Sherri Brake: There’s an old power plant there, lots of woods, just acres and acres of gravel and dirt roads, and it’s really easy to get turned around while you’re up there in the TNT area. People would go up there and have parties. People would go up there parking, you know, sweethearts would go up there and watch the full moon, etc., etc. And that’s basically, you know, what these two young married couples did, the Mallettes and the Scarberrys. Amanda: Two young couples, the Mallettes and the Scarberrys, headed to the TNT area on the evening of November 15, 1966. What happened next would be immortalized in town lore forever. They were hanging out in the Scarberrys’ car parked near the old power plant, and just around midnight they saw something. Sherri: And it was Linda Scarberry that first saw this creature and of course all four of them saw it and panicked. I mean, what would you do if you saw something 8-foot-tall with black wings and, you know, crouching up in a tree with red glowing eyes. You’re going to get your car, you’re going to start your car, and you’re going to get the heck out of there. Amanda: Roger Scarborough, who was driving, peeled out of the park, but the creature followed them. Sherri: This creature, this “birdman,” as they first called it, was able to keep pace with the car. Amanda: The couple’s report of their sighting was published the next day in the “Point Pleasant Register” under the headline, “Couples See Man-Sized Bird, Creature, Something.” It kicked off a frenzy in Point Pleasant that is arguably still going on to this day. Though the nickname Birdman did not stick. Over time, this creature became known by a different name: the Mothman. I’m Amanda McGowan and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world’s strange, incredible, and wondrous places. This episode is brought to you in partnership with West Virginia Tourism. Today, we’re talking about the legend of the Mothman, one of America’s most famous cryptids, and the story starts with a strange sighting near an abandoned power plant that drew the attention of the press, visitors, and those interested in the paranormal and the unexplained. It generated a powerful legend that, over time, became woven into the story of the town, from its tragedies to its triumphs. And today, this creature has gone from being a source of terror to a kind of folk hero. This is an edited transcript of the Atlas Obscura Podcast: a celebration of the world’s strange, incredible, and wondrous places. Find the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. Amanda: Today, if you’re driving through the town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, you are guaranteed to have a Mothman sighting. Kind of. Because there’s a giant statue of the Mothman right in the middle of downtown. Sherri: It’s like one of the first things that you see as you’re driving through town. This gigantic Mothman creature with red eyes that’s, I don’t know, probably 8-foot tall, 9-foot tall on a big pedestal, and it’s right smack dab in the middle of town. I mean, you can’t miss it, and they have a spotlight on it at night. Amanda: This is Sherri Brake. She’s the owner of Haunted Heartland Tours and the author of “Point Pleasant: A Haunted History.” This fall she’ll be speaking at the annual Mothman Festival, which drew 30,000 visitors to Point Pleasant last year. Of course, most of these visitors will be in town looking to have their own Mothman sighting, and to improve their chances, they’re going to have to venture out north of downtown and check out the old TNT area. Sherri, of course, takes her tours there and she guides visitors by flashlight around the old power plant and through the maze of overgrown concrete bunkers that look like igloos. Sherri: There’s hundreds of bunkers sitting around everywhere and you just get the feeling that you’re being watched. You, you’re not alone. I mean it definitely is a creepy vibe there. You think you’re going to see something, you’re almost anticipating it around every little turn in the woods and then you take 50 people down this little trail in the middle of nowhere and everybody’s looking over their shoulders. Amanda: Back in 1966, after the Millette and Scarberry sighting, the creepy vibe of the TNT area and the possibility of seeing this unidentified giant flying creature, well, it didn’t keep people away from the site. Actually, it had the opposite effect. Sherri: Once word spread — small town — everybody wants to go out in the woods, and people would gather up and they would drive out in the middle of nowhere and they would sit and they would park and they would watch for the creature. In a very short time, many, many people started seeing this bird-like creature. Amanda: Reports of sightings flooded in. One local reporter named Mary Hyre made them the subject of many of her columns in the “Athens Messenger,” which is a paper based right across the river in Ohio. Here’s just a few of her headlines from that time: “Winged Red-Eyed Thing Chases Point Couples Across Countryside.” “Monster Returns to Mason.” (That’s the name of the county.) “Is Mysterious Creature Balloon or Crane?” Let’s talk about that last one. There was this theory put forward by a biologist at West Virginia University that the giant bird-like creatures people were seeing might actually have been sandhill cranes that were passing through the TNT area on their migration path. Sandhill cranes do have these really, really striking red feathers across their eye area, and their wingspans can be more than 6 feet wide. And another interesting thing is that in recent years, there’s been more research and observation, and it seems like these birds have become really good at adapting to urban environments and sort of living among people. But Sherri tells me that she’s skeptical. Sherri: I know there was speculation that it was a sandhill crane. Well, all right, 8-foot tall, red eyes, terrorizing people, keeping, you know, speeds of 100 miles an hour? I don’t know if I buy the sandhill crane theory. Amanda: Of course, many other ideas were put forward to try to explain exactly what was going on. Sherri: Is it a creature? Was it a loon? Was it a bird? Was it a man who somehow got up into the TNT area, maybe got around some of those chemicals and kind of morphed into a creature? Is it an alien? Is it interdimensional? You know, there’s a lot of different theories out there, but the truth stands. People saw something. Amanda: Whatever it was, the sightings continued. And they started to draw in writers and journalists and people from out of town, and also folks who are interested in other unexplained phenomena like UFOs. We’ll come back to that later. But the frenzy came to a halt, or at least it began to morph into something else on December 15, 1967 when tragedy struck the town. Sherri: And you know when terrible things happen, you try to make sense of it. Amanda: We’re going to take a quick break, but coming up after this, how the story of a tragedy became intertwined with the story of the Mothman. That’s after this. Amanda: From November of 1966 to December of 1967, a period of about 13 months, the town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, was rocked by a number of sightings of a strange winged creature with red eyes. This creature became known as the Mothman. But then came December 15, 1967, a day that really changed everything. Sherri: For your listeners who aren’t familiar with the Silver Bridge, well, it connected Ohio to West Virginia, so it spanned across the Ohio River. And on December 15 at about 5 p.m., 1967, 13 months after the first sighting of Mothman, the bridge began to sway. It was full of traffic at 5 o’clock. You have all your workers going home. It was also the week before Christmas. So you have a lot of people going back and forth between Kanauga, Ohio, and Point Pleasant doing Christmas shopping. All of a sudden you have this bridge starting to lurch sideways and, within a minute, it had fallen. It fell loaded with traffic. Forty-six people lost their lives and the icy Ohio River water. Amanda: The Silver Bridge disaster shocked Point Pleasant and the country. The bridge had failed because of a single crack in one of its metal suspension linkages, and the disaster led to a major federal investigation and later the creation of the first national bridge safety inspection program. And after the bridge collapse, the sightings of Mothman began to peter out. Years went by. The reporter who broke many of the Mothman stories, Mary Hyre, died in 1970, and it kind of seemed like the Mothman legend was maybe fading away. But then something odd began to happen, which was, the story of the bridge collapse began to become intertwined with the lore of the Mothman. One of the writers and Ufologists who had descended on Point Pleasant back in 1966 was this guy named John Keel. In 1975, he published a book called “The Mothman Prophecies,” where he wrote all about his time in Point Pleasant. And not only did he write about the Mothman sightings, but he also connected them with other alleged sightings in the area of UFOs and also these mysterious men in suits that would turn up and ask people questions. He called these the Men in Black. And maybe most importantly, Keel framed the Mothman as a kind of bad omen, a sign that something was about to go wrong — this creature that was trying to warn people of the impending collapse of the bridge. This is what he wrote in the “Mothman Prophecies: “I’d had warnings about something terrible that was going to happen. If I could have put things together sooner, maybe we could have saved all those lives.” Sherri: You know, when terrible things happen, you try to make sense of it. You try to maybe tie things together. Is it a coincidence? Is it not a coincidence? Keel’s book introduced the Mothman story to a wider audience, and it got even wider in 2002 when the book was adapted into a popular movie starring Richard Gere and Laura Linney, also called “The Mothman Prophecies.” And the release of this movie is when Mothman Frenzy really took off again. In 2002, the year that the movie came out, some local enthusiasts about the Mothman legend decided to hold a Mothman festival in Point Pleasant for the first time. It was organized by a guide named Jeff Wamsley, who today also owns a Mothman museum downtown. Museum Voicemail: For more information about the museum, visit us online at mothmanmuseum.com. And if you’re currently being followed by the Men in Black, then the only solution is to book your Mothman 66 Escape Room Experience at mothmanescaperoom.com. Amanda: Today, the Mothman Festival has grown and so has Mothman culture all around Point Pleasant. Sherri: There’s so much cool merchandise that you see people walking around on the streets. There’s Mothman t-shirts, of course, but there’s, you know, everything from coffee mugs to ball hats to stuffies for kids. They have a Mothman putt-putt course indoors that’s black light. So it’s like anything that you could dream up about Mothman. It’s there. There’s a coffee shop just across the street from the Mothman Museum, and of course they have a Mothman coffee. Amanda: The Mothman, who once terrorized couples in the TNT area, is now kind of an emblem of the town with its own fan base. Colin Dickey: There’s also a kind of fan culture of people who treat it like a, you know, like a Marvel Comics character or somebody like that. Amanda: This is Colin Dickey. He’s a frequent contributor to the show and has written a ton about the history of American cryptids and folklore, and Colin told me that what fascinates him about the Mothman is the way that this legend has become intertwined with the real tragedy of the Silver Bridge collapse. Colin: My feeling is that the Silver Bridge was, you know, a huge disaster for this community, not only in terms of the loss of life, but it was, it was the connection across the Ohio River to Wheeling, Ohio, and its destruction really, really traumatized the region. Because of Mothman and because of the fandom and because of the festival every year, the Silver Bridge collapse is never really far from anybody’s memory, which is, you know, different than other infrastructure failures, and I think that’s a really fascinating aspect of this story that doesn’t happen in any other stories of cryptids or UFOs. Amanda: Sherri Brake’s Mothman tour of Point Pleasant brings visitors to the spot where the bridge once stood. Today there’s a mural there and a plaque that commemorates the victims of the disaster. She also brings people to the Mothman statue and, of course, to the TNT area. For Sherri, what keeps drawing visitors to these places and keeps drawing her to these places is just the mystery of it all. Sherri: I think it’s the fascination with “What is it and will I see it?” You know, the fact that you can still drive up into the TNT area, pull your car off the road, and walk through the woods. and go to the the site that it happened…You know, 99% of the time nothing happens, but it’s just that expectation that we have of humans of going beyond the glow of our flashlight, you know, and making ourselves uncomfortable and putting ourselves in a, you know, kind of a spooky situation. It really gets your imagination going. Amanda: Are you trying to see The Mothman? We will post links in the episode description to Sherri’s tours as well as other information about the Mothman Festival and the Mothman Museum.
Deep within the rugged mountain forests of Vinh Son lies Huu Nha Waterfall, also known locally as Bat Waterfall, a striking geological wonder that remains largely untouched by mainstream tourism. The defining feature of this remote site is an ancient cliff face formed millions of years ago, composed of hundreds of interlocking polygonal basalt columns that resemble a giant, natural stone honeycomb suspended over the ravine. A pristine stream squeezes through the geometric rock formations, plunging from a height of approximately 30 meters into a roaring white curtain against the deep green jungle backdrop. Tucked directly behind the cascading water is Bat Cave, a natural stone vault that serves as a sanctuary for colonies of bats. The combination of ancient hexagonal rock structures, thundering water, hidden caverns, and deep shadows creates an atmosphere of raw, primordial mystery.
There is a phone booth on Madison’s East Side where picking up the receiver connects the caller to no one—and, in a way, to quite a lot of people. The Nick Weerts Memorial Phone Booth was created in memory of Nicholas Bennett Weerts, who died unexpectedly in 2017. Among his various interests was an oddly persistent fascination with payphones, which nearly a decade after his death provided the inspiration for an unusual memorial. Lift the receiver and the phone comes to life, randomly selecting from more than ten hours of recorded sound. One call might produce a conversation among friends; the next could be music, a family gathering, a comedy routine, a party, or an utterly ordinary moment recorded years ago. Hang up, pick up again, and the experience begins anew. The idea bears some resemblance to Japan’s “wind phones”—unconnected telephones where visitors symbolically speak to loved ones who have died—but the phone booth on Corry Street reverses the conversation. Here, the visitor doesn’t speak to the past. The past speaks back. And it isn’t intended to remain exclusively an archive of one person’s life. The booth was conceived as an evolving community art installation, with visitors eventually able to contribute recordings of their own. Over time, the collection may become as much an accidental audio portrait of its Madison neighborhood as a memorial to the person who inspired it. There is no correct way to experience the phone booth and no way to know what will be waiting on the other end of the line. Just pick up the receiver and listen.
If the entirety of this museum wasn’t so peculiar already, the James E. Grosjean Room at the Allen County Historical Museum would be a place of magic surrealism; a tactile portal to the past in the midst of the proverbial Rust Belt town built quickly on oil. Lima once had a bustling trolley system, the prominent Faurot Opera House, industry, culture and promise. But now it’s easy to see the decline. In that, this room stands as a gem. The museum here is special because it conjures that nostalgia in more ways than one. It’s got the requisite quilts, trains, natural history and native artifacts that you can find in most museums. The collections here, though, represent an archived dream state. There is no other place like it. In the Grosjean Room, the lights go out. The docent flips a switch and then a schmaltzy soundtrack and filmstrip narration begins. Beams of light glow through a stained-glass background and a dove flies across the scene. Eventually giraffes join the procession of animals into Noah’s Ark. As a mechanical display of motion and light, it predates Disney’s animatronics by decades, yet has the Midwestern hokum of pure folk art. You’ve got to see it live. By all accounts, Grosjean was a polymath, responsible for the impressive reliquary that is this Lima museum. He was an undertaker, a shoe salesman, an inventor, a historian and full time innovator. Though his first “spectacular display” (a story of Cock Robin) was destroyed while on loan during the 1913 Dayton Flood, Noah’s Ark, built in 1901, has a storied history. Before becoming a premier window attraction at Marshall Fields in Chicago, Macy’s in New York and his own downtown Lima shoe store, Grosjean’s ark was rejected by the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo. Always the showman, he then set up his own (not so successful) exhibit in nearby Niagara Falls. As the president of the Allen County Historical Society from 1915 until his death in 1938, Grosjean made sure his creations—and other artifacts that reflected the community—stayed in the permanent collection.
With travel nonexistent, the summer of 2020 was devastating for tiny institutions which usually operate on an ever-shrinking budget, rely on donations or grants to stay afloat, and run with a skeleton crew of volunteers. Some literally have trouble leaving the lights on. But each of these museums, no matter how spartan, tells the story of that particular community. They're vital to the survival of specific histories. They represent a sense of place. These sites also serve as important reminders of our beatific and ugly past, and in their survival it’s important for current and future curators to rethink what they are tasked to preserve and display. Ohio’s Small Town Museum in Ashville has just about everything one could want from these museums under one roof. There is culture, innovation, controversy, myth and oddities of the onetime boomtown turned forgotten outpost in Pickaway County’s rural expanse. There are lots of these types of museums all over the country, but nothing is quite like this collection in Ashville. By 1975 the railroad depot had closed, there was no newspaper, no industry, and a University of Cincinnati study showed that Ashville had one of the lowest community identity scores in Ohio. At that point, a dedicated group of locals vowed to dig deep into all that remained to preserve the social history of bygone times. John Swingle, a retired Ashville postman, spends his free time manning the door of Ohio's Small Town Museum. Most days you’ll need to pound on the door a bit to get his attention. A good rule of thumb is to sign the guestbook and drop a five dollar bill in the donation box. Most museum volunteers are a wealth of knowledge, and Swingle was no exception. He is eager to introduce you to the treasures that were tacked to the walls, hung from the ceiling, under glass, reproduced or taxidermied. The museum's main attraction is Teddy Boor’s patented motorized traffic light. Though Boor is not the inventor of the traffic light, the massive, science-fiction-worthy orb holds the Guinness record for the longest traffic light in operation. From 1932 to 1982, the light brought tourists to the intersection of Long and Main streets. Eventually it was removed due to state regulations, and now it’s the crown jewel of the museum. Y0u’ll want to see the museum with a complimentary copy of the book, Amazing Ashville by local historian Bob Hines. Many of the exhibits correspond directly with pages from Hines’ book, and their placards urge you to discover those stories. No matter how mundane or seemingly insignificant the tales, they create a spectacular panoply of collective history. Together the museum is a timeline of these fascinating lives virtually unknown outside of the county’s borders. Fittingly, the four quaint rooms of the museum reside in what was once the Dreamland Theater, a silent movie house that eventually closed because the owner couldn’t afford a system to accommodate talkies. Now it’s filled with ephemera that detail every aspect of life in Ashville since its founding to the present day. There is a nook dedicated to Vivian Michael, who was responsible for the area being the center of the puppetry world in the ‘50s and ‘60s; a New York Times best-selling cookbook written by Florence Brobeck, who had a celebrated recipe for turtle soup; records on the wall by singer Corinne Welsh, who topped the charts in the early 1900’s; and Jack Fox, the “Bourbon Cowboy,” who had minor success in the ‘80s. There’s even a nod to porn legend John Holmes, who was born in nearby Millersport. If there’s even the slightest connection to the community, it has a place here. The real charm of Ohio's Small Town Museum, though, is the abundance of Ripley’s-esque lore and hokum that gives Ashville its local color. Sprinkled throughout the history lessons and remembrances are testimonials about seeing the infamous headless ghost at the train tracks, theories about Viking inhabitants near the Snake Den Mound, UFO sightings and a stuffed rooster who would carry a dime to the town diner to pay for its feed. Of course, the museum is not without controversy. Ashville reckons with its darkest chapter as a former “sundown town” by displaying a Ku Klux Klan robe, but it contextualizes the jarring image by acknowledging the fact that by 1935 those bylaws were lifted and the town had elected Harry Margulis, a Jewish lawyer from Columbus, as mayor. It’s refreshing to see a museum of this size address the warts in its history rather than paint Ashville as an idyllic society devoid of hate and intolerance. In that way, Ohio's Small Town Museum is a testament to what can be accomplished when a town seeks to preserve what may be forgotten in time. It’s a place in which all voices are heard and remembered, where even the tiniest triumphs are celebrated, and where one can learn from the mistakes of the past. This mix of the real and unreal is what gives Ashville life, even when there’s not much of it to be found in the streets today.
In the early 1990s, Bugatti set out to make an unlikely comeback. The result was not only the spectacular EB110 supercar, but also one of Italy's most futuristic automotive factories. Built in Campogalliano, near Modena, the factory was designed around the production of the EB110 and quickly became known for its distinctive blue buildings, extensive glass walls, and remarkably modern facilities. At a time when many car factories were decidedly industrial in appearance, this one looked almost like a piece of science fiction. The ambitious revival was short-lived. Bugatti Automobili went bankrupt in 1995, leaving the factory behind along with an unfinished chapter in the history of the marque. The buildings subsequently spent years abandoned, their former production spaces gradually becoming a destination for urban explorers and photographers. Today, the site offers a strange contrast: a place designed to represent the high-tech future of Italian supercars has become a monument to a company that lasted only a few years. Among the empty halls and weathered structures, it is still possible to glimpse the extraordinary ambition behind the EB110 project—and perhaps imagine what this place looked like when brand-new supercars were being assembled here.
Budapest’s Exchange Palace is a grand building with a surprisingly eventful past. Designed by architect Ignác Alpár, it was built between 1902 and 1907 on Szabadság tér as the headquarters of the Budapest Stock Exchange. Its enormous halls were designed for the bustle of early-20th-century finance, but the building would eventually find a very different role. After the stock exchange ceased operating in 1948, the palace passed through several incarnations before becoming the headquarters of Hungarian Television (MTV) in the 1950s. For more than five decades, its grand halls and vast interior spaces were adapted for television production, including studios and technical facilities. When MTV finally moved out in 2009, the enormous palace was left largely unused. For years, its imposing historic exterior concealed empty corridors, former studios, altered interiors, and traces of the many institutions that had occupied it. The contrast between its monumental architecture and its abandoned appearance made it an especially intriguing sight in central Budapest. The building also found a second life on screen. Its atmospheric interiors were used as a filming location for Blade Runner 2049, adding a cinematic chapter to an already unusual history. Today, the Exchange Palace is no longer simply a forgotten former television headquarters. The historic building has entered a new phase, with plans for redevelopment into modern office and commercial space. Its years of abandonment, however, have given this grand Budapest landmark an unusual place in the city’s architectural story: it has been a stock exchange, a television headquarters, a film location, and, for a time, one of Budapest’s most fascinating forgotten interiors.
