Visited with nice carpeting and a grand piano is a hit in wonder and that is a we are looking for with Atlas Obscura. We began seven years ago and they opened it up to the public and people around the world to say show us what you got. They were not quite sure what to expect or how many submissions they were would receive or people wouldth understand the head and wonder one negative hidden wonders but it has taken off. And people seem to get the hit then wonder thing. They remember from their childhood like there was a castle i wonder if it is still there . I wond and it is like Hometown Pride that they show off what they have discovered so as the way to show you examples we have collected about 700 it greatest hits album of places we have collected for the website i just want to take you on a two word so lets get started. First one of the first place since submitted to love website with in the first few months of launching submitted in the north of india won a the wettest most humid regions of the worldshe e in one of the problems with creating infrastructure inem is it disintegrates pretty quickly it metal and wooden boat rocked so they have done come up with ingenious and visually stunning solution to the puzzle these are the root bridges. There are a few bad this one in particular it is spectacular but doubledays are made is they build a trestle over the river bank guide the trees across the trestle. Takes about 15 years for the bridge to grow and grow over centuries. When we received this we thought, this could work and is this incredible. So continue with the theme of bridges this in is also a bridge, a land bridge that unites the islands and in korea but for about one hour twice a year it appears. There is some mythology associated that is basically the south korean equivalent of moses that the tiger had descended upon the island and every betty managed to escape except the elderly woman and the tiger was menacing and she thought not on my watch. Sushi prayed for of bridge to open up for the waters to recede so she could escape. And according to mythology it happened. So every year in may and june the bridge opens and the people and visitors walk from the separate islands along the bridge to the middle than turnaround andnd go back home. Scinatin this is a fascinating place about 100 miles north. In 1958 in eccentric urban planner purchased matt 80,000 acres in the mojaveac desert. He had a grand plan to establish a giant sprawling metropolis rivaling was angeles as a utopia. He bought the land and laid out all the streets and every street has a name. And that is as far as the project got. [laughter] he vastly overestimated peoples willingness to move to the Mojave Desert to establish a metropolis. Is the shame for him but it still exist all the roads that have been named barstool there. And there are real world events from various chapters in the few years ago we organize people to go out to what would be called California City and walked along the streets and have then reclaim and i have notme been there yet from the air it looks like a checkerboard. It is incredible. And this is a classic. It is the results of the industrial accident. It is in the desert referred to as that gates of hell or the door to howl and in 1971 a team of geologist were drilling for natural gas in the desert period and they found some unfortunately it was located in a giant subterranean caverns and then the whole opened up and the drilling rigs fell againen so they reacted perhaps a slightly panicked driven by setting the whole thing on fire and i suppose the mentality was given a few days or weeks it will burn o off. Yfive fortyfive years later it is still burning 200 feet wide and this man with another subterranean caverns heat is one of many missionaries are a visionaries that we celebrate as a former monk who decided he would build a cathedral the next 50 years of his life in the still doing it. So since the 1990s has been digging these incredible caves and takes commissions but it is about expressing himself through the way that he did see puts the wheel barrow on his back and carries a shovel and has been doing in since 1992. This fellow who rather looks worse for wear if you consider he died 1783 at the age of 96. And he mummified himself. And was one of many monks foat was part of of buddhism and for a fuse centuries these monks word engaged in the art of self mummification. And then to study ancient egypt and in theory when they are dead with the cranial cavity is but surely that is impossible . As you can see and began with a very strict diet over 1,000 days that was basically nets and seeds. Because the idea was to rid the body of fact the diad would just become more strict and then the next ages to feast upon the bark of the treaty that was a lack of would. You is this just that easy the ones this stage was complete there very close to death soeray then they would go into a tomb and would sit in a position and that which can the mantra and every day they would bring a bill to signal when they were living when the bell stopped me they would go when. Sea then the month would be retrieved. Several hundred monks attempted this procedure and about two dozen succeeded and 16 are still on display in japan, it was actually outlawed at the end of the 19th century by the empress to i imagined come was thinking come on guys. [laughter] this is a charming local mystery closer