Sites cools, insolites, secrets, tragiques

(Mise à jour : MAI 2021)

 

Parmi les choses que j'ai été amené à découvrir, figurent ici :

            - des lieux d'intérêt cool, voire insolites, des curiosités rarement visitées, des endroits parfois très secrets voire interdits (non mentionnés                  par la pluparts des guides touristiques),
            - des monuments exceptionnels (pour leur architecture, histoire ou signification),

de même que :

            - mon "bizzarium" (constructions bizarres, formations naturelles étranges, endroits nimbés de mystère, lieux étranges pour diverses raisons ...),
            - les points d'intérêt lié au côté sombre de l'histoire (liés aux guerres, aux cataclysmes ...) tels que des mémorials de guerre, les statues de                        dictateurs, les cimetières, des prisons, les camps de concentration et autres horreurs de l'humanité,
            - le meilleur du "street art" & de l' "urban art" (oeuvres d'art, peintures murales, mosaïques ..),
            - les endroits 'sulfureux' au sens large  (quartiers de vie nocturne, quartiers 'chauds', musées ou monuments à connotation érotique ...) (voir des                    quartiers 'chauds' fait aussi partie du voyage, en mentioner ici n'implique aucunement une visite 'de l'intérieur' ...)

Ne sont pas mentionnés ici des édifices religieux, des palais, des vestiges du passé, des points d'intérêt naturels (montagnes, lacs, chutes d'eau ...) ou ethnologiques,  sauf s'il y a quelque chose de spécifique à leur sujet (architecture, forme, taille, étrangeté ...). 

 

 

 

 

Afrique
   
    
   
    
Algérie

Alger : Makam E'chahid (= Mémorial du Martyr)  
Alger : Milk Bar, rue Didouche Mourad (anciennement rue Michelet) (le "Milk Bar", un glacier, existe toujours ; le FLN y a perpétré, en 1956 au début de la Guerre d'Algérie, une attaque terroriste visant des civils innocents : 3 personnes sont mortes et beaucoup blessées)  
Alger : Musée du Djihad (intéressant, mais une présentation biaisée de la Guerre d'Algérie)     
Alger : Place Maurice Audin (Audin était un Français communiste, collabo du FLN)                          
Alger : Mosquée Ketchaoua (un lieu à l'histoire troublée : d'abord mosquée, l'édifice est devenu la Cathédrale Saint Philippe pendant l'administration française et est redevenu mosquée après l'indépendence)   
Alger : Tour-Ascenseur du Port (Place Port Said, tour-ascenseur donnant accès via une passerelle à la partie haute d'Alger)
Hoggar : Assekrem
Tassili n'Ajjer : Formations rocheuses & peintures rupestres préhistoriques                 
Kbor er Rouma : Mausolée Royal de la Maurétanie (= Mausolée de la Chrétienne) (fille de Cléopâtre & de Marc Antoine)
Sidi Fredj : anciennement Sidi Ferruch (station balnéaire du temps de l'Algérie Française)

 

Bénin

Cotonou : Place du Souvenir & Monument aux Martyrs du 17 Janvier 1977 (suite à l' "Opération Crevette" menée contre le dictateur Kérékou)
Cotonou : Quartier de la Gare Jonquet (Quartier chaud)   
Ganvié : "la Venise de l'Afrique" sur pilotis ...                   
Ouidah : Porte du Non-Retour (Mémorial aux esclaves Africains)
Ouidah : Temple des Pythons (dans ce temple vaudou, sont adorés des serpents dans une fosse) 

 

Botswana

Gaberone : Three Dikgos Monument
Gweta : Chapman's Baobab, Green's Baobab, Planet Baobab     
Makgadikgadi Salt Pans                      
NO du Delta de l'Okavango : Gcwihaba Caverns, immenses grottes tout à fait insolites avec des 'nuages' de milliers de chauves-souris ...
Nxai Pan : Baines' Baobabs   
Okavango : Matlapana Bridge (un ancien pont historique qui fut le point de passage, à pied ou en chars à boeufs, reliant Maun et l'Est à travers le Delta de l'Okavango)
Orapa : Kubu Usland

 

Burkina Faso

Bobo Dioulasso : Marché traditionnel   
Koumi : Un village Bobo-Vore traditionnel (fétiches ...)
Loropéni : Murs millénaires chargés de mystère
Mare aux Hippopotames (où l'on attire des crocodiles à l'aide de poulets vivants ..)
Pics de Sindou  (Etranges formations rocheuses sacrées où se tiennent des rites d'initiation)
Sabou : Mare aux caimans sacrés 

 

Burundi

Bujumbura : Mausolée Rwagasore
Bujumbura : Monument aux Martyrs de la Démocratie
Source du Nil : "Pyramide"                            
 

Cameroun

Bafoussam : Chefferie de Bandjoun (palais du chef des Bamiléké)
Douala : King Akwa Mausoleum     
Ring Road (Ndu, Wum, Bafut ...) : La Ring Road, une mauvaise piste quand je l'ai parcourue, formant un cercle dans les savannes du Nord-ouest
Yaoundé : Cathédrale Notre-Dame-des-Victoires
Yaoundé : Immeuble CNPS, une construction d'architecture inhabituelle de forme ovoïde                                  
Yaoundé : Marché Central 
Expérience du trajet en train entre Yaoundé & Douala
     

Côte d'Ivoire

Abidjan : "La Pyramide" 
Anissié : Cérémonie de purification par les prêtresses Komian (féticheuses en voie de disparition ; les Komians sont mises à contribution pour leur connaisance des plantes médicinales ... mais aussi pour leur capacité à éloigner les forces maléfiques)
Grand Bassam : Monument aux Victimes de l'attentat du 13/3/2016 (attaque terroriste)
Korhogo (région) : Cérémonie du Poro (étrange cérémonie d'initiation marquant le passage à l'âge adulte ; la partie la plus spectaculaire de ce rituel est le "Boly", la danse de la panthère)
Krinjabo : Village Royal (avec rencontre du "Roi du Sanwi")                      
Odienné : Cérémonie Dozo (rituel nocturne ; les Dozos sont une confrérie secrète de chasseurs 'initiés')   
Touba (environs) : Danse sur échasses des Godufuma            
Vatouo : Pont de lianes de Vatouo
Yamoussoukro : Basilique Notre Dame de la Paix
Yamoussoukro : Statue dorée de Houphouët Boigny

 

Egypte 
  
Desert Blanc : El Khiyam (paysage extraordinaire de formations crayeuses évoquant des champignons, des cornets de glace ou autres ...)      
Desert Blanc : God's Finger 
Le Caire : Cité des Morts (gigantesque cimetière qui est en même temps un des plus grands bidonvilles d'Egypte)           
Nagoa Ash Shatb : Temple de Kom Ombo (spécifique pour ses bas reliefs qui ont été interprétés comme les premières representations d' instruments médicaux & chirurgicaux)      
        

Erythrée

Asmara : Cinema Impero (un cinéma Art Deco datant de l'occupation Italienne)
Dogaml : 'Ca Custa Lon Ca Custa' Bridge (Pont datant de l'occupation Italienne avec le motto "Par tous les moyens" en dialecte Piémontais)
Massawa : Ancien palais de Haile Selassie, en ruines
Nakura (Archipel des Dahlak) : Ancienne base navale Russe
 

Ethiopie

Addis Abeba : Squelette de Lucy  (National Museum)                 
Addis Abeba : Monument to the Lion of Judah  
Afar Region : Lac de lave du Erta Ale
Afar Region : Dallol (le cratère le plus étonnant du monde avec geysers, sources d'eau chaude et vasques acides multicolores) 
Amhara Region (Debre Sina) : Tunnel Mussolini (tel est son nom) 
Amhara Region (Gondar) : Village Wolleba, le principal centre des Beta Israel (les Juifs Ethiopiens, appelés également 'Falashas', la plupart ont émigré en Israël)      
Amhara Region (Lalibela) : Skeleton Cave (des squelettes et des crânes entassés derrière Yemrehana Krestos Church)         
Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region : Vallée de l'Omo et ses diverses tribus, dont les fameux Mursi et leurs femmes à plateaux labiaux
Tigray Region (Adigrat) : Cimetière Italien
Tigray Region (Axum) : Lioness of Godebra
Tigray Region (Debre Damo) : un monastère impressionnant dont l'accès se fait en grimpant le long d'une corde accrochée sur une falaise verticale 
Tigray Region (Mekele) : Tigray People's Liberation Front Monument
 

Gabon

Franceville : Statue dorée de Omar Bongo
Libreville : Monument de la Liberté
Libreville (environs) : Participation au rituel nocturne 'bwiti' 
    

Ghana

Accra : Independence Arch                       
Elmina : Elmina Castle (un des principaux centres de traite négrière)
Nkroful : Nkrumah Mausoleum
 

Guinée

Conakry : Palais des Nations                                                               
Conakry : Palais du Peuple
Doucky : Echelles de Doucky (un ensemble assez effrayant d'échelles faites de branches et cordes tpour franchir une grande falaise verticale)
Fouta Djajon : Pont de lianes de Ley Fita
Tamara Island : Ruines du Pénitencier colonial de Fotoba (fermé en 1958) 
 

Guinée Bissau

Bissau : Edificio dos Armazéns do Povo ('Magasins du Peuple', Avenida Amilcar Cabral)
Bissau : Monumento aos Heróis da Independência (= Monument aux Héros de l'Indépendance)
Bissau : Monumento aos Mártires de Pindjiguiti (= Monument aux Martyrs de Pindjiguiti, un monument curieux ressemblant à un poing avec des doigts carrés)

 

Kenya

Diani : Kaya Kinondo Sacred Forest
Malindi : Hell's Kitchen (Marafa Depression)
Monbasa : Tusks (= Défenses)
Nairobi : American Embassy Memorial Garden (dédié aux victimes de l'attaque terroriste de 1998)
Nairobi : Kibera (l'un des plus grands bidonvilles d'Afrique avc plus d'un million d'habitants)
Naro Moru : Trout Tree Restaurant (restaurant construit dans les branches d'un arbre énorme)
Nyali : "Big Daddy" (sculpture d'un crocodile gigantesque)
Nyeri : Tombe de Baden-Powell
   

Lesotho

God Help Me Pass (A3, une route épostouflante !)
Maseru : Basotho Hat (une boutique d'artisanat dont la forme est celle d'un chapeau 'Sotho')                 
Maseru : Statue du Roi Moshoeshoe I 
 

Libéria

Firestone : Plantations d'hévéas de Firestone & Usine de caoutchouc
Harper : Centenary Monument
Harper : Morning Star Masonic Lodge (loge maçonnique)
Harper : William Tubman Mansion (manoir délabré d'un ancien président, en ruines, utilisé maintenant par des squatteurs ; il n'en reste que la carcasse ; un peu dérangeant et sinistre !)
Monrovia : Centennial Pavillon
Monrovia : Ancien cinéma Rivoli 
Monrovia : Hotel Ducor (un hôte 5* abandonné et ruiné, du fait de la guerre civile, sinistre !)
Monrovia : Liberia - China Friendship Park
Monrovia : Westpoint (l'un des plus grands et plus dangereux bidonvilles de Monrovia : pas d'hostilité cependant, seulement de la curiosité ; aucun étranger ne s'y aventure !)
Mt Nimba : Restes d'équipement minier et ruines d'une grande centrale électrique
Yepeka: Ville minière (mine ArcelorMittal) 
                      

Libye  

Akakus (région éloignée et désertique offrant de superbes montagnes aux formes étranges et d'innombrables peintures & gravures rupestres)
Gabr Aoun : un village Bédouin déserté au bord d'un lac de désert (région des lacs Ubari dans le Désert Libyen)                                                   
Tripoli : Cathedral of the Sacred Heart (mosquée depuis 1970 ...)                      
Tripoli : Martyrs' Square (anciennement Green Square, du temps de Khadafi, vu en 1995)       

 

Madagascar

Ambovombe : Marché aux zébus
Antananarivo : Rova
Cap Sainte Marie : Point le plus méridional de Madagascar 
Toliara region : Anakao (Village Vézo)
Southwest : Tombeaux Mahafaly 
Tolanaro (ex Fort Dauphin) : Ilôt des Portugais
 

Malawi

Blantyre : Independence Arch
Lilongwe : Banda Mausoleum
Mangochi : Queen Victoria Memorial Clock Tower
Mangochi : WWII Cemetery
 

Mali

Bamako : Grotte du Point G (... rien à voir avec le point G ...)
Bamako : Pont des Martyrs 
Bandiagara : Falaise de Bandiagara (villages Dogons)   
Djenné : Grande Mosquée de Djenné (entiérement construite en terre crue séchée)
Niger River : Navigation en pirogue sur le Niger
 

Mauritanie

Chingetti : Bibliothèque du désert de Chingetti 
Fort Saganne (Fort (reconstruit en 1984 pour le tournage du film éponyme)
Guelb Er Richat (Ancien cratère au milieu de nulle part, surnommé 'l'Oeil de l'Afrigue' ...)
Nouakchott : Cathédrale de Nouakchott (église très petite & discrète de forme étrange)
Nouakchott : Port de Pêche
 

Mozambique

Beira : Grande Holel (hôtel de luxe abandonné maintenant occupé par des squatteurs)
PN Gorongoso : "Casa dos Leões" (= Maison des lions ; quand les humains ont abandonné ce lodge, les lions les ont remplacé !
Ilha de Moçambique :  Jardim da Memória (commémorant le traffic d'esclaves au Mozambique)
Maputo : Casa de Ferro (= Maison de fer, érigée par Eiffel)
Maputo : Iglesia de la Polana (une église étrange ressemblant à un presse-agrumes !)
Maputo : Grande fresque à la gloire de la Révolution sur la Praça dos Heróis     
Maputo : Restaurante 1908                                                   
Maputo : Rua de Bagamoyo (Quartier chaud ...)
Maputo : Statue de Samora Machel
Maputo : Section de sorcellerie du Mercado Xipamanine
Villa de Sena : Dona Ana railway bridge (plus long pont ferroviaire d'Afrique)                     
 

Namibie

Hoanib Valley : Elephants du Désert (très rares)                 
Keetmanshoop : Forêt d'arbres aux carquois ( = Quiver Tree Forest)
East of Lüderitz : Kolmanskop Ghost Town (ville maintenant fantôme qui surgit au milieu du désert lors de la ruée du diamant de 1908)                         
Offshore de Lüderitz : Shark Island, site du premier Camp de concentration Allemand dans le monde - la Namibie était alors une colonie allemande -  en opération entre 1905 & 1907 (avant les Nazis !) durant le génocide des Hereros & des Namaquas       
Namib Desert : Welwitschia (plante très particulière de grande taille, capable de collecter l'humidité du brouillard au dessus du désert côtier et pouvant vivre des centaines d'années)
Namib Region (Sud) : Duwisib Castle (une étrange forteresse à l'allure pseudo-médiévale, construite en 1908 au milieu du désert ;;;)
Walvis Bay : Plateforme à Guano (offshore)
Walvis Bay : Gare (en style germanique)   
Windhoek : Fresques murales (intéressantes fresques murales sur l'indépendance et l'histoire de la Namibie)
Windhoek : Les Gibeon Meteorites (exposées sur Post Street Mall)              
 

NIger

Aïr : Assodé (principale ville de l'Aïr & première capitale des Touaregs, maintenant abandonnée)  
Aïr : Tombe de Mano Dayak (région de El Mekki & de l'Oued Tidene) (Mano Dayak fut le chef de la rébellion Touareg des années 90)   
Aïr : "Pince d'Arakao" (site naturel exceptionnel) 
Désert du Ténéré : "Azalai" (maintenant en voie de disparition : caravanes de plus de 1000 chameaux transportant du sel, deux fois par an (vu en 2002)
Désert du Ténéré : Fachi (oasis quasi totalement abandonnée)
Désert du Ténéré : Monument "Arbre du Ténéré" ; au milieu du Ténéré, cette sculpture métallique représente un arbre et remplace un arbre solitaire qui se trouvait là et qui a été transféré au Musée National de Niamey)         
Djado : Oasis fantôme de Djaba & oasis fantômes du Plateau du Djado
Djado : Fort de la Légion (Chirfa)        
Sahara (à la limite Sud du désert) : "Guéréwol" (Rituel nuptial annuel des Wodaabe Fula -Peuls Bororo- : au crépuscule, les jeunes hommes se maquillent, se parent et tentent de séduire les jeunes filles ... et plus si affinité ... ; vu en 2004)
  

Ouganda

Ishasha Plains : Lions arboricoles (une vision unique ; il n'y a que 2 endroits en Afrique où les lions grimpent dans les arbres)
Kampala : Mengo Palace & Chambres de torture d'Idi Amin Dada (Idi Amin Dada fut surnommé "le boucher de l'Ouganda")
Kampala : Tombes Kasubi
     

République d'Afrique du Sud

Johannesburg : Apartheid Museum
Johannesburg : Soweto
Johannesburg (environs) : Lesedi Cultural Village ("Le Berceau de l'Humanité")   
Pretoria : Voortrekker Monument
Rustenburg : Sun City (le 'Las Vegas' de l'Afrique du Sud)
     

République Centrafricaine

Bangui : En pirogue sur l'Oubangui
Berengo : Cour Impériale de Berengo (ruines de l'ancien palais de Bokassa) 
Bouar : Camp Deroux (ancien Camp de la Légion Française avec son entrée ornée d'un 'leopard' )   
Bouar : Pierres Mégalithiques (éparpillées partout dans la ville et ses abords)
     

République Démocratique du Congo

Parc National de Kahuzi-Biéga : Dernier refuge des Gorilles des Plaines Orientales, espèce très menacée 
Parc National des Virunga :  L'un des parcs nationaux les plus dangereux du monde du fait du braconnage & des conflits armés... (vu en 1989 quand c'était encore sûr & la vie animale très abondante)         
Volcan Nyiragongo : Plus grand lec de lave du monde 
  

Rwanda

Biserero: Memorial du Génocide de Biserero (probablement le plus émouvant)
Karongi : Memorial du Génocide de l'Eglise St-Pierre
Kibeho : Sanctuaire & Place des Apparitions (la Vierge Marie y aurait fait une apparition ...)
Kigali : Memorial du Camp Kigali (10 soldats de l'ONU y furent assassinés)
Kigali : Monument de la Campagne Contre le Génocide
Kigali : Hôtel des Mille Collines (refuge des étrangers pendant la guerre civile entre Hutus & Tutsis)
Kigali : Centre du Memorial du Génocide de Kigali
Kigali : Restes de l'avion présidentiel abattu en Avril 1994
Lake Kivu : Napoléon Island (ainsi dénommée du fait de sa forme rappelant le chapeau de Napoléon)
Mt Bisoke : Tombe de Dian Fossey & Tombes de Gorilles (le fameux Digit & d'autres)
Musanze : Memorial du Génocide de Musanze
Ntarama : Memorial du Génocide de Ntarama
Nyamagabe : Memorial du Génocide de Murambi
Nyamata : Memorial du Génocide de Nyamata
Shyorongi : Memorial du Génocide de Shyorongi
      

Sénégal

Ile de Gorée : Maison des Esclaves
Ile de Karabane : Ile traditionnelle en Casamance avec de vieux édifices coloniaux Français, en particulier, incongrue, une ancienne église en style breton
Ile de Fadiouth : Ile fascinante, surnommée "l'Ile aux coquillages" à cause de son sol entièrement fait de coquillages                   
Ile de Fadiouth  : Cimetière & calvaire 
Joal : Passerelle entre  Joal & l'île de Fadiouth (vieux long pont en bois reliant Joal & l'Ile de Fadiouth)                    
Nioro du Rip : Cercles mégalithiques de Sénégambie
Rufisque : Lac Retba (surnommé “Lac Rose”, lac salé comparable en teneur de sel à la Mer Morte)
Saint-Louis : Hôtel de la Poste (illustre pour avoir été l'hôtel où résidait Mermoz à Saint-Louis)     
Saint-Louis : Hydrobase (d'où s'envolaient les hydravions de l' "Aéropostale")  
Saint-Louis : Pont Faidherbe (construit par Eiffel)                                                     
Saint-Louis (environs) : Langue de Barbarie (étrange bande de sable, progressivement submergée, avec le Cimetière des Marins Musulmans)
Ziguinchor : Marché Saint-Maur-des-Fossés (marché portant le nom d'une banlieue de Paris !)
 

Sierra Leone

Banana Island : 
Bo : Clocktower
Bunce Island (Restes de : Slave Castle, Slave Yard, Auction Yard, Slave Prison, & 2 cimetières, l'un pour les Noirs, l'autre pour les Blancs)
Charlotte : Village "Krio" 
Freetown : Cotton Tree (symbole historique de Freetown)
Freetown : Kissy Gun
Freetown : Peace and Cultural Monument (excellentes peintures murales)
Freetown : UN Peacekeepers Memorial
Freetown : Portuguese Steps (= Marches de la Liberté) (en fait ne datant pas des Portugais)
Kenema : Boutiques pour chercheurs d'or & de diamants
Kenema / Koida : Orpaillage artisanal
Sinekoro : Pont de lianes de la Seli River
Waima : Mémorial du Capitaine Lendy (aux soldats Français qui se sont par erreur entretués, croyant avoir à faire aux guerriers Sofas ...)
York : WWI English Watchpost
 

Somalie

Baidoa : Former State House (en ruines)
Berbera : DHB Monument (monument bizarre : au sommet d'une colonne une sculpture d'un porte-containeurs)
Berbera : Moscow Village (où vivaient les Russes avant leur expulsion en 1977)
Hargeisa : Commonwealth Cemetery
Hargeisa : Independence Monument (étrange monument représentant une main dressée tenant une carte du Somaliland)
Hargeisa : Khat Market (le Khat est une plante dont on mâche les feuilles et qui agit comme stimulant ; cette drogue est couramment consommée)
Mogadishu : Black Hawk Crash Site
Mogadishu : Green Zone
Mogadishu : Hawo Tako Monument (représentant une femme transpercée de flêches)
Mogadishu : Stone Throwing Monument
Mogadishu : Lido Beach (ex zone balnéaire Italienne, maintenant abandonnée ...)
 