Hey everybody. It is Dylan here and I'm walking through my kitchen and I'm going to do something that I now pretty much take for granted every day. I'm going to walk up to my fridge — I'm holding a glass here — and I'm going to press a little lever and that is ice magically falling out of the fridge into my glass. and then I can put water in it. I still think it's like one of the most luxurious things in the world. But 100 years ago, getting ice was a much more complicated endeavor. Dozens of people out on a frozen pond, wielding huge saws and pickaxes and cutting these just massive blocks of ice that would be stored and stacked and shipped across the globe. That was the way that ice got into people's homes and into their cups. Sound of pickaxe swinging. Dylan Thuras: It is just like a giant ice pick. Ken Lincoln: Something gets heavier. Dylan: Yeah. More ice-cutting noises. Dylan: I'm Dylan Thuras, and this is Atlas Obscura: a celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places. And today, we're headed to a small town in South Bristol, Maine, for an old fashioned ice harvest. Thompson's Ice House is about 90 minutes north from Portland, Maine, and it's one of the only places on the planet where people still gather every winter to take part in this particular antiquated process. And I joined in on the fun and work (it's a lot of hard work). So, Atlas Obscura on ice ... after this. Ken: What makes me feel like a kid when I'm out there? I mean actually just being on the ice, pushing the blocks and, you know, even watching the children there, you almost go back to that time. Dylan: This is Ken Lincoln. He has lived in Maine his whole life — he's maybe the most Mainery Mainer that I have ever met—and he actually was on this very ice as a kid. Ken: I've been connected to the ice house since I was probably eight or nine years old. Dylan: The ice house that Ken is talking about is called the Thompson Ice House. It was named after the family that originally owned it. Ken: I'd come up with my father and he'd work the ice. And then eventually, as I grew a little older, I moved up to the honor of working in the ice house, which is a pretty big step when you're a kid. Dylan: The ice house itself is right next to the pond, and it kind of looks like a small sort of classic barn. It's got wooden siding. It's got a little pointed roof.. And every winter, Ken Lincoln and, what appears to me to be the entire town of South Bristol, come open up the ice house, take the tools down off the walls, and celebrate this tradition that's been frozen in time since 1826. The whole town comes and just spends hours and hours cutting ice out of the pond and stacking it inside this ice house. Dylan (to Ken): Why go to the trouble of keeping something like this alive? Ken: If this went away, when anybody that had been here and done it is gone, it don't exist anymore — maybe in a video or in a book. I mean, so if you keep it going physically and keep young people coming to do it, then it will live on and live on. Dylan: The process of ice harvesting started back in the 1800s in South Bristol, Maine. But of course it goes back much, much farther, like back to 300 BC when Alexander the Great stored ice in pits so that it would be available year round. There are records on cuneiform tablets of an ice house in ancient Mesopotamia. In third century Rome, snow was sold in shops at the market. Ice and snow would be imported from the mountains of cooler climates and then stacked in pits or special buildings packed with layers of straw or sawdust, and it worked. It's a simple method, but kind of amazing. The ice will stay frozen really almost all year round. And fast forward to the 19th century in the United States, and ice had become a big business. Maine was a prime supplier. Ken: In the early 1900s, the ice industry was actually more lucrative than the lumber industry in the state of Maine. Dylan: In 1826, the first blocks of ice were cut from Thompson Pond in South Bristol, Maine. The harvest at a place like Thompson's Pond supplied ice for fishermen, grocery stores, and in people's home ice boxes. And for a time, New England ice houses supplied ice to Cuba, to the West Indies, to beyond. You know how there were sort of old-timey railroad barons like the Vanderbilts? Well, there were also ice barons. And there was one guy, Charles W. Morse, who made a fortune betting on the ice trade. He had a near monopoly on the New York City ice market, and he shipped ice from Boston all the way to Calcutta. They called him the Ice King, which is a pretty cool nickname. (Get it? Cool. It's a cool nickname.) Anyway, it was not to last. Ken: Actual refrigerators, yeah. That's what killed the ice industry right there. Dylan: This here? Ken: Yeah, we should burn it. Dylan: Ken was motioning to this tiny white mini-fridge in the corner of the Thompson Ice House Museum. Because back in the early 1900s, the ancient ancestors of that mini-fridge started moving into people's kitchens, and, bit by bit, the ice trade melted away. The Thompson Ice House stayed open a shockingly long time, but it officially closed in 1985. But back in 1987, folks in South Bristol — well, they knew they had something special. This was a piece of history in their town, and they took an interest in preserving that old ice harvesting process. So ever since then, every February, Ken has led a team out to the Thompson Pond to cut and stack ice. And, back in 2020, I went and joined them. About 900 people live in South Bristol, and it feels like near every one of them shows up. There are older folks, there's sort of people my age, there's little kids. Ken: My kids were on this pond as soon as they could walk. I mean, probably four and five years old. They enjoy it to this day. Dylan: Everyone is there to take a step back in time. Ken: What's going on right now? We're going to pull out the power saw we used to cut the bulk of the grid. Dylan: For this, we're cheating a little bit. We're not going all the way back in time. (They didn't have power saws in the 1800s.) But this thing is still essentially an antique. Ken: The original sled is early 1900s. The power on it's an old Wisconsin engine off a hay baler, so that's a little more modern. Dylan: This thing is ... kind of amazing looking. It's basically this sort of steampunk tractor, this ancient engine on it that's been run super hard. And then at the front is this gigantic four-foot-wide blade. Ken uses this to drive across the ice and score the whole pond in a kind of grid pattern. But after Ken does his thing with this gigantic saw, the rest of the job requires good old fashioned muscle power. Ken: So in here are the tools that have been around for 200 years. Dylan: I guess people aren't making new ice cutting tools anymore. Ken: No, no. We're going to need some hand saws, and then we're going to need a good pair of tongs.. The chunks that we cut out of the channel — we'll grab them, we'll actually pull them up onto the pond. Dylan: All of these tools are tools that you would recognize: it's a saw, it's a chisel. Except that they all look like they are made for giants. The saw is as tall as me;. the tongs are comically large. I look like a child when I hold them. We just cut a channel. What are we doing now? Ken: We just need to start busting ice. Dylan: In case it's not clear, cutting ice is hard. Once you break away the chunks of ice from the grid, you sort of guide them through the water using these jumbo pokers. And then, finally, they land on a ramp that will take them up and into the ice house. And that's when this whole thing gets quite interesting.... and by interesting, I mean pretty dangerous. Ken: It is dangerous in the ice house. because you have 300-pound blocks of ice coming down the ramp at you at a fairly fast speed. And so you've got to really know where you're standing, be ready to get out of the way. You're handling a very sharp tool. It takes some concentration. Dylan: You can't just let the ice blocks kind of crash into each other because they'll shatter, so what you have to do is stand at the base of the ramp with this sort of giant hook thing and grab the ice as it comes in and guide it safely to a stop. It is not a job for the faint of heart. I talked with another person from town, Donna Plummer. She works at the South Bristol Historical Society, and she says that she did not like it when her sons went and worked in the ice house. Donna Plummer: No, I didn't. Dylan: Why not? Because you were just worried about them? Donna: Yeah, it was dangerous. I mean Chuck, the son that was here, he got his leg caught between two of them when they come sliding in. Dylan: Yeah. This is what I have to look forward to. Donna: Right. Be fast. Dylan: Yeah, be fast. Donna: Be very fast. Dylan: So when I was standing there in the ice house waiting for a 300-pound chunk of ice to come shooting down this ramp, I couldn't help but think about poor Chuck's leg. Sound of ice cutting. Dylan (sawing): I don't know. I don't know how I'm going to do. I'm up. Yeah. Yeah. Oh! Holy s***! Holy . Okay. All right, yeah, I got a feel for it. Dylan (to listeners): I did eventually get a feel for it. I managed to catch a good few blocks of ice and I still had my legs intact. And so I decided to walk around the festival and meet some of the other South Bristolers who had come for the harvest. Why put in all the extra work? What's the value? Danny Dines: It's frickin' beautiful. Dylan: This is Danny Dines. He's at the festival every year. Danny: Yeah, I've been in the cities, I've been here, I've been there, you know, and no, it's beautiful. Why mess with perfect? Dylan: I heard that there's a Thompson relative here. Local Woman: Oh, Ramona! Dylan: Yeah, do you see her? Local Woman: I was just chatting with her. Yes, that's Herbert's daughter. You should go say hello. Yes, you should. Yeah. Ramona Thompson Gaudette: My dad is right up there looking down on us. Dylan: Watching Ken out there cutting the... Ramona: You know what he said to us? Dylan: What? Ramona: I could sell this property and divide it between you three, but I'd really like to have it as a museum so the kids will remember how life is harvested. Dylan: Your father made a real gift, I think. Ramona: You are a sweetheart. Dylan: Oh, you guys are sweet. It's so nice to talk to you. Ramona: You too. Dylan: Have a good rest of your day. Dylan (to listeners): Hello, hello, hello. So ... I am here with my family in Maine on the 4th of July. Hello, family. Dylan’s Wife: Hi. Dylan: And we are driving on Route 1 back to the Thompson Ice House.. And the thing is, is that every year in summer, they take all of that ice that they stacked and they turn it into ice cream. Of course, we weren't... What was that? Dylan’s Wife: Hand-cranked ice cream. Dylan: Hand-cranked ice cream. So we pull up to the Thompson Ice House, and it is a beautiful summer day. Out in front of the ice house, there's a little tent with a band playing. There are people milling about with their ice cream cones and root beer floats. And just like during the Winter Festival, it seems like pretty much the whole town is here. Male Festival Attendee: Hey! Dylan: I just wanted to say hey again. Female Festival Attendee: Hey, nice to see you. Dylan: Nice to be back for the other side of this, the summer side. Female Festival Attendee: I know, isn't this a hoot? Dylan: Do you mind if I ask what you're doing here? Ice Cream Maker: Oh, not at all. We are making some hand-cranked ice cream today. Dylan: And what are you making this ice cream out of? Ice Cream Maker: So we have a mixture that we flavor and then add into these hand-cranked containers with a little bit of the ice from the pond that we harvested this winter and some rock salt. Over the course of an hour, it'll freeze up. It's some homemade ice cream. Dylan: How long do you have to keep cranking this crank? Ice Cream Maker: With the temperatures today, about an hour. Okay. But we're already on to batch two or three. Dylan: I see. Are you going to make it the whole day through? Ice Cream Maker: Until we run out. Dylan: All right. All right. Thank you. Dylan cont. (to listeners): I want to give a special thanks to Ken Lincoln and Donald Plummer and all of the incredibly wonderful people I spent time with in South Bristol. It was such a joy to take part in the tradition. Both catching these 300-pound ice blocks that were flying at me like some kind of crazy stampeding bull and the part where I got to eat ice cream on the 4th of July. It's a really magical place Slurp noise. Dylan: That is the sound of the ice harvested in winter being turned into a root beer float in summer and pretty delicious. If you want to visit South Bristol for the annual ice harvest — which I very highly recommend, it is amazing — that usually takes place sometime in February of every year. And if you want to come back for the Ice Cream Social, that happens every July. This episode was produced by Johanna Mayer. Our podcast is a co-production of Atlas Obscura and Witness Docs. The production team includes Doug Baldinger, Kameel Stanley, Willis Ryder Arnold, Sarah Wyman, Manolo Morales, Baudelaire Ceus, Gianna Palmer, Tracy Samuleson, John DeLore. Our technical director is Casey Holford. This episode was sound designed and mixed by Chris Naka. If you want to learn more, be sure to visit atlasobscura.com. There's a link in our episode description. And our theme and end credit music is by Sam Tindall. I'm Dylan Thuris, wishing you all the wonder in the world. I will see you next time. Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, and Amazon.
A beautifully designed modern church and monastery of the 1960s. The site has been considered a link from city to the mountains. Walking up the main driveway gradually exposes the Andes before revealing the church. The church itself utilises a suspended cube design, and combines hard angles with sweeping curves. The architects (both monks) are from the Valparaiso school that is known for its creative use of light. The design uses a variety of openings to create shifting ambient lighting within the church. Best seen in the early morning or late afternoon light. In the afternoon, the sun sets onto the Andes highlighting the details of the mountains. There are 16 resident monks, who sometimes perform chants in the church during the evenings.
This is a hidden gem in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia where a waterfall flows through an old stone wall, and cascades over mossy rocks in a steep, mossy canyon surrounded by birch trees. The waterfall and two other creeks converge in this canyon, before disappearing through a large culvert at the bottom. It's worth it to visit in the rain, when more water is running - and the rain just adds to the ambience. You don't need to hike to access this place - it is right beside the road. It's easy to walk around the top of the canyon, but of course you'll get the best photos if you go down into the canyon, but be warned, it is very steep and muddy.
There is something delightfully disorienting about stumbling across a 500-year-old Gothic doorway in the grounds of Madrid’s School of Architecture. Surrounded by modern university buildings and the comings and goings of students, the ornate stone portal looks as though it has taken a wrong turn somewhere in the city. In fact, it has—but quite a long time ago. Known as the Puerta del Hospital de la Latina, this is the surviving entrance to the Hospital de la Concepción de Nuestra Señora, founded in 1499 by Beatriz Galindo and her husband, Francisco Ramírez. Galindo, a celebrated scholar of Latin and tutor to the children of Isabella I of Castile, was known as “La Latina,” a nickname that eventually gave its name to both the hospital and one of Madrid’s best-known neighborhoods. The hospital stood at the corner of Calle de Toledo and Plaza de la Cebada, in the heart of what is now the La Latina district. Its flamboyant Gothic architecture incorporated Mudéjar influences and was attributed to the master craftsman Hazan. The elaborate entrance featured a pointed arch, delicate Gothic canopies, heraldic shields, and sculptures including the biblical embrace of Saint Joachim and Saint Anne before the Golden Gate. The hospital survived for four centuries, even serving as a military hospital during the Peninsular War. But Madrid’s appetite for wider streets eventually proved stronger than its appetite for medieval architecture. In 1904, the hospital and the adjoining Convent of the Concepción Francisca were demolished to make way for the widening of Calle de Toledo. Almost everything disappeared. The doorway, however, was spared. For several decades, the dismantled portal languished in municipal storage until architect Fernando Chueca Goitia devised a way to give it a new life. In the late 1950s, it was restored and reconstructed beside the School of Architecture in the Ciudad Universitaria, several kilometers from its original location. A new brick structure and tiled roof were added behind it, effectively turning a fragment of a vanished hospital into a freestanding architectural time traveler. Today, the Puerta de la Latina has an unexpectedly peaceful existence. Instead of welcoming patients on a busy medieval street, it stands among trees and university buildings, watching generations of architecture students hurry past. It is an unlikely survivor: a Gothic doorway that lost its hospital, its convent, its street, and even its neighborhood—but somehow managed to keep its front door.
In a valley surrounded by forested mountains is a mineral spring and baths in use since the Roman Empire. The baths were frequented by soldiers and royalty who wanted to take advantage of its purported healing properties. The land around the baths feature historical walking paths lined with trees donated to the area by high society visitors such by Victoria of Prussia who gifted a giant sequoia. The baths traverse a large, quiet space inside into an outside area with a stunning view. In the area are two smaller hot water mineral baths equipped with jets and a sprawling space with chairs and umbrellas for outdoor lounging. In full, the complex is a hiking area, hotel, spa, restaurant, bar, and cafe with more spaces for events. Don't forget to fill your water bottle from the mineral spring and take note of the Latin phrases around the building and baths.
The Mack Museum was created in 1984 and commemorates Mack history through preserving truck build records, service and parts information, engineering drawings, photos, memorabilia and a collection of vintage Mack truck models. After being founded in Brooklyn, New York in 1900, the Mack Brothers Motor Company registered in Lehigh County, in Allentown PA. They kept the headquarters in Allentown for over 100 years until they moved it to North Carolina in 2009. Some of the highlights of the museum include the original and iconic bulldog, Mack, who is the mascot, the 1909 Mack Brothers Bus, the Megatron prop used in the Transformers: Dark of the Moon film, the experimental and specialized rigs, and the archives. You do need to book a guided tour, and tours are given on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
The town of Old Sagiada was burned and looted in the Second World War by the German occupiers and local Muslims after the inhabitants fled. The abandoned houses are fascinating since many of the walls are still standing, showing a glimpse of the original architecture. Nature has completely overtaken most of the town, with trees growing inside many of the ruins. The church is still mostly intact. Inside, you can still see some frescoes. Outside the church hangs a cool bell, which can probably be heard from quite far, which is great if you want to wake some lazy tourists sleeping on the beach😉. The town is located in the mountains (though not very far) and the drive up there is quite scenic. From the town itself you also have a view of the Mediterenean sea. Be aware that the last part of the road leading up is unpaved and not suitable for every car.
The Holy Trinity oak chapel in Čibukovac, a small village near Kraljevo, is built inside a pedunculate oak believed to be over 500 years old. It is thought to be the oldest oak in Serbia. The tree stands more than 30 metres tall, with a trunk circumference of about 8 metres and a diameter of roughly two and a half metres, wide enough that villager Mihailo Erotijević, with the help of Father Radojko and others, was able to hollow out its trunk and turn it into a small working chapel. Since the feast of the Holy Trinity is the village's main Slava (a custom in the Serbian Orthodox tradition), the chapel took that dedication naturally. The interior was coated with wax to help preserve it, and small niches hold icons of the Holy Trinity, the Theotokos (Mother of God), the Great Martyr George the Victorious, St. Basil of Ostrog, the Crucifixion, and St. Paraskeva (Petka), a saint especially beloved across the Balkans. Villagers still gather there for major feast days in the Serbian Orthodox Calendar, and some visit alone simply to pray. There is also a local detail that adds to its mystery and why it is special. Before the tree became a chapel, it was frequently struck by lightning, something residents see as part of its passage from an ordinary ancient oak into a site of devotion. The Holy Trinity Oak Tree Chapel a striking, living echo of zapis meaning "inscription", an old Slavic traditions of venerating sacred trees across Serbian villages.
Rising high above the vibrant browns and reds of the westerner Colorado landscape, stand the Grand Mesa. Touted as the highest flat topped mountain in the world, the Grand Mesa spans roughly 500 acres and stretches 40 miles in Garfield, Grand and Delta counties. While much of the terrain does appear flat, the topography can be rugged in many places. Plateau and Kannah creeks run off the Mesa into the Grand Valley and there are over 300 lakes. Most of the Mesa sits at 6,000 feet but the highest points reach just over 11,000 feet in elevation, mostly in the Grand Mesa National Forest. The easiest and simplest way to see the Mesa is to drive Colorado Highway 65, the Grand Mesa Scenic Byway, running from Interstate 70 in the west to the town of Cedaredge in the South. The Scenic Byway though switchbacks and overlooks, and gives one a sufficient overview of the landscape. But to really enjoy it, one should get out and hike.
This opulent cinema in downtown Erie, commissioned by Warner Bros. Studios and designed by Chicago-based architects Rapp & Rapp, first opened its doors in 1931. Built for $1.5 million (about $32.95 million today), the grand venue channeled French Renaissance style with its Persian marble archways, gold-backed mirrors, and intricate silver leaf gilding. The glitz and glamour of ’30s showbiz is reflected its ruby red curtains and iconic 10-ton electric marquee, made with 8,000 lights. The Warner is one of only a handful of former Warner Bros. theaters still operating today, as most of the studio’s 360-plus cinemas shuttered during the mid-20th century. Though the Warner stopped showing films in 1976, it remained the cultural heart of Erie. It now serves as a performing arts center and fixture of Erie’s downtown revival that now also includes a bustling shopping and events district, renovated green space, and more development on the horizon. Over the course of several decades, the theater was lovingly restored and expanded to become a bona fide artistic hub. Restoration efforts preserved the original period details of the space while updating it for the 21st century with new sound and lighting equipment, an extended stage, repainted terra cotta reliefs, and a reconstructed marquee. A new orchestra shell and rehearsal space ensure that the Warner remains an artist-friendly space and continues to deliver only the highest-quality entertainment. Today, the Warner is home to the Erie Philharmonic and the Lake Erie Ballet, and hosts touring Broadway shows, concerts, dance troupes, weddings, and graduation ceremonies. “Hairspray,” “Chicago,” “Mamma Mia!,” and “Kinky Boots” are just a few of the award-winning shows that have brought crowds to the Warner, week after week. With its regal bronze staircase, dazzling chandeliers, and towering ceilings, the theater is a prime example of Warner Bros.’s design motto for all of the company’s movie palaces in its heyday: “twice as rich, three times more fanciful than life.”
20,000 BC was a monumental year in history. Why? The first pot of soup was crafted in a cave in modern-day China. To create their savory broth, prehistoric humans boiled animal bones and entrails in crude pits, then slurped their handiwork from some of the world’s earliest ceramic bowls. Fast forward a few thousand years, and a verdict has been reached: Our ancient ancestors were onto something ... something delicious. Since this first boiling pot, humans have come up with all kinds of ways to make delicious, simmering broths, loading them full of tender meat, starches, vegetables, and herbs. From light and clear dishes with delicate flavors to chunky creations of the stew variety, there’s no wrong way to make or enjoy a bowl of soup. Just put a pot on the stove and let the spirit move you. In honor of this most versatile and reliable of comfort foods, we’ve compiled our favorite places around the world to dig into a big bowl of soup. From a Russian restaurant hidden in a bathhouse to a New Orleans mainstay that fed the civil rights movement, these restaurants show that soup is universal—a dish that bridges divides and soothes the soul. Grab your biggest spoon and your bib (because, yes, there will be spillage); we’re going on a delicious journey. 1. Wattana Panich - Bangkok, Thailand Can soup be eternal? Apparently so, as this Bangkok eatery has been tending to the same massive, boiling pot of neua tune (beef stew) for 50 years. Owner Nattapong Kaweenuntawong has cooked this famous “half-century-old soup” since he was a kid working under his father, keeping the secret blend of spices and herbs, stewed beef, raw beef slices, meatballs, tripe, and other organs perfectly balanced. The ancient practice Kaweenuntawong uses to keep the soup constantly simmering is called Hunter’s Stew, using the previous day’s leftover broth as the base of the following day’s soup. The process is time-consuming and quite labor-intensive, with Kaweenuntawong tearing through about 150 pounds of beef each day and cooking the meat until it is tender (about 11 hours in total). It’s well-worth the effort, though, for the rich, flavorful creation that emerges, with melt-in-your-mouth meat, chewy noodles, and an irresistible aroma. 2. Bún Riêu Gánh - Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam If you’re out shopping in Ben Thanh Market, you might just stumble across a huge pot of crab broth hanging from a wooden yoke, or gánh, and loaded with rice vermicelli noodles and a special crab meatloaf made with crab paste, minced pork, and egg. This would be Bún Riêu Gánh, the passion project of local legend Mrs. Mai Thi Lien. For four decades, she’s been ladling out generous portions of this traditional noodle soup to hungry passersby, with dipping cups of tamarind fish sauce and chili that lend the dish a tangy, southern-Vietnamese twist. 3. Matryoshka at Wall Street Bath & Spa 88 - New York, New York On a small street tucked away between skyscrapers in the Financial District, this subterranean bath and spa has a few tricks up its sleeve (of the comfort food variety). After making your way through a labyrinth of stairwells and passageways (where you may pass more than a few toweled patrons), you’ll end up in a quaint bar/restaurant decorated with intricate wood carvings and Russian nesting dolls, matryoshkas, that the restaurant gets it name from. Here, still in your robe and slippers, you can enjoy some of the best Eastern European food in the Big Apple, like buzhenina, an herb-roasted pork tenderloin from Russia and Ukraine, or a Georgian lamb soup known as harcho. Soup seekers can also find borsch, fish soup, and chicken soup with dumplings, as well as solyanka, a meaty Russian soup with green olives and briny pickles. Make your visit even more special with a glass of infused vodka or a pint of Russian lager, then sweat it all out in the sauna. 4. Fio D’Italia - San Francisco, California Established in 1886 in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood, Fio D’Italia holds the title of “America’s Oldest Italian Restaurant” and still serves up dishes from its early days such as scaloppine fior, tender veal sautéed with prosciutto and mushrooms in wine sauce; petto di pollo alla Valdosta, chicken breast cooked with prosciutto and fontina cheese; and, last but not least, a classic minestrone soup loaded with winter beans and vegetables. Also on the menu is a zuppa di cavolo con formaggio, a cabbage, bread and cheese stew with bits of prosciutto; and pasta e fagioli, a soup with—you guessed it—pasta, cannellini beans, and prosciutto. You can also rest assured that a thick, crusty half loaf of sourdough French bread will be brought to your table, complete with flaky salt and extra virgin olive oil. Mamma mia! 5. Au Pied de Cochon - Paris, France Au Pied de Cochon was once known for using all parts of the pig in its dishes, from marrow bones to kidneys to heads and the eponymous hooves (it was founded by a former butcher after all). These days, however, people more often come for its soupe à l’oignon au gratin, or French onion soup—a decadent dish full of caramelized onions, gooey cheese, and baguette slices. Unlike most other versions of French onion soup, which use beef stock as a base, Au Pied’s uses chicken stock to honor its Les Halles roots. Back when the area was still Paris’s central fresh food market, the soup became a go-to meal for blue collar workers and night owls roaming the “belly of Paris.” And since Au Pied de Cochon is open almost 24 hours a day (8 a.m. to 5 a.m.), you can still eat this fine soup at almost all hours of the night. (It’s perhaps even more delicious after an evening out.) 6. Chankonabe Shinzan - Tokyo, Japan This tiny, hole-in-the-wall shop serves up a mean bowl of chanko nabe, a soup that combines meat or fish with tofu, vegetables, glutinous rice, and broth. The dish has long been the favorite of sumo wrestlers for bulking up and fueling for a fight, and Chankonabe Shinzan was, in fact, founded by Shinzan Takeyasu, a retired sumo wrestler and soup-maker extraordinaire. Shinzan’s restaurant serves chanko nabe with both salt and curry-based broths (though the curry varieties are the clear favorite among locals). If you need something to tide you over till your soup is ready, there are appetizers like wagyu beef topped with green onions, snow crab salad, and tebasaki, double-fried chicken wings in a sweet-savory soy glaze. Just make sure to save room for the main event! 7. Appu’s Cafe - Long Beach, California The rich soups at this Indian-Mexican fusion cafe are just what the doctor ordered ... literally. Appu’s was opened by Dr. Vinod Venkataraman in his retirement after a long career spent extolling the virtues of gingery broths and lentil stews. Chef VR (as those in the know call him) abides by the mantra: “Healthy eating is a choice, eating healthy is a lifestyle,” meaning everything on Appu’s menu is nutrient-dense and guilt-free. Whether you opt for the spicy, protein-filled garbanzo bean soup or the creamy, nutty spinach soup, you’re in for a flavor-packed, warm, and satisfying treat. Pro tip: Pair your soup with the Maharani burrito, filled with rice pilaf and lentils and served with a special secret sauce. 8. A Touch of European Cafe - Glendale, Arizona This family-owned joint serves up “pure comfort food done right”: hearty Polish classics like goulash, kielbasa, stuffed cabbage, and—to top it all off—an extensive list of signature soups. There’s truly a soup for everyone here, with options ranging from New England clam chowder to potato horseradish to chilled garlic; cold buttermilk and beets to cream of asparagus and beef tripe. All of these signatures pair perfectly with the cafe’s dark rye bread and pierogis, which you can wash down with a caramel apple cider or iced tea. You can even learn how to make A Touch of European’s soups yourself at one of their twice-annual cooking classes, led by chef and owner Waldemar Okul. Whether you grew up on Polish cuisine or know only the basics, you’ll walk away from the experience with a Rolodex of beloved recipes to make at home. Past classes have included dishes like caprese on apricot walnut bread, chilled avocado and dill soup and, for dessert, a puff pastry Napoleon. 9. Dooky Chase’s Restaurant - New Orleans, Louisiana Established in 1939, this NOLA institution has fed everyone from President Barack Obama to Nat King Cole and Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Though Edgar “Dooky” and Emily Chase first opened Dooky’s as a sandwich shop, it grew into an upscale celebration of Creole cuisine after Leah, the Chases’ daughter-in-law, took over the business in the ’50s. As part of this revamp, she featured work by local Black artists on the restaurants’ walls—the first time many of them had seen their works publicly displayed. Leah also added regional favorites like shrimp clemenceau, chicken creole, and creole gumbo to Dooky Chase’s menu, the latter of which still draws crowds with its winning combination of crab, shrimp, veal, and smoked and hot sausage. The restaurant also serves its signature green gumbo in the days leading up to Easter (made with nine different cooked greens). It may not look especially delicious, but it sure does taste good. 10. Farren’s Bar - Malin Head, Ireland Ireland’s northernmost pub has been in the Farren family for six generations, drawing in folks from across County Donegal with its delicious seafood chowder and buttery, homemade soda bread. It’s the perfect hearty meal after a hike along Malin Head’s rocky cliffs or a swim through the harbor (especially if you add a Guinness to your order). The pub also boasts a fun bit of “Star Wars” trivia, having been visited by Mark Hamill during the filming of “The Last Jedi,” and even has a Yoda mural on its exterior. 11. Caldo de Piedra - Tlalixtac de Cabrera, Mexico This small outpost outside Oaxaca is named after its signature dish, a fish and shrimp soup that is a staple of the indigenous Chinantec community. Traditionally, men would cook the soup right on the riverbank, seasoning their freshly caught fish with onions, lime, cilantro, and chiles. Caldo de Piedra keeps this centuries-old tradition alive today, using the same kind of fire-heated rocks to flash-cook and tenderize the fish. In fact, so revered is this practice that owner César Gachupín had to seek permission from town elders before opening his restaurant. In 2021, the state’s congress declared the dish an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Oaxaca for its “symbolic importance as one of the dishes that best reflects the culture and society of the Papaloapan region.” Though it has historically been made by men, the soup is seen as a gesture of gratitude toward the women, children, and elders of the community. 12. Rung Rueang - Bangkok, Thailand The tom yum soup at this unassuming spot has gained a cult following amongst Bangkok foodies, with large chunks of spicy-sweet pork balanced out by hints of lemongrass, chile, and lime. While this is the standard version of the dish, Rung Rueang offers plenty of ways to customize, with different broth bases, noodle types, and toppings: sugar if you wish to temper the heat, or a dusting of chile flakes to crank it up. The soup is so life-altering that Rung Rueang has been awarded a Michelin Bib Gourmand designation every year since 2018 and often has a line that snakes down the block. Arriving to the shop, you’ll notice that it is, in fact, divided into two sections—the result of a decades-long family feud. While both still serve the dishes under the same names, the “left-side” shop (the original) is widely considered the better of the two.
The Academy of Natural Sciences is the oldest natural history museum in the country (and the Americas). It has everything the curious could hope for -- dinosaurs, ancient fish and birds, an emphasis on conservation, and a deep-seated appreciation for the natural world. Although many of the subjects have been in the museum for well over a century (the academy first opened its doors in 1812), they are well preserved, and their exhibits carefully crafted with hand painted scenes in the background. In a time where screens are everywhere, the academy keeps them to select few. Instead, guests can reflect on the history of taxidermy, the art of curation, and the accuracy of the displays. The top floor is home to several living creatures -- a miniature zoo where visitors can reflect on the place of some of the smallest creatures in our ecosystem--snakes, turtles, and cockroaches are carefully taken care of. Children can dig for replica bones in a mock archeological dig site. The staff are happy to answer questions and are helpfully placed throughout the three-story building. For the bird lovers among us, there are a delightful assortment on display. The Academy of Natural Sciences was once the workplace to ornithologist James Bond (yes, like the spy), the man whose friend, author Ian Flemming, named his iconic character after.
