Places Edited by Rachel James

Two adjoining collections of 19th-20th century physics apparatuses and instruments.

A whimsical tower with a spiral staircase, inspired by the Space Age and the Möbius strip.

A island reachable by a causeway at low tide is possibly one of the earliest Western European locations to be identified in text.

A collection of grotesques lines the walls of this Italian villa.

A tiny survivor of the Donner Party disaster.

Watch the ships come in on Michigan's 210 ft. high observation deck in Sault Ste. Marie.

This unusually shaped mountaintop tower looks like a UFO floating over the city.

Hop on the train and tour an elaborate miniature town made completely of junk (including the train).

Piano-making empire filled with 200-year-old steam machines still churning out 1,000 instruments a year.

The one-stop shop for all of your superhero (or evil arch-nemesis) needs.

Peek through the gates at this oasis from the city, full of Old English charm.

A spooky and decrepit mental health facility is slowly being replaced with newer digs.

An architectural oddity of six stories, accessed by graceful ramps.

A garden in Lisbon filled with giant porcelain creatures.

The secret city built by the Manhattan Project.

Twelve sculptures designed to make their best showing with the coming or going of the sun.

Stepping away from the glitz of mobsters and casinos to learn about the other history of Vegas.

Small ship votives hang from the vaulted ceiling of this port-side church with a Latin inscription on the wall.

A hospital closed seemingly in the middle of operations, leaving behind fodder for horror films and ghost hunters.

This graffiti-covered bridge is the quintessential vision of a place for disillusioned youth to escape the complexities of burgeoning adulthood.

Four distinctly unique gardens commemorate the POWs who lost their lives during the Sandakan Death Marches of 1945.

A sulfuric martian landscape that looks far better than it smells.

"Try not to knock anything over!"

An eccentric dictator's take on a Turkmen version of Disneyland.