The Highest Tides in Europe Are Quite a Sight to Behold
Saint Malo, a historic French port on the English Channel coast, is famous for having the highest tides in Europe, with breakwater defenses barely keeping giant waves from slamming into residential buildings. Seeing Saint Malo at low tide and then again at high tide is like looking at two completely different towns. The buildings and […]
Khunzakh – Literally Living on the Edge in Dagestan
The ancient village of Khunzakh, in Dagestan, is literally perched on the edge of a deep canyon, making it one of the most awe-inspiring human settlements in the world. Before Khabib Nurmagomedov took the MMA world by storm and became the undisputed champion of the UFC Lightweight Division, most people hadn’t even heard of Dagestan. […]
Mysterious Geyser in Japan Has Been Gushing Out Water for Two Weeks
A mysterious geyser that erupted in the middle of a forest on the Japanese island of Hokkaido has been shooting up columns of water up to 40-meters-high for the past couple of weeks. Every year, on August 9, the small Japanese town of Oshamambe holds an annual summer festival complete with a traditional procession at […]
This European Football Stadium Has an Active Railway Track Passing Right Through It
Slovakian amateur football club TJ Tatran Cierny Balog prides itself on having one of the most unique stadiums in the world, complete with a railway track and a steam engine running straight through it. Cierny Balog, a small Slovakian town of about 5,100 people, has become somewhat of a tourist spot in the last seven […]
Europe’s Longest Ice Road Has a Weird Speed Limit And Wearing a Seatbelt Is Forbidden
Estonia is home to the longest official ice road in Europe, a 25-km-long stretch of frozen ice along the country’s coast, where it’s illegal to wear a seatbelt and drive at medium speed. It might seem a bit bizarre to be covering a topic like ice roads in the middle of a particularly hot month […]
Chichibugahama – Japan’s Instafamous Mirror Beach
Chichibugahama Beach is a popular tourist destination in Mitoyo City, Japan which rose to fame thanks to photo-sharing social media platforms like Instagram. If you ever find ourself doubting the power of social media, just remember the story of Chichibugahama Beach. A once obscure seaside destination in Japan’s Kagawa Prefecture, this place turned into a […]
Tekesi County – China’s Unique Bagua-Shaped City
Built according to the “Bagua”, or the Eight Trigrams used in Taoist cosmology, Tekesi County has a unique and eye-catching layout that allegedly renders traffic lights obsolete. Bagua represents the fundamental principles of reality, seen as a range of eight interrelated concepts. It is a complex concept of Taoist cosmology which also has correspondences in […]
Ancient Wonder – The 1,600-Year-Old Iron Pillar That Refuses to Rust
The Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque complex in New Delhi is home to an ancient wonder of metal work – a 1,600-year-old iron pillar that is exceptionally resistant to rust. The Iron Pillar of Qutub Minar, as this ancient monument is sometimes referred to, measures 7.21-meters-tall, has a diameter of 41 centimeters and weighs about 6 tons. It’s […]
Mexican Mountain Road Requires Drivers to Drive on the Wrong Side of the Road
Tackling tight curves on winding mountain roads is complicated enough as it is, but having to randomly drive on the opposite side of the road makes it confusing as well. Mexico’s Cumbres de Acultzingo or Acultzingo Heights is a mountainous area in the country’s Veracruz State traversed by a winding road that truck drivers found […]
The Indian Town Where Human and Leopard Allegedly Live in Harmony
Bera, a small town in the Indian state of Rajasthan is famous for being the only place on Earth where humans and leopards live in perfect harmony. India is one of the most densely-populated countries on Earth, and as humanity continues to encroach on the still-uninhabited woodlands and mountains, conflicts between leopards and humans are […]
Car Sickness Hell – A Winding Mountain Road With 600 Hairpin Turns
A 75-kilometer stretch of mountain road in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has been dubbed a car sick person’s worst nightmare for its hundreds of hairpin turns. Known as Pamir Plateau Sky road or the Panlong Ancient Road, the winding road traversing the Kunlun Mountains of Xinjiang is one of the most visually impressive […]
This Wooden Shack in the Middle of a Desert Is the World’s Most Remote Post Office
Deep in the Tengger Desert of Inner Mongolia, surrounded by sand dunes as far as the eye can see, lies the world’s loneliest post office, a surprisingly bustling outpost of human connection. Measuring only 15 square meters, the wooden post office of Tengger Desert is not much to look at, but that’s ok, it doesn’t […]
Panama’s El Valle de Anton – The Valley of Square Trees
A few miles north of the Panama Canal Zone lies the Valley of Square Trees, a unique tourist attraction where trees of the cottonwood family have rectangular trunks. Unique in the entire world, this group of square-shaped cottonwood trees grows in a valley created from the ashes of a giant volcano – El Valle de […]
This Triangular Mosaic Is the Smallest Piece of Private Property in New York City
New York City is full of unusual plots of land left over from various construction projects, but none as small and emblematic as the Hess Triangle, a private property barely larger than a pizza slice. The story of the Hess Triangle began in 1910 when the city of New York claimed eminent domain in order […]
Unique Tokyo Café Only Serves Struggling Writers Working on Tight Deadlines
The Manuscript Writing Café in Tokyo, Japan only caters to writers working on tight deadlines, providing the motivation and assistance required to make sure they meet those deadlines. Japan is no stranger to offbeat cafes that sometimes inspire worldwide trends. Remember cat cafes? That popular trend originated in the Asian country, as did, maid cafes, […]