Archives: Atlas Obscuras

Las Pozas

Discover Las Pozas in Xilitla, Mexico: Extraordinary sculpture garden created by an eccentric English poet.

Soumaya Museum

Discover Soumaya Museum in Mexico City, Mexico: 66,000 pieces of art, donated by one of the world's richest men.

Cenote Xkeken

According to Maya tradition, the gates to the beyond lay in cenotes. Just a few kilometers from Valladolid in the Yucatan Peninsula, the landscape is dotted with natural sinkholes, leading straight down into the earth. Unlike their unsightly name, the s…

Biblioteca Vasconcelos

Discover Biblioteca Vasconcelos in Mexico City, Mexico: A jaw-dropping "megalibrary" that turns book-browsing into a geometric adventure.

Mercado de Sonora

Discover Mercado de Sonora in Mexico City, Mexico: Superstitious? Discover the witchy side of Mexico through its largest esoteric market.

El Nido de Quetzalcóatl

Discover El Nido de Quetzalcóatl in Naucalpan, Mexico: An Aztec snake god has taken the material form of an apartment complex.

La Casa Azul

Discover La Casa Azul in Mexico City, Mexico: Frida Kahlo's childhood home, now a museum of her life and works.

Cafebrería El Péndulo

Discover Cafebrería El Péndulo in Mexico City, Mexico: Part bookstore, part café, and part forest.

Hidden Beach

Discover Hidden Beach in Islas Marietas, Mexico: A lovers' beach, tucked below the surface of the island, provides a safe haven for romance.

Great Papago Escape Tunnel

During World War II, 25 German prisoners of war escaped from an American facility during an event known at the Great Papago Escape. The prisoners dug a tunnel from Camp Papago Park to a canal that leads to the Salt River. They built a raft, but discove…

The Bottle Art Museum

Discover The Bottle Art Museum in Pattaya, Thailand: Thailand museum of bottles of all shapes and sizes filled with intricate and beautiful art.

Goddess Tuptim Shrine

Discover Goddess Tuptim Shrine in Bangkok, Thailand: A forest of phallic offerings found in a quiet corner of a hotel car park.

Archipelago Cinema

Discover Archipelago Cinema in Laem Sak, Thailand: This floating cinema brings new meaning to the phrase "going out" to the movies.

Bangkok’s Ghost Tower: The Sathorn Unique

The Sathorn Unique skyscraper is among the major construction projects started when Thailand’s economy was booming in the 1990s. Developers envisaged a city of gleaming offices and residential skyscrapers that were to be a testament to the nation’s …

Bangkok Airplane Graveyard

Discover Bangkok Airplane Graveyard in Bangkok, Thailand: Derelict airplane bodies serve as both home and income for three Thai families.

Bangkok Coin Museum

From ancient Funan to the Siamese kingdom of the current Chakri dynasty, Thailand has had its huge share of diverse monies—a wide variety of oddities in the field of ethnographic numismatics. At the Bangkok Coin Museum, an institution run by the Treas…

Buddha Head in Tree Roots

The Wat Mahathat is one of the medieval Buddhist temples that comprise the World Heritage site of Ayutthaya, an ancient city steeped in history. It’s home to what is perhaps the city’s most photographed, iconic, and haunting sight: the Buddha head i…

Ban Yipun (Ayutthaya Japanese Village)

During the Warring States period of Japan (1467-1590), many samurai lost their lords and became rōnin—masterless warriors. Meanwhile, in Thailand, the kingdom of Ayutthaya was in desperate need of military reinforcements as the Toungoo dynasty of Bur…

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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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