Soudan

JebeL Barkal : Montagne sacrée dans le désert non loin du Nil avec restes de pyramides et ruines de temples
Khartoum :  Africa Monument (étrange monument : une sphère dorée, en partie coupée en deux, couverte de silhouettes humaines ; sur Africa Street)
Meroe :   Pyramides Nubiennes pour partie ensablées !  
Soleb  (le meilleur temple égyptien du Soudan, non loin de la 3ème cataracte du Nil (ce qui est particulier à Soleb est son éloignement : s'y rendre est une aventure impliquant une longue traversée du désert en 4x4, trouver un bateau pour traverser le Nil et une marche significative)
    

Soudan du Sud

Central Equatoria & Eastern Equatoria States : Tribus traditionnelles authentiques à rencontrer (Toposas, Boyas, Lotukos, Mundaris ..;) (probablement les peuples premiers d'Afrique les mieux préservés)
Juba : Statue de John Garang
    

Swaziland 

Mbabane : Lampadaires and Balustres provenant de l'ancien Waterloo Bridge de Londres
 

Tanzanie

Arusha: Uhuru Monument
Dar-es-Salam : Askari Monument
Dar-es-Salam : Fish Market (remarquable)
Dar-es-Salam : Kariakoo Market (le plus grand marché d'Afrique de l'Est)
Dar-es-Salam : Uhuru Monument
Ol Doinyo Lengaï (volcan exceptionnel pour ses laves couleur chocolat les plus froides du monde, sacré pour les Masaïs ; grimpé en 2004) 
Pemba : Pemba Essential Oil Distillery
Zanzibar : Prison Island (= Changuu Island)
Zanzibar : Slave Chambers (Mangapwani)
Zanzibar : Slave Market Memorial
Zanzibar : Le "Rock" (site unique : un restaurant perché sur un rocher non loin du rivage de Pingwe beach)
Zanzibar : Zanzibar Milestone
 

Tchad

Guelta d'Archei 
Vallée des Flûtes (Terkei) (site naturel : arche & aiguilles rocheuses) 

 

Togo

Lomé : Statue de Eyadema (détruite durant les troubles de Juin 1991 & remplacée en 2016 par une statue plus grande ... par les Chinois ; Eyadema fut Président du Togo)   
Lomé : Monument de l'Indépendence
Sarakawa : Monument Sarakawa (en mémoire du crash de l'avion d'Eyadema en 1974) 
Togoville : Autel Vaudou
 

Tunisie
                  
Chenini : Mosquée des Sept Dormeurs (étrange mosquée avec un minaret penché & une mystérieuse salle souterraine éclairée par 2 bougies, comme 2 yeux) 
Gorges de la Selja : "Le Lézard Rouge" (train)   
Kesra : Intéressant Village Berbère, le plus haut village de Tunisie   
Monastir : Mausolée de la Famille de Bourguiba
Matmata : Habitations troglodytes de Matmata (rendues célèbres par "Star Wars")    
Sidi Bou Said : Café des Nattes (El Kahwa el Alia, café iconique)            
Tataouine : Ksar Ouled Soltane (ce ksar semble tellement être d'un autre monde que George Lucas le choisit comme quartiers des esclaves où Anakin & sa mère vivaient dans le film Star Wars Phantom Menace)

 

Zambie

Lusaka : Freedom Statue
South Luangwa : The Twin Baobabs
 

Zimbabwe 

Kariba : Operation Noah Monument (pyramide commémorant le sauvetage de milliers d'animaux lors de la mise en eau du Barrage de Kariba)
Masvingo : Italian Chapel (construite par des prisonniers de guerre de la 2ème guerre mondiale)
Rhodes Matopos : Rhodes Tomb

 

 

 

Amériques

 

 

Argentine   
              
Buenos Aires : Amazing Street art in La Boca district (Painted murals & Bas relief murals depicting for example tango dancers)  
Buenos Aires : "Caminito" (a bright little alley with colourfully painted houses in La Boca district where local artists display their art)                  
Buenos Aires : Evita Peron's Grave (Cementerio de la Recoleta) 
Buenos Aires : Floralis Generica
Buenos Aires : Manzana de Las Luces                                           
Buenos Aires : Puente Transbordador de La Boca (= Buenos Aires Transporter Bridge)
Buenos Aires : Red Flower sculpture (Puerto Madero, Dique 4)    
Provincia de Buenos Aires (Tigre) : Paseo Victorica                                     
Provincia de Catamarca (Santa Maria) : Monumento Pachamama (a strange huge statue of a pregnant woman - Goddess Mother Earth -  looking up to the sky)                                                
Provincia de Jujuy : Cuesta de Lipán
Provincia de Jujuy (Quebrada de Humahuaca) : Tropic of Capricorn Sundial
Provincia de Jujuy (Jujuy) : Museu Historico Policial (drugs, aborted foetuses ....)       
Provincia de Jujuy (Tres Cruces) : "Espinazo del Diablo" (Devil's Backbone : a weird natural site)
Provincia de Jujuy (Tres Cruces) : "Puente del Diablo" (natural bridge)                                  
Provincia de Neuquén (Junín de los Andes) : Via Christi (modern sculptures & a mural dedicated to Argentina's debt !)
Provincia de la Rioja : "Señor De La Peña" (a weird rock figuring a head)
Provincia de Rio Negro (El Bolsón) : El Bosque Tallado (a forest whose trees are sculptured)
Provincia de Rio Negro (Lliao Liao) : Hotel Lliao Lliao
Provincia de Salta (Cafayate) : Strange House (lama shaped house)   
Provincia de Salta (PN Cardones) : "Recta Tin Tin" (an amazing 19km straight road cutting across a spell-binding valley, reputedly created by the Incas) 
Provincia de Salta (Salta) : Monumento a Martín Miguel de Güemes
Provincia de Salta (San Antonio de los Cobres) : "Tren a las Nubes" experience & Viaducto La Polvorilla ("Train to the Clouds" & La Polvorilla viaduct : an impressive all-steel made viaduct)   
Provincia de San Juan (PN Ischigualasto) : "Cancha de Bochas" (= 'Bowls Pitch' : an unusual natural site with numerous spherical rocks on a flat area) 
Provincia de San Juan (PN Ischigualasto) : "Submarino" (natural site)
Provincia de Santa Cruz (El Calafate) : Glaciarium
Provincia de Santa Fe (Rosario) : Monumento Nacional a la Bandera
Provincia de Santa Fe (Rosario) : Former brothels of Calle Ricchieri  (this was a notorious zone of prostitution at the beginning of the 20th century)  
Provincia de Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur : Bahia Lapataia (most southern point of the longest motorway on the planet & farthest south by driving in the Western Hemisphere)
Provincia de Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur : Tren del Fin del Mundo (End of the World Train) experience
Provincia de Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur (Rio Grande) : Monumento a la Trucha (sculpture of a giant trout)
Provincia de Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur (Rio Grande) : Monumento Ovejero Fueguino
Provincia de Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur (Ushuaia) : Monumento a los Caídos en las Islas Malvinas
Provincia de Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur (Ushuaia) : Street art (Murals : Calle Urquiza & others)
Provincia de Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur (Ushuaia) : Ushuaia Prison Mural (Ushuaia was once a prison colony for Argentina ; this mural on the facade of the Post Office depicts prisoners in their uniforms)
Provincia de Tucumán (San Miguel de Tucumán) : Monumento a Martín Miguel de Güemes (enormous monument)
 

Bolivie

La Paz : Mercado de las Brujas (= Witches' Market)
La Paz : Museo de la Coca  : 
La Paz : Museo del Litoral Boliviano (= Museum of Bolivian Coastline ; a bizarre museum for a landlocked country !)                               
La Paz (nearby) : Valle de la Luna (= Valley of the Moon)             
Potosí : Capilla El Tio, inside Cerro Rico Silver Mine (El Tio Chapel ; El Tio, which means  "The Uncle", is worshipped as the underworld devil who grants protection to Bolivian miners)      
Potosí : Estatua a la Minera de Estaño Revolucionarias (= Statue to the Revolutionary Tin Miner)                                                                      
Potosí : Monumento al Minero (= Monument to the Silver Miners)   
Salar de Uyuni : Isla de Lomo Pescado (an "island" in the middle of the largest salt flat  of the world)             
Sur Lípez : Laguna Colorada (a red lake, 4000 m above sea level) & Laguna Verde (a spectacular emerald green lake)                 
Sur Lípez : Salvador Dali Desert (stark desert horizon coupled with strange rock formations strike a strong resemblance to Salvador Dali’s work, thus the name of this desert)
Uyuni : Cementerio de Trenes (= Great Train Graveyard ; on the outskirts of a desert village, a weird & impressive place full of trains corroded by salt winds 
 

Brésil   
                     
Brasília : Cathedral (a stunning building, due to its striking shape)                                          
Brasília : Memorial JK, dedicated to Juscelino Kubitschek                                                                            
Brasília : Praça dos Três Poderes (= Three Powers Plaza)
Estado do Ceará (Fortaleza) : Castelo Branco Memorial   
Estado do Maranhão (São Luís) : Estátua de Benedito Leite (Praça Benedito Leite) (the statue has Leite's hand hidden, as a hint to his words : before cutting the education budget, you will have to cut my hand !) 
Estado de Mato Grosso (Cuiabá) : Centro Geodésico da América do Sul (Obelisk marking the center of South America)  
Estado de Minas Gerais (Belo Horizonte) : Casa do Baile       
Estado de Minas Gerais (Belo Horizonte) : Rua do Amendoim (Peanut Street) ; a bizarre phenomenon : optical illusion (though cars appear to be rolling uphill they’re actually rolling down !)     
Estado de Minas Gerais (Cachoeira do Campos) : Museu das Reduções
Estado de Minas Gerais (Congonhas) : Romária      
Estado de Minas Gerais : Trem da Vale experience (old fashioned steam train between Ouro Preto & Mariana)         
Estado de Minas Gerais (Diamantina) : Caminho dos Escravos (Slaves trail)
Estado de Minas Gerais (Mariana) : Minas do Passagem         
Estado de Minas Gerais (Mariana) : Topaz Mine Antônio Pereira
Estado de Minas Gerais (Ouro Preto) : República Sinagoga (at Ouro Preto University, students stay in communal houses called 'república' with funny names)                   
Estado de Pará (Belém) : Ver-o-Peso (a unique market) 
Estado do Paraná (Foz do Iguacu) : Marco das Três Fronteiras (Three Borders Landmark)        
Estado do Rio de Janeiro (Niterói) :  Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói (looks likea flyying saucer)                   
Estado do Rio de Janeiro (Petrópolis) : Trono de Fátima                                             
Estado do Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro) :  Rio de Janeiro Cathedral (massive quirky Brazilian church built like an angular, technicolor Mayan pyramid)
Estado do Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro) :  Largo do Boticário 
Estado do Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro) :  Rocinha (favela)
Estado de São Paulo ( São Paulo) : Amazing Street Art & Graffiti (Avenida Paulista tunnel, Avenida Nove de Julho tunnel)
Estado de São Paulo ( São Paulo) : Auditório Ibirapuera
Estado de São Paulo ( São Paulo) : Café Girondino
Estado de São Paulo ( São Paulo) : Hotel Unique 
Estado de São Paulo ( São Paulo) : Monumento a los 100 años de Inmigración Japonesa a Brasil 
 

Canada

British Columbia (Vancouver) : Gastown Steam Clock (A working steam clock, one of only a few in the world)
British Columbia (Vancouver) : Girl in a Wetsuit sculpture (the local 'Little Mermaid' !)     
British Columbia & Yukon : Driving the Alaska Highway experience       
Manitoba (Churchill) : "Miss Piggy" wreckage     
Newfoundland : Cape Spear (Easternmost point of North America)
Northwest Territories : Ice Road (only in winter) from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk (drawn on frozen Mackenzie River & Arctic Ocean)
Northwest Territories (Cambridge Bay) : DEW Base (Distant Early Warning)
Northwest Territories (Cambridge Bay) : Maud Wreckage (by Amundsen in his 2nd expedition in the Northwest Passage ; I was there in 2005, but in 2017, it has been transferred to Norway)
Northwest Territories (Inuvik) : Igloo Church (an igloo shaped church whose official name is Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris !)
Northwest Territories (Inuvik) : Midnight Sun Mosque (world's northernmost mosque)
Northwest Territories (Tuktoyaktuk) : Ice House (big natural "community freezer" dug in the permafrost, used by locals to store reindeer meat, fish ...)
Northwest Territories (Tuktoyaktuk) : "Pingos" (curious earth-covered ice hills dating more than 1,000 years) 
Nunavut : Marble Island (a curious all white island composed of wacke and quartzite, giving  the island its all white, marble-like appearance                  
Nunavut (Beechey Island) : Remains of Northumberland House  & Graves of Franklin expedition members
Ontario (Morrisburg) : Upper Canada Village                   
Ontario (Sudbury) : Big Nickel Monument (giant coin)
Ontario (Toronto) : Distillery District
Ontario (Toronto) : Skydome
Quebec (Chambord) : Val-Jalbert (ghost village)
Quebec (Montréal) : Rue Ste Catherine / The Village (Gay district)
Yukon & Northwest Territories : Dempster Highway (temporary winter road between Dawson City & Inuvik : a fascinating trip)                 
Yukon (Beaver Creek) : Our Lady of Grace (a bizarre small chapel built from a salvaged Quonset hut left over from the Alaska Highway construction days) :
Yukon (Dawson City) :Flora Dona Hotel Brothel (a brothel during the Klondyke Gold Rush)
Yukon (Dawson City) : Ice Bridge (Temporary winter bridge made of ice)
Yukon (Herschel Island) : Branded “the Sodom of the Arctic”, old whaling buildings, whalers cemetery
Yukon (Watson Lake) : Sign Post Forest (a collection of more than 70,000 signs alongside the Alaska Highway left by passing drivers ;  street signs, welcome signs, signatures on dinner plates, license plates from around the world) 
Yukon (Whitehorse) : Arctic Winter Games Torch Monument
Yukon (Whitehorse) : S/S Klondike 
 

Chili

Región de Antofagasta (Antofagasta) : La Portada (natural seashore site)                                                                
Región de Antofagasta (Baquedano) : Estación de ferrocarril de Baquedano (old train station in the desert)                                  
Región de Antofagasta (Calama) : an interesting dormitory city for the Chuquicamata mine, nicknamed "Calamity City"                                   
Región de Antofagasta (Calama) : Conchi Bridge, amazing large & high bridge (once, when it was constructed, the 2nd highest railway in the world, built by Eiffel)                                   
Región de Antofagasta (Ollagüe) : a frontier village (Far West look !)                     
Región de Antofagasta (Valle de la Luna) : Tres Virgenes (the 3 Virgins)                           
Región de Arica y Parinacota (Arica) : Cristo de la Concordia de Arica 
Región de Los Lagos (Cucao, Chiloe) : Puente De Bote (bridge shaped as a boat)                        
Región de Los Lagos (Quellón, Chiloe) : Monumento Juventud de los '70s 
Región de Los Lagos (Puerto Varas) : Pablo Fierro Museum (a creaky gallery and museum sprouting a jumble of bric-a-brac : cuckoo clocks, candy canes ...
Región de Los Lagos (Puerto Montt) : Escultura Sentados Frente al Mar (huge scullpture of a seated couple)
Región de Los Ríos (Valdivia) : Péndulo de Foucault Foucault Pendulum)                 
Región del Bío Bío (Cobquecura) : Iglesia de Piedra (= Stone Church, a curious natural stone church)
Región del Bío Bío (Parque Nacional Laguna del Laja) : Monumento a la tragedia de Antuco
Región de Magallanes y de la Antártica Chilena : Puerto Bories (disused harbour, wharehouses & industrial buildings such as the "frigorifico")
Región de Magallanes y de la Antártica Chilena : Remains of "Vapor Amado" on the beach of Estancia San Gregorio
Región de Magallanes y de la Antártica Chilena : Silla del Diablo
Región de Magallanes y de la Antártica Chilena (Punta Arenas) : Cementerio (a very unusual cemetery)
Región de Magallanes y de la Antártica Chilena (Punta Arenas) : El "Ovejero"
Región de Magallanes y de la Antártica Chilena (Punta Arenas) : Landsdale Wreckage & Ambassador Wreckage
Región de Magallanes y de la Antártica Chilena (Punta Arenas) : Nao Victoria de Magellan (reconstructed boat)
Región de Magallanes y de la Antártica Chilena (Punta Arenas) : Puerto del Hambre (Port Hunger)
Región de Magallanes y de la Antártica Chilena (Punta Arenas) : Stone Castle Milward (a 'folie')                                 
Región Metropolitana de Santiago : El Caupolicán (Caupolicán was a Mapuche warrior who fought against the conquistadores ; on Cerro Santa Lucia) 
Región Metropolitana de Santiago : Monumento A la Victoria de Chacabuco (= Monument to the Victory of Chacabuco)               
Región Metropolitana de Santiago : Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende               
Región de Ñuble (Chillán) : Mural Chillán Viejo (in Parque Monumental Bernardo O'Higgins) (a more than 60m mural made of stone and mosaics about Bernardo O'Higgins's life)         
Región de Tarapacá : Geoglifos de Pintados (= the Pintados Geoglyphs, a fantastic place : along four kilometers, large mysterious drawings made by the first inhabitants of the region)       
Región de Tarapacá : Gigante de Atacama (= the Giant of Atacama) (an enormous geoglyph)                           
Región de Tarapacá : Humberstone former Saltpeter Refineries & ghost town        
Región de Tarapacá : Santa Laura former Saltpeter Refineries & ghost town          
Región de Valparaíso (Valparaiso) : "Funicular" Elevators   (unusual public transit method consisting of a cable car which is pulled up and lowered down a steep incline)    
Región de Valparaíso (Viña del Mar) : Castillo Wulff (= Wulff Castle,  a unique landmark ; this whimsical European-style chateau built at the beginning of the 20th century mixes revivalist styles making it a great example of early 20th-century eclecticism) 
 

Colombie

Bogotá : Famous street art (Calle 26 and other locations)
Bogotá : "Alumbrado" (Christmas Lights, everywhere in Colombia, very elaborate)
Bogotá : Click Clack Hotel (a boutique hotel with a spectacular modern design)
Bogotá : Museo Historico Policia (mainly for the Narcotraficantes section)
Bogotá : Zona Roja (Santa Fe, off Avenida Caracas) (Red light district)
Departamento de Antioquia (Guatapé) : Piedra del Peñol                                                  
Departamento de Antioquia (Medellín) : El Hombre Creador de Energía                                       
Departamento de Antioquia (Medellín) : Monumento a la Raza                                             
Departamento de Antioquia (Medellín) : Monumento a la Vida                                            
Departamento de Antioquia (Medellín) : Plazoleta de las Esculturas (Botero sculptures)                       
Departamento de Antioquia (Puerto Triunfo) : Rio Claro
Departamento de Antioquia (Puerto Triunfo) : Hacienda Nápoles (Pablo Escobar's former residence) 
Departamento de Bolivar (Cartagena) : Monumento a los Zapatos Viejos
Departamento de Boyacá : Parque Monumento Nacional Puente de Boyacá (site of an important battle won by Bolivar)
Departamento de Boyacá (Chicamocha) : Monumento a la Santandereano Idade                                         
Departamento de Boyacá (Sáchica) : Monumento al Onion (Onions are the main crop in the area)
Departamento de Boyacá (Santa Sofia) :  Iglesia Parroquial Santa Rosa De Lima (a strange modern church made of arches and nicknamed the "McDonald's" church)
Departamento de Boyacá (Villa de Leyva) : Casa Terracota (also named Casa de los Picapiedras, a whimsical home made entirely from clay)
Departamento de Caldas : Marquetalia (former República de Marquetalia, an autonomous zone which became the birthplace of the FARC) 
Departamento de Caldas (Manizales) : Monumento a los Colonizadores
Departamento de Caldas (Manizales) : Plaza de Bolivar with artworks of Guillermo Vallejo Vargas
Departamento del Cauca (Silvia) : Mercado Gambiano (with traditional Gambianos indians)
Departamento de Cundinamarca : Laguna de Guatavita (where the Eldorado legend took its roots)                                   
Departamento de Cundinamarca (Zipaquirá) : Catedral de Sal (cathedral inside a salt mine : La Mina del Sal)                    
Departamento del Huila : Desierto de la Tatacoa                
Departamento del Huila (Neiva) : Monumento a la Gaitana               
Departamento de Nariño (Ipiales) : Santuario de las Lajas
Departemento Norte de Santander (Cúcuta) : Monumento al Cristo Rey de Cúcuta   
Departamento de Risaralda (Pereira) : Bolivar Desnudo  
Departamento de Quindío (Filandia) : Posada Alemana (former property of a powerful narcotraficante)
Departamento de Santander (Barichara) : Escultura de la Hormiga Culona (Large sculpture of an ant : "Hormigas culona" are edible ants, a delicacy from this region)
Departamento de Valle del Cauca (Cali) : Parque del Gato (a park full of sculptures representing cats) 
 

Costa Rica 
   
Grecia : Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, a special church as it is made entirely from sheet metal (it is the most metal church in the world)
Palmar Sur : Diquís Spheres (mysterious ancient stone spheres were created by a civilization lost to time)
Zarcero : Parque Francisco Alvarado, full of strange topiary figures and shapes 
 

Equateur

Tulcán : Cementerio de Tulcán - José María Azael Franco (spectacular topiaries 
 

Guatemala

Chichicastenango : Traditional Maya Market (one of the largest outdoor markets in Latin America) 
 

Guyana

Coastal region : Berbice Floating Bridge
Enmore : Enmore Martyrs Monument (dedicated to people dead during a strike)
Georgetown : Indian Arrival Monument (a curious boat shaped monument)
Georgetown : Monument of the Non-aligned Movements (with Nasser, Nkrumah, Nehru & Tito heads)       
 

Guyane Française

Iles du Salut : Bagne de l'Ile Royale (former infamous penal colony)
Kourou : Centre Spatial (Space Center)
St Laurent du Maroni : Camp de la Transportation (former penal colony) 

 

Honduras

Copán : Hieroglyphic Stairway (staircase full of hieroglyphs, forming the longest discovered Mayan text and perhaps the largest single text in the world) 
 

Mexique

Cabo San Lucas : The Arch of Cabo San Lucas                                               
Chamula : Iglesia de San Juan (a peculiar church no longer recognized as Catholic because masses here incorporate animal sacrifice)
El Tule (Estado de Oaxaca) : El Árbol del Tule (tree with what is the largest diameter - 14m - of a tree in the world)
Mexico City : "El Caballito" (huge sculpture of a horse head)           
Mexico City : Monumento a la Revolución
Mexico City : Museo Soumaya (a unique ethereal building)          
Mexico City : Palace of the Inquisition (a palace with a terrifying history & deemed haunted)
Mexico City : UNAM Central Library                           
Oaxaca : Jardín Etnobotánico de Oaxaca
Tula : Tula Giants 
Tuxtla Gutiérrez : Cañón del Sumidero 
 

Nicaragua

Catarina : Pueblo Blanco
León : Galeria de Heroes y Martires de La Revolucion Popular Sandinista 
Managua : Monumento al Soldado Desconocido (Monument to the Unknown Soldier)
San Jacinto : Boiling Mud Pools 
 

Panamá

Boquete : Mi Jardín es Su Jardín (an original garden) 
Ciudad de Panamá : Ferdinand de Lesseps Statue (Plaza de Francia)
Colón : Fort Sherman (a former United States Army base)
Gatún : Fort Davis & Fort Gulick (former United States Army bases) 
 

Paraguay   
                
Asunción : Former  Estación Central del Ferrocarril (former railway station, now disused ; this station is the oldest train station in South America)   
Asunción : Panteón Nacional de los Héroes (=   National Pantheon of Heroes)
Itaipú : Represa de Itaipú (= Itaipu Dam) (a dam which flooded a natural wonder : the Salto de Sete Quedas de Guaira ...)          
Jesús de Tavarangüe : Reducción Jesuítica Guaraní de Jesús de Tavarangue (= Jesuit Mission of Jesús de Tavarangüe ; among the many jesuit 'Reducciónes' in Paraguay, this one is, along with La Santissima, the most spectacular) 
 

Pérou

Chachapoyas : Cliff Sarcophagi of Karajia (a burial site high in a cliff with mysterious tombs in the shape of vertical human figures)
Chancay : Castillo de Chancay (a faux castle) 
Cuzco : Monumento Inca Pachacutec   
Espiritu Pampa : the Last Refuge of the Incas
Hatun Machay : Stone Forest
Huari : Fuente de los Gatos (Cat fountain, with cat sculptures)   
Leymebamba : Mummies museum (a fascinating museum showing more than 200 mummies)
Lima : Wall of shame (= El "muro de la vergüenza" : as a response to a wave of migration in the 1980s, this wall divides the Peruvian capital’s rich neighborhoods from its poor ones) 
Machu Picchu : Camino del Inca  
Maras : Salineras de Maras   
Nazca : Nazca Lines
Q'Eswachaka : Yearly 4 days reconstruction of the Q'Eswachaka inca bridge (a 3 days experience)
Provincia de Quispicanchi : Qoyllur Rit'i (Yearly mi inca mi christian pilgrimage, the largest in Latin America) & one of the most unusual) 
 

St Pierre et Miquelon

St Pierre : Musée de l'Arche (showing a guillotine sent there in 1870 !)
St Pierre : Fronton Zazpiak-Bat & Tronquet
Ile aux Marins : Epave du Transpacific (shipwreck) 
 

Suriname

Jodensavanne (Jews Savannah)
Marienburg​ : Indonesian Immigration Monument 
Paramaribo : "Pikolet" (Independance Square)
Paramaribo : Statue Baba & Mai
Santigron : "Marron" village 
 

Uruguay 
        
Montevideo : La Muneca Gigante  
Montevideo : Monumento a Artigas & Mausoleo de Artigas (Plaza de la Independencia)
Montevideo : Monumento a La Diligencia (= Stagecoach Monument)                                
Montevideo : Monumento la Carreta (Wagon Monument) (a sculpture depicting a wagon and straining oxen, in honor of the ox-cart drivers of the 19th century)                                                       
Montevideo : Palacio Salvo (due to its strange design, it is nicknamed as "a lighthouse on top of a building") 
Punta Ballena : Casa Pueblo (a weird and eccentric whitewashed building in a strange style influenced by the oven-like mud nests of the local hornero birds)             
Punta del Este : 'La Mano' (a sculpture depicting five human fingers partially emerging from the sand of the beach) 
 

