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Unique Locations and Strange Places!

123578

Posts

  • TamTam Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    wow
    I would really love to visit Socotra and the cloud forests
    and also this place:
    wrxshz.jpg
    just for the view

    Tam on
  • tehmarkentehmarken BrooklynRegistered User regular
    edited January 2011
    Rex, this is gonna bug me now. Because I remember something special about the rocks in the Appalachians. If they're not the oldest on Earth, it was SOMETHING; it's gonna drive me crazy until I figure out exactly what it was ~_~

    edit: It may be that the Appalachians are the oldest surviving mountain formation on Earth. Man I feel silly.
    edit2: Apparently a mountain range in Africa is the oldest in the world. This is gonna drive me crazy.
    edit3: Well, at the least the oldest mountains in the American continent. And they're dam beautiful!

    tehmarken on
  • President RexPresident Rex Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    The Blue Ridge Mountains basically contain the oldest rocks in the range, are you sure that's not what you were thinking of?

    The fun thing about the Appalachians is that they were likely substantially higher than the Himalayas when they were originally formed. Now they're the "small" mountain range. They also have quite a bit of limestone, so there are cool pockets of karst throughout the region. And karst topography is awesome - sinkholes, underground streams, random peaks, ravines, caves...

    President Rex on
  • DaemonionDaemonion Mountain Man USARegistered User regular
    edited January 2011
    This thread is fucking awesome.

    Daemonion on
  • GoodOmensGoodOmens Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    The world is fucking awesome.

    GoodOmens on
    steam_sig.png
    IOS Game Center ID: Isotope-X
  • RikushixRikushix VancouverRegistered User regular
    edited January 2011
    Oh, there's this place in the Smoky Mountains where fireflies blink synchronized.

    You can kind of get the picture with this video:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCN-B0m8-OE

    Now, the video doesn't actually do it justice. Once you go back in the trails a couple of miles so there's no car or people lights (you'll need to bring a red filter for your light), you see huge pulsing clouds of phosphorescent lights. It's pretty incredible.

    This happens in June.

    Well that's just amazing. Thanks for sharing.

    Rikushix on
    StKbT.jpg
  • jungleroomxjungleroomx It's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovels Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    chandelier_1.JPG

    The Sedlec Ossuary.

    Basically, the graveyard around this ossuary ran out of space, so they dug people up and decorated the place with the bones.

    Look this shit up. It's serious.

    jungleroomx on
  • adytumadytum The Inevitable Rise And FallRegistered User regular
    edited January 2011
    There are bones all over eastern europe. Here's a store room at a monastery.

    2cctdt3.jpg6y0az4.jpg

    adytum on
  • adytumadytum The Inevitable Rise And FallRegistered User regular
    edited January 2011
    Also the Skull Tower in Serbia, where the Turks beheaded all the Serbian rebels and built a tower out of their skulls.

    Chele-kula.jpg

    adytum on
  • Phoenix-DPhoenix-D Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    The past is even weirder. At some point the Mediterranean sea was blocked from the ocean...and the whole thing evaporated. Think the Grand Canyon, except it stretches between Europe and Asia and starts at sea level.

    ...and since it starts at sea level, the pressure grows as you go down, turning the bottom into a close approximation of hell.

    Phoenix-D on
  • DangerbirdDangerbird Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    I wonder if the heads were still... "juicy" when they built that skull tower, or did they strip them of flesh first before placing them in the wall.

    Because if they didn't, thats even more gross.

    Dangerbird on
  • EgoEgo Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    I wonder what relics from our time will be considered comparably horrible two hundred years from now.

    Ego on
    Erik
  • DangerbirdDangerbird Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    Ego wrote: »
    I wonder what relics from our time will be considered comparably horrible two hundred years from now.

    Only the ones that have been constructed out of human body parts.

    Dangerbird on
  • EgoEgo Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    I'd disagree that being made out of human bones is what's horrible about it, so much as what it stands for.

    Ego on
    Erik
  • Gandalf_the_CrazedGandalf_the_Crazed Vigilo ConfidoRegistered User regular
    edited January 2011
    That chandelier is badass.

    Gandalf_the_Crazed on
    PEUsig_zps56da03ec.jpg
  • President RexPresident Rex Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    Dangerbird wrote: »
    I wonder if the heads were still... "juicy" when they built that skull tower, or did they strip them of flesh first before placing them in the wall.

    Because if they didn't, thats even more gross.


    I would think they would be excoriated first, but I'm not sure how tall that structure is. Juicy bits in your construction do not help stability.

    This also helps in debunking the "[x] people were buried alive during the construction of the Hoover Dam!" myth. If someone died they would have dragged the body out of there as quickly as possible in order to prevent the structual instability of having a human-sized air pocket in the concrete.

