Archives: Atlas Obscuras

Weald and Downland Living Museum

Discover Weald and Downland Living Museum in Chichester, England: This open-air heritage museum illuminates centuries of historic English life from a West Sussex village.

Santa Fe Botanical Garden at Museum Hill

Discover Santa Fe Botanical Garden at Museum Hill in Santa Fe, New Mexico: This high desert botanical garden is a unique display of Northern New Mexico's geology.

Quality Yard

Discover Quality Yard in Edinburgh, Scotland: Enter this small nook and you'll be surrounded by 360 degrees of street art.

The UFO of Inktpot

Discover The UFO of Inktpot in Utrecht, Netherlands: Atop this former dutch railway office sits an interstellar work of art.

Chapultepec Butterfly Garden

Discover Mariposario Chapultepec (Chapultepec Butterfly Garden) in Mexico City, Mexico: You can release a young butterfly at this beautiful indoor garden.

Christ’s Resurrection Church

Discover Christ's Resurrection Church in Kaunas, Lithuania: This magnificent Art Deco church is a reflection of Lithuania’s turbulent history.

Cairnpapple Hill

Discover Cairnpapple Hill in West Lothian, Scotland: This hill nestled in the Scottish lowlands was a ritual site for over 4,000 years.

The Manor in Hemingford Grey

Discover The Manor in Hemingford Grey in Hemingford Grey, England: This 12th-century house is one of the oldest continuously inhabited houses in Britain.

Camak Stone

Discover Camak Stone in South Pittsburg, Tennessee: This stone incorrectly marks the 35th parallel, causing some territorial kerfuffles.

Connecticut Air & Space Center

Discover Connecticut Air & Space Center in Stratford, Connecticut: A humble air museum located in an original World War II aircraft factory.

Pyrgos Vasilissis (Queens Tower)

Discover Pyrgos Vasilissis (Queens Tower) in Agii Anargiri, Greece: This fairytale-looking castle is a wonderful example of Greek neo-Gothic architecture.

Seikan Tunnel

Discover Seikan Tunnel in Japan: The world's longest tunnel with an undersea section.

Katayama Shuzo

Discover Katayama Shuzo in Nikko, Japan: Founded in 1880, this humble brewery still practices a disappearing technique of sake-making.

Cranhill Water Tower

Discover Cranhill Water Tower in Glasgow, Scotland: Water-themed sculptures guard this unusually square structure.

Blue Fox Drive-In Theatre

Discover Blue Fox Drive-In Theatre in Oak Harbor, Washington: Sleep beneath the big screen at this old-school movie theater.

Heicheng Ruins

Discover Heicheng Ruins in Alxa, China: Sited in an Inner Mongolian desert are the remnants of an important trade stop along the Silk Road.

Elvis Statue

Discover Elvis Statue in Honolulu, Hawaii: An ode to one of the first concerts broadcast via satellite.

Hamilton Mausoleum

Discover Hamilton Mausoleum in South Lanarkshire, Scotland: A magnificent tomb that was the final resting place of the Dukes of Hamilton.

Commissariat Store

Discover Commissariat Store in Brisbane, Australia: Its most grisly object is a jar full of severed fingers allegedly cut off by prisoners to avoid work.

‘Merry-Go-Round’ Painting

Discover 'Merry-Go-Round' Painting in London, England: A haunting painting meant to capture the calamity of World War I.

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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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