Archives: Atlas Obscuras

Crandon Park Zoo Ruins

Discover Crandon Park Zoo Ruins in Key Biscayne, Florida: It turns out that a hurricane-prone beach is probably not the best place to house wild animals.

Miraflores

Discover Miraflores in San Antonio, Texas: An abandoned, decaying sculpture garden built by an eccentric physician in the 1920s now looks more like a forgotten cemetery.

Horse at Water

Discover Horse at Water in Bensalem, Pennsylvania: This giant disembodied horse head seems to balance impossibly on its nose.

Dummett Sugar Mill Ruins

Discover Dummett Sugar Mill Ruins in Ormond Beach, Florida: The ruins of a once-thriving sugarcane plantation that was burned in the Second Seminole War.

Headwaters of the Mississippi River

Discover Headwaters of the Mississippi River in Lake Itasca, Minnesota: At this Minnesota state park you can easily wade across the source of the mighty Mississippi.

RV Hall of Fame

Discover RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart, Indiana: The evolution of recreational vehicles and motorhomes is on display in the “RV capital of the world.".

Midas Ghost Town Saloon

Discover Midas Ghost Town Saloon in Golconda, Nevada: A hidden gem of a saloon in the middle of a ghost town.

Black Madonna Shrine

Discover Black Madonna Shrine in Pacific, Missouri: This wooded grove of beautiful hand-built stone grottos is a hidden gem within a shuttered Franciscan monastery.

Compton Hill Water Tower

Discover Compton Hill Water Tower in St. Louis, Missouri: One of few surviving standpipe water towers in the U.S.

Tenderloin National Forest

Discover Tenderloin National Forest in San Francisco, California: A speck of nature and art in one of San Francisco’s most notorious neighborhoods.

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i
To represent a masterpiece of human creative genius. 260 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. 474 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. 499 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. 633 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. 135 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. 167 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). 252 vii
To contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance. 148 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. 96 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. 166

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