ckoohle's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
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Keetmanshoop, Namibia

Quiver Tree Forest

A rare cluster of alien-like plants grows along a dusty highway.
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

Hoba Meteorite

The largest known meteorite on Earth was too big to move.
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.
Namibia

Kolmanskop Ghost Town

The remains of diamond fever taken over by the desert.
Chicago, Illinois

St. Mary of the Angels

This titanic Catholic church in Chicago is also a refuge of the fictional cult-favorite wizard detective Harry Dresden.
Chicago, Illinois

First-Class Relic of Padre Pio

A bloodstain from "the wound of the transverberation of the heart."
Chicago, Illinois

Union Stock Yard Gate

One of the few remaining relics of the meatpacking hub that made Chicago the "hog butcher to the world."
Chicago, Illinois

Rosenberg Statue

A goddess-topped water fountain in Chicago was created thanks to the dreams of a thirsty newsboy.
Chicago, Illinois

Noble–Seymour–Crippen House

The oldest house in Chicago certainly doesn't look the part and there are some who say it doesn't deserve its title either.
Chicago, Illinois

Heaven On Seven

Hidden on the 7th floor of a historic building, this Cajun spot features wall-to-wall bottles of hot sauce.
Chicago, Illinois

Holy Trinity Cathedral

Orthodox church partially financed by Tsar Nicolas II.
Chicago, Illinois

The Garfield-Clarendon Model Railroad Club

This small, but long-running hobby club has built one of the largest model rail lines in the US.
Chicago, Illinois

Calumet Fisheries

One of Chicago's last seafood smokehouses perfects a dying breed of fishcraft.
Chicago, Illinois

Terra Cotta Row

In a quiet north Chicago neighborhood rests a stunning relic of the golden age of earthenware design.
Chicago, Illinois

Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures

This surprising gem is a world-class archeological museum hidden at the University of Chicago.
Chicago, Illinois

Zion Evangelical Lutheran 'Ghost Church'

One-of-a-kind preserved ruins of an abandoned 1880s church in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood.
Chicago, Illinois

Pullman Historic District

First planned industrial community in the United States.
Chicago, Illinois

Carroll Avenue

A little-known subterranean street runs under some of the best-known buildings in Chicago's River North.
Chicago, Illinois

Stan Mansion

Built to house a chapter of the Knights Templar, this grandiose building is a relic of Freemasonry in Chicago a century ago.