Places Edited by Rachel James

The history of sea-faring refuse and disaster is on cramped display in this Netherlands folk museum.

Dioramas and animatronics lead you through the story of Bhagavad-gita, the Indian literary classic.

An abandoned town centered around a paper mill powered by a large waterfall.

A picture-perfect town, perfect for blowing up.

One patriotic farmer's ode to the 9/11 tragedy remains even after the farm changed hands.

"The most colorful grottoes of the world.

Thousands of locks professing undying devotion line the metal chains of Lotus Peak.

Barely visible foundations remain where Stow Lake’s “observatory” once welcomed visitors.

The world's largest man-made underground caverns offer unparalleled underwater wonders.

On a quiet suburban street stands a peculiarly decorated house covered in mosaics.

This tea house was a hand-built gift from Boulder's sister city in Tajikstan.

A freighter full of exotic animals ends a harrowing voyage impaled on uncharted rocks in the Boston Harbor.

A small town market proudly displays numerous taxidermied animals along its walls.

This Italian dam is covered in salt-hungry goats who manage to scale its almost vertical face.

A site of pagan worship which still attracts people looking for fairies.

Spies, love letters, and ghost stories have all left their mark on this home-cum-museum.

A virtually untouched "home on the hill" for the flora and fauna of Rhode Island.

A beautiful deserted greenhouse in the middle of a park.

Ethiopian standing stones featuring remarkably preserved carvings of swords and people.

An outsider art studio that created a piece of work so popular they had to turn mainstream.

A fake block of cheese remembers a feat of dairy engineering from the Chicago World's Fair.

This eagle-topped spire remembers the military commander who snatched up California for the United States.

The first "applecore" style lighthouse in Nova Scotia.

An entire city block built completely out of petrified wood.