-1600 -1400 -1200 -1000 -800 -600 -400 -200 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 CONTENTS longtitude longtitude longtitude longtitude longtitude longtitude -1800/-1200 -1200/-600 -600/00 00/600 600/1200 1200/1800 In which we encounter disappearing In which we encounter mysterious In which we encounter an island In which we encounter a grove of In which we encounter rats In which we encounter coffins islands, boats hewn from pumpkins moving rocks, a cave of giant teeming with snakes, a shimmering singing trees, a town being subsumed worshipped as gods, a golf course clinging to a cliffside, a cow up and a one-eyed troll lurking crystals and a museum at the pink lake and the world's biggest by the desert, and a hill of laid on an airport runway and a a tree, and a cave illuminated by beneath a bridge bottom of sea mud-brick structure 100,000 crosses secret gnome hideout glowworms -1600 -1400 -1200 -1000 -800 -600 -400 -200 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 Move over, Grand Canyon. Au revoir, Eiffel Tower. See you, Sydney Opera House. Angkor what? If you think you know about the world’s most Because these marvels don’t pay much attention to country amazing sights, it’s time to look again. This book borders, nor have we: the places in this book are arranged celebrates under-the-radar places, from the not by continent or country, but loosely by their line of mysterious and the mesmerising to the downright bizarre. longitude. It’s a hat-tip to the way our planet resists attempts In these pages are rainbow eucalyptus trees, a stomach- to impose order upon it, with the most surprising and churning cocktail, ghost towns, a bridge made of trees, an wonderful of results. underwater museum, a town called Hell and a band of Caribbean swimming pigs. In a time when technology has given us a better understanding than ever before of the hows and whys of Some of these marvels are entirely man-made – Nebraska’s life, these places show us we don’t know the half of it. As eye-popping replica of Stonehenge made entirely from the human race strives above all towards profitability and vintage cars (page 47), for example, or Indonesia’s so- efficiency, there is a delight to be found in those marvels called ‘Chicken Church’ (page 249) – while others are made by human hands not to chase success or increase the a curious accident of human endeavour, such as Ohio’s bottom line, but for the simple joy of it. It’s a life lesson we eerie abandoned ghost ship (page 55). Some needed no could all learn from: taking time out from hectic schedules to intervention from us whatsoever – take the Mexican cave appreciate the mysteries and wonders our planet has to offer. filled with gargantuan, glistening crystals (page 49) or the disappearing island of Fonuafo’ou (page 9), which prove But first, of course, we need to know where to look for them. that this planet produces astounding phenomena without Fortunately, wherever you are in the world, there will be a a hint of fanfare, while most of us are busy elsewhere, sight to enthrall you nearby. These pages are filled with a snapping selfies in front of their better-known cousins. few hundred ideas of where to start. Happy marvelling! INTRO 4 5 -1600 -1400 -1200 -1000 -800 -600 -400 -200 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 p2 2 Oce a ct ic n A r p10 p23 p 12 as i a europ e Oc ean t i c an north t l A or th P america N a c h i t c r O p22 o c e N a n N o r t h P a f rica a c i c O c e s o u th a n america n australasia c e a O n a longtitude i d n I o o cean -180 /-120 c O i a c P h t u o S S o u t h A t l a n t i c O c e a n © Gabe Rogel / Getty© Gabe Rogel / Getty © Dana Edmunds Image, Images -1600 -1400 -1200 -1000 -800 -600 -400 -200 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 -120o/-60o longtitude / ‘Along gravelled walkways, irregular steps and cinder-strewn paths, this stumble in the dark enlightens you to famous and infamous interments’ New York, usa, 41.0970 / -73.8616 Sleepy Hollow Cemetery The rolling hills between the Archbold’s resting place is coyotes and foxes scamper in the Hudson and Pocantico Rivers neo-modern – he covered shadows of this hardly disturbed hum with history and hobgoblins. all bets with a dash of Celtic, wilderness, and screech owls Lantern in hand, heart in mouth, Russian, Greek and even Persian linger in overhanging Linden you may confront these spirits of (peacock) iconography which vie branches. Twisted elms and New York and New Amsterdam for the attention of varied gods, tulip trees