Most of the tourist attractions are popular for obvious reasons. They are defined by superlatives - the biggest, the oldest, the most beautiful - or they benefit from active promotion from the stakeholders of the city or country. But there are also those attractions that have become famous for less obvious reasons.
Some of them are so strange that you will definitely want to look at them.
Island of the Dolls
Isla de las Munecas, located south of Mexico City, between the Xochimico Canals, is a small island and long-abandoned hideout for Don Julian Santana Barrera, who was expelled from the mainland due to his constant drunkenness. Legend has it that a little girl drowned in a nearby canal, and the Don felt that the spirit of the drowned woman was haunting him. To calm the ghost, Barrera hung dolls on trees. The man lived on the island for 50 years - and all this time he did not stop performing this strange ritual. When Barrera passed away (locals say he drowned in the same place as the girl), his family discovered the island as a tourist attraction.
Grave of Nicolas Cage
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Nicolas Cage is an iconic actor known for eccentricity both on and off screen. One of the most notable examples of the actor's quirks is his grave in New Orleans. In 2010, when he turned 50, Cage acquired two plots in the famous St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 in New Orleans.
This empty grave is a stone pyramid nearly three meters high, which stands in stark contrast to the more turbulent aboveground graves that have stood in the cemetery for more than two centuries. The pyramid has no name yet, but it is decorated with the Latin dictum "Omnia Ab Uno", which translates as "All from one."
The tomb puzzles everyone, even people who take tours of the cemetery. Since its installation, it has even become the subject of tourists' attention, and women have left traces of red lipstick on the white surface. The actor himself does not speak about the purpose of the pyramid.
Berlin Horror Museum
The Berlin Horror Museum (or Gruselkabinett) is Berlin's only WWII bomb shelter permanently open to visitors. On the ground floor, you'll find eerie mannequins that reproduce the barbaric medical procedures performed during World War II.
On the top is a haunted house with a bunker maze and costumed actors peering out of dark corners. The basement of the museum is not so creepy: it houses historical exhibitions and reconstructions.
Angel of Haseroth
Lake View Cleveland Cemetery is a historic site of the graves of some of America's most famous industrial figures, as well as the grave of US President James Garfield. But the most famous figure here is the Angel of Haseroth.
The statue is located on the burial site of food tycoon Francis Hazeroth and his family. A life-size bronze angel holds an upside-down torch as a symbol of extinct life. The statue's wings are spread, and it looks straight ahead. The most unusual feature of this melancholic yet thought-provoking sculpture is that it looks like it is truly crying. The tears are not actually liquid - they are discoloration caused by the aging of the bronze material that the sculptor used to make the statue. The cemetery is open daily, although groups of more than 12 people need permission before entering
Hin-Ta and Hin-Yai rocks
The Hin-Ta and Hin-Yai rocks are located on the popular Lamai Beach on Koh Samui, Thailand. The name of these two formations is translated from Thai as “rocks of grandparents”. And in shape, they resemble male and female genitals.
A legend written on a blackboard in front of the monuments tells the story of an old couple Ta Crang (grandfather Crang) and Yai Rim (grandmother Rome), who lived with their son in the province of Nakhon Si Thammarat. When the boy grew up and it was time to get married, they decided to take a boat trip to the neighboring province of Prachuap Kiri Khan to prepare the bride for the wedding. But on the way, the boat got into a storm and the couple drowned, turning after death into rocks. The large genitals were supposedly a sign for the two families to get married no matter what.