Josef Broz Tito occupied a unique place in the cultural memory of the countries that previously comprised Yugoslavia. To some, he was a human rights-violating authoritarian. To others, he was a “benevolent dictator” who kept simmering ethnic tensions from boiling over, as they did after the breakup of Yugoslavia and subsequent Bosnian war. What better legacy to pair with the treasured Bosnian past times of sipping coffee and beer than his? At Cafe Tito, the mythical man watches over patrons from the photos, posters, news articles, magazines, and memorabilia featuring his likeness. The interior of the cafe is painted communist red, balancing out an exterior patio showcasing Sarajevo’s natural greenery… and green military vehicles. Next to a children’s playground lies a decommissioned tank, military truck, and out-of-use weaponry. Fun for the whole family! Started in the early 2000s as a tribute to the era in which Tito reigned supreme, the owners have spent over twenty years gathering material related to his rise, glory days, and demise from miscellaneous, multimedia sources. Peruse the interior for a fragmented history of a man who, at times, seemed larger than life, and still represents an era of prosperity and peace to some Bosnian citizens. Out front of the cafe, note the red paint splatter. It's not a random spill -- it's a marker of Sarajevo's bloody history. These "Sarajevo roses" indicate sites where two or more people were murdered during the Siege of Sarajevo, lasting from 1992 to 1996. The cafe is located near what was called Sniper's Alley, a long road bisecting Sarajevo's flattest area in which civilians were exposed to militia sniper fire. With this Sarajevo rose, the city honors those murdered right off Sniper Alley, juxtaposing this memory of violence with the relative peace during the Tito era celebrated in the cafe. It stands as a solemn reminder that multiple eras of history are alive in Sarajevo, some deeply unresolved in a society scarred by war.
Located at 8 rue Poissonnerie, this ancient house is famous for its impressive façade dating back to 1584. This makes it one of the last remaining examples of such a painted house from that period left in the city. The facade was decorated using "sgraffito" a technique popular in Italy during the 15th and 16th centuries. Sgraffito is done by applying different layers of plaster tinted in contrasting colours to a moistened surface. It is said by some that the scene depicts Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in a bas-relief form. Though local suggestions are that it actually shows the fiery couple who lived there at the time the house was decorated. Whichever is true, it is still one of the best remaining examples of this type of architecture in Nice.
The Mountain House isn't just a restaurant; it's a dining experience tucked among the redwoods of Kings Mountain in Woodside California. A winding mountain road must be traveled to reach the destination nestled beneath some of California's tallest trees. The rustic cabin feels storybook-like, as if it were built for a family of gnomes rather than hungry diners. Inside, the windowed ceiling dining room shows towering redwoods offering a humbling reminder of just how small we are in the presence of nature. Getting there is part of the adventure. No matter which direction visitors arrive from, the drive gradually transports them from the pace of everyday life to something slower, quieter, and more timeless. Between the forest, the atmosphere, and the setting, every meal comes with a reminder of just how beautiful Northern California can be. The food is as special as the surroundings. The region's farm-to-table style is evident, and the ever-changing menu celebrates hyper-seasonal ingredients and inspired dishes. The proteins are thoughtfully sourced, and it's exciting to see menus featuring quail, venison, and trout, to name a few. Attentive service with immaculate attention to detail elevates the experience, creating a meal that lingers in your memory long after the drive back down the mountain.
Located slightly northwest of Harvard's Arnold Arboretum and within a residential area is Larz Anderson Park. A relatively small park compared to others in the area, but within this park contains a grand carriage house built during the Victorian era and housed within is the oldest automotive collection in the United States dating back to before the 20th century. The park and the auto museum are named after French born American diplomat Larz Anderson. He had a long diplomatic career serving as secretary to the United Kingdom, Italy, and later ambassador to Belgium and Japan. He also served briefly in the Spanish-American War and had family members that fought in the American Revolution and Civil War. In 1896, he met Isabel Weld Perkins from Boston who in 1881 had inherited around $5 million from her grandfather, shipping magnate William Fletcher Weld after his death. Anderson and Perkins were married in 1897, and one of the properties they owned was a large carriage house in Brookline built in 1889. To celebrate his long diplomatic career, Anderson enjoyed living lavishly and in particular enjoyed spending money on cars and carriages. From 1899 until his death in 1937, the couple owned 32 cars, 24 carriages, and 6 horse drawn sleighs. They aimed to buy a new vehicle every year and much of the collection was auctioned off by Isabel after her husband's death but 14 cars still remain in their original untouched collection. They are: • 1899 Winton Phaeton • 1900 Rochet-Schneider • 1901 Winton Bullet • 1903 Gardner-Serpollet • 1905 Electromobile • 1906 Charron-Girodot et Voigt • 1907 Fiat • 1908 Bailey Electric • 1910 Panhard et Levassor • 1912 Renault • 1916 Packard Twin Six • 1924 Renault Torpedo • 1925 Luxor Taxi • 1926 Lincoln Limousine The majority of the surviving cars were made prior to World War I and offer a very rare close-up look into automotives during the early 20th century, several of which are the last surviving examples anywhere in the world. Because none of them have been restored, they are like time capsules and relics frozen in time. The Andersons began showing their collection to the public in 1927 and the museum was formally established after Isabel's death in 1948. To the present day, the museum continues to acquire new vehicles for their collection which are displayed and rotated frequently. The Larz Auto Museum may not be the largest automotive museum, but their continuously maintained collection dating back to 1899 makes it the oldest in the United States. The carriage house also has a grand and magnificent interior which has the perfect ambience for viewing historical automobiles. If you have an interest in vintage and antique cars, the museum is definitely worth visiting.
Verlée is a small hamlet located an hour and a quarter's drive south-east of Brussels. Apart from a few limestone farmhouses, the village itself is small and of little interest. However, when leaving Verlée via the road to Petit Avin, visitors are surprised to discover a stone obelisk in the middle of the countryside. It stands on a ridge alongside the road. There are no nearby buildings and no signs explaining its presence. There is no inscription on it, and only the carved garlands at the top allow it to be dated to the early 19th century, the Empire period. An internet search only deepens the mystery: no website offers a satisfactory explanation for the origin of this monument, which has been nicknamed 'Belgium's only pyramid' … because they all overlook a crucial piece of information. A popular theory suggests that the monument was a topographical landmark that helped the French colonel Jean-Joseph Tranchot carry out a triangulation survey of the Rhine region and a small part of northern Belgium between 1801 and 1813. While this theory may seem plausible — the monument is highly visible on a hilltop, the other surviving landmarks are obelisks and the historical period matches the carved decoration — it is incorrect. Tranchot's maps have been preserved and simply do not cover this region. Therefore, no other hypothesis seems capable of explaining the existence of this monument, except that no website mentions an important detail. Looking at historical maps of the area reveals that a castle, now lost, stood 750 metres north-north-east of the monument. This castle is known as the "Château de Bouillon" and should not be confused with the famous castle of the same name in the south of the country. Rue Haveligeoule, which leads to the obelisk, lies perfectly on the axis between the two sites, and one side of the obelisk is precisely aligned with this axis. This monument marks the end of a castle’s axis and is by no means unique. Similar examples can be found at La Hulpe Castle in Belgium, Het Loo Palace in Apeldoorn in the Netherlands, the Château de Vaux-Le-Vicompte in France and Wilhelmshöhe Castle in Germany. This type of layout originates from the Palace of Versailles: the palace’s axis extends eastwards for just over eight kilometres, symbolising the king’s power extending across the realm. As Versailles served as a model for the whole of Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries, this grand central axis became a recurring feature in the design of French-style gardens and the grounds surrounding castles. However, some castles were situated in locations that made it impossible to create such a monumental axis. Instead, a constructed monument became the focal point towards which the castle’s axis and all eyes converged. The Verlée Pyramid is a glaring example of websites repeating information without verifying it: 'Belgium’s only pyramid' is nothing more than a decorative feature in the garden of a long-demolished castle.
What is a cryptid? A cryptid is an animal whose existence has been suggested but not proven by science—creatures like Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, the Chupacabra, and the Jersey Devil. The term comes from cryptozoology, the study of “hidden animals.” Quick Reference: Cryptid Destinations at a Glance Destination Location Cryptid Hours Admission Access Notes International Cryptozoology Museum Bangor, ME Multiple Check website Varies Reopened April 2026 at new location North American Cryptid Museum Plano, TX Multiple 11am-6pm (varies) $16-$47 NEW - opened June 2026 Mothman Museum Point Pleasant, WV Mothman 10am-5pm (6pm Fri-Sat) $4.50 adults, $1.50 kids Open daily except major holidays Skunk Ape Research Headquarters Ochopee, FL Skunk Ape Daylight hours Small fee #1 FL roadside attraction (USA Today 2024) Expedition Bigfoot Cherry Log, GA Bigfoot Check website Varies 4,000 sq ft of exhibits Flatwoods Monster Museum Sutton, WV Flatwoods Monster Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat-Sun 10am-4pm Free At Braxton County Visitors Center Hours and admission current as of August 2026. Always verify before visiting. Why Cryptid Tourism Matters The International Cryptozoology Museum in Bangor, the Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant, the Skunk Ape Research Headquarters in the Everglades—these destinations attract hundreds of thousands of visitors annually, drawn by creatures whose existence remains unproven by science. Whether you’re a true believer, a skeptical scientist, or someone who appreciates a good mystery, these places offer something more than kitsch: they’re windows into how communities embrace the unknown and weave it into their identity. A cryptid, as Belgian-French biologist Bernard Heuvelmans defined it in 1983, is a creature that is “truly singular, unexpected, paradoxical, striking, emotionally upsetting, and thus capable of mythification.” This definition captures why Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster qualify while an undiscovered species of beetle does not. Cryptids must inspire awe and wonder. They must capture the imagination. Stories of creeping, flying, and swimming cryptids have long emerged from communities across what is now the United States. From figures of Native American legends to the lore behind small-town hysteria, cryptids have long captured human curiosity. Today, people erect monuments in their honor, coalesce in cult followings, and continue to seek them out. The destinations in this guide represent the best places to immerse yourself in these legends—from the Beast of Montana to a murderous goat-man in Kentucky to lake monsters in Vermont. This guide covers 15+ visitable destinations across the United States and beyond, organized by cryptid type, with practical information on hours, admission, and what makes each worth the trip. The Bigfoot Trail: Museums Dedicated to America's Most Famous Cryptid 1. International Cryptozoology Museum — Bangor, Maine: the world’s only museum of its kind NEW LOCATION AS OF APRIL 2026: After 20+ years in Portland, the museum relocated to 490 Broadway, Bangor, Maine, opening April 1, 2026. What You’ll Find: The world’s only international cryptozoology museum, founded by renowned cryptid expert Loren Coleman, houses an unrivaled collection of specimens, replicas, and artifacts relating to famous and lesser-known cryptids worldwide. The Experience: Coleman began his cryptozoology journey in 1960 and has since amassed an extraordinary collection of over 10,000 items. The centerpiece is the eight-and-a-half-foot-tall, 300-pound “Crookston Bigfoot,” but you’ll also find a life-size coelacanth (proving that cryptids sometimes turn out to be real), Feejee mermaids, and representations of creatures from around the globe. Standing guard outside is “Elwood,” a wooden Bigfoot carved from a single log, standing 8 feet tall and weighing over 800 pounds. It took six men to install this lanky sentinel. Visitor Info: Address: 490 Broadway, Bangor, ME Hours: Check website for current hours Note: The Portland, ME location closed March 31, 2026 2. North American Cryptid Museum — Plano, Texas: the newest addition to the cryptid museum landscape NEW — OPENED JUNE 2026 What You’ll Find: A permanent immersive walk-through museum featuring life-sized recreations of cryptids from all 50 U.S. states, plus Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. Located inside Dark Hour Haunted House. The Experience: This isn't a research-focused institution—the owner describes it as a celebration of “pop cryptids” rather than serious cryptozoology. Visitors encounter Bigfoot, Mothman, the Chupacabra, and regional legends through immersive sets and detailed recreations based on eyewitness accounts. The museum blends theatrical presentation with folklore storytelling. Visitor Info: Address: 701 Taylor Drive, Plano, TX 75074 Hours: 11am-6pm (varies by date; check website) Admission: $16-$46.95 depending on package Grand Opening: June 6, 2026 3. North American Bigfoot Center — Boring, Oregon: the evidence-based approach What You’ll Find: Founded by Cliff Barackman of “Finding Bigfoot” fame, this museum serves as the epicenter of evidence-based Bigfoot research in North America. The Experience: Unlike some cryptid attractions that lean into kitsch, the North American Bigfoot Center takes a more scientific approach. Staff members are all involved in research at some level. Exhibits include eyewitness accounts preserved in newspaper articles and memoirs, plaster casts of alleged footprints, anatomical reconstructions, infrared and standard photographs, film footage, and audio recordings. The centerpiece is “Murphy,” a life-sized Sasquatch replica popular for family photos. Visitor Info: Address: 31297 SE, US-26, Boring, OR Note: Founded by Cliff Barackman, known for TV’s “Finding Bigfoot” 4. Expedition Bigfoot (The Sasquatch Museum) — Cherry Log, Georgia: the largest collection What You’ll Find: A 4,000-square-foot museum claiming the largest collection of Bigfoot artifacts in any museum anywhere. The Experience: Owners David and Malinda Bakara have assembled newspaper articles documenting sightings across decades, sketches, casts of handprints and footprints gathered by researchers from around the world—and one particularly unusual item: a cast of a butt-print allegedly from a Yeti. Free cookies for visitors. Visitor Info: Address: Cherry Log, GA (off Highway 515) Hours: Check website Don't Miss: The comprehensive footprint cast collection, the largest permanent display of its kind Additional Bigfoot Destinations Museum Location Highlights Atlas Obscura Link West Virginia Bigfoot Museum Sutton, WV Impressions and castings from around the world; café serves the “Bigfoot Dog” https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/west-virginia-bigfoot-museum The Sasquatch Outpost Bailey, CO Maps of CO sightings, footprint casts; annual “Bigfoot Adventure Weekend” https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-sasquatch-outpost-and-museum Cryptozoology & Paranormal Museum Littleton, NC Bigfoot prints, Feejee mermaids, haunted dolls https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/cryptozoology-paranomal-museum World’s Largest Bigfoot Keystone, SD Guinness-certified largest Bigfoot statue, chainsaw-carved https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/worlds-largest-bigfoot-south-dakota Mothman Country: Point Pleasant, West Virginia’s Winged Terror West Virginia is home to so many high-quality cryptids that it deserves its own paranormal trail. But Mothman remains the state’s most famous resident—an inexplicable figure that, according to some, may have tried to warn residents of Point Pleasant of an impending bridge collapse. 1. Mothman Museum — Point Pleasant, West Virginia: the definitive collection What You’ll Find: The only public collection devoted almost exclusively to the mysterious insect-like creature with glowing red eyes and massive wings that plagued Point Pleasant between 1966 and 1967. The Legend: In November 1966, numerous residents began reporting sightings of a vaguely humanoid creature with glowing red eyes and wings spanning up to 10 feet. Those who saw the creature from their cars reported that its eyes shone red like bicycle reflectors when their headlights hit it. Sightings continued until December 1967, when the Silver Bridge collapsed during rush hour, killing 46 people. After the tragedy, Mothman sightings ceased—leading to speculation about connections between the creature and the disaster. The sightings had all been near the TNT area, a World War II munitions factory, leading some to surmise that the Mothman was a military experiment or an alien visitor. The mystery was never solved, though skeptics claim it may have simply been an owl. Nevertheless, the story inspired John Keel’s 1976 book “The Mothman Prophecies” and its 2002 film adaptation, and Point Pleasant now commemorates its cryptid with a museum, statue, and annual festival. The Experience: Newspaper clippings from the original sightings, books, toys, memorabilia from Mothman’s multimedia appearances, and props from the 2002 film “The Mothman Prophecies” starring Richard Gere. The museum also features mini golf and an escape room. Visitor Info: Address: 400 Main Street, Point Pleasant, WV 25550 Hours: 10am-5pm daily (until 6pm Fri-Sat); closed Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, New Year’s Day Admission: $4.50 ages 11+; $1.50 ages 10 and under Annual Event: Mothman Festival, September 19-20, 2026 (free admission to festival; museum admission separate) 2. Mothman Statue — Point Pleasant, West Virginia: the photo opportunity A 12-foot-tall polished steel Mothman statue stands in downtown Point Pleasant, ensuring the legend remains embedded in the cultural consciousness. Visitor Info: Location: Downtown Point Pleasant, steps from the museum Access: Free, 24/7 3. TNT Area — Point Pleasant, West Virginia: where the sightings began What You’ll Find: Rows of World War II-era igloo-like bunkers where the first Mothman sightings were reported. The Experience: The dilapidated laboratories and bunkers give the area exactly the ambiance a discerning monster would want. Some visitors claim to see the image of Mothman in cracks in the bunker walls. Access Notes: The TNT Area became a Superfund site in 1983 and is still undergoing cleanup. Exercise caution when visiting. Visitor Info: Location: 6 miles north of Point Pleasant on Route 62 Access: Open to visitors, but be aware of contamination history Regional Cryptid Hotspots 1. Skunk Ape Research Headquarters — Ochopee, Florida: the Everglades’ answer to Bigfoot VOTED #1 ROADSIDE ATTRACTION IN FLORIDA, #2 IN THE U.S. (USA Today Readers’ Poll, 2024) What You’ll Find: In the depths of the Everglades, Dave Shealy has dedicated his entire life to studying the elusive Skunk Ape, Florida’s malodorous answer to Bigfoot. The Creature: The Skunk Ape earns its name from its distinctive odor—described as rotting garbage, methane, or simply skunks. Males reportedly stand 6-7 feet tall and weigh around 450 pounds. Both sexes are covered in long, reddish or black hair similar to orangutans or gorillas. The Experience: The headquarters serves as museum, gift shop, petting zoo, and campground. Exhibits document Shealy’s research since his first Skunk Ape sighting at age 10 in 1974. His “Everglades Skunk Ape Research Field Guide” includes tips on baiting with lima beans and deer liver. Visitor Info: Address: 40904 Tamiami Trail East, Ochopee, FL Hours: Daylight hours Admission: Small fee for museum; campground available Also Available: Boat tours, petting zoo, campground 2. Flatwoods Monster Museum — Sutton, West Virginia: the alien encounter What You’ll Find: Documentation of one of America’s strangest cryptid encounters—the September 12, 1952 sighting of a tall, man-like figure with a round, red face surrounded by a spade-shaped hood. The Legend: Several Flatwoods residents saw a bright object land on a nearby farm. When a group investigated, they encountered a creature that hissed at them in anger. Also known as the Braxton County Monster or “Braxie.” Visitor Info: Address: 208 Main Street, Sutton, WV (at Braxton County Visitors Center) Hours: Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat-Sun 10am-4pm Admission: Free Don’t Miss: Giant Monster Chairs located around Flatwoods village on Highway 19 3. Paranormal Museum — Asbury Park, New Jersey: the Jersey Devil’s skull What You’ll Find: A storefront museum honoring the Jersey Shore’s deep history of mystery, including the supposed skull of the Jersey Devil—the Northeast’s most famous cryptid. The Legend: The Jersey Devil has haunted New Jersey folklore since the 18th century, but its legend exploded in January 1909 when hundreds of people across the Delaware Valley reported seeing an unknown creature flying over the Pine Barrens. Witnesses described something like a kangaroo with hooves and leathery bat wings that let out terrifying shrieks before disappearing into the sky. The creature’s origin story varies by telling, but the most popular version holds that a Mrs. Leeds of the Pine Barrens, upon learning she was pregnant with her 13th child, cursed the baby. When born, it transformed into a devil-like creature with bat wings, hooves, and a forked tail, then flew up the chimney and into legend. During that single week in January 1909, the Jersey Devil was reported in more than 30 towns across New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Schools closed. Workers refused to leave their homes. Armed posses hunted the Pine Barrens. The Philadelphia Zoo offered a $10,000 reward for capture. Then, as suddenly as it began, the hysteria ended. The Experience: The Paranormal Museum has curated oddities since 2008, including the Hand of Glory (a candle holder supposedly made from a severed hand), haunted dolls, and the crown jewel—a skull thought to be that of the Jersey Devil. Part of Paranormal Books & Curiosities. Visitor Info: Address: 621 Cookman Ave, Asbury Park, NJ Also Available: Ghost tours of Asbury Park’s haunted sites, including the SS Morro Castle shipwreck and Asbury Lanes bowling alley Related: For more Jersey Devil lore, explore the Pine Barrens themselves—the million-acre forest where the creature allegedly still roams. 4. The Chupacabra — Puerto Rico, Texas, and the American Southwest High-Volume Search Alert: The Chupacabra is one of the most-searched cryptids in the Americas, especially among Hispanic audiences and in the Southwest. The Legend: First reported in Puerto Rico in March 1995, the chupacabra (“goat-sucker” in Spanish) rocketed to the forefront of the cryptid canon. The creature allegedly attacks livestock and drains their blood, leaving puncture wounds but no other damage. Physical descriptions vary dramatically: in Puerto Rico and Latin America, it’s described as a reptilian, alien-like creature with spines down its back; in Texas and the Southwest, it appears more dog-like. Where to Experience It: North American Cryptid Museum — Plano, TX: The new Texas museum features the Chupacabra prominently, fitting given the creature’s strong association with Texas border regions. Six Flags Fiesta Texas — San Antonio, TX: The “Chupacabra” roller coaster honors the legend (though this is a thrill ride, not a museum). Puerto Rico: While no dedicated museum exists, the original sighting location in Canóvanas and the island’s general cryptid culture make it a pilgrimage site for believers. Why It Matters: The Chupacabra is notable as one of the few major cryptids with a precisely documented origin—we know exactly when and where the legend began. Some researchers trace the original description to the alien creature in the 1995 film “Species,” suggesting the witness may have conflated a film image with a real sighting. Lake Monsters: Serpents of the Deep Lake monsters occupy a unique place in cryptid lore. Unlike the remote Himalayas or deep ocean trenches, lakes are part of everyday life—places for commerce, recreation, and sports. Yet their depths remain unknown, a foreign terrain where anything might lurk. To see a strange animal breaking the surface of a lake is to feel the eerie presence of another realm breaking through from the unknowable world below. These plesiosaur-like creatures are said to dwell in numerous lakes worldwide, from Scotland’s Loch Ness to Argentina’s Nahuelito to America’s own Tahoe Tessie and Lake Champlain’s Champ. Eyewitnesses rarely describe them as threatening or dangerous. Instead, witnesses seem to marvel at these creatures’ sudden presence, the way they erupt out of the stillness into our field of vision. Tahoe Tessie — Lake Tahoe, California/Nevada Rumored to haunt the depths of Lake Tahoe, which drops more than 1,600 feet between California and Nevada, Tessie first came into discussion in the mid-1800s, though her roots may go back thousands of years to Washoe oral traditions about water spirits. Today, Tessie’s Disneyfied, dinosaur-like image adorns T-shirts and children’s coloring books—but dismissing Tessie as a mere marketing ploy oversimplifies a long history associating Lake Tahoe with the unknown. Notable Lake Monster Destinations Lake Monster Name Location What to See Lake Tahoe Tahoe Tessie CA/NV border Legends date to mid-1800s; Tessie merch throughout the region Lake Champlain Champ VT/NY border Statue honoring America’s second-most-famous lake monster Okanagan Lake Ogopogo British Columbia Sightings since 1872; indigenous Naitaka legends Nahuel Huapi Lake Nahuelito Bariloche, Argentina Patagonia’s answer to Nessie; images throughout the city Canadian Aboriginals in the Okanagan area believed a terrible monster named Naitaka lived at the lake’s bottom and carried chickens and small animals to drop as sacrifice when crossing. Records of Ogopogo go back to 1872, with a major wave of 30-car witness reports in 1926—several years before the Loch Ness monster gained widespread media attention. Regional Legends Worth Knowing 1. The Wendigo — Great Lakes and Northern United States The legend of the Wendigo originated with the Algonquin in what is now Canada and the northern United States. According to the Ojibwe People’s Dictionary, it began as a “winter cannibal monster”—three of the most terrifying words in any language. The Wendigo has metamorphosed over centuries, but all incarnations remain frightening because of what it represents: hunger, desperation, and the darkness of the coldest winter. While the Wendigo doesn’t have dedicated museums, its legend is preserved in Native American cultural centers throughout the Great Lakes region. The creature appears in exhibitions exploring indigenous folklore and reminds visitors that some cryptids carry deeper cultural significance than mere monster stories. 2. The Snallygaster — Frederick County, Maryland Unlike many cryptids with indigenous origins, the Snallygaster’s beginnings are easy to trace. Following the Jersey Devil frenzy of early 1909, Maryland journalists wanted their own monster. The Valley Register ran stories about a winged creature with enormous wings, a long pointed bill, claws like steel hooks, and an eye in the center of its forehead. The Snallygaster proved malleable enough to adapt with the times. In 1932, reports suggested it was drawn to moonshine stills. The Register announced the Snallygaster had fallen into a 2,500-gallon vat of backwoods liquor after being overcome by fumes. Dragon Distillery in Frederick now sells “Snallygaster Rye” in honor of this legend. Sarah Cooper operates a traveling American Snallygaster Museum that appears at various festivals and conventions, working toward a permanent site devoted to Western Maryland's strange cryptid. Beyond the U.S.: International Cryptid Destinations 1. Loch Ness Centre — Drumnadrochit, Scotland: the world’s most famous monster REOPENED 2023 AFTER £1.5 MILLION RENOVATION What You’ll Find: A one-hour immersive experience taking visitors through 500 million years of history, exploring the myths and scientific research surrounding the Loch Ness Monster through eyewitness accounts, rare artifacts, and interactive exhibits. The Legend: The first recorded sighting that sparked modern Nessie-mania occurred in 1933, when Aldie Mackay, manager of the old Drumnadrochit Hotel, spotted something strange in the waters. Her account in the local paper went global and transformed Loch Ness into the world’s most famous monster-hunting destination. Over 1,000 eyewitness accounts have been recorded since. The Experience: The Centre is housed in a historic 19th-century building—the very site where Mackay worked when she made her sighting. Seven themed zones explore Scottish myths and legends, the scientific search for truth, and real people’s witness statements. Rated 5 Stars by Visit Scotland. Visitor Info: Address: A82, Drumnadrochit, Highlands, Scotland, IV63 6TU Hours: Check website for seasonal hours Also Available: Boat cruises on Loch Ness aboard the research vessel Deepscan, café and restaurant, gift shop 2. Icelandic Sea Monster Museum — Bíldudalur, Iceland What You’ll Find: Using videos, displays, and multimedia, Skrímslasetrið explores Iceland’s sea monster history through oral accounts of those who encountered them. The Experience: Interactive tables let visitors explore maps of Iceland’s coast with pop-up stories. Four basic monster types are endemic to Iceland’s waters: the fjörulalli (Shore Laddie), hafmaður (Sea Man), skeljaskrímsli (Shell Monster), and faxaskrímsli (Combed Monster). Visitor Info: Address: Strandgata 7, 465 Bíldudalur, Iceland Hours: Every day 10am-6pm Also Available: Concerts, cocktails, and pizza nights. 3. Nahuel Huapi Lake — Bariloche, Argentina: Patagonia’s Loch Ness What You’ll Find: Argentina’s answer to the Loch Ness Monster, Nahuelito, is San Carlos de Bariloche’s most emblematic symbol. The plesiosaur-like creature’s image appears throughout the small Patagonian city. The Legend: The Tehuelche people, who have lived in Patagonia for millennia, shared stories of a huge creature swimming beneath the surface of Nahuel Huapi Lake. Known as El Cuero to the Tehuelche, the monster was said to resemble a giant stingray with a sucker-like mouth. In the 20th century, as interest in paleontology grew, the creature morphed into a plesiosaur-like form similar to Nessie. Why Visit: Bariloche is already a major entry point for tourists to Patagonia. The Nahuelito legend adds a cryptid layer to an already spectacular landscape of Andes Mountains, glistening rivers, and beech and cypress forests. Planning Your Cryptid Journey Suggested Road Trips West Virginia Cryptid Triangle (2-3 days): Mothman Museum and TNT Area — Point Pleasant Flatwoods Monster Museum — Sutton West Virginia Bigfoot Museum — Sutton East Coast Mystery Tour (5-7 days): International Cryptozoology Museum — Bangor, ME Paranormal Museum — Asbury Park, NJ Skunk Ape Research Headquarters — Ochopee, FL Pacific Northwest Bigfoot Trail (3-4 days): North American Bigfoot Center — Boring, OR North Fork Survivors — Toutle, WA Ape Canyon, WA (site of the famous 1924 Bigfoot attack) Annual Events Worth Planning Around Event Location Dates (2026) Notes Mothman Festival Point Pleasant, WV Sept 19-20 Free admission; museum extra Bigfoot Adventure Weekend Bailey, CO Check website Camping, hiking, storytelling Tips for Visiting Verify before you go. Hours and admission change without notice. All information in this guide is current as of August 2026. Respect the environment. Many cryptid habitats are in sensitive ecological areas. The TNT Area is a Superfund site, the Everglades are fragile, and various Bigfoot territories are protected forests. Talk to the experts. Museum curators and researchers like Dave Shealy and Cliff Barackman have dedicated their lives to these mysteries. Their passion and knowledge make the experience richer. Why These Places Matter Whether cryptids exist or not almost misses the point. These destinations represent something fundamental about human nature: our need for mystery, our desire to believe that the world holds more than we can see, and our capacity to build community around shared stories. Cryptids come from all kinds of sources—misunderstandings of natural phenomena, tall tales, and sometimes, sheer human ingenuity. They can become a mascot for the place that claims them, a weird source of pride for the people who live there. Can you imagine Point Pleasant without its Mothman? Ochopee without its Skunk Ape? These creatures have become inseparable from local identity. The museums, statues, and research centers dedicated to cryptids serve multiple purposes. They preserve regional folklore that might otherwise fade from memory. They support local tourism economies—Point Pleasant’s Mothman Festival draws thousands of visitors each September, and the Skunk Ape Research Headquarters was voted the #1 roadside attraction in Florida. And they create spaces where imagination is welcomed rather than dismissed. The search for monsters is not just a diversion and hobby; it’s also a kind of hope—a belief against all odds that our world still holds secrets waiting to be discovered. In an age where satellite imagery maps every inch of Earth and scientific consensus seems to leave little room for the unknown, cryptid destinations offer permission to wonder. As you visit these places, you’re not just learning about alleged monsters—you’re participating in a tradition as old as storytelling itself: gathering to share tales of the things that might be lurking just beyond the firelight. You’re experiencing how communities choose to remember and celebrate the mysterious, the unexplained, and the wonderfully weird parts of their history. So pack your camera, bring your sense of humor, and prepare for adventure. The truth may be out there—but the journey is definitely worth taking. All Atlas Obscura links verified as of August 2026. Hours and admission subject to change; always verify before visiting. Related Atlas Obscura Content: The Great American Bigfoot Tour 11 Museums Dedicated to Monsters Explore the United States of Cryptids
You don’t normally expect to encounter the gods of Olympus while strolling through a suburban park outside Madrid. But Alcorcón, a city better known for apartment blocks and shopping centers than classical mythology, has quietly created its own version of Mount Olympus—and it comes complete with a solar system. La Ribota Park, on the southern edge of the city, is an unassuming place: a pleasant patch of greenery where locals come to walk, relax, and escape the surrounding urban landscape. Yet scattered among its fountains is an entire celestial pantheon, the work of painter, sculptor, and landscape artist Ángel Aragonés. At the center is Apollo, representing the Sun. From his enormous fountain, paths radiate outward like planetary orbits, leading visitors toward the smaller fountains and their divine inhabitants. There is Mercury, swift-footed messenger of the gods; Venus, goddess of love; Gea, embodying Earth; and Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. The sculptures are deliberately simplified and frontal, but their familiar attributes make each deity surprisingly easy to recognize. It is rather like discovering that your local park has been moonlighting as a classical mythology textbook. Pluto, naturally, deserves special mention. The International Astronomical Union demoted the distant world to “dwarf planet” in 2006, but La Ribota has chosen not to recognize the cosmic bureaucracy. Here, Pluto remains firmly among the planets. And frankly, after traveling all the way to the edge of the solar system, the poor fellow deserves a place at the table. The park is perhaps at its most atmospheric toward evening, when the changing sunlight transforms the sculptures and fountains with every passing minute.