reach out for the past on a walking tour of Sleepy ensuring a measure of sanctity, unsuspecting hiker. Hollow Cemetery, terminating somewhere. Just up the road, the The tour concludes where the on the site where fictional ‘queen of mean’, hotelier Leona new Sleepy Hollow Cemetery – Ichabod Crane met his demise Helmsley, interred with husband founded by Washington Irving at the hands of the legendary Harry, snarls behind stained glass himself – is separated from the Headless Horseman. – but without the dog to whom old Dutch Burying Ground by Along gravelled walkways, she bequeathed $12 million. a ribbon of horse-carriage path. irregular stone steps and Pop icons of the past Irving, a veteran of the War of cinder-strewn paths, this perambulate – the Ramones 1812, gets a place of honour stumble in the dark (the 10pm were briefly buried on a rolling adorned with an American to midnight Lantern Walk) hilltop here while recording a flag. Don’t tarry in Tarrytown, enlightens you to some famous video for the film adaptation of however, because just beyond a and infamous interments: the Stephen King’s Pet Sematary copse of pines, in the graveyard Rockefeller family’s two-storey, (the band are truly dead today); of the Dutch Reformed Church, Vermont-granite, Greek-themed vampire Barnabas Collins of lies a certain decapitated mausoleum stands in stark television’s Dark Shadows Hessian mercenary, still prepared contrast to Scottish steel magnate conspired in a crypt which in to ride out into the moonlit night. Andrew Carnegie’s austere Celtic real life served as a holding By Brian Kluepfel cross. Carnegie’s philanthropic vault for stiffs when New York legacy is repaid with flowers, winters froze the ground solid The Cemetery is 2.5km north coins and notes left on his (Mrs William Rockefeller waited of Metro North’s Tarrytown headstone; the Rockefellers’ site two years here while the family’s Station on the Hudson Line. The remains bare. condo-crypt was being built.) walk from there takes 30 minutes. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Wild creatures stalk the 90 Tours take place in November rival-cum-partner John Dustin acres of nooks and crannies: (www.sleepyhollowcemetery.org). © Dennis K. Johnson / Getty Images 76 ‘From the air, the sweeping landscape gives the appearance of rolling bed sheets pitching across the world’s most picturesque bed’ Maranhão, Brazil, -2.4859 / -43.1284 Parque Nacional dos Lençóis Maranhenses At first glance, it seems a mirage. wonderment we all seek as we by the inviting cerulean lagoons reached from the nearby town operates Rancho da Buna in the far, far away from the tour A translucent, postcard-perfect traverse the globe – and it feels that pepper the sandy hills of Barreirinhas, a five-hour charming sand village of Atins, buses and tourists on day trips lagoon – blue as blueberries, like everything but an optical between March and September drive from the Unesco World a 90-minute boat ride along the from Barreirinhas, and afforded clear as crystal – surrounded illusion. It’s a glorious baptism. (there is almost no vegetation Heritage–listed city of São Luís, Rio Preguiças from Barreirinhas, me the opportunity to immerse by towering sand dunes as far Brazil’s Parque Nacional dos whatsoever). From the air, the from where open-sided 4WD the park’s most picturesque myself in this aquatic Eden once as the eye can see. But then Lençóis Maranhenses, a 1500 sweeping landscape gives the bus tours routinely hit some village to bed down in. mistaken for a mirage. When I the splashdown reveals this sq km expanse of cinematic appearance of rolling bed of the park’s biggest lagoons, Everywhere you look, re-surface, I’m lost, surrounded otherworldly landscape is far sandscapes, is a natural treasure. sheets (lençóis in Portuguese), Lagoa Azul (Blue Lagoon) and the landscape is alarmingly by nothing and no one. Paradise from fantasy. As I dip below the Located in the far northeastern pitching across the world’s Lagoa Bonita (Beautiful Lagoon). similar, yet Buna knows the found. By Kevin Raub surface of what some might say is state of Maranhão, it is the most picturesque bed. From the Needless to say, this is not the park backwards and forwards the most refreshing pool of water kind of place travel dreams ground, a no-filters-required best way to experience the park. (a trusted guide is a must for Cisne Branco runs buses imaginable, the cool and calming are made of, a transcendental desertscape unravels into the I have opted instead for a private navigating within the park).