gemmatarlach's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
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Santorini, Greece

Prehistoric Town of Akrotiri

A Bronze age settlement on the Greek island of Santorini might have been the inspiration for Plato's Atlantis.
Andros, Greece

Tourlitis Lighthouse

Perched on a spindly rock spire in a Greek archipelago, this lighthouse would make a perfect wizard's tower.
Athens, Greece

Antikythera Mechanism

A 2,000-year-old computer demonstrates remarkable engineering and astronomical precision.
Argolis, Greece

Mycenae

This legendary city has been a tourist attraction for centuries.
Heraklion, Greece

Knossos

A minotaur, a labyrinth, and a dubious restoration pull in visitors from around the world.
Greece

Sami

A spectacular cave and a beguiling lake.
Kalabaka, Greece

Meteora

Monasteries on rock pillars, once accessible only by frayed ropes.
Igaliku, Greenland

Garðar Cathedral Ruins

Walrus skulls and narwhal bones were found here while excavating a 900-year old church.
Nuuk, Greenland

Qilakitsoq Mummies

These eight mummies are the best-preserved human remains ever discovered in North America.
Greenland

Summit Camp

This remote research station sits amid the second-largest ice sheet on the planet.
Narsarsuaq, Greenland

Arboretum Groenlandicum

An experimental forest at the foreground of arboreal science is also the canary in the coal mine for climate change.
Tasiilaq, Greenland

Kulusuk

Small Island off the coast of Greenland.
Greenland

The Flowers of Kaffeklubben Island

The world's northernmost flowers cling tenuously to life on desolate Kaffeklubben Island.
Greenland

The Oldest Chunk of Rock in the World

The 3.8 billion-year-old rock proves that tectonic plates may have been shifting longer than we thought.
Ikateq, Greenland

Bluie East Two

A surprisingly beautiful abandoned World War II military base in East Greenland.
Chamarel, Mauritius

Seven Coloured Earths

This small group of sand dunes manages to pack in a strange rainbow of colors.
Moka, Mauritius

Le Pouce (The Thumb)

The “Thumb” of Mauritius provides a 360 degree view of the entire country.
Vaadhoo, Maldives

Sea of Stars

Bioluminescence in the reefs of the Maldives causes the sea to glow like a starry night sky.
Namibia

Fairy Circles of Southern Africa

Unexplained bald patches in the landscape grow and recede over time, as though they are somehow alive.
Namibia

Shipwreck Lodge

Ten shipwreck-shaped chalets lie along the sand dunes on Namibia’s Skeleton Coast.
Namibia

Welwitschia

Bizarre living fossil only grows in a small chunk of the Namib Desert.
Sossusvlei, Namibia

Dead Vlei

This "dead marsh" sits among the largest sand dunes in the world, a forest frozen in time.
Namibia

Eduard Bohlen Shipwreck

Far from the shore, this sandy victim of the Skeleton Coast looks like it was plopped in the middle of the desert.
Namibia

Namib Sand Sea

A desert that rolls right up to the ocean, where it's so dry animals live off the fog.