Linh Phong Pagoda, widely known locally as Ong Nui Pagoda, stands as one of the most sacred and culturally significant spiritual landmarks in the region, dramatically positioned against the slopes of the rugged Ba Mountain range. Rooted in centuries of local heritage, the temple complex offers a deeply serene atmosphere where visitors embark on both a physical and spiritual journey by conquering a magnificent path of 600 stone steps leading up the mountainside. At the summit, the temple is renowned for housing a colossal white Buddha statue in deep meditation, gazing out toward the vast expanse of the open sea. Adjacent to the massive monument, the main hall and surrounding sanctuary spaces shelter rich traditional architecture and intricate displays, creating an awe-inspiring vantage point where cloud-wrapped peaks meet the coastal horizon.
A bridge not for the ones who are afraid of heights... The Intschi-Reuss bridge is mainly used as a railway bridge. In the end, there isn't much to connect on both sides of the bridge. But to let the few inhabitants on one side of the bridge access the bus station on the other side, they decided to build a path underneath the bridge. So you can walk between the two massive concrete boxes which carry the load of the trains. But don't be afraid of heights — the only thing supporting you will be some wooden boards on some metal gratings. But if you dare, you get a special view straight down into the canyon where the wild river Reuss is flowing. There is a light switch on both entrances so you can see where you're walking. Access is easy via the walkway behind the bus stop. You can park your car before or after the bus stop in two lay-bys. Be careful, though, with traffic. View is limited, and cars can be fast approaching. Also, please don't stop at the bus stop.
This is a statue memorializing the U.S. Army’s Green Berets and other Special Forces soldiers who gallantly brought the fight to the Taliban in Afghanistan in the early days after September 11th. During their action they spent time riding into combat on horseback along side their Afghan allies. The statue, by artist Douwe Blumberg, is 1 1/2 times life size and is a detailed version of a combat ready soldier on horseback. Incorporated in the base of the statue is a piece of steel from the World Trade Center. Liberty Park is elevated above the street level just to the south of the September 11th Memorial and Museum.
“A Christmas Carol” starring George C Scott as Scrooge was filmed on location in Shrewsbury and broadcast on CBS in the United States and released in theaters in the UK in December 1984. An original gravestone, the details long weathered away, was used for the fictional memorial to Ebenezer Scrooge. It still lies just beyond the towering Yew Tree, in the graveyard beside St Chad's Church.
In a town known for basketball and as the birthplace of James Dean, perhaps the best-kept secret is the Quilters Hall of Fame. The inspiration for the Hall of Fame was the woman who owned the house, Marie Webster. Marie was born in nearby Wabash, Indiana, in 1859 and died in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1956. During her most productive quilting years, from 1911 to 1921, her quilt patterns were published in Ladies' Home Journal, which was the leading women's magazine at the time. She ran a successful mail-order pattern business, designed new patterns, wrote Quilts: Their Story and How to Make Them, lectured, and judged quilting competitions. She was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1991. Quilts made by hand can take dozens or even hundreds of hours to complete, depending on their size. A basic guideline for designing a quilt is to follow the “Rule of 7.” This calls for using seven different fabrics when designing a quilt. These can range from larger-scale theme prints and coordinating fabrics down to smaller-scale accents and anchors. The house holding the quilters' collection is known as the Marie Webster House. It was built in 1902, and when completed, Marie and her husband, George, hosted a grand party to show off the house to Marion's finest folks. The house furnishings featured a mix of two styles, Victorian and Arts and Crafts. The Arts and Crafts style is a simpler design style featuring natural materials, functional art, and handmade items. Marie lived in the house until 1942, after George had passed away in 1938. She moved to New Jersey, and the house was sold and converted into apartments. After years of abandonment and neglect, the house was refurbished and, in 1992, was listed on the Indiana Register of Historic Sites and Structures and the National Register of Historic Places. It is a beautifully furnished and well-appointed home that has clearly been treated with love and care. The Quilters Hall of Fame features four different collections each year. They are open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and are closed during the winter. Admission is $7 for general admission and $6 for seniors, while children under 12 accompanied by an adult are admitted free. There is ample parking behind the building in a marked parking lot.
Poste Thiers is the most famous red brick building in Nice. This iconic Post Office is located at 21 Avenue Thiers. Poste Thiers was built in 1931 by government architect Guillaume Tronchet. The construction used about 300,000 red bricks which were imported from Sarzana, Italy. The distinctive red brick masonry stands out in Nice because it is a sharp contrast to all the surrounding white Mediterranean stucco and stone facades. The building is designed in the Art Deco style with cubist stained-glass accents by glassmaker Jacques Gruber. The majestic clock tower is an example of Nice’s exceptional Art Deco heritage.
Hidden beneath the Sierra Nevada foothills of California, Moaning Caverns is an enormous limestone cave with a history as unusual as its name. The cavern’s main chamber is so vast that the Statue of Liberty could reportedly fit inside it. One of its most striking features is a 165-foot steel spiral staircase that winds dramatically down into the cavern. Built in 1922 using steel salvaged from a World War I battleship, the staircase provides access to depths that early visitors could only reach by rope. The cave’s name comes from a mysterious moaning sound once heard inside, created by air moving through the cavern’s passages. Today, visitors can descend the staircase or, for a much more adventurous experience, rappel deep into the cave. Moaning Caverns combines geology, history, and a distinctly eerie atmosphere that makes it one of California’s more unusual underground destinations.
If one should find themselves in the district of Finnieston, an up and coming, (if not trendy) area of Glasgow, they may come upon a rather unique and solitary street feature. Situated along Argyle Street, in front of a row of tenement flats, stands a rather impressive European Ash tree, ( Fraxinus exsilsior ). It’s not just its size that is outstanding, measuring just over 82 feet, (25 meters) , but it is the fact that this arbor specimen is the only tree in the vicinity. It is perhaps this particular piece of information that has warranted it being selected as an entry for the Woodland’s Trust “UK ’s Tree of the Year” for 2025. The Woodland Trust was founded in early part of the 1970’s and operates as a conservation charity. Each year a select few members are selected to form a list of trees located throughout the British Isles that illicit worthiness and esteem. This list is submitted to the general public to vote on as the UK’s “Tree of the Year”. This campaign is one of the way this organization engages with the public, a fun way to get individuals interested in flora and fauna. The Argyle Ash won this prestiges honor in 2025 and now has been chosen to represent Britain as a contender for Europe’s “Tree of the Year” 2026. Unfortunately, the Ash did not win, it came in 12th place. The origin story of this particular Ash tree reads like something from a Brothers Grimm faerie tale. Sometime in the mid-1800’s , a young family returned from a trip abroad. They brought back with them what they thought were primrose roots. Unbeknownst to them, a stowaway was hidden among the cuttings. Due to the height of the adjacent tenement building and its positioning, this allowed for ideal conditions for this “hitchhiker” to grow and prosper. This row of flats provided not only warmth but shelter from high winds. It is for this reasin that this magnificent sapling survived adverse weather conditions, it has also managed to escape an infestation of the dreaded ash dieback fungus. In addition, it survived German bombings from World War II, not to mention redevelopments. In 1980, the city government provided the Ash with a protective order, the first tree to be given such a distinction. On a side note, there is a related matter involving a cat and the locale fire brigade. It would take two full days before this unfortunate feline could finally be rescued.
America’s geography is unmatched in diversity, spanning from scorching, sandy deserts to snow-capped mountains and dense swamps; coastal wetlands to high, grassy plains. There’s perhaps no better way to experience this incredible variety than by taking a back to basics approach and living in harmony with the land. In other words: camping. So grab your hotdogs, tents, hiking poles, and potable water—we’re hitting the road, taking you to camping sites around the country that are far more than your standard “dirt patch in the woods” affair. At these unique outdoor destinations, you’ll not only escape the noise and stresses of the city but also learn a thing or two—about indigenous mining practices, dark sky preservation, Gilded Age luxury, and much, much more. Place Camping Type Time of Year Cost Polipoli Spring State Recreation Area (Kula, Hawaii) Tent sites + 1 rustic cabin (8 bunks) Year-round (subject to closures — verify current status before publishing) Paid — ~$20/night tent permit; cabin ~$90/night 'Moonrise Kingdom' Beach / Fort Wetherill State Park (Jamestown, Rhode Island) ⚠️ Fort Wetherill itself is day-use only, sunrise–sunset — no on-site camping. Nearest option: Fort Getty Campground, a few miles away on the same island (Conanicut Island), with tent, RV, and waterfront/boat-in sites Fort Getty reservations open in early spring for the summer season Free to visit Fort Wetherill; Fort Getty is paid, town-run camping Hole-in-the-Wall Outlaw Hideout / Willow Creek Ranch (Kaycee, Wyoming) Tent, log cabin, or bunkhouse (ranch lodging) Seasonal — guest ranch typically operates late spring through fall Paid — ranch stay rates (not a flat campsite fee) The Desert of Maine (Freeport, Maine) Cabins (A-frame), geodesic domes, glamping tents (no bring-your-own-tent or RV sites as of 2024) Seasonal — typical Maine camping season (~May–October) Paid — roughly $45–$75+/night depending on unit and day of week Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve (Arco, Idaho) Tent/RV sites (no hookups) + free winter walk-in snow camping Vehicle-accessible May–November; walk-in snow camping Dec–March (permit required) Paid in-season ($15/night, $8 when water is off); free in winter Assateague Island (Berlin, Maryland) Tent, RV/trailer, group, and horse-camp sites Year-round; reservations required March 15–Nov 15, first-come off-season Paid — $30–$80/night depending on site type Sand Mountain (Fallon, Nevada) Dispersed/primitive tent & RV camping (no designated sites) Year-round (weather/road conditions permitting) Paid — $40 weekly pass or $90 annual pass (free Tue/Wed) Sunken Forests (Rye, New Hampshire) RV & tent camping via nearby private campgrounds (Sea Coast Camping & RV Resort; Tidewater Campground) Seasonal — typical New England season (~May–October) Paid — standard private campground rates Cosmic Campground (Mogollon, New Mexico) Primitive tent & RV sites (dispersed, ~10 sites) Year-round (access roads may be affected by winter weather) Free Sharp's Island (Richmond, Virginia) Small wooden cabin + tent platforms (booked via Airbnb) Not specified — likely weather/river-level dependent; verify with host Paid — Airbnb booking rates Mystic Hot Springs (Monroe, Utah) Tent, RV, pioneer cabins, converted buses Year-round Paid — camping from ~$25/night per person; cabins/buses ~$60–$120+/night Palisades State Park (Garretson, South Dakota) Tent, RV (electric/non-electric), cabins, group lodge Year-round (some facilities like hot showers close Oct 1–Apr 30) Paid — ~$15–$26/night sites, ~$40–$55/night cabins Great Camp Santanoni (Newcomb, New York) Tent only (lakeside sites; main house not available for overnight stays) Seasonal — typically spring through fall (verify current DEC access dates) Free/nominal — standard NY DEC backcountry camping permit Ape Canyon (Cougar, Washington) Dispersed backcountry tent camping (Gifford Pinchot National Forest) Seasonal — summer through fall; snow limits access in winter Free Honey Island Swamp (Pearl River, Louisiana) Primitive camping sites (Pearl River Wildlife Management Area) Year-round (check for seasonal hunting-season restrictions/permits) Free or low-cost — WMA permit may be required 1. Polipoli Spring State Recreation Area - Kula, Hawaii At an elevation of 6,200 feet, this 10-acre reserve offers fantastic views of Central and West Maui, Kahoʻolawe, Molokaʻi, and Lanaʻi on clear days, though the park’s usual fog is part of its mystical appeal. With several individual trails that form one long loop, Polipoli Spring is one of the most unique places to hike on the island, taking you through scrub foliage, China fir, eucalyptus, and towering coastal redwood. The park is also a popular spot for mountain biking, seasonal pig hunting, and birding. Make sure to pack layers, as it can get quite chilly at night! 2. ‘Moonrise Kingdom’ Beach - Jamestown, Rhode Island This peaceful cove in Fort Wetherill State Park was once home to the largest fort of the Harbor Defenses of Narragansett Bay; however, it’s perhaps better known as the fictional Conanicut Island in Wes Anderson’s 2012 film, “Moonrise Kingdom.” It’s on these shores that precocious teens Sam and Suzy first fall in love—pitching a tent, listening to records, and jumping off the rocks together. Visiting the beach, it’s easy to channel this same sense of adventure; there are great views of Newport Harbor and the Castle Hill Lighthouse, plus biking trails and old ruins to explore. 3. Hole-in-the-Wall Outlaw Hideout - Kaycee, Wyoming The famous outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid once hid from authorities here in the Big Horn Mountains, where sweeping views helped them to spot approaching lawmen from afar. From the late 19th century until the early 20th, there were even cabins at the top of the plateau, allowing criminals to take refuge there in the depths of winter. Today, the area is a part of the Willow Creek Ranch and home to cattle, horses, falcons, and eagles. If you’re not the tent-camping type, the ranch has cabin and bunkhouse lodgings, both of which transport you to the days of the Wild West. 4. The Desert of Maine - Freeport, Maine This small area of rural Maine is not, in fact, a desert, but a tract of abandoned farmland, where topsoil eroded to expose thick layers of glacial silt. Locals have fully embraced the oddness of a desert in an otherwise heavily-forested region, filling it with a colorful fiberglass camel, hobbit-like playhouses, mini golf, and a Gemstone Village. Just a short walk from the dunes, a campground offers cabins, domes, and glamping tents for parties of up to six people, with a camp store, bathhouse, and lawn games on site. 5. Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve - Arco, Idaho This reserve in Central Idaho’s Snake River Plain is home to three major lava fields, which form one of the best-preserved flood basalt areas in the U.S. Entering the preserve, you’ll see dozens of volcanic cones formed by ancient lava flows and Earth’s deepest rift crack, which plunges down 800 feet. The preserve’s campground contains dozens of sites for both tents and vehicles, and during the winter months, walk-in snow camping is permitted. Once you’ve set up for the night, go for a drive on the loop road that passes through the park’s most stunning natural formations. 6. Assateague Island - Berlin, Maryland While no humans live on this Mid-Atlantic island, it is home to around 300 wild horses, described in local folklore as survivors of a shipwreck off Virginia’s coast many moons ago. Pitching your tent on the island’s seashore campgrounds will put you up close and personal with the herd, but do not take this as an opportunity to pet or feed them. The National Park Service advises visitors to stay at least 40 feet away from the horses at all times; however, don’t be surprised if you see them trotting around a picnic table or passing by your fire pit. 7. Sand Mountain - Fallon, Nevada What was once an ancient lake is now a two-mile-long dune, formed by sand that seems to sing every time the wind blows. The size of these sand grains—between 0.1 and 0.5 millimeters in diameter—is just right to create an eerie hum each time they vibrate together. At 600 feet tall, this mighty “mountain” is easily visible as you drive down Highway 50, a.k.a. the “Loneliest Road in America.” A camping area at the foot of the mountain is a great landing spot for all kinds of sandy adventures, from off-roading to exploring the ruins of a 19th-century postal station. 8. Sunken Forests - Rye, New Hampshire The coast of New Hampshire is home to several petrified stump fields or “sunken forests”: places where, 11,000 years ago, trees were drowned by a retreating glacier. The roots of different coniferous trees are typically visible at low tide off Odiorne Point State Park, while another forest off Jenness Beach is a more rare sighting, appearing only once every few decades. For a chance to spot it, spend the night at the nearby Sea Coast Camping and RV Resort or the Tidewater Campground in Hampton, both of which are only a short drive away from Rye’s beaches. 9. Cosmic Campground - Mogollon, New Mexico As a certified Dark Sky Sanctuary, this part of Gila National Forest is remarkably free of light pollution and one of the best places in the world for amateur astronomers to take in the night sky; the nearest artificial light is more than 40 miles away. A short walk from the campsites, four concrete pads serve as telescope platforms, though you must bring your own equipment to use them. The park service also asks that campers not light fires near the observation pads or use flashlights without red light filters, so as to keep the dark sky perfectly pristine. 10. Sharp’s Island - Richmond, Virginia This acre of sand and granite sits smack dab in the middle of Richmond, Virginia, right where the Piedmont meets the Coastal Plain along the James River. For 75 years, the Sharp family lived on this tiny isle until, sadly, their home was destroyed in a flood. However, the magic of the hideaway has been restored in recent years with a small wooden cabin, platforms for tents, an outdoor bar, and a grilling station (all bookable on Airbnb!). There are plenty of swimming holes to explore after you’ve settled in, plus a Little Free Library and a massive found-objects sculpture by local artist Keith Ramsey. 11. Mystic Hot Springs - Monroe, Utah For centuries, folks have trekked to central Utah to enjoy the warm, rejuvenating waters of these natural hot springs. However, it wasn’t until the 1990s, when artist Mike Ginsburg fell in love with the spot, that it became the beloved spa it is today, with five soaking bathtubs and two swimming pools. When you’re not getting your zen on in the mineral waters, you can relax in an authentic pioneer cabin, a Grateful Dead-themed converted school bus, or a good old-fashioned sleeping bag under the stars. Mystic also hosts many concerts throughout the year, as well as a large festival each July. 12. Palisades State Park - Garretson, South Dakota These 50-foot-tall rock formations are a jarring sight amongst South Dakota’s grassy plains, and their minerals have long been used by the Sioux and Dakota peoples to make calumets: ornate tobacco pipes used in traditional ceremonies. While, at 435 acres, Palisades is the state’s second smallest park, it still attracts plenty of hikers, fishers, kayakers, and climbers with its beauty and history. For those who want to spend a night (or several) exploring all of the park’s natural wonders, there are both cabins and tent sites, as well as a rustic group lodge for larger parties. During your stay, make sure to check out the steel truss bridge that crosses over Split Rock Creek, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. 13. Great Camp Santanoni - Newcomb, New York Constructed between 1892 and 1893, this Japanese-style log mansion was once one of the great family estates of the Adirondacks and is now preserved as a historic site. Surrounded by thousands of acres of woods, water, and farmland, the camp is a wonderful place to explore. In fact, the building’s doors are left open during the summer and fall so that visitors can walk through the interior, imagining its former grandeur. While the house itself is not available for overnight stays, those wanting to stay close by can pitch a tent on one of eight lakeside spots or head to the nearby Newcomb Campground. 14. Ape Canyon - Cougar, Washington This narrow gorge near Mount St. Helens got its name from being one of the most infamous Bigfoot encounter sites in modern history. Legend has it that, in 1924, a group of miners staying in the canyon were attacked by a gang of wild “apemen,” escaping by the skin of their teeth. (Others have countered that this was more likely a group of rowdy youth, but where’s the excitement in that?). While the exact location of the miners’ cabin is unknown, you can camp in the same general area along portions of the trails and near the Plains of Abraham. Just remember not to bring any food that would attract a Sasquatch... 15. Honey Island Swamp - Pearl River, Louisiana Legend says that this part of the Louisiana bayou is home to a giant ape-alligator hybrid creature with gray hair and yellow eyes, though thankfully, visitors are much more likely to encounter birds, turtles, snakes, and boars. The swamp was long occupied by the Choctaw and Acolapissa peoples, and it’s easy to see why they were drawn to it: The soft hum of insects, coupled with the sharp rays of light that poke through the tree canopy, create a serene, otherworldly ambiance. The Pearl River Wildlife Management Area offers primitive camping sites in Honey Island, and professional swamp tours are available both in nearby New Orleans and on the western edge of the swamp itself.
The Schnoor is Bremen at its most storybook-like: a tangle of narrow Harry Potter-like lanes where tiny, slightly crooked houses seem to lean in for a chat. As the city’s oldest quarter, it turns an ordinary walk into a slow-motion treasure hunt for colorful façades, hidden courtyards, handmade finds, and excellent excuses to stop for cake. Named for the Low German word for “string,” the neighborhood’s small homes sit close together like beads threaded along its winding streets. Many date from the 15th and 16th centuries, giving the area an enchanting, human-scale character that feels wonderfully removed from the city bustle just a few minutes away. Today, the Schnoor is far more than a pretty backdrop. Its former fishermen’s and craftspeople’s quarter is filled with independent craft shops, galleries, cafés, patisseries, and little cultural surprises, including a theatre and the Bremer Geschichtenhaus museum. The best plan is not to make one. Wander without rushing, peek down every alley that looks too narrow to be useful, and accept that getting pleasantly sidetracked is the whole point. The Schnoor proves that sometimes the most memorable route through a city is the one with barely enough room for two umbrellas.