    President Rex on
  • dojangodojango Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    Dangerbird wrote: »
    I wonder if the heads were still... "juicy" when they built that skull tower, or did they strip them of flesh first before placing them in the wall.

    Because if they didn't, thats even more gross.


    I would think they would be excoriated first, but I'm not sure how tall that structure is. Juicy bits in your construction do not help stability.

    This also helps in debunking the "[x] people were buried alive during the construction of the Hoover Dam!" myth. If someone died they would have dragged the body out of there as quickly as possible in order to prevent the structual instability of having a human-sized air pocket in the concrete.

    What about earth-fill constructions? Bodies will still work in there (e.g., Great Wall), or is that a myth too?

    dojango on
  • kfroosterkfrooster Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    Japan has quite a few abandoned places but I thought this one was the coolest. It's an abandoned clinic located in Gifu prefecture that hasn't been in use since WWII.
    abandoned-places-of-japan-urban-exploration-001.jpg
    abandoned-places-of-japan-urban-exploration-002.jpg
    abandoned-places-of-japan-urban-exploration-003.jpg
    abandoned-places-of-japan-urban-exploration-004.jpg

    kfrooster on
  • KillaWhaleKillaWhale Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    Madagascar is a pretty crazy place, and I'm not just saying that because a disc jockey overthrew its government.

    stone-forest-615.jpg

    You see the grey shit jutting up from the ground with trees interspersed between? Those are rock pillars made entirely of limestone. You can find them in Madagascar's Tsingy de Bemaraha national park.

    madagascar-stone-forest.jpg

    The forest is mostly unexplored due to the giant limestone rocks which make transportation into and out of the reserve difficult. Apparently, the structure of these formations, the Tsingys after which the park is name, is produced by ground water which carves the rocks horizontally and vertically.

    KillaWhale on
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  • President RexPresident Rex Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    dojango wrote: »
    Dangerbird wrote: »
    I wonder if the heads were still... "juicy" when they built that skull tower, or did they strip them of flesh first before placing them in the wall.

    Because if they didn't, thats even more gross.


    I would think they would be excoriated first, but I'm not sure how tall that structure is. Juicy bits in your construction do not help stability.

    This also helps in debunking the "[x] people were buried alive during the construction of the Hoover Dam!" myth. If someone died they would have dragged the body out of there as quickly as possible in order to prevent the structual instability of having a human-sized air pocket in the concrete.

    What about earth-fill constructions? Bodies will still work in there (e.g., Great Wall), or is that a myth too?

    That shouldn't make as much of a difference.

    Loose earth can more easily fill in pockets of space over time, particularly if the material is repeatedly tamped afterwards. The density discrepancy between dirt and a body and concrete and a body is also about four times less. Plus earthen constructions usually have wide bases and low heights, so there's less likely to be catastrophic failure afterwards.


    From what I can glean from the Skull Tower article it seems the skulls were scalped and adorned the sides of the tower. This implies that they were skinned first, and that they're not actually integral to the stability of the structure, anyway.


    [edit] Also, I mentioned the Tsingy and some of the geologic process back on a different page, but those are much better pictures. [/edit]

    President Rex on
  • BirdsWayBirdsWay Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    I felt obligated to contribute due to the general amazingness of this thread.

    Anyone stayed at an ice hotel ? First one was made in Sweden, and now they're located in Canada and other places that are frozen an obscene amount of time.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_hotel

    icehotel-main.jpg


    ice-hotel-T0712.jpg

    BirdsWay on
  • EWomEWom Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    Tam wrote: »
    wow
    I would really love to visit Socotra and the cloud forests
    and also this place:
    wrxshz.jpg
    just for the view

    This is what I hate about people. They find some place that is amazing, and decide they need to build a house there.

    Another reason to hate people, this was a popular location along a river in Montana to visit
    Fallen_Arches_10.jpg
    and drunken assholes broke it down
    Fallen_Arches_10x.jpg


    And this is not amazing or awesome, but I love giving people directions to Salmon & Seeley Lake for parties or whatever
    "Turn left at the big cow & just stay on that road..." They always give a look of O_o then when they arrive, they laugh about it. Every time.

    41565_147603588595011_8435_n.jpg

    EWom on
    Whether they find a life there or not, I think Jupiter should be called an enemy planet.
  • The CatThe Cat Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited January 2011
    I dunno, there's something about the house in the middle of that slope that turns it from a natural feature to art. I'll give you the drunken assholes though.

