Archives: Atlas Obscuras

Beatles Park

Discover Beatles Park in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas: This small Arkansas town once had a close encounter with the Beatles, and are determined never to let anyone forget that. Ever.

The Picasso Benches

Discover The Picasso Benches in San Antonio, Texas: Tile mosaics and quotes from Pablo Picasso add an artistic flair to these bus stop benches.

Farine Five Roses Sign

Discover Farine Five Roses Sign in Montreal, Québec: Two thirds of this Montreal neon icon has survived to flash another day.

Ciudad Real Ghost Airport

Discover Ciudad Real Central Airport in Villar del Pozo, Spain: An abandoned airport in the middle of nowhere.

Uvac River Meanders

Discover Uvac River Meanders in Družiniće, Serbia: A sinuous path among steep cliffs creates a stunning sight in southwestern Serbia.

Levashovo Memorial Cemetery

Discover Levashovo Memorial Cemetery in Levashovo, Russia: Pictures tacked onto trees remember the more than 40,000 of Stalin's victims buried here in mass graves.

Chapel in the Rocks

A tiny church clings to a craggy precipice above Germany’s gemstone capital.

Platform 16 Holocaust Deportation Memorials

Discover Platform 16 Holocaust Deportation Memorials in Florence, Italy: Memorials at a Florence railway station remember the citizens who were deported from Italy and sent to extermination camps.

Agrasen ki Baoli Stepwell

Discover Agrasen ki Baoli in New Delhi, India: A startling, centuries-old subterranean marvel hides in plain sight.

‘Unrecognized’ Sculpture

Discover Nierozpoznani in Poznań, Poland: A cluster of headless, armless sculptures looms within a popular Polish park.

Al Green’s Full Gospel Tabernacle Church

Discover Al Green’s Full Gospel Tabernacle Church in Memphis, Tennessee: The R&B singer's modest church guarantees a religious experience, regardless of your beliefs.

Minsk’s Unusual Museum of Stones

Discover Museum of Stones in Minsk, Belarus: A unique park tells the geological history of Belarus in a national “map” of thousands of boulders and blue spruce.

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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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