USA

Alaska (Anchorage) : Alaska Statehood Monument                                                                                          
Alaska (North Pole) : Actually North Pole is not the geographic North Pole, but a village with this name     
Alaska (Seward) : Murals (amzing street art ! ; Seward is known as the “Mural Capital of Alaska”)
Alaska (Whittier) : Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel  (or Whittier tunnel)  (this tunnel is special as it is a mixed road & rail tunnel ; it s also s the 2nd longest highway tunnel in North America) 
Arkansas (Eureka Springs) : Attending the "Great Passion Play" experience
Arkansas (Paris) : Nothing special except the name of this town !
California (San Francisco) : Alcatraz
California (San Francisco) : Anarchists of the Americas Mural
California (San Francisco) : Balmy Alley Murals
California (San Francisco) : Crooked Street
California (San Francisco) : GLBT Museum & Castro District (Gay district)
California (San Francisco) : House of Falling Furniture "Defenestration" (Howard St ; tables, chairs, lamps and even a er clock, all hanging precariously out of the windows)
California (San Francisco) : Jack Kerouac Alley Murals
California (San Francisco) : The Painted Ladies
California (San Francisco) : Transamerica Pyramid   
Illinois (Chicago) : Marina Towers
Louisiana (New Orleans) : Blaine Kern's Mardi Gras World
Louisiana (New Orleans) : The Eiffel Tower of New Orleans (actually not a tower but an unfinished building by Eiffel)
Louisiana (New Orleans) : St Roch Cemetery
Louisiana (New Orleans) : Voodoo Museum & Voodoo Temple 
Louisiana (New Orleans) : 9th Ward ("Ground Zero" of Katrina Hurricane)    
Massachusetts : Plymouth Rock                         
Massachusetts (Boston) : Boston Tea Party site
Massachusetts (Boston) : Bunker Hill Monument       
Massachusetts (Boston) : Freedom Trail              
Massachusetts (Boston) : Hatch Shell Memorial                       
Massachusetts (Boston) : Mapparium (a quaint enormous, inside-out glass globe built in 1935)
Massachusetts (Boston) : Skywalk (Prudential Tower)
Michigan (Detroit) : "Joe Louis Fist" Sculpture  
Michigan (Detroit) : Abandoned Houses & Factories (Cockburn District, Milwaukee Junction District & others)
Michigan (Detroit) : Abandoned Michigan Central Station 
Michigan (Detroit) : Detroit Labor Monument
Michigan (Detroit) : Ford Piquette Avenue Plant (former factory)
Michigan (Detroit) : Gateway to Freedom Sculpture 
Michigan (Detroit) : Hecker House (a castle like house)
Michigan (Detroit) : Lobby of Guardian Building
Michigan (Detroit) : Murals (street art is flourishing in Detroit : Eastern Market, Cockburn ...)
Michigan (Detroit, nearby) : "Heidelberg Project" (an outdoor art project - brightly painted houses, artworks with salvaged products ..-  which initially started a political protest ; not to be missed)
Missouri (Cartago) : 66 Drive-In Theatre
Missouri (Independence) : Temple of Community of Christ (astonishing shape)
Missouri (Kansas City) : Lewis & Clark Expedition Mural, Spanish Bullfight Mural, Arabia Steamboat Museum
Missouri (Lebanon) : Route 66 Museum & Research Center
Missouri (Pacific) : Black Madonna Shrine & grottoes (to the Virgin of Czestochowa)
Missouri (St Louis) : City Museum (a kind of indoors amusement place in an old warehouse ; more than that, it is an artistic place where artists have created weird secret passages, tunnels, slides, climbers, bridges, castles ...)
Nevada : Virginia City
Nevada (Las Vegas) : Atomic Testing Museum (including section on Area 51)
Nevada (Las Vegas) : Eiffel Tower replica
Nevada (Las Vegas) : Mob Museum
Nevada (Las Vegas) : Wedding Chapels, fake Elvis Priesleys ...                       
Nevada (Reno) : Last drive-thru Wedding Chapel 
New Mexico (El Paso) : Border Wall System (border with Mexico)
New Mexico (El Prado) : Earthship Biotecture (Off-the-grid art homes, nicknamed “Earthships”, using exclusively passive solar technology, wind power, recycled water, old tires, car batteries, glass bottles ...)
New Mexico (Roswell) : Places to see related to the Roswell UFO Incident (UFO Museum, shops & street art related to aliens ...)
New Mexico (Santa Fe) : Meow Wolf
New Mexico (White Sands Missile Range) : Missile Park
New York (NYC) : Bear Workshop (a store dedicated to all kinds of teddy beats)
New York (NYC) : Blue Note Jazz Club
New York (NYC) : Bowling Green Bull (bull sculpture, Wall Street)
New York (NYC) : Brooklyn Diner (57th St)
New York (NYC) : Cool Globes Exhibit (Battery Park)
New York (NYC) : Flatiron Building
New York (NYC) : Gay Liberation Monument (Christopher Street)                                                               
New York (NYC) : General Grant National Memorial                                        
New York (NYC) : Group of Four Trees Sculpture (modern sculpture by Dubuffet, Chase Manhattan Plaza)
New York (NYC) : Imagine Mosaic (Central Park, referring to John Lennon's song)
New York (NYC) : Katz's Deli
New York (NYC) : Oculus                              
New York (NYC) : One if by Land, Two if by Sea (iconic restaurant, interesting for its decor and of course its cuisine)
New York (NYC) : Steinway (57th St) (a very old piano shop) 
New York (NYC) : Vietnam Veterans Memorial Plaza
New York (NYC) : Village Cigars (An iconic shop on 7th Ave selling cigars and also hookahs, pipes, and related paraphernalia)
New York (NYC) : 56 Leonard St
New York (NYC) : 8, Spruce St
North Carolina (Wilmington) : Airlie Gardens (Mystery Grave, Bottle-made Chapel ...)
Oklahoma (Oklahoma City) : Oklahoma City National Memorial (dedicated to the 1995 terrorist attack)
South Carolina (Charleston) : Rainbow Row (painted houses on East Bay St)                                         
Texas (Dallas) : John F. Kennedy Memorial Plaza
Texas (Houston) : Houston Space Center     
Utah (Salt Lake City) : Eagle Gate              
Virginia (Arlington) : Arlington National Cemetery (Iwo Jima Memorial, Kennedy's Grave ...)           
Washington (Blaine) :  Peace Arch Border (monument situated near the westernmost point of the Canada–United States border)           
Washington DC : Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, rated the 4th most dangerous airport in the world ...          
Washington DC : Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial ...

 

 

 

Antarctique

 

 

A​ntarctique Continental

Antarctica Stations (Peninsula) : Port Lockroy (UK) (with the most southerly public Post Office), Palmer (USA), Rothera UK)     
Antarctica Stations (Weddell Sea) : Neumayer (Germany), Halley Station (UK), Aboa / Wasa (Finland / Sweden)   
Cape Evans : Terra Nova Hut (Scott's Antarctic Hut)                                 
Cape Royds : Nimrod Hut (Shackleton's Antarctic Hut)   
Ross Sea : Mc Murdo Dry Valleys
Paulet Island : Remains of the Stone Hut built by the Nordenskjöld expedition survivors 
Snow Hill Island : Nordenskjöld's Hut                                        
South Pole (Amundsen-Scott Siation) : The 4 modules replacing the former Dome, the Ceremonial Soutn Pole (flags & markers), the MAPO (Martin A. Pomerantz Observatory) & the furthest away Starbucks (just a small container !)
Union Glacier : Blue Ice Runway (landing on the ice of a glacier ; there are only 5 or so ice runways in the world, aside Union Glacier, the most known are the Mc Murdo one and the temporary one at North Pole, both laid out on the ice pack)
Union Glacier : Union Glacier ANI Camp (a camp for climbers in the Ellsworth Mountains & visitors to South Pole ; complete with heated tents and facilities)
  

Autour du continent Antarctique

South Shetlands Islands (Deception Island) : Abandoned Whaling Station
South Sandwich Islands (Southern Thule Island) : Ruins of the Argentinian Station 'El Teniente' (damaged during the 1982 war)
South Shetlands Islands (King George Island) : The Church at the Bottom of the World (a tiny orthodox chapel, the Trinity Church) ( Russian Bellingshause Station)

 

 

 

Asie

 

 

A​fghanistan

Bâmiyân Province : Darya Adjabar (= Dragon Valley)
Kabul : Bird Market
Kabul : British Cemetery (with tombs and monuments to NATO soldiers)
Kabul : Bush Market (a market where NATO  & American Army surplus goods - uniforms, combat ration food ...- are sold ; presently dwindling as foreign troops retreat)
Kabul : Chicken Street : on the Hippies' trail in the 60's
Kabul : Shaheed Farkhunda Monument (dedicated to a woman burnt alive by the crowd)
Kabul : The only synagogue in Afghanistan (hidden on Flowers Street, with the only Jew surviving in Afghanistan)
Kabul : Teppe Maranjan (Kite Flying Hill)
Kabul : Unused swimming pool on Wazir Akbar Khan Hill where the Talibans organized executions
Panjshir Valley : Commandant Massoud Mausoleum     
      

Arabie Saoudite

Al-Habalah : an abandoned quaint mountain village in Asir (originally inhabited by a tribal community known as the "flower men" because of their custom of wearing garlands of dried herbs and flowers in their hair, ; they were evacuated forcibly by the army ...)
Al Ula : Mada'in Saleh (happily seen in 1996 : being allowed to visit Mada'in Salen was then early impossible ; it eased down recently)
Dhahran : Aramco Compound
Jubail : Jubail Church ruins (there are no churches in this intolerant country ; these ruins are the only trace of christianity in Saudi Arabia) 
North of Medina : Hejaz Railway (track and old station (disused ; famous for Lawrence of Arabia) 

 

Arménie

Araks : Sardarapat Battle Memorial
Garni : Garni Gorge (a geological oddity topped with an old pagan temple)                            
Geghard : Geghard Monastery (an outstanding monastery built in a cliff and named after the spear used to stab Jesus)    
Noradouz : Cemetery with hundreds of "Khachkars"  (ancient intricately carved Armenian stone crosses)                                                       
Odzun : Odzun Obelisk (an unusual double-stelae obelisk with ancient and mysterious origins)
Yerevan : Matenadaran (a medieval manuscript collection with some of the most obscure and ancient texts in the world)  
Yerevan : Mother Armenia Statue
Yerevan : Tsitsernakaberd (= Memorial to the Armenian Genocide Victims
 

Azerbaïdjan

Absheron Peninsula : Yanar Dag (a natural gas fire blazing continuously)
Baku : Faxri Xiyəbani Cemetery (incl. Heydar Aliyev Tomb)
Baku : Miniature Books Museum            
Baku : Monument to Nariman Narimanov            
Baku : Şəhidlər Xiyəbani (Martyrs Lane)
Baku : İçərişəhər Station (metro, formerly Soveti Station)
Buraxani : Ategash Fire Temple
Ganja : Bottle House (unusual house built from glass bottles)
Gobustan : Clangerland Mud Volcanoes
Nakhitchevan : Duzdag Salt Mountain with Turkyan Sanatorium (rooms and dormitories inside an ancient mine deep in the mountain)
Nakhitchevan : Heydar Aliyev statue
Nakhitchevan : Noah Mausoleum
Sumyavit : Peace Dove sculpture
 

Bahrein

Manama : Bahrain World Trade Center (a skyscraper powered by wind turbines attached between its two towers)     
Manama : Fish Monument                     
Manama : Pearl Monument
 

Bangladesh

Chittagong : Shipbreaking Yards
Comilla : WW2 Cemetery
Dhaka : Central Shaheed Minar (dedicated to students shot by the Pakistanese army)
Dhaka : Christian Cemetery
Dhaka : Zero Point (Shohid Noor Hossain Square)
Dhaka : Zia Mausoleum
Jessore : Monihar Movie Theater
Mongla : St Paul Church (an unusual piece of architecture: a Catholic church disguised as a mosque, with touches of Buddhist artwork)
Muktagacha : Gopal Pali Prosida Monda Sweet Shop (most famous in Bangladesh with the best "monda')
Ramnagar : Nilkhanta Tea Cabin (a legendary place where to drink the unique local specialty, the 7 colors tea - seven layers visible in the glass)
Savar : National Martyrs Memorial
 

Bhoutan

All around the country : Phallus painting on houses especially in villages of the Punakha region (esoteric symbols for good luck and for driving away evil spirits) !
Laya : Layap women wearing the "belo" (a unique conical hat)                         
Paro (nearby) : Paro Airport, rated the 5th most dangerous airport in the world ...                                       
Paro (nearby) : Taktsang (= Tiger's Nest) 
Snowman Trek : Seeing a snow leopard in the wild experience (extremely rare ...) : 
Tangmachu : Giant Guru Rinpoche statue
Thimphu : Giant Buddha Dordenma 
Thimphu : Takins (strange beasts, resembling goat-cow hybrids, at Motithang Reserve)                                                             
Yadi : Yadi Loops

 

Brunéi

Bandar Seri Begawan : Ceremonial Stone Boat in the lagoon of the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque                                            
Bandar Seri Begawan : Churchill Statue                                                                       
Kampong Ayer : a cluster of traditional stilt villages built on the Brunei River
 

Cambodge

Phnom Penh : Choeung Ek Genocidal Center (a former torture, execution site and mass graves of victims of the Khmer Rouge) (one of the many "Killing Fields" of the Khmer Rouge)                                                         
Phnom Penh : Phnom Penh Memorial Stupa  (containing 5,000 skulls of people killed by the Khmer Rouge)
Phnom Penh : Rue des Petites Fleurs (= 'Small Flowers' Street ; Red Light District)    
Phnom Penh : Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (it was a Khmer Rouge's high security prison)            
Kep-sur-Mer (= Kep on the Sea) : An abandoned resort on the Gulf of Thailand (nicknamed before the Khmer Rouges regime as “the St. Tropez of Southeast Asia”)   
                                                                  

Chine

Beijing : "Bird's Nest"
Beijing : CCTV Building                         
Beijing : Mao Memorial Hall (his embalmed remains lie inside a crystal coffin)                
Beijing : Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution                                                      
Beijing : Monument to the People's Heroes
Beijing : 799 Art District
Chongqing : Bai Gongguan (SACO prison)
Chongqing : Hongyan Cun (wwII Communist HQ
Chongqing (Fengdu District) : Fengdu Ghost City
Anhui (Bozhou) : Cao Cao Military Transport Tunnel 
Anhui (Bozhou) : Medicinal Market (including turoise shells, dried lizards, dried cockroaches and all kinds of aphrodisiacs)
Anhui (Huangshan) : Ladder on the Clouds
Anhui (Huangshan) : Mobile Phone Rock (a curious rock evocating .. guess what !)
Fujian (Yongqing & Hongkeng region) : "Tulous" (huge round earthen traditional communal Hakka people residences ; due to their strange appearance from above they were once mistaken for missile silos by US analysts during the Cold War !°
Gansu (Zhangye) : Marco Polo statue       
Guangdong (Guangzhou) : Guangzhou Martyrs' Memorial Garden                                            
Guizhou : Wind and Rain Covered Bridges & Drum Towers of the Dong minority
Guizhou (Guiyang) : Glass Pyramids on People's Square
Guizhou (Guiyang) : Mao Statue
Hebei (Chengde) : Monument to the Russian Red Army Soldiers
Hebei (Shijiazhuang) : Lieshi Lingyuan (Revolutionary Martyrs Mausoleum)
Hebei (Xibaipo) : Corruption Museum
Hebei (Xibaipo) : Xibaipo Chinese People's Liberation Army Headquarters Former Site
Henan (Guoliang) : Sky Ladder (vertiginus steps in cliff) 
Henan (Kaifeng) : Kaifeng Synagogue (extremely rare in China)
Henan (Luoyang) : Nine Dragons Pot (= Jiu Long Din)                       
Hong Kong : British Cenotaph   
Hong Kong : Cat Street (fake antiques shops)                      
Hong Kong : Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter                                         
Hong Kong : Central-Mid-Levels Escalators (World's longest outdoor covered escalator)                                                  
Hong Kong : HSBC Building Feng Shui Cannons (Two cannon-like cranes were installed on top of this building to fend off bad feng shui)
Hong Kong : Peak Tower (strangely shaped as a "wok")                              
Hong Kong : Tamar Park (main location for the 2014 Umbrella Revolution°)                             
Hong Kong : Temple Street Night Market (colorful market, with fortune tellers ..., but also hookers !)                              
Hong Kong : Tian Tan Buddha (World's largest seated bronze Buddha) 
Hubei (Wuhan) : Former Headquarters of the Wuchang Uprising
Hubei (Wuhan) : Mao Tse Toung's Villa                                       
Inner Mongolia (Badain Jaran) : Bilitu Dune (the world’s tallest stationary sand dune with 480 m, nicknamed the "Everest of Desert") 
Inner Mongolia (Badain Jaran) :  "Mysterious lakes" is the name in Mongolian of this fascinating desert (3rd desert in China), very unusual & fascinating, with more than 100 spring fed lakes either freshwater or saline lakes
Inner Mongolia (Manzhuli): A city where 3 borders meet (Mongolian, Chinese, Russian) & the last Manchurian train station on the Transsiberian line via Manchuria
Inner Mongolia (Ejina Qi) : Guou Shulin (= Strange Forest)          
Inner Mongolia (Ejina Qi) : Mani Chagan (= Withered Forest)                  
Jiangsu (Nanjing) : Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum                    
Jiangsu (Nanjing) : Suicidal Bridge, Nánjīng Chángjiāng Dàqiáo (=   Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, this double decked long bridge is the most frequent suicide site in the world, with more than 2,000 suicides estimated by 2006 !)                    
Liaoning (Dandong) : Yalu River Broken Bridge (a truncated railway swing bridge converted to a viewing platform) 
Macau : Casino Resorts (The Venetian, The Parisian with a replica of Eiffel Tower, Studio City, The Sands ...)                         
Macau : Cemitério Protestante (this Old Protestant Cemetery is unique among Macau’s graveyards, as most of those interred there are neither Portuguese nor Chinese, as non-Catholic and non-Chinese were banned from being buried within the city itself) 
Macau : Houses on stilts of Coloane                 
Macau : Statue of Jorge Alvares (Alvares was the first European to reach Hong Kong and China by sea)
Qinghai (Guidé) : Zhonghua Fuyunlun (= China Fortune Wheel) (largest prayer wheel in the world with a height of 27 m)
Qinghai (Maduo) : Buddhist Cultural Park (a new flashy park with Buddhist statues)     
Qinghai (Taska) : Red Hands Monument
Qinghai (Taska) : Salt Sculptures at Chaka Salt Lake (large amazing salt sculptures of Gengis Khan, Castle, Chinese Goddesses ;;;)   
Qinghai (Tongren or Rebkong in Tibetan) : Largest chörten in Amdo at Gomar Gompa
Qinghai (Xining) : Largest Tangka in the world (60 m !) (in Tibetan Culture and Medicine Museum)                                                  
Qinghai (Yushu or Jyekundo in Tibetan) :  Glass Pyramid                                             
Qinghai (Yushu or Jyekundo in Tibetan) :  Seng-Ze Gyanak Mani Wall (= Xinzhai Jiana Mani Shidui) (the largest and longest mani wall in historic Tibet with 2,5 billion stones and a length of over 300 m) 
Shandong (Qingdao) : China International Wine Street
Shandong (Qingdao) : Former Qingdao German Prison                                                                 
Shandong (Qingdao) : Qingdao Beer Street with a monument made of beer bottles 
Shandong (Qingdao) : "Wind in May" (iconic sculpture, with a spiraling wind, shaped in fiery red, amazing at night, on May Fourth Square) 
Shandong (Qufu) : Cemetery with Confucius Tomb  
Shandong (Taishan) : North-pointing Rock on the Mount Tai, a curious nearly horizontal rock pointing to the north (a vantage point for sunrise)
Shanghai : Bund Sightseeing Tunnel                                     
Shanghai : Shanghai French Concession (an out-of-place slice of France in the middle of the town)                           
Shanxi (Datong) : Hanging Temple of Hengshan ((Xuankong si ; a unique wonder : a small monastery clinging high to a vertical cliff, in apparent defiance of gravity)                          
Shanxi (Datong) : Nine Dragon Wall (one of the longest green wall of China)                                  
Sichuan (Chengdu) : New Century Global Center (World's largest building measured by floor space)
Sichuan (Dêgê) : Bakong Scripture and Printing Press                                 
Sichuan (Huanglong NP) : Huanglong Multicolored Lakes                   
Sichuan (Tang Ke) : "First Bend" on Yellow River site
Tianjin : Italian Concession (Italian style district)
Tianjin : Kangzhen Jinianbei (Earthquake Memorial)
Tianjin : Tianjin Eye (the only ferris wheel in the world built on a bridge)
Tianjin : Zhou En Lai Jinianguan (Zhou En Lai Memorial)   
Tibet : Chamdo Bamda Airport (2nd highest airport in the world ; it was the 1st when I was there in 2007)
Tibet : Tsaparang (capital in ruins of the former Tibetan Kingdom of Gugé ; it is now accepted that Tsaparang was the historical origin of the legend of Shangri-La)
Tibet : Yumbu Lhakhang (a unique monastery for its location on top of a steep hill, its shape, and, for being, according to legend, the first building in Tibet and the palace of the first Tibetan king)
Xinjiang (Taklamatan Desert) : Populus euphratica "Ghost" Forests (alond Cross Desert Highway, south of Tarim Bridge)   
Yunnan : Tiger Leaping Gorge Trail (a stunningly impressive narrow trail cut high in the cliff ; definitely suitable only for sure footed hikers not prone to vertigo !)
Yunnan : Shilin Stone Forest
Yunnan (Kunming) : Kunming Flower and Bird Market (a very sad sight : filthy, with animals in tiny cages - rabbits, tortoises, kittens, puppies, birds ... ; seen in 2005, renovated since)
 

Corée du Nord

DMZ (Panmunjom, North Korea side) : Colossal Flagpole with the North Korea flag (160 m) (When South Korea erected a tall flagpole near the Demarcation Line, North Korea responded by building a even higher one ..)
Hamhung : Donhungsan Park (an artficial hill with, above, a huge Kim Il Sung statue)   
Hyangsan : International Friendship Exhibition (exhibition of gifts - over 230,000 - offerred by foreign leaders to Kim Il Sung & Kim Jong Il)
Nampho : West Sea Barrage  
Pyongyang : Bowling Center
Pyongyang : Grand People's Study House
Pyongyang : Ice Ring                                 
Pyongyang : Kim Il-Sung Arch of Triumph
Pyongyang : Kimilsungia Flower Festival  : 
Pyongyang : Korea Film Studio                       
Pyongyang : Mangyongdae Funfair
Pyongyang : Mangyongdae Revolutionary Site (Kim Il Sung's Birthplace)      
Pyongyang : Mangyongdae Schoolchildren's Palace​
Pyongyang : Mansudae Art Studio (one of the largest centers of art production in the world)
Pyongyang : Mansudae Grand Monument (Kim Il Sung & Kim Jong Il most revered statues)
Pyongyang : Monument to Party Foundation
Pyongyang : Monument to Victorious Fatherland Liberation War
Pyongyang : People's Palace of Culture : 
Pyongyang : Pyongwa Motors Exhibition
Pyongyang : Reunification Monument
Pyongyang : Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery  : 
Pyongyang : Ryugyong Hotel (Nicknamed the "Hotel of Doom" ; also  described as "the worst designed building in the world" and one of "the world's ugliest hotels")
Pyongyang : Tower of Juche 
Wonsan : Songdowan International Children Camp (hosting overseas children from countries such as China, Russia, Tanzania ...)
Wonsan : Wonsan Agricultural University
          

Corée du Sud

Busan : United Nations Memorial Cemetery 
Gangwon Province (Seoraksan NP) : Ulsan Rock (a special place for Koreans which inspired lots of poems ; legend says that when god created the nearby mountains, he assembled all the nicest rocks of Korea, but Ulsan Rock arrived too late and had to stop where it is now)  
Gyeonggi Province (Goyang) : Korean War Monument to the Philippine Armed Forces
Gyeonggi Province (Paju) : Bridge of No Return (site of prisoner exchanges across the Military Demarcation Line between North and South Korea)
Gyeonggi Province (Paju) : Monument for the Fallen Soldiers of the Korean War (Panmunjom) 
Gyeonggi Province (Paju) : Monument of Correspondents Killed in Korean War (Panmunjom)         
Jeju Province (Jeju Island) : Dragon Head Rock  
North Gyeongsang Province (Andong) : Hahoe (rated as the nicest traditional village in Korea) 
North Gyeongsang Province (Bulguksa) : Seokguram Artificial Cave                                              
North Gyeongsang Province (Gyeongju) : Cheomseongdae Astronomical Observatory (hidden mysterious numerical messages abound in this old scientific site, the oldest observatory in East Asia)
South Jeolla Province (Damyang) : Damyang Bamboo Market (an unusual market with all products made of bamboo) 