    And if you tried navigating by giant cow statues in this state, you'd be driving in figure-eights until you ran out of fuel :P

    The Cat on
    tmsig.jpg
  • plufimplufim Dr Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    Oh, do big statues count? We've got a lot of them in Australia. My favorite is the Big Lobster in Kingston, South Australia. It ended up being 3.3 times bigger than it was intended to be: it was designed in feet but built in metres.
    big_lobster.jpg

    plufim on
    3DS 0302-0029-3193 NNID plufim steam plufim PSN plufim
    steam_sig.png
  • The CatThe Cat Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited January 2011
    Heh. There's a concrete Captain Cook up in Cairns to which the same thing happened. The hotel it stood out the front of is long gone, but the local businesses pay for its upkeep. Even funnier, the sculptor rendered him giving the heil in the general direction of the CBD.

    I don't think I ever posted this here, but some workmates and I found a really odd place while doing recon for a mapping project in Cairns back in the day:
    01noentry.jpg
    Signs like that are for other people. We climbed around.
    02climb.jpg
    No joke, this driveway switchbacked at plus-30 degrees for over a kilometre. No way that had council approval, one bend was clearly on the verge of collapse.
    03hmmm.jpg
    And at the top. Seems like the owner ran out of money and/or concrete. Their phone number was painted on the side of the building, presumably in case of low-flying billionaire superheroes. Thing is, I think the owner was still living there. Water and power were hooked up to the upper floor, a tank was installed, and it looked like a space on the upper story had been effectively enclosed. Zombie and velociraptor-proofed, nice.
    04up.jpg
    There was something about the place
    05view.jpg
    And the view was like this for about 300 degrees. Yeah, that was an interesting afternoon.

    The Cat on
    tmsig.jpg
  • jungleroomxjungleroomx It's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovels Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    If you ever visit the Phillipines, the most obvious place would be the Subic Bay resort, former naval base. However, for cooler temperatures and an awesome time, take the trip to Camp John Hay/Baguio up in the mountains. Along the way on Kennon Road, stop here and get a drink.

    lion%27s-head-baguio3.jpg

    Yes, it's a giant Lions head carved from the mountians.

    jungleroomx on
  • Hexmage-PAHexmage-PA Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
  • MahoneMahone Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    Hexmage-PA wrote: »


    Thank you for sharing these, especially the "Lost America" one. There is some really amazing photography in there.

    Mahone on
  • BurtletoyBurtletoy Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    Quoted for img links.
    The Cat wrote: »
    Heh. There's a concrete Captain Cook up in Cairns to which the same thing happened. The hotel it stood out the front of is long gone, but the local businesses pay for its upkeep. Even funnier, the sculptor rendered him giving the heil in the general direction of the CBD.

    I don't think I ever posted this here, but some workmates and I found a really odd place while doing recon for a mapping project in Cairns back in the day:
    01noentry.jpg
    Signs like that are for other people. We climbed around.
    02climb.jpg
    No joke, this driveway switchbacked at plus-30 degrees for over a kilometre. No way that had council approval, one bend was clearly on the verge of collapse.
    03hmmm.jpg
    And at the top. Seems like the owner ran out of money and/or concrete. Their phone number was painted on the side of the building, presumably in case of low-flying billionaire superheroes. Thing is, I think the owner was still living there. Water and power were hooked up to the upper floor, a tank was installed, and it looked like a space on the upper story had been effectively enclosed. Zombie and velociraptor-proofed, nice.
    04up.jpg
    There was something about the place
    05view.jpg
    And the view was like this for about 300 degrees. Yeah, that was an interesting afternoon.

    Burtletoy on
  • electricitylikesmeelectricitylikesme Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    The Cat...jesus christ this is the most amazing thing I have ever seen. Where do I find this insanity/confirmation property developers are corrupt as fuck?

    electricitylikesme on
  • Edith UpwardsEdith Upwards Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    The people who were walled into the Great Wall volunteered to do so. The engineers had already accounted for such spaces in their original design because burying people alive is actually a pretty common form of ritual sacrifice.

    Lots of people DID get buried during the construction of the Hoover Dam, crushed to death by tons of gravel, falling concrete slabs, and sand/dirt.

    Edith Upwards on
  • L|amaL|ama Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    Carbon monoxide poisoning/heat stroke when drilling the bypass tunnels was a big one too. It's reprehensible how Frank Crowe is so respected for getting it finished ahead of schedule and the deaths are seen as inevitabilities. No one ended up entombed in the dam though.

    L|ama on
  • Casual EddyCasual Eddy The Astral PlaneRegistered User regular
    edited January 2011
    Erich Zahn wrote: »
    The people who were walled into the Great Wall volunteered to do so. The engineers had already accounted for such spaces in their original design because burying people alive is actually a pretty common form of ritual sacrifice.

    Lots of people DID get buried during the construction of the Hoover Dam, crushed to death by tons of gravel, falling concrete slabs, and sand/dirt.

    where are you getting this from, about the wall? It sounds fairly made up.

