Showing posts from December, 2016

A Blast From The Past: Episode 31

Dec 31, 2016

This will be the last post for 2016. Happy New Year to everyone. See you next year. From the archives of Amusing Planet. Kiribati, The Tru...

Jet d'Eau: The Lake Geneva Fountain

Dec 30, 2016

Since 1891, a gigantic jet of water has been Geneva’s most important landmark. This narrow column of water shooting straight up to a stagger...

The Island in a Lake on an Island in a Lake on an Island

Dec 30, 2016

Lake Taal on the island of Luzon, in the northern end of the Philippines archipelago, holds a special distinction. It’s one of only two lake...

The Electronic Ears That Listen to Secret Nuclear Tests

Dec 29, 2016

Twenty years ago, the world's first Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) of 1996, that prohibits nations from conducting any kin...

The Giant Concrete Arrows Across The US

Dec 28, 2016

In the early 1900s, the fastest way to deliver mail was by rail, but there was a machine that could travel faster than trains, and that was,...

Witley Park’s Underwater Ballroom

Dec 28, 2016

Between Godalming and Haslemere, in Surrey, near the English village of Witley, once stood one of the most lavish private residences in the ...

Operation Christmas Drop

Dec 23, 2016

For the last sixty four years the US army has been playing Santa Claus to some 20,000 people inhabiting dozens of tiny Micronesian islands s...

Gävle Goat: The Christmas Goat That Vandals Can’t Keep Their Hands Off

Dec 23, 2016

Every year for Advent, about a month before Christmas, the town of Gavle, in Sweden, builds a giant Christmas goat out of straw. And every y...

Saddam Hussein’s Unfinished Mosques

Dec 22, 2016

In the late 1990s, amidst rising poverty and with four million residents on the verge of famine, the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein deci...

The Pout Of A Red-Lipped Batfish

Dec 22, 2016

Named after Charles Darwin, Ogcocephalus darwini, or the red-lipped batfish, is an unusual looking fish. It is a type of anglerfish, the sa...

Gilmerton Cove of Edinburg

Dec 21, 2016

Just a few meters beneath the streets of Gilmerton, an ex-mining village on the southern edge of the city of Edinburgh, in Scotland, lies a ...

Citadelle Laferrière of Haiti

Dec 21, 2016

The Citadelle Laferrière, located on top of a mountain in northern Haiti, is one of the largest fortresses in the Americas. The Citadel was ...

Towers of Silence

Dec 20, 2016

The Zoroastrians have an unusual way of disposing off their dead. They neither bury them nor cremate them. Instead, corpses are left atop hi...

Belchite: The Ruins of The Spanish Civil War

Dec 20, 2016

Forty kilometer southeast of the city of Zaragoza, in north-eastern Spain, lies the ghost town of Belchite, that was destroyed in 1937 durin...

11 Foot 8 Inches: The Infamous ‘Can Opener’ Bridge

Dec 17, 2016

At 11 foot 8 inches, the Norfolk Southern–Gregson Street Overpass, located in Durham, North Carolina, United States, is a bit too short. The...

Nagoro: The Japanese Village of Dolls

Dec 16, 2016

The village of Nagoro on the south-western island of Shikoku, in Japan, was once home to hundreds of residents. But over the years, Nagoro’s...

Lycurgus Cup: A Piece of Ancient Roman Nanotechnology

Dec 16, 2016

In the 1950s, the British Museum came into possession an ancient glass chalice called the Lycurgus Cup, so named for its depiction of Dionys...

The Golden Fire Hydrant of San Francisco

Dec 14, 2016

After a massive earthquake rocked the city of San Francisco on April 18, 1906, fires erupted all around the city from ruptured gas lines, ov...

The Island Where Donkeys Wear Pyjamas

Dec 14, 2016

The Island of Rhea, or Île-de-Ré in French, off the west coast of France near La Rochelle, is a popular summer destination known for its gen...

The Sewer Gas Destructor Lamps of England

Dec 13, 2016

In Victorian England, gas build-up in underground sewers was often a problem for the city dwellers. Old sewers were not always laid on suffi...

The ‘Whiskey War’ of Hans Island

Dec 13, 2016

In the remote north of the Atlantic Ocean, right on the edge of the freezing waters of the Arctic Ocean, lies a tiny speck of an island. Nam...

The Plague Village Of Eyam And Its Great Sacrifice

Dec 12, 2016

The Great Plague of London affected many places across England, but one small village in Derbyshire called Eyam, will always be remembered f...

World War 2 Wrecks of Solomon Islands

Dec 9, 2016

In the remote South Pacific, east of Papua New Guinea, and not far from Australia, lies a string of about nine hundred islands that make up ...

Pozzo di S. Patrizio

Dec 8, 2016

Pozzo di S. Patrizio, or the St. Patrick's Well, is a historic well in Orvieto, Umbria, central Italy, built between 1527 and 1537 at th...

The Ghosts of St. George’s Church in Lekova

Dec 8, 2016

For nearly fifty years, St. George’s Church in the village of Lukova, in Czech Republic, lay abandoned. The last congregation held in this 1...

The Birth Of An Ocean: The Afar Rift of Ethiopia

Dec 8, 2016

In the remote Afar depression in northern Ethiopia, the African Continent is slowly splitting apart and a new ocean is forming. Normally geo...

The Remarkable Story of St Kilda’s Residents

Dec 6, 2016

The remote archipelago of St Kilda, off the west coast of the Scottish mainland, is truly an isolated place. Located some 64 km west of the ...

The Strange Victorian Dinosaurs of Crystal Palace Park

Dec 5, 2016

Inside an enclosure at the Crystal Palace Park in London, is a collection of over thirty concrete sculptures of dinosaurs. Built more than o...

The Toxic White Beaches of Rosignano Solvay

Dec 5, 2016

The dazzling white sand of “Spiagge Bianche”, or “white beaches”, in the town of Rosignano Solvay, in southern Tuscany, has been luring tour...

A Blast From The Past: Episode 30

Dec 4, 2016

From the archives of Amusing Planet. The Floating Islands of Lake Titicaca Lake Titicaca, on the border of Peru and Bolivia, is notable fo...

The Witches' Weigh House in Oudewater

Dec 2, 2016

In medieval Netherlands, weigh houses were a common feature in many markets up and down the country. They were run by the local authorities,...

This Rocky Wall Was Created By The New Zealand Earthquake

Dec 1, 2016

The 7.8 magnitude earthquake that stuck the South Island of New Zealand on November 14, 2016, have changed the geography of the region, part...

The ‘Ancient Lights’ Windows of England

Dec 1, 2016

In many old brick buildings around London, you’ll find signs saying ‘Ancient Lights‘ marked beneath individual windows. The best examples ar...

The Spite Towers of Irish Hills

Dec 1, 2016

Standing atop a small knoll along the highway between Detroit and Chicago, the Twin Towers of Irish Hills in Lenawee County, in Southeast Mi...

Tehachapi Loop

Dec 1, 2016

The Tehachapi Loop is an iconic spiral loop, 1.17 km long, that passes over itself as it gains height on the railroad main line through Teha...