Archives: Atlas Obscuras

AFRY Building

Discover AFRY Building in Hagalund, Sweden: From a distance, this structure looks like an ordinary office building but a closer inspection reveals a unique facade.

Griffiths Sea Shell Museum

Discover Griffiths Sea Shell Museum in Lakes Entrance, Australia: This museum is home to one of the largest private collections of seashells in Australia.

Proctor’s Ledge

Discover Proctor's Ledge in Salem, Massachusetts: A quiet memorial marks the spot where the victims of the Salem Witch Trials were executed.

Trolls of De Schorre Park

Discover Trolls of De Schorre Park in Boom, Belgium: Take a leisurely walk through the park to find the seven giant troll sculptures hidden throughout the park.

Columbia Restaurant

Discover Columbia Restaurant in Tampa, Florida: This grand Spanish-Cuban restaurant has been serving customers for more than a century.

Simon Lake’s Explorer

Discover Simon Lake's Explorer in Milford, Connecticut: The last vessel built by a submarine pioneer stands as a monument to his legacy.

Slowe-Burrill House

Discover Slowe-Burrill House in Washington, D.C.: Home to two notable early-20th-century Black educators, Lucy Slowe and Mary Burrill.

Longview Cemetery

Discover Longview Cemetery in Austin, Texas: A tiny graveyard with a mysterious past.

Cold Hollow Sculpture Park

Discover Cold Hollow Sculpture Park in Enosburg, Vermont: Dozens of playful sculptures blanket these 200 rolling acres of farmland in an ode to art and landscape.

Averara Skeletons

Discover Averara Skeletons in Averara, Italy: Five painted skeletons are hiding behind a church in this tiny village in the Italian Alps.

Hotel Lutetia

Discover Hotel Lutetia in Paris, France: A glamorous hotel that once accommodated French resistance fighters and concentration camp survivors.

Schönhauser Allee Cemetery

Discover Schönhauser Allee Cemetery in Berlin, Germany: Inside this Jewish cemetery is a memorial to soldiers who deserted the German army and were executed.

Angels Rest

Discover Angels Rest in Kanab, Utah: Not your typical pet cemetery.

Pompeii Thermopolium

Discover Pompeii Thermopolium in Pompeii, Italy: Before it was buried by volcanic ash, this fast-food restaurant fed the hungry hordes of ancient Rome.

Beechworth Asylum

Discover Beechworth Asylum in Beechworth, Australia: This former psychiatric hospital was once one of the largest in Australia.

Saw Mill River Daylighting

Discover Saw Mill River Daylighting in Yonkers, New York: A waterway covered over after the Industrial Revolution has been unearthed and cleaned up, for the enjoyment of fish and humans alike.

Don Knotts Statue

Discover Don Knotts Statue in Morgantown, West Virginia: The actor best known for slapstick comedy is memorialized in his home town.

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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

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