    

Géorgie

Batoumi : Monument Of Ilia Chavchavadze
Batoumi : Stalin Museum
Bogreshi : Love Tower
Borjomi : Eiffel Bridge
Gori : Stalin Museum
Gori : Stalin Statue
Gori : WWII Memorial
Khobi : Friendship of Nations Monument (a Soviet-era monument)
Poti : Alexandre Dumas Statue
Shatili : Shatili abandoned village
Tbilisi : Chronicle of Georgia Monument (a curious enormous Soviet-era monument, never completed ; near Tbilisi Sea)
Tbilisi : Kartlis Deda Statue
Tbilisi : KGB Café (full of Soviet paraphernalia)
Tbilisi : Little Prince Fountain (hint to Saint Exupéry 'lPetit Prince')
Tbilisi : President Bush Street
Tbilisi : Street Sweeper Statue
Tbilisi : Tbilissi Massacre Memorial (April 9, 1989 Massacre, Revolution of Roses)
Tbilisi : Wedding Palace
Vardzia : Vardzia Cave City
 

Inde

Delhi : Gandhi Smriti                   
Delhi : Raj Ghat (a memorial dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi) 
Delhi : Shankar's International Dolls Museum
Delhi : Sulabh International Museum of Toilets (amazing !)
Andhra Pradesh (Amaravathi) : Dhyana Buddha (2nd largest Buddha statue in India, built recently)
Andhra Pradesh (Bheemunipatnam) : Dutch & Flag Staff Cemetery (a quite weird cemetery)
Andhra Pradesh (Lepakshi) : Largest Nandi bull sculpture in India
Andhra Pradesh (Silathoranam) : Curious natural rock bridge & rock formations
Gujarat (Dandi) : National Salt Satyagraha Memorial (commemerating the famous Salk Walk led by Gandhi)
Gujarat (Gondariya) : Pithoro Paintings on houses & Oratories of the Rathwa mi-animist mi-hindu minority
Gujarat (Porbandar) : Bharat Mandir Hall (featuring a huge map of India)
Gujarat (Vadodara) : EME Temple (an unusual temple for its geodesic structure and metal roof)
Himachal Pradesh (Kinnaur District) :Tower Temples (all around Kinnaur District : a very special kind of temples)
Himachal Pradesh (Kinnaur District) : Rapang (Castle Temple)
Himachal Pradesh (Shimla) : "Himalayan Queen" train
Himachal Pradesh (Shimla) : Scandal Point
Himachal Pradesh (Spiti District) : Kyibar (the world's highest village with a road at the time of visit)   
Karnataka (Shravanabelagola) : Gommateshwara statue (= Bhagawan Bahubali Statue, the tallest monolithic statue in the world)     
Kerala : Backwaters (by boat)
Ladakh : "Chadar" (walk in winter on frozen Zanskar River)
Madhya Pradesh (Bhimbetka) : Rock Shelters
Maharastra (Mumbai) : Taj Mahal Palace (2008 terrorist attack)
Manipur (Willong Khullen) : Mysterous meghalithic site
Meghalaya (Nongriat) : Root Bridges (even a double decker one)
Mizoram (Aizawl) : KV Paradise (also named Taj Mahal of Mizoram ; a bizarre mausoleum dedicated to a woman dead in a car accident, complete with remains of her car, her clothes and her shoes !)
Nagaland (Sheanghah Chingnyu) : Longhouse with human skulls (headhunting)
Nagaland (Ungwa) : "Jondong" (= cloud scratching pole)
Odisha : Chatikona Tribal Market, Onkadelli Tribal Market, Padwa Tribal Market
Odisha (Pipili) : Heritage Craft Village
Odisha (Raghurajpur) : Heritage Village, very special for paintings on the walls of the houses   
Rajasthan (Jaipur) :Yantra Mandir (= Jantar Mandir, largest sundial in the world) 
Sikkim (Gangtok) : Alexandra David Néel room in Phodong Monastery
Sikkim (Kabi) : Kabi Lungchok (stone pillars mark this historically important place where the Lepcha and Bhutia  signed a treaty of blood brotherhood) 
Tamil Nadu (Auroville) :  Utopian & universal town (where people of all countries should be able to live in peace above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities)
Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (Diu) : INS Khukhri Memorial (INS Khukri was a frigate of the Indian Navy sunk off the coast of Diu by the Pakistan Navy in 1971) 
Union Territory of Dadra Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (Diu) : Marwar Memorial (dedicated to Indians dead in 1961 when fighting the Portuguese)
Union Territory of Dadra Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (Diu) : Sea Shell Museum (largest shell museum in Asia)
Union Territory of Puducherry (Yanam) : Nagor Meera Sahib Mandir (boat shaped mosque)
Uttarakhand (Milam) : Milam abandoned village
West Bengal (Darjeeling) : Batasia Loop (spiral railway created to lower the gradient of ascent of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway)
West Bengal (Darjeeling) : Toy Train (= Darjeeling Himalayan Railway)
 

Indonésie

Jakarta : 'Bancis' [transvestites] at Bugis Street                                    
Jakarta : Monumen Patung Dirgantara (= Monument Dirgantara) (a strange monument : on top of a long arched socle, a statue depicting the "manusia angkasa" - space man - symbolizing the conquest of space by the nation)
Jakarta : Jembatan Kota Intan (Old Dutch Drawbridge, in Sunda Kelapa, the Old Port of Jakarta)                  
Jakarta : Lubang Buaya &  Monumen Pancasila Sakti (= Crocodile's Pit & Sacred Pancasila Monument) (an infamous landmark : well in which bodies of 7 murdered generals were thrown following the coup attempt of Oct. 1, 1965 by the communists)                       
Jakarta : Monumen Nasional (Merdeka Square)                
Jakarta : Monumen Selamat Datang (= Monumen Bunderan HI, = Welcome Monument) 
Jakarta : Pasar Burung (= Bird Market)      
Jakarta : Pasar Ikan (= Fish Market) 
Jakarta : Tugu Proklamasi (Proclamation of Independence Monument)                  
Jakarta (offshore) : Kepulauan Seribu (= Thousand Islands, with wonderful coral reefs)                                                        
Jawa Barat (Bandung region) : Seni Ketangkasan Domba Garut experience (traditional Sundanese ram fighting)                        
Jawa Barat (Cirebon) : Gua Sunyaragi (a weird kitsch construction, a kind of cave of red brick and stucco, straight from the imagination of a Chinese architect, with labyrinth, basins and gardens, viewed as a meditation place) 
Jawa Timur (Kawah Itjen volcano) : Kawah Itjen Artisanal Sulfur Mining 
Jawa Timur (Kelud volcano) : Dutch drainage tunnels (dug across the Kelud caldera for evacuating potential excess of water in the crater lake)
Jawa Timur (Madura Island) : Karapan Sapi experience (Bull races)                                             
Jawa Timur (Tretes) : Near Surabaya, Tretes is a mountain resort which as a 'Red District', with girls in windows ... a legacy of the Dutch colonization !
Jawa Timur (Ngargoyoso) : Special Erotic art on Candi Sukuh                                                   
Nusa Tenggara Timur (Kelimutu) : Three Coloured Lakes (3 close by crater lakes with different colors : blue, red, green)                        
Nusa Tenggara Timur (Komodo) : Komodo Dragons experience
Nusa Tenggara Timur (Sumba) : Ikat Weaving (the Sumbanese textiles are quite spectacular and very famous)
Nusa Tenggara Timur (Sumba) : Pasola (a unique event traditionally beginning at dawn with hoesemen on the beach when a certain kind of sea worm swims to shore, signifying the end of the wet season, followed by a fascinating mock-battle between the two tribes of Sumba)          
Nusa Tenggara Timur (Sumba) : Sumbanese traditional houses
Papua (formerly Irian Jaya) (Baliem Valley) : Papus wearing "koteka" (= penis gourd)
Papua (formerly Irian Jaya) (Baliem Valley) : the Mummy of Jiwika                   
Papua (formerly Irian Jaya) (Southeast Papua) : Meeting the Korowai (a fascinating experience : indigenous people who live high above the ground in forest tree houses ; they were discovered only in 1974 & are about 3,000)
Sulawesi Selatan : Erotic Mountains (shaped as a vagina, near Buntu Kabobong)
Sulawesi Selatan : Toraja Burial Caves & Cliff Cemeteries with stone graves carved out of the cliffs (Rantepao region)
Sulawesi Selatan : Salotangah Floating Village (houses move according to the seasons)                         
Sulawesi Utara (Roong) : Monumen Perang Tondano (Monument to the 1808-1809 war between Minahasa & Dutch Colonial government)
Sumatera Barat (Batusangkar) : Istano Basa Pagaruyung (= Royal palace of the former Pagaruyung Kingdom, built in the traditional Minangkabau Rumah Gadang vernacular architectural style)                                                                                              
Sumatera Barat (Bukittingi) : Rumah Minangkabau meeting house (Sulit Air village)                       
Sumatera Utara : Pematang Purba Royal Village           
Sumatera Utara : Stone Chair of King Siallagan (Samosir Island)  
Sumatera Utara : Toba Caldera (Site of the largest volcanic eruption in the last 25 million years)        
Sumatera Utara (Nias Island) : Ceremonial Stone Jump (when seen in 1980, this amazing ceremony was still traditional ; now it is more a tourist show ...)
 

Irak

Bagdad : Al-Shaheed Monument (= Martyr's'Memorial)
Bagdad : Saadam City (a suburb developed for public housing, known for poverty and communist organizing ; seen during Saadam regime, renamed Sadr City) 
Places totally or largely destroyed by ISIS : Great Mosque of al-Nur (Mosul), Jonas Mosque (Mosul), Ninive ruins, Mar Behnam Monastery, Hatra ruins .. (seen before destruction)                            
Qurna : Adam & Eve Tree (= Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil) (according to legend, this tree is the one that Eve ate from in the Garden of Eden l) 
                                    

Iran

Ardakan : Khatami's Birhthplace
Bishapur : Tang-e-Chogan (Shapur Cave)
Chak Chak Ardakan : Most sacred of the mountain shrines of Zoroastrianism
Ispahan : Bird Garden
Ispahan : Golestan-e-Shahada (War against Irak Martyrs Cemetery)
Ispahan : Shaking Minarets (= Manar Jomban)
Ispahan : Vank Cathedral (Armenian church)
Joopar : Joopar Qanat (subterranean canal for irrigation)   
Kashan : Bazaar (among the best in Iran, off the beaten track)
Kerman Province : Kalut Shahdad Desert (part of Dash-e Lut) (deemed the hottest place on Earth along with the Death Valley with unique rock formation such as the Pisa Tower, the Phallus ...)
Maymand : Cave Village (hand-dug houses amid the rocks) 
Meshed : Imam Reza Shrine (went inside, even close to Imam Reza's tomb) (3rd most sacred islamic placeJ
Shiraz : Shah Cheragh Mosque (quite exceptional mosque : mirrors and glass shards cover every inch of it)
Tus : Ferdowsi Mausoleum      
Yazd : Dolat Abad Windcatcher  (Windcatchers are towers creating natural ventilation)               
Yazd : Tomb of Hafez (Persia's most famous poet)    
Yazd : Zoroastrian Towers of Silence
 

Israël

Akko : Underground Prisoners Museum           
Beersheba : Abraham's Well      
Beersheba : British War Cemetery              
Beersheba : Palmach Negev Brigade Memorial                               
Dead Sea : Qumran Caves          
Dead Sea : Sodom   
Dimona : Ben Gurion's House & Tomb  
Eilat : Underwater Observatory    
Galilea : Horns of Hittim           
Haifa : Bahá'í Gardens & Bahá'í Shrine       
Haifa : Clandestine Immigration Museum    
Jerusalem : King David's Tomb   
Jerusalem : Herzl's Grave       
Jerusalem : Mea Shearim                  
Jerusalem : Yad Vashem Memorial       
Masada : Masada Fortress (site of one of the most dramatic revolts of the Jewish Roman wars) 
Metulla : "The Good Fence" (former border crossing)   
Nazareth : Mary's Well              
Negev : Ein Avdat       
Negev : Makhtesh Ramon         
Negev : Red Canyon
Qyriat Shimona : Children Playground with 3 painted military tanks         
Safed : Artists' Quarter    
Sahne : Gan Hashlosha  
Tel Aviv : Diaspora Museum (=  Beit Hatfutsot Jewish People Museum) 
Tel Aviv : Founders Monument and Fountain      
Tel Aviv : Gazit House (= 148 Building)    
TIberias : Baptism Site     
Tiberias : First Kibboutz      
Timna : King Salomon Pillars    
    

Japon

Hokkaido (Abashiri) : "Glaswort"  (amazing : large expanses of this plant growing in salt marshes of Lake Notoro and getting all red in autumn)   
Hokkaido (Asahikawa) : Asahikawa Ramen Village
Hokkaido (Asahikawa) : Snow Crystal Museum (a curious place : a quaint museum dedicated to snowflakes, set in a small European style castle) 
Hokkaido (Asahikawa) : Two open hands Fountain
Hokkaido (Furano) : Lavander fields in summer
Hokkaido (Hakodate) : Hachiman Zaka Slope
Hokkaido (Hakodate) : the 3 Foreign Cemeteries
Hokkaido (Kamifurano) : Trick Art Museum (museum packed full of strange pictures)
Hokkaido (Kawaku Onsen) : Koki Taiho Sumo Memorial Hall (dedicated to a sumu champion)
Hokkaido (Noribetsu) : Edo Wonderland
Hokkaido (Obihiro) : Long Bench in Green Park (a 400-meter wooden bench which once held the Guinness World Record of the longest wooden bench, up to 1986 ;;; !)
Hokkaido (Otaru) : Steam Clock
Hokkaido (Rokugo) : Upcycle Houses (4 houses made up of bricabrac) 
Hokkaido (Sapporo) : Susukino district full of Love Hotels
Hokkaido (Wakkanai) : North Breakwater Dome
Hokkaido (Wakkanai) : Sakhalin Dog Memorial (Wakkanai Park)
Honshu (Aomori) : ASPAM (triangle-shaped building) 
Honshu (Aomori) : Aomori City Forestry Museum (strange museum showing exclusively wooden panels & signs) 
Honshu (Aomori) : Nebuta-no-Sato Village (quite unique, showing Nebuta festival floats fully lit ; visited in 2005, is closed since 2013)
Honshu (Aomori) : Showa Daibutsu (tallest bronze seated statue of Buddha in Japan)
Honshu (Cape Shiriya) : Kandachime horses (wild horses)
Honshu (Goshogawara) : Tachineputa Building (showing 3 big "neputas") 
Honshu (Hida Takayama) : Hida Takayama Teddy Bear Eco Village i(world's first environment-themed teddy bear museum)
Honshu (Iwakuni) : Imazu White Snake Observation Facility
Honshu (Kuroishi) : Tsugaru Kokeshi Gallery (all this museum is devoted to NE Japan dolls, named 'kokeshi')
Honshu (Kyoto) : Geishas district (Gion, Pontocho, etc ..)
Honshu (Kyoto) : Kyoto International Manga Museum
Honshu (Mie, Ise) : Meoto Iwa (= the Married Couple Rocks) 
Honshu (Morioka) : Ishiwarizakura (The 'Rock-Splitting' Cherry Tree)                 
Honshu (Oga) : Namahage Museum (= Demon Museum) (unique museum about "Namahage", giant and fearsome demons, common in many Japanese folk talesi                 
Honshu (Sai, Shimokita Peninsula) : Hotokegaura (strangely shaped rock formations on the seashore)
Honshu (Shimoda) : Perry Landing Monument
Honshu (Tendo) : Shogi Museum (a museum about Japanese chess)
Honshu (Tokyo) : Kabukichō (Shinjuku nightlife and red district)
Honshu (Tokyo) : Tsukiji (very impressive and unusual : former larger fish wholesale market in the world ; though tourists were not allowed, I sneaked in ... ; it was dismantled in 2018)
Honshu (Tokyo) : Yasukuni Jinja (a special temple due to controversies surrounding this shrine to war dead who served the Emperor of Japan during wars from 1867–1951, including war criminals) 
Honshu (Osaka) : Dotonbori district (Red Light District) 
Honshu (Yusa) : Jūroku Rakan Iwa (a weird site of 22 buddhist figures, mainly heads, carved on rock)              
Kyushu (Aoshima) : Oni no Sentaku ita (Devil's Washboard)
Kyushu (Beppu) : Chinoike Jigoku (= "Blood Pool Hell", a steaming blood-red hot spring, amazing !)
Kyushu (Beppu) : Hibokan Sex Museum 
Kyushu (Beppu) : Shoningahama Sand Bath (people have all their body covered with hot black sand on this beach)
Kyushu (Chiran) : Kamikaze Museum (= Peace Museum for Kamikaze Pilots)
Kyushu (Fukuoka) : ACROS (famous building for its wall of greenery : 'the Step Garden')
Kyushu (Hirado) : Golden Gate (strikingly similat to San Francisco Golden Gate)
Kyushu (Huis Ten Bosch) : Huis Ten Bosch is a theme park recreating the Netherlands by displaying life-sized copies of old Dutch buildings
Kyushu (Miyazaki) : Hand Prints Monuments
Kyushu (Nagasaki) : Atomic Bomb Hypocentre Park
Kyushu (Nagasaki) : Heiwa-Koen (Peace Park)
Kyushu (Nagasaki) : Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum
Kyushu (Nagasaki) : Urakami Cathedral (left in ruin after the atomic bombing and rebuilt) 
Kyushu (Nagasaki) : 26 Martyrs Memorial (the 26 Christians crucified)
Kyushu (offshore Nagasaki) : Gunkenjima (abandoned coal mining island during WWII)
Kyushu (Nichinan) : Sun Messe (Replicas of Easter Island moais)
Kyushu (Yufuin) : Yufuin Floral Village 
Shikoku (Tokushima) : Awa no Jurobei Yashiki (daily puppet show)
Shikoku (Tokushima) : Awa Odori Keikan (= Awa Odori festival hall)
Shikoku (Tokushima) : Dancing Clock
                         

Jordanie

Desert Castles : Especially Qasr Amra (a bathhouse decorated with frescoes of constellations, pleasure gardens, and naked ladies !)
Madaba : Madaba Mosaic Map (World's oldest map of the holy land)
Siq Al-Barid : “Little Petra" (about 13 kms away, these Nabathean ruins are a well kept secret, much less known than the main Ancient Petra itself)
Wadi Rum (Valley of the Moon)
       

Koweït

Entertainment City (an amusement park ; some attractions are very rare in a Middle East amusement park                 
"Highway of Death" (This road earned its macabre nickname after hundreds of Iraqi troops died along it in 1991)                   
Ice Skating Ring     
Iraqi Tank Monument          
Kuweit Striped Mushroom Water Towers
Kuwait Towers  
Mina Al Ahmadi Oil Terminal
Pyramid Mosque (a mosque in Salmiya with a very unusual structure in the form of a pyramid)  
       

Kurdistan

Amadiya : Ruins of a former Saddam Hussein's palace
Ayn Sifni : Yezidi Cemetery
Barzan : Memorial Center (notably Barzani's Tomb) (Barzani was one of the main Kurdish leaders)
Duhok : Parastaga Zardasht (Zoroastrian site)
Erbil : Shanidar Park
Gara Mountain : Ruins of a former Saddam Hussein's palace
Halabja : Cemetery (Tombs of the victims of the Halabja gas attack by Saddam Hussein's regime) 
Halabja :î Monument Memorial (Memorial to the victims of the Halabja gas attack by Saddam Hussein's regime) 
Lalish : Yezidi Temple
Sulaymaniyah : Amna Suraka (= Red House, Security buildings used by Saddam Hussein's regime including a fearsome prison and torture rooms
Sulaymaniyah : Dolphin Hotel (a small boutique hotel full of surprising objects & decorations) 
Sulaymaniyah : Donkey Head (a head and shoulders bust representing the head of a  donkey, this referring to the Donkey Party, a small Kurdish party)
Sulaymaniyah : Head down and feet up Statue (statue of a Kurdish writer, in front of the National Library)
Sulaymaniyah : Talabani's Residence & Jalal Talabani's Mausoleum (Talabani was one of the main Kurdish leaders)
Zakho : Oldest bridge in the Middle Ea

 

Laos

Luang Prabang : Tombe de Mouhot (Mouhot's Grave, Mouhot was a French explorer in Southeast Asia)        
Pak Ou : Pak Ou Caves       
Phonsavan : Plaines des Jarres (Plain of Jars)                
Vientiane : Xieng Khuan (= Buddha Park or “Spirit City”) (More than 200, sometimes strange, statues filled with cryptic symbols)
 

Liban

Baalbek : Baalbek Trilithon (largest hewn stone in history)       
Beiteddine : Beit ed-Dine Palace (a weird story is attached to it : the emir ordered that the architect of his palace have his hands cut right off so that his palace could not be duplicated ...)
Beirut : Basilique Notre Dame du Liban (built in the 60's, this basilica has an unusual look and shape : its architectural design is a mix of a Lebanese cedar and an antic Phoenician ship)
Damoun : Ruins of a Christian village destroyed by the Druzes during the Lebanese 1975/1990 War
Ksara : Ksara Vineyard 
Tahouitet El Ghadir : Moussa Castle (a castle built by one man over a lifetime : when he was 14, his sweetheart ridiculed him, saying she would never marry him and that she planned to marry someone rich with a castle ... so he built a castle all by himself alone ! 
Tripoli : Sabra & Shatila suburb (Palestinian Refugee Camps, infamous for the Sabra and Shatila Massacre carried out in 1982
 

Malaisie

Melaka : A Famosa (oldest European structure in Southeast Asia built by the Portuguese)
Sabah : Nepenthes Rajah (the King of the Pitcher Plants, Mount Kinabalu) 
Sabah : Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre
 

Mongolie

Erdenet : Friendship Monument            
Gobi : Bayanzag ("Flaming Cliffs", where dinosaur skeletons were found)
Gobi : Khongoryn  Els  (famous dunes known as 'Singing Sands')                 
Ikh Tamir : Taikhar Chuluu Rock (a stangely shaped 20 m high sacred rock set lonely in the middle of a huge expanse of flatland)     
Kharkorin : Great Imperial Map Monument 
Kharkorin : Karakorum Phallic Rock
Ulan Bator : Zaisan Memorial
Undur-Ulaan : Zuun Salaa Mod Sacred Tree (literally covered with blue prayer plags)
                     

Myanmar

Bago Region (Schwedaung) : Unusual statues of Bouddha wearing glasses (Shwemyetman Paya Pagoda)                
Chin State (Zokhawthar) : Lake Rih Dil (a small heart-shaped lake ; located near the border with Mizoram in India, it is of great significance to Mizo people)  
Mandalay Region (Amarapura) : U-Bein Bridge   
Sagaing Region (Mingun) : Mingun Bell (it was the largest ringing bell in the world until 2000 ; it is now the second one)  
Shan State (Lake Inle) : Floating Gardens     
Shan State (Mongla) (border with China) : Anti drugs Museum 
Shan State (Mongla) (border with China) : Living wild animals market for Chinese (pangolins, hornbill beaks, snake skins, tortoises ... ; now we know this can threaten the whole world !)  
Shan State (Mongla) (border with China) : Red Light District (for Chinese ....)     
Shan State (Pindaya) : Pindaya Caves (full of Buddha statues) 
Yangon : Htauk Kyant War Memorial Cemetery         
Yangon : Independence Monument                        
Yangon : Old Rowe & Co. Emporium (formerly a British department store, one of the best colonial building in Yangon)           
Yangon : Strand Hotel
                     

