Archives: Atlas Obscuras

Tanamá River

Discover Tanamá River in Utuado, Puerto Rico: Drift through underground caves on a tube.

Criollito

Discover Criollito in Tlacolula de Matamoros, Mexico: This Oaxacan restaurant serves native corn and Indigenous recipes.

The Auditor Statues

Discover The Auditor Statues in Butte, Montana: Multiple monuments to a grizzled old mutt that survived the landscape of Butte's treacherous Berkeley Pit.

Taksim Mosque

Discover Taksim Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey: One of the newest mosques in a city filled with thousands.

Chicoma Mountain

Discover Chicoma Mountain in Hernandez, New Mexico: The highest peak in the Jemez Mountains and the traditional center of the Pueblo world.

Tooth Stone

Discover Tooth Stone in Port Charlotte, Scotland: It's said taking a hammer and nail to this stone relieves a toothache.

McConkie Ranch Petroglyphs

Discover McConkie Ranch Petroglyphs in Vernal, Utah: A unique collection of drawings that represent Fremont Native American culture.

Hatsudai Bridge

Discover Hatsudai Bridge in Tokyo, Japan: One of the best-preserved remains of "Tokyo's lost rivers.".

Geodetic Midpoint of Denmark

Discover Geodetic Midpoint of Denmark in Copenhagen, Denmark: Once a meeting point for great thinkers, and the midpoint of the country.

Bosse Field

Discover Bosse Field in Evansville, Indiana: The third-oldest baseball stadium in the United States is in a league of its own.

Nancy Kerlin Barnett Grave

Discover Nancy Kerlin Barnett Grave in Franklin, Indiana: A burial site located in the middle of a road.

Veryovkina Cave

Discover Veryovkina Cave in Gagra, Georgia: Veryovkina Cave is more than 1.3 miles deep—the deepest known in the world.

Jackson’s Rēwena Bread

Discover Jackson's Rēwena Bread in Whanganui, New Zealand: This store sells traditional Māori sourdough.

Shreveport Water Works Museum

Discover Shreveport Water Works Museum in Shreveport, Louisiana: One of the largest collections of intact Victorian-era waterworks equipment in the world.

‘Ring O’ Roses’

Discover 'Ring O' Roses' in Dundee, Scotland: Each section of this public work of art represents one of the city's guilds.

Black Point Fissures by Mono Lake

Discover Black Point Fissures by Mono Lake in Lee Vining, California: Deep vertical fissures like miniature slot canyons cut across the cemented volcanic rock of Black Point above Mono Lake.

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i
To represent a masterpiece of human creative genius. 261 ii
To exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design. 480 iii
To bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared. 514 iv
To be an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history. 642 ix
To be outstanding examples representing significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of terrestrial, fresh water, coastal and marine ecosystems and communities of plants and animals. 137 v
To be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement, land-use, or sea-use which is representative of a culture (or cultures), or human interaction with the environment especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change. 172 vi
To be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance. (The Committee considers that this criterion should preferably be used in conjunction with other criteria). 256 vii
To contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance. 151 viii
To be outstanding examples representing major stages of earth's history, including the record of life, significant on-going geological processes in the development of landforms, or significant geomorphic or physiographic features. 98 x
To contain the most important and significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation. 168

PP ToS