Favorites

Some of the most incredible, beautiful, and strange places in the Atlas.

702 Places

Orlando, Florida

"Singing Runway" at the Abandoned Disney World Airport

The only runway directly into the magic kingdom has been closed since 1972, but it still sings to you if you drive fast enough.

Added by collinqburke

Wustermark, Germany

Hitler's Olympic Village

The 1936 Summer Olympics site is a crumbling remnant of sportsmanship and a history its host country would like to forget.

Rachel

Added by Rachel

United States / Canada

United States–Canada Border Slash

The entire length of the border is marked by a 20-foot-wide slash through the trees.

lewblank

Added by lewblank

Toronto, Ontario

Toronto Neighbourhood Watch Signs

The Incredible Hulk, Yoda, Mulder and Scully, and many many others watch over the mean streets of Toronto.

DKVVKD

Added by DKVVKD

London, England

The Monty Python Foot

The television series' iconic giant foot was borrowed from this classical painting.

Added by filmplante

Montreal, Québec

Farine Five Roses Sign

Two thirds of this Montreal neon icon has survived to flash another day.

StrangeLizzzy

Added by StrangeLizzzy

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Homomonument

Three connected pink triangles memorialize persecuted gays and lesbians throughout history.

AaronNetsky

Added by AaronNetsky

The Eggs of Merry Bay

These enlarged egg sculptures represent the native birds of eastern Iceland.

Added by brazellrobert

Kawasaki, Japan

Ajinomoto MSG Factory

One of the largest producers of MSG in the world welcomes visitors to its Kawasaki factory with an albino panda named Aji-Kun.

Janglish Jerry

Added by Janglish Jerry

Bishop Castle

The largest self-built castle in the U.S., six decades in the making.

michelle

Added by michelle

New Haven, Connecticut

The Cushing Center

An archival collection of over 2,200 case studies which includes human brain specimens and tumor specimens.

Annetta Black

Added by Annetta Black

New Bedford, Massachusetts

The Oozing Whale Skeleton of New Bedford

For 20 years, this whale skeleton has been slowly dripping oil on the floor of the museum where it hangs.

inksplatter

Added by inksplatter

Dearborn, Michigan

Edison's Last Breath

A sealed test tube said to hold Thomas Edison's dying breath was given to the inventor's friend and mentee, Henry Ford.

Dylan

Bishopville, South Carolina

Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden

One man's extraordinary topiary garden in a small South Carolina town.

Lily Landes

Added by Lily Landes

Luray, Virginia

The Great Stalacpipe Organ

An organ located deep within a cave, whose "pipes" are the geological features of the cave itself.

Cardigan, Prince Edward Island

Canada's Smallest Library

While this is positively the smallest library in Canada, it aspires to be the smallest in the world.

Added by Donia Varghese

Dawson City, Yukon

The Sourtoe Cocktail

A famed drink seasoned with an amputated toe, now on its tenth digit.

The Bar at Vernadsky Research Base

One of the world's southernmost bars.

EricGrundhauser

Added by EricGrundhauser

Bouvet Island

This uninhabited volcanic island is the most remote in the world.

Added by cathar

Sossusvlei, Namibia

Dead Vlei

This "dead marsh" sits among the largest sand dunes in the world, a forest frozen in time.

Namib Sand Sea

A desert that rolls right up to the ocean, where it's so dry animals live off the fog.

Allison

Added by Allison

Chobe, Botswana

African Quadripoint

There is only one place in the world where the corners of four nations come together.

Josh

Eurasian Pole of Inaccessibility

Eurasia's most difficult place to hang out, and farthest point from sea access.

Rachel

Added by Rachel

Spacecraft Cemetery

The oceanic dumping ground where spaceships go to die.

EricGrundhauser

Added by EricGrundhauser

Hand of the Desert

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

stanestane

Added by stanestane

San Antonio de Pichincha, Ecuador

Intiñan Solar Museum

Home of the "true" equator.

Added by angzilla

Delices, Dominica

Boiling Lake

This mountaintop lake bubbles and steams in a perpetual boil, thanks to its direct link to the Earth's interior.

Mark Casey

Added by Mark Casey

Nueva Gerona, Cuba

Presidio Modelo

A series of five defunct panopticon prisons in Cuba.

ProfessorElliot

Added by ProfessorElliot

San Pablo Villa de Mitla, Mexico

Hierve El Agua

This beautifully deceptive waterfall is something far different from what it appears to be.

Alicia Bones

Added by Alicia Bones

Copenhagen, Denmark

The Genetically Modified Little Mermaid

Hans Christian Andersen for the postmodern world.

Nowa Huta

This sprawling concrete suburb of Kraków was designed by the Soviet Union as the model proletarian city.

leiris

Added by leiris

Précontinent II

All that remains of Jacques Cousteau's 1960s underwater "village."

Christine Williamson

Added by Christine Williamson

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Forbes Pigment Collection

The thousands of shades on display — some toxic, others impossibly rare — are a library of more than just color.

littlebrumble

Added by littlebrumble

Saba, Caribbean Netherlands

Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport

The shortest in the world, this landing strip stretches a mere 1,312 feet before steep cliffs on either end plunge into the Caribbean.

daviddoochin

Added by daviddoochin

Zhanaarka District, Kazakhstan

Soyuz 11 Memorial

The remains of a monument in the remote Kazakhstani desert dedicated to the only men to die in outer space, the crew of the Soyuz 11 rocket.

lewblank

Added by lewblank

Saugerties, New York

Opus 40

One man's swirling six-acre monument of stone.

Denmark / Canada

Hans Island

A long-disputed island that Denmark and Canada claim by periodically alternating flags and bottles of liquor.

hrnick

Added by hrnick

New York, New York

The Forgotten Entrance to Clinton Hall

Hidden in one of New York's oldest subway stations is the final remnant of the site of the bizarre Shakespeare Riots.

Luke J Spencer

Added by Luke J Spencer

North Tipperary, Ireland

Barack Obama Plaza

This modest plaza in Moneygall, Ireland has cashed in on its distant connection to the U.S. president.

racheldoyle

Added by racheldoyle

New York, New York

Grand Central Ceiling Dark Patch

A dark patch of the ceiling at Grand Central Terminal which was not restored is still stained brown by tobacco.

Toulouse, France

Church of the Jacobins' Little Crushed Man

There is a strange little carving of a person seemingly crushed by a pillar behind the remains of St. Thomas Aquinas.

DisForDefeat

Added by DisForDefeat

Hamburg, Germany

German Food Additives Museum

A fascinating little museum dedicated to the thousands of chemical substances concealed in our food.

Added by LandThrill

Saddam Hussein's Blood Quran

A 605-page Quran penned in the blood of a dictator is locked away in a mosque.

Molly McBride Jacobson

Added by Molly McBride Jacobson

Indianapolis, Indiana

Pogue's Run

This hidden stream beneath Indianapolis makes an appearance in the best-selling novel "Underground Airlines."

Meg

Wanaka, New Zealand

That Wanaka Tree

A solitary tree has grown up all alone on Lake Wānaka, backdropped by the beautiful Southern Alps.

Blindcolour

Added by Blindcolour

Potsdam, Germany

Alexandrowka

A quaint Russian village in the middle of a German metropolis.

Christine Williamson

Added by Christine Williamson

Waldeck, Germany

The Drowned Convent and Village of Berich

As lake waters recede, a German village reemerges after more than a hundred years.

Christine Williamson

Added by Christine Williamson

Charleston, West Virginia

Mortar Man

This tiny man looms large over downtown Charleston.

rebeccarecco

Added by rebeccarecco

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