Interesting Places

Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station

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US Research Station on top of the South Pole - and the only place inhabited where Sun is visible for 6-months continuously, then 6-months dark.
Temperatures in the dark months drop to -99F with blizzards being common.
The site is used for astronomical observations.

McMurdo Station

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US Research Station that has the largest community in Antarctica with 1,500 people.
The base is how most get to Amundsen Station and is where most of the science projects in the Antarctic take place.
 

Hollensbury Spite House

Skinniest house in the US

7'6" ft wide house in Alexandria, VA.
The inside is 350 sq feet - and was supposedly built in 1830 to stop people from loitering in the alley next to his house & the wheels from wagons damaging the side of his house.
 

Sam Kee Building

Skinniest Commercial Building

Spite House in Vancouver, CA,  4'11" ft wide ft 1st floor, 6 ft for 2nd floor.
It was built out of spite - for a Vancouver City decision to force acquire the owner's land without compensation - so the owner built a building with the remaining 6 feet of width.

World Forestry Building

Largest Log Cabin

1905 log cabin that was known as the largest at the time made with massive native logs.

The World Forestry Center's mission was to educate and inform people about the world's forests & their importance to all life & for our sustained future.

Putin's Palace

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$1.4 Billion Dollar Palace built in Russia that was reportedly built for a Russian billionaire.
However, widespread attention came from a whistleblower and a Russian opposition leader's Anti Corruption Foundation (ACF) who allege it's headed by Putin for his personal use.

Getty Center, California

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Location of the Getty Museum with some of the most diverse artwork/sculptures in the world.

A $1.3 billion center with a hovertrain that drops to a garage below located in Los Angeles.

Wittenoom

Ghost Town

Once a town in Pilbara, Australia with 900 residents - the town was a hot spot for blue asbetos mining.

However; the asbetos created such a hazard the entire town was evacuated and serves as a contamination zone about 1/5 the size of Chernobyl.

Forest City, Johor

Ghost Town

A Malaysian "property development and special financial zone" -  with large, luxurious buildings built.
However; the city is essentially a ghost town with only about 8,000 residents in a massive city that was intended for a minimum 700,000 - as there's mostly "family offices" for tax-free incentives in the city.

Varosha

Ghost Town

Island City in Cyprus that was once a top tourist destination, in the 1970's one of the top in the world - with a peak of 40,000 residents.
The city was entirely deserted, before being taken by the Turkish Army, for fear of a massacre. 
Under 200 people remain in the city post-war.

Maunsell Forts

WWII River Forts

Towers built at the coast entrance of two British rivers during WWII to defend the UK.
They were connected and used as forts - mainly to report & deter German air raids & stop attempts to laying mines along the water channel.

 

Vernon C Bain Correction Center

"The Boat"

A barge ship anchored in the Bronx shore that served as a jail.
Closed in 2023, the jail had a 800-inmate capacity for temporary & traditional inmates and was used when the NY Jails were too overpopulated.

RP Flip

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An open ocean research platform, designed to partially float while pitching backwards 90 degrees- causing complete resistance in waves.
Meant to study wave height, acoustic signals, meteorological collection.
 

Centralia Mine Fire

Ongoing Coal Fire

In May of 1962, the town of Centralia began efforts to cleanup a landfill inside a strip mine (open pit, surface mining).
They decided to start a dump fire intent to clean the landfill - however; it caused a coal fire also - and the town was evacuated.
Today, the town is still vacant and the fire is still going 60+ years later.

Socotra

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Remote Isle nicknamed "Most alien-looking place on Earth".
Located in the Indian Ocean - it is under Yemen control and has a high number of unique species (with a 1/3 of its plant species only existing on the island).

Tristan Da Cunha

Most remote island (inhabited)

Only 250 permanent residents on the main island - its a chain of islands that's almost exactly between Africa and South America.
The Tristan island has an area of 38 sq miles, no airstrip (only by boat), and is a six-day trip between both Africa and South America.

Bouvet Island

Most remote island (uninhabited)

Only has a area of 19 sq miles - Norway regularly visits, & in the 2000's built a advanced station for temporary research. 
It is a volcanic island (top of a shield volcano) with limited land because of the ice/mountains - making it a haven for birds and penguins with 100,000 peak during breeding season.

Runit Island

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Marshall Island that is the home of a radiation waste site left by the US - with the remaining waste potentially spilling into the Pacific Ocean.
The waste is surrounded by a concrete dome although radiation can still come from loose waste and the topsoil being affected. 

Kowloon Walled City

"Ready Player One" City

Ungoverned City that existed in British Hong Kong - with a dense population of 35.k people in only 6.4 acres new units were crammed on top of eachother.
The city was prominent between the 1950s - 1990s, headed by gangs and lawless with sale of narcotics widespread. 
By 1993, the city was demolished by the British government and a City Park was opened in its place.

