Archives: Atlas Obscuras

Medicine Lake

Discover Medicine Lake in Improvement District No. 12, Alberta: Every fall this lake mysteriously drains, like a bathtub with the plug pulled out.

Blue Hawk Mine

Discover Blue Hawk Mine in Kelowna, British Columbia: Unlike many reclaimed, abandoned mines, this Canadian cave system is still just a dangerous maze.

Fairview Lawn Cemetery

Discover Fairview Lawn Cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia: The final resting place of 121 victims of the RMS Titanic, 42 of which may never be identified.

Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park

Discover Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park in Aden, Alberta: Blackfoot petroglyphs of southern Alberta which date back as far as 7000 B.C.

Oak Island Money Pit

Discover Oak Island Money Pit in Western Shore, Nova Scotia: Hunt for buried treasure in Nova Scotia.

Big Rock Erratic

Discover Big Rock Erratic in Okotoks, Alberta: This massive and unusual rock formation near Okotoks is the world's largest known glacial erratic.

Standing wave at Habitat ’67, Montreal

Discover Standing wave at Habitat '67, Montreal in Montreal, Québec: Futuristic apartment blocks are the backdrop for Montreal surfers hangin' ten on the Habitat '67 standing wave.

The World’s Largest Dinosaur

Discover The World's Largest Dinosaur in Drumheller, Alberta: As if T-rex wasn't big enough, this Canadian monument is four times larger than the real thing.

Anne of Green Gables Museum

Discover Anne of Green Gables Museum in Green Gables, Prince Edward Island: Go inside the house that inspired L. M. Montgomery to create one of literature's most beloved heroines.

Boswell Embalming Bottle House

Discover Boswell Embalming Bottle House in Sanca, British Columbia: This house was largely built out of hundreds of thousands of discarded glass embalming fluid bottles.

The Sam Kee (Jack Chow) Building

Discover The Sam Kee (Jack Chow) Building in Vancouver, British Columbia: At just six feet two inches deep, it is said by Guiness and Ripley to be the world’s narrowest freestanding office building.

Britannia Mine Museum

Discover Britannia Mine Museum in Britannia Beach, British Columbia: From mining complex to industrial exhibition, this museum once played a major part in the X-Files.

Pingualuit Crater Lake

Discover Pingualuit Crater Lake in Rivière-Koksoak, Québec: A lake in the middle of the tundra of Quebec is said to be the purest freshwater lake on Earth.

Columbia Icefield

Discover Columbia Icefield in Alberta: A surviving remnant of the thick ice mass that once mantled most of Western Canada's mountains.

Gopher Hole Museum

Discover Gopher Hole Museum in Torrington, Alberta: Museum of stuffed gophers set up in various scenes.

Grande Hermine

Discover Grande Hermine in Lincoln, Ontario: The third version of this tall sailing ship sits, rusted and burnt, in Lake Ontario.

Friendship 500

Discover Friendship 500 in Maple Ridge, British Columbia: A floating McDonald's built for Expo '86 is now a derelict relic on Burrard Inlet.

Red Sands of Prince Edward Island

Discover Red Sands of Prince Edward Island in Lower Darnley, Prince Edward Island: Rusty red sands line the shores of this Canadian Province.

Fan Tan Alley

Discover Fan Tan Alley in Victoria, British Columbia: The narrowest street in Canada was once a spot for dastardly doings, now a historic piece of Chinatown.

McNab’s Island

Discover McNab's Island in Halifax, Nova Scotia: This Canadian island is a veritable garden of decay with countless abandoned structures dotting the landscape.

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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