A new sculpture, commissioned by a luxury hotel, adorns the heart of Madrid and has not gone unnoticed. It is a stylized bronze horse that, defying gravity, seems to hang in mid-air, supported by only one hoof from a very high pedestal that never appears to be supporting the equine. This monument reaches a total height of 6 meters (19.68 feet). "The Rumor of Discord" is an appropriate name for this artwork, as it is already generating debate among Madrid residents. Some question its artistic value, while others think that, being located in a busy area with vehicles and pedestrians, this installation could "pose some danger." Given the sculpture's name, it is clear that this controversy was intentional. Its creator, the Mexican artist Gonzalo Lebrija, who often works with balance and weightlessness, has stated that, with this impossible equilibrium, he sought to generate debate and "represent fragility and uncertainty simultaneously. There is no doubt that this new sculpture, "the floating horse," as it has quickly been dubbed by Madrid residents, will be embraced as a new icon of the Madrid landscape. All of this, of course, provided that it doesn't fall...
In 1812 the British Crown felt the need to establish more control over what had been a community of pirates in then British Honduras, now known as Belize. So they constructed the first church in the territory using slave labour, local mahogany, and red bricks carried as ballast from England. Throughout its history the church would host the coronations of four indigenous Miskito kings from 1815 to 1845 and the funerals and burials of many of Belize’s most influential persons in the nearby Yarborough cemetery, the oldest in the country. The church sits across from the historic governor’s mansion, now an art museum, and itself contains a wooden dove sculpture by Belizean artist George Gab, as well as plaques commissioned by the families of some of the churches earliest parishioners.
The Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery is a misleading name that significantly downplays the number of Buddha effigies, as there are actually well over 12,000 statues present. Another misnomer lies in the fact that it is technically not a monastery, as no monks live on site to maintain the property. Instead, a team of laypeople handle the day-to-day operations of this Buddhist temple complex. Groundbreaking and construction began in 1948, at a bamboo forest hillside location overlooking the small village of Pai Tau and its agricultural fields. Its completion in 1957 coincided with the establishment of a market township known as Sha Tin Hui, built on the unused fields at the base of the hill. The township stood until the late 1970s, demolished to make way for the Sha Tin New Town development. The entire complex comprises five temples, four pavilions, one verandah and a 9-storey pagoda, spread over 8 hectares. There are numerous statues of deities on display, as well as the gold covered embalmed body of the monastery's founder, Yuet Kai, exhumed 8 years after his burial. With the agricultural fields long since built over, the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery now overlooks the urban expanse of Sha Tin town, and provides a peaceful sanctuary on its fringes. The walk up is lined by 500 life-size gilded Arhat statues on both sides of the concrete path, each in a unique pose. Made from fiberglass then painted bright gold, the Arhats are the work of artists in Yunnan and Guangdong, and exude an air of calm and spirituality as visitors make the steep ascent up the path to the temples.
Tucked away in the small community of Puerto Itá Cajón in Nueva Alborada, the Museo del Árbol is an unusual open-air museum where the forest itself becomes part of the exhibition. Rather than walking through conventional galleries, visitors follow trails through a wooded landscape filled with sculptures, installations, symbolic trees, oversized structures, and unexpected viewpoints overlooking the Paraná River. The complex was created as a tribute to trees and the forests of Paraguay, turning the landscape into a place where environmental awareness and imagination come together. Among its most distinctive features is the “Tronco de los Lamentos,” a striking installation that serves as a symbolic reminder of the trees and forests lost to deforestation. Elsewhere, visitors encounter an “Árbol de los Deseos,” a giant chair, unusual sculptures, and the famous “Columpio del Fin del Mundo,” which offers a dramatic view of the surrounding landscape. There are also trails and areas for outdoor activities, making the experience feel less like visiting a museum and more like wandering through a strange and playful forest filled with stories and hidden surprises. The result is an eccentric blend of ecological sanctuary, outdoor art gallery, and recreational park that feels distinctly different from a traditional museum. The Museo del Árbol is a place where trees are not simply the scenery; they are the subject, the inspiration, and in many ways the main characters of the entire experience.
Hidden in plain sight near the top of an Art Nouveau house in Tallinn's Old Town, a bespectacled stone figure watches from the facade. His gaze is fixed across the street, toward the building opposite. Local legend has it that the figure was created as revenge. An old man across the street had a habit of training his opera glasses on a young merchant's wife, especially when she was undressing for bed. Her husband eventually caught on. Rather than confront the man directly, he supposedly had a sculptor carve the voyeur's likeness in stone, spectacles included, and mounted it on the couple's house, facing the old man's window. The next time he looked over, he would find himself staring back. A more sober theory holds that the figure is simply one of the facade's many carved reliefs, part of an Art Nouveau taste for playful, expressive faces, a purely decorative detail that later collected a story to match its leering expression.
Where to stay is a pivotal part of any trip, sometimes just as important as the destination itself. The place you rest your head can dictate not just the quality of sleep you get but the kinds of activities you choose, the people you meet, and the way you engage with the culture around you. That’s especially true at these accommodations, which are anything but ordinary—combining thoughtful design with unique entertainment and access to nature. From a secluded forest cabin to a lively circus camp, these places run the gamut from serene oases to bustling community hubs, catering to travelers of all ages and persuasions. 1. Tubakuba 📍 Bergen, Norway This rabbit-hole-esque cabin, designed by students at the Bergen School of Architecture in 2014, overlooks the city from its perch on a forested cliff. Parties of up to five people (though families with young children are prioritized) can book a one-night stay in the building, crawling through its bent-timber hole into a cozy, minimalist interior. It’s not the largest accommodation—just barely squeezing in its lofted sleeping areas and old-school wooden stove—but offers beautiful views from a full wall of windows. And the best part? It’s free! 2. Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort 📍 Saariselkä, Finland In the heart of the Arctic Circle, guests at Kakslauttanen can book a glass igloo for dreamy nighttime views of the northern lights (at their brightest from late August through April). However, if you’d rather stay in more traditional accommodations, there are a variety of spacious houses and cabins equipped with saunas, fireplaces, private outdoor space, and plenty of warm beverages. For the best of both worlds, try one of the resort’s Kelo-Glass Igloos, log cabins that contain a single jutting igloo room. 3. Villa Cheminée 📍 Bouée, France Translating to “Fireplace” or “Chimney Villa,” this tiny hotel sits atop a 50-foot-tall tower built to resemble the chimneys of a nearby thermal power plant (the largest in Europe). Guests climb up a tall staircase to the top, where a double bed, kitchen, fireplace, and garden await them. For those who don’t have time to spend the night, the tower is also open for free visits on Sunday afternoons. 4. Brown Bear Watching Hide 📍 Palasi, Estonia Estonia’s Alutaguse National Park is a haven for brown bears, and this rustic hideaway allows you to watch them go about their day, up close and personal. The two cabins, or “hides,” are quite spartan but allow for prime bear viewing, with chairs that look out through covert windows and special hatches for guests to take photos from. If you’re lucky, from your wooden bunk you may even spot a rare wolf or lynx roaming through the forest. 5. Atlanta Glass Treehouse 📍 Atlanta, Georgia In Atlanta’s sleepy Ormewood Park neighborhood, one house stands apart from its bungalow neighbors ... that is, if you can spot it. Tucked away into the tree branches is this two-floor home made from recycled glass, steel, and milled lumber, constructed over four years by architects Mary Clare DeReuil and Carlos Tardio. They use the top floor as a studio for their firm, Tardio Architecture, but rent out the lower level on Airbnb, where guests enjoy two light-flooded bedrooms, industrial design, and giant doors that open onto four outdoor terraces. 6. Rabbit Tree Hostel 📍 Gili Meno, Indonesia On the tiny island of Gili Meno, this wacky hostel has long attracted the artistically inclined with its fantastical decor and maze-like structure. Each colorful room has a distinct theme, from Grandma’s Room to the Riddle Room to Bola Bola (a massive ball pit). Walking to your room might mean getting lost in a hall of secret doors, ending up on an outdoor walkway, or stumbling upon a sunken table that occasionally fills with water. The hostel also places great focus on building community, and guests can join in for swims with glowing plankton, boat excursions, and game nights. 7. Libušín a Maměnka 📍 Pustevny, Czechia These whimsical buildings are the work of Czech architect Dušan Jurkovič, known as “the poet of timber” for his intricate woodwork inspired by Czech and Slavic folklore. This cozy hotel, opened in 1899, was his ode to the mountain traditions of Pustevny, decorated with motifs drawn from local legends and heroes. In its operations, too, the space embraces alpine culture, serving local Wallachian cuisine like zelňačka (cabbage soup) and hosting folk musicians and dance troupes. 8. Grand Circus Hotel 📍 Malmö, Sweden If you’ve ever dreamed of running away to join the circus, look no further than this quirky wagon park on an abandoned railway lot. The wagons are, in fact, old tractor-trailers, rebuilt and painted to recall the bohemian energy of a traveling circus. Each caravan’s design is inspired by a specific member of the circus; walking through the lot, you’ll find The Clown, The Magician, The Lion Tamer, and more. Grand Circus also has space for guests to park their own vans and take part in a lively community, as the space frequently hosts events ranging from stand-up comedy shows to folklore festivals. 9. Big Idaho Potato Hotel 📍 Boise, Idaho On 400 acres of farmland just outside Boise, this six-ton spud invites visitors to try out a life in the belly of their favorite food. The site was originally constructed for the Idaho Potato Commission’s 75th anniversary and toured the country for seven years before arriving here in 2019. Now, after some DIY design, it’s open to the public on Airbnb, offering a cozy getaway replete with old vinyl records and a spa-like bathroom. Guests may even be greeted by Dolly, the friendly cow who lives on the property. 10. Attrap'Rêves Bubble Hotel 📍 Allauch, France “Living in a bubble” isn’t always a bad thing, as proven by this series of see-through cocoons on the southern coast of France. Though they’re tiny (each a mere 13 feet in diameter), these plastic pods give guests 360-degree views of the surrounding forest and the sense of complete immersion in nature. Telescopes in each room let you take in the dazzling starry sky each night, and you can even order a luxury dinner for delivery to your pod.
Illinois is known for its haunted houses and Halloween extravaganzas: the kinds of places that draw lines out the door and attract visitors from all over the country. But beyond these creepy crowd favorites are a number of lesser-known spooky spots, all with backstories both historical and paranormal—like the “devil baby” that haunts a former Chicago settlement house or the witchy tomb that draws in fans of the occult from far and wide. The Prairie State is home to all manner of legendary urban myths and strange characters whose life stories sound too far-fetched to be true, until you realize they just might be … With spooky season underway, there’s no time like the present to explore Illinois’s many odd and eerie destinations. In fact, many of the state’s most unsettling sites are only a short drive from each other. So this autumn, as the days grow shorter and the leaves change colors, gather the whole family for a one-of-a-kind roadtrip: a journey into untold histories, mysterious deaths, and centuries-old superstitions. From haunted headstones to witchcraft to cursed estates, this Illinois itinerary is jam packed with scary spots best experienced in the crisp fall air, just after sundown (if you dare). George Stickney House Start your spooky journey in the outer suburbs of Chicago, where small-town charm gives way to unsettling family secrets. This English-style country home was built in 1836 by George Stickney and his wife, Sylvia, and designed to have no sharp corners, allowing spirits to travel freely through the space. On the second floor of the house, in a grand ballroom, the couple hosted any and everyone who wished to commune with the dead. It’s believed that the Stickneys’ fascination with spiritualism was a result of great tragedy: only three of their 10 children survived to adulthood. Subsequent owners have reported strange, unexplainable occurrences, including appearances by the ghost of George Stickney himself. Legend has it that when old George died, he was found tucked into the sole 90-degree corner of the home, a look of pure dread on his face. Today, the building is home to the Bull Valley police force and is not open for public tours, but if you’re lucky, you’ll come across one of the many officers who has reported supernatural activity. The Italian Bride Drive closer to the city and you’ll find Mount Carmel, a popular burial site for Hillside’s Italian-American population. The cemetery is home to everyone from mobsters to bishops to this mysterious young woman. Julia Buccola Petta died at age 29 after giving birth to a stillborn son and was buried here in her wedding dress. Six years later, Julia’s mother had vivid dreams in which her daughter begged her to be exhumed. When the family eventually got permission to do so, they found her body perfectly intact and barely deteriorated, though her baby’s body was fully decomposed. Later, a statue of Julia in her wedding gown was built at the gravesite, with two pictures placed on the tombstone: The first is of her on her wedding day, and the second is of her exhumed body. The statue earned the tomb its nickname of “The Italian Bride.” While some think that Julia’s mother fabricated this entire affair, others believe that Julia’s miraculous preservation was proof of an “incorruptible” saintliness. Jane Addams Hull-House Museum Make your way into the heart of Chicago’s west side for a look at both the city’s rich humanitarian history and its restless spirits. The settlement house movement of the late-19th century saw volunteers settling in poverty-stricken neighborhoods to create social and cultural institutions for the underprivileged. This particular house, founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr, served disadvantaged immigrant communities in Chicago by establishing public health programs, language classes, and childcare initiatives; however, it was also the subject of frightening rumors. Word spread of a “devil baby” that haunted the attic, leading residents to leave bowls of water at the top of the stairs. (It was theorized that spirits couldn’t cross a body of water.) While Jane theorized that the devil baby obsession came from people’s projected anxieties about low-income housing, the baby is said to still haunt the building to this day. Now a protected historic landmark, Hull-House is a museum operated by the University of Illinois and free to visit. Whether you opt for a guided tour or walk the house at your own pace, you’ll get to pass through many an unnerving area, from Jane’s bedroom, frequented by a mysterious “Lady in White;” to the courtyard, where visitors have reported hearing children’s voices. Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery Drive south through Chicago into the quaint suburb of Midlothian, where you’ll find what is perhaps the state’s most unsettling resting place. Founded around 1840, this small graveyard was built for an early settlement that didn’t last long. By the 1920s, it was a rumored dumping ground for gangland bodies; by the 1950s, local teenagers used it as a party place, regularly breaking off or stealing pieces of the headstones. It was around this time that strange sightings were first reported at the cemetery, with visitors claiming to see spectres like a black dog, a ghostly white woman, and floating, glowing orbs. While the cemetery is still in relative disrepair, it’s a fascinating place to wander, with cleared pathways leading you past fallen trees, a swampy pond, dug-out holes, and partially preserved headstones. It’s also not uncommon to encounter ghost hunters here, especially after dark. Just make sure to tread carefully and treat the burial grounds with respect. St. Omer Cemetery Witch Grave As you make your way further into Illinois’s famous cornfields, follow a gravel road to the crumbling remains of the town of St. Omer. This ghost town might have been completely lost to history if it weren’t for the strange monument that’s become subject to many witchy legends: the Barnes gravestone. This monument is the final resting place of the Barnes family, including an alleged witch, Caroline, who was executed for her supernatural crimes. The orb atop the grave is even said to be a crystal ball that lights up with mystical energy when the sun goes down. The site has become a popular place for supernatural rituals, with wax and other debris found there on many occasions. Beyond the Barnes monument, St. Omer Cemetery is a serene—albeit slightly scary—site to explore, with its centuries-old, moss-covered headstones proving eerily beautiful. McPike Mansion Your last stop places you right on the Illinois/Missouri line, just across the river from St. Louis. Here, in the town of Alton, horticulturist Henry Guest McPike commissioned this grand estate in 1869 and used its sprawling grounds to grow his wine grapes. After McPike died in 1910, the building was used as both a boarding house and a business school, but by the 1950s, it had been abandoned and left to nature’s whims. When Sharyn and George Luedke purchased the property in 1994, they wanted to return it to its former glory. However, odd orbs of light, noises, mists, and human-like shapes stopped them in their tracks, and they decided to devote their time to protecting the supernatural energies in their home. Today, the mansion is open for family-friendly tours, which include a history of former residents, paranormal highlights, sessions with tarot card readers, and even a “how-to” lesson on communicating with spirits via a Dowsing rod. With an estimated 15 spirits currently residing in the house, there’s never any shortage of strange activity, though the Luedkes attest that the spirits are quite friendly. When you visit the house, you can even get your very own “Ghost Patrol” ballcap or an “I Survived McPike Mansion” drink koozie.
The Town Hall has been central to Durham's history since 1350 and has opened its doors to the public following refurbishment work. Now everyone can discover its rich history and hidden stories. Audio guides, interactive information points and short films help you to explore this extraordinary building and the remarkable individuals who helped shape the city. Learn about the powerful Prince Bishops, the evolution of local government and the historic and ongoing roles of the Mayor and the Mayor's Bodyguard. Since the 14th century the Trade Guilds and Freemen of Durham have met in the Guildhall, a tradition they continue to this day. Other displays showcase colourful local characters such as Joseph Boruwlaski (1739-1837), the three foot tall 'Little Count' who retired to Durham in 1790 after performing at the grandest royal courts of Europe. Visit the Hall, galleries and mayors chambers.
In a subterranean chamber under the massive Liverpool ONE shopping centre is the infrastructure that turned Liverpool from a lacklustre port city into a global powerhouse of shipping. While the city got it's charter back in 1207 with the intention of it being a port city, it struggled to gain much success. It was overshadowed by nearby Chester and lacked decent infrastructure; Loading and unloading ships was very slow, sometimes taking weeks to unload, as ships would anchor in the deep water of the estuary while small boats would shuttle cargo between them and the city. In 1710 an ambitious plan was unveiled to completely dam up the tidal estuary running alongside Liverpool and build within it an (at the time) huge enclosed port. By 1715 the new brick-lined dock, approximately 100 by 200 metres, opened to traffic allowing ships to dock, unload and reload in day. The old dock was superceded by larger docks in the mid to late 18th century and in 1825 the structure was filled in and preserved under a grand new customs house. This was, in turn, destroyed by German bombing in the Second World War and the walls of this original dock was found during the site's redevelopment.
Bristol has no shortage of churches, but one of its strangest temples is devoted to nature. Outside the University of Bristol’s School of Chemistry, artist Luke Jerram’s Palm Temple resembles a futuristic chapel made of wood and stained glass. Created in 2020 to celebrate the 600th anniversary of Brunelleschi’s famous dome in Florence, it eventually found a permanent home in Jerram’s native Bristol, where he donated it to the university. The structure is an ingenious architectural illusion. Two halves of a spiralling wooden dome are positioned opposite one another, creating the impression of two giant palms pressed together in prayer. Colourful dichroic panels act like ever-changing stained glass, while a mirrored floor reflects the structure, sky, and surrounding weather. Suspended inside is Jerram’s Extinction Bell, which rings randomly between 150 and 200 times a day. Each toll represents an estimated species becoming extinct somewhere in the world within 24 hours. The bell transforms the pavilion from a beautiful place of contemplation into a quiet warning about the planet’s disappearing biodiversity. The Palm Temple is part chapel, part kaleidoscope, and part environmental alarm. Open to visitors, it changes constantly with the light and weather, and after dark it glows from within. In a city celebrated for its street art and architecture, it offers an especially unusual place to pause—and listen for the next bell.
The Prince of the Lilies is one of the signature images of Minoan Crete, reproduced on postcards, book covers, and museum posters worldwide: a slender, muscular figure wearing a crown of lilies and peacock feathers, striding forward through a garden, one hand on his chest. It's usually presented as a king, sometimes a priest-king, ruling from Knossos around 1500 BCE. The problem is that almost none of that figure actually survived. Excavated in fragments by Arthur Evans' team in the early 1900s, the fresco was heavily reconstructed, and controversially so: the original pieces show a torso, a crown, and separate body fragments that may not even belong to the same figure. Evans' restorer, Émile Gilliéron, combined them into a single striding male figure, filling enormous gaps with guesswork and plaster. Later scholars have proposed the crown and torso might belong to two, even three, different people, possibly including a female boxer or a sphinx-like composite creature, rather than one princely man at all. The debate cuts to the heart of a broader criticism of Evans' work at Knossos: his reconstructions, done in concrete and paint, are often described less as restoration than as invention, projecting a coherent, palace-and-king narrative onto a civilization whose actual social structure remains poorly understood.
In Mumbai’s Byculla area is located Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan, the city’s oldest public garden and zoo. It was formerly known as Victoria Gardens. At the garden’s entrance is a beautiful old clock tower. Known as David Sassoon Clock Tower, it was built in 1864 in the Palladian style of architecture. It is said that the tower is the only structure in the city with this architectural style. Out of the total cost of building the tower, a majority of the cost was funded by David Sassoon hence the tower has been dedicated to him. David Sassoon was a prominent merchant and philanthropist from that era. It is said that the main body of the tower has been built from locally sourced Porbandar stone. Some parts of the tower have been decorated with beautiful, ornamental tiles. There is also an artistic, wrought iron staircase on one side. The clock tower rises through the trees at the garden’s entrance. During the day, one can find people peacefully resting in the shade of the trees and the tower, while children play in the garden. It is a beautiful piece of history and is reminiscent of a bygone era.
Rue Jankowski is a dead end in Le Mans' Saint-Nicolas district, the kind of narrow passage you'd normally walk past without a second look. Then you turn the corner and the wall seems to fall away into a glowing, striped tunnel, arcing across the buildings around it as though the street itself had been punched open. The piece is called Rabbit Hole, painted in May and June 2022 by the Parisian street artist Seth as guest of honor at Le Mans' urban art festival, Plein Champ. It spans three buildings and six storeys of facade, using anamorphic perspective (the technique that makes a flat painted surface snap into 3D illusion, but only from the correct viewing angle) to turn dead-end walls into what looks like a real passage. Inside the illusion, a small child chases a white rabbit into the light, an image built from the same childhood wonder and escape that runs through most of Seth's work around the world. The fresco didn't stay a local secret for long. Later that year, Street Art Cities, an app and community that catalogues murals worldwide, ran its public vote for the best fresco of 2022 out of a hundred selected works. Rabbit Hole made the top ten, then finished in the top five, at one point cited as the second-best mural of the year and, in the final tally, fifth, the only French entry in the global top ten. It's since become one of the most photographed stops in the city's growing open-air street art collection, alongside dozens of other commissioned murals scattered through Le Mans, but it's the one visitors specifically detour for.
The state of Oaxaca in Mexico's south is often considered one of the country's main artistic hubs. Its diversity in nature and indigenous cultures has created an atmosphere of inspiration for creative endavors. In the capital city of the same name, known fully as Oaxaca de Juárez, perhaps the clearest examples are its booming gastronomic and graphic arts scenes. While it seems that the first airplane to land near Oaxaca City did so in 1922, it wouldn't be until 1940 that an airport would be built to service it. With its official name being Aeropuerto Internacional de Xoxocotlán, its latest renovation started in 2019 and wouldn't be finished until several years later, given closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Rufino Tamayo and Rodolfo Morales, known for their murals and paintings; along with Francisco Toledo, who worked several mediums but is perhaps best-known for his prints, are probably the most relevant artists from Oaxaca to gave developed their careers in the 20th century. Their legacy in the city includes a great affinity for murals and its reputation as the country's printmakers' capital, creating a major field of expression for Oaxacans in the 21st century. However, when the time came for Xoxocotlán Airport to start reflecting this, sculpture would be favored over graphic arts given its monumentality. It is likely that the art displays started in 2018 with works by the collective La Barda de Adobe and artist Manuel Miguel. Since then, there have been exhibits by other Oaxaca-based creatives, from Alberto Aragón Reyes's sculptures made out of recycled materials, to Fernando Andriacci's psychedelic, multicolored animals. From 2024, Patricio Santiago was the featured sculptor, his works mostly made out of cantera stone, including the green-hued type that defines Oaxaca City.
Cartonería is one of the main forms of artes populares (folk art), also known as artesanías (handcrafts), to come out of Mexico City and its metropolitan area. The terms refers to cartón, what cardboard is called in Mexican Spanish, and cartonería works use a type of papier-mâché technique for their building. Cartonería is the original medium for judas (figures intended to be burned at celebrations) and alebrijes , and a yearly event called La Noche de los Alebrijes takes place in Mexico City, in which monumental figures are paraded and displayed. As such, the city has several cartonería workshops and noted artists. These groups will often create works with the express purpose of practice, and it seems likely that this impressive reproduction of a Baroque church altarpiece is one of those works. Martín Rentería, who passed in 2023, and his students' workshop, are one of the likeliest candidates for the authorship of this altarpiece. Rentería was known for realistic works that dealt with Christian themes, which would make this altar fit his oeuvre.
Considering that Mexican cities have been ranked among the ones with highest homicide rates, a large number of massacres committed by organized crime groups as well as human rights violations by authorities, the last century or so has been rough for Mexico. In this context, the country's civilian population has often taken matters into their own hands regarding self-defense and demands towards the government. This is where the multitude of antimonuments mainly found in the capital come in. Unlike a monument intended to celebrate a particular event, the antimonumentos aim to confront the powers that be (and even the society at large) for failures in the rule of law, corruption, negligence, among others. From the 1968 state-sponsored Tlatelolco Massacre in the eve of the Mexico City Olympics, to the similar Halconazo of 1971 and the 2021 removal of a statue of Christopher Columbus, the antimonuments represent more than half a century of struggle. The former Glorieta de Colón (Columbus Roundabout) represents one of the best examples of how antimonumentos and specifially, their feminist antimonumenta counterparts, come to be. After the Columbus statue was toppled during a protest against Mexico's shocking rate of femicides and gender-based violence, a purple metal cutout of a woman with a raised fist was installed in its place, and the unofficial renaming to Glorieta de las Mujeres que Luchan (Roundabout of Fighting Women). Given that Spanish uses grammatical gender for nouns, almost any object in the language will be considered as either male or female. "Monumento" (monument) is male for example, but debates around feminism and gender identity in the 21st century have lead to plenty of cases of male genders being "feminized" as a form of language activism, with examples like "monumenta" and "colectiva". This gives us a clue as to why Mexico (Mexico City in particular) is home to a large number of not only antimonumentos but also antimonumentas. A common style of these antimonuments features the plus sign followed by a number. Generally speaking, these intend to represent the number of victims in an incident, and the aim to not only see them as losses or casualties, but as human beings that should've ideally remained as part of society. Examples include the +43 honoring the teaching students that were forcibly disappeared near Ayotzinapa in 2014, +72 for the migrants that were transiting through Mexico on the way to the U.S. border and were massacred by Los Zetas Cartel in 2010; and the +65 representing the number of workers who died in the Pasta de Conchos mining incident caused by unsafe work conditions in 2006.