    Casual Eddy on
  • RaijuRaiju Shoganai JapanRegistered User regular
    edited January 2011
    I'd vote for Harbin, China during the Ice Festivals. Absolutely beautiful stuff they have there, though judging by how cold it is there most of the year (with its close proximity to the Russian border) that would depend on how much you can stand freezing temperatures. They had an episode of Harbin on No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain (though the Ice Festival wasn't shown; it was mostly about the food, which looks fantastic too).

    Harbin_Ice_Festival_China_01.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1261652459171

    harbin-ice-festival-1.jpg

    article-0-02E2C7B2000005DC-662_634x399.jpg

    Loads more pictures here:

    http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=harbin+ice&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1366&bih=575

    Raiju on
  • BurtletoyBurtletoy Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    Erich Zahn wrote: »
    The people who were walled into the Great Wall volunteered to do so. The engineers had already accounted for such spaces in their original design because burying people alive is actually a pretty common form of ritual sacrifice.

    Lots of people DID get buried during the construction of the Hoover Dam, crushed to death by tons of gravel, falling concrete slabs, and sand/dirt.

    where are you getting this from, about the wall? It sounds fairly made up.

    Also:

    The part about the Hoover Dam is made up, as well.

    Edit:
    Actually, the dam was poured in relatively small sections, so about all a fallen worker had to do to get his face clear of the rising concrete was to stand up. Officially, 96 dam workers died of various causes, and 112 persons unofficially, but none were permanently buried in concrete.

    Burtletoy on
  • RaijuRaiju Shoganai JapanRegistered User regular
    edited January 2011
    That stuff about burying bodies in the Great Wall sounds like hearsay and legends used to impress tourists and/or exaggerate the cruelty of the various emperors of the time by the local populace, at least to me (or someone's been watching The Mummy 3 one too many times). If there really are bodies found buried, please prove it with cited examples from reputable sources. Until then, I call shenanigans on this myth.

    On a side note, the Eastern European bone ossuary was a location used and shot in the first Dungeons & Dragons movie (not that it helped that movie any), if I recall.

    Raiju on
  • tehmarkentehmarken BrooklynRegistered User regular
    edited January 2011
    A creepy place in the former Soviet Union. Vozrozhdeniya Island on the Aral Sea.

    First off, the Aral Sea is strange on it's own. Starting in the 1960s, the Soviet Union started draining the Sea for irrigation projects. An unforeseen consequence was draining fresh water out a sea raises the salinity, and combined with it being smaller pretty much all the wildlife died; and all the people who lived off the sea were pretty screwed.

    654px-Aral_Sea_1989-2008.jpg

    But the gem here is actually the messed up island of Vozrozhdeniya. It was where the Soviets did lots and lots of biological and chemical warfare teasting. They tested and developed bioweapons such as anthrax, smallpox, and that old favorite bubonic plague.

    It was abandoned in 1992 when the Soviet Union fell. Not decommissioned, but just plain abandoned, with all the bioweapons sitting there in storage.
    Which is awesome, because those storage units weren't maintained, and left to the elements. No problem though, cuz if they are leaks, it's still and island, right?
    But because of the receding Aral Sea, it went from and island to a peninsula, and now is just a hill.

    Here's a nice video about it, in two parts:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAFGx9nU3q4
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_2lJ4gtMLE

    tehmarken on
  • BirdsWayBirdsWay Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    Mahone wrote: »
    Hexmage-PA wrote: »


    Thank you for sharing these, especially the "Lost America" one. There is some really amazing photography in there.

    From the "Lost America" link is the abandoned Oak Knoll Hospital http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Hospital_Oakland

    Is there anything creepier ever than an abandoned flipping hospital?

    7659057_ced357ed27.jpg

    According to wiki the place was supposed to be demolished by Lehman Brothers, but they of course done went bankrupt. Now the place is overrun by well, anyone without a legal residence.

    BirdsWay on
  • adytumadytum The Inevitable Rise And FallRegistered User regular
    edited January 2011
    Rebirth island is way less interesting than Call of Duty would leave me to believe.

    Also, I'm laughing at the how dramatic the guy in the video is being.

    There could be anthrax spores on this 60 year old broken, exposed-to-the-elements test tube! And these completely unsophisticated dirt farmer Uzbekis could have some way to identify it, contain it, transport it, and sell it on the black market!

    adytum on
  • TamTam Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    EWom wrote: »
    Tam wrote: »
    wow
    I would really love to visit Socotra and the cloud forests
    and also this place:
    wrxshz.jpg
    just for the view

    This is what I hate about people. They find some place that is amazing, and decide they need to build a house there.

    What? No, sorry chief, what does it for me is specifically the house being there. The contrast of the neat little house in a wild place like that.

    edit: granted, it would still be an impressive sight, but the addition of that house is a huge plus for me.

    Tam on
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