Places Edited by Allison Meier

A sculpture of a giant hand reaches for the stars in the middle of the Atacama desert.

This giant boulder is pinched over a 1000-meter abyss by two mountains.

This foolish Victorian sea fort was converted to a deluxe hotel.

Visitors can swim with vicious predators in Crocosaurus Cove's plastic daredevil enclosure.

The middle finger of modernity.

A swing to dangle you off the very edge.

A burnt orange monolithic dome structure perched on a hillside near Interstate 280.

This softly rounded mansion was built without corners not to avoid evil spirits, but to make them more comfortable.

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

Yale University's home for rare works, including the mysterious Voynich Manuscript.

Despite being considered a thoroughly American sport, basketball's oldest surviving playing field is found in the basement of a Paris YMCA.

A nearly 500-year-old sculpture depicts a man eating a sack of babies, and no one is sure why.

This small group of sand dunes manages to pack in a strange rainbow of colors.

This Swedish automobile graveyard is a beautiful gallery of decay, but woe be to any who would steal a souvenir.

This tumultuous Icelandic lava field looks so alien European researchers want to use it as a stand-in for Mars.

This ominously named New Jersey street seems to be attracting over-the-top legends of its own making.

This rare polygonal meeting house is rumored to be built in a circle so that the devil has nowhere to hide.

A once crucial portion of the Long Island railroad still lays abandoned, waiting to be turned into an urban park.

Central Europe's largest collection of mini-bottles is on display at this museum devoted to a bitter Hungarian liquor.

Staves, storm-calling, and of course, necropants.

One man is on a singular quest to name an island after a famous hip-hop artist.

A Texas-sized particle collider that was abandoned due to its Texas-sized budget.

Amid the marketing blitz of modern Times Square is an elegant holdover from its showbiz glory days.

Sitting in the arguable birthplace of the Wild West, this museum holds the largest collection of bronco busting bric-a-brac in the world.