Archives: Atlas Obscuras

Los Albaricoques

Discover Los Albaricoques in Los Albaricoques, Spain: This small Spanish village still pays homage to the Spaghetti Western films that were shot there in the 1960s.

Hanny’s

Discover Hanny's in Phoenix, Arizona: A former store turned restaurant with a few quirky additions.

China Ranch Date Farm

Discover China Ranch Date Farm in Tecopa, California: This secluded date farm can be reached only by following a bumpy, single-lane desert road.

Andy Capp Statue

Discover Andy Capp Statue in Hartlepool, England: This sculpture honors a long-beloved English comic strip in the main character's hometown.

Amra Pier

Discover Amra Pier in Sokhumi, Georgia: A beautiful but deteriorating monument of Soviet architecture.

Salaspils Memorial Ensemble

Discover Salaspils Memorial Ensemble in Salaspils, Latvia: This former Nazi labor camp is now a poignant memorial, complete with giant Soviet-style monuments.

Redbournbury Watermill and Bakery

Discover Redbournbury Watermill and Bakery in Hertfordshire, England: This operational mill has survived centuries of destruction and construction.

George A. Romero Bust

Discover George A. Romero Bust in Monroeville, Pennsylvania: An ode to filmmaker George A. Romero, who used the mall to film an iconic horror movie.

Roswell UFO Spacewalk

Discover Roswell UFO Spacewalk in Roswell, New Mexico: A blacklight journey through a celestial art exhibit.

Old Plank Road

Discover Old Plank Road in Winterhaven, California: The remnants of an early automobile route across shifting sand dunes can still be found in the deserts of Southern California.

Deepdale Aqueduct

Discover Deepdale Aqueduct in Barnard Castle, England: This Victorian footbridge over the River Tees was originally built to carry water from the high moorland to the industrial towns on the coast.

Redmond Caves

Discover Redmond Caves in Redmond, Oregon: A sprawling cave network created by a lone lava tube.

Optical Heritage Museum

Discover Optical Heritage Museum in Southbridge, Massachusetts: A quirky museum paying tribute to the history of the optical industry.

Dimitrios

Discover Dimitrios in Lakonia, Greece: This wrecked ghost ship has been rusting on a Greek beach since the 1980s.

Italia in Miniatura

Discover Italia in Miniatura in Rimini, Italy: Famous landmarks and structures from across Italy fill this miniature park.

Cave Vineyard

Discover Cave Vineyard in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri: A subterranean haunt where wine and homemade biscottis are always on the menu.

Ernest Shackleton Statue

Discover Ernest Shackleton Statue in London, England: An effigy of the famous polar explorer stands outside the Royal Geographical Society's headquarters.

Organ Stop Pizza

Discover Organ Stop Pizza in Mesa, Arizona: Come for the pizza, stay for a performance on the world's largest theater pipe organ.

Menu

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