23 Peculiar Places of 2023

The Atlas is home to all things peculiar and bizarre. While sometimes it seems like we’ve seen it all over our journey through more than 26,000 places, we are often surprised by the wondrous, strange sights shared by the intrepid explorers in our community. It’s these places and artifacts that make the Atlas so unique and help keep these curiosities alive.

In the small town of Shirley, Massachusetts, a local restaurant is home to a beast said to terrorize the local population during the colonial period. The Egopantis was said to have roamed the forest around Shirley until it was killed by Nathaniel Smith. The creature’s head and the musket allegedly used to take it down are displayed inside the restaurant. Across the Atlantic in Radebeul, Germany, is a museum filled with lies. The Lügenmuseum has dedicated itself to “telling lies in service of the truth.”

From a chicken that lays fortune-filled eggs to a kingdom dedicated to the love of used books, here are some of our weirdest, most wonderful places published in 2023.