On 20 September 1596, Spanish colonist Don Diego de Montemayor founded the city of Nuestra Señora (Our Lady) of Monterrey, in honor of Gaspar de Zúñiga y Acevedo, Viceroy of Mexico at the time and who was also the Count of Monterrey. The settlement was intended to become the capital of the "New Kingdom of León" after the Spanish region. To date, the city has come to be known simply as Monterrey and it remains the capital of what is now the Mexican state of Nuevo León, it also anchors what in the early 2020s became the country's second most-populated metropolitan area (with Metro Mexico City at a very distant first place). The 400th anniversary of this foundation in 1996 was celebrated with plenty of events, many of which were headed by the then Governor of Nuevo León Benjamín Clariond and Monterrey Mayor Jesús Hinojosa Tijerina, and which left a legacy well beyond that period. An example is a time capsule intended to be opened in 2046 (the 450th anniversary), as well as the living legacy represented by the Centennial Ahuehuete. The dedication plaque near this specimen of Taxodium mucronatum (which has many other common names including Montezuma cypress in English and sabino in Spanish) states that it was gifted to the city in January of 1996 by Carlos Alanís Von Der Meden and family. Alanís was at one point the CEO of Grupo Vivero Imperial, considered as Mexico's largest grower of urban trees, as of 2022 he was president of the Mexican Arboriculture Society, which makes sense of his gifting of a specimen of "Mexico's national tree" on such an important occasion.
The nickname "Green Antequera" for the Mexican city of Oaxaca de Juárez might seem strange at first: is it related to the vegetation of the valley it sits in and the mountains that surround it during the wet season? Walking in its historical center, though, the "green" part becomes clearer as this is the color of the rock that forms many of the buildings here, and even the sidewalks. This rock is known as "cantera", which is also the Spanish word for "quarry". The Antequera part comes from a city in Spain that was named Antikaria by the Romans and with time became the modern name. What is less clear, however, is where its connection to Oaxaca comes from, although some believe that one of the first rulers of the city during colonial times was from Antequera and thus named this new city in honor of his homeland. The green cantera stone that defines most of the city's colonial architecture came from nearby quarries, with this having been one of the main ones. In 1988, the long-abandoned quarry was opened up to the public as a park. The pits that had been dug out to mine the stone are now ponds that reflect the impressive green rock walls, some with holds for climbing. Since then, the park has continued to grow and become more accessible, with other features like a stage and seats set into the rock.
Being a child in Cambodia is likely to be rough. By many counts, the country is one of the poorest in Asia, leading to high rates of child abandonment and even orphaning. It is also one of the most heavily-landmined countries, a legacy of 20th-century conflicts like the Vietnam War and the Khmer Rouge regime, which means that many children will often have had an amputation or explosion-related incident. In this context, there are many types of institutions that offer services to care for children, on all-day or part-time bases. Some of these are known as orphanages, even if most of the children attending them actually have a living parent or even both. There are also boarding schools, day nurseries and activity centers that help keep children occupied for working parents and guardians. It is in this context that the Giant Puppet Project started in 2007. Similar to the origins of the Phare Circus , the Giant Puppet Project came about through an art therapy program aimed at children in vulnerable situations. The children make the puppets and participate in parading them through the streets of Siem Reap (Cambodia's main tourism hub), earning skills that could help them with future employment as artisans, allowing them to connect with knowledge of their culture and the wider world, and even just offering them a fun distraction to break from their routine. In this sense, the puppets not only benefit the children who participate in the parade, but also the very many who come to witness it. The only hiatuses in the yearly activity since its inception were in 2020, 2021 and 2022, all because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Otherwise, the giant, themed lit-up paper puppets have paraded across Cambodia's main tourism hub on a single night every spring. Since the parade's return, it is estimated that 400-500 children participate in each edition. Another similarity that this initiative shares with Phare is that both have activities divided between Siem Reap and Battambang, where the puppets are often designed before being built across both cities. Outside of the parade date, these workshops can often be visited throughout the year to see the puppets in the process of being brought to life.
The notion of historical "eras" often varies between cultures. Monarchies and empires often name eras after rulers, with Victorian and Georgian being examples from the English-speaking world. Even as one of the most important pop acts of the 21st century, Taylor Swift had her own take on "Eras". Thai culture often does timekeeping in its own way. Their numbering of years follows Buddhist benchmarks, rather than the BC/AD originated by Christianity. Also unusually for an often-staunch monarchy, the eras of Thai history are named after the cities that were capitals to the kingdom at the time, such as the Ayutthaya Era, the longest of the named eras as it lasted from 1351 to 1757. It was followed by the shortest, the Thonburi Era of 1767-82 and then the Rattanakosin Era which lasted until 1932. Thonburi was established on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River, while Rattanakosin was founded nearby, on an island on the east bank. Both are now part of Bangkok, the country's current capital, with Rattanakosin considered its historical center. Given Bangkok's strategic position near the crucial river's mouth into the Gulf of Thailand, its islands have had some type of defense since the Ayutthaya Era, but it was during the Thonburi period that the Rattanakosin Island would start to become heavily fortified. By its own era, Rattanakosin would be almost completely enclosed by its defensive walls. It may therefore come as a surprise to find out how little of these defenses still stands. The removal of the Rattanakosin Era walls came about around the end of the era itself. While the current era hasn't yet been named officially, it is likely to be the Bangkok Era (or Krung Thep Era, using the city's short Thai name) and it was the growth of Bangkok to encompass both Thonburi and Rattanakosin that made the defenses obsolete. Given the relative peace of the years since for Thailand, advances in weaponry that make light work of walls, and their impending urban sprawl, most of the walls and other defenses would be taken down, with only these few remnants left.
In the courtyard of central Helsinki's oldest surviving wooden house, a rough-hewn cube of reddish granite sits low in the gravel, flat-topped enough to double as a seat. For decades it was the favorite perch of Alexander Wickholm, the fire captain (ruiskumestari, literally "hose master"), who liked to smoke his pipe there while keeping an eye on the yard. Wickholm died in 1896. Nearly three decades later, in 1923, his granddaughter Martta had the stone moved near his grave at a cemetery across town. Almost immediately, the house began to misbehave. Tenants reported banging on the attic stairs and shutters that slammed themselves shut at night, loud enough that several residents moved out rather than endure it. The disturbances didn't stop until the stone was eventually hauled back to its original spot in the yard. Today, The Burgher's Home operates as a small museum - and the ghost, it turns out, still has opinions. Staff say activity flared up again after the museum's 2021 history of the house described Wickholm as "grumpy". Since then, mornings have occasionally brought a small trail of mischief: rugs twisted out of place, an old flatiron turned the wrong way, and kitchen utensils rearranged overnight. Nobody at the museum seems particularly eager to dismiss the stories - not even the guide who walks visitors through the courtyard every day, who admits she wouldn't spend the night in the house. The block, meanwhile, remains exactly where it was brought back, long ago. According to legend, Wickholm still sits on it - pipe in hand.
The Chirotherium, a 12-foot-long crocodile-like reptile, left trails of footprints in four different locations on the Isle of Arran, Scotland, where it lived around 270 million years ago. Some of these footprints measure up to 40 centimetres long and feature large talons, making them the largest Chirotherium prints ever discovered on Earth. At the time, Arran was part of the supercontinent Pangaea, and Chirotherium lived in a hot, arid climate near the sea.
The filming location and featured grave markers from George A. Romero's 1968 horror masterpiece, “Night of the Living Dead.” Includes Nicholas Kramer's grave, a civil war veteran who's headstone is shown during the delivery of famous line "They're coming to get you, Barbra!" Also the Blair / Cole plot where Johnny and Barbra stop to honor their father. And finally, the grave of Clyde Lewis Meyers, where Johnny hits his head during his tussle with one of the zombies (ghouls).
Humans have been slurping and savoring noodles for centuries, with the first recorded noodle dish recorded during China’s Eastern Han period (25–220 CE). In fact, noodles would go on to become inextricable from ancient Chinese culture, with a wheat-based version emerging as a staple of the Han dynasty. Centuries later, noodle-making would hit Europe, transforming the cuisines of Italy during the Middle Ages and Germany in the early 18th century. The English word “noodle” itself goes back to the 18th century, borrowed by the English from the German “nudel.” Whatever you call them, one thing remains certain: Love of noodles transcends culture and country. Jacques Cousteau once said that the sea was “the great unifier ... man’s only hope,” but did he ever consider the power of a steaming bowl of ramen? For this delicious guide, we’ve noodled on the best of the best around the world—places where mind-bending broths and eccentric histories collide to create unforgettable dining experiences. 1. Hrimnir Ramen 📍 Oslo, Norway This Oslo eatery puts a uniquely Norwegian spin on traditional Japanese ramen, using seasonal local ingredients found from the fjords to the mountains. Opened by Norwegian-American microbiologist David Quist in 2019, Hrimnir places a special focus on fermented ingredients, with jars of preserved lemons, pickled plums, and pear vinegar lining the walls. The noodles are handmade in house with emmer wheat or tokornkveite, a heritage grain that gives them a uniquely nutty flavor. 2. Phở Hàng Trống 📍 Hanoi, Vietnam Hanoi is considered the birthplace of Vietnam’s staple noodle soup, phở, and in the living room of home chef Ms. Minh, you’ll find some of the very best in the country. She’s been selling phở in Hanoi for decades but was forced to take her business inside in 2017, when the city started cracking down on street vendors. At plastic tables, visitors to Ms. Minh’s home can enjoy traditional, northern-style phở (which has lighter, clearer broth than that in the south). She serves her noodles with jars of homemade chili sauce and pickled garlic, plus the option of dipping Chinese youtiao doughnuts in the hot broth. 3. Inari Soba Mansei 📍 Tokyo, Japan This small soba shop dates back to the early 1600s, where it appears in the legend of Takuzousu, a Buddhist monk and kitsune, or shapeshifting fox-spirit. It’s said that Takuzousu frequented this very shop, where the coins he paid with supposedly turned into leaves once their magic had worn off. You’d never know the restaurant’s legendary history from the outside, but inside, you’ll find a bronze bell from the original Takuzousu shrine displayed in glass. The menu, too, pays tribute to the kitsune by serving aburaage, a fried tofu believed to be foxes’ favorite food. 4. Pekin Noodle Parlor 📍 Butte, Montana Pekin Noodle Parlor is the oldest continuously-operating Chinese restaurant in the U.S., opened in 1911 in what was once a thriving Chinatown. Passed down through the same family for generations, Pekin radiates old-school charm: A flickering, neon sign welcomes visitors into a dimly-lit space with orange booths and individual eating cubicles, where food arrives by trolley. The parlor’s main draw is the Chinese-American classic, chop suey, but it also serves up a mean chow mein and chicken noodle soup. 5. Mie Lethek Garuda 📍 Srandakan, Indonesia In this traditional factory, cows turn a huge mortar that grinds dried cassava and sweet potatoes into flour for mie lethek, the region’s signature noodle variety. Mie lethek translates to “ugly noodles,” an apt name for these squiggly gray creations. But what they lack in beauty, they make up for in flavor: sweeter than your average noodle, with a pleasant, chewy texture. Yasir Feri, Mie Lethek Garuda’s owner, is the grandson of the noodle’s creators, a Yemeni/Chinese couple who first opened up shop in the 1940s. After the cows have created the flour, Feri and his factory workers mix and press the dough by hand, then leave the finished noodles to dry in the sun before bringing them to the market. (The cows are also given sweet grass in return for their hard work.) 6. Pure Love Diner Bar 📍 Taipei, Taiwan Colorful neon signs welcome you into this ’80s-themed den of vice (and noodles), complete with red lighting, disco balls, and antique furniture. The diner is an homage to Taipei’s old-school karaoke bars, known as “grandpa shops” for their older—and often flirtatious—patrons, though without any of the original bars’ suspicious activity. Here, it’s all about enjoying the kitschy ambiance and chowing down on Taiwanese classics like braised pork over rice, oyster soup, fried chicken, and deep-fried noodles in satay sauce. Plus, there’s still a karaoke machine in the corner! 7. Fideus de Vermar 📍 Binissalem, Spain This small town of Binissalem celebrates its rich wine heritage with the annual Festa des Vermar, which includes (among plenty of wine-based activities) huge cauldrons of short noodles, slow-cooked meats, red wine, and aromatic spices. This traditional local paella, called fideus de vermar, serves all 1,400 of the town’s residents during the festival, turning the main square into a lively picnic spot. 8. Bamonte’s 📍 Brooklyn, New York Founded by immigrants in 1900, this family institution holds the distinction of being Brooklyn’s oldest Italian restaurant. It was once a favorite meeting spot of the New York mafia, as well as a setting for the fictional New Jersey mob in “The Sopranos.” Other (more law-abiding) Italian-Americans of note, such as Robert De Niro and Frank Sinatra, have dined here, and the restaurant honors its many famous guests with framed photos on the walls. While New York City has grown exceedingly expensive, Bamonte’s has kept its Italian classics surprisingly affordable, and crowd-pleasers like the rigatoni alla vodka and linguine with red clam sauce keep people coming back year after year. 9. Khanom Jeen Pa Mai 📍 Phuket Town, Thailand Thin white rice noodles called khanom jeen are a staple throughout Thailand, where they’re served with various spicy curries, meats, and vegetables. At this unassuming eatery in Phuket Town, customization reaches new heights with a lineup of everything from crispy dried fish to pickled mustard greens to pineapple slices. 10. Hawker Chan Soya Sauce Chicken Rice & Noodle 📍 Singapore For about $3, you can enjoy a Michelin-star meal at this Singapore noodle shop. Owner and chef Chan Hon Meng first opened Hawker Chan as a food-court stall, where it became famous with his “secret,” Cantonese-style chicken marinade. The flavorful braised meat is served over char siew noodles, rice, or hor fun noodles with stir-fried veggies and braised eggs. After Meng took home a Michelin star in 2016 (which he at first assumed was a practical joke), he turned Hawker Chan into a full-scale restaurant right next to where his humble stall once stood. Since then, other locations have opened in Thailand, Kazakhstan, Laos, and Malaysia, with more still on the way. 11. Lin Heung Tea House 📍 Hong Kong Founded in the late 19th century, Lin Heung may just be Hong Kong’s oldest dim sum spot. It still does things the old-school way, too, with servers wheeling trolleys stacked high with bamboo steamers and calling out what dishes are up. Simply head over to the trolley and load up on what looks good to you, whether it’s rice noodle rolls, shrimp dumplings, pork ribs, or congee. The tea house can get quite crowded, so sharing a table with (or even befriending) fellow customers is simply a part of the experience. 12. Matsuka Seimen Noodle Factory 📍 Kurashiki, Japan This gray shed functions mainly as a noodle factory, but during certain times of day, it changes gears to serve up freshly-cooked udon topped with eggs, scallions, and chili oil. Regulars swear by the kamatama: piping hot udon paired with nothing but a raw egg (cooked by the noodles) and a drizzle of soy sauce. Matsuka Seimen’s tiny kitchen also churns out a rich curry ramen made with fatty slivers of pork and soba noodles in a delicate green tea broth. If you’re lucky, while you wait for your meal, you’ll witness the Matsuka family’s rather unusual noodle-kneading technique: A large tray of dough is covered in cloth and placed on the floor, where a family member walks all over it in special socks. 13. Bún Riêu Gánh 📍 Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam On the busy streets of Ho Chi Minh City, Mrs. Mai Thi Lien serves up hefty ladles of simmering red broth from a massive pot on the sidewalk. Bún riêu, the noodle soup for which her restaurant is named, is made with rice vermicelli noodles and shrimp or pork mixed with crab paste, plus crispy tofu, huyet (coagulated pork blood), and herbs for garnishing. Mrs. Lien puts her own spin on the classic dish by pairing it with a tamarind fish sauce with sliced chili, giving it a distinctly southern Vietnamese flavor.
Sun Valley is renowned for its winter ski slopes, drawing in thrill-seekers with its 3,400 vertical feet and over 2,500 acres of diverse, snowy terrain. Meanwhile, in summer, this pocket of Idaho comes alive with wildflowers, festivals, and. a slew of outdoor activities. But autumn, considered by locals to be the “secret season,” is full of wonders both cherished and unexpected. With its radiant aspens, crisp mornings, and mild afternoons, this season brings out the best of Sun Valley’s natural beauty (and it doesn’t hurt that there are fewer crowds). Whether you’re looking for arts and culture outings, outdoor adventures, or just some much-needed R&R, Sun Valley has everything you need for an unforgettable fall vacation. Come for a weekend and you’ll want to stay all autumn long, as the region comes alive with local traditions and cozy comforts. So, what are you waiting for? Start planning your getaway today with our guide to Sun Valley’s can’t-miss fall activities. Oktoberfest Every September, Sun Valley’s Champions Meadow hosts Ketchum Oktoberfest, a weekend-long celebration of beer and bratwurst. The meadow, just north of town on Sun Valley Road, fills up with picnic blankets, lawn chairs, and cornhole boards for an annual fundraiser tournament. You’ll also want to stick around for the much-anticipated stein-hoisting competition, wherein competitors must hold a full beer stein with a straight, outstretched arm for as long as possible. Drinks at the festival are served by the local Sawtooth Brewery and require purchase of their signature Sawtooth Brewery Stein. But don’t let that dissuade you—buy the stein once and you can bring it back year after year, filling it to your heart’s delight. Aside from brews and brats, festivalgoers have all kinds of delicious German foods to choose from, including schnitzel, landjager (bison brat), a warm Bavarian pretzel with beer cheese, and pommes frites—a hulking pile of waffle fries with beer cheese, ketchup, or fry sauce. And don’t worry; there’s plenty for the kids to enjoy too. Champions Meadow transforms into a “Bavarian playground” with bouncy houses and a face painting booth, plus kids can fill up their own steins with root beer. Fly Fishing in The Big Wood River Fly fishing is one of Sun Valley’s most popular outdoor activities, with an incredible variety of fishing spots for enthusiasts of all levels. The Big Wood River is a great place to set up shop for the day, and in the fall, cooler temperatures and lower water levels make for excellent wading conditions. The river’s rainbow, river, and brook trout are all very active this time of year as they prepare for winter, so you’re likely to get plenty of catches. The river has many access points, but the best are between Ketchum and Bellevue, where there’s a mix of riffles, runs, and pools with large rainbow trout populations. More practiced anglers can also head north of Ketchum, where there’s faster pocket water. Check regulations before you wade out, as they vary depending on the section of the river, and always check stream conditions before grabbing your gear. Wellness Retreat at the Sun Valley Spa If days full of outdoor adventures have you wanting to unwind, look no further than the Sun Valley Spa, a rustic and serene oasis at the Sun Valley Resort. Relax with a massage, mineral bath, or nourishing skin wrap, or try out ayurvedic therapy, where reflexology pressure is applied to the hands, feet, and ears to restore natural equilibrium. You can also combat the dry autumn air with one of the spa’s hydrating facials, which can be customized to fit your skin type with a personalized booster serum. The spa’s daily yoga classes are another perfect way to calm your mind and body, with slow, deep stretches and—in some classes—soothing sound baths that recall the whistling fall winds outside. For couples, Sun Valley Spa’s Couples Suite Experiences can turn any day into a restful and romantic getaway, with a private room, seasonal refreshments, and your choice of services. Hiking and Biking Sun Valley’s mountain paths are incredible all year long but are perhaps at their most stunning in the fall, when changing leaves turn the entire valley vibrant shades of yellow and orange. Over 40 miles of multi-use trails wind through the landscape, with difficulty levels ranging from calm meadow walks to steep and strenuous journeys for more experienced hikers and mountain bikers. On these paths, you’ll pass old mining sites, cabins, and bubbling creeks. The hiking trails are dog friendly, too, so make sure to bring along your best buddy. Before you head out for a long hike or bike ride, stop by Backwoods Mountain Sports or Sturtevants for all the gear you’ll need to maximize your time outside. When you’re back from your trek, grab a bite to eat at The Kneadery, which serves up hearty, “Rocky Mountain rustic” homestyle cooking. For delicious baked goods, you can beeline it to Bigwood Bread, which has brought delicious pastries, cakes, and sandwiches to Sun Valley since 1997. The Ernest Hemingway Memorial The famous author held a special place in his heart for Sun Valley. He visited frequently from 1939 until his death in 1961, staying in his home along the Big Wood River. Whether you’ve read all of Hemingway’s works or know only the basics of his biography, the Hemingway Memorial is well worth a visit, especially when the forest surrounding it is aglow with fall foliage. In fact, the memorial’s inscription says of Hemingway: “Best of all he loved the fall, the leaves yellow on the cottonwoods. Leaves floating on the trout streams and above the hills. The high blue windless skies, now he will be a part of them forever.” The bust of Hemingway, atop a simple bronze column, overlooks Sun Valley’s Trail Creek and the surrounding mountains. In front of it, a curved stone bench is the perfect place for a moment of quiet reflection—or to dive into one of Hemingway’s works with a warm cup of coffee. Bonus: for more Hemingway artifacts, check out the Community Library, The Pioneer Saloon, and his grave site at the Ketchum Cemetery. Trailing of the Sheep Festival Since 1996, Sun Valley has been home to the Trailing of the Sheep Festival, a one-of-a-kind event that honors the history and culture of sheepherding in Idaho and the West at large. For five days each October, the cities of Hailey and Ketchum transform into an un-baa-lievable celebration of sheep, with activities ranging from sheepdog trials to wool dying to cheesemaking classes. The main event of the festival is the Big Sheep Parade on its final day, during which 1,200 sheep parade down Ketchum’s Main Street alongside historic sheep wagons, dancers, and ranchers. With fewer folks in town, fall is the best time to experience this Original Mountain Town. Whether you try your hand at stein-hoisting, get lost in a Hemingway novel, or simply soak in the beauty of the changing leaves, fall is when Sun Valley’s magic truly shines, with equal parts adventure and ease. Know Before You Go Getting to Sun Valley, Idaho is easier than you may think. The Friedman Memorial Airport (SUN) is located 14 miles from downtown Ketchum and offers nonstop flights from six major cities including Seattle - SEA (Alaska Airlines), San Francisco - SFO (United), Los Angeles - LAX (United), Salt Lake City - SLC (Delta), Denver - DEN (United), and Chicago - ORD (United).
Newburyport is one of the most well-known and vibrant coastal communities in Massachusetts. Located near the mouth of the Merrimack River and Plum Island, it has a long history of shipping, fishing, tourism, and is officially recognized as the founding location of the US Coast Guard. The Museum of Old Newbury is dedicated to the history of Newburyport, its surrounding communities, and is housed inside a grand Federal style mansion built in the early 1800s. There are many historic and unique artifacts on display, but perhaps the most striking that immediately grabs the attention of visitors, is the large wooden painted statue of a man in military uniform standing on the stairs and seemingly following you with its eyes. The peculiarity of this relic was most likely done intentionally, as it was once owned by one of the most peculiar and eccentric wealthy businessmen in early American history. Timothy Dexter was born in colonial Massachusetts in 1747 to a poor family of English and Irish ancestry. He dropped out of school at around age 8 to become a farmhand and at age 16 he became a tanner's apprentice. In 1769 at age 21, he moved to Newburyport and married 32-year-old Elizabeth Frothingham, a very rich widow. Using the money he acquired, he purchased a large mansion and began his incredibly bizarre yet prosperous business ventures. After the American Revolution had ended, Continental Dollars had depreciated to the point of worthlessness and could be acquired easily. Dexter bought huge sums of these dollars and when the US government decided to honor its debt, he made a considerable profit. He used the money to build two ships and began an export business to the Caribbean and Europe selling rather unusual items. He sold bed warmers, designed for cold New England winters to the West Indies, a tropical climate. It seemed illogical to do so, but the local molasses industry repurposed them as ladles instead. Dexter also sent a shipment of wool gloves to the West Indies which were purchased by Russian merchants who were docked at the time and later resold in Siberia. He also exported a large number of stray cats to the Caribbean which were purchased by locals to control the rodent population. He also hoarded a lot of whalebones which were later fashioned into corset stays. Dexter's success and uncommon good fortune made him the envy of New England high society who thought of ways to bankrupt him. Some suggested he "sell coal to Newcastle" in England, which was an idiom describing a pointless or futile action as the city was one of the largest coal producers in the world during the 18th century. Dexter took the suggestion literally and sent a large shipment of coal which was bought at a premium because the local miners were on strike at the time. He was also convinced to sell trousers, gloves, hides, and whale blubber to the East Indies which were bought just in time by Portuguese merchants on their way to China. Although snubbed and mocked by other elites in society, Dexter was proud of his particular style of business acumen and seeing value in items that others considered worthless. He used his immense wealth to decorate his home with minarets, a mausoleum for himself, and outside he placed 40 life-size sculptures of various famous men throughout his life including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Napoleon Bonaparte, William Pitt the Elder, and himself. The sculpture of himself he had engraved, "I am the first in the East, the first in the West, and the greatest philosopher in the Western World". He called himself "Lord Timothy Dexter" and offered money to people who called him "Lord Chester" whenever he was staying at his estate in Chester, New Hampshire. Other eccentric aspects of his personality included telling people his wife (who was alive) had died and the woman in their home was her ghost, faking his death and holding a mock funeral just to see how many people would show up, and sending repeated petitions to be appointed for public office in which he was given the title "Informer of Deer", which was to tell people whenever deer were in town and enforce local deer hunting laws despite the fact no deer lived in Newburyport. Towards the end of his life in 1802, he published a book titled A Pickle for the Knowing Ones, in which he complained mostly about politicians, the clergy, and his wife. The book is notable for having incredibly poor grammar, spelling, and having no punctuations of any kind. After his death in 1806, his estate and much of his belongings were auctioned off. The Great September Gale and New England Hurricane of 1815 destroyed most of the outdoor sculptures with those remaining being sold or salvaged for firewood. The only surviving sculpture today is the one of William Pitt the Elder which was once owned by the Smithsonian and restored before being returned to Newburyport where it’s on display at the Museum of Old Newbury. Both Dexter and the sculpture of William Pitt are certainly quite peculiar oddities and definitely worth taking a look and learning more about if you’re interested.