to home on the north shore of lake superior. This is called devils kettle. O it splits into on the right to keep going on the left side the water goes into the devils kettle and bill latinos where it emerges. But not for lack of trying. They have thrown pingpong balls, they have tried to dive, gps devices, and nothing has yet yielded explanation. Is a local mystery. This looks like an idyllic place to go. I would not back men to going there however because of the name of a place called snake i went. Island. Is off the coast and is named snake eyes went n lanc snake island ii yellow headed vipers exist only on this island and they will kill khieu. That the number is not a good time. They will cause a lot of damage but it is the density estimates have varied over the years spent there is about one snake per meter i. M. From the commonwealth but remember snake island hewlett are never more than 3 feet from potential death isln also a tiny tibet cpb walking along this is terrifying. You are not allowed to go to snake island you have to convince the Brazilian Navy of a scientific reason to go there. It sounds enticing in florence the museum that everybody wants to go to is the home of the venus and michelangelo but the lineses get really long there is a museum around the corner that is less visited it is a Science Museum you will find galileos middle finger. [laughter] classic. It was swiped from his corpse about 100 years after his death while that was being moved and has been in various places since then but since 1927 is that thee museum recently renamed theth galileo museum. Their various ways to interpret. Complicated relationship. [laughter]n see it he is indicating the heavens above for a more pointed message interpretation is up to you. There was of period of a few decades when the aircraft started to be used as a public military weapon for detecting a bombing raid. Detect during this period there was ingenious to know how you are to be attacked. These three concrete objects ths are known as listening years. For the semicircles as a means to try to amplify incoming aircraft no ways they would point them to germany. You can see on the right there is a stand or a microphone was mounted the a deal was to amplify the sound. A guy with a device like a stethoscope would sit there and listen really hard. Nowhere near as well as radar but as aircraft moved faster the benefits were negligible maybe to give the slight edge for an attack but not a lot of time to prepare. This is latin known as the last rope bridge it used to be all over but as far as we can tell this is the last one. It spans the valley in peru the guy on the bridges mike coauthor. So what makes it special is every year because the average is used so much it is sagging in the starting to look little dicey the lead of fall into the valleys sometimes they will burn it and then they will leave another one they weave that grasses together and they reestablished the rope bridge this is the last surviving one of what used to be able network a whole network this just looks Like Old School churcholrc in a cave which is strange and wondrous but you do not see the whole picture. F virgin this instrument is there because of a man with an incredible name in the 1950s went spelunking to decide it would be the perfect backdrop to theec Worlds Largest Musical Instrument so what you see here what you dont see are the pipes of the church organ theyre actually stalactites in what he didpe was spend years searching the caves for stalactites that would make the right sound when he would strike them then he wired 5 miles of cables to each individual stalactites it is called the stalactites organ he used to play the organ now displayed in the automated way and has been marketed as a musical jam of solid rock this wonderful device resembles a carousel is an attempt at a weather prediction device device, at the 1851 london exhibition and was created by a man named mary whethero isa and he was a surgeon that window was an approaching storm Freshwater Beaches would seem to be agitated and he built the tempest prosecutor been so there is a circle that which a the Freshwater Beach would be placed and is connected by l wires it is similar to this self mummified monks said with a storm was approaching the leeches when shaken the bills would raining and then you could say i need to take in the wash. [laughter]. It d in it did not work which is now why we have barometers and barometers. Is sad but look at this. Cause there is a model in a museum that is called a barometer world north of england it is all about barometers. Go if you can. A place to first went to as a child and made a mark on my brain, it looks like it resembles a nebula or galaxy. Beach glowing light is in fact, a fungus in the larvalin stage. Said these are the case in the north island of new zealand where i was born. It is the big network of caves. You go in there and in the final moment is that you conclude dryexx and universal pence before you. And dave are bioluminescence. There are thousands and millions of them. And if you have then to the Smoky Mountains the same thing happens and there are the firefly squids that light up the day. Is particularly magical example of by a luminescence. L another place from my part of the world grew up in australia and new year my neck of the woods on the south coast of the australia. It is a volcanic chard of spires 1800 