Archives: Atlas Obscuras

Photo Antiquities Museum

Discover Photo Antiquities Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Its vintage camera collection gives a snapshot of the past as viewed through a photographic lens.

Spider Web Rice Fields

Discover Spider Web Rice Fields in Ruteng, Indonesia: The unique design was created by the traditional way communal rice paddies were divided among the indigenous people.

Museum of Sin

Discover Museum of Sin in Tambov, Russia: A homemade anatomical collection of medical anomalies and accidental catastrophes.

Garavice Memorial Park

Discover Garavice Memorial Park in Bihać, Bosnia and Herzegovina: A forgotten and crumbling Yugoslav monument to the victims of fascism.

Abandoned Dudik Memorial in Croatia

Discover Dudik Memorial Park in Vukovar, Croatia: Built as an anti-fascist tribute, this surreal Yugoslav memorial became an unwelcome symbol after the Croatian war for independence.

Red Rock Coulee

Discover Red Rock Coulee in Orion, Alberta: Huge spherical rocks in the middle of the prairie.

A Church Within a Church

Discover Ruins of St Andrew's Covehithe in Covehithe, England: A 17th-century church is nestled within the walls of a 15th-century ruin.

The Pest House Cemetery

Discover The Pest House Cemetery in Provincetown, Massachusetts: A 19th-century smallpox cemetery is being reclaimed by scrub forest and sand dunes.

Dancing Forest of Russia

The reason for the strange contortions in the trunks of these "drunken" pine trees is still a mystery.

St. James Episcopal Cemetery

Discover St. James Episcopal Cemetery in Marietta, Georgia: An elegant Georgian cemetery best known for the grave of the little girl whose murder on Christmas Day remains unsolved.

Swiss Museum of Games

Discover Swiss Museum of Games in Lac Léman, Switzerland: A Swiss board game museum housed inside a picture-perfect castle.

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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

PP ToS