Madrid may have its famous fountains and grand boulevards, but hidden in the Casa de Campo is a rather more unexpected piece of engineering: a small 18th-century aqueduct. Built in 1778, the Acueducto de La Partida carried water from the park’s lake to the Huerta de la Partida, helping to irrigate the royal gardens and orchards. Its designer was Francisco Sabatini, the royal architect responsible for some of Madrid’s most monumental landmarks. Sabatini’s connection with the Casa de Campo does not end here. He was also involved with several of its bridges, including the Puente de la Culebra, although his exact role in their construction remains a matter of historical debate. It is a charming reminder that the man associated with the Puerta de Alcalá and the Palacio Real also turned his attention to the rather less glamorous business of getting water across a stream. Perhaps the most surprising thing is how little known this aqueduct is—even among Madrileños. The Casa de Campo contains the remains some otheraqueducts, built at different times to carry its intricate network of irrigation channels across streams and valleys. So while visitors stroll, cycle, jog, and picnic through one of Europe’s largest urban parks, they may be walking through a landscape quietly crisscrossed by forgotten waterways. The Acueducto de La Partida is the oldest surviving example, restored in 2016 and now standing rather proudly beside the paths near the lake. It may lack the monumental scale of Segovia’s famous aqueduct, but Madrid has never been particularly short of surprises—and this one comes with the added bonus of being designed by Sabatini.
The Bunker in Sainte Marguerite sur Mer is a massive WWII German blockhaus that originally sat atop the coastal cliffs before decades of erosion caused it to plunge onto the beach below, landing almost perfectly vertically in the sand. Today, it stands as a surreal, monolithic attraction that gained modern fame after street artist JR and filmmaker Agnès Varda featured it in their 2016 documentary “Faces Places,” temporarily covering it in a giant mural that the sea washed away within a single day. Because it sits on an isolated stretch of pebble shoreline beneath sheer chalk walls, visitors hiking down to this striking concrete ruin must carefully check local tide tables in advance, as the high tide completely covers the beach and leaves no escape route up the cliffs.
Rising from the rural landscape of Binh Dinh, the Duong Long Cham Towers are a breathtaking architectural anomaly. Constructed during the late 12th century, the golden era of the Vijaya kingdom, this trio of brick titans defies the typical scale of Champa monuments. The central tower, soaring to a height of 38,81 meters, holds the distinction of being the tallest brick Cham tower in Southeast Asia. What truly sets Duong Long apart is its mysterious identity. Unlike many other Cham sites that rely exclusively on brickwork, these structures incorporate massive, intricately carved sandstone blocks into their doors and corners. This is a distinctive flourish often attributed to the influence of neighboring Khmer craftsmanship. Walking among these structures, one can feel the echoes of a sophisticated civilization that once mastered the art of both monumental engineering and delicate stone sculpture. Despite the toll of time, they remain a defiant testament to a grandeur that still guards the secrets of the Cham people.
There’s nothing quite like a picnic surrounded by friends and family, soaking in the sun, sharing snacks, and enjoying the sounds of nature. Whether you prefer to use one big blanket, sit at a table with benches, or plop right onto the grass, it’s the perfect good-weather get together (and a great excuse to load up on delicious food). With this guide, you’ll find a picnic spot that’s guaranteed to impress your guests and spark envy in your enemies. These aren’t your average grassy fields; they’re oases colored by folklore stories, whimsical art, monumental moments in history, and otherworldly formations. From an abandoned power plant in the mountains of Mexico to a gold-mine-turned-swimming-hole in southern Australia, these are the best places across the globe for an unforgettable outdoor meal. 1. Old Zoo Picnic Area 📍 Los Angeles, California The first Los Angeles Zoo may have closed in the 1960s, but remnants still remain in Griffith Park, where they’re now outfitted with picnic tables and grills. Peek inside abandoned monkey cages and walk through the bear grotto in between bites, or wander a trail up from the caves for a view of what was once the lion dens. 2. Sports City 📍 Amman, Jordan This crumbling sporting complex, once the training ground for elite athletes, now consists of drained swimming pools, empty gymnasiums, and overgrown tracks. However, that doesn’t mean it’s gone unused; in a city where public green space is a rarity, the complex has become a popular spot for picnics, hookah smoking, and simply sprawling in the shade. 3. Ras Angela 📍 Ras Angela, Tunisia The rocky head of Ras Angela, or Cape Angela, juts out into the Mediterranean Sea, forming what is considered to the northernmost point of Africa. Marked with a Tunisian flag and a sculpture of the continent, it is a peaceful spot to enjoy a picnic and ocean views. You can also lay out your towel on the adjacent sandy beach and take a dip into the perfectly blue water. 4. Bomi Blue Lake 📍 Tubmanburg, Liberia When the Liberia Mining Company abandoned its operations here in the late 1970s, it left behind a series of pit mines, which eventually filled with spring water to become a single beautiful lake. With clear, unpolluted waters, the lake is open for swimming, and the wooden pavilions around its perimeter are great for picnics. 5. Christy Buchanan’s SHE Garden & Gallery 📍 Winnsboro, South Carolina This whimsical folk garden was created by artist and architect Christy Buchanan, who dreamed up a space that would reflect the nuanced beauty of everyday found objects. Visitors can have a picnic in the Love Shack, take pictures under the bicycle arch, or commune with ancestors in the Tiki hut. Buchanan also constantly adds to the site, so you’re sure to spy new works each time you visit. If her SUV (nicknamed Happy) is in the yard, Buchanan is home, but feel free to stop by even if she isn’t. 6. Old Wardour Castle 📍 Tisbury, England After being decimated in a 1642 siege, this castle’s military career ended; however, it has found a second life as a tourist attraction. Fully restored and transformed with neat landscaping, the estate is now a favorite spot for picnics, weddings, and even film crews. Visitors to the castle can still climb the worn tower stairs for a sweeping view of the English countryside or lounge in the same sun-soaked courtyard that English barons once frequented. 7. Woolshed Falls 📍 Beechworth, Australia Once the center of a massive, 19th-century mining enterprise, these falls have since been reclaimed by nature, with channels worn into the rock forming natural showers, baths and waterslides. There’s also a plunge pool at the end of the falls, unusually deep for its size thanks to the large amount of gold removed from the silty bottom. Accessible by two different walking paths, the falls are a pleasant, family-friendly spot for picnics, swimming, and rock jumping (though children should be closely supervised). 8. Tuzluca Salt Mines 📍 Tuzluca, Turkey The Tuz Mağarası, or Tuzluca Salt Caves, have supplied salt to this region since medieval times, though they only recently opened to the public. Now, anyone who’s not too claustrophobic can walk a boardwalk through the curving, cavernous interior. Warm lighting lends the dark space a cozy atmosphere, and picnic tables set around the chamber walls invite visitors to set up camp and stay a while. 9. Gravelly Point Park 📍 Arlington, Virginia Most aircraft approaching Washington National Airport loop over this small Arlington park in their final descent, and locals gather for the spectacle of roaring engines, screeching wheels, and the unmistakable scent of burnt rubber on the runway. With plenty of wide open space for kids to run around and close-up views of the Potomac River, Gravelly Point is the perfect place to spend an afternoon munching on snacks and staring up at the clouds. 10. La Planta 📍 San Agustín Etla, Mexico On the mountainside above San Agustín Etla, this former water-powered electric power plant is now a popular spot for hikers and picnickers to take in sweeping views of the city. A poem posted near the ruins reminds visitors of the importance of nature, proposing that the Earth’s resources are significantly more valuable than money: “Only after the last tree is cut ... only after the last river is poisoned ... only after the last fish is caught ... only then, you will understand ... that you cannot eat money.” 11. Al Wathba Fossil Dunes 📍 Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates This area on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi was once covered by water. However, over time, as sediments settled at the bottom, the many mineral-heavy layers became compacted and cemented into stable structures. Since then, they’ve been further molded by winds and sediment into utterly unique shapes. This seemingly-endless desert landscape is popular for early-morning picnics and also makes for a great camping spot. Just remember: The sand figures are incredibly fragile, so under no circumstances should you climb them. 12. Tiger Cave 📍 Mahabalipuram, India Surrounded by swaying casuarina trees in the Bay of Bengal, Tiger Cave has long been a favored recreation spot among locals willing to make trek there from town. The site’s name comes from its crown of 11 tiger-esque heads carved around the entrance to its gaping maw. Archaeologists believe that the site likely once served as a portico from which rulers spoke or observed festivities. The park’s grounds are maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India as a free, public space, and between its lush greenery and food and drink stands, it’s a pleasant spot for those seeking respite from Mahabalipuram’s busy streets. 13. Sa Stiddiosa 📍 Gadoni, Italy A hike through the heart of Sardinia will lead you to this gentle waterfall, though its name actually translates from the Sardo dialect to “dripping” rather than “falling.” Local families descend into the valley to picnic, bathe in the Flumendosa River’s cool, shaded waters, and jump off the large boulder at the river’s center. 14. The Dick Lane Velodrome 📍 East Point, Georgia Atlanta’s hub for all things cycling is a 1/5-mile track with 36-degree banked turns, which intrepid competitors race down at 40 miles an hour. Located in the city’s East Point neighborhood, the Velodrome has become a point of civic pride and local entertainment with its concession stand, public seating, picnic area, and plentiful green space. The East Point Velodrome Association runs activities on-site throughout the year, from bike safety clinics to a youth cycling league.
Cape Bear Lighthouse has been in operation since 1881, and it's light can be seen up to 22km/14 mi away. For a small fee, take a tour of the lighthouse to learn about the history of it's keepers, and an opportunity to climb all the way up to the lantern room to see panoramic views of the Northumberland Strait and Nova Scotia. While Marconi Station ceased operations in 1922 and now serves as a family home, Marconi Station operator Thomas Bartlett was the first Canadian to receive the distress call from the Titanic on the night of April 14, 1912, as it was sinking off the coast of Newfoundland, which was not yet a part of Canada.
The artwork created by Mexican artist Hervey Garcia, draws from Eadweard Muybridge's 1878 motion photography The Horse in Motion. As vehicles drive past at speeds of 35 to 45 mph, the frames blend together creating and animated effect showing a galloping horse stretching, morphing into a winged Pegasus, and finally transforming into a bird soaring through a starry night sky.
Located at the intersection of McGill College Ave and Rue Cathcart, this piece of industrial artwork by Claude Cormier looks like a giant hula hoop, or a decommissioned star gate. The massive ring measures 30 metres in diameter and weighs around 50,000 pounds. Installed over the staircase of Place Ville Marie’s Esplanade, it demands attention while at the same time welcoming visitors to the area.
In the mid-nineteenth century, farmland west of Cleveland was purchased by real estate speculators and subdivided for development. The Fir Street Cemetery, as it is currently known, occupies just eight residential lots in what first became Brooklyn Township and is now incorporated within Cleveland. In spite of its small size, the burial ground is historically three separate graveyards. The oldest portion of the cemetery is the middle 3.5 lots purchased by the Hungarian Aid Society, established to assist Jewish émigrés in need, including with burial. The lots to the east were bought by the Chevra Kadisha Society and Anshe Emeth, historically the largest and oldest orthodox synagogue in Cleveland, acquired the lots on the west side of the block. By the early-1900s, most of the graveyard was known informally as the Hungarian Cemetery, with the western section retaining its identity as the Anshe Emeth Cemetery. The first burial, in 1865, was that of Aaron Horwitz, the two- or three-year-old son of James (née Jacob) Horwitz, who received his medical degree from the University of Vienna, and Fannie Horwitz. Dr. Horwitz was a supporter of the 1848 Hungarian War of Independence and fled Galicia when the revolution failed. Surprisingly, given the small size of the Fir Street Cemetery, the last burials didn’t occur until 1971. By then, the geographic center of the Jewish community had moved eastward and over time, the graveyard deteriorated, in part due to vandalism. A first step towards the restoration of the burial ground was an enumeration in 1988 of the grave markers by the Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland. Cleveland Housing Court Judge Raymond J. Pianka attended elementary school a few blocks from the cemetery and had been fascinated as a boy by the Hebrew inscriptions on some of the markers. Judge Pianka, neighborhood residents, and Park Synagogue — the successor to the merger of the Anshe Emeth and Beth Tefilo congregations — restored and renovated the Fir Street Cemetery from 2007 to 2009. Ongoing maintenance is provided by Park Synagogue with assistance from the Jewish Community Federation, which obtained the deed to the Hungarian or B’nai Abraham cemetery in 1963. Many notable people are buried in the Fir Street Cemetery, including founders and rabbis of mid- to late-19th century synagogues in Cleveland. For example, Moses A. Adelstein, who founded the first Russian synagogue and also organized the first free Jewish cemetery, was not himself laid to rest in Lansing Cemetery, but rather here. Of lesser repute is Harry “Czar” Bernstein, a bank, theater, and hotel owner and political boss made infamous for election rigging.
At the coast of Nhon Hai in Quy Nhon, a mysterious wall lies partly submerged beneath the sea. The structure extends from the rocky coast of Hai Nam toward Hon Kho Island and becomes visible only when the tide recedes deeply. Local fishermen have long known about the structure, while its exact age and purpose remain unknown. The wall has a remarkably flat surface, reportedly more than 10 meters wide in some sections. Local divers have described it as being made not from individually laid stones or bricks, but from a dense, solid material resembling mortar. Some theories suggest it may have served a defensive or coastal-protection purpose, and it is sometimes associated with the ancient Champa landscape of the region, but no archaeological evidence has yet confirmed its origin or date. For a few days around the lowest tides of the lunar month, sections of the submerged structure can emerge above the water, creating the unusual sight of what appears to be an ancient wall crossing the sea. Its uncertain history, changing visibility with the tides, and location between the mainland and Hon Kho Island make it one of the more enigmatic coastal features around Quy Nhon.
For time immemorial, human beings have generated trash ... lots and lots of trash. And from the aqueducts and municipal dumps of ancient times to the massive landfills of today, we’ve tried all kinds of ways to get rid of it. However, when trash makes its way into the right hands, it can be turned from mere waste into something imaginative and daring. Creative folks around the world have seen old materials as more than just their previous lives, looking instead to their futures. These works show the truth of that age-old statement: “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” With materials ranging from old cars to scrap metal to glass bottles and discarded beach chairs, artists have gone above and beyond to reimagine how waste is thought about and used. Some projects, like a giant whale made out of polyethylene in New Mexico, are direct calls to action to reduce our footprint on the Earth. Others, such as a homestead full of sculptures built from ship parts, were simply designed on a whim by their creators. All of them showcase the innate power of outsider art to surprise and inspire us. What Is Recycled Art? Also called upcycled or eco-art, this practice involves turning everyday waste like plastic, glass, metal, textiles, and paper into creative works. Materials that would normally end up in landfills are, instead, transformed into imaginative forms that compel us to rethink our ideas of worth and beauty. Sculpture Material Location Notable Feature Tire Sculptures of Breighner's Tire Center Tires, coat hangers, turf Littlestown, Pennsylvania Large animal sculptures including a lion and fire-breathing dragon Frontera Sculpture Oasis Scavenged and donated materials Luna County, New Mexico Sculpture garden in the Chihuahuan Desert Rainbow Sea Container Sea containers Fremantle, Australia Nine containers forming a 29-foot-tall rainbow arch The Swimmer - Traces of Man Discarded chairs, parasols, beach trash Skanör med Falsterbo, Sweden Sculpture highlighting the environmental impact of discarded goods Volkswagen Spider Sculpture Volkswagen Beetle and metal Palm Springs, California 28-foot-tall spider The Raven's Nest Scrap metal and old ship parts Reykjavik, Iceland Evolving sculpture park with Viking warriors and other figures Schaefer's Auto Art Reused automobiles Erie, Pennsylvania Roadside sculptures made from reimagined cars Blenko Man Recycled Blenko glass Weston, West Virginia Sculpture made from collected glass Ernesto Che Guevara Statue Scrap iron and mechanical parts El Alto, Bolivia 30-foot-tall statue made from engines, cogs, and wheels Árbol de la Sidra Glass cider bottles Gijón, Spain Monument made from cider bottles Ethyl the Whale Recycled polyethylene Santa Fe, New Mexico 82-foot-long recycled plastic sculpture Recycled Roadrunner Statue Shoes, cell phones, bike parts, and other recycled materials Las Cruces, New Mexico 20-foot-tall roadrunner 1. Tire Sculptures of Breighner’s Tire Center 📍 Littlestown, Pennsylvania When Noah Russell, an employee at Breighner’s Tire Center, was challenged by his boss to build a tire float for a local parade, he created a massive lion that won first place. Riding this high, he entered the following year with an eight-foot-tall, fire-breathing dragon made out of coat hangers, turf tires, and a can of bucane.(Unsurprisingly, he won again.) Russell followed these creations with an intricate headless horseman, a horned stag, and a reef with several aquatic animals. Along with the two prize-winning creatures, these spectacles now sit in front of Breighner’s storefront, where they’ve become a favorite landmark for people traveling along Hanover Pike. 2. Frontera Sculpture Oasis 📍 Luna County, New Mexico This unique sculpture garden sits in the middle of the Chihuahuan desert, right on the U.S./Mexico border. Artist Taras Mychalewych created the work as a tribute to Mother Earth after his car blew up in the very same desert while he was on a cross-country drive. The garden’s makeshift biosphere is formed out of scavenged and donated materials, from bricks to bottles, and was designed to mingle with the surrounding agave and cholla. One colorful display represents a regional mariachi band, welcoming people to the borderlands, while another portion feels directly inspired by Los Angeles’s Watts Towers. In its entirety, the isolated oasis acts as an ode to nature’s bounty but also a warning to those who have defiled it in the name of profit. 3. Rainbow Sea Container 📍 Fremantle, Australia Situated between two bridges in a Perth suburb, this colorful sculpture pays homage to the area’s rich history as an industrial port. Locally nicknamed “The Containbow,” the nine sea containers are assembled into a striking, 29-foot-tall arch that can be spotted far and wide. Perth artist Marcus Cannin painted the containers all shades of the rainbow to recognize Fremont’s recently revitalized creative scene. 4. Badaren - Spår av Mänsklighet (The Swimmer - Traces of Man) 📍 Skanör med Falsterbo, Sweden Nearly 200 discarded chairs and parasols, plus heaps of trash from nearby beaches, form this sculpture in a parking lot in southern Sweden. The installation serves as a reminder of the impact a single individual’s actions can have on the environment. Every single step of the lifecycle of the goods, from manufacturing to shipping and destruction, leaves an impact. 5. Volkswagen Spider Sculpture 📍 Palm Springs, California This giant metal spider with a Volkswagen Beetle body stands outside Hole in the Wall, a former auto repair shop that’s now a hub of delightful desert eccentricity. The 28-foot-tall beast was built by Robert Miner, the shop’s longtime owner, who eventually moved onto the property and installed a treehouse/lookout tower (bedecked with spider/web motifs, naturally). 6. The Raven’s Nest 📍 Reykjavik, Iceland On the outskirts of Iceland’s capital stand mammoth sculptures of discarded scrap metal, constantly evolving as new pieces are added. These are the work of Icelandic filmmaker Hrafn Gunnlaugsson, who bought the oceanside property in 1977 and immediately began transforming it into a surreal sculpture park. “I was given the name Hrafn. That means raven, I think it goes with the name: Ravens like to collect things. Maybe I can blame the habit on my name,” Hafrn said of his unique hobby. Gunnlaugsson’s home (itself a work of art) sits at the center of the site, looking out onto rusty Viking warriors, deities from around the world, totem poles formed from old ship parts, and a giant eyeball made out of a buoy. 7. Schaefer’s Auto Art 📍 Erie, Pennsylvania For over 25 years, this roadside attraction has charmed visitors with its folksy sculptures, depicting everything from a bumblebee to an “automan” to a two-headed dinosaur. With these reimagined automobiles, Erie local Richard Schaefer has turned an otherwise quiet country road into a must-see attraction. 8. Blenko Man 📍 Weston, West Virginia When the Museum of American Glass reopened in 2007 in a new location, this silica fellow became its mighty mascot. Rock Wilson, an avid collector of Blenko glass, commissioned renowned sculptor John Zidek to turn his collection into a tribute to West Virginia’s once-ubiquitous industry. Thus, Blenko Man was born. As guardian and greeter for the museum, Blenko Man oversees a vast collection of practically every type of glass item imaginable, from a five-foot-tall stained glass dollhouse to a marble made in the first century AD. While he does, in fact, have two right feet (a manufacturing quirk in the original glassware used), this has just made him all the more iconic. 9. Ernesto Che Guevara Statue 📍 El Alto, Bolivia In the very country where Che Guevara met his demise stands a 30-foot-tall statue of the dictator made out of engines, cogs, wheels, and other mechanical spare parts. Sculptor Felix Duran imbued the work with two unique features: First, Guevara is depicted stomping on a bald eagle (a clear allusion to his anti-American sentiments). Second, his face is distinctly indigenous. This latter choice has been interpreted in different ways; some view it as a cultural tribute, while others see it as the appropriation of local identity. 10. Árbol de la Sidra 📍 Gijón, Spain Asturias, an autonomous community in northern Spain, is known for its traditional tart apple cider, served with great finesse at the region’s many sidrerías. In 2013, this artistic homage to the boozy beverage was unveiled in Gijón, where it is illuminated each night by a large lamp inside of it. According to a plaque near the sculpture, this unusual monument is a nod to the tree of life, as well as a visual representation of how natural resources can be preserved by reusing everyday objects. 11. Ethyl the Whale 📍 Santa Fe, New Mexico At 82 feet long, this friendly whale holds the Guinness World Record for largest recycled plastic sculpture. Named for her polyethylene body, she was designed by two San Francisco artists, Yustina Salnikova and Joel Stockdill, to spread awareness of the negative impact plastics have on the environment. Originally built for California’s Monterey Bay Aquarium, she was acquired by the New-Mexico-based art collective Meow Wolf in 2019 and transported to the middle of the desert, where she still receives many excited visitors. 12. Recycled Roadrunner Statue 📍 Las Cruces, New Mexico At a scenic rest area, this massive roadrunner perches on a boulder, gazing over the city below. The sculpture is a whopping 20 feet tall and composed of old shoes, cell phones, bike parts, and other recycled materials. Designed by local artist Olin Calk in 1993, it first stood at the local landfill to draw attention to our poor consumption habits.
The Nelson House looks remarkably composed for a building that survived the Siege of Yorktown. Standing along Yorktown's Main Street, the Georgian house was built around 1730 by “Scotch Tom” Nelson, a wealthy merchant and member of one of colonial Virginia's most prominent families. His grandson Thomas Nelson Jr. would become the house's most famous resident. The younger Nelson signed the Declaration of Independence, served as governor of Virginia, and commanded Virginia militia during the Yorktown campaign. In the fall of 1781, war arrived quite literally at the family's doorstep. American and French forces surrounded the British army at Yorktown and subjected the town to sustained artillery bombardment. The Nelson House survived, but evidence of damage from the siege remains on the building today. The house is also a relic of the once-looming Nelson presence in the town. Several members of the powerful family maintained substantial houses in Yorktown, and their similar names have caused some historical confusion. A different residence, known as the Secretary Nelson House, was used by British General Charles Cornwallis as a headquarters during the 1781 siege and suffered extensive damage. Though that house is gone, its foundation is marked with a plaque. Preserved as part of Colonial National Historical Park, the surviving Nelson House offers something difficult to reproduce in a museum. Its Georgian proportions speak to the wealth and influence of colonial Virginia's elite, while its facade records the violence that overtook the town in 1781. From across the street, it is an elegant 18th-century mansion. Get closer, and the building becomes something else: a witness to Yorktown under fire.
Unlike museums that focus on naval battles or famous ships, the Watermen’s Museum celebrates the ordinary people who built a culture around the Chesapeake Bay. Known as “watermen,” this group includes the generations of fishermen, crabbers, oystermen, boatbuilders, and commercial mariners whose livelihoods depended on understanding the tides, winds, and rhythms of the water. The museum’s collections include wooden workboats, handmade decoys, oyster tongs, crab pots, nets, and other maritime artifacts that trace centuries of labor on Virginia’s waterways. They tell the story of a profession that shaped the economy, cuisine, and identity of the region. You can still see the significance of these professions by simply looking out the museum's windows: The site overlooks the York River, where commercial fishing boats still work the same waters that sustained earlier generations. Outdoor exhibits and programs connect visitors with these working watermen, including boatbuilding demonstrations, educational workshops, and community events. Rather than preserving maritime history behind glass, the Watermen’s Museum invites visitors to understand the skills and knowledge that allowed people to make a living from one of North America’s most productive estuaries.
Just a few miles from Jamestown, Chickahominy Riverfront Park sits at the edge of a tidal river that has changed remarkably little since English colonists first explored it in 1607. Bald cypress trees rise from dark water, great blue herons stalk the shallows, and marshes stretch into the distance. Remove the occasional fishing boat, and the view is not so different from what the Powhatan people would have recognized more than four centuries ago. The Chickahominy occupies a rare place in the Chesapeake watershed. Unlike many rivers that have been heavily developed, much of its tidal corridor remains lined with forests and freshwater marshes. The result is a large tidal cypress swamp ecosystem, where saltwater from the James River meets freshwater flowing from inland Virginia. That blend creates an unusually rich habitat for fish, birds, turtles, and other wildlife, making the river both an ecological treasure and a living window into Virginia’s past. Chickahominy Riverfront Park serves as the gateway to that landscape. Its boat ramps, kayak launches, fishing pier, campground, and waterfront trails make it possible to explore the river in myriad ways. While many visitors come to fish for bass, catfish, or crappie, others drift quietly through backwater creeks where the only sounds are woodpeckers, frogs, and the splash of turtles slipping into the water.
The trail to Fossil Beach winds through a forest, a marsh, and ends at what appears to be an unassuming stretch of sand along the York River. But look down instead of out. Mixed among shells and pebbles are fragments of a much older world: fossilized teeth, bones, and other remnants of marine life that swam here thousands of years ago. Fossil Beach offers one of Virginia’s most accessible opportunities for amateur fossil sleuthing because natural erosion continually replenishes the shoreline. As the cliffs wear away, they release fossils that have remained buried for roughly 6,000 years, scattering them across the shoreline for visitors to discover. An ancient sea scallop known as the Chesapecten Middlesex is the most common prize, but patient searchers may also find shark teeth, whale bones, and fossilized coral. Visitors must hike about a mile through York River State Park to reach the beach, a brief journey that helps keep the shoreline remarkably quiet. But the reward for your effort is well worth the trip: a chance to hold evidence of an ancient ocean in the palm of your hand.