feet tall of a pyramid and the significance in is and 2001 they were scaling besides looking for a creature the world had given up on. The creature is known by many names. It is more called the stake in sect but it is the size of your palm. Sony scientist had gotten a tip that they had found the remains of these insects that used to exist on the island 13 miles from the spire. When there reintroduced to the island in 1918 then theyre were all the extinct. But because the locking soss said bodies were discovered there was resents to go and search. And then there were 225 feetstst and they found a little nest of two dozen and walking sausages. Having made this discovery they would ask themselves what do we do with them . It is such a fragileng to ask th population of the creature thought extinct. So they spent about two years to figure out what to do with of creatures and in 2003 date decided to take two pairs to this do to get the population going again unfortunately one of the pairs died but the second pair became the basis for what is now a thousand strong walking soss said population. Trong [laughter]nd they are at m and even laughed laugh. So this object is located at the Icelandic Museum of witchcraft and sorcery and ask you hours outside of reach of it is a good time. But according but these actually existed in the 17th century and the story goes as follows. The procedure that would bring you let lac and wealth begins assemble request a good friend to his male to say when you die may i have your skin . [laughter] only from the waist down lets not be unreasonable. They would say yes theyve been great for them to diexude an exam the corpse to keep it in one piece. S your as a pair of trousers. That i find this a little on reasonable. So this seems excessive. A poo i am not sure she already passed to be povertystricken but you take the point to put into the pockets of the pants and the clean in of growing will attract more claims of luckll and wealth and once these pockets were filled withmo queens you past the empty 20 pants on to the next person one leg at a time like us three legged race we could not confirm the of veracity of the necropants team reports but it was so geared we had to include it. You are welcome. The these are located just outside a village and and tell 2005 nobody knew of their existence. A german explorer was is venturing into the assyria and saw the falls and thought they are really tall. Like top10 in the world. The villages said we knowal they are tall but there are so many things out there we got used to them. So when they were measured it was apparent there was controversy. E we sort of forgot that they were there. This is something that we see a lot in the philosophy. You dont have to go to peru to find things extraordinary. There are things in our ownu backyard but our incredible, ane it is just a matter of opening your eyes and not becomingoming complacent about whats around you. So, to that end, i want to talk about one more place briefly, which is right here in the state of wisconsin. [applause] how many of you have been . This is what i was talking abouk Hometown Pride to share the special things you found that are in your neighborhood in thet world. A tro evitron is incredible created in the 80s by a salvage expert tom evry. The idea of this victorian space machine is that he will go to the heavens on a lightning beam. Its right here north of madison on highway 12. These are the kind of places that wed love to celebrate. We would love for you all to go there and explore and see what is in your neighborhood and in your state. Share them with us in the world and be an explorer. And we hope that you will use atlast obscura as your guide. That is about it for my formalr presentation part of the proceedings. I would love to take questions if you have any. My only disclaimer is if you ask about a specific detail about one of the 700 places in the book, i may not immediately remember, but i will try my very best. So, does anyone have anyery best questions . Theres a microphone in the center. I will give you time to go to the microphone. I gather this started as a website, and i would imagine the book is constantly in need of updating. Do you anticipate future additions . Yes, definitely, and not jusf for that reason. We were definitely one to put future updated versions of the book added, but we are also already looking at what other books can we write, because the book of wonders and 400 pages is very difficult. We are looking at putting out books that are a little more specific in their focus, whether that is geographically or by subject matter. If you look at the index in our book, its things like parks and remains. Any of those categories could be an entire book in itself. Self. Our editor gave some feedback about the fact that we have too many anatomical museums that featured wax models and diseases. [laughter] we could easily put 40 of those in a book, but yes, we would like to put future updated editions of this book, but also other books out into the world. Thank you. I also wanted to say that while the site is a good example of what you are investigating around the world, wisconsin is full of those places. Theres any number of other candidates. I dont know if youve got other examples in the book. We have a lot on the website. One in the book, which all of you are probably familiar with is house on the rock, which is one