Archives: Atlas Obscuras

Brazil’s Coffee Palace

Discover Brazil's Coffee Palace in Santos, Brazil: This majestic building, where Brazil's coffee brokers once bought and sold beans, now houses a coffee museum.

Cidade Albanoel

Discover Cidade Albanoel in Itaguaí, Brazil: An abandoned Santa park is as far as this proposed theme park kingdom got toward completion.

Chapada das Mesas National Park

Discover Chapada das Mesas National Park in Santa Terezinha, Brazil: High plateaus and beautiful waterfalls frame this ecologically significant nature preserve.

Cemitério São João Batista

Discover Cemitério São João Batista in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Try not to get lost in this picturesque Brazilian labyrinth of the dead.

Curitiba Botanical Gardens

Discover Curitiba Botanical Gardens in Curitiba, Brazil: Solitary monument dedicated to the beauty of nature.

Nave Espacial de Varginha

Discover Nave Espacial de Varginha in Varginha, Brazil: Spacecraft shaped water tower is only a part of the mysterious UFO mania in this Brazilian town.

Victoria Amazonica

Discover Victoria Amazonica in Chaves, Brazil: Queen of the waterlilies, so big and strong it can support the weight of a human.

Old Petrolandia Church

Discover Old Petrolandia Church in Pernambuco, Brazil: The haunting peak of an old church is all that remains of a drowned Brazilian city.

Vale da Lua

Discover Vale da Lua in Alto Paraíso de Goiás, Brazil: After millennia of erosion by sand and churning water this Brazilian valley now looks like a lunar fantasy.

Rio de Janeiro Cathedral

Discover Rio de Janeiro Cathedral in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: This massive Brazilian church is built like an angular, technicolor pyramid left by Mayans from the future.

Livraria da Vila

Discover Livraria da Vila in São Paulo, Brazil: The bookstore with bookshelves built into unlikely places.

Snake Island

Discover Snake Island (Ilha da Queimada Grande) in Brazil: Off-limits and full of venomous pit vipers, Snake Island's nickname is frighteningly apt.

Lençóis Maranhenses Dunes

Discover Lençóis Maranhenses Dunes in Santo Amaro do Maranhão, Brazil: A faux desert landscape in the middle of the jungle that sprouts oases during the rainy season.

Fordlândia

Discover Fordlândia in Aveiro, Brazil: Henry Ford's failed rubber plantation in the middle of the Amazon rain forest.

Ariau Towers

Discover Ariau Towers in Manacapuru, Brazil: An Amazonian hotel is the ultimate treehouse and provides stilt based accommodation.

Parque Lage

Discover Parque Lage in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Beautiful public park off the beaten path and away from tourists.

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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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