At first glance, Freedom Park seems like simply a peaceful escape into nature. Mountain bikers weave through miles of trails. Families picnic beneath pine trees. Birdsong replaces traffic. But if you look closer, you'll discover there’s much more to the site than playgrounds and hiking paths. It was home to one of the earliest known free Black settlements in colonial Virginia. The community’s origins trace back to the early 19th century, when, upon death, plantation owner William Ludwell Lee freed his enslaved workers and granted them tracts of land on his property. From 1803 through 1860, families built farms, established churches, raised children, and created a community that endured for generations. Today, historians recognize the settlement as one of the nation’s earliest documented free Black communities. Thanks to the work of historians, descendants, and advocates, the park pays homage to this incredible history via exhibits and educational signage. A Virginia historical marker near the entrance introduces visitors to the settlement. Alongside hiking and cycling trails, exhibits explore the lives of the community’s early Black landowners and their descendants, including reconstructions of their homes. Rather than separating recreation from history, Freedom Park encourages visitors to encounter both at once. Here, a morning hike becomes an opportunity to consider whose footsteps came first.
On a quiet stretch of water just outside Williamsburg, recipes, archives, and heirloom crops are revealing stories that conventional history has overlooked. Dating back to the late 18th century, Jolly’s Mill Pond has become an outdoor classroom where Black, Indigenous, agricultural, and culinary histories are explored together around a shared table. In the late 1700s, the pond and its dam were created to power a gristmill that served the surrounding community. Although the mill disappeared long ago, the landscape continued evolving through centuries of farming, recreation, and changing ownership. Rather than restoring the property to a single moment in time, current owners Bill and Angi Kane have embraced these layers, transforming Jolly’s Mill Pond into a place where visitors discover history through courses, tours, and, most importantly, the foods and drinks people enjoyed, from tea to bacon to barbecue. That approach grew from the Kanes’ research into the property’s past. Historical records and archaeological investigations uncovered not only remnants of the original mill and dam, but also stories of people whose connections to the land had largely faded from public memory. Among them was Jeremiah Wallace, a Black farmer, real estate broker, and entrepreneur who bought the property in 1894. Discovering Wallace’s story transformed the way the Kanes interpreted Jolly’s Mill Pond, expanding it from the history of a mill into a broader story about land ownership, resilience, and the communities that shaped Tidewater Virginia. The Kanes’ discoveries shape everything from their cooking classes and farm dinners to workshops on native plants and regional food traditions. Attendees might sample heritage grains and teas (including yaupon, a significant Indigenous tea), prepare recipes like spoonbread and Johnny cakes, or learn how ingredients such as corn, beans, herbs, and sweet potatoes tell stories of migration, adaptation, and survival. Rather than presenting history as a sequence of dates, Jolly’s asks visitors to taste it, smell it, and walk through the landscape where it unfolded.
The Historic Triangle is often associated with powdered wigs, Revolutionary War reenactments, and America’s founding story. But between Williamsburg, Yorktown, and Jamestown, the year is filled with celebrations that span far beyond the 18th century. You can spend a January weekend listening to world-class jazz, cheer a parade of illuminated boats, or deliciously discover why Williamsburg proudly calls itself the “Pancake Capital of the World.” Whether you’re planning a weekend getaway or a longer stay, these annual events showcase the area’s contemporary culture alongside its historic roots. 1. The Great American Birthday Quilt Exhibition (All Year) Most quilts tell the story of a family. Williamsburg’s newest quilt tells the story of a country. Created to commemorate America’s 250th anniversary, the Great American Birthday Quilt is a 1,000-foot-long fabric artwork assembled from quilt squares contributed by people across the United States. Assisted by artist Steve Prince of the Muscarelle Museum of Art at William & Mary, the project invited individuals, families, students, veterans, and community groups to create pieces reflecting their own connections to the American story. The result is a national patchwork of thousands of individual memories, symbols, and designs stitched into one enormous textile. Visitors can see rotating sections of the quilt throughout 2026 at the Colonial Williamsburg Regional Visitor Center, the Greater WIlliamsburg Sports and Events Center, and the Muscarelle Museum of Art. 2. Pancake Trail in the “Pancake Capital of the World” While pancakes might feel like a modern dish, they’re also a piece of the past. In 2025, Frank Clark, master of historic foodways at Colonial Williamsburg, told Garden & Gun, “Pancakes were quite popular in the Colonial period because they were simply cake in a pan.” Pancakes have come a long way since the 18th century, evolving from humble hoecakes to syrup-drenched gargantuan stacks of buttermilk and buckwheat that we eat for breakfast today. This is especially apparent in Williamsburg, a city so packed with pancake houses—from Capitol Pancake to Colonial Pancake House to Mama Steve’s—it’s dubbed itself the “Pancake Capital of the World.” Every year, Williamsburg celebrates its plethora of pancakes with a festival filled with pancake breakfasts, eating competitions, and a “Pancake Trail” that leads visitors on a crawl across some of the city’s best flapjack-slinging spots. 3. Winter Blues Jazz Fest Williamsburg may be best known for colonial history, but every Martin Luther King Jr. weekend the city turns its attention to a more modern art form: jazz. Since its founding in 2015, the Winter Blues Jazz Fest has welcomed artists ranging from the six-time Grammy-winning Blind Boys of Alabama and Chicago blues guitarist Wayne Baker Brooks to vocalist Tahira Clayton, jazz drummer Jae Sinnett, and hometown swing favorites Good Shot Judy. The festival reflects the musical traditions of Virginia’s Tidewater region, where jazz, blues, gospel, and church music have long overlapped. Concerts unfold in venues ranging from the William & Mary Alumni House to the Historic First Baptist Church, alongside workshops, brunch concerts, and evening jam sessions. The result feels less like a conventional music festival and more like a citywide celebration of blues and jazz. 4. Last Word Comedy Festival Williamsburg may be best known for faithfully recreating the 18th century, but each January it celebrates an art form built entirely on the unexpected. The Last Word Comedy Festival brings together improvisers, sketch performers, stand-up comics, and musical comedians from across North America for four days of performances that prove spontaneity can be just as captivating as historical reenactment. The lineup has featured comedy heavyweights, including “Whose Live Anyway?” (starring Ryan Stiles, Greg Proops, Jeff B. Davis, Joel Murray, and Laura Hall) as well as Bluebird Improv, whose performers include “Saturday Night Live” alumnus Tim Meadows and “Veep” star Matt Walsh. Alongside these nationally known acts, audiences can discover experimental improv troupes, fully improvised musicals, and collegiate ensembles from William & Mary and universities across the region. The festival’s intimate scale is part of its charm. Rather than anchoring itself in a single convention center, performances unfold across theaters, breweries, and performance spaces in downtown Williamsburg, allowing visitors to hop from one show to the next over the course of an evening. 5. Virginia Black Film Festival Every February, the Virginia Black Film Festival brings independent filmmakers, actors, and audiences together for screenings, conversations, and workshops celebrating Black cinema. Founded by filmmaker Bryan G. Thompson, the festival was created to give Black storytellers a larger platform while connecting emerging filmmakers with industry veterans. The festival’s setting is no accident. Williamsburg is home to some of the country’s oldest African American historical sites, including First Baptist Church of Williamsburg, founded in 1776 by free and enslaved Black worshippers. Recent festival selections have explored that history directly: the documentary “History Half Told Is Untold,” which won Best Historical Feature at VBFF in 2024, traces the church’s remarkable story through archival research and interviews. Beyond screenings, VBFF hosts panels, masterclasses, and discussions about everything from acting to distribution, turning a weekend of movies into a celebration of Black creativity. With past guests including Keith David, Daphne Maxwell Reid, Clifton Powell, and Tim Reid, the festival offers a rare chance to see nationally recognized artists alongside the next generation of filmmakers. 6. Yorktown Wine & Oyster Festival Every October, the Yorktown Wine & Oyster Festival brings two local culinary traditions together on the banks of the York River: Virginia wines and Chesapeake oysters. Long before European colonists arrived, Indigenous communities harvested oysters from the Chesapeake Bay. By the colonial era, oysters had become a staple of Virginia diets, and by the 19th century they had grown into one of the state’s most important industries. After decades of decline, restoration efforts and oyster farming have helped revive Virginia’s shellfish, with modern growers emphasizing the distinct flavors of different waterways. The wine side of the festival reflects another Virginia tradition with deep roots. Early colonists experimented with grape growing soon after arriving in Jamestown, and today, Virginia’s vineyards produce everything from crisp viogniers to cabernet francs and sparkling wines. Nearby producers such as Williamsburg Winery and other Chesapeake Bay–area vineyards showcase how the state’s agricultural traditions continue to evolve. Set against Yorktown’s historic waterfront, the festival offers a reminder that some of the region’s oldest traditions are still very much alive. 7. Yorktown Victory Weekend Every October, Yorktown relives the moment when the American Revolution reached its dramatic conclusion. Yorktown Victory Weekend commemorates the 1781 siege that forced British General Charles Cornwallis to surrender, signaling the end of major fighting in the Revolutionary War. Victory Weekend unfolds across one of the most significant preserved battlefields in the United States. Visitors can explore Revolutionary War encampments, watch artillery demonstrations, meet historical interpreters, and walk the same landscape where American and French troops built siege lines around the British position. For visitors, Victory Weekend offers a chance to see history come alive: soldiers conducting drills, musicians performing 18th-century tunes, and interpreters telling the stories of the people who lived through the final chapter of the Revolution. 8. Grand Illumination Each Saturday in December, Colonial Williamsburg transforms its Historic Area into a glowing recreation of an 18th-century holiday celebration, when candlelit windows, crackling cressets, music, and fireworks turned the colonial capital into a nighttime spectacle. The tradition takes inspiration from colonial “illuminations”—public celebrations in which communities marked important occasions with candlelight, artillery fire, and fireworks. In the 18th century, these displays celebrated events ranging from military victories to the arrival of a new colonial governor. More recently, Colonial Williamsburg revived that spirit for holiday seasons. During Grand Illumination evenings, visitors can wander streets lined with candlelit windows before gathering for musical performances and fireworks above some of Williamsburg’s most recognizable landmarks. The Governor’s Palace and the Capitol become dramatic backdrops for the finale, while the Historic Area remains decorated throughout the holiday season with wreaths, garlands, and other festive arrangements. 9. Christmas Market on Main For one December weekend, Historic Yorktown becomes a festive gathering place filled with local artisans, seasonal foods, live music, and handcrafted gifts. Like the traditional Christmas markets of Europe, Yorktown’s market is built around the pleasures of slowing down: wandering between stalls, admiring handmade ornaments and artwork, warming up with a cup of hot cocoa or mulled wine, and sharing seasonal treats with friends and family. The market is part of Yorktown’s larger holiday season, which combines the town’s maritime setting with winter traditions. After browsing local makers and sipping something warm, visitors can continue exploring the waterfront lights and nearby holiday events. 10. Lighted Boat Parade In most holiday parades, the floats roll down a street. In Yorktown, they sail past on the water. On the first Saturday of December, boat owners along the York River decorate their vessels with thousands of lights for the Yorktown Lighted Boat Parade, turning the waterfront into a festive floating procession. The parade typically features sailboats, fishing boats, and recreational vessels decked out for the season with glowing masts, illuminated hulls, wreaths, Christmas trees, and playful nautical decorations. Visitors gather along Riverwalk Landing to watch the boats drift past the historic waterfront. Yorktown’s riverfront once served as a vital colonial port and later played a decisive role during the Revolutionary War. Today, these same waters are home to a much more festive kind of spectacle: a nighttime parade where the town’s maritime identity becomes part of its holiday celebration. 11. Busch Gardens Food & Wine Festival From April through June, Williamsburg’s Busch Gardens trades its usual theme park fare for a culinary passport. The Food & Wine Festival spreads more than 135 international options across 17 themed locations throughout the park. The lineup ranges from Virginia specialties such as a Chesapeake-style crab cake sliders and jalapeño-cheddar hushpuppies to international dishes, including Ghanaian kelewele, Brazilian churrasco, Turkish döner kebabs, Polish pierogi, Hawaiian kālua pork sliders, and Puerto Rican mofongo and ceviche. The festival also highlights Virginia producers, with beers from Williamsburg-area breweries like Alewerks Brewing Company and The Virginia Beer Company, and wines such as viognier from The Williamsburg Winery and chardonnay from Barboursville Vineyards. Specialty cocktails, international wines and beers, and exclusive tastings round out the offerings, turning a day of roller coasters into a progressive meal that winds through the park.
Scarborough Marsh looks like a simple place ruled by tides and birds. But a deeper story lies just beneath the surface of the water. Across Pine Point Road from the Scarborough Marsh Audubon Center, a short trail follows an abandoned road toward the marsh. Part of it runs alongside the remains of a canal dug during the American Revolution, built to hide ships from the British. That canal is just one part of a much longer story. Indigenous people hunted and trapped the marsh long before European settlers arrived. Once they did, salt hay was cut for livestock and stretches of the marsh doubled as summer pasture. By the 1800s, people were digging ditches, filling in low spots, installing tidal gates, cutting channels to reshape the wetland to suit their needs. Then came a different kind of threat. As haying faded in the 20th century, wetlands started looking less like farmland and more like empty space with little value. The marsh was suggested as a site for the town dump. But Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife started buying up the land in the late 1950s, the first step toward protecting it. Today the state owns it: tidal creeks, salt marsh, freshwater wetlands, and uplands. At over 3,000 acres, it’s the largest salt marsh in Maine. The marsh is part of the Atlantic Flyway, a migration route for millions of birds, so it naturally attracts birdwatchers and other nature enthusiasts. Among the species to spot are egrets, herons, glossy ibis, shorebirds, raptors, muskrats, mink, otters, and deer. Sitting at the confluence of four rivers and several creeks, the marsh is also a popular hub for fishing and crabbing. Two oyster farms operate within its bounds. Canoes and kayaks can be launched from the Audubon Center, and seasonal rentals are available when the center is operating. Visitors looking for a natural escape will find a landscape that reads as wild; but with a few marks of previous attempts to tame it for those who know where to look.
Since antiquity, mazes and labyrinths have been places of spiritual reflection and deep contemplation. The famous Egyptian Labyrinth at Hawara was built around 1860 BCE during the reign of Pharaoh Amenemhat III, though 2D depictions of the classic seven-circuit design appear as early as 2000 BCE in clay tablets from the Mediterranean. Mazes, too, have origins in ancient Egypt, primarily serving to keep looters away from the tombs of the important and wealthy. Over hundreds of centuries, these structures have persisted in our cultural consciousness, embraced across the globe by bands of Vikings in Scandinavia, aristocrats in 18th-century Spain, eccentric elites in 1970s England, and bar owners in modern-day Vietnam. Whether you seek a mental challenge or simply a quiet place to retreat from the world, these mazes and labyrinths around the world are well worth a visit. What Is the Difference Between a Maze and a Labyrinth? A labyrinth consists of one winding, curved passage that ultimately leads to a central point. While it may take a while to walk through, you will arrive at the center without getting lost or needing to backtrack. A maze, meanwhile, is designed as a puzzle, with multiple pathways and dead-ends that may require you to retrace your steps. Note: At some of the places featured in this list, the terms labyrinth and maze have historically been used interchangeably. Maze or Labyrinth Type Location Distinguishing feature Longleat Hedge Maze Hedge maze Warminster, England World's longest maze, with more than 16,000 English yews across 1.48 acres Magowan's Infinite Mirror Maze Mirror maze San Francisco, California Psychedelic, multi-sensory maze with mirrors, black lights, neon, and music Tasmazia and the Village of Lower Crackpot Hedge maze complex Promised Land, Australia Maze complex containing a Great Maze and several themed mazes Bara Imambara Architectural labyrinth Lucknow, India The bhulbhulaiya, a network of interconnected passageways above the central hall Knossos Ancient labyrinth site Heraklion, Greece Associated with the Greek myth of King Minos, Daedalus, and the Minotaur Labyrinten vid Tibble Stone labyrinth Hökåsen-Badelunda, Sweden Approximately 2,000 years old and made from around 3,000 stones Bolshoi Zayatsky Island Stone labyrinths Solovetskiy, Russia Dozens of ancient labyrinths dating to 30,000 BCE 100 Roofs Cafe Multistory maze Đà Lạt, Vietnam Maze featuring staircases, tunnels, dead ends, and multiple levels Labirinto della Masone Bamboo labyrinth Fontanellato, Italy World's largest bamboo labyrinth, made from 20 species of bamboo Peace Maze of Northern Ireland Hedge maze Castlewellan, Northern Ireland Built to commemorate peace and reconciliation following the Troubles Cherry Point Farm and Market Lavender Labyrinth Garden labyrinth Shelby, Michigan Lavender labyrinth incorporating a kaleidoscopic herb garden and sacred geometry Labyrint Drielandenpunt Hedge maze Vaals, Netherlands 17,000 hornbeam shrubs at the meeting point of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany Puzzling World 3D maze Wanaka, New Zealand Early maze incorporating overbridges to create a three-dimensional experience Labyrinth Park of Horta Historic hedge maze Barcelona, Spain Hedge maze dating to 1791 with more than 2,000 feet of paths and a statue of Eros Longleat Hedge Maze 📍 Warminster, England In 1975, this impressive maze was added to the grounds of the stately Longleat House, the home of the Marquesses of Bath since 1541. While it is not not the world’s largest hedge maze, it is the world’s longest, composed of more than 16,000 English yews and stretching across 1.48 acres. The entire Longleat property is full of equally unusual features, including the very first drive-through safari park, opened to the public in 1966 and home to over 500 animals. Before his passing in 2020, the Seventh Marquess of Bath, Alexander Thynn, added to the great maze and commissioned three other smaller ones: the Lunar Labyrinth, the Sun Maze, King Arthur’s Maze, and the Love Labyrinth. Today, the house, gardens, mazes, and safari park are all open to the public—the perfect place for a full day of whimsical exploration. Magowan’s Infinite Mirror Maze 📍 San Francisco, California In a nondescript building on San Francisco’s Pier 39, this psychedelic spot encourages visitors to “get lost in the infinite” in its maze of disorienting columns and mirrors. Black lights and flashing neon illuminate the mirrors sporadically while music pulses, making for a completely immersive, multi-sensory experience. Once you’ve managed to make it through the maze once, staff members have been known to recommend trying it out backwards for an added challenge. Tasmazia and the Village of Lower Crackpot 📍 Promised Land, Australia At the foot of Tasmania’s picturesque Mount Roland, this self-proclaimed “largest maze complex in the world” is essentially a nesting doll of hedge mazes: one Great Maze with a number of smaller ones nestled inside, from a Yellow Brick Road Maze to a Hexagonal Maze and an Irish Maze. After you’ve navigated the mazes, there are plenty of other quirky attractions to explore: The eponymous Village of Lower Crackpot, a quaint miniature village built to one-fifth scale; the Embassy Garden, a set of model buildings representing locations around the world; and the Lower Crackpot’s Correctional Centre, home to an assortment of old-school punishments such as faux stocks and a guillotine. Bara Imambara 📍 Lucknow, India The massive central hall (imambara) of this 18th-century building is considered the largest arched hall in the world built without any kind of beams for external support. The trick that keeps the ceiling from crashing down? The bhulbhulaiya: a labyrinthine network of interconnected passageways that was built directly above the hall’s chambers, effectively making the ceiling hollow. Loosely translated as “maze” in Hindi, the bhulbhulaiya’s hundreds of paths are notoriously difficult to navigate, but don’t worry—guides are available! Knossos 📍 Heraklion, Greece In northern Crete lie the ruins of Knossos, a city that dates back to 7000 BCE and was the setting for several Greek myths. It is said that King Minos built his palace here and commissioned the craftsman Daedulus to build a huge, underground labyrinth to hold Pasiphea’s son, the minotaur. After centuries of existing only in myth, restoration of Knossos began after its rediscovery in 1900. However, though the city draws thousands of visitors each year, it is not an especially accomplished restoration project: Most of the city’s famous frescoes are entirely modern, and it is quite plainly reinforced with concrete. While those expecting an accurate depiction of antiquity may be somewhat disappointed, the ruins are still worth exploring for the many epic tales they evoke. Labyrinten vid Tibble (The Tibble Labyrinth) 📍 Hökåsen-Badelunda, Sweden This part of southwest Sweden is a treasure trove of Viking artifacts and relics, including this 2,000-year-old labyrinth just outside the city of Västerås. Situated on a high, wooded ridge, the site is comprised of around 3,000 stones spanning an area of 40x45 feet. It was likely used for the ancient Nordic spring rite in which a boy had to save a girl from the center. The rules dictated that he could not touch the stones while traveling through the labyrinth; if he did, he was forced to exit and was replaced by another young contender. Bolshoi Zayatsky Island 📍 Solovetskiy, Russia The Solovetsky Islands on Russia’s White Sea are tiny and isolated, with beautifully sparse landscapes and a population of only a couple hundred. Bolshoi Zayatsky Island is only one square mile in total, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in mystery. Its rocky surface is covered in dozens of labyrinths that date back to 30,000 BCE. Archaeologists have not determined the exact use of these structures, some of which are made of stacked stones and others of which are built into the ground as earthen mounds. However, their purpose was most likely mystical: portals to the underworld, traps for evil spirits, or ceremonial altars. 100 Roofs Cafe 📍Đà Lạt, Vietnam From the outside this may look like a run-of-the-mill bar, but inside, it houses a a multistory maze complete with staircases to nowhere, underwater arthropods, and (if you find your way to the top) amazing views of Đà Lạt’s skyline. While the cafe serves up a variety of delicious, boozy beverages, it’s best to pace yourself so you can maneuver through the many dead ends, random tunnels, and sculpted women emerging from the walls. The Labirinto della Masone 📍 Fontanellato, Italy This cultural park is home to the world’s largest bamboo labyrinth, composed of 20 different species of bamboo ranging from dwarf to giant. Designed by Franco Maria Ricci, an Italian publisher, art collector, and bibliophile (with an enduring fondness for bamboo), the labyrinth takes the shape of an eight-pointed star in a nod to 16th-century star-shaped fortress cities. Its center is a square surrounded by arcades and large halls, and a pyramid-shaped chapel recalls the labyrinth as a symbol of faith. Peace Maze of Northern Ireland 📍 Castlewellan, Northern Ireland This hedge maze opened in 2001 to commemorate the peace and reconciliation efforts of Northern Ireland in the years following “The Troubles.” At the center of its two distinct halves (which must be crossed in order to escape the maze) lies the Peace Bell, which visitors ring to indicate they have solved the puzzle. The maze is made up of over 6,000 yew trees, planted by people from all over Northern Ireland during December of 2000 and funded largely by the European Union Support Programme for Peace and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland. The trees are intentionally shorter than those in most hedge mazes, allowing for more open communication and interaction between visitors as they make their way through. Cherry Point Farm and Market Lavender Labyrinth 📍 Shelby, Michigan In 2001, Barbara Bull, the fourth-generation owner of this Michigan farm, commissioned a beautiful, floral labyrinth with a kaleidoscopic herb garden at its epicenter. Visitors are invited to take a peaceful journey through the fragrant lavender, Black-eyed Susans, and hollyhocks, eventually reaching the more than 30 herb beds carefully arranged by principles of sacred geometry. Twelve circles, 52 arbor posts, and seven cross pieces represent the months and weeks of the year and the days of the week. Labyrint Drielandenpunt 📍 Vaals, Netherlands Translating to the “Three Country Labyrinth,” this maze of 17,000 hornbeam shrubs is located where the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany all meet. In the middle of the maze, a high platform allows visitors to look off into any of the three countries (or at their fellow travelers strolling through the hornbeams below). Surrounding the maze are a handful of other activities for visitors to enjoy, from a colorful playground to clay shooting and archery. You can even play smuggling games that recall the once-frequent passage of smugglers who jumped borders to save money. Puzzling World 📍 Wanaka, New Zealand This mystifying funhouse started as a single-story wooden maze in 1973 and has since grown into a veritable shrine to tricks and illusions. It was the world’s first maze to include overbridges, linking different parts of the maze together to create a fully immersive, 3D experience. After you’ve navigated the maze, make your way through the park’s many fun follies, from a group of buildings splayed like a hand of cards to the “Leaning Tower of Wanaka,” forever tilted at a dizzying 53 degrees. There are also five Illusion Rooms, including the Hologram Hall and Tilted House, plus the Sculptillusion Gallery, which showcases artworks that double as optical illusions. Labyrinth Park of Horta 📍 Barcelona, Spain At the center of Barcelona’s Parc del Laberint d’Hort, this hedge maze has dazazled locals and tourists alike since 1791, when it was built as part of a wealthy estate owned by the Desvalls family. The meticulously manicured walls create over 2,000 feet of twists and turns, and if you make it to the center, you’ll find a solitary statue of Eros, Greek God of Love. The maze is also rich with water features, including waterfalls, ponds, and even a canal.
Jingling Pot is one of the most popular vertical cave systems in the West Kingsdale area of Yorkshire. The cave, or as is known locally, pothole (pit cave in American English), is on the flanks of one of Yorkshires finest mountains, Wherneside. It is about 145 feet deep and explorers have the option of a direct abseil (rappel) descent down the main shaft or, a traverse, a few feet from the top into the Lateral Cleft. When I did this cave it was via an exciting swing across the gap into the cleft with the rope anchored to a rowan tree on the lip of the pothole but I understand that this is, unfortunately, no longer encouraged because of the condition of the tree and loose rocks. The Lateral Cleft which leads to a series of shorter vertical drops to join up with the route at the bottom of the main shaft. The direct descent and the climb back up using single rope technique offers an exciting degree of exposure and some spectacular and atmospheric views but the lateral cleft route offers great practice for less experienced cavers (spelunkers) in the art of rigging pitches. Doing either route using an electron ladder is physically demanding but a great tribute to tradition. A feature of this cave is that the profile around the entrance is such that it grows grass that is attractive to sheep which tend to stray towards the more succulent fodder on the increasingly steep slopes, leading , inevitably, to regular falls of animals into the pot. The base of the main pitch is littered with skeletons of sheep and dead bodies in various stages of decay. At the bottom of the main shaft a narrow rift progresses to the north and descends down a steep slope into another chamber. At the end of that chamber the initials of the original party that entered the pothole , using rope ladders, in 1897, (members of the Yorkshire Ramblers Club) can be seen scratched into the rock. Remarkably, the lateral cleft route was not discovered until 1969. The stream which opened up this pothole (Jingling Brook) no longer flows into the cave (rather it enters the strata via the nearby Jingling Cave), except in very wet weather when the pothole takes the water overflow from the brook.