Challenger Deep

Deepest point in Earth's Seabed

Near Guam along the Mariana Trench
The location is in a "slot" shaped trench - with 3 different depressions stretching 3.5 - 6 miles long and a mile wide.
The slot trench is a unusually deep feature for the ocean floor.

Pole of Inaccessibility

(Point Nemo)

Place in ocean farthest from all land - or most difficult to reach.
Only can be seen by astronauts from the International Space Station - since no air flights/boat routes come close to it.
The area is mostly lifeless because it sits in the South Pacific Gyre (a ongoing system of rotating currents stuck by the equator)

Herculaneum

Excavated Roman Town

Located in Italy, it was buried by a lava flow during a volcano eruption in 79 AD. The town was mostly preserved by the volcano - and there were numerous artifacts found since looters couldn't get to it.

Circus Maximus, Rome

Roman Chariot Stadium

Ancient Roman chariot-racing stadium, the first and largest stadium in Rome.
Could hold 150,000 spectators in its prime, now the site is a public park.

Nazca Lines

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Group of 700+ geoglyphs scattered across the Peru Desert - created in 500 BC/500 AD with human tools.
Purpose is speculated between astronomy to irrigation techniques through "drawing" symbols.
 

The Tower of Silence

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9th Century pit for those deceased to be "exposed to the elements" for religious or personal reasons, as a means to avoid soil contamination by early Iranians and Indians. 
The deceased would often be recycled by scavenger birds which was something sacred to the early Iranians and to not "pollute" the element of earth.

Eltz Castle

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Medieval castle from the 12th century, on top of a rock spur in Germany.
Owned by the House of Eltz who have lived there since it was built. The castle was confiscated and damaged over time but received restoration in the 1800's.

Darvaza Gas Crater

"Gates of Hell"

A natural gas field that collapsed into a large cavern in Turkmenistan.
The pit has hundreds of natural gas fires that illuminate the crater and has burned since the 1980's - it's unknown how the crater formed but engineers were forced to ignite it to prevent poisonous gases from spreading.

Harpur Hill Quarry

Deadly Lake

Once a lime mining pit, the abandoned quarry was flooded turning it into a lake. The water has caustic chemicals from the waste (left from lime burning) and has a vivid blue colour from calcium carbonate particles.
The water has a very high pH, very alkaline - but still receives tourists forcing the near town to dye the water black in recent years.
 

Edwards Aquifer

Largest Underground Well

Covers >1/3 of Texas of the size of Texas and also sticks into Oklahoma & Arkansas.
It is a source of drinking water for 2 million people (San Antonio mainly) - and is the primary water supply for agriculture/industry in Texas and near states.
 

Veryovkina Cave

Deepest-Known Cave

1.38 miles deep.
Located in Abhkhazia (a disputed zone of Georgia), the cave was discovered in 1968 with more frequent trips happening to trace the different paths.

Richat Structure

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Circular geo-dome that's 25 miles wide in the Sahara Desert.
The cause is largely debated with some believing it's from a impact like a meteor - to some others volcanic activity.

Pando

‎ ‎ ‎World's Largest Tree

Tree covering 108 acres - a quaking aspen in Utah.
The tree is a clonal organism - and has an estimated 47,000 stems with each appearing to be individual trees but are really stems from Pando.
It is the largest aspen clone - identified by all the stems having the same genetic markers.

Humongous Fungus

World's Largest Living Organism

A single specimen of a fungus called, Armillaria Ostoyae, in Michigan.
It is 2,500 years old and covers a area of 2,400 acres - and has a mass of about 440 tons. It covers 38% of the land area at 3.5 sq miles.
 

Zone Rouge

‎WWII Unliveable Areas ‎ ‎ 

French Red Zone.
Areas through northeast France after WWI that was so damaged by conflict the government deemed it unsafe for human life even today.

Thridrangaviti Lighthouse, Iceland

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"Most Isolated Lighthouse in the World" - build on top of an enormous sea stack (rocky pillar).
It was built in 1939 by hand - and the engineers/climbers scaled the 120 ft wall each time to bring up materials. 

Maginot Line

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WW2 Fortifications extending the entire French border to deter Nazi Germany during WWII, forcing the Germans to go around
The line included 142 artillery forts, 352 fortified gun placements, and 5,000 small bunkers across 470 miles.

Hill of Crosses

Hill with over 100,000 crosses

Site of pilgrimage in Lithuania.
During the 1900's, the crosses were repeatedly removed during military occupations.

But after the Soviet Union dissolved started to grow and become a tourist attraction.