Népal

Banepa : Kailashnath Mahadev statue (World’s tallest Shiva statue)
Bhaktapur : Erotic Elephants Temple
Dakshinkali : Twice each week, animal sacrifices (with uncastrated male animals such as buffaloes, goats, sheep, pigs and chickens) are performed in front of a statue of Kali
Dhanusa & Kuwa (Terai) : Houses adorned with Mithila paintings                                                     
Dolpo & Upper Dolpo : Very remote region full of Tibetan monasteries, main area for collecting the Himalayan Viagra, "Yarsagumba", a kind of mushroom / caterpillar  considered by the Chinese as a powerful aphrodisiac ...
Everest Base Camp : Chopper wreckage
Everest Base Camp (near) : 'The Pyramid' (International Laboratory / Observatory)
Everest trek (Khumjung) : Yeti Scalp of Khumjung Monastery (Hillary found this alleged scalp of the "abominable snowman" in the home of old Khumjung woman)
Everest trek (Pheriche) : Everest Memorial Sculpture (a split pyramid)
Everest trek (Thokla Pass) : Chukpilhara (chortens in honor of climbers & sherpas dead on Everest)
Helambu trek (Ghopte) : Partial wreckage of a Thai Airbus (1992 crash)
Kathmandu : Kumari Ghar (Home of The Kumari - Living Goddess -  of Katmandu ; the Kumari is going out on the 3rd day of Indra Jatra festival  - = Yenia - which I attended in 2005) 
Lukla : Tenzing Hillary Airport, rated as the first most dangerous airport in the world ...     
Lumbini : all nationalities pagodas (Birthplace of Lord Bouddha)                                      
Mustang : Lo Mantang, walled capital of the Kingdom of Lo (opened only to visitors since 1992, I trekked there in 1993)
Patan : Haka Bahal (Home of The Kumari  - Living Goddess - ) of Patan)
Pokhara : World Peace Pagod

                  

Oman

Hajjar Mountains : Wadi Bani Awf (= Snake Canyon, a natural wonder nicknamed Oman’s largest natural water park)
Ibri : Beehive Tombs of Bat (more than 100 tombs dot a plateau, forming one of the largest protohistoric necropoleis in the world)
Misfat al Abriyyin : Beautiful rural village near Nizwa, notable for both its traditional architecture (mud houses) and its sophisticated ancient irrigation system
Muscat : Burj Al Nahdah clock tower roundabout & Al Mina traffic circle     
Muscat : Muttrah Souk (believed to be the oldest market places in the world)            
Muscat (nearby) : Al Bustan Palace (an iconic huge hotel, quite impressive and kitschy, dripping with gilding, on Quron Beach, built in 1985 to accommodate visiting heads of state at the GCC summit) 
Nizwa : Al Habta Goat Market (a unique traditional market taking place every Friday mainly around a tree where people bid for goats, sheep & cows)
North of Salalah : Wadi Dawkah Frankincense Trees 
Sur : Dhow Shipyard, along the beach, where dhows (traditional Arabian ships) are still built using centuries-old techniques

 

Ossétie du Sud

Tskhinvali : Burnt Souls Memorial (a circle memorial made of burnt cars used by civilians who fled Tskhinvali during the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia)
Tskhinvali : Georgian Tank Monument 
   

Pakistan

Gilgit : Square with an Indian helicopter shot down   
Kalash Valleys : Kalash pagan sanctuaries (Brun, Grum, , Krakal                                      
Kalash Valleys : Krakal traditional cemetery (skeletons left on open air)
Karimabad : Queen Victoria Monument    
 

Philippines

Bagac : Japan-Philippines Friendship Tower (commemorating the Bataan Death March of April 1942 which caused the deaths of 10,000 war prisoners)
Banaue : Banaue Rice Terraces     
Calamba : Calambanda (also known as Calamba Claypot or Calamba Jar) (possibly the biggest claypot in the world)   
Ilocos Sur : Battle of Bessang Pass Monument
Isla del Corregidor : WWII Corregidor ruins (Fort Mills Headquarters ; Malinda Tunnel, a former underground hospital) & Eternal Flame   
Legazpi : Headless Monument (a curious and gloomy monument - a kneeling body without head - dedicated to the Filipino victims of the Japanese occupation) 
Manila : Globe Fountain & Giant Map of Philippines in Rizal Park : 
Olongapo : 100 Islands
Sagada : the Hanging Coffins             
San Fernando : Freedom Park Stairway (Heroes Hill)                           
Tawi Tawi : Meeting the Badjaos (the "Sea Gypsies") experience              
                

Qatar

Doha : Pearl Monument   
Northeast coast : Al Jumail abandoned fishing village 
 

Russie (Asie)

Chukotka (Cape Dezhnev) : easternmost mainland point of Asia, lighthouse & semi subterranean traditional Chukchi houses
Chukotka (Kolyuchin Island) : Abandoned - in 1993 -  Weather Station  
Kamchatka Krai (Inskii) : Ghost village built by gold-diggers (forced labor) in 1970 and abandoned in 1989 
Kamchatka Krai (Petropavlosk) : Lenin Statue             
Kamchatka Krai (Petropavlosk) : Memorials to the Great Sailors Bering and La Perouse 
Kamchatka Krai (Petropavlosk) : Stele with mockups of 2 sailing ships   
Kamchatka Krai (Petropavlosk) : T34 Monument
Sakha Republic : Gulag Camps ruins (Tplyy Khynch ; Near Oltchanski pass ; Between Topolinoe & Khandyga ; 3 camps in Topolinoe district)
Sakha Republic : Road of Bones (also named Road Kolyma, built by the "zeks", prisoners of the Gulag) 
Sakha Republic : Wooden Bridges built by the Gulag prisoners (on Agaiakan River, on Tiriakyuriak River,  Across Mts Verkhoyansk, On M56 between Kyubyume & Khandyga - the most impressive one ...)
Sakha Republic (Oymyakon) : Meeting "Chyshaan", the 'Old Man Frost' (Chyshaan is the Yakut wizard of frost, wearing a blue coat, furs ..) 
Sakha Republic (Oymyakon) : Pole of Cold Monument  (coldest inhabited place on Earth, -71,2° reached ; a strange stone statue of a bull, Oymyakon's symbol of the winter) 
Sakha Republic (Tomtor) : Gulag Museum
Sakha Republic (Tomtor) : Ice Residence Chyskhaana Cave (a cave with ice sculptures related to local legends)
Sakha Republic (Yakutsk) : Mammoth Museum     
Transsiberian experience

 

Singapour

Amok Street Murals
Gardens By the Bay with the Supertree Grove (artificial trees linked by an aerial walkway)
Fountain of Wealth
Helix Bridge (outstanding pedestrian bridge with an avant-garde design)
Marina Bay Sands (Three towers topped by a connecting 'Skypark' with the 'Infinity Pool') 
The Raffles (an old historic & mythical hotel

 

Sri Lanka

Colombo : Old Colombo Lighthouse     
 Jaffna : Kandarodai (also named Kadurugoda) (a very mysterious site with an intriguing cluster of 20 relatively small stupas whose origin is controversial)
Kandy : "Perahera" (amazing procession with elephants held annually to pay homage to the Sacred Tooth Relic of Buddha) &  Sacred Tooth Temple
Mihintale : Mountain revered as the birthplace of Buddhism in Sri Lanka 
Sigiriya : Sigiriya Rock (an ancient stone fortress often considered as the eighth wonder of the world)   
Trincomalee : Kanniya Hot Springs         
Yapahuwa : Yapahuwa Fire Rock Fortress (a fortress built around an impressive huge granite rock where the Sacred Tooth of Buddha was kept before being transferred to Kandy)       
   

Syrie

Aleppo : Citadel & Souks (before destruction during the war between the regime & ISIS & rebels)
Aleppo (nearby) : the "Forgotten Cities"
Hama : Norias
Maaloula : Christian village with churches largely destroyed by ISIS
Palmyra before destruction by ISIS
Raqqa before it was the lair of ISIS
 

Taïwan

Alishan Forest Railway : a scenic & very popular narrow gorge train  
Changhua : Baguashan Giant Buddha (one of the tallest Buddha statues in the world)                             
Kenting : Eluanbi Lighthouse (Taiwan southernmost point)                   
Lanyu Island : also named Orchid Island, a gorgeous island with a unique culture  
Mount Alishan : Alishan Divine Tree (a 3000-year old red cypress ; it has the widest diameter in Asia)   
Taichung : Taichung Martyrs Shrine                                               T   
Tainan : Koxinga Memorial Park                         
Taipeh : National Revolutionary Martyrs' Shrine                                                                                               
Taipeh : National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall        
Taipeh : Peace Memorial Park   
Taipeh : Snake Alley (Huaxi Street Night Market) (locals drink snake blood mixed with alcool as an aphrodisiac)  
Taipeh : Sun Yat-Sen Memorial                                                               
Taroko Gorge : Taroko Tianxiang Pudu Pedestrian Bridge               
Yehliu Geopark (Stunning otherworldly hoodoo formations)               
                              

Thaïlande

Ban Tai : River Kwai Bridge  
Bangkok : Democracy Monument
Bangkok : Patpong Road (Red Light District)   
Pattaya : Walking Street (Red Light District)           
Phang Nga Bay : Ko Ta Pu (James Bond Island)
 

Timor Leste

Ai Pelo : Ruins of the Portuguese Ai Pelo Prison
Aileu : Monumen Tiga Pilar (The Three Pilars)
Cape Fatucama : Cristo Rey
Dili : Integration Monument (dating from Indonesian occupation)
Dili : Memorial to the victims of the Japanese occupation of Timor
Laga : L7 House (House of L7, a former commander of the Falintil guerilla, where he stored 480 bodies of dead members of a group that split from Falintil)
Los Palos : Uma Lulik (Sacred totem houses of the Fatakulu people
Mt Ramelau : VIrgin Statue (on the summit)
Venilale : WWII Japanese tunnels

 

Turkménistan

Ashgabat : Independence Monument 
Ashgabat : Lenin Statue  
Ashgabat : Monument of Neutrality
Ashgabat : Nyazov Statue
Ashgabat : Ruhnama Book Statue (a weird monument representing an opened book "The Ruhnama", a book written by Niyazov, the former dictator) 
Ashgabat : Tolkutchka Market (as it was in 2004)
Ashgabat : Wedding Palace
Ashgabat : 10th Anniversary of Independence Park
Kov Ata : Kov Ata Subterranean lakes
 

Turquie (Asie)

Denizli : Deadly ancient portal to the underworld
Fethiye : Lycian Rock Tombs (Tombs built in a cliff so that angels could 'reach' the dead) 
Kayaköy : Ghost town abandoned in a population exchange with Greece      
Kaymakli : Kaymakli Underground City 
Kekova Island : Underwater ruins       
Maziköy : Maziköy Underground City
Ozkonak : Ozkonak Underground City 
Pamukkale Water Terraces 
 

UAE

Abu Dhabi : Al Iitihad Square  (a park with giant sculptures such as a huge incense burner)
Abu Dhabi : Aldar HQ (an amazing circular buiding looking lihe a huge coin)                               
Abu Dhabi : Capital Gate (an amazing skyscraper rated as the world's furthest leaning man-made tower ; rightly nicknamed  "the Leaning Tower of Abu Dhabi")
Abu Dhabi : Emirates Palace (a luxurious flashy palace)
Abu Dhabi : Ferrari World
Abu Dhabi : Founders Memorial
Abu Dhabi : Masdar (an ecologically self sustainable district ; not really attractive as it is currently meeting less than 1% occupancy ..)
Abu Dhabi : Wahat Al Karama Memorial
Abu Dhabi : World's largest carpet in Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque (one of the largest mosque in the world)   
Abu Dhabi : Yas Island Hotel (amazingly built over an F1 race circuit & featuring the world’s largest LED display)
Al Ain : Camel Market
Al Ain : Camel Race Court
Al Ain : Etisalat Building                 
Dubai : Burj Al Arab (a more than luxurious hotel modeled after the sail of a yacht and dubbed “the world’s only seven star hotel” !)
Dubai : Deira Clocktower   
Dubai : Dubal Gold Souk (seen in the 80's with still traditional shops and bare ground alleys)
Dubai : Dubai Frame 
Dubai : Glow Garden (especially at night)
Dubai : Lost Chambers Aquarium
Dubai : Miracle Garden (billed as the "largest natural flower garden in the world", with all kinds of attractions -plane, castle, Mickey ...- wrapped with flowers)
Dubai : Ski Dubai (inside Mall of Emirates)
Dubai : The Palm
               

Vietnam

Dien Bien Phu : Victory Monument (Béatrice Hill), Eliane Hill, French Cemetery & Memorial ... ; nearby Giap HG
Ha Giang : Ho Chi Minh statue                                   
Hanoi : Cầu Long Biên (formerly Pont Doumer, a bridge built by Eiffel)                                   
Hanoi : Métropole (a historic & mythical hotel)                        
Hanoi : Hô Chi Minh Mausoleum                    
Ho Chi Minh City : Museum of American War Crimes                                                                             
Ho Chi Minh City : Reunification Palace (meant to be a lavish presidential home, the palace became a symbol of the fall of South Vietnam)
Ho Chi Minh City : Rue Đồng Khởi (during French times, this street was the iconic Rue Catinat)                                                                                
Ho Chi Minh City (nearby) : Củ Chi Tunnels  (made by the Việt Cộng during the Vietnam War)          
Lai Chau : Hang Tôm (bridge built by Eiffel)
Quang Ba : Quang Ba Twin Hills (Two rounded breast like hills ; legend says that a fairy came to earth, fell in love and got a baby, but was requested by the emperor to return to heaven ; she feared her baby would lack milk, so she decided to leave her breasts on earth !)
Son La : French Jail
Weekly Minorities Markets (North Vietnam) : Bao Lac, Can Ty, Coc Ly, Dong Van, Meo Vac, Muong Khuong, Muong So, Sapa, Tam Duong    
 

Yemen

Al Hagara : An impressive traditional village                                 
Manakha : A stunning traditional town at high altitude which was the centre for coffee grown on terraces                                                         
Mocha : Major marketplace & port for coffee                                 
Sana'a : Dar al-Hajar (iconic "Stone Palace" built atop a tall and vertical rock)                                                                            
Shibam : a city known as the "Manhattan of the desert" for its tall buildings made in mud                                             
Tarim : Minaret of Al-Muhdhar Mosque (tallest and thinnest minaret in Yemen, all made in mud)                               
Zebid : This city, where the 'zero' was invented, has very elaborate brick buildings with intricate abstract designs, floral patterns, animals, and calligraphy

 

 

 

Caraïbes

 

 

Antigua

Pillars of Hercules
VC Bird Monument
    

Aruba

San Nicolas : Charlie's Bar (unique atmosphere with a decor of decades of international memorabilia such as car plates ..., everywhere, even on the ceiling)
San Nicolas : Red Zone (Red Light District)
Seroe Colorado Giant Red Anchor (Big Red Anchor in Memory of All Seamen)
 

Bahamas

Andros : Blue holes
Andros : Crab sculpture (Coakley Town)
New Providence : Sacred Space (a group of esoteric wood sculptures)
New Providence : Slave Settlement ruins
New Providence (Nassau) : Greycliff Cigar Factory
New Providence (Nassau) : Pirates of Nassau
New Providence (Nassau) : Versailles Gardens & French Cloister (imported from Europe piece by piece)
Little Abaco (New Plymouth) : Miss Emily's Blue Bee Bar
Little Abaco (New Plymouth) : Vert's Model Ship Shoppe
Little Abaco (New Plymouth) : Ye Olde Gaol (old jail)
Elbow Cay (Hope Town) : Cholera Cemetery
Eleuthera : Glass Window Bridge (Often called the “Narrowest Place on Earth”, this bridge offers stunning contrast between the Atlantic and Carribean Sea)
Eleuthera : Pink Sands
 

Barbados

Bridgetown : Independence Arch 
St Philip : Sam's Lord Castle
 

Bonaire

Kralendjik : Museum Belua (a curious house full of weird things)
Rincon : Gruta de Lourdes
Orange Pan : Slave Huts
Salinas : Pyramids (a group of tall and narrow pyramids, all painted with a different colour)

 

Cuba

La Habana : Coppelia Ice Parlor (modernist building, one of the largest ice parlors in the world)
La Habana : La Plaza de la Revolución                               
San Francisco de Paula : Finca la Vigía (Ernest Hemingway's House)             
Santiago de Cuba : Cuartel Moncada
Santiago de Cuba : Valle de la Prehistoria
 

Curaçao

Landhuis Jan Kok : Nena Sanchez Gallery (Modern Art :brightly painted women statues)
Willemstad : Autonomie Monument
Willemstad : Cans & Rugs Artwork (Biesheuvel, near Rooi Catodje)
Willemstad : Floating Market
Willemstad : Queen Emma Floating Bridge
 

Dominique

Territory Kalinago (also named Réserve Carib Reserve) :  a territory for descendants of Carib Indians
The Rock at Pagua : the legend says that this tall rock is home to a powerful spirit and that if you rub a flower that blooms only once a year you can control the mind of other people .. !
 

Grenade

Pearls Airfield with cold war relics (planes wreckages, abandoned airfield which was taken over from the Cubans and the Soviets by marines during the US invasion)  
St George's : "Christ of the Deep"    
  ​

Guadeloupe  

Capesterre Belle-Eau : Mémorial Christophe Colomb (Memorial to Christopher Columbus)
Morne-A-l'Eau : Cimetière de Morne-À-l'Eau (Morne-À-l'Eau Cemetery ; stunning hillside cemetery with crypts decorated with checkered black and white tile - like a huge chessboard - which, at first glance,  look like they house the living, not the dead !
     

Haïti

Bois-Caïman : Murals (birthplace of the Haitian Revolution)
Cap-Français : Monument de la Bataille de Vertières
Côteaux : "500 Marches" (500 stairs, a kind of Via Cruz)
Port-au-Prince : Cemetery (curious graves, including former dictator Jean Claude Duvalier's Grave)
Port-au-Prince : Cité Soleil (big slum)
Port-au-Prince : Ghetto Biennale (Atis Resistanz) (a collective of Haitian sculptors and artists recycling used objects into works of art)
Port-au-Prince : Ruins of the National Palace destroyed by the 2010 earthquake
 

Iles Cayman

Everywhere  : in Xmas time, dazzling light displays (dense strings of lights are shaped around palm trees, buildings and structures ...)
Grand Cayman : Cayman Shoe Tree (an uncommon attraction : a tree covered with used shoes picked from the beaches)
Grand Cayman : Hell (street art, signs, shops ... based on the name of this village ; sending postcards 'from Hell'' !)
Cayman Brac : Bubble House
Cayman Brac : John Lennon Monument
     

Iles Vierges Américaines

St Croix (Frederiksted) : King Street (Red District)
St Croix (Udall  Point) : Triangular Stones Monument marking the easternmost point of the USA including insular areas
St John (Trunk Bay) : Underwater Trail
St Thomas (Charlotte Amalie) : Blackbeard's Castle
St Thomas (Charlotte Amalie) : Liberty Bell Replica
St Thomas (Charlotte Amalie) : 99 Steps
     

Iles Vierges Britanniques

Tortola (Trellis Bay) : Aragom's Fireball sculptures (weird sculptures made of metallic wire in the shape of a sphere emerging from the water
     

Jamaïque

Kingston : "Redemption Song" sculpture
Kingston : Trench Town Culture Yard
Nine Mile : Bob Marley Mausoleum
Oracabessa : James Bond Beach
      

Martinique

Le Carbet : Centre d'Interpretation Paul Gauguin
Saint Pierre : Cachot de Cyparis (= Cyparis Cell, in ancient prison ; Cyparis who was jailed in the ancient prison is believed to be the only survivor of the 1902 eruption of Montagne Pelée volcano which destroyed Saint Pierre)   
Schoelcher : Monument du Centenaire (= Centenary Monument)

République Dominicaine

Barahona : La Locomotara
Bonao : Street art, Plaza de la Cultura, in front of Museo Cándido Bidó
Capotillo : Monumento a los Héroes de la Restauración (a huge & massive monument)
Costambar : Exotic sex resort with all-inclusive (yes) special hotels ... very wild and sad place !
Higüey : Basílica Catedral Nuestra Señora de La Altagracia (a huge, very modern, all concrete and absolutely ugly basilica)
La Romana : Altos de Chavón (a meditteranean style mock village)
La Vega : Catedral de la Inmaculada Concepción (Immaculate Conception Cathedral, a bizarre modern all concrete church  looking more like a factory than a church)
La Vega : Carnival (very unique carnival for its masks that are spiked with numerous thorns)
La Vega : El Arbol del Nispero (Santo Cerro)
Las Terrenas : Place Jean de la Fontaine (French writer): 
Montecristi : Torre Reloj (designed by Eiffel)
Santo Domingo : Altar de la Patria
Santo Domingo : Estatua de Cristobal Colón (very large statue of Christopher Columbus)
Santo Domingo : Faro a Colón (a weird and huge monument honouring Christopher Columbus ; thought not resembling a lighthouse, it also serves as such)
Santo Domingo : Los Tres Ojos (3 subterranean lakes)
Santo Domingo : Museo del Larimar (larimar is a semi precious stone found only in the Dominican Republic)
Santo Domingo : Obelisco Hembra
Sosúa : Calle Pedro Clisante at night (Sosúa is one of the major 'sex destination in this country, quite disruptive !)
Taino Park : a weird historical park
 

Saba

Hell's Gate : Sulphur Mine:

Saint-Barthélemy

Gustavia : la Grande Ancre (the Big Anchor)
Gustavia : Le P'tit Collectionneur 
: 

Saint Kitts & Nevis

Nevis : Cottle Church (ruins of a church where - unusually - in the 19th century landowners and slaves worshipped together)
Saint Kitts : Bloody Point
: 

Sainte-Lucie

Castries : Central Market
Castries (nearby) : Inniskilling Monument (commemorating an 1796 British victory over the French ....)
: 

Saint-Martin / Sint Maarten

Marigot : Monument de la Frontière (Border Monument)                     
Princess Juliana International Airport, rated the 2nd most dangerous airport in the world ...
: 

Saint-Vincent & les Grenadines

Saint Vincent (Kingstown) : St Mary's Cathedral (a stunning church with a very curious steeple)
Saint Vincent (Petit Bordel) : Nothing there, just a village with a funny name (in French, meaning Little Brothel !)
Saint Vincent (Wallilabou) : Wallilabou Heritage Park (site of the movie Pirates of the Caribbean shooting, with remains of decors)
Bequia (Port Elizabeth) : Sargeant Bros Modef Boat Shop (iconic shop with hundreds of all type model boats)
Bequia (Port Elizabeth) : Whaleboner's (a unique bar with an odd decor with actual whale bones such as vertebras for stools)
Mustique : Lost paradise of Moon Hole (strange constructions with a vaguely prehistoric look, made in the 50's of recycled materials & wreckage ; have to sneak in, access is forbidden)
Mustique : Mating Tortoises Statue (enormous sculpture of 2 tortoises mating)
 

San Andrés y Providencia

Providencia : Roadside fauna sculptures (bus stops, benches ...)
San Andrés : Cueva de Morgan (alleged lair of the pirat Morgan, whose entrance is a huge skull)
San Andrés : La Regatta (a pontoon with a funky garden of art and sculptures made of bottles and day to day ustensils)
 

Trinidad & Tobago

Devil's Woodyard
Pitch Lake (largest natural deposit of asphalt in the world)
Port of Spain : Magnificent Seven
Tobago : Great Courland Bay Monument                   
Tobago : Mystery Tomb of Betty Stiven (Plymouth, with a strange epitaphe)

 

 

 

Europe

 

 

Albanie

Berat : Kisha e Shën Mëhillit (= St. Michael's Church, a church in an amazing location close to a cliff)                   
Dropull : Greek village at the heart of Greek minority the Dryinopolis Region
Elbasan County and other places : Bunkers of Albania (these concrete bunkers still dot Albania, especially in coastal areas : over 750,000 bunkers were built under the direction of Communist dictator Enver Hoxha !) 
Gjirokaster : Birthplace of Enver Hoxha
Gjirokaster : Downed American spy plane (in Gjirokaster Castle, the Communist dictatorship set up a museum, still in place, housing tanks and downed planes as a reminder of their 'alleged' victories over Western imperialism !)                    
Lezhë : Mussolini's Hunting Lodge (now : Hoteli i Gjuetisë) at the entrance of Kunë-Vain-Tale Nature Reserve             
Lezhë : Szkander bég mauzóleuma (= Skanderbeg's Mausoleum) rana : Communist Style Mural Mosaic titled "The Albanians" above the entrance of the National Historical Museum
Tirana : Nëna Shqipëri (= Mother Albania ; a massive statue holding a wreath of laurels and a star, located at the National Martyrs Cemetery of Albania)     
Vlöre : Independence Monument 
 

