Places Added by Dylan Thuras

This off-limits room in the National Library of France is home to a system of pneumatic tubes, once used to bring books to readers.

The deepest sinkhole in Central Europe comes with a grisly tale and an unusual nickname: “The Stepmother Abyss.”

In the best of all possible worlds, everyone will get a chance to see this statue in which Voltaire's heart is interred.

The spiral staircase hidden inside this giant Parisian column was likely built for Catherine de Medici's astrologer.

Mexico City's residents are being watched by this state surveillance headquarters, designed by architects with a flair for intimidation.

This experiment in the lifespan of seeds will take a century before it is complete.

A small memorial to a deadly night in Serbia that shook the world before it was swept under the rug.

This 18th-century dissection theater's frescoes display a gorgeous tension between the terrestrial and esoteric.

Striking ruins of a mansion that stood center stage in one of modern Brazil's most puzzling crimes.

Manchester's abandoned train depot lingers in a post-industrial purgatory.

A giant, bloody battle rages throughout the Bolivian Andes each year.

Neither bomb blasts nor heartbeats escape the giant ears of this super sci-fi Arctic outpost.

America's silhouette includes 100 square miles of wilderness jutting into Canada thanks to an old mapmaking error.

On rare days, this abandoned castle's gatekeepers open its doors, revealing the eye-popping splendor hidden inside.

The largest and most famous wax anatomical collection anywhere in the world.

Think you have a tough job? Try carrying 200 kilos through a cloud of sulfur down the side of a volcano.

An 80-year-old house built out of newspapers.

The beautiful baroque library of the Hapsburg empire.

An amazing collection of wax anatomical models and terratological models.

Fire meets ice at the southernmost volcano on Earth.

An auroral research program that superheats the ionosphere.

This giant statue is the product of a mixture of corruption, Stalinist architecture, and North Korean manpower.

This historic observatory was established to keep shipwrecks from littering the Cape of Good Hope.

Germany has its very own Centralia, whose spark remains attributed to "spontaneous combustion."