of those you of course know about, but people around theu wl world dont. Its something thats worth sharing with the world, and iwi hope you dont mind sharing a precious place like that. This painted forest and concrete park, the belgrano, any number. Thank you for doing this. This is for tall people. [laughter] we are actually going to new zealand for the first time, andd what would you recommend, or should i just buy the book . That would be the main version. Theres so many things. So if you go to the museum in wellington, you will see a giant squid, colossal squid in fact. Thats a great place to go. The museum in general is wonderful. What else is in the book . Theres a place called creators of the moon, which is wonderful to walk around, it sort of lunar landscape thats very strange. Oo then you have places like if you want to nerd it up and you are interested in the economy as a machine that uses water to demonstrate how the economy works. It is i think at the university of ataga in the book. Yes i would recommen recommend m at the top of my list. Where is the university . Syndicate is on the south island. I should know this. Dunedin. Thank you. Was there any wonder that you wanted in the book but didnt make the cut . There were so many. Y. The the problem with narrowing down we started with a giant spreadsheet and tried to have a balance in terms of geography and the types of places. The problem was the three of us have certain predilections into things that we adore, not all of which made it into the book. As i was talking about before, we love medical museums. Its a thing we all like. One of the problems like that was some of them are quite similar to each other. These places that by themselves to learn are so incredible, but when you already have one that is similar in the book, weve got to take one out, but i want to keep it. So i would say yes, medical museums in general. D we tried not to make the book to deathy. [laughter] there is a lot of death, but its treated in interesting ways. Things like coffins that look like tigers, the Merry Cemetery which is a great laugh. Thank you. [inaudible] [laughter] the question is how manyn places weve gone to. We have been to as many places as possible in the buck. We are up to me started on the website to log the places that youve been to and we each got up to about 100 then stopped counting. But the book is very much a crowd sourced project. We definitely rely on ourely reu Wonderful Community of atlast obscura exporters that are out there finding things for us. So, we have been to as many places as the time and budget will allow. We did do as much in person Fact Checking as possible. Ac i did go to the cathedral of salt and it does taste like sold. But this is very much adoes t collaborative project. Another question coming up. I can feel the suspense. Two quick questions. One is to you often get asked by people not to put stuff up because they dont want people to know about its they want it to be their own secret . Second coming o of urban issuesf cultural sensitivity, people ap making light of something that they see as something spiritual of a place . Thats a good question. The question is about people maybe not wanting places to be included in the book. Ithats definitely a big concern of ours. We dont want to over expose an place for big people annoyed by the fact that they suddenly have a line of people out the door in what was previously a smallat ws special place. We have found thus far i think without exception that the places weve highlighted are places that in some cases were struggling to survive. And bringing attention to them and sending positions to them. Th thats been our experience so far, but there is a concern about that. Its strange to be called Atlas Obscura and then if the book does well and maybe these places wont be so obscure. O places like the caves of people in new zealand know about, we dont so much but sometimes it is spotlighting places that are only known locally in bringing in more people from outside so that they know about it. Yes, in general that is a concern of ours. If someone asked us to take the place off the website, we definitely would, but that hasnt happened so far. In terms of cultural sensitivity can absolutely. Again, this is a concern of ours when putting the book together. We never want to put something and say thats weird. Whats with these people doing this thing . We include this in the book because we want to celebrate with them, and we want to get a sense of whats out there in the world. One of the prime reasons for us doing this is to say how do people see the world. You know, what perspective can leave you this from . And so that was definitely something that we thought about when, you know, the terms of language we were using and the tone speaking to people who are part of these groups or who own these museums. Not trying to represent them without talking to them. The yeah. And i mean, even the concept of exploration and discovery is a little bit loaded. Its kind of the images are white guy in a ship, or even the phrase cabinet of curiosities or the grand European Tour like cashed up white guy going and taking stuff back. We went beyond that. We see the exploration andxp discovery as something that is open to all and doesnt require money or status or for you to be a particular type of person. So its
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