Allemagne

Berchtesgaden : Berghof (Hitler's Eagle's Nest)                                      
Berlin : Bahnhof Friedrichstraße (= Friedrichstraße Railway Station ; Cold War icon & onetime "hole" in the Iron Curtain)
Berlin : Checkpoint Charlie  
Berlin : East Side Gallery (murais on a remaining part of the Berlin Wall)        F                   
Berlin : Glienicker Brücke (Glienicke Bridge, nicknamed "Bridge of Spies", famous for being used for prisoner exchanges between USSR & NATO) 
Berlin : Jüdisches Museum                                                                   
Berlin : Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche (= Emperor William Memorial Church, bombed during WWII and kept ruined as a testimony)               
Berlin : Olympiastadion Berlin (built by the Nazis)                                                                                             
Berlin : Siegessäule (= Victory Column ; commemorating Prussian victories against Denmark, Austria and France)
Berlin : Topographie des Terrors       
Berlin : Vestiges of the Berlin Wall             
Berlin : Weltkugelbrunnen (= World Fountain)  
Buchenwald : Buchenwald Concentration Camp 
Chemnitz : Karl Marx mammoth bust
Dachau : Dachau Concentration Camp 
Elzach : "Burgerreiten" (festival held every 7 years : men carrying the last married man of the village while women simulate an attack on him)
Erfurt : Gedenk und Bildungstätte (DDR jail)                                                                                         
Frankfurt am Main : Bahnhofsviertel (Red Light District)                                                        
Hameln : Rattenfängerhaus (= Pied Piper's House or  "Rat Catcher's House") (about a well known German tale)
Iena (nearby) : Museum '1806' & Memorial at the site of Iena Battle (Cospeda)
Insel Rügen : Prora (former Nazi seaside resort)
Insel Usedom : Peenemünde (WWII site of development and production of the V1 and V2 rockets)                     
Leipzig : Monument to the Battle of the Nations
Niederfinow : Schiffshebewerk (lift for ships)
Nüremberg : Giant Chair (symbol of Nuremberg's manufacturing industries)
Nüremberg : Reichsparteitagsgelände (former congress center for the Nazis)                               
Nüremberg : Saal 600 (Memorium Nürnberger Prozesse, where the Nüremberg Trial took place)                     
Rothenburg ob der Tauber : Ratstrinkstube Clock Tower (Each hour the doors open to reenact the legend of the heroic mayor who saved his town by drinking a gallon of wine !)
Seiffen : a very special village devoted to wood carving such as "nutcrackers", "smoking men", "Christmas pyramids"  adorning the village and the shops ; specially wonderful at Xmas time
Trier : Karl Marx Haus    
Weil-am-Rhein : Dreiländerbrücke (= 3 Countries Bridge, a footbridge over Rhine River near the point where borders of Germany, France & Switzerland meet
  

Autriche

Brennerautobahn : Europabrücke
Ebensee : "Fetzenzug" & "Brieftaschlwaschen" during carnival (Parade of people wearing rags & Washing wallets in the river - symbolizing that no money is left before lent !)          
Graz : Doppelwendeltreppe (Burg ; rare double spiral stairs)
Graz : 'Maison de Plaisir' on Steingasse (Austria's eldest brothel) 
Graz : Murinsel (a spectacular artificial floating "island", especially at night)
  

Belarus

Barisaw (nearby) : Battle of Berezina site & Memorials     
Brest : Brest Hero-Fortress    
Brest : Lenin Statue
Brest : Museum of Confiscated Art (an extraordinary display of antiques seized from smugglers trying to get them across the border to Poland during the 1990s) 
Glubokoe : Sukhoi Su-17M Fitter Monument 
Khatyn : Memorial to Khatyn Massacre    
Kosava : Monument of Tadeusz Kosciuszko      
Minsk : Isle of Tears & Afghanistan War Veterans Memorial
Minsk : Lee Harvey Oswald's Apartment (where JFK's assassin lived after defecting to the Soviet Union in 1959 ; he finally returned ti the USA in 1962)
Minsk : Metro Njamiha Memorial (to the 53 victims of  the 1999 tragedy : a scramble of people attending a festival who rushed suddenly to the metro when a very violent storm started)
Minsk : Mound of Glory Memorial Complex   
Minsk : National Library (rated the 10th ugliest building in the world !)      
Minsk : Pit 5 monument dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust)                     
Minsk (nearby) : The Stalin Line                         
Mosar : Antialcoholic Museum & relics of Saint Justin in St Ann Church (a saint who helps alcoholics to begin a sober life)
Orsha : Memorial Complex "Katyusha" (Katyusha rocket launchers were supposedly used for the first time there)                           
Turov : A mysterious "Growing" Cross in the cemetery pokes from the ground (this cross and others have been gradually emerging from the ground for years, “growing” about a centimeter annually ; they are of course believed to have healing powers ...)                
Vitebsk : Afghanistan War Veterans Memorial
 

Belgique

Antwerpen : Villa Tinto (not a shopping mall, but a huge whorehouse ... strange !) & Rot District (Schipperkwartier)
Bruxelles : 'Vitrines' de prostituées de la Rue d'Aerschot (area of prostitution "behind windows")
Canal du Centre : Ascenseurs  hydrauliques à bateaux (ship lifts, Strépy-Thie, Houdeng-Bracquegnies)
Chaudfontaine : Giant Clothespin Sculpture
Dinant : Pont Charles de Gaulle (adorned with coloured saxophones sculptures, in honor of the inventor of the saxophone born in Dinant)
Eben Emael : Tour d'Eben-Ezer (a bizarre and fantastical tower built of flint rubble and topped at its four corners by large stone sculptures of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse) 
Mariemont : "Bourgeois de Calais" replica
Mons : Lucie et les Papillons (Lucy and the Butterflies, gigantic modern sculpture)
Mons : the "Passager" (enormous wooden sculpture)
Oostende : 'Rock Strangers' sculpture (a group of sculptures imitating rocks and painted in red)
Steneke : Casanus (the Giant Intestine Guesthouse, a unique work of art in the shape of a gigantic anus, inside which a suite is available !)
Vaals: Labyrinth Drielandenpunt
 

Bosnie & Herzégovine

Banja Luka : Crooked Clock
Bijeljina : Stanišići Ethno Village
Jajce : Jajce Watermills (a cluster of small mills on stilts)
Konjic : ARKD-O Tito's Nuclear Bunker
Kozara NP : Spomenik Slobode (Monument to the Revolution)
Mačkovac : Etno avlija Mačkovac
Međugorje : Apparition Hill
Mostar : Bruce Lee statue
Mostar : Partizansko spomen groblje (Partisan Memorial & Cemetery)
Mostar : Staklena Banka (Glass Bank), also named Sniper Tower (this derelict building is famous as it was used during the civil war by snipers ; it is now adorned with street art)
Novi Travnik : Nekropola žrtvama fašizma (= Necropolis for the victims of Fascism, a bit derelict but really impressive)  
Sarajevo : ICAR Canned Beef Monument (this ironic war memorial in the shape of a tin can thumbs its nose at a campaign of inedible humanitarian aid food products)   
Sarajevo : Museum of the Assassination of Franz Ferdinand (Muzej Sarajevo) 
Sarajevo : "Snipers Alley" (as was nicknamed Zmaja od Bosne Street during the civil war)
Sarajevo : Spomenik Ubijenoj Djeci (Memorial of the Murdered Children of Besieged Sarajevo 1992-1995) 
Srebrenica : Memorijalni Centar Srebrenica-Potočari (Srebenica Genocide Memorial) & Cemetery
Tjentište : Spomenik Bitke na Sutjesci (Sutjeska Battle Monument)
 

Bulgarie

Gabrovo : Dom na Humora i Satirata (House of Humour and Satire)
Haskovo : "Witch Crash" (Sculpture (sculpture of a witch along a pole ; a pun with "Witchcraft")
Lovech : Koprit Most (Covered Bridge)
Omurtag : Aircraft Monuments
Pleven : Ossuary Mausoleum
Shipka Pass : Battles of Shipka Memorial                                       
Sofia : Georgi Dimitrov Mausoleum (seen in 1991 ; this mausoleum of a Communist leader on Prince Alexander of Battenberg Square was destroyed in 1999)
Šumen : Founders of the Bulgarian State Monument
Šumen : Madara Rider
Varna Province : Pobiti Kamani (Planted Stones, also named Stone Desert

 

Chypre

Cape Kiti : Meneou Lighthouse (old lighthouse built by the Ottoman government in the 19th century)     
Kolossi : Kolossi Castle (birthplace of the world's oldest wine)                                                                    
Mt Olympus : RAF Troödos Station (British long range radar observation post)
Larnaca : Kamares Aqueduct
Larnaca : Larnaca Salt Lake & Umm Haram Tekke                                                                        
Larnaca : Lorenzo Warriner Pease's tomb (in the graveyard of St Lazarus Church ; Warriner Pease was an American Missionary sent to Cyprus in 1834)
Paphos : Pétra tou Romioú (= Aphrodite's Rock)
Paphos : Tombs of the Kings

 

Danemark

Århus : Kvindemusset (Women's Museum : one of the vety few museums devoted to women in the world : interesting though slightly militant !)
Kolding : Miniby
Kopenhagen : Den Sorte Diamant)  
 

Espagne

Barcelona : 'Marc' (statue portraying a colourful, genderless, neo-expressionist human inside a squared frame)
Barcelona : Porta Fira (a strange all red building in deconstructivist art)
Belchite : Belchite ghost village (ruins of the village destroyed during the civil war)         
Guadix : Traditional troglodyte houses 
Valdecabras : Ciudad Encantada (= Enchanted City) (natural site with extraordinarily shapad rock formations) 
Valencia : Hemisferico
Valencia : Museo Falleno (about Fallas)
 

Estonie

Hiiumaa Island : Hill of Crosses   
Piusa : Piusa Sand Caves (Man-made mineral caves housing a massive bat colony)
Rohuküla : Remains of Rohuküla Soviet Base           
Saaremaa Island : Kaali Meteorite Crater Field (site of a giant meteorite impact, associated with many mythological tales and to a mysterious ancient cult)
Tallinn : The "Broken Line" Monument (in memory of those who lost their lives on the 'Estonia' ferry, which sank in 1994)           
Tallinn : Former KGB Building (Pagari St)
Tartu : Former KGB Building     
Valga : Valga Prison Camp Cemetery & Memorial (site of Nazi POW camp Stalag-351)
  

Finlande

Helsinki : Sibelius Monument
Helsinki : Three Smiths Statue
Kuopio : Puijo Tower
Lahti : Lahti Ski Jump

 

France

Paris : Bouquet de Tulipes (a controversial so called 'work of art' made by Jeff Koons)
Paris : I Love You Wall
Paris : Le Pouce Géant (Giant Thumb sculpture by César)
Paris : Pigalle (nightlife & red district)
Paris : Rue Sant-Denis (red district)            
Ain (Chatillon-sur-Chalaronne) : Musée du Train Miniature (= Museum of Miniature Train)               
Aisne (Bellicourt) : Souterrain de Riqueval (a tunnel dug for a canal)        
Aisne (Laon) : Tour Penchée (= Leaned Tower, an old tower with a tilt angle exceeding 30¨)
Alpes Maritimes : Vallée des Merveilles     
Alpes Maritimes (Golfe-Juan) : Colonne Napoléon (Monument commemorating Napoleon's landing after exile in Isola d'Elba) & Yearly reenactment of Napoléon's landing         
Aube (Aix-en-Othe) : Halle (covered market in tne Baltard style, like the "Halles de Paris" which were unhappily destroyed in 1968) ; 
Aveyron (Millau) : Cité de Pierres de Montpellier-le-Vieux (= the "City of Stones", a strange mysterious  imaginary city designed by nature)                      
Aveyron (Roquefort) : Roquefort Société caves                    
Bas-Rhin (Breitenbach) : Breitenbach Landscape Hotel (also named Hôtel 48° Nord) (a very unusual ecological hotel, all in raw wood, in the middle of a forest)       
Bas-Rhin (La Wantzenau) : MM Park France (Military Museum about WWII)                          
Bas-Rhin (Natzweiler) : Camp de concentration de Natzweiler-Struthof ( = Struthof Concentration Camp, the only nazi concentration camp in France)
Bas-Rhin (Strasbourg) : Barrage Vauban (= Vauban Dam)            
Bas-Rhin (Strasbourg) : Cave du Corbeau & Hôtel du Corbeau       
Bas-Rhin (Strasbourg) : Musée Vodou (= Voodoo Museum, a curious museum all dedicated to voodoo)         
Bas-Rhin (Strasbourg) : "Les Braves Gens" (urban streetart : an amazing long mural on the walls of the Manufacture)                       
Bouches-du-Rhône (Fontvielle) : Moulin de Daudet (= Daudet Windmill)              
Bouches-du-Rhône (Marseille) : Calanque de Morgiou              
Calvados (Arromanches) : Mulberry Harbour (remains of an artificial port assembled on Gold Beach & used in D-Day Normandy landings)   
Calvados (Colleville-sur-Mer) : Cimetière américain (= American Cemetery)                                                       
Cher (Blancafort) : Musée de la Sorcellerie (= Witchcraft Museum)                       
Cher (Saint-Amand-Montrond) : Pyramide de la Cité de l'Or (a strange futuristic partly split pyramid)                      
Corrèze : Collonges-la-Rouge, one of the most beautiful villages of France    
Corsica : Calanches de Piana (superb red rocks)          
Corsica : Testa à u Ghjacaru (= Tête de Chien, = Dog Head, a rock resembling to the head of a dog)                   
Corsica (Erbalunga) : "La Cerca" (Easter procession)                                       
Corsica (Sartène) : "Catenacciu" (Easter procession)                       
Côte-d'Or (Alise-Sainte-Reine) : Statue de Vercingétorix                                    
Côtes-d’Armor (Le Guildo) : Les Pierres Sonnantes de Bretagne (=  Singing Stones of Brittany, a weird natural site : these stones, round, smooth and extremely large stones ring like a bell if struck by another smaller piece of the same stone)                             
Creuse (Toulx-Sainte-Croix) : Les Pierres Jaumâtres (a granite blockfield of huge boulders with strange shapes)              
Doubs (Arc-en-Senans) : Saline Royale (an old salt factory complex  which was designed as an “ideal city” based on enlightenment philosophy ('les Lumières') & whitchs shape was inspired by the course of the Sun)
Essonne (Milly-la-Forêt) : Le Cyclop                             
Eure (Evreux) : Urban art (murals & artworks over the Iton River)
Eure (Vernon) : le Vieux Moulin (old mill on water)
Eure-et-Loir (Chartres) : Maison Picassiette     
Eure-et-Loir (Chartres) : Monument Jean Moulin (Jean Moulin was a leader of the Résistance Française against the nazis during WWII)   
Gironde (Bordeaux) : Base Sous marine (a former military base for submarines, built by Germans during WWII)       
Gironde (Bordeaux) : Cité du Vin (an unusual futuristic building all in curves evocating wine flowing)   
Gironde (Bordeaux) : Monument aux Girondins (a monument in memory of the Girondists who fell victim of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution)                  
Gironde (Bordeaux) : "Soucoupe Volante" (= "Flying Saucer", a weird artwork in Bassin à flot n°1)      
Gironde (Bordeaux) : Statue de Chaban Delmas (a well known French politician)   
Gironde (Bordeaux) : Tortues de la Victoire (a weird artwork representing 2 giant bronze turtles holding grapes in their mouth, symbolizing that Bordeaux has been producing wine for a long time !) 
Haut-Rhin (Colmar) : Statue de la Liberté (a 12m resin replica of the Statue of Liberty, honouring the sculptor Bartholdi born in Colmar who designed it) & Bartholdi Museum                    
Haute-Loire (Le Puy-en-Velay) : Notre-Dame de France (a colossal iron statue overlooking the town)                       
Haute-Loire (Le Puy-en-Velay) : Rocher St-Michel (a needle-like rock capped by a quaint chapel)                             
Haute-Marne (Colombey-les-Deux-Églises) :Tombe du Général de Gaulle, La Boisserie, Croix de Lorraine du Mémorial
Haute-Saône (Ronchamp) : Chapelle Notre-Dame du Haut (an usual chapel, designed by Le Corbusier)     
Haute-Savoie :  Yvoire, one of the nicest traditional villages in France      
Haute-Vienne (Oradour-sur-Glane) : Oradour-sur-Glane was destroyed and its inhabitants murdered during WWII (it is now a ghost village kept as a memorial to German atrocities)                            
Hauts-de-Seine (Asnières) : Cimetière des Chiens (= Dog Cemetery ; a cemetery not only for dogs but also for pets and other animals such as horses, with surprising graves !)                              
Hauts-de-Seine (Meudon) : Hangar Y (world's first airship hangar)
Hérault (Cournonterral) : Fête des Paillasses (a very wild kind of carnival : be 'attacked' and covered with wine sediments !)          
Ille-et-Vilaine (Saint Malo) : Barrage & Usine Marémotrice de la Rance (= Rance Dam & Tidal Power Station, world's first tidal power station ; as of 2021, there are only 9 tidal power stations in the world, the French one is the 2nd in terms of power)
Indre (Mers-sur-Indre) : "Mare au Diable" (= "Devil's Pond", a mysterious pond shrouded with legends which are the background of a famous French novel)    
Loire Atlantique (Nantes) : Café Restaurant La Cigale  
Loire Atlantique (Nantes) : "Machines de l'Ile" (= "Machines of the Isle of Nantes", an extraordinary artistic project exhibiting curious massive puppet-automaton machines such as the Great Elephant, the Marine Worlds Carousel, the Heron Tree ...= 
Loire Atlantique (Nantes) : "Mur Tombé du Ciel" (= Wall Fallen from the Sky", a strange streetart artwork)  
Loire Atlantique (Nantes) : Mural (commemorating the exile of Acadians in Nantes ; Rue des Acadiens)   
Loire Atlantique (Nantes) : Passage Pommerage (old art déco shopping gallery)                  
Loiret (Yèvre-le-Châtel) : Borne du Méridien de Paris (Marker of the Paris Meridian ; in March 1911, France abandoned the Meridian of Paris as a reference for the Greewich Meridian... !)                        
Maine-et-Loire : Louresse-Rochemenier, an amazing troglodytic village                                 
Maine-et-Loire (Montsoreau) : Champignonnière Du Saut Aux Loups (underground production of mushrooms in tunnels)                
Maine-et-Loire (Turquant) : Troglo-Tap (famous for the "Pommes tapées")                                     
Marne (Montagne de Reims) : Faux de Verzy (a strange forest of gnarled trees)                       
Marne (Montagne de Reims) : Phare de Verzenay (a so-called lighthouse on top of aa hill far from any sea ..)                          
Marne (Reims) : Café du Palais (an iconic old café)                                                    
Marne (Reims) : Horloge astronomique de Jean Legros (an amazing complex astronomical clock designed by a single man between 1930 & 1952)
Morbihan (Lorient) : Base de Sous-Marins (= Lorient U-boat Base, built during WWII by the German Navy)       ​
Moselle (Bitche) : Jardin pour la Paix (= Garden for Peace, a very kitsch & weird garden)                    
Moselle (Bitche) : Parc des sculptures du vallon du Stadtweiher (a park with contemporary artworks, some quite strange)      
Moselle (Dabo) : Rocher de Dabo (a spectacular steep rock said to be inhabited by a legendary ghost and crowned by a church)                  
Moselle (Delme) : "Maison Fantôme", also named Ghe(Ho)st House (a bizarre artwork : an old house, which served as a jail, as a school & even as a funeral house, was converted by artists into a contemporary art centre by giving it a ghostly cloak of polystyrene and white paint) 
Moselle (Scy-Chazelles) : Flamme de l'Europe & Maison de Robert Schuman ( = Europe Flame : a sculpture dedicated to the foundation of United Europe ; = House of Robert Schuman, the "Father of United Europe)   
Nord (Dunkerque) : Passerelle du Grand Large (a quaint footbridge)
Nord (Maubeuge) : Monument aux Marcheurs
Pas-de-Calais (Equihen Plage) : Les Quilles En l'Air (= Upside Down Boat Houses)                                 
Puy-de-Dôme (Veyre-Monton) : Vierge de Monton (4th tallest statue in France)                                          
Pyrénées-Atlantiques (Biarritz) : Rocher de la Vierge                                                                                        
Pyrénées-Atlantiques (Biarritz) : Train de la Rhune experience (rack-train to La Rhune pass)                
Pyrénées-Orientales (Perpignan) : La "Sanch" ('Mysterious' Easter processions)                                                                      
Rhône (Lyon) : Fête des Lumières experience (an amazing festival of lights)
Rhône (Lyon) : "Flower Tree" (a weird colorful piece of contemporary art : a bunch of flowers artwork created by a Korean artist)                        
Rhône (Lyon) : L'Institution (an iconic old café)                                                  
Rhône (Lyon) : Louis XIV Equestrian Statue (Place Bellecour)                                                                 
Rhône (Lyon) : Mur des Lyonnais (a large mural : fresco painting in trompe-l'oeil)
Rhône (Lyon) : Musée des Automates (=  Automatons Museum)                 
Rhône (Lyon) : Musée des Confluences, for its deconstructivist architectural design, said to resemble a floating crystal cloud of stainless steel and glass
Saône-et-Loire (La Boulaye) : Paldenshangpa (strangely enough, a buddhist monastery in the heart of France)                          
Somme : Y, this village has nothing special except its name which consists of only one letter (inducing mail delivery problems and other problems for its inhabitants !)                                           
Tarn : Cordes-sur-Ciel, an amazing medieval village, listed among the most beautiful villages of France                                    
Tarn (Albi) : La Pérouse Statue (La Pérouse was a famous French explorer who disappeared during an expedition around the world)  
Territoire de Belfort (Belfort) : Lion de Belfort (an amazingly huge monumental sculpture by Bartholdi symbolizing the heroic French resistance during the Siege of Belfort)  
      

Grèce

Crete : Death Valley  
Crete : Katholiko Monastery (a gorgeous site) 
Crete : Psychro Cave (deemed to be tne birthplace of the god Zeus) 
Crete : Spinalonga Island (this abandoned Greek island was the last active leper colony in Europe)   
Crete : Voila (deserted Venetian village)  
Meteora Monasteries
Mt Athos & its Monasteries  
     

Hongrie

Budapest : Budapest Castle Hill Funicular
Budapest : Imre Nagy Statue (much-loved statue of Imre Nagy leaning on the parapet of a bridge ; Nagy, though communist, was a hero of the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising and was hanged by the KGB ; at the request of Russia, the statue was removed to Jaszai Mari Square)
Budapest : Red Army Monument                     
Budapest : Szabadság Szobor (= Liberty Statue)                         
Budapest : Széchenyi gyógyfürdő (=   Széchenyi Baths)
Budapest : Terror Háza (= House of Terror, about the Nazi & Soviet atrocities)                         
Bugac : Bugac Puszta   
Hortobágy : Hortobágyi Csárda (= Great Inn of the Hortobágy)
Mohács : Busójárás (a very unique carnival with the 'busós', frightening-looking costumed people wearing wooden masks and big woolly cloaks)   
Pécs : A quaint statue of Franz Liszt, the composer, peering over the balcony of the Bishop's Palace
Pécs : Mosque Church (Pasha Qasim Mosque which became Candlemas Church ... very unusual in this direction ... !)
 

Iles Anglo-Normandes

Guernesey : Underground Military Museum
Herm : "Pierre aux Rats"  
     

Italie

Arzachena (Sardinia) : Tomba dei Giganti di Li Lolghi (= Giants' Gravse ; legend says that this neolithic site is the tomb of powerful giants ; some reserachers even argued that it was graves of the lost Atlantis !)
Cocullo : Festa dei Serpari (Snake Festival)    
Crespi d'Adda :  The "ideal workers' village" 
Genoa : Bigo (a Renzo Piano strange strucuture in tGenoa dockyard, with two groups of arms emerging and fanning out above water)
Milano : 'Bosco Verticale' building Vertical forest)
Milano : Il Muro delle Bambole (Wall of Dolls, Via E. Amicis) (an art installation about violence against women) 
Napoli : Gabinetto Segreto (the once forbidden "secret cabinet" of erotic art from excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum)  
Napoli : Museo Presepi (Museo di San Martino) (= Napolitan Cribs Museum) 
Portofino : Sculpture of a suspended rhinoceros
Prizzi (Sicily) : "U Ballu di Diavuli" (Devils Dance ; on Easter Sunday)  
San Biagio dei Platani (Sicily) : "Archi di Pasqua" (curious arches  made in "pasta di sale', a mixture of flour, salt, water .., adorned with angels, flowers , at Easter time)
Sassari (nearby) (Sardinia) : Roccia dell' Elefante (= Elephant Rock, a rock strikingly looking like an elephant) 
Termeno Sulla Strada del Vino (= Tramin) : the "Wudelen" (also called “Schnappviecher” : bizarre giant snapping animal-like characters, in Egetman Parade, taking place every two years)     
Venezia : Caffè Florian                    
Verona : Tomba di Giuletta / Casa di Giuletta (Giuletta was Shakespeare source of inspiration for Romeo & Juliet)
      

Kosovo

Ferizaj : Camp Bondsteel (main base of the US Army under KFOR command in Kosovo)
Gjakovë: UCK Cemetery
Kamenica : UCK Memorial (there are numerous ones all around the country)
Kosovo Polje : Site of the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 (basis of Serbia claimon Kosovo)
Mitrovica : Miner's Monument
Prekaz : Adem Jashari Memorial
Pristina : Bill Clinton Avenue
Pristina : Martyr's Hill & Ibrahim Rugova's tomb
Pristina : Monument to Brotherhood and Unity (formerly Yugoslav Brotherhood and Unity) 
Pristina : Mother Teresa Statue
Pristina : National Library (a strange construction which has been ranked the ninth ugliest building in the world !)
Pristina : NEWBORN (monument unveiled the day Kosovo declared independence from Serbia)
Pristina : Skenderberg Statue      
Pristina : Tony Blair Street        
Velika Hoča : A Serbian Village (one of the very few remaining, many are abandoned)
 

Lettonie

Skrunda : Skrunda-1 (a former soviet military secret town now abandoned) 
 

Lithuanie

Druskininkai : Gruto parkas (Grutas Park, this park is full of Soviet-era sculptures & statues which have been removed from all over Lithuania)
Joneikiškės : Europos Parkas (Europe Park, an open-air art gallery and a creative space full of weird artwork)
Juodkrante : Hill of Witches
Juodkrante : Weathervane Gallery (showing Weathervanes, a naive quaint art : traditionally, beautifully carved weathervanes are put on houses in the Curonian spit)
Jurgaičiai : Hill of Crosses      
Kaunas : Monument to the Victims of Fascism                     
Kaunas : 'Nous Sommes 900 Français' ('We are 900 French people' is an Inscription carved at Fort IX - Museum of Political Prisoners - by Jews deported from Drancy)
Kaunas : Žmuidzinavičius Museum (= Velnių muziejus, = Devils' Museum) (a museum showing sculptures of devils from all over the world) 
Kretinga : Lurdo Grota (Lourdes Grotto)                                                               
Paberžės Seniūnija : Geographical midpoint of Europe (Monument marking the centre of Europe)        
Plateliai : Plokštinės raketų bazė (Plokstine Missile Base, a former underground missile base of the Soviet Union)
Salantai : Orvydas Garden (a weird garden full of religious wooden sculptures which went thru the communist regime)
Siauliai : Cat Museum (a museum dedicated to all aspects of cats)
Siauliai : Sundial Square (with a large sundial column)
Vilnius : Franz Zappa statue (monument erected by Frank Zappa fan club to their prog-rock hero to mark a new era of post-Soviet Lithuania)
Vilnius : Holocaust Museum                                           
Vilnius : Monument to Soviet Occupation Victims             
Vilnius : Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights (previously the Museum of Genocide Victims, in the Gestapo, then KGB, building)
Vilnius : Paneriai Memorial & Remains of a concentration camp   
Vilnius : Remains of the Barricades built in 1991 to protect the Lithuanian Parliament from the Russian army
 

Luxembourg

Luxembourg : 'La Chaise Géante' (a gigantic chair facing the BEI)
Luxembourg : 'La Grande Fleur Qui Marche' sculpture (= the Large Flower Which Walks)
 

Malte

Attard : Malta Cart Tracks (ancient mysterious ruts carved in the bedrock)     
Il Birgu   The Executioner's House ( medieval home engraved with the symbol of the profession, an eye flanked by two axes)
Mellieha : Popeye Village (an abandoned set from the 1980 film "Popeye," repurposed as a theme park)
San Lawrenz : The Azure Window
    

Moldavie

Chișinău : Jewish Cemetery & Memorial
Chișinău : Marry Me Banquet Hall
Chișinău : Moldexpo (Communist statues such as Lenin, Marx, Engels .. were transferred there)
Chișinău : Triumph Arch
Chișinău : Victory Monument
Cricova : Cricova Winery
Orhei : Chateau Varteli Winery
Șerpeni : Șerpeni Headbridge War Memorial
Soroca : "Rom" flashy houses
 

Monténégro

Herceg Novi : Institute Igalo (a huge Soviet-era therapy complex, dismal and ugly !)
Kotor : Ladder of Cattaro
Mt Lovćen : Njegoš mausoleum
Ostrog : Ostrog Monastery (a fabulous site)
 

Norvège

Flatdal (Telemark) : Artwork of Pedro Delso Rupérez (a bizarre transformed armored vehicle)
Oslo : Aker Brygge : an old yard where some minor industrial activity modernized and now a popular area for shopping, dining & entertainment
Oslo : Fairytale bridge (nickname of Ankerbrua bridge, due to its 4 sculptures representing famous heroes in Norwegian folk tales)                                    
Oslo : Holmenkollbakken (ski jump)   
Oslo : Popsenteret (interactive center of Norwegian pop music)   
Oslo : Sculpture "She lies"                      
Oslo : Vigeland Sculpture Park (strange sculptures, in he largest sculpture park in the world by a single artist, boasting over 200 pieces)
Oslo : 3 Public Toilets painted blue, white & red with the words 'Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité' on Karl Johans Gate                      
Straum (Nordland) : Salstraumen (most powerful "maelstrom" in the world, between Straumøya & Knaplundsøya)
 

Pays-Bas

Amsterdam : Anne Franck House   
Amsterdam : Erotic Museum       
Amsterdam : Rot District (Window brothels)        
Den Haag : Madurodam                                                
Den Haag : Statue of William of Orange         
Giethorn : The Dutch Venice  
Haringvliet : Haringvliet Dam
Kinderdijk : Windmills of Kinderdijk (birthplace of the legend of the "Cat in the Cradle")                                                               
Leeuwarden : Statue of Mata Hari
Rotterdam : Euromast
Rotterdam : Van Nelle FabrIK 
 

Pologne

Borne Sulinowo : a former soviet military base and forbidden city   
Bydgoszcz : Muzeum Mydła i Historii Brudu (= Museum of Soap and History of Dirt)
Bydgoszcz : Muzeum Okregowe Wbydgoszczy Exploseum (= Exploseum Factory DAG) (a fascinating place : well hidden in a forest, it was a vast complex of a weapons factory with bunkers, underground passages ... built by the Nazis)
Bydgoszcz : Przechodzący przez rzekę (Man Crossing the River Sculpture)                      
Ciechocinek : Brine Graduation Towers & Salt Works Complex (a very bizarre wooden structure, the largest of this type in Europe)
Czestochowa : Muzeum Produkcji Zapałek (Museum of the Production of Matches)
Gdansk : Monument to Non-Existant Cemeteries (gloomy)
Gdansk : Plac Solidarności and around
Gdansk : Westerplatte (Pomnik Obrońców Wybrzeża)
Gliwice : Gliwice Radio Station (all in wood former german radio tower ; location of the Gleiwitz incident which was a false attack followed by invasion of Poland)                 
Grunwald : Monument of The Battle of Grunwald
Gryfino : Krzywy Las (= Crooked Forest) (a grove of curled pines ;It is believed that some form of human technique was used to make the trees grow that way, but it remains a mystery)
Katowice : Spodek (an arena whose Polish name refers to a flying saucer since its iconic shape resembles a UFO
Kazimierz Dolny : Figura Psa (Statue of Dog) (according to a legend touching his nose brings happiness) 
Koszalin : Płonace Ptaki / Władysław Hasior (weird work of art representing people cycling)
Kraków : Father Bernatek Footbridge (Kładka Ojca Bernatka) (adorned with acrobatic, gravity-defying sculptures)
Kraków : Kazimierz (former Jewish ghetto)
Kraków : Oskar Schindler factory
Lublin : Majdanek Concentration Camp
Mazury : Himmler Bunker
Mazury : Wolfschanze (Wilczy Szaniec, Wolf's Lair) (Adolf Hitler's first Eastern Front military headquarters, amazing !)
Mierzeja Helska (Hel Peninsula) : Labirynt w polu kukurydzy (Corn Field Maze, a curious amusement part with an upside down bus, plane ...)
Oświęcim : Auschwitz & Birkenau Concentration Camps
Poznań : Rogalowe Muzeum Poznania (Poznań Croissant museum : all about 'croissant' !)
Przemyśl : Muzeum Fajek (Pipes Museum : all about pipes !)      
Racibórz : Dental Museum & Mummy (a museum of dentistry instruments)
Slubice : Wikipedia Monument  
Stegna : Stutthof Concentration Camp
Toruń : Krzywa Wieża (Leaning tower)
Treblinka : Treblinka Concentration Camp Memorial
Warsaw : Adam Mickiewicz Monument
Warsaw : Ronald Reagan Monument
Warsaw : Monument to the Fallen and Murdered in the East
Warsaw : U Fukiera Restaurant (its magical interior is a work of art, crowded with paintings and antiques)
Wieliczka : Kopalnia soli Wieliczka (Wieliczka salt mine)
Zalipie : Uber-quaint Polish village known for its habit of painting elaborate floral motifs on about everything (walls, wells
    

Portugal

Lisboa : Elevador de Santa Justa (= Santa Justa lift)
PN Peneda Gerês : Espigueiros do Soajo (curious stone granaries on stilts)          
Porto : Casa de Musica
Porto : Livraria Lillo (an unusual bookstore featuring a neo-Gothic interior, especially weird stairs, behind an art nouveau facade) 
                                                                       

République Tchèque

Plzen : Depo2015 
Plzen : Plzeňské historické podzemí (Historic Underground Plzen)                
Pozořice : Stara Posta (the place where Napoléon stayed before the battle of Austerlitz) 
Prace : Památník Mohyla (= Cairn of Peace, Peace Monument commemorating the Battle of Austerlitz)                         
Prag : Former Jewish District (Synagogue Pinkas Memorial & other synagogues, Jewish Cemetery)                                 
Prag : Jan Hus Memorial                    
Prag : Petřínská rozhledna (= Petřín Lookout Tower, a loose copy inspired by the Eiffel Tower)  
Prag : Sex Machines Museum                                                       
Prag : Tančící dům (= "Dancing House")                      
Prag : Zlatá ulička ( = Golden Lane) (small street with painted houses)
Sedlec : Sedlec Ossuary    
 

République Turque de Chypre du Nord (RTCN)

Gazimagusa : Lions Garden Night Club (unusual flashy decor, outside & inside)  
Geçitkale : Geçitkale Şehitler Anıtı, Atilan & Murataga Memorials
Girne : Peace and Freedom Museum (with abandoned military vehicles) (related to the Turkish landing on Cyprus in 1974 & the following war ; a one side view of the events ...)          
Kyrenia : Ataturk Statue          
Kyrenia : Barbarlık Müzesi (Museum of Barbarism, a very moving place : a house where an whole family was murdered in 1974)
Kyrenia : Green Line (between TRNC & Cyprus Republic)  
Pentadaktylos range : Sourp Magar Monastery (= Magaravank), an Armenian monastery vandalized (as many others) in 1974
Tashkent : Massive TRNC flag made of painted stones on most of the slope of a mountain (allegedly the largest in the world of this kind) 
Varosha  : = Maras, a ghost town abandoned by its inhabitants due to the 1974 Turkish invasion (stricly off limits, but I was very lucky, when I was there in 2004, as a very nice soldier let me in with him !)    
 

Roumanie

Bran : Dracula Castle
Brașov : Str Sforii (the narrowest street of Europe)
Huedin : "Rom" Palaces (Palatial houses - flashy and exuberant architecture ! - of rich Rom families)
Maramureș judeţ : everywhere in the countryside, "pot trees" (in front of some houses, a pot tree is a tree on which pans have been put :this indicates that a girl is available for marriage in the house !)
Săpânța : Merry Cementary (famous for its brightly colored tombstones with naïve paintings describing, in an original and poetic manner, the people who are buried there in addition to scenes from their lives)
Sighetu Marmației : Holocaust Monument
Sighetu Marmației : Memorial to the Victims of Communism and of the Resistance (inside a former jail)
Sighisoara : Torture Room Museum
 

Royaume-Uni

London : Arcelor Mittal Orbit
London : the 'Cheesegrater" (a modern building resembling a cheese grater ... )
London : Clink Prison Museum
London : the 'Cucumber'
London : God's Own Junkyard (a psychedelic paradise of neon lights and vintage signs)
London : Leake Street Graffiti Tunnel
London : Peckham Levels (a unique creative hub occupying a multi story car park filled with street art)
London : Peter Pan Statue (Hyde Park)                      
London : SIS (= M16 Building, Headquarters of the British Secret Intelligence Service, rated as the 4th ugliest building in the world !)
London : Twining's Tea Shop
London : the 'Walkie Talkie'  (a building resembling a walkie talkie)     
Oxford : Bridge of Sighs (= Hertford Bridge ; this bridge is often referred to "Bridge of Sighs" because of its supposed similarity to the better known Bridge of Sighs in Venice)
Sealand : World's tiniest nation, not recognised by any sovereign state (the Principality of Sealand is a self-declared micronation that claims HM Fort Roughs, an offshore platform in the North Sea)   
Northern Ireland : Giant's Causeway                                                             
Northern Ireland (Ards) : Saint Cooey's Well (legend says the water within these mysterious sacred springs stays cold even when boiled !)
Northern Ireland (Ballintoy) : Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge                   
Northern Ireland (Belfast) : Falls Road Murals (Catholic zone)                       
Northern Ireland (Belfast) : Shankill Road Murals (Unionist zone)               
Northern Ireland (Boa Island) : Janus Figure                  
Northern Ireland (Downpatrick) : Alleged Grave of St Patrick (a boulder in the Churchyard of Downpatrick Cathedral marks the legendary burial place of St Patrick)          
Northern Ireland (Londonderry) : Bloody Sunday Obelisk Memorial             
Northern Ireland (Londonderry) : Bogside Murals       
Northern Ireland (Londonderry) : Free Derry Monument             
Northern Ireland (Portavogia) : Murals      
Northern Ireland (South of Ballycastle) : Loughareema ("the Vanishing Lake" : a lake that fills and empties at random)                        
Northern Ireland (Coleraine) : Mussenden Temple (Italian-style temple replica which has been threatening to topple into the sea off the Irish coast almost since it was built)                       
Northern Ireland (Larne, nearby) : Blackcave Tunnel and  Devil's Churn        
Scotland (Culloden) : Culloden Battlefield
Scotland (Carrbridge) : Landmark Forest Adventure Park                                                  
Scotland (Edinburgh) : Balmoral Hotel (formerly North British Hotel, an iconic historic hotel, a landmark of Scotland)                  
Scotland (Edinburgh) : Dugald Stewart Monument on Calton Hill                                                            
Scotland (Edinburgh) : National Monument of Scotland, on Calton Hill
Scotland (Glenfinnan) : Glenfinnan Viaduct (now famous as the "Harry Potter bridge)
Scotland (Glenfinnan) : Glenfinnan Leaning Tower (= Glenfinnan Monument)
Scotland (Isle of Skye) : Kilt Rock (a spectacular cliff looking strikingly similar to a pleated Scottish kilt and site of a strange aural illusion :  when a strong wind is blowing, a weird and haunting tone appears to come from the surrounding area)
Scotland (Isle of Skye) : Old Man of Storr (weird rock formation said, according to a Scottish legend, to be the gravesite of a giant)
Scotland (Keoldale) : Cape Wearth (Farthest northwesterly point of the British mainland)
Scotland (Oban) : McCaig's Folly (= Mc Caig's Tower, more an amphitheatre than a tower ; Mc Caig, a philanthropic banker, commissioned this structure, based on the Colosseum, to provide a monument to his family, and provide work unemployed workers
Scotland (Orkney) : The Italian Chapel (tin chapel built by Italian POW's during WWII) 
Wales : Big Pit National Coal Museum
Wales : Devil's Bridge     
Wales : Pontcysyllte Aqueduct (navigable aqueduct that carries the Llangollen Canal)
Wales : Portmeirion (Italian style mock village)
      

Russie (Europe)

Arkhangelsk Oblast (Franz Josef Land) : Abandoned Buchta Tichaja Russian Base (Hooker Island) 
Arkhangelsk Oblast (Franz Josef Land) : Boulders (mysterious giant spherical spheres, Cape Fiume, Champa Island)
Arkhangelsk Oblast (Franz Josef Land) : Nansen Hut remains (Cape Norvegia, Jackson Island) 
Chechnya Republic (Grozny) : Alley of Glory & Akhmed Kadyrov Museum (an entire museum about Kagyrov ...)
Chechnya Republic (Grozny) : Monument nicknamed "the 3 idiots" (representint 3 communists, Ingush, Chechen and Russian ...)
Chechnya Republic (Grozny) : Square of Journalists
Ingushetia Republic (Magas) : Magas Ethno Museum (a traditional style tower, weird for a large inside ramp of more then 1 km circling around the core of it)
Ingushetia Republic (Nazran) : Memorial to the Ingush and Chechen Deportation     
Kabardino-Balkaria Republic (Nalchik) : Monument to the Circasian Genocide
Kabardino-Balkaria Republic (Nalchik) : Monument to Victims of Political Repression 1944-1957
Kaliningrad Oblast (Bagrationovsk) : Former battlefield of Eylau (Napoléon against the Russian Empire) with commemorative monuments
Kaliningrad Oblast (Baltiysk) : Former Soviet Naval Base (authorization was needed)
Kaliningrad Oblast (Kaliningrad) : Amalienau District (German style houses)
Kaliningrad Oblast (Kaliningrad) : Bisons Fighting Sculpture
Kaliningrad Oblast (Kaliningrad) : Bunker Museum
Kaliningrad Oblast (Kaliningrad) : Cosmonaut Monument
Kaliningrad Oblast (Kaliningrad) : House of Soviets
Kaliningrad Oblast (Kaliningrad) : Kant's Tomb & Kant's Statue
Kaliningrad Oblast (Kaliningrad) : Skipper Hotel (a kitsch hotel with a lighthouse)
Kaliningrad Oblast (Kaliningrad) : WWII Memorial
Kaliningrad Oblast (Kurshkaya Kosa) : Dancing Forest (a forest with twisted trees in the Curonian Spit)
Kaliningrad Oblast (Pradvinsk) : Battlefield of Friedland (Napoléon against the Russian Empire) with commemorative monuments)
Kaliningrad Oblast (Svetlogorsk) : Nymph Statue
Kaliningrad Oblast (Svetlogorsk) : Sundial (an impressive one, one of the largest in the world)
Kaliningrad Oblast (Svetlogorsk) : Tales dioramas at ET Hoffman Haus
Moscow : Bunker 42 (Cold War Museum)
Moscow : 'Condomerie' (on Arbat : a store devoted to condoms only !)
Moscow : De Gaulle Statue
Moscow : Fallen Monuments Park (a park with former communist monuments : Stalin statue ..) 
Moscow : Floating Bridge (V-shaped & glass-fenced bridge over Moskova)         
Murmansk Oblast (Murmansk) : Alyosha Monument (= Monument to the Defenders of the Soviet Arctic during the Great Patriotic War) (second-tallest statue in Russia)
North Ossetia - Alania Republic (Alagir Gorge) : Uastyrdzhi Monument (on top of a cliff, one of the largest equestrial statue in the world)
North Ossetia - Alania Republic (Beslan) : Beslan Memorial & Cemetery (2004 terrorist attack)
North Ossetia - Alania Republic  (Dargavs) : City of the Dead
North Ossetia - Alania Republic (Tsey Valley) : Rekom Temple (deep in a forest, a pagan temple (strongly similar to Kalash Temples in Pakistan !)
Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (Salekhard) : Mammoth Statue
 

Serbie

Avala : Soviet Veterans of War Memorial & Monument to the Unknown Soldier
Beograd : Maršal Tito Mausoleum & Memorial Complex
Beograd : Monument of Gratitude to France
Beograd : Puzzle Grad Banjica (a prefabricated construction around an area dedicated to children whos walls imitate puzzle pieces)
Đavolja varoš : Weird rock formation
Kovačica : Galerija Babka (exceptional naive art)
Kragujevac : Šumarice Memorial Park (commemorating a WWII battle)
Zaglavak : Kadinjača Memorial Complex
Mokra Gora : Drvengrad ("Küstendorf", Kusturica mock village)
Niš : Bubanj Memorial
Niš : Ćele kula (Skull Tower)
Niš : Nazi Concentration Camp "Crveni Krst" (Red Cross)
Ribariće : Manastir Crna Reka (a curious monastery hung and dug in a cliff)
Zaglavak : Kadinjača Memorial Complex (a large WWII memorial)
 

Slovaquie

Banská Bystrica : SNP Museum                     
Čičmany : Painted Village of Čičmany
Bratislava : Man at Work Sculpture (sculpture of a good-naturedly worker getting out of a sewer)                         
Bratislava : Most SNP (= SNP Bridge, bridge known both for its connection to a national uprising and its UFO-shaped eatery)   
Bratislava : Petržalka District (a typical "communist" borough made of "paneláks", a type of residential buidings which were widely deployed throughout the Eastern Bloc during the communist era)        
Bratislava : Slavín (enormous monument towering over the graves of thousands of Soviet soldiers)
Košice : Mikluš Prison                             
Levoča : Levoča Cage of Shame
Svidnik : Údolí Smrti (= Death Valley)
 

Slovénie

Ljubliana : Spomenik francoski Iliriji (= Monument to Napoléon) 
Maribor : Žametovka (the Old Vine, world's oldest grape-producing vine)
Ptuj : "Kurent" during Kurentovanje (The "Kurent" wear traditional sheepskin garments while holding wooden clubs uring this astonishing carnival) & Ptuj Castle's Collection of Traditional Carnival Masks
Radovljica : Cebelarski Muzej (Beekeeping Museum)                         
Radovljica : Lečtarski Museum (= Gingerbread Museum                   
          

Suède

Kiruna : Kiruna - Narvik train experience                    
Kiruna : Talande Tecken Sculpture (celebrating the miners)
Varberg : Grimeton Radio Station                   
          

Suisse

Urnäsch : Following the "Silvesterklaus" experience ( On Saint Sylvester's Day, groups of "Silvesterklaus" go from house to house ; the "Klaus" are masked people, some of them wearing very ornate embroidered headgear with scenes of peasant life)
 

Transnistrie

Bendery : Lenin Statue
Bendery : Memorial to the Victims of 1992 War
Tiraspol : Afghanistan Memorial & Heroes Cemetery
Tiraspol : Lenin Statue
Tiraspol : Soviet House                   
          

Turquie (Europe)

Istanbul : Arnavutköy (a former Christian district)
Istanbul : Basilica Cisterns     
Istanbul : Obelisk of Theodosius                                           
Istanbul : Sahaflar Çarşısı (= Secondhand book market) 
Istanbul : Zurafa Street (Red Light District, one of Istanbul's oldest and most notorious brothel areas, dating back to Ottoman times ; quite disgusting ...) 
 

Ukraine

Cherkassy : Korsun Hill of Eternal Glory
Chernobyl : Nuclear Plant after the accident (as it was in 2006), Prypiat (Abandoned Amusement park, Palace of Culture, Housing buildings, Swimming pool ...), Junkyard (full of leftover rescue material)
Dniepropetrovsk : Glass Sphere
Donetsk : Lenin Statue
Kharkiv : Former KGB Building
Kharkiv : Mirror Fountain
Kharkiv : Plóshcha Svobódy (Freedom Square, 2nd largest square in Europe)
Kremenchuk : 2 storey bridge
Kyiv : Babi Yar Memorial
Kyiv : House with Chimaeras
Kyiv : Maïdan Nézalejnosti (Independence Square, the focal point of the Orange Revolution)
Kyiv : Monastery of the Caves
Kyiv : Monument to Founders of Kiev
Luhansk : Monument to the Chernobyl accident liquidators
Crimea (Balaklava) : Former Soviet Submarine Base
Crimea (Kerch) : Adzhimushkayskiye Kamenolomni (Adzhimoushkai Catacombs)
Crimea (Sevastopol) : Eagle Column
Crimea (Sevastopol) : Sapun Gor
Crimea (Yalta) : Livadia Castle (where the Yaita Conference took place)
Crimea (Yalta) : Swallow's Nest

 

 

 

Océan Atlantique

 

 

Açores

Faial : Café Sport (Iconic place full of a bric-a-brac : flags, scrimshaws, signs, old photos ... even on the ceiling, Horta)
Flores : Fábrica da Baleia do Boqueirão (former whaling station, Santa Cruz das Flores)
Santa Maria : Barreira da Faneca (strange site nicknamed the "Red Desert")
São Miguel : Estátua do Emigrante (Emigrant statue, Ponta Delgada)
São Miguel : Presépio Mecânico (animated crib, Ribeira Grande)
Terceira : Algar do Carvão
Terceira : Furnas do Enxofre
Terceira : "Tourada a corda" (a kind of quite wild corrida right in the street, during festivals)
    

A​scension

Ariane Tracking Station (deserted)
Lizard Rock (a rock covered with paint : tradition has it that anybody leaving definitely the island has to pour paint on the rock but also that if he nevertheless comes back he will die)
NASA Challenger Center (abandoned)
One Boat Golf Course (considered as the worst in the world !)
RAF & USAF Military Base and Wideawake Airfield
 

Bermudes

Hamilton : Sally Statue (statue of Sally Bassett, a slave who was burnt)                                        
Ireland Island : Royal Navy Cemetery
St George's Parish : Unfinished Church
St George's Parish : 400th Anniversary Monument (made of wreckage)
Hamilton : Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute
Sandys Parish : Somerset Bridge (The world's smallest drawbridge, 0,6 m only !)
Smith's Parish : Section of rock resembling a checkerboard (Spittal Pond Nature Reserve)
 

Cabo Verde

Sal (Baracona) : Olho Azul
Sal (Monte Curral) : Radar & Telecom installations
Santiago (Praia) : Monumento de Diogo Gomes
Santiago (Praia) : Painted Stairs
Santiago (Praia) : Street Art (outstanding murals : Market, Rua 5 de Julho, Rua Serpa Pinto, Rua Andrade Corvo, Rua João Chapazet, Rua António Salgado...)
Santa Maria (Salinas de Pedra de Lume) : Remains of salt exploitation
Santo Antão (Porto Novo) : Monumento Memaia (Woman Waving) (= Human Migration Monument)
São Vicente (Airport) : Cesária Évora Statue
São Vicente (Mindelo) : Monumento a Gago Continho e Sacadera Cabral
 

Falklands

Boot Hill : Used shoes on stakes litter this hilltop, a really weird place ! 
Stanley : Whalebone Arch
Stanley : 1982 Liberation Memorial (Falklands War)                 
                                                                      

Géorgie du Sud

Grytviken : Shackleton's Grave                                        
Grytviken : Whaling Station ruins
 

Iles Canaries

El Hierro : Arbol Santo (Garoe)
El Hierro : El Sabinar
El Hierro : Escultura Homenaje a la Bajada de La Virgen de Los Reyes (weird sculpture of white heads)
El Hierro : Hoya del Morcillo (with a huge map in wood of El Hierro)
Gran Canaria : Cenobio de Valerón
Gran Canaria : Paseo de Gran Canaria & Paseo de Canarias (Firas)
La Gomera : La Rajita
La Palma : Roque de los Muchachos 
Tenerife : Drago Milenario (Large old drago tree (Icod de los Vinos) 
Tenerife : Hotel Cleopatra (Playa de la Américas)                                  
Tenerife : "La Mano" (Efémerides, Lola Barroso) (La Orotava)
Tenerife : Pueblo Chico (La Orotava)
Tenerife : Sculpture of Whale Vertebrae Backbone (El Medano)                       
 

Islande

Akureyri : Helgi The Lean Statue            
Eskifjörður : Helgustaðanáma (largest spath mine in the world)
Fáskrúðsfjörður : Fransmenn á Íslandi (= French Museum, about French Fishermen)
Fáskrúðsfjörður : French Cemetery
Keflavik : Asmundur Sveinsson Sculpture (a huge stylized anchor) 
Modrudalur : Turf Covered Gas Station (a unique gas station covered with turf as the ancient farmhouses in Iceland)
Reykjavik : Hið íslenzka reðasafn (= Icelandic Phallological Museum, a museum with more than 300 penises and penile parts !) 
Reykjavik : Leifur Eiríksson statue
Seyðisfjörður : Avalanche Monument                
Skaftárhreppur : Kirkjugolf (Kirkjubaejarklaustur) (= 'the church floor' : a strange expanse of eroded columnar basalt stone slabs)       
Skagaströnd : Kantrybaer (a very special place : an American old western style café created by the "icelandic cowboy", a guy whose passion is US country music ; every year a country music festival takes place in Skagaströnd)
Stöðvarfjörður : Steinasafn Petru (weird garden with sculptured stones)
Upper Eyjafjörður : Smámunasafn Sverris Hermannssonar (Museum of Small Exhibits)                                                                 
Vesturdalur : Karg og Kerling Rocks (According to a legend, these 2 rocks are 2 petrified trolls, male & female) 
Vidimyri : Turf Church (covered with turf)                       
 

Madeire

Achada do Teixeira : "Homem em Pé" (= 'Standing Men', a strange rock formation) 
Capela de São Vicente : an unusual chapel dug inside a volcanic rock along the seashore          
Cristiano Ronaldo Madeira International Airport, rated the 3rd most dangerous airport in the world ...                                       
Curral des Freiras (= Valley of the Nuns)                                              
Funchal : Monumento à Paz e à Liberdade (Monument to Peace and Freedom)                                                    
Ponta do Pargo : Ponta do Pargo Lighthouse (with one of the most impressive focal planes in the world)                                                          
Porto Moniz y São Vicente : Digit Rock (a weird tall and thin rock)              
Santana : Casas Típicas de Santana (typical triangular and colorful heritage houses)
: 

Sainte-Hélène

Jamestown : Steps of Jacob Ladder   
Military Batteries : Banks Battery, Sampson's Battery, Saddle's Battery               
Napoléon related sites : Longwood, First Napoleon's Grave              
Other : Plantation House, Signal Station                       
 

São Tomé e Príncipe

São Tomé : Fishermen church (church with aweird shape)
São Tomé : Monument marking the site of the execution of the leaders of 1953 upraisal
São Tomé : Pico Cão Grande (an unsual sight : a very steep and narrow peak over a flat plain)
São Tomé : Roça Porto Alegre ruins
São Tomé : Roça Bombain ruins
São Tomé : Statues of the first 3 Portuguese in São Tomé (João de Santarém, Pedro Escobar & João de Paiva) 
São Tomé : Wreckage on Praia Micoló                   
Principe : Castle-like entrance of Roça Porto Real                                                                                        
Principe : Church ruins at first Portuguese landing                                                                                             
Principe : Monumento da Juventude                                                      
Ilhéu das Rolas : Marco do Equador (Intersection Equator / Greewich Meridian : Latitude 0°, Longitude 0°)
Ilhéu das Rolas : Ponta da Furna (unusual sight : 2 lava bridges, one above the others)
: 

Svalbard

Barentsburg : Russian town with a still strong soviet flavor !
Chermsideøya : Swastika sculptured on a rock of this island by German soldiers of a U Boot during WWII 
Longyearbyen : Svalbard Global Seed Vault (fail-safe seed storage facility, built to stand the test of time and the challenge of natural or man-made disasters)
Ny-Ålesund : Northernmost toilets of the world (in the mining area) 
Pyramiden : Northernmost Lenin statue in the world
Pyramiden : Russian Ghost Town

 

 

 

Océan Indien

 

 

Maldives

Male : Tetrapod Monument
Thilafushi Island : Garbage Yard (this island is sacrified for storing garbage : fascinaing ... the dark side of the Maldives, miles away from the luxurious hotes !)
Utheemu Island : Thakurufaanni Memorial (curious boat shaped memorial)
Vilingili Island (Addu Atoll) : Mount Vilingili (Highest point of the Maldives : 3,1 m !!)
    

Maurice

Chamarel : Terre de 7 Couleurs
Poudre d'Or : Monument au naufrage du St Géran
Quatre Bornes : Oval Building (a modern building with an unusual oval shape)
 

Réunion

Grand Brûlé : Vierge au Parasol (Statue of the Virgin under a sunshade)
Grande Chaloupe : Lazaret (former quarantine station for persons with infectious diseases)
St Denis : Statue de Roland Garros
St Pierre : Grotte de la Vierge & de St Expedit (Cave of the Virgin & St Expedit)
Trou d'Enfer (= Hell's Hole, a natural wonder)
 

Seychelles

Mahé (Victoria) : Curious stained glasses of St Paul Church
Mahé (Victoria) : Trwa Zwazo (Bicentennial Monument)
Mahé (Victoria) : Unity Monument
Praslin : Vallée de Mai
 

TAAF

Amsterdam : Base Martin de Vivies       
Amsterdam : Maison Ribault       
Amsterdam : Monument aux Morts (Monument to Dead)
Archipel Crozet (Ile de la Possession) : Base Alfred Faure
Archipel Crozet (Ile de la Possession) : "Jardin Japonais" (= Japanese Garden, a natural site far from resembling to a Japanese garden !)
Europa : Cemetery & French military cantonment 
Glorieuse : Hurricane shelter             
Iles Kerguelen : Base de Port aux Français            
Iles Kerguelen : Port Couvreux (ruins of a farm, the only attempt of farming in Kerguelen, which failed ...)             
Iles Kerguelen : Port Jeanne d'Arc (abandoned houses & whaling station, the only whaling station in France)
Juan de Nova : "Le Charbonnier" & Kwang Myong shipwrecks
Juan de Nova : Maison Patureau
Juan de Nova : Remains of phosphate extraction
St Paul : Wonderful nature reserve (Visited in 2003, large colony of rockhoppers penguins ; it is now an integral reserve and therefore landing on it is now forbidden)
Tromelin : Anchor of Utile (a group of enslaved people were marooned here for 15 years ; nothing now on the island but a weather station and a landing strip)

 

 

 

Océan Pacifique

 

 

Australie

New South Wales (Sydney) : Archibald Fountain (Hyde Park)                                                        
New South Wales (Sydney) : MLC Centre (a stark white, modernist column with massive load-bearing columns in the corners tapering slightly towards the top)                      
New South Wales (Sydney) : The Edinburgh Castle (an iconic historic pub)    
Northern Territory (Adelaide River) : "Jumping Crocodiles" experience     
Northern Territory (Batchelor) : Miniature Replica of Karlstein Castle
Northern Territory (Bathurst Island) : Nguiu Old Cemetery (a taboo aborigenal cemetery)
Northern Territory (Bathurst Island) : Nguiu Radio Shack (from which warnings were sent of the first WW2 Japanese air raid)
Northern Territory (Darwin) : Former WWII Strauss Airfield               
Northern Territory (Darwin) : Galamarrma (= Tree of Knowledge)
Northern Territory (Darwin) : Royal Flying Doctor Service
Northern Territory (Darwin) : Sky Bridge 
Northern Territory (Darwin) : Wave Lagoon
Northern Territory (Darwin) : WWII Oil Storage Tunnels
Northern Territory (Litchfield NP) : Bamboo Creek Tin Mine
Northern Territory (Litchfield NP) : Magnetic Termite Mounds
Queensland (Brisbane) : "Spinning top" on Centenary Place (curious modern artwork representing a toppled down bell tower, paying homage to the unbuilt Holy Name Cathedral)
Victoria (Melbourne) : Arts Center Melbourne (quite daring architecture featuring a large steel spire with a wrap-around base) 
Victoria (Melbourne) : "Angel" Sculpture (an amazing artwork of mosaics)                         
Victoria (Melbourne) : Australian Centre for the Moving Image 
Victoria (Melbourne) : Murals & street art (mainly Hosier Lane, and also Croft Alley, Beancy Lane, AC Lane ...)
Victoria (Melbourne) : "Talking" William Barak Bridge
 

CNMI (Mariannes du Nord)

Rota : 'German Wall'
Rota : Mt Sabana Peace Memorial
Rota : Veterans Park
Saipan : American Memorial Park
Saipan : Banzai Cliff & Suicide Cliff
Saipan : Last Japanese Command Post, Japan Peace Memorial, Korean Peace Memorial & Okinawa Memorial
Saipan : WWII Memorial
Saipan : 13 Fishermen Memorial
Tinian : Atomic Pits (where tha Hiroshima & Nagasaki bombs were stored)
Tinian : Former Japanese Communications building
Tinian : Japanese Shrine
 

Fidji

Ovalau : Pigeon Rock (Levuka)
Taveuni : International Date Line Signboard
Taveuni : Waitavala Water Slide  
                                                       

Guam

Mc Arthur Statue (Hagatna)
Nimitz Hill Bunkers
Piti Guns
South Pacific Memorial Park
Statue of Liberty (Paseo de Susana, Hagatna) (a replica)
Two Lovers Point  (= Puntas Dos Amantes ; a site linked with a legend : two lovers who were not allowed to be together by society tied their hair and leapt to their deaths from there)
Veterans Cemetery
War in the Pacific Memorial Park
Yokoi's Cave (where a Japanese soldier stayed hidden until 1972 !)
      

Hawai'i

Big Island : Halema'uma'u lava lake (by night)
Big Island : Kazumura Cave (largest lava tube in the world ; 65 kms)
Big Island : Lava flowing in sea (South coast)              
Big Island : Mauna Kea Observatories
Big Island : Pacific Tsunami Museum (Hilo)                    
Oahu : Iolani Palace (Honolulu) (only royal palace in the USA)                                           
Oahu : National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (Honolulu)
Oahu : USS Arizona Memorial (Pearl Harbor)  
Oahu : Wizard Stones of Kapaemahu (Waikiki)  
                                                       

Ile de Pâques

Ana Kai Tangata (Cannibal Cave) 
Mataveri : World's most remote airport  
Orongo : Once the center of the Birdman cult
Te Pito O Te Henua (= The Navel Of The World) ; a mysterious large round boulder believed to be the place from which all life sprang & said to emit spiritual power (it seems it has some  abnormal traits : when a compass is placed on the rock it loses its direction ...)  
                                                       

Kiribati

Kanton : A very remote atoll with WWII bunkers and remains of NASA Tracking Building
Tarawa : Japanese WWII Headquarters Bunker
Tarawa : WWII Coast Watchers Memorial
 

Marshall Islands

Majuro Atoll : Bikini Atoll Town Hall (possibly the only town hall in the world not located where it should be ! The reason is that the Bikini Atoll inhabitants were displaced to the Marshall Islands because of the US atomic tests)
Majuro Atoll : Majuro Peace Park
Majuro Atoll : "Tourist Trap" Shop (so funnily named shop)
 

Nouvelle-Calédonie

Bourail : "Bonhomme de Bourail" (= " Gentleman of Bourail") (a striking rock formation that protrudes from the sea which was named for its resemblance to a man’s head with a hat on)                                                                                      
Hienghène : "Poule de Hienghène" (= Hen of Hienghène) (a weird rock formation, offshore, close to the seashore, aptly named for a striking resemblance with a hen, including beak & cockscomb)        :
Népoui : Château de Muéo (= Muéo Castle) (quite unusual here, more a manor than a castle)  
Népoui : Cité Minière du Népoui (= Népoui Mining City) (an historical nickel mine & mining city)                                                                 
Nessadiou : Cimetière Militaire Néo-Zélandais (New Zealand War Cemetery)                          :
Pouébo : Monument de Balade 
Voh : Monument du Lieutenant Krieger  :
Ile de Lifou (Lifou Island) : Monument aux Morts de Lifou (WWI & WWII Memorial)                     
Ile d'Ouvéa (Ouvéa Island) : Pont du Mouli    :
Ile d'Ouvéa (Ouvéa Island) : Trous Bleus (Trou de Hanawa & Trou aux Tortues) (= Blue Holes, Hanawa Hole, Turtles Hole) (2 mysterious blue hole with turtles)   
Ile des Pins (Pines Island) : Ruines du Bagne de l'Ile des Pins & Cimetière des Déportés de 1871 (= Ruins of the Penal Colony & 1871 Deportees Cemetery)
         

Nouvelle-Zélande

Auckland : Sky Tower (tallest structure in the Southern Hemisphere)                                   :
Hampden : Moeraki Boulders (strange, unusually large, spherical boulders, resembling tortoise shells,  on a beach ; a Maori legend says that they are the remains of eel baskets, kumaras & calabashes that washed onto the shore after the wreck of Arai-te-uru, a large sailing canoe)
Gisborne : James Cook Statue on Kaiti Hill 
Greymouth : Shantytown
Punakaiki : Pancake Rocks (a strange heavily eroded limestone geological landscape where the sea bursts through a number of vertical blowholes during high tides, creating a kind of geyser effect)        
Rotorua : Old Maori Pa Village (aside this less known attraction, Rotorua boosts mainly bubbling mud-pools and hot thermal springs)
Te Anau : Te Ana-au Glowworm Caves                                                                        :
Wanaka : The Great Maze (in Puzzling World)                                                                             :
Wellington : 'Beehive' (strange building with a beehive shape)   
 

Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinée

Highlands : Attending the yearly Sing Sing experience                     
Highlands : Meeting the Asaro "Mudmen" in their habitat (an amazing experience) (their skin is painted in white and they wear ghoulish clay masks adorned with pigs' teeth and shells)                   
Highlands : Meeting the Huli "Wigmen" in their habitat (an amazing experience) (at 14 each boy goes to a "Wig School", they make wigs with their own hair &, on "graduation" day, paint their faces with yellow ochre, and leave to find a woman to marry ...)                                         
Ilolo (East of Port Moresby) : McDonald's Corner (Start of the infamous Kokoda Track (location of a 1942 WW II battle between Japanese and Allied) 
Madang : Coastwatchers Memorial Lighthouse (a very unusual kind of lighthouse)                                   
Madang : Old German Cemetery                                  
New Britain : Attending at the beginning of the night the very secret Duk-Duk dance of the Tolai tribe experience (amazing)
New Ireland : Remote island with fantastic masks                                                            
Port Moresby : Port Moresby War Memorial in Bomana War Cemetery (a rotunda with the names of 700 missing officers and men with no grave)
Port Moresby : War Museum         
Rabaul : Japanese Aircraft Wreckages          
Rabaul : WWII Japanese Shipwrecks                                                                         
Rabaul : WWII Japanese Tunnels    
Sepik : Aibom (a pottery village where potters make distinctive amazing pots) 
Sepik : Down the Sepik River by canoe experience                         
Sepik : Haus Tambanans (= Spirit houses ; longhouses where the men gather and the spirits reside in sacred carvings) (especially in Kanganam village)
Trobriand Islands : Anthropologist Malinovski's islands of "Free Love" where Islanders change spouses whenever they want, have dedicated 'love huts' (bukumatula) and where babies are thought to be the result of magic !       
Varirata NP (East of Port Moresby) : Koiari Tree House  
         

Pitcairn Islands

Pitcairn : Acadia Anchor, Bounty Canon, Adam's Grave, Fletcher's Bible, Fletcher's Cave, Taro Ground
Henderson : Plateau, birds
Ducie : Concrete Stele, birds
 

Polynésie Française

All around French Polynesia major islands : 'Baguette Mailboxes', Bygone not so long ago ... ; in the past, the residents invented "Amazon" (yes !) : people could have their daily 'baguettes' (French bread) delivered in a special mailbox ! Some of them (empty!) still exist ! 
Australes (Tubuai) : Fort George site (Bounty mutineers stopped there) 
Iles Marquises (Hiva Oa) (Atuona) : Gauguin's Tomb, Brel's Tomb, Maison de Brel, Maison du Jouir ...) 
Iles Marquises (Nukuhiva) (Taiohae) : Herman Melville Memorial 
Iles Marquises (Ua Huka) : la 'Baie Invisible' (the invisible Bay)
Moorea : Tiki Village
Tahiti : Tombeau du Roi Pomaré V (King Pomaré V's Tomb, Arue)
Tahiti : Venus Point   
Tahiti (Papeete) : Lagunarium
Tuamotu (Rangiroa) : L'Aquarium (not an aquarium but a wonderful natural site)  
                                                       

Samoa

Manono Island : Pa Le Soo (=  Grave of 99 Stones ; each stone represents one of the wives of the chief Vaovasa, a very busy guy !)                                
Savai'i : Canopy Walkway                             
Savai'i : Moses Footprint (on lava)
Upolu : Robert Louis Stevenson Mansion
Upolu (Apia) : Aggie Grey Hotel (an iconic place in the Pacific)
Upolu (Apia) : Baha'i House of Worship of Samoa
Upolu (Apia) : German Flag Monument 
 

Samoa Américaines

Pago Pago : Flower Pot Rock
Pago Pago : Ruins of the now-defunct cable car system  
                                                       

Solomon Islands

Honiara : Guadalcanal American Memorial 
Honiara : Japanese War Memorial                               
Honiara : RAMSI Mission Memorial  
                                                       

Tonga

'Eua : Big 'Ovava Tree (strangling fig tree, the largest of the Pacific)
Ha'apai : Mystery Cross (a large stone cross laid on the ground, said to have been sent from Heaven in 1975and deposited on the ground ...) :
Ha'apai : Port-au-Prince Massacre Monument (The Tongans massacred the crew of this ship in 1806)
Ha'apai : Shirley Baker Monument & European Cemetery   
Tongatapu : Abel Tasman Monument                         
Tongatapu : Attending a "family reunion" in a cemetery and the following banquet (for celebrating anniversary of the death of a family member) experience
Tongatapu : Attending a funeral (wearing strips of pandanus,mourning, sharing food and gifts ...) experience
Tongatapu : Captain Cook Landing Site
Tongatapu : "Fishing Pigs" experience (Mu'a) 
Tongatapu : Ha'amonga 'a Maui Trilithon (the Stonehenge of the Pacific)
Tongatapu : Royal Tombs
Tongatapu : The "Pigeon Doorway" (= Hufangalupe Archway)      
Tongatapu : Triple-headed Coconut Tree
Tongatapu : Tsunami Rock
Vava'u : Kilikili Tefua Wall    
Vava'u : Swallows' Cave            
 

Tuvalu

Funafuti : "Borrow Pits" (these pits were dug by the US army for coral to build an airport ; they scar much of the island and are full of rubbish and stagnant water)
Funafuti : David's Drill (a circular cement stone marking the spot where scientists drilled down to 340m to prove Darwin's theory about atoll formation)
 

Vanuatu

Efate (Port Vila) : Michoutouchkine & Pilioko Gallery 
Efate (Port Vila) : Red Light Nakamal (a "nakamal" is a local kava bar where to drink the 'kava kava', a bitter, local, social drink) 
Esperitu Santo (Fanafo) : Jimmy Stevens Tomb (Known as "Moses", he declared the independence of Espiritu Santo !) 
Esperitu Santo (Luganville) : Japanese Prison remans
Esperitu Santo (Luganville, nearby) : Memorial to SS President Coolidge Captain (Sunk during WWII)
Esperitu Santo (Luganville, nearby) : Million Dollar Point                                                           
Malekula : Tanmial Cave (a "spirit" cave)                             
Tanna Island : Volcano post box (Vanuatu has the world's only underwater post office and volcano-side post box)    
Tanna Island (Sulphur Bay) : John Frum Red Cross Monument (quite bizarre :  John Frum is a figure associated with Cargo Cults on Tanna, often depicted as an US WW II serviceman who will bring wealth and prosperity to the people if they follow him) 
 

Wake 

Invasion Beach, POW Rock, Japanese Command Bunker, Airfield remains
 

Wallis & Futuna

Futuna : Napoléon's Room in Fia Fia Hotel