Archives: Atlas Obscuras

Tangier American Legation Museum

Discover Tangier American Legation Museum in Tangier, Morocco: This stucco building in North Africa was the first American-owned property on foreign soil.

Warren Historic Site

Discover Warren Historic Site in Dickerson, Maryland: Once the center of a thriving early Black community called Martinsburg.

Dotonbori Hotel Front Pillars

Discover Dotonbori Hotel Front Pillars in Osaka, Japan: Surreal giant face-pillars welcome visitors from across the globe to this hotel.

Matsuchiyama Shoden

Discover Matsuchiyama Shoden in Tokyo, Japan: Daikon radishes are offered to the Japanese Buddhist counterpart of the Hindu god Ganesha at this historic hilltop temple.

Midland Railroad Hotel

Discover Midland Railroad Hotel in Wilson, Kansas: This hotel was a famous stop along the Union Pacific Railroad.

Panská Skála

Discover Panská Skála in Kamenický Šenov, Czechia: Tall columns of volcanic basalt make up this improbable-seeming rock formation.

Robert Johnson House

Discover Robert Johnson House in Hazlehurst, Mississippi: A blues musician so talented that people said he must have traded his soul to the devil was born in this house.

Muzeum Treblinka

Discover Muzeum Treblinka in Treblinka, Poland: A somber memorial honors the hundreds of thousands of lives lost at this labor and extermination camp.

Whalley Viaduct

Discover Whalley Viaduct in Whalley, England: A fantastic example of Victorian railway engineering with two unusual decorative features.

Pačir Geothermal Spa

Discover Pačir Geothermal Spa in Pačir, Serbia: This natural spa is known for its healing properties and vibrant hue.

Montgomery Scott Plaque

Discover Montgomery Scott Plaque in Linlithgow, Scotland: The fictional birthplace of the Chief Engineer aboard the Starship Enterprise.

Parco Archeologico di Velia

Discover Parco Archeologico di Velia in Marina di Ascea, Italy: This ancient city was home to one of the greatest schools of Greek philosophy.

Fine Arts Building Atrium

Discover Fine Arts Building Atrium in Los Angeles, California: A Romanesque sanctuary of calm amid the bustle of downtown Los Angeles.

Lightship Portsmouth Museum

Discover Lightship Portsmouth Museum in Portsmouth, Virginia: A lightship turned museum, outfitted with artifacts from the vessel's past as part of the U.S. Lighthouse Service.

Dixville Notch

Discover Dixville Notch in Colebrook, New Hampshire: A mere dot on the map in the great north woods is the first place in America to vote in Presidential elections.

Rexhame Beach

Discover Rexhame Beach in Marshfield, Massachusetts: In 1898, a New England storm that claimed more than 400 lives created this brand new stretch of shoreline.

Leśniewo U-Boat Locks

Discover Leśniewo U-Boat Locks in Leśniewo, Poland: Built to transport German U-boats through the never-completed Masurian Canal, the locks near this Polish village are now home to a rope course.

Pockwockamus Rock

Discover Pockwockamus Rock in Millinocket, Maine: This nature mural exists to protect the surrounding environment and its own canvas from destruction.

Caldwell-Lake George Library

Discover Caldwell-Lake George Library in Lake George, New York: Of all the unique artifacts inside this library, a mummified hand stands out among the others.

Tower Bridge’s Dead Man’s Hole

Discover Tower Bridge’s Dead Man’s Hole in London, England: This unassuming alcove in London’s famous Tower Bridge once served to capture, store, and display dead bodies from the River Thames.

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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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