8 Weird And Shocking Places Around The World

Traveling around the world is, well, a trip. You’re able to see places that you otherwise would only read about if you stayed home. Of course, you could always visit the usual towns, cities, etc, and that’s fine. But try visiting some of these truly weird and shocking places — you just might find the beauty underneath the strangeness, once you get past all the judgments in your head that the world “should” be “this” way or “that.” Check out these twenty weird and shocking places from across the globe.


8. Cat Island, aka Tashirojima, Japan.

Attention all cat lovers: this island is inhabited by only 100 people, and who knows how many glorious and adorable cats. This island came to be known as “Cat Island” because this island once produced silk from silkworms. Mice, believe it or not, prey on silkworms, and since the worms were necessary for the silk trade, so were the cats, in order to keep the silkworms alive. The local fishermen believed the cats were lucky, and still do, so the the cats have remained.


7. Thames Town, China

If you’re in China, but you’re itching to get your inner Brit on, go to Thames Town, a simulated British city within in Songjiang, China. There’s traditional British architecture, cuisine and yes, even those classic red phone booths we all love. Now, if there were also a blue police box that’s bigger on the inside and a dapper gentleman with a sonic screwdriver, then any Anglophile Whovian who finds themselves in this lovely section of Songjiang wouldn’t ever want to leave.


6. Elista, Russia

The designer of this city was a chess fanatic, and so Elista, Russia is known by the name “Chess City.” It even has a life-size chess board in the town square. It makes you wonder how heavy those chess pieces are, and if they’re light enough to carry around and have a life-size game.


5. Bermuda Triangle

Another one of the planet’s truly weird spots by nature, the Bermuda Triangle, which starts from Florida’s southern tip, reaching to San Juan, Puerto Rico and ending at the island of Bermuda itself, is the site of many plane and ship malfunctions or crashes, owing to the place’s effect on any kind of manmade electrical or electronic machine. It’s even been speculated that Amelia Earhart was one of the people that lost her way in this anomalous electromagnetic spot in the south Atlantic.


4. Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

This is the Earth’s biggest salt flat at 10,582 square kilometers. Because this place is so eerily reflective, it can make the sky above seem to truly go on and on! Try this place on for size when you really want to feel your smallness.


3. The Hand In The Desert, Chile

This huge structure in the middle of a desert in Chile was constructed by sculptor Mario Irarrazabal, who has a strong fascination for the subject of human suffering, so the strange-yet-lonely location for this sculpture seems appropriate.


2. Thor’s Well, Oregon

This place is also known as “Spouting Horn,” and for good reason: when the water’s rough, the water rushes into a giant sinkhole, then shoots up with a huge amount of force. When you do go visit this place, be sure and stay well away from the sinkhole, especially during the winter.


1. Maunsell Sea Forts (North Sea), England

These towering structures were erected to protect England from the Nazis back in WWII. Now they just stand there guarding nothing in particular except the ocean and its marine life.