John Hieger's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
Loading map...
Tallinn, Estonia

Hellemann Tower and City Walls

Walk along the medieval fortifications that have been protecting Tallinn since the 14th century.
Rye, England

The Mermaid Inn

This centuries-old hotel hides a network of secret cellars and passages once used by smugglers.
Bury Saint Edmunds, England

The Nutshell Pub

The smallest pub in Britain was once a cabinet of curiosities and it still has the dead cat to prove it.
Lavenham, England

Suffolk's Pink and Crooked Houses

The historic villages and towns of Suffolk are filled with wonky wooden beam houses painted an unusual shade of pink. Unknown to many though, this sweet shade has a bloody history.
Roatán, Honduras

Bay Islands Underwater Museum

This collection of historical artifacts and tropical wildlife waits just beneath the surface of the water.
Halong City, Vietnam

Hang Sung Sot

Ha Long Bay's "Cave of Surprises" houses a popular phallic rock formation.
Cartagena, Colombia

KGB Cartagena

In the middle of one of South America's most historic walled cities lies a bar with an enormous collection of Soviet memorabilia.
London, England

The Troubadour

A 1950s beatnik coffee house, turned 60s counterculture hotspot, turned modern music venue.
Bangkok, Thailand

Wat Arun

This dazzling Buddhist temple was constructed from over one million ceramic tiles salvaged from a British shipwreck.
Vilnius, Lithuania

Literatų Gatvė (Literature Street)

Plaques celebrating Lithuanian writers freckle a wall of this picture-perfect path.
Tallinn, Estonia

Old Thomas

The Guardian of Tallinn.
Cartagena, Colombia

Door Knockers of Cartagena

The colonial city's social history is reflected in its fanciful door knockers.
Lisbon, Portugal

Santa Justa Lift

This Industrial Age architectural and engineering gem helps visitors and residents alike traverse Lisbon, “The City of Seven Hills.”
Caesarea, Israel

Caesarea Maritima Mithraeum

An ancient underground cultic temple where sunlight penetrates on the summer solstice.
Jerusalem, Israel

Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem

The only quarter of the Old City not dedicated to a major world religion.
Prague, Czechia

Prague Astronomical Clock

Macabre astrological automaton clock dating to the late 1400s.
New York, New York

The High Line

Elevated freight railway turned wildly successful urban park.
Grindavík, Iceland

Blue Lagoon

Medicinal spa created with the discharge from a geothermal energy plant.
Rome, Italy

Santa Maria della Concezione Crypts

The crypts of Capuchin friars decorated with the bones of over 4,000 friars, including an entire "crypt of pelvises."
San Francisco, California

Alcatraz Island

In all of the 29 years it was in operation, no prisoners ever escaped successfully... or so they claim.
Molson, Washington

Okanogan Highland Ghost Towns

This former mining hub holds a surprising abundance of undisturbed relics from the Old West.
Roslyn, Washington

Roslyn Cemetery

Its 27 graveyards represent the many nationalities and ethnic groups that voyaged to this wilderness in the late 19th century.
Seattle, Washington

Ballard Terminal Railroad